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Laughing Banana · Feb 12, 2016

The WiiU had shortages...?

What were Nintendo doing? Making sure that their console sold worse than it usually is? Geez.

Splatoon keeps trucking though. Nice.

Åkami · Feb 12, 2016

The Quantum Break Xbox One bundle will be released on Japan on March 31st, same deal as in the US, buy it and you get Alan Wake for free, 43k yen with taxes.

With The Division bundle, that's two Xbox One bundles for March, and you guys said they were leaving the region.

Also, no update from Dengeki?

Pennywise83 · Feb 12, 2016

Are these good numbers for VC? The series wasn't huge to begin with but the original sold close to 200k considering the budget release IIRC, and following entries sold in the 150k ballpark. 1/10 of the original sales for a remastered bundled with a demo of a new entry in the same franchise doesn't seem much.

ULTROS! · Feb 12, 2016

Pennywise83 said:
Are these good numbers for VC? The series wasn't huge to begin with but the original sold close to 200k considering the budget release IIRC, and following entries sold in the 150k ballpark. 1/10 of the original sales for a remastered bundled with a demo of a new entry in the same franchise doesn't seem much.

It's a remaster of a last gen game so sales will obviously not be that high. So a ballpark at 50k or less is expected.

Vena · Feb 12, 2016

ULTROS! said:
It's a remaster of a last gen game so sales will obviously not be that high. So a ballpark at 50k or less is expected.

I'd probably cut that ballpark in half and then maybe have some tractors move another 5k or so out of town.

Pennywise83 · Feb 12, 2016

ULTROS! said:
It's a remaster of a last gen game so sales will obviously not be that high. So a ballpark at 50k or less is expected.

When discussing about the Gravity Rush remaster, I showed that 200k-ish PS2 games receiving a PS3 HD version actually sold quite well; e.g., ICO, Okami, ZOE. Perhaps there's not much interest for the IP anymore, and Valkyrie Azure Revolution will test this.

Man God · Feb 12, 2016

Pennywise83 said:
When discussing about the Gravity Rush remaster, I showed that 200k-ish PS2 games receiving a PS3 HD version actually sold quite well; e.g., ICO, Okami, ZOE. Perhaps there's not much interest for the IP anymore, and Valkyrie Azure Revolution will test this.

It's definitely a property that has more buzz in the west right now.

Pennywise83 · Feb 12, 2016

Man God said:
It's definitely a property that has more buzz in the west right now.

This is also true. Let's see how it will perform over here, and what Sega plans are for the new entry.

ULTROS! · Feb 12, 2016

Pennywise83 said:
When discussing about the Gravity Rush remaster, I showed that 200k-ish PS2 games receiving a PS3 HD version actually sold quite well; e.g., ICO, Okami, ZOE. Perhaps there's not much interest for the IP anymore, and Valkyrie Azure Revolution will test this.

Personally, I prefer the PS2->PS3/PS4 ports rather than the PS3->PS4 ports because PS2->PS3/PS4 ports add a number of stuff such as a nicer crisp, widescreen look with trophies and a decent overhaul on textures, and it's much more accessible than their PS2 (or below) versions compared to a 60 FPS version of a game that has the existing stuff (widescreen support, trophies) found in the previous versions, not to mention you can buy a number of these games on PSN already. Some people might share the same sentiment with me I guess.

I'd think a FFXII HD PS4 version will do much much much better than a FFXIII Definitive Edition containing the entire trilogy for PS4.

Chris1964 · Feb 12, 2016

If there is anticipation for 2DS we should see continued declined sales for hw from now on. There is still no information for what Nintendo intends to ship and it will be the first 3DS virtual console release since Dec 14.

Pennywise83 · Feb 12, 2016

ULTROS! said:
Personally, I prefer the PS2->PS3/PS4 ports rather than the PS3->PS4 ports because PS2->PS3/PS4 ports add a number of stuff such as a nicer crisp, widescreen look with trophies and a decent overhaul on textures, and it's much more accessible than their PS2 (or below) versions compared to a 60 FPS version of a game that has the existing stuff (widescreen support, trophies) found in the previous versions, not to mention you can buy a number of these games on PSN already. Some people might share the same sentiment with me I guess.

I'd think a FFXII HD PS4 version will do much much much better than a FFXIII Definitive Edition containing the entire trilogy for PS4.

Maybe - but that's because FFXIII left a bad taste in gamers' mouth (see terribly declining sales across entries). Not that FFXII was much beloved at the time - the International Zodiac Job Systems sold quite badly.

Chris1964 · Feb 12, 2016

madstarr12 said:
Regarding the Wii U hardware shortages, is there any report on whether people are actively asking about the stock conditions and are actually interested in making a purchase?

I don't know what we are exactly discussing with Wii U shortage. The system dropped more than 50% W-O-W without apparent reason. There isn't some kind of amazing demand that prevented another 20k sales but last week's sales aren't the norm.

L~A · Feb 12, 2016

hiska-kun said:
Media Create Sell-through

01./00. [PS4] Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 <FTG> (Bandai Namco Games) {2016.02.04} (¥7.600) - 64.446 / NEW <74,86%> [Units shipped => 86.089]

First Two Days Sell-Through {2016.02.10}

[3DS] Shin Megami Tensei IV: Final <RPG> (Atlus) (¥6.480) - 60%

[PS4] Valkyria Chronicles Remastered <SLG> (Sega) (¥4.990) - 60%

Good debut for SMTIVF.... I guess we can expect ~80% sellthrough for first week? It came out on Wednesday, too.

crinale · Feb 12, 2016

According to the blog no price cut, re-modeling or discontinuation of WiiU is coming. It's simply Nintendo mismanaged the supply & demand extremely badly that they've run out of stock they were going to sell this Feb-Mar last year.

He is calling out Nintendo management "really really really stupid" for this.

Chris1964 · Feb 12, 2016

In 2014 with the Wii U December release schedule Nintendo expected similar holiday sales with 2013 and failed badly, in 2015 with zero software releasing somehow they managed to exceed holidays 2013. You can't really say it's only their fault they ran out of stock.

Monster Hunter X far exceeding expectations helped 3DS too for a holiday season that in theory looked very bad for Nintendo in the beginning of December.

ohyouagain · Feb 12, 2016

Chris1964 said:
In 2014 with the Wii U December release schedule Nintendo expected similar holiday sales with 2013 and failed badly, in 2015 with zero software releasing somehow they managed to exceed holidays 2013. You can't really say it's only their fault they ran out of stock.

Monster Hunter X far exceeding expectations helped 3DS too for a holiday season that in theory looked very bad for Nintendo in the beginning of December.

Regarding the WiiU situation, I am reather skeptical with the shortages. Can such a thing actually happen to a product that is not a hot commodity ? Especially when issued by a Nikkei incorporated company ? Say what you want but I smell bullshit.

Orniletter · Feb 12, 2016

ohyouagain said:
Regarding the WiiU situation, I am reather skeptical with the shortages. Can such a thing actually happen to a product that is not a hot commodity ? Especially when issued by a Nikkei incorporated company ? Say what you want but I smell bullshit.

Of course those things can happen.

The Vita of all devices had shortages in the US at one point too (long after launch).

Retailers don't want to stock a lot of a low selling console-> manufacturer produces low volumes/keeps low volumes of stock in warehouses-> better than anticipated (how paltry the total may be) sales/ poor planning fuck things up.

L~A · Feb 12, 2016

^

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm sure the PSV shortages were caused by a new model coming soon? So not quite the same thing (though I agree with the "retailers don't want to stock the thing" part).

crinale said:
According to the blog no price cut, re-modeling or discontinuation of WiiU is coming. It's simply Nintendo mismanaged the supply & demand extremely badly that they've run out of stock they were going to sell this Feb-Mar last year.

He is calling out Nintendo management "really really really stupid" for this.

That's what I guessed in the previous thread. Glad to have a confirmation.

Here's what most likely happened:

- Wii U has been selling like crap for a while now (since launch, actually), so naturally Nintendo slowed down production
- during the holidays, Nintendo expected the Wii U to sell a certain amount, so they manufactured a certain amount of units for holidays and early 2016.
- thanks to Splatoon and Super Mario Maker, sales were significantly better than expected
- Nintendo was caught unprepared, as seen by the Splatoon bundle selling out even before the end of the holidays
- Nintendo used stock they had for early 2016 during holiday 2015, since holiday period is significantly more important than January/February sales
- since they had already slowed down production, they ended up without enough units to ship > shortages (since you can't really just press a button and get thousands of consoles in a few seconds)

Add to that Nintendo not wanting to manufacture too many units because they don't want to end up with too many unsold units.

I agree it's definitely a bit silly to have Wii U shortages given the system barely sells 10k units outside holidays, but that's how it is.

HGH · Feb 12, 2016

crinale said:
According to the blog no price cut, re-modeling or discontinuation of WiiU is coming. It's simply Nintendo mismanaged the supply & demand extremely badly that they've run out of stock they were going to sell this Feb-Mar last year.

He is calling out Nintendo management "really really really stupid" for this.

Region locking is pretty swell. Good job ninty.

1st Course · Feb 12, 2016

Dengeki Sales: Week 6, 2016 (Feb 01 - Feb 07)

01./00. [PS4] Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 (Namco Bandai Entertainment) {2016.02.04} - 62.200 / NEW <70%>
02./01. [PSV] Dragon Quest Builders: Alefgard o Fukkatsu Niseyo (Square Enix) {2016.01.28} - 46.622 / 226.416 (-74%)
03./02. [PS4] Dragon Quest Builders: Alefgard o Fukkatsu Niseyo (Square Enix) {2016.01.28} - 30.682 / 166.354 (-77%)
04./03. [WIU] Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash (Nintendo) {2016.01.28} - 19.900 / 77.830 (-66%)
05./04. [PS3] Dragon Quest Builders: Alefgard o Fukkatsu Niseyo (Square Enix) {2016.01.28} - 16.138 / 68.701 (-69%)
06./09. [3DS] Monster Hunter X (Capcom) {2015.11.28} - 10.973 / 2.758.000 (-37%)
07./06. [PS4] Yakuza: Kiwami (Sega) {2016.01.21} - 9.811 / 136.536 (-60%)
08./12. [WIU] Splatoon (Nintendo) {2015.05.28} - 9.789 / 1.221.586 (-22%)
09./15. [PSV] Minecraft: PlayStation Vita edition (Sony Computer Entertainment) {2015.03.19} - 8.789 / 651.572 (-14%)
10./08. [3DS] Hyrule Warriors Hyrule All Stars (Koei Tecmo Games) {2016.01.21} - 7.828 / 82.455 (-59%)
11./14. [3DS] Monster Strike (Mixi) {2015.12.17} - 7.772 / 862.111 (-25%)
12./10. [PS3] Yakuza: Kiwami (Sega) {2016.01.21} - 7.190 / 87.365 (-57%)
13./17. [WIU] Super Mario Maker (Nintendo) {2015.09.10} - 6.061 / 810.827 (-28%)
14./16. [PS4] Just Cause 3 (Square Enix) {2016.01.21} - 4.744 / 46.797 (-51%)
15./21. [3DS] Yo-Kai Watch Busters: White Dog Squad (Level 5) {2015.07.11} - 4.394 / 1.297.732 (-21%)
16./05. [PSV] Uta no Prince-Sama: Music 3 (broccoli) {2016.01.28} - 4.170 / 43.965 (-90%)
17./07. [PS4] Romance of the Three Kingdoms 13 (Koei Tecmo Games) {2016.01.28} - 4.128 / 23.087 (-78%)
18./22. [3DS] Yo-Kai Watch Busters: Red Cat Team (Level 5) {2015.07.11} - 4.122 / 910.992 (-19%)
19./00. [PSV] Sangoku Koi Senki: Omoide Gaeshi (Prototype) {2016.02.04} - 3.686 / NEW
20./11. [PS3] Romance of the Three Kingdoms 13 (Koei Tecmo Games) {2016.01.28} - 3.517 / 17.433 (-75%)
21./27. [3DS] Rhythm Heaven: The Best+ (Nintendo) {2015.06.11} - 3.200 / 682.210 (-17%)
22./29. [3DS] Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer (Nintendo) {2015.07.30} - 3.089 / 1.389.165 (-17%)
23./24. [PSV] Mobile Suit Gundam Extreme Vs-Force (Namco Bandai Entertainment) {2015.12.23} - 2.994 / 129.507 (-32%)
24./28. [3DS] Disney Magic World 2: My Happy Life (Namco Bandai Entertainment) {2015.11.05} - 2.950 / 287.565 (-22%)
25./19. [PS4] Resident Evil: Origins Collection <Resident Evil 0 HD Remaster \ Resident Evil HD Remaster> (Capcom) {2016.01.21} - 2.883 / 29.604 (-58%)
26./33. [PS4] Call of Duty: Black Ops III (Sony Computer Entertainment) {2015.11.06} - 2.739 / 284.799 (-15%)
27./31. [PS4] Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Siege (Ubisoft) {2015.12.10} - 2.733 / 69.653 (-24%)
28./35. [PS4] Grand Theft Auto V [New Price Edition] (Rockstar Games) {2015.10.08} - 2.628 / 60.957 (-10%)
29./20. [PS3] Resident Evil 0 HD Remaster (Capcom) {2016.01.21} - 2.622 / 24.402 (-54%)
30./23. [PSV] Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir (Atlus) {2016.01.14} - 2.500 / 60.585 (-50%)
31./25. [PS4] Fallout 4 (Bethesda Softworks) {2015.12.17} - 2.489 / 205.052 (-43%)
32./34. [PS4] Minecraft: PlayStation 4 Edition (Sony Computer Entertainment) {2015.12.03} - 2.478 / 47.867 (-22%)
33./37. [WIU] Super Smash Bros. for Wii U (Nintendo) {2014.12.06} - 1.861 / 742.316 (-20%)
34./13. [PSV] Gakusen Toshi Asterisk Festa: Houka Kenran (Namco Bandai Entertainment) {2016.01.28} - 1.840 / 13.407 (-84%)
35./42. [3DS] Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS (Nintendo) {2014.09.13} - 1.800 / 2.346.470 (-7%)
36./36. [WIU] Mario Kart 8 (Nintendo) {2014.05.29} - 1.776 / 1.162.127 (-28%)
37./41. [3DS] Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King (Square Enix) {2015.08.27} - 1.689 / 879.593 (-16%)
38./38. [3DS] Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam (Nintendo) {2015.12.03} - 1.683 / 238.692 (-24%)
39./43. [3DS] Animal Crossing: New Leaf (Nintendo) {2012.11.08} - 1.617 / 3.992.302 (-13%)
40./48. [PS4] Winning Eleven 2016 (Konami) {2015.10.01} - 1.583 / 106.643 (+3%)
41./30. [PS4] Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir (Atlus) {2016.01.14} - 1.561 / 56.074 (-57%)
42./50. [3DS] New Super Mario Bros. 2 (Nintendo) {2012.07.28} - 1.472 / 2.315.124 (+4%)
43./46. [3DS] Mario Kart 7 (Nintendo) {2011.12.01} - 1.422 / 2.498.152 (-16%)
44./59. [PS4] Bloodborne: Complete Edition <Bloodborne \ Bloodborne: The Old Hunters> (Sony Computer Entertainment) {2015.12.03} - 1.322 / 34.968
45./47. [PS3] Winning Eleven 2016 (Konami) {2015.10.01} - 1.294 / 139.527 (-17%)
46./62. [3DS] Sumikko Gurashi: Koko ga Ochitsukundesu (Nippon Columbia Co., Ltd.) {2015.11.19} - 1.278 / 93.662
47./54. [WIU] Wii Fit U (Nintendo) {2014.02.01} - 1.161 / 200.826
48./44. [3DS] Card Fight!! Vanguard G: Stride to Victory!! (FuRyus) {2016.01.14} - 1.100 / 26.078 (-38%)
49./60. [3DS] Pokemon Alpha Sapphire (Pokémon) {2014.11.21} - 1.067 / 1.558.125
50./18. [PS3] TV Anime Idolmaster Cinderella Girls G4U! Pack VOL.8 (Namco Bandai Entertainment) {2016.01.28} - 1.050 / 8.917 (-87%)

TOP50

3DS 17
PS4 14
Vita 7
PS3 6
Wii U 6

SOFTWARE

Code:

+-------+-----------+----------+------------+---------+
| Model | This Week | Week (%) |  FY 2015   | FY (%)  |
+-------+-----------+----------+------------+---------+
| PS4   | 148.872   | 34.20%   | 4.238.202  | 13.90%  |
| 3DS   | 95.050    | 21.90%   | 15.786.376 | 51.90%  |
| Vita  | 92.512    | 21.30%   | 4.356.789  | 14.30%  |
| Wii U | 51.147    | 11.80%   | 3.454.879  | 11.40%  |
| PS3   | 44.944    | 10.30%   | 2.354.781  | 7.70%   |
| PSP   | 1.487     | 0.30%    | 130.849    | 0.40%   |
| XB1   | 693       | 0.20%    | 68.499     | 0.20%   |
+-------+-----------+----------+------------+---------+
| Total | 434.705   | 100.00%  | 30.390.375 | 100.00% |
+-------+-----------+----------+------------+---------+

HARDWARE

Code:

+-------+-----------+----------+-----------+---------+
| Model | This Week | Week (%) |  FY 2014  | FY (%)  |
+-------+-----------+----------+-----------+---------+
| PS4   | 29.478    | 36.60%   | 1.117.655 | 23.30%  |
| 3DS   | 24.883    | 30.90%   | 1.887.197 | 39.30%  |
| Vita  | 20.977    | 26.10%   | 846.709   | 17.60%  |
| Wii U | 3.613     | 4.50%    | 827.320   | 17.20%  |
| PS3   | 1.458     | 1.80%    | 108.916   | 2.30%   |
| XB1   | 91        | 0.10%    | 12.470    | 0.30%   |
+-------+-----------+----------+-----------+---------+
| Total | 80.500    | 100.00%  | 4.800.267 | 100.00% |
+-------+-----------+----------+-----------+---------+

*FY 2015 refers to the period from March 30, 2015 through March 31, 2016

Dengeki Sales: Week 5, 2016 (Jan 25 - Jan 31)

Dengeki Sales Archive
2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014

DriftingSpirit · Feb 12, 2016

HGH said:
Region locking is pretty swell. Good job ninty.

Yep, that doesn't help at all either.

Fdkn · Feb 12, 2016

DriftingSpirit said:
Yep, that doesn't help at all either.

they got what they deserve in that regard.

Coulomb_Barrier · Feb 12, 2016

PS4 taking over Japan.

redblack85 · Feb 12, 2016

14 titles PS4,wow

Chris1964 · Feb 12, 2016

01./00. [PS4] Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 <FTG> (Bandai Namco Games) {2016.02.04} (¥7.600) - 64.446 / NEW <74,86%>
___

21./27. [PS4] Call of Duty: Black Ops III # <ACT> (Sony Computer Entertainment) {2015.11.06} (¥7.900)
22./26. [3DS] Rhythm Heaven: The Best+ <ACT> (Nintendo) {2015.06.11} (¥4.700)
23./25. [PS4] Fallout 4 # <RPG> (Bethesda Softworks) {2015.12.17} (¥7.980)
24./20. [PSV] Mobile Suit Gundam Extreme Vs-Force # <ACT> (Bandai Namco Games) {2015.12.23} (¥6.800)
25./30. [PS4] Grand Theft Auto V [1/1][New Price Edition] <ACT> (Take-Two Interactive Japan) {2015.10.08} (¥4.990)
26./34. [3DS] Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer # <ETC> (Nintendo) {2015.07.30} (¥4.000)
27./29. [PS4] Minecraft: PlayStation 4 Edition <ADV> (Sony Computer Entertainment) {2015.12.03} (¥2.400)
28./21. [PS4] Resident Evil: Origins Collection <Resident Evil 0 HD Remaster \ Resident Evil HD Remaster> <ADV> (Capcom) {2016.01.21} (¥5.990)
29./23. [PSV] Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir <ACT> (Atlus) {2016.01.14} (¥7.980)
30./22. [PS3] Resident Evil 0 HD Remaster <ADV> (Capcom) {2016.01.21} (¥3.990)
31./37. [WIU] Super Smash Bros. for Wii U # <FTG> (Nintendo) {2014.12.06} (¥7.200)
32./36. [3DS] Animal Crossing: New Leaf # <ETC> (Nintendo) {2012.11.08} (¥4.571)
33./14. [PSV] Gakusen Toshi Asterisk Festa: Houka Kenran # <ACT> (Bandai Namco Games) {2016.01.28} (¥6.800)
34./33. [WIU] Mario Kart 8 # <RCE> (Nintendo) {2014.05.29} (¥5.700)
35./05. [PSV] Uta no Prince-Sama: Music 3 # <ACT> (Broccoli) {2016.01.28} (¥3.800)
36./42. [3DS] Pokemon Omega Ruby / Alpha Sapphire <RPG> (Pokemon Co.) {2014.11.21} (¥4.571)
37./35. [3DS] Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam <RPG> (Nintendo) {2015.12.03} (¥4.700)
38./39. [3DS] Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS <FTG> (Nintendo) {2014.09.13} (¥5.200)
39./31. [PS4] Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir <ACT> (Atlus) {2016.01.14} (¥7.980)
40./44. [3DS] Mario Kart 7 <RCE> (Nintendo) {2011.12.01} (¥4.571)
41./45. [WIU] Super Mario 3D World <ACT> (Nintendo) {2013.11.21} (¥5.700)
42./49. [PS4] Winning Eleven 2016 <SPT> (Konami) {2015.10.01} (¥7.600)
43./46. [PS3] Winning Eleven 2016 <SPT> (Konami) {2015.10.01} (¥6.600)
44./00. [3DS] Pro Baseball Famista Returns <SPT> (Bandai Namco Games) {2015.10.08} (¥5.690)
45./00. [PS4] Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain # <ADV> (Konami) {2015.09.02} (¥8.400)
46./00. [3DS] Taiko no Tatsujin: Don to Katsu no Jikuu Daibouken <ACT> (Bandai Namco Games) {2014.06.26} (¥4.740)
47./47. [PS4] Star Wars: Battlefront # <ACT> (Electronic Arts) {2015.11.19} (¥7.800)
48./00. [WIU] Shin Megami Tensei x Fire Emblem # <RPG> (Nintendo) {2015.12.26} (¥6.700)
49./50. [3DS] Super Mario 3D Land # <ACT> (Nintendo) {2011.11.03} (¥4.571)
50./00. [3DS] New Super Mario Bros. 2 # <ACT> (Nintendo) {2012.07.28} (¥4.571)

Top 50

3DS - 16
PS4 - 15
PSV - 7
WIU - 7
PS3 - 5

SOFTWARE

Code:

+-------+------------+------------+------------+------------+------------+
|System |  This Week |  Last Week |  Last Year |     YTD    |  Last YTD  |
+-------+------------+------------+------------+------------+------------+
|  ALL  |    460.000 |    900.000 |    413.000 |  3.011.000 |  3.793.000 |
+-------+------------+------------+------------+------------+------------+

Nirolak · Feb 12, 2016

Man God said:
It's definitely a property that has more buzz in the west right now.

Pennywise83 said:
This is also true. Let's see how it will perform over here, and what Sega plans are for the new entry.

I think this is actually a pretty good example of how Sega is bad at franchise management and seeing business opportunities.

Valkyria Chronicles 1 had somewhat higher sales in the West than Japan, but in an era with rapidly declining Western sales of Japanese games, it showed some good resilience and a long tail (it went from around 130K in the first few months to ~250K or so the last time I saw numbers for it in the US alone).

For the sequel, they decided to completely disregard the Western sales and go all in on Japan, moving the game to PSP and turning it into an anime high school title. It did marginally better in Japan and tanked in the West.

For the third game, they decided to stay the course on PSP and pump even more mission based PSP-game type content in. It did marginally better in Japan, but they didn't even feel it was worth releasing the game in the West.

Afterwards, eight year after the first game, they released a PC port of the original game in the West based on fan requests and the long tail of Valkyria sales on PS3. The game has moved over 600,000 copies on the platform.

They proceeded to announce a Valkyria Chronicles remaster and a new game for PS4. The remaster has a demo of the new game. However, this game throws out almost everything about the original series except for some aspects of the art direction and setting. It's clear this game was greenlit long before the port given how far along it was when debuted, but it's also clear from the changes that they were trying to re-imagine it once again squarely targeted at the Japanese market. This is especially odd given it's only on PS4, which is not a platform doing super great in Japan.

This stuck out significantly when - despite announcing both games at the same time for Japan - they only announced the PS4 remaster of the original game for the West, and I never saw anything about it including the demo for the new game with the Western release. I think they realized that they actually had a series that was still working in the West - perhaps even better than it used to - yet their next project is something that lacks much of what went well overseas in the first place.

This is hardly unique to Valkyria though. We can look at their similar recently behavior around Sonic for another example. Sonic Generations and Sonic Racing had a reasonable reception critically and in terms of sales volume, and seemed to be experiencing good sales legs. Instead of iterating from there, Sega followed this up by canning both series and launching Sonic Lost World and Sonic Boom instead, which had horrible receptions and notably poor sales.

Vena · Feb 12, 2016

DriftingSpirit said:
Yep, that doesn't help at all either.

Fdkn said:
they got what they deserve in that regard.

Its also irrelevant since they can't just ship out other region hardware with completely different languages.

crinale said:
According to the blog no price cut, re-modeling or discontinuation of WiiU is coming. It's simply Nintendo mismanaged the supply & demand extremely badly that they've run out of stock they were going to sell this Feb-Mar last year.

He is calling out Nintendo management "really really really stupid" for this.

From a retail perspective its a total screw up.

From managements position, though, I'd say its just as Chris outline, its an unexpected sweep of events that really broke traditional expectations.

Coulomb_Barrier · Feb 12, 2016

crinale said:
Percentage wise it indeed increased quite a bit.

It's the only console where the percentage increase figure is the same as the actual sales number increase.

Thorgal · Feb 12, 2016

Out of sheer curiosity , do we have concurent numbers for FFXIV ?

KillerMan91 · Feb 12, 2016

Nirolak said:
I think this is actually a pretty good example of how Sega is bad at franchise management and seeing business opportunities.

Valkyria Chronicles 1 had somewhat higher sales in the West than Japan, but in an era with rapidly declining Western sales of Japanese games, it showed some good resilience and a long tail (it went from around 130K in the first few months to ~250K or so the last time I saw numbers for it in the US alone).

For the sequel, they decided to completely disregard the Western sales and go all in on Japan, moving the game to PSP and turning it into an anime high school title. It did marginally better in Japan and tanked in the West.

For the third game, they decided to stay the course on PSP and pump even more mission based PSP-game type content in. It did marginally better in Japan, but they didn't even feel it was worth releasing the game in the West.

Afterwards, eight year after the first game, they released a PC port of the original game in the West based on fan requests and the long tail of Valkyria sales on PS3. The game has moved over 600,000 copies on the platform.

They proceeded to announce a Valkyria Chronicles remaster and a new game for PS4. The remaster has a demo of the new game. However, this game throws out almost everything about the original series except for some aspects of the art direction and setting. It's clear this game was greenlit long before the port given how far along it was when debuted, but it's also clear from the changes that they were trying to re-imagine it once again squarely targeted at the Japanese market. This is especially odd given it's only on PS4, which is not a platform doing super great in Japan.

This stuck out significantly when - despite announcing both games at the same time for Japan - they only announced the PS4 remaster of the original game for the West, and I never saw anything about it including the demo for the new game with the Western release. I think they realized that they actually had a series that was still working in the West - perhaps even better than it used to - yet their next project is something that lacks much of what went well overseas in the first place.

This is hardly unique to Valkyria though. We can look at their similar recently behavior around Sonic for another example. Sonic Generations and Sonic Racing had a reasonable reception critically and in terms of sales volume, and seemed to be experiencing good sales legs. Instead of iterating from there, Sega followed this up by canning both series and launching Sonic Lost World and Sonic Boom instead, which had horrible receptions and notably poor sales.

When they announced Remaster they also said that the original PS3 version of Valkyria Chronicles had shipped 1 million units WW so even PS3 version alone sold way more outside of Japan and not just somewhat. Then when you add PC sales it's almost like western game like a ratio between Japan and West in sales. So like you said it's pretty damn bizarre decision to try once again appeal to Japanese market with a new game when west is where the money could be made with the series. I hope that Azure doesn't kill the series...

Nirolak · Feb 12, 2016

KillerMan91 said:
When they announced Remaster they also said that the original PS3 version of Valkyria Chronicles had shipped 1 million units WW so even PS3 version alone sold way more outside of Japan and not just somewhat. Then when you add PC sales it's almost like western game like a ratio between Japan and West in sales. So like you said it's pretty damn bizarre decision to try once again appeal to Japanese market with a new game when west is where the money could be made with the series. I hope that Azure doesn't kill the series...

That's quite a bit higher than I thought on the tail end.

I can at least somewhat understand Valk 2's presence on the PSP given the initial Valk sales were more even and the PSP wasn't dead in the West at the time they started, but everything since with regards to new titles seems like a poor idea.

KillerMan91 · Feb 12, 2016

Nirolak said:
That's quite a bit higher than I thought on the tail end.

I can at least somewhat understand Valk 2's presence on the PSP given the initial Valk sales were more even and the PSP wasn't dead in the West at the time they started, but everything since with regards to new titles seems like a poor idea.

Yeah. Even excluding PC version (as Azure was probably greenlighted way before success of PC version like you said) just looking at that sales difference between original PS3 game and PSP games should kinda give a big hint where the sales are coming and which route would be the most logical to take with the series if you are going to continue it. All around bizarre decision making but well Sega...

Fdkn · Feb 12, 2016

Vena said:
Its also irrelevant since they can't just ship out other region hardware with completely different languages.

??

repackaging stock from other regions would be a viable solution if the hardware was the same, but they decided that each region should have their own stupid self-imposed limitation.

Åkami · Feb 12, 2016

TV ad for Street Fighter V

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=668Lkl9UUGU

Seem like the started advertisement a week before launch.

Also Dragon Ball Project Fusion got a website update.

http://dbpf.bn-ent.net/

maxiell · Feb 12, 2016

I've never heard of a company as large as Nintendo not being able to supply as few units as the Wii U would require in their home country. Seems like there is probably more to this story.

Nirolak · Feb 12, 2016

maxiell said:
I've never heard of a company as large as Nintendo not being able to supply as few units as the Wii U would require in their home country. Seems like there is probably more to this story.

Going out on a limb, I'm guessing the age of the parts the Wii U is using combined with the really low volume of Wii U sales means that there's only one factory still making these parts, and that they make very few of them, so when something goes wrong on that production line it's not a huge urgency to fix it if it means taking people off of more important problems.

Takao · Feb 12, 2016

KillerMan91 said:
When they announced Remaster they also said that the original PS3 version of Valkyria Chronicles had shipped 1 million units WW so even PS3 version alone sold way more outside of Japan and not just somewhat. Then when you add PC sales it's almost like western game like a ratio between Japan and West in sales. So like you said it's pretty damn bizarre decision to try once again appeal to Japanese market with a new game when west is where the money could be made with the series. I hope that Azure doesn't kill the series...

Did anyone ever address the doubt I had about those numbers? I'd be pretty surprised to find out the first game did 1 million just on PS3. It debuted with 33k in the US and while it had legs, it would've needed insane legs for that total given what it did in Japan.

While it's a different publisher, I do want to point out that Bandai Namco just excluded the versions of Dragon Ball Xenoverse and Naruto UNS4 that didn't hit Japan in their global shipment press releases.

KillerMan91 · Feb 12, 2016

Takao said:
Did anyone ever address the doubt I had about those numbers? I'd be pretty surprised to find out the first game did 1 million just on PS3.

Well Nirolak cited as seeing the last numbers for PS3 version in US being around 250k (and these could be outdated a decent amount). Didn't the game sell something like 200k in Japan too?. Then add Steam (500k) and you would have next to nothing sold outside of US and Japan for the PS3 version. That is also rather hard to believe.

Takao · Feb 12, 2016

KillerMan91 said:
Well Nirolak cited as seeing the last numbers for PS3 version in US being around 250k (and these could be outdated a decent amount). Didn't the game sell something like 200k in Japan too?. Then add Steam (500k) and you would have next to nothing sold outside of US and Japan for the PS3 version. That is also rather hard to believe.

Do you think it's realistic that Valkyria Chronicles sold ~500k in Europe, South America and non-Japan Asia on PS3? I don't. I think it's likelier that the game is maybe at 1.1 or 1.2 million across PC/PS3 and for the press release Sega just went for a full number.

crinale · Feb 12, 2016

Nirolak said:
Going out on a limb, I'm guessing the age of the parts the Wii U is using combined with the really low volume of Wii U sales means that there's only one factory still making these parts, and that they make very few of them, so when something goes wrong on that production line it's not a huge urgency to fix it if it means taking people off of more important problems.

I think the current situation isn't unrelated to the fact core chip vendor who used to make WiiU's SoC wend under or something. However I'm still surprised Nintendo played safe (too safe) and did nothing to countermeasure the shortage. At least they should have even out the distribution timeframe.
(And yes screwing up relationship between retail channel is bad, like really bad as blog guy indicates).

Mario007 · Feb 12, 2016

Thorgal said:
Out of sheer curiosity , do we have concurent numbers for FFXIV ?

Last year they sold 5 million copies ww. Apar from that we dont have any data.

Oregano · Feb 12, 2016

crinale said:
I think the current situation isn't unrelated to the fact core chip vendor who used to make WiiU's SoC wend under or something. However I'm still surprised Nintendo played safe (too safe) and did nothing to countermeasure the shortage. At least they should have even out the distribution timeframe.
(And yes screwing up relationship between retail channel is bad, like really bad as blog guy indicates).

It's definitely not good as can be seen here in the UK where some retailers don't carry Nintendo products at all any more but in Japan can retailers really afford to get too pissy? Sure they could drop the Wii U but it's not like they can drop the 3DS.

Meier · Feb 12, 2016

Haven't been following the sales threads much the past few weeks -- looks like DQ Builders had a really nice first week and a predictable drop off. Curious how the legs will be going forward.

Vena · Feb 12, 2016

Fdkn said:
??

repackaging stock from other regions would be a viable solution if the hardware was the same, but they decided that each region should have their own stupid self-imposed limitation.

There's likely not enough volume to do such a thing given the WiiU's situation. They are very, very likely to be allocating active and stocked volumes only on razor thin surpluses.

Also region locking is a minor note because its a software switch that Nintendo can change about as easily as it would take them to change the packaging and move the needed volume. It isn't a hardware component, they'd just have to do a system flash.

Oregano said:
It's definitely not good as can be seen here in the UK where some retailers don't carry Nintendo products at all any more but in Japan can retailers really afford to get too pissy? Sure they could drop the Wii U but it's not like they can drop the 3DS.

They can push back on Nintendo in a lot of ways if they feel slighted or if relationships sour over this. That being said, I don't think they will over the WiiU and Nintendo will likely do things behind the scenes to make amends down the road.

crinale · Feb 12, 2016

Oregano said:
It's definitely not good as can be seen here in the UK where some retailers don't carry Nintendo products at all any more but in Japan can retailers really afford to get too pissy? Sure they could drop the Wii U but it's not like they can drop the 3DS.

They won't drop Nintendo at all like UK retailers are doing for sure but if Nintendo couldn't prepare the thing while demand is there they sure can treat WiiU in the same way.
Well Nintendo themselves may be indifferent about how WiiU would perform with NX imminent so I donno..

KillerMan91 · Feb 12, 2016

Takao said:
Do you think it's realistic that Valkyria Chronicles sold ~500k in Europe, South America and non-Japan Asia on PS3? I don't. I think it's likelier that the game is maybe at 1.1 or 1.2 million across PC/PS3 and for the press release Sega just went for a full number.

Well it's not the first time we get total shipment for some game and wonder that where the fuck those sales come from (Japanese games tend to sell better in Europe though). It definitely could be also like you said though. I guess we have no way to know for sure.

Aki-at · Feb 12, 2016

Takao said:
Do you think it's realistic that Valkyria Chronicles sold ~500k in Europe, South America and non-Japan Asia on PS3? I don't. I think it's likelier that the game is maybe at 1.1 or 1.2 million across PC/PS3 and for the press release Sega just went for a full number.

I've got the same sort of reservations as you. In fact Sega seems sketchy with some of their numbers, Nagoshi is on record at saying Yakuza 5 has been enjoyed by over a million gamers in Japan and I think they're somewhere off from that figure in Japan.

My guess they might be very liberal in their use of sold/enjoyed by games by including the secondhand markets sales or just combing platforms.

Oregano · Feb 12, 2016

Vena said:
There's likely not enough volume to do such a thing given the WiiU's situation. They are very, very likely to be allocating active and stocked volumes only on razor thin surpluses.

Also region locking is a minor note because its a software switch that Nintendo can change about as easily as it would take them to change the packaging and move the needed volume. It isn't a hardware component, they'd just have to do a system flash.

They can push back on Nintendo in a lot of ways if they feel slighted or if relationships sour over this. That being said, I don't think they will over the WiiU and Nintendo will likely do things behind the scenes to make amends down the road.

crinale said:
They won't drop Nintendo at all like UK retailers are doing for sure but if Nintendo couldn't prepare the thing while demand is there they sure can treat WiiU in the same way.
Well Nintendo themselves may be indifferent about how WiiU would perform with NX imminent so I donno..

Well yeah even if they held it against the NX it could end up a case of cutting off their nose to spite their face. They can't really afford to shun the market's biggest publisher, especially nowadays.

Nyoro SF · Feb 12, 2016

Takao said:
Did anyone ever address the doubt I had about those numbers? I'd be pretty surprised to find out the first game did 1 million just on PS3. It debuted with 33k in the US and while it had legs, it would've needed insane legs for that total given what it did in Japan.

I have some doubts about the LTD of VC1 in NA numbers as well.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=19500021&postcount=2356

AniHawk said in 2010 that VC1 had reached 150k in NPD.
I highly doubt it sold 500k or more in the next four years in the West. So it's likely they are counting the PC version. It just never occurred to me that Sega would list a digital title as "shipped", what a weird way of saying that instead of just "purchases", but then I guess you wouldn't be able to create the 1 million number for press...

Nirolak said:
I think this is actually a pretty good example of how Sega is bad at franchise management and seeing business opportunities.

Valkyria Chronicles 1 had somewhat higher sales in the West than Japan, but in an era with rapidly declining Western sales of Japanese games, it showed some good resilience and a long tail (it went from around 130K in the first few months to ~250K or so the last time I saw numbers for it in the US alone).

For the sequel, they decided to completely disregard the Western sales and go all in on Japan, moving the game to PSP and turning it into an anime high school title. It did marginally better in Japan and tanked in the West.

For the third game, they decided to stay the course on PSP and pump even more mission based PSP-game type content in. It did marginally better in Japan, but they didn't even feel it was worth releasing the game in the West.

Afterwards, eight year after the first game, they released a PC port of the original game in the West based on fan requests and the long tail of Valkyria sales on PS3. The game has moved over 600,000 copies on the platform.

They proceeded to announce a Valkyria Chronicles remaster and a new game for PS4. The remaster has a demo of the new game. However, this game throws out almost everything about the original series except for some aspects of the art direction and setting. It's clear this game was greenlit long before the port given how far along it was when debuted, but it's also clear from the changes that they were trying to re-imagine it once again squarely targeted at the Japanese market. This is especially odd given it's only on PS4, which is not a platform doing super great in Japan.

This stuck out significantly when - despite announcing both games at the same time for Japan - they only announced the PS4 remaster of the original game for the West, and I never saw anything about it including the demo for the new game with the Western release. I think they realized that they actually had a series that was still working in the West - perhaps even better than it used to - yet their next project is something that lacks much of what went well overseas in the first place.

This is hardly unique to Valkyria though. We can look at their similar recently behavior around Sonic for another example. Sonic Generations and Sonic Racing had a reasonable reception critically and in terms of sales volume, and seemed to be experiencing good sales legs. Instead of iterating from there, Sega followed this up by canning both series and launching Sonic Lost World and Sonic Boom instead, which had horrible receptions and notably poor sales.

I think one assumption we can make is that Sega still doesn't know why VC2 on the PSP failed in the West other than making the simple assumption of "Westerners aren't interested in Valkyria anymore". The reason I make this assumption is that they appear to be operating entirely on the Japanese popularity of VC3 and Valkyria Duel with decision making. This explains the choice of character design and presentation and the region focus. Like you said, the PC version came too late in the game for Azure to have a focus shift that works in all territories.

Now we have Azure, a spinoff game that won't break 100k first day on sales in Japan on PS4 (by my own speculation), and that is being heavily reviled in the West for looking like a bad Tales game and not sharing any similarities with the fanbase-beloved VC1. What kind of budget are they going to invest in a game like this where the planning is so out of sorts that everything points to failure?

It's going to be especially bad if a localization is announced way too late in typical Sega fashion. Hell, the VC1 remaster is coming four months later in the West despite the game already being localized and the announcement didn't even come until 1 week before Japan's release of the game, which likely means that lack of inclusion of the Azure demo means more that Sega West doesn't have the privilege of operating in advance when it comes to making decisions regarding Sega Japan's output ; poor global coordination seems to be the culprit rather than Sega West making wise decisions based on content presentation.

saichi · Feb 12, 2016

Mario007 said:
Last year they sold 5 million copies ww. Apar from that we dont have any data.

???

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