• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Media Create Sales: Week 29, 2017 (Jul 17 - Jul 23)

Bruno MB

Member
I was curious and checked Capcom expectations for Monster Hunter Tri, they expected 2 million units for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2010.

This forecast was made when they had shipped 1 million units in Japan although they didn't know the sell-through data. This suggests that they were expecting well below 1 million units for the West market since they probably didn't foresee that the game would struggle to sell the initial shipment in Japan. Monster Hunter Tri would be eventually delayed and missed the Q4 date. It was finally released during the first quarter of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2011 and shipped 690.000 units. It must have met Capcom expectations but once again the game was overshipped and that initial figure was basically the lifetime sales shipment.

In the end worldwide lifetime shipments never reached the planned FY 2010 sales of 2 million units. Without a doubt a very disappointing performance.
 

KtSlime

Member
That's interesting. I knew DQ was like that, but not FF and RPGs in general. Is there any genre that's considered core in Japan?

FF always sold less than DQ, but it was always too large to be made up of only the core players. I'm assuming core means the people who always buy console is that right? I have never quite understood the meaning of that word, so I'm not sure how to answer that, it's probably unsettling just like the core of anime viewers.

Many of the very biggest franchises are RPGs, and this has remained true since the genre came out and across all platforms, mobile included. I'm sure you didn't forget, but I will state it anyway, Pokemon, Yokai Watch, Inazuma, etc are all RPGs, where the main mechanic is battle -> gain levels -> get skills -> battle.

The largest publisher (outside of Nintendo) is made up of 2 very large RPG companies, they did not become the largest by making niche games, just like Activision (in all honesty is really weird to me that Call of Duty is casual in the west).

That does raise the question of how do you bring a new, mainline FF to mobile, though.

Old entries can be cheap-ish ports with low sales/revenue ambitions to match the 'premium' market on mobile. And traditional, menu-driven JRPG at least also controls perfectly fine on mobile, although FF's insistence on action systems atm would make it less of a clean fit.

I'd imagine that a new entry would have to instead try and somehow convert the franchise to a mobile game, with things like characters, skills, weapons, levels tied to IAP and some way of turning the game into a continuing GaaS to keep the audience playing, which sounds more like a spin-off of the Final Fantasy brand than a mainline Final Fantasy, to me. Perhaps that thinking is just something SE would need to defy.

But it also probably doesn't help the series over-seas, which is a major component of FF's audience. Japanese mobile games are fairly idiosyncratic and have a hard time penetrating other markets.

...

Perhaps an alternate idea would be pushing FF on portable hardware first, and then releasing it on mobile afterwards with some IAP added, with less of an onus on high performance by the standards of the mobile market.

But then, portables are also not where the FF's western markets are.


Square Enix made a decision very long ago to pursue the west with Final Fantasy and has been in an arms race with western games for 'realness', this decision was made before the boom in smartphones. They are probably not going to ever make mobile their lead platform for the series, especially when they can still attract the casual FF fans with games like Record Keeper and Brave eXVIus...

DQ report: When I left my local Geo at around 7:10 there were about 75 people, most were males 25-50yo. Didn't hang around to see what versions they got. I got 3DS without needing to preorder - my 2DS bundle arrives from Amazon later today.

And with that, I'm off to play DQXI.
 

Orgen

Member
If that was going to be the case, I assume it would've already seen a formal announcement outside of the "we're making it!" video from years ago, especially considering the potential scope of the project.

Maybe they are making a stealth release on holidays with only 2-3 months of previous marketing ?_?

Also, are you counting MH Stories (EU & US) and Dead Rising 4 PS4 version on your sales estimates?
 

Yagami_Sama

Member
PREDICTION LEAGUE AUGUST 2017

Predict how much these titles will sell in the month (from Jul 31 to Aug 27):

[3DS] Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age [2nd month] (28 days) - 2.234.987
[PS4] Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age [2nd month] (28 days) - 1.327.873
[PS4] Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy (25 days) - 77.475
[3DS] The Snack World: TreJarers (18 days) - 28.345
[NSW] Monster Hunter XX: Double Cross Nintendo Switch Ver. (3 days) - 189.348

Edit.

Dang, I put the wrong numbers for Dragon Quest, I put total sales, instead sales of the month.

It was supposed to be like this :

[3DS] Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age [2nd month] (28 days) - 434.987
[PS4] Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age [2nd month] (28 days) - 277.873
 

saichi

Member
Last fiscal year:

RE7's goal: 4 million
RE7's actual sales: 3.5 million

This fiscal year:

RE7's goal: 2 million
RE7's progress in the first quarter: 200K

Good luck with that Capcom.

Ummm no. Don't matter, RE has legs and theres still RE: revelations, RER2 and other possible spin offs besides mainline entires. The ports of RE4/5/6 to PS4/XB1 are nearing 3 million.

Great legs! /s

Not really. RE5 will join soon, as will RE4 in its nth release.
RE0 is nearing 1.5 million and RE:R HD is nearing 2 million.

Truth is people love RE.

People love RE when it's cheap.

(Edit 9:57 PM UTC: The highest selling home console MH game is Monster Hunter Tri, which sold 1.9 million units. My estimate isn't close to 'double'. It's kind of similar.
Source: Capcom IR - Platinum Titles (see #33).)

You do know that 1.9 Mil is WW number and you are predicting 2 mil for Japan only, right?
 

Alrus

Member
This forecast was made when they had shipped 1 million units in Japan although they didn't know the sell-through data. This suggests that they were expecting well below 1 million units for the West market since they probably didn't foresee that the game would struggle to sell the initial shipment in Japan. Monster Hunter Tri would be eventually delayed and missed the Q4 date. It was finally released during the first quarter of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2011 and shipped 690.000 units. It must have met Capcom expectations but once again the game was overshipped and that initial figure was basically the lifetime sales shipment.

I think this is wrong? I recall the game going up by 100k in shipment at some point (well past the initial release in the west).
 

Azelover

Titanic was called the Ship of Dreams, and it was. It really was.
Wii simply didn't exist for some.

I respect that. But for me the Wii was really awesome. The most disruptive console in history.

It was pretty good until a group of people got together and decided to destroy heaven out of jealousy.
 

MoonFrog

Member
Square Enix made a decision very long ago to pursue the west with Final Fantasy and has been in an arms race with western games for 'realness', this decision was made before the boom in smartphones. They are probably not going to ever make mobile their lead platform for the series, especially when they can still attract the casual FF fans with games like Record Keeper and Brave eXVIus...

DQ report: When I left my local Geo at around 7:10 there were about 75 people, most were males 25-50yo. Didn't hang around to see what versions they got. I got 3DS without needing to preorder - my 2DS bundle arrives from Amazon later today.

And with that, I'm off to play DQXI.
I don't mean to imply they would, sorry.

I was just running with the idea because you are right that FFs choice of platform has not helped it be bigger in Japan. The problem is I don't think mobile would match their ambitions wrt western sales and wrt the kind of game they put out either. So I think their Japanese domestic audience is not something they should drop other things to shore up.

I think the latter of these ways it wouldn't match up is a bit tricky because there is room for "premium" sales of classic JRPG on mobile. And those games work well there. I played DQI-III that way, for example. So a new, traditional JRPG could work on mobile. But that market is viable with the games involved being "cheap" ports of already successful games.

As to the former: Things like Brave Exvius highlight the way mobile would tend to use the IP differently: gacha and an expanded cast who made their bones elsewhere. That's the obvious way to try and use the FF IP effectively on mobile in Japan and is antithetical to what Square tries to do with the main entries: introduce wholly new casts, worlds, stories with some shared monsters, spells, and themes. And this is because the monetization strategy is different.

I brought up handhelds because that's another way they could approach the Japanese market. There they'd have not so much a problem with the issues directly above, but they also wouldn't be targeted at the west so well as they are on home consoles.

Noticeably, handhelds are currently the natural home of new DQ, with a mobile port perhaps down the line, because they don't have that same target.
 
This comment was interesting :

ダウンロード版もあるし、予約である程度潤沢に在庫もあるから売り切れで買えないとかは無さそうだけどこうやって並ぶことでお祭り気分を高めて楽しみがますのかな
なんせ久々のドラクエだからね

With the download code, the stock is huge and preorders were available so definitely the game wont' be sold out, why spending the morning in line instead of enjoying the "holiday" ?
Ah well, long time passed since the last DQ :)
 
cfe02_128_743864.jpg



41298_128_743870.jpg





00f05_128_743877.jpg

counter for DQ11 only
 
743904.jpg

Shinjuku Yodobashi



743911.jpg

3DS vs PS4 : 1-0

743912.jpg

3DS vs PS4 : 1-1

743913.jpg

3DS vs. PS4 : 2-1

743914.jpg

3DS vs. PS4 : 3-1

743915.jpg

3DS vs. PS4 : 5-1 !!!

743916.jpg

3DS vs. PS4 : 7-1 :eek:


surely PS4 owners don't like to be shot :D
 
FF always sold less than DQ, but it was always too large to be made up of only the core players. I'm assuming core means the people who always buy console is that right? I have never quite understood the meaning of that word, so I'm not sure how to answer that, it's probably unsettling just like the core of anime viewers.

Many of the very biggest franchises are RPGs, and this has remained true since the genre came out and across all platforms, mobile included. I'm sure you didn't forget, but I will state it anyway, Pokemon, Yokai Watch, Inazuma, etc are all RPGs, where the main mechanic is battle -> gain levels -> get skills -> battle.

The largest publisher (outside of Nintendo) is made up of 2 very large RPG companies, they did not become the largest by making niche games, just like Activision (in all honesty is really weird to me that Call of Duty is casual in the west).


And with that, I'm off to play DQXI.

I guess by core I mean a genre that's relatively niche compared to others, and its audience is comprised mostly by avid gamers who are notably involved in the hobby. For example, here in the US, shooters such as Call of Duty and sports games are typically seen as casual. There are people out there who will only buy CoD or Madden every year and not really much else. I don't think that's typically true of people who play RPGs or adventure games here; rather, they spend more time and money on gaming.

Not sure if that makes sense, but it's how I think of it at least lol. I'm sure others have different definitions for it.

Enjoy the game though!

surely PS4 owners don't like to be shot :D

There are people who like to be shot?
:p

And thanks for the pictures. It's always cool to see stuff like this for game (or system) launches.
 

Fisico

Member
-
Multiplayer can make up for that since people who buy games for PS4 are used to that anyway, and you just need a good game to have a good wom which the game so far looks like it.

You're completely out of touch with japense gaming habit if you really think that.
Even a 2m prediction is half what the previous main entry did, multiplayer on console is not "making up" anything from leaving handhelds.

Too lazy to roam Bic/Sofmap this morning, maybe I'll go this afternoon.

Can confirm for the counters about Splatoon 2, maybe there were counters for Kimi no na Wa last Wednesday too :eek:

Privacy, pollution and stopping the spread of disease. That's an odd question.

It's not really odd, that's very specific to asian countries, you'd never see that in America or Europe.
 

D.Lo

Member
Relatively short lines at Shinjuku this morning, seems people are just grabbing it throughout the day. I have no idea what the line was last night it made no sense unless they did a midnight launch.

Damn the PS4 game is expensive!

It's not really odd, that's very specific to asian countries, you'd never see that in America or Europe.
It's an odd question in a Japanese sales thread, face masks have been normal for going on a decade in Japan. It shows low knowledge of Japan.
 
PREDICTION LEAGUE AUGUST 2017

Predict how much these titles will sell in the month (from Jul 31 to Aug 27):

[3DS] Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age [2nd month] (28 days) - 762k
[PS4] Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age [2nd month] (28 days) - 340k
[PS4] Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy (25 days) - 102k
[3DS] The Snack World: TreJarers (18 days) - 28k
[NSW] Monster Hunter XX: Double Cross Nintendo Switch Ver. (3 days) - 195k
 

Fisico

Member
It's an odd question in a Japanese sales thread, face masks have been normal for going on a decade in Japan. It shows low knowledge of Japan.

Well yes, but he did ask nicely and there's no prerequisite before entering this thread no?
I wish there was for posting sometimes

Population density isn't as bad outside of Asia.

Paris (only main town) : 21 067 ppl/km2

Tokyo : 6224ppl/km²

Paris + urban suburbs (similar density to Tokyo) : 3750ppl/km²

(Lots of other similar area in western Europe as illustrated in the pic above)

It's a cultural thing that spreads a few decades ago, density being one of the reason, read about it (amongst many other things) on a few sociological books the past few years but I don't think I want to open a topic like that (said books might not give the full picture also), still for many westerners that's an unknown concept and outside pictures or visiting asian countries you would probably never know about it.
 
Well yes, but he did ask nicely and there's no prerequisite before entering this thread no?
I wish there was for posting sometimes



Paris (only main town) : 21 067 ppl/km2

Tokyo : 6224ppl/km²

Paris + urban suburbs (similar density to Tokyo) : 3750ppl/km²


Tokyo + suburbs :
Tokyo : 9,2mln
Kawawaki : 1,4mln
Yokohama : 3,7mln
Saitama : 1,2mln
Chiba : 0,97mln
Western Tokyo : 4,2
TOTAL : 20,6mln

The "Tokyo area" is one of the most conglomerate city in the world, nothing similar in Europe actually, the biggest cities with suburbs are Moscow and then London
 

Fisico

Member
Tokyo + suburbs :
Tokyo : 9,2mln
Kawawaki : 1,4mln
Yokohama : 3,7mln
Saitama : 1,2mln
Chiba : 0,97mln
Western Tokyo : 4,2
TOTAL : 20,6mln

The "Tokyo area" is one of the most conglomerate city in the world, nothing similar in Europe actually

Well I know that (I followed my geography lessons a decade ago!), Greater Tokyo is the biggest metropolitan area worldwide 35M and the Taiheyo belt is one of the biggest megalopolis (85M) but I was talking about density, because sickness spreads faster if you have more people /km².

Tokyo is bigger (nothing is bigger after all) but the use of face mask spread through a huge part of eastern Asia whose density is comparable to a lot of european area, heck even to Tokyo even if it's on a smaller scale.
 

Chris1964

Sales-Age Genius
sinobi changed his mind (again) for DQ.

Despite a group of people waiting for Switch version, the excitement of last days could blow away the reservations that didn't grow up as much as he expected.
 
Top Bottom