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Media Create Sales: Week 27, 2014 (Jun 30 - Jul 06)

Mpl90

Two copies sold? That's not a bomb guys, stop trolling!!!
After the HOLY CRAP worthy debut, it's going to be very interesting to see how well it'll perform during next weeks, the legs.

A question about Dragon Quest X: we know that it'll be available at retail for 3,800 Yen, first two months for free included. What's the deal for the digital version? Is it available for 3,800 Yen as well or is it downloadable for free and, then, you have to pay the daily/weekly/monthly tickets? Or both?
 

BriBri

Member
Has there been a Frozen-related game in Japan right now? Maybe the 3DS one can be a good seller there.
It's hasn't been released and as far as I know a localisation hasn't even been announced (feel free to correct me someone if I'm mistaken).
 

RalchAC

Member
Given the game was powered by UE3, this would be a sight ...

Didn't BlazBlue Chronophantasma (or was it Guilty Gear Xrd?) used UE3? And it had a Vita port (BB, dunno about GG).

http://www.famitsu.com/news/201407/15057222.html

Youkai Watch 2 sells 1.28 million copies in its first 4 days (retail and DD cards only).

Thread here: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=855406

Man. July is going to be an awful month for Sales Predictions.
 

L~A

Member
Well, yeah, guess I was totally wrong with my Youkai Watch 2 prediction. I couldn't believe it'd reach 1M during the first week, but it did not just that, it did better than the first game in just a week. Bloody insane.

Comparison with the Pokémon series are truly justified, and hopefully, it can stay that way. I mean, Pokémon and Youkai Watch are two deadly weapons for Nintendo.
 
Well, yeah, guess I was totally wrong with my Youkai Watch 2 prediction. I couldn't believe it'd reach 1M during the first week, but it did not just that, it did better than the first game in just a week. Bloody insane.

Comparison with the Pokémon series are truly justified, and hopefully, it can stay that way. I mean, Pokémon and Youkai Watch are two deadly weapons for Nintendo.

This is godsent for Nintendo tbh, considering that pokemon is slowly but surely losing steam in Japan.
 

random25

Member
With the explosion of YW2, the question now is: how much did it help the hardware? I don't know how much LE 3DS XL were shipped but I think 50k to 60k 3DS units in total were sold for this week.
 

extralite

Member
After the HOLY CRAP worthy debut, it's going to be very interesting to see how well it'll perform during next weeks, the legs.

A question about Dragon Quest X: we know that it'll be available at retail for 3,800 Yen, first two months for free included. What's the deal for the digital version? Is it available for 3,800 Yen as well or is it downloadable for free and, then, you have to pay the daily/weekly/monthly tickets? Or both?
Actually I don't think they made any comment about a potential eShop release. For now the announcement only covers the download card. But I guess you would get the game for the same price and conditions on eShop as well.
 

Eolz

Member
Oh wow YW2.
Lots of predictions wrong now I guess :p. Level 5 did good in terms of stock this time.
 

Spiegel

Member
Dragon Quest X will be included in the 3DS XL free game promotion.

September games:
- Luigi's Mansion 2
- Attack on Titan
- Dragon Quest X
- Mario Kart 7
- Tomodachi Life
 

test_account

XP-39C²
So Yokai Watch 2 really did outsell Yokai Watch 1's LTD in the first week o_O I didnt think there was a realistic chance for that to happen. Amazing result!


Wow at yw2 I had a feeling it might outsell the original in one week but it's still shocking to actually see it happen
Yeah, i didnt think that would happen :) Definitelly a very rare occasion, especially when it comes to that high sales number.
 

Thorgal

Member
So here is something i been wondering :

Whenever the topic of Consoles not selling or being popular in Japan arises it get's the same 2 answers every time .

A ) because of Japan being a country where most people use public transport where handheld devices work better.

B) because the Japanese houses are small .


Now point A is something i accept as an answer because it is simply a fact .

However point B is where i have problems .

I can perfectly believe that the average Japanese home is smaller than an American one .
but if i then stare at the console's itself , even the original PS3 And PS2 which where two giant beasts i think : the Average Japanese home is not THAT small !

Sorry, but i call foul with that explanation .
 

duckroll

Member
So here is something i been wondering :

Whenever the topic of Consoles not selling or being popular in Japan arises it get' s the same 2 answers every time .

A ) because of Japan being a country where most people use public transport where handheld devices work better.

B) because the Japanese houses are small .


Now point A is something i accept as an answer because it is simply a fact .

However point B is where i have problems .

I can perfectly believe that the average Japanese home is smaller than an American one .
but if i then stare at the console's itself , even the original PS3 And PS2 which where two giant beasts i think : the Average Japanese home is not THAT small !

Sorry, but i call foul with that explanation .

Point B as you have presented it isn't a very logical point. I think it misrepresents the actual issue with regards to living space. What is actually more of an issue is that home console gaming as a lifestyle and hobby certainly seems to be trending downwards. Living space probably does factor in there, but it shouldn't be viewed as "OMG Japanese apartments are so tiny they can't fit a console in!" which is a really stupid conclusion. Instead it is more likely that in the cases of shared living space (roommates, families, etc) there is generally only one television, and everyone uses the same one.

This was probably not an issue when console gaming's popularity was at its peak during the PS1 and PS2 era since it's an activity everyone was comfortable with. But now with the focus and interest shifting away, it's no longer a must-have in every household. If most people in a household sharing the television do not feel keen on console gaming, it makes less sense to have one, since the TV will generally be used for other purposes anyway. With personal devices like smartphones and portables being more popular than ever, it also makes the social dynamic around the TV a very different environment than it was a decade ago.
 

L~A

Member
I wonder if the Attack on Titan gam being included means Spike-Chunsoft got another game coming for the console? Seems kinda random to chose that game...
 
This is godsent for Nintendo tbh, considering that pokemon is slowly but surely losing steam in Japan.

I don't agree, I saw an Art Academy for Pokemon drawings on these charts recently

This year's Pokemon Remake might easily outsell YW2 not the first week but long legs is something it has going for it
 

small44

Member
So here is something i been wondering :

Whenever the topic of Consoles not selling or being popular in Japan arises it get's the same 2 answers every time .

A ) because of Japan being a country where most people use public transport where handheld devices work better.

B) because the Japanese houses are small .


Now point A is something i accept as an answer because it is simply a fact .

However point B is where i have problems .

I can perfectly believe that the average Japanese home is smaller than an American one .
but if i then stare at the console's itself , even the original PS3 And PS2 which where two giant beasts i think : the Average Japanese home is not THAT small !

Sorry, but i call foul with that explanation .

The reason is simple majority of games are western games
 

RalchAC

Member

Nintendo should sell the Pokemon Company while it's still valuable.

Or go third party. We all know people wants a freemium Pokemon with two currencies and paid Master Ball packs.

OR BOTH!!!!!
I don't agree, I saw an Art Academy for Pokemon drawings on these charts recently

This year's Pokemon Remake might easily outsell YW2 not the first week but long legs is something it has going for it

Are 3rd gen games popular? Emerald was the last Pokemon game I bought and those had some quite cool stuff like the Secret Bases or those Beauty Contests. I have fond memories of those games, but I dunno about the rest of the world.

I think Pokemon will outsell YW2, but I won't bet on it. Remember last year, when the original sold 50k? It has sold 1,2 million units in 4 days. I don't trust my own thoughts anymore when it comes to this game.
 

KtSlime

Member
I wonder if the Attack on Titan gam being included means Spike-Chunsoft got another game coming for the console? Seems kinda random to chose that game...
The franchise is huge. UFO catcher blankets, figures, movies, razor blade commercials, everyone knows about it. Japanese people who think manga/anime are for otaku want to know what will happen next and talk about it. Including it makes sense.
 

Road

Member
http://www.famitsu.com/news/201407/15057222.html

Youkai Watch 2 sells 1.28 million copies in its first 4 days (retail and DD cards only).

Thread here: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=855406

Just being nitpicky, but there are no download cards for YW2.

Ways a 3DS game can be acquired in Japan:

1. regular game card
2. eShop download
3. paper card with download code
4. download code
5. game card bundled with 3DS
6. download code bundled with 3DS
7. game pre-installed on 3DS

YW2 is only available through methods 1 and 2.

That said, I hope it's sold out so my prediction doesn't end up being so bad. =P

Anyway, this is a historical first week sales.
 

RalchAC

Member
The franchise is huge. UFO catcher blankets, figures, movies, razor blade commercials, everyone knows about it. Japanese people who think manga/anime are for otaku want to know what will happen next and talk about it. Including it makes sense.

I'd say that this series is having a bigger impact outside Japan than the average anime does nowadays.

Not going into 90s level of popularity, but for what I've seen there is plenty of people that isn't on anime yet they've watched Attack on Titans. It has an amazing word of mouth everywhere.
 

L~A

Member
^

All the more reasons to localise the 3DS game already, Spike-Chunsoft! :p

Just being nitpicky, but there are no download cards for YW2.

Ways a 3DS game can be acquired in Japan:

1. regular game card
2. eShop download
3. paper card with download code
4. download code
5. game card bundled with 3DS
6. download code bundled with 3DS
7. game pre-installed on 3DS

YW2 is only available through methods 1 and 2.

That said, I hope it's sold out so my prediction doesn't end up being so bad. =P

Anyway, this is a historical first week sales.

Very strange that Youkai Watch 2 didn't get a DL card... it's not a 3rd-party thing, since Persona Q had a DL card. I really wonder why's that.

Anyway, yeah, it's truly some historical first week sales. 2m is a lock for this game.
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
say what you want about L5 milking a franchise... we can't deny their ability to build one.
Even with their dud series, I think they've shown the strongest ability to launch new IPs in Japan of any publisher in at least the past five years if not the past ten. Hino may not always make the best moves, but he's in no way a content businessman willing to let himself flow away with the tide.

We honestly could use a lot more companies with that level of drive. There were a lot of people who laughed when Inafune said that Capcom shouldn't stop pushing until Monster Hunter overtook Dragon Quest shortly after either MHP2 or 2G. Level 5 taking on Pokemon seemed like a huge hill to climb. Now look where they both are.

If more Japanese publishers behaved this way, we might see a growing dedicated industry again. Major series drive excitement. The year Battlefield decided to truly take on CoD the two games combined shipped around 37+ million copies LTD.

This is also why I don't fault anyone trying to storm the top of the mobile charts. It's a very difficult task, but at least it shows strong ambition.

Some of them have even had success in the West this way. While they had ridiculously high expectations, of all the games to chase Uncharted, Tomb Raider is actually the only one that approached and even quite possibly outsold it. It took quite a while but it even got past the 5-6 million range they originally forecast.

From Software also now has one of the world's biggest Japanese RPG series since they went out and found a publisher like Namco who would actually push it hard worldwide and the company that left Demon's Souls to rot on the vine now scurried back to publish their new IP.

The downside of course is that you can fail, but these publishers are still well capitalized, and a single success makes up for a lot of failures. The alternative of slow decay and increasing irrelevance that a lot of big publishers went through is definitely not preferable in my opinion.
 
Speaking of Level 5, I'm impressed by how much they managed to fix the WonderFlick mess that existed last year.

I've been playing the game on my iPad Mini and it's a ton of fun, free, and it feels like they fixed the balance for drops. It's got top notch production values and has managed to escape its super awful iTunes review score from back when the game first launched.

It's nice to see them turn that ship around.
 

ZSaberLink

Media Create Maven
Even with their dud series, I think they've shown the strongest ability to launch new IPs in Japan of any publisher in at least the past five years if not the past ten. Hino may not always make the best moves, but he's in no way a content businessman willing to let himself flow away with the tide.

We honestly could use a lot more companies with that level of drive. There were a lot of people who laughed when Inafune said that Capcom shouldn't stop pushing until Monster Hunter overtook Dragon Quest shortly after either MHP2 or 2G. Level 5 taking on Pokemon seemed like a huge hill to climb. Now look where they both are.

If more Japanese publishers behaved this way, we might see a growing dedicated industry again. Major series drive excitement. The year Battlefield decided to truly take on CoD the two games combined shipped around 37+ million copies LTD.

This is also why I don't fault anyone trying to storm the top of the mobile charts. It's a very difficult task, but at least it shows strong ambition.

Some of them have even had success in the West this way. While they had ridiculously high expectations, of all the games to chase Uncharted, Tomb Raider is actually the only one that approached and even quite possibly outsold it. It took quite a while but it even got past the 5-6 million range they originally forecast.

From Software also now has one of the world's biggest Japanese RPG series since they went out and found a publisher like Namco who would actually push it hard worldwide and the company that left Demon's Souls to rot on the vine now scurried back to publish their new IP.

The downside of course is that you can fail, but these publishers are still well capitalized, and a single success makes up for a lot of failures. The alternative of slow decay and increasing irrelevance that a lot of big publishers went through is definitely not preferable in my opinion.

Great post as always Nirolak! Yeh it's more fun to see developers passionate about trying new and difficult things as opposed to playing it safe all the time. Honestly, of most of the big publishers, I still feel like Nintendo takes more risks than the average publisher these days, but maybe because that's generally been their philosophy.
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Speaking of Level 5, I'm impressed by how much they managed to fix the WonderFlick mess that existed last year.

I've been playing the game on my iPad Mini and it's a ton of fun, free, and it feels like they fixed the balance for drops. It's got top notch production values and has managed to escape its super awful iTunes review score from back when the game first launched.

It's nice to see them turn that ship around.
Level 5 is also a company that, while I think they will have various failures along the way, will actually end up having a major mobile hit at some point, and each of these games they launch now is a good learning experience along that road.

Great post as always Nirolak! Yeh it's more fun to see developers passionate about trying new and difficult things as opposed to playing it safe all the time. Honestly, of most of the big publishers, I still feel like Nintendo takes more risks than the average publisher these days, but maybe because that's generally been their philosophy.
Yes, and despite their current situation, I think their historical (and selectively, present) sales strength shows it.

It's hard to think of a publisher with so many strong brands that can even perform well on troubled hardware.

Obviously on the hardware front, the Wii and DS come to mind as a successful risk, but if we turn the clock back to the era of launching the first Nintendo in the West, coming into a dead console market and going "We can do much better." was a very bold move, and rewarded them greatly.

Now, obviously there are also times Nintendo has faceplanted, which is a notable part of taking risks, but the fact that they're still around when so many others aren't says something about how that worked out for them.
 

casiopao

Member
X/Y will be the worst selling (as far as I recall) main pokemon in Japan and worldwide. A bad sign considering the transition to 3D should had give them a sales boost.

Can u post us the sales comparison here?

I thought x and y already sold better than B/W already for the current time? Only behind P/D?

X and Y is already 12 mil+

While B and W is only 15 mil plus currently.
 

sörine

Banned
X/Y will be the worst selling (as far as I recall) main pokemon in Japan and worldwide.
XY was already at 12.26 million in just six months worldwide. That's not really too far from BW (15.58m ltd), RS (16.22m ltd) or even DP (17.63m ltd). I think you're speaking too soon.

Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest had sales boosts when the franchises went 3D.

Errr, I am not saying pokemon is dying. Just that franchise fatigue may be showing.
DQVIII was a decline actually. Unless you meant DQVII, which is about as 3D as Pokémon DP.
 
http://youtu.be/bT1sXkWupbQ

Youkai Watch was announced ages ago, it was in development a long time. You can see in the original trailer some differences in the youkai's designs, but all of those ones appear in the first game. Most of those scenarios appear, too.

Level 5 clearly spent a lot of time thinking and planning to turn this into a cross-media franchise and although I was doubtful when I learned that the cartoon was launching so much later than the game, it has paid off for them.

It's nice to see a Japanese publisher try to launch a big franchise like this once in a while. Yes, Level 5 have failed (and failed spectacularly) in the past, but they generally make well made and appealing games.
 

Busaiku

Member
sörine;121227763 said:
XY was already at 12.26 million in just six months worldwide. That's not really too far from BW (15.58m ltd), RS (16.22m ltd) or even DP (17.63m ltd). I think you're speaking too soon.

Its Japanese sales are pretty low.
Only at 4.1 million and it doesn't have anywhere near the legs as previous titles.
 

sörine

Banned
Its Japanese sales are pretty low.
Only at 4.1 million and it doesn't have anywhere near the legs as previous titles.
Famitsu has 4.3m, which is also excluding direct eShop sales. It might still pass RS in Japan too although yes sales have slowed really quickly comparably. Launch aligned RS was near 4.6m but still doing around 10k weekly.
 
sörine;121227763 said:
XY was already at 12.26 million in just six months worldwide. That's not really too far from BW (15.58m ltd), RS (16.22m ltd) or even DP (17.63m ltd). I think you're speaking too soon.


DQVIII was a decline actually. Unless you meant DQVII, which is about as 3D as Pokémon DP.

Well, the overworld was "3D" in DQ7, you even had camera movement :p

Worldwide Nintendo shipped 11,61m copies of X/Y during October-December, and then only 0,65m in the next quarter. I still have my doubts they will outsell Black and White. Black and White 2 sales are also to be considered in the decline (even if you take them as a "third version" the sales are still not magnificent since there were TWO versions not only one like Platinum/Yellow/Crystal).

Its Japanese sales are pretty low.
Only at 4.1 million and it doesn't have anywhere near the legs as previous titles.

And this.
 

ZSaberLink

Media Create Maven
sörine;121229764 said:
Famitsu has 4.3m, which is also excluding direct eShop sales. It might still pass RS in Japan too although yes sales have slowed really quickly comparably. Launch aligned RS was near 4.6m but still doing around 10k weekly.

If you look at Japanltdrank, it's at about 4.46m, and about 4.4m w/o downloads.
 

sörine

Banned
Well, the overworld was "3D" in DQ7, you even had camera movement :p

Worldwide Nintendo shipped 11,61m copies of X/Y during October-December, and then only 0,65m in the next quarter. I still have my doubts they will outsell Black and White. Black and White 2 sales are also to be considered in the decline (even if you take them as a "third version" the sales are still not magnificent since there were TWO versions not only one like Platinum/Yellow/Crystal).

And this.
I might expect XY shipments to rise for Q1 FY14 given the previous quarter would be reacting to holiday channel stuffing and it's inclusion in the Recommended Software program in Japan. We'll see in a couple weeks.

Looking at historical shipments for comparison is difficult since XY is the first simultaneous global launch but in it's first full FY BW did 12.87m. XY has only had half a year in comparison. If we break sales down to adding the first "half year" for Japan and the West/Rest we get 12.85m for BW which is fairer. XY is tracking behind but only barely and it's actually tracking slightly ahead in the west. It's legs are almost guaranteed to outperform BW too given it's launch timing within it's platform's lifecycle.
 

Shengar

Member
Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest had sales boosts when the franchises went 3D.

Errr, I am not saying pokemon is dying. Just that franchise fatigue may be showing.

Its Japanese sales are pretty low.
Only at 4.1 million and it doesn't have anywhere near the legs as previous titles.

I think it's not just franchise fatigue, but also the quantity of content of Pokemon XY gives a significant factor to its low legs. I know the quality is still high, being transitioned to 3D and such. But if I am a (casual) gamer that care about Pokemon but not following it like fans did, then heard the new Pokemon number is only 70s compared to 150s of BW, it will significantly affect my purchasing decision, especially when third version is the norm (well at least until BW2).
 
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