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[Woopah]

“Jamboree is the best Mario Party for a long long time and selling well elsewhere.”

Overall reviews says otherwise .
Is it the best Mario game ? Or people just eat it up because it's a nintnedo first party Mario game ?

Currently Jamboree has:

Metacritic - 82
User score - 8.7

Unless there's a title I've missed, that's higher than any other title in Mario Party's 26 year history. So what do you mean by "Overall reviews says otherwise"?

I feel like Japanese just buy any first party Nintendo games , good or bad lol

If that were true, all Nintendo first party games would sell the same. Instead, there's a huge variety.

Animal Crossing New Horizons did around 12 million, Splatoon 3 did 7 million and Ring Fit Adventure did 4 million.

And then on the other end of the scale, Mario Strikers, Yoshi's Crafted World and Astral Chain didn't reach 200,000. The recent Endless Ocean game didn't even reach 100,000.

So clearly they don't buy "any first party game".

 

[lh032]

Currently Jamboree has:

Metacritic - 82
User score - 8.7

Unless there's a title I've missed, that's higher than any other title in Mario Party's 26 year history. So what do you mean by "Overall reviews says otherwise"?



If that were true, all Nintendo first party games would sell the same. Instead, there's a huge variety.

Animal Crossing New Horizons did around 12 million, Splatoon 3 did 7 million and Ring Fit Adventure did 4 million.

And then on the other end of the scale, Mario Strikers, Yoshi's Crafted World and Astral Chain didn't reach 200,000. The recent Endless Ocean game didn't even reach 100,000.

So clearly they don't buy "any first party game".

"And then on the other end of the scale, Mario Strikers, Yoshi's Crafted World and Astral Chain didn't reach 200,000"

But they are not developed by Nintendo? They just published by Nintendo.

I guess i should have phrased clearly then.

I personally thinks 82 metacritic is not that great tbh, especially for a nintendo game.

 

[Woopah]

"And then on the other end of the scale, Mario Strikers, Yoshi's Crafted World and Astral Chain didn't reach 200,000"

But they are not developed by Nintendo? They just published by Nintendo.

I guess i should have phrased clearly then.

Many Nintendo first party games are made in collaboration with external developers, but that means nothing to the average person. How many of them know that 8ing did a lot of the work on Pikmin 4, or than Bandai Namco were very involved in Mario Kart 8?

Mario Strikers is developed by Nintendo, but has sold less than all the Mario Switch games made externally. Echoes of Wisdom is going to outsell all the 2D Zeldas made by Nintendo internally.

Pokémon and Smash Bros. have never been developed by Nintendo, and look how well those franchises sell.

I personally thinks 82 metacritic is not that great tbh, especially for a nintendo game.

My comment was specifically about Jamboree being the best Mario Party in a long time. Which reviews agree with.

There are other Nintendo games with better reviews and better sales.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

The bolded has some truth to it. But how much money did they make by putting their games on PC too, though?

I don't think it's even so much a revenue/profit thing so much as it is, I feel, their strategy so far with PC betrays the original point.

Their initial plan was to use PC ports as a way to tease and attract PC gamers into buying PlayStation consoles, for example to access the sequel to hit games. But the cadence that SIE have ported a lot of their games this gen has probably actually enabled those PC gamers to wait for an eventual port since they now feel they don't need to wait that long, and have plenty of other games to bide their time.

Actually, I think this is why they need to truly analyze games like Astro Bot that much more in-depth. Ever since the TGAs, a lot of PC gamers have been paying it a lot more attention. Yes, some to troll, but others (including major streamers who either exclusively or primarily game on PC) have been trying it out and actually come away loving it. That's been doing a lot for WOM among not just console space but also among PC gamers in a way that hasn't really been seen with their other games.

It's also showing that SIE don't need to rely so much on PC ports to drive their games in the market. Or at least, relying on PC ports to places where they have no way of controlling, managing or integrating those places in their platform ecosystem stack. I've got this theory that if a company normally known as a platform holder gets too involved in being a publisher onto other platforms, they end up getting the perception of being a publisher to the point where they stop being seen as a platform holder, which negatively impacts their platform sales/performance over time.

Ironic that Microsoft are the ones best proving that theory out; I just don't want to see SIE make similar mistakes. If they still want to prioritize PC as an expansion platform, focus that on your own platform/storefront and keep outer-ecosystem platform support to just the bare necessities. But they're some years from having a PC storefront I feel, so a solution in the meantime would be to recalibrate expectations when it comes to the PC ports and their cadence, zero in on their console and increase volume & variety of 1P developed/published software that'll drive people to the console (i.e more 1P AA productions alongside AAA, cull back any of the super-blatant culture war politics in various Western 1P titles & marketing, find better ways to manage various licensing costs/renegotiate some current licensing deals if need be, etc.).

There's a huge gap between what different Nintendo first party games do, so I wouldn't say.

Plus it's not Japan-specific. Jamboree is the best Mario Party for a long long time and selling well elsewhere.

A hybrid design and lower price would certainly help. But what they mostly need is more popular software.


PS4 Pro did 9,916 in week 52 2016.

Yeah, the big problem with PS5 in Japan ATM isn't so much hardware, it's software. The software just isn't selling at the volumes it needs. Them getting multiplats of various JRPGs etc. doesn't do much because gamers in Japan already have their preferred platform for those games and it's the Switch.

PlayStation needs more exclusives in genre niches that appeal with Japanese gamers (and can also find audiences globally), but the issue is 1P-wise they haven't had enough internal studios specializing in those types of games. Polyphony has the potential but they are exclusively GT these days. Team Asobi has the potential as well and we got a glimpse of that with Astro Bot, but for whatever reason physical restocking let the game down at retail (maybe it's doing better on the PSN Japan digital charts). Both studios would need expansion into multi-team setups.

So hardware is arguable (a portable PlayStation would certainly have more appeal in places like Japan), but more exclusives appealing to the Japanese market is a definite need. Although, it can get complicated because I'd argue most of Switch's best-selling games in Japan are ALSO in large, established franchises alongside being in genre types that favor well with that audience. So it makes SIE vaulting a lot of their legacy IP from the PS1, PS2...even PS3 days work against them in retrospect as that's lost time for IP that could've been built up into bigger franchises by now.

 

[Deerock71]

My God, what do they do with them, throw them away when the battery dies and buy a new one or something?

There's a new gamer born every minute.

 

[LordOcidax]

"And then on the other end of the scale, Mario Strikers, Yoshi's Crafted World and Astral Chain didn't reach 200,000"

But they are not developed by Nintendo? They just published by Nintendo.

I guess i should have phrased clearly then.

I personally thinks 82 metacritic is not that great tbh, especially for a nintendo game.

A first i thought you where joking… Mario Party Jamboree could be a 10M+ seller in the next Nintendo financial report, it’s not a Japan only hit, is WW. Don’t know what are you talking about… BTW, is the best scored modern Mario Part game.

 

[lh032]

A first i thought you where joking… Mario Party Jamboree could be a 10M+ seller in the next Nintendo financial report, it’s not a Japan only hit, is WW. Don’t know what are you talking about… BTW, is the best scored modern Mario Part game.

yea thats the sad part.

 

[pulicat]

ゲームソフト販売本数ランキング - 「先週」 | ゲーム・エンタメ最新情報のファミ通.com

PS5、PS4、Switch、3DS等の推定ゲーム販売本数ランキング30件です。2024年12月16日～2024年12月22日に集計された店舗データが元になっています。

www.famitsu.com

Nintendo Switch with absolute dominance with 30/30 top selling games in week 50.

The age of Playstation is over in Japan.

 

[Robb]

Hardware​

• Switch: 104,151 (total 34,819,211)

Software​

1. [NSW] Super Mario Party Jamboree – 133,542 / 835,085
2. [NSW] Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D Remake – 38,088 / 894,671
3. [NSW] Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – 24,019 / 6,146,178
4. [NSW] Minecraft – 23,131 / 3,744,671
5. [NSW] Mario & Luigi: Brothership – 22,237 / 148,380
6. [NSW] Super Smash Bros. Ultimate – 18,178
7. [NSW] Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom – 18,145 / 356,613
8. [NSW] Animal Crossing: New Horizons – 15,536 / 8,008,343
9. [NSW] Pokémon Scarlet / Violet – 15,244 / 5,477,820
10. [NSW] Nintendo Switch Sports – 13,309 / 1,503,403
11. [NSW] Taiko no Tatsujin: Rhythm Festival (Bandai Namco, 09/22/22) – 11,227 (391,637)
12. [NSW] Hone Hone Zaurus X Chou Gattai! Build & Battle (Nippon Columbia, 12/05/24) – 9,626 (27,541)
13. [NSW] Momotaro Dentetsu World: Chikyuu wa Kibou de Mawatteru! (Konami, 11/16/23) – 9,566 (1,198,504)
14. [NSW] The Game of Life for Nintendo Switch (Takara Tomy, 10/06/23) – 9,199 (254,071)
15. [NSW] Pikmin 4 (Nintendo, 07/21/23) – 7,433 (1,277,276)
16. [NSW] Powerful Pro Baseball 2024-2025 (Konami, 07/18/24) – 7,031 (335,872)
17. [NSW] Splatoon 3 (Nintendo, 09/09/22) – 6,822 (4,398,781)
18. [NSW] Super Mario Bros. Wonder (Nintendo, 10/20/23) – 6,406 (1,963,024)
19. [NSW] Ring Fit Adventure (Nintendo, 10/18/19) – 5,703 (3,674,509)
20. [NSW] Momotaro Dentetsu: Showa, Heisei, Reiwa mo Teiban! (Konami, 11/19/20) – 5,285 (3,054,883)
21. [NSW] Kirby and the Forgotten Land (Nintendo, 03/25/22) – 5,245 (1,169,990)
22. [NSW] Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 Special Price (SEGA, 11/18/22) – 5,117 (219,608)
23. [NSW] The Battle Cats Unite! (Ponos, 12/03/2) – 4,818 (310,075)
24. [NSW] Clubhouse Games: 51 Worldwide Classics (Nintendo, 06/05/20) – 4,767 (1,356,929)
25. [NSW] Super Mario Maker 2 (Nintendo, 06/28/19) – 4,551 (1,397,406)
26. [NSW] Suika Game Special Edition (Aladdin X, 11/14/24) – 4,433 (18,157)
27. [NSW] Pokemon Sword / Pokemon Shield (The Pokemon Company, 11/15/19) – 4,316 (4,475,482)
28. [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Nintendo, 05/12/23) – 4,074 (2,037,432)
29. [NSW] Luigi’s Mansion 3 (Nintendo, 10/31/19) – 4,026 (1,067,333)
30. [NSW] Pokemon Scarlet / Pokemon Violet + “The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero” (The Pokemon Company, 11/03/23) – 3,827 (157,255)

30/30 clean sweep in the software charts and +100,000 console sales.. Safe to say Switch 2 was not needed in Japan this holiday.

Switch is just a monster.

 

[cartman414]

Dangit. Animal Crossing overshot BOOBIES (8,008,135) by a couple hundred.

 

[nial]

PlayStation needs more exclusives in genre niches that appeal with Japanese gamers (and can also find audiences globally), but the issue is 1P-wise they haven't had enough internal studios specializing in those types of games. Polyphony has the potential but they are exclusively GT these days. Team Asobi has the potential as well and we got a glimpse of that with Astro Bot, but for whatever reason physical restocking let the game down at retail (maybe it's doing better on the PSN Japan digital charts). Both studios would need expansion into multi-team setups.

Internal SCEI production hasn't hit big in Japan since late PS2 era (outside of bundled Knack); it's been the same story with Ape Escape: Million Monkeys, Siren New Translation, Gravity Daze, the The Last Guardian, etc.
External SCEI production, though? Look at Rise of the Ronin and Stellar Blade's stronger performance over Astro Bot as a point of reference, investing in XDEV would be a pretty smart thing to do as their projects tend to reasonate decently with PlayStation's audience in Japan. Death Stranding 2 should be a great seller next year, and hopefully the same could be said with Lost Soul Aside (then again, I expected Stellar Blade to do worse).
I'm also looking forward to see how Gran Turismo 8 does over there, the series seems to sell a lot better now compared to late PS3/PS4 era.
Also... a Western studio, but couldn't go without mentioning Sucker Punch's Ghost of Yotei next year, I'm fully expecting it to be the best-selling first-party PS5 game in Japan.

 

[Juja]

Dangit. Animal Crossing overshot BOOBIES (8,008,135) by a couple hundred.

Oh my God! I was just about to make pretty much this same exact post.

 

[Impotaku]

30/30 clean sweep in the software charts and +100,000 console sales.. Safe to say Switch 2 was not needed in Japan this holiday.

Switch is just a monster.

It’s like the 3rd week in a row that there’s barely more than a single PS4 or PS5 game in the top 30 charts either first or 3rd party. (Edit I see last week dragon quest is hanging on for ps5 so there’s literally just 1) Although Xmas really isn’t a thing in japan the new year certainly is you’d have thought that at least something would have come out around the holiday period. While Nintendo isn’t exactly churning out games weekly the 3rd party games are at least filling in the gaps each month with indie retail stuff.

Would be nice to actually see some variation in the charts instead of a wall of Nintendo evergreens. Roll on monster hunter at least then things will get interesting (or maybe not)

 

[pulicat]

I don't think we can use digital as an excuse for dire physical software sales on PS5 anymore.

Top games on Japan Playstation store
1. ZZZ
2. Genshin Impact
3. Honkai Star Rail
4. Apex Legends
5. EA FC 25
6. EFootball
7. Fortnite
8. POE2
9. Gundam BO
10. COD BLOPS 6

 

[Robb]

Would be nice to actually see some variation in the charts instead of a wall of Nintendo evergreens.

Well, unless Switch 2 is a monumental flop.

 

[Impotaku]

Well, unless Switch 2 is a monumental flop.

I’d be genuinely amazed if Nintendo managed to monumentally fuck up what should be a slam dunk. Lol you can never tell with them but if they keep it going like with the switch it should hopefully do well. Problem at beginning of switches life was the wiiu fucked over all the 3rd parties so none of them really wanted to risk it on switch it was only when they realised they might have messed up by skipping switch that hastily put together games were released and rushed out. Thankfully things got way better to the point were at now where switch has the same volume of games that the ds used to even a lot of weird quirky ones.

Having it backwards compatible will help a lot with bringing over that user base but only if price is right I still remember the 3ds ambassador scenario.

 

[Robb]

I’d be genuinely amazed if Nintendo managed to monumentally fuck up what should be a slam dunk. Lol you can never tell with them but if they keep it going like with the switch it should hopefully do well. Problem at beginning of switches life was the wiiu fucked over all the 3rd parties so none of them really wanted to risk it on switch it was only when they realised they might have messed up by skipping switch that hastily put together games were released and rushed out. Thankfully things got way better to the point were at now where switch has the same volume of games that the ds used to even a lot of weird quirky ones.

Having it backwards compatible will help a lot with bringing over that user base but only if price is right I still remember the 3ds ambassador scenario.

Yeah, you never know with Nintendo. They could definitely screw this up.

Will be fun to see the actual reveal and its reception. Shouldn’t be long now!

 

[LordOcidax]

Yeah, you never know with Nintendo. They could definitely screw this up.

Will be fun to see the actual reveal and its reception. Shouldn’t be long now!

Gaf is going to bet against the Switch again… Grab the popcorn guys, it’s going to be fun here.

 

[KU_]

I’m very interested to see how Nintendo handles the Switch when Switch 2 releases. I truly believe they can do some price cuts and bundles along with some cross generation releases and continue selling the OG Switch for another two or so years if they want to.

 

[Impotaku]

Gaf is going to bet against the Switch again… Grab the popcorn guys, it’s going to be fun here.

Oh you know it, will Provide years of laughter when their predictions don’t come true followed by the mental gymnastics and coping before it eventually gets locked by a mod because the fail was so hard it was causing second hand cringe every time it got bumped.

 

[LordOcidax]

Oh you know it, will Provide years of laughter when their predictions don’t come true followed by the mental gymnastics and coping before it eventually gets locked by a mod because the fail was so hard it was causing second hand cringe every time it got bumped.

That thread should be Unlocked, please EviLore give us that as a christmas gift

 

[Celine]

ゲームソフト販売本数ランキング - 「先週」 | ゲーム・エンタメ最新情報のファミ通.com

PS5、PS4、Switch、3DS等の推定ゲーム販売本数ランキング30件です。2024年12月16日～2024年12月22日に集計された店舗データが元になっています。

www.famitsu.com

Nintendo Switch with absolute dominance with 30/30 top selling games in week 50.

The age of Playstation is over in Japan.

 

[Impotaku]

That thread should be Unlocked, please EviLore give us that as a christmas gift

Somehow I don’t think it will be unshackled as it’s years old and kept getting necro’d back from the vaults where some hoped it would just stay. Also is littered with banned users so I doubt they are lurking anymore.

 

[LordOcidax]

Somehow I don’t think it will be unshackled as it’s years old and kept getting necro’d back from the vaults where some hoped it would just stay. Also is littered with banned users so I doubt they are lurking anymore.

That thread is pure gold

Betting time: Do you think the Switch will be a success?

I always love to retrospectively read GAF's prediction threads and see how many crows are being served, the thread placing WiiU/XB first and Sony disappearing or failing with the PS4 before this gen started is so much fun! So now that we have enough details about the price, specs, launch line...

www.neogaf.com

 

[mckmas8808]

I don't think it's even so much a revenue/profit thing so much as it is, I feel, their strategy so far with PC betrays the original point.

Their initial plan was to use PC ports as a way to tease and attract PC gamers into buying PlayStation consoles, for example to access the sequel to hit games. But the cadence that SIE have ported a lot of their games this gen has probably actually enabled those PC gamers to wait for an eventual port since they now feel they don't need to wait that long, and have plenty of other games to bide their time.

Actually, I think this is why they need to truly analyze games like Astro Bot that much more in-depth. Ever since the TGAs, a lot of PC gamers have been paying it a lot more attention. Yes, some to troll, but others (including major streamers who either exclusively or primarily game on PC) have been trying it out and actually come away loving it. That's been doing a lot for WOM among not just console space but also among PC gamers in a way that hasn't really been seen with their other games.

It's also showing that SIE don't need to rely so much on PC ports to drive their games in the market. Or at least, relying on PC ports to places where they have no way of controlling, managing or integrating those places in their platform ecosystem stack. I've got this theory that if a company normally known as a platform holder gets too involved in being a publisher onto other platforms, they end up getting the perception of being a publisher to the point where they stop being seen as a platform holder, which negatively impacts their platform sales/performance over time.

Ironic that Microsoft are the ones best proving that theory out; I just don't want to see SIE make similar mistakes. If they still want to prioritize PC as an expansion platform, focus that on your own platform/storefront and keep outer-ecosystem platform support to just the bare necessities. But they're some years from having a PC storefront I feel, so a solution in the meantime would be to recalibrate expectations when it comes to the PC ports and their cadence, zero in on their console and increase volume & variety of 1P developed/published software that'll drive people to the console (i.e more 1P AA productions alongside AAA, cull back any of the super-blatant culture war politics in various Western 1P titles & marketing, find better ways to manage various licensing costs/renegotiate some current licensing deals if need be, etc.).

I agree 100% with you on this. Sony should be closer aligned with Nintendo's strategy, than Xbox's. Media talking heads constantly get this wrong and I for the life of me can't understand why. Your theory is spot on! But will never receive understanding by any in the media or most on GAF here, because the narrative these days is to push everybody and everything to PCs.

On one hand the PS5 Pro is too expensive and "they" hate that it doesn't come with a disc drive. While AT THE SAME DARN TIME.......continue to push gamers to just "Get a PC" that funny enough will cost more than a PS5 Pro and also DOESN'T HAVE A DISC DRIVE!!!!!

It drives me up a wall with out disingenuous this conversations have become.

 

[Luminoth-4545]

Yearly sales for Switch (millions)

2017: 3.41
2018: 3.48
2019: 4.49
2020: 5.96
2021: 5.58
2022: 4.80
2023: 4.06
2024: 3.03 [1 Week remaining]
Total: 34.82

Compared to DS

2004: 1.49
2005: 4.15
2006: 8.36
2007: 7.17
2008: 3.95
2009: 4.16
2010: 2.87
2011: 0.66
2012: 0.07
Total: 32.88

 

[LordOcidax]

Yearly sales for Switch (millions)

2017: 3.41
2018: 3.48
2019: 4.49
2020: 5.96
2021: 5.58
2022: 4.80
2023: 4.06
2024: 3.03 [1 Week remaining]
Total: 34.82
Compared to DS

2004: 1.49
2005: 4.15
2006: 8.36
2007: 7.17
2008: 3.95
2009: 4.16
2010: 2.87
2011: 0.66
2012: 0.07
Total: 32.88

To put this numbers on perspective, the Wii U sold 3.3 million of consoles in his ENTIRE LIFETIME in Japan, the Switch is selling +3 million in his worst year like it’s nothing and a month before their successor announcement.

 

[Orbital2060]

That thread is pure gold

Betting time: Do you think the Switch will be a success?

I always love to retrospectively read GAF's prediction threads and see how many crows are being served, the thread placing WiiU/XB first and Sony disappearing or failing with the PS4 before this gen started is so much fun! So now that we have enough details about the price, specs, launch line...

www.neogaf.com

Almost everyone on first page said no

 

[Woopah]

I don't think it's even so much a revenue/profit thing so much as it is, I feel, their strategy so far with PC betrays the original point.

Their initial plan was to use PC ports as a way to tease and attract PC gamers into buying PlayStation consoles, for example to access the sequel to hit games. But the cadence that SIE have ported a lot of their games this gen has probably actually enabled those PC gamers to wait for an eventual port since they now feel they don't need to wait that long, and have plenty of other games to bide their time.

Actually, I think this is why they need to truly analyze games like Astro Bot that much more in-depth. Ever since the TGAs, a lot of PC gamers have been paying it a lot more attention. Yes, some to troll, but others (including major streamers who either exclusively or primarily game on PC) have been trying it out and actually come away loving it. That's been doing a lot for WOM among not just console space but also among PC gamers in a way that hasn't really been seen with their other games.

It's also showing that SIE don't need to rely so much on PC ports to drive their games in the market. Or at least, relying on PC ports to places where they have no way of controlling, managing or integrating those places in their platform ecosystem stack. I've got this theory that if a company normally known as a platform holder gets too involved in being a publisher onto other platforms, they end up getting the perception of being a publisher to the point where they stop being seen as a platform holder, which negatively impacts their platform sales/performance over time.

Ironic that Microsoft are the ones best proving that theory out; I just don't want to see SIE make similar mistakes. If they still want to prioritize PC as an expansion platform, focus that on your own platform/storefront and keep outer-ecosystem platform support to just the bare necessities. But they're some years from having a PC storefront I feel, so a solution in the meantime would be to recalibrate expectations when it comes to the PC ports and their cadence, zero in on their console and increase volume & variety of 1P developed/published software that'll drive people to the console (i.e more 1P AA productions alongside AAA, cull back any of the super-blatant culture war politics in various Western 1P titles & marketing, find better ways to manage various licensing costs/renegotiate some current licensing deals if need be, etc.).


Yeah, the big problem with PS5 in Japan ATM isn't so much hardware, it's software. The software just isn't selling at the volumes it needs. Them getting multiplats of various JRPGs etc. doesn't do much because gamers in Japan already have their preferred platform for those games and it's the Switch.

PlayStation needs more exclusives in genre niches that appeal with Japanese gamers (and can also find audiences globally), but the issue is 1P-wise they haven't had enough internal studios specializing in those types of games. Polyphony has the potential but they are exclusively GT these days. Team Asobi has the potential as well and we got a glimpse of that with Astro Bot, but for whatever reason physical restocking let the game down at retail (maybe it's doing better on the PSN Japan digital charts). Both studios would need expansion into multi-team setups.

So hardware is arguable (a portable PlayStation would certainly have more appeal in places like Japan), but more exclusives appealing to the Japanese market is a definite need. Although, it can get complicated because I'd argue most of Switch's best-selling games in Japan are ALSO in large, established franchises alongside being in genre types that favor well with that audience. So it makes SIE vaulting a lot of their legacy IP from the PS1, PS2...even PS3 days work against them in retrospect as that's lost time for IP that could've been built up into bigger franchises by now.

After the PS1, a lot of Sony's success in Japan was driven by third parties, and that third party model was very successful for a couple of decades.

The drawback of course is that Sony weren't fully in control of their own destiny.

They couldn't stop the decline of FF and RE, and couldn't stop DQ and MH being shared with Nintendo.

This is one of the reasons they'll struggle to turn things around in Japan.

yea thats the sad part.

What makes it sad? Is the success of Helldivers 2, Space Marine 2 and Dragon Ball Sparking Zero sad?

Internal SCEI production hasn't hit big in Japan since late PS2 era (outside of bundled Knack); it's been the same story with Ape Escape: Million Monkeys, Siren New Translation, Gravity Daze, the The Last Guardian, etc.
External SCEI production, though? Look at Rise of the Ronin and Stellar Blade's stronger performance over Astro Bot as a point of reference, investing in XDEV would be a pretty smart thing to do as their projects tend to reasonate decently with PlayStation's audience in Japan. Death Stranding 2 should be a great seller next year, and hopefully the same could be said with Lost Soul Aside (then again, I expected Stellar Blade to do worse).
I'm also looking forward to see how Gran Turismo 8 does over there, the series seems to sell a lot better now compared to late PS3/PS4 era.
Also... a Western studio, but couldn't go without mentioning Sucker Punch's Ghost of Yotei next year, I'm fully expecting it to be the best-selling first-party PS5 game in Japan.

Agree with the last part. GoT did over a million in Japan, so the sequel should do at least 500,000.

In fact I'm expecting it to be in the top 10 PS5 games by the end of the generation.

 

[Woopah]

We all know no console hardware or software can sell in Japan other than Nintendo, you assumed too much.

That's not really true. The most popular game in Japan this year for example is not from Nintendo.

We got just the eShop top 30 and it's full of games not by Nintendo.

 

[lh032]

That's not really true. The most popular game in Japan this year for example is not from Nintendo.

We got just the eShop top 30 and it's full of games not by Nintendo.

i dont think thats a good argument.

Im looking at these top 30 games, i highly doubt most of these games sells as much as mario or zelda on the switch.

And switch still sells alot of physical copies especially for 1st party games right?

Top 30 best-selling Switch games on the Nintendo eShop in Japan

New data has revealed the top 30 best-selling Switch games on the Nintendo eShop in Japan.

nintendoeverything.com

EDIT: oh an btw. Im not just talking about sales units. Revenue matters as well.
Not alot of games can sell that much units with 60-70 dollars price tag in Japan.

everybody knows Japan is Nintendoland.

Physical userbase is still very high. YOu need to take note that alot of eshop games does not have physical copy.

Switch packaged games’ physical to digital sales ratio was 2:1 in FY24

The physical vs. digital sales ratio for Switch titles has been a much-debated mystery. Nintendo’s most recent Corporate Management Policy Briefing just might inadvertently disclose that, albeit indirectly. Every quarter Nintendo releases their earnings report, and it always contains this line...

famiboards.com

 

[Woopah]

i dont think thats a good argument.

Im looking at these top 30 games, i highly doubt most of these games sells as much as mario or zelda on the switch.

And switch still sells alot of physical copies especially for 1st party games right?

Top 30 best-selling Switch games on the Nintendo eShop in Japan

New data has revealed the top 30 best-selling Switch games on the Nintendo eShop in Japan.

nintendoeverything.com

EDIT: oh an btw. Im not just talking about sales units. Revenue matters as well.
Not alot of games can sell that much units with 60-70 dollars price tag in Japan.

everybody knows Japan is Nintendoland.

Most of them don't sell as much as mainline 3D Zelda or mainline Mario, most Nintendo first party games don't sell that much either.

Nintendo is indeed the largest publisher in Japan (though not only in that country), but we've also seen games from Square Enix, Konami, Capcom, Bandai Namco and Microsoft sell well in Japan.

The general audience doesn't really care about publisher, so a game doesn't need to be published by Nintendo in Japan to sell well.