Support NeoGAF

[reksveks]

Famitsu has published its estimated physical game software and hardware sales data for Japan for the week of November 14, 2022 to November 20, 2022.

Pokemon Scarlet and Pokemon Violet for Switch were the highest selling new game releases of the week, opening at a combined 2,537,292 retail copies sold.

The PlayStation 4 version of Monochrome Mobius: Rights and Wrongs Forgotten was the second highest selling new release of the week, opening at 9,066 retail copies sold.

On the hardware side, the Switch family sold a massive 170,693 units, the PlayStation 5 family sold 32,749 units, the PlayStation 4 family sold 5,803 units, and the Xbox Series family sold 1527 units. PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series consoles continue to face stock issues.

Get the full sales charts below.

Software Sales (followed by lifetime sales)

[NSW] Pokemon Scarlet / Pokemon Violet (The Pokemon Company, 11/18/22) – 2,537,292 (New)
[NSW] Splatoon 3 (Nintendo, 09/09/22) – 36,958 (3,368,155)
[PS5] God of War Ragnarok (SIE, 11/09/22) – 9,901 (39,278)
[PS4] Monochrome Mobius: Rights and Wrongs Forgotten (Aquaplus, 11/17/22) – 9,066 (New)
[NSW] Tactics Ogre: Reborn (Square Enix, 11/11/22) – 7,687 (44,470)
[NSW] Minecraft (Microsoft, 06/21/18) – 7,449 (2,855,406)
[NSW] Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Nintendo, 04/28/17) – 7,330 (4,906,589)
[NSW] Cardfight!! Vanguard Dear Days (Bushiroad, 11/17/22) – 6,649 (New)
[NSW] SympathyKiss (Idea Factory, 11/17/22) – 6,072 (New)
[NSW] Sonic Frontiers (SEGA, 11/08/22) – 5,837 (31,904)

Hardware Sales (followed by lifetime sales)

Switch OLED Model – 102,605 (3,083,839)
Switch Lite – 40,432 (4,920,529)
Switch – 27,656 (18,866,523)
PlayStation 5 – 26,946 (1,848,649)
PlayStation 4 – 5,803 (7,826,141)
PlayStation 5 Digital Edition – 4,912 (291,848)
Xbox Series X – 1,373 (168,640)
Xbox Series S – 154 (212,419)
New 2DS LL (including 2DS) – 34 (1,189,185)

Good week for Nintendo and Sony, also found a warehouse full of ps4's.

Source: https://www.gematsu.com/2022/11/famitsu-sales-11-14-22-11-20-22

 

[Alexios]

Hope they can keep supply up and end the year on another high note. For Switch.

 

[Elios83]

Pokemon obviously a sales monster.
PS5 continues to have healthy stock/sales in Japan although clearly in November most of the stock is going to US/UK in first place.

 

[leo-j]

You know ps4 could easily be doing 5k ish a week in Japan if Sony would just stock it. Such a shame they basically stopped making them at 117.1 million, could have easily sold another couple million.

 

[Tiago Rodrigues]

Was not expecting that PS4 bump. I had no idea they were still making them like that.
I'm expecting the PS5 to have a better December than November. I feel like this month will be all about the USA.

 

[Ronin_7]

1. Good PS5 stock on weekly basis finally.

2. PS4 could still be selling gangbusters with a 99$ price tag and stock like Ps2 did.

3. LoL at Pokemon, 4M+ with Digital is absolutely unheard of, Nintendo keeps smashing records and taking names.

4. Low stock for Xbox or simply dead in Japan and I'll assume Dead In Asian territory altogether.

 

[Nautilus]

Switch and Nintendo is a beast.

 

[feynoob]

Xbox Series S – 154 (212,419)

Guess all XSS went to western areas, due to that price deal.

 

[Luminoth-4545]

 

[Luminoth-4545]

Graph by Hiska-kun from InstallBase

After week 47

2022: 4.00 million
2021: 4.69 million
2020: 4.84 million
2019: 3.36 million
2018: 2.32 million
2017: 2.41 million

 

[Luminoth-4545]

Chart by Hiska-kun from InstallBase

*Famitsu

 

[Luminoth-4545]

You know ps4 could easily be doing 5k ish a week in Japan if Sony would just stock it. Such a shame they basically stopped making them at 117.1 million, could have easily sold another couple million.

Without the Pandemic which lead to supply problems the PS4 would have had a long tail and could have hit 130 million IMO.

 

[remember_spinal]

Do we want even more of a reason to keep cross gen going? Imagine if sony manage to sell another 5 million PS4’s….

 

[leo-j]

Without the Pandemic which lead to supply problems the PS4 would have had a long tail and could have hit 130 million IMO.

Yea and the fact horizon 2, god of war, and GT7 call came out for ps4 they could have easily pushed past that, I guess they just are using the parts for ps5’s since they are still selling out.

 

[sachos]

Japan sure loves physical games

 

[Gaiff]

I always long for a Nintendo console with up to date hardware but seeing that their most successful machines by far are the weakest tells you they absolutely won't and shouldn't chase that. They'll keep making outdated hardware and cater to their fanbase.

The Switch might end up being the most successful console ever with those ludicrous software sales. The PS2 might sell more overall but it's not even close in terms of 1st party output. Nintendo also barely discounted the Switch whereas the PS2 sold for years at like $99.

Sad state of affairs but what can anyone do?

 

[Gaiff]

Without the Pandemic which lead to supply problems the PS4 would have had a long tail and could have hit 130 million IMO.

The last-gen consoles were nowhere near as affected by the supply problems. It disproportionately affected newer nodes. It's lunacy to suggest that the PS4 missed out on like 13M sales.

 

[tommib]

PS4 selling in the thousands. Cross-gen forever.

 

[remember_spinal]

I always long for a Nintendo console with up to date hardware but seeing that their most successful machines by far are the weakest tells you they absolutely won't and shouldn't chase that. They'll keep making outdated hardware and cater to their fanbase.

The Switch might end up being the most successful console ever with those ludicrous software sales. The PS2 might sell more overall but it's not even close in terms of 1st party output. Nintendo also barely discounted the Switch whereas the PS2 sold for years at like $99.

Sad state of affairs but what can anyone do?

Its gonna suck when big japanese games target the switch instead of current gen consoles. Thats my biggest fear with something like DQXII

The existence of the switch is why the definitive version of XI on ps4 and xbox looks like shit

 

[Robb]

Nintendo breaking their own records time and time again.

 

[ParaSeoul]

Remember saying Pokemon will break more sales records the worse the games become last time one released and its ageing very well.

 

[Alexios]

I always long for a Nintendo console with up to date hardware but seeing that their most successful machines by far are the weakest tells you they absolutely won't and shouldn't chase that. They'll keep making outdated hardware and cater to their fanbase.

Seems like that's the completely opposite situation, people like "blaming" a "fanbase" but that would be the people that bought their less successful systems (and still made certain games a success) whereas breaking the own records time and time again shows they expand to a larger audience.

But sure, the end result is the same, they find success with modern ideas that appeal to the current market more than just superior cpu/gpu specs. Not that I agree with the outdated notion, mobile hardware has advanced fast is all, they chose a pretty good and modern soc for Switch at the time.

Its gonna suck when big japanese games target the switch instead of current gen consoles. Thats my biggest fear with something like DQXII

Seems like if that happened it would be a situation similar to DQXI, with one version for next gen systems and a wholly different game for the Switch, as it was for 3DS in that case (which I personally would have probably preferred but oh well, they kept that Japan only given Switch came along).


Or like Monster Hunter, with a completely different game for the platform (not that I expect another game of that series on Switch, the next will be home consoles only and then Switch 2 or whatever for the next one), though I don't think that would work as well for a franchise like Dragon Quest.

You should fear crossgen more than Switch for such big games as crossgen also expands to first party games, but hopefully some big IP like Monster Hunter and Dragon Quest are going to be next gen only because by the time they actually can finish and release new games old gen will be dead.

 

[a multicultural team of v]

The last-gen consoles were nowhere near as affected by the supply problems. It disproportionately affected newer nodes. It's lunacy to suggest that the PS4 missed out on like 13M sales.

13 million might be a lot, but they absolutely missed out on millions of additional sales. They basically gave up on the PS4 like a year plus before the PS5 even came out. What was the lowest non Black Friday price for the PS4? It still is listed at $300 as the standard price at retailers. The 2019 Black Friday deal was for $200... A 6 year old console and BF was $200.

That console should have been $99 and should have sold a hell of a lot more. But they just stopped caring about the sales because (I assume) they correctly determined the PS5 would have record demand. The problem is COVID screwed up the manufacturing and they ended up losing on both ends.

 

[Gaiff]

Seems like that's the completely opposite situation, people like "blaming" a "fanbase" but that would be the people that bought their less successful systems (and still made certain games a success) whereas breaking the own records time and time again shows they expand to a larger audience.

But sure, the end result is the same, they find success with modern ideas that appeal to the current market more than just superior cpu/gpu specs. Not that I agree with the outdated notion, mobile hardware has advanced fast is all, they chose a pretty good and modern soc for Switch at the time.

By catering to their fanbase, I just mean that Nintendo keeps doing Nintendo things. They don't attempt those big AAA blockbusters, multiplayer-heavy games or stuff like that.

 

[Alexios]

By catering to their fanbase, I just mean that Nintendo keeps doing Nintendo things. They don't attempt those big AAA blockbusters, multiplayer-heavy games or stuff like that.

How is one of their biggest new IP, Splatoon (or biggest old IP like Smash Bros), not a multiplayer heavy series? BOTW was pretty AAA as far as open world games go and 3D Mario always has crazy high production values for the visuals and everything, it just doesn't lend itself to cinematic aspects.

Well, it's one thing to point to some "fanbase" as the cause of Nintendo's success and a whole other thing to say that Nintendo's approach to design of hardware and games often leads to vast success as it appeals to the current market conditions at large (and when it doesn't it flops like any other).

Edit: where did I or you before this post mention anything about performance? You're arguing completely different things now so, okay, keep it up, I'm not gonna be pulled into some fantroll discussion bashing this or that game because my posts that feigned rational thinking were argued against.

They have AAA games and multiplayer heavy games whether you find them outdated or sub par in whatever way or not, your posts that I responded to simply claimed they don't have such games, not that you have all these subjective qualifications regarding such games to accept them as such

 

[Gaiff]

How is one of their biggest new IP, Splatoon (or biggest old IP like Smash Bros), not a multiplayer heavy series? BOTW was pretty AAA as far as open world games go and 3D Mario always has crazy high production values for the visuals and everything, it just doesn't lend itself to cinematic aspects.

For starters, having a modern network infrastructure? Splatoon's multiplayer is plagued with connection issues and Smash although P2P also had tons of issues with the online. Frequent disconnects, lag, and a myriad of other problems. BOTW is almost 6 years old. Mario Odyssey is 4-5 years old. You're basically proving my point there.

Well, it's one thing to point to some "fanbase" as the cause of Nintendo's success and a whole other thing to say that Nintendo's approach to design of hardware and games often leads to vast success as it appeals to the current market conditions at large (and when it doesn't it flops like any other).

Their approach to hardware, not games but they kind of go hand in hand. BOTW for how good it is runs like ass even on the Switch and it's worse for the Wii U. Bayonetta suffers from bad performance too and it's a fast-paced action game. XC3 has poor image quality as well and it goes on.

No point in investing AAA games if your hardware is this limited and no point in creating multiplayer IPs if your online infrastructure is more dated than that of the original Xbox.

 

[Woopah]

Its gonna suck when big japanese games target the switch instead of current gen consoles. Thats my biggest fear with something like DQXII

The existence of the switch is why the definitive version of XI on ps4 and xbox looks like shit

Mainline Dragon Quest was on PS2, DS and Wii, so its not like them choosing less powerful, more popular hardware is anything new. I would expect DQ12 to be on Switch/PS4/PS5/XB1/XBS (unless Nintendo tries to do a deal).

 

[SlimeGooGoo]

.

 

[Woopah]

Had no idea FF8 sold that well

It had a lot of hype going for it being the follow up to 7.

 

[Kataploom]

Chart by Hiska-kun from InstallBase

*Famitsu

So 3 first party Nintendo Switch games are top 3 in japan... and Nintendo just broke that record twice in the same year (and in around 6 month between each other)? That's absurd... in the good sense... Pokemon gotta keep being half cooked if sales are not harmed by this launch in next entries...

 

[NecrosaroIII]

Completely undeserved, and its going to send a bad message to Nintendo.

 

[remember_spinal]

Completely undeserved, and its going to send a bad message to Nintendo.

That ship has sailed like 80 million units ago

 

[Bernkastel]

Do we want even more of a reason to keep cross gen going? Imagine if sony manage to sell another 5 million PS4’s….

May they still have some use for their 8th gen console in future

 

[Luminoth-4545]

Splatoon 3 had 10 consectutive weeks at number 1, is that a record?

 

[sandbood]

I always long for a Nintendo console with up to date hardware but seeing that their most successful machines by far are the weakest tells you they absolutely won't and shouldn't chase that. They'll keep making outdated hardware and cater to their fanbase.

The Switch might end up being the most successful console ever with those ludicrous software sales. The PS2 might sell more overall but it's not even close in terms of 1st party output. Nintendo also barely discounted the Switch whereas the PS2 sold for years at like $99.

Sad state of affairs but what can anyone do?

In term of profitability, Nintendo Switch is already the most successful console of all time.

Nintendo Switch eco system profits is at
2263 billion yen which is bigger than the entire PlayStation hardware profits combined(PS1+PS2+PS3+PS4+PS5+PSP+PSV).