Ni No Kuni claims No.1 chart spot; Namco Bandai thanks community

Namco Bandai is celebrating what some would call a surprise chart victory for Ni No Kuni this morning.

The PS3-only JRPG, co-developed by established Japanese developers Level 5 and film animation master Studio Ghibli, will shortly be unveiled as the UK’s new No.1 in the GfK Chart-Track All Formats Top 40, MCV understands.

And Namco Bandai’s UK marketing director Lee Kirton is understandably delighted.

We expected good sales as the pre orders were close to shipment,” he said when asked by MCV if he had expected to game to claim No.1. In the end we have created a demand for this amazing game and have stock going out to channels this week.

We have focused PR, marketing and the community has been brilliant. We have been solid with communication and reviews in the UK have been astonishing. We are very pleased, but ultimately it’s down to an incredible game from Level 5 and some strong communication from me and my team.”

The victory is all the more impressive considering that many retailers, including Tesco and Play, were unable to source sufficient stock to meet their pre-orders. Tesco has told customers they may face a delay of up to two weeks.

We hope to keep work of mouth spreading and work closely with retail channels to provide them with stock shortly,” Kirton added.