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

Chicken and egg. PSP wasn't' selling software because it wasn't getting software. The install base was there....

Yes, the install base was there, but they were most assuredly not buying software that was previously released to it, especially in the West.

CFW (and by extension piracy) killed the viability of the handheld causing devs (again, mostly western devs and localisation efforts) to abandon ship en masse. At the end of the handheld's life, the PSP was being kept on life support by solely by Japanese efforts.

On topic, expected reduction in numbers all around, anyone who'd been listening to Chris1964 in the previous thread wouldn't be surprised, especially when it came to the WiiU.
 

ZSaberLink

Media Create Maven
I guess I have to ask, what exactly is Nintendo expecting with their digital releases? Do they give out download cards or any retail space for these releases? Is their any publicity behind these apart from Nintendo Directs? It seems to me that this will only sell to their current install base and not drive new hardware sales.
 

Linkhero1

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.

I agree and you're absolutely correct. There's not much they could do but it probably would have been beneficial to pull another Winkwaker HD with another beloved franchise as a filler. If I recall correctly, it only took them about six months to get that finished. It's not likely that it would save the Wii U, but at least have something to fill in the long gaps.

I'm surprised that they're not pushing for more RPGs in Japan. Then again, most of the RPG titles from third parties are headed to the 3DS.
 

Anth0ny

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.

That meeting is going to be such horse shit. I can see it now.

"The Wii U was unable to gain the momentum we expected over the holiday due to various software delays. We intend to turn this around with Wii Fit U, Donkey Kong, Mario Kart, Bayonetta 2 and Smash Bros this year. There will be no major changes in our strategy. One game can change everything."
 

test_account

XP-39C²
Not necessarily Sony's fault more that Sony's platforms at the time weren't a good avenue for western growth and Sony weren't willing to pay.

Nintendo were.

I mean MH3U managed to ship 600k units, It was from a western growth point of view a reasonable move.
That is possible, but that brings it back to my initial question, why and what was Capcom annoyed with? :)


They probably already had deal with Nintendo signed so it would be counter productive to release psp game.
Its possible. It would be interesting to know what the deal was about (assuming there was a deal, concidering that Nintendo published Monster Hunter 3 in the west).
 

sörine

Banned
Its possible. It would be interesting to know what the deal was about (assuming there was a deal, concidering that Nintendo published Monster Hunter 3 in the west).
Nintendo distributed it in Europe but Capcom published MH3 in the west. Nintendo did help fund western advertising for MH3 though. Sony helped fund MHF2U's western advertising too.
 

Principate

Saint Titanfall
That is possible, but that brings it back to my initial question, why and what was Capcom annoyed with? :)



Its possible. It would be interesting to know what the deal was about (assuming there was a deal, concidering that Nintendo published Monster Hunter 3 in the west).

Who knows but Capcoms apathy towards the Vita in comparison to other Japanese third parties especially considering the circumstances, doesn't lead to much else.

Then again Square hasn't done shit outside of the remake.
 

Kandinsky

Member
Also DK will do shit for WiiU, won't move consoles and will be lucky to sell 150k ltd. Then Retro will dissolve, thanks Iwata.
 
Wii U Sales, 1st Holiday Season:

Code:
Week 49, 2012	1	12/3/2012	308,570
Week 50, 2012	2	12/10/2012	130,653
Week 51, 2012	3	12/17/2012	122,356
[B]Week 52, 2012	4	12/24/2012	76,760
Week 1, 2013	5	12/31/2012	70,662
Week 2, 2013	6	1/7/2013	21,489[/B]
Week 3, 2013	7	1/14/2013	16,635
Week 4, 2013	8	1/21/2013	12,335
Week 5, 2013	9	1/28/2013	11,714
Week 6, 2013	10	2/4/2013	11,092
Week 7, 2013	11	2/11/2013	10,167
Week 8, 2013	12	2/18/2013	9,495
Week 9, 2013	13	2/25/2013	9,528
Week 10, 2013	14	3/4/2013	9,089


Wii U Sales, 2nd Holiday Season:

Code:
Week 49, 2013	53	12/2/2013	46,773
Week 50, 2013	54	12/9/2013	72,982
Week 51, 2013	55	12/16/2013	119,159
[B]Week 52, 2013	56	12/23/2013	79,174
Week 1, 2014	57	12/30/2013	60,548
Week 2, 2014	58	1/6/2014	14,029[/B]


Sales are even worse this year than post-launch. Wii U is oriented to hit abysmal sub-10K numbers sooner than expected.

I thought it would match or exceed initial post-launch performance due to momentum from Super Mario 3D World. But clearly the 14K figure this week shows that demand for Wii U is weaker than last year.
 
That meeting is going to be such horse shit. I can see it now.

"The Wii U was unable to gain the momentum we expected over the holiday due to various software delays. We intend to turn this around with Wii Fit U, Donkey Kong, Mario Kart, Bayonetta 2 and Smash Bros this year. There will be no major changes in our strategy. One game can change everything."

Saving for depressing accuracy.
 
That meeting is going to be such horse shit. I can see it now.

"The Wii U was unable to gain the momentum we expected over the holiday due to various software delays. We intend to turn this around with Wii Fit U, Donkey Kong, Mario Kart, Bayonetta 2 and Smash Bros this year. There will be no major changes in our strategy. One game can change everything."

You're forgetting "Please understand."
 

sörine

Banned
Well 3DS is not doing that hot either when it comes to software sales in US. it's actually tracking behind PSP...
3DS has far fewer releases than PSP did through 2007, hard as that is to believe. Although Japanese 3rd party games like SMT4, MH3U or PXZ have been doing relatively well given the nature of the current market.
 
sörine;97224005 said:
3DS has far fewer releases than PSP did through 2007, hard as that is to believe. Although Japanese 3rd party games like SMT4, MH3U or PXZ have been doing relatively well given the nature of the current market.

Not surprising, considering how Western third party support for it is as bad as it is for the WiiU now. They've pretty much sworn off handhelds entirely and switched to mobile instead.

I wish we could get another handheld GTA game... *sigh*
 

Jamix012

Member
What would buying Sega/Atlus actually get Nintendo?

Persona isn't an especially big franchise and Sonic does poorly locally.

I guess there's Yakuza, but again we're looking at a 400-500K seller on the platform it's on currently.

Then there's Miku games, but those don't seem to be flying off the shelves on 3DS.

They also already get half of those franchises as it is.

Things like Total War and Football Manager also become dead weight pretty quickly with a buyout.

Total War and Football manager would not become deadweight. The western market would like to play those games and you need to add a value proposition. Honestly the original point you made was that Nintendo could not churn out enough games, and Sega/Atlus would solve that problem. Atlus must churn out like 7-10 handheld games a year? Many of which sell over 100,000 in Japan. This is the kind of base level support the Wii U needs and the kind of non-nintendo fan/non-child audience it needs to grow. Granted working on the Wii U may mean that it gets only 2-3 games instead for Atlus alone, but then there's Sega too. Having the Atlus and Yakuza audience exclusively on the Wii U may not on their own rocket Wii U to new heights but I feel it'd create a sustainable platform for certain other JP 3rd parties to consider.
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Total War and Football manager would not become deadweight. The western market would like to play those games and you need to add a value proposition. Honestly the original point you made was that Nintendo could not churn out enough games, and Sega/Atlus would solve that problem. Atlus must churn out like 7-10 handheld games a year? Many of which sell over 100,000 in Japan. This is the kind of base level support the Wii U needs and the kind of non-nintendo fan/non-child audience it needs to grow. Granted working on the Wii U may mean that it gets only 2-3 games instead for Atlus alone, but then there's Sega too. Having the Atlus and Yakuza audience exclusively on the Wii U may not on their own rocket Wii U to new heights but I feel it'd create a sustainable platform for certain other JP 3rd parties to consider.

I think with something like this though you have to sit down and go "Do I really get $2 billion worth of value here, or would spending $2 billion on expanding my own development purview gain me significant more."

I feel the valuation calculation there does not favor Sega over internal expansion at all.
 
Total War and Football manager would not become deadweight. The western market would like to play those games and you need to add a value proposition. Honestly the original point you made was that Nintendo could not churn out enough games, and Sega/Atlus would solve that problem. Atlus must churn out like 7-10 handheld games a year? Many of which sell over 100,000 in Japan. This is the kind of base level support the Wii U needs and the kind of non-nintendo fan/non-child audience it needs to grow. Granted working on the Wii U may mean that it gets only 2-3 games instead for Atlus alone, but then there's Sega too. Having the Atlus and Yakuza audience exclusively on the Wii U may not on their own rocket Wii U to new heights but I feel it'd create a sustainable platform for certain other JP 3rd parties to consider.

Yeah on pc. Those games don't fit on anything else but pc and thus people expect them on pc. Or are you suggesting Nintendo would start releasing pc games?
 
What would buying Sega/Atlus actually get Nintendo?

Persona isn't an especially big franchise and Sonic does poorly locally.

I guess there's Yakuza, but again we're looking at a 400-500K seller on the platform it's on currently.

Then there's Miku games, but those don't seem to be flying off the shelves on 3DS.

They also already get half of those franchises as it is.

Things like Total War and Football Manager also become dead weight pretty quickly with a buyout.



Take-Two is probably the most feasible option for the audience they lack, but yeah, that's a hard proposition to hold on to any of the staff.

Yes, I agree that Sega wouldn't be a great purchase, but I think it would be easier than expanding internal development. Current management at Nintendo seem too set in their ways and they need to bring in external talent and ideas to shake things up.

As for T2, the question really would be about holding onto the Housers and R* North. Without GTA the value of T2 is half of that $4bn, and there is no guarantee that without the current talent a new team would be able to get anywhere near the quality it currently has.

Another part of the equation for Nintendo's western efforts is moving NoE out of Germany and into the UK or France. France and the UK have a much better tradition of game development than Germany, and Nintendo would do better to move there and oversee the expansion of internal development in Europe in either or both of these countries. Being in Germany does them absolutely no favours.
 

AmanoBuff

Member
I completely expected sub-15k sales for WiiU, so no surprise there. What really surprised me a bit was how well Kirby did, and yet that didn't seem to mitigate the fall of the 3DS to surprisingly low numbers (based on its usual sales performance of course) this week.

Nice week for Vita, I expected no more than 25k - 27k. Seems the momentum might stay strong for a while, and FFX/X-2 is definitely helping with that.

Also on that topic, from SQEX twitter:

1stPD_PR:

品薄な状態が続きご迷惑をおかけしておりましたPS3/PSVita「ファイナルファンタジーX/X-2 HD リマスター」ですが追加生産分が来週全国の一部店舗に到着予定です。諦めていた方ぜひご検討ください!

http://t.co/SlP7D5Js0x

My Japanese is really bad. Are they apologizing for the lack of stock? Or are they saying stock is finally coming?

In any case, I think the PS3/PSV FFX/X-2 will reach 500k before the end of the month if the stock situation normalizes like it seems it have since the 10th - 11th.


Also, anyone remembers Vita Heaven? The last one was last year on February or March, right? I'm almost sure another one is coming soon.
 

Oemenia

Banned
What are the chances that FFX/X-2 HD will keep selling once its back in stock, more importantly will it help lift the Vita for a bit longer?
 

ZSaberLink

Media Create Maven
NSMBU:
Week 49, 2012 (12/3 - 12/9) - 163,528
Week 50, 2012 (12/10-12/16) - 71,011 / 234,539
Week 51, 2012 (12/17-12/23) - 77,749 / 312,288
Week 52, 2012 (12/24-12/30) - 57,103 / 369,392
Week 1, 2013 (12/31 - 1/6) - 50,319 / 419,710
Week 2, 2013 (1/7 - 1/13) - 12,400 / 432,110
Week 3, 2013 (1/14 - 1/20) - 9,598 / 441,708
Week 4, 2013 (1/21 - 1/27) - 6,883 / 448,591
Week 5, 2013 (1/28 - 2/3) - 6,338 / 454,929
Week 6, 2013 (2/4 - 2/10) - 5,857 / 460,786

Nintendo Land:
Week 49, 2012 (12/3 - 12/9) - 71,121
Week 50, 2012 (12/10-12/16) - 41,497 / 113,618
Week 51, 2012 (12/17-12/23) - 51,373 / 164,991
Week 52, 2012 (12/24-12/30) - 44,056 / 209,047
Week 1, 2013 (12/31 - 1/6) - 41,426 / 250,473
Week 2, 2013 (1/7 - 1/13) - 11,703 / 262,176
Week 3, 2013 (1/14 - 1/20) - 8,740 / 270,917
Week 4, 2013 (1/21 - 1/27) - 5,914 / 276,831
Week 5, 2013 (1/28 - 2/3) - 5,161 / 281,992
Week 6, 2013 (2/4 - 2/10) - 4,486 / 286,478

Super Mario 3D World:
Week 47, 2013 (11/18-11/24) - 99,588
Week 48, 2013 (11/25-12/01) - 39,812 / 139,400
Week 49, 2013 (12/02-12/08) - 43,844 / 183,245
Week 50, 2013 (12/09-12/15) - 57,862 / 241,107
Week 51, 2013 (12/16-12/22) - 86,408 / 327,514
Week 52, 2013 (12/23-/12/30) - 64.573 / 392.087
Week 1, 2014 (12/31-1/5) - 60.397 / 470.438
Week 2, 2014 (1/6-1/12) - 14,584 / 485.022

3D World is doing about as well as NSMBU I guess?
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Yes, I agree that Sega wouldn't be a great purchase, but I think it would be easier than expanding internal development. Current management at Nintendo seem too set in their ways and they need to bring in external talent and ideas to shake things up.

As for T2, the question really would be about holding onto the Housers and R* North. Without GTA the value of T2 is half of that $4bn, and there is no guarantee that without the current talent a new team would be able to get anywhere near the quality it currently has.

Another part of the equation for Nintendo's western efforts is moving NoE out of Germany and into the UK or France. France and the UK have a much better tradition of game development than Germany, and Nintendo would do better to move there and oversee the expansion of internal development in Europe in either or both of these countries. Being in Germany does them absolutely no favours.

Right, it's just that I feel inflating staff without a specific plan about how the products from this will be a game changer does them no good.

Nintendo didn't pick up Atlus when they went for $140 million. I have trouble believing they would be interested in adding a zero to that number plus potentially several hundred million more to add in Sonic and Yakuza along with some PC series and licensed Aliens titles, especially when they're already publishing Sonic as it is.

I think the benefit of setting up their own studios, especially in the West, is that people who come to work for them will presumably actually want to work for Nintendo, so the flight risk goes down notably, and the amount of projects/staff they can get for their money is notably better.

It takes longer, certainly, but even if we looked at every announced Sega console game and made it Wii U exclusive I don't think it would actually change anything for the system, so time in that comparison doesn't seem like a big issue.
 

ZSaberLink

Media Create Maven
Also, so 3D World is nearly out of stock?

08./05. [WIU] Super Mario 3D World <ACT> (Nintendo) {2013.11.21} (¥5.985) - 14.584 / 485.022 <80-100%> (-76%)
 
T

thepotatoman

Unconfirmed Member
I think with something like this though you have to sit down and go "Do I really get $2 billion worth of value here, or would spending $2 billion on expanding my own development purview gain me significant more."

I feel the valuation calculation there does not favor Sega over internal expansion at all.

The thing is quality experienced talented people generally aren't looking for new jobs because they probably already have nice jobs. Job postings are great for filling holes, but I don't think its the best idea to entirely fill a 2 billion dollar expansion directly from the job seeking sector.

Maybe Sega isn't the best buy for that, but it'd probably better they buy someone in order to expand than to just do it themselves.
 

Tripon

Member
The thing is quality experienced talented people generally aren't looking for new jobs because they probably already have nice jobs. Job postings are great for filling holes, but I don't think its the best idea to entirely fill a 2 billion dollar expansion directly from the job seeking sector.

Maybe Sega isn't the best buy for that, but it'd probably better they buy someone in order to expand than to just do it themselves.
They probably need to get aggressive and buy up a mid sized ckmapny like Plantium, who is large enough to service 2-3 games per year. I also think they need to mend fences with the head of Armature and allow them to make a FPS, and TPS games that they wanted to do at Retro.

They need to target specific studios, not whole companies.
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
The thing is quality experienced talented people generally aren't looking for new jobs because they probably already have nice jobs. Job postings are great for filling holes, but I don't think its the best idea to entirely fill a 2 billion dollar expansion directly from the job seeking sector.

Maybe Sega isn't the best buy for that, but it'd probably better they buy someone in order to expand than to just do it themselves.

When setting up new studios like that you usually have to do selective talent poaching.

Like when Square Enix wanted a new engine that was actually modern and efficient, they did so by hiring key engineering staff from Sega, From Software, and other companies by offering them large sums of money to lead up the project, and then used their talent to attract others.

This way you also get talent that want to stay with the new company instead of talent that might head out the door after being bought if they don't agree with your fundamental values.

Nintendo has done this in the past, with an example being how they hired out Capcom's handheld Zelda team and set them up as an internal team instead, thus not having to rely on Capcom to keep producing the games nor having to pay $1+ billion for Capcom.

As a cash rich company this isn't really an unreasonable direction, especially given the amount of Japanese developers being forced down the mobile route or being pushed into mega-teams that might want a change of pace, especially if Nintendo is actually interested in their creative vision.
 

BadWolf

Member
They probably need to get aggressive and buy up a mid sized ckmapny like Plantium, who is large enough to service 2-3 games per year. I also think they need to mend fences with the head of Armature and allow them to make a FPS, and TPS games that they wanted to do at Retro.

They need to target specific studios, not whole companies.

Why in the world would they want to buy Platinum after W101's sales?
 

test_account

XP-39C²
sörine;97223183 said:
Nintendo distributed it in Europe but Capcom published MH3 in the west. Nintendo did help fund western advertising for MH3 though. Sony helped fund MHF2U's western advertising too.
I see. I didnt know it was just in Europe (by the way, "west" for me is both Europe and the US). I also didnt know that Sony supported with advertising for MHF2U =)


Who knows but Capcoms apathy towards the Vita in comparison to other Japanese third parties especially considering the circumstances, doesn't lead to much else.

Then again Square hasn't done shit outside of the remake.
Sure, they probably thought the 3DS was the best choice indeed. I was just wondering in what way MHP3rd annoyed Capcom regarding a western release. Capcom (or whoever it might be) choose themself where they want to take a chance.
 
Sales wouldn't matter if Nintendo sees their talent as being worth purchasing. I'm sure they respect Platinum's talents, sales be damned.

That's not how a business works. Maybe in some utopia fantasy land companies buy other companies out of respect but in the reality we live in sales and profit are the only factors that are important when it comes to an acquisition. I'm pretty sure Bayonetta 2 will be the last Platinum game Nintendo will sponsor unless it does very well.
 

Tripon

Member
That's not how a business works. Maybe in some utopia fantasy land companies buy other companies out of respect but in the reality we live in sales and profit are the only factors that are important when it comes to an acquisition. I'm pretty sure Bayonetta 2 will be the last Platinum game Nintendo will sponsor unless it does very well.

If nintendo put platinum on a Nintendo IP, that game will sell. W101 was a risky gamble that didnt pay off. But Metal Gear Rising sold because it was a good game associated with a strong IP.
 

BlackJace

Member
That's not how a business works. Maybe in some utopia fantasy land companies buy other companies out of respect but in the reality we live in sales and profit are the only factors that are important when it comes to an acquisition. I'm pretty sure Bayonetta 2 will be the last Platinum game Nintendo will sponsor unless it does very well.

What does scoping out talent have to do with raw profit?
 
whatever happened to yasunori ichinose

was he sent to the megaman realm of capcom
Shhhh!

Kaname Fujioka, Director, Creative Direction and Execution, Osaka Product Development
Yasunori Ichinose, Director, Creative Direction and Execution, Osaka Product Development

I think he moved to something else, Capcom needs more hit series.
Outbreak Portable is coming, local multi-player, Vita exclusive, are you ready?
 
That meeting is going to be such horse shit. I can see it now.

"The Wii U was unable to gain the momentum we expected over the holiday due to various software delays. We intend to turn this around with Wii Fit U, Donkey Kong, Mario Kart, Bayonetta 2 and Smash Bros this year. There will be no major changes in our strategy. One game can change everything."

Well, that's sobering.
 

Yawnier

Banned
That meeting is going to be such horse shit. I can see it now.

"The Wii U was unable to gain the momentum we expected over the holiday due to various software delays. We intend to turn this around with Wii Fit U, Donkey Kong, Mario Kart, Bayonetta 2 and Smash Bros this year. There will be no major changes in our strategy. One game can change everything."

Iwata-san: "Please Understand".
 

L Thammy

Member
Skimming the last few pages of the thread since I have to leave soon, sorry if I've missed the point of these conversations:

Regarding Nintendo buying out a studio. Besides sales, a platform holder also benefits from having media darlings. Games that don't necessarily sell a lot, but have a lot of press attention and discussion around them that draws people to the platform. That said, people don't have to stay in a company, so Nintendo can't really buy out a company that doesn't want to be bought.

Regarding Monster Hunter "switching teams". It was probably just one part of a larger platform strategy. Capcom has so far released two ports for the Vita and has two more ports on the horizon. One month after the 3DS' launch, Capcom's announced titles were Street Fighter IV 3D (launch release), that mansion game, Revelations, Mercenaries, and Mega Man Legends 3. They were planning to support one system heavily and ignore the other right from the get-go, before sales numbers were seen.
 

hongcha

Member
Also DK will do shit for WiiU, won't move consoles

Yep. And if you'll recall Wii U hardware actually went down the week Wonderful 101 was released and only increased by about 100 units the week Wind Waker HD was released. Anything without Mario in the title seems to do little for Wii U hardware sales.

Based on its sales, Wii U is essentially a Christmas/New years gift for kids that has little appeal for Japanese consumers during most of the rest of the year.
 
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