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A Look at Japanese Game Sales on Steam - Oct 2016 edition [Steamspy figures]

R

Rodney McKay

Member
Primethius said:
Holy shit, DQ Heroes sold on Steam WW what it sold on PS4 in NA.

Jeez, SE just won't be able to make DQ or any of it's spin offs a success anytime soon.
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I'll buy it once they put it on sale. $60 is just too much for another Muso, especially since I have most of Hyrule Warriors left to play.

I'm surprised it hasn't been on sale yet, to be honest, hopefully it will during the next holiday sale.
 
K

kewlmyc

Member
Despite not liking Tales of Zestiria, I'm glad that it did well on PC. I'd love all future and even some past Tales of games to make their way to PC. We already have Tales of Berseria coming which is great.
 
G

GhostTrick

Banned
SapphiCine said:
Some of those numbers are a real downer. Explains why small Japanese publishers aren't rushing to Steam. Is Carpe Fulger dead?
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Isn't the opposite happening though ?


mothball said:
Good numbers to reference the next time a small Japanese game is announced for Vita/PS4 and the inevitable port begging follows "so it can reach a wider audience".
Click to expand...

Which... Is exactly what happens. The sales colpares favorably to their PS4/PSV counterpart in most cases. At a higher revenue split though.
 
N

novabolt

Member
bobbytkc said:
The numbers doesn't seem very impressive, but I am sure the extra sales are great for the developers.
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Because they aren't, the person who created this thread is adapting the data for their own reasons. The extra sales are good and I'm happy that J developers are seeing Steam as a good platform to put stuff on.
 
L

Lord of Ostia

Member
GhostTrick said:
Isn't the opposite happening though ?




Which... Is exactly what happens. The sales colpares favorably to their PS4/PSV counterpart in most cases. At a higher revenue split though.
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Kind of depends on the franchise though, doesn't it? Sure Danganronpa did well, but those are games with fully-voiced English cast, and one of the most well known VN series to western audiences. Short of Ace Attorney, what is a more well known VN? Same could be said for stuff like Disgaea, that franchise is a known quantity and consistently popular. What about the more niche games that are selling sub 5000 copies? I would love to see more Japanese games come to PC, and overall I agree that Steam can be a great boon to them, but there is clearly a visibility problem for many of these titles.
 
D

Dusk Golem

A 21st Century Rockefeller
While it makes sense to use the lowball estimates for sales, keep in mind most these games sold higher than the numbers posted here. Usually SteamSpy's lowball estimation is really lowballing it, from my own experience and talking to other devs.

bobbytkc said:
The numbers doesn't seem very impressive, but I am sure the extra sales are great for the developers.
Click to expand...

Keep something in mind: How Japan works, they don't need to meet international game sale numbers to be a success. Here were the 20 top selling games in Japan in September:

[PS4] Persona 5 (Atlus, 09/15/16) – 264,793 (New)
[PS3] Persona 5 (Atlus, 09/15/16) – 72,794 (New)
[PS4] Pro Evolution Soccer 2017 (Konami, 09/15/16) – 66,037 (New)
[PS3] Pro Evolution Soccer 2017 (Konami, 09/15/16) – 34,502 (New)
[3DS] Yo-kai Watch 3: Sushi / Tempura (Level-5, 07/16/16) – 19,726 (1,224,376 total sales)
[3DS] Dragon Ball Fusions (Bandai Namco, 08/04/16) – 7,220 (159,638 total sales)
[Wii U] Minecraft: Wii U Edition (Mojang, 06/23/16) – 7,168 (121,795 total sales)
[3DS] Chou Sentouchuu: Kyuukyoku no Shinobu to Battle Player Choujou Kessen (Bandai Namco, 09/15/16) – 5,782 (New)
[3DS] Puzzle & Dragons X: Kami no Shou / Ryuu no Shou (GungHo Online Entertainment, 07/28/16) – 5,782 (174,953 total sales)
[PS4] BioShock: The Collection (2K Games, 09/15/16) – 5,544 (New)
[3DS] Kirby: Planet Robobot (Nintendo, 04/29/16) – 5,387 (433,736 total sales)
[PSV] Minecraft: PlayStation Vita Edition (SIE, 03/19/15) – 4,986 (874,366 total sales)
[3DS] Pokemon Omega Ruby / Alpha Sapphire (Pokemon, 11/21/14) – 5,082 (2,889,923 total sales)
[PS4] The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Game of the Year Edition (Spike Chunsoft, 09/01/16) – 4,188 (21,911 total sales)
[PS4] Grand Theft Auto V (Low Price Version) (10/08/15) – 4,180 (160,600 total sales)
[PS4] Tales of Berseria (Bandai Namco, 08/18/16) – 3,745 (218,119 total sales)
[PS4] Tokyo Xanadu eX+ (Falcom, 09/12/16) – 3,712 (18,870 total sales)
[Wii U] Splatoon (Nintendo, 05/28/15) – 3,396 (1,468,812 total sales)
[3DS] Animal Crossing: New Leaf (Happy Price Selection) (Nintendo, 03/17/16) – 2,908 (93,181 total sales)
[3DS] Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games (Nintendo, 02/18/16) – 2,722 (238,675 total sales)
Click to expand...

And many companies get by fine in Japan who sell games only in Japan, but there is bigger room for their sales to go up by releasing their games elsewhere, so Steam Sales are about the same (actually more) as their sales most developers get in Japan. On-top of this, Steam Sales give them more money than console sales. Steam lacks physical costs, but more so the cut of money Valve takes from a sale on Steam is less than the cut console sales take, as well as it doesn't have store sale cuts on top of that and the like as well. Plus they can distribute their games in other forms and places that might net them more money as well (if you sell a Steam key on your own outside of Steam by yourself, you earn all the money, and different storefronts have different deals).
 
G

GhostTrick

Banned
Lord of Ostia said:
Kind of depends on the franchise though, doesn't it? Sure Danganronpa did well, but those are games with fully-voiced English cast, and one of the most well known VN series to western audiences. Short of Ace Attorney, what is a more well known VN? Same could be said for stuff like Disgaea, that franchise is a known quantity and consistently popular. What about the more niche games that are selling sub 5000 copies? I would love to see more Japanese games come to PC, and overall I agree that Steam can be a great boon to them, but there is clearly a visibility problem for many of these titles.
Click to expand...


These selling sub 5000 games are usually games that sold that kind of amount on their original platform. That's the point here. Hence the compare favorably to their console counterpart.
Danganronpa sold like 200k in west, combined, on Vita. It sold like 150k in west on Steam, in 8 months.

That's also not accounting the fact that for many of these games, they have a chance to gather more sales in the long run, benefitting publishers in the long run. NIS, IFI and Spike Chunsoft are porting a lot of their games at the same time. Why ?
For two reasons:
First is some of these titles will find instant decent to good success. That is Neptunia, Disgaea or Danganronpa.
Second is the other smaller titles will sell in the long run. The point is all of these smaller games can brinf a decent revenue stream by doing nothing, just because they'll be featured in a sale and that it's on a long term platform.

Take Danganronpa-> It's was on PSP. They ported to Vita because PSP died. They then ported it to PS4 because Vita died. And when PS4 will die, they'll have to port the trilogy to PS5 if they want to keep enjoying long term sales.
On Steam ? Just one port and it's done. They can enjoy sales for years. Heck even in 10 years.

That's the whole point for japanese publishers: At worst, their games are on sale for many years without the need to touch/port them. At best, some of these games will find instant success or find success later.



SapphiCine said:
Maybe, depending on how things are defined. I didn't have indie devs in mind with that post.
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I'm not talking about indies here but small japanese publishers.
 
G

GhostTrick

Banned
Ganon Dragmire said:
Not only that but each entry in the XIII series beat out that nostalgia darling true Final Fantasy: FFIX. Despite it being something of an enhanced port. Haha

No wonder SE ignores it.
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Each FFXIII entry were released a long time before IX, sold at a higher price. IX sold faster than these, at a higher price on top of that.
 
P

Pixieking

Banned
Linkura said:
Wow, Swery's games are much higher than I thought they'd be. He needs to make more games. Preferably a DP sequel.

That drop from TiTS FC to SC is unreal.
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Bear in mind, it's the middle part of a trilogy (right?), and that the third part isn't out yet. So, not only do you have people who haven't played/finished FC, but you don't have the added promotion of TC being released. I expect, when TC comes out, the whole series will get a bump as people complete the first game, and buy the second and third games straight-off.

Think of it like books - you buy the first in a proposed trilogy, kinda read it and like it. Then, when the third books comes out, you finally complete book one, and go out and buy both the second and third and read them together.
 
P

PantsuJo

Member
Happy to see good numbers. As for titles with low Sales don't worry: future bundles and massive sales will help the games to sell.
 
D

Dash Kappei

Not actually that important
kswiston said:
Dead or Alive went free to play. I am not bothering with F2P tracking for obvious reasons.


If people want me to track visual novels not already included in the OP, give me a list of titles. I ask that you stick to those originally published at retail (or by traditional publishers) in Japan. There are a billion indie visual novels on Steam.
Click to expand...

Konami only has MGS out on Steam?
What about PES? Silent Hill games aren't there at all?
 
G

Ganon Dragmire

Member
GhostTrick said:
Each FFXIII entry were released a long time before IX, sold at a higher price. IX sold faster than these, at a higher price on top of that.
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pfft. LR and IX were released like four months apart. And it still outsold "the last real FF" by 45k. And FFIX now is like a dollar more and LR.

Aters said:
wow at Ys sales. People love those games on PC.

Disgraceful.
Click to expand...

Izayoi said:
Kill me.
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Vivi's cuteness cannot not help FFIX.

iqgdezdlyhxry.gif
 
C

Crash Station

Member
Danganronpa needs to be higher.

Though the low drop-off between entries is super encouraging. That means not only are people playing it, but liking it enough to get the sequel.
 
D

Durante

Member
Those are great numbers overall, it's amazing how Valkyria Chronicles could feasibly reach 1 million sales. And the sheer amount of money DS3 must have made given its sales before heavy discounts is staggering.

However, this:
Phantom Brave - 9.000
Is completely unacceptable. Everyone reading this, go buy Pahtom Brave now.

Grim Patron said:
Also damn IFI sales are rekt with each newer game.
Click to expand...
Given their pricing development, they are probably on course to making as much or more money with the newer ones though.
 
G

guybrushfreeman

Unconfirmed Member
Marche90 said:
You need to remember that TiTS FC has been on sale at $10 several times. TiTS SC's heaviest discounted price is $20, and even then, that happened only recently
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SC has the problem of people waiting to beat FC first. People don't want to pay full price for SC if they haven't beaten FC yet. It's kind of a hard problem to overcome but I think it could sell to most FC owners still at a discounted price just so people have it in their collection. In the end TC should at least sell SC numbers no matter what anyway. Still though if you've got FC just make the time to play it! It's great! Then buy and play The Silver Case as well! Fools.....
 
K

Kresnik258

Member
Well this is super interesting stuff, thanks for sharing.

It really seems like a lot of VN's aren't in a great place on Steam right now though. I looked up Sekai Project's stuff and their sales are just miles below what I was expecting for things like Grisaia; Clannad & Root Double. I know there's plenty of future sales but still. Are the games being sold elsewhere that are going to substantially increase the sales amounts?

And those XBlaze sales... lol. Dunno why they even bothered. (Also OP you missed Mind=0 out, which is currently at 2.2k; and Aegis of Earth which is 1.3k).

It's a very interesting case study to read all of these in any event. Like IFI's explosive early sales are rather muted follow up sales, that I'm sure are still pulling great numbers for them. I'm still a little miffed with how they've handled Steam as a platform though, going back to when they first published Amnesia for full price on PSN ($30 I believe) and half price on Steam ($15) releasing on exactly the same day. Really ridiculous move.

GhostTrick said:
Second is the other smaller titles will sell in the long run. The point is all of these smaller games can brinf a decent revenue stream by doing nothing, just because they'll be featured in a sale and that it's on a long term platform.
Click to expand...

It does very much depend on the game though. Steam is only going to get more and more crowded with niche Japanese titles as time goes on. I know the sales are an effective way of bringing the titles into the spotlight again, but some are always going to be more successful than others.

I think the point about the games reflecting their sales success on other platforms is what's important. I feel like over the past few years there's been a culture of "port your games to Steam and have instant success" out there and it can be an effective platform for ensuring more sales than you would've gotten otherwise alongside longer tail; but it's far from a guaranteed success at turning a niche game into anything other than a niche game. Stuff like DanganRonpa was already a success before it found its way to Steam; stuff like XBlaze wasn't, and largely it's continued like that.
 
K

kurahador

Member
Downward trend for the most part. Need to highlight which games has been featured in a bundle --- and which bundle and tier.
 
StereoVsn

StereoVsn

Member
Thing to keep in mind about VNs is that often they already appear on another platform (Vita, PS4, PS3), another PC distributor and/or have been out for a long while (Steins;Gate on JList has been out for a year before Steam).

Plus a lot of the bigger ones already had a successful Kickstarter with a decent amount of backers already. So Muv-Luv, Clannad, etc already pretty much sold to their built in audience and covered cost of development (i.e. most pledges were quite a bit higher then Steam price). VNs in Japan are also quite niche and do not sell a lot of copies either in general.
 
P

protomouse

Member
Dash Kappei said:
Konami only has MGS out on Steam?
What about PES? Silent Hill games aren't there at all?
Click to expand...

PES is on there, but it might as well not be. Not much reason for PC gamers to pick up Konami's half-assed ports of their last-gen console versions when FIFA exists. This is one instance where shit sales are justified and deserved.
 
P

Psycho_Mantis

Banned
Steam sales are pretty meaningless for comparisons without knowing how low the price has gone for these games or even if they have been given away.
 
J

Joey Ravn

Banned
mothball said:
Good numbers to reference the next time a small Japanese game is announced for Vita/PS4 and the inevitable port begging follows "so it can reach a wider audience".
Click to expand...

You have an extremely odd way of reading these figures if you think the PSV version of any game is considerably outselling the Steam version.

But, hey, more power to you.

Psycho_Mantis said:
Steam sales are pretty meaningless for comparisons without knowing how low the price has gone for these games or even if they have been given away.
Click to expand...

The point of this thread is not to measure how much these games are making on Steam, but rather the penetration Japanese games have on a platform that traditionally has not featured many of them in the past. The price of the games itself doesn't matter here. It's how many people own them, regardless of the way they acquired them, what's important.
 
K

kswiston

Member
It's worth pointing out that Spike Chunsoft actually offers a 1+2 bundle for Danganronpa. Why XSEED refuses to do this for Trails is beyond me.

I actually think the IFI stuff is doing pretty well. I believe the first Neptunia game had some early (fairly modest) bundle sales, but beyond that, it's always the cheapest during sales. As the later games get better discounts, they grow in sales as well. Neptunia 3 came out the same week as Trails in the Sky 2 last October. First month sales for HDN3 was around 40k. Sales as of the last thread in May were about 90k. There has been a pretty steady succession of back sales since then. Despite the fact that Neptunia 2 is always the same price or cheaper, the gap between 2 and 3 isn't that large anymore.

The newer Neptunia games haven't been through as many sales periods.
 
D

daevious

Member
cj_iwakura said:
The Silver Case - Owners: 3,847 ± 1,602

:(
Click to expand...

Hey man, I did my part and bought it the day it released.

That being said, the result isn't surprising. This port is a passion project through and through, so as long as one person is inspired by it then it was worth the effort bringing it over.
 
B

blankempathy

Member
Blackleg-sanji1 said:
I find it disturbing ffvii and xiii have higher sales than Viii..what's wrong with you people.

One piece bombed but what did they expect when every pc port is Garbo and they basically made jstars over again with a one piece skin
Click to expand...
Speaking of ffviii did they ever patch in the ps1 music files? Hate how the midis sound.
 
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