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Media Create Sales: Week 3, 2012 (Jan 16 - Jan 22)

Boss Doggie

all my loli wolf companions are so moe
How is there any relation at all? In fact, tri-Ace new IPs with other non-S-E publishers being successful would actually more likely lead to a lower probability of VP3, since it means tri-Ace can work on new things with new partners instead of crawling back to S-E to beg them to greenlight a sequel for a relatively successful existing franchise.

I'm talking about the talent, particularly team VP2. Wouldn't they get disbanded or fired due to poor sales of their games?

Wouldn't a Konami bomba mean they're more likely to go back to S-E? At least I hope they will :(

That's... not a bad way of viewing things.
 

manueldelalas

Time Traveler
Expected low numbers, return of PAC-Charts.

Probably the wrong place to ask, but I haven't seen any impressions on GAF... how is the game? anyone played it?
 

duckroll

Member
The fact is that we have seen a huge amount of new IPs on DS and PSP selling very, very badly (to not say on Wii) so these numbers are not awful at all, also considering that 3DS doesn't still have one full year on the market. Moreover, we are not talking about high profile games or popular genre as you said: a dungeon crawler and a rhythm game. Ace Combat with those numbers bombed, but it's hard to say the same for tri-Ace jRPG, even though the opening is not so promising. Furthermore, we have easily seen new IP starting a franchise on handheld with low numbers as well, such as Luminous Arc.
Btw, let's see how far they'll go and which expectations those software houses have :)

I agree with all of that, but that still doesn't make it "great" though. I don't see the point of saying something is great for being similar to a whole bunch of other titles in the industry which have also more or less failed to sell well. That just means it's hard to be really successful. It's not great. Great for a new IP is 120-150k LTD at least.

But is Rhythm Thief really "low budget", with all those animation scenes?

Hopefully it'll have incredible legs like some other rhythm titles and break 100k eventually. It somehow reminds me of Space Channel.

Yes it's a low budget game. Layton is also a low budget game. Just because some low budget games can find great success on various levels, does not mean the actual budget is not low.
 

duckroll

Member
I'm talking about the talent, particularly team VP2. Wouldn't they get disbanded or fired due to poor sales of their games?

LOL. If companies disband teams and fire people after one low budget sales failure, no one in the Japanese game industry would have a job. Not even Nomura.
 
I have always thought Nintendo would try and launch Wii U in Japan ASAP and possibly sooner than the rest of the world. I just cannot fathom them allowing the Wii to go on like this for most of this year.

I agree with your last sentence but I think that Wii U is not ready to be launched (more likely because of few games already finished) and Nintendo has scheduled a price drop, and perhaps new colors, for Wii during this year or they exactly know the release date of DQ X (Golden week ?) !!!
 

manueldelalas

Time Traveler
Layton is also a low budget game. Just because some low budget games can find great success on various levels, does not mean the actual budget is not low.
Is it? The game design is very basic, but the presentation is incredible, there's a lot of high quality (well, I think it is very good) animation, full and very good voice acting and excellent music. I don't think Layton is a cheap game to make.
 

blu

Wants the largest console games publisher to avoid Nintendo's platforms.
Somebody correct me, please, but isn't Beyond the Labyrinth Konami's highest-debuting new IP on a nintendo platform for the past couple of gens? How did Lunar Knights debut?
 

Brazil

Living in the shadow of Amaz
Yes it's a low budget game. Layton is also a low budget game. Just because some low budget games can find great success on various levels, does not mean the actual budget is not low.

I was just wondering. I've always been under the impression that high quality animation sequences like those in Rhythm Thief are expensive to make.

Somebody correct me, please, but isn't Beyond the Labyrinth Konami's highest-debuting new IP on a nintendo platform for the past couple of gens? How did Lunar Knights debut?

It debuted at 15,053 (Famitsu).

And the first Magician's Quest debuted at 50,891 back in 2008, so no.
 

NeonZ

Member
Heroes Phantasia bombed...

Well, not really unexpected. They should just have made it a rip off of Super Robot Wars...
 

duckroll

Member
Is it? The game design is very basic, but the presentation is incredible, there's a lot of high quality (well, I think it is very good) animation, full and very good voice acting and excellent music. I don't think Layton is a cheap game to make.

I think the disconnect here is that you seem to associate quality of production values with production costs. That's not really true. You can spend 10 million dollars and make something which looks like a crappy game with terrible presentation and poor production values. But you still spent 10 million dollars on it. On the other hand, with smart planning and sourcing of the right partners, you can make a much cheaper game which looks significantly better than the 10 million dollar game.

So far you have listed: animation, voice acting, and music as reasons why you think it is a high budget game. How much do you think these things cost in Japan?

I was just wondering. I've always been under the impression that high quality animation sequences like those in Rhythm Thief are expensive to make.

The average cost of a 23 minute episode anime on television is less than 200k USD.
 
Is it? The game design is very basic, but the presentation is incredible, there's a lot of high quality (well, I think it is very good) animation, full and very good voice acting and excellent music. I don't think Layton is a cheap game to make.

It's a very well produced and highly polished game, but there's really nothing that stands out as expensive. There are maybe 15 minutes of cutscenes and beyond that a bit of voice acting during some conversations, but aside from that it's basically a visual novel with some puzzles inbetween.
 
For some reason, thinking of Rhythm Thief makes me think of SEGA's game, Feel the Magic/Project Rub/I Would Die For You.
I hope Rhythm Thief does well enough to get a sequel like that game did.
 

Mpl90

Two copies sold? That's not a bomb guys, stop trolling!!!
Oh yeah... I forgot about Wipeout... Wow, Vita software sales must be incredibly depressing to look at.

Wipeout wasn't ever expected to do good.

[PS1] Wipeout XL (SCE) - 19.918 / 34.788 / 57,26% 08/11/96
[PS1] Wipeout (SCE) - 14.506 / 14.506 / 100,00% 22/03/96
[PSP] Wipeout Pure (SCE) - 7.192 / 22.455 / 32,03% 07/04/05
 

manueldelalas

Time Traveler
I think the disconnect here is that you seem to associate quality of production values with production costs. That's not really true. You can spend 10 million dollars and make something which looks like a crappy game with terrible presentation and poor production values. But you still spent 10 million dollars on it. On the other hand, with smart planning and sourcing of the right partners, you can make a much cheaper game which looks significantly better than the 10 million dollar game.

So far you have listed: animation, voice acting, and music as reasons why you think it is a high budget game. How much do you think these things cost in Japan?



The average cost of a 23 minute episode anime on television is less than 200k USD.
Well, I didn't say the game were expensive, but when I think of low budget games, I think of crap games like Ninjabreadman, or stuff like that.

But yes, I never thought Layton were cheap games to make, but you are right.
 
I agree with all of that, but that still doesn't make it "great" though. I don't see the point of saying something is great for being similar to a whole bunch of other titles in the industry which have also more or less failed to sell well. That just means it's hard to be really successful. It's not great. Great for a new IP is 120-150k LTD at least.

Ok, I would take into account also how people will be satisfied from the game so to bring more copies for an hypothetical sequel as a factor of success to call it great, but I can deal with your opinion :)

So far you have listed: animation, voice acting, and music as reasons why you think it is a high budget game. How much do you think these things cost in Japan?

Moreover, it seems to me that the first Layton was a low-budget game and then they put more and more effort (and money) to produce the others, given the success received.
 

duckroll

Member
Well, I didn't say the game were expensive, but when I think of low budget games, I think of crap games like Ninjabreadman, or stuff like that.

But yes, I never thought Layton were cheap games to make, but you are right.

Well if you look at what I was saying to begin with, it should be clear that I was talking about the cost of producing the game. Low budget is not a quality judgement, it is simply a risk factor element. If a game is not expensive to make, you do not need it to sell a ton to make the money back.
 

matmanx1

Member
Is it interesting to anyone else besides me that PSV +PSP sales pretty much again equal what PSP was selling this time last year? Seems like that has happened several times in the last month or so since the Vita release.

And yes, it is indeed a rough week for software and hardware.
 
With two bombs of Frontier Gate and Beyond the Labyrinth, it should make tri-Ace realize that no one wants their handheld games. Go back to consoles, please!
 
For some reason, thinking of Rhythm Thief makes me think of SEGA's game, Feel the Magic/Project Rub/I Would Die For You.
I hope Rhythm Thief does well enough to get a sequel like that game did.

It's the same core team afaik. And actually it debuted higher than all their DS games.

From Garaph:

Feel the Magic: 27,062 (100,263 ltd)
The Rub Rabbits!: 10,837 (25,423 ltd)
Kokoro Scan: didn't rank
 

wrowa

Member
Beyond the Labyrinth did worse than I expected, which is something considering I thought that it would bomb to begin with. However, I can't say I'm surprised. I think the genre (Dungeon RPG) and the part of the audience they were after (lolis or whatever you call them) didn't go very well together.

Rhythm Thief did solid, I guess. It's going to be interesting to see whether or not it'll able to show good legs. I'd think that it's a given that it will double its initial sales at least. Might be able to break 100k If the word of mouth is great. I can see it hanging around for awhile.
 
Somebody correct me, please, but isn't Beyond the Labyrinth Konami's highest-debuting new IP on a nintendo platform for the past couple of gens? How did Lunar Knights debut?

Lunar Knights wasn't a new IP.

Higher Konami DS and debuts from glancing at Garaph:

Stock Trader Shun: 35,853 (2 weeks)
Time Hollow: 25,827
Magician's Quest: Mysterious Times: 50,981
Love Plus: 47,854


There's probably more, but I'm not familiar enough to tell what might be a new IP at a glance versus a licensed IP.
 

jj984jj

He's a pretty swell guy in my books anyway.
BtL bomba, poor Suguro. :(

If a dungeon crawler where you can change the color of a girl's panty isn't appealing in Japan though, where would it be?
 
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