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Media Create Sales: Week 49, 2014 (Dec 01 - Dec 07)

So... kinda called it.

Advance tickets purchase for the Youkai Watch movie now past 1m. This is just getting crazy... then again, it's Youkai Watch.

Still 5 days until the movie comes out (Dec. 20).

It's Japan - when something is fashionable then it gets super popular fast.

Will be interesting if that popularity is long term like Pokemon or Hello Kitty or few years like previous big Level-5 games or Wii Sports/Fit.
 

zeromcd73

Member
PS4/PS3 - Jojo's Bizzare Adventure: Eye of Heaven announced. Will be a 3D fighting game this time. Release date unknown, playable at Jump Festa

PS4/PS3/XBO - Blazblue Chrono Phantasm Extend. Releasing April 23.

Edit: I'm a bit worried about how the new Jojo game will do. Everyone was looking forward to the first one so much, then it pissed everyone off and was 80~90% off a week or two later. :(
 

L~A

Member
^

Yeah, I doubt Bamco will try their F2P shenanigans thsi time around.

Actually, they seem to have slowed down with those on consoles...

Eh, just looked at the blog but I assume the guy really didn't imply YW2 Shinuchi did beat the predecessor.
(What he meant was it broke million copies, and he actually said it may not beat the previous ones).

But in fact, it did beat YW2 as not only it sold pretty much the same but:

1) in 2 days instead of 4 (therefore sales pace is much quicker)
2) it's just one version vs 2.

I hope MC will also have an early report, so we can see how it did there too.
 

duckroll

Member
Depending on how the rest of this month goes, for 2014 we could be looking at the Yokai Watch franchise having about 6 million unit sales, and the Pokemon franchise with 3 million unit sales. Pretty interesting year for Level-5. :p
 

Aostia

El Capitan Todd
Depending on how the rest of this month goes, for 2014 we could be looking at the Yokai Watch franchise having about 6 million unit sales, and the Pokemon franchise with 3 million unit sales. Pretty interesting year for Level-5. :p

L5 has a minegold in hands, but it seems that they are still managing it as they usual "seasonal" IP (something I'm not against as many knows): what buffles me is the lack of a Level 5 annual event, with the presentation of new IPs/projects to invest those YW revenues.

I also hope that they will push LBX in the West, considering how the cartoon/toy is performing in Italy at least, and that they will not waste too much time into the localization of YW in the west
 

sörine

Banned
I wonder who Hino will go with to publish YW in the west, Nintendo or Bandai Namco? Or will L5IA actually start selfpublishing outside the eShop?
 

Aostia

El Capitan Todd
sörine;143546905 said:
I wonder who Hino will go with to publish YW in the west, Nintendo or Bandai Namco? Or will L5IA actually start selfpublishing outside the eShop?

LBX was Bamco because of the heavy side of the merchanides/toys, imho.
for a "game + cartoon" probably the best way should still be Nintendo, imho.
I don't see the YW merchandise being successfull in the West (unlike LBX)
 
L5 has a minegold in hands, but it seems that they are still managing it as they usual "seasonal" IP (something I'm not against as many knows): what buffles me is the lack of a Level 5 annual event, with the presentation of new IPs/projects to invest those YW revenues.

I also hope that they will push LBX in the West, considering how the cartoon/toy is performing in Italy at least, and that they will not waste too much time into the localization of YW in the west

Is the IP having some success over there?
 

Chris1964

Sales-Age Genius
Eh, just looked at the blog but I assume the guy really didn't imply YW2 Shinuchi did beat the predecessor.
(What he meant was it broke million copies, and he actually said it may not beat the previous ones).

The game exceeded 1m preorders one week before release and opened with 1,2m sales, almost 1:1 ratio. Since this version will be even more frontloaded this is a very likely scenario.

First YW has almost stopped selling, 6k in 1 month.
 

sörine

Banned
LBX was Bamco because of the heavy side of the merchanides/toys, imho.
for a "game + cartoon" probably the best way should still be Nintendo, imho.
I don't see the YW merchandise being successfull in the West (unlike LBX)
YW with Nintendo and LBX with Bandai Namco is something I could see.
 
The game exceeded 1m preorders one week before release and opened with 1,2m sales, almost 1:1 ratio. Since this version will be even more frontloaded this is a very likely scenario.

First YW has almost stopped selling, 6k in 1 month.

Could not possibly be due to stock issues?
 

L~A

Member
Jibanyan in Heaven right now: looks like AKB48 is gonna sing the new ED for the Youkai Watch anime (if I understood the article correctly).

Well, actually it's going to be Nya-KB (or whatever it's spelled :p)
 

hiska-kun

Member
Tsutaya's Report

- As it was expected YW2 Shinuchi was the best seller of the week. Compared to Honke/Ganso together, it sold 145% of what they sold in two days.
- Next week the movie is released and the end-of-year sales war season, a new turnout is expected.
- Shining Resonance sold passable, but the surprise was GTAV HD for PS4 that sold far more than expected.
- The Dragon Quest Heroes sold with force, reaching the level to sold out.

http://mantan-web.jp/2014/12/16/20141216dog00m200023000c.html
 

L~A

Member
Weren't quantities for the DQH bundle extremely limited?

Tsutaya's Report

- Shining Resonance sold passable, but the surprise was GTAV HD for PS4 that sold far more than expected.

http://mantan-web.jp/2014/12/16/20141216dog00m200023000c.html

Since it's above both version of Pokémon (but not both together, I presume), it did quite well indeed. Now it remains to be seen whether it'll have the same sort of legs as the other two editions.

And wow @ YW2.5 +145%.
 
Anyone have any idea of the sales for Digimon on the Vita. Is it a big title sales wise?

In an case, I sure hope it is localized for the west.

Edit: So many games getting announced for PS4 from Japan. Good thing since it means they are jumping earlier than PS3 to PS4 :D
 

hiska-kun

Member
Weren't quantities for the DQH bundle extremely limited?

It's fully available in Bic Camera (yesterday). In the video I took on Saturday 13th (YW2,5 launch) you can see the bundles still available in minute 0:42. They were released on thursday.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gxsh8jXiL18

Youkai Watch 2.5 is sold out in Tsutaya Shibuya (available in Bic Camera).
AF911AE5-26CF-4086-8269-31F29219B06E_zpsnf9d9cln.jpg
 

Aostia

El Capitan Todd
Is the IP having some success over there?

Cartoon series in Italy started with good audience results; than there was some issues with the broadcaster because of the pressure from other "partner" to better expose other series. Now it is decent, but flat. Meanwhile, the toys started selling very well, considering the average price. Real distribution and tv campaign for the toys will be next Spring.

sörine;143547958 said:
YW with Nintendo and LBX with Bandai Namco is something I could see.

Could be, let's see: I only know that I want both game in (at least) English!
 

L~A

Member
It's fully available in Bic Camera (yesterday). In the video I took on Saturday 13th (YW2,5 launch) you can see the bundles still available in minute 0:42. They were released on thursday.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gxsh8jXiL18

Youkai Watch 2.5 is sold out in Tsutaya Shibuya (available in Bic Camera).
AF911AE5-26CF-4086-8269-31F29219B06E_zpsnf9d9cln.jpg

Ah, thanks for the clarification. I remember reading something about limited quantities when it was originally announced, but maybe it's another special bundle.

Curious to see sales this week then. Looks like PS4 christmas >may< not be quite as horrid as Vita's first christmas.
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
So a little bit earlier in the thread I noted Square Enix said the following in their last fiscal call:

In the current native application market, a single major hit title can strip the market share by the root. On one hand, we aim to develop a smash success, however we also intend to offer quality titles that remain in the top ranks and establish a stable portfolio comprised of games with high profit performance.

Furthermore, device specifications have improved significantly, which means we can offer a wider variety of game types. This is a favorable environment for game companies like us. The Company will utilize its expertise to develop games that no other companies could realize. Such titles will be launched starting in the second half of FY 2015/3.

We had at least one previous announcement on this front in the form of Final Fantasy Legends: The Space-Time Crystal, but now we have at least one more.

Mevius: Final Fantasy: (To be clear Sakaguchi isn't working on this.)

549006054f587wissq.jpg


It's supposedly a traditional RPG, not a remake of FF1 but something similar? A return to the roots of sorts. Kitase is producing, Nojima is writing the scenario, and the character designs are by Itahana.

Some additional details from the Sakaguchi/Kitase interview in Famitsu has been released:

- There map movement in the game will be automated, but the gameplay systems will be like a traditional FF
- He doesn't want it to feel inferior to a numbered FF game
- There will be Abilities and Jobs
- For a smartphone game, there is an unprecedented number of internal S-E developers working on this
- Many of them have worked on numbered FF games previously
- They're aiming for a smartphone game which is comparable to a console game
- The theme is "Warriors of Light"

Square Enix announced an additional new game today, but we have zero details yet: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=953083
 

Takao

Banned
I also hope that they will push LBX in the West, considering how the cartoon/toy is performing in Italy at least, and that they will not waste too much time into the localization of YW in the west

This seems to have completely flopped in the US.
 

small44

Member
Tsutaya's Report

- As it was expected YW2 Shinuchi was the best seller of the week. Compared to Honke/Ganso together, it sold 145% of what they sold in two days.
- Next week the movie is released and the end-of-year sales war season, a new turnout is expected.
- Shining Resonance sold passable, but the surprise was GTAV HD for PS4 that sold far more than expected.
- The Dragon Quest Heroes sold with force, reaching the level to sold out.

http://mantan-web.jp/2014/12/16/20141216dog00m200023000c.html
Ps4 is not dead anymore
 

mao2

Member
Tsutaya's Report

- As it was expected YW2 Shinuchi was the best seller of the week. Compared to Honke/Ganso together, it sold 145% of what they sold in two days.
- Next week the movie is released and the end-of-year sales war season, a new turnout is expected.
- Shining Resonance sold passable, but the surprise was GTAV HD for PS4 that sold far more than expected.
- The Dragon Quest Heroes sold with force, reaching the level to sold out.

http://mantan-web.jp/2014/12/16/20141216dog00m200023000c.html
Looking forward to see PS4's numbers.

If only they weren't announced for PS3 too.
Are we really still expecting exclusives when multi-platform is a norm now, especially for bigger titles? A lot of them probably wouldn't have existed on PS4 if not for the other versions.
 
So a little bit earlier in the thread I noted Square Enix said the following in their last fiscal call:



We had at least one previous announcement on this front in the form of Final Fantasy Legends: The Space-Time Crystal, but now we have at least one more.

Mevius: Final Fantasy: (To be clear Sakaguchi isn't working on this.)



Square Enix announced an additional new game today, but we have zero details yet: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=953083
Mevius sounds like another dragonesque, except instead of bejeweled or pinball or whatever it's going to be ATB.
 
Tsutaya's Report

- As it was expected YW2 Shinuchi was the best seller of the week. Compared to Honke/Ganso together, it sold 145% of what they sold in two days.
- Next week the movie is released and the end-of-year sales war season, a new turnout is expected.
- Shining Resonance sold passable, but the surprise was GTAV HD for PS4 that sold far more than expected.
- The Dragon Quest Heroes sold with force, reaching the level to sold out.

http://mantan-web.jp/2014/12/16/20141216dog00m200023000c.html

Wow can't believe this actually worked. Curious to see PS4 numbers now.
 
Cartoon series in Italy started with good audience results; than there was some issues with the broadcaster because of the pressure from other "partner" to better expose other series. Now it is decent, but flat. Meanwhile, the toys started selling very well, considering the average price. Real distribution and tv campaign for the toys will be next Spring.

So might we expect some localization announcement in Spring, then?
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Square Enix is having some more success at getting their games to stick in top grossing positions: http://www.appannie.com/apps/ios/top/japan/overall/?device=iphone (I think you have to be logged in for the most realtime numbers.)

Since a lot of these games move violently around the charts as various games hold events, I'll list out the recent peaks as well.

Revenue references for various positions: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=134788444&postcount=502

6. Final Fantasy: Record Keeper
15. Dragon Quest Monsters: Super Light (was up to 3 a few days ago) - [3 is about $1 million a day]
17. Dragon Quest V (this will be disappearing after the holidays, it's a one time purchase game)
20. Kai-ri-Sei Million Arthur (was up to 7 a few days ago)
22. Schoolgirl Strikers (was up to 13 about 3 weeks ago, went down, going back up steadily)
49. Dragon Quest X companion app (this is about where it tends to live, going up to around the mid 30's at peak and down to 55 or so at bottoming out)
64. Lost Zero (was at 41 yesterday, tends to live around here now which is a good increase from it's ~100 average earlier)
85. Sangukushi Rumble (was up to 43 a couple days ago, tends to live in the range between these two points)
100. Pictologica: Final Fantasy (varies wildly from 80 to about 260)
 

Mpl90

Two copies sold? That's not a bomb guys, stop trolling!!!
Time for some mobile analysis again. This time, Dragon Quest V. The game came out just a few days ago, so it's still young.

Situation on Android

Paid Ranking


3rd, and then 1st, as it was expected. Again: this is just the Paid Ranking, no Free Downloads are included. If Chaos Rings III gave us an outlook about how low numbers are for games being quite low in Paid Charts and Grossing Charts on Android (btw, the game still has to cross 5,000 downloads over there - major failure, what the heck went wrong with that), this time we can have a look at how something actually topping Paid Rankings actually performs.

Right now, the game is between 10,000 - 50,000 downloads. The game released on December 13th, 2014, so it's still very young. Given it's been 3rd and 1st so far, we can make an average.

First three days average - 3,333 < x < 16,667 per day.

Grossing Ranking


Going by Grossing Charts, it seems the game started pretty low (outside of top 100), went quite higher in second day and, then, another rise (even if much smaller, positions-wise), and it's currently 32nd.
Considering the game's downloads and the price (1,800 Yen), this means DQV's Grossing LTD is between 18,000,000 - 90,000,000 Yen, so

First three day Grossing average - 6,000,000 Yen < x < 30,000,000 Yen

What's the situation on iOS, instead?

iPhone
Paid Ranking - 1st since launch
Grossing - 12th -> 6th -> 6th -> 11th -> 15th -> 17th

iPad
Paid Ranking - 1st since launch
Grossing - 6th -> 5th -> 5th -> 6th -> 8th -> 8th

It seems the game had a much better Grossing debut on both iPhone and iPad and, overall, a better trend on iPad, while on iPhone now it's starting going down.

Unfortunately, though, we don't have dowload numbers for iOS, so it's difficult to get a clear idea about Grossing. But we have some datas for other games, don't we (I remember Nirolak posted them...and maybe I asked about them already, but who knows where that post is now XD ).

EDIT: Ah, there you go. I should bookmark that post, this time! *bookmarked*
By the way, are those specific iOS daily revenue or overall mobile daily revenue? Aren't some of those apps on both marketplaces?
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Isn't DQM decreasing A LOT?

Yes and no.

I present the iOS heartbeat graph:


The reason this happens is games hold "events" which encourage you to spend large sums of money. When you have about 40 titles doing this in a staggered fashion, games fly up and down in the 3-30 section of the chart and don't show as much stability as you might see elsewhere.

It is a game that doesn't have the stability you see with the absolute highest grossing titles anymore. That said it did also manage to muscle up to #1 during one of their events, which would be around $3-4 million for that day.

It's something unfortunate that makes it a bit harder to tell how something is doing since you have to average numbers that are shifting from like $1 million a day to maybe $50,000-$80,000 a day.

This is why in my revenue estimate post I included charts for pattern matching: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=134788444&postcount=502

By the way, are those specific iOS daily revenue or overall mobile daily revenue? Aren't some of those apps on both marketplaces?
Overall revenue from both. Most companies I've seen that share revenue seem to peg their translation of position to iOS though, which I realize is decidedly not helpful.

Unfortunately mobile revenue land is about as opaque as PAL charts, but at least much more consistent in spot-to-revenue positioning.

Edit:

Here's DQM on Android for comparison:

 
A what? It actually looks like Infinity Blade. Full 3D, third person view, really detailed characters and environments, etc.
Self-titled name for the loosely related "genre" of smartphone games that include P&D, Terra Battle, MA2 that include common features like stamina bars, monster gachas, social elements, etc. For lack of a better term to lump them all together.

Haven't actually seen any screenshots yet, are there any officially published ones?
 
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