http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/nintendo-to-share-download-data/099016
Does anyone actually reveal digital sales figures?
Does anyone actually reveal digital sales figures?
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Nintendo to make digital sales figure available to the public.
- Thread starter BY2K
- Start date
Team Filler
Member
Gabe Newell's head must be hurting.
I wonder what brick and mortar thinks of this.
I wonder what brick and mortar thinks of this.
Sony is revealing them...partially.
They're giving figures which are retail shipments + digital downloads ( Gravity Rush, His Animality and our only Master Tokyo Jungle ).
bigtroyjon
Member
All publishers give out digital downloads as part of their shipment numbers.
It's tough to figure it out when everyone is so secretive or when they release sales numbers like a bajillion years too late when almost no ones cares anymore.
I don't think they gain anything as such, but I guess it's nice to know. I've never known why digital sales figures aren't revealed if they're being tracked anyway.
In this specific example it's probably convenient for them to reveal just how many millions of copies NSMB2 has sold without any "hidden" or "lost" sales owing to digital.
Lord_Byron28
Member
No, that's like asking what's the point of publicly releasing sales numbers of retail titles. The point is to make it common knowledge and help everyone understand sales.
Eh, most people know the ballpark estimates for digital revenue at this point for the current platforms. Day and date revenue w/retail is a more hazy area, which is why I give major high fives to Nintendo for doing this. Awesome news.
test_account
XP-39C²
Good news, it shall be interesting to see the numbers.
The game will probably get a different name in the west. Although Devil World for the NES did get released in Europe with the same name, but that is a long time ago
I dont think it mention localisation of Oni Training here. This is a question from the japanese Q&A meeting.
The game will probably get a different name in the west. Although Devil World for the NES did get released in Europe with the same name, but that is a long time ago
I think he means game publishers. They might get access to the data directly from the companies, so there might not be much to gain to give the numbers out to the public (not that i'm complaining about it).
abstract alien
Member
I honestly think they should give more incentive to go digital. There seem to be a lot of people that feel its just a doomsday waiting to happen for your purchased software. Maybe sell all first party titles a full day ahead of retail release, cheaper prices...something to make those people at least second guess going to the nearest brickshop. I won't hurt them at all, and it will give them at least a few extra sales with zero effort involved.
Canis lupus
Member
They should show on the PS Store how much it was downloaded, something like in Google Play:
<1000
<10,000
<100,000
<1,000,000
They aren't going to sell many DD versions of those games. Not only does that require connecting online, using credit card etc., but it will cost the same as in the store, without anything. $39.99 for a version with a physical cart, manual, and box or $39.99 for a DD version? No thanks. We all know Nintendo's idea of a sale is when they take a dollar or two of an eShop title, so I'd rather buy from Amazon.
It is. Microsoft still hides the actual numbers on the Xbox Live rankings.
corporate cheerleader
Member
The closest number we can find out is by combining all the store ratings, but even I forget to rate the things I bought so it could easily be off by hundreds if not more.
Why would you do that?
Member
I really don't think Iwata is saying what everyone on the Internet thinks. Iwata says this:
"We would like to show the public the number of New Super Mario Bros. 2 or Onitore that have been sold by download so that those in this industry can make the next move after finding out the consumer behaviour toward download version."
I interpret it to mean that, to prove to developers that selling your game online is a good thing, they will make an announcement featuring the sales numbers of Mario 2 or Onitore (the new Brain Age, aka Demonic Training) at some point down the line. Maybe something like, "Mario 2 sold 100,000 digitally!" or "Demon Training has 25% of its sales online," NOT a consistent releasing of sales numbers for every game like Media Create or NPD.
I could be wrong, but I can't see Nintendo release numbers like that.
"We would like to show the public the number of New Super Mario Bros. 2 or Onitore that have been sold by download so that those in this industry can make the next move after finding out the consumer behaviour toward download version."
I interpret it to mean that, to prove to developers that selling your game online is a good thing, they will make an announcement featuring the sales numbers of Mario 2 or Onitore (the new Brain Age, aka Demonic Training) at some point down the line. Maybe something like, "Mario 2 sold 100,000 digitally!" or "Demon Training has 25% of its sales online," NOT a consistent releasing of sales numbers for every game like Media Create or NPD.
I could be wrong, but I can't see Nintendo release numbers like that.
Shining Sunshine
Banned
Seems like a dangerous financial move.
They'll probably go back on the word if their digital sales fail.
They'll probably go back on the word if their digital sales fail.
Of course, that's the point. The focus that Nintendo is going for with digital sales of retail titles is that they're going to push them as retail titles and not having their own shop become the dominant source of sales for these titles. They are placing incentives for retailers to stock digital versions and not as a means to destroy the retail space to be replaced with direct-to-consumer sales, but we don't know the exact details of this effort yet.
I think you're exactly right.
what? no, it doesn't matter if it sells or not.
the point of this specific game info experiment is to tell people if it sells or not,
not to preserve good sales, pr, or momentum.
Exactly this. No one can be sure what Iwata meant, but it's a massive leap to assume this indicates Nintendo regularly releasing all of their sales data. They'll most likely only reveal the data that fits their messenging, just as they do for everything else.
ShironRedshift
Member
Except they're also going to be selling vouchers to redeem the eShop version of the game in stores (in other words, a method of purchasing the DD version that doesn't require credit cards and can be paid for in cash). And to be clear, I'm not referring to the currently existing all-purpose pre-paid eShop cards, which will continue to exist, but actual vouchers for the game themselves (this was announced back when they first announced that NSMB2 would be able to be bought digitally).
And even at the same price, a DD version still has certain benefits over a physical version--namely, having the game always be on the system and having no need to swap cartridges or anything, which is great for a game like NSMB2.
Of course, the actual physical copies will almost certainly make up the bulk of the sales for games like that--that's pretty safe to say. Still, it's just providing another option on top of actual physical copies, which could only increase sales overall, and in any case, as I believe is what's Iwata's really trying to get at with this, it will be interesting to find out what the size of the divide for games like NSMB2 really currently are--we're definitely not at the point where we can make a complete jump to a DD-only system quite yet, but information like this could be useful for trying to determine how far off we are from that point. Definitely interested in seeing how this breaks down.
nhlducks35
Member
What I wanna know is, who is going to digitally download a game on the 3DS, when it doesn't even have an account system. I know the Wii U is getting one, but is the 3DS getting one.
Nintendo will sell download codes in bulk to retailers exactly in the same way PC publishers sell CD-keys. Since download codes are much cheaper to store and ship, retailers will have greater flexibility to make sales and promotions (just like happens in the PC market).
/raises hand
I'm hoping for accounts, but I'm not letting it rain on my parade. if something utterly terrible happens to my 3DS, I'll just raise hell on Nintendo's support line to get my stuff transfered to a new unit.
The Dutch Slayer
Member
wow that is very surprising because ow boy when you ask about wiiware nintendo cuts your head off and puts you in a hole they will never find you in.
Phonomezer
Banned
I don't expect this to last very long.
AndyMoogle
Member
Iwata said that they will expand the Nintendo Network on the 3DS, or something like that. I hope that means that accounts are coming for 3DS as well.
They're doing the same for Onitore as well, says in the OP.
The question from the shareholder's Q&A was asking about the possibility of getting physical extras with digital downloads of retail titles, much like how people get for special editions for retail games currently.
ShockingAlberto
Member
I believe in the whole thing with Binding Of Isaac, McMillen said that the devil imagery specifically is fine and no one has problems with that stuff.
metalslimer
Member
I don't see why people are worried that they'll go back on their word here. If the DD numbers are bad they'll probably mention it in their investor reports and we'll know that DD is not doing well. Isn't the whole reason we want to know DD sales is to measure how fast the industry is moving towards it and how a game sold overall? The only bad thing I see coming out of this is if they do something like saying that digital sales were "good" instead of listing a tangible number close to what it did.
Moor-Angol
Banned
DD is not so popular in Japan, used games is a market sooooo huge over there...
Yeah, that's a challenge for the digital platform. However, Nintendo is leveraging it to try to tackle some current problems with retail:
ShironRedshift
Member
On the contrary--that would seem to make it an excellent barometer to me. Picking some niche game, like say Code of Princess if it ends up being released digitally, runs into the problem that because it's a niche game that only essentially the people who browse sites like NeoGAF are likely to even know exists, the figures would naturally be skewed toward what that particular niche are interested in. Getting figures for games like Onitore and NSMB2, million-seller games bought by all types of gamers, are the perfect games to show how strong the pull of DD currently is in the game market overall, and not just niches like indie games or stuff like Atlus releases and the like. In other words, because such a broad spectrum of gamers buy games like NSMB2 and Onitore, they'd be the perfect games to use to show overall, how much of a transition the video games market has currently shifted towards digital/how likely the average person who buys video games on a handheld console would be likely to buy a digital version of the game, instead of just one niche of the market or another.
Of course, these would still just be data points in the end, but they seem like they would be very relevant data-points to me, some of the best we could hope for.
Seems to be talking about this:
http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/stock/meeting/120628qa/04.html
Cosmonaut X
Member
Is the first point - NSMB2 at full retail price - confirmed anywhere? I keep on seeing it being repeated, but I've yet to see a source. And as for the second, there is an account system apparently coming for Wii U, and I imagine that - as they are talking about bringing the 3DS fully into the Nintendo Network - they would be looking at adding some kind of account system there, too. Certainly, given that they want to start selling full retail titles digitally, they're going to have to have a more robust way of dealing with purchased content considering the values involved - even if a DD title is, say, $5-10 cheaper than retail, a few titles soon adds up to a lot of money.
OldJadedGamer
Banned
Nintendo does what Gabe won't? Wow. Times have changed.
I don't think the point is to show that DD is super awesome. Iwata has laid it out that each have advantages and he believes there are reasons for each to exist so this sounds more like an experiment to see how consumers are buying things. I can tell you right now that I don't expect the ratios to be the same between Oni Training and NSMB2 and I think most people do expect NSMB2 to do a huge percentage at retail but is digital going to be 1%, 5%, 10%, 25%?
SolarPowered
Member
Sounds to good to be true. There has to be a catch.
bistromathics
facing a bright new dawn
Are they only doing it for these two games?
What do they have to prove? If a developer is releasing games on other platforms, Nintendo don't give a shit. If developers are releasing on 3DS (and WiiU soon), then Nintendo should just change the terms of the license so that all games are ablentonbe sold via the eshop as well as retail
I could see alot of smaller retailers start stocking the DD cards only with the exception of some major titles. They will certainly do so for the more niche ones instead of ordering in boxes that take up a bunch of space just have a wall section dedicated to DD cards.
The Cards and codes allow retail their share of the pie and limits their investment into stock for the backroom