Sales Age: Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days - A Japanese Success?

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Published on August 14, 2009 @ 04:29 pm

Written by Silh

Has Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days continued the series tradition of consecutive hit after hit, or is does it signal a flop, a dismal turnaround for the Kingdom Hearts franchise? Released a short two months ago in Japan, days has managed to sell just over 500,000 copies, and continues to place on Japan's weekly sales charts. Debuting at almost 300,000 units, the game is expected to double its launch figures by the end of the year.

The only logical way of seeing how these numbers track with the rest of the series is to compare them to its predecessors. It would be unfair to compare this side story with the series' mainline titles (Kingdom Hearts, and Kingdom Hearts 2), which each went on to sell over a million copies in the land of the rising sun, so instead, it would only be appropriate to compare it with the series' other handheld entry, 2004's Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories for the Game Boy Advance.

So how does the title stack up? Better than expected, in fact, surprisingly well. Chain of Memories debuted at under 200,000 units, and ended up selling around 360,000 units up to present day. Considering Days has already surpassed that number in as little as two months, the title can only be considered a success for Square Enix. It would be an even jollier case if one could assume by these numbers that the series may even be expanding its initial fan base.

However, that may not be the case - Kingdom Hearts fans, in Japan at least, likely already gravitated towards the DS due to its abundance of RPGs, so perhaps the success of this title is more a testament to the selling power of the Nintendo DS then Kingdom Hearts. (Let's not forget that Days was accompanied by a huge marketing effort by Nintendo to sell the newest edition to the DS line, the DSi.) The growth of local multiplayer handheld gaming in Japan likely also aided Days sales, while Chain of Memories also had a tacked on multiplayer mode, Days is a title completely built from the ground up with multiplayer in mind, as seen by the countless multiplayer missions, wide variety of selectable characters, from Organization XIII members to Disney favorites, as well as the single player's mission oriented story structure. One could say Days released in the right place at the right time!

The series' real test will come however when 358/2 Days hits stateside. Chain of Memories was bundled with the Game Boy Advance in North America, and went on to sell around 1.2 million copies. We can only anticipate Days September release to find out if this charming little title can hope to outlive its predecessors.

Sale numbers obtained from Media Create, NPD.

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