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Japanese Sales 12/24 - 12/31
- Thread starter cvxfreak
- Start date
Famitsu Dec sales (5 weeks to Dec 30th):
http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssConsumerGoodsAndRetailNews/idUSTFA00293420080107
Wii 774,123
PS3 232,421
http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssConsumerGoodsAndRetailNews/idUSTFA00293420080107
Wii 774,123
PS3 232,421
The 360 numbers weren't up when I posted, thanks.max-pain said:
Yeah, and like legend166 said, Enterbrain is the company that publishes Famitsu and the tracker of the sales, so technically they are Enterbrain numbers, but they're posted in Famitsu and many just refer to them as such.
Cosmonaut X
Member
farnham said:
Yeah, I think it's pretty certain it will now. The interesting thing to see over the next few weeks is whether it has the legs to go further or whether it will slump post-holiday and just scrape the million.
Sorry it's not a full report, the new school year has left me very busy, but here are some quick observations:
Wii Its not sold out in my town but at the same time it is not nearly as plentiful as it has been.
WiiFit The department stores are selling out of it, the game stores usually have a few copies. True game stores get more copies but it might also be that the type of person who buys games at specialized stores is not as interested in WiiFit as someone who picks up games along with their groceries at the department stores.
Super Mario Galaxy I reported shortly after the games launch that a lot of people didnt really know about this game and were mistaking it for Mario Party. It seems a lot of that confusion is clearing up. Its becoming a talked about game. Sadly this came a bit late. There are many used copies of this title floating around and Nintendo missed a lot of new game sales. Their current campaign for the game is fantastic; I wish they had used that earlier. I reported that one store dropped its price on the game. I predicted other stores would follow suit. I was wrong in this prediction. The retail price is holding around my city and the store that dropped the price is currently sold out.
Final Fantasy IV Not sold out but no price drop or massive amounts unsold on shelves. 2 of the Otaku gamers I know bought it and say it is fantastic. I asked one girl who I know is a huge Final Fantasy fan why she didnt buy it. She said she played it too recently. She plans to buy it later when the story is not as fresh in her mind. She did however plan to buy the soundtrack right away. Sometimes I just dont understand these hardcore gamers
Dragon Quest IV - everyone seems to love this game. Square didnt over or under ship this title. There have always been copies in store but never so many the store would worry they couldnt sell them. I can only imagine that they are very happy with the performance.
Mario Party DS - If you are a kid and you don't have this, you are not cool. It the same vibe as Animal Crossing when that came out. I don't know if it will have the same kind of legs, but I wouldn't be shocked if it did.
DS and PSP - Im beginning to think DS is starting to reach a saturation point for young customers. My current day job is as an elementary school teacher. During our Christmas lesson I asked the kids what they wanted for Christmas (by raising hands). Lots of kids wanted Wii and lots of kids wanted PSP but almost no one raised their hand when I asked, do you want a DS? I was really surprised by this, so I changed the question to Do you HAVE a DS? and in most of my classes I would say 80% of the students raised their hands. In this demographic at least, it seems that everyone who wants one, has one. However in my adult classes there are still many people who dont have the DS and are considering getting one when I have the money. There seems to still be a lot of potential growth there, but the traditional kids market might start drying up for hardware simply because everyone has one.
PSP still has room to grow here and many boys on my schools expressed interesting in playing Monster Hunter. Maybe it is naïve of me but I believe kids this young aren't as likely to pirate games either. I think Sony should move away from targeting it as a gadget for adults and try to bring in these younger kids who mostly dont have the system yet.
Wii Its not sold out in my town but at the same time it is not nearly as plentiful as it has been.
WiiFit The department stores are selling out of it, the game stores usually have a few copies. True game stores get more copies but it might also be that the type of person who buys games at specialized stores is not as interested in WiiFit as someone who picks up games along with their groceries at the department stores.
Super Mario Galaxy I reported shortly after the games launch that a lot of people didnt really know about this game and were mistaking it for Mario Party. It seems a lot of that confusion is clearing up. Its becoming a talked about game. Sadly this came a bit late. There are many used copies of this title floating around and Nintendo missed a lot of new game sales. Their current campaign for the game is fantastic; I wish they had used that earlier. I reported that one store dropped its price on the game. I predicted other stores would follow suit. I was wrong in this prediction. The retail price is holding around my city and the store that dropped the price is currently sold out.
Final Fantasy IV Not sold out but no price drop or massive amounts unsold on shelves. 2 of the Otaku gamers I know bought it and say it is fantastic. I asked one girl who I know is a huge Final Fantasy fan why she didnt buy it. She said she played it too recently. She plans to buy it later when the story is not as fresh in her mind. She did however plan to buy the soundtrack right away. Sometimes I just dont understand these hardcore gamers
Dragon Quest IV - everyone seems to love this game. Square didnt over or under ship this title. There have always been copies in store but never so many the store would worry they couldnt sell them. I can only imagine that they are very happy with the performance.
Mario Party DS - If you are a kid and you don't have this, you are not cool. It the same vibe as Animal Crossing when that came out. I don't know if it will have the same kind of legs, but I wouldn't be shocked if it did.
DS and PSP - Im beginning to think DS is starting to reach a saturation point for young customers. My current day job is as an elementary school teacher. During our Christmas lesson I asked the kids what they wanted for Christmas (by raising hands). Lots of kids wanted Wii and lots of kids wanted PSP but almost no one raised their hand when I asked, do you want a DS? I was really surprised by this, so I changed the question to Do you HAVE a DS? and in most of my classes I would say 80% of the students raised their hands. In this demographic at least, it seems that everyone who wants one, has one. However in my adult classes there are still many people who dont have the DS and are considering getting one when I have the money. There seems to still be a lot of potential growth there, but the traditional kids market might start drying up for hardware simply because everyone has one.
PSP still has room to grow here and many boys on my schools expressed interesting in playing Monster Hunter. Maybe it is naïve of me but I believe kids this young aren't as likely to pirate games either. I think Sony should move away from targeting it as a gadget for adults and try to bring in these younger kids who mostly dont have the system yet.
Vinnk said:
NICE REPORT THANKS VINNK
to the details
SMG - yeah.. thats bad for Nintendo but I think they still will sell over one million.. that gives them one good lesson though (i mean again).. HYPE THAT GAME BEFORE IT COMES OUT NOT AFTER
FFIV - I played it too recently too.. On GBA.. Why would i want to spend more money on the same game over again.. Its not FFV or FFVI after all.. (or FF VII)
Vinnk said:
Like I suggested earlier, 20m units is probably where it's going downhill. That's one unit for six Japanese already... and that's A LOT.
But maybe people buy a second or third one when the new revision is out. I guess that revision will feature full multimedia support (mp3, webbrowser, movies?) which should give it a huge boost. We'll see.
Eteric Rice
Member
Maybe it's time the DS started to focus on adults more. *shrugs*
BishopLamont
Banned
Nintendo needs new training games for the adults, there's a major lack of these games this year.
Vinnk said:
Very nice report and insight. Nintendo should improve themself in the future, learning from SMG experience.
Surprised by your comment on Mario Party DS.
Nice comment on DS & PSP. 80% is a very high penetration.
How big is the percentage of DS owner in your adult classes ?
The kids might not know how to pirate, but how about their parents ? Will they be able to teach them ? Especially if it is the parent that is paying for the game (as opposed to the children buying the game with their own money, which should be infrequent)
BishopLamont
Banned
Face training bombed, Focus Flash training sold comparable to English training and didn't do so well. I guess it was enough for this year since they wanted to focus on the Wii with WiiFit.farnham said:
:lolapujanata said:
I really doubt the parents are going to know how to pirate, let alone teach their kids.
farnham said:
Me too, on GBA.
There was a discussion about why FF4 was not performing as good as FF3 and this was my main argument, that the diverse ports of FF4 aren't THAT old that people have to rush to stores and buy the 4th version of it, right now, if ever.
the responses were " but voice acting!!!! mega budget remake!!! "....I, for one, played FF4 on GBA about a year ago, I won't buy the DS game until 2 or 3 years from now, exactly for the same reason of Vinnk's friend, regardless of voice acting and megabudgets and I am sure we are not the only ones.
I am sure SE considered that when doing their sales expectations.
BishopLamont
Banned
I'm sure SE expected less considering it shipped less even though it was a busier time then when FF3 launched.sphinx said:
BishopLamont
Banned
Yeah and Flash Focus did 700k~ so far, so only English training is it's closest neighbor in training games. There's none this year that compares to Brain Training.farnham said:
Cosmonaut X
Member
BishopLamont said:
Well, given that BT is a multimillion seller, that's hardly surprising. The two Brain Training titles were remarkable, and I think it would be daft to expect every "... Training" title to follow in their footsteps (hell, I think even a hypothetical Even More Brain Training would be likely to fall short of those two).
Given the likely development costs of Flash Focus/English Training, the return on investment must be staggering on sales of "only" 700k+
thestopsign
Member
BishopLamont said:
The first English Training game sold over 2mil, but the second one that you're thinking of only reached around 600k. I wouldn't say that is a bomb by any means, same case with Flash Focus.
Stumpokapow
listen to the mad man
BishopLamont said:
Face Training didn't bomb, you doofus.
Facening is fucking ridiculous. It's a hokum homeopathic health technique that existed long before the game. Expecting the game to sell well when it's based on a thoroughly bullshit principle, not at all fun, and tied to the success of a specific cultural phenomenon is stupid. It's like expecting "Trepanation DS" (or for a more colloquial example, 'South Beach Diet DS' or 'Q-Ray Ionized Bracelet DS' or 'The Secret DS') to sell better than other products for the same stupid fad sell.
You know how everyone always says "Why do analysts get paid so much money when they're no better than GAF at predicting stuff?" Well, one of the few things that analysts get right is looking outside the numbers to actually provide context for what they're blabbering on about.
Yeah, in comparison to BT and BT2, Flash Focus and Face Training bombed. They were still massively profitable, and in the case of Face Training sold vastly more than it should have. It's borderline immoral that Nintendo even sold Face Training.
apujanata said:
My main adult class this semester has 22 students. 5 of them have DS and 3 of them were planning to get one in the near future. They all own one (or both) of the English training titles.
I have a second adult class as well but it is a much more formal group and we don't talk about things like video games.
As for the piracy. I don't worry so much about parents. An older brother however might help them find "the free games". But even then I don't see that happening so much.
Japanese Release Dates from the IGN Gaming Life in Japan article from Dec. 21.
Jan 3
DS
01.03.08 Rune Factory 2 Marvelous Interactive 4800
There are a bunch of games slated for January without a release date, but this is the only one from last week with a release date.
Jan 10
DS
01.10.08 Chishokuou Series Train Master Global A Entertainment 3800
Wii
01.10.08 Katei Kyoshi Hitman Reborn! Dream Battle! Wii Marvelous Interactive 6800
PSP
01.10.08 Reishiki Kanjou Sentouki 2 Global A Entertainment 4800
PS3
Budget Re-releases
01.10.08 PS3 Armored Core 4 (The Best Collection) From Software 2800
360
Budget Re-releases
01.10.08 X360 Armored Core 4 (Xbox 360 Platinum Collection) From Software 2800
01.10.08 X360 Rockstar Games presents Table Tennis (Xbox 360 Platinum Collection) Microsoft 2800
01.10.08 X360 Super Robot Taisen XO (Xbox 360 Platinum Collection) Banpresto 3800
Should make it pretty easy to figure out the new games outside of the Top 30 in the rounded Famitsu data the next two weeks. :lol
Jan 3
DS
01.03.08 Rune Factory 2 Marvelous Interactive 4800
There are a bunch of games slated for January without a release date, but this is the only one from last week with a release date.
Jan 10
DS
01.10.08 Chishokuou Series Train Master Global A Entertainment 3800
Wii
01.10.08 Katei Kyoshi Hitman Reborn! Dream Battle! Wii Marvelous Interactive 6800
PSP
01.10.08 Reishiki Kanjou Sentouki 2 Global A Entertainment 4800
PS3
Budget Re-releases
01.10.08 PS3 Armored Core 4 (The Best Collection) From Software 2800
360
Budget Re-releases
01.10.08 X360 Armored Core 4 (Xbox 360 Platinum Collection) From Software 2800
01.10.08 X360 Rockstar Games presents Table Tennis (Xbox 360 Platinum Collection) Microsoft 2800
01.10.08 X360 Super Robot Taisen XO (Xbox 360 Platinum Collection) Banpresto 3800
Should make it pretty easy to figure out the new games outside of the Top 30 in the rounded Famitsu data the next two weeks. :lol
Stumpokapow
listen to the mad man
ethelred said:
Whereas Brain Training is slightly bullshit (IE the concept of a "brain age"), it is still the case the repeated memory and other mental tasks contribute to greater success at those mental tasks. Brain Training does not make you smarter, but it does make you better at Brain Training-related tasks.
Facening is "What the Bleep Do We Know?" level bullshit. I'd rather Nintendo release Botox DS, because at least Botox actually does something medically even if there are associated risks and psychological/social considerations.
Whereas I believe Brain Training is a redeemable entertainment product and the majority of people who buy it probably believe the effects are mild, Facening is marketed in a much more fad-like way and makes bolder and less true claims.
It worries me greatly. Given Nintendo's recent expansion into Korea and extreme success there, will they next release Fan Death Prevention Training?
As an individual convinced of the merits of science and disgusted by cargo cult science, I honestly believe that Facening is one of the most pathetic pop cultural fads in the history of my lifetime.
... and given that everyone above a 55 IQ should either be blissfully unaware that Facening exists or able to see through how bogus it is, that's why the 100k-or-whatever sales Face Training got should most definitely not be considered a failure by any means.
Deku said:
Journalists in general could use a bit more math training. I'm rather enjoying watching them all right now stumble over how to explain margin of error in statistical polling (I'll let you guys know as soon as I find one that conveys its correct meaning), or read off economic numbers without taking inflation into account.