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Media Create Sales: Week 28, 2013 (Jul 08 - Jul 14)

guek

Banned
And suddenly the thread becomes a mexican standoff with everyone's finger on the trigger ready to fire "fanboy!!"

hnWGqvL.gif
 
Reggie is the least trustworthy source I would rely on. He don't give a shit about advertising Nintendo's own products, what makes you believe he'll bother going after third-parties? He won't.

The only way for Nintendo to change their approach toward third-parties is shaking up their management division. Their current is very conservative and rely only on their own first and second-party games. Even Iwata told, some time ago, he does not believe in third-party support:

http://www.gamecubicle.com/news-nintendo_gamecube_famitsu_iwata_interview.htm



That'll hardly change while Iwata is still in charge.

Reggie's a talking PR head.

Iwata makes all of the important decisions whether we're talking about NCL or NOA.

Of course Iwata "believes in third-party support"...Nintendo makes money off of game manufacturing and game royalties and game licensing.
More games released on a system = more revenue for Nintendo. Iwata's trying to run a business...of course he welcomes as many third-parties as possible.

It's just Iwata's approach to lure third parties is just heavily flawed, as it's---like you said---completely reliant on 1st-party games to make the system more attractive. That kind of move can be insufficient at times, and Nintendo seems overly stubborn in not going the extra mile.
 

guek

Banned
Sounds to me like you're just hating on something you don't own.

Well, that or you're a massive hypocrite. Could be either.

Hey SmokeyDave, out of curiosity, do you believe at all that the Vita "deserves" to fail? Obviously not in the same way Wii U would.
 

jcm

Member
Despite what people think about the WiiU hardware, I don't believe it's the tablet that's the expensive part, according to the guy from Chipworks the main CPU/GPU/eDRAM part is worth $100 alone and because of the extremely custom way they build hardware, who knows what else is in there that is adding to the cost.

Of course the tablet controller is far more expensive than a standard controller but didn't GAF come to the conclusion that it cost about $40 tops for the controller ?.

The price of the console is a combination of greed on Nintendo's part and the customized hardware which managed to fit in a tiny console that only uses 30 watts of electricity.

It doesn't help when the CEO sets such massive goals for financial results either which basically means a $50 price cut is all they can really do in 2013.

They were selling the console below cost. That doesn't seem greedy to me. I agree that their stupid forecast has really handcuffed them though.
 

crinale

Member
They were selling the console below cost. That doesn't seem greedy to me. I agree that their stupid forecast has really handcuffed them though.

I'm not sure if Iwata's forecast was based on supposedly greater third party support.
(i.e. third parties were actually planning to release more games, where they canceled them later on).
 

SmokyDave

Member
Hey SmokeyDave, out of curiosity, do you believe at all that the Vita "deserves" to fail? Obviously not in the same way Wii U would.
That's a tough one. I'd probably have to say 'yes'. It's a platform designed for a market that doesn't really exist, and Sony haven't really done anything to change course even though it's become obvious that the market doesn't exist.

It's a real shame because it's the zenith of dedicated handheld platforms, but it got here too late.
 

B.O.O.M

Member
It was also really hot to the level of heat wave in Japan last week, and it came out in a holiday weekend where people were not in the streets. Even the Pokémon Centers were fairly empty and that seldom happens.

This has an effect on sales. I'm not saying this to spin but as an explanation. You need to factor in all the factors in order to make a determination.

I'm not saying that this wasn't bad, it is. What I'm saying is that people are ignoring multiple factors that should be considered

1. This is tracking only two days rather than the standard four days
2. This was a holiday weekend, in a heat wave. Everywhere was empty while people want to various events to celebrate.

it's no different to TV viewing figures for shows. People go out and do crap when the weather is nice, they don't think "Yeah, I'll go wait in line for a console". You can tell this by just how damned low everything else is, including the 3DS.

lmfao..this is amazing

OT: imho these are worrying numbers for both hardware and sw for wiiu. coming weeks will be brutal. What's the next 'big' wiiu game? W101? That's going to tank big time as well
 

guek

Banned
That's a tough one. I'd probably have to say 'yes'. It's a platform designed for a market that doesn't really exist, and Sony haven't really done anything to change course even though it's become obvious that the market doesn't exist.

It's a real shame because it's the zenith of dedicated handheld platforms, but it got here too late.

Alright. As much as I dislike you and find you to be a fairly big jerk in general, I gotta respect that.
 
So basically, you're a Nintendo fanboy. It's only ok to celebrate system failures when its Sony, :lol what a fucking joke.

Noobasaur just hates sony with a passion. The last time he got banned was for constantly trolling sony threads (i believe it wasn't his first time), but he's actually quite mellow since he came back this time.

As far as the topic goes, not surprised for the wiiU results. We're just seeing what the vast majority of people have been saying all along. Nintendo has nothing lined up until very late in the year that actually has a chance to move a decent amount of units, and even that isn't a sure thing.
But hey, when you have people saying bad sales happened because of a heat wave, there's nothing else you can do to make them see things the way they are.
 

Darryl

Banned
No it doesn't. You might as well start bringing in astrological reasons for the WiiU's failure.

One of the things I've heard about living in Japan is the frequent use of public transportation. Obviously I don't live there so I don't know exactly how that would work, or if it is one of the overblown cultural quirks people talk about to give the country identity. I know if it was hot where I live and didn't have private transportation, I wouldn't exactly rush out to buy a home console and cart it home if it was really hot out. I don't think it is necessarily something that deserves kneejerk dismissal. It would obviously not have a deep impact, but it's something that is worth thinking about if you like to actually think about this stuff. I just found out a second ago that people only browse these types of forums to watch others have what they perceive to be meltdowns, so I'm not going to accuse you of caring about this stuff beyond a superficial level.

Professional market analyses actually look at and go way beyond things like temperatures and heat spikes to try to truly understand how and why markets react the way they do, as well. It is a very big business. That joke about astrological crap is really amateur.
 

Biker19

Banned
Nintendo is reaping what they sew.

It needs much more games, new games and a significant price cut. I don't see how Nintendo is going to pull that off. They've simply completely and utterly fucked up. They had years to prepare and they failed hard.

Indeed. And out of all the companies (including 3rd party publishers), they're the ones who had a lot of time to figure out HD development, etc.

7 to 8 years worth since 360 & PS3 launched. And they say that they're now struggling with HD development, & didn't hire a lot of people to even prepare for it, while at the same time, saving the 3DS.

As far as I'm concerned, the Wii U is another PS3 at this point.

It was also really hot to the level of heat wave in Japan last week, and it came out in a holiday weekend where people were not in the streets. Even the Pokémon Centers were fairly empty and that seldom happens.

This has an effect on sales. I'm not saying this to spin but as an explanation. You need to factor in all the factors in order to make a determination.

LOL, you gotta be kidding me.
 

Pie and Beans

Look for me on the local news, I'll be the guy arrested for trying to burn down a Nintendo exec's house.
Alright. As much as I dislike you and find you to be a fairly big jerk in general, I gotta respect that.

Dude answers your question politely, and you respond with "i don't like you and you're a big jerk" because, what, he doesn't like Nintendo? Get a grip.

That would be my answer to you marc^o^ really as well. If you or others like you are getting angry at me and other posters talking about WiiU doom, its because you're far too personally invested in that platform.
 

Snakeyes

Member
The only way for Nintendo to change their approach toward third-parties is shaking up their management division. Their current is very conservative and rely only on their own first and second-party games. Even Iwata told, some time ago, he does not believe in third-party support:

http://www.gamecubicle.com/news-nintendo_gamecube_famitsu_iwata_interview.htm

That'll hardly change while Iwata is still in charge.
Holy crap at that quote. No wonder third parties don't have much desire to give the U a fair shot during a tough time like they did with the original Xbox and the PS3. Nintendo is in dire need a substantial sweep at the top and a fresh group of execs that are aware of the necessity to repair all of the damage built up since the mid 90s.

The Wii U's current situation is not just a result of it being a poorly though out product; it's also a direct consequence of all their boneheaded decisions, starting with the refusal to embrace CDs and lower royalty fees on the SNES' successor.
 
Dude answers your question politely, and you respond with "i don't like you and you're a big jerk" because, what, he doesn't like Nintendo? Get a grip.

That would be my answer to you marc^o^ really as well. If you or others like you are getting angry at me and other posters talking about WiiU doom, its because you're far too personally invested in that platform.

That's really the crux of the matter in these sort of threads, isn't it?

It really helps not to have a horse in this race, that way you can just enjoy the ride :D

Anyway, I'm really looking forward to seeing how things go next week, when the rest of the days are counted towards those Pikmin and Wii U numbers.
 

BlackJace

Member
Dude answers your question politely, and you respond with "i don't like you and you're a big jerk" because, what, he doesn't like Nintendo? Get a grip.

That would be my answer to you marc^o^ really as well. If you or others like you are getting angry at me and other posters talking about WiiU doom, its because you're far too personally invested in that platform.

I think you're taking his post a bit too seriously.
 

Darryl

Banned
Dude answers your question politely, and you respond with "i don't like you and you're a big jerk" because, what, he doesn't like Nintendo? Get a grip.

That would be my answer to you marc^o^ really as well. If you or others like you are getting angry at me and other posters talking about WiiU doom, its because you're far too personally invested in that platform.

I thought SmokeyDave was one of those guys who likes Nintendo stuff but likes to argue about them still, like FreezieKO and MetalSlimer
 

SmokyDave

Member
Dude answers your question politely, and you respond with "i don't like you and you're a big jerk" because, what, he doesn't like Nintendo? Get a grip.

That would be my answer to you marc^o^ really as well. If you or others like you are getting angry at me and other posters talking about WiiU doom, its because you're far too personally invested in that platform.
In gueks defence, he's not far wrong.

That's really the crux of the matter in these sort of threads, isn't it?

It really helps not to have a horse in this race, that way you can just enjoy the ride :D
I prefer owning all the horses, and then shooting the fucker that lets me down.

I thought SmokeyDave was one of those guys who likes Nintendo stuff but likes to argue about them still, like FreezieKO and MetalSlimer
I hate their hardware, but every now and then they put out some peerless shit like Zelda: LTTP, Mario 3D Land, & Rakuga Kids.
 
I don't think a turnaround is completely impossible, but it'll take a perfect storm of a major price cut, new marketing, and good/great games coming out at a regular pace to make that happen, imho. Happened with the PS3...

5aoWPuJ.jpg


...but that was also the same year they released Killzone 2, Uncharted 2, Infamous, Demon's Souls, and Ratchet & Clank. God of War III was early the following year and, of course, they still had all that third party support. It's going to be a very, very tough mountain to climb, but if Nintendo makes the right decisions - especially on price and marketing, because games can't magically come out sooner - it's definitely possible.
 

Verendus

Banned
Does Japan heavily discount the Wii U at all? It's been discounted heavily here in the UK at the moment. There are a lot of offers on the console on occasion. Another year and we'll be reaching close to budget price at this rate. I'm waiting for that £129 premium deal myself.

That's a tough one. I'd probably have to say 'yes'. It's a platform designed for a market that doesn't really exist, and Sony haven't really done anything to change course even though it's become obvious that the market doesn't exist.

It's a real shame because it's the zenith of dedicated handheld platforms, but it got here too late.
You should give it love whilst it's here; the last of its kind. After Vita, it's time to go hybrid.
 

DaBoss

Member
The last few pages had very little discussion, you can really feel the heat in the air. Quite literally too for those not in rooms with an AC.
 
It's a real shame because it's the zenith of dedicated handheld platforms, but it got here too late.

I think the problem is the opposite: it arrived a gen too early. Consumers don't need a handheld like the Vita yet, and developers don't need to program handheld games like that.

I expect Vita to slowly pick up over time, as both the industry and consumers move to where it was.

Related: I think PSP would have done much better if launched several years later, for similar reasons.
 

marc^o^

Nintendo's Pro Bono PR Firm
That would be my answer to you marc^o^ really as well. If you or others like you are getting angry at me and other posters talking about WiiU doom, its because you're far too personally invested in that platform.
The doom discussion is acttually an interesting one to have. It's the provocation that I don't get. Maybe there is a humorous layer in your tone that I'm missing, but oh well, back on topic.
 

Road

Member
Ok, the best selling Vita game in Japan is Persona 4 Golden - 260,000.
Where does 260k number come from ? I only found 2012 totals.

For the record, the 260k number are worldwide (well, Asia only at the time) shipments (including downloads).

230k is the most updated figure for physical of P4G in Japan only.

3rd week (Media Create):

[PSV] Toukiden # <ACT> (Koei Tecmo) {2013.06.27} (¥6.090) - 20.853 / 186.963 (-52%)
[PSV] Persona 4 Golden <RPG> (Atlus) {2012.06.14} (¥7.329) - 15.497 / 181.866 (-47%)
[PSV] Hatsune Miku: Project Diva f # <ACT> (Sega) {2012.08.30} (¥7.329) - 8.039 / 186.059 (-56%)

3rd week (Famitsu):

[PSV] Toukiden # <ACT> (Koei Tecmo) {2013.06.27} (¥6.090) - 17.652 / 182.736 (-52%)
[PSV] Persona 4 Golden <RPG> (Atlus) {2012.06.14} (¥7.329) - 12.261 / 182.829 (-32%)
[PSV] Hatsune Miku: Project Diva f # <ACT> (Sega) {2012.08.30} (¥7.329) - 7.019 / 181.835 (-58%)

Might not be in a few weeks, but Toukiden has a good chance of becoming Vita's best selling game (at least until GE2, as someone else said).
 

guek

Banned
Dude answers your question politely, and you respond with "i don't like you and you're a big jerk" because, what, he doesn't like Nintendo? Get a grip.

Talk about a "distorted perception of reality." I've made my dislike of SmokeyDave apparent for a long time now. He knows this. Take a step back and look at how quickly you are to make presumptions about people's motives to fit your own preconceived notions of everyone else. In other words, grow up.
 

Biker19

Banned
Big question: would a price drop really help now? It's obvious that down the line it needs one. But it still needs games for it to sell. The announcement of a price drop will have a bigger impact if games are out compared to the announcement of a game when the price drop has happened.

Best to strectch it out a bit more and make the announcement in February. It's obvious they can't 'win' the race anymore, but it's best they make the best out of it while being patient.

Good point. Nintendo needs more than just a price drop; they need more software. Sure, a price drop will give them a bit more of a boost in sales, but after like a few weeks or a month, they'll start dropping back down, & they'll be back to square one again.
 
Very interesting points.

Could you please provide sources to these? Especially the GAF thread coming to the $40 controller price?

The stuff from the Chipworks guy was in the WiiU GPU discussion thread, somewhere in the second quarter I would guess. Im sure someone that reads the thread will confirm it. It's pretty amazing if it's true as Nintendo wouldn't be paying much more than MS are for the XBO APU imo.

The controller being around $40 to build is from a ton of threads over the last year, most people said it's no different to a cheap Android tablet screen with a normal controller casing around it.

Like I said, I think the main reason the console is $350 is because Nintendo are greedy and they knew 3 or 4 million hardcore Nintendo fans would buy it at that price.

Material / manufacturing costs also drops in a matter of months when it comes to console hardware, I wouldn't be surprised if they could break even at $250 but they need hardware profit to hit Iwatas ridiculous financial goal...
 
Can we please make the heatwave some kind of meme? NPD comes out tomorrow, that'll at least get a chuckle while we wait for the numbers to trickle in.
 

SmokyDave

Member
You should give it love whilst it's here; the last of its kind. After Vita, it's time to go hybrid.
iOS man. I already have my exit plan, and it's shaping up nicely.


I think the problem is the opposite: it arrived a gen too early. Consumers don't need a handheld like the Vita yet, and developers don't need to program handheld games like that.

I expect Vita to slowly pick up over time, as both the industry and consumers move to where it was.

Related: I think PSP would have done much better if launched several years later, for similar reasons.
Y'know, you might well be right there. The poor PSP Go was before its time.

One thing's for sure, whenever is / was the right time for Vita, it ain't this last year or so :(
 

Cha

Member
Okay, those WiiU numbers look pretty underwhelming. Though, since the Pikmin numbers are only for 2 days, maybe it's not as bad as it seems(?). It's definately not great though.

Even though WiiU HW had a seven day week, the way I see it is that - Most new WiiU buyers this week were looking forward to Pikmin, and wanted it with their console purchase. So my (baseless and optimistic) speculation is that most of this weeks sales may have come from the 2days that Pikmin was available. I don't see much practicality in people buying a console, and then returning to the store just a few days later to buy the game that enticed them to buy the console. Just makes sense (to me, anyway) to buy the game and console at the same time.

But of course, next weeks charts will give us a clearer picture of how Pikmin really affected the WiiU sales.

I may be wrong, of course.
 

borghe

Loves the Greater Toronto Area
In a sense, yes, it is a power issue. Mainstream loves power and you have to catch mainstream in one way or the other to be successful.
Mainstream doesn't give a shit about power, either in Japan (where the most powerful system has rarely come out on top) or in the US (top franchises, aka CoD and Madden, have NEVER pushed consoles graphically)

arguably the only people who give a shit about system power are forum console warriors. no one else gives a shit compared to having their favorite games on a system, hence deciding what system they actually buy.
 

ASIS

Member
I don't get what the doom and gloom is all about. The Wii U numbers are not great but they certainly are a nice bump. Plus Pikmin 3 sold surprisingly well (taking the number 1 spot even).


Perhaps I've lost so much hope that even selling 10k wouldn't be "terrible" for me :p. But in all seriousness I don't get what the hubub is about, why this week?
 

qko

Member
Numbers quite low. Even with the supposed "two days" and "heat wave" that would mean that next week will probably just see sales at or less than 22k. I'd say 16k-ish. I've never seen the Pikmin franchise as a long tail seller.
 

Haines

Banned
Okay, those WiiU numbers look pretty underwhelming. Though, since the Pikmin numbers are only for 2 days, maybe it's not as bad as it seems(?). It's definately not great though.

Even though WiiU HW had a seven day week, the way I see it is that - Most new WiiU buyers this week were looking forward to Pikmin, and wanted it with their console purchase. So my (baseless and optimistic) speculation is that most of this weeks sales may have come from the 2days that Pikmin was available. I don't see much practicality in people buying a console, and then returning to the store just a few days later to buy the game that enticed them to buy the console. Just makes sense (to me, anyway) to buy the game and console at the same time.

But of course, next weeks charts will give us a clearer picture of how Pikmin really affected the WiiU sales.

I may be wrong, of course.

Next weeks WiiU numbers are the first time Im actually anticipating to see how it sells, out of curiousity of how much interest the pikmin brand has these days,
 
Jesus this thread has gone to shit. The NPD thread in November will be a bloodbath. I just dont see how anyone could think that wiiu hardware number is good when this is the biggest week it will have for months. Maybe it was unrealistic to expect much from this week, but that just makes wiiu look an even bigger disaster. And the sad thing is that right now honestly vita has a brighter future in japan than wiiu.

Perhaps I've lost so much hope that even selling 10k wouldn't be "terrible" for me

I think if wiiu could reach a baseline of 15k and stay there it would be good, but i dont see that at all. 10k a week would still be terrible for wiiu. That would mean a less than 700k a year with holiday boosts
 

LOCK

Member
I think the numbers are to be expected.

I will wait to judge next weeks numbers, cause I hope Pikmin have legs.
 
I think the numbers are to be expected.

I will wait to judge next weeks numbers, cause I hope Pikmin have legs.

I don't think pikmin's numbers are the issue. The question is will people keep buying the system next week for pikmin or will it just sell to the audience and wiiu drops back under 10k. Pikmin will at least struggle to 300k just on the horrible lineup alone
November??

How about tomorrow's NPD thread? (or later today, depending on where you live?)

Wiiu had zip in june. Everyone knows it will sell like shit and hardcore nintendo fans will have the 3ds to celebrate. August NPD when pikmin fails to ignite wiiu will be bad.
 

schuelma

Wastes hours checking old Famitsu software data, but that's why we love him.
I don't think pikmin's numbers are the issue. The question is will people keep buying the system next week for pikmin or will it just sell to the audience and wiiu drops back under 10k

.

I think it could stay above 10k for a few weeks off the back of continued Pikmin sales and LEGO undercover, but after that you have basically a dead month until a niche first party title (W101), and then another month until Wind Waker.

Still is better than the first half of the year, but that isn't hard to do.
 

DaBoss

Member
I kept my expectations reasonable and it pretty much met it. People were really thinking Pikmin 3 would be a gamechanger for some reason. I also think the Wii U will be sub-10K in 2 weeks.
 

plank

Member
Next weeks WiiU numbers are the first time Im actually anticipating to see how it sells, out of curiousity of how much interest the pikmin brand has these days,

I've never given a Pikmin game much thought, but after watching gameplay videos and reading impressions. it really peaked my interest.
 
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