The beginning of December marks a very important moment for the Japanese gaming industry, as it’s the start of Holiday sales season (which many call the “Holiday sales battle”), that goes all the way through Christmas and into the first week of January.
An interesting window on the situation is offered by the manager of Games Ma-Ya, a popular game store near the Kasai station in the Edogawa district of Tokyo. Every day, she provides a small report on what happened at the store on her personal blog.
Yesterday was the release day of Xenoblade Chronicles 2, and while it was slow in the morning and afternoon (That’s definitely normal in Japan on a weekday), but things started moving in the evening, with many male customers coming into the shop looking to buy the game together with a new Switch console. The limited edition was already sold out with pre-orders, and the Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Pro-Controller was also popular.
About the Switch itself, the shop received a new shipment, and at the end of the day, it still had both colors in stock. The grey version had more reservations, but the neon blue and red version enjoyed strong sales and quickly overtook it.
Interestingly, we hear that the manager met Monster Hunter World Producer Ryozo Tsujimoto at the PlayStation Awards ceremony, and she mentions that at the moment the game is the most pre-ordered at the store. Yet, she’s looking forward to it even more than her customers.
Today’s report marks the first Saturday of the Holiday period, and as expected the store was crowded with families in the morning. Of course, they were there to buy Nintendo Switch consoles and games. The manager describes them with a warm image of family gatherings in which parents and children discuss to decide which color of the console and which games to buy. At times, they’re even accompanied by grandfathers and grandmothers. That’s a common sight for her when people purchase Nintendo products, and at times she catches a glimpse of the circumstances of the family through the honest words of the children. That’s a heartwarming moment that she looks forward to at the end of each year and at the beginning of the next.
On the other hand, the PS4 Pro is popular among adults only, and there are many customers who say that they’re buying it to get ready for Monster Hunter Word in January.