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[frankie_baby]

Sengoku Musou 3 is doing a pretty decent job of sticking on the charts. I wonder what the LTD will be, could end up looking a lot better than the first week indicated.

i was thinking the same thing, anyone know the latest numbers for it?

 

[Bel Marduk]

The most depressing thing about Tales bombing is that it's one of the highest rated in the series. A real shame since you'd think RPG starved Wii owners would gobble it up.

It had to compete with FF XIII, SW3, Pokepark, and NSMB among various games though...if only they'd have released it later...

 

[Captain Smoker]

i was thinking the same thing, anyone know the latest numbers for it?

160,514 units as of 12/13/2009 (Famitsu)


Could have something like 210,000 units as of 12/27/2009

 

[AniHawk]

160,514 units as of 12/13/2009 (Famitsu)


Could have something like 210,000 units as of 12/27/2009

I would have guessed 180k-190k myself.

 

[ivysaur12]

Fixed.

Yeah, I bet that's what we're going to be seeing in the future.

Namco really needs to release Graces in the West, especially given that DTNW has sold the most of any Tales game this gen over here. And it's not like America has been oversaturated with Tales titles.

 

[Brofist]

The most depressing thing about Tales bombing is that it's one of the highest rated in the series. A real shame since you'd think RPG starved Wii owners would gobble it up.

It could just be the number of RPG starved Wii owners is much lower than you think?

PS3 sells 250k units in one week = dead. :lol

FFXIII sells 1.7 million units in 2 weeks = dead :lol

FFXIII follows a pattern set forth by every other FF game in terms of front-loadedness = bad legs :lol

Have I stepped into some sort of twilight zone this morning? :/

--

Yeesh @ tales

Especially since given 1 week before FFXIII was released a lot of people were giving 1 million first week and 1.5 LTD predictions. I guess somehow NSMB has changed people's expectations of what FFXIII should do?

It seems that not only FFXIII expectations have changed, now all of a sudden the PS3 has a shit Q1 release schedule for 2010.

 

[cvxfreak]

It had to compete with FF XIII, SW3, Pokepark, and NSMB among various games though...if only they'd have released it later...

We don't know for sure if that would work too. We have to see how Darkside Chronicles fares compared to Umbrella Chronicles.

 

[markatisu]

Wow during the holiday season and Tales of Graces drops again, who would have thought that SW3 would do well after its first week and ToG would crater bomb at launch

Total rejection by the consumer

 

[schuelma]

Especially since given 1 week before FFXIII was released a lot of people were giving 1 million first week and 1.5 LTD predictions. I guess somehow NSMB has changed people's expectations of what FFXIII should do?

Its amazing how quickly the expectations shifted. Months ago many thought NSMB Wii would be lucky to beat FF13 LTD.

 

[Vinnk]

19. / 20. [WII] Samurai Warriors 3 (Koei)

This one is interesting for me. Most people (myself included) thought this would be really front loaded and drop right off the charts. But there it is, still in the top 20. Wonder why this game managed to get some legs while most Wii core titles drop right away. Was it the ad campaign with the old ladies in kimono playing the game? Either way, nice to see it do... can I use the word "well"?

 

[Nirolak]

Its amazing how quickly the expectations shifted. Months ago many thought NSMB Wii would be lucky to beat FF13 LTD.

Fear not, some still hold the faith.

 

[frankie_baby]

160,514 units as of 12/13/2009 (Famitsu)


Could have something like 210,000 units as of 12/27/2009

not too bad then

 

[Vinnk]

The most depressing thing about Tales bombing is that it's one of the highest rated in the series. A real shame since you'd think RPG starved Wii owners would gobble it up.

They moved on. I did. I waited for the glut of RPGs a first-place system should get. I got Dragon Quest Swords, Obscure, and some PS2 ports.

I bought a PS3 around the time of VC. I am guessing a lot of others did too.

 

[schuelma]

i was thinking the same thing, anyone know the latest numbers for it?

The best we have is the drill MC leak from last week which had it at 173K off a 24K week. Given its chart position actually improved this week, it might be at 200K according to MC and a bit higher on Famitsu, which I think had it tracked higher the first 2 weeks.

 

[Brofist]

Its amazing how quickly the expectations shifted. Months ago many thought NSMB Wii would be lucky to beat FF13 LTD.

Yeah I doubt there is a single poster who didn't underestimate NSMB. At most people thought FFXIII would beat it in 2009, and NSMB would win in the long haul.

 

[schuelma]

At the very least everyone thought FFXIII would beat it in 2009, and NSMB would win in the long haul.

I'm pretty sure I thought NSMB Wii would win in December. I definitely didn't think it was like going to hit 3 million :lol , but I believe I did make that particular prediction.

 

[cvxfreak]

I always believed NSMB Wii would beat FFXIII in 2009. Its success doesn't surprise me, not after the advertising campaign began in late November. Had success written all over it.

 

[Mr. Pointy]

I guess FFXIII did what it expected to, considering how horrendously front loaded FFs are. It's shocking to see 3 games beat it in week 2 though. I really was expecting 13 to do at least 350k in week 2. But wow.

NSMB is Japan's daddy. Taiko 2 seems to be doing better than expected. Tales of Graces bombed, which is a pity, but Namco turned that series into the town bike and fucked away a lot of goodwill with that Symphonia spinoff.

Samurai Warriors 3 is holding its own well enough. I'm guessing Dynasty Warriors 7 will get a Wii port, and SW3 won't have its HD/PSP ports announced for a while longer. Maybe even some kind of Nintendo tie-in/exclusive Warriors game is possible.

 

[schuelma]

Wait, are we not even going to get full Famitsu numbers from last week since there isn't a Famitsu issue this week?

 

[Nirolak]

Wait, are we not even going to get full Famitsu numbers from last week since there isn't a Famitsu issue this week?

It's looking that way.

 

[Kilrogg]

It had to compete with FF XIII, SW3, Pokepark, and NSMB among various games though...if only they'd have released it later...

Nah, I think it has more to do with Tales of Symphonia 2 being shit and Tales of Vesperia (which is thought to be decent/good, I think?) being released on the other two consoles before ToG. Kinda like Tales of Innocence on DS following the shitty Tales of the Tempest.

That quote about making Tales games Tora-san style is hilarious. Way to ensure you'll run your series to the fucking ground. Not that they weren't already doing it.

 

[Mr. Pointy]

Sales-GAF, how would you try to unscrew the Tales franchise? I really don't even think it's possible now.

 

[cvxfreak]

Sales-GAF, how would you try to unscrew the Tales franchise? I really don't even think it's possible now.

Release them on PS3.

 

[Cosmonaut X]

This one is interesting for me. Most people (myself included) thought this would be really front loaded and drop right off the charts. But there it is, still in the top 20. Wonder why this game managed to get some legs while most Wii core titles drop right away. Was it the ad campaign with the old ladies in kimono playing the game? Either way, nice to see it do... can I use the word "well"?

What's interesting is that it is holding fairly well and racking up reasonable sales week in, week out while ToG just hit and plummeted.

Both games seemed to be well-reviewed, both had decent ad campaigns and both had manufacturer support in the form of hardware bundles and (presumably) promotion. Is Samurai Warriors more appealing to a wider audience? Has the Tales fanbase cemented itself on the PSP/PS3?

 

[schuelma]

Sales-GAF, how would you try to unscrew the Tales franchise? I really don't even think it's possible now.

I would keep the mainline games on 1 or 2 platforms. HD for one and maybe one of the portables for the other? Give Wii shitty spinoffs since they sell just as well as the quality games.

 

[schuelma]

Is Samurai Warriors more appealing to a wider audience? Has the Tales fanbase cemented itself on the PSP/PS3?

I realize this is a bit of backtracking, but I'm starting to think FF13 at least had a small impact, more of an impact than competition from other Wii games. SW3 to the best of my knowledge has no competition this month or from any other game released the last few months in its particular genre. Graces obviously did, and given how much business Tales games do the first week maybe FF13 did play a role. Now, this doesn't mean it was going to sell 300K if it released next month-it was always going to be a disappointment. But maybe it manages to outsell the Symphonia spinoff instead of apparently spiraling into disaster.

Edit- also, the Musou games at least appear to have better legs than Tales games in general.

 

[Nirolak]

Sales-GAF, how would you try to unscrew the Tales franchise? I really don't even think it's possible now.

Well, Tales of Vesperia did pretty well, selling 473,198 between the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions at last count.

However, trying to get it back to its peak... I'm not sure it's possible.

I mean, Namco could throw it in with the rest of their vast Westernization effort and reboot the brand as a WRPG while completely changing everything about it, but that's not really Tales anymore.

 

[duckroll]

I mean, Namco could throw it in with the rest of their vast Westernization effort and reboot the brand as a WRPG while completely changing everything about it, but that's not really Tales anymore.

How would that be getting back to its peak? Sounds more like "how to suicide the franchise" to me!

 

[cvxfreak]

I realize this is a bit of backtracking, but I'm starting to think FF13 at least had a small impact, more of an impact than competition from other Wii games. SW3 to the best of my knowledge has no competition this month or from any other game released the last few months in its particular genre. Graces obviously did, and given how much business Tales games do the first week maybe FF13 did play a role. Now, this doesn't mean it was going to sell 300K if it released next month-it was always going to be a disappointment. But maybe it manages to outsell the Symphonia spinoff instead of apparently spiraling into disaster.

Edit- also, the Musou games at least appear to have better legs than Tales games in general.

For the most part, Musou seems to be more popular than Tales. On the PS3, there are three Musou games above Vesperia. Musou used to be a million selling franchise, while Tales was never one, and both were milked and re-released time and time again. So I guess it shouldn't be a surprise that Sengoku Musou 3 is above Graces.

Spoiler

The only solution of Tales of Musou

 

[schuelma]

Given how well the Vesperia port did, the answer seems pretty easy. The only question is whether to move the Graces/Destiny team to HD as well or to portables.

 

[Bel Marduk]

I would keep the mainline games on 1 or 2 platforms. HD for one and maybe one of the portables for the other? Give Wii shitty spinoffs since they sell just as well as the quality games.

With the exception of Tempest, the shitty spinoffs tend to sell as much as the main games regardless of platform this gen...

 

[Majmun]

NSMBwii...amazing. Deserves each sale!

FFXIII did pretty well, actually. I don't understand all the doomtalk.

Wii hw numbers should be interesting. And I wonder how long the strong hw sales will remain for the platform since the software line up is pretty weak for the coming months...

 

[schuelma]

Another question- does the relatively on time Wed. night leak mean we will get hardware tonight, or is that unknown? If we don't get any hardware on the biggest week of the year I will be a sad panda

 

[duckroll]

With the exception of Tempest, the shitty spinoffs tend to sell as much as the main games regardless of platform this gen...

Only on Nintendo systems! On Sony systems the spinoffs outsell the main games this gen, and the ports outsell everything else!

 

[Mr. Pointy]

What could be considered the peak of the Tales franchise? Are we talking purely Japanese sales - Destiny 2/Rebirth doing 600k-800k, or worldwide appeal - Symphonia doing 1.4 million?

 

[Nirolak]

How would that be getting back to its peak? Sounds more like "how to suicide the franchise" to me!

Well, even the most unlikely to succeed WRPGs like The Witcher got over a million copies.

I'm sure it'd be a halfway suicide attempt, but it seems more likely to grow to 1+ million sales than their current approach sadly. :lol

Note that I was speaking worldwide. It'd be utter suicide from a Japanese perspective.

 

[duckroll]

What could be considered the peak of the Tales franchise? Are we talking purely Japanese sales - Destiny 2/Rebirth doing 600k-800k, or worldwide appeal - Symphonia doing 1.4 million?

Tales of Destiny 2.

Well, even the most unlikely to succeed WRPGs like The Witcher got over a million copies.

I'm sure it'd be a halfway suicide attempt, but it seems more likely to grow to 1+ million sales than their current approach sadly. :lol

Note that I was speaking worldwide. It'd be utter suicide from a Japanese perspective.

Name a single Japanese developed WRPG-style RPG which sold anything close to a million.

 

[cvxfreak]

Holy shit. Final Fantasy XIII is now below ¥7000 on four different retailers who do business through Amazon JP. Not in Japan to see if this has spread to the brick and mortar shops, so it could be nothing. But still...

 

[Mr. Pointy]

Given how well the Vesperia port did, the answer seems pretty easy. The only question is whether to move the Graces/Destiny team to HD as well or to portables.

A PSP port would probably be the best bet, it's dead easy to do and the Tales user base is there. Though I don't know if the PSP is ready for a big-budget multi UMD game.

 

[Vinnk]

Sales-GAF, how would you try to unscrew the Tales franchise? I really don't even think it's possible now.

2-year break before the next game and hold off on shit spinoffs until it is finished. Then release it on the PS3 (or Wii2 if it is out by then, or better yet both).

That's what would make me care about a Tales game again. But no way in hell they are going to give the milking machine a rest.

 

[schuelma]

The scary thing about NSMB Wii is that it seems like at least according to our Japanese contingent it is at least somewhat supply constrained.

 

[AniHawk]

Holy shit. Final Fantasy XIII is now below ¥7000 on four different retailers who do business through Amazon JP. Not in Japan to see if this has spread to the brick and mortar shops, so it could be nothing. But still...

You mean it's now reaching the price of a normal game?!

 

[Nirolak]

Name a single Japanese developed WRPG-style RPG which sold anything close to a million.

While this is fair, I wouldn't have expected a Japanese made third person shooter like Lost Planet to sell 2.7 million copies.

How many Japanese made WRPG-style RPGs have there been actually? I can't think of that many actually.

I guess we could consider Dragon Quest a mix of Ultima and Wizardry, though that would obviously be cheating on my part.

 

[Mr. Pointy]

What is Final Fantasy XII? I thought it was a tad Western.

 

[duckroll]

A PSP port would probably be the best bet, it's dead easy to do and the Tales user base is there. Though I don't know if the PSP is ready for a big-budget multi UMD game.

Why would it need to be a multi UMD game?

While this is fair, I wouldn't have expected a Japanese made third person shooter like Lost Planet to sell 2.7 million copies.

Why not? A Japanese made third person shooter like RE4 sold 1.6 million on the GC and 2 million on the PS2. It also inspired Gears of War! :lol

 

[Mr. Pointy]

Why would it need to be a multi UMD game?

I just don't think you could squeeze all those skits and cut-scenes onto 1 UMD. A big part of Tales is all the little bits of fanservice, and if you cut those out it affects the perfection of the product among the 200-300k Tales faithful that always buy the game in the first week.

 

[duckroll]

I just don't think you could squeeze all those skits and cut-scenes onto 1 UMD. A big part of Tales is all the little bits of fanservice, and if you cut those out it affects the perfection of the product.

Tales of Rebirth and Tales of Destiny 2 are both on a single UMD.

 

[Nirolak]

Why would it need to be a multi UMD game?



Why not? A Japanese made third person shooter like RE4 sold 1.6 million on the GC and 2 million on the PS2. It also inspired Gears of War! :lol

True, taking risks seemed to pay off well for Capcom in that case. I wonder if it could work out for Namco as well?

Please note though that I wasn't seriously suggesting that Namco make Tales into a WRPG. I was just making a semi-joking suggestion for how the series could possibly sell as much as it used to again.

 

[Dascu]

Name a single Japanese developed WRPG-style RPG which sold anything close to a million.

Legend of Zelda

 

[NemesisPrime]

PS3 sells 250k units in one week = dead. :lol

FFXIII sells 1.7 million units in 2 weeks = dead :lol

FFXIII follows a pattern set forth by every other FF game in terms of front-loadedness = bad legs :lol

Have I stepped into some sort of twilight zone this morning? :/

--

Yeesh @ tales

PS3 2 software titles in top 30 in Japan == looking death in the eyes.

I have said this many times before. In Japan nobody really gives a toss about the 360 and/or the PS3. It is all about the Wii and the DS.