Namco tops Japanese publisher list for first half of fiscal 2012

Famitsu has reported publisher sales data for the first half of the 2012 fiscal year, and for the period of March 28 through September 25, 2011, Namco Bandai ousted former number one Nintendo as the top publisher in Japan. T

Namco takes the crown

According to figures from Enterbrain's Famitsu Game Hakusho publication, Namco Bandai sales went from ¥11.8 billion ($155 million) the year prior to ¥17.7 billion ($234 million), which is an 18% share of the market.

Nintendo fell to second place for the period with ¥14.9 ($196 million) in sales, compared to  ¥21.5 billion ($283 million) during the same period last fiscal year. Tales of Xillia was the top selling game for the period with 591,000 units sold.

The biggest leap on the chart, though, was From Software which climbed from number 61 last year to number 12 this year, thanks to the popularity of Dark Souls.

Konami was third, followed Capcom, Square Enix, SEGA, Level-5, Tecmo Koei, Sony, Pokemon, Atlus, From Software, Imageepoch, Marvelous AQL, D3 Publisher, Electronic Arts, Idea Factory, Gust, Spike and Kadokawa Shoten, respectively rounding out the top 20.

Units sold per platform

When it came to units sold, however, Nintendo bested Namco Bandai by 94,000 units, as Nintendo sold over 3 million units of software.

Namco was the top publisher on PS3 and PSP, while Nintendo, naturally, was top publisher for its own 3DS and Wii platforms.

Nintendo had a 65% software sales share on Wii, compared to Square's 9.6%; however, Square bested Nintendo on DS with 18.9% compared to 18.3%, respectively.

On 3DS, Nintendo was the top publisher, with Namco Bandai, Pokemon, Capcom and Konami following in order.

It is worth noting that there are six months left for fiscal year 2012, so the list is likely to change, especially once holiday data is reported. The last half of the fiscal year will include data from the later part of September until March 2012.

You can also view current Q2 fiscal 2012 results for various firms through here.

Thanks: Kotaku, Andriasang.