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Media Create Sales: Week 20, 2012 (May 14 - May 20)

muu

Member
I dont think that the Wii will have much impact on WiiU to be honest. Wii 3rd party support has not been good during the last 2-3 years. So if the WiiU is coming of that, then that isnt a good sign :\ The PS2 was still very popular when the PS3 was announced. And the Vita is also a good and very recent example that the predecessor's success doesnt necessarily means much, at least to begin with.

The poor Wii support will be why 3rd parties will likely try harder on WiiU. Hedging against the Wii cost these guys dearly: they ended up fighting on a platform that costs more to develop on (HD games in general) with a smaller userbase. If devs had set aside more efforts onto the Wii platform and did not create the 'third party core games on the Wii suck' atmosphere, their financial situation likely would have been a bit better than they are now. I'd absolutely question their business acumen and likely so would shareholders if they try to pull the same thing with the WiiU. The struggle, and then turnaround, of the 3DS should only go to bolster this: Nintendo will do whatever's in their power to keep their system afloat.

And what about the Vita? The only real success it had was through Monster Hunter, and that series is on the 3DS now. Rude awakening for devs that expected MHP to continue on to Vita, but at this point no one should be surprised that a system with essentially its right arm ripped off is struggling.
 

test_account

XP-39C²
The poor Wii support will be why 3rd parties will likely try harder on WiiU. Hedging against the Wii cost these guys dearly: they ended up fighting on a platform that costs more to develop on (HD games in general) with a smaller userbase. If devs had set aside more efforts onto the Wii platform and did not create the 'third party core games on the Wii suck' atmosphere, their financial situation likely would have been a bit better than they are now. I'd absolutely question their business acumen and likely so would shareholders if they try to pull the same thing with the WiiU. The struggle, and then turnaround, of the 3DS should only go to bolster this: Nintendo will do whatever's in their power to keep their system afloat.
How did they create the "third party core games on the Wii suck" atmosphere? I can see the excuse why all the support wasnt there at full the first year, but i dont see it for the reamaining years, concidering that the Wii hardware sale exploded from day 1, and it took a long time before it started slowing down noticeably.


And what about the Vita? The only real success it had was through Monster Hunter, and that series is on the 3DS now. Rude awakening for devs that expected MHP to continue on to Vita, but at this point no one should be surprised that a system with essentially its right arm ripped off is struggling.
If Monster Hunter was the only real success on PSP, then it doesnt make much sense to me why the PSP received so much support during the last 2-3 years. MHP was definitely one of the bigger catalyst for this support, but it wasnt the only real success on the system (well, i guess it fully depends on how one define what the bar for "real success" is).

But my point on this was that looking at a predecessor system doesnt necessarily mean that the the successor will automatically get much support, at least to begin with. That is why i mentioned the Vita as an example. And the 3rd party support for the Wii has been poor the last 2-3 years, and that doesnt necessarily means that the WiiU will follow the same pattern. I think that the WiiU will get more 3rd party support than what the Wii got in the last 2-3 years.
 

Chris1964

Sales-Age Genius
New releases {2012.05.31}

[3DS] Dragon Quest Monsters: Terry's Wonderland 3D # <RPG> (Square Enix) (¥5.490)
[3DS] Dragon Quest Monsters: Terry's Wonderland 3D [Special Pack] <RPG> (Square Enix) (¥20.490)
[3DS] Guild01 <ETC> (Level 5) (¥3.980)

[PSV] NextRev: Gyouseishoshi Shiken <EDU> (Media-5) (¥5.800)

[PSP] Soukoku no Kusabi: Hiiro no Kakera 3 - Ashita e no Tobira # <ADV> (Idea Factory) (¥6.090)
[PSP] Soukoku no Kusabi: Hiiro no Kakera 3 - Ashita e no Tobira [Limited Edition] <ADV> (Idea Factory) (¥8.190)
[PSP] Soukoku no Kusabi: Hiiro no Kakera 3 - Ashita e no Tobira - Twin Pack <ADV> (Idea Factory) (¥9.240)
[PSP] Tsuyo Kiss 3 Portable # <ADV> (Net Revolution) (¥6.825)
[PSP] Tsuyo Kiss 3 Portable [Special Limited Edition] <ADV> (Net Revolution) (¥9.975)
[PSP] Abunai: Koi no Sousa Shitsu # <ADV> (QuinRose) (¥6.300)
[PSP] Abunai: Koi no Sousa Shitsu [Deluxe Edition] <ADV> (QuinRose) (¥8.925)
[PSP] Danzai no Maria: La Campanella # <ADV> (Karin Entertainment) (¥6.090)
[PSP] Danzai no Maria: La Campanella [Deluxe Edition] <ADV> (Karin Entertainment) (¥8.190)
[PSP] BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Extend <FTG> (Arc System Works) (¥5.040)
[PSP] BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Extend: Double Pack <FTG> (Arc System Works) (¥6.279)
[PSP] Phi Brain: Kizuna no Puzzle <PZL> (Arc System Works) (¥5.040)
[PSP] Kamisama to Koi Gokoro <SLG> (Takuyo) (¥7.140)
[PSP] Maru Goukaku: Shikaku Dasshu! Care Manager Shiken Portable <EDU> (Media-5) (¥3.800)

[PS3] Jissen Pachislot Secrets! Fist of the North Star F - Seikimatsu Kyuuseishu Densetsu <TBL> (Sega) (¥5.544)
[PS3] Atelier Rorona: The Alchemist of Arland (PlayStation 3 the Best Reprint) <RPG> (Gust) (¥2.940)
[PS3] Atelier Totori: The Alchemist of Arland 2 (PlayStation 3 the Best Reprint) <RPG> (Gust) (¥2.940)
[PS3] Atelier Meruru: The Alchemist of Arland 3 (PlayStation 3 the Best) <RPG> (Gust) (¥3.990)
[PS3] Portal 2 (EA Best Hits) <PZL> (Electronic Arts) (¥3.129)

[360] Portal 2 (Revised Price) <PZL> (Electronic Arts) (¥3.129)
 
New releases {2012.05.31}


[PSV] NextRev: Gyouseishoshi Shiken <EDU> (Media-5) (¥5.800)

[PSP] Soukoku no Kusabi: Hiiro no Kakera 3 - Ashita e no Tobira # <ADV> (Idea Factory) (¥6.090)
[PSP] Soukoku no Kusabi: Hiiro no Kakera 3 - Ashita e no Tobira [Limited Edition] <ADV> (Idea Factory) (¥8.190)
[PSP] Soukoku no Kusabi: Hiiro no Kakera 3 - Ashita e no Tobira - Twin Pack <ADV> (Idea Factory) (¥9.240)
[PSP] Tsuyo Kiss 3 Portable # <ADV> (Net Revolution) (¥6.825)
[PSP] Tsuyo Kiss 3 Portable [Special Limited Edition] <ADV> (Net Revolution) (¥9.975)
[PSP] Abunai: Koi no Sousa Shitsu # <ADV> (QuinRose) (¥6.300)
[PSP] Abunai: Koi no Sousa Shitsu [Deluxe Edition] <ADV> (QuinRose) (¥8.925)
[PSP] Danzai no Maria: La Campanella # <ADV> (Karin Entertainment) (¥6.090)
[PSP] Danzai no Maria: La Campanella [Deluxe Edition] <ADV> (Karin Entertainment) (¥8.190)
[PSP] BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Extend <FTG> (Arc System Works) (¥5.040)
[PSP] BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Extend: Double Pack <FTG> (Arc System Works) (¥6.279)
[PSP] Phi Brain: Kizuna no Puzzle <PZL> (Arc System Works) (¥5.040)
[PSP] Kamisama to Koi Gokoro <SLG> (Takuyo) (¥7.140)
[PSP] Maru Goukaku: Shikaku Dasshu! Care Manager Shiken Portable <EDU> (Media-5) (¥3.800)

Even with the special editions, after 6 months, this much software disparity says it all about the Vita situation. Dire.
 

DGRE

Banned
No one talking about how the 3DS Mario and Sonic rose 2%?

Anyway, Kid Icarus is here to stay. I firmly believe it will make its way past 400k by the end of the calendar year, and with some amazing word of mouth, it could eek past 500k.

Vita on life support. If it isnt addressed ar E3, and then TGS, Sony has pulled the plug.
 

muu

Member
How did they create the "third party core games on the Wii suck" atmosphere? I can see the excuse why all the support wasnt there at full the first year, but i dont see it for the reamaining years, concidering that the Wii hardware sale exploded from day 1, and it took a long time before it started slowing down noticeably.

If Monster Hunter was the only real success on PSP, then it doesnt make much sense to me why the PSP received so much support during the last 2-3 years. MHP was definitely one of the bigger catalyst for this support, but it wasnt the only real success on the system (well, i guess it fully depends on how one define what the bar for "real success" is).

But my point on this was that looking at a predecessor system doesnt necessarily mean that the the successor will automatically get much support, at least to begin with. That is why i mentioned the Vita as an example. And the 3rd party support for the Wii has been poor the last 2-3 years, and that doesnt necessarily means that the WiiU will follow the same pattern. I think that the WiiU will get more 3rd party support than what the Wii got in the last 2-3 years.

What do you mean 'how did they create the atmosphere?' There were few core games that came out for the Wii and clearly publishers were pushing the HD versions. Pretty obvious that they weren't putting their best foot forward and sales suffered as a result. Third parties, 'core gamers,' journalists all combined created an unhealthy third party market for the Wii. If you've been at all following sales age this should be blatantly obvious.

And from what you were saying before ('WiiU is coming off poor 3rd party support from Wii so that's a bad sign') you're contradicting yourself w/ that last statement. Or you need to clear up what you're trying to say.
 
No one talking about how the 3DS Mario and Sonic rose 2%?

Anyway, Kid Icarus is here to stay. I firmly believe it will make its way past 400k by the end of the calendar year, and with some amazing word of mouth, it could eek past 500k.

Vita on life support. If it isnt addressed ar E3, and then TGS, Sony has pulled the plug.
Not sure what they could announced at E3 that is going to help in Japan. And by TGS it'll already be a lost cause.
 
Not sure what they could announced at E3 that is going to help in Japan. And by TGS it'll already be a lost cause.

I can at least think of hypothetical, if not likely, Vita titles that would do a fair bit to drive hardware sales in Japan (FF, MH, etc). In terms of Western support, I really don't think there's anything Sony could announce at E3 - new first-party IP, console spinoffs, and console ports being the most likely categories - that would move enough hardware to get sales to a healthy level here.
 

Chris1964

Sales-Age Genius
Vita on life support. If it isnt addressed ar E3, and then TGS, Sony has pulled the plug.

How many more times am I gonna hear for E3? Did 3DS stop getting games because everyone is waiting to anounce them there?

I'm not far from start believing the system hasn't come out yet.
 
I can at least think of hypothetical, if not likely, Vita titles that would do a fair bit to drive hardware sales in Japan (FF, MH, etc). In terms of Western support, I really don't think there's anything Sony could announce at E3 - new first-party IP, console spinoffs, and console ports being the most likely categories - that would move enough hardware to get sales to a healthy level here.
There's no way a new MH is announced at E3. And FF isn't the brand it use to be. Nintendo has DQ locked. So again, I'm not really sure what they could announce that will help them long term.
 

test_account

XP-39C²
What do you mean 'how did they create the atmosphere?' There were few core games that came out for the Wii and clearly publishers were pushing the HD versions. Pretty obvious that they weren't putting their best foot forward and sales suffered as a result. Third parties, 'core gamers,' journalists all combined created an unhealthy third party market for the Wii. If you've been at all following sales age this should be blatantly obvious.
What i ment is, why do you this this happened? The Wii hardware sale were strong for years, so it is not like missing out on the first year ment success or no success. Why do you think that the 3rd party didnt make sure to do a better job with the core games on Wii if that was a very good way to increase the companies' profit as you said. I'm not saying that you're wrong, i'm just wondering why you think that the situation was like it was.

And how will the situation be with WiiU/PS4 if the graphical differences is quite noticeable. Will the publishers push the "HD" (PS4) version this time as well?


And from what you were saying before ('WiiU is coming off poor 3rd party support from Wii so that's a bad sign') you're contradicting yourself w/ that last statement. Or you need to clear up what you're trying to say.
I'm not contradicting myself, but i'll explain better what i ment :) The first thing i said is that i dont think that the Wii will have much impact on WiiU. With this i was referring to my next sentence, that the Wii 3rd party support has been poor the last 2-3 years. Then i said, if the WiiU follows this, then it is not a good sign. I never said that this is a bad sign. I said "if", not that this will be the case.

What i'm basically saying is that i dont think that the WiiU is coming off poor 3rd party support on the Wii means that the WiiU will also get poor 3rd party support. In other words, i dont think that the Wii will have much effect on the WiiU regarding 3rd party support.

I'm optimistic about the WiiU outcome. At this point we know very little about the WiiU's potential, and it can of course go both ways regarding sales. But since it can go both ways, i see no reason not to chose the optimistic side :)
 

Boney

Banned
groundhog+day+1.jpg
.
 
There's no way a new MH is announced at E3. And FF isn't the brand it use to be. Nintendo has DQ locked. So again, I'm not really sure what they could announce that will help them long term.

Well, again, I didn't say that I thought those Japanese IP would be likely to come to Vita, or that such announcements would necessarily be made at E3. Just that those titles could hypothetically be announced at TGS or some other point, and (IMO) would do a lot more to drive hardware sales than any conceivable quality or quantity of Western support.

But at this point, I do think that the Dreamcast option is probably more likely than a real turnaround, with the most likely scenario being another 3-4 years of limping along on first-party titles and a trickle of third-party support.
 
There's no way a new MH is announced at E3. And FF isn't the brand it use to be. Nintendo has DQ locked. So again, I'm not really sure what they could announce that will help them long term.

FF is still big enough that it'll move units, not save the system, but it's better medicine for the wound then Person 4 or anything else currently announced will do.
 
Well, again, I didn't say that I thought those Japanese IP would be likely to come to Vita, or that such announcements would necessarily be made at E3. Just that those titles could hypothetically be announced at TGS or some other point, and (IMO) would do a lot more to drive hardware sales than any conceivable quality or quantity of Western support.

But at this point, I do think that the Dreamcast option is probably more likely than a real turnaround, with the most likely scenario being another 3-4 years of limping along on first-party titles and a trickle of third-party support.

Looking at the DC software charts, and looking at PSVita now, even this scenario seems unlikely. But things change rapidly, so who knows.
 
Looking at the DC software charts, and looking at PSVita now, even this scenario seems unlikely. But things change rapidly, so who knows.

Indeed, and I've admittedly been wrong before.

I do think it's fairly safe to say that Sony isn't going to seriously consider diverting first-party resources from PS4 to Vita, no matter how (much) grim(mer) things may get.
 

jman2050

Member
I don't think Sony will Dreamcast the Vita unless their financials get bad enough to demand it. Hell, Sega probably would have let it ride on the Dreamcast if they hadn't run out of money.
 
I don't think Sony will Dreamcast the Vita unless their financials get bad enough to demand it.

Likely so, which is why I've said that the people who should be clamoring loudest for a Vita price cut ASAP are those who want 3DS to be the only dedicated handheld on the market.
 
I don't think Sony will Dreamcast the Vita unless their financials get bad enough to demand it. Hell, Sega probably would have let it ride on the Dreamcast if they hadn't run out of money.

With Sony in bad financial shape I could see the shareholders demand it be dreamcasted when it doesn't even sell half of its annual projection
 
Through the first 3 weeks in May Vita has sold 23,270 units, baring an unexpected increase next week we are looking at right around 30K for the month in Japan. Probably not even going to sell 200,000 worldwide in May.

Likely will be sitting at under 500K sold worldwide through the first two months of the fiscal year, only need 950,000 a month for the next 10 months to hit that 10 million target. Seems like they are going to be lucky to hit half of that target with the way things are going

I want some of what the Sony market prognosticators are smoking. It's not going to look good at the end of the year when they fail to meet those targets. That's the danger in setting overly optimistic estimates- the market will make you suffer when you miss them. As of now, they're on track to miss by 5 million units. I can't imagine it will be that bad, but I also can't envision any scenario where they come within 3 million of that forecast.
 
I want some of what the Sony market prognosticators are smoking. It's not going to look good at the end of the year when they fail to meet those targets. That's the danger in setting overly optimistic estimates- the market will make you suffer when you miss them. As of now, they're on track to miss by 5 million units. I can't imagine it will be that bad, but I also can't envision any scenario where they come within 3 million of that forecast.

As of now they're on track to miss by a lot more than 5 million units
 
With Sony in bad financial shape I could see the shareholders demand it be dreamcasted when it doesn't even sell half of its annual projection

I don't know what it is with GAF and this myth about shareholders but they aren't in a position to make demands about how a massive corporation like Sony does business.
 

Culex

Banned
Vita and 3DS "stabilized", although I wouldn't consider selling 6k very fruitful for Sony...

I'm really curious where the Vita will be one year from here.

YWHDa.png
 

zroid

Banned
Vita and 3DS "stabilized", although I wouldn't consider selling 6k very fruitful for Sony...

I'm really curious where the Vita will be one year from here.

52e0B.png

I'm not sure if we can call a two week post-GW slump as stable just yet. Hard to say for Vita since it's continually been on the decline, but I think 3DS "normal levels" are around 60k. We'll see what happens in the following weeks.
 
Assuming, optimistically, that Vita sells 250K/month worldwide each month from April through August (September being the earliest month when retail titles announced at E3 could realistically be released) for a total of 1.25 million in the first five months of the fiscal year, Vita sales would have to quintuple to 1.25 million a month in the remaining seven months to reach 10 million units.

To even reach five million units, half of what Sony has projected, Vita sales would still have to blow up 2.5x beginning in September.

(In something close to a worst-case scenario, assuming sales double in November and December and stay at 250K for all other months, Vita would only end up selling 3.5 million worldwide, just over a third of what Sony has projected.)
 

Lesiroth

Member
Well, without compelling games it's not really surprising to see why the Vita is failing so bad. The Vita's main attraction so far has been a game geared towards western audiences and a niche albeit unique game. Maybe Sony can't secure huge blockbusters right now but a steady stream of lesser known titles should at least be there right now to keep interest in the system alive. E3 should be a good indicator of their strategy and what they're planning to do.
 

muu

Member
What i ment, is why do you this this happened? The Wii hardware sale were strong for years, so it is not like missing out on the first year ment success or no success. Why do you think that the 3rd party didnt make sure to do a better job with the core games on Wii if that was a very good way to increase the companies' profit as you said. I'm not saying that you're wrong, i'm just wondering why you think that the situation was like it was.

And how will the situation be with WiiU/PS4 if the graphical differences is quite noticeable. Will the publishers push the "HD" (PS4) version this time as well?

I'm not contradicting myself, but i'll explain better what i ment :) The first thing i said is that i dont think that the Wii will have much impact on WiiU. With this i was referring to my next sentence, that the Wii 3rd party support has been poor the last 2-3 years. Then i said, if the WiiU follows this, then it is not a good sign. I never said that this is a bad sign. I said "if", not that this will be the case.

What i'm basically saying is that i dont think that the WiiU is coming off poor 3rd party support on the Wii means that the WiiU will also get poor 3rd party support. In other words, i dont think that the Wii will have much effect on the WiiU regarding 3rd party support.

Why the sales and marketing disparities occurred? Well of course, Nintendo pushed the right buttons for the casual market while third parties were hitting on the 'core' players. There were tons of casual players that could have been nurtured into proper gamers, but third party offerings were generally awful early on, and the natural response to that (remember, most people don't make their decisions after reading reviews and everything) is to not buy the games from the same guys that made the awful throwaways.

As for graphical differences between WiiU vs PS4/720, I seriously question the ability for the hardware to put out significantly better graphics. I've watched some comparisons like 'low vs max' 'min vs maximum' and, even at that level the differences are generally superficial. These lows would probably run on on-board GPUs of newer CPUs, while 'ultras' are the stuff running off the super VGA cards we see today... and the result isn't that impressive. Since we're not likely to see HD consoles with even more insane power supplies than the 360s, the visual disparity's going to be even smaller than these cases. Besides, the difference between an impressive and an unimpressive tech demo in the eyes of the consumer is typically NOT the technology behind it, but the art style and the number of exploding barrels, cool mechs and gunfire.

But more importantly, going from a sales perspective those devs are going out of the way these days to say "hey, the two versions look exactly alike! They're almost exactly the same!" which can mean anywhere from fairly close to one version having a consistent 5-6fps framerate advantage. Superficially they do look similar, and it's in their best interest to not let platform preference get in the way of people buying games -- after all, most people don't have both a PS3 and 360, and nothing good can come out of 'this game plays great on one but lousy on the other,' unless you're in a deal like Activision and CoD, where you've set up an agreement w/ the platform holder to promote the choice console for the game. Assuming the middleware makes porting efforts minimal, we're probably going to see WiiU versions of PS3/360 games that look mildly better (so that customers don't regret buying any one version), and when the next gen comes, they'll likely continue that trend. Absolutely no reason to drop a platform, especially one that started a year early and has several million potential customers already lined up.

Sony's TV business have had losses for the past 8 years. If no shareholders stepped in there trying to stop it, i dont think that they have much to say about one single handheld device.

You've been missing out on the Q&A sessions then. For a while now investors and finance firm folks have been shooting questions regarding the unprofitable TV/gaming sectors, with pretty much nonanswers coming back from Sony. They may not control enough shares to affect Sony's decision-making, but negative outlooks and enough people selling the stock to drive it to new lows, and most companies will take appropriate action.
 
01./00. [PSP] My Little Sister Can't Be This Cute Portable Can't Be Continuing # <ADV> (Bandai Namco Games) {2012.05.17} (¥6.280) - 53.175 / NEW
03./00. [PSP] Persona 2: Eternal Punishment <RPG> (Atlus) {2012.05.17} (¥6.279) - 24.547 / NEW
Damn it, Japan. -_-
 
Assuming, optimistically, that Vita sells 250K/month worldwide each month from April through August (September being the earliest month when retail titles announced at E3 could realistically be released) for a total of 1.25 million in the first five months of the fiscal year, Vita sales would have to quintuple to 1.25 million a month in the remaining seven months to reach 10 million units.

To even reach five million units, half of what Sony has projected, Vita sales would still have to blow up 2.5x beginning in September.

(In something close to a worst-case scenario, assuming sales double in November and December and stay at 250K for all other months, Vita would only end up selling 3.5 million worldwide, just over a third of what Sony has projected.)
To make matters worse for Sony your 250k/month so far is looking like an incredibly optimistic estimate, with sub 200k looking more likely
 

DiscoJer

Member
What if the market in Japan shows that there can only be one handheld that it supports and not two?

Well, I actually wonder if the PSP will go anywhere the next few years. Those games that it is getting are likely not going to be nearly as profitable when they are on carts (either 3ds or Vita) as opposed to optical media. On games that don't sell much, even a small savings is a big deal.

So I think as long as they sell on the PSP, they will keep making them, and the PSP will still sell (better than the Vita).
 
Well, I actually wonder if the PSP will go anywhere the next few years. Those games that it is getting are likely not going to be nearly as profitable when they are on carts (either 3ds or Vita) as opposed to optical media. On games that don't sell much, even a small savings is a big deal.

So I think as long as they sell on the PSP, they will keep making them, and the PSP will still sell (better than the Vita).

Cartridge cost isn't really an issue, publishers pay a licence fee per copy to Sony/Nintendo and the production cost of the media is hidden inside that
 

Mpl90

Two copies sold? That's not a bomb guys, stop trolling!!!
Well, then that would be one more than the US.

Right now, it seems US market can't support a single console, handheld or not :p

This line of thought that neither 3DS will do well in US needs to stop, it's ridiculous considering what will be released in just a few months, especially from August ( and considering N will actively do its best to improve the situation) I'm not saying iOS doesn't impact handheld world, but still... Too doom and gloom, maybe XD
 

test_account

XP-39C²
Why the sales and marketing disparities occurred? Well of course, Nintendo pushed the right buttons for the casual market while third parties were hitting on the 'core' players. There were tons of casual players that could have been nurtured into proper gamers, but third party offerings were generally awful early on, and the natural response to that (remember, most people don't make their decisions after reading reviews and everything) is to not buy the games from the same guys that made the awful throwaways.
Well, true, but does that mean that support to begin with is make it or break it though? If a system have poor 3rd party games to begin with, is this the fate of the console throughout it's entire life cycle? Couldnt the 3rd parties have made a bigger push (also regarding adverticement) with good core games like ~3 years after the Wii launch, and would this be a better business decition than what they did otherwise? There isnt really any true answer for this now though, but i'm just wondering what you think about it =)

With the Wii specifically, could it be more that a lot of Wii owners were happy enough with Nintendo's output on the Wii?


As for graphical differences between WiiU vs PS4/720, I seriously question the ability for the hardware to put out significantly better graphics. I've watched some comparisons like 'low vs max' 'min vs maximum' and, even at that level the differences are generally superficial. These lows would probably run on on-board GPUs of newer CPUs, while 'ultras' are the stuff running off the super VGA cards we see today... and the result isn't that impressive. Since we're not likely to see HD consoles with even more insane power supplies than the 360s, the visual disparity's going to be even smaller than these cases. Besides, the difference between an impressive and an unimpressive tech demo in the eyes of the consumer is typically NOT the technology behind it, but the art style and the number of exploding barrels, cool mechs and gunfire.

But more importantly, going from a sales perspective those devs are going out of the way these days to say "hey, the two versions look exactly alike! They're almost exactly the same!" which can mean anywhere from fairly close to one version having a consistent 5-6fps framerate advantage. Superficially they do look similar, and it's in their best interest to not let platform preference get in the way of people buying games -- after all, most people don't have both a PS3 and 360, and nothing good can come out of 'this game plays great on one but lousy on the other,' unless you're in a deal like Activision and CoD, where you've set up an agreement w/ the platform holder to promote the choice console for the game. Assuming the middleware makes porting efforts minimal, we're probably going to see WiiU versions of PS3/360 games that look mildly better (so that customers don't regret buying any one version), and when the next gen comes, they'll likely continue that trend. Absolutely no reason to drop a platform, especially one that started a year early and has several million potential customers already lined up.
The graphical differences will probably be less noticeable compared to Wii and PS3, i agree with that. I guess there will be a lot more multiplatform games, and there will be some difference due to the hardware power differences. So it depends on what the consumers prefer to buy. I think that the games will cost the same on both/all platforms, so the prices of the games should be a chosing factor.


You've been missing out on the Q&A sessions then. For a while now investors and finance firm folks have been shooting questions regarding the unprofitable TV/gaming sectors, with pretty much nonanswers coming back from Sony. They may not control enough shares to affect Sony's decision-making, but negative outlooks and enough people selling the stock to drive it to new lows, and most companies will take appropriate action.
Sure, that is one approach to take, to sell the stocks. And i dont doubt that there has been questions about it, so i worded myself poorly earlier on this, sorry. What i ment was that, as far as i know, there wasnt a case where the shareholders got together at basically forced Sony to change their TV business. Since this didnt happen, it mean that the shareholders doesnt have the direct power to step in to make big decitions, like canceling a product.

With that said though, i do believe that the shareholders can put pressure on a company. But i'm not sure that this pressure can be big enough to result in canceling a product, at least not with a company as big as Sony, and especially if the company have faith in the product.
 

kunonabi

Member
And people rip on me for loving 90s anime and hating late-2000 stuff.


Why the hell would people be ripping you for that? If been getting back into anime myself and I'm constantly being disappointed by how bad it's gotten. I'm more of an 80's/early 90's
guy myself.
 
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