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Media Create Sales: Week 8, 2013 (Feb 18 - Feb 24)

Terrell

Member
I think the company is generally hesitant because of the problems they had with Retro early on, and NST as well for that matter. In general they do not buy studios up, western or otherwise, Monolith being the exception of course. I'm not sure what the reason is for that, perhaps they prefer to hire on an individual basis rather than taking on the baggage of a full team.

It's not a matter of not buying studios, they just have a very simple criteria now: keep the talent on-board and ensure the talent is happy being under Nintendo's umbrella.

Monolith met this criteria and thus were bought in full. Nothing saying that it can't happen again, but in the West, something like that is near impossible.

Well if you remember, Nintendo acquired a large stake (top 10 shareholders) of Bandai. When Namco and Bandai merged, Nintendo never actually sold their shares.

To this day, Nintendo STILL HAS millions of Namco Bandai shares they never sold off. Because of this, I wonder if Namco Bandai approached Nintendo and unloaded Monolith Soft to them for an immensely cheap price, in return for perks, like Monolith working with Banpresto to create strategy games....maybe a reduction in royalties as well?

Regardless, Nintendo purchasing Monolith Soft really was a special case fueled by unique circumstances (although the purchase has significantly benefited Nintendo creatively).

The circumstances weren't that unique, and your conjecture is (from what I recall) the opposite of what was happening.

As the story goes, Tetsuya Takahashi and Iwata are actually REALLY good friends, Takahashi ASKED Iwata about the possibility of working under Nintendo's banner and Bandai Namco released controlling shares of Monolith to Nintendo for an undisclosed price.

At that time, Bandai Namco still held stake in Monolith Soft (hence them making games published by Bandai Namco, likely part of the share sale agreement), all the way up until 2011, when Bandai Namco sold the remainder to Nintendo. After 2011, Monolith Soft has made no games for another publisher.


Iwata has a LOT of close friends in Japan. This is likely not the last we have seen of a developer buyout.

New Super Mario Bros U wasn't a big title? Sold gangbusters on the Wii. Literally insane numbers. The Wii U version was a huge flop in comparison.

If that game can't generate sales, I seriously doubt some quality "core" games will. Wii never did well on the back of those titles anyways.

As others have said, every previous NSMB release had been mid-generation. It doesn't sell systems, it's an easy sell to an existing userbase.
 

serplux

Member
I'm curious to see if Nintendo has anything substantial planned for the Fatal Frame series they now own. I was a bit shocked that they decided to pick it up, honestly.
 
They already said back in January Direct that they ain't doing anything for Jan, Feb and most of March, so the low sales were expected.

Nintendo put out their projections for the year and these sales were certainly not expected based on those projections. They looked at the November and December sales and thought they would be able to sustain themselves for a few months before the reality set in.

Good to see next level might have a sustained relationship with Nintendo. Nintendo should many many more of these types of western relationships though. And they should not all be focused on making Nintendo IPs that Nintendo doesn't have the staff to make.
 

AzaK

Member
I don't mean that they should do this tomorrow, but let's say they set a timeline of 10 years, that would be about 400 people worldwide each year, which isn't super explosion growth.

Even if we lower that to 3000 over 10 years, that's 300 more a year, which would still make a notable impact in the shorter term in combination with things like partnerships.


Yeah, I think hiring internationally, or at minimum Japanese people who makes games that are different than what they currently make, would be a good idea.

Retro, Intelligent Systems, and Monolith add both support for their core products as well as producing content that is not typical of the company's overall image, so I feel setting up more studios like that would help.

They seem extremely reticent to hire much outside Japan but they need to. Become more international, build teams with Western tastes but guide them with Nintendo flair. I guarantee if Nintendo did a core FPS type of game it'd be something fresh in some way.

Keep doing the casual and flagship titles but broaden. There's a lot of genres/styles left untapped by Nintendo.
 
They seem extremely reticent to hire much outside Japan but they need to. Become more international, build teams with Western tastes but guide them with Nintendo flair. I guarantee if Nintendo did a core FPS type of game it'd be something fresh in some way.

Keep doing the casual and flagship titles but broaden. There's a lot of genres/styles left untapped by Nintendo.

The day Nintendo sells out to the COD gamer is the day they die in a lot of gamers' hearts lol. I'm glad they're staying the fuck away from that genre. We have enough Western FPSs to last us a lifetime.
 
As others have said, every previous NSMB release had been mid-generation. It doesn't sell systems, it's an easy sell to an existing userbase.
I'm not sure why everyone is saying this now as if it was plainly obvious and they've been saying it all along.

I was lambasted for suggesting as such just 4 weeks ago.

The question now becomes:-
1) are there any singular titles that will significantly move systems; rather than being a title that people who buy the system consolidate towards
or in lieu of that...
2) will the collective titles be enough to move systems.
 

serplux

Member
The day Nintendo sells out to the COD gamer is the day they die in a lot of gamers' hearts lol. I'm glad they're staying the fuck away from that genre. We have enough Western FPSs to last us a lifetime.

If Nintendo ever does an FPS, it will be an amazing game yet still have that Nintendo charm with it, I'm sure of that. But I think they're going to tap into the RPG/action-adventure game genre moreso than an FPS for the foreseeable future.
 

perorist

Unconfirmed Member
They seem extremely reticent to hire much outside Japan but they need to. Become more international, build teams with Western tastes but guide them with Nintendo flair. I guarantee if Nintendo did a core FPS type of game it'd be something fresh in some way.

Keep doing the casual and flagship titles but broaden. There's a lot of genres/styles left untapped by Nintendo.
Doesn't Metroid Prime count? That worked out pretty well.
 

zroid

Banned
I'm not sure why everyone is saying this now as if it was plainly obvious and they've been saying it all along.

I was lambasted for suggesting as such just 4 weeks ago.

When a pair of games sell upwards of 55 million copies globally, it's generally illogical to bet against them being popular enough to sell people the systems they're on. I think the folks who expected it to not be a system-seller were betting more with their hearts than their heads; it just happened they were right this time.

The NSMB phenomenon was a strange one.
 
When a pair of games sell upwards of 55 million copies globally, it's generally illogical to bet against them being popular enough to sell people the systems they're on. I think the folks who expected it to not be a system-seller were betting more with their hearts than their heads; it just happened they were right this time.

The NSMB phenomenon was a strange one.
Prior to the release of the Wii U my bets were hedged - I thought it could potentially move systems. But at the same time thought it was unclear how much it had simply sold to the userbase of the system (Wii) vs. how much it had sold the system to the potential userbase.

After the launch though it became more clear.

But some people were still adamant it was a "system seller" rather than just a title that people were gravitating towards as they bought the system. Despite that systems really weren't selling that well.

That is not to say it isn't a potential reason for people to buy the system, nor that the system sales wouldn't be even worse without it. But in my mind a "system seller" should be able to spur significant sales, otherwise every game is essentially a system seller.
 

rockx4

Member
I'm starting to wonder if Nintendo really has a third party Direct coming. Would also be nice to get some info on the upcoming patches too.
 

Hsieh

Member
Goldeneye was extremely innovative and fresh when it came out. In retrospect, it's mind boggling that such an influential first person shooter came out of one of Nintendo's western studios. In fact, the N64 completely dominated its generation against the Saturn and PSX when it came to FPS games both in terms of Rare's Goldeneye and Perfect Dark, but even third party games like Turok. Nintendo has had one of it's studios make a popular FPS before, but it's hard to imagine the modern day Nintendo ever making a game like that.
 

AzaK

Member
The day Nintendo sells out to the COD gamer is the day they die in a lot of gamers' hearts lol. I'm glad they're staying the fuck away from that genre. We have enough Western FPSs to last us a lifetime.

I hear ya, but I include most first person games released this gen as FPS as they all have tonnes of shooting.
 

Afrit

Member
6a3bdfae.jpg

People are lining up for something...

 

deviljho

Member
Yes Wii U, I actually can't think of any third party games outside of old ports that they could announce.

It's almost at the point where the availability of any third party game becomes something that is worth an "announcement."

It's still very early, and I don't mind sitting back and waiting to see what they'll do. But they have, as of now, done next to nothing to explain how the system will be supported with a wide library of software over the next two years.
 
Animal Crossing, Monster Hunter, Pokemon- Japan (edit: I'm no expert on Japanese tastes. These are just 3 games I see bump hardware sales in a huge way when they release. There's probably more.

Funny to see how, some weeks before its launch, no one thought Animal Crossing would have sold so much, let alone move hardware. All peopoe were saying "look at NSMB2! look at BT! No way AC will replicate DS craziness!"; neither Nintendo was expecting so much, reports of the first shipment were 200k units. Result? It's one of the fastest selling games ever in Japan, and it's moving hardware FOUR months after the launch. Just saying.
 

?oe?oe

Member
New Super Mario Bros U wasn't a big title? Sold gangbusters on the Wii. Literally insane numbers. The Wii U version was a huge flop in comparison.

If that game can't generate sales, I seriously doubt some quality "core" games will. Wii never did well on the back of those titles anyways.
No one buys a console for one game only.
 

Bruno MB

Member
I couldn't disagree more about previous New Super Mario Bros. (NDS and Wii) titles not being system sellers. That's pure revisionism.
 

AzaK

Member
Yes Wii U, I actually can't think of any third party games outside of old ports that they could announce.
I have zero faith in Nintendo to deliver anything of significance anymore.

No one buys a console for one game only.
I used to for Zelda. But after the shafting I got on Wii overall and this atrocious Wii U launch and zero third party support of any real calibre I'm not going to be suckered in again.
 

Labadal

Member
Quickly browsing gaf at work. When can we get Vita retailer reports? Not talking numbers here, just if they feel it sold well at different places.
 
I couldn't disagree more about previous New Super Mario Bros. (NDS and Wii) titles not being system sellers. That's pure revisionism.

Someone said that? lol
NSMB helped DS in being so popular in the West, and NSMB Wii revived Wii in late 2009. I mean, titles that sell above 25mln units are system sellers.
 

ramparter

Banned
OMG I hadnt noticed 3DS had surpassed 10M in Japan, it's closing on the Wii. Fastest selling hardware to date in the region?
 
Funny to see how, some weeks before its launch, no one thought Animal Crossing would have sold so much, let alone move hardware. All peopoe were saying "look at NSMB2! look at BT! No way AC will replicate DS craziness!"; neither Nintendo was expecting so much, reports of the first shipment were 200k units. Result? It's one of the fastest selling games ever in Japan, and it's moving hardware FOUR months after the launch. Just saying.

I don't remember anyone really saying that about AC. You keep bringing this up but i'd like to see the threads where people were saying that cause i sure don't remember it.
 

perorist

Unconfirmed Member
Japanese twitter trend search is showing that Senran Kagura SV is sold out everywhere lol. Probably a low initial print game, but it seems like games like this and monpiece may send a message to developers as to what sells on vita in Japan.
 
The fastest selling system to cross 10 million mark in Japan was NDS (89 weeks).

fam

Given the drastic industry shift in favor of mobile gaming that occurred between the DS cycle and the 3DS cycle, it's impressive how close the 3DS is tracking to DS. The strategy isn't working quite as well in the Americas but the system is still selling adequately.
 
I don't remember anyone really saying that about AC. You keep bringing this up but i'd like to see the threads where people were saying that cause i sure don't remember it.

Just look at the predictions about AC sales by Gaf posters, that were made after we had some signs of a possible bigger success. Now I don't have the graph here, but the guy who usually organizes the bets does, and he posted last week I think.

No one, I repeat, no one was expecting AC to have such a big success.
 

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.
I paid £175 for a Gamecube just to play Resident Evil 4. I bought no other games for it.

How? Gamecube had already reached its bomba bin £79.99 price in 2003, and RE4 was released in 2005. Did you buy a console 3-4 years in advance and then not buy any games at all for it until RE4? If so I hope WE LEARNED A LESSON, YOUNG MAN.
 
How? Gamecube had already reached its bomba bin £79.99 price in 2003, and RE4 was released in 2005. Did you buy a console 3-4 years in advance and then not buy any games at all for it until RE4? If so I hope WE LEARNED A LESSON, YOUNG MAN.

Yeah I think I had bought it a year or so before the release. I had lots of money back then.

And I didn't learn the lesson, I bought a PS3 for £425 :(

You must have been thrilled when they announced the PS2 version they said wasn't going to happen.

I still wanted the Gamecube version, much better controller.
 
I got 3 people to buy the gamecube for just one game. Two of them bought the system just for Super Monkey Ball 2, and another friend bought one just for Animal Crossing. I was the ultimate Nintendo proselytizer back in teh day
 
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