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Media Create Sales: Week 20, 2013 (May 13 - May 19)

extralite

Member
Holy market contraction, Batman!
I was under the impression their franchises had sustained the transition from last gen to this gen pretty well but it seems the previous transition hurt them pretty bad. Were all Sat/PS1 Megaten titles in that ballpark?

Not at all. There were three Persona games on PS1 and three Devil Summoner games on Saturn, the later ones didn't sell as well as these two and the PS2 Persona games were actually an improvement over the late PS1 ones.
 

Kenka

Member
Bamco is the biggest 3rd party right now in Japan and the 3DS is the most popular Plattform, they also had strong DS support..... So it's no rocket science that they are pushing as much as possible on 3DS xD

They're also decidedly not that relevant outside of Japan, so the incentive to make everything for 3DS is extremely high given it's the runaway winner in the region they make most of their money in.
You might want to ask how S-E and Konami can't replicate this level of success on the 3DS. They surely have enough people on board to allocate resources to build a momentum on 3DS.
 

Alrus

Member
You might want to ask how S-E and Konami can't replicate this level of success on the 3DS. They surely have enough people on board to allocate resources to build a momentum on 3DS.

Well Square Enix did see some success on the 3DS. I'm sure a Bravely Default sequel is coming. I'm surprised they haven't announced more games for it though. Guess all those smartphone games are taking up all their teams.
 

serplux

Member
You might want to ask how S-E and Konami can't replicate this level of success on the 3DS. They surely have enough people on board to allocate resources to build a momentum on 3DS.

Well, Konami isn't doing much on anything, and Squeenix support for the 3DS has been rather good so far.
 
They're also decidedly not that relevant outside of Japan, so the incentive to make everything for 3DS is extremely high given it's the runaway winner in the region they make most of their money in.

Insert Run for Money joke here.

I'm really happy to see that SMT IV looks to being doing well. I hope it can reach a 200K debut week.
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Since the series is quite relevant in Japan, I'm cloning Takao's post to this thread as well: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=569369

Takao said:
New threads won't kill you guys:

http://kotaku.com/yakuza-on-the-wii-u-is-an-experiment-and-not-happenin-510075724

In a recent interview, Yakuza producer Toshihiro Nagoshi described the Wii U release as "an experiment" to see how many Wii U owners would be interested in something like Yakuza. "To be honest, we're not aiming to see if the game will be a smash hit," said Nagoshi. "Our real intention is that we want to see how people respond."

But will brand new Yakuza games would come to the Wii U? "The existing [Wii U] users are different [from PlayStation owners], so isn't it hard to say if it makes sense?" It really sounds like he first wants to wait and see how Yakuza 1 & 2 HD for Wii U does.

When asked whether Yakuza would be coming to the 3DS, Nagoshi replied with a chuckle, "It's not possible." Nagoshi was asked if a spin-off was doable, like PSP title Yakuza: Black Panther, but he replied that he wants to make the Yakuza games as action adventure games. "I'd do it if it were okay to have a Yakuza game without many people walking around the city... But it would be forcing it, no?" Nagoshi added that it felt like something that wasn't that desirable.

Elsewhere in the interview, Nagoshi was asked if Yakuza was coming to the PS Vita. The game producer replied affirmatively, once again acknowledging how the series has been born and bred on PlayStation hardware.

So my main takeaways would be:

1.) Yakuza 1 & 2 Wii U sounds like an infamous "test game".
2.) We know at least one potentially relevant Vita title coming up (if it isn't a port that is).
3.) Yakuza 6 is probably heading to PlayStation 4 given Nagoshi's previous comments and him casting some doubt on the Wii U side of things here.
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
You might want to ask how S-E and Konami can't replicate this level of success on the 3DS. They surely have enough people on board to allocate resources to build a momentum on 3DS.

Well Square Enix did see some success on the 3DS. I'm sure a Bravely Default sequel is coming. I'm surprised they haven't announced more games for it though. Guess all those smartphone games are taking up all their teams.

Well, Konami isn't doing much on anything, and Squeenix support for the 3DS has been rather good so far.

I would say Square Enix's console/MMO/smartphone titles are eating up a lot of resources that would traditionally go into handhelds, but from what they have released, especially with Dragon Quest, it has done quite well.

I'm still unclear on if we will see a notable increase in 3DS titles out of them to follow this up however as they're focusing on their bigger hits these days.

And yeah, Konami has mostly whittled down to a handful of projects a year at this point, almost to the degree of Sega.
 

Bruno MB

Member
I don't understand those complaints about 3DS not getting enough support from Square Enix.

So far they have released Bravely Default: Flying Fairy, Dragon Quest Monsters: Terry's Wonderland 3D, Dragon Quest VII Remake and Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance. Then they also have other minor releases, for example Dragon Quest: Slime Morimori 3 or Theatrhythm Final Fantasy.

Bravely Default: Flying Fairy 2 and Dragon Quest XI should also be a lock.

The big difference from past generation is that Square Enix have stopped flooding the market with Final Fantasy titles (Tactics, Remakes, Crystal Chronicles series and other spin-offs).
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
I don't understand those complaints about 3DS not getting enough support from Square Enix.

So far they have released Bravely Default: Flying Fairy, Dragon Quest Monsters: Terry's Wonderland 3D, Dragon Quest VII Remake and Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance. Then they also have other minor releases, for example Dragon Quest: Slime Morimori 3 or Theatrhythm Final Fantasy.

Bravely Default: Flying Fairy 2 and Dragon Quest XI should also be a lock.

The big difference from past generation is that Square Enix have stopped flooding the market with Final Fantasy titles (Tactics, Remakes, Crystal Chronicles series and other spin-offs).

Right, I feel their behavior is actually logical in a polarizing market.

You don't want to flood out titles that sell small amounts, because they start doing too poorly to make any money and take up resources that can be spent on higher margin products. You can then invest that money into making the higher margin products even better in an attempt to grow them too.

That said, what they *could* do is increase the number of high profile games they're releasing, which is the one thing I'm unsure if they're doing.

Like it's not unusual for them to release 3-4+ high profile HD console games in a year, but I'm unsure if they will keep that pace or higher on 3DS.

Edit: I guess the easiest to conceptualize way to put this is do you expect them to start making things like Final Fantasy Type-1, another Kingdom Hearts 3DS, Dissidia 3, things like Crisis Core, or other similar investment level projects beyond the scope of more Dragon Quest games and Bravely Default? That's a serious, not rhetorical question. Doing that would be my definition of Square Enix going in at the Namco Bandai level using their preferred development method instead of Namco's product-flood method.
 

Kenka

Member
I don't understand those complaints about 3DS not getting enough support from Square Enix.

So far they have released Bravely Default: Flying Fairy, Dragon Quest Monsters: Terry's Wonderland 3D, Dragon Quest VII Remake and Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance. Then they also have other minor releases, for example Dragon Quest: Slime Morimori 3 or Theatrhythm Final Fantasy.

Bravely Default: Flying Fairy 2 and Dragon Quest XI should also be a lock.

The big difference from past generation is that Square Enix have stopped flooding the market with Final Fantasy titles (Tactics, Remakes, Crystal Chronicles series and other spin-offs).
This results in their involvement in the platform to be too tenious while Bamco has kept launching an array of titles both original and from a tried and tested formula, with success on top of that. S-E is clearly lagging behind when it comes to the 3DS. They should reinvest in the market just as a safety measure in case their other plans of grandeur fail.
 

BriBri

Member
I don't understand those complaints about 3DS not getting enough support from Square Enix.

So far they have released Bravely Default: Flying Fairy, Dragon Quest Monsters: Terry's Wonderland 3D, Dragon Quest VII Remake and Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance. Then they also have other minor releases, for example Dragon Quest: Slime Morimori 3 or Theatrhythm Final Fantasy.

Bravely Default: Flying Fairy 2 and Dragon Quest XI should also be a lock.

The big difference from past generation is that Square Enix have stopped flooding the market with Final Fantasy titles (Tactics, Remakes, Crystal Chronicles series and other spin-offs).
I wouldn't say DQ11 is a lock even though I do expect it on 3DS. iOS had its first DQ game today http://www.senpaigamer.com/ios/new-dragon-quest-slime-shot-game-line-games-05282013-0625
 
I wouldn't say DQ11 is a lock even though I do expect it on 3DS. iOS had its first DQ game today http://www.senpaigamer.com/ios/new-dragon-quest-slime-shot-game-line-games-05282013-0625

Yeah, DQXI is 3DS likely but not assured - but they've watered the ground with DQM TW3D and DQVIIr so I don't expect them to backtrack. I'd also question BD:FF2 being a lock too, with their new found commitment to bringing 'console-quality' content to smartphones. TWEWY 2 is probably for iOS too.
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Square is holding TWEW2, FFV, FFTA3 and FFCC hostage.

Hell, even BD2 should've been announced by now.

I would propose that some of those will actually be on mobile:

squareenixmobileconsoyukcs.jpg
 
Those are the disgusting versions of V, Tactics and The World Ends With You, I'm talking about the real deal.

FFV 3DS could sell more than a million copies at $40, when will iOS games?
 

cw_sasuke

If all DLC came tied to $13 figurines, I'd consider all DLC to be free
I wouldn't say DQ11 is a lock even though I do expect it on 3DS. iOS had its first DQ game today http://www.senpaigamer.com/ios/new-dragon-quest-slime-shot-game-line-games-05282013-0625

You know how much DQ9 sold on DS ? And you know that Pokemon and MH are on 3DS ? And all their DQ spin-offs and remakes are on 3DS ? DQ XI on 3DS is a lock, especially when you see how everything else is selling hardware wise right now.

You might want to ask how S-E and Konami can't replicate this level of success on the 3DS. They surely have enough people on board to allocate resources to build a momentum on 3DS.

Bamcos portfolio is just broader and more universal, they have a couple of strong IPs like Tales of, God Eater, One Piece, Naruto, Tekken, Taiko etc. while companies like Konami are are too dependent on just 1-2 IPs, which pretty much get most of the inhouse dev-resources.
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Those are the disgusting versions of V, Tactics and The World Ends With You, I'm talking about the real deal.

FFV 3DS could sell more than a million copies at $40, when will iOS games?

I didn't say this was a good business decision, simply what they said in their financial release.

They talk about finding new innovative pricing models on iOS to try to generate lots of revenue from these types of games too after talking about how they greenlit a bunch already, so prepare for some potential pain...

Though I do honestly suspect one of these innovative pricing models will be purchasable TWEWY weeks, pins, accessories, and more. That TWEWY port seemed too high effort for Square's normal porting behavior to be a one off given they actually reworked the core game systems.
 

RM8

Member
After DQIX I was really hoping XI would appear on 3DS, that's indeed something that might now happen now :/ And I don't get it! Terry's Wonderland sold GREAT in Japan, they can most definitely make money on 3DS.
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
One would think that 1m and 600k for Final Fantasy III and IV would be enough to justify V and VI remakes...

One would also think the sales of Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2 would get Kingdom Hearts 3 released in a timely fashion. :p

After FFIX I was really hoping XI would appear on 3DS, that's indeed something that might now happen now :/ And I don't get it! Terry's Wonderland sold GREAT in Japan, they can most definitely make money on 3DS.

...The MMO?
 

Alrus

Member
After FFIX I was really hoping XI would appear on 3DS, that's indeed something that might now happen now :/ And I don't get it! Terry's Wonderland sold GREAT in Japan, they can most definitely make money on 3DS.

You mean DQ XI, you shouldn't worry about that one.
 

Glass Rebel

Member
One would also think the sales of Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2 would get Kingdom Hearts 3 released in a timely fashion. :p

HD Keyblades are hard though, unlike some comparatively low-effort remakes. It's true though, one should not try to apply logic to Square-Enix.
 

Bruno MB

Member
Right, I feel their behavior is actually logical in a polarizing market.

You don't want to flood out titles that sell small amounts, because they start doing too poorly to make any money and take up resources that can be spent on higher margin products. You can then invest that money into making the higher margin products even better in an attempt to grow them too.

That said, what they *could* do is increase the number of high profile games they're releasing, which is the one thing I'm unsure if they're doing.

Like it's not unusual for them to release 3-4+ high profile HD console games in a year, but I'm unsure if they will keep that pace or higher on 3DS.

Edit: I guess the easiest to conceptualize way to put this is do you expect them to start making things like Final Fantasy Type-1, another Kingdom Hearts 3DS, Dissidia 3, things like Crisis Core, or other similar investment level projects beyond the scope of more Dragon Quest games and Bravely Default? That's a serious, not rhetorical question. Doing that would be my definition of Square Enix going in at the Namco Bandai level using their preferred development method instead of Namco's product-flood method.

I personally don't expect them to start making those kind of big profile games they released on PSP. With the exception of Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep and The Third Birthday which was a failure, all those titles are related to the Final Fantasy franchise. Square Enix has apparently stopped developing Final Fantasy games on portable systems. The only announced title since the current generation started is Final Fantasy X and X-2 HD for PS Vita. And without the PS3 version I'm sure it wouldn't exist.

So, while with Dragon Quest they are following the same strategy that gave them so many good results in the past, we can't say the same with Final Fantasy. Cheap spin-off titles aren't appearing which is logical, but I find estrange that as Sammy Samusu said, Final Fantasy V Remake or Final Fantasy Tactics (specially the latter considering how well Fire Emblem: Awakening did) haven't been announced yet. And future announcements for these games are looking less and less likely, let alone bigger profile ones like Final Fantasy Type-0. Considering this I can only deduct that the have decided to practically halt, at least in the near future, all Final Fantasy related games on portable systems.

If they don't release Final Fantasy titles, the chance of another Kingdom Hearts entry is even more remote since Kingdom Hearts III must be their priority, and on top of it Kingdom Hearts 3D – Dream Drop Distance tanked hard, what other high profile games can they made?

A new IP would be too risky. They have been lucky with Bravely Default: Flying Fairy, it sold well for a medium-size project, around 300.000 units and the franchise has potential to grow. But these figures are far from what a big profile game like Crisis Core or Dissidia: Final Fantasy should sell.

Would it be wise from their perspective to release another The World Ends with You after the original game failed to sell 200.000 units?

Then, franchises that once were big, for example Seiken Densetsu, Valkyria Profile, Chrono or SaGa (should I include Star Ocean?) are completely dead.

So I don't know. I think everything we can expect by now from the current Square Enix is more and more Dragon Quest, another Bravely Default: Flying Fairy, and maybe, just maybe at least one Final Fantasy title, my candidate would be a Final Fantasy Tactics one.
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
I personally don't expect them to start making those kind of big profile games they released on PSP. With the exception of Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep and The Third Birthday which was a failure, all those titles are related to the Final Fantasy franchise. Square Enix has apparently stopped developing Final Fantasy games on portable systems. The only announced title since the current generation started is Final Fantasy X and X-2 HD for PS Vita. And without the PS3 version I'm sure it wouldn't exist.

So, while with Dragon Quest they are following the same strategy that gave them so many good results in the past, we can't say the same with Final Fantasy. Cheap spin-off titles aren't appearing which is logical, but I find estrange that as Sammy Samusu said, Final Fantasy V Remake or Final Fantasy Tactics (specially the latter considering how well Fire Emblem: Awakening did) haven't been announced yet. And future announcements for these games are looking less and less likely, let alone bigger profile ones like Final Fantasy Type-0. Considering this I can only deduct that the have decided to practically halt, at least in the near future, all Final Fantasy related games on portable systems.

If they don't release Final Fantasy titles, the chance of another Kingdom Hearts entry is even more remote since Kingdom Hearts III must be their priority, and on top of it Kingdom Hearts 3D – Dream Drop Distance tanked hard, what other high profile games can they made?

A new IP would be too risky. They have been lucky with Bravely Default: Flying Fairy, it sold well for a medium-size project, around 300.000 units and the franchise has potential to grow. But these figures are far from what a big profile game like Crisis Core or Dissidia: Final Fantasy should sell.

Would it be wise from their perspective to release another The World Ends with You after the original game failed to sell 200.000 units?

Then, franchises that once were big, for example Seiken Densetsu, Valkyria Profile, Chrono or SaGa (should I include Star Ocean?) are completely dead.

So I don't know. I think everything we can expect by now from the current Square Enix is more and more Dragon Quest, another Bravely Default: Flying Fairy, and maybe, just maybe at least one Final Fantasy title, my candidate would be a Final Fantasy Tactics one.
I agree with your general conclusions in that all outward signs so far suggest that they have decided against jumping in beyond Dragon Quest and a small dabble here and there like Bravely Default.

However I do think that is the root of the complaints that they aren't supporting the 3DS like they used to support handhelds.

My biggest curiosity though is what they're ultimately doing instead. Is it really just shifting their resources to consoles, MMOs, and social games, or is their new mobile plan actually suctioning up resources that once would have went to handheld games instead?

I mainly wonder this since the types of games they made on handhelds aren't necessarily all immediately obvious fits for one of the three other categories, so I'm curious if they intend to halt such development lines altogether, or are attempting to redeploy them in a new fashion.

Like, for example, if Final Fantasy Tactics never comes to 3DS, are they just never making a TRPG again, or will it show up as a downloadable and/or mobile title.

Though I guess the answer will ultimately only be seen over time.
 

BriBri

Member
I'm hoping that Gyrozetter's (potential lack of) sales won't be used as an excuse for lessening future support.
I still want my Chocobo Racing dammit!
 
I'm sure there were a few who seriously believed Dragon Quest VII would be somewhere else except from Ultra 64;)

How is this in any way close to the same situation? There's like a .001% chance its not on 3DS and that comes from the idea that they may not even get another DQ mainline game out in the near future.
 
I was alluding to the fact that it was once a lock for a Nintendo platform as they (Nintendo platforms) had had the previous six entries.
It was announced actually (by Yamauchi himself at Spaceworld), which is why people thought it. 3rd parties wholesale abandoning N64 changed attitutes pretty quick though, and you can't really say the same for 3DS today. The reason "it's a lock" for 3DS are entirely different.
 

Road

Member
Prediction League June, 2013

Predict how much these titles will sell in the month (from Jun 03 to Jun 30):

[3DS] Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D (18 days) - 222,222
[3DS] New Etrian Odyssey (4 days) - 99,999
[PS3] Gundam Breaker (4 days) - 88,888
[PS3] Atelier Escha & Logy (4 days) - 66,666
[PSP+PSV] Toukiden (4 days) - 77,777
 

vareon

Member
Speaking of handheld -> mobile:

The latest set of games that seemed like a new Level 5 Guild title have been announced for smartphones instead of for 3DS.

While the scale seems comparable to the Guild titles, I don't feel this a Guild03--certainly feels like a successor or a replacement.

If it was a Guild title, wouldn't the first thing they advertise is the key person making it? This one just said "wonderful" staff instead.

That said, I do believe L5 isn't interested in doing a Guild03, at least in its current form.
 

L Thammy

Member
I do suspect that Dragon Quest will eventually move to smartphones as the handheld market contracts. The series isn't known for high budgets from what I've seen and read. Aside from the higher price point of 3DS games, what is it that's keeping the games on the 3DS?
 
I do suspect that Dragon Quest will eventually move to smartphones as the handheld market contracts. The series isn't known for high budgets from what I've seen and read. Aside from the higher price point of 3DS games, what is it that's keeping the games on the 3DS?
Uh, that one reason is the only reason it needs to stay on the 3DS.
 
Why would a series that can move 3+ and possibly 4+ million on handheld/console move to mobile? Unless you are projecting far into the future when there is no longer a dedicated handheld market, but Square Enix will never purposely choose to put the game on smartphones instead. The same reason you don't see Square Enix lining up to put Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, or Final Fantasy mainline games on smartphones.

Speaking of DQ though, it will be interesting to see how the whole DQX situation turns out for SE in the end.
 

hiska-kun

Member
Prediction League June, 2013

Predict how much these titles will sell in the month (from Jun 03 to Jun 30):

[3DS] Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D (18 days) - 166.000
[3DS] New Etrian Odyssey (4 days) - 93.000
[PS3] Gundam Breaker (4 days) - 145.000
[PS3] Atelier Escha & Logy (4 days) - 67.500
[PSP+PSV] Toukiden (4 days) - 146.000
 

L Thammy

Member
Does anyone have the Famitsu numbers for the week of April 23rd, 2007?

EDIT: Nevermind, downloaded Chris' database. Is there some reason only 1-20 is available?
 

XDDX

Member
Prediction League June, 2013

Predict how much these titles will sell in the month (from Jun 03 to Jun 30):

[3DS] Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D (18 days) - 180,000
[3DS] New Etrian Odyssey (4 days) - 85,000
[PS3] Gundam Breaker (4 days) - 110,000
[PS3] Atelier Escha & Logy (4 days) - 65,000
[PSP+PSV] Toukiden (4 days) - 105,000
 
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