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[Spiegel]

Any reports on how Idolmaster PSP is doing?

The three versions are out of stock in amazon.jp. It should be huge (100k+ first day?)

 

[JoshuaJSlone]

Thank you. I've become much too lazy these past two years to look shit up any more.

Not that Garaph doesn't already get plenty of attention here, but for fellow Firefox users I want to point out that a combination of one of the search plugins (going to the game search should present the options in your search drop-down) and the Context Search extension makes it almost too easy, even with a cat sitting on your arm and limiting mobility. Highlight Mario & Luigi, right-click, choose Search for "Mario & Luigi", select Garaph LIKE (or BOOLEAN), and there are the results.

Wii 21000
PS3 19000

Holy damn. PS3's been above average for a few weeks already.

It's still its third worst February, out of three so far. Certainly from a Wii/PS3 weekly marketshare standpoint PS3 is doing better than normal, since Wii is having an even worse February relative to its previous two.

SFIV is doing well compared to other fighting games, but do you guys think that capcom might have expected/wanted more? Only they were cautious with the first shipment?

I don't know what their Japanese expectations are, but their worldwide expectations for the game across the two platforms is only a bit over 2 million. Considering how fighters (that aren't also crazy four-player games) have done recently, I doubt they expected a big portion of that from Japan.

Cant be worse than NOA.

In Japan they need to increase interest to boost sales. In America they need to decrease interest to relieve shortages.

Comparing Capcom to Nintendo in terms of mascots popularity in Japan is like comparing the Moon to the Sun in size. He said fighters need to adapt. I said it isnt the gameplay that creates the popularity. What, all you gotta do to make a successful fighter is have collection of the most bankable characters in the industry?

Not every game featuring Nintendo characters is a guaranteed multi-million seller. Or 100K seller. Certainly it's one of Smash's advantages, but one thing alone isn't enough to make it outsell the rest of a genre combined.

 

[markatisu]

In Japan they need to increase interest to boost sales. In America they need to decrease interest to relieve shortages.

Not sure if I have ever heard of someone wanting to decrease interest in a product before :lol

 

[JoshuaJSlone]

Or to limit it to a relevant early portion...

 

[HK-47]

Not every game featuring Nintendo characters is a guaranteed multi-million seller. Or 100K seller. Certainly it's one of Smash's advantages, but one thing alone isn't enough to make it outsell the rest of a genre combined.

I think one featuring all of them is pretty much guaranteed. Why Nintendo originally didnt want to bring SSB here boggles my min.

 

[jj984jj]

Wow @ Wii and PS3 having their worst years and 360 having its best. Not that it's a big achievement that the 360 is doing better than before but it's still funny. :lol

 

[BishopLamont]

The Smash bros. team put a ton of work into the game, you're not giving them enough credit if you think the sales are because of the characters. It might not be a near 2 million seller if the characters weren't there but it'd still sell alot more then all these other fighting games.

Wow @ Wii and PS3 having their worst years and 360 having its best. Not that it's a big achievement that the 360 is doing better than before but it's still funny. :lol

Western third parties shovelware > Eastern third parties shovelware!

Not surprise at all about Mario and Kuigi RPG 3 sales. Great prime time ads by Nintendo. Interestingly all of them featured women playing the game. It was advertised almost as a casual title. Basically the same type of ads that New Super Mario Bros got. This title could turn out to have really good legs (for an RPG).

How's the advertising for Inazuma 11? That great is a beast in legs for an RPG.

 

[Rolf NB]

Awesome! :lol

 

[charlequin]

Its something Nintendo does all the time. They leverage their games with mascots, especially Mario and Pokemon.

Sure, but the idea that Nintendo's mascots are the single, straightforward explanation for the entire sales gap between SSB* and other fighting games is pretty ridiculous, especially when you have other mascot fighters with similarly popular characters not reaching anything like the same level of success.

Smash is such a big brand because the mascots give it that initial leg-up but also because the gameplay hit exactly the right note and dragged in a whole lot of buyers who don't generally buy Nintendo's other fanservice properties like Mario Tennis or whatever. I don't see any other way to read it that's even halfway sensible.

 

[Flying_Phoenix]

Comparing Capcom to Nintendo in terms of mascots popularity in Japan is like comparing the Moon to the Sun in size.

Yeah who cares about Marvel mascots or Tatsunoko mascots? :rollseyes:

 

[Zihark]

Ah 365 days of magic is still up there-anyone know its total sales?
Viink- do you know if Konami is still showing ads for Tongariboushi and is the game doing good at Famicom dojo-i'm really interested in the game.

 

[HK-47]

Sure, but the idea that Nintendo's mascots are the single, straightforward explanation for the entire sales gap between SSB* and other fighting games is pretty ridiculous, especially when you have other mascot fighters with similarly popular characters not reaching anything like the same level of success.

Smash is such a big brand because the mascots give it that initial leg-up but also because the gameplay hit exactly the right note and dragged in a whole lot of buyers who don't generally buy Nintendo's other fanservice properties like Mario Tennis or whatever. I don't see any other way to read it that's even halfway sensible.

Sure but Nintendo drags in people from all the other franchises too.

All I'm saying is that the game play isnt the driving force behind the sales gap. If Capcom made a mascot fighting game in the same style with good online, multiplat and included MvC2 as a free download it still wouldnt sell half as well as Smash...

Mario and Pokemon are far and away the heaviest hitters in the industry. How else do you also explain the huge disparity between Mario Party and all the other minigame collections? It certainly isnt better than them.

 

[iidesuyo]

Could we regard PSP software sales as "healthy" by now?

 

[JKBii]

Wow 13-30 is all Wii or DS :lol

The sweet spot has been stolen!

 

[BishopLamont]

Sure but Nintendo drags in people from all the other franchises too.

All I'm saying is that the game play isnt the driving force behind the sales gap. If Capcom made a mascot fighting game in the same style with good online, multiplat and included MvC2 as a free download it still wouldnt sell half as well as Smash...

Mario and Pokemon are far and away the heaviest hitters in the industry. How else do you also explain the huge disparity between Mario Party and all the other minigame collections? It certainly isnt better than them.

Mario Party has always sold well and was one of the first minigames, it's brand has been built up, not by the characters but being a fun game. The characters was probably the hook to get people interested when it first started, but it's a known good party game by now. The same applies to SSB. The gameplay is the driving force for sales.

 

[gconsole]

That's kind of bittersweet to me. I've always been big fan of the 2D fighters from Capcom and SNK and I'm glad SF4 out did its 3D competitors but seeing only a total of 124k is kind of sad even if it was expected. Although there was no chance of it happening, I kept thinking it would some how pull through and sell over 200k in the first week. With all the news of SF4 CE's, arcade sticks, and mad catz/saturn pads selling out quick I hope NA numbers will be much higher(much higher to me would be something like a combined total of 500k+)

I mean come on, if the MK series can keep coming back to sell millions, why not SF4 damn it *I would throw in a Kittonwy angry face if I had one*

I didn't know MK sell million in japan.

 

[t3nmilez]

People here complaining about high game prices obviously don't understand the Japanese game market. The list price may be around 8900yen, but no one pays that much unless they're a fool. The majority of stores drop the prices by a good amount so you end up paying much less. Even if you don't have a store that does that, you can always just order stuff from Amazon, where they have it Star Ocean for around 7100yen.

Anyway, despite iDOLM@STER seeming to be doing well, I've read that a lot of people are pissed off because the game won't run if you have custom firmware. In order to play it, you need to get rid of it and update to 5.05. Since the firmware just came out with this game, there isn't a workaround yet. I guess that lots of imas fans are also fans of custom firmware, so it's a tough decision for them to make! I wonder if it'll impact sales of the game in the long run, I sure as hell wouldn't buy a game until it was guaranteed to work on my system.

 

[donny2112]

How else do you also explain the huge disparity between Mario Party and all the other minigame collections? It certainly isnt better than them.

Mario Party 1-3, DS, eReader, and probably another one or two were awesome. Quality is definitely a factor here. However in this case, I think that Mario Party's position as the premier game in the field along with the continued quality has helped it remain the genre king. I do wonder about the lack of a Mario Party 9 for the last two Fall's, though. It often easy to lose your popularity if you stay out of the public's eye for too long.

Edit:
Hardware is up.

DSi 53,483
PSP 34,256
Wii 21,016
PS3 18,656
DS Lite 14,810
Xbox 360 9,833
PS2 5,332

 

[Oldschool]

Could we regard PSP software sales as "healthy" by now?

I dont think so.

Only Monster Hunter Clones and Final Fantasy sells on PSP.

 

[bttb]

.

 

[Brofist]

It's 8,390 yen! I, for one, refuse to pay such an outrageous price.

I'm guessing sarcasm, or you fail at shopping. One or the other

 

[FrankT]

Decent week for 360. Wonder how it will perform this week. Anyone have the LTD's? How close is 360 to 1 million at this point?

 

[donny2112]

I dont think so.

It's better than it used to be. To determine whether it's "healthy" or not, a definition of "healthy" needs to be given, or this is going to devolve into another useless discussion.

 

[Stumpokapow]

Decent week for 360. Wonder how it will perform this week. Anyone have the LTD's? How close is 360 to 1 million at this point?

depends on the tracker, but 900k is the LTD basically.

 

[PuppetMaster]

8,390.00 JPY=137.060 AUD
8,390.00 JPY=89.1481 USD
8,390.00 JPY=69.9657 EUR
8,390.00 JPY=61.8575 GBP

Disgraceful prices.

That is FUD. I don't know what shop that person is buying from. Maybe he is looking at import shop prices. It is not that much it is 6,712 on Amazon Japan right now.

I bought it from Biccamera for 7,550 and because it comes with 10% points it really was just 6,795.


6,712.00 JPY = 71.3415 USD

Still a bit high but then the yen is very very strong versus the dollar right now. And the pricing is par for the course for HD games.

 

[HK-47]

Mario Party 1-3, DS, eReader, and probably another one or two were awesome. Quality is definitely a factor here. However in this case, I think that Mario Party's position as the premier game in the field along with the continued quality has helped it remain the genre king. I do wonder about the lack of a Mario Party 9 for the last two Fall's, though. It often easy to lose your popularity if you stay out of the public's eye for too long.

Edit:
Hardware is up.

DSi 53,483
PSP 34,256
Wii 21,016
PS3 18,656
DS Lite 14,810
Xbox 360 9,833
PS2 5,332

Continued quality? MP8 was just about as bad as your typical shovelware party game. It barely did anything with motion control. DS deserved to sell. 1-3 deserved to sell. They have great boards and really fun and interesting minigames. Having played extensive amounts of 4, 6, and 8 and quite a bit of 5, they all fall woefully short, especially in the minigame department.

They phone it in so hard on this series it makes the AC series blush...

 

[Stumpokapow]

Continued quality? MP8 was just about as bad as your typical shovelware party game. It barely did anything with motion control. DS deservde to sell. 1-3 deserved to sell. They have great boards and really fun and interesting minigames. Having played extensive amounts of 4, 6, and 8 and quite a bit of 5, they all fall woefully short, especially in the minigame department.

i agree with this

 

[donny2112]

- Mario & Luigi RPG 3!!! (NDS) sell-through is 86.75%.

Also, PS2 Gundam is 85.7% sell-through, if I'm understanding it correctly.

 

[Spiegel]

It's better than it used to be. To determine whether it's "healthy" or not, a definition of "healthy" needs to be given, or this is going to devolve into another useless discussion.

The weekly software:hardware ratio is healthier. There is less hardware sold but more software sold.

Hardware sales are driven by "store brought software" and not something else like it used to be.

 

[donny2112]

Famitsu Feb 2-8

01./01. [PSP] Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 2 (Namco Bandai Games) - 45,104 / 255,401
02./02. [PSP] World Soccer Winning Eleven 12: PES 2009 (Konami) - 39,073 / 141,294
03./04. [PS2] World Soccer Winning Eleven 12: PES 2009 (Konami) - 38,401 / 140,258
04./00. [PS3] Demon's Souls (SCEI) - 36,794 / NEW
05./03. [NDS] Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time (Square Enix) - 35,693 / 137,682
06./00. [NDS] Detective Conan & Kindaichi Case Files: A Chance Encounter of Two Detectives (Namco Bandai Games) - 24,470 / NEW
07./05. [PSP] Monster Hunter Portable 2 G (BEST) (Capcom) - 22,030 / 388,935
08./08. [NDS] Rhythm Tengoku Gold (Nintendo) - 16,305 / 1,556,030
09./10. [WII] Wii Fit (Nintendo) - 15,939 / 3,142,686
10./07. [WII] Taiko Drum Master Wii (Namco Bandai Games) - 15,258 / 378,314
11./09. [WII] Play on Wii: Mario Tennis GC (Nintendo) - 13,263 / 118,871
12./00. [PS3] Midnight Club: Los Angeles (Spike) - 12,344 / NEW
13./11. [NDS] Wagamama Fashion: Girls Mode (Nintendo) - 11,880 / 734,944
14./14. [WII] Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo) - 10,157 / 2,143,975
15./00. [NDS] Chibi Maruko-chan DS Maru-chan no Machi (Namco Bandai Games) - 10,143 / NEW
16./00. [WII] Another Code R: Gateway of Memory (Nintendo) - 10,070 / NEW
17./15. [NDS] Pokemon Platinum (Nintendo/Pokemon Co.) - 8,801 / 2,326,150
18./00. [NDS] Destiny Links (Namco Bandai Games) - 8,657 / NEW
19./20. [WII] Animal Crossing: City Folk (Nintendo) - 8,531 / 1,062,217
20./23. [NDS] Kirby Super Star Ultra Deluxe (Nintendo) - 7,624 / 1,018,426
21./00. [PSP] Enkaku Sousa: Sana e no 23 Hiai (Remote Investigation: 23 Days Towards the Truth) (SCEI) - 7,501 / NEW
22./06. [WII] Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time (Square Enix) - 7,186 / 30,062
23./21. [WII] Wii Sports (Nintendo) - 7,169 / 3,427,067
24./16. [PSP] Dissidia: Final Fantasy (Square Enix) - 6,522 / 863,581
25./00. [NDS] Animal Crossing: Wild World (Nintendo) - 5,928 / 4,920,290
26./27. [NDS] Tongari Boushi to Mahou no 365 Nichi (Little Magician's Magic Adventure) (Konami) - 5,799 / 288,757
27./24. [NDS] Prof. Layton and the Last Time Travel (Level 5) - 5,638 / 718,147
28./25. [NDS] Penguin no Mondai: Saikyou Penguin Densetsu! (A Penguin's Troubles: Strongest Penguin Legend) (Konami) - 5,550 / 210,228
29./28. [NDS] Momotarou Dentetsu 20th Anniversary (Hudson) - 5,498 / 216,774
30./00. [NDS] Inazuma Eleven (Level 5) - 5,208 / 276,218

*. [PSP] Midnight Club: LA Remix (Spike) - 4,800 / NEW
*. [360] Midnight Club: Los Angeles (Spike) - 4,400 / NEW
*. [PS3] Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box (Electronic Arts Victor) - 3,300 / NEW
*. [PS3] Shaun White Snowboarding (Ubisoft) - 3,000 / NEW
*. [PS2] Momotarou Dentetsu 16 (BEST) (Hudson) - 2,600 / NEW
*. [360] Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box (Electronic Arts Victor) - 1,700 / NEW
*. [PSP] Shaun White Snowboarding (Ubisoft) - 1,200 / NEW


Bar Chart Feb 2-8 (thanks to JoshuaJSlone/garaph.info)

Note: Image may be delayed from the time of this post, but will automatically show once the data is ready.


Recent Famitsu Top 30s

Jan 5-11, 2009
Jan 12-18, 2009
Jan 19-25, 2009
Jan 26-Feb 1, 2009

 

[Arpharmd B]

Mario Party 1-3, DS, eReader, and probably another one or two were awesome. Quality is definitely a factor here. However in this case, I think that Mario Party's position as the premier game in the field along with the continued quality has helped it remain the genre king. I do wonder about the lack of a Mario Party 9 for the last two Fall's, though. It often easy to lose your popularity if you stay out of the public's eye for too long.

Edit:
Hardware is up.

DSi 53,483
PSP 34,256
Wii 21,016
PS3 18,656
DS Lite 14,810
Xbox 360 9,833
PS2 5,332

360 at 10k? Could Star Ocean launch put it past Wii next week? Serious question.

 

[jeremy1456]

360 at 10k? Could Star Ocean launch put it past Wii next week? Serious question.

Stranger things have happened. It will probably push the 360 above the Wii for one week, same as Yakuza 3 for the PS3.

 

[schuelma]

360 at 10k? Could Star Ocean launch put it past Wii next week? Serious question.

Possibly?

The sure bet is PS3 in two weeks (and probably lasting a couple weeks if not more with Yakuza 3 and RE5).

The thing is after those two games hit we know of absolutely zero big HD releases for the rest of the year. You have the FF13 demo and maybe FF13 (though I have my doubts with DQ9 delayed), and nada. For as horrid as the Wii is doing, we at least know of some big games coming this year.

 

[pseudocaesar]

360 at 10k? Could Star Ocean launch put it past Wii next week? Serious question.

Yes, but expect it be front loaded as hell, and still not sell as well as WKC did. Its been getting poor reviews in the west.

Sidenote, can someone post previous First week and LTD sales of Star Ocean. I still think Square are retarded for making it a 360 exclusive. It just wont sell that much as it would if it were multiplat or even a ps3 exclusive.

 

[donny2112]

Sidenote, can someone post previous First week and LTD sales of Star Ocean.

Famitsu:
SFC Star Ocean - 81K (176K)
PS1 Star Ocean: The Second Story - 374K (700K)
PS2 Star Ocean 3: Till the End of Time - 386K (533K)

 

[Stumpokapow]

Sidenote, can someone post previous First week and LTD sales of Star Ocean. I still think Square are retarded for making it a 360 exclusive. It just wont sell that much as it would if it were multiplat or even a ps3 exclusive.

so2 374k on lifetime of 700k
so3 386k on lifetime of 533k
so3 dc 81k on lifetime of 146k--this is sort of a special case, i'd normally never include a re-release broken out separately like this given your question but i would in this case.

 

[donny2112]

i'd normally never include a re-release broken out separately like this given your question but i would in this case.

I've seen you mention SO3 in these terms before. What's the reason? IIRC, there was some bug in SO3 that rendered the game unplayable past a certain point, but it was later fixed. Is that part of it?

 

[HK-47]

I've seen you mention SO3 in these terms before. What's the reason? IIRC, there was some bug in SO3 that rendered the game unplayable past a certain point, but it was later fixed. Is that part of it?

Probably. Game was more fragged than a WRPG rushed out the door.

 

[pseudocaesar]

Does anyone expect it to sell like that on the 360?

 

[FINALFANTASYDOG]

I've seen you mention SO3 in these terms before. What's the reason? IIRC, there was some bug in SO3 that rendered the game unplayable past a certain point, but it was later fixed. Is that part of it?

Yes, the game was unplayable on First Version PS2 models and was riddled with a ton of other bugs that made things not work as they should

Fun things like this:

in the
first version of the game there was a bug that prevented the breaking
effect if synthesized to a weapon..

. Most user complaints have centered on bugs occuring in battle, causing major problems for gamers trying to get their hack and slash groove on.

 

[Loudninja]

Yes, the game was unplayable on First Version PS2 models and was riddled with a ton of other bugs that made things not work as they should

Wow really?Did not know that.

 

[Stumpokapow]

I've seen you mention SO3 in these terms before. What's the reason? IIRC, there was some bug in SO3 that rendered the game unplayable past a certain point, but it was later fixed. Is that part of it?

Yes, there was a major bug which broke the game on early PS2 models and caused quite a good deal of ill will. It was kind of a minor crisis as Sony and Square Enix traded barbs over who was responsible and neither agreed to fix it.

Separate from that, SO3 received a DQ8-ish boost when they localized it. The localized version formed the basis for the DC. It also had extra characters, extra dungeons pretty much balance and UI changes. I think the versus battle mode was added as well. I also think the voiced dialog or maybe just some of the voiced dialog is new to the Director's Cut.

Either way, the controversy surrounding the original was serious enough and the upgrade was substantial enough that I'd say this is an exceptional circumstance for a re-release so I'd hash it out sort of separately.

 

[HK-47]

Yes, there was a major bug which broke the game on early PS2 models and caused quite a good deal of ill will. It was kind of a minor crisis as Sony and Square Enix traded barbs over who was responsible and neither agreed to fix it.

Separate from that, SO3 received a DQ8-ish boost when they localized it. The localized version formed the basis for the DC. It also had extra characters, extra dungeons pretty much balance and UI changes. I think the versus battle mode was added as well. I also think the voiced dialog or maybe just some of the voiced dialog is new to the Director's Cut.

Either way, the controversy surrounding the original was serious enough and the upgrade was substantial enough that I'd say this is an exceptional circumstance for a re-release so I'd hash it out sort of separately.

Its too bad that the 360 userbase will likely hide whether or not this causes a Tempest like effect of poisoning the well, in this case the RPG fanbase.

How did that game ever get past testing and QA?

 

[t3nmilez]

Heh, and people complain about excessive patches in current-gen systems. Back in the day, if a game was broken, then it would either stay broken or you'd have to buy a "special edition" version to play it properly. At least now, devs can patch bugs and add the content as DLC instead of forcing you to buy a new game (or some "append disc" nonsense). I guess that the west never really experienced it as badly since most of the problems were fixed when the games were brought over.

 

[justchris]

Wait what? Nintendo is way more powerful than those brands. And why wouldnt Brawl sell more then Melee? Its on a more popular system.

Its something Nintendo does all the time. They leverage their games with mascots, especially Mario and Pokemon.

What about Gundam games. Are there any Gundam games that sell noticeably better than Smash Bros. Gundam's a pretty popular brand.

 

[Fuzzy]

Not that Garaph doesn't already get plenty of attention here, but for fellow Firefox users I want to point out that a combination of one of the search plugins (going to the game search should present the options in your search drop-down) and the Context Search extension makes it almost too easy, even with a cat sitting on your arm and limiting mobility. Highlight Mario & Luigi, right-click, choose Search for "Mario & Luigi", select Garaph LIKE (or BOOLEAN), and there are the results.

Are you trying to kill me? I'm allergic to cats and wouldn't be able to breath if you did this.

 

[Vinnk]

Viink- do you know if Konami is still showing ads for Tongariboushi and is the game doing good at Famicom dojo-i'm really interested in the game.

Sorry to say I am not familiar with Tongariboushi. And considering that I watch a good 3-4 hours of Japanese TV a day and havn't seen an ad for it, I am guessing it is not being heavily advertised.

How's the advertising for Inazuma 11? That great is a beast in legs for an RPG.

No ads for months. It seems to be selling on word of mouth and it's connection to the anime.

 

[PantherLotus]

31. [PS3] Midnight Club: Los Angeles (Spike)
32. [PS2] Yakuza 2 (Playstation 2 The Best) (SEGA)
33. [NDS] Mario Kart DS (Nintendo)
34. [PS3] Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 (includes PS3 Bundles) (Konami)
35. [PSP] Dissidia Final Fantasy (includes PSP Bundles) (Square Enix)
36. [NDS] Megami Ibunroku: Devil Survivor (Atlus)
37. [NDS] Professor Layton and the Last Time Travel (Level 5)
38. [WII] Another Code: R Gateway of Memory (Nintendo)
39. [NDS] Power Pro Kun Pocket 11 (Konami)
40. [PS3] Gran Turismo 5 Prologue Spec III (SCE)
41. [NDS] New Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo)
42. [PS3] Ryu ga Gotoku Kenzan! (PlayStation 3 the Best) (SEGA)
43. [WII] Super Smash Brothers Brawl (Nintendo)
44. [NDS] Kanji Brain 2 + Dictionary (IE Institute)
45. [NDS] Tamagotchi Star School (Namco Bandai)
46. [WII] Karaoke Joysound Wii (Hudson)
47. [WII] Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time (Square Enix)
48. [PSP] Midnight Club: LA Remix (Spike)
49. [360] SKATE 2 (Electronic Arts)
50. [WII] Wii Play (Nintendo)

[B][U]Hardware | This Week | Last Week |   YTD   |    LTD    [/U][/B]
NDS      |    68,293 |    62,013 | 680,002 | 25,799,645
PSP      |    34,256 |    34,969 | 411,782 | 11,775,801
WII      |    21,016 |    20,412 | 285,017 |  7,763,918
PS3      |    18,656 |    16,082 | 179,339 |  2,801,767
360      |     9,833 |     8,311 |  73,738 |    904,278
PS2      |     5,332 |     5,089 |  45,768 | 21,445,292
--------------------------------------------------------
DSi      |    53,483 |    49,529 | 533,487 |  1,764,854
DSL      |    14,810 |    12,484 | 146,515 |

SOFTWARE | HARDWARE | CONSOLES | HANDHELDS

The second chart is new. It's a 16-week glance at total hardware marketshare. What I notice is remarkable consistence over the last 4 months. Also notice that it appears the Wii benefited the most (at other hardware's expense) of the year-end gift giving season. What do you think this means?

 

[BishopLamont]

No ads for months. It seems to be selling on word of mouth and it's connection to the anime.

Ah I see, thanks.

Prediction time:

Star Ocean 4
First week - 170k
LTD - 250k

 

[donny2112]

PSP software sales

Famitsu data from GEIMIN.net (thanks to bttb):
First number is total sales from GEIMIN. Second number is PSP sales in my database for the same period. Third number is the percentage of sales my database was tracking vs total sales.

2004:  551K /  544K / 98.7%
2005: 4179K / 3870K / 92.6%
2006: 6659K / 5717K / 85.9%
2007: 6750K / 6087K / 90.2%
2008: 9746K / 8399K / 86.2%

From the way that I do this calculation and the prevalence of end of year data vs. mid-year data, the six month periods A) won't sum up to the yearly totals and B) cover as high a percentage of the total sales. Also, we don't have a 2005 1st half Top 100, so that year will be a lower representation per half than the others. Just wanted to give an idea of where this is starting from, though.

Why GBA? It couldn't be DS. DS makes the PS2 look poor for total software. I didn't want to compare it to a console (e.g. GCN), since it's different markets. It looks like the PSP could approach GBA's total hardware sales, though GBA got there faster which likewise gives it a software advantage. However, there is less yearly or mid-year data for the GBA's lifespan, which lowers it some. GBA was also essentially a monopoly whereas PSP was pitted against the DS. The PSP did have the PlayStation name and publisher support going for it, though.

Since there isn't an exactly comparable system, GBA was chosen to at least give a frame of reference.

PSP software sales have gotten better. Monster Hunter Portable 2 G was half of the 2008 1st Half total, but I think it's still pretty clear that the PSP was improved in 2008 over its 2007 performance.

I've been a pretty strong advocate that the PSP hasn't been selling as a primarily UMD game playing device for a while now. Thinking about it more generationally, though, I think the PSP may be coming back a bit more toward the video game software side than it used to be. The PSP started out selling primarily for games. That didn't go so great as shown by the graph up through 2007. Pretty much no growth in 2007 despite Monster Hunter Portable 2 launching in the first half of 2007. Obviously this had an impact on developer support (and the overseas performance didn't help out much, either).

However despite that lowered publisher support, 2008 still saw good gains. Even though Monster Hunter Portable 2 G was over half of the 2008 1st Half total, that still means that the rest of the software was equivalent to 2006's 1st Half with fewer games (40 > 10K in 2006's 1st Half vs. 24 > 10K in 2008's 1st Half). 2008's 2nd Half showed similar improvement vs. 2006/2007 (8 games > 100K with 2 > 500K vs. 10 > 100k in 2006 and 7 > 100K in 2007 with 1 > 500K).

In short, I'd say that the PSP's software sales have improved a good amount over the past year, which I think is very surprising for a system this far into its generation. Nice!