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[Nirolak]

I remember a few years ago when the career services people were explaining to us that the average college graduate in the U.S. will switch careers (not just jobs within the same career, but actual careers) an average of five time during their lifetime, and that on average, two of those careers will be careers that didn't even exist when they first graduated.

It seems like the U.S. is kind of the polar opposite of Japan in this regard.

 

[taconinja]

A lot of this company pressure begins even before people enter companies.

I'm a student in one of Japan's most well-regarded universities (and I'm not saying this to show off, but it's true. The school's produced 6 Prime Ministers and has alumni from the CEOs of Samsung and Sony; even Yamauchi was a student before dropping out). I'm not on an exchange program, but enrolled as a realtime graduate student.

Even graduate school is a bit of an oddity in Japan. Japanese college graduates are expected to go to work and become (for lack of a better word) slaves to the companies. The ones (Japanese) who do decide to go gain extra skill, but most also happen to be proficient in English, so many have an already have an international outlook and may want to head overseas in the near future. Japanese schools also attract other East and Southeast Asian students who believe in this system, so it's usually Westerners who object.

Before finishing university, students are expected to do systematic job hunting, which shows the differences in what purpose a university is supposed to serve in Japan and Western countries. In Japan, you go to school not to gain knowledge, but to get a permanent, secure job. In Western countries, employment is also seen as an incentive to go to college, but knowledge and resume building is another purpose. Japanese students feel their degrees are everything they need, regardless of what their major was or what they actually studied. Japanese companies will train all hired workers anyway. Graduate school serves an even more differing purpose in Japan and elsewhere: in Japan, it lands you a job. Elsewhere, it would explicitly give you more knowledge.

What does this mean for the game industry? Well, I just mentioned this post because I can see the seeds mentioned in this thread sowing right before my very eyes, every single day, among my peers. Whether one would agree or not, Japanese society is fairly rigid. The dismantling of the core philosophies of a company like Nintendo will not happen easily.

Overall, yes, but this isn't precisely accurate. Quite a few of the more respected higher institutions have similar programs. Harvard, Yale, and all the Ivy League schools do this and many specialized graduate level schools do as well. For instance, Georgetown Law students are enrolled in a three-year program. The first year is a general prep year where they learn legal research and writing and various tort and international law subjects. Beginning second year, though, students do two things: They begin to specialize in a field of law and they begin interviewing for an internship for their second summer. In almost every single instance, the firm they intern with hires them once they complete third year. That third year is tailored to subjects they will use at their future firm.

This is just one example. The specific circumstances may vary, but the internship programs at various schools are intended as future career introductions.

 

[cvxfreak]

Overall, yes, but this isn't precisely accurate. Quite a few of the more respected higher institutions have similar programs. Harvard, Yale, and all the Ivy League schools do this and many specialized graduate level schools do as well. For instance, Georgetown Law students are enrolled in a three-year program. The first year is a general prep year where they learn legal research and writing and various tort and international law subjects. Beginning second year, though, students do two things: They begin to specialize in a field of law and they begin interviewing for an internship for their second summer. In almost every single instance, the firm they intern with hires them once they complete third year. That third year is tailored to subjects they will use at their future firm.

This is just one example. The specific circumstances may vary, but the internship programs at various schools are intended as future career introductions.

The thing about Japanese higher education is that this is standard across the system. I've never heard of a specialized program in a Japanese school that gets you into specific employment because every department is supposed to do that inherently. There would be a strange redundancy at work, although it wouldn't surprise me to see Japanese schools opening up to this idea, just as over the last few years, in their struggle to attract international students, Japanese schools have adopted some Western education practices.

It's another reason why most Japanese students I've met don't care about their GPAs and would be proud to get whatever the equivalent of a C- happens to be. I have never heard of an honor's society in Japan like Phi Beta Kappa either.

 

[taconinja]

The thing about Japanese higher education is that this is standard across the system. I've never heard of a specialized program in a Japanese school that gets you into specific employment because every department is supposed to do that inherently. There would be a strange redundancy at work, although it wouldn't surprise me to see Japanese schools opening up to this idea, just as over the last few years, in their struggle to attract international students, Japanese schools have adopted some Western education practices.

It's another reason why most Japanese students I've met don't care about their GPAs and would be proud to get whatever the equivalent of a C- happens to be. I have never heard of an honor's society in Japan like Phi Beta Kappa either.

True, and that's why I said you were correct overall. The population size is one reason for the major difference between the standard Japanese system and the system of the elite universities in the U.S. Of course, there are numerous differences in both implementation and execution at every level of the two.

 

[Onesimos]

This thread NEEDS to be on-topic (it is a sales thread), not discuss off-topic subjects like corporate culture which belongs in a separate thread.

To be on-topic, here are the Famitsu hardware numbers to compare with the Media Create ones:

Famitsu hardware numbers (rounded estimates):

PS3 – 245,000
Wii – 208,000
DSi – 111,000
PSP – 78,000
DSi LL – 75,000
DS Lite – 13,000
Xbox 360 – 7,100
PSP go – 3,200
PS2 - not counted

For comparison’s sake, here’s how Media Create ranked the systems a few days ago:

PS3 – 237,086
Wii – 191,915
DSi – 95,227
PSP – 79,194
DSi LL – 75,241
DS Lite – 12,879
Xbox 360 – 8,965
PSP go – 3,260
PS2 – 2,982

By comparing the Famitsu and Media Create numbers, I noticed that the Wii's and DSi's numbers were much lower on the latter's list: 16,085 difference for the Wii, and 15,773 difference for the DSi. The difference for the PS3 is 7,914. Media Create must have undercounted the Wii and the DSi, as the difference between the Wii and PS3 in the Media Create list is around 45K, while in the Famitsu list the difference is around 37K.

Anyway, the numbers for the systems for this week are quite impressive, especially for the PS3 which has much to do with the release of Final Fantasy XIII. It would be interesting to see the hardware numbers fare for the week of December 21st through the 26th.

Since Famitsu did not count the PS2, this may mean that it may decided to discontinue doing so as it did with the GameCube a few years back.

 

[ethelred]

This thread NEEDS to be on-topic (it is a sales thread), not discuss off-topic subjects like corporate culture which belongs in a separate thread.

First complaining about discussing Nintendo's hardware and software situation, and now this. You're awfully pushy for a junior member.

 

[cvxfreak]

:lol :lol :lol

 

[Nirolak]

This thread NEEDS to be on-topic (it is a sales thread), not discuss off-topic subjects like corporate culture which belongs in a separate thread.

This is totally on topic. We're discussing why Nintendo isn't getting more Western developers to fill in the gaps in their release schedule.

Sales don't exist in a vacuum.

 

[bttb]

.

 

[Nirolak]

http://mainichi.jp/enta/mantan/graph/game/20091227/
The Professor Layton series has now shipped over 8 million units worldwide.

At the rate they're going, Level 5 is going to become bigger sales wise than Koei-Tecmo soon, if they haven't already.

 

[Segata Sanshiro]

First complaining about discussing Nintendo's hardware and software situation, and now this. You're awfully pushy for a junior member.

And you're awfully short for a Storm Trooper.

 

[Kenka]

http://mainichi.jp/enta/mantan/graph/game/20091227/
The Professor Layton series has now shipped over 8 million units worldwide.

So this is a lot of sales overseas. Domestic sales amount at around 3 millions right ?

 

[Chris1964]

Interesting reading about Japanese education.

Since Famitsu did not count the PS2, this may mean that it may decided to discontinue doing so as it did with the GameCube a few years back.

Sinobi almost never gives PS2 numbers. Media Create and Famitsu will track it for 2010.

So this is a lot of sales overseas. Domestic sales amount at around 3 millions right ?

Since these numbers are shipments domestic sales are around 3,5M or even more.

 

[Osuwari]

what worries me is how can the wii's lately negative image affect the sucessor? the next system could actually perform worse if the curent wii stigmas aren't addressed.

also, something i can't understand is why they don't make more "easy" sequels. that kind of game is good to keep the current userbase active and to keep hardcore gamers entertained even if hardware sales don't go up. imo, it is a wasted opportunity to not take advantage of that while they work on the next massive seller. they're also damaging the only truly reliable userbase they have since casuals can give you the finger easily and go to any new console tomorrow. the loyal base is what actually can save them if they ended up in a rough time like on the GC days.

 

[duckroll]

Maybe Onesimos should take over as Sales-age President. He seems to have a very specific vision for what people should or should not discuss in here. :lol

 

[Gravijah]

Maybe Onesimos should take over as Sales-age President. He seems to have a very specific vision for what people should or should not discuss in here. :lol

 

[cvxfreak]

I can't believe the PSP and Wii are only 390,940 units apart YTD so far. I wonder what that might narrow to in the next two weeks. This compared to a nearly 1 Million gap for 2008.

Can 2010 finally reverse the Wii and PSP's positions?

 

[AniHawk]

This is totally on topic. We're discussing why Nintendo isn't getting more Western developers to fill in the gaps in their release schedule.

Sales don't exist in a vacuum.

Besides, if sales did exist in a vacuum, the bag would get full and you'd have to change it a few times a year.

 

[AniHawk]

I can't believe the PSP and Wii are only 390,940 units apart YTD so far. I wonder what that might narrow to in the next two weeks. This compared to a nearly 1 Million gap for 2008.

Can 2010 finally reverse the Wii and PSP's positions?

Depends. Aside from MH3P, what other big games are out for the PSP next year?

fake edit: Oh yeah, KH. I don't think the Wii has any counter for anything. It might be a dumb thing to do, but I'm really doubting Wii Relax does anything.

 

[cvxfreak]

Depends. Aside from MH3P, what other big games are out for the PSP next year?

fake edit: Oh yeah, KH. I don't think the Wii has any counter for anything. It might be a dumb thing to do, but I'm really doubting Wii Relax does anything.

So it'll be MHP2G, KH and possibly MHP3 versus NSMB Wii, Resort, Wii Fit Plus and RE5 Wii Edition.

I hope PS3 slaughters them both.

 

[duckroll]

So it'll be MHP2G, KH and possibly MHP3 versus NSMB Wii, Resort, Wii Fit Plus and RE5 Wii Edition.

I hope PS3 slaughters them both.

I think we can also expect Agito XIII next year. It's a very strong possibility for late 2010.

 

[Chris1964]

Depends. Aside from MH3P, what other big games are out for the PSP next year?

I also believe that MH3P has a good chance to come out next year but I see this happening at Q4, not earlier. PSP Monster Hunter spinoff and Wii Monster Hunter 3G should come earlier than MH3P
PSP has many other games that can move good ammounts of hardware though

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker
The Little Battlers
Resident Evil Portable (?)
The 3rd Birthday (?)
Final Fantasy Agito XIII (?)

and PSP-4000

 

[cvxfreak]

I also believe that MH3P has a good chance to come out next year but I see this happening at Q4, not earlier. PSP Monster Hunter spinoff and Wii Monster Hunter 3G should come earlier than MH3P
PSP has many other games that can move good ammounts of hardware though

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker
The Little Battlers
Resident Evil Portable (?)
The 3rd Birthday (?)
Final Fantasy Agito XIII (?)

and PSP-4000

All of these have reasonable selling power. Agito would perhaps have the least selling power out of all of the above besides The Little Battlers (of which I know nothing about). It's following CC, Dissidia and BbS. The same goes with MHP3, which I expect to sell relatively few systems since everyone's already buying the PSP for 2nd G.

I wonder if Biohazard Portable could be a surprise hit as well. Biohazard's proven to be strong no matter what platform it's on, and we might see a Phantasy Star Portable-style hit with that series.

 

[duckroll]

I also believe that MH3P has a good chance to come out next year but I see this happening at Q4, not earlier. PSP Monster Hunter spinoff and Wii Monster Hunter 3G should come earlier than MH3P
PSP has many other games that can move good ammounts of hardware though

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker
The Little Battlers
Resident Evil Portable (?)
The 3rd Birthday (?)
Final Fantasy Agito XIII (?)

and PSP-4000

I really don't see The Little Battlers and The 3rd Birthday moving much hardware at all.

Little Battlers could be a big hit for Level 5 if they can work the same magic they have for Layton and Inazuma, but that would simply be taking advantage of the audience on the PSP, and pushing ad-hoc multiplayer functions as well as customization and collection aspects along with the anime series tie-in for marketing and promotion among kids.

The 3rd Birthday is nothing more than a vanity project aimed at pleasing the small number of faithful fans of Parasite Eve who have longed for some sort of continuation for the series. Some factors to take into account: It's a third person shooter RPG, Parasite Eve 2 bombed in Japan, there hasn't been any sort of ongoing momentum for the franchise in the last decade, and as far we know so far it is just a single player experience with no multiplayer functions. This is a title which in fact might do better in the US than in Japan.

All of these have reasonable selling power. Agito would perhaps have the least selling power out of all of the above besides The Little Battlers (of which I know nothing about). It's following CC, Dissidia and BbS. The same goes with MHP3, which I expect to sell relatively few systems since everyone's already buying the PSP for 2nd G.

I wonder if Biohazard Portable could be a surprise hit as well. Biohazard's proven to be strong no matter what platform it's on, and we might see a Phantasy Star Portable-style hit with that series.

Agito XIII will sell a ton of PSPs, because it will be bundled with the PSP-4000.

 

[cvxfreak]

Agito XIII will sell a ton of PSPs, because it will be bundled with the PSP-4000.

Fuck, there's probably going to be a Biohazard Portable bundle too.

Funny enough, Capcom (USA, admittedly) kept propping up RE Portable as some kind of PSP Go-oriented title (which could have been BS, but then again, it could also have been true). Given that the Go has bombed so badly, maybe Capcom can realign for whatever the PSP-4000 is supposed to be (Go w/ UMD?) and make it a launch or focus title or something.

 

[Chris1964]

cvx did you visit any stores this week?

Since USA retail musings have become a joke are there any impressions from j-gaffers this week for FFXIII, Mario and most important (and easier I suppose) Wii and PS3 performance?

 

[duckroll]

Fuck, there's probably going to be a Biohazard Portable bundle too.

Funny enough, Capcom (USA, admittedly) kept propping up RE Portable as some kind of PSP Go-oriented title (which could have been BS, but then again, it could also have been true). Given that the Go has bombed so badly, maybe Capcom can realign for whatever the PSP-4000 is supposed to be (Go w/ UMD?) and make it a launch or focus title or something.

Errrr, I think that was just Sony trying to get all publishers at E3 to help hype up the PSP Go to be honest. I mean look at what happened with Peace Walker. They announced it right after the Go, and Kojima went on stage holding the Go iirc while talking about Peace Walker. Flash forward to TGS, and every single Peace Walker demo station is using the PSP-3000, flash forward to now, and it's looking like Konami doesn't even want to put out Peace Walker on PSN in Japan come March, although they'll probably put it up by the time the US and Europe launches in May happen.

In the end though, the Go is a retarded idea especially for Japan, because what people want out of their special limited edition game bundles is NOT a download card. Which probably explains why every major bundle continues to be the PSP-3000 for now.

 

[cvxfreak]

cvx did you visit any stores this week?

Sorry, but I went back to the U.S. for the Christmas/NY holiday. I will be in town in time for BbS's release, though.

Admittedly, impressions really matter the most during the holidays, so in that sense, it sucks not to be able to see what's going on now. But Christmas alone in Japan sucks, so screw that. :lol

Errrr, I think that was just Sony trying to get all publishers at E3 to help hype up the PSP Go to be honest. I mean look at what happened with Peace Walker. They announced it right after the Go, and Kojima went on stage holding the Go iirc while talking about Peace Walker. Flash forward to TGS, and every single Peace Walker demo station is using the PSP-3000, flash forward to now, and it's looking like Konami doesn't even want to put out Peace Walker on PSN in Japan come March, although they'll probably put it up by the time the US and Europe launches in May happen.

In the end though, the Go is a retarded idea especially for Japan, because what people want out of their special limited edition game bundles is NOT a download card. Which probably explains why every major bundle continues to be the PSP-3000 for now.

Yeah, excellent points. I do think that the actual physical design of the Go has a lot of potential in Japan, so if there's a PSP-4000 modeled on that, it'll form a reasonable bulk of PSP sales following its launch.

 

[duckroll]

Out of curiosity, why do you think Agito is going to have less selling power than The Third Birthday? Did you mean hardware movement, or total software sales? I'm curious because I'm not sure if I'm missing something here, but it has always seemed to me that The Third Birthday is going to make the least impact out of any of the original PSP games S-E has announced or released or far.

 

[cvxfreak]

Out of curiosity, why do you think Agito is going to have less selling power than The Third Birthday? Did you mean hardware movement, or total software sales? I'm curious because I'm not sure if I'm missing something here, but it has always seemed to me that The Third Birthday is going to make the least impact out of any of the original PSP games S-E has announced or released or far.

All I have to say to that is: whoops.

 

[Brazil]

I also believe that MH3P has a good chance to come out next year but I see this happening at Q4, not earlier. PSP Monster Hunter spinoff and Wii Monster Hunter 3G should come earlier than MH3P
PSP has many other games that can move good ammounts of hardware though

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker
The Little Battlers
Resident Evil Portable (?)
The 3rd Birthday (?)
Final Fantasy Agito XIII (?)

and PSP-4000

If all those releases come to the West next year (along with KH and MHP3), 2010 will be the year I'll triple my PSP game library.

Looking good.

 

[Kurosaki Ichigo]

PSP has a really good lineup for Q1. Nothing big to move hardware heavily, no hardware revisions or new SKUs either, but it has a rather filled software lineup that should make a good base level for the hardware. At least I expect it to be enough to get back the #2 position in the hardware charts and not the distant #4 its doing this holidays.

January:
Kingdom Hearts BBS -> Tekken 6 -> Valkyria Chronicles 2 & Nanoha -> bunch of otaku stuff
February:
God Eater -> nothing -> Hyakumanton no Bara Bara -> Blazblue & Kenka Banchou 4 & Pawapuro Success Legends & Minna no Tennis Portable
March:
.hack Link & Armored Core LR -> Musou Multi Raid 2 -> Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker & Fate Extra -> Prinny 2 and other minor stuff

With the userbase PSP already has, its pretty unlikely there will be big hw spikes without new hardware skus. But the consistent output of games should give it a good base level.

 

[Chris1964]

Famitsu 2009 top 10 until week 51.

01. [NDS] Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies (Square Enix) - 4.046.945 / NEW
02. [NDS] Pokemon Heart Gold / Soul Silver (Pokemon Co.) - 3.233.000 / NEW
03. [NDS] Friend Collection (Nintendo) - 2.065.000 / NEW
04. [WII] New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Nintendo) - 1.972.000 / NEW
05. [PS3] Final Fantasy XIII (Square Enix) - 1.516.532 / NEW
06. [WII] Wii Sports Resort (Nintendo) - 1.406.753 / NEW
07. [WII] Wii Fit Plus (Nintendo) - 1.165.000 / NEW
08. [WII] Monster Hunter 3 (Capcom) - 939.707 / NEW
09. [PSP] Monster Hunter Freedom Unite (PSP the Best) (Capcom) - 894.469 / 1.093.586
10. [NDS] Inazuma Eleven 2: Threat of the Invaders - Fire / Blizzard (Level 5) - 817.000 / NEW

Every LTD is up to 20/12/09 except for:
Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies: 06/12/09
Wii Sports Resort: 13/12/09
Monster Hunter 3: 08/11/09
Monster Hunter Freedom Unite (PSP the Best): 06/12/09

One more week for 2009 according to Famitsu. Next week NSMBW will overtake Friend Collection and Inazuma Eleven 2 is possible to overtake Monster Hunter Freedom Unite.

 

[Chris1964]

7 million sellers this year

2007: 10 (top 10 sales: 12.790.084)
2006: 9 ( top 10 sales : 23.348.558)
2008: 7 (top 10 sales : 15.658.225)
2009: 7 (top 10 sales : ~18.000.000)

Third best result for million sellers and second best result for top 10 total software (it will be more than 19m when 2009 ends.

 

[Stumpokapow]

Can you add overall known software sold for those four years? I expect that additional data would demonstrate that 2008 was a very poor year.

 

[Chris1964]

del.

 

[Nirolak]

Nomura dropped some hints as to the reveals and release dates of The Third Birthday and Final Fantasy Agito XIII in the last Famitsu:

It wouldn't be a Nomura interview without some hints on Square Enix's other ongoing RPG projects, and he didn't let readers down this time, either. "FF Agito XIII is proceeding well toward its next milestone," he said, "but the current plan will likely put The 3rd Birthday ahead of it. Both of them will be more fully revealed beginning next year, so look out for those."

In addition, Nomura also hinted at "an unannounced project which is moving along faster than originally expected." He wouldn't reveal any further information about it, but apparently "development's going smoothly and we started voice-recording work recently" on the title.

Finally, "there's one more unannounced title, though that one isn't a completely brand-new game," Nomura closed. "Look out for that one, too."

Source: http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3177425

---

Oh and as a side note: Chris, we did get some real musings in the U.S. musing thread finally and they actually sound believable for once.

 

[Chris1964]

Oops, I have added and the half year sales to the total. These are the correct numbers (every year we have top 500)

2004 top 500: 54.761.660
2005 top 500: 50.941.478
2006 top 500: 71.839.491
2007 top 500: 69.630.583
2008 top 500: 60.115.062

 

[Onesimos]

Possible best-selling game list for 2009:

01. [NDS] Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies (Square Enix)
02. [NDS] Pokemon Heart Gold / Soul Silver (Pokemon Co.)
03. [WII] New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Nintendo)
04. [NDS] Friend Collection (Nintendo)
??. [PS3] Final Fantasy XIII (Square Enix)

Since New Super Mario Bros. Wii will overtake Friend Collection next week, this means the former will take the #3 spot, while the latter will take the #4 spot. What spot will Final Fantasy XIII take? It may depend on how many copies it sold in its second week.

 

[Durante]

What spot will Final Fantasy XIII take? It may depend on how many copies it sold in its second week.

Not really, it will be 5th. In fact, it would probably remain at that rank even if you count the rest of its lifetime sales and not just 1 week of them.

 

[Stumpokapow]

Not really, it will be 5th.

Yeah. It's gotta break 2 million to be 4th or higher, and that would be an unprecedentedly good second week for an FF game.

 

[JoshuaJSlone]

It might be a fun thing to graph these over time, but it would probably be worth waiting for Top 100s and such for a good end-of-year cap. But anyway, with the topic of Nintendo's software always an issue of discussion, I was wondering how they were comparing to everything else at this point. That is, Nintendo/Pokémon as first party versus third parties on either their own or competitor's platforms.

On the home console side these numbers appear to show Nintendo ahead. HOWEVER, this Famitsu data goes up to the week before Final Fantasy XIII, so that should no longer be the case.
Nintendo Wii: 26.9 million
The rest: 26.3 million

On the portable side numbers are much bigger all around, but third parties have a clear lead.
Nintendo DS: 75.8 million
The rest: 90.4 million

Since Famitsu did not count the PS2, this may mean that it may decided to discontinue doing so as it did with the GameCube a few years back.

This seems unlikely. Not just because it's still selling quite better than other systems they've continued tracking, but if they were going to cut it off they'd at least finish the last few weeks of this year up.

I can't believe the PSP and Wii are only 390,940 units apart YTD so far. I wonder what that might narrow to in the next two weeks. This compared to a nearly 1 Million gap for 2008.

Hmm, yeah, the last few weeks have narrowed the gap significantly.

 

[apujanata]

A lot of this company pressure begins even before people enter companies.

I'm a student in one of Japan's most well-regarded universities (and I'm not saying this to show off, but it's true. The school's produced 6 Prime Ministers and has alumni from the CEOs of Samsung and Sony; even Yamauchi was a student before dropping out). I'm not on an exchange program, but enrolled as a realtime graduate student.

Even graduate school is a bit of an oddity in Japan. Japanese college graduates are expected to go to work and become (for lack of a better word) slaves to the companies. The ones (Japanese) who do decide to go gain extra skill, but most also happen to be proficient in English, so many have an already have an international outlook and may want to head overseas in the near future. Japanese schools also attract other East and Southeast Asian students who believe in this system, so it's usually Westerners who object.

Before finishing university, students are expected to do systematic job hunting, which shows the differences in what purpose a university is supposed to serve in Japan and Western countries. In Japan, you go to school not to gain knowledge, but to get a permanent, secure job. In Western countries, employment is also seen as an incentive to go to college, but knowledge and resume building is another purpose. Japanese students feel their degrees are everything they need, regardless of what their major was or what they actually studied. Japanese companies will train all hired workers anyway. Graduate school serves an even more differing purpose in Japan and elsewhere: in Japan, it lands you a job. Elsewhere, it would explicitly give you more knowledge.

What does this mean for the game industry? Well, I just mentioned this post because I can see the seeds mentioned in this thread sowing right before my very eyes, every single day, among my peers. Whether one would agree or not, Japanese society is fairly rigid. The dismantling of the core philosophies of a company like Nintendo will not happen easily.

Hmm. Is it Todai (Tokyo University) ? IIRC, it is one of the most famous university in Japan.

 

[DNF]

It might be a fun thing to graph these over time, but it would probably be worth waiting for Top 100s and such for a good end-of-year cap. But anyway, with the topic of Nintendo's software always an issue of discussion, I was wondering how they were comparing to everything else at this point. That is, Nintendo/Pokémon as first party versus third parties on either their own or competitor's platforms.

On the home console side these numbers appear to show Nintendo ahead. HOWEVER, this Famitsu data goes up to the week before Final Fantasy XIII, so that should no longer be the case.
Nintendo Wii: 26.9 million
The rest: 26.3 million

if we mix your famitsu numbers with the top 10 numbers from mc we already got, ps3 "only" gains ~770.000, so this looks really close

 

[Datschge]

It seems like the U.S. is kind of the polar opposite of Japan in this regard.

I think of them as the two extremes of a whole range of possibilities. Economy (in form of employers) is strongly moving into the U.S.' direction of habits but in public responses I see most regions actually being much closer to the Japanese systems. There are regularly public outrages here in Europe once yet another financially profitable company announces the laying off of parts of its staff "to prepare for future challenges", there is a strong widespread sense of this being unjust and unfair behavior.

Regarding whether the one or the other extreme is better for an industry, in our case the game one, I strongly feel that for any creative industry to be able to actually advance it needs to have rewards for trying out the unorthodox. Google, 3M and other companies are trying to support and enforce unexpected output by giving employees the ability and time to work on personal projects for the company ("20 percent time project rule" at Google etc.). In this thread it was often mentioned that American employees readily leave if they miss such freedom. I feel this is mainly a leadership problem where its fail to accommodate unexpected output, which apparently exists even within Nintendo outside Japan. Nintendo in Japan in my impression so far is one of the ideal case: an employers with a leadership with intimidate knowledge of its own products has a small work force which can rely on its experience amassed within the company. The employer will do the hell to lay off anyone since this will result in a loss of its main resource, the internal experience, and the employees won't want to leave on their own since they are given sufficient freedom for own creativity within the company.

 

[charlequin]

what worries me is how can the wii's lately negative image affect the sucessor? the next system could actually perform worse if the curent wii stigmas aren't addressed.

I still haven't heard a single argument for why this won't happen. What exactly is there about the Wii to make anyone actually want to buy the followup system?

also, something i can't understand is why they don't make more "easy" sequels.

It's because Nintendo has a terrible fucking platform strategy.

 

[Onesimos]

Hmm, yeah, the last few weeks have narrowed the gap significantly.

I wonder what is responsible for the sudden uptick of Wii sales between Weeks 46 through 51. Either it is the holiday season, the Wii bundles (Tales of Graces, Samurai Warriors 3), or the effects of New Super Mario Bros. Wii. I think that all three are the reason, but as another poster said, I am quite surprised that the gap between the Wii and the PSP in Japan is narrower than it was than last year. How does the gap between the Wii and PSP compares with the gap between the Wii and the PS3?

 

[Riou]

I still haven't heard a single argument for why this won't happen. What exactly is there about the Wii to make anyone actually want to buy the followup system?

I'll play devil's advocate here.

If you look at the attach rate of most consoles (around 6 for the Wii in the US and maybe around 4 or 5 in Japan) you would release that the typical video game consumer does not buy that many games. Nintendo has basically realized that the most efficient way of satisfying these consumers is by making a small number of very compelling pieces of software that target a very broad demographic. Essentially their evergreen titles.

I would say that the consumer that only buys 2-3 games a year is quite satisfied with the Wii and would probably buy Wii 2.

 

[Cosmonaut X]

I still haven't heard a single argument for why this won't happen. What exactly is there about the Wii to make anyone actually want to buy the followup system?

If you're a satisfied owner - and despite some of the shriller voices on GAF, there are clearly plenty of them - then I'd imagine it's the same thing that would encourage anyone to buy the successor to a system they've enjoyed.

If you're unhappy with the Wii and what it offers then clearly you wouldn't buy its successor, unless your dissatisfaction is addressed. Frankly, I've always got the impression that "core" gamers are the easiest to satisfy because they have fairly clear demands and predictable tastes, and they will go where the games they want are.

A case in point would be the DS - mocked and ignored by the "core" initially, and dismissed as a "non-game" or Nintendo-only machine, but once third party development started to snowball those complaints largely dropped away. There are still issues with the machine, but despite its lack of power and "gimmicky" nature it has attracted a great deal of third-party support and with it a huge swathe of gamers.

It would require a lot from Nintendo in terms of stronger relationships with third parties, but I don't think that's entirely unlikely.

The interesting question for me is what lessons Nintendo are going to take from their experience with the Wii this gen. Will they retreat and become even more self-reliant - boosting development, forming more long-term partnerships with smaller devs and trying to fill gaps in their library themselves - or will they open up and reach out to third parties in ways they haven't to date? My instinct is that they will go with the former, but it's going to be fascinating to see...

 

[Kenka]

7 million sellers this year

2007: 10 (top 10 sales: 12.790.084)
2006: 9 ( top 10 sales : 23.348.558)
2008: 7 (top 10 sales : 15.658.225)
2009: 7 (top 10 sales : ~18.000.000)

Third best result for million sellers and second best result for top 10 total software (it will be more than 19m when 2009 ends.

2009 has been unprecedented in the history of the industry in Japan. In 12 months, we got :

- a Resident Evil main series entry
- a Mario main series entry
- a Dragon Quest main series entry
- a Final Fantasy main series entry
- a Monster Hunter main series entry
- a Pokémon "remake" which still sells tons


Very frankly, this is most likely the year of the Forever. But why doesn't it feel so ?