• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

A Look at Japanese Game Sales on Steam - Spring 2017 edition [Steamspy figures]

gngf123

Member
Yikes those Atelier numbers are not good. Wonder if there is just not a market for those games on PC

There is a very good market for them, but the Firis port is bad and shows that they have learnt very little regarding PC.

Sophie only doing 22k is disappointing though.
 
SA1 over 2? By a full 20%?

900x900px-LL-0244ee12_larry-david-faint1qqx.gif

SA1 was in the $1 tier of a humble bundle last year
 

Ascheroth

Member
Yikes those Atelier numbers are not good. Wonder if there is just not a market for those games on PC
There is a good market for them, but the Firis port is bad and KT are infamous for being the single shittiest company with japanese ports on Steam.
 

kewlmyc

Member
Really hope Nier numbers make Square reconsider their Japanese games strategy on PC

Estival Versus numbers look are a bit disappointing though, XSEED haven't had a good launch in a while

IIRC, most of SV sales came from steam sales. Once they start having this on sale (and there are more perv mods), sales numbers will probably spike as well.
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Sequels usually sell more than the original or improve sales in some way while it is the exact opposite on Steam for some strange reason.
This is true when you have three important caveats though.

1.) The most successful games have sequels that do better. Most series die off after a few entries.

2.) Sequels do better when comparing sales in the same time scale. Like Dark Souls 3 is vastly ahead of where Dark Souls 2 was at this far from launch, even though it's notably lower than Dark Souls 2 plus Scholars of the First Sin.

3.) Some sequels improve in average selling price, but not total units, as the first game in the series is often given away in bundles or sold very cheaply early on to try and find an audience. Later entries often don't follow the same price curve.

Some series definitely die off on Steam, but raw unit counts as of today aren't going to be a perfect illustration of that.
 
Estival Versus numbers look are a bit disappointing though, XSEED haven't had a good launch in a while

To be fair I'd attribute it to the launch date. So close to a whole bunch of games that the kind of people that buy SK games would be interested too. In just a month we had Berserk, 2 Ateliers, Nier, Senran, Nights of Azure, and a bunch of other japanese games being released, not to mention the console releases. Hell, I pre-ordered Nier on Steam but still didn't really play it because Zelda is consuming my life. No way I'd buy Senran Kagura NOW when I have no idea when I'd be able to play it. But as the game has multiplayer I do get scared that when I buy it the community will be dead.

Why some games have a higher number on brackets?

Does that mean that they lost sales?

Steamspy is an approximation. Either Steamspy changed some algorithms in between or the sales were so insignificant that new samples updated the values to probably the most accurate number.
 

kswiston

Member
Yikes those Atelier numbers are not good. Wonder if there is just not a market for those games on PC

The numbers for Sophie aren't bad given the recency of the release and the niche nature of the game. Releasing Firis so close to Sophie, and at double the price doesn't seem to have been the best move though. I'm not sure where the port quality was in those cases, as I haven't played them. I expect both to gradually go up as time passes.


I left those off because the large majority of their sales are not on Steam, and they earn money through active subscriptions. Steam numbers don't matter all that much in those cases. Most of the other games have Steam Keys as their default PC version, perhaps with a DRM free version on GOG that is missing from these numbers.
 

Hazzuh

Member
UNDER NIGHT IN-BIRTH Exe:Late - 42.000 (15.000)

Any ideas why UNIEL had such a big increase? Was it on sale or something? Either way, those numbers are great, hopefully we get UNIST at some point...
 

Tonton

Member
So Nier is maybe 500K+ world wide now?
I think it's 400k+ just from Steam and Japan physical so definitely above that

IIRC, most of SV sales came from steam sales. Once they start having this on sale (and there are more perv mods), sales numbers will probably spike as well.
Yeah I'm sure the game will have legs (and this time the DLC doesn't come with the game so there's more money to be made there too) just wasn't expecting sub 20k sales
To be fair I'd attribute it to the launch date. So close to a whole bunch of games that the kind of people that buy SK games would be interested too. In just a month we had Berserk, 2 Ateliers, Nier, Senran, Nights of Azure, and a bunch of other japanese games being released, not to mention the console releases. Hell, I pre-ordered Nier on Steam but still didn't really play it because Zelda is consuming my life. No way I'd buy Senran Kagura NOW when I have no idea when I'd be able to play it. But as the game has multiplayer I do get scared that when I buy it the community will be dead.
yeah it's a busy period and it's a much worse deal than the previous game (+$10 and no DLC included) I just was expecting something around 20~30k (although i don't even remember how Shinovi did on launch tbh)
 

kswiston

Member
Any ideas why UNIEL had such a big increase? Was it on sale or something? Either way, those numbers are great, hopefully we get UNIST at some point...

That was a typo. I'm not sure how I managed that.

I have updated the OP with the correct number: 17k

Thanks for noticing.
 

Kumubou

Member
I think there's a bug in parts of SteamSpy's reporting, and as such that caused some of the numbers here to be incorrect. The Under Night In-Birth one stuck out to me, as that would be a massive jump for a game that didn't really have any significant discounts or updates (when's UNIEST??? ;_; ) since release.

If you search by developer, French Bread's page says they have sold ~42,000 copies of Under Night In-Birth: Exe Late (UNIEL) and ~37,000 copies of Melty Blood: Actress Again: Current Code (MBAACC). However, when you look on the game page for UNIEL, it shows that there are only ~17,000 owners, whereas MBAACC's numbers match what's on the search page.

(Those titles will never not be weird to type out in full, geez.)
 

kswiston

Member
I think there's a bug in parts of SteamSpy's reporting, and as such that caused some of the numbers here to be incorrect. The Under Night In-Birth one stuck out to me, as that would be a massive jump for a game that didn't really have any significant discounts or updates (when's UNIEST??? ;_; ) since release.

If you search by developer, French Bread's page says they have sold ~42,000 copies of Under Night In-Birth: Exe Late (UNIEL) and ~37,000 copies of Melty Blood: Actress Again: Current Code (MBAACC). However, when you look on the game page for UNIEL, it shows that there are only ~17,000 owners, whereas MBAACC's numbers match what's on the search page.

(Those titles will never not be weird to type out in full, geez.)

Yes. The bug seems to be with the publisher/developer pages and not with the actual game profile pages. Searching for games individually (IE, typing "Chaos Code" in search) gives the correct numbers as well.

If anyone else notices an error due to this bug, let me know and I will make corrections. I quickly checked most of the other ASW games from that publisher page, and they seem to match what is on their game title pages, except for the two instances pointed out. Weird.
 
It's doing fine. It sold the same amount as Zestiria in that timeframe, while not having a second game as an incentive.

Oh really? I didn't realize Bersaria is in line with Zestiria when aligned launches. That's good news then. I'd hate to see it not sell as well when it's so much better of a product
 

kswiston

Member
Oh really? I didn't realize Bersaria is in line with Zestiria when aligned launches. That's good news then. I'd hate to see it not sell as well when it's so much better of a product

Part of the reason why I am doing these threads every 3 months or so is that they can serve as a useful archive for past Steam sales. I'm sure that Sergey and a few others can look at the past two years worth of Steamspy data, but most of us can only see the last 3 months. If I am able to keep this series of threads going, we will be able to see some rough sales patterns for longer running series.

If you look at the May 2016 thread, Tales of Zestiria was at 142k. That was about 7.5 to 8 months after launch. We'll see where Berseria is after the summer sale.
 

Kumubou

Member
Those Dark Souls numbers seem to indicate that Nioh would be a good fit for Steam.
Before of after adjusting for the "assumed garbo Koei-Tecmo port" penalty?

I think their reputation for having universally awful PC versions is starting to bite them in the ass.
 
Before of after adjusting for the "assumed garbo Koei-Tecmo port" penalty?

I think their reputation for having universally awful PC versions is starting to bite them in the ass.

Good. After releasing so many games on PC you'd think they would start to treat PC releases a TAD better, but nope. Although Toukiden 2 just released and apparently isn't a complete shitshow(buuuuut 1080p locked).
 

gngf123

Member
Those Dark Souls numbers seem to indicate that Nioh would be a good fit for Steam.

If KT actually did a good job of the port (which is extremely unlikely given their history), there would be an absolutely massive market for Nioh on PC.

I think KT are the first publisher I've ever seen that have released so many bad ports that they have personally angered Durante enough that he doesn't want to fix their newest release (Toukiden 2). It's quite impressive.

No. At this point, Koei-Tecmo have tipped my annoyance threshold. Unprecedented levels of annoyance. Not even S-E is that bad.

Has the game ever officially been labeled an exclusive by its companies? I haven't followed it outside of it appearing fuckawesome.

It was for a time listed as "Only on Playstation"... then mysteriously that was removed.
 
I can't decide if the Atelier numbers are good or not. I think Sophie has sold about a third of what it sold on PS4/PS3/Vita in Japan at launch. I have no idea what its North American numbers or expectations for the PC port were, obviously. It doesn't sound immediately awful to me, though.

Firis I assume got hit because it's a) full price-ish, b) isn't as good, and c) is a more troubled port than Sophie was. But also I thought Steamspy had some weirdness with recently launched games?
 

desmax

Member
I can't decide if the Atelier numbers are good or not. I think Sophie has sold about a third of what it sold on PS4/PS3/Vita in Japan at launch. I have no idea what its North American numbers or expectations for the PC port were, obviously. It doesn't sound immediately awful to me, though.

Firis I assume got hit because it's a) full price-ish, b) isn't as good, and c) is a more troubled port than Sophie was. But also I thought Steamspy had some weirdness with recently launched games?

I mean, I'd think people would want to finish Sophie before playing Firis, so I'd imagine that being a factor too.
Maybe they shouldn't had released both games so close to one another
 

JCG

Member
If KT actually did a good job of the port (which is extremely unlikely given their history), there would be an absolutely massive market for Nioh on PC.

I think KT are the first publisher I've ever seen that have released so many bad ports that they have personally angered Durante enough that he doesn't want to fix their newest release (Toukiden 2). It's quite impressive.

I'd argue that if the game was nevertheless playable and had been released close to the console date, Nioh would still sell pretty damn well for a KT title. Just not as much as it could perform under optimum conditions.

As far as I can recall, Durante hasn't really worked on most of their games and he's been frustrated at KT for a long time (mostly rightfully, despite my personally not needing/using features like arbitrary resolutions or 4K even in games that do offer them).
 

Gbraga

Member
I mean, I'd think people would want to finish Sophie before playing Firis, so I'd imagine that being a factor too.
Maybe they shouldn't had released both games so close to one another

I think this was a huge factor. They both look pretty similar, they're both new to PC folks, one of them costs much less.
 

kswiston

Member
Xanadu Next is another victim of the publisher page glitch. The actual Steamspy ownership number is 5k. For those who already thought that 11k was terrible, sorry to be the bearer of more bad news!
 

Tonton

Member
Xanadu Next is another victim of the publisher page glitch. The actual Steamspy ownership number is 5k. For those who already thought that 11k was terrible, sorry to be the bearer of more bad news!
And here was I foolishly happy it got a tiny bump ;_;
 

SarusGray

Member
atelier numbers for sophie and firis are not good. I don't believe they are selling any better on console either yipes. Gust you gotta step it up..
 

Carlius

Banned
Danganronpa numbers depress me and the Last Remnant shocks me. I've not heard about a single person talk about that game, ever.

last remnant was available for 4 dollars i think or soemthing like that and wasnt it in a humble? either way, that game deserves 2 million sales, incredible jrpg.-
 

kswiston

Member
atelier numbers for sophie and firis are not good. I don't believe they are selling any better on console either yipes. Gust you gotta step it up..

I am a fan of the series, but there have been an absurd number of these games in a short time. These games are 30+ hours long and have released every year since 2005 in the US and 2001 in Japan. Even if you don't want to count the Mana Khemia games, we have had 8 Atelier titles on the PS3/PS4 since 2010 in the west.
 
A friend just got a good PC so we've been browsing lists and such. Him and I just jumped into Trails on the Sky FC, and man, what a fantastic gem I've been missing out on. If SC is as good as the FC, we'll get into it for sure.
 

Nyoro SF

Member
A friend just got a good PC so we've been browsing lists and such. Him and I just jumped into Trails on the Sky FC, and man, what a fantastic gem I've been missing out on. If SC is as good as the FC, we'll get into it for sure.

SC takes FC and ramps it up and then the 3rd is coming out this spring! Don't miss out!
 

Shizuka

Member
SPIKE CHUNSOFT

Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc - 108.000 (99.000)
Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Dispair - 90.000 (87.000)
Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma - 25.000 (27.000)
Conception II: Children of the Seven Stars - 16.000 (19.000)

Did that many people return the game?
 

Dusk Golem

A 21st Century Rockefeller
Did that many people return the game?

The numbers don't show how many people bought and returned it, SteamSpy doesn't give accurate numbers.

For example, I released a small game a month ago. SteamSpy guesses my game has sold between 300-2640 copies.

(it's sold 1,520 copies at this very moment).

It's just a rough estimate, basically saying "Between here and here" using the data that's available.
 

MUnited83

For you.
Yikes those Atelier numbers are not good. Wonder if there is just not a market for those games on PC
? Do people not realize how nice the Atelier series is? Sophie sold fine for a relatively old port. Kt continues to put the games on the vita in the West even when they perform worse than that, so I don't think there is much to worry about future ports.
 
Top Bottom