[Green Slime]

Vita would have been mid to low 7k this week without the GW "bump".

Yeah, this is absolutely dreadful. Sony needs to do something ASAP.

[Sir_Crocodile]

bring out a psv with a umd reader and I'll be there

[ActStriker]

Should just rename it Nintendo Week.

[Sammy Samusu]

What do you think are the factors for Kid Icarus legs? Good word of mouth? 40/40 in Famitsu? Street Pass exchange? The loot aspect? It's a brilliant game?

Sakurai. :P

[eznark]

Was this the week there was supposed to be a big Vita bump?

[guek]

Yeah, this is absolutely dreadful. Sony needs to do something ASAP.

Sony needed to "do something" a couple months ago :-/

[grimshawish]

What do you think are the factors for Kid Icarus legs? Good word of mouth? 40/40 in Famitsu? Street Pass exchange? The loot aspect? It's a brilliant game?

All of the above? Its just a really good fun and accessible game. Its Scott Pilgrim with wings! :D
I thought since week 1 it would have strong legs. Being an entirely new IP helps as does some strong marketing/branding.

The games long as well, so being portable people will see their friends playing + multi-player helps.

[SteeloDMZ]

Awesome to see Icarus performing well.

Godly game.

[BassForever]

Was this the week there was supposed to be a big Vita bump?

That's the week Persona 4 GA comes out

[StreetsAhead]

With Mario Tennis, the new Pokemon and the new 2D Mario this summer, 3DS sales will not go down any time soon. Nintendo won its bet in Japan, I expect 3DS to be as popular as the DS in this region.

Don't forget the Brain Training sequel.

If they are trying to turn it into an evergreen title (KI), then I am curious to see how long the servers will be kept up for. I am trying to think of a case when Nintendo has closed down servers but have come up fruitless... the oldest ones I could think of would be for SSBB or Pokemon Diamond/Pearl but they are still up I believe. I'm playing FE right now but as this is my first ever FE game, though I am loving all the eye-candy, I am finding it difficult to keep up with parts of the story/various menus. Not being fully fluent isn't helping me :/

Dunno about servers.
FE is pretty old-school Japanese in it's dialogue, so it'd be tough to follow if you're not fluent. Still, the game itself is fun.

I wanna see it break 300k

You go Karl!

[gconsole]

I am still really surprised at the amount ORC has sold over here in Japan. I haven't seen it being advertised hugely in the areas I frequent but still it has taken hold it seems. Maybe console-owning people are thirsty for a RE game to play that doesn't require further spending on a handheld? Though being in Japan, I find it hard to believe that they don't already own a 3DS+RE:R already...

I think it's more about PS3 owner need something to play. Anything half decent on the system could sell well. PS3 in japan is really lacking good software for such a long time.

Also, it's Biohazard. The brand is still strong (even if it's not the same as its PS era). And more of its fanbase is on console , not handheld. I find most of my friend who play RE don't own 3DS.

[Brazil]

What do you think are the factors for Kid Icarus legs? Good word of mouth? 40/40 in Famitsu? Street Pass exchange? The loot aspect? It's a brilliant game?

These.

[LOCK]

Great week overall. Wish FE didn't have stock problems. Really Nintendo, get your production lines in order. Or faster. IDK just do something.

[kiri]

I think it's more about PS3 owner need something to play. Anything half decent on the system could sell well. PS3 in japan is really lacking good software for such a long time. Also, it's Biohazard. The brand is still strong (even if it's not the same as its PS era). And more of its fanbase is on console , not handheld. I find most of my friend who play RE don't own 3DS.

I feel like I'm almost the opposite. As I don't own a PS3 or 360, the 3DS with RE:R was my best bet a playing a good ol' scary RE with only mild action elements. I've completed it a couple of times now and am extremely happy with it.

[mclem]

Great week overall. Wish FE didn't have stock problems. Really Nintendo, get your production lines in order. Or faster. IDK just do something.

Are second-hand copies appearing? I'd hope that Nintendo's tentative first steps into DLC are working somewhat to alleviate that danger.

[ShinUltramanJ]

Golden Week

Seems like it's more of a holiday to travel, and not one of gift giving. I don't see how it's a big deal of something doesn't get a sales bump during GW. Even the bumps we're seeing aren't so big that it makes me think GW had something to do with it.

[Road]

Sony needed to "do something" a couple months ago :-/

Sony needed to do something in 2010 when they were courting third parties to make software for Vita's first year.

[massoluk]

Seems like it's more of a holiday to travel, and not one of gift giving. I don't see how it's a big deal of something doesn't get a sales bump during GW. Even the bumps we're seeing aren't so big that it makes me think GW had something to do with it.

Dude, you don't think people buy something to play during long holiday?

[Diablos54]

Vita dropped during Golden Week!? Has this ever happened for a systems' first GW on the market before?

[Man God]

Seems like it's more of a holiday to travel, and not one of gift giving. I don't see how it's a big deal of something doesn't get a sales bump during GW. Even the bumps we're seeing aren't so big that it makes me think GW had something to do with it.

...Seriously?

[randomkid]

What do you think are the factors for Kid Icarus legs? Good word of mouth? 40/40 in Famitsu? Street Pass exchange? The loot aspect? It's a brilliant game?

I dunno, considering all those factors, plus the excessive budget and development time and advertising blitz, isn't this title kinda underperforming? Everything will sink like a rock next week too if the past is any indication.

[BassForever]

Seems like it's more of a holiday to travel, and not one of gift giving. I don't see how it's a big deal of something doesn't get a sales bump during GW. Even the bumps we're seeing aren't so big that it makes me think GW had something to do with it.

You realize Vita is a portable and people buy portables for vacations such as these, it was fair to assume Vita would do better this week because of it.

[tolkir]

Who will reach it first, 3DS to the 6.000.000 or Vita to the 700.000?

who will wins? We'll see next week

[Alrus]

Seems like it's more of a holiday to travel, and not one of gift giving. I don't see how it's a big deal of something doesn't get a sales bump during GW. Even the bumps we're seeing aren't so big that it makes me think GW had something to do with it.

Mario 3D Land and Kart both almost doubled their sales, how is that not big?

Who will reach first, 3DS to the 6.000.000 or Vita to the 700.000? who will wins? We'll see next week

They'll both reach these "milestones" on the same week.

[Lord_Byron28]

Seems like it's more of a holiday to travel, and not one of gift giving. I don't see how it's a big deal of something doesn't get a sales bump during GW. Even the bumps we're seeing aren't so big that it makes me think GW had something to do with it.

So the 3DS just rose 16K and the Wii rose 5K for no reason despite no new game releases? The Wii has been under 10K all year and it just so happens this week to rise above.

[ShinUltramanJ]

Dude, you don't think people buy something to play during long holiday?

Sure, but I'm not seeing anything unusual in the charts. At least nothing to indicate that GW was the reason for it. For instance Wii sales probably would be right there whether it was GW or not, because of Mario Party 9.

[Alrus]

Sure, but I'm not seeing anything unusual in the charts. At least nothing to indicate that GW was the reason for it. For instance Wii sales probably would be right there whether it was GW or not, because of Mario Party 9.

Mario Party 9 came out last week.

[Man God]

The Sony fanboy response to GW bump shouldn't be that it doesn't happen (of course it does) but that its a holiday to give kid's spending money so of course the kiddy lineup of Nintendo games did well, pointing out that they don't see RE: Revelations anywhere on that chart, sophisticated potential owners of the Vita don't need spending money from mommy and daddy to experience the real handheld revolution, etc, etc.

[twothunder]

01./02. [WII] Mario Party 9 (Nintendo) - 144,585 / 297,468 (-5%)
Nearly doubling it's first week. I knew it would get a big increase ,but still..

02./01. [PS3] Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City (Capcom) - 52,428 / 304,953 (-79%)
Big drop ,but still sold more than I expected.

03./03. [3DS] Fire Emblem: Awakening (Nintendo) - 42,347 / 345,260 (-30%)
Fe was hindered by supply problems ,but still sold a solid number. It might even break 400k.
Easily beating the sales of the last few FE games. The FE fan in me is pleased.

04./09. [3DS] Super Mario Land 3D (Nintendo) - 28,528 / 1,563,527 (+82%)
05./14. [3DS] Mario Kart 7 (Nintendo) - 22,881 / 1,695,305 (+96%)
06./15. [3DS] Kid Icarus: Uprising (Nintendo) - 18,788 / 261,883 (+63%)
07./11. [3DS] Monster Hunter 3 G (Capcom) - 16,496 / 1,433,370 (+21%)
08./21. [3DS] Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games (Nintendo) - 13,810 / 157,337
They just keep on selling and selling and...

10./20. [WII] Wii Sports Resort (w/ Wii Remote+) (Nintendo) - 10,058 / 935,555 (+61%)
15./23. [WII] Wii Party (Nintendo) - 8,503 / 2,345,476
17./29. [WII] Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo) - 6,783 / 3,561,199
20./32. [WII] Go Vacation (Namco Bandai) - 6,002 / 271,087
and these just keep coming back. I'm honestly surprised by Go Vacation 's numbers.

12./16. [3DS] Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance (Square Enix) - 9,532 / 308,484 (+3%)
At least it broke 300k

13./22. [NDS] Pokemon + Nobunaga no Yabou (Pokemon Co.) - 9,069 / 318,067
Pretty good for this pokemon spinoff.

19./27. [3DS] Harvest Moon: The Land of Origin (Marvelous) - 6,408 / 179,148
Nice to see it doing well. How is it doing compared to other recent HM titles?

| 3DS | 91,868 | 74,282 | 1,627,266 | 5,909,410 |
Nice boost for 3DS.

| WII | 15,789 | 9,200 | 206,117 | 12,369,338 |
Big bump for the WII.

| PSP | 20,033 | 22,457 | 360,213 | 19,089,575 |
| PSV | 10,583 | 12,299 | 250,773 | 690,758 |
PSP and Vita dropping during Golden week. Vita outsold by the dying WII.
I wonder if Sony will even bother to do much about it.
They only just announced two new Vita versions ,but I doubt that will do much.
http://andriasang.com/con0wu/ps_vita_crystal_white/

[Lord_Byron28]

Sure, but I'm not seeing anything unusual in the charts. At least nothing to indicate that GW was the reason for it. For instance Wii sales probably would be right there whether it was GW or not, because of Mario Party 9.

Mario Party 9 released last week and there was barely a hardware bump and it was under 10 K. Then this week it goes above 10K and sells more than it did the week MP9 released.

[Colonel Mustard]

Sure, but I'm not seeing anything unusual in the charts. At least nothing to indicate that GW was the reason for it. For instance Wii sales probably would be right there whether it was GW or not, because of Mario Party 9.

No. We would have seen it last week had it just been MP9.

Edit: Beaten.

[Zeer0id]

I dunno, considering all those factors, plus the excessive budget and development time and advertising blitz, isn't this title kinda underperforming? Everything will sink like a rock next week too if the past is any indication.

I don't think so. This game was never going to be wildly successful, despite its quality. If Nintendo hadn't marketed it so hard, it would probably be facing far weaker sales than it is. They obviously think it's a product worth putting out there because they believe strongly in it, and it may yet become an "evergreen" title.

[Ravensmash]

Yeah, this is absolutely dreadful. Sony needs to do something ASAP.

Not sure how long they're just going to sit back for; it needs a price cut, or something...

I'm sure it might pick up once games start coming - but is that lineup even particularly stacked this year (in terms of original IPs). All very well announcing fancy new features or social applications, but Sony have yet to sell me on it game wise.

[grimshawish]

I dunno, considering all those factors, plus the excessive budget and development time and advertising blitz, isn't this title kinda underperforming? Everything will sink like a rock next week too if the past is any indication.

Its a brand new franchise. 'Excessive Budget/Development Time'...ummm...???

Those are great figures and even when it 'drops' it'll still have legs and keep selling each week (as we've seen the last few weeks now).

What would you have considered as the benchmark to not be 'underperforming'?

[Bruno MB]

Upcoming huge DS/3DS titles:

Mario Tennis Open - May 24th (+500k)
Dragon Quest Monsters: Terry no Wonderland 3D - May 31th (+1m)

Pokémon Black and White 2 - June 23rd (+3.5m)

New Super Mario Bros. 2 - August (+5m)

[enishi]

Yeah, this is absolutely dreadful. Sony needs to do something ASAP.

I think Sony has put all their hope in June: new color (white), Persona 4 Golden, new Gundam Battle title...

If this cannot save the trend, they need to wait till August, even though Miku itself might only boost a hardware bump for 2 weeks...

[Aostia]

I think that the most positive result is the KID ICARUS software one; instead the worst one is the Via HW one.

[mclem]

Who will reach it first, 3DS to the 6.000.000 or Vita to the 700.000? who will wins? We'll see next week

Chances are they'll draw, but Vita's got a reasonable chance of winning. 3DS looks unlikely.

For 3DS to win, it'd have to sell as well as *this* week next week, and Vita would have to sell below 9k again.

For Vita to win, it'd have to sell above 9k next week, and the 3DS would have to drop.

Most likely is that neither of them achieve those targets, and next week they both draw closer, and the week after *that* both pass their respective targets.

[Anth0ny]

nintendo domination.

[Alrus]

I'm really curious to see how DQM performs.

[randomkid]

I don't think so. This game was never going to be wildly successful, despite its quality. If Nintendo hadn't marketed it so hard, it would probably be facing far weaker sales than it is. They obviously think it's a product worth putting out there because they believe strongly in it, and it may yet become an "evergreen" title.

Its a brand new franchise. 'Excessive Budget/Development Time'...ummm...??? Those are great figures and even when it 'drops' it'll still have legs and keep selling each week (as we've seen the last few weeks now). What would you have considered as the benchmark to not be 'underperforming'?

Yeah I agree it wasn't ever gonna be WILDLY successful, I just didn't really expect a Fire Emblem game to handily outsell it.

Am I off on the budget and development time? Felt like it was announced forever ago.

[Glass Joe]

bring out a psv with a umd reader and I'll be there

Yeah if Vita was backward compatible, it might have more luck. But as I understand it, the digital versions of PSP games have to be rebought if you only own the UMD. So its success really does rely on Vita software.

It's just weird to see the very popular DS drop off the map to make room for the 3DS, while PSP can't do the same for Vita. Maybe since PSP still does sell, Sony can't afford to phase it out? I'm assuming Nintendo pretty much stopped shipping DSes to Japan, right?

[Powerwing]

14./10. [3DS] Shin Sangoku Musou VS (Koei-Tecmo) - 8,614 / 24,192 (-45%) It lost less than half. Aaaaah, the magic of GW in action.

What is "GW" ?

Golden Week

Tanks, i thought it was a Shin Sangoku Musou character

[JasoNsider]

What do you think are the factors for Kid Icarus legs? Good word of mouth? 40/40 in Famitsu? Street Pass exchange? The loot aspect? It's a brilliant game?

Probably all of the above. Especially word of mouth. The game is seriously awesome and I keep telling people I know to grab it, so I imagine others are too.

[Busaiku]

Really weird that both PSP and Vita dropped.

[BassForever]

Yeah if Vita was backward compatible, it might have more luck. But as I understand it, the digital versions of PSP games have to be rebought if you only own the UMD. So its success really does rely on Vita software. It's just weird to see the very popular DS drop off the map to make room for the 3DS, while PSP can't do the same for Vita. Maybe since PSP still does sell, Sony can't afford to phase it out? I'm assuming Nintendo pretty much stopped shipping DSes to Japan, right?

The difference is that everything DSi/XL can do 3DS can do, all your old games are instantly playable and any titles you downloaded you could transfer to your 3DS. The only version of the DS that could do something different was the phat/light cause it plays GBA games but those systems are no longer in production so they didn't really count. Nintendo also pretty much cut off almost all DS support in favor of 3DS minus an odd game here or there (and the pokemon titles). That's why DSi/XL got out of the way for 3DS

Vita's problem is that there are still tons of PSP games in development. From day one every knew Vita wasn't backwards compatible with your UMDs and you'd have to pay to transfer your UMDs to Vita. That scared off a lot of potential buyers because unlike the 3DS where you instantly had access to every 3DS AND DS title, for Vita you only had access to PSP titles on PSN.

[Bruno MB]

I'm really curious to see how DQM performs.

It shouldn't have any trouble selling over a million units. After the poor performance of Dragon Quest: Slime Morimori 3 and Kingdom Hearts 3D – Dream Drop Distance Square Enix needs a hit. I want more Dragon Quest titles for my 3DS :)

Dragon Quest Monsters series:

1998-09-25 [NGB] Dragon Quest Monsters: Terry's Wonderland (Enix) - 2,350,000
2001-03-09 [NGB] Dragon Quest Monsters II: Ruka's/Iru's Journey (Enix) - 1,570,000
2003-03-29 [GBA] Dragon Quest Monsters: Caravan Heart (Square Enix) - 593,458
2006-12-28 [NDS] Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker (Square Enix) - 1,458,149
2010-04-28[NDS] Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 (Square Enix) - 1,283,423
2011-03-31 [NDS] Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 - Professional (Square Enix) - 532,656

[Sho_Nuff82]

The difference is that everything DSi/XL can do 3DS can do, all your old games are instantly playable and any titles you downloaded you could transfer to your 3DS. The only version of the DS that could do something different was the phat/light cause it plays GBA games but those systems are no longer in production so they didn't really count. Nintendo also pretty much cut off almost all DS support in favor of 3DS minus an odd game here or there (and the pokemon titles). That's why DSi/XL got out of the way for 3DS Vita's problem is that there are still tons of PSP games in development. From day one every knew Vita wasn't backwards compatible with your UMDs and you'd have to pay to transfer your UMDs to Vita. That scared off a lot of potential buyers because unlike the 3DS where you instantly had access to every 3DS AND DS title, for Vita you only had access to PSP titles on PSN.

The UMD transfer system is going to go down as one of the biggest blunders of the generation for Sony, especially in Japan.

[Exterminieren]

I think Sony has put all their hope in June: new color (white), Persona 4 Golden, new Gundam Battle title... If this cannot save the trend, they need to wait till August, even though Miku itself might only boost a hardware bump for 2 weeks...

If Sony were looking to revitalise the Vita, they probably shouldn't have chosen the month where the new Pokémon titles arrive to eat everyone's lunch.

Yeah I agree it wasn't ever gonna be WILDLY successful, I just didn't really expect a Fire Emblem game to handily outsell it. Am I off on the budget and development time? Felt like it was announced forever ago.

It should be noted that this Fire Emblem is selling extraordinarily well.

But yeah, considering this is a franchise which hasn't appeared in Japan for two and a half decades, the Kid Icarus start combined with the legs it seems to be developing has to be seen as a decent result.

[muu]

....Why japan WHY

Other than the name the game itself is supposedly a fairly traditional dungeon romp. Compare that to FE, where pretty much every male/female combination can be married off, then have their children come to fight, and then those children can get married as well. Not to mention the support conversations including adult members and Nono, which can border on the creepy side depending on how you look at em. Definitely can't judge a book by its cover.

Not saying FE's bad of course, quite the contrary.

Yeah I agree it wasn't ever gonna be WILDLY successful, I just didn't really expect a Fire Emblem game to handily outsell it. Am I off on the budget and development time? Felt like it was announced forever ago.

Budget would depend a lot on how many people worked on it and for how long, which could be quite a mystery. Sora didn't exist till 2009, so even if it began development right after the company was started dev time would be 3yrs and a couple months. A note on the Wikipedia article for Kid Icarus is stating some interviews in 2009/7 was before the start of development of KI:U, if this is to be believed that's 2yrs, 8mos. It _seemed_ like it was announced ages ago (and it was) but really, actual dev time isn't as long as you may think it to be. Considering it's a portable title you could surely shave off some graphics work cost vs a HD game, so even if it was expensive to make for a portable game it'd probably be cheaper than most PS3/360 offerings. All speculation, of course.

Does its moderate success mean it was a disappointment to Nintendo? Probably not. Nintendo's routinely made core titles that sold poorly for a variety of reasons (see: Xenoblade, which didn't even sell 100K at launch), but development isn't killed off, likely because they're needed to flesh out the lineup of a console. It's great that N spent the advertising money to get KI:U the attention it deserves, but other than their renewed focus on the 'core' audience their game-making habits haven't much changed.