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Japan: Destiny 2 underperforms, 60%+ drop from D1

SparkTR

Member
Not sure why people are discounting digital. Why would you want to switch discs all the time for an evergreen game like Destiny 2? That said it's an FPS in Japan for a console. It was not was never going to light up the charts.

Eh, for Japan specifically digital isn't going to make a massive impact. It's just not a big thing there compared to retail.
 
D2 will have legs. If the content is gonna keep coming as Bungie promised we should see less dropout compared to the first game.
Not sure what you're getting at here since many RPGs are story-driven, not loot-grinding driven.
It's all one in the same to me with few exceptions.
 

phanphare

Banned
The power of McDonalds.

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Stygr

Banned
PC gaming is non existent in Japan.

Its first mobile. Second console. Fourth PC

I mean, is not that popular, but there is a good number of active Steam users and players in Japan not as much as other asian countries but the PC Gaming is existent.

Steam numbers
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And this is PUBG, there are more Japanese players than Taiwanese, Sweden or other countries when PC Gaming is popular.
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And this without counting DQXI, DD Online and other MMORPG's in Japan.
 

Principate

Saint Titanfall
Did it stop people from playing rabidly for 3 years. Is it going to stop people from doing the same with D2? No

And that's lol worthy coming from a guy with a pic of titanfall as his avatar. That game blushes at the player retention rate destiny has.
Hahahahahaha. Man something must have hit too close home. Haven't had someone being up my avatar due to weakness of their argument for years.
 

patapuf

Member
Not sure why people are discounting digital. Why would you want to switch discs all the time for an evergreen game like Destiny 2? That said it's an FPS in Japan for a console. It was not was never going to light up the charts.

Digital makes up some of the difference for sure. But not 60%.

And the original release had a significant digital attach rate too.
 
Not sure why people are discounting digital. Why would you want to switch discs all the time for an evergreen game like Destiny 2? That said it's an FPS in Japan for a console. It was not was never going to light up the charts.

No one should be discounting digital, I've had it well explained to me why a lot of Destiny 2 players buy digital, but there were quite a few people saying that the results in the U.K. were "worthless" without digital sales included, usually emphasised by the amazing "all of the people on my friends list bought Destiny 2 digital". And that's in the country we're you're looking at a £10 hike in price at the very least for buying the digital version.

But yeah for this thread's purposes there's not even that excuse. Maybe like 10,000 bought digital, it's still a massive drop.
 
I don't know why this is surprising, digital content isn't included and PC hasn't been released yet. I know all but one or 2 of my friends bought it digital this time which was the reverse of D1. They showed 1.2 million concurrent users a few days ago without PC so it can't be selling too poorly.

Digital was a thing in 2014 too, and it's not enough to make up the gap, nor is there that many waiting to play on PC.
 

entremet

Member
Eh, for Japan specifically digital isn't going to make a massive impact. It's just not a big thing there compared to retail.

Didn't Splatoon 2 do pretty well digitally? I don't think Japan is this digital wasteland people think. It just has to be an appealing product. Obviously, physical will still do better since Japan has a big used market and no game rentals.
 
I'm not really surprised. Verdict is still very much out, but I've been expecting most of the fall games to underpreform(compared to pub expectations), reviews dependent(for stuff like FbW, Wolf 2, AC:O, and EW2). The big 3 multi titles especially. None of them wowed. No flops, but plenty of disappointment. Except for Mario, and Pubg, nothing is certain.
 

Lucifon

Junior Member
A lot of people were missold Destiny 1, it really ended up being something that it wasn't marketed to be. Those people know better this time.

Hell, even Destiny 2 was technically mis-marketed - a good chunk of the game is raiding, loot-dropping etc. It's only because veteran fans knew what they were getting that the overly cinematic/story-heavy marketing isn't paid any mind.
This - Destiny 1 burnt a lot of people, I'm not surprised numbers are lower. I also feel like there's been a fair amount less marketing this time round.
 
I don't think these numbers mean anything. The PC exists now, and the world is moving toward digital collectively. Until tracking digital sales becomes the norm, sales numbers are very flimsy in my opinion.
 

groansey

Member
Do we have the Knack 2 digital numbers yet?

Could be best-selling game of the year given the sudden move to digital that happened this month.
 

snap

Banned
Think about how Destiny 1 was sold: the new thing from the guys who made Halo. A strange and curious game world where you travelled the solar system facing darkness. The single flame of hope held fast by the traveler's gaze. It sounded very engrossing and exciting. It drew in people looking to scratch the co-op MMOish itch, but also lots of people interested to see how that all would play out.

This time around they triple down on the stuff only those who stuck with Destiny would like: lots of humor/slapstick, emphasis on a Borderlands-esque time filled with guitar riffs and bad jokes. As someone who got dangerously close to buying Destiny, I didn't once even consider buying Destiny 2.

Also, those citing the 1.2M concurrent number: it's near launch and that'll probably stay the peak for the game for until the next expansion at least. Doesn't mean it sold on the level of Destiny 1 (which did 2 mil in the US alone iirc), just that it sold well enough to have 1.2M online at one time across the world.
 

Nowise10

Member
Yeah I don't understand why digital tracking being included isn't a thing yet. Nearly every friend I know exclusively buys digital, which I couldn't say 3-4-5 years ago. I was exclusively "I like discs!" until 2014, and I guarantee that number is growing rapidly in time.
 

Principate

Saint Titanfall
Didn't Splatoon 2 do pretty well digitally? I don't think Japan is this digital wasteland people think. It just has to be an appealing product. Obviously, physical will still do better since Japan has a big used market and no game rentals.
Japanese digital ratios are well recorded . Even in best case scenario they're not even close to being able to offset this loss considering destiny 1 was also sold digitally so your looking at at most a 10-15 percent increase best case scenario.
 

Coxy100

Banned
Do we have the Knack 2 digital numbers yet?

Could be best-selling game of the year given the sudden move to digital that happened this month.

made me laugh! And I have to agree - the way some people keep banging on about digital does make me smile :)
 
Kind of interesting that Destiny and Watch Dogs didn't get the same benefit of the doubt that Assassin's Creed got (where the first game was meh but people wanted the sequel)
 
Maybe people are waiting. The Taken King package a year or two ago was a better deal than buying vanilla Destiny, the two expansions, and then the Taken King all separately.
 
Wonder what they do with D3 now.


D2 doesnt exactly seem like it's meeting expectations. These huge 60% drops in performance can't be handwaved away with digital sales. Roll on US numbers to see if it's a WW thing I guess.
 

Bsigg12

Member
Yeah I don't understand why digital tracking being included isn't a thing yet. Nearly every friend I know exclusively buys digital, which I couldn't say 3-4-5 years ago. I was exclusively "I like discs!" until 2014, and I guarantee that number is growing rapidly in time.

Because it's entirely up to Sony/Microsoft/Nintendo to report those numbers and we all know how much they hate sharing those numbers unless they are astronomical.
 

LiK

Member
Considering this doesn't include digital sales and it's only about Japan, calling it a bomb is kinda laughable.
 

patapuf

Member
Considering this doesn't include digital sales and it's only about Japan, calling it a bomb is kinda laughable.

It's not going to be a bomb.

Even with a 60% drop it's the biggest launch this year in the UK.

It's just that Destiny 1 was huge, and it looks like D2, at least at launch, isn't going to match that performance.
 

Gurrry

Member
Im glad to see that people arent double dipping. Im patiently waiting for the PC version. Looks like Japan might be too.
 
Wonder what they do with D3 now.


D2 doesnt exactly seem like it's meeting expectations. These huge 60% drops in performance can't be handwaved away with digital sales. Roll on US numbers to see if it's a WW thing I guess.

Destiny 3 would ideally tie in with a new generation of consoles. (which would potentially lead to another Destiny 1 clusterfuck)
 

shaneo632

Member
This was always gonna be a rental at most after I bought into the hype for the first one and ended up disappointed.

Not even sure I'm gonna rent it now. So many other games to play this year that aren't centered around grinding.
 
It's all one in the same to me with few exceptions.

Well if that's how you feel...

but for me there's definitely a difference, especially since a lot of those story-driven RPGs don't require much (if any) grinding these days. Plus there's a definite end* to most of them; you beat the game and experience the story. There's not much of an end-game to Destiny's (and similar games) infinite hamster wheel of grinding, especially when the up the level cap/light level every six months or so.

Still play the games, but I understand why people don't want to invest time into that kind of grind. And hell, even if you have to grind in, say, Fire Emblem, at least there's still an end goal to that grinding: finishing the game. You don't "finish" Destiny.

(*not counting infinitely generating side quests or something like in Skyrim)
 

CREMSteve

Member
Any sales numbers that don't include digital are so meaningless, aside from being a good indicator of how many more people are going digital these days.

And as many have already mentioned, I know many are waiting for the PC release as well, so they've yet to jump in.
 

ArjanN

Member
Don't think sales in Japan really mean much for Destiny 2 sales worldwide

They've had over a million concurrent players so they've must sold a couple million copies already.
 
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