For the first time, Nintendo has lost top spot amongst the Japanese game publishers within the country.
For the first half of 2011, Bandai Namco has overtaken Nintendo, which still enjoys twice as many sales as third placed Konami. According to Enterbrain, which published these results, Nintendo’s drop was largely due to the initial lackluster 3DS sales. Bandai Namco, meanwhile, has enjoyed a mega hit in Tales of Xillia.
The other big winner amongst Japanese publishers is From Software (which publishes its own games in Japan), thanks to Dark Souls.
And as a bit of a personal call-out, Koei Tecmo came in at eight place, based almost entirely on the Warriors games it has released this half year. 4/10 games indeed.
The full rankings:
1. Bandai Namco – 178 billion yen
2. Nintendo – 150 billion yen
3. Konami – 78 billion yen
4. Capcom – 66 billion yen
5. Square Enix – 56 billion yen
6. Sega – 54 billion yen
7. Level 5 – 38 billion yen
8. Koei Tecmo – 36 billion yen
9. Sony – 34 billion yen
10. Pokemon Co. – 25 billion yen
11. Atlus – 21 billion yen
12. From Software – 16 billion yen
13. ImageEpoch – 15 billion yen
14. Marvelous AQL – 14 billion yen
15. D3 Publisher – 13 billion yen
16. EA – 12.33 billion yen
17. Idea Factory – 12.30 billion yen
18. Gust – 10.4 billion yen
19. Spike – 10.3 billion yen
20. Kadokawa Shoten – 9.99 billion yen
