[Indyana]

These aren't the sales you're looking for.

[Andrex]

It's a generally slow time of the year coupled with a shift of sales due to Golden Week (people who would have bought games this week bought them last week instead). Yeah, it's normal. 3DS's drop is pretty significant, though. It's going to be interesting to see on which level it will stabilize during May.

What's coming out for 3DS in May, anyone know? Anything significant?

[Mpl90]

What's coming out for 3DS in May, anyone know? Anything significant?

Mario Tennis next week
Dragon Quest the week after. This one with the bundle too.

[Alrus]

If Sony is planning a price drop for the Vita they need significant software to go with it at this point. Or at least a huge announcement. A price drop alone isn't going to cut it with the competition.

If it's a price drop alone, we'll see a spike in sales for a week or two then it will start dropping steeply again (pretty much what happened after the 3DS price cut).

[Fabrik]

The product itself is very solid.

Yeah it's like having a MP3 player with no music on it!

[Lord_Byron28]

What's coming out for 3DS in May, anyone know? Anything significant?

It's been stated 3 times in this thread but Mario Open Tennis on May 24th and DQM on May 31st.

[Andrex]

Sales threads move too fast. :P

Mario Tennis next week Dragon Quest the week after. This one with the bundle too.

Ah, that should pump things up a little. I don't know if Monster is a big deal though, I would assume not but it is Dragon Quest.

[DECK'ARD]

The product itself is very solid.

It's not a bad product, but it was always going to be a very difficult one to position in the market.

When Nintendo struggled the warning signs were there, and they had a whole host of things they could do to bolster it and give it a reason for existing. Vita is only appealing to very narrow audience, and of those only the ones who can afford it.

[RamzaIsCool]

Shitty numbers in Europe, shitty numbers in the US, shitty numbers in Japan. The whole industry is in the crapper right now. :(

One would asume that new consoles will bring new life. But we already have the 3DS and Vita and they did shit all till this point. I am worried.

[Green Slime]

The product itself is very solid.

That's irrelevant if it's a product that no one wants.

[Lord_Byron28]

Ah, that should pump things up a little. I don't know if Monster is a big deal though, I would assume not but it's Dragon Quest.

I think Sales GAF have been estimating between 700K and 1 million. However, who knows.

[InsaneZero]

Its not.

It's a product with a perceived value that isn't worth the actual cost, which translates into abysmal sales. Thus in the eyes of the consumer it's a "bad" product, or at least an undesirable one. I don't think a price cut is the proper way handling the situation, since that would just aggravate Sony's current woes without addressing the problem of perceived value.

[mclem]

I'm not sure how anyone expect Sony to "do something" when it comes to the Vita. You know they haven't left it to die, you know they are working on stuff and have some sort of plan for it. It's not like they can see these numbers and suddenly release FFVII remake as a reactive measure.

They can't do that, you're right. What they *can* do, however, is make announcements to try to bolster consumer confidence. You can see that with 3DS this week; yes, it's down a bit, but we already know that we'll be getting both DQM and Mario Tennis by the end of this month; consumers have reason to be confident in the system. Compare with the Vita, where we know that Persona 4 will be coming in June... and that's been the 'next big thing' since February.

All that said, as I indicated in another thread yesterday, E3's right around the corner and there's a further Playstation Heaven event coming up - they have a *platform* coming up which they can use to bolster confidence in the system. It's up to them to take advantage of that.

[hardcastlemccormick]

Sales threads move too fast. :P

Everybody wants to state the obvious on the first page. Then you get some quality on the second page, and by the third, meaningful discussion has already begun.

The cycle of SalesAge.

[Andrex]

I think Sales GAF have been estimating between 700K and 1 million. However, who knows.

What about first week? 300k-400k-ish then? More, less?

[Alrus]

Sales threads move too fast. :P Ah, that should pump things up a little. I don't know if Monster is a big deal though, I would assume not but it is Dragon Quest.

DQ Monsters spin-off are million sellers. Heck the enhanced rerelease of DQM:J2 on the DS did over 500k.

[marc^o^]

Shitty numbers in Europe, shitty numbers in the US, shitty numbers in Japan. The whole industry is in the crapper right now. :( One would asume that new consoles will bring new life. But we already have the 3DS and Vita and they did shit all till this point. I am worried.

It definitely is worrying. Looks like people have found new hobbies to spend their time on. I blame youtube, smartphones, facebook, instagram, etc.

[Jaruru]

much slower week as expected.

can we say vita is dead or just... merely surviving?
and we don't expect to see anything from sony until e3

[Dash Kappei]

Despite the shortages fuck up, next week Fire Emblem might clear 400k or just be short a couple of thousands off that. AAAmazing.

[Cygnus X-1]

Prefectly normal sales for week after Golden week. Last year: PSP 34.826 3DS 18.324 PS3 13.789 NDS 10.858 Wii 6.336 360 2.763 PS2 1.319

Handheld total of last year: 64.008

Handheld total of this year: 65.012

The market is quite stable at least. Nintendo really was unable to expand the gaming population again till now; instead, they grabbed a part of Sony' market.

[frankie_baby]

What about first week? 300k-400k-ish then? More, less?

should easily do 400k+ first week, maybe even 500k+

[electroplankton]

All people are focusing on how bad PSVita performed last week but...

PS3: 12,996

...I think this number is interesting as well; 13k units is pretty low for the leading home console.

[grimshawish]

The product itself is very solid.

It is a good piece of tech. Its a bad product.
It has too many additional features that are unnecessary and expensive (screen/touch pad/screen) adding to the price of the product.

If they want a powerful system fine - do that, but as a product Vita is trying to be 'everything' it has no clear direction.
Its shiny screen will not sell the products. Its back touch pad will not sell the product. Its front touch pad will not sell the system.

In no way is Vita a 'good product'. It doesn't find a space for itself in the market. That is what a good product needs to do.
Its added bits add cost which have to be made up in the price. Upping the cost of the product for the customer - for features they don't want.

Some might want them, but not anywhere near enough and certainly its not a selling aspect for the system.

[Krev]

It definitely is worrying. Looks like people have found new hobbies to spend their time on. I blame youtube, smartphones, facebook, instagram, etc.

People tell me I'm crazy when I say that the game console userbase will see little or no growth in the coming generation.

[Talamius]

Is there any realistic strategy that can save the Vita at this point?

* Drop the price significantly and Sony eats a huge loss per unit (which they can't afford).

* Software should have already been well in development to come out around this time.

* Nintendo has Dragon Quest and mainline Monster Hunter seemingly wrapped up so a sales altering announcement is going to be hard to come by. Even if Sony secured the rights to something like FF7Remake, you're still looking at a long lead time to get it done.

[Dash Kappei]

People are spinning the 3DS number as bad?
It has sold better than anything in post GW for 2011, 2010 and 2009. Something called Wii wasn't doing too shabby in Japan in 2008 you know...

[frostbyte]

Ouch at the Vita sales. Hope the next Gaming Heaven event will bring something to boost sales back up.

Glad to see Fire Emblem still selling decently. Hope it can leg it to 400k, maybe slow burn to 450k.

Really disheartening to see RE:ORC selling as well as it is. :-/

[EvilDick34]

I think instead of new colors Sony should come out with a revision of the hardware, get rid of the oled screen and rear touchpad so they can reduce the Vita price without having to sacrifice profits.

[DECK'ARD]

Shitty numbers in Europe, shitty numbers in the US, shitty numbers in Japan. The whole industry is in the crapper right now. :( One would asume that new consoles will bring new life. But we already have the 3DS and Vita and they did shit all till this point. I am worried.

It is worrying, it's almost like the industry has burnt itself out in a way. Not that another crash is coming, that was for very different reasons, but the blockbuster mentality has fostered an approach to gaming similar to the film industry. With the average person only excited about a handful of games each year, in the same way the average person only goes to the cinema a handful of times each year.

When you foster that attitude, investing in a console actually seems less attractive. With smartphone gaming and other things like Facebook which people use as time wasters.

Microsoft probably have the right idea with a subsidised console and a services-focussed sales pitch, you need to sell people on a platform as much as anything else now because the compelling games that get the mindshare and marketing are getting fewer and fewer. Sell the platform to people in such a way that you can hopefully open up a more diverse and interesting selection of games.

[EvilDick34]

People are spinning the 3DS number as bad? It has sold better than anything in post GW for 2011, 2010 and 2009. Something called Wii wasn't doing too shabby in Japan in 2008 you know...

I don't get it as well. 3DS is just fine. Now if it drops again next week in sales then i say worry.

[mclem]

The product itself is very solid.

The product is more than the hardware.

[Lord_Byron28]

Handheld total of last year: 64.008 Handheld total of this year: 65.012 The market is quite stable at least. Nintendo really was unable to expand the gaming population again till now; instead, they grabbed a part of Sony' market.

I don't think we can take a snapshot of one week and assess a situation based on that.


However, Nintendo really hasn't released much in the way of anything but PSP type software. Sure there's Mario Kart and 3D Land but nothing else too significant yet. We will start getting more DS like software starting with DQM and it seems like it will go on till NSMB2/Animal Crossing this year.

[1-D_FTW]

These aren't the sales you're looking for.

Should just make that be the OP for NPD threads and call it a day.

[jonno394]

Hmmm, I hope the future western support is enough to satisfy my Vita seeing as Japan will probably have zero confidence in the device shortly.

[frankie_baby]

I think instead of new colors Sony should come out with a revision of the hardware, get rid of the oled screen and rear touchpad so they can reduce the Vita price without having to sacrifice profits.

they cant remove the rear touch pad without breaking compatability for games that use it, though i wouldnt be surprised if a revision has a smaller cheaper screen

[bluehat9]

Feels like vita came out a year too early or something. I doubt it could've led to a lower price at launch, but they would have been able to see Nintendo's failure at the high price and tried to come up with at least some kind of plan and maybe had more games set up to be released consistently with a worldwide release this fall. Of course they'd be going up against another new system with wiiu and 3DS would have an even bigger foothold in portables so that's no good either. Just seems like they got the timing totally wrong with it and can't do anything now except ride it out, I don't know.

[gogogow]

I think instead of new colors Sony should come out with a revision of the hardware, get rid of the oled screen and rear touchpad so they can reduce the Vita price without having to sacrifice profits.

That's probably the most terrible decision Sony can make. Replacing the OLED with LCD tech will only give you even crappier battery life. Removing the rear touchpad will make games incompatible. Sony will reduce the manufacturing costs by having smaller chips inside the Vita. Going from 45nm to 32/28/22nm.

[schuelma]

Feels like vita came out a year too early or something. .

It came out a year too late.

[electroplankton]

I don't think we can take a snapshot of one week and assess a situation based on that. However, Nintendo really hasn't released much in the way of anything but PSP type software. Sure there's Mario Kart and 3D Land but nothing else too significant yet. We will start getting more DS like software starting with DQM and it seems like it will go on till NSMB2/Animal Crossing this year.

Btw, I would have put Mario Tennis Open just before Golden Week, and Fire Emblem: Awakening in May.

[Dash Kappei]

I don't get it as well. 3DS is just fine. Now if it drops again next week in sales then i say worry.

Even then, you shouldn't. A 35k week before Mario Tennis and DQM release wouldn't be bad and after that sales will explode again with Nsmb2/Animal Crossing which will sustain the platform until the next wave of mid/heavy hitters come.

[The_eJoker]

Wow, big drop to everyone.

[Vinnk]

Oh and in case anyone was wondering, it is not because Vita units are supply constrained. ;)

[Busaiku]

I get the feeling we are going to see this block for a long time.

I think Kid Icarus Uprising will be gone for good maybe in a month or two.
Mario & Sonic At The London 2012 Olympic Games will probably drop out for a bit too, but come back in closer to the games.

[DECK'ARD]

Hmmm, I hope the future western support is enough to satisfy my Vita seeing as Japan will probably have zero confidence in the device shortly.

And that's the most worrying thing for Vita, because handheld support has always come mainly from Japan.

E3 is pretty critical, as that will be the games for the end of the year. If they botch its first Christmas in the West then with the cost and time of development for Vita titles, combined with the shift of resources to next-gen, then Vita will be in a very difficult position to come back from indeed.

[electroplankton]

Oh and in case anyone was wondering, it is not because Vita units are supply constrained. ;)

I was wondering... Thanks Vinnk!

Is Fire Emblem: Awaking supply constrained, instead?

[nickcv]

Feels like vita came out a year too early or something. I doubt it could've led to a lower price at launch, but they would have been able to see Nintendo's failure at the high price and tried to come up with at least some kind of plan and maybe had more games set up to be released consistently with a worldwide release this fall. Of course they'd be going up against another new system with wiiu and 3DS would have an even bigger foothold in portables so that's no good either. Just seems like they got the timing totally wrong with it and can't do anything now except ride it out, I don't know.

release Vita in 2013 would have been atrocious... if the Wii U actually delivers and you'll be able to play your games from a good distance (let's say from your bedroom) come people could opt out from the vita and could choose the wii u as their i-wanna-play-but-my-wife-is-using-the-tv fix

[saichi]

PSV is hitting it's stride and has outsold the Wii this week! :-O

It also has momentum and digital sales.

[Principate]

It also has momentum and digital sales.

It's developing it's software ecosystem with an extra 6k.

[EvilDick34]

they cant remove the rear touch pad without breaking compatability for games that use it, though i wouldnt be surprised if a revision has a smaller cheaper screen

Rear touch panel is useless and just adds cost to the product though.

[Mpl90]

Oh and in case anyone was wondering, it is not because Vita units are supply constrained. ;)

We need your report's return starting next week. Please :(