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Media Create Sales: Week 49, 2016 (Dec 05 - Dec 11)

Super curious as to how SaGa does in the long run. Word of mouth has been really great and the overwhelming opinion across Japanese sites is "I almost didn't buy it cause it looked bad but whoops, it's a fucking great SaGa and a great RPG."
 

Alrus

Member
I.... like it?

I too was honestly wondering if you were being sarcastic with your very enthusiastic posts about Scarlet Grace lately. Pre-release it seemed the game was going to suck (it looking cheap as hell certainly didn't help). So I guess that's where the question comes from.
 

ZSaberLink

Media Create Maven
Honestly, if the SaGa game is good, that'd be great news. Wish it all the best in sales. Do these games usually get localized btw?
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
No thoughts of the Cold Steel 3 or Studio zero announcements?

Cold steel 3 being PS4 exclusive had already been thrown out there but that's going to be difficult for them, it will be interesting to see how they work with that.

As to Studio Zero I'm surprised they are ready to gear up so soon but I guess that's the benefit of being part of Sega.

To follow up on the Atlus portion of this, the point of unveiling the rough concept for the game is to hire new staff for the division, so this is probably more of a PS4/PS5 cross-gen title than anything we'll be discussing soon.
 

horuhe

Member
It will do really bad compared to Shin Uchi. Sukiyaki should be around 250k FW.

There are two important things, though. One is that it seems the game is sold-out at some stores, and even at online retailers as Rakuten or Amazon, they don't have stock. So, the other one (maybe, positive) is that the game sold better than Level-5 (or retailers) expected.

Quoting myself, new shipments for Sukiyaki are planned for December 25th and 29th, so second week drop will be huge, since sales exceeded retailer's expectations. It's sold-out at almost every store.
 
SaGa is a very intriguing mess of a series. These are games that seem to encourage free and open gameplay, but they're not designed that way. They provide a lot of room to hang yourself. If you try to go online to see how other (Japanese) players approach the games, you'll find a lot of veteran players who try to avoid all combat outside of boss fights. They're crazy and they can be unforgiving. You might find that every encounter can kill a character, inching them forward towards perma death. And you might struggle to find quest lines you can actually survive.

But sometimes crazy is fun.
 
My thoughts on CS3 being PS4-exclusive:

It is a risk, no doubt to abandon the stability of that extra audience that the Vita market delivers. However, in the same vein, I've always seen Falcom games and especially the Kiseki fanbase to be relatively hardcore fans who have been quite invested in the franchise since the early days of it being on PC, PSP or whenever.

Even though they sell well, none of the Trails games are ever sales record breakers to the point where they are sales that we can safely assume they've captured a healthy number of first-timers/casuals for the franchise.

I don't expect CS3 to sell as well as the average sales for the combined PS3/Vita SKU does for CS1/2, but I for one, expect the sales drop-off from the combined sales to only be around 15-20% leveraging on the assumption that the Kiseki audience are quite hardcore and is willing to invest in a PS4 to play the next installment, and that will be made up by sales in the rest of Asia like Taiwan/Korea that by then, will have a healthy base of PS4 install base.

Ultimately, I commend Falcom for willing to take the risk to evolve the Kiseki franchise into one that is technologically and graphically more advanced as a whole to broaden its appeal and make it more competitive globally, even at the risk of losing a portion of the market that is comfortable with it being more limited for the sake of being on platforms like the Vita.

That being said, I do hope that they will consider bringing their games to platforms like the Switch in the future. I know Falcom has largely been a close partner to PlayStation platforms in exclusivity and they have publishing partnerships in regions like Korea/Taiwan where Sony localises games for them, but it would be cool if they could maintain that and still find a way to bring it to a portable platform that PlayStation is unlikely to have in coming years.

I think a PS4 + Switch future would easily make up for whatever sales loss that not having a Vita SKU will do, since the market would realistically concentrate itself around Switch as the singular hardcore handheld platform.
 

ZSaberLink

Media Create Maven
Quoting myself, new shipments for Sukiyaki are planned for December 25th and 29th, so second week drop will be huge, since sales exceeded retailer's expectations. It's sold-out at almost every store.

So... we have in terms of positive news:

- Sukiyaki sold out b/c retailers underestimated stock (unfortunate, since it's going to miss out on some christmas sales then... at least there's New Years even if that's more for teens?)
- Saga apparently being a very good game that'll hopefully translate into good sales.
- Possibly very good legs for Super Mario Maker 3DS

Well it's nice to have some good news to talk about every once in a while :).
 

Oregano

Member
To follow up on the Atlus portion of this, the point of unveiling the rough concept for the game is to hire new staff for the division, so this is probably more of a PS4/PS5 cross-gen title than anything we'll be discussing soon.

Yeah, that makes sense as to how they were ready to announce so soon.
 

duckroll

Member
SaGa is a very intriguing mess of a series. These are games that seem to encourage free and open gameplay, but they're not designed that way. They provide a lot of room to hang yourself. If you try to go online to see how other (Japanese) players approach the games, you'll find a lot of veteran players who try to avoid all combat outside of boss fights. They're crazy and they can be unforgiving. You might find that every encounter can kill a character, inching them forward towards perma death. And you might struggle to find quest lines you can actually survive.

But sometimes crazy is fun.

I don't really think this accurately describes the majority of SaGa games, just a few of them. There are many SaGa games where you don't really have to be worried about permdeath or getting stuck. The only question is where your progression goes.

The main appeal of SaGa is that there is always a sense of discovery. The obtuse nature of the systems in how they're not clearly explained makes it interesting for people to play to see how things unfold. To me, playing a SaGa is the opposite of playing a traditionally designed JRPG or even most computer RPGs. Usually there is a very clear structure, so playing through a RPG feels like you're checking off items on a list and making sure you aren't missing anything. With SaGa the uncertainty liberates me to just wing it and accept losses, just to see where it all ends up. The only other JRPGs which make me feel like that other than FF2 and The Last Remnant, would be tri-Ace games like the first Valkyrie Profile, and the more recent Resonance of Fate. It's probably no coincidence that there is a clear inspiration in all these games from tabletop RPGs.
 

zeromcd73

Member
In regards to Sen 3's exclusivity, I just got done reading through the questions asked at Falcom's investor meeting Q&A, and it seems the move was made due to the foreign market and their increased focus on that. They even note it as a key area for profit next year.
 
In regards to Sen 3's exclusivity, I just got done reading through the questions asked at Falcom's investor meeting Q&A, and it seems the move was made due to the foreign market and their increased focus on that. They even note it as a key area for profit next year.

Sure, but what does "foreign markets" mean, in a more nuanced term?

Because for current Falcom, foreign markets pretty much translate to:

Tier-0: Japan (domestic)
Tier-1: Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong
Tier-2 : Rest of the World

Because as it is, it doesn't feel like Tier-2 markets are going to get any special treatment or anything in the same level as Tier-1 foreign markets, where it's clear the games are given pre-release access for localisation and Falcom themselves are involved in extensive marketing at those regions.
 

casiopao

Member
Going to be interesting to see how Saga fares there.^^ And whether Saga will be able to have some legs to support the title there.

I had always wanted to see whether a traditional genre with no legs(Jrpg) outside of Nintendo properties can had long long legs if it had great quality and word of mouth there.^^ This is going to be a nice thing too follow.^^
 

duckroll

Member
Going to be interesting to see how Saga fares there.^^ And whether Saga will be able to have some legs to support the title there.

I had always wanted to see whether a traditional genre with no legs(Jrpg) outside of Nintendo properties can had long long legs if it had great quality and word of mouth there.^^ This is going to be a nice thing too follow.^^

Etrian Odyssey? 32k FW -> 94k LTD
Infinite Space? 38k FW -> 71k LTD (took way too long to restock)

(Big winner coming up)

Demon's Souls? 39k FW -> 170k LTD

(Bonus)

Trails in the Sky FC PSP? 14k FW -> 114k LTD
 
Uhm
Probabile I have read wrongly the OP numbers?

There were limited Pokemon R/G/B/Y 2DS bundles earlier in the year that aren't included in those charts - I forgot why - but the sales were reported separately by Media Create. I think it's about 100k.
 

L~A

Member
Nintendo eShop Sales: Week 50, 2016 (Dec 12 - 18)

Nintendo 3DS

(N) 01. Yo-kai Watch 3: Sukiyaki (Level-5) [15.12.2016]
(=) 02. Pokémon Moon (The Pokémon Company) [18.11.2016]
(=) 03. Pokémon Sun (The Pokémon Company) [18.11.2016]
(-3) 04. Super Mario Maker for Nintendo 3DS (Nintendo) [01.12.2016]
(=) 05. Brave Dungeon (Inside System) [30.11.2016]
(+1) 06. The Battle Cats POP (Ponos) [31.5.2015]
(-3) 07. Miitopia (Nintendo) [08.12.2016]
(=) 08. Animal Crossing: New Leaf – Welcome amiibo [23.11.2016]
(+1) 09. Super Mario World (Nintendo, Virtual Console) [04.3.2016]
(N) 10. Jikkyou Powerful Pro Yakyuu Heroes (Konami) [15.12.2016]

Wii U

(N) 01. Petit Computer Big (Smile BASIC) [14.12.2016]
(-1) 02. Minecraft: Wii U Edition (Microsoft Japan) [17.12.2015]
(-1) 03. Ace of Seafood (Nussoft) [30.11.2016]
(+1) 04. Super Mario Maker (Nintendo) [10.9.2015]
(-2) 05. Discovery (Rainy Frog) [31.8.2016]
(-2) 06. Asdivine Hearts (Kemco) [13.1.2016] (on sale until December 21st)
(-1) 07. Mario Kart 8 (Nintendo) [20.5.2014]
(+2) 08. Super Mario World (Nintendo, Virtual Console) [27.4.2013]
(B) 09. Splatoon (Nintendo) [28.5.2015]
(B) 10. Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo, Virtual Console) [05.6.2013]

https://topics.nintendo.co.jp/c/article/31e286d5-c29a-11e6-9aaf-063b7ac45a6d.html
 

L~A

Member
It will do really bad compared to Shin Uchi. Sukiyaki should be around 250k FW.

There are two important things, though. One is that it seems the game is sold-out at some stores, and even at online retailers as Rakuten or Amazon, they don't have stock. So, the other one (maybe, positive) is that the game sold better than Level-5 (or retailers) expected.

I guess one of the reasons YW3 saw the drop it did was that some people were expecting the third version, and decided to skip the first two entirely.

Kinda funny that YW3S would sell out at launch, when I'm sure retailers still haven't sold everything from the first week shipment.

Are we sue 3ds will reach the 2mil mark YtD?

Yes, easily. Even without the Pokémon 2DS bundles.

Nintendo 3DS - Road to 22 million units

LTD = 21 780 183
Units left = 219 817
Weeks left = 3 weeks
Needs = 73 272 units / week.

So yeah, I think there's no more doubt now, 22 million in 2016 confirmed. If you add the 100k from the Pokémon 2DS bundles, that will be next week, most likely.
 
I don't really think this accurately describes the majority of SaGa games, just a few of them. There are many SaGa games where you don't really have to be worried about permdeath or getting stuck. The only question is where your progression goes.

The main appeal of SaGa is that there is always a sense of discovery. The obtuse nature of the systems in how they're not clearly explained makes it interesting for people to play to see how things unfold. To me, playing a SaGa is the opposite of playing a traditionally designed JRPG or even most computer RPGs. Usually there is a very clear structure, so playing through a RPG feels like you're checking off items on a list and making sure you aren't missing anything. With SaGa the uncertainty liberates me to just wing it and accept losses, just to see where it all ends up. The only other JRPGs which make me feel like that other than FF2 and The Last Remnant, would be tri-Ace games like the first Valkyrie Profile, and the more recent Resonance of Fate. It's probably no coincidence that there is a clear inspiration in all these games from tabletop RPGs.

Alright, that's fair. I guess I don't have enough experience with the series overall to make broad statements.
 

casiopao

Member
Etrian Odyssey? 32k FW -> 94k LTD
Infinite Space? 38k FW -> 71k LTD (took way too long to restock)

(Big winner coming up)

Demon's Souls? 39k FW -> 170k LTD

(Bonus)

Trails in the Sky FC PSP? 14k FW -> 114k LTD

T_T Man that Infinite Space still hurt soo bad.T_T If only Sega had some brain to quickly restock there. I remember reading in JP forum how many of the fans complaining on how difficult it is to find the game there and end up just buying the game second hand and just get the art book lol.)

Ducky.^^ Can you help me with 7th Dragon DS,PSP and 3DS number too here pliz.T_T I am wanted to see how the game does there.^^
 
Sold out again, restocking on the 25th.

Meh, bit slow on that restock. Still, just in time for next week's sales and hopefully it'll maintain a decent stock through the new year which is normally a somewhat decent period for Vita.

Glad to hear about the good impressions.
 

casiopao

Member
Not really worthwhile in this discussion. They're not very leggy. 79k->147k, 122k->161k, etc.

Ahh i see.T_T I had hoped that 7th Dragon can did well there.T_T But it really shows that DS number is soo much smaller vs PSP and 3DS number which is sad. And it shows it had zero chance of returning to the DS format.TT
 

test_account

XP-39C²
Why not use the DS game for comparison ? Miitopia isnt a Friend Collection game but a new IP, that uses Miis and elements from other titles. Friend Collection on 3DS was the successor to an established Million seller - Miitopia isnt.
Would a game be concidered as a new IP if it uses property/characters that are well known? Not that it really matters that much, but just wondering.
 

L~A

Member
Media Create:

New3DS LL 84,823
PS4 70,031
2DS 39,218
Vita 36,214
PS4 Pro 9,317
New3DS 9,149
Wii U 5,095
Xbox One 1,872
PS3 925
3DS 226
3DS LL 62

338k for Yo-kai Watch 3 Sukiyaki (17k for the Tempura/Sushi pack)
64k for Saga
26k for PawaPro 3DS
27k for Miitopia
Basically 200k for Pokémon
168k for SMM for 3DS
 

Waji

Member
I don't really get why a relatively small studio would make a japanese game a PS4 exclusive in 2017. Unless they tend to sell more in the west ? I don't know these games.
The series sells pretty well in Japan.
Maybe they think all the fans will go for the PS4 no questions asked.

I won't.
 

Alrus

Member
Good numbers overall. If reception is as good as stated here for SaGa it should have no problem selling over 100k unless Square fucks up with late shipment.
 

Datschge

Member
I don't expect CS3 to sell as well as the average sales for the combined PS3/Vita SKU does for CS1/2, but I for one, expect the sales drop-off from the combined sales to only be around 15-20% leveraging on the assumption that the Kiseki audience are quite hardcore and is willing to invest in a PS4 to play the next installment, and that will be made up by sales in the rest of Asia like Taiwan/Korea that by then, will have a healthy base of PS4 install base.
While your optimism is commendable... The sales ration from Vita to PS3/PS4 so far has been between 6:5 at best and 5:1 at worst. There is no way a PS4-only release will see a sales drop-off of only 15-20% from the previous combined sales, especially in the current circumstances of the Japanese home console market which is at its worst in several decades. Imo Falcom is lucky if cutting off the portable audience results in any less than 50% sales drop-off in the domestic market.
 
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