Atlus is riding very high right now, as the newest addition in the Shin Megami Tensei series, Shin Megami Tensei IV, has sold 188, 562 copies in the first week after its release in Japan. This enormous success was further illustrated when Japanese sales tracker Media Create revealed that this was 80.14% of the game’s shipment. It was the highest selling title of that week.
This is quite an incredible feat for Shin Megami Tensei IV, as the mainline SMT series has not seen a new title since Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne; an almost ten year hiatus. There was an added bonus, as Shin Megami Tensei IV, also beat its predecessor in first week sales as well. Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne saw only 75.7% of its first weeks shipment sell out in its 2003 release, which was about 185,000 units sold.
This early success should push Atlus to further develop the Shin Megami Tensei series, which has proved it can continue to maintain high sales numbers. The series however, still has not made the enormous splash in the West as it has done in Japan, but interest is on the rise.
Atlus has been pushing to market the Shin Megami Tensei franchise in the West recently, hoping to find the same fortune it had in Japan. We will have to see if Atlus will be successful in its venture when Shin Megami Tensei IV gets released on July 16 in North America. Europe was promised a localization as well, but no release date has been confirmed just yet.
