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*New Monthly GAF Feature*: TOP25 A Decade Ago (May/1996)

S

Square2005

Banned
While we await the full release of May 2006 numbers let's take a look back to see the games we were buying ten years ago...:)

U.S. MAY/1996 (Excludes Portables)

Code: 
1  SNES	Super Mario RPG	             Nintendo	88,000 / NEW
2  PSX	Resident Evil	             Capcom	36,000 / 141,000
3  SNES	Donkey Kong Country 2           Nintendo	35,000 / 826,000
4  PSX	Battle Arena Toshinden 2         SCE	26,000 / NEW
5  PSX	Hardball 5	                             Infogrames	17,000 / NEW
6  PSX	Need For Speed	         Electronic Arts	16,000 / 67,000
7  GEN	NHL 96	                         Electronic Arts	16,000 / 451,000
8  PSX	NBA Shootout	             SCEA	14,000 / 50,000
9  GEN	NBA LIVE '96	         Electronic Arts	13,000 / 496,000
10 GEN	Ms. Pac-Man	             Tengen	13,000 / unknown
11 PSX	NBA LIVE '96	         Electronic Arts	13,000 / 64,000
12 SNES	Yoshi's Island	             Nintendo	12,000 / 547,000
13 GEN	Taz: Escape From Mars            SEGA	11,000 / 187,000
14 GEN	X-MEN 2	                             Capcom	10,000 / 247,000
15 SNES	NBA LIVE '96	         Electronic Arts	9,900   / 182,000
16 GEN	Vectorman	                             SEGA	9,700   / 354,000
17 GEN	Toy Story	                             Capcom	9,600   / 422,000
18 GEN	Mortal Kombat 3	             Midway	9,200   / 814,000
19 SNES	Toy Story	                             Capcom	9,100   / 150,000
20 PSX	NFL GameDay	             SCEA	8,800   / 220,000
21 GEN	Combat Cars	             Accolade	8,300   / 26,000
22 PSX	Bottom of The 9NTH	             Konami	8,300   / 28,000
23 PSX	Tekken	                             Namco	8,300   / 189,000
24 GEN	MM Power Rangers: The Movie SEGA	8,200   / 197,000
25 PSX	Twisted Metal	             SCEA	7,900   / 142,000

                PlayStation    ($299>$199)       77,000 / 810,000
                Super NES     ($129)                50,000 / unknown
                Sega Genesis ($109)                48,000 / unknown
                Sega Saturn   ($259>$199)       21,000 / 316,000

A market summary as if written ten years ago:
The Super NES continues its monthly lead over Sega Genesis, but the gap has narrowed, thanks to (of all things) an RPG. Could this be that long-awaited RPG to finally achieve mainstream success in America like RPGs have done in Japan? We'll see over the coming months.
Thanks to the recent E3 Playstation price drop, the 32-bit system's sales have passed 16-bit for the first time, almost doubling from April while Saturn's price drop had little effect
:(. And at the same time Sega is the current next gen. leader in Japan. Poor Sega, they just can't be the leader in both countries at the same time.
Overall sales are down from last year (again) as gamers either wait for next-generation
true 3-D consoles or switch to PC gaming (where 3-D gaming is already available).
Click to expand...
Feel free to write your own analysis of the market from a 1996 perspective.:)

I may create a chart for each month to go along with the new NPD nos. when they're released, if there's enough demand for it.
And I don't get in trouble.

Oh and if anyone has Famitsu figures from the same month in Japan it'd be interesting to
compare.:D
 
L

lordmrw

Member
Kind of funny to look at that NPD chart and see how little things have changed in terms of what games are in the top 20.
 
J

Jonnyram

Member
Nice.
Should we start doing this with JP charts too? It would be a bit much to do it weekly, but maybe sporadically? Scarily, ten years ago today, RE was also at no.2 in Japan!
 
T

Tarazet

Member
Wow, look how much the industry has grown. 88,000 copies for a new Mario game seems like an insanely low number.
 
J

Jiggy

Member
Wow, were sales ever evenly-spread-out back then. Surprising amount of Genesis stuff still selling while the SNES petered out, too, although obviously SMRPG compensates a lot.
 
S

soul creator

Member
lol, the PSX didn't even have the top selling software title. OBVIOUSLY it means that people are waiting to upgrade to the N64, and the PSX will be second place!

in all seriousness, I like this post idea. I have a bunch of old Next Generation magazines, so I may try to contribute something...I had some scans a while back of $59.99 PSX and Saturn games :lol
 
Guileless

Guileless

Temp Banned for Remedial Purposes
I think Mortal Kombat 3 is the only thing I bought or played in the first six months of 1996. Simpler times.
 
M

Matt_C

Member
Rlan said:
How the hell was Ms. Pac-Man in there? Super Budget title?
Click to expand...

I think it was a regular $30 kind of game. It was before Namco Collection, the Genesis version was supposedly the most accurate version of Ms. Pac-Man ever.

:lol @ the Tengen name. Ah memories of Namco's overlooked attempts at pre Playstation era US game retail.
 
S

soul creator

Member
Guileless said:
I think Mortal Kombat 3 is the only thing I bought or played in the first six months of 1996. Simpler times.
Click to expand...

heh, I remember when the was the big PSX exclusive for the first six months. And being wowed by Sophia and Toshinden

UR Not Red-E indeed!
 
Guileless

Guileless

Temp Banned for Remedial Purposes
Ouch, no Saturn games at all. I thought that the PSX-Saturn race was still interesting into early 1997, was it all over that quick?
 
M

Mrbob

Member
Do you have monthly breakdown for PSone numbers? Would be interesting to see. PS1 started off extremely slow it seems.
 
S

starship

psycho_snake's and The Black Brad Pitt's B*TCH
Nice thread, thanks for posting Square2005.
Do you have the cumulative sales for those consoles at that time?
 
S

Square2005

Banned
kia said:
Nice thread, thanks for posting Square2005.
Do you have the cumulative sales for those consoles at that time?
Click to expand...

Only 32-Bit and most of the software LTDs...
Give me a minute and I'll add them.
 
E

evilromero

Member
That was a tough year. Basically Mario RPG, MK3 (SNES) and DKC3 kept me busy until the N64 launch. It was a very hard wait. Reading Nintendo Power everyday didn't help.
 
T

The Abominable Snowman

Member
Square2005 said:
I can add LTDs if you guys would be interested.
Click to expand...
Please do!

I'd be infinitely more interested in a month-by-month chart too, akin to the one we have for post-October 2000 (Although, I argue that they need to make it a "7th and 8th generation chart" and add the Dreamcast there, for recordkeeping sake).
 
C

CountZeroInt

Banned
Cool thread - reminds me of how much PSX sucked until EOY 1997. Saturn had more incredible games off the bat, but the sales in the US were terrible obviously (the US got burned by Sega CD and 32X more than any other country, so it's no wonder everyone was leary of buying Sega consoles at that point).
 
Z

Zaphod

Member
Cool chart! I don't know why but it just seems weird to see the PSX, SNES and GEN all coexisting at the same time. Its like my memories have separated out the generational transitions much more harshly than how it actually occurred.
 
S

SatelliteOfLove

Member
Guileless said:
Ouch, no Saturn games at all. I thought that the PSX-Saturn race was still interesting into early 1997, was it all over that quick?
Click to expand...

Yeah; I remember buying VF2, Clockwork Knight 2, and Nightwarriors about this time, too (only to sell them a year later). :?
 
G

Greenpanda

Banned
And, yeah, I was shocked at how much the industry has grown. As a longtime gamer, I guess I just always assumed people *always* bought lots of games ;)

I suppose the shift away from cartridge pricing did also help to increase sales.
 
M

MiamiWesker

Member
Damn what is up with those RE numbers, whats wrong with you people, buy the game. At this rate it won't even get close to a million copies sold, boooo. ;)
 
T

TheJollyCorner

Member
oh those were the days...

the calm before the FFVII/Mario64/ZeldaOoT nuclear megatons dropped on the gaming world... :)


I actually remember Toshinden blowing me away when I first got to play it in '95. It only took a couple years to be mocked and hated beyond belief.
 
B

bluemax

Banned
And to think if a game got those kind of numbers today we'd call it bomba.

This also reminds me of how few games I was able to get my parents to purchase back then, and how I didn't make the transition from SNES to PSX/N64 :-(
 
S

soul creator

Member
gah, that list is full of sports games and licensed crap, with a few REAL games mixed in.

I think the industry's headed for a crash soon guys!
 
N

Nerevar

they call me "Man Gravy".
meltpotato said:
aka the year i became a PC gamer for a generation.
Click to expand...

I was thinking the exact same thing.


Ironically, I remember during the SNES being upset that RPGs were so popular in Japan, and sold so little in the US. Ironic that the first RPG to achieve that breakthrough success was the first RPG I played that I didn't really like (final fantasy mystic quest excluded).
 
I

Ignatz Mouse

Banned
Matt_C said:
I think it was a regular $30 kind of game. It was before Namco Collection, the Genesis version was supposedly the most accurate version of Ms. Pac-Man ever.

:lol @ the Tengen name. Ah memories of Namco's overlooked attempts at pre Playstation era US game retail.
Click to expand...

Tengen isn't Namco, it's Atari Games.

Atari Games was the half of Atari that did arcade games, and had rights to some of the old Atari licensing deals (including, apparently, Ms Pac-Man). They later reanmed Time/Warner Interactive (TW owned them since 83 or so) and then Midway bought them later on, where they still reside. Hence Midway's Atari retro collections from time to time.

Not to be confused with Atari Corp, who made the Lynx and Jaguar. They had the rights to the Atari name for home use, so Atari Games came up with Tengen. They no longer exist is any real fashion, and they sold the name to Infogrames.

Short version: Atari Games/Tengen = good games, Atari Corp/Jaguar/Lynx = bad games and at least good handheld hardware. :)
 
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