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Media Create Sales: Jan. 25 - 31, 2010

Road

Member
Has Inazuma Eleven 3 been announced yet? I'm seeing a rumor and a scan. Seems Level 5 wants to take the "strike while the iron is hot" approach.
 

Chris1964

Sales-Age Genius
Road said:
Has Inazuma Eleven 3 been announced yet? I'm seeing a rumor and a scan. Seems Level 5 wants to take the "strike while the iron is hot" approach.
Like Layton? Oh no...

IE3 is a lock for this October.
 

duckroll

Member
Isn't this the business strategy for Level 5 though? Create cross media franchises, yearly game entries, expanding the franchise across all media formats: manga, anime, movies, tie-ins, etc.
 

jj984jj

He's a pretty swell guy in my books anyway.
Chris1964 said:
If it is early summer Level 5 will have IE4 ready for Christmas.
Nah, they need Christmas to launch the next brand they're going to milk to death, Cardboard Senki.
 

schuelma

Wastes hours checking old Famitsu software data, but that's why we love him.
duckroll said:
Isn't this the business strategy for Level 5 though? Create cross media franchises, yearly game entries, expanding the franchise across all media formats: manga, anime, movies, tie-ins, etc.


Its definitely working now, but I don't know if long term this can work. Guess we'll see.
 

Spiegel

Member
Chris1964 said:
More fuel for Valkyria Chronicles.

[PS3] Valkyria Chronicles (Sega) - 77,694 / 77,694
[PS3] Valkyria Chronicles (Sega) - 23,094 / 100,788
[PS3] Valkyria Chronicles (Sega) - 11,839 / 112,627

[PSP] Valkyria Chronicles 2: Gallia Military Academy (Sega) - 101,282 / 101,282
[PSP] Valkyria Chronicles 2: Gallia Military Academy (Sega) - 22,600 / 123,800
[PSP] Valkyria Chronicles 2: Gallia Military Academy (Sega) - 8,400 / 132,300


Hey, VC2 is available on PSN too.

Maybe we're missing 5k or so! :p
 

duckroll

Member
schuelma said:
Its definitely working now, but I don't know if long term this can work. Guess we'll see.

Why wouldn't it work in the long term? The idea is that they keep making new franchises which are appealing, and there'll be new audiences for these titles making up for the decline in on-going franchises as time goes by. One thing Level 5 seems to be very good at is that they generally target younger audiences with all their IPs, and it seems to be working.
 

Chris1964

Sales-Age Genius
duckroll said:
Isn't this the business strategy for Level 5 though? Create cross media franchises, yearly game entries, expanding the franchise across all media formats: manga, anime, movies, tie-ins, etc.
Short-term is a good strategy but long-term I think it hurts them, if Layton is an indication. Inazuma Eleven 3 sales will show if they are correct or not.
 

Road

Member
Chris1964 said:
[PS1] Dragon Quest IV (Enix) - 620,802 / 620,802
[PS1] Dragon Quest IV (Enix) - 143,232 / 764,034 (-77%)

[PS2] Dragon Quest V: Tenkuu no Hanayome (Square Enix) - 1,048,925 / 1,048,925
[PS2] Dragon Quest V: Tenkuu no Hanayome (Square Enix) - 248,342 / 1,297,267 (-76%)

[NDS] Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen (Square Enix) - 601,737 / 601,737
[NDS] Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen (Square Enix) - 131,901 / 733,638 (-78%)

[NDS] Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride (Square Enix) - 679,442
[NDS] Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride (Square Enix) - 185,061 (-72%)

[NDS] Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Reviere (Square Enix) - 909,981 / 909,981
[NDS] Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Reviere (Square Enix) - 181,900 / 1,091,900 (-80%)
Thanks for the numbers.

Added percentages. Slightly worse, but seems in line with the other remakes.
 

duckroll

Member
Chris1964 said:
Short-term is a good strategy but long-term I think it hurts them, if Layton is an indication. Inazuma Eleven 3 sales will show if they are correct or not.

IE3 won't tell us anything. You know why it's early Summer? Because that's when the World Cup starts, and this time IE3 is about taking on "the world". Coincidence? I don't think so. It's going to be huge. We'll need to look at how IE4 and beyond does to have any indication of a decline imo. For a sports themed game, the timing couldn't be better.
 

schuelma

Wastes hours checking old Famitsu software data, but that's why we love him.
duckroll said:
Why wouldn't it work in the long term? The idea is that they keep making new franchises which are appealing, and there'll be new audiences for these titles making up for the decline in on-going franchises as time goes by. One thing Level 5 seems to be very good at is that they generally target younger audiences with all their IPs, and it seems to be working.


Ok, but that seems to assume Level 5 is going to be able to launch a new IP every single year- is that a sure bet? I'm not saying they should stagger their releases every 3 years or anything, but I think they risk lessening their IP if every single franchise is going to get a yearly installment for the foreseeable future. Its great if they have a new franchise break a million every year, but what if one new IP flops and they are left with rapidly declining Layton and Inazuma sales?
 

Road

Member
duckroll said:
Why wouldn't it work in the long term? The idea is that they keep making new franchises which are appealing, and there'll be new audiences for these titles making up for the decline in on-going franchises as time goes by. One thing Level 5 seems to be very good at is that they generally target younger audiences with all their IPs, and it seems to be working.
Because creating new successful franchises is the hardest thing to do?

It doesn't seem like they're trying to establish a name (like Pokemon, Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Resident Evil etc.); they want to capitalize heavy and move on to the next big thing (sounds more like an American approach to me).

Or maybe yearly entries is their idea of establishing a huge IP.
 

ElFly

Member
Oh, that's a comprehensive answer. Thanks.

Seems in line with the rest of the DS remakes, despite the much higher first week sales. Is reasonable to say the reason for the first week was that it's the first remake of the game? (unlike DQIV and DQV)
 

duckroll

Member
schuelma said:
Ok, but that seems to assume Level 5 is going to be able to launch a new IP every single year- is that a sure bet? I'm not saying they should stagger their releases every 3 years or anything, but I think they risk lessening their IP if every single franchise is going to get a yearly installment for the foreseeable future. Its great if they have a new franchise break a million every year, but what if one new IP flops and they are left with rapidly declining Layton and Inazuma sales?

That could happen, but considering we only have two IPs to go on now, it really could go either way. Maybe we can revisit this discussion after Ni no Kuni and Little Battlers launch. I think Little Battlers will be interesting, because that's another IP they want to build the same way they did with IE (anime + game targeted at the shounen market), and this time it will be a test to see if they can release a hit franchise on the PSP.

While I do not think that Ni no Kuni will become a franchise in itself (okay, maybe another game or 2 at most), I think it also indicates another possibility for Level 5. They can have "major" tie-up projects every few years which stand alone but will still sell a shitload. Another Ghibli co-production game is not out of the question either, even if it's an entirely new world and genre.
 

Chris1964

Sales-Age Genius
duckroll said:
IE3 won't tell us anything. You know why it's early Summer? Because that's when the World Cup starts, and this time IE3 is about taking on "the world". Coincidence? I don't think so. It's going to be huge. We'll need to look at how IE4 and beyond does to have any indication of a decline imo. For a sports themed game, the timing couldn't be better.
You know something is ''wrong'' with Level 5 when Japan gets IE3 this summer and Europe, the biggest market for football by far, still waits to get IE1. At best case we will get Inazuma Eleven 1 in time for World Cup.
 

duckroll

Member
Road said:
Because creating new successful franchises is the hardest thing to do?

It doesn't seem like they're trying to establish a name (like Pokemon, Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Resident Evil etc.); they want to capitalize heavy and move on to the next big thing (sounds more like an American approach to me).

Or maybe yearly entries is their idea of establishing a huge IP.

How can you say they're not trying to establish a name? I would say, they're not "trying" anymore because they already succeeded.

Layton is not just 4 games with an on-going storyline and a consistent set of characters. It is also an animated movie series now, and there are comics too. It is an established franchise with a story timeline and a strong following from the fanbase.

Inazuma Eleven is most definitely an established franchise as well. Not only are the games selling well, but the animated TV series has been running for 2 years now, with another year renewed. The ratings are pretty damn good because it's Saturday (or is it Sunday) morning stuff and kids really dig it. The anime series follows the game storylines too, so they complement each other in making fans excited about certain story events.

Chris1964 said:
You know something is ''wrong'' with Level 5 when Japan gets IE3 this summer and Europe, the biggest market for football by far, still waits to get IE1. At best case we will get Inazuma Eleven 1 in time for World Cup.

That is probably why they are planning on establishing a US branch office to handle overseas distribution. The problem seems to be less with Level 5, and more with not being able to find a partner which publishes overseas fast enough. Nintendo works well on Layton, but it's super slow too. Maybe Nintendo passed on Inazuma Eleven entirely because they didn't want to localize it.
 

Road

Member
duckroll said:
How can you say they're not trying to establish a name? I would say, they're not "trying" anymore because they already succeeded.

Layton is not just 4 games with an on-going storyline and a consistent set of characters. It is also an animated movie series now, and there are comics too. It is an established franchise with a story timeline and a strong following from the fanbase.

Inazuma Eleven is most definitely an established franchise as well. Not only are the games selling well, but the animated TV series has been running for 2 years now, with another year renewed. The ratings are pretty damn good because it's Saturday (or is it Sunday) morning stuff and kids really dig it. The anime series follows the game storylines too, so they complement each other in making fans excited about certain story events.
I don't disagree they are renowned now. What I mean is we'll have to see if they stand the test of time and I'm seeing a bit of a rush to capitalize. But we won't know that now.

But I guess I'm jumping the gun a bit. After all, DQ, FF and RE did have their first three games released in a span of some 3 years.
 

GCX

Member
I don't see Ninokuni becoming a franchise. Toshio Suzuki (president of Ghibli) said the game is almost once in a lifetime type of project since it's very rare to have the whole animation staff of Ghibli avaible for a project like this. Currently they have multiple films in production simultaneously so a new change won't come soon.
 

Chris1964

Sales-Age Genius
GCX said:
I don't see Ninokuni becoming a franchise. Toshio Suzuki (president of Ghibli) said the game is almost once in a lifetime type of project since it's very rare to have the whole animation staff of Ghibli avaible for a project like this. Currently they have multiple films in production simultaneously so a new change won't come soon.
Ninokuni belongs to Level 5. They will decide what to do with the series not Ghibli.

Oxx said:
How many versions of IE3?
One for every team of the world cup, so 32?
 

duckroll

Member
Road said:
I don't disagree they are renowned now. What I mean is we'll have to see if they stand the test of time and I'm seeing a bit of a rush to capitalize. But we won't know that now.

But I guess I'm jumping the gun a bit. After all, DQ, FF and RE did have their first three games released in a span of some 3 years.

Right, I agree that we don't know if they can stand the test of time. That's definitely something we will have to revisit in 1-2 years at the earliest. But honestly, when Level 5 announced they were going to start publishing titles themselves, and announced Layton as a trilogy right off the bat, and made claims that they wanted all their new franchises to also be successfully forms of cross-media outside of games, etc, I didn't believe at all that they would achieve the level of success they have attained today. So who really knows.
 

GCX

Member
Chris1964 said:
Ninokuni belongs to Level 5. They will decide what to do with the series not Ghibli.
"Holy shit, it's a Studio Ghibli game!" is pretty much the selling point of the game though.
 

Chris1964

Sales-Age Genius
GCX said:
"Holy shit, it's a Studio Ghibli game!" is pretty much the selling point of the game though.
I agree but even if Level 5 wants to publish Ni no Kuni 2 and Studio Ghibli refuses to make it, what do you think will happen?
 

mello

Member
schuelma said:
Ok, but that seems to assume Level 5 is going to be able to launch a new IP every single year- is that a sure bet? I'm not saying they should stagger their releases every 3 years or anything, but I think they risk lessening their IP if every single franchise is going to get a yearly installment for the foreseeable future. Its great if they have a new franchise break a million every year, but what if one new IP flops and they are left with rapidly declining Layton and Inazuma sales?

I think they expect and understand that by releasing a new instalment every year, a portion of there potential market will question the quality and effort of the release if they don't go about it the right way. But the way I see it is they build momentum with the cross media entries, so there is a valid reason to the new instalment, and fans can assert reassurance that the quality still remains as good as the first. So there IP maybe lessened in a sense, but the franchise and Level 5's portfolio has also grown.
 

GCX

Member
Chris1964 said:
I agree but even if Level 5 wants to publish Ni no Kuni 2 and Studio Ghibli refuses to make it, what do you think will happen?
Of course, since Level 5 owns full rights to the property, Ghibli has nothing to say on the matter. But still, it would lose the main selling point.
 

schuelma

Wastes hours checking old Famitsu software data, but that's why we love him.
thedrill leak is out already- PS3 and Wii with pretty significant drops, Wii still ahead by 10K or so.
 

gerg

Member
Am I the only one very surprised by NSMBW's numbers? It seems to be dropping quite considerably compared to the DS original.
 

schuelma

Wastes hours checking old Famitsu software data, but that's why we love him.
gerg said:
Am I the only one very surprised by NSMBW's numbers? It seems to be dropping quite considerably compared to the DS original.


It had to happen sooner or later- it started out so insanely high that if it kept up with NSMB DS it could hit 7 million.

I think it will still hit 5 million eventually.
 

KingDizzi

Banned
gerg said:
Am I the only one very surprised by NSMBW's numbers? It seems to be dropping quite considerably compared to the DS original.

It started so much better in comparison to the DS version and has had insane legs, had to happen sooner rather than later.

Edit - Beaten!

PSP went down, that is a shocker.
 
Hopefully some of the numbers come out higher than that. With the current release schedule for the wii and PS3 those numbers could get pretty ugly.
 

dolemite

Member
AdventureRacing said:
Hopefully some of the numbers come out higher than that. With the current release schedule for the wii and PS3 those numbers could get pretty ugly.
The PS3 has Yakuza 4 out, there's nothing to worry about.
 
AdventureRacing said:
Hopefully some of the numbers come out higher than that. With the current release schedule for the wii and PS3 those numbers could get pretty ugly.

As of now, even if the Wii continues on its downward trend it's going to take a while for it to reach the lows of last year. The Wii has already sold over half of what the Wii sold in the first half of last year.
 

Hcoregamer00

The 'H' stands for hentai.
Chris1964 said:
More fuel for Valkyria Chronicles.

[PS3] Valkyria Chronicles (Sega) - 77,694 / 77,694
[PS3] Valkyria Chronicles (Sega) - 23,094 / 100,788
[PS3] Valkyria Chronicles (Sega) - 11,839 / 112,627

[PSP] Valkyria Chronicles 2: Gallia Military Academy (Sega) - 101,282 / 101,282
[PSP] Valkyria Chronicles 2: Gallia Military Academy (Sega) - 22,600 / 123,800
[PSP] Valkyria Chronicles 2: Gallia Military Academy (Sega) - 8,400 / 132,300

It will be interesting to see how Sega interprets the results.

Is the move worth it with a lower budget and more sales in Japan, while losing MASSIVE sales in the USA and Europe? Let's not kid ourselves, VC2 could be the greatest game ever, but it will sell like crap because it is on a platform with a poor software market (in the West).
 

Man God

Non-Canon Member
This year might be pretty bad for ye olde Triple in Japan with neither GT5 nor Versus all that likely to come out.

Hcoregamer00 said:
It will be interesting to see how Sega interprets the results.

Is the move worth it with a lower budget and more sales in Japan, while losing MASSIVE sales in the USA and Europe? Let's not kid ourselves, VC2 could be the greatest game ever, but it will sell like crap because it is on a platform with a poor software market (in the West).

It'd pretty much sell like crap on the PS3 in the west and it would cost a heck of a lot more to do so.

Let's not kid ourselves indeed! :lol
 
dolemite said:
The PS3 has Yakuza 4 out, there's nothing to worry about.

Then again, the PS3 RPGs that came out didn't provide that much of a boost. Not sure how much Y4 will either as it's the 4th Yakuza entry on the PS3. It needs GT5 and Versus. Please SE give more news on Versus :(

At the same time, the Wii's lineup is barren so the PS3 isn't the only one with a predicament.
 

Hcoregamer00

The 'H' stands for hentai.
Man God said:
It'd pretty much sell like crap on the PS3 in the west and it would cost a heck of a lot more to do so.

Let's not kid ourselves indeed! :lol

You think it sold bad on the PS3 in the West?

The PSP version will outdo it when you consider the software dynamic in the West.

Bel Marduk said:
Then again, the PS3 RPGs that came out didn't provide that much of a boost. Not sure how much Y4 will either as it's the 4th Yakuza entry on the PS3. It needs GT5 and Versus. Please SE give more news on Versus :(

It is a pity that RPG sales are not pushing the PS3 as much as some of us would like.

They definitely need GT5
 

Fularu

Banned
dolemite said:
The PS3 has Yakuza 4 out, there's nothing to worry about.

Yakuza 4 sells to the Yakuza 3 crowd. I highly doubt it will provide any kind of substantial bumps. Hell even Yakuza 3 didnt have any meaningfull bump either
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
If I'm understanding the pictures on these scans right, it seems you can import your characters from Inazuma Eleven 2 into Inazuma Eleven 3. This seems like a smart way to keep selling Inazume Eleven 2 in the mean time.

Also this new pokemon is kind of ugly. The design of the new main villain pokemon from the movie that is, since there are no images of the game. Though uh, that has nothing to do with sales technically.
 

Durante

Member
Yeah, I really don't see Yakuza 4 making any real bump in hardware sales. It's a direct sequel to a title that was already on the system.

Man God said:
It'd pretty much sell like crap on the PS3 in the west and it would cost a heck of a lot more to do so.

Let's not kid ourselves indeed! :lol
The first part sold more in the US alone than it did in Japan. I think it's extremely likely at this point that they'll be looking at a significant decrease in global sales, and at a lower per-unit price.
 

schuelma

Wastes hours checking old Famitsu software data, but that's why we love him.
Also somewhat notable from the early leak is PSP hardware actually might have went down.
 

Hcoregamer00

The 'H' stands for hentai.
Durante said:
The first part sold more in the US alone than it did in Japan. I think it's extremely likely at this point that they'll be looking at a significant decrease in global sales, and at a lower per-unit price.

Durante, out of curiosity, do you know what is the total LTD sales of Valkyria in the USA?
 
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