[Gamasutra rounds up recent reports on the Japanese games industry from local news site Andriasang.com, a leading destination for English-language news on Japan's game industry.]
In our latest round-up of Japanese game industry news not previously reported on Gamasutra, we look at a Final Fantasy XIII-2 and Prada collaboration, sell-through rates for Kingdom Hearts games, new social network apps for PlayStation Vita, and more.
Square Enix sold 64.2 percent of its initial shipment for Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance last week -- the 3DS game sold 213,579 copies during its first week on sale in Japan.
That's a lower sell-through rate than Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days for DS when it released in 2010 and sold 72.35 percent of its first shipment, or 295,205 units, according to sales tracking firm Media Create. It also sold much less than 2011's Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep for PSP, which moved 445,962 copes in its first week.
Media Create, however, notes that Kingdom Hearts 3D had 150,000 preorders, which exceeded 358/2 Days' 90,000 reservations. The firm believes this might be evidence that the 3DS game was able to reach the Disney-themed action RPG series' core fans.
One Piece Pirate Warriors/Musou for PlayStation 3, the popular crossover between manga/anime franchise One Piece and Tecmo Koei's Warriors series, was the top-selling game in March after moving 770,873 units.
It beat out Nintendo's Pokemon Conquest for DS (242,912 copies) and Kid Icarus Uprising for 3DS (144,468), as well as Sega's Shining Blade for PSP (138,959) and Hatsune Miku and Future Stars Project Mirai for 3DS (111,465).
Square Enix partnered with fashion label Prada to dress virtual characters from its Xbox 360/PS3 game Final Fantasy XIII-2 with the company's high-end apparel (pictured).
Fashion magazine Arena Homme+ will feature several characters from the RPG -- including Lightning, Hope, and Noel -- as models wearing pieces from Prada's Spring Men's Collection in its April 12 issue.
Sony has released two new and free PlayStation Vita apps for social networks Facebook and FourSquare. Both apps take advantage of PS Vita-specific features (e.g. scrolling on Facebook with the rear touch pad; Foursquare using the system's positional features).
[This story was written with permission using material from Andriasang.com, a leading destination for English-language news on Japan's game industry.]
