Having sold 217,000 copies on the very first day, the new Japanese chart-topper Phantasy Star Portable went on to ship 500,000 copies in the first week. Though it won't beat out reigning champion Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G's figures of 880,000, it did beat out another very popular PSP game with a larger fanbase: Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII. The Square Enix game managed to ship 480,000 copies in its debut week.
We are unofficially in Bizarro World territory when a Sega game outperforms a Square Enix game. The bigger question is, when is the rest of the world going to get a taste of this?
[Via PSPHyper]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
8-11-2008 @ 10:50AM
gurbinder said...
This game already sold that much o_O can anyone fill me in on this game, looks like a tactics game
Reply
8-11-2008 @ 12:10PM
Jacksons said...
In the demo you spend your time running around, hitting, shooting and asserting your dominance over the local fauna. That, along with finding keys to open doors and listening to people have conversations in Japanese. I swore I heard them shout "baka" at me near the end. I may not know Japanese, but that was quite rude! ;)
8-11-2008 @ 4:26PM
myuusmeow said...
I'm pretty sure it's just a hack and slash. Anyway, I can't wait for this to be (hopefully) localized.
8-11-2008 @ 12:21PM
FOXHOUND said...
I'd take this over that new Sonic Unleashed game or whatever.
Reply
8-11-2008 @ 12:53PM
Tristan said...
What impossible Sonic Unleashed is gonna be SEGA's and Sonic Team's finest to date. Though that doesnt mean that PSP will not be good. I want PSP now, when is it coming out here?
8-11-2008 @ 1:35PM
Brian said...
Come on Sega bring this game out in the US and Euro ..... the demo is alot of fun but I dont want to import it.
Reply
8-11-2008 @ 1:57PM
Ashley said...
any info on when its coming out in the us?
Reply
8-11-2008 @ 2:17PM
cafecito said...
I can't believe they haven't even ANNOUNCED it for western release. Do they plan to leave us out? =(
Reply
8-12-2008 @ 7:34PM
LV426 said...
They better not. This is one of the 2 killer aps Im seriously ready to buy a PSP for (the other is if they ever let the PSN store in the US get Persona 1).
8-11-2008 @ 2:35PM
Noshino said...
Having only shipped 260k units to retailers, the first day sales of Phantasy Star Portable were of 217k units, many retailers have reported to have ran out of stock, and Sega has informed that they have already 400k more units being shipped to retailers.
So if they had more units available at release date, that number would have been much more impressive
Reply
8-11-2008 @ 2:52PM
strike said...
I burned a lot of hours in to the demo and it was great. The multiplayer is where the fun is though, even without other players, it's better than the demo story.
In multiplayer mode, there is a store and unlockable missions, which make it more than just a demo.
I probably liked it because I liked monster hunter, but i'd recomend it.
Reply
8-11-2008 @ 3:42PM
emirabal said...
This shit better come to the US that's all i know, i have been wanting a playable phantasy star game (portable version that is) since i think the psp came out, this is gonna rain all day.
Reply
8-11-2008 @ 4:26PM
Duff_B said...
I really want to see this game out in the UK too..!
Reply
8-11-2008 @ 8:29PM
Kyuba08 said...
One word: Wow.
Reply
8-11-2008 @ 10:43PM
Jeremy said...
Via NeoGaf, there's an interview at Gamasutra with the president of SoA, which seems to indicate it will be coming to NA
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3756/the_evolution_of_sega_a_.php?page=4
"So do you think you can take that market here with that title (PSP)?
SJ: I think that it's not going to be a blockbuster success, but I think it will be a niche success. I'm certainly hopeful that it's more of a success in the west than Monster Hunter has been. There is a built-in audience for it already there.
I think the crossover of the PSP ownership will work quite nicely, so we're fairly hopeful we can make something out of it. It's not going to be huge, but hopefully it'll be interesting. "
Reply
8-11-2008 @ 11:45PM
aj said...
The last time I played a Phantasy Star game was on the Dreamcast, when I had to plug a phone and dial a phone number to get the "online" part of the game. I'll definitely check this game out.
Reply
8-12-2008 @ 11:18PM
nlspoh said...
found this bit of info... hope at last for PSP NA
20:48 August 12th, 2008
Sega President Hints at Western Release for Phantasy Star Portable
Posted By: JKKDARK
http://www.pso-world.com/news/0190-s...estern-release
In a Gamasutra interview, Sega of America President Simon Jeffery hinted at a Western release for Phantasy Star Portable. Here is a quote from the interview:
Gamasutra: I was amused to see the Phantasy Star Portable news, because it was like a lightbulb went off at Sega. "Maybe we should take our idea back from Monster Hunter!"
Simon Jeffery: Right. (laughter) I think that's exactly what happened at Sega!
Gamasutra: Capcom has had difficulty putting that model forward in the west, but Phantasy Star has done okay. Maybe not as well as it should, but okay.
Simon Jeffery: It's done okay, and there's still quite a lot of people out there playing it every month.
Gamasutra: So do you think you can take that market here with that title?
Simon Jeffery: I think that it's not going to be a blockbuster success, but I think it will be a niche success. I'm certainly hopeful that it's more of a success in the west than Monster Hunter has been. There is a built-in audience for it already there.
I think the crossover of the PSP ownership will work quite nicely, so we're fairly hopeful we can make something out of it. It's not going to be huge, but hopefully it'll be interesting.
While a Western release has not been formally announced yet, these comments should be taken as strong indication that Phantasy Star Portable will be released outside Japan.
Reply
8-13-2008 @ 5:59AM
nlspoh said...
btw, just finished the japanese demo - spent quite a bit of time with each race/class. cant say that ive played other versions - PSO/PSU, but it seems to be basically a sci-fi hack & slash... which is fine with me as long as its storyline has some depth. The weapons upgrade system confused the heck out of me, but seems to add a lot of fun to the game. Besides the fire/ice/lightning, i have no clue what the properties of the other weapons were and which to use in different situations. Had some trouble equipping certain photon arts to some of the weapons i found - dual swords/gloves/claws/etc.
Graphics were pretty good... for the psp. Character customization was decent, but obviously not enough clothes to choose form in the demo.
Im hoping that there will be online play in the NA version, as our culture is very different from Japans. For the average north american, finding another person (you know) with a psp playing psp would probably be very difficult. But, hopefully the singleplayer mode will last a good amount of time.
8-13-2008 @ 5:52PM
Transetta said...
i hope we get it over here
Reply
8-13-2008 @ 10:12PM
pixelator said...
Are readers here so young that they don't remember Phantasy Star on DC..? Yeesh. Google it, stop making the rest of us feel so damned old.
BTW - Good luck getting it here anytime soon. Sony doesn't give a &#@! about the US market. They're clearly uninterested in helping Sega with USA localization.
Reply