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Media Create Sales: Week 23, 2014 (Jun 02 - Jun 08)

It dropped 78 percent. The worst ever for the series. What is that a good sign of?
Because the % drop isn't to an abysmal figure? Mario Kart 8 had an unusually high opening compared to what the WiiU's userbase is, so naturally I expected the second week drop to be somewhat large given that limiting factor. But that doesn't mean a 70k second week is a poor figure in and of itself.
 

JoeM86

Member
Because the % drop isn't to an abysmal figure? Mario Kart 8 had an unusually high opening compared to what the WiiU's userbase is, so naturally I expected the second week drop to be somewhat large given that limiting factor. But that doesn't mean a 70k second week is a poor figure in and of itself.

Considering the state of the Japanese industry at the moment, a game doing 70k in launch week is good in itself.
 

Caramello

Member
I'm not all that up to date on the gaming situation in Japan so I'm going to need some help understanding this. How exactly should Nintendo approach their next portable system to be successful in this market? Is Japan simply not interested in the software coming out for the current systems or is it the hardware itself - features, price etc?

Obviously 3DS is doing decently but it could be doing better and every system released after the 3DS seem to have done worse than the hardware that launched before it. Again is this just down to software or is there something else going on?
 

random25

Member
I'm not all that up to date on the gaming situation in Japan so I'm going to need some help understanding this. How exactly should Nintendo approach their next portable system to be successful in this market? Is Japan simply not interested in the software coming out for the current systems or is it the hardware itself - features, price etc?

Obviously 3DS is doing decently but it could be doing better and every system released after the 3DS seem to have done worse than the hardware that launched before it. Again is this just down to software or is there something else going on?

Mobile, man.
 

cw_sasuke

If all DLC came tied to $13 figurines, I'd consider all DLC to be free
I'm not all that up to date on the gaming situation in Japan so I'm going to need some help understanding this. How exactly should Nintendo approach their next portable system to be successful in this market? Is Japan simply not interested in the software coming out for the current systems or is it the hardware itself - features, price etc?

Obviously 3DS is doing decently but it could be doing better and every system released after the 3DS seem to have done worse than the hardware that launched before it. Again is this just down to software or is there something else going on?
How do we know that it could do much better in the current market?
 

Mpl90

Two copies sold? That's not a bomb guys, stop trolling!!!
I'm not all that up to date on the gaming situation in Japan so I'm going to need some help understanding this. How exactly should Nintendo approach their next portable system to be successful in this market? Is Japan simply not interested in the software coming out for the current systems or is it the hardware itself - features, price etc?

Obviously 3DS is doing decently but it could be doing better and every system released after the 3DS seem to have done worse than the hardware that launched before it. Again is this just down to software or is there something else going on?

Mobile + other consoles not having enough interesting content for the mass Japanese audience + 3DS being in its 4th year, and over 15 millions of installed base, without a new SKU released since 3DS XL & PS3 being 8 years old.
 

zeromcd73

Member
I'm not all that up to date on the gaming situation in Japan so I'm going to need some help understanding this. How exactly should Nintendo approach their next portable system to be successful in this market? Is Japan simply not interested in the software coming out for the current systems or is it the hardware itself - features, price etc?

Obviously 3DS is doing decently but it could be doing better and every system released after the 3DS seem to have done worse than the hardware that launched before it. Again is this just down to software or is there something else going on?

3DS successor needs to launch with the promise of the usual classic Nintendo titles, Monster Hunter, Dragon Quest, and Youkai Watch.

It must not launch at 25,000 yen like the 3DS did. Must be below 20,000 yen. Should be very nice to look out and easily portable.
 

Caramello

Member
Mobile, man.

I could understand mobile taking away from portable gaming and it seems to have done that, but I can't understand why home console sales would be in decline because of mobile.

I feel like it must be a combination of factors otherwise it doesn't make much sense to me.
 

Caramello

Member
How do we know that it could do much better in the current market?

I simply meant that comparing it to the DS, at the same stage of it's lifecycle, it could be doing better. Obviously the 3DS as a product with it's current value proposition could not be doing better right now in the current market or it would be.

3DS successor needs to launch with the promise of the usual classic Nintendo titles, Monster Hunter, Dragon Quest, and Youkai Watch.

It must not launch at 25,000 yen like the 3DS did. Must be below 20,000 yen. Should be very nice to look out and easily portable.

I feel the same way. If mobile really is the main issue then Nintendo need to provide compelling software that is not available on other devices and they need to do it at a decent price.
 

random25

Member
I could understand mobile taking away from portable gaming and it seems to have done that, but I can't understand why home console sales would be in decline because of mobile.

I feel like it must be a combination of factors otherwise it doesn't make much sense to me.

Well it's a combination of many factors, that is why mobile is such a huge thing right now in Japan.

If you check their recent market, the overall economy of Japan has slowed down, so it affected both the consumers who are more conscious about their spending and the developers and publishers who are taking less risks. Developing for mobile not only is cheaper for the developers but is also much faster to be sent out there in the market, plus it covers a huge amount of customer base.
 
What a fantastic debut for Persona Q, and 13k bump for 3DS too! A new audience is born. :)

Now let's see if it has legs, probably not, but it should at least hit 250k LTD (SMT4: 184,811 / 255,057).
 

jj984jj

He's a pretty swell guy in my books anyway.
Happy for Persona Q, but is Etrian Odyssey dead then? :(

Or next year we're getting Trauma Q.

Finally a Trauma game that will sell in Japan!

I think Daisuke Kanada is pretty key here, it depends on what he's doing next. I think Shigeo Komori is probably going to continue Etrian Odyssey though.
 

Longsword

Member
I could understand mobile taking away from portable gaming and it seems to have done that, but I can't understand why home console sales would be in decline because of mobile.

I feel like it must be a combination of factors otherwise it doesn't make much sense to me.

Of course there are many factors -change in consumer sentiment, the commuter culture, small living rooms, the overall economy, the lack of support for consoles by Japanese developers etc.

But the truth is, smartphone gaming alone is now more than 50% of the total Japanese games industry in total revenue (console, handheld, PC, other mobile devices etc.). That is the stark truth. Popularity of mobile gaming is not the only reason for decline of the consoles, but it is one of the major ones.

It is no wonder the Japanese developers are focusing on mobile a lot.

On topic: Love to see Persona franchise do well, but the rest is depressing. Good 2nd week for MK8, but I doubt there is any lasting hardware baseline increase. Also, last hurrah for PSP! Fare thee well, Old Friend.
 

Caramello

Member
Well it's a combination of many factors, that is why mobile is such a huge thing right now in Japan.

If you check their recent market, the overall economy of Japan has slowed down, so it affected both the consumers who are more conscious about their spending and the developers and publishers who are taking less risks. Developing for mobile not only is cheaper for the developers but is also much faster to be sent out there in the market, plus it covers a huge amount of customer base.

So having their next portable be easier to develop for would also be beneficial in this case but not the whole answer. Having a streamlined publishing pipeline would also be something that should be looked at.
 

DNAbro

Member
Great job for Persona Q. I assume 200k shipped? Also for eventual persona 5 sales I'm going with 500k first day.
 

TheChaos0

Member
With all the E3 excitement I've totally forgot about Media Create thread this week. A great Persona Q opening. If they do want to continue making PQs, they'll have to have a new cast this time
P2 cast revival time!
and I don't think another game would open as good.

Isn't PQs budget also higher than of a regular EO game?

Persona 5 should have a good opening judging by a spin off. Will it reach 500k? I doubt it but it might get there shortly afterwards.
 

saichi

Member
Yo-kai Watch just won't stop selling.

At one point I thought its sequel would have an opening similar to Inazuma Eleven 3, now that figure looks extremely conservative. If today I had to predict its first week sales, I would say around 800.000.

originally I was expecting it opens a little lower than PADZ but now it looks like 800K is a possibility. When was the last time a non-DQ/MH 3rd party game selling over 2 million copies?
 

redcrayon

Member
Happy for Persona Q, but is Etrian Odyssey dead then? :(

Or next year we're getting Trauma Q.

I doubt Etrian Odyssey is finished, it's a reliable seller and the budget for EO is way below Persona Q. The idea of killing anything that doesn't sell as much as their biggest IP is one that throws a lot of effort spent building resources and gaining experience away.

They've put a lot of effort into building up fanbases for their IP, although with the sheer amount of dungeon crawlers around at the moment I could see EO getting a rest until Nintendo's next portable now.
 

Pain

Banned
Depressing. You would think Mario Kart 8 would have had a bigger impact. I'm sure the game will sell in excess of 1million but it doesn't seem to be pushing hardware.
 

heidern

Junior Member
I could understand mobile taking away from portable gaming and it seems to have done that, but I can't understand why home console sales would be in decline because of mobile.

I feel like it must be a combination of factors otherwise it doesn't make much sense to me.

Mobile could have a detrimental effect on the casual console gamer since they might be happy to fill their time with mobile games/apps/tv shows/social media etc and thus not need a console.

There's also been a reduction in game libraries for consoles. Dragon Quest switched to handhelds. Monster Hunter too I guess. Japanese developers increasingly targeted handhelds and now mobile. That's in addition to mid tier developers dying off and less games being released because of increased development costs.

Risk taking has also reduced and there has not been major new console IPs which has lead to stagnation. Snes had the likes of Mario Kart, Streetfighter. PSX brought MGS, RE, GT. PS2 had Kingdom Hearts, Onimusha. PS3 had nothing really since western developers became more dominant. On the Nintendo side there was a bunch of new IPs last generation but they failed this gen and thus Nintendo are back to where they were with the Gamecube/N64.

The only good news in the traditional Japanese industry is that the core handheld audience has been fairly robust with Pokemon and Animal Crossing hitting over 4M and Monster Hunter over 3M. 3rd parties can do well too as shown by Yokai Watch/Persona Q. Brain Training/Nintendogs audience has clearly fallen away.
 

Busaiku

Member
That is an amazing debut for Persona Q.
Didn't think it'd beat Persona 4 Golden and it's close Shin Megami Tensei IV too (beat it on Famitsu).

I wonder if 300k is possible.
 
I'm not all that up to date on the gaming situation in Japan so I'm going to need some help understanding this. How exactly should Nintendo approach their next portable system to be successful in this market?

More F2P experiments. F2P rpg-like puzzle games are what mostly popular among Japanese mobile gamers these days. Simple, very accessible, very addictive games designed for play on the go. Some of the reasons why these games are popular. I believe Nintendo and other pubs could find some success by mimicking this approach.
 
Ha, I'll be digging up the posts later where people disagreed with me on Mario Kart 8 not pushing Wii U past last year's YTD.
And it turns out I was being too generous myself!
 
People still thinking that WiiU has a chance to outsell PS4 in Japan? It just got biggest game of its life that sold extra 20k consoles in two weeks. Imagine if PS4 would do as low numbers during FFXV launch week...
 

Coolwhip

Banned
People still thinking that WiiU has a chance to outsell PS4 in Japan? It just got biggest game of its life that sold extra 20k consoles in two weeks. Imagine if PS4 would do as low numbers during FFXV launch week...

It will be two snails racing eachother at least.
 

RM8

Member
Sadly, despite the positive showing yesterday, I don't think any game can make WiiU turn around if Mario Kart didn't. Nintendo should hope to steadily, eventually reach GCN numbers with moderate 1st party support and price cuts. Very sad, really.
 
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