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[serplux]

We can monitor games output over the past couple years. If you think Nintendo's output will accelerate, that's an argument of faith. If you have seen indications that, say, they've hired significant new staff, and created new development teams, that would help your argument. But just stating that things will turn around "because of course they will", that's not a defensible position.

As a matter of fact...

They're up to 5,095 permanent staff as at September 2012, up from 4,394 in December 2009 between all their branches.

Other companies/first parties:

Good Feel: 72 (Oct 1 2012) - previous unknown
Game Freak: 90 (April 2012) - up from 52 in 2007
HAL Laboratory: 140 (Oct 2012) - up from 128 in 2008
Brownie Brown (1-UP Studio): 32 (April 2011, current unknown due to restructure)
Monolith Soft: 92 (March 2012) - up from 83 in 2009
Intelligent Systems: 127 (Nov 2012) - up from 115 in 2007

Retro has expanded into two teams, they've contracted a lot of second-party developers like Grezzo and Treasure to make games for them, and they're generally trying hard.

 

[BriBri]

But just stating that things will turn around "because of course they will", that's not a defensible position.

Neither is stating things won't turn around due to all the empirical evidence we have. Empirical evidence didn't allow anyone to predict the freaky success stories whether they be Wii Sports, Wii Fit, Brain Training, Nintendogs etc which seemingly came out of nowhere.

And again, this post isn't designed to put me in the "things will turn around" camp, just that I won't be put into the "things can't turn around" camp.

 

[Rolf NB]

Every console is overpriced at launch.

I've broken it down several times now why, so forgive me if I don't go into the full spiel again, but it's basically impossible for the Wii U to cost much more, if at all, to manufacture than a PS3 4k. And the PS3 4k is a lot cheaper at retail.

The usual reply is that we have to factor in R&D expenses, that Nintendo needs to recoup these before they can price the Wii U near cost. But I don't buy that. R&D is not a per-unit cost. It's sunk; all paid for by now. Even if that's seriously Nintendo's internal reasoning, the best way towards more overall revenue long-term is still to boost the install base now and earn the money on software. They don't have to bleed for this per unit. Just drop the margin to a small positive, at industry norm.

Also, we never "allowed" other platform holders to get away with this excuse. Remember 599$? Never saw much sympathy for that, and that was even with a purported 200~300$ per-unit loss, if iSuppli calculated right. Recouping R&D never even factored into those discussions.

 

[schuelma]

We can monitor games output over the past couple years. If you think Nintendo's output will accelerate, that's an argument of faith. If you have seen indications that, say, they've hired significant new staff, and created new development teams, that would help your argument. But just stating that things will turn around "because of course they will", that's not a defensible position.

Well, you can look back 2 generations and state with some certainty that games like Mario Kart, 3D Mario, and Smash will sell >500k and provide short term hardware boosts. Its faith to assume anything more than that, but I don't think its faith to say that the system will see some sort of spike when those games come out.

I still suspect Nintendo's selling power for its major franchises *generally* are still at a higher level than it was for the Game Cube, but it also seems very likely that those franchises will see declines from the Wii generation.

Something in the middle sounds right to me.

 

[NeonZ]

Seems people are throwing the game under the bus to explain/excuse the lackluster Wii U sales across all 3 major markets, saying it is a bad game or not a "real" Mario game (what?!?)

Hey, at least in my case, I've kept my position regarding NSMBU consistent since before the Wii U's launch. I've also mentioned Animal Crossing Wii as a previous game that failed to become really relevant due to being seen as too close to its predecessors in previous systems.

 

[Rolf NB]

As a matter of fact...

They're up to 5,095 permanent staff as at September 2012, up from 4,394 in December 2009 between all their branches.

Other companies/first parties:

Good Feel: 72 (Oct 1 2012) - previous unknown
Game Freak: 90 (April 2012) - up from 52 in 2007
HAL Laboratory: 140 (Oct 2012) - up from 128 in 2008
Brownie Brown (1-UP Studio): 32 (April 2011, current unknown due to restructure)
Monolith Soft: 92 (March 2012) - up from 83 in 2009
Intelligent Systems: 127 (Nov 2012) - up from 115 in 2007

Retro has expanded into two teams, they've contracted a lot of second-party developers like Grezzo and Treasure to make games for them, and they're generally trying hard.

Now that's encouraging, thanks.

 

[Rolf NB]

Well, you can look back 2 generations and state with some certainty that games like Mario Kart, 3D Mario, and Smash will sell >500k and provide short term hardware boosts. Its faith to assume anything more than that, but I don't think its faith to say that the system will see some sort of spike when those games come out.

I still suspect Nintendo's selling power for its major franchises *generally* are still at a higher level than it was for the Game Cube, but it also seems very likely that those franchises will see declines from the Wii generation.

Something in the middle sounds right to me.

These are still strong franchises, but I suspect the entry price of the system, if it stays what it is now, will limit their impact on hardware sales.

 

[schuelma]

These are still strong franchises, but I suspect the entry price of the system, if it stays what it is now, will limit their impact on hardware sales.

I absolutely agree, which is why I suspect we see a price cut by this holiday at the latest.

 

[ElectricKaibutsu]

I've broken it down several times now why, so forgive me if I don't go into the full spiel again, but it's basically impossible for the Wii U to cost much more, if at all, to manufacture than a PS3 4k. And the PS3 4k is a lot cheaper at retail.

The usual reply is that we have to factor in R&D expenses, that Nintendo needs to recoup these before they can price the Wii U near cost. But I don't buy that. R&D is not a per-unit cost. It's sunk; all paid for by now. Even if that's seriously Nintendo's internal reasoning, the best way towards more overall revenue long-term is still to boost the install base now and earn the money on software. They don't have to bleed for this per unit. Just drop the margin to a small positive, at industry norm.

Also, we never "allowed" other platform holders to get away with this excuse. Remember 599$? Never saw much sympathy for that, and that was even with a purported 200~300$ per-unit loss, if iSuppli calculated right. Recouping R&D never even factored into those discussions.

Wait, what? Are we talking about the Wii U being overpriced compared to the cost of its components or to its perceived value? I was talking about how new consoles never have enough games at launch to justify their high price. Like you said, Sony was losing a bunch of money on the PS3 at launch and yet it was still viewed as overpriced by the public. No one knows how much Nintendo pays for each Wii U except Nintendo, and they say they're taking a loss. Considering that came out when Regie was trying to brag about how cheap it is for them to manufacture, I'd be surprised if he was lying in that direction.

 

[Hero of Legend]

As a matter of fact...

They're up to 5,095 permanent staff as at September 2012, up from 4,394 in December 2009 between all their branches.

Other companies/first parties:

Good Feel: 72 (Oct 1 2012) - previous unknown
Game Freak: 90 (April 2012) - up from 52 in 2007
HAL Laboratory: 140 (Oct 2012) - up from 128 in 2008
Brownie Brown (1-UP Studio): 32 (April 2011, current unknown due to restructure)
Monolith Soft: 92 (March 2012) - up from 83 in 2009
Intelligent Systems: 127 (Nov 2012) - up from 115 in 2007

Retro has expanded into two teams, they've contracted a lot of second-party developers like Grezzo and Treasure to make games for them, and they're generally trying hard.

What's ND Cube's headcount? They have 2 offices in Sapporo and Tokyo, so they MUST have two teams, but which did Wii Party, Mario Party 9, and now Wii Party U?

 

[VAPitts]

Sales are bad, but evaluating a platform in its first months after a launch is never a good thing.

but yet people babble on and on and on anyway

 

[H_Prestige]

I've broken it down several times now why, so forgive me if I don't go into the full spiel again, but it's basically impossible for the Wii U to cost much more, if at all, to manufacture than a PS3 4k. And the PS3 4k is a lot cheaper at retail.

Are you not including the gamepad? How is nintendo losing money per unit then?

 

[schuelma]

but yet people babble on and on and on anyway

Well, you can absolutely make some conclusions based on launch.

For one, the GamePad clearly was not the sort of innovation that caught the imagination of the country.

Two, NSMB U cannot propel hardware on its own.

If Nintendo recovers it will have to do it the hard way by releasing a ton of games that appeal to people and build the audience brick by brick.

 

[lunchwithyuzo]

I really hope Nintendo took a good lesson away from NSMB2/U releasing in such close proximity hurting each other. This really isn't like GBA/GCN or even DS/Wii where franchises can launch on both simultaneously and still each thrive thanks to the tech gulf making each game fairly different. 3DS/Wii U are too close in a weird way, at least in terms of the sort of games they can put out, and consumers obviously aren't too keen on buying the same thing (or even a similar thing) twice in a row. I have to think they might be tweaking their Smash Bros. 4 plans in response to that.

What's ND Cube's headcount? They have 2 offices in Sapporo and Tokyo, so they MUST have two teams, but which did Wii Party, Mario Party 9, and now Wii Party U?

They also worked on Nintendo x Joysound Wii Karaoke U with Tose Software. Hudson connection strikes again.

 

[serplux]

What's ND Cube's headcount? They have 2 offices in Sapporo and Tokyo, so they MUST have two teams, but which did Wii Party, Mario Party 9, and now Wii Party U?

I'm unsure (these are StreetsAhead numbers). I presume they are well over 50 strong though.

They also worked on Nintendo x Joysound Wii Karaoke U with Tose Software. Hudson connection strikes again.

Now that's a sight for sore eyes. I haven't seen them around for a while, hopefully they're working on the next Starfy.

 

[Celine]

Most of the Nintendo franchises didn´t sell much better than they did on the cube although the Wii had 4 times the install base.

WW shipments:

SSB (N64): 5.4M SSB (GC): 7.4M SSB (Wii): 10.8M
MK (N64): 9.9M MK (GC): 6.9M MK (Wii): 34.0M
M2D (NES): 40.2M M2D (SNES): 20.6M M2D (Wii): 27.6M
M3D (N64): 11.9M M3D (GC): 5.9M M3D (Wii): 10.7M
Zelda (N64): 7.6M Zelda (GC): 4.5M Zelda (Wii): 5.8M

 

[VAPitts]

Well, you can absolutely make some conclusions based on launch.

For one, the GamePad clearly was not the sort of innovation that caught the imagination of the country.

Two, NSMB U cannot propel hardware on its own.

If Nintendo recovers it will have to do it the hard way by releasing a ton of games that appeal to people and build the audience brick by brick.

i agree that people aren't catching on to the Gamepad, Iwata and Miyamoto admitted that. but that's just it, once they get themselves (user/consumers) adjusted they won't want to put it down. it's just going to take a strategy to do that.

 

[Hero of Legend]

They also worked on Nintendo x Joysound Wii Karaoke U with Tose Software. Hudson connection strikes again.

Is that official? Source? If so, awesome!

 

[Rolf NB]

Wait, what? Are we talking about the Wii U being overpriced compared to the cost of its components or to its perceived value? I was talking about how new consoles never have enough games at launch to justify their high price. Like you said, Sony was losing a bunch of money on the PS3 at launch and yet it was still viewed as overpriced by the public. No one knows how much Nintendo pays for each Wii U except Nintendo, and they say they're taking a loss. Considering that came out when Regie was trying to brag about how cheap it is for them to manufacture, I'd be surprised if he was lying in that direction.

Cost of components. Unless Shuhei Yoshida is also lying about PS3 hardware profitability. PS3's chips are slightly bigger on comparable process, the board, case, PSU and cooling system are more complex. While the bare Blu-ray drive should be at parity, there's a few dollars of movie playback licenses paid for every PS3, but not for the Wii U. PS3 4k has 12Gigs of Flash, which would sit squat in the middle between the two Wii U SKUs, cost wise. Both have comparable motion sensors and LiIon batteries built into the controller, HDMI and USB.

PS3 4k has SATA (for the internal harddrive bay) and Ethernet. Wii U has controller video streaming, purportedly layered on a customized Wifi protocol. Let's call this even.

Wii U has 2GB DDR3, which costs probably less than 15$. PS3 has less RAM, but half of it is XDR, which adds a licensing fee. Let's say the Wii U's RAM costs 10$ more than the PS3 4k's.

The only nebulous incremental cost item on Wii U's side IMO is the controller screen. It's anyone's guess what this costs in bulk. I'll just point out that I can buy an entire Archos Arnova for 59€. 7" capacitive multi-touch at 840x400, and that's also including a battery, Wifi, 4GB Flash, 1GB RAM and its own CPU/GPU and other doo-dads. It's also most certainly not a loss-leading item. If you press me for a guess, I'd say the screen alone costs around 25$.

=====

When Nintendo talked about Wii U costs, they always went back to R&D. And for that they won't have my sympathy. One-time operating costs have no place in BOM calculations.

 

[lunchwithyuzo]

Is that official? Source? If so, awesome!

Credits were listed on Kyoto Report iirc.

I want NdCube to make Wario Blast 2. :3

 

[Hero of Legend]

Credits were listed on Kyoto Report iirc.

I want NdCube to make Wario Blast 2. :3

Not before Bomberman.

 

[serplux]

Credits were listed on Kyoto Report iirc.

I want NdCube to make Wario Blast 2. :3

I kinda want them to do a puzzle game. Perhaps a resurrection of Pokemon Puzzle League.

 

[H_Prestige]

Cost of components. Unless Shuhei Yoshida is also lying about PS3 hardware profitability. PS3's chips are slightly bigger on comparable process, the board, case, PSU and cooling system are more complex. While the bare Blu-ray drive should be at parity, there's a few dollars of movie playback licenses paid for every PS3, but not for the Wii U. PS3 4k has 12Gigs of Flash, which would sit squat in the middle between the two Wii U SKUs, cost wise. Both have comparable motion sensors and LiIon batteries built into the controller, HDMI and USB.

PS3 4k has SATA (for the internal harddrive bay) and Ethernet. Wii U has controller video streaming, purportedly layered on a customized Wifi protocol. Let's call this even.

Wii U has 2GB DDR3, which costs probably less than 15$. PS3 has less RAM, but half of it is XDR, which adds a licensing fee. Let's say the Wii U's RAM costs 10$ more than the PS3 4k's.

The only nebulous incremental cost item on Wii U's side IMO is the controller screen. It's anyone's guess what this costs in bulk. I'll just point out that I can buy an entire Archos Arnova for 59€. 7" capacitive multi-touch at 840x400, and that's also including a battery, Wifi, 4GB Flash, 1GB RAM and its own CPU/GPU and other doo-dads. It's also most certainly not a loss-leading item. If you press me for a guess, I'd say the screen alone costs around 25$.

=====

When Nintendo talked about Wii U costs, they always went back to R&D. And for that they won't have my sympathy. One-time operating costs have no place in BOM calculations.

Damn, that's good information. Although I'm guessing the drive still costs more on Nintendo's end because it's a slot loader. Nintendo really needs to drop the price by $100 before years end.

 

[lunchwithyuzo]

Not before Bomberman.

Maybe he can guest star if Nintendo and Konami are still on speaking terms...

Actually a Nintendo x Hudson character crossover Bomberman game could be pretty great. Bomberman, Tengai Makyo, Bonk, Momotaru Denetsu, Mario, Zelda, Kirby, Pikmin, etc.

 

[AZ Greg]

but yet people babble on and on and on anyway

The point of the forum is to have discussions based on what is currently available.

If we're not going to have discussions, there's no point to having the forum.

.

 

[Hero of Legend]

Maybe he can guest star if Nintendo and Konami are still on speaking terms...

Actually a Nintendo x Hudson character crossover Bomberman game could be pretty great. Bomberman, Tengai Makyo, Bonk, Momotaru Denetsu, Mario, Zelda, Kirby, Pikmin, etc.

Just buy him, Konami's doing jack shit and lots of the folks are of course at ND Cube.

Also, can you locate Joysound U's credits? Can't find them at Kyoto Report.

 

[ElectricKaibutsu]

Cost of components. Unless Shuhei Yoshida is also lying about PS3 hardware profitability. PS3's chips are slightly bigger on comparable process, the board, case, PSU and cooling system are more complex. While the bare Blu-ray drive should be at parity, there's a few dollars of movie playback licenses paid for every PS3, but not for the Wii U. PS3 4k has 12Gigs of Flash, which would sit squat in the middle between the two Wii U SKUs, cost wise. Both have comparable motion sensors and LiIon batteries built into the controller, HDMI and USB.

PS3 4k has SATA (for the internal harddrive bay) and Ethernet. Wii U has controller video streaming, purportedly layered on a customized Wifi protocol. Let's call this even.

Wii U has 2GB DDR3, which costs probably less than 15$. PS3 has less RAM, but half of it is XDR, which adds a licensing fee. Let's say the Wii U's RAM costs 10$ more than the PS3 4k's.

The only nebulous incremental cost item on Wii U's side IMO is the controller screen. It's anyone's guess what this costs in bulk. I'll just point out that I can buy an entire Archos Arnova for 59€. 7" capacitive multi-touch at 840x400, and that's also including a battery, Wifi, 4GB Flash, 1GB RAM and its own CPU/GPU and other doo-dads. It's also most certainly not a loss-leading item. If you press me for a guess, I'd say the screen alone costs around 25$.

=====

When Nintendo talked about Wii U costs, they always went back to R&D. And for that they won't have my sympathy. One-time operating costs have no place in BOM calculations.

I just saw CNN did a breakdown of the Wii U, and you're right, it seems everything total for the Basic is estimated at $228. So where does that $72 go? Do we know how much stores pay Nintendo for each Wii U? Also, there is manufacturing, preloading software, and shipping. But even so, that wouldn't be $72, right? Maybe they really were factoring in R&D... That would be silly if true.

Well, looks like we'll be seeing a price drop soon.

 

[frankie_baby]

I just saw CNN did a breakdown of the Wii U, and you're right, it seems everything total for the Basic is estimated at $228. So where does that $72 go? Do we know how much stores pay Nintendo for each Wii U? Also, there is manufacturing, preloading software, and shipping. But even so, that wouldn't be $72, right? Maybe they really were factoring in R&D... That would be silly if true.

Well, looks like we'll be seeing a price drop soon.

apparently cnn underestimated it

 

[extralite]

At this point, Nintendo's best bet is to basically treat the WiiU as they did the Gamecube. Sell it at cost, so they aren't losing anything on the hardware, and make some meager profits off of the 1st-party software throughout the generation.

The GC was severely price dumped, selling at a considerably lower price than the PS2 (which was presumably already sold at a loss) for a hardware that was in most regards superior to the PS2 specs wise. Even though they obviously cut corners to get competetive performance it's hard to believe it was sold at cost. Maybe before the price drop but not after.

Also they had to halt production at one point and pay for storing the unsold GCs. Price cut for 3DS was explained by Iwata also to avoid repeating such a situation for 3DS.

 

[Dalthien]

The GC was severely price dumped, selling at a considerably lower price than the PS2 (which was presumably already sold at a loss) for a hardware that was in most regards superior to the PS2 specs wise. Even though they obviously cut corners to get competetive performance it's hard to believe it was sold at cost. Maybe before the price drop but not after.

I may be slightly off on the details, but IIRC, they were taking a small loss of about $10-15 per unit after the drop to $99. Which is exactly what I'm suggesting for the WiiU. Use the crossover points as price drops. So if the cost is $275-325, then sell for $300, if the cost drops below $275, then sell for $250. If the cost drops below $225, then sell for $200, etc.

That way you're getting some sales at a small profit per unit until it crosses the threshold, and then a small loss per unit until it crosses the next threshold, when you're making a small profit again for a while. It all balances out to a neutral effect on hardware, and you make some money off of the software. That's exactly what they did with the Gamecube as well.

 

[Nekki]

$100 pricecut and discontinuation of the base model is a good start, with some games to accompany it of course.

This holiday is going to be brutal..

 

[shinra-bansho]

i agree that people aren't catching on to the Gamepad, Iwata and Miyamoto admitted that. but that's just it, once they get themselves (user/consumers) adjusted they won't want to put it down. it's just going to take a strategy to do that.

Consumers as a generality do not and will not care about the GamePad. Regardless of how much one may personally like it, they need to accept this and move on.

Neither is stating things won't turn around due to all the empirical evidence we have. Empirical evidence didn't allow anyone to predict the freaky success stories whether they be Wii Sports, Wii Fit, Brain Training, Nintendogs etc which seemingly came out of nowhere.

To expect an anomalous phenomenon to occur is folly though.

Well, you can look back 2 generations and state with some certainty that games like Mario Kart, 3D Mario, and Smash will sell >500k and provide short term hardware boosts. Its faith to assume anything more than that, but I don't think its faith to say that the system will see some sort of spike when those games come out.

I still suspect Nintendo's selling power for its major franchises *generally* are still at a higher level than it was for the Game Cube, but it also seems very likely that those franchises will see declines from the Wii generation.

Something in the middle sounds right to me.

Repeating myself from an earlier thread:
I'm still willing to believe there's a degree of merit in the idea that there's been some broadening of appeal due to the success of the Wii. But I think it's definitely overstated by some (in itself, it may not be enough to spur a purchase from a broader audience and may simply continue to sell to the Nintendo faithful already buying the system), and the extent to which Nintendo let that broadened appeal evaporate due to inactivity is unknown.

A new generation of children were presumably introduced to Mario Kart on the Wii. (Although, I guess it's also worth noting it's been ~5 years since Mario Kart Wii, a 10 year old in 2008 will be 15 this year; their interests may have shifted towards games like COD, BF4, Madden.)

But it's also worth entertaining the notion that:
It's perfectly conceivable that the consumer who will buy a console to play Mario Kart U, is the consumer who is already buying the console to play New Super Mario Bros U.

Prior to the launch, no one seemed to consider the notion that games like NSMB on the Wii didn't in themselves move hardware and didn't reach their sales heights on their own, they had the juggernaut of Wii Sports/Motion Control behind them. It's now playing out as expected, considering this notion. And this notion applies to Mario Kart as well.

NSMBU has essentially been thrown under a bus in this regard with the narrative shifting from "Wii U will sell really well, it has the sequel to a game that sold 20M+ on it. NSMBU is a system seller." to "Of course NSMBU can't move systems, it's too similar/proximal to other games in the franchise. Wii U will sell really well when ___ comes out."

 

[StreetsAhead]

As a matter of fact...

They're up to 5,095 permanent staff as at September 2012, up from 4,394 in December 2009 between all their branches.

Other companies/first parties:

Good Feel: 72 (Oct 1 2012) - previous unknown
Game Freak: 90 (April 2012) - up from 52 in 2007
HAL Laboratory: 140 (Oct 2012) - up from 128 in 2008
Brownie Brown (1-UP Studio): 32 (April 2011, current unknown due to restructure)
Monolith Soft: 92 (March 2012) - up from 83 in 2009
Intelligent Systems: 127 (Nov 2012) - up from 115 in 2007

Retro has expanded into two teams, they've contracted a lot of second-party developers like Grezzo and Treasure to make games for them, and they're generally trying hard.

Those numbers are all official and from the company websites. Some/most of them should be updated soon now that the new FY has begun. Note that Good Feel is not owned by Nintendo, even though all their home console games have been published by them.

Has Retro expanded into two teams for sure, or is it just hearsay?

Also, the Nintendo number is all permanent staff (excluding part-time and contract workers) so that's 5,095 full time employed staff world wide in September. Their 'related staff' (presumably NCL itself) was about 1,900, which was up from about 1,600 from 2009.

Note that Game Freak has nearly doubled in size since Diamond and Pearl's release.

What's ND Cube's headcount? They have 2 offices in Sapporo and Tokyo, so they MUST have two teams, but which did Wii Party, Mario Party 9, and now Wii Party U?

I'm unsure (these are StreetsAhead numbers). I presume they are well over 50 strong though.

ND Cube doesn't publish staff numbers on their website, so I can't tell. Presumably they're quite big (somewhere between Monolith and IntSys maybe?).

 

[donny2112]

Well, you can look back 2 generations and state with some certainty that games like Mario Kart, 3D Mario, and Smash will sell >500k and provide short term hardware boosts. Its faith to assume anything more than that,

High console price will dampen the impact of those games, so they need to drop the price by a lot before those come out, or it'll just be throwing good money after bad.

I absolutely agree, which is why I suspect we see a price cut by this holiday at the latest.

Sooner (and the bigger) the better.

to "Of course NSMBU can't move systems, it's too similar/proximal to other games in the franchise.

To anyone who says this, if NSMBU isn't moving some systems, what game do you think is? Nintendo Land?

Basically, NSMBU may not be a single-game system seller for most, but it seems like it'd have to be for some or the Wii U wouldn't have started off the way it did. Also would go a fair way to explaining EU's results, since Mario has never been as big a draw there as in JPN/U.S. due to Nintendo not really having a strong presence there back in the NES/SNES days, if I recall previous posts on the matter correctly.

 

[maltrain]

The Tsutaya ranking is ready.

1| One Piece 2 (PS3)
2| Luigi's Mansion 2 (3DS)
3| Animal Crossing (3DS)
4| Fate / Extra (PSP)
5| Pro Baseball Spirits 2013 (PS3)
6| Pro Baseball Spirits 2013 (PSP)
7| Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix (PS3)
8| One Piece 2 (PS Vita)
9| Oboro Muramasa (PS Vita)
10| Dragon Quest X (WiiU)
11| Game & Wario (WiiU)
12| Sword Art Online (PSP)
13| Soul Sacrifice (PS Vita)
14| Disgaea D2 (PS3)
15| Edition Seal of the Royal Library... (PSP)
16| UX Super Robot Wars (3DS)
17| Dynasty Warriors 7 (PS3)
18| Fate / Extra: Limited Edition (PSP)
19| Dragon Quest VII (3DS)
20| Prettu Cure All Stars (Wii)

PS3 Games: 5.
PSP Games: 5.
3DS Games: 4.
PS Vita Games: 3.
WiiU Games: 2.
Wii Games: 1.

So... very good week again for PS3, PSP and 3DS.
Average for PS Vita considering last weeks.
Good for WiiU considering last weeks.
And Wii still alive...

I keep -more or less- my prediction for this week.
3DS: 75.000
PS Vita: 30.000
PS3: 25.000
WiiU: 15.000
PSP: 13.000
Wii: 2.000
X360: 500

 

[BriBri]

To expect an anomalous phenomenon to occur is folly though.

When did I ever say expect? Jeez.

And Luigi Mansion 2 still top of the download charts and Animal Crossing still riding high (#5).

 

[StreetsAhead]

Since Nintendo will release retail download cards for Pokemon Rumble U, The Rolling Western 2, and Freaky Forms Deluxe, do we know if Famitsu will count them, or are they excluded by not having a packaged version?

 

[BriBri]

Since Nintendo will release retail download cards for Pokemon Rumble U, The Rolling Western 2, and Freaky Forms Deluxe, do we know if Famitsu will count them, or are they excluded by not having a packaged version?

I'm watching the Nintendo Direct now and was just about to ask the very same! I guess so?!

 

[metalslimer]

but yet people babble on and on and on anyway

Yeah let's just stop making these threads all together. Weekly sales are useless and we cant judge anything until we have LTDs

 

[BishopLamont]

...are supposed to be the source of the increased brand awareness you mentioned earlier.

How about include the part where I said the system is too expensive and that there's no games out for it yet? It'd make much more sense that way.

 

[Mpl90]

Since Nintendo will release retail download cards for Pokemon Rumble U, The Rolling Western 2, and Freaky Forms Deluxe, do we know if Famitsu will count them, or are they excluded by not having a packaged version?

Yes, do we have someone who can ask to Enterbrain about it?

 

[cw_sasuke]

With the 500 Yen promotion we can expect digital download to play even a bigger role in the coming weeks - not just for games like AC and TC. As it should profits and margins are way higher for eShop purchases.

 

[electroplankton]

Since Nintendo will release retail download cards for Pokemon Rumble U, The Rolling Western 2, and Freaky Forms Deluxe, do we know if Famitsu will count them, or are they excluded by not having a packaged version?

Haha, I came here for the same question

 

[web01]

Every console is overpriced at launch.

Sony gave you the PS3 for less than it cost to make, thats not overpriced.
It might be expensive but they are not making hundreds of dollars per unit like someone like Apple which sells devices with huge mark ups.

Now Nintendo does sell their hardware with respectable mark ups that + the old tech they use and you can see why some people would call their devices overpriced.

 

[BishopLamont]

Sony gave you the PS3 for less than it cost to make, thats not overpriced.
It might be expensive but they are not making hundreds of dollars per unit like someone like Apple which sells devices with huge mark ups.

Its perceived as overpriced. It doesn't matter that they were selling at a loss, $599 dollars is overpriced no matter which way you slice it, unless you have a system seller like Wii Sports. In the same way the people who bought the Wii online for $400-500 didn't think it was overpriced, yep you guessed right, Wii Sports.

Overpriced, expensive, undervalued whatever you want to call it, is the same thing to the general consumer.

Since Nintendo will release retail download cards for Pokemon Rumble U, The Rolling Western 2, and Freaky Forms Deluxe, do we know if Famitsu will count them, or are they excluded by not having a packaged version?

As long as they have a way to track them, and we know they do then I think they will.

 

[Psycho_Mantis]

Its perceived as overpriced. It doesn't matter that they were selling at a loss, $599 dollars is overpriced no matter which way you slice it, unless you have a system seller like Wii Sports. In the same way the people who bought the Wii online for $400-500 didn't think it was overpriced, yep you guessed right, Wii Sports.

Overpriced, expensive, undervalued whatever you want to call it, is the same thing to the general consumer.

People bought PS3's online for ridiculously high price too. I wouldn't put too much thought into that especially when some are thinking of reselling for a profit.

Wii would definitely not have sold as well if it launched at a high price. Nintendo was not a household brand like Apple to get away with such thing and even now they aren't. I am actually glad that people are delving into other smart phones too because Apple has been getting away with it for far too long.

Anyone think KH HD could reach 200k LTD. That would be a great success for SE for a HD remaster. I am predicting FF X HD could do 300-350k LTD across PSV and PS3.

 

[web01]

Its perceived as overpriced. It doesn't matter that they were selling at a loss, $599 dollars is overpriced no matter which way you slice it, unless you have a system seller like Wii Sports. In the same way the people who bought the Wii online for $400-500 didn't think it was overpriced, yep you guessed right, Wii Sports.

Overpriced, expensive, undervalued whatever you want to call it, is the same thing to the general consumer.


As long as they have a way to track them, and we know they do then I think they will.

Maybe so but for those in the know its unfair to call it overpriced. Where I live it was cheaper to buy a PS3 than a stand alone blurry player at time of release and for a long time after, not sure what the situation was in the US. I certainly never felt ripped off knowing the PS3 sold to me at a loss which is more than I can say about other technology. Anyone who complained about Sony giving them a device for less than it costed to make (and all other consoles sold at a loss in general) are a bunch of clowns. Its part of the reason next generation consoles are going to be less of a leap in tech.

 

[Terrell]

i agree that people aren't catching on to the Gamepad, Iwata and Miyamoto admitted that. but that's just it, once they get themselves (user/consumers) adjusted they won't want to put it down. it's just going to take a strategy GAMES to do that.

Fixed that for you.

Schuelma is correct, there are genuine data points to take away. The NSMB series can't buoy sales on its own and needs a pre-existing games roster for it to be a hardware mover, NintendoLand was marketed in a way that didn't sell on its redeeming qualities (much like the system itself) and people aren't buying it.

Economic times are different, as well. If you're selling steak, you can't give your customers the sizzle and expect them to line up anymore.

A price drop isn't needed, the content to get people lining up is, and that hasn't been there so far.

Sony gave you the PS3 for less than it cost to make, thats not overpriced.
It might be expensive but they are not making hundreds of dollars per unit like someone like Apple which sells devices with huge mark ups.

Now Nintendo does sell their hardware with respectable mark ups that + the old tech they use and you can see why some people would call their devices overpriced.

This is a semantic argument. It's not the consumer's fault that Sony was selling something it couldn't afford to sell you without a steep loss. Something being "overpriced" is less about costs and more about value on dollar.

 

[BishopLamont]

People bought PS3's online for ridiculously high price too. I wouldn't put too much thought into that especially when some are thinking of reselling for a profit.

Wii would definitely not have sold as well if it launched at a high price. Nintendo was not a household brand like Apple to get away with such thing and even now they aren't. I am actually glad that people are delving into other smart phones too because Apple has been getting away with it for far too long.

Anyone think KH HD could reach 200k LTD. That would be a great success for SE for a HD remaster. I am predicting FF X HD could do 300-350k LTD across PSV and PS3.

Scalpers were buying the PS3 to resell, not because they thought it was great value. Wii would've done well even if it was $300-350, you gotta remember, thats still cheaper than the 360/PS3 was back then, Wii Sports was also a big, big, selling point. People were all talking about the Wii everywhere, and it certainly wasn't due to the price.

 

[Guymelef]

What is Tsutaya ranking? what does mean?