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Media Create Sales: Week 20, 2015 (May 11 - May 17)

Peff

Member
I'm astonished at how terribly bad Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Bros. Edition is doing. Sales are front-loaded as hell, surprising for a title like this.

[3DS] Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Bros. Edition <RPG> (GungHo Online Entertainment) {2015.04.29} (¥4.320) - 179.926 / NEW
[3DS] Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Bros. Edition <RPG> (GungHo Online Entertainment) {2015.04.29} (¥4.320) - 38.914 / 218.839 (-78%)
[3DS] Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Bros. Edition <RPG> (GungHo Online Entertainment) {2015.04.29} (¥4.320) - 13.844 / 232.683 (-64%)

It's basically hard mode DLC for Z which plays more like the mobile game, so I guess doing the grind again is not really appealing for people who are already high-level in either game. That doesn't explain the weak first week, though.
 

thefro

Member
Yowza that's a weak week (hah)! Minecraft continues to sell, to no one's great surprise. Wake me up when something exciting happens in Japan.

Splatoon seems to be tracking for a good launch over there but that doesn't launch until the 28th.
 

Scum

Junior Member
It's up there (or down there) for sure. We seem to get a new "worst week ever" every few months these days.

Behold your future and despair.

I, for one, welcome our new mobile gaming Overlords!
EWmof.gif
 

Kathian

Banned
How much longer can the games industry even survive in Japan with this level of sales?

Main Franchises still selling - the test will come with the next new system launch. Truth is the games industry is doing quite well - its this specific part thats beginning to really struggle now.
 
I wanna say that this is the result of digital storefronts being viable this generation

but we all know it's mobile.

fuck, console gaming looks wrecked in japan.
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
So earlier in the year (and even a bit before when we were first going into it) I said that without the N3DS, I'd normally expect at least a 20-30% drop year over year, using that as my bar for how much it was propping up the system.

For quite a while it kept it almost at parity with the previous year, which I felt was pretty impressive.

At this point though every week is easily in the 20-30% decline range and several are nearing 40%, so I think we're past most of its effect at this point.

The Vita is facing similar declines, with a 25% decline for the year overall (the 3DS is only at around 12% so far but should continue to fall at this rate).

The PS3 is effectively done. The Xbox One never got started. The Wii U is static, but pretty moribund. The PS4, despite being up about 2x year on year for this week, is still abysmal.

I don't think there's actually anything positive here at this point.
 

Sage00

Once And Future Member
How much longer can the games industry even survive in Japan with this level of sales?
The games industry is Japan is arguably thriving more than ever before. There are several titles generating tens of millions in revenue every single day. Has this ever happened before? Even non-gaming companies are trying to get in on the action.

Oh wait did you mean on these weird hardware devices you need to spend upwards of 20k yen on just for the privilege of being able to buy a game? When everyone has a mobile anyway? Yeah they're obviously dead, it's not the 80s anymore.
 

Scrawnton

Member
Wow, Konami just predicted this crazy market collapse. There is no way people look at this chart and think video gaming as we know it is not jeopardized.
 

Shiina

Member
#1 didn't even sell 16K? Codename STEAM sold less than 2K? I don't normally follow these things, but this seems pretty bad. If this is what the future of console gaming in Japan holds, then there is no Japan console future. Good thing the west is holding strong.

It's a port of a remaster of two fourteen year old games everybody has already played, released on an unpopular console. Not that surprising in my opinion. And judging by the demo STEAM is just a plain bad game with an artstyle that doesn't appeal to a lot of people and especially not Japanese gamers.
 
Kind of amazing that a FF game (even a remake of a remake) debuted with lower sales than Xenoblade 3D (also a remake). There isn't even an install base gulf between the n3DS and PS4 in Japan.
 

Ridley327

Member
I guess Japanese fans weren't so critical about the remastered soundtrack for FFX as western ones were.

Tremendously terrible week all around.
 
Kind of amazing that a FF game (even a remake of a remake) debuted with lower sales than Xenoblade 3D (also a remake). There isn't even an install base gulf between the n3DS and PS4 in Japan.

It's the third release of an HD remaster on a platform that has had a tepid reception in Japan so far. That it won out the week is staggering, really, because it just goes to show how weak the rest of the retail business is doing in Japan.
 

Scrawnton

Member
I look at this in two ways: (1) Japan is transitioning to a fully mobile market place and are ignoring consoles, or (2) japanese gamers are fed up with the bullshit publishers are trying to repeatedly shove down our throats with anticonsumer business models (releasing a remake of a remake that just came out last year).

If it turns out being option 2, then I am glad Japanese gamers refuse to be played like fiddles.
 

Sage00

Once And Future Member
I look at this in two ways: (1) Japan is transitioning to a fully mobile market place and are ignoring consoles, or (2) japanese gamers are fed up with the bullshit publishers are trying to repeatedly shove down our throats with anticonsumer business models (releasing a remake of a remake that just came out last year).

If it turns out being option 2, then I am glad Japanese gamers refuse to be played like fiddles.
In what possible way could FFX HD on PS4 be considered anti consumer?
 

Hellraider

Member
Kind of amazing that a FF game (even a remake of a remake) debuted with lower sales than Xenoblade 3D (also a remake). There isn't even an install base gulf between the n3DS and PS4 in Japan.

There is nothing amazing to it because the comparison makes no sense.
 

Ridley327

Member
I look at this in two ways: (1) Japan is transitioning to a fully mobile market place and are ignoring consoles, or (2) japanese gamers are fed up with the bullshit publishers are trying to repeatedly shove down our throats with anticonsumer business models (releasing a remake of a remake that just came out last year).

If it turns out being option 2, then I am glad Japanese gamers refuse to be played like fiddles.

It must be nice to be that optimistic.
 

Scrawnton

Member
In what possible way could FFX HD on PS4 be considered anti consumer?

square knew damn well they couldve released this version along side the ps3 version that came out last spring when the PS4 was already out. If you think square did not try to get people to buy both versions, you are crazy.

Square-Enix knew what they were doing. Release it on ps3 and get people to buy it there, then wait a year and release it on ps4 and get people to rebuy it again. Hell, they don't even let you download just ffx for half the price, they force you to buy the whole package. This is an anticonsumer move.

It must be nice to be that optimistic.


I am all for every company making mobile games from here on out, just as long as the quality of traditional console games carry over. I am not against paying $15+ for a good mobile game.
 
square knew damn well they couldve released this version along side the ps3 version that came out last spring when the PS4 was already out. If you think square did not try to get people to buy both versions, you are crazy.

The Japanese version of FFX HD released in December 2013.
 

Sage00

Once And Future Member
square knew damn well they couldve released this version along side the ps3 version that came out last spring when the PS4 was already out. If you think square did not try to get people to buy both versions, you are crazy.
What are you basing this on? The game came out in December 2013 in Japan. PS4 hadn't even released there yet and had been out for a month elsewhere in the world.

then what prevented them from waiting and making it s PS4 launch title? All I am saying is, square knew what they were doing. They held off to try to sell the same game twice.
Why would they intentionally delay a PS3 game they had already finished until its successor console released (effectively killing off the PS3 market, as we've seen), therefore sabotaging the sales of both versions? It would be insane.
 

Owzers

Member
Square Enix doesn't put out anything, Capcom only cares about remasters apparently, and Konami is officially done. They've all been done since last generation really, I don't even remember if i played Lightning Returns.
 

Mpl90

Two copies sold? That's not a bomb guys, stop trolling!!!
Final Fantasy did worse than what I was thinking (but maybe digital sales are better than expected). Steam confirmed its bomba status (actually, bomba beyond belief). And the next good period of releases (mainly for 3DS, though) starts next week week. Argh.

P.S. 3DS needs a price cut / a similar initiative like last year (free vouchers to get a game from a monthly catalogue) as soon as possible, though. Fire Emblem should help for a while, at least
 
then what prevented them from waiting and making it s PS4 launch title? All I am saying is, square knew what they were doing. They held off to try to sell the same game twice.

this is the part where i point out that no one is obligating you to buy this game again. your current version is still fully functional, a complete experience, a treasure in unto itself
 

saichi

Member
ON the bright side, FF still has the brand name that even a re-release of HD master can debut at number 1!

ON the down side, it didn't need to sell more than 16K to be number 1. And Codename STEAM can't even sell 2K.... Maybe IS should make Advance Wars 3. That should sell more than 16K, right?
 

koutoru

Member
With these numbers, I'm glad that we even still have studios in Japan focused on console games.
Even Cygames just opened up a studio focused on console games over there, which is pretty awesome for a studio that was previously only doing mobile games.
 
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