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Media Create Sales: Week 2, 2014 (Jan 06 - Jan 12)

AniHawk

Member
Games, games, games. Where is Gran Turismo? Infamous? God of War? Why no TLoU spinoff? That's before we get into third party titles they ought to buy (now is probably a good time to have a word with R* about SanAn Stories). Where are my fucking iOS ports?! Why didn't any of the anniversary GTAs come to Vita? Why aren't Gameloft porting Asphalt 8? Where is my XCom? What about Deus Ex: The Fall?

sony doesn't believe in making their studios make games for specific systems i guess. unless it's a small studio like bend. bend probably didn't want to make uncharted vita.

it's a big difference between the two multiple-hardware first-parties. nintendo will put its best teams to make a 2d zelda for their handheld and a 3d zelda for their console. naughty dog will get a-scared of anything remotely out of their comfort zone.
 

crinale

Member
It's still a failure, but one that they can probably ride out for a few more years in Japan, especially now that they've stopped manufacturing the OLED model.

It's kind sad but that part is really collect. Quite a few of GAFers (and hardcore gamers in Japan) were bummed by discontinuation of OLED model, but new colors and light weight attracted more audience nonetheless (in Japan price drop occured while OLED model were still sold).

Well new model at least has same power, DPI to old model and a little bit better buttons so that's that I guess...
 

Glass Rebel

Member
The Vita's situation in the West makes it a very unattractive platform to put internally developed high-budget games from their American or European studios. Depending on how it has performed, relatively speaking of course, Killzone: Mercenary might be the last of its kind.

SCEJ has more for Vita and they will probably announce more games for this year but I don't think they're exactly the right ones.
 
I do wonder how long they will put up with sub 50k sales per month in Japan / America and God only knows what monthly sales in the EU before they take drastic action. Waiting another two or three years seems highly unlikely to me.

I wonder if they could do something like, if your registered a Nintendo Network ID on WiiU you would get two free digital launch games for the next console as way of an apology for WiiU's short lifespan.

Quite frankly, I don't know if that would be enough to make up for them dropping the WiiU like a bad habit. My fear is that it will end up being like a 90's Sega situation, to where people just won't trust them enough after that no matter what they do with the WiiU's successor.

sony doesn't believe in making their studios make games for specific systems i guess. unless it's a small studio like bend. bend probably didn't want to make uncharted vita.

it's a big difference between the two multiple-hardware first-parties. nintendo will put its best teams to make a 2d zelda for their handheld and a 3d zelda for their console. naughty dog will get a-scared of anything remotely out of their comfort zone.

This is the main thing that pisses me off about the Vita's first-party output, and why when people say Sony is serious about supporting it I can't take them seriously.

Nintendo went nuts on software support for the 3DS as part of their efforts to turn it around, along side an immediate price cut and ambassador program. They had a stellar, vast array of first and second party software throughout 2013; nearly all of their biggest franchises are represented. Sony hasn't shown anywhere near that kind of drive or commitment for the Vita.

The hunger just isn't there. And remote play is not going to sell Vitas in a big way. It needs more must-have games, not that fringe value-add bullshit.
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
I am not surprised at the Wii U drop. I expected sub-20k. They pretty much have nothing until Donkey Kong and even then I don't see it performing any better. Where's the software Nintendo? You're not going to be able to sell units without more software. The 3DS dominating charts is nice.
I'm pretty sure they're trying to get it out as fast as they can, but how much software can one company actually make?

I mean they need astronomical staff growth to sustain anything resembling a strong line-up. Like seriously on the level of hiring in 4000 new developers, which would be incredibly if not nigh-impossibly hard to find just looking in Japan.

Oh god damn Wii U is dead again. How low will it go before Donkey Kong drops? I'm thinking sub 8k.

For the most part I think it's better this happens now than three weeks from now so they have to address the issue even more than they already do at their next fiscal call.

The sooner they can't feasibly go "Well, we want to wait until the next big software release and see what happens.", the sooner they will go and try to take more drastic measures in finding some kind of solution.
 
My fear with the Vita is that the recovery has happened too late. It feels like developers/publishers jumped ship last year. Now it is selling well and I wonder if there is time for devs to jump back on? This is the year Sony had to have 5-6 big titles to capitalize, and I just don't see those in the works. Freedom Fighters is the only one I can think of at the moment and that is a new ip. Seriously drawing a blank for the rest of the year's lineup.
 

Jamix012

Member
I'm pretty sure they're trying to get it out as fast as they can, but how much software can one company actually make?

I mean they need astronomical staff growth to sustain anything resembling a strong line-up. Like seriously on the level of hiring in 4000 new developers, which would be incredibly if not nigh-impossibly hard to find just looking in Japan.

The other alternative would be to buy out another gaming company. I don't think such a thing will happen, but hey! It's a possibility.
 

Principate

Saint Titanfall
The other alternative would be to buy out another gaming company. I don't think such a thing will happen, but hey! It's a possibility.

That won't help, they'd have to jump through many hoops just to buy one (which likely won't even work) and looking at Japanese output, only Namco Bandai would see a visible but small improvement which isn't all that worth it. They already tried that and it failed.
 

Trago

Member
People, let's not act surprised at the Wii U numbers. There's nothing out for the system until late February.

Honestly, I thought the numbers would be lower this week.
 

RalchAC

Member
Games, games, games. Where is Gran Turismo? Infamous? God of War? Why no TLoU spinoff? That's before we get into third party titles they ought to buy (now is probably a good time to have a word with R* about SanAn Stories). Where are my fucking iOS ports?! Why didn't any of the anniversary GTAs come to Vita? Why aren't Gameloft porting Asphalt 8? Where is my XCom? What about Deus Ex: The Fall?

So, in short, I think they could've been a little more aggressive on the software front.


That's certainly a possibility.

- God of War: Ascension should have been a PSVita exclusive.
- Uncharted: Golden Abyss should have released later, with multiplayer.
- Assassin's Creed should have been released at least 4 months after III.
- GTA > Call of Duty. Port or original, they should have been better.
- Take GT4-5 cars and tracks, add some contents and features, change the UI to look like the future GT6, make it native res, call it Gran Turismo V or GT6 Prologue. They don't need to have the full PD team doing the game, they could have done like Cambridge with KZ. But yeah, they're like the worst people to ask for a deadline aside TLG team.

They have four big first-party games for vita this year. Two are not hunting games: GR2 and over my dead body 2. One is openworld act and another is a JRPG, both are relatively big franchise for SCEJA. I don't know why people keep saying they are only making hunting games.

I'm not saying there are other games. But I seriously hope they don't bring more Monster Hunting IPs after Freedom Wars.
 
I'm pretty sure they're trying to get it out as fast as they can, but how much software can one company actually make?

I mean they need astronomical staff growth to sustain anything resembling a strong line-up. Like seriously on the level of hiring in 4000 new developers, which would be incredibly if not nigh-impossibly hard to find just looking in Japan.

Which is exactly why it's mindboggling to me that people keep saying "fuck third parties, if it's just a Nintendo machine that's fine with me." This isn't the 90's, where their software line-up ranges from Mario 64 to goddamn Killer Instinct and Goldeneye. They don't have the capacity or the will to cover every software angle internally anymore.

For the most part I think it's better this happens now than three weeks from now so they have to address the issue even more than they already do at their next fiscal call.

The sooner they can't feasibly go "Well, we want to wait until the next big software release and see what happens.", the sooner they will go and try to take more drastic measures in finding some kind of solution.

But what possible drastic measures are left for them to take?

They've already done a price cut before the system was profitable, their high profile first party games have started rolling out, and third parties have abandoned the system in droves. I can't think of what else they can do in the short term; even if they take the nuclear option of creating a new console ASAP, it will take years for them to do R&D, build it, promote it, create software for it, and manufacture and ship it out. Assuming people would even buy the damn thing so soon.

That investor meeting is going to be some Ikaruga-level shit for Iwata.
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
The other alternative would be to buy out another gaming company. I don't think such a thing will happen, but hey! It's a possibility.

My main question would be who hey can buy that would both be in their price range and a notable game changer.

A lot of the cheaper companies these days basically have one or two notable franchises and some of those are definitely pretty dependent on the platform they're on for success.

Like if you bought Capcom I feel it's much more likely that we'd just see sales of Street Fighter and Resident Evil heavily tank as opposed to really lifting up the Wii U, especially given that they're both in sales decline.

Someone like Activision is obviously a game changer, but Nintendo only has 11.02B in cash whereas they cost 12.04B currently and a buyout usually requires paying some kind of notable premium to boot.
 

saichi

Member
2014 Vita is up on 2013 Vita. 2013 Vita was up on 2012 Vita. 2012 Vita was up on 2011 Vita.

Meanwhile, 'other' systems are sliding slowly toward the grave.

We don't know if 2014 VIta is up on 2013 Vita yet.

If you are talking about Week 2 or YTD, 2103 is not up on 2012.

2012 2013 2014
W2: 18.361 -> 11.088 -> 32.016
YTD: 61.276 -> 44.397 -> 107.416

Meanwhile, 'other' systems are sliding slowly toward the grave.

If you are talking about for the year, Wii U is looking up too since 2013 Wii U was up on 2012 Wii U. 2012 Wii U was up on 2011 Wii U.
 
Games, games, games. Where is Gran Turismo? Infamous? God of War? Why no TLoU spinoff? That's before we get into third party titles they ought to buy (now is probably a good time to have a word with R* about SanAn Stories). Where are my fucking iOS ports?! Why didn't any of the anniversary GTAs come to Vita? Why aren't Gameloft porting Asphalt 8? Where is my XCom? What about Deus Ex: The Fall?

For most of those it would need SCEA to actually give a stuff about Vita and we've already established that they don't.
 

Plinko

Wildcard berths that can't beat teams without a winning record should have homefield advantage
For the most part I think it's better this happens now than three weeks from now so they have to address the issue even more than they already do at their next fiscal call.

The sooner they can't feasibly go "Well, we want to wait until the next big software release and see what happens.", the sooner they will go and try to take more drastic measures in finding some kind of solution.

Came in here to post this. This may be a blessing in disguise for Nintendo if they do the right thing and make the change they need to.
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Which is exactly why it's mindboggling to me that people keep saying "fuck third parties, if it's just a Nintendo machine that's fine with me." This isn't the 90's, where their software line-up ranges from Mario 64 to goddamn Killer Instinct and Goldeneye. They don't have the capacity or the will to cover every software angle internally anymore.



But what possible drastic measures are left for them to take?

They've already done a price cut before the system was profitable, their high profile first party games have started rolling out, and third parties have abandoned the system in droves. I can't think of what else they can do in the short term; even if they take the nuclear option of creating a new console ASAP, it will take years for them to do R&D, build it, promote it, create software for it, and manufacture and ship it out. Assuming people would even buy the damn thing so soon.

That investor meeting is going to be some Ikaruga-level shit for Iwata.

I think at this point it's more about selling investors on mid-to-long term change and laying out a roadmap of how the company will be revamped in a major way.

Like back in 2007 EA was going on about how they were dumping licensed games in favor of original IP and pushing to change their revenue to 40-50% digital. It took them like 5 years to actually achieve this, but they would probably be THQ right now if they didn't. If that sounds like an exaggeration, THQ was the third biggest publisher last gen.

In the short term they can't really fix anything, but they can work toward a better future.
 

sörine

Banned
My fear with the Vita is that the recovery has happened too late. It feels like developers/publishers jumped ship last year. Now it is selling well and I wonder if there is time for devs to jump back on? This is the year Sony had to have 5-6 big titles to capitalize, and I just don't see those in the works. Freedom Fighters is the only one I can think of at the moment and that is a new ip. Seriously drawing a blank for the rest of the year's lineup.
Considering it's first year sales I think it's surprising how many develpoers have stayed the course and not just jumped ship to 3DS and smartphones. It's first year was even worse than Wii U and look how Japanese developers and publishers have treated that system versus the effort they've put into Vita.
 

Principate

Saint Titanfall
Maybe it's safe to now that MH4 will never reach 4.7M of MHP3rd at this point.

Not yet, these games are determined mostly by it's legs, which it likely still has a fair bit to go. It probably won't but that data is missing Christmas digital sales so it's still within the realm of possibility.
 
My main question would be who hey can buy that would both be in their price range and a notable game changer.

A lot of the cheaper companies these days basically have one or two notable franchises and some of those are definitely pretty dependent on the platform they're on for success.

Like if you bought Capcom I feel it's much more likely that we'd just see sales of Street Fighter and Resident Evil heavily tank as opposed to really lifting up the Wii U, especially given that they're both in sales decline.

Someone like Activision is obviously a game changer, but Nintendo only has 11.02B in cash whereas they cost 12.04B currently and a buyout usually requires paying some kind of notable premium to boot.
Take Two would be a good target if Nintendo were ever to just go all in. It gives them control over GTA, RDR, Bioshock and 2k Sports. Plus they could get a deal done for less than $4bn. Whether they would be able to hold onto key talent afterwards is for a separate discussion.

I don't see it ever happening though. Nintendo management are too stuffy and conservative to ever go for broke.

I fear they may need to do so as the dedicated handheld market continues to shrink and their final part of their empire crumbles after the 3DS.
 
Maybe it's safe to now that MH4 will never reach 4.7M of MHP3rd at this point.

Somehow I doubt Capcom is going to lose sleep over that, considering it still beat their sales estimates.

I think at this point it's more about selling investors on mid-to-long term change and laying out a roadmap of how the company will be revamped in a major way.

Like back in 2007 EA was going on about how they were dumping licensed games in favor of original IP and pushing to change their revenue to 40-50% digital. It took them like 5 years to actually achieve this, but they would probably be THQ right now if they didn't. If that sounds like an exaggeration, THQ was the third biggest publisher last gen.

In the short term they can't really fix anything, but they can work toward a better future.

Yeah, that makes a lot more sense.

It's going to be very interesting seeing how Nintendo repositions itself after this. It's going to take some deep, fundamental changes to how they do business in order to turn things around.
 
Take Two would be a good target if Nintendo were ever to just go all in. It gives them control over GTA, RDR, Bioshock and 2k Sports. Plus they could get a deal done for less than $4bn. Whether they would be able to hold onto key talent afterwards is for a separate discussion.

I don't see it ever happening though. Nintendo management are too stuffy and conservative to ever go for broke.

I fear they may need to do so as the dedicated handheld market continues to shrink and their final part of their empire crumbles after the 3DS.

Why would Take2 even accept lol. GTA sales will be disastrous. All their franchises will take a massive hit in sales.
 

Principate

Saint Titanfall
Take Two would be a good target if Nintendo were ever to just go all in. It gives them control over GTA, RDR, Bioshock and 2k Sports. Plus they could get a deal done for less than $4bn. Whether they would be able to hold onto key talent afterwards is for a separate discussion.

I don't see it ever happening though. Nintendo management are too stuffy and conservative to ever go for broke.

I fear they may need to do so as the dedicated handheld market continues to shrink and their final part of their empire crumbles after the 3DS.

Take Two is wildly, wildly, wildly inefficient. Even if large amounts of talent didn't go they'd need cut a lot of talent either way.

Even GTA current success may not even put them in the black.
 

ZhugeEX

Banned
Hey guys,

You know famitsu do that top 100 list every year.
Well 2011 was released on 13th of Jan and 2012 was released on 16th of Jan.

So when will we get the 2013 list? Seeing as it's 15th already?
 

crinale

Member
Atlus buyout (even with the parent company Index as the dead weight) was quite good opportunity for Nintendo IMO, but seems like they didn't want to take risk.
 

Principate

Saint Titanfall
Atlus buyout (even with the parent company Index as the dead weight) was quite good opportunity for Nintendo IMO, but seems like they didn't want to take risk.

Or rather they didn't want to endanger their precarious profitability and piss off investors.
 
Why would Take2 even accept lol. GTA sales will be disastrous. All their franchises will take a massive hit in sales.
TTWO is sitting at $17. If Nintendo came in with a hostile bid at around $40-45 they would definitely take control of the company as TTWO's long suffering investors would finally have a way out.
 

Jamix012

Member
My main question would be who hey can buy that would both be in their price range and a notable game changer.

A lot of the cheaper companies these days basically have one or two notable franchises and some of those are definitely pretty dependent on the platform they're on for success.

Like if you bought Capcom I feel it's much more likely that we'd just see sales of Street Fighter and Resident Evil heavily tank as opposed to really lifting up the Wii U, especially given that they're both in sales decline.

Someone like Activision is obviously a game changer, but Nintendo only has 11.02B in cash whereas they cost 12.04B currently and a buyout usually requires paying some kind of notable premium to boot.

How much is Sega/Atlus worth these days? It wouldn't help a huge amount outside of Japan, but Nintendo/Sega/Atlus would have no problem controlling the Japanese market. I'd argue even if Dragon Quest and Monster Hunter switched teams, Nintendo (with Sega and Atlus) would still be comfortable in Japan.
Getting niche games like Persona 5 and controlling Sega's bigger franchises might make small shifts in the west, but ultimately they would probably still lose out.

I think you're underestimating Capcom's appeal. I mean RE4 Wii sold well enough and SF4 3DS also sold pretty damn well so I don't think they'd be lost just by being on Nintendo's consoles. Obviously there would be quite a big contraction, but what Nintendo really needs is a set of franchises that can be seen as "cool" like Resident Evil and Street Fighter. They're not enough obviously, but there really needs to be a big overhaul in Nintendo's image if they want to remain relevent as a home console manufacturer. Bayonetta 2 was a pretty good move IMO, but one franchise isn't going to convince the average 18 year old+ gamer that it's not embarrassing to own a Nintendo.
 
sörine;97211372 said:
Not when it's still doing well weekly and has a budget reprint yet to go.

4.7M of MHP3rd was reported on June 2011, which didn't include "PSP the Best" version (released September 2011).

Not yet, these games are determined mostly by it's legs, which it likely still has a fair bit to go. It probably won't but that data is missing Christmas digital sales so it's still within the realm of possibility.

MHP3rd had bigger legs at the same period. It sold almost 70K during week 2 of 2011 and maintain 30k+ sales all the way though Feb. There is no way MH4 will match that even including digital sales.
 

McHuj

Member
Even if Nintendo bought a 3rd party company today. It would be 18-24 months, before they could ship something quality.
 
The thing about Nintendo is that they don't want to buy company names, they want the talent behind it and if they don't stay they won't buy the company either.
 

Principate

Saint Titanfall
4.7M of MHP3rd was reported on June 2011, which didn't include "PSP the Best" version (released September 2011).



MHP3rd had bigger legs at the same period. It sold almost 70K during week 2 of 2011 and maintain 30k+ sales all the way though Feb. There is no way MH4 will match that even including digital sales.

Yeah but I'm talking about a year from now rather than right now. That's what I mean by long term

The thing about Nintendo is that they don't want to buy company names, they want the talent behind it and if they don't stay they won't buy the company either.

That's in the ideal situation but they need games that can sell reasonably right now rather than simply talent. They're software portfolio for their home consoles is practically deserted in comparison to a console with third party support which needs to change one way or another. Either by becoming entirely self sufficient, or regaining the support.

You can't afford to pick and choose with a console like the wii u.
 

Bundy

Banned
What's the next major release for the Vita?

Vita (not complete)

January : Dragon Ball Z - Battle of Z (23), UtaKumi 575 (23), Tokyo Operation Abyss (30), Disgaea 4 Returns (30), Amagami+ (30), Rozen Maiden (30)
February: Terraria (6), Puyo Puyo Tetris (6), Super Heroine Chronicles (6), Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds (13), Valhalla Knights 3 Gold (27), Deception IV (27), Infinite Stratos 2 (27)
March: Hatsune Miku Project Diva F2 (6), Soul Sacrifice Delta (6), We without Wings (13), Sengoku Musou 4 (20), J-Stars Victory VS (20), Neptunia Rebirth 2 (20), Natural Doctrine (20), Pro Baseball Spirits 2014 (20), Phantasy Star Online 2: Episode 2 (27), Atelier Ayesha Plus (27), Winning Post 8 (27), Golden Time Vivid Memories (27)
April: Super Robot Taisen Z 3 (10), Chrono Materia (17), Sword Art Online: Hollow Memories (24), Moero Chronicles (24)
Like he said -> "not complete"
 

Hiltz

Member
Hmm DKC: Tropical Freeze doesn't come out until February 13th for Japan, so Wii U sales will be suffering for about a month. Not the best of times for Nintendo to watch sales drop again when the Q3 investor's meeting is coming up in 2 weeks.
 
The other candidate is Sega Sammy's game division.

I think Nintendo could get a deal done for less than $3bn and it would give them control of a large number of key franchises and they would find it easier to hold onto the key talent of a Japanese company.

It would, however, have little to no effect on their western success as Sega are not really a big deal outside of Japan.
 

Principate

Saint Titanfall
Even if Nintendo bought a 3rd party company today. It would be 18-24 months, before they could ship something quality.

They won't be able to save the wii u by buying a third party, that's not it's purpose. The issue is if Nintendo wants to stay in the console business they'll need to re-brand and fill out the schedule, with or without third party support. They can't rely on that support after a console like the wii u so they'll need to take drastic measures.
 
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