Monster Hunter Madness in Japan

March 28th, 2008, 16:22 Posted By: wraggster

Joke all you want about poor PSP software sales over in Japan, but you'll have to always add a footnote thanks to Monster Hunter. The first one topped a million, the second one may very well top two million, and the third one, just released today, looks like it's off to a fantastic start.

Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G got Japan to rise early on a chilly Spring Thursday morning as many major retailers gave the game the Dragon Quest treatment and opened shop ahead of the standard 10:00AM opening time. One such shop was the giant Tsutaya retailer in Shibuya. The home to the official launches of products such as the Xbox, the Xbox 360, and any number of Dragon Quest games was given the honor of being the official starting point for MHP2ndG.

The Tsutaya launch event kicked off at 6:40AM, twenty minutes ahead of the start of sales. Famitsu.com reports that over 120 people were lined up for the event. But more telling was the presence of television cameras, signaling that Monster Hunter may have some mainstream appeal. Either that, or Capcom had gotten some celebrity talent to join in on the launch fun.

While Monster Hunter may very well have penetrated the mainstream, it turns out that there were, in fact, two major stars in attendance at the event. Junichi Koumoto and Satoshi Inoue from comedy duo Jichou Kachou took to the stage prior to the game's release and offered a few words on their love of all things Monster Hunter. In addition to being fans of the series, they're also featured in the commercials.

MHP2ndG producer Ryouzou Tsujimoto was also in attendance at the launch event. He greeted the crowd, then said he was surprised at the number of fans and media in attendance.

A crowd of 120 people is actually rather tame for a major game release in Japan. But it turns out that this was on the lower end of the lines that formed around Tokyo. Famitsu.com sent its reporters around town and found lines topping 200 in Ikebukuro. Just to the south, in Shinjuku, a line of 12 people that had formed at the large Yodobashi Camera at 1:00AM had grown to over 300 just prior to the store's early 9:00AM opening time. As clerks rushed to sell the game, the line kept on growing, eventually reaching into the 600s thirty minutes after opening!

No Monster Hunter for you, according
to this sold-out sign at a Tsutaya retailer
These were some hardcore fans, it seems. Famitsu spoke to a few who'd chosen to line up for the game and found that most had invested over 1,000 hours into Monster Hunter Portable 2nd. One person even claimed a total time of 1,400 hours!

"Things haven't been this lively since Smash Bros X.," an employee of the Akihabara Yodobashi Camera, itself having served a line of over 200, told Famitsu. "No, actually it's probably livelier than that. At this rate, it's possible that we'll sell out by the evening."

He wasn't exaggerating, as reports of sell outs were widespread. The Asobit City game shop in Akihabara sold out of the game within an hour of opening time. The Shinjuku Yodobashi actually sold out of the Hunters Pack G PSP bundle pack two hours before opening time (the store distributed tickets).

The PSP has been at the top of Japan's hardware charts for the past couple of weeks. Judging by the impressive showing today, it will likely keep that crown throughout the remainder of this month, and possibly into next month as well. This time, however, there's an unexpected cause to the system's success: a game.

http://uk.psp.ign.com/articles/862/862513p1.html

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