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[electroplankton]

I know the last one did 3.6 million, but I'm fearing that it will suffer from the same decline a lot of other casual franchises did on the 3DS. I hope I'm wrong. I'd be happy if it just broke a million.

Almost surely, Friend Collection: New Life will decline with respect to the predecessor. But we have seen how some IPs declined less than other; Style Savvy and Art Academy still had strong sales; Animal Crossing is probably going to catch up Wild World. New Super Mario Bros and Brain Training are really underperforming instead, at least with respect to DS entries.

I'm pretty sure there was significant channel-stuffing involved in reaching that figure, though.

That should be true also for the PS360 version, though.

 

[jcm]

PS3 launched in 10.Nov 2006 with 80k units therefore it had half of Nov. and the very busy December and holidays shortly after to sell their systems. You cant say the same thing about a system that launched in February like 3DS did. I think it´s clear what period is more lucrative. Also there is no reason to ignore launch numbers. Why exactly do you even want to do that?

PS3 80k
3DS 375k

That´s just bias to cut them off the equation.

The reason to ignore the launch numbers is to see how the systemwas actually selling on a weekly basis, which is what a business is interested in. I promise you no one in Kyoto was thinking about the big launch by the end of spring.

No, I didn't.

Even when not considering the period of release and 3DS and PS3 very different supply situation initially the 3DS had a better trajectory (again exclude the two weeks before the price cut).

I totally agree with you (and Nintendo) that the growth curve wasn't enough before the price-cut for a system destined to dominate the japanese market.

You think that minor difference is actually material? As a reminder, you originally posted that chart to refute someone who claimed that the 3DS was selling like the early PS3. You claimed it was actually more like PSP.

I would say that outside of the launch, it looks much more like PS3 than PSP. Here's a close-up of the area under consideration:

 

[AranhaHunter]

Since no one replied, I'm going to assume steins;gate is a very niche game and the 130k PSP game is an exception to the rule. 30K for Vita next week.

He doesn't have any beans to spill; I'm not sure if he's just stating speculation as fact or joining the list of quasi-insiders who have confidently predicted big announcements for Vita that never materialized (Sam Bishop, James Mielke, a couple current GAFers I'll refrain from naming), but either way... this is a sales thread.

What was predicted and by who exactly? I'm curious for entertainment purposes.

The most infamous vita "leak" ever is the one from before gamescom, remember that?

http://oxcgn.com/2011/08/16/possible-list-of-unannounced-ps-vita-games-for-gamescom-leaked/

COD: Elite Ops, MH, DD, RE, DS, ME, DA, SimCity, MGS:R, PES, PS:V, Yakuza, FF, FFXI, KH, TR, Bioshock, GTA, RDR, Civilization, XCOM, Saint's Row, Splilnter Cell, among others. If even one quarter of that list came through, the vita would be in a much healthier position today.

Funniest thing is the Namco list didn't include any of the big games that are actually coming to the platform (OP, GE, Jump) lol

I am not sure if this was meant to be funny but SCE OWN's the IP for Hot shots Golf, Patapon, Soul Sacrifice and Demon souls. Chances are the reason you see a dark souls was an understanding/agreement between From and SCEJ and the fact that alot of elements were changed from the IPs. Hence the relative speed of the release. There is nothing in place that suggest the second party games you mention have the ability to be remade under a different banner and escape legal repercussions. Also none of the games you mention will make or break a Sony console they do help bolster the library and general opinion.

The point was the IPs they own are all made externally. If Sony owned FROM or developed DS in house, Dark Souls would have never seen the light of day as a multiplat release. I don't know why you think FROM's agreement with Sony is so different than the rest.

 

[Celine]

You think that minor difference is actually material? As a reminder, you originally posted that chart to refute someone who claimed that the 3DS was selling like the early PS3. You claimed it was actually more like PSP.

I would say that outside of the launch, it looks much more like PS3 than PSP. Here's a close-up of the area under consideration:

Without knowledge of what the graph depict I would say the red line trajectory is better than the blue line and worse than the green line.

Difference is that 3DS went through most of the slow months of the year compared to the holiday weeks enjoyed by PSP/PS3 and 3DS ,having bigger initial supply, satisfied its early-adopters demand quicker.

EDIT:
Also thanks for the reminder, before the price cut 3DS was 460K units above the PS3 and 10K under the PSP launch aligned.

 

[michaelius]

He doesn't have any beans to spill; I'm not sure if he's just stating speculation as fact or joining the list of quasi-insiders who have confidently predicted big announcements for Vita that never materialized (Sam Bishop, James Mielke, a couple current GAFers I'll refrain from naming), but either way... this is a sales thread. The insinuation that a Nintendo moneyhat is the only thing that would dissuade Capcom from throwing its weight behind Vita is laughable at best.

IIRC from other threads zomg is one of people with confirmed access to NPD/gfk sales reports. And looking at his thread about PS4 BOM estimation he is probably an market analyst.

 

[Father_Brain]

What was predicted and by who exactly? I'm curious for entertainment purposes.

SamBishop: General hilariously deluded Vita fanboyism with regular insistence as fact that unspecified big games were coming in the future (for instance, asserting that there would be "plenty" of Vita announcements at E3 2012); when I asked him about it last summer via another forum, he sent over two massive walls of text basically admitting that he didn't actually have any knowledge of system-selling games coming, but that he just had faith that sales would pick up dramatically following a price drop, which would in turn lead to renewed third-party support.

The only specific software prediction I ever saw him make was stating as fact on another forum, shortly after the awful TGS 2011 Vita conference, that Capcom was bringing Lost Planet and RE to Vita in some form. When I followed up with him nearly a year later, he claimed that his source at Capcom had left shortly after the original rumor and thus could no longer confirm it.

James Mielke: Said this in an interview in April of last year:

"The only thing that is going to hold Sony back from succeeding with the Vita is having the right games," Mielke said. "And one of the benefits of working on the developer side in Japan is I know for a fact that they've got some games that, when they announce them, people are going to forget about all of the problems that they're imagining with the Vita."

When I followed up with him via Twitter after TGS last year, for some strange reason, he refused to give a yes/no answer when asked whether he stood by those comments.

Heck, I'll name one of the current GAFfers I was referring to: After Sony's Vita-light E3 2012 conference, famousmortimer claimed that TGS would deliver on big Vita announcements, and also relayed news of an impending announcement from Vita Game Heaven 2 that would "make GAF very, very happy," claiming to know both points for a fact. A few posts later, he was already downplaying the veracity of his sources.

IIRC from other threads zomg is one of people with confirmed access to NPD/gfk sales reports. And looking at his thread about PS4 BOM estimation he is probably an market analyst.

I suspect you greatly exaggerate the level of inside information to which analysts have access. Heck, I'm pretty sure zomg himself admitted that he was just speculating.

 

[Bruno MB]

Casual new NDS IP's vs their sequels for 3DS:

[NDS] Nintendogs (Labrador, Dachshund, Chihuahua) {2005.04.21} - 2.037.232
[3DS] Nintendogs + Cats (French Bulldog, Shiba, Toy Poodle & New Friends) {2011.02.26} - 602.954

Retention: 29,6%

[NDS] Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes a Day {2005.12.29} - 5.060.499
[3DS] Tohoku Daigaku Karei Igaku Kenkyuusho - Kawashima Ryuuta Kyouju Kanshuu - Mono Sugoku Nou o Kitaeru 5-Funkan no Oni Training {2012.07.28} - 213.746

Retention: 4,2%

[NDS] Art Academy {2010.06.19} - 322.644
[3DS] Art Academy: Lessons for Everyone {2012.09.13} - 144.106

Retention: 44,7%

[NDS] Wagamama Fashion: Girls Mode {2008.10.23} - 891.076
[3DS] Style Savvy: Trendsetters {2012.09.27} - 281.134

Retention: 31,5%

[NDS] Tomodachi Collection (Friend Collection) {2009.06.18} - 3.634.606
[3DS] Tomodachi Collection: Shin Seikatsu {2013.04.18} -

Retention:

 

[Spiegel]

Heck, I'll name one of the current GAFfers I was referring to: After Sony's Vita-light E3 2012 conference, famousmortimer claimed that TGS would deliver on big Vita announcements, and also relayed news of an impending announcement from Vita Game Heaven 2 that would "make GAF very, very happy," claiming to know both points for a fact. A few posts later, he was already backing away from the veracity of his sources.

famousmortimer called that Mark Cerny was behind the PS4 and working on a PS4 game in the vein of the classic PSX platformers the day before the presentation.

So at least he has some contact inside of Sony.

 

[Father_Brain]

famousmortimer called that Mark Cerny was behind the PS4 and working on a PS4 game in the vein of the classic PSX platformers the day before the presentation.

So at least he has some contact inside of Sony.

I don't dispute that, but there does seem to be a bit of a pattern here. But it's possible that his claims were true at the time but that the project(s) in question was/were cancelled, or that he just put a bit too much trust in a bad source.

 

[electroplankton]

Casual new NDS IP's vs their sequels for 3DS:

[NDS] Nintendogs (Labrador, Dachshund, Chihuahua) {2005.04.21} - 2.037.232
[3DS] Nintendogs + Cats (French Bulldog, Shiba, Toy Poodle & New Friends) {2011.02.26} - 602.954

Retention: 29,6%

[NDS] Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes a Day {2005.12.29} - 5.060.499
[3DS] Tohoku Daigaku Karei Igaku Kenkyuusho - Kawashima Ryuuta Kyouju Kanshuu - Mono Sugoku Nou o Kitaeru 5-Funkan no Oni Training {2012.07.28} - 213.746

Retention: 4,2%

[NDS] Art Academy {2010.06.19} - 322.644
[3DS] Art Academy: Lessons for Everyone {2012.09.13} - 144.106

Retention: 44,7%

[NDS] Wagamama Fashion: Girls Mode {2008.10.23} - 891.076
[3DS] Style Savvy: Trendsetters {2012.09.27} - 281.134

Retention: 31,5%

[NDS] Tomodachi Collection (Friend Collection) {2009.06.18} - 3.634.606
[3DS] Tomodachi Collection: Shin Seikatsu {2013.04.18} -

Retention:

Animal Crossing and New Super Mario Bros?
Anyway, Brain Training just showed how the training-mania was really DS-specific. As for the others, I would say they held well and they have still chances to sell well.

 

[frankie_baby]

Casual new NDS IP's vs their sequels for 3DS:

[NDS] Nintendogs (Labrador, Dachshund, Chihuahua) {2005.04.21} - 2.037.232
[3DS] Nintendogs + Cats (French Bulldog, Shiba, Toy Poodle & New Friends) {2011.02.26} - 602.954

Retention: 29,6%

[NDS] Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes a Day {2005.12.29} - 5.060.499
[3DS] Tohoku Daigaku Karei Igaku Kenkyuusho - Kawashima Ryuuta Kyouju Kanshuu - Mono Sugoku Nou o Kitaeru 5-Funkan no Oni Training {2012.07.28} - 213.746

Retention: 4,2%

[NDS] Art Academy {2010.06.19} - 322.644
[3DS] Art Academy: Lessons for Everyone {2012.09.13} - 144.106

Retention: 44,7%

[NDS] Wagamama Fashion: Girls Mode {2008.10.23} - 891.076
[3DS] Style Savvy: Trendsetters {2012.09.27} - 281.134

Retention: 31,5%

[NDS] Tomodachi Collection (Friend Collection) {2009.06.18} - 3.634.606
[3DS] Tomodachi Collection: Shin Seikatsu {2013.04.18} -

Retention:

how up to date are the numbers? end of 2012?

 

[Laguna]

Also thanks for the reminder, before the price cut 3DS was 460K units above the PS3 and 10K under the PSP launch aligned.

Close to half a million units more than PS3 sold in just 6 months is quite a difference.

 

[Jinfash]

SamBishop: General hilariously deluded Vita fanboyism with regular insistence as fact that unspecified big games were coming in the future (for instance, asserting that there would be "plenty" of Vita announcements at E3 2012); when I asked him about it last summer via another forum, he sent over two massive walls of text basically admitting that he didn't actually have any knowledge of system-selling games coming, but that he just had faith that sales would pick up dramatically following a price drop, which would in turn lead to renewed third-party support.

The only specific software prediction I ever saw him make was stating as fact on another forum, shortly after the awful TGS 2011 Vita conference, that Capcom was bringing Lost Planet and RE to Vita in some form. When I followed up with him nearly a year later, he claimed that his source at Capcom had left shortly after the original rumor and thus could no longer confirm it.

James Mielke: Said this in an interview in April of last year:



When I followed up with him via Twitter after TGS last year, for some strange reason, he refused to give a yes/no answer when asked whether he stood by those comments.

Heck, I'll name one of the current GAFfers I was referring to: After Sony's Vita-light E3 2012 conference, famousmortimer claimed that TGS would deliver on big Vita announcements, and also relayed news of an impending announcement from Vita Game Heaven 2 that would "make GAF very, very happy," claiming to know both points for a fact. A few posts later, he was already downplaying the veracity of his sources.



I suspect you greatly exaggerate the level of inside information to which analysts have access. Heck, I'm pretty sure zomg himself admitted that he was just speculating.

Thank you for compiling this. Looking at this retrospectively is always fascinating.

 

[saichi]

Casual new NDS IP's vs their sequels for 3DS:

[NDS] Nintendogs (Labrador, Dachshund, Chihuahua) {2005.04.21} - 2.037.232
[3DS] Nintendogs + Cats (French Bulldog, Shiba, Toy Poodle & New Friends) {2011.02.26} - 602.954

Retention: 29,6%

[NDS] Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes a Day {2005.12.29} - 5.060.499
[3DS] Tohoku Daigaku Karei Igaku Kenkyuusho - Kawashima Ryuuta Kyouju Kanshuu - Mono Sugoku Nou o Kitaeru 5-Funkan no Oni Training {2012.07.28} - 213.746

Retention: 4,2%

[NDS] Art Academy {2010.06.19} - 322.644
[3DS] Art Academy: Lessons for Everyone {2012.09.13} - 144.106

Retention: 44,7%

[NDS] Wagamama Fashion: Girls Mode {2008.10.23} - 891.076
[3DS] Style Savvy: Trendsetters {2012.09.27} - 281.134

Retention: 31,5%

[NDS] Tomodachi Collection (Friend Collection) {2009.06.18} - 3.634.606
[3DS] Tomodachi Collection: Shin Seikatsu {2013.04.18} -

Retention:

wouldn't it be more fair to compare the numbers from the same time period?

for ex.

[NDS] Nintendogs (Labrador, Dachshund, Chihuahua) {2005.04.21} - 1,587,007 (2007-06-25)
[3DS] Nintendogs + Cats (French Bulldog, Shiba, Toy Poodle & New Friends) {2011.02.26} - 602.954

Retention: 38,0%

 

[eighty(one)]

Bravely Default did not have high expectations, period. Square even undershipped the game, and they had to put it on eShop because of shortages in stores. The fact that it was a jRPG meant nothing, there exist many jRPG that did not cross the 100k mark, even more hyped.

And there are many other games in genres that haven't crossed 100k. Soul Sacrifice did.

Wasn't BDFF spotlighted in a September Nintendo conference? Right before Vitas first TGS appearance?

Everyone loves to shit on Vita, because they deplore Sony. This all sounds like children bickering back and forth, over who's Barbie has better hair, a better dress or bigger house....or who's He-Man has bigger pecs, or a better sword.

Vita had a decent week. That's fine enough. No wonder planet Earth has so many problems and the evening news is never shiny, people get off on superiority complexes and negativity.

(Not anyone in particular - maybe a few - but this thread)

:<

As a current owner of both platforms (I used to really, REALLY despise Sony) - their image of being for the core gamer, with their IPs on PS3 (never owned one) softened my scorn - I warmed over enough, to enjoy my Vita.

Be bigger people, you don't have to blatantly show fealty by deriding others feelings or logic, just to make a point. The thing is, nothing is ever concrete and everything has a factor and is in flux. Something that may have worked in favor of MK Wii, may not work on MK Wii U. Something that catapults Uncharted to success, might flop with an Uncharted 4....tastes and beliefs change. People have curiosities and fatigue, human nature.

You have a good point about this generation being longer than most and about the Wii's hard fall and PS3's inability to keep that pace going, but the fact remains that this generation sold over 23 million units of HW and will be over 25 million when it's all said and done.

I think the WiiU's struggles goes a lot deeper than just the "home console crash" in Japan. Lack of appealing SW, expensive, not enough of an upgrade over the PS3, the off tv/second remote is not the new wii remote, Nintendo land is not the new WiiSports/Play, etc.

I'm sure Nintendo was caught by surprise too, if you told anybody in early 2012 that the WiiU would have a new 2D Mario, an HD MH3Ultimate port, and a DQX HD port, no one would think that the system would sell under 10k just 12 weeks after launch.

IMHO, I think the console market in Japan is still there, but just not as big as the handheld market and will be 20-25+ million again this generation. I think Nintendo still has time to turn it around and be the market leader in the console space in Japan this generation, selling 10+ million WiiUs there, but they have to take action fast, the longer they take the better chance Sony has to come in and steal the leader position from them, which I'm sure Sony is gonna try.



For a company that has been in the game for 2 decades and is Japanese, that is pretty pathetic on their home turf.



Thanks, will update.

Very sensible.

It's been a long (7-8 year) generation. I think JP could go either way. PS4 could benefit from WiiU not moving forward tech/graphically enough (past current gen). WiiU could benefit from PS4 being more cost prohibitive or an unknown factor like system design, less or less innovative JP support.

 

[Bruno MB]

how up to date are the numbers? end of 2012?

Yes, all these titles are included in Famitsu 2012 Top 100 chart.

wouldn't it be more fair to compare the numbers from the same time period?

for ex.

[NDS] Nintendogs (Labrador, Dachshund, Chihuahua) {2005.04.21} - 1,587,007 (2007-06-25)
[3DS] Nintendogs + Cats (French Bulldog, Shiba, Toy Poodle & New Friends) {2011.02.26} - 602.954

Retention: 38,0%

I thought about that but I was lazy. Anyway, sales for most of these titles have slowed down considerably and their lifetime sales won't change significantly.

 

[KAL2006]

Upcoming line up for Vita in Japan
3/19 Guilty Gear XXAC Plus R
3/20 - DOA5 Plus
3/20 - Atelier Meruru Plus
3/20 - One Piece Musou 2
3/28 - Muramasa Samurai Rebirth
5/23 - Valhalla Knights 3
??? - Dragons Crown
??? - God Eater 2
??? - Tearaway
??? - Killzone Mercenery

Very weak, its going to be hard for Sony to keep the Vita sales going.

 

[donny2112]

The fact that you name a demo attached to a movie release as the main support for those first three years is equally ridiculous, especially when you consider that the game was multiplatform anyway. Between the PS3 launch and the release of FF13, Square produced 4 titles for the 360 and zero for the PS3. To say that a DVD demo and a trailer constitutes considerable support compared to actual games is laughable.

Couldn't figure out why you were being so obtuse about this, and then decided to check your join date: 04-27-2011. That means you weren't here when the Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children special edition PS3 with Blu-Ray and FFXIII demo bundle was released for the week of April 19, 2009. Therefore, you're just apparently unaware of the impact that it had on the PS3.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=359408

Highlights
* Advent Children Blu-Ray sold 275K copies that week.
* PS3 more than tripled from the week before.

It seems like you just went back and looked at release lists to come to these conclusions, which totally misses that PS3 was the Final Fantasy XIII platform from launch. The late-announced 360 port that was not released in Japan (International version was later released in Japan on 360, but not the original release) made no difference to the PS3 still being the Final Fantasy platform. The Microsoft "incentivizing" was well-known, at the time, and it was not just some attempt to jump on Western userbase, especially since PS3 was expected to be like the PS2 in the West prior to launch when all these platform decisions were being made. Square did not "abandon" the PS3 for three years, and looking at release lists for the period is not a defining method of coming to that conclusion, as you hopefully see now.

 

[staticneuron]

The point was the IPs they own are all made externally. If Sony owned FROM or developed DS in house, Dark Souls would have never seen the light of day as a multiplat release. I don't know why you think FROM's agreement with Sony is so different than the rest.

There is always different agreements. It depends on who went to whom and how much control one has. Remember Spyro and Bandicoot? They were designed for Sony but the control was given up for those characters because of deals. Sony normally doesn't do that anymore except for what happened with L.A. Noir but they supposedly got something back out of that deal for bondi.

First of all it's possible (or even likely) the gameplay would've been somewhat adjusted, although I thought MH3 worked fairly well on consoles. I'm just not sure if it's worth it for Sony to keep supporting Vita, given that most 3rd parties don't seem to give a fuck right now (and games take time to develop). Then again completely abandoning the platform might set a bad precedent. Who knows ? Maybe in hindsight we'll know.

Frankly I think we should all be happy Sony spent money on a game like Soul Sacrifice, no matter if it's the "best" decision.

The Vita is still way to young for Sony themselves to give up on it. And since its internal the money was going to be spent anyways Sony just made a choice of where the efforts should go.

We'll see. I remember the times when people thought there was no way PS3 would have trouble.

I think given that Japan seems to have shifted to handheld gaming and the (presumably) tough competition from Microsoft and (though unlikely) Nintendo it wouldn't have been a bad idea to use next gen to get rid of not particularly huge franchises like Killzone and instead try to sway consumers in by offering them something they can't find on 720/WiiU. In worst case transition might take time (due to cross-gen games, price and economic situation), so exclusives might play a bigger role this time, not to mention that Sony is in a tougher spot this time (no new disc format to sell PS3, no significant 3rd party advantage over Microsoft).

Problem with this thought is the "not particularly huge" franchises. Outside of Gran Turismo Sony doesn't really have any. For almost every franchise you can point out in the PS3 generation they either sold 3 million units or more. That type of success for most of their IP is very good instead of having to rely on one or only a handful of IP's to do this. Considering they are not afraid to introduce new IP and they seemingly appeal to different people, their only point of success is that they are able to provide a wide variety of games that are not found on other consoles. Getting "rid" of franchises is not rreally a good idea, especially franchises that have a buzz.

 

[test_account]

Upcoming line up for Vita in Japan
3/19 Guilty Gear XXAC Plus R
3/20 - DOA5 Plus
3/20 - Atelier Meruru Plus
3/20 - One Piece Musou 2
3/28 - Muramasa Samurai Rebirth
5/23 - Valhalla Knights 3
??? - Dragons Crown
??? - God Eater 2
??? - Tearaway
??? - Killzone Mercenery

Very weak, its going to be hard for Sony to keep the Vita sales going.

There are also Conception 2, God Dimension Idol Neptune PP, Sen no Kiseki, Toukiden, Project J and Final Fantasy X HD as well.

 

[donny2112]

Casual new NDS IP's vs their sequels for 3DS:

You're comparing LTDs vs. in-progress sales, which is going to slant the results some. I did this a month or two back, and it was like 60-70% drop (i.e. 30-40% retention) for Nintendogs and Brain Age 3D in the same time periods, for reference. The overall point of some casual titles seeing drops (AC being the clear exception, unless you compare LTD to current sales ) is still a valid concern, though.

 

[electroplankton]

And there are many other games in genres that haven't crossed 100k. Soul Sacrifice did.

Wasn't BDFF spotlighted in a September Nintendo conference? Right before Vitas first TGS appearance?

I didn't say anything about SS other than it did very good in its first week.

As for BD, yes, it was present in many Nintendo Direct. That doesn't mean a lot.

 

[airmangataosenai]

Couldn't figure out why you were being so obtuse about this, and then decided to check your join date: 04-27-2011. That means you weren't here when the Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children special edition PS3 with Blu-Ray and FFXIII demo bundle was released for the week of April 19, 2009. Therefore, you're just apparently unaware of the impact that it had on the PS3.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=359408

Highlights
* Advent Children Blu-Ray sold 275K copies that week.
* PS3 more than tripled from the week before.

It seems like you just went back and looked at release lists to come to these conclusions, which totally misses that PS3 was the Final Fantasy XIII platform from launch. The late-announced 360 port that was not released in Japan (International version was later released in Japan on 360, but not the original release) made no difference to the PS3 still being the Final Fantasy platform. The Microsoft "incentivizing" was well-known, at the time, and it was not just some attempt to jump on Western userbase, especially since PS3 was expected to be like the PS2 in the West prior to launch when all these platform decisions were being made. Square did not "abandon" the PS3 for three years, and looking at release lists for the period is not a defining method of coming to that conclusion, as you hopefully see now.

I am well aware of the sales from that period, and that the PS3 saw a substantial leap during the week that the demo hit.

You see a release list and a stretch of time spanning 3 years without a single release and over 2 years without any new game announcements of any kind and view that as substantial support? Final Fantasy XIII wasn't even shown or discussed again by Square from the system launch up until the game was shown again at the Microsoft conference in 2008. Between those two dates they neither showed nor announced a single PS3 game of any kind. I think it's pretty safe to say that during that period Square lost faith in the viability of the platform, especially when you look at the early estimates they had for FFXIII's sales in Japan (Initial estimates were just over 1 million, it ended up doing over 1.5 million and having a ridiculously high sell-through on shipments).

 

[lupin23rd]

Is there an upcoming 3DS release schedule available as well? Looking at some store sites there it seems like there is almost literally nothing coming out short term but I know that can't be the case, right?

 

[serplux]

Is there an upcoming 3DS release schedule available as well? Looking at some store sites there it seems like there is almost literally nothing coming out short term but I know that can't be the case, right?

In terms of major releases, it has Super Robot Taisen UX coming out on the 14th (today), Luigi's Mansion 2 on the 20th (along with Castlevania: Lord of Shadow - Shunumei no Makagami), Tomadachi Collection on April 18th, and Shin Megami Tensei IV on May 23rd, with a whole buncha minor releases in between.

 

[Hero of Legend]

In terms of major releases, it has Super Robot Taisen UX coming out on the 14th (today), Luigi's Mansion 2 on the 20th (along with Castlevania: Lord of Shadow - Shunumei no Makagami), Tomadachi Collection on April 18th, and Shin Megami Tensei IV on May 23rd, with a whole buncha minor releases in between.

Wanna round up a complete list of JP games if possible? A lot were announced in the past month as I showed in the 3DS thread.

But 3DS I think could use another blockbuster announcement, since after SMT4 and MH4... what else is there of large note from 3rd-parties? Nothing seems to be in the same league, and by that, I mean new exclusive entries in well known franchises.

 

[serplux]

Wanna round up a complete list of JP games if possible? A lot were announced in the past month as I showed in the 3DS thread.

But 3DS I think could use another blockbuster announcement, since after SMT4 and MH4... what else is there of large note from 3rd-parties? Nothing seems to be in the same league, and by that, I mean new exclusive entries in well known franchises.

Well, Dragon Quest XI.

Hmm...I'll try to round up a list, but man, there are so many Japanese games for this thing it's not even funny.

Edit: Oh, yeah Rune Factory 5 and Ace Attorney 5 are also coming out for the thing.

 

[Soriku]

TWEWY2...believe.

 

[Scum]

Come on, Iwata. I'm getting bored of this now. I'm just asking for a release dates for Bayonetta: Climax Edition [eShop] and Wonderful 101 w/ Bayonetta 2 demo.

 

[electroplankton]

Well, we have set for Summer, 3DS:

Monster Hunter 4
Devil Survivor 2: Break Record
Little Battlers eXperience: Super Custom
Umihara Kawase
Conception II
Disney Magic Castle: My Happy Life
Mario Golf: World Tour
Mario & Luigi: Dream Team
Gyrozetter: Wings of Albatross
Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D
Digimon World Reigitize Decode

Then, in the short term:
Luigi's Mansion 2
Super Robot Wars UX
Shin Megami Tensei IV
Friend Collection: New Life

2013 releases:
Daigassou Band Brothers
Ace Attorney 5
Inazuma Eleven Go Galaxy
Little Battlers eXperience Wars
Pokémon X/Y
Ghost World Watch
KAIO: King of Pirates
Project Happiness

To me, 3DS is really packed in 2013, considering how announcements can pop out anytime soon. Dragon Quest VII was announced 4 months before the launch, for example, and it'll be one of the biggest titles of the year. I'm expecting new games from Marvelous (Harvest Moon, Rune Factory, Senran Kagura), Square Enix (Dragon Quest, some Final Fantasy), Nintendo themselves, such as Kirby.

 

[serplux]

Well, we have set for Summer:

Monster Hunter 4
Devil Survivor 2: Break Record
Little Battlers eXperience: Super Custom
Umihara Kawase
Conception II
Disney Magic Castle: My Happy Life
Mario Golf: World Tour
Mario & Luigi: Dream Team
Gyrozetter: Wings of Albatross

You missed Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D (Donkey Kong Returns 3D in Japan?), off the top of my head.

 

[jj984jj]

People keep asking for more Nintendo Directs when they can't seem to remember what was announced last month.

M&L4 should sell pretty well, and I'm pretty sure they said it was coming out in the summer. First-party wise they also have Band Bros and Mario Golf.

Nick is also sad, because you all forgot about him. AA5 should do decent numbers.

 

[michaelius]

TWEWY2...believe.

Would you prefer it for ios or social websites?

 

[donny2112]

You see a release list and a stretch of time spanning 3 years without a single release and over 2 years without any new game announcements of any kind and view that as substantial support?

I see the pre-launch announcement of multiple games in the most powerful sales-wise franchise from the Square side of the house for PS3 exclusively and putting out an Advent Children special edition PS3 to coincide with the launch of the Blu-Ray version (remember how PS3 was supposed to be a Blu-Ray trojan horse) as not abandoning the PS3. It's important to keep track of the context of the discussion here. The original poster started off by saying that third-parties abandoned PS3 in its first year, and you followed that up by saying that Square's lack of game releases supported that notion. Square did not abandon PS3 in its first year, nor in the first three years, but that doesn't mean they were putting out games for the system either. Square's bread-and-butter was Final Fantasy, and they had that tied exclusively to the PS3 with multiple games since pre-launch. That's not abandonment of the system, especially in Japan where the original version 360 edition of FFXIII was never even released.

 

[Mpl90]

Well, we have set for Summer:

Monster Hunter 4
Devil Survivor 2: Break Record
Little Battlers eXperience: Super Custom
Umihara Kawase
Conception II
Disney Magic Castle: My Happy Life
Mario Golf: World Tour
Mario & Luigi: Dream Team
Gyrozetter: Wings of Albatross
Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D
Digimon World reigitize Decode

Fixed. Not putting Jam with the Band yet since it could be a May release. Except for Umihara and partially for Conception II, some good third party releases + the gigantic MH4 and many nice first party titles. And probably it's incomplete due to some titles yet to be announced and others that can perfectly be released during Summer, like Yokai Watch and KAIO.

 

[electroplankton]

I updated in the meanwhile

 

[farnham]

SamBishop: General hilariously deluded Vita fanboyism with regular insistence as fact that unspecified big games were coming in the future (for instance, asserting that there would be "plenty" of Vita announcements at E3 2012); when I asked him about it last summer via another forum, he sent over two massive walls of text basically admitting that he didn't actually have any knowledge of system-selling games coming, but that he just had faith that sales would pick up dramatically following a price drop, which would in turn lead to renewed third-party support.

The only specific software prediction I ever saw him make was stating as fact on another forum, shortly after the awful TGS 2011 Vita conference, that Capcom was bringing Lost Planet and RE to Vita in some form. When I followed up with him nearly a year later, he claimed that his source at Capcom had left shortly after the original rumor and thus could no longer confirm it.

James Mielke: Said this in an interview in April of last year:



When I followed up with him via Twitter after TGS last year, for some strange reason, he refused to give a yes/no answer when asked whether he stood by those comments.

Heck, I'll name one of the current GAFfers I was referring to: After Sony's Vita-light E3 2012 conference, famousmortimer claimed that TGS would deliver on big Vita announcements, and also relayed news of an impending announcement from Vita Game Heaven 2 that would "make GAF very, very happy," claiming to know both points for a fact. A few posts later, he was already downplaying the veracity of his sources.



I suspect you greatly exaggerate the level of inside information to which analysts have access. Heck, I'm pretty sure zomg himself admitted that he was just speculating.

Sam bishop is spot on with the price drop to dramatic increase of sales prediction.

 

[Soriku]

Would you prefer it for ios or social websites?

For 3DS, please.

 

[serplux]

Well, we have set for Summer, 3DS:
To me, 3DS is really packed in 2013, considering how announcements can pop out anytime soon. Dragon Quest VII was announced 4 months before the launch, for example, and it'll be one of the biggest titles of the year. I'm expecting new games from Marvelous (Harvest Moon, Rune Factory, Senran Kagura), Square Enix (Dragon Quest, some Final Fantasy), Nintendo themselves, such as Kirby.

It's packed in the West too (more Japanese localizations pls), which I love. All I need is Startropics and I'll be set.

Spoiler

Why will you never bring it back Nintendo? Why!?

As it is, all we really need for complete dominance (which it will have anyways) is Zelda/Kirby and a few more Japanese announcements, all of which is very likely.

 

[MasterSheen]

Is it true that next week's data will be delayed?

 

[Mpl90]

Is it true that next week's data will be delayed?

It seems just for Media Create, since they've put a note in the last 4Gamer report. A one day delay because March, 20th is a Holiday.

And that suddenly explains why everything is going to be released on a Wednesday next week

 

[michaelius]

For 3DS, please.

It's SE we are talking about

 

[Exterminieren]

Come on, Iwata. I'm getting bored of this now. I'm just asking for a release dates for Bayonetta: Climax Edition [eShop] and Wonderful 101 w/ Bayonetta 2 demo.

Bayonetta demo bundled with a family-friendly new IP? Good method of kneecapping Wonderful 101 before it launches, there.

 

[MasterSheen]

It seems just for Media Create, since they've put a note in the last 4Gamer report. A one day delay because March, 20th is a Holiday.

And that suddenly explains why everything is going to be released on a Wednesday next week

Oh, I can deal then, Famitsu is the superior tracker anyway

I did find it strange that LM2 was pushed up a day.

 

[BLACK AMERICAN PSYCHO]

Oh, I can deal then, Famitsu is the superior tracker anyway

How?

 

[donny2112]

How?

Running joke. There're points for and against on either side, but as far as accuracy, they're both accepted as generally the same accuracy. Now Dengeki ...

Spoiler

 

[shinra-bansho]

I think this case can be made for SCEWWS, but less so for SCEI/Japan Studio. If you look at their own more notable efforts, games like Gran Turismo, Minna no Golf, Parappa, Xi, Doko Demo Issyo, PoPoLoCrois, Boku no Natsuyasumi, Ape Escape, Siren, LocoRoco, etc, and I think you see a library that definitely pushes outside the core male teen/twentysomething demographic. Japan side I definitely think Sony's strived more for broader "everyone" mainstream style software from the start, and arguably long before Nintendo made that pivot in the mid 2000s.

Oh, I'm not saying Sony haven't tried to make in-roads into other markets; in fact, I'd say their first foray into gaming with the way they positioned the PlayStation significantly expanded the global gaming market beyond its original niche. I think SCEJ and later also the UK-based studios were quite engaged in trying to further expand the market to far less success than Wii Sports eventually did. But I don't think the overarching aim was to necessarily create a bunch of mega-selling franchises - although presumably that would have been a nice side-effect - but rather to create the ecosystem for other publishers software sales and consequently royalties.

Similarly, Microsoft attempted this with the Rare acquisition and later Kinect.

This just sounds like an excuse for Sony's inability to create new mega franchise after Gran Turismo, especially in Japan.

Creating a diverse array of core games is not mutually exclusive from making a new mega franchise. Certainly no one can predict which game will become big but I don't think Sony makes games just to fill certain niche market for 15-35 age group, especially in Japan.

They've created two reasonably large franchises in God of War and Uncharted.

The 15-35 age group aren't a niche market, they are the primary market. And the discussion wasn't isolated to Japan.

 

[Road]

Gamefaqs is an easy English resources for new releases. But they only put games that have a release date: http://www.gamefaqs.com/3ds/releases/region-2

Famitsu is good for release schedule of games without a release date, vaporware and whatnot, if you can read some Japanese: famitsu.com/schedule/3ds/ (and you can always use Google translate to have an idea anyway)

 

[staticneuron]

Do Killzone, Resistance and inFamous really have any (significant) pull or buzz? Granted some of their recent efforts (PASBR or Wonderbook) didn't sell as much as expected, but I think the start of a new generation would've been a great moment to get rid of games which have a certain overlap with 3rd party offerings.

Also expansion takes time and is (inevitably) dangerous/limited, so "getting rid" of older IPs (instead of having to create new studios), if only temporarily, doesn't seem such a bad idea.

Fuck it, they threw away franchises like Legend of Dragoon, MediEvil and Parappa the Rapper, but fucking Killzone or Resistance survive. I'm still bitter about that.

I don't think they "throw away any franchises (I hope not). but they tend to put them down and we might see them skip a generation or two. Warhawk is an example. I wouldn't be surprised if we see a return of Syphon Filter or Getaway.


But as far as those series let us talk about numbers. To make the point as short and as succinctly as possible, Resistance Fom stands at 2.5 million sold Killzone 2 at 2 million sold, and Infamous at 2 million sold. For a point of comparison, Parappa sold 1.4 million (including the re releases), the number I received for Medievil was 800k (not including rereleases) and legend of dragoon 1.2 million (not including rereleases).

So looking at numbers alone you can see why these titles are getting sequels and attention. Obviously they are making Sony money and getting them attention and feedback they can track. So as a whole you can probably bet that they have exceeded their expectations and that's why we see a return.

Edit: The above are WW numbers btw. I doubt KZ , resistance and infamous do much of anything in Japan. I don't recall the individual sales numbers.

 

[cj_iwakura]

Good for the Vita. I for one love to see region free consoles succeed.