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Media Create Sales: Week 32, 2015 (Aug 03 - Aug 09)

sörine

Banned
I know this is rarely talked about but if we ever wanted to talk about handheld competition in Japan, the numbers are.... well, what they are.

I guess this is what the WiiU feels when being compared to the PS4 in the west.
Wii U is actually closer to PS4 in the west than Vita is to 3DS in Japan. Let that sink in.

The death of consoles in Japan tends to be a regulary discussed talking point everywhere but I'm surprised the similar handheld decline seems to go relatively unacknowledged. And it's not just Sony's severe collapse, Nintendo's also faced a sizable drop too.
 

L~A

Member
I know this is rarely talked about but if we ever wanted to talk about handheld competition in Japan, the numbers are.... well, what they are.

I guess this is what the WiiU feels when being compared to the PS4 in the west.

I don't think "New IPs are the key to success" would be my takeaway from Splatoon.

It's a game that:
-Entered a popular genre that Nintendo was lacking in.
-Was respectful and cognizant of what made the genre successful.
-Brought a variety of new ideas to the table that actually worked well with the genre's strengths instead of conflicting with them.
-Used a business model and support structure that was both growingly popular and well liked by fans of the genre.

It doesn't matter if a new game is branded as Zelda or Swordtopia. What matters is that the core product is actually appealing, has a clearly defined target audience, has reasons to play it instead of just buying other products, and meets or exceeds the expectations of the audience in terms of support and content.

Great post, but you forgot a point that's as important (if not more) than 1 to 4 combined...

- strong and appropriate marketing campaign both on "traditional media" (TV) and the internet.

Compared to the self-fulfilling prophecy that TW101 and Code Name S.T.E.A.M. were, Nintendo was more than ready to promote Splaton agressively, and it clearly showed in sales.
 

Busaiku

Member
Compared to the self-fulfilling prophecy that TW101 and Code Name S.T.E.A.M. were, Nintendo was more than ready to promote Splaton agressively, and it clearly showed in sales.
Can't remember the initial reaction to The Wonderful 101, but Splatoon had extremely positive reception when it was unveiled last year.
People thought it was totally fresh and looked great.
Compare that to Codename S.T.E.A.M, which makes people vomit when looking at it.
 
sörine;175146144 said:
Wii U is actually closer to PS4 in the west than Vita is to 3DS in Japan. Let that sink in.

The death of consoles in Japan tends to be a regulary discussed talking point everywhere but I'm surprised the similar handheld decline seems to go relatively unacknowledged. And it's not just Sony's severe collapse, Nintendo's also faced a sizable drop too.

It won't be when the generation is over.
 

Spiegel

Member
I know this is rarely talked about but if we ever wanted to talk about handheld competition in Japan, the numbers are.... well, what they are.

I guess this is what the WiiU feels when being compared to the PS4 in the west.

Fun fact:

It's been more than a year since Sony last published a Vita game in Japan. Published as in developed internally or partnering with a third party but owning the IP.
They have published one game since then, and it's a Microsoft IP.

Nintendo has published more than 10 3DS games since July 2014.
 

Vena

Member
I can't believe that Splatoon will outsold Super Smash Bros on Wii U.

Well, Smash3DS was pretty solid all things considered and better suited for the market. The WiiU version is really only going to sell to families, double-dippers, or competitive players with your more casual crowd being more than satisfied with the 3DS version.

Can't remember the initial reaction to The Wonderful 101, but Splatoon had extremely positive reception when it was unveiled last year.
People thought it was totally fresh and looked great.
Compare that to Codename S.T.E.A.M, which makes people vomit when looking at it.

W101 is hard to market not matter how you look at it.

But STEAM got hit with a lot of "bad" from the art style, to the associations with various voice actors at a turbulent time, to the slow pace of the gameplay, etc. It has a lot of charm as a game for what it set out to do and I think it does that well but damn if it isn't rough around the edges and missing a lot of that "Nintendo polish".
 

sense

Member
sörine;175146144 said:
Wii U is actually closer to PS4 in the west than Vita is to 3DS in Japan. Let that sink in.

The death of consoles in Japan tends to be a regulary discussed talking point everywhere but I'm surprised the similar handheld decline seems to go relatively unacknowledged. And it's not just Sony's severe collapse, Nintendo's also faced a sizable drop too.
Well vita came a year after 3ds and wii u came a year before ps4 didn't it?
 
Fun fact:

It been more than a year since Sony last published a Vita game in Japan. Published as in developed internally or partnering with a third party but owning the IP.
They have published one game since then, and it's a Microsoft IP.

Nintendo has published more than 10 3DS games since July 2014.

Tableflip. Fine, don't dump multimillion dollars on a budget, but something south of $5m. Look at all these low selling Vita titles that make a profit. Go for those budgets one existing or new IPs. I know different economies of scale make it nearly impossible for Sony to do that, but still.

*sigh* Well 3rd party Japan is keeping Vita alive and the amazing localization companies are keeping me supplied with games.
 
The continued notion that promotion is as important as all other aspects of marketing combined is bizarre. It is not. It is important, and all the better when effectively creative. But it will not turn a bad product with no discernible target market segment and/or insufficient competitive differentiation magically into a success.
 

Davey Cakes

Member
The continued notion that promotion is as important as all other aspects of marketing combined is bizarre. It is not. It is important, and all the better when effectively creative. But it will not turn a bad product with no discernible target market segment and/or insufficient competitive differentiation magically into a success.
I can agree with this. Splatoon is just a perfect storm of all the right elements.
 
Splatoon is now consistently outselling Mario Kart 8, which on top of being a well-received entry in a staple gaming franchise also enjoyed a campaign with deals on other games. Granted, the Wii U has grown since then, but damn.

Spla2n is a lock.
 

Regiruler

Member
Splatoon has nearly outsold the combined total of Bayonetta 2, Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, Kirby and the Rainbow Curse, The Wonderful 101, Xenoblade Chronicles X and Yoshi's Woolly World.
To be fair to xcx, that hasn't gotten an international release yet.

You could probably fit in some other titles too.
But STEAM got hit with a lot of "bad" from the art style, to the associations with various voice actors at a turbulent time, to the slow pace of the gameplay, etc. It has a lot of charm as a game for what it set out to do and I think it does that well but damn if it isn't rough around the edges and missing a lot of that "Nintendo polish".
That tells me you haven't played it. A game can be polished in things outside of primary graphics.

Pay attention to the user interface and menus, for one. Absolutely insane level of detail, even trumps sakurai's best.
 

Xbro

Member
The continued notion that promotion is as important as all other aspects of marketing combined is bizarre. It is not. It is important, and all the better when effectively creative. But it will not turn a bad product with no discernible target market segment and/or insufficient competitive differentiation magically into a success.

I can agree with this. Splatoon is just a perfect storm of all the right elements.

I've been saying this for a while now. It's easy to market something like Splatoon, but how on earth do you market W101 or STEAM?
 

Mory Dunz

Member
I've been saying this for a while now. It's easy to market something like Splatoon, but how on earth do you market W101 or STEAM?

Show the cartoony style in a cutscnee made only for the commercial and don't show any game play. ;)
Like an mmo or moba.
 

Shikamaru Ninja

任天堂 の 忍者
Nintendo multiplayer has always had a huge impact on domestic and international sales. It's the difference in why Splatoon as an original IP has trounced over Pikmin and even spin-offs like Luigi's Mansion and Captain Toad in Japan.

It's why Mario Kart and Smash Bros. will always be relevant.
 

sörine

Banned
Pikmin would be a good fit for following an online multi/service dlc model. Competive rts are huge but never really have been in Japan before (like competitive shooters pre-Splatoon).
 

Aostia

El Capitan Todd
In the shrinking environment the dedicated market is facing in japan certainly there are positive things going on for both nintendo and Sony. In fact 3ds is doing well now and great as a whole, achhd and splatoon are great projects and wii u at least saw a positive trend recently. On the other hand PS4 is stable at a good pace without software and vita was able to exit decently the death status it was facing in its early moments and these two factors are leading various multiplatform releases to the ps environment
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Well, I'd dare to say the fact it was a brand new IP and not related to already-existing IPs helped, since it gave developers much more freedom to implement ideas and features, without restraints coming from the necessity of working with a known quantity and needing to respect specific conditions for that quantity.

Also, this makes me wonder what could be the next genre Nintendo will try to hit with its own take. We had Pikmin back in 2001 (RTS), Splatoon now (Shooter)...MOBA, maybe?

I feel it's ultimately about the mindset though. Mario Kart is an incredibly different game from the platforming Mario series, and Smash actually finds a lot of strength within the IPs it uses. Obviously both Splatoon and Pikmin have a lot of identity tied to the new character concepts they came up with.

The key thing is to do whatever makes the most sense for the game, regardless of the IP you're using. If that means using a new IP, then that's the right choice, but to me the distinction ultimately comes down to what the developers find themselves willing to do as opposed to what category the IP fits into. To use some other companies, Hearthstone (and WoW before it) and Tribes are very different than their parent IPs.

I don't personally care either way, but it's just a distinction I like to raise between making a new IP (which might not have good and/or new ideas at all) and making a fundamentally sound product with new ideas.

For genre expansion, a Nintendo-ized MOBA strikes me as an incredibly appropriate fit. There's a lot of expanded-view entries in the MOBA genre right now (Awesomenauts, Monday Night Combat 1, Battleborn, Gigantic) and I feel there's a ton of room to make something that isn't an RTS camera game to get the genre working on consoles.

Great post, but you forgot a point that's as important (if not more) than 1 to 4 combined...

- strong and appropriate marketing campaign both on "traditional media" (TV) and the internet.

Compared to the self-fulfilling prophecy that TW101 and Code Name S.T.E.A.M. were, Nintendo was more than ready to promote Splaton agressively, and it clearly showed in sales.
These don't strike me as products that would have succeeded even with $100 million marketing budgets.

They failed the front end marketing (figuring out a target demographic, making sure there was a sufficiently sized audience that wanted the product, and asserting strong reasons why you'd buy the product instead of just getting a different game before actually making it), so the tail end marketing (advertising and promotion) wasn't going to work regardless of investment.
 

Davey Cakes

Member
I've been saying this for a while now. It's easy to market something like Splatoon, but how on earth do you market W101 or STEAM?
I hate to say it but even as a hardcore Nintendo fan I saw ZERO appeal in Codename: STEAM since the second I saw it.

Just a swing and a miss by Nintendo on that one.
 

Vena

Member
That tells me you haven't played it. A game can be polished in things outside of primary graphics.

Pay attention to the user interface and menus, for one. Absolutely insane level of detail, even trumps sakurai's best.

Uhhh... no, I played it. I am not talking about graphics, I am talking about gameplay and design. (I actually like the aesthetic and style they went for with STEAM.)

They can have attention to detail and still leave in glaring faults in the overall design elements of the game, gameplay, and encounter design.

In the shrinking environment the dedicated market is facing in japan certainly there are positive things going on for both nintendo and Sony. In fact 3ds is doing well now and great as a whole, achhd and splatoon are great projects and wii u at least saw a positive trend recently. On the other hand PS4 is stable at a good pace without software and vita was able to exit decently the death status it was facing in its early moments and these two factors are leading various multiplatform releases to the ps environment

The PSVita is falling towards sub-10k, it hasn't avoided death at all. If anything, its slipping that way at a regular and sustained pace...
 

casiopao

Member
Animal Crossing is truly one hell of a beast there.^_^ A spin off and it sold tons of New3DS+Amiibo card+ 700k now? Not to mention it also had the possibility to chain improve other Nintendo staple title into selling more.

Even when 3DS is truly close to its end, It is still going to go out with a bang.^_^
 

sörine

Banned
Yoshi's just selling like a 2D platformer on Wii U. Luigi, DKC and Kirby all did similarly, I still don't understand why this was the genre Nintendo decided to flood on the system.
 
Animal Crossing is truly one hell of a beast there.^_^ A spin off and it sold tons of New3DS+Amiibo card+ 700k now? Not to mention it also had the possibility to chain improve other Nintendo staple title into selling more.

Even when 3DS is truly close to its end, It is still going to go out with a bang.^_^

Please anticipate Monster Hunter Stories, Yo-kai Watch 3 and more in 2016. ^_^
 

Alrus

Member
So I was wondering, is DKCR : TF one of the biggest drop in sames ever for a direct sequel? Going from next to a million copies sold to barely over 100k is quite "impressive" :(

Is there any other examples ?
 

Davey Cakes

Member
Maybe it's just Japan, or maybe it's everywhere.

Something tells me that games like Yoshi's Woolly World just don't have a strong market right now. It might be a good game, with beautiful aesthetics but it's still a 2D Nintendo mascot platformer. People need a break from those types of games for a while, maybe even a couple of years.

Nintendo needs a few more Splatoon-caliber new (or revived) properties.
 

casiopao

Member
Please anticipate Monster Hunter Stories, Yo-kai Watch 3 and more in 2016. ^_^

........ how can u forget DQ 11 there Sammy.T_T Are u monster??? lol.^_^

I also had some crazy feeling that we had chances of seeing some crazy Smartphone title ported to 3DS again lol. Maybe Grandblue Fantasy??? Well, lets see whats going to happen in the future here.^_^
 

trixx

Member
Splatoon is probably going to be the second highest selling wii u game in Japan. I think it's for sure going to out sell Smash Bros, which is like #4 on the list.

I wonder how its doing worldwide.
 

test_account

XP-39C²
Really good Splatoon sales, indeed.


Ah yeah, I guess a whole bunch of the Wii/DS games targeted at the very casual crowd have experienced such drops too. Wii Fit, Brain Training, and I guess Wii Sport if you count Wii Sports Club as a sequel.
Brain Training is probably the biggest. 'Brain Training 2' sold about 5 million copies, while 'Brain Age: Concentration Training' last update is at about 274k. Or if the Wii game is counted as a direct sequel instead, then that sold about 324k.

'Brain Age: Concentration Training' actually sold more than i thought. I was under the impression that it sold around 100k in total or so. I guess its because of its ~40k opening or something, but it kept selling for a while.
 

sense

Member
I am so glad ps4 is a huge success worldwide because if not, that really could have been the end of home console games from Japan
 
The PSVita is falling towards sub-10k, it hasn't avoided death at all. If anything, its slipping that way at a regular and sustained pace...

I'd guess he is referring to late 2012 threads when the console was selling 4-6k a week and people thought discontinuation was coming.

Vita is by no means successful but seems to have carved out a niche which will at least sustain it for a 5+ year profitable lifespan.
 

Aostia

El Capitan Todd
I'd guess he is referring to late 2012 threads when the console was selling 4-6k a week and people thought discontinuation was coming.

Vita is by no means successful but seems to have carved out a niche which will at least sustain it for a 5+ year profitable lifespan.


Exactly, Thank you!
 

Ōkami

Member
01./01. [3DS] Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer # <ETC> (Nintendo) {2015.07.30} (¥4.320) - 196.797 / 713.178
02./02. [3DS] Yo-Kai Watch Busters: Red Cat Team / White Dog Squad <ACT> (Level 5) {2015.07.11} (¥4.968) - 79.034 / 1.219.460
03./04. [WIU] Splatoon <ACT> (Nintendo) {2015.05.28} (¥6.156) - 37.633 / 554.118
04./05. [3DS] Rhythm Heaven: The Best+ <ACT> (Nintendo) {2015.06.11} (¥5.076) - 20.815 / 405.390
05./00. [PSV] Luminous Arc: Infinity <SLG> (Marvelous) {2015.08.06} (¥7.344) - 16.775 / NEW
06./12. [WIU] Mario Kart 8 # <RCE> (Nintendo) {2014.05.29} (¥6.156) - 7.946 / 1.090.030
07./11. [PSV] Minecraft: PlayStation Vita Edition <ADV> (Sony Computer Entertainment) {2015.03.19} (¥2.592) - 7.688 / 266.811
08./08. [3DS] Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright / Conquest <SLG> (Nintendo) {2015.06.25} (¥5.076) - 7.447 / 510.283
09./00. [PSV] Gal Gun: Double Peace # <ACT> (Alchemist) {2015.08.06} (¥7.344) - 6.908 / NEW
10./06. [PS3] Sengoku Basara 4: Sumeragi # <ACT> (Capcom) {2015.07.23} (¥6.469) - 6.732 / 66.892
11./03. [PSV] IA/VT: Colorful # <ACT> (Marvelous) {2015.07.30} (¥5.184) - 5.809 / 35.823
12./07. [WIU] Yoshi's Woolly World # <ACT> (Nintendo) {2015.07.16} (¥6.156) - 5.421 / 61.636
13./17. [3DS] Animal Crossing: New Leaf # <ETC> (Nintendo) {2012.11.08} (¥4.800) - 5.408 / 4.382.089
14./18. [3DS] Pokemon Omega Ruby / Alpha Sapphire <RPG> (Pokemon Co.) {2014.11.21} (¥4.937) - 5.352 / 2.854.894
15./00. [PS4] Gal Gun: Double Peace # <ACT> (Alchemist) {2015.08.06} (¥8.424) - 4.926 / NEW
16./15. [PSV] Taiko no Tatsujin: V Version <ACT> (Bandai Namco Games) {2015.07.09} (¥6.145) - 4.838 / 73.136
17./20. [3DS] Super Run For Money Tousouchuu Atsumare! Saikyou no Tousou Monotachi <ACT> (Bandai Namco Games) {2015.07.09} (¥5.119) - 4.737 / 40.384
18./00. [3DS] Nobunaga's Ambition 2 # <SLG> (Koei Tecmo) {2015.08.06} (¥5.184) - 4.443 / NEW
19./19. [3DS] Great Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Naruhodou Ryuunosuke no Bouken # <ADV> (Capcom) {2015.07.09} (¥6.264) - 4.107 / 177.212
20./00. [3DS] Romance of the Three Kingdoms 2 <SLG> (Koei Tecmo) {2015.08.06} (¥5.184) - 3.567 / NEW
21./16. [PS4] Batman: Arkham Knight <ADV> (Warner Entertainment Japan) {2015.07.16} (¥8.208) - 3.436 / 72.035
22./13. [PS4] Sengoku Basara 4: Sumeragi # <ACT> (Capcom) {2015.07.23} (¥7.549) - 3.346 / 35.084
23./27. [3DS] Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS <FTG> (Nintendo) {2014.09.13} (¥5.616) - 3.318 / 2.361.009
24./26. [3DS] Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate [1/1][Best Price!] <ACT> (Capcom) {2015.07.30} (¥3.769) - 3.293 / 6.716
25./23. [PSV] Makai Shin Trillion # <RPG> (Compile Heart) {2015.07.23} (¥7.344) - 2.819 / 24.160
26./??. [3DS] Dragon Ball Z: Extreme Butoden <FTG> (Bandai Namco Games) {2015.06.11} (¥6.145) - 2.702 / 120.952
27./30. [3DS] Style Savvy 3: Kira Kira Coord <ETC> (Nintendo) {2015.04.16} (¥5.076) - 2.616 / 182.550
28./??. [3DS] Puzzle & Dragons: Super Mario Bros. Edition <RPG> (GungHo Online Entertainment) {2015.04.29} (¥4.320) - 2.475 / 301.038
29./??. [3DS] Mario Kart 7 <RCE> (Nintendo) {2011.12.01} (¥4.800) - 2.134 / 2.432.550
30./??. [WIU] Super Smash Bros. for Wii U # <FTG> (Nintendo) {2014.12.06} (¥7.776) - 2.055 / 667.191

Top 30

3DS - 16
PSV - 6
WIU - 4
PS4 - 3
PS3 - 1
XB1 - 0

HARDWARE
Code:
+-------+------------+------------+------------+------------+------------+-------------+
|System | This Week  | Last Week  | Last Year  |     YTD    |  Last YTD  |     LTD     |
+-------+------------+------------+------------+------------+------------+-------------+
| 3DS # |     36.006 |     51.171 |     41.911 |  1.128.546 |  1.330.803 |  18.975.602 |
|  WIU  |     14.214 |     12.589 |     11.266 |    348.879 |    343.553 |   2.472.162 |
|  PS4  |     13.104 |     13.192 |      5.030 |    631.391 |    648.942 |   1.556.961 |
| PSV # |     11.564 |     12.847 |     19.553 |    575.241 |    789.554 |   3.998.316 |
|  PS3  |      2.205 |      2.120 |      6.138 |    149.108 |    342.748 |  10.167.642 |
|  XB1  |        337 |        120 |            |     11.402 |            |      57.360 |
+-------+------------+------------+------------+------------+------------+-------------+
|  ALL  |     77.430 |     92.039 |     84.266 |  2.844.567 |  3.551.214 |  37.228.043 |
+-------+------------+------------+------------+------------+------------+-------------+
 

sörine

Banned
I am so glad ps4 is a huge success worldwide because if not, that really could have been the end of home console games from Japan
We should probably wait to see how Japanese publishers' PS4 sales pan out worldwide before giving the all clear, there's still plenty of room for things to south. Right now the most successful Japanese made games (in both Japan and the west) are all still on Wii U.
 

sörine

Banned
........ how can u forget DQ 11 there Sammy.T_T Are u monster??? lol.^_^

I also had some crazy feeling that we had chances of seeing some crazy Smartphone title ported to 3DS again lol. Maybe Grandblue Fantasy??? Well, lets see whats going to happen in the future here.^_^
Terra Battle!
 
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