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Media Create Sales: Week 42, 2012 (Oct 15 - Oct 21)

Erethian

Member
One thing I find curious is that 3DS hasn't gotten any 3rd party MH clones yet and indeed all those games seem Vita bound instead (Ragnorak Odyssey, God Eater 2, Lord of Apocalypse, PSO2, Valhalla Knights 3). Is SCE actively courting these sorts of games (beyond Soul Sacrifice) since they lost the genre king or is it really happening to just work out this way in all these cases?

Really surprised SE and BN haven't jumped and tried something yet. Toriko 3DS going turn based JRPG seems like a missed opportunity.

Some of those games came out close to launch, so decisions would have been made without knowing that the 3DS would inherit the MH franchise.
 

jimmypython

Member
Some of those games came out close to launch, so decisions would have been made without knowing that the 3DS would inherit the MH franchise.

Same as to MH moving to the 3DS. CAPCOM didn't even know how Vita would do back then and yet decided to support 3DS anyway, despite the fact that they would have to compete with franchises from Nintendo.

The charm of Iwata I guess...
 

extralite

Member
Same as to MH moving to the 3DS. CAPCOM didn't even know how Vita would do back then and yet decided to support 3DS anyway, despite the fact that they would have to compete with franchises from Nintendo.

The charm of Iwata I guess...

It's obvious that the price reduction of the 3DS and the non-changing outlandishly expensive Vita price made the decision very easy for Capcom. You don't sell 1.5 million+ on a new handheld in a year if it's as expensive as the Vita. And that's still low compared to the biggest MH successes on PSP. The Vita was simply unable at launch to give MH the sales it can achieve.

And it still is. If it will ever be, it is already too late this gen. Because the 3DS has become the new home for portable MH.
 
Some of those games came out close to launch, so decisions would have been made without knowing that the 3DS would inherit the MH franchise.
That can explain Ragnorak (Game Arts in general seems to have gone all-in on Vita too) and Apocalypse, but what about the rest? You don't find it a little odd that Phantasy Star and God Eater elected for Vita rather than 3DS after the game whose coattails both rode went with the latter instead?
 

Erethian

Member
It's obvious that the price reduction of the 3DS and the non-changing outlandishly expensive Vita price made the decision very easy for Capcom. You don't sell 1.5 million+ on a new handheld in a year if it's as expensive as the Vita. And that's still low compared to the biggest MH successes on PSP. The Vita was simply unable at launch to give MH the sales it can achieve.

And it still is. If it will ever be, it is already too late this gen. Because the 3DS has become the new home for portable MH.

Capcom made the decision to put MH on the 3DS before the price cut, so far as I know. Right around the time the system came out, according to Tsujimoto. So assuming that was the primary factor (there were obviously a lot of factors at work, Nintendo's aggressive stance on getting third-party support and Sony's complete lack thereof) it's more of a Tales of Vesperia situation, and the Vita coming out nearly a year after the 3DS hurt it a lot.

That can explain Ragnorak (Game Arts in general seems to have gone all-in on Vita too) and Apocalypse, but what about the rest? You don't find it a little odd that Phantasy Star and God Eater elected for Vita rather than 3DS after the game whose coattails both rode went with the latter instead?

Phantasy Star isn't a MH clone and Namco are still releasing God Eater for PSP, the addition of a Vita version would have been a simple cost-benefit analysis.
 
Same as to MH moving to the 3DS. CAPCOM didn't even know how Vita would do back then and yet decided to support 3DS anyway, despite the fact that they would have to compete with franchises from Nintendo.

The charm of Iwata I guess...

Sony were uncompetitive (ignoring Vita here and just concentrating on software); they didn't sell the PSP with their software - Capcom did, they created the foundations for a platform, not Sony. Sony doesn't have the 'its playstation! its portable!' at launch either; their not the same company as when the PSP launched, and the markets very different. For Capcom going to Vita only had risks for them. No one can give a good reason for Capcom not to leave Sony.

The 3DS went above the PSP in terms of power allowing a generational jump to keep the franchise fresh (its not infallible).

Nintendo. Capcom have competed with Nintendo throughout the last generation of handhelds. They were directly against each other, two separate userbases and both at the height of their game. Capcom thought the 3DS was a good system to sell their hardware on; they merged the userbase they created seperately with Nintendo's. Capcoms aim here is to keep Monster Hunter sales UP (entire new userbase to replace anyone moving on from the franchise), and an aim to see sales soar even higher.

Capcom's other choice would have been setting up their own platform (better than going to Vita; where Sony would get big profits from Capcoms hard work and risks); but they'd be taking their own risks and again - competing with Nintendo. It wasn't in their culture nor was it hugely beneficial.

Iwata's charm would have played a part ofc :p Making Capcom see Nintendo would promote and support the Monster Hunter franchise.


It just made 100% sense. Going to Sony made no business sense whatsoever.
 

Takao

Banned
Actually, Tri-G was put into development for 3DS right around the time Portable 3rd shipped according to an Iwata Asks. SCE is probably not so pleased they made that game the star of their PSP Remaster program given it has allowed Capcom and Nintendo a very lazy way to have console Monster Hunters.
 
Same as to MH moving to the 3DS. CAPCOM didn't even know how Vita would do back then and yet decided to support 3DS anyway, despite the fact that they would have to compete with franchises from Nintendo.

The charm of Iwata I guess...

To me, it seems completely reasonable to put the biggest third party franchise on the successor of the biggest console ever in Japan; 3DS could handle Monster Hunter (DS could not) and probably in December 2010, still had to show Vita to developers.
 

Takao

Banned
SCE had shown Vita to developers well before December 2010. The very next month Capcom would demo stuff on Vita ... including Monster Hunter Portable 3rd.
 
Phantasy Star isn't a MH clone and Namco are still releasing God Eater for PSP, the addition of a Vita version would have been a simple cost-benefit analysis.
It doesn't really matter if Phantasy Star came first, it's rise is still attributable to riding MHP's coattails. On every previous major platform PS did around the same 200k or so ceiling (DC, GC, PS2, DS) except PSP where it suddenly rose to 3x that. Why do you think that is again?

And how is GE2 Vita a more attractive cost/benefit scenario than GE2 3DS? At least without Sony's involvement?
 
If I had to guess, I'd say next year is when we start to fully see the impact of MH on third-party 3DS support. But who knows.

FWIW, I wouldn't be surprised to find that Sony moneyhats were involved in keeping GE2 off 3DS for now, and I'd expect it to sell closer to Burst than GE1 due to the lack of MH coattails.
 
SCE had shown Vita to developers well before December 2010. The very next month Capcom would demo stuff on Vita ... including Monster Hunter Portable 3rd.

Probably still too late for producing a game to release on December 2011; and consider that 3G was partially outsourced and it's not even a new game. Indeed, what they shown on Vita was a PSP game. Furthermore, if 3G has entered in development on December 2010, the decision to do it was probably made way before.
 

Mpl90

Two copies sold? That's not a bomb guys, stop trolling!!!
If I had to guess, I'd say next year is when we start to fully see the impact of MH on third-party 3DS support. But who knows.

FWIW, I wouldn't be surprised to find that Sony moneyhats were involved in keeping GE2 off 3DS for now, and I'd expect it to sell closer to Burst than GE1 due to the lack of MH coattails.

I can perfectly see God Eater 2 Burst being for 3DS and Vita.
 

Erethian

Member
It doesn't really matter if Phantasy Star came first, it's rise is still attributable to riding MHP's coattails. On every previous major platform PS did around the same 200k or so ceiling (DC, GC, PS2, DS) except PSP where it suddenly rose to 3x that. Why do you think that is again?

And how is GE2 Vita a more attractive cost/benefit scenario than GE2 3DS? At least without Sony's involvement?

I wasn't talking about the Phantasy Star games that were released on PSP, I was talking about the Vita game. Which isn't anything like the PSP games, it's a F2P MMO-like.

As for God Eater 2, a Vita version is a better option than 3DS (assuming you're sticking with a main PSP release) for the same reason MH being exclusive to the 3DS is a good idea. Because when you're selling a game that is reliant on local multiplayer for its popularity, you don't want to split the userbase by making versions that can't interact with one another.

Now if you want to argue why GE2 is still a PSP/Vita game and not 3DS exclusive, that's a different story. Though I think it being so long in development, and Bandai Namco's intent to support the PSP as long as possible, make it clear why that's the case.
 

extralite

Member
Capcom made the decision to put MH on the 3DS before the price cut, so far as I know. Right around the time the system came out, according to Tsujimoto. So assuming that was the primary factor (there were obviously a lot of factors at work, Nintendo's aggressive stance on getting third-party support and Sony's complete lack thereof) it's more of a Tales of Vesperia situation, and the Vita coming out nearly a year after the 3DS hurt it a lot.

Even before the price cut the 3DS was cheaper and Nintendo's aggressive stance on getting 3rd party support resulted in the price cut as well as the frankenstick. Nothing is better advertisement for your platform than having a large user base. 3DS sales picked up immediately with the cut. Vita's sales never gained any momentum.

When the PSP launched there was the promise of Crisis Core but it was over a year off. MH wasn't in the picture at the time. What I'm saying is they should both be non-factors, early sales should come from the appeal of the current line up. Vita had a very similar launch line up as the PSP, just better. Still almost all recurring franchises declined greatly and hardware sales fell off instantly.

Price is/was an important factor in holding back those two system's sales, and the publishers know this. Nintendo could reduce the price, Sony still can't. Capcom understood this as well and they could have shifted development either way, as they did with PS3 MH to Wii.

As for ToV, Tales was already going everywhere and predictably for Sony fans also to Sony with a definitive version (ToS). MH on the other hand doesn't jump systems a lot and bringing it to 3DS was a commitment, unlike Vesperia which was followed up with Graces very quickly. It's not a good comparison, especially since its system did miserably despite having a head start.

A head start is an important advantage though, when the system is popular. 3DS became popular the moment its price was dropped. MH3G announcement followed shortly after this. These are not coincidences.
 

Erethian

Member
As for ToV, Tales was already going everywhere and predictably for Sony fans also to Sony with a definitive version (ToS). MH on the other hand doesn't jump systems a lot and bringing it to 3DS was a commitment, unlike Vesperia which was followed up with Graces very quickly. It's not a good comparison, especially since its system did miserably despite having a head start.

I only mention Tales of Vesperia because part of the decision to release it on the 360 was because the team wanted to make an HD game and the PS3 wasn't an option yet.

Also notice how I said it wasn't the only factor.
 

Bruno MB

Member
Prediction League November 2012

Predict how much these titles will sell in the month (from Oct 29 to Nov 25):

[PS3] Tales of Xillia 2 (25 d) - 364,000
[PS3] Yakuza 1 & 2 HD (25 d) - 100,000
[3DS] Animal Crossing: New Leaf (18 d) - 585,000
[PSP] Summon Night 4 (11 d) - 61,000
[PS3] Everybody's Golf 6 (4 d) - 58,000
[PS3+3DS] E.X. Troopers (4 d) - 76,000
[PS3+360] Call of Duty: Black Ops II - Subtitled (4 d) - 188,000
[3DS] Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Magnagate (3 d) - 235,000
 

Takao

Banned
And how is GE2 Vita a more attractive cost/benefit scenario than GE2 3DS? At least without Sony's involvement?

Sony's involvement is precisely what makes it a better cost/benefit scenario than doing PSP/3DS. As I've said earlier, based on LBX W I suspect SCE is offering developers PSP -> Vita development tools and given they offer PSP/PS2 -> PS3 tools I think it's very likely they have the same for their handhelds. Comparatively, this makes a Vita conversion a considerably less costly production than having to port the entire game with no tools for 3DS. Using LBX W as a base example, these tools will allow multiplayer between PSP and Vita (which IIRC God Eater 2 has been confirmed to support PSP<->Vita multiplayer) owners which is ever so important for these local multiplayer based games. PSP/3DS isn't going to allow that. Lastly, there's marketing. Scamco isn't going to get Nintendo to market God Eater 2 if it's PSP/3DS, and neither will they get SCE's help. PSP/Vita? Yep.
 
Sony's involvement is precisely what makes it a better cost/benefit scenario than doing PSP/3DS. As I've said earlier, based on LBX W I suspect SCE is offering developers PSP -> Vita development tools and given they offer PSP/PS2 -> PS3 tools I think it's very likely they have the same for their handhelds. Comparatively, this makes a Vita conversion a considerably less costly production than having to port the entire game with no tools for 3DS. Using LBX W as a base example, these tools will allow multiplayer between PSP and Vita (which IIRC God Eater 2 has been confirmed to support PSP<->Vita multiplayer) owners which is ever so important for these local multiplayer based games. PSP/3DS isn't going to allow that. Lastly, there's marketing. Scamco isn't going to get Nintendo to market God Eater 2 if it's PSP/3DS, and neither will they get SCE's help. PSP/Vita? Yep.

Most of this makes sense, but not so much the bolded. Nintendo hasn't had qualms about featuring Time Travelers or EX Troopers in Nintendo Direct. (But if you're referring to hardware bundles and such, you might have more of a point)
 

Takao

Banned
Most of this makes sense, but not so much the bolded. Nintendo hasn't had qualms about featuring Time Travelers or EX Troopers in Nintendo Direct. (But if you're referring to hardware bundles and such, you might have more of a point)

I mean a lot more than Nintendo Direct. I mean actually paying for marketing campaigns.
 
Sony, kill the fucking psp in Japan.

PSP is making money for Sony right now, both on HW and SW it sells. And as others have pointed out, killing it now would move the customer base to the 3DS, not to Vita. It makes no sense to kill it right now. Made sense for Nintendo to kill the DS at that time, the same doesn't hold true for Sony and the PSP now.

Sony were uncompetitive (ignoring Vita here and just concentrating on software); they didn't sell the PSP with their software - Capcom did, they created the foundations for a platform, not Sony. Sony doesn't have the 'its playstation! its portable!' at launch either; their not the same company as when the PSP launched, and the markets very different.


SCEJ's reliance on 3rd party SW has finally bitten them in the ass big time. It's also pretty obvious that the PS4 is in jeopardy there with all major JP franchises going to the WiiU, seemingly exclusively (only FF and KH are missing right now, but I think they will go there do if nothing else changes). Other big but non million selling franchises such as RE has been hinted as well. Same thing happened with SCEA and SCEE at the beginning of this generation when MS literally took all 3rd party games and made them multiplatform games, often (timed) exclusive, and better on 360. SCEA and SCEE stepped their game up though and have created a plethora of franchises, some are hits, some are misses, but they were able to establish some good franchises and even some system selling ones. On top of that they are growing and the outlook there looks good. SCEJ on the other hand is diminishing and their outlook does not look good. Puppeteer and Rain look decent, but so did Patapon and Locorocco. At least they are publishing SCEA and SCEE's games now instead of letting others like Capcom publish them (Capcom published GOW games prior to 3, maybe unsurprisingly 3 sold the best in JP, by far)

SCEJ's two biggest franchise are in steep decline. GT has failed to reach 1 million sold for the first time in JP and HSG can be considered a 200K IP now. Honestly, Soul Sacrifice should have been made for the PSP around MH3 time. Legend of Dragoon and Dark Cloud should have gotten a remake or sequel 3 years ago. New RPG IPs should have been created, they did well by going to L5 during the PS2 days, but L5 is doing its own thing now and WKC was horrible probably because L5 was focusing on other things at the time and just wanted the paycheck at the end of the day. Given that they can't even update the xmb/browser and won't let SCEA/SCEE help with it, I do not feel confident they can turn the situation around. Heck, the new store only came to fruition because SCEE was able to pull that away from SCEJ's dirty claws. Outside of buying a big 3rd party partner, I think the future of playstation in Japan is pretty dim.
 
Predictions:

[PS3] Tales of Xillia 2 (25 d) - 435,000
[PS3] Yakuza 1 & 2 HD (25 d) - 112,000
[3DS] Animal Crossing: New Leaf (18 d) - 992,000
[PSP] Summon Night 4 (11 d) - 71,000
[PS3] Everybody's Golf 6 (4 d) - 64,000
[PS3+3DS] E.X. Troopers (4 d) - 85,000
[PS3+360] Call of Duty: Black Ops II - Subtitled (4 d) - 356,000
[3DS] Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Magnagate (3 d) - 291,000
 
I wasn't talking about the Phantasy Star games that were released on PSP, I was talking about the Vita game. Which isn't anything like the PSP games, it's a F2P MMO-like.
Well, I'd argue a handheld at all is an illogical destination for a MMO-like that requires an always present network connection (even for 1p) and has no local multiplayer component. It's really at odds with the platform, and without a SCE push I really don't understand why PSO2 Vita even exists. Even console ports would make more sense.

In general though I was speaking more to the brand over this specific game. PSO2 wouldn't make sense on 3DS either, but a continuation of the PSP series would. Even a lazy port of PSP2i or something, I mean between the announcement if MH 3DS to the release of PSO2 Vita it'll have been over 1.5 years (and devs likely knew of MH3G well before that). Why not release *something* in all that empty space? It's not like Alfasystem's been up to much?


As for God Eater 2, a Vita version is a better option than 3DS (assuming you're sticking with a main PSP release) for the same reason MH being exclusive to the 3DS is a good idea. Because when you're selling a game that is reliant on local multiplayer for its popularity, you don't want to split the userbase by making versions that can't interact with one another.

Now if you want to argue why GE2 is still a PSP/Vita game and not 3DS exclusive, that's a different story. Though I think it being so long in development, and Bandai Namco's intent to support the PSP as long as possible, make it clear why that's the case.
Local multi makes sense, but why bother with Vita at all if you're going after the waning PSP audience? It's extra work for an arguably tiny return, plus long term it sends the message to your base that Vita and not 3DS is the franchise's future home. Both short and long term, I don't see much reason for GE2 Vita unless (again) Sony had a direct hand in making that happen. There are good arguments for GE2 PSP or GE2 3DS, but GE2 Vita?
 

Foshy

Member
Interesting how FIFA 13 sold more on Vita than on PSP while Little Battlers is completely different. Shows how people will get the Vita version if it's significantly better and not just an up-rezzed port.

Also, predictions:

[PS3] Tales of Xillia 2 (25 d) - 287'666
[PS3] Yakuza 1 & 2 HD (25 d) - 86'555
[3DS] Animal Crossing: New Leaf (18 d) - 740'999
[PSP] Summon Night 4 (11 d) - 54'321
[PS3] Everybody's Golf 6 (4 d) - 64'646
[PS3+3DS] E.X. Troopers (4 d) - 102'345
[PS3+360] Call of Duty: Black Ops II - Subtitled (4 d) - 165'432
[3DS] Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Magnagate (3 d) - 375'789
 

Takao

Banned
Interesting how FIFA 13 sold more on Vita than on PSP while Little Battlers is completely different. Shows how people will get the Vita version if it's significantly better and not just an up-rezzed port.

Helps that there's no PES on Vita, when there is on PSP but ultimately when you're talking about such small sales it doesn't really matter which sells more.
 
For those who missed it, the Producer of Bravely Default mentioned plans for a sequel (likely on 3DS still) in the slightly distant future.
 

Lonely1

Unconfirmed Member
European PlayStation Vita sales have settled into a slump since Sony's machine launched earlier this year.

That's according to new figures released by Nintendo as part of its financial report. The data reveals that in Europe weekly 3DS sales are regularly more than double that of the Vita - sometimes far more.

And, just like in Japan, Vita is being outstripped sales-wise by ageing predecessor the PSP.

Eurogamer.

Sony... :/

For those who missed it, the Producer of Bravely Default mentioned plans for a sequel (likely on 3DS still) in the slightly distant future.

Isn't it the recently announced F2P PC game?
 

jimmypython

Member
For those who missed it, the Producer of Bravely Default mentioned plans for a sequel (likely on 3DS still) in the slightly distant future.

Yeah, I remember I read from HACHIMA that the producer said the franchise will stay on 3DS so if you want to play BDFF please buy a 3DS...or something like this.
 

Fabrik

Banned
PSP is making money for Sony right now, both on HW and SW it sells. And as others have pointed out, killing it now would move the customer base to the 3DS, not to Vita. It makes no sense to kill it right now. Made sense for Nintendo to kill the DS at that time, the same doesn't hold true for Sony and the PSP now.




SCEJ's reliance on 3rd party SW has finally bitten them in the ass big time. It's also pretty obvious that the PS4 is in jeopardy there with all major JP franchises going to the WiiU, seemingly exclusively (only FF and KH are missing right now, but I think they will go there do if nothing else changes). Other big but non million selling franchises such as RE has been hinted as well. Same thing happened with SCEA and SCEE at the beginning of this generation when MS literally took all 3rd party games and made them multiplatform games, often (timed) exclusive, and better on 360. SCEA and SCEE stepped their game up though and have created a plethora of franchises, some are hits, some are misses, but they were able to establish some good franchises and even some system selling ones. On top of that they are growing and the outlook there looks good. SCEJ on the other hand is diminishing and their outlook does not look good. Puppeteer and Rain look decent, but so did Patapon and Locorocco. At least they are publishing SCEA and SCEE's games now instead of letting others like Capcom publish them (Capcom published GOW games prior to 3, maybe unsurprisingly 3 sold the best in JP, by far)

SCEJ's two biggest franchise are in steep decline. GT has failed to reach 1 million sold for the first time in JP and HSG can be considered a 200K IP now. Honestly, Soul Sacrifice should have been made for the PSP around MH3 time. Legend of Dragoon and Dark Cloud should have gotten a remake or sequel 3 years ago. New RPG IPs should have been created, they did well by going to L5 during the PS2 days, but L5 is doing its own thing now and WKC was horrible probably because L5 was focusing on other things at the time and just wanted the paycheck at the end of the day. Given that they can't even update the xmb/browser and won't let SCEA/SCEE help with it, I do not feel confident they can turn the situation around. Heck, the new store only came to fruition because SCEE was able to pull that away from SCEJ's dirty claws. Outside of buying a big 3rd party partner, I think the future of playstation in Japan is pretty dim.

That's my analysis as well.
 
eurogamer said:
European PlayStation Vita sales have settled into a slump since Sony's machine launched earlier this year.

That's according to new figures released by Nintendo as part of its financial report. The data reveals that in Europe weekly 3DS sales are regularly Quadruple that of the Vita - sometimes far more.

And, just like in Japan, Vita is being outstripped sales-wise by ageing predecessor the PSP.

Eurogamer.

Fixed
 

jimmypython

Member
SCEJ's reliance on 3rd party SW has finally bitten them in the ass big time. It's also pretty obvious that the PS4 is in jeopardy there with all major JP franchises going to the WiiU, seemingly exclusively (only FF and KH are missing right now, but I think they will go there do if nothing else changes). Other big but non million selling franchises such as RE has been hinted as well. Same thing happened with SCEA and SCEE at the beginning of this generation when MS literally took all 3rd party games and made them multiplatform games, often (timed) exclusive, and better on 360. SCEA and SCEE stepped their game up though and have created a plethora of franchises, some are hits, some are misses, but they were able to establish some good franchises and even some system selling ones. On top of that they are growing and the outlook there looks good. SCEJ on the other hand is diminishing and their outlook does not look good. Puppeteer and Rain look decent, but so did Patapon and Locorocco. At least they are publishing SCEA and SCEE's games now instead of letting others like Capcom publish them (Capcom published GOW games prior to 3, maybe unsurprisingly 3 sold the best in JP, by far)

SCEJ's two biggest franchise are in steep decline. GT has failed to reach 1 million sold for the first time in JP and HSG can be considered a 200K IP now. Honestly, Soul Sacrifice should have been made for the PSP around MH3 time. Legend of Dragoon and Dark Cloud should have gotten a remake or sequel 3 years ago. New RPG IPs should have been created, they did well by going to L5 during the PS2 days, but L5 is doing its own thing now and WKC was horrible probably because L5 was focusing on other things at the time and just wanted the paycheck at the end of the day. Given that they can't even update the xmb/browser and won't let SCEA/SCEE help with it, I do not feel confident they can turn the situation around. Heck, the new store only came to fruition because SCEE was able to pull that away from SCEJ's dirty claws. Outside of buying a big 3rd party partner, I think the future of playstation in Japan is pretty dim.

Nice. this sums up pretty well and reminded me Demon's Souls again. What a shame.
The recent effort (Soul Sacrifice and Gravity Rush) seems a bit too late. Those games should also have been out 3 years ago. Also, I don't know if it is a good choice to link Soul Sacrifice heavily to a person (Kenji Inafune) instead of SCEJ.
 

Man God

Non-Canon Member
I mention this pretty much every other thread and it's crazy to think about but makes perfect sense in Japan.

The Vita would be doing poorly, but quite a bit better if the thing had a UMD drive in it. The PSP has a fantastic library and UMDs are insanely cheap used. The price difference between the PSP and Vita isn't ridiculous just like it isn't between DS and 3DS and people would have moved on. Yes it would have ruined the profile of the unit. Yes it would have made the battery life for those games terrible. Yes it would have cost more money to put it in there so they left it out with good reason. Still doesn't mean that it might have been the biggest mistake of all.
 
SCEJ's reliance on 3rd party SW has finally bitten them in the ass big time. It's also pretty obvious that the PS4 is in jeopardy there with all major JP franchises going to the WiiU, seemingly exclusively (only FF and KH are missing right now, but I think they will go there do if nothing else changes). Other big but non million selling franchises such as RE has been hinted as well. Same thing happened with SCEA and SCEE at the beginning of this generation when MS literally took all 3rd party games and made them multiplatform games, often (timed) exclusive, and better on 360. SCEA and SCEE stepped their game up though and have created a plethora of franchises, some are hits, some are misses, but they were able to establish some good franchises and even some system selling ones. On top of that they are growing and the outlook there looks good. SCEJ on the other hand is diminishing and their outlook does not look good. Puppeteer and Rain look decent, but so did Patapon and Locorocco. At least they are publishing SCEA and SCEE's games now instead of letting others like Capcom publish them (Capcom published GOW games prior to 3, maybe unsurprisingly 3 sold the best in JP, by far)

SCEJ's two biggest franchise are in steep decline. GT has failed to reach 1 million sold for the first time in JP and HSG can be considered a 200K IP now. Honestly, Soul Sacrifice should have been made for the PSP around MH3 time. Legend of Dragoon and Dark Cloud should have gotten a remake or sequel 3 years ago. New RPG IPs should have been created, they did well by going to L5 during the PS2 days, but L5 is doing its own thing now and WKC was horrible probably because L5 was focusing on other things at the time and just wanted the paycheck at the end of the day. Given that they can't even update the xmb/browser and won't let SCEA/SCEE help with it, I do not feel confident they can turn the situation around. Heck, the new store only came to fruition because SCEE was able to pull that away from SCEJ's dirty claws. Outside of buying a big 3rd party partner, I think the future of playstation in Japan is pretty dim.

WiiU is really going to be a hit for at least one year. Then we don't have any idea what will happen. We don't even know what the PS4 will be yet (if I were Sony I'd be seeing the price of the WiiU and realising that I can compete with them with an ordinary controller and a medium cost console (basically this gens 360)); so its too early for doom and gloom.

If Nintendo tear off with the WiiU (in Japan its looking like they likely will strongly) then they've got a good head start, but as long as the PS4 is a moderate success and is grabbing some market share - it'll have some form of backing; plus they do have some first parties and will likely launch new IPs at the start of the generation.

FFXV is the big unknown, is it this gen or next gen? Or not really anywhere? Personally I doubt it'll go back to single platform, also series like it and KH (not as big as once) will be heavily dependent on Worldwide sales of the WiiU. Same with numbered RE releases.


All too early to say. Sony should be 'fine' but how much they can compete by depends on a lot of things we just don't know about. And honestly their internal factors more than anything - if they can pull together a decent system and support it well they should do okay.
 

Chris1964

Sales-Age Genius
First day sellthrough

The Idolmaster: Shiny Fest - 60-70%, could reach SP first week sales
Borderlands 2 < 70%
Dark Souls with Artorias of the Abyss Edition - 60%
AKB48+Me - hoping for weekend rise
 
IMO, it's way too early to say that Wii U will dominate over PS4 in Japan, considering that we know next to nothing about what third parties have lined up for even the former in 2013. DQ and MH are significant, don't get me wrong, but what about console franchises that actually matter outside Japan, as well as those that don't but still seem to be tied sales-wise to said franchises (Tales)?
 
I'm expecting FFXV and KH3 on PS3 yet. Maybe PS3/Wii U multi.

There's a very good chance PS4 could get Vita'd imo, though PS3 was less centralized around one huge franchise than PSP was so Nintendo would need to cast the net wider (FF, MGS, Yakuza, etc). I think just securing FFXVI might not be enough.
 

Chris1964

Sales-Age Genius
New releases {2012.11.01}

[3DS] Nintendo 3DS LL Black <H-W> (Nintendo) (¥18.900)
[3DS] Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate [Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate Pack] <ACT> (Capcom) (¥21.800)
[3DS] World Soccer Winning Eleven 2013 <SPT> (Konami) (¥4.980)

[PSP] World Soccer Winning Eleven 2013 <SPT> (Konami) (¥3.980)
[PSP] NBA 2K13 <SPT> (Take-Two Interactive Japan) (¥5.040)
[PSP] Ore no Shikabane wo Koete Yuke (PSP the Best) <RPG> (Sony Computer Entertainment) (¥2.800)
[PSP] White Knight Chronicles: Origins (PSP the Best) <RPG> (Sony Computer Entertainment) (¥1.800)
[PSP] Patapon 2: Don-Chaka (PSP the Best Reprint) <SLG> (Sony Computer Entertainment) (¥1.800)
[PSP] Work Time Fun (PSP the Best Reprint) <ETC> (Sony Computer Entertainment) (¥1.800)

[WII] Winning Eleven Play Maker 2013 <SPT> (Konami) (¥4.980)

[PS3] Tales of Xillia 2 <RPG> (Bandai Namco Games) (¥8.380)
[PS3] Yakuza 1 & 2 HD Edition <ADV> (Sega) (¥5.229)
[PS3] Okami HD <ADV> (Capcom) (¥3.990)
[PS3] Dead Island: Zombie of the Year Edition <ADV> (Spike Chunsoft) (¥3.990)
[PS3] NBA 2K13 <SPT> (Take-Two Interactive Japan) (¥6.090)

[360] Dead Island: Zombie of the Year Edition <ADV> (Spike Chunsoft) (¥3.990)
[360] NBA 2K13 <SPT> (Take-Two Interactive Japan) (¥6.090)
 
PSP(2011 YTD)= 1,604,814
PSP+PSV(2012)=1,228,727(-23.4%)

Looking ahead to Week 43, PSP did 30,605 in 2011.

3DS+DS(2011 YTD)=2,749,029
3DS+DS(2012 YTD)=3,528,631(+28.4%)

Looking ahead to week 43, 3DS+DS did 68,166 in 2011.

All handhelds(2011 YTD)=4,353,843
All handhelds(2012 YTD)=4,757,358 (+9.3%)

Some extra info looking ahead, total sales for 2011.
PSP=2,079,152
PSP+PSV=2,519,138(PSP and Vita combined might not hit PSP total alone, completely forget about combined)

3DS=4,282,142
3DS+DS=4,939,929(Is this guaranteed to be beat? Ahead of the pace by a decent amount right now, needs to average 141K a week for last 10 weeks.)

All handhelds=7,459,067(Another one that doesn't seem to me like it can be beat)
 

extralite

Member
I only mention Tales of Vesperia because part of the decision to release it on the 360 was because the team wanted to make an HD game and the PS3 wasn't an option yet.

Also notice how I said it wasn't the only factor.

Again, that makes it very different from MH3G and MH4. By putting them on 3DS the Vita ceased to be an option for reasons discussed to death in these threads. Unless Capcom breaks the pattern for the big releases of the series.
 

Hobby

Member
Not sure if anyone cares, and take this with a grain of salt, but there are reports on 2ch saying Yodobashi and Seven Eleven started selling Animal Crossing: New Leaf download cards today.
 

squall23

Member
L5 needs to layoff the LittleBattlers games for a year at least. Holy shit, talk about flooding the market.
Level 5 and stopping franchises for a year.

DmbX4.jpg
 
Sony's involvement is precisely what makes it a better cost/benefit scenario than doing PSP/3DS. As I've said earlier, based on LBX W I suspect SCE is offering developers PSP -> Vita development tools and given they offer PSP/PS2 -> PS3 tools I think it's very likely they have the same for their handhelds. Comparatively, this makes a Vita conversion a considerably less costly production than having to port the entire game with no tools for 3DS. Using LBX W as a base example, these tools will allow multiplayer between PSP and Vita (which IIRC God Eater 2 has been confirmed to support PSP<->Vita multiplayer) owners which is ever so important for these local multiplayer based games. PSP/3DS isn't going to allow that. Lastly, there's marketing. Scamco isn't going to get Nintendo to market God Eater 2 if it's PSP/3DS, and neither will they get SCE's help. PSP/Vita? Yep.

Is Sony's involvement official in both cases? Because, in my opinion, it's not. Those games are on Vita because Level-5 and Namco Bandai realized PSP was declining, and the only viable platform that allowed cross-play was Vita; probably they relied on Vita also because of the future of the series. But Level-5 didn't wait too much to bring LBX on 3DS, and that means that they probably have other plans that continuing on Vita.
 
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