[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 the best-selling publisher in Japan last month, PlayStation 3's free-to-play Gundam game, and more.
Nintendo was the biggest publisher in Japan last month in terms of software revenues. The company's titles accounted for 27.8 percent of all sales for games during May, according to data from Enterbrain and Famitsu.
This is the second month in a row Nintendo took the top spot. While it had only one new title during May, Mario Tennis Open, it was able to rely on continued sales for order titles like Mario Party 9, Fire Emblem: Awakening, Kid Icarus: Uprising, and Super Mario 3D Land.
Capcom was the second biggest publisher after capturing 26.4 percent of the month's revenues with titles like Dragon's Dogma and Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City. It was followed by Namco Bandai (12.2 percent), Konami (4.3 percent), and Square Enix (3 percent).
Sony's Tokyo Jungle, which released last week and was the top-selling game in Japan after moving 110,309 copies, sold through 87.5 percent of its initial shipment. Local sales tracker Media Create says this figure is indicative of a title that sold more than retailers expected.
Another notable new title last week was Namco Bandai's Mobile Suit Gundam Seed: Battle Destiny, one of the few PS Vita titles to enjoy decent sales since the system's launch. After pushing 40,297 copies, the game sold through 68.3 percent of its first shipment.
More than 100,000 users have registered for Namco Bandai's Gundam Battle Operation, an upcoming free-to-play PS3 game based on the popular mecha franchise. The publisher began taking advanced registrations for the title on the PlayStation Store on June 7.
Scheduled to release on June 28, the game offers 12-player simultaneous online combat, with each battle lasting eight minutes. Though Gundam Battle Operation is free to download and play, users will be able to pay for some items and item upgrades, and to play more frequently.
[This story was written with permission using material from Andriasang.com, a leading destination for English-language news on Japan's game industry.]
