Support NeoGAF

[BishopLamont]

but doesn't this sink the Vita ship even more into the depths of the ocean?? everyone avoids Vita like a pest, they should be releasing games for next (current) gen already.

I've always said it, it is in the own interest of devs/publishers to help keep hardware alive, since it is there where they can subsist, having the "sorry, your hardware hasn't sold" mindset will bite them in the ass as options and platforms start disappearing.

they can keep doing games for PSP but once that is gone and Vita dies a premature death (if it does), they'll only have nintendo like in the gameboy days.

You say this like its bad for third parties, remember the PS2? No one was complaining.

Ignoring the market leader is never a good idea, everyone learnt this last gen.

 

[SlipperySlope]

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

And not one Vita game.......

 

[Metallix87]

L5 needs to layoff the LittleBattlers games for a year at least. Holy shit, talk about flooding the market.

First things first, they need to update the second game and release it on 3DS.

 

[MasterSheen]

[PS3] Tales of Xillia 2 - 325k
[PS3] Yakuza 1 & 2 HD - 95k
[3DS] Animal Crossing: New Leaf - 600k
[PSP] Summon Night 4 - 66k
[PS3] Everybody's Golf 6 - 50k
[PS3+3DS] E.X. Troopers - 44k
[PS3+360] Call of Duty: Black Ops II - Subtitled - 175k
[3DS] Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Magnagate - 200k

 

[BladeoftheImmortal]

Level 5 and stopping franchises for a year.

I know it's a dream, but they should do it.

 

[Yeshua]

[PS3] Tales of Xillia 2 - 470000
[PS3] Yakuza 1 & 2 HD - 70000
[3DS] Animal Crossing: New Leaf - 800000
[PSP] Summon Night 4 - 50000
[PS3] Everybody's Golf 6 - 50000
[PS3+3DS] E.X. Troopers - 150000
[PS3+360] Call of Duty: Black Ops II - Subtitled - 200000
[3DS] Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Magnagate - 350000

 

[XDDX]

Predictions:

[PS3] Tales of Xillia 2 (25 d)- 385,000
[PS3] Yakuza 1 & 2 HD (25 d)- 90,000
[3DS] Animal Crossing: New Leaf (18 d)- 590,000
[PSP] Summon Night 4 (11 d)- 80,000
[PS3] Everybody's Golf 6 (4 d) - 70,000
[PS3+3DS] E.X. Troopers (4 d) - 120,000
[PS3+360] Call of Duty: Black Ops II - Subtitled (4 d) - 200,000
[3DS] Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Magnagate (3 d) - 230,000

I really have no idea what EX Troopers will do.

 

[StreetsAhead]

So, the largest department store in my city has cut its Vita shelf space (again.) It's now at the end of one aisle, facing out to passing customers. That it. One small TV displaying games, two shelves of game boxes and one for hardware/accessories. Looked more like they were trying to get rid of stock more than anything.

 

[frankie_baby]

So, the largest department store in my city has cut its Vita shelf space (again.) It's now at the end of one aisle, facing out to passing customers. That it. One small TV displaying games, two shelves of game boxes and one for hardware/accessories. Looked more like they were trying to get rid of stock more than anything.

Did they have any of the newer releases?

 

[Takao]

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.

With LBX I have to imagine SCEJ was footing the bill for this given it's a campaign that started on their site, not Level-5's. I can't say SCE pushed them to make a Vita SKU since as you said with the PSP slowing down some companies may want to minimize sales loss with an easy port. As others and myself have said LBX is truly a wrecked franchise right now so who knows what drives Level-5 to do what they do. Did they spend so much money on that engine that it required this many releases:

[PSP] Little Battlers eXperience (2011)
[PSP] Little Battlers eXperience Boost (2011)
[3DS] Little Battlers eXperience Explosive Boost (2012)
[PSP] Gundam AGE: Universe Axel (2012)
[PSP] Gundam AGE: Cosmic Drive (2012)
[PSP] Little Battlers eXperience W (2012)
[PSV] Little Battlers eXperience W (2012)

 

[Oxx]

HD Remasters of existing LBX titles for PS3 and WiiU. Two at a time. Gotta keep up that momentum.

 

[Celine]

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.

Simply not feasible.
Also Vita need something more than PSP software to start to outsell its old predecessor.

While as you said that would have made available the cheap and big PSP library the price for Vita would have been higher, it would have impacted negatively power consumption too (and Vita battery life isn't that great to begin with, 3DS too).
Not to talk about hardware reliability.
A mechanical drive in an handheld is absolutely stupid, no idea what Sony engineers were thinking when they were designing PSP.

 

[test_account]

A mechanical drive in an handheld is absolutely stupid, no idea what Sony engineers were thinking when they were designing PSP.

I guess the idea with UMD was to offer much storage space (for the game developers) for a cheap price. They also made UMD movies, so maybe this was one chosing factor for the format as well (the PSP being a portable game, music and video/movie player).

Generally speaking, has the UMD drive caused much problems? I havnt really heard anything around this.

 

[Gianni Merryman]

A mechanical drive in an handheld is absolutely stupid, no idea what Sony engineers were thinking when they were designing PSP.

I don't think the decision was up to hardware designers.

Sony has always tried to impose their own formats(VHS vs Betamax, MiniDiscs, DVD, BluRay) and imo in their vision PSP was supposed to be the trojan horse for UMDs, just like PS3 with Bluray.

 

[Takao]

UMD was meant to be for handheld gaming as CD was meant for console gaming. UMDs were cheap to make versus the cost of cartridges. The idea behind UMDs were great, but misguided for a portable device. You can tell this was a device designed under the Idei-era of Sony. It wasn't a forward thinking device.

 

[frankie_baby]

I don't think the decision was up to hardware designers.

Sony has always tried to impose their own formats(VHS vs Betamax, MiniDiscs, DVD, BluRay) and imo in their vision PSP was supposed to be the trojan horse for UMDs, just like PS3 with Bluray.

Were there ever any hints regarding UMDs being used in any other products? Either from Sony or anyone else

 

[Gianni Merryman]

Were there ever any hints regarding UMDs being used in any other products? Either from Sony or anyone else

I don't think so - and none of us know what could have happened if UMD had established a foothold with PSP -, but that's beyond the point, since Sony as a cinema producer put clearly its weight on its own proprietary format and intended the PSP to be a handheld media-device, before IPhone and IPad were even out.

 

[electroplankton]

With LBX I have to imagine SCEJ was footing the bill for this given it's a campaign that started on their site, not Level-5's. I can't say SCE pushed them to make a Vita SKU since as you said with the PSP slowing down some companies may want to minimize sales loss with an easy port. As others and myself have said LBX is truly a wrecked franchise right now so who knows what drives Level-5 to do what they do. Did they spend so much money on that engine that it required this many releases:

Short story: it's more likely Sony wasn't involved at all.

 

[Sammy Samusu]

Animal Crossing: Nintendo Direct - 1.1M views in less than a month.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EU5aQT8S1CI

Dragon Quest X: Nintendo Direct - 180k views in three months.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5aoxtxge5M

Japan is not ready

Spoiler

(and neither is Reggie)

.

 

[frankie_baby]

Animal Crossing: Nintendo Direct - 1.1M views in less than a month.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EU5aQT8S1CI

Dragon Quest X: Nintendo Direct - 180k views in three months.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5aoxtxge5M

Japan is not ready

Spoiler

(and neither is Reggie)

.

I'm actually thinking animal crossing could possibly do 2 million by the end of the year

 

[zroid]

Dengeki Sales: Oct 15 - Oct 21, 2012 (Week 42)
02. (01) [3DS] Bravely Default: Flying Fairy (Square Enix) - 44,433 / 184,674 (-68%)
03. (02) [PS3] Resident Evil 6 (Capcom) - 37,272 / 776,777 (-64%)

I don't know whether to arbitrarily support MC numbers this week, where BDFF tracked more units, or Famitsu numbers, where BDFF tracked fewer units but outsold RE6.

it's a dilemma

You should clearly wait for the Dengeki numbers to decide which numbers fit your bias the most.

Wait for dengeki, might get the best of both worlds

You guys are the best. Dengeki wins.

 

[Man God]

Actually back when the UMD was first announced Sony hinted at a UMD drive in the PS3, but then again that was the era of multi gigabit ethernet, 2 HDMI port PS3.

 

[Takao]

Actually back when the UMD was first announced Sony hinted at a UMD drive in the PS3, but then again that was the era of multi gigabit ethernet, 2 HDMI port PS3.

Are you sure you're not confusing that for the fan mock up from years ago?

 

[frankie_baby]

You guys are the best. Dengeki wins.

 

[donny2112]

There's a very good chance PS4 could get Vita'd imo,

Not a chance. It'll still get multi-plats as much as possible, since the HD games need those extra options to sell to make back their budget. Vita isn't even getting that. No way PS4 does like Vita and misses out on easy multi-plats, too.

 

[Currygan]

I'm actually thinking animal crossing could possibly do 2 million by the end of the year

not impossible. I'd wager 650k for first week sales, the hype is just beyond containment in Japan it seems

 

[donny2112]

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)- 500K
[PS3] Yakuza 1 & 2 HD (25 d)- 350K
[3DS] Animal Crossing: New Leaf (18 d)- 1200K
[PSP] Summon Night 4 (11 d)- 30K
[PS3] Everybody's Golf 6 (4 d) - 150K
[PS3+3DS] E.X. Troopers (4 d) - 100K
[PS3+360] Call of Duty: Black Ops II - Subtitled (4 d) - 230K
[3DS] Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Magnagate (3 d) - 100K

 

[StreetsAhead]

Did they have any of the newer releases?

They had at least one copy of Miku, but I didn't see what the others were.

 

[lunchwithyuzo]

Not a chance. It'll still get multi-plats as much as possible, since the HD games need those extra options to sell to make back their budget. Vita isn't even getting that. No way PS4 does like Vita and misses out on easy multi-plats, too.

I'm not sure, at least in regards to Japan. I can definitely see PS4 making a lot of similar mistakes as Vita (needlessly power/cost jumping competition, failing to go after 3rd party support, year late release, over-supporting predecessor too long, etc).

 

[schuelma]

I'm not sure, at least in regards to Japan. I can definitely see PS4 making a lot of similar mistakes as Vita (needlessly power/cost jumping competition, failing to go after 3rd party support, year late release, over-supporting predecessor too long, etc).

No I think you are off there. PS3 ended up being relatively profitable at the end for a lot of 3rd parties.

Even if Wi U takes off, I think 3rd parties will include PS4 in most of their plans..but I do think most companies will not be using all of the horsepower.

 

[lunchwithyuzo]

No I think you are off there. PS3 ended up being relatively profitable at the end for a lot of 3rd parties.

And PSP didn't? Hindsight and all that, but pretty much no one predicted how badly Sony would handle that transition and given SCEI's recent moves I'm not convinced PS4 won't repeat some of those mistakes (or make new ones).

Even if Wi U takes off, I think 3rd parties will include PS4 in most of their plans..but I do think most companies will not be using all of the horsepower.

It's not just Wii U, it's also still PS3 and (especially) 3DS. I think it's not entirely unlikely that at least for Japan, the support decline you saw from PS2 to PS3 or PSP to Vita could be repeated again with PS3 to PS4. From what we're hearing, PS4's not exactly sounding like a platform ideally suited to the Japanese market or industry and SCEI is now in the weakest position they've been in basically since they formed in the early 1990s. Perfect storm brewing.

PS4's best hope is essentially the west, and how much that can pull in western Durango (and maybe Wii U and/or PC) multiplatform support. And to say the least, that's not a great prospect for a system in Japan.

 

[electroplankton]

not impossible. I'd wager 650k for first week sales, the hype is just beyond containment in Japan it seems

The problem is not demand. It's supply.

 

[Nirolak]

To me, the only way the PS4 could fail to get Japanese third party support is if Capcom, Square Enix, and Kojima Productions complete give up on trying to sell games in the West, since otherwise they're going to be targeting very high end games and there will definitely be PS4 version.

Beyond that, I don't really see Namco giving up on the platform after how their experiments with moving to two seemingly superior choices failed this generation even with Sony trying their absolute hardest to kill off their Japanese audience for years.

 

[Orgen]

Predictions:

[PS3] Tales of Xillia 2 (25 d)- 523K
[PS3] Yakuza 1 & 2 HD (25 d)- 176K
[3DS] Animal Crossing: New Leaf (18 d)- 989K
[PSP] Summon Night 4 (11 d)- 64K
[PS3] Everybody's Golf 6 (4 d) - 135K
[PS3+3DS] E.X. Troopers (4 d) - 111K
[PS3+360] Call of Duty: Black Ops II - Subtitled (4 d) - 207K
[3DS] Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Magnagate (3 d) - 148K

 

[ItWasMeantToBe19]

To me, the only way the PS4 could fail to get Japanese third party support is if Capcom, Square Enix, and Kojima Productions complete give up on trying to sell games in the West, since otherwise they're going to be targeting very high end games and there will definitely be PS4 version.

Beyond that, I don't really see Namco giving up on the platform after how their experiments with moving to two seemingly superior choices failed this generation even with Sony trying their absolute hardest to kill off their Japanese audience for years.

That's Final Fantasy, MGS, and Resident Evil for the platform, but I don't know if there will be much or much else. Square didn't really make many major PS360 games and Konami barely exists and MGS6 probably won't be until 2017 or 2018 going by a four year dev cycle.

 

[Principate]

To me, the only way the PS4 could fail to get Japanese third party support is if Capcom, Square Enix, and Kojima Productions complete give up on trying to sell games in the West, since otherwise they're going to be targeting very high end games and there will definitely be PS4 version.

Beyond that, I don't really see Namco giving up on the platform after how their experiments with moving to two seemingly superior choices failed this generation even with Sony trying their absolute hardest to kill off their Japanese audience for years.

TBF that's not exactly the best of arguements, might as well compare it to the 360, which still gets "support" from Japanese devs despite being pretty much dead in Japan.

 

[schuelma]

And PSP didn't? Hindsight and all that, but pretty much no one predicted how badly Sony would handle that transition and given SCEI's recent moves I'm not convinced PS4 won't repeat some of those mistakes (or make new ones).

.

Big big difference- Wii U has a lot more to prove to 3rd parties than 3DS did.

 

[Nirolak]

That's Final Fantasy, MGS, and Resident Evil for the platform, but I don't know if there will be much or much else. Square didn't really make many major PS360 games and Konami barely exists and MGS6 probably won't be until 2017 or 2018 going by a four year dev cycle.

And those brands bring in an audience that wants to buy other games.

The lack of major entries key brands is basically what's killing the Vita and is what killed a lot of the Wii's third party support.

Having Final Fantasy XIII on PS3 for example greatly helps Tales since a lot of potential customers already own the console for the bigger game.

Monster Hunter coming to PSP and being followed by a sea of local co-op games is another example.

TBF that's not exactly the best of arguements, might as well compare it to the 360, which still gets "support" from Japanese devs despite being pretty much dead in Japan.

I would propose this happens because the developers were already making multiplatform versions of their games to sell internationally.

Though, maybe I'm a bit dense today, but I'm not exactly following your general point in relation to mine. Are you saying that the system doesn't need big games or that the system isn't likely to get big games?

 

[Takao]

TBF that's not exactly the best of arguements, might as well compare it to the 360, which still gets "support" from Japanese devs despite being pretty much dead in Japan.

But when you're talking about Japan it is an important distinction to make as Wii U won't be able to run those games, and Microsoft's next platform will likely be a non-factor in this market. That certainly leaves a large niche for Sony's hardware to fill.

 

[lunchwithyuzo]

Big big difference- Wii U has a lot more to prove to 3rd parties than 3DS did.

That doesn't mean jdevs will default to PS4 though (not while PS3 and 3DS are there), this platform still has to prove itself as well. And coming a year late won't help things.

But when you're talking about Japan it is an important distinction to make as Wii U won't be able to run those games, and Microsoft's next platform will likely be a non-factor in this market. That certainly leaves a large niche for Sony's hardware to fill.

The number of Japanese developers putting out games Wii U can't run will probably be countable on one hand.

 

[Takao]

If anything Yuzo, wouldn't you think SCE taking third parties for granted on Vita would be a warning to make them ensure they have support for PS4? Yes, one of SCE's mascots is a monkey, but that doesn't mean they're run by them.

 

[lunchwithyuzo]

If anything Yuzo, wouldn't you think SCE taking third parties for granted on Vita would be a warning to make them ensure they have support for PS4? Yes, one of SCE's mascots is a monkey, but that doesn't mean they're run by them.

I would for sure, that's a logical response one would expect from any rational and capable company. Unfortunately we're talking about SCE.

 

[vareon]

If the big ones (Squenix, Konami, Capcom, BanNam) pushed the higher end machines (that would be PS4), is it possible that the Wii U might not get major titles from them at all?

With the available resources and cost, it's logical to say that the majority of the resources go to the high end game goes to PS4 and the lower end goes to 3DS instead of Wii U or even Vita. Making HD games and all.

 

[schuelma]

If the big ones (Squenix, Konami, Capcom, BanNam) pushed the higher end machines (that would be PS4), is it possible that the Wii U might not get major titles from them at all?

With the available resources and cost, it's logical to say that the majority of the resources go to the high end game goes to PS4 and the lower end goes to 3DS instead of Wii U or even Vita. Making HD games and all.

Could happen. Might not. For the big projects aimed at the West, more likely. For franchises that still get a lot of sales from Japan, I don't think companies will be dumb enough to go full hog and spend a ton more money on games where HD is more than enough.

 

[Takao]

The number of Japanese developers putting out games Wii U can't run will probably be countable on one hand.

Yes, Konami, Square Enix, Bandai Namco, and Capcom. The same companies who just so happen to hold some of the most popular Japanese franchises. Wii U will get Monster Hunter, and Dragon Quest. PS4 will likely get Final Fantasy, Metal Gear, and Resident Evil.

 

[Nirolak]

If the big ones (Squenix, Konami, Capcom, BanNam) pushed the higher end machines (that would be PS4), is it possible that the Wii U might not get major titles from them at all?

With the available resources and cost, it's logical to say that the majority of the resources go to the high end game goes to PS4 and the lower end goes to 3DS instead of Wii U or even Vita. Making HD games and all.

For Square Enix I would still expect things like Dragon Quest on the platform regardless of what else they did.

Capcom is definitely going to have a selection of Wii U games since they had a selection of Wii games.

Konami has that... train game I think it is? That should definitely be on the Wii U.

Namco Bandai has a long ranging partnership with Nintendo so I'd be pretty surprised if they didn't support them.

For the first three however, I don't think that guarantees mainline FF, mainline Metal Gear, or mainline Resident Evil after 6.

Could happen. Might not. For the big projects aimed at the West, more likely. For franchises that still get a lot of sales from Japan, I don't think companies will be dumb enough to go full hog and spend a ton more money on games where HD is more than enough.

Most of them gave up on trying to make graphics that are actually suitable for PS3, so I think that goes without saying.

 

[Laguna]

If the big ones (Squenix, Konami, Capcom, BanNam) pushed the higher end machines (that would be PS4), is it possible that the Wii U might not get major titles from them at all?

With the available resources and cost, it's logical to say that the majority of the resources go to the high end game goes to PS4 and the lower end goes to 3DS instead of Wii U or even Vita. Making HD games and all.

I think it´s more likely that PS4 will sahre a similare fate like PSVita. Consider that PSP was by far more popular than PS3.

 

[schuelma]

PS4 will likely get Final Fantasy, Metal Gear, and Resident Evil.

I am convinced that if Wii U does well and 3rd party games sell, there is no way a Wii U versions of FF will not happen. Japan still takes up a very healthy portion of its sales- this isn't a Resident Evil situation.

 

[Nirolak]

I am convinced that if Wii U does well and 3rd party games sell, there is no way a Wii U versions of FF will not happen. Japan still takes up a very healthy portion of its sales- this isn't a Resident Evil situation.

Out of curiosity, why do you feel Lightning Returns, Final Fantasy XIV, and Versus have not been announced for the platform?

 

[Dascu]

Out of curiosity, why do you feel Lightning Returns, Final Fantasy XIV, and Versus have not been announced for the platform?

Because that would steal away the thunder from the impending Final Fantasy VII WiiU remake.