Deca Sporta 2 has hilariously bad first day sales

The original Deca Sporta (known as Sports Island over here) was a smash hit in Japan, taking even Hudson Soft by surprise. The company only just announced last week that total worldwide sales had reached the two million mark; making it one of the most successful third party games on the system.

Just a bit excited about the upcoming sequel, Hudson hired the popular J-Pop group Hey! Say! JUMP to star in the game's advertising campaign. It's likely they bought them at a high price, stranger. Expecting rampages involving animals trapped in plastic balls and spiritual spinning tops on launch day, Hudson shipped roughly 85,000 copies to retailers across the country.

Not needed, apparently. Deca Sporta 2 only managed to sell 2,500 copies on its first day (3% of the total shipment). The original game sold through 30,000 copies at launch, and that was with no hype behind it. While first day sales obviously don't spell instant doom, the game's pathetic debut has resulted in many eyebrows being raised.


Wii sales have slowly been declining in Japan, with the PlayStation 3 outselling it last month for the first time in eighty billion years (largely thanks to high-profile releases Yakuza 3 and Resident Evil 5). Popular Japanese tech/gaming site Watch.Impress has posted an article warning of a potential 'Nintendo crash'. The write-up details the critical lack of new Wii software in Japan, along with Nintendo failing to support their own smaller releases. Another Code: R for example, came and went with barely any impact.

Satoru Iwata has commented on the dragging sales, claiming a price cut (Nintendo has yet to drop the price anywhere - it's actually gone up in the UK) wouldn't do anything.

"The Wii is in the most unhealthy condition since it hit the Japanese market. The current condition in the Japanese market is not the one we want. A price cut in a difficult economy cannot really excite the market and drive up sales. As of now I really don’t think that a price cut is a good option for us. The speed with which people get tired of any new entertainment is faster in Japan than in overseas markets.”

Nintendo is hoping Wii Sports Resort will save the day. Until then, Japan can look forward to Capcom's lazy Monster Hunter G port and perhaps picking up a copy of Deca Sporta 2 in the bargain bin. It's okay Hudson, we still love you!

Deca Spo-... uh, Sports Island 2 is due out in Australia later this year.