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[zoku88]

While it's rare to see the publisher on the list, Atlus is spelled with a 'u'. Also their jp web page: http://www.atlus.co.jp/

I didn't even notice that :lol

 

[bistromathics]

06. [NDS] Rhythm Tengoku Gold (Nintendo) 25,000 /

 

[Flying_Phoenix]

Wow at Fallout still in the top 10. Moreso the westerners in Japan, or are Japan actually quite interested in the game?

I highly doubt that there are enough visiting and army Westerners to make up those sales, especially fluently Japanese reading gamers. Fallout 3 sold that much the same reason Xenosaga sold as much as it did in the States.

 

[Kilrogg]

For the love of god, YES

Picture that: Excite Taxi.

 

[donny2112]

Picture that: Excite Taxi.

You misspelled it. It's EXCITE Taxi.

 

[domokunrox]

Hang in there WKC!!!

 

[PuppetSlave]

Whats so hard to believe about people buying mario tennis with wii sports controls??? I want it so fucking bad. :lol

I think it will have legs too.

 

[donny2112]

I think it will have legs too.

That's correct. You can move the players with the nunchuk.

 

[lo zaffo]

I think that Super Smash Brothers X can do 2 mil and this is a measure of how Wii is bigger than GameCube and Nintendo64 in Japan.

 

[lupinko]

Another slow week.

What's up with GT5 getting back up there in the charts?

People are too lazy to download the Spec III patch. =P

 

[Jokeropia]

Why the lack of LTDs? I added the rounded ones from last week:

01. [WII] Wii Play: Mario Tennis (Nintendo) 56,000 / NEW
02. [NDS] Megami Ibunroku: Devil Survivor (Atlas) 55,000 / NEW
03. [PS3] Naruto: Narutimate Storm (Namco Bandai) 44,000 / NEW
04. [PSP] Dissidia Final Fantasy (Square Enix) 29,000 / 847,000
05. [PSP] Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G (PSP the Best) (Capcom) 27,000 / 332,000
06. [NDS] Rhythm Tengoku Gold (Nintendo) 25,000 / 1,593,000
07. [PS3] Fallout 3 (Bethesda Softworks) 24,000 / NEW
08. [NDS] Wagamama Fashion: Girl's Mode (Nintendo) 22,000 / 666,000
09. [WII] Wii Fit (Nintendo) 22,000 / 3,177,000
10. [NDS] DS Uranai Seikatsu (Nintendo) 20,000 / NEW

 

[donny2112]

Why the lack of LTDs? I added the rounded ones from last week:

GPara has already updated. In addition to the LTDs, a couple of the actual weekly sales numbers are 1K different. I think the ordering is all the same, though.

 

[Stumpokapow]

Followup from last week's thread:

So, as Nintendo and reflecting the fact that Nintendo has not demonstrating any willingness or ability to counterprogram, what do you do with the 15 titles you've already got slated for 2009 assuming you announce Zelda, and say... uh... 2 other EAD titles of reasonable hitting power?

Delay whichever ones don't make the quality cut by internally set deadlines, which, from our perspective, would be a randomly picked group of games to delay.

That strikes me as a copout answer, dude.

You proposed a hypothesis that Nintendo had some hidden games (of which you've named one, a Zelda sequel) waiting for Motion+. I asked how you can fit them in reflecting the already overloaded schedule as a way to challenge or test your hypothesis.

Your response is self-confirming--assuming your hypothesis is correct, Nintendo will figure out how to do that. Well, yeah. Obviously if that's Nintendo's plan, then that's Nintendo's plan and we'll see. But in lieu of waiting 9 months and finding out, let's try to discuss your hypothesis now and try to run through their options.

If Nintendo is holding back stuff for the Motion+ then they are going to have to massacre their announced 2009 schedule either through delays or through silent launches, or get smart with counterprogramming real quickly. I'm not happy with any of those options. The most plausible seems to be delaying titles.

If Kirby exists, that's a heavy hitter. That's not being delayed. Wii Sports Resort is the contingency that needs to come out first for your hypothesis to work. We've got US timeframes for Sin and Punishment 2 and Punch-Out. They aren't being bumped. Any hypothetical EAD titles are also on the list. We can also assume no GCN->Wii ports are going to be bumped. They're a steady rollout with relatively little fanfare and while I'm sure they'll be spaced out, they won't be bumped.

So you've got 9 titles--which are the most likely ones to take advantage of Motion+? Which probably don't? What are the relative profiles of these titles? I'd love to see your impressions.

It strikes me that of those remaining titles, only Dynamic Slash is a real candidate for Motion+, and possibly Wand of Magic. Trivia and English? Of course not, but they're also pretty low-tier stuff that would almost certainly make 2009.

So I guess the games that would be least likely to support your hypothetical lineup / strategy would be Line Attack Heroes, Kensax, Spawn Smasher, Cosmic Walker, and Endless Ocean 2.

Any thoughts?

 

[nli10]

Release One high and one low profile title a month at 2 week intervals.

As the casuals have proven they buy what you advertise, and the hardcore buy what they want whenever then just keep interet high with a steady stream.

Releasing games 'for the holiday' on the wii seems to lessen their overall sales if anything.

 

[GaussTek]

Japan is becoming an extremly specialized market, they only like:

-Final Fantasy & Dragon Quest (Square-Enix)
-Monster Hunter and -at a minor rate- Biohazard (Capcom)
-Pokémon and Casual/Easy games from Nintendo

The rest of games just get from normal to ok sales the first week(s) then they drop off from the chart completly.

SEGA, Konami and Namco need to change their strategy if they want to be again what they were years ago.

 

[Hive]

they also like Wagamamas!

 

[donny2112]

Famitsu Jan 5-11

01./01. [PSP] Dissidia: Final Fantasy (Square Enix) - 43,697 / 800,710
02./05. [NDS] Wagamama Fashion: Girls Mode (Nintendo) - 34,278 / 660,052
03./03. [NDS] Rhythm Tengoku Gold (Nintendo) - 32,458 / 1,474,553
04./10. [PSP] Monster Hunter Portable 2 G (BEST) (Capcom) - 32,222 / 292,155
05./04. [WII] Animal Crossing: City Folk (Nintendo) - 30,539 / 1,016,906
06./08. [WII] Wii Fit (Nintendo) - 30,252 / 3,069,485
07./02. [NDS] Kirby Super Star Ultra Deluxe (Nintendo) - 29,967 / 977,625
08./09. [NDS] Pokemon Platinum (Nintendo/Pokemon Co.) - 25,475 / 2,278,278
09./06. [PS3] White Knight Chronicles (SCEI) - 24,773 / 300,612
10./07. [WII] Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo) - 20,544 / 2,096,388
11./12. [WII] Wii Sports (Nintendo) - 19,781 / 3,384,590
12./13. [NDS] Phantasy Star Zero (SEGA) - 19,479 / 159,904
13./23. [PS2] Gundam Musou 2 (Namco Bandai Games) - 17,181 / 179,434
14./16. [NDS] Momotarou Dentetsu 20th Anniversary (Hudson) - 16,904 / 185,821
15./14. [WII] Play on Wii: Pikmin (Nintendo) - 16,049 / 116,792
16./19. [PS3] Gundam Musou 2 (Namco Bandai Games) - 15,139 / 256,228
17./17. [NDS] Prof. Layton and the Last Time Travel (Level 5) - 15,116 / 686,369
18./20. [NDS] Power Pro Kun Pocket 11 (Konami) - 13,913 / 144,309
19./24. [NDS] Animal Crossing: Wild World (Nintendo) - 12,853 / 4,893,938
20./26. [PS3] World Soccer Winning Eleven 12: PES 2009 (Konami) - 10,912 / 335,163
21./28. [NDS] Tales of Hearts: CG Movie/Anime Movie Editions (Namco Bandai Games) - 10,626 / 212,477
22./25. [NDS] Mario Kart DS (Nintendo) - 10,572 / 3,355,781
23./00. [PSP] Musou Orochi: Maou Sairin (Koei) - 10,242 / 142,608
24./00. [NDS] Harvest Moon: Welcome to the Wind Bazaar (Marvelous) - 9,762 / 77,565
25./18. [WII] Taiko Drum Master Wii (Namco Bandai Games) - 9,613 / 297,587
26./21. [NDS] Taiko Drum Master 2: The Seven Island Adventure (Namco Bandai Games) - 9,075 / 484,186
27./00. [NDS] Genso Suikoden Tierkreis (Konami) - 8,673 / 117,889
28./27. [NDS] New Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo) - 8,670 / 5,406,786
29./15. [WII] Karaoke Joysound Wii (Hudson) - 8,537 / 173,215
30./22. [WII] Wii Music (Nintendo) - 8,428 / 362,496

*. [360] Armored Core: For Answer (BEST) (From Software) - 2,200 / NEW


Bar Chart Jan 5-11 (thanks to JoshuaJSlone/garaph.info)

Note: Image may be delayed from the time of this post, but will automatically show once the data is ready.


Recent Famitsu Top 30s

Dec 8-14, 2008
Dec 15-21, 2008
Dec 22, 2008-Jan 4, 2009

 

[donny2112]

That strikes me as a copout answer, dude.

Nintendo knows that even if they have internally scheduled 20 games remaining for this year after Q1 that not all of them will make it out. That's how Nintendo has always done things. They don't release a game when it makes sense (e.g. Goldeneye with the movie's release), but rather when the game is done. That goes for games they are farming out, as well. I have no doubt that if it comes down to figuring out what the Q4 schedule will be, they'll look at which games could make it, and then if it's still too many, see which ones of those that don't have to come out (i.e. non-tentpole games) that could be even better if allowed to cook a little longer can be delayed in order to trim the schedule down. From our perspective, this may come across as haphazard scheduling, but from Nintendo's standpoint, these games are going to be on the shelves for years. Therefore whether they actually get released in two months or four, they'll still be available to anyone who looks for them down the line.

Same answer as I gave before, but hopefully with a little more background on the thinking.

If Nintendo is holding back stuff for the Motion+

Just to be sure we're on the same page, I'm including announcements of games as part of the "stuff." I don't think they have Zelda, Mario, etc. finished and just waiting for Motion+ to come out. I do think it very possible that they want to pull back the curtain a bit at the Motion+ kickoff to let Wii owners know what's coming to encourage them to migrate over to adding the Motion+ device to their existing 50 million+ controllers.

then they are going to have to massacre their announced 2009 schedule either through delays or through silent launches, or get smart with counterprogramming real quickly.

I guess we weren't on the same page. :/

I'm not happy with any of those options. The most plausible seems to be delaying titles.

Nintendo intended for Twilight Princess to be a Fall 2005 title, but last minute additions (notably a Wii version) caused them to delay the game until Fall 2006. Nintendo doesn't go into a release schedule secretly knowing that title A, B, and C will be delayed, but they have been in this business long enough to know that some probably will be better for a delay by the time the internal target date gets closer.

If Kirby exists, that's a heavy hitter. That's not being delayed.

Why not? Kirby has typically been released at the last gasp of a console's life. The same would've been said of this version, if it hadn't been moved to the Wii.

Wii Sports Resort is the contingency that needs to come out first for your hypothesis to work.

A media briefing discussing Wii Sports Resort and any games that might've been held off on being shown needs to happen first for my hypothesis to work.

We've got US timeframes for Sin and Punishment 2 and Punch-Out. They aren't being bumped.

Why? Is Nintendo losing the license to make a Punch-Out game by June 30 and has to get the game out by then? I think you're assuming much greater solidity to a Nintendo release schedule than actually exists.

So you've got 9 titles--which are the most likely ones to take advantage of Motion+? Which probably don't? What are the relative profiles of these titles? I'd love to see your impressions.

Any titles we do know about from Nintendo that we don't know if they use the Motion+ add-on but that could be using the Motion+ add-on, they wouldn't have shown us the parts that use the add-on, yet. Nintendo is very careful about that kind of thing. Besides, any games coming out soon that use Motion+ wouldn't use it exclusively (save Wii Sports Resort) due to the limiting of their potential audience, at the moment.

It's essentially a "Nintendo knows what they're doing" stance. When the DS came out, I thought "Why two screens? What's the point?" However, I decided that Nintendo wouldn't have gone that way unless they had games that made the dual screens make sense, and it turns out that they did (Nintendogs, requiring two screens so that one can be a touch screen without blocking the view of the game, non-games with touch/voice control to appeal to those not comfortable with a standard controller). With the Motion+ coming out and basically no games outside of Wii Sports Resort that are really using it, the question probably comes up "Why? What's the point?" See the similarities?

Any thoughts?

Either Nintendo is going to make Motion+ standard, in which case they'll make a new Wiimote with it built-in and sell the Motion+ attachments pretty cheaply, or the Motion+ will be the GameCube microphone and only be used in a handful of titles and never go anywhere. Nintendo obviously should be having greater output of games than they have over the last six months, so the question arises of "Why the lower output?" I happen to think that there's a very good possibility that the answer to that question is tied to the Motion+'s future.

I could also very well be wrong.

 

[Rpgmonkey]

ToH off the top 30.

Had a good though...I guess.

Did it ever outdo ToS? Not that it really means much, just curious.

 

[donny2112]

Did it ever outdo ToS? Not that it really means much, just curious.

Tales of Symphonia Wii? Yes, by 69 units. It's also ahead of the last reported value we have for ToI by just under 2K, but ToI should show itself being higher when the Top 500 comes out.

Edit:
DSi 62,525
PSP 42,559
Wii 32,333
PS3 20,690
DS Lite 18,809
Xbox 360 9,576
PS2 5,760

Edit2:
Naruto had a 60% sell-through rate.
Animal Crossing passed 5 million this week in Media-Create's tracking.

 

[ZealousD]

Wow at Fallout still in the top 10. Moreso the westerners in Japan, or are Japan actually quite interested in the game?

Oblivion did decently well over there too. Like many JRPGs here the west it's bought by more than just foreigners.

 

[bttb]

.

 

[jarrod]

Yeah, Taiko Wii hanging in there!

Such a shame that DDR couldn't get the rebirth that Taiko got on the Wii.

DDR's doing it, just outside Japan. Hottest Party cleared 600k NA+EU in it's first 4 months iirc.

 

[donny2112]

Media Create Software Totals

Do you have 2007 data? 2008 was down from 2007, so I'd be curious to see how this year tracks vs. 2007.

Thanks for posting the data!

 

[charlequin]

It's essentially a "Nintendo knows what they're doing" stance.

This is essentially the crux of the problem with your argument. Nintendo have demonstrated they "know what they're doing" in terms of hardware innovation and broad-spectrum software targeting, but have also demonstrated essentially the opposite in terms of software positioning and development scheduling.

More specifically, the problem with your position here is that an explanation for why Nintendo's late 2008 schedule sucked so much should have the form "well, there's this upcoming benefit that you can see starting to be visible here that'll eventually come out of it." But your case basically says that Nintendo is still fucking up their schedule (by packing the front end of the year with titles that can only be properly spacedwith schedule rejiggering in the picture) and the only benefit is that... what? They have some Motion+ titles, which they also could have had by just applying any forethought to their schedule in the first place?

 

[bttb]

.

 

[donny2112]

(by packing the front end of the year with titles that can only be properly spacedwith schedule rejiggering in the picture)

I don't understand that part.

They have some Motion+ titles, which they also could have had by just applying any forethought to their schedule in the first place?

How can they have Motion+ titles before Wii Sports Resort is released? I don't think I completely understand what you're saying here, either.

We've had this discussion before. If Nintendo has a media conference to discuss the launch of the WiiMotion+ and also talks about new games coming out that will use the tech, it will go a long way to supporting this hypothesis. If they have a media conference and don't discuss new games or don't have a media conference at all, the hypothesis is most likely incorrect. It's a waiting game, at this point.

Edit:

Media Create introduced total software sales in 2009. Therefore, data is only available for 3 weeks (2009 vs. 2008). Up until week 52 of 2008, Media Create reported software sales for the top 100.

Ok. I thought it used to be Top 100 sales, but the current page says the full market. So the 2008 data you're listing is the 2009 data adjusted by the % change mentioned on the Media-Create page?

 

[bttb]

.

 

[Psychotext]

Was just looking at last year's numbers. Wii and DS are considerably down on what they were.

 

[schuelma]

Was just looking at last year's numbers. Wii and DS are considerably down on what they were.

I think most everything is.

 

[comedy bomb]

Wii 32,333
PS3 20,690

PS3 creepin up on yo ass.

 

[Sage00]

PS3 creepin up on yo ass.

But by a smaller margin than
PS3 20,690
Xbox 360 9,576

 

[PantherLotus]

31. [NDS] Taiko Drum Master 2: The Seven Island Adventure (Namco Bandai)
32. [WII] Play on Wii: Pikmin (Nintendo)
33. [NDS] Mario Kart DS (Nintendo)
34. [NDS] Harvest Moon: Welcome to the Wind Bazaar (Marvelous)
35. [WII] Karaoke Joysound Wii (Hudson)
36. [WII] Super Smash Brothers Brawl (Nintendo)
37. [PSP] Yu-Gi-Oh: Tag Force 3 (Konami)
38. [WII] Wii Play (Nintendo)
39. [NDS] Inazuma Eleven (Level 5)
40. [NDS] Tales of Hearts: Anime Movie Edition (Namco Bandai)
41. [NDS] New Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo)
42. [PSP] Kenka Banchou 3: Conquer the Entire Nation (Spike)
43. [NDS] Suikoden Tierkreis (Konami)
44. [360] Race Driver Grid (Codemasters)
45. [PS3] Ryu ga Gotoku Kenzan! (PlayStation 3 the Best) (SEGA)
46. [NDS] Beautiful Letter Training (Nintendo)
47. [PS2] Yakuza 2 (Playstation 2 The Best) (SEGA)
48. [NDS] Chrono Trigger DS (Square Enix)
49. [WII] Family Ski World Ski & Snowboard (Namco Bandai)
50. [NDS] Akaiito DS (Alchemist)

[B][U]Hardware | This Week | Last Week |    YTD  |    LTD    [/U][/B]
NDS      |    81,334 |   101,630 | 413,642 | 25,451,951
PSP      |    42,559 |    60,495 | 260,142 | 11,575,747
WII      |    32,333 |    41,243 | 193,541 |  7,640,109
PS3      |    20,690 |    28,144 | 109,488 |  2,711,226
360      |     9,576 |    10,554 |  39,824 |    860,788
PS2      |     5,760 |     6,628 |  24,936 | 21,418,700
-------------------------------------------------------
DSi      |    62,525 |    78,201 | 140,726 |    979,296
DSL      |    18,809 |    23,429 |  42,238 | 17,416,632

 

[Regulus Tera]

36. [WII] Super Smash Brothers Brawl (Nintendo)

Fuck yes, Ekkusu lives!

 

[donny2112]

Penguin no Mondai has gone 5 - 15 - 33 - 30 - unranked - 22 since its release. I'm guessing it was sold out last week, so this has been a surprise hit for Konami.

 

[PantherLotus]

Fuck yes, Ekkusu lives!

That's LARGE SCUFFLE X to you!

 

[Jonnyram]

Nice to see the 360 sales are keeping up.
Shitty anecdotal evidence, but I often see people in the local store wanting to buy Arcades, but they have been sold out quite often recently. I guess the "tard pack" actually works.

 

[MarzipaNMOS]

Penguin no Mondai has gone 5 - 15 - 33 - 30 - unranked - 22 since its release. I'm guessing it was sold out last week, so this has been a surprise hit for Konami.

:lol I wonder what gave it legs. I've heard it was actually a pretty fun game, but I don't know if word of mouth (considering its target demographic) is enough to keep it where its at

 

[cvxfreak]

Nice to see the 360 sales are keeping up.
Shitty anecdotal evidence, but I often see people in the local store wanting to buy Arcades, but they have been sold out quite often recently. I guess the "tard pack" actually works.

I'm really looking forward to seeing how Biohazard 5 does on the 360. I wonder if it can be the first multiplatform game to perhaps break 100K.

 

[Jonnyram]

I'm really looking forward to seeing how Biohazard 5 does on the 360. I wonder if it can be the first multiplatform game to perhaps break 100K.

Well it's certainly the biggest Japanese multiplatform game of this generation (so far, at least), so it will be interesting to see how it does, and with online co-op, there is a good reason for it to fare better than DMC4 did. February could be a pretty big month for both 360 and PS3 with the nice lineup.

edit: doh Biohazard 5 is March, isn't it. Oh well.

 

[t3nmilez]

I don't remember exactly, but I'm pretty sure that Biohazard 5 is the #1 most wanted game for the 360 according to Famitsu. Star Ocean 4 is #2.

Should be interesting to see the split between 360 and PS3. I ordered the 360 limited edition.

 

[MikeE21286]

Wii only slightly less than 2:1 on PS3 YTD? Supply issues?

 

[PantherLotus]

Wii only slightly less than 2:1 on PS3 YTD? Supply issues?

PS3 is selling 30% of its total from two weeks ago.
Wii is down 26% of its total from two weeks ago.

Why would it be supply issues?

 

[Link]

Wii only slightly less than 2:1 on PS3 YTD? Supply issues?

Demand issues.

 

[Jonnyram]

Wii only slightly less than 2:1 on PS3 YTD? Supply issues?

Wii demand peaks during the holiday season, like most Nintendo products, so the post-holiday drop off is larger, but it's still selling well.

 

[apotema]

Why does every Naruto game sells better than any Naruto Shippuden game? Is Shippuden not that popular in Japan?

 

[Rock_Man]

* Approximate figure for Week 3, 2008 (Week 3, 2009 is 99.80% of this figure)

98.80 (your calculation is correct however)

We now get total software sales from both Dengeki and MC.
What are you waiting for Famitsu?

The LTD numbers are a week old and DSL and DSi doesn't match with total DS sales.

 

[shykyoichi]

27./00. [NDS] Genso Suikoden Tierkreis (Konami) - 8,673 / 117,889

Please reach 150K sales. And hopefull Konami starts developing Suikoden 6.

 

[Rock_Man]

Dengeki:

MHP: 1,109,000
MHP2: 1,823,000
MHP2G: 2,826,000
Total: 5,758,000

 

[Jonnyram]

I know it's early days to say this, after only two or three games, but it's quite possible Monster Hunter could go on to be Capcom's version of Pokemon.