Hahaha what? How many Pokemon games have you played?
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NPD Sales Results For April 2017 [Up: Sony and Microsoft now sharing digital numbers]
Hahaha what? How many Pokemon games have you played?
all of them
Black&White started to go on the right direction but then we regressed back to mediocrity. Nobody plays a Pokemon game for the story but then you have to hear every rpg discussion about how the story is the most important part of the genre.
it's as simple as that
Then you're telling me they have a story, right? (even if you don't like it)
And now tell me about that shallow structure that Pokemon uses and don't change. And after that tell me which JRPG doesn't do that (specially the ones who go for 2 decades too
).Then you're telling me they have a story, right? (even if you don't like it)
And now tell me about that shallow structure that Pokemon uses and don't change. And after that tell me which JRPG doesn't do that (specially the ones who go for 2 decades too
Yeah, Mario games do have a story too: The princess is on another castle until you find her.. come on, you know what I'm saying.
If you want to argue about Pokemon being valued for the story I'm not going to be the one wasting my time on that.
What? Story is far from being the most important part of RPG for a lot of people.
Psycho_Mantis
Banned
...because pokemon is 10x bigger than Dark Souls and is the biggest JRPG, traditional or otherwise, pertaining to your OG comment of the "biggest JRPGs"
but sure Dark Souls can be thrown in too. So this month Persona took the elusive crown as the....6th biggest?
My range was always below FF/KH lol
Yeah no
Digital on WiiU lol
Japan 100k, US - 200k....you're looking at <600k WW, for an RPG of that scope, thats a bomb.
It was a game with a modest budget on a failed console. Even at 600k, a figure most console JRPGs would kill for, I doubt it's a bomb. More relevantly though it certainly didn't bomb in the US.
GhostTrick
Banned
This is dumb. It's not because the story in Pokémon is targeting a younger audience that it doesn't exist.
Let's also pass on all these gameplay mechanics, the fact that it has actual towns and such.
Nope I'm not arguing about Pokemon being valued for the story. I'm just laughing at your distinctions about what is an JRPG and what is not.
Not having a real story -> Keyword "real". What defines a real story? Having a romance with some sexual encounters? Summoning big creatures? Killing people? Driving with your friends?
But the best one (that you "surprisingly" didn't answer... wink wink) is the "reusing a shallow structure". Because you know that every JRPG under the sun does this to some extent and even it could be debatable that for the last 10 years Pokemon evolved (for better or worse) more its "shallow structure" than the Tales or Persona games for example. So I don't see how these 2 criteria should count in disregarding Pokemon as an JRPG.
But anyway, we're pretty off topic here! So thanks for the laugh and have a nice day
OrbitalBeard
Member
What were Nintendo's sales expectations for the game? What was the game's budget? Why is Nintendo all-in on Xenoblade Chronicles 2?
In a world where Breath of the Wild only needed two million sales to start profiting ,I wouldn't be surprised if the game was profitable for the company.
Of course, I can't be sure that the game was a success for Nintendo, just like you cannot be sure it was a bomb.
Mantis has been linked several times with Takahashi's quotes where he indicates that the game was not big budget in any form but you already know that when something doesn't fit his narrative is either "lol", "bomb" or completely ignored in subsequent replies
I mean, PS4 and XB1 are approaching their fourth anniversary and Switch literally just launched. Why would anyone expect otherwise?
If you want to throw PC in the mix then that gets more indie releases on than any other platform ever will.
What is the point you are making?
Psycho_Mantis
Banned
All in? There's nothing from XC2 that suggest a notably increased budget.
The game had a 4-5 year dev cycle, largest scope for the dev team, HD graphics and online functions as well. Lets not act dubious and say that game was profitable with results of <600k WW lol
Its not hard to tell when a game bombed. The fact thats its still < 1 million is telling enough. If it was a notable success, publishers would spare no time in mentioning it.
OrbitalBeard
Member
Ok, good to know I was correct in assuming you were just talking out of your ass.
lol wtf?
BOTW has a larger and significantly more interactive world, was multiplatform, has an extended dlc schedule and had an extra year in development from a dev team nearly twice the size of XBX. Plus a good amount of ad and promotional spend, while XBX had almost none. And BOTW only needed 2m to break even.
That's beside the fact that 200k US retail 1st month isn't a bomb for a console jrpg. Bravely Default, Tales of Xillia, Ni No Kuni, Fire Emblem Awakening and others all debuted around the same and were hailed as promising successes for it.
KuwabaraTheMan
Banned
By this logic, every single JRPG from the past 10 years that wasn't Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, Pokemon, Kingdom Hearts, Tales, the original Bravely Default, Persona 5, a Souls game or Fire Emblem was a bomb.
600k world wide are good numbers for the vast majority of JRPGs.
No one is suggesting that it was a super profitable game. What is correct is that it was a pretty solid performer in terms of sales for the genre, and trying to make it seem like anything else exposes an ignorance to how JRPGs generally perform worldwide. However Nintendo wanted to takes its ultimate sales performance is up to them, but the fact that we're getting a big new installment in the series out this year suggests that hey, maybe they're pretty content with how it ultimately performed.
well i don't think dark souls is a traditional jrpg. it's closer to being a much, much more difficult kh. it also didn't have the same opening month as persona 5 so it probably wasn't worth bringing up in the west. i always saw tales as a departure from tradition as well even though it's a lot older than kh.
pokemon is a lot closer to final fantasy and it comes from the mid 90s, and it's less than ten years younger than final fantasy. i'd say it's much more a traditional rpg than kh when it comes to encounters, battle systems, etc. than kingdom hearts. of course nothing's beating pokemon with its constant 15 million in sales until the fad wears off.
It's not like they only worked on XCX. They also helped with BOTW and I assume other games as well. Also, the marketing wasn't very much either; outside of here and Nintendo forums, it didn't get much coverage. It also missed black Friday, as it released in December.
It might not be a huge success, but with everything combined, I'm sure they made a profit.
Be sure to call out anyone who calls any game a bomb in the future who doesn't directly work for the company's financial department.
OrbitalBeard
Member
I'll be sure to do so, just for you.
If you're going to definitively state a game is a bomb, you kind of need to provide some substance to that claim.
Shocked at that Persona 5 result, as far as packaged games go now, that ought to mean Persona is Sega's biggest franchise now in the North American market. Was expecting a sizable increase to about 250,000 but over 400,000 is an amazing result, great accomplishment for P Studio and hopefully we'll hear news about it breaking the million seller club eventually.
#sorrynotsorry
Member
I'll just say that I agree with the poster that Pokemon isn't really a JRPG like other JRPGs and that's primarily because of its story (I don't agree with him about the gameplay being unchanging and such, definitely agree with you there that it doesn't matter).
Pokemon's story is clearly not the focus. At all. There's no exposition. No real character development. Your hero is mostly a blank slate. The story is essentially the same thing every time (more than just using tropes, it's kind of almost the exact same thing). And don't get me wrong, Pokemon doesn't need a gripping story -- I'm not even sure it would be better if it had one. But it's not really debatable that Pokemon's story only exists to give the world a vague amount of context.
So with that in mind, there's certainly an argument to be made that JRPGs necessarily need to have a strong focus on story and Pokemon does not have that so therefore it is not a JRPG.
And to be clear, that's not an indictment on its quality as a game. Pokemon is certainly a very good game.
MatPiscatella
Member
Anyone have any questions around this month's NPD release that aren't pedantical arguments around Pokemon?
wait, are people actually serious with the Pokemon isn't a JRPG nonsense?
I see Nier: Automata is still in the top 20 after last month's 12th ranking. Is that due to exquisite legs for a game of its kind or is the entry requirement for the top 20 that much lower? I know that Nier has great legs in Japan, so it might just have those in the US as well.
the effect on atlus usa is going to be pretty interesting. i think they're firmly out of the niche market now. they probably won't be going for stuff like a digital-only ps vita game like caligula for instance. it opens up the market for companies like pqube, aksys, and to a lesser extent xseed and ifi (who are smaller and have a home company).
yes, they are
The Artisan
Member
did mass effect really flop?
i mean isn't that basically final fantasy i and final fantasy iii? i think what defines traditional jrpg is more the gameplay than the story.
Hell, even Etrian Odyssey series doesn't even have a story to begin with
McMoneyman
Member
How is Kingdom Hearts 1.5+2.5 doing compared to other entries in the series?
Caio
Member
It sells for being both a Home Console and a Portable, and again a bit too ealry to speak.
How DARE you sully the good names of Fight and Heal!
But yeah, if a pre-requisite for a JRPG is to have an engaging story, then there are a lot of JRPGs out there that need to be reclassified.
hanspampel
Banned
that is a good point, tho
the Nintendo installbase for Handheld + Console is 80 million
as Switch will bring both together into one platform (this is 100% save to assume)
if Nintendo will sell 80m Switch, the installbase will be stagnant
100m Switch consoles will be a slight 25% growth
the benefits tho, will be on the financial side for Nintendo
1 big unified platform is better to monetize than 2
MatPiscatella
Member
First off, I see you working on that first line. Well done.
Second, bit of a qualitative question. Nier: Automata launched strong and continues to perform. I really don't know how to parse the "entry requirement for the top 20 being lower" question. Lower than what?
Generally, that question relates to publisher expectations, and I do not know what those are. So I can't really answer the question. The game continues to rank highly on the sales charts though.
I'll have to go look. I'll get back at you.
The days of separating the two seem to be coming to an end. We really now just have devices that play video games. In fact, I'm pushing for removing these classifications over the next year or so unless we get some crazy development.
Is someone seriously trying to downplay Xenoblade X's sales performance? While it may not have sold a huge amount of copies, it must be at least profitable considering we're getting a third Xenoblade game.
Didn't someone report that US sales climbed up to 250k in the January/February NPD thread? Wouldn't be surprised if it's over 300k by now.
Didn't someone report that US sales climbed up to 250k in the January/February NPD thread? Wouldn't be surprised if it's over 300k by now.
I meant compared to the March top 20 chart, where we had a large number of very big titles in the top 20 that might have pushed the revenue needed to enter the top 20 higher than it is for this April chart.
Anyway, the bolded was what I was wondering about. Seems like Nier: Automata combines great initial sales with good sales legs, which is very encouraging to see in a category that usually sells the vast majority of units in its first 2 weeks or so.
Welfare
Member
What does the trailing 12 months chart look like?
Liabe Brave
Member
Hardware as a whole is up YoY, is every current platform up YoY? (Speaking of units here; presumably due to lower ASP revenue is down ignoring Switch.) That is, are there signs that we might be on a plateau, perhaps indicating a slightly extended generation? Or are we on a clear downslope after the peak, with prospects of hardware refreshes within the next 2-3 years?
My range was always below FF/KH lol
Yeah no
Well yeah that's fine if it's your range. It was when you said 3rd biggest that I was like "wat?". You brought up the number yo.
Dark souls, pkmn, Bloodborne would make it 6th if we're talking rankings. 500K is great in any case
If SRPG count FE will be intersting to see as well next year on the back of the mobile game.
Bruce Springsteen
Member
BLOPS 2 numbers are amazing
gundamkyoukai
Member
I think he means that more from nintendo profit and install base growth stand point .
The Wii and DS days nintendo was making huge amount of cash on both .
That gen they sold 251 million plus units of hardware combine
The gen after that they sold near 80 million plus combine .
Now we have the Switch so if they not doing both home consoles and handhelds any more they losing profit and could be losing fans .
EDIT was checking software sales Wii and DS sold over 1.8 billion units in software WW which is crazy lol .
SinCityAssassin
Member
Did you ever get data back about who placed 4th on the charts, assuming PS4 got 3rd.