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[Dalthien]

Eh, I don't know, I think the fact that Nintendo had to do so much damage control on their E3 showing is rather telling. They all but came right out and said, "Look, we know if we slap the name Mario or Zelda or Metroid on a game, you guys are going to buy it, and that's why we didn't bother wasting our valuable mainstream media time on you." Although they came pretty damn close.

(Which actually brings to mind an interesting though. I wonder if Wii Sports Resort is a test case to see if they can get the same kind of attention to something just because it has Wii Sports in the name? Maybe testing their new audience...?)

And while I understand the reasoning behind Nintendo's marketing strategies, I still think there are several ways they could do better, and could keep all their customers happy. Of course, I wonder if it even matters, since the same people who are whining now will probably still be first in line to pick up Nintendo's core games when they release.

Honestly, I don't think Nintendo really has anything ready to show for Mario, Zelda, or Metroid - and they seem to have really embraced the strategy of not showing a game until they have it in a state where they feel comfortable showing it off. I'm sure they probably have some other lesser-tier stuff that might be close to being ready to be shown, but they decided E3 wasn't the place for that.

Ever since the public was removed from attending the conference, Nintendo seems to view E3 as a chance to promote their products to the mainstream media outlets. I have no doubts that Nintendo will use other gaming summits to showcase some of their more 'core' oriented titles.

But I believe Nintendo is also in somewhat of a transition phase with many of their core-centric titles. The MotionPlus will obviously be a big selling point for some of their future core titles, which means that such titles are being (or will be) designed around a controller that won't even be released until 2009. So any such titles are likely late-2009 or 2010 titles at the earliest. So it will be some time before Nintendo will have the games in a state where they feel comfortable showcasing them.

3rd-parties probably have an 18-month window where Nintendo's core gaming titles will be in a lull. Whether or not they will take advantage of that lull remains to be seen. But the timing probably works out extremely well for Nintendo. Even with such a lull, the Wii will sell very well the rest of the year, with shortages likely again this holiday season in the west, even with improved production on Nintendo's part. Then WiiSports Resort and the MotionPlus hit in the first half of 2009 to continue the momentum for the Wii, with a big core title or two hitting for the back half of 2009.

 

[justchris]

3rd-parties probably have an 18-month window where Nintendo's core gaming titles will be in a lull. Whether or not they will take advantage of that lull remains to be seen. But the timing probably works out extremely well for Nintendo. Even with such a lull, the Wii will sell very well the rest of the year, with shortages likely again this holiday season, even with improved production on Nintendo's part. Then WiiSports Resort and the MotionPlus hit in the first half of 2009 to continue the momentum for the Wii, with a big core title or two hitting for the back half of 2009.

Hmmm...I don't know. I'm at work, so there are a lot of sites I can't access at the moment. But in the US, Nintendo has Gutiar Hero World Tour, the still popular Wii Fit & Mario Kart, and then Animal Crossing that will be decent sellers and keep hardware sold out pretty well throughout the last quarter of this year.

In Europe they'll probably have the same thing, and I think Mario Kart is even harder to find in Europe than it is in the US.

In Japan, on the other hand, their holiday time period isn't looking so hot. Animal Crossing will probably do decently well, but I don't expect it to do anywhere near as good as Wild World. I'm iffy on how well Wii Music will do in any territory. It's best chances are in Japan though, cause it doesn't have uber popular Guitar Hero & Rock Band to contend with. Annnnnd...that's pretty much it. Wii Fit & Mario Kart aren't done selling, but they're not going to provide a major boost for the holidays. King's Story is pretty niche, and I don't know if Fragile will make it out this year. Dead Rising might strike a chord with the Resident Evil crowd that seems quite taken with the Wii, so that could go either way.

Basically, I see 3rd parties do have a pretty good opportunity to seize some sales while Nintendo has nothing to release for a bit, but it doesn't seem too many are taking advantage of it.

Of course, my knowledge of the release lists for the rest of this year isn't the best, so maybe someone else has ideas?

 

[Dalthien]

Hmmm...I don't know. I'm at work, so there are a lot of sites I can't access at the moment. But in the US, Nintendo has Gutiar Hero World Tour, the still popular Wii Fit & Mario Kart, and then Animal Crossing that will be decent sellers and keep hardware sold out pretty well throughout the last quarter of this year.

In Europe they'll probably have the same thing, and I think Mario Kart is even harder to find in Europe than it is in the US.

In Japan, on the other hand, their holiday time period isn't looking so hot. Animal Crossing will probably do decently well, but I don't expect it to do anywhere near as good as Wild World. I'm iffy on how well Wii Music will do in any territory. It's best chances are in Japan though, cause it doesn't have uber popular Guitar Hero & Rock Band to contend with. Annnnnd...that's pretty much it. Wii Fit & Mario Kart aren't done selling, but they're not going to provide a major boost for the holidays. King's Story is pretty niche, and I don't know if Fragile will make it out this year. Dead Rising might strike a chord with the Resident Evil crowd that seems quite taken with the Wii, so that could go either way.

Basically, I see 3rd parties do have a pretty good opportunity to seize some sales while Nintendo has nothing to release for a bit, but it doesn't seem too many are taking advantage of it.

Of course, my knowledge of the release lists for the rest of this year isn't the best, so maybe someone else has ideas?

Very well said.

I was referring to the west when I mentioned shortages this holiday season - the Wii has been in plentiful supply in Japan for a long time now.

I think some 3rd-parties will be kicking themselves for not having some high-profile 'core' gaming titles ready for the Wii this holiday season. The Wii will sell insane amounts of software worldwide this holiday season, but some 3rd-parties just won't be there to take their cut of it. Meanwhile, Nintendo will be just fine. Animal Crossing will sell well, but their catalog titles will have a fantastic holiday season as well. Mario Kart, Wii Fit, Wii Play, Smash, Galaxy, even Zelda will all sell very well in the west. In Japan, Animal Crossing should do well, along with Mario Kart, Wii Fit, Wii Sports, Wii Play, etc. Nintendo will do just fine even without any big core titles this holiday season - but some 3rd-parties will miss a really golden opportunity.

 

[ziran]

If the 1st day sales of Wario Land Shake are any indication of its LTD, which may or may not be the case given the legs of several Wii titles, I think the most reasonable explanation is simply, the Japanese don't want it.

The game seems to have been marketed well, and given the fact a 4,800 yen DS Wario platformer found a good sized audience, I doubt a home console version at 5,800 yen is a prohibitive or unreasonable price.

What's even more interesting though, is a 1st day of 10K suggests it's not just the masses avoiding the game, but also the informed Japanese hardcore. I think the same thing could happen outside Japan, with many gamers knowing about it but just not caring enough to buy it.

I wonder what would happen with a new 2D Mario or Yoshi platformer on Wii..., not that we'll ever find out now.

Even with such a lull, the Wii will sell very well the rest of the year, with shortages likely again this holiday season in the west, even with improved production on Nintendo's part. Then WiiSports Resort and the MotionPlus hit in the first half of 2009 to continue the momentum for the Wii, with a big core title or two hitting for the back half of 2009.

Yeah. Whether Nintendo expected a motion controller reveal from Sony/MS or not, I think the timing of Motion Plus is very good.

With Sony and MS so intent on gaining the other's current business and offering so little for the market Wii has such a grip on, they've left the field wide open for Nintendo to continue cruising for the rest of this year even with its current, known line up. Then, like you said, when Wii Motion Plus roles out it's going to continue the momentum. I also think Motion Plus is going to be something the hardcore loves and is going to convert a lot of those traditional gamers still unconvinced by motion controls.

 

[wazoo]

Sales this holiday for the Wii will be insane, you could have 5M units worldwide sales in December alone, and lots of money will be lost on the third party front. Nintendo has opened a opportunity window for third party games, but to have a game for fall 2008, they should have it green lighted in spring 2007, where, you know, the wii was a fad.

As for Wario, it has a bad first day, like you know, Mario and Sonic.

 

[JoshuaJSlone]

Annnnnd...that's pretty much it. Wii Fit & Mario Kart aren't done selling, but they're not going to provide a major boost for the holidays.

"Evergreens" don't cause boosts for the holidays. Holidays cause boosts for the evergreens.

 

[JoshuaJSlone]

Console YOY

Handhelds YOY

...i was going to do PSP YOY stuff tonight too but it's too late. will do tomorrow if i can.

.

 

[Rock_Man]

Interesting because even with PSP Slim. Even with all the incredible hardware sales since ca. 8 months, PSP increased its hardware share from ca. 24 % to ca. 30 %. The real impression following Media Create threads was really way different....

But that means that PSP gained almost all shares they lost to DS since the launch of DSL. So due to the incredible hardware sales of PSP the last 9 months the DS/PSP hardware relation is basically back to where it was when the DSL launched (March 2006)! It's not like 6 % is nothing.

Here we an see that the average time each system was owned didn't differ much for the first year. Then DS exploded in late 2005 causing a dip and slower growth than PSP for a while. However, it looks like PSP has been pretty flat for nearly two years now, and has actually regressed a bit since one year ago. Given that each PSP owner has had their system less time than the average PSP owner of a year ago, a lower tie ratio doesn't surprise me much.

You're right. Large hardware bumps should lead to lower tie ratio even if the bump holds for several months.

 

[Mithos Yggdrasill]

.

Very interesing JJ. I didn't remember that DS's sales of 2005 were even worse then DS of this year.

 

[Gaborn]

Panther Lotus and the Donny and Joshua and all the rest are all amazing.

 

[Captain Smoker]

Upcoming releases for the next week [07/28 - 08/03/2008]:

[B][U]NDS:[/U][/B]
07/31 	Dokapon Journey! Nakayoku Kenka Shite
07/31	Dokidoki Majo Shinpan! 2
07/31	Dokidoki Majo Shinpan! 2 (Limited Edition Box)
07/31	DS de Yomu Series: Tezuka Osamu Hi no Tori 1
07/31	DS de Yomu Series: Tezuka Osamu Hi no Tori 2
07/31	DS de Yomu Series: Tezuka Osamu Hi no Tori 3
07/31	Major DS: Dream Baseball
07/31	Mame Goma 2: Uchi no Ko ga Ichiban!
07/31	Moe Star: Moeru Toudai Eigojuku
07/31	Motto Me de Unou o Kitaeru DS: Sokudoku Jutsu
07/31	Nippon Futsal League Kounin: Minna no Futsal
07/31	Nobunaga no Yabou DS 2
07/31	Panda-San Nikki
07/31	Pururun! Shizuku-Chan Aha-* DS Drill Kokugo
07/31	Pururun! Shizuku-Chan Aha-* DS Drill Sansuu
07/31	Remyuouru no Renkinjutsushi
07/31	Rhythm Tengoku Gold
07/31	Shinreigari: Ghost Hound DS
07/31	Windy x Windam


[B][U]PS2:[/U][/B]
07/31  	Drastic Killer
07/31	Drastic Killer (Excellent Box)
07/31	Galaxy Angel II ~Zettairyouiki no Tobira~ (Broccoli Best Quality)
07/31	Hoshi Furu
07/31	Hoshi Furu (Limited Edition)
07/31	Kanokon: Esuii
07/31	Kanokon: Esuii (Limited Edition)


[B][U]PSP:[/U][/B]
07/31  	Ginga Ojousama Densetsu Collection (PC Engine Best Collection)
07/31	Panic Palette Portable
07/31	Phantasy Star Portable
07/31	Tengai Makyou Collection (PC Engine Best Collection)
07/31	Tengai Makyou: Dai Yon no Mokushiroku (Hudson the Best)


[B][U]Wii:[/U][/B]
07/31  	Dokapon Kingdom
07/31	Wii de Tokoton Kanji Nou
07/31	Fatal Frame 4


[B][U]PS3:[/U][/B]
07/31  	Beijing 2008 - The Official Video Game of the Olympic Games
07/31	Soul Calibur IV


[B][U]X360:[/U][/B]
07/31  	Beijing 2008 - The Official Video Game of the Olympic Games
07/31	Soul Calibur IV

Last weeks:
- 07/21 - 07/27/2008

 

[slaughterking]

Rhythm Tengoku, Fatal Frame, Phantasy Star and Soul Calibur. Quite the packed week.

 

[Oldschool]

WOW, PSP is on fire.

A lot of games selling very well... if only there were major titles coming...

At least there will be Dissidia and Kingdom Hearts.

 

[[Nintex]]

If the 1st day sales of Wario Land Shake are any indication of its LTD, which may or may not be the case given the legs of several Wii titles, I think the most reasonable explanation is simply, the Japanese don't want it.

Just like I said before Nintendo has a hard time reaching core gamers. The fact that they announce a game a few months before it's out doesn't help as well. They've got their "announce games late so people won't be bored of them before they release!" strategy completely backwards. If they announce a Zelda today which launches tommorow then the core gamer will go out and buy it. The casual and people not interested in game news and such(and most retailers) won't know about the game. Nintendo's new strategy makes the pre-order period rather short so there aren't many pre-orders which means a limited supply of copies. People plan their purchases, they save up to buy games and mostly use money that they can spare. So the "gaming budget" for that week might've been used to pre-order another game because Nintendo didn't announce it on time like other publisher do. Also consumers need to be reminded that the game will be out soon. Not everyone is watching the same Zelda trailer over and over again. They might've remembered the awesome teaser but that won't convince them to buy the game. Instead Nintendo must show them a new trailer later on.

For Wario this would've meant:
announcement teaser/trailer at the end of 2007/start of 2008, trailer summer 2008, followed by the release.
Nintendo however did this with Wario:
Famitsu reveal, blurry scans hit the web spring 2008, trailer, released two weeks later

They can't expect people to know about the game, especially the casual gamers that make up most of their userbase. They aren't N-Fans pressing F5 all day long.

 

[Neo C.]

They can't expect people to know about the game, especially the casual gamers that make up most of their userbase.

While the new strategy certainly doesn't help to reach extraordinary good sales on day one, the sales as a whole depend a lot on how long they advertise their games. In the end, the consumers will know about the game, though that doesn't necessarily mean that they will buy it.

 

[ShockingAlberto]

While the new strategy certainly doesn't help to reach extraordinary good sales on day one, the sales as a whole depend a lot on how long they advertise their games. In the end, the consumers will know about the game, though that doesn't necessarily mean that they will buy it.

The issue with this is, while it may fly in the American market, Japanese sales have to be frontloaded due to the dangers of a price collapse or huge used game surge on the title.

 

[Neo C.]

The issue with this is, while it may fly in the American market, Japanese sales have to be frontloaded due to the dangers of a price collapse or huge used game surge on the title.

Nintendo itself tries to abandon old business with the frontloaded sales, and lots of the Nintendo games have shown good legs. But I agree, there isn't any guarantee that they could make this game to a longrunner, and perhaps the japanese audience really rejects the game.

I think, we should wait and see what happens in the next few weeks.

 

[ziran]

Just like I said before Nintendo has a hard time reaching core gamers. The fact that they announce a game a few months before it's out doesn't help as well. They've got their "announce games late so people won't be bored of them before they release!" strategy completely backwards. If they announce a Zelda today which launches tommorow then the core gamer will go out and buy it. The casual and people not interested in game news and such(and most retailers) won't know about the game. Nintendo's new strategy makes the pre-order period rather short so there aren't many pre-orders which means a limited supply of copies. People plan their purchases, they save up to buy games and mostly use money that they can spare. So the "gaming budget" for that week might've been used to pre-order another game because Nintendo didn't announce it on time like other publisher do. Also consumers need to be reminded that the game will be out soon. Not everyone is watching the same Zelda trailer over and over again. They might've remembered the awesome teaser but that won't convince them to buy the game. Instead Nintendo must show them a new trailer later on.

For Wario this would've meant:
announcement teaser/trailer at the end of 2007/start of 2008, trailer summer 2008, followed by the release.
Nintendo however did this with Wario:
Famitsu reveal, blurry scans hit the web spring 2008, trailer, released two weeks later

They can't expect people to know about the game, especially the casual gamers that make up most of their userbase. They aren't N-Fans pressing F5 all day long.

Maybe, and I do question Nintendo's policy about revealing games only a couple of months before release.

But, in this case, given the game made its debut in Famitsu a while ago - Japan's biggest selling gaming publication, was playable at the World Hobby Fair in Japan and at E3, has been been given a significant marketing campaign, is only 1000 yen more than the DS game, was launched at a time of year with not many releases, plus the internet hype, I tend to believe a much simpler explanation if its sales don't pick up, which is, most people who could like this kind of thing knew about it and chose to ignore it because they're not interested.

I think it looks great, but people having different opinions about things seems the most likely scenario to me.

 

[donny2112]

Until I saw the IGN videos, I thought Wario: Shake It! was an overly simplistic platformer with a tacked on waggle mechanic. AKA: Not worth paying attention to. To be fair, I haven't kept up as usual for the last month or so on all news coming out, but I still consider myself vastly more informed of the gaming landscape than 90+% of the video game owning public out there. (Now that I've seen the videos, I'm wondering why this wasn't a DS game with an accelerometer GBA-pack, but it at least seems interesting now.)

If there are a lot of core gamers who fall into the same boat as me, it strongly shows the gaping black hole in Nintendo's strategy when it comes to announcing core games so close to their release.

 

[Gaborn]

Nintendo itself tries to abandon old business with the frontloaded sales, and lots of the Nintendo games have shown good legs. But I agree, there isn't any guarantee that they could make this game to a longrunner, and perhaps the japanese audience really rejects the game.

I think, we should wait and see what happens in the next few weeks.

More than any other company this generation, Nintendo has certainly seemed to earn the benefit of the doubt in terms of software having legs.

 

[jakncoke]

Upcoming releases for the next week [07/28 - 08/03/2008]:

[B][U]NDS:[/U][/B]
07/31 	Dokapon Journey! Nakayoku Kenka Shite
07/31	Dokidoki Majo Shinpan! 2
07/31	Dokidoki Majo Shinpan! 2 (Limited Edition Box)
07/31	DS de Yomu Series: Tezuka Osamu Hi no Tori 1
07/31	DS de Yomu Series: Tezuka Osamu Hi no Tori 2
07/31	DS de Yomu Series: Tezuka Osamu Hi no Tori 3
07/31	Major DS: Dream Baseball
07/31	Mame Goma 2: Uchi no Ko ga Ichiban!
07/31	Moe Star: Moeru Toudai Eigojuku
07/31	Motto Me de Unou o Kitaeru DS: Sokudoku Jutsu
07/31	Nippon Futsal League Kounin: Minna no Futsal
07/31	Nobunaga no Yabou DS 2
07/31	Panda-San Nikki
07/31	Pururun! Shizuku-Chan Aha-* DS Drill Kokugo
07/31	Pururun! Shizuku-Chan Aha-* DS Drill Sansuu
07/31	Remyuouru no Renkinjutsushi
07/31	Rhythm Tengoku Gold
07/31	Shinreigari: Ghost Hound DS
07/31	Windy x Windam


[B][U]PS2:[/U][/B]
07/31  	Drastic Killer
07/31	Drastic Killer (Excellent Box)
07/31	Galaxy Angel II ~Zettairyouiki no Tobira~ (Broccoli Best Quality)
07/31	Hoshi Furu
07/31	Hoshi Furu (Limited Edition)
07/31	Kanokon: Esuii
07/31	Kanokon: Esuii (Limited Edition)


[B][U]PSP:[/U][/B]
07/31  	Ginga Ojousama Densetsu Collection (PC Engine Best Collection)
07/31	Panic Palette Portable
07/31	Phantasy Star Portable
07/31	Tengai Makyou Collection (PC Engine Best Collection)
07/31	Tengai Makyou: Dai Yon no Mokushiroku (Hudson the Best)


[B][U]Wii:[/U][/B]
07/31  	Dokapon Kingdom
07/31	Wii de Tokoton Kanji Nou
07/31	Fatal Frame 4


[B][U]PS3:[/U][/B]
07/31  	Beijing 2008 - The Official Video Game of the Olympic Games
07/31	Soul Calibur IV


[B][U]X360:[/U][/B]
07/31  	Beijing 2008 - The Official Video Game of the Olympic Games
07/31	Soul Calibur IV

Last weeks:
- 07/21 - 07/27/2008

sweet, please keep doing this...I hate not knowing what's coming to Japan in the near future.

 

[ziran]

Until I saw the IGN videos, I thought Wario: Shake It! was an overly simplistic platformer with a tacked on waggle mechanic. AKA: Not worth paying attention to. To be fair, I haven't kept up as usual for the last month or so on all news coming out, but I still consider myself vastly more informed of the gaming landscape than 90+% of the video game owning public out there. (Now that I've seen the videos, I'm wondering why this wasn't a DS game with an accelerometer GBA-pack, but it at least seems interesting now.)

If there are a lot of core gamers who fall into the same boat as me, it strongly shows the gaping black hole in Nintendo's strategy when it comes to announcing core games so close to their release.

While I still believe in Wario Land Shake's case, with a 10K opening day, a general lack of interest to buy is the main reason for its (potential) failure, and think it would've been a better fit on DS, I do think Nintendo's two months before approach has problems, especially with Wii titles.

On DS, because its installed base is so big and it has every kind of consumer, I don't think revealing a title so late makes much of an impact on sales, as we've seen with Band Bros. DX which has already outsold the original. But, with Wii, I don't think there is a big enough userbase or releases are frequent enough for this kind of strategy to work, and like others have already said, it can give the impression there's nothing coming to the system. Overall though, I don't see why something like a 6-9 month reveal across all titles, which is still shorter than the 12, 18, 24+ month reveals of the past, which I think is too long, would be such a bad thing.

Nintendo's strategy with its expanded audience titles is probably the most effective ever seen in videogames, but the core gaming strategy has definite room for improvement.

 

[JoshuaJSlone]

07/31 DS de Yomu Series: Tezuka Osamu Hi no Tori 1
07/31 DS de Yomu Series: Tezuka Osamu Hi no Tori 2
07/31 DS de Yomu Series: Tezuka Osamu Hi no Tori 3

What's this? It's not unusual to see multiple releases for something like Pokémon or some of the training titles, but for something with Osamu Tezuka in the title it stuck out. Searching some of the terms it seems "Hi no Tori" is Phoenix, but I don't know what "DS de Yomu Series" is about.

 

[jj984jj]

What's this? It's not unusual to see multiple releases for something like Pokémon or some of the training titles, but for something with Osamu Tezuka in the title it stuck out. Searching some of the terms it seems "Hi no Tori" is Phoenix, but I don't know what "DS de Yomu Series" is about.

http://www.compileheart.com/hinotori/

Looks like some kind of manga series.

 

[Segata Sanshiro]

What's this? It's not unusual to see multiple releases for something like Pokémon or some of the training titles, but for something with Osamu Tezuka in the title it stuck out. Searching some of the terms it seems "Hi no Tori" is Phoenix, but I don't know what "DS de Yomu Series" is about.

DS de Yomu would translate to Reading on DS, so it's probably just the manga dropped right onto a DS cart, or something like that.

 

[donny2112]

Honestly, I don't think Nintendo really has anything ready to show for Mario, Zelda, or Metroid

They had some Metroid Prime 2 levels with tacked-on waggle showing before the Wii's launch. I'm sort of expecting them to release "Metroid Prime 1/2: Pointer Control is Awesome for FPA" edition at some point, so they could've shown that. As long as they fix MP2's tedious and boring gameplay (

Spoiler

like giving us the Screw Attack to start the game instead of 2/3rds of the way through

), I'd be all over it.

Obviously, the Wii is owned by a whole lot more people than the GameCube was, so that's a lot of people that haven't seen Metroid Prime 1/2 before. Release a Player's Choice line with a reduced price MP3 at the same time, and it'd be a great deal for core gamers who already owned a Wii and hadn't experienced Metroid Prime previously.

 

[thestopsign]

They had some Metroid Prime 2 levels with tacked-on waggle showing before the Wii's launch. I'm sort of expecting them to release "Metroid Prime 1/2: Pointer Control is Awesome for FPA" edition at some point, so they could've shown that. As long as they fix MP2's tedious and boring gameplay (

Spoiler

like giving us the Screw Attack to start the game instead of 2/3rds of the way through

), I'd be all over it.

Obviously, the Wii is owned by a whole lot more people than the GameCube was, so that's a lot of people that haven't seen Metroid Prime 1/2 before. Release a Player's Choice line with a reduced price MP3 at the same time, and it'd be a great deal for core gamers who already owned a Wii and hadn't experienced Metroid Prime previously.

Nintendo already said they weren't going to put up a Player's Choice line this generation as they believe people will just wait for the price drop instead of buying it at full price.

 

[Nocebo]

Interested in seeing how fatal frame 4 does.

 

[kswiston]

Nintendo already said they weren't going to put up a Player's Choice line this generation as they believe people will just wait for the price drop instead of buying it at full price.

That's stupid. Instead of getting some money from people who are willing to buy games like Mario Party 8 for $30, but not for $50, they'll get no money as those people will likely just buy the game used for a considerable discount.

 

[Defuser]

http://www.famitsu.com/game/rank/sokuho/1217043_1796.html
Pity it doesn't show the numbers yet.

 

[Kilrogg]

That's stupid. Instead of getting some money from people who are willing to buy games like Mario Party 8 for $30, but not for $50, they'll get no money as those people will likely just buy the game used for a considerable discount.

... Which is why, in order not to have to rely on a price-cut strategy, they lowered the average price-point to 40$ (45€-50€ in Europe). You know, it's all part of this "evergreen" plan.

 

[botticus]

... Which is why, in order not to have to rely on a price-cut strategy, they lowered the average price-point to 40$ (45€-50€ in Europe). You know, it's all part of this "evergreen" plan.

I would support this plan. But then they'd have to drop DS game prices.

 

[NintendosBooger]

http://www.famitsu.com/game/rank/sokuho/1217043_1796.html
Pity it doesn't show the numbers yet.

Judging from the placement of the new Wii titles relative to Wii Fit, doesn't look like Fatal Frame did too hot...

 

[kottila]

Judging from the placement of the new Wii titles relative to Wii Fit, doesn't look like Fatal Frame did too hot...

Considering that it's out tomorrow, that's not so strange.

 

[Phife Dawg]

Judging from the placement of the new Wii titles relative to Wii Fit, doesn't look like Fatal Frame did too hot...

Um FF wasn't last week. That's Wario Land, PowaPuro and Mario Kart beneath Wiifit (in order).

 

[NintendosBooger]

Considering that it's out tomorrow, that's not so strange.

Oh, I thought it was for this media create week. My apologies, everyone.

 

[Cosmonaut X]

Considering that it's out tomorrow, that's not so strange.

Heh. So Wario Land may have scraped to a 25-30k opening week then? Disappointing if so, but a reasonable improvement on the 10k opening day.

 

[Stormbringer]

Last week sales :

Dragon Quest V DS - 185k (864k total)
Pawapro 15 PS2 - 87k
Pawapro 15 Wii - 20k
Ao no Kiseki PSP - 48k
Siren PS3 - 36k
Wario Land Wii - 24k
Bully 360 - 11k
Bully PS2 - 10k
Infinite Loop PSP - 2500
Track and Field DS - Less than 1000

http://ameblo.jp/sinobi/

 

[goompapa]

Another year, another trashing by PowerPro PS2 for the wii version. Which means another lame PS2 port next year... sigh...

 

[_Alkaline_]

Poor Wario.

Damn you Japan!

 

[ksamedi]

Siren is downloadeble as well am I right?

 

[carlosp]

Last week sales :

Dragon Quest V DS - 185k (864k total)
Pawapro 15 PS2 - 87k
Pawapro 15 Wii - 20k
Ao no Kiseki PSP - 48k
Siren PS3 - 36k
Wario Land Wii - 24k
Bully 360 - 11k
Bully PS2 - 10k
Infinite Loop PSP - 2500
Track and Field DS - Less than 1000

http://ameblo.jp/sinobi/

SC IV bombed in Japan?

 

[goompapa]

SC IV bombed in Japan?

Yes, like Fatal Frame 4

 

[cvxfreak]

SC IV bombed in Japan?

Next week (or this week in real time).

 

[Haunted]

Wario Land Wii - 24k

Japan is dead to me.

 

[Johann]

Does anyone have a source of Konami's expectations to sell 1 million copies of Metal Gear Solid 4 in Japan? I mean i've seen several of people saying this, but i cant recall seeing any source on it (i've searched as well, but unfortunately i cant find anything :\)

Do we have any sale numbers for MGS 1 in Japan by the way?

It was from an obscure interview from a few months ago.

In other Metal Gear Solid 4 news, Tanaka revealed to the site that Konami expects sales to be similar to past titles. While the sales focus is on the European and North American markets, the company is aiming for sales of one million in Japan alone. Nikkei pointed out to Tanaka that the PS3 hardware has yet to hit the two million mark in Japan, to which Tanaka noted that many users are waiting for MGS4 to buy a PS3. He also feels that because a number of major PS3 titles from other companies will be released before MGS4, the system's userbase total will rise.

http://ps3.ign.com/articles/858/858436p1.html

I'm curious to see how SCIV and Beijing 2008 perform next week.

 

[Vinci]

Quick question: Did Mario Sluggers ever have a price collapse? I recall people saying that it never had one.

 

[Segata Sanshiro]

Quick question: Did Mario Sluggers ever have a price collapse? I recall people saying that it never had one.

Not yet. Etrian 2 is starting to price collapse, and MGS4 is super-collapsing, but those are the latest victims as of last Sunday.

 

[reminder]

Siren is downloadeble as well am I right?

In Japan it was only downloadable for 3 days, iirc.

 

[Vinci]

Not yet. Etrian 2 is starting to price collapse, and MGS4 is super-collapsing, but those are the latest victims as of last Sunday.

Thanks.

And have we seen any hint of price collapse with Wario Land thus far?