A few hours ago today, Sony Japan held its annual PlayStation Awards. It honours games that have performed exceedingly well at retail on PlayStation platforms in the land of the rising sun. As far as I know, no similar accolade exists for games that sell well on the Xbox platform, because nothing really does. The event covers games released between November 1, 2010 and October 31, 2011.
Here’re the PlayStation games our what our Japanese brethren went nuts for this year, as reported by Andriasang.
- Monster Hunter Portable 3rd (Capcom, PSP): Quadruple Platinum Prize
- Final Fantasy Type-0 (Square Enix, PSP): Gold Prize
- Winning Eleven 2011 (Konami, PS3): Gold Prize
- Gran Turismo 5 (Sony, PS3): Gold Prize
- Dynasty Warriors 7 (Tecmo Koei, PS3): Gold Prize
- Monster Hunter Portable 3rd HD Version (Capcom, PS3): Gold Prize
- Tales of Xillia (Namco Bandai, PS3): Gold Prize
Games that’ve sold over half a million units get the Gold Prize. Platinum Prize are awarded for one million and up, with Double Platinum Prize for two million and up, and so on and so forth. Winners are awarded substantial cash prizes; Gold Prizes winners are given half a million Yen, with the rewards increasing much the same as the awards themselves. What that means is that Capcom’s Monster Hunter Portable 3rd team nets themselves 4 million Yen – just a shade over R400 000, plus an extra bit of cash for the PS3 port. That’s a pretty sweet bonus – and it’s nice that Sony rewards those who perform well with a bit of extra dosh.
For the second year, Sony’s also handed out The Users’ choice award – selected by public vote. This year’s winners are:
- Monster Hunter Portable 3rd (Capcom, PSP)
- Legend of Heroes Ao no Kiseki (Falcom, PSP)
- Call of Duty Black Ops (Square Enix, PS3)
- Gran Turismo 5 (Sony, PS3)
- Catherine (Index, PS3)
- Dynasty Warriors 6 (Tecmo Koei, PS3)
- Atelier Meruru (Gust, PS3)
- Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 (Square Enix, PS3)
- Tales of Xillia (Namco Bandai, PS3)
- Dark Souls (From Software, PS3)
A World Game Award was also voted for by Nipponese PlayStation gamers for games developed outside of Japan. Here are the winners:
- Call of Duty Black Ops (Square Enix, PS3)
- LittleBigPlanet 2 (Sony, PS3)
- Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 (Square Enix, PS3)
What this all highlights is just how different the Japanese and Western markets are. For starters, Just Dance doesn’t show up anywhere – and the rest of the list is mostly made up by odd RPGs. Interesting to see that even the Japanese, a nation of gamers who’ve traditionally not exactly been the biggest supporters of First Person Shooters, love them some Call of Duty. Also, what the hell is Atelier Maruru?
Last Updated: December 5, 2011
