metalslimer
Member
Going off his comments he definitely expected more 3rd party support than there is which explains why the games were still in the launch window until late.
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Media Create Sales: Week 12, 2013 (Mar 18 - Mar 24)
- Thread starter Chris1964
- Start date
Going off his comments he definitely expected more 3rd party support than there is which explains why the games were still in the launch window until late.
lunchwithyuzo
Banned
But what does that matter? ACNL demolished DQVII sales in general, and without complete digital sales we can't really see the proportions at play here to establish that sort of judgement on the audiences.
Plus it's an apples/oranges comparison in the first place. If DQVII launch had been as supply constrained as ACNL launch, do you think ACNL would've still charted higher on the eShop in February?
Father_Brain
Banned
I was disappointed with the lack of discussion of Wii U third-party support, both in the prepared presentation and the Q&A, in the last investor briefing, so hopefully this one delivers.
It would be quite interesting but at the same time concerning to see Nintendo go out all guns blazing with their releases come the Summer if they pushed dates back. For one it'd mean they have one of the emptiest times of the year all to their own, but at the same time I was under the impression that Summer is one of the worst periods of the year for game releases alongside post-Holiday fatigue.
michaelius
Banned
I don't think Sony did it intentionally.
Orginal plan probably assumed Soul would be Christmas game for PSV and God Eater 2 was probably supposed to launch in march but software wasn't ready.
Which may or may not accompany a price drop depending on how the initial stream of software does and what the competition have planned. Attempting to emulate 3DS really (honestly looked like the plan all along, with the 'premium' price of the console at launch). A lot of the panic in here as is the case every time could all end up being premature.
3DS never dropped into this kind of territory for this long, though. They have to be sweating a bit.
Inafune practically said Sony asked them to delay the game with some stock excuse ('to make it better').
I think summer is a pretty big period in Japan, which we know Nintendo focuses on very heavily.
Well we don't have the digital sales figures but fact:- DQ7 outsold Animal Crossing by a huge margin physically in February and Animal Crossing outsold DQ7 digitally by a margin we don't know in February. Therefore I concluded that the Dragon Quest fanbase are more inclined to buy physical over digital and the Animal Crossing fanbase are more likely to buy digital than the DQ fanbase.
I know this may not be the right topic, but am I the only one who finds the Wii U sales depressing, like the Vita before it? Sure they were both kinda expected/deserved, but it still makes me sad that new systems aren't doing well. Kinda makes me paranoid about the future of dedicated gaming platforms
The Abominable Snowman
Member
nvm
ambientmystic
Member
Good riddance, I had one of them in my ignore list. Laguna was pretty much insufferable in these Media Create threads. You couldn't even express yourself (dismay/excitement/whatever) without being verbally shut down by that Debbie Downer in these threads.
Ace Harding
Member
This is the first time looking at a Media Create thread in a while and holy crap the 3DS has outsold the PS3 LTD in Japan? That is crazy.
That was awhile back. Wii next.
I'm going to say that Luigi's Mansion 2 will have Mario-type legs and will go on to sell a million (or very, very close to, at least) copies LTD. That would be great, great, great results for the game and a wonderful result for Next-Level Games. Hope Nintendo continue to have close ties to them and hope they have continued success in that relationship together.
Purging fire.
Purging fire.
lunchwithyuzo
Banned
We're well past AC launch though, without numbers there's no way to draw comparable trends. AC also sold siginificantly more at retail than digital, it's not a remake, this comparison just doesn't make sense with the conclusions you're trying to draw from it. We don't even have any idea what DQ7's digital vs physical ratio is.
Ace Harding
Member
MasterSheen
Member
32.8m
Psycho_Mantis
Banned
Vita did not get third party support.
WiiU is not getting third party support.
There not the only reasons why the two platforms are failing but I am sure third party support would result in both consoles having a more fleshed release schedule.
Moral of the story: get that third party support.
Speaking about third parties I am actually surprised that WiiU is getting such poor support in Japan. Japan loves Nintendo. I don't except the big stuff to go to the WiiU like Yakuza, Tales, FF but I would have thought it would get some of the smaller releases.
For instance Konami seems to have released nothing for it, and NB releasing games like Project J versus, OP not on it is kinda weird no?
Also DW8 should of been on it too but was not. I think its going to even harder to get third parties on board now after seeing the sales.
Anyway. This doesn't matter greatly and I will conclude here with saying simply that Animal Crossing outsold Dragon Quest digitally whilst Dragon Quest outsold Animal Crossing physically (both during February), hence I stand by my conclusion. But to change the subject: it's amazing how great My Deco Rainbow Wedding did. High price tag and opened at over 30,000. I barely noticed it with all the Zelda/Soul Sacrifice/Luigi/One Piece talk!
lunchwithyuzo
Banned
Yeah. Maybe starting in June their product pipeline will be loaded enough to get out 1-2 1st party games monthly for the rest of the year. Timed with a price drop and some keyed promotion/advertising that could be a pretty good course of action for trying to sustainably reverse Wii U's bleak fortunes.
Then it'll have turned out Game & Wario (for Japan) and Lego City (for the west) were sort of sacrificial lambs for the previous launch window commitment. I have to imagine both those games were finished for awhile now too and likely held back strategically to come in the middle of the first half.
lunchwithyuzo
Banned
Well yes, obviously DQ7 sold more at retail during it's launch versus an old (very popular) game, that's traditionally how these things go. The fact that it didn't digitally though doesn't implicitly mean one has an inherent audience propensity to buy digitally over the other, especially when one had targeted promotion pushing the download option while the other is a single player JRPG remake. I don't think DQ7 is really a great barometer for DQXU on any level in this regard anyway.
Anyways, I bought both digitally: 150 hours invested into one and completely stuck at the other!
i know this is very premature and perhaps some wishfull thinking but..
Do you think sony has been busy talking to devs for PS4 over there to see so little japanese 3rd party support for the wii u?
metalslimer
Member
I dont think Sony's talk had anything to do with it. 3rd parties are just betting on the PS4 to do better especially worldwide. I mean looking at the Wiiu why would you be overly concerned with it? What new base are you getting to by aggressively supporting WiiU.
Psycho_Mantis
Banned
I am sure Konami was going to support the PS4 either way because it seems most if not all of their console gaming business relies on Playstation consoles. Actually looking back, they didn't release many Wii games either, most of them being sport games that did badly. i see Winning Eleven for the Wii so what about WiiU?
Wait, isn't that exactly what was implied at the GDC miiverse talk?
Don't want to be mean spirited...but thank goodness.
Aquamarine
Member
Oh, I see the thread has been Lagunafied again this week.
Not sure if posted.
Aquamarine to the rescue!
Psycho_Mantis
Banned
Aquamarine to the rescue!
Did gamecube take off all of a sudden because of Smash? What happened there?
EDIT; Oh, thanks schuelma you read my mind.
See my post above- it launched in September so in weeks 13-14 it's hitting it's first holiday. Makes linear comparisons to Wii U and Vita less meaningful IMO.
metalslimer
Member
Aquamarine to the rescue!
Dont see it crossing streams with the vita anytime soon on a good note....i guess.
Makes me wonder how bad things would have been if they tried an earlier launch
dragonfart28
Banned
Please don't confuse neogaf with facts.
We've collectively decided Wii U is already worse than Gamecube and on its way to Virtual Boy levels.
It does raise a couple questions about 'best console release timing.' Start in the holidays and you get an immediate boost because people are looking for gifts; start early in the year (3DS) and you got months to build a base before the holidays to ramp it up. Start during the fall and you got a good start for the launch, and then a holiday spike immediately following.
In the overall scheme of things I don't think it makes numbers any different. Releasing during the holidays does make the numbers look more impressive and potentially add momentum, which is probably why so many systems come out during the holidays. You're right that GC didn't actually suddenly start selling more in its 3rd/4th month, but even if WiiU came out in September instead of December, the results probably wouldn't have been too different from where we're at now.
Aquamarine
Member
Yep. That's why (personally) I don't like linear comparisons. But people wanted them before to see if streams were crossing, so yeah.
Vita sales actually get really bad in April in May of last year (5/6k bad in May) before a Persona bump in June.
I feel bad for Skyzard, he's like the cutest Sony mascot ever
Lord_Byron28
Member
I'd say you're being fairly optimistic but lets wait and see the next week or two to see what its trajectory is.
Gianni Merryman
Member
That happened last December or January at the latest IIRC, now next targets in sights are Wii and PSP LTD sales.
metalslimer
Member
Strawmen and generlizations all in one post. Impressive.
michaelius
Banned
Aquamarine to the rescue!
Can we pretty please get also same graph extended to current week of Vita lifetime ?
Holidays don't guarantee big spikes (see Vita 2012).
Gamecube had the holidays, a very popular game (Smash) and two pretty popular games (Pikmin and AC). Don't take all the credit away from the system.
Yes, it is true that once in a blue moon a company chooses to have not one single notable release in November and December in Japan when trying to establish a system.
Point taken.
My point was more that the Gamecube does look better because the holidays, but also because there were games released that people wanted. It's not like the WiiU would be in a different position had it been launched in September. Total sales would have probably been the same with a smaller launch and a middling holiday because Nintendo got nothing for the next three months after launch.
Just basing it off of summaries I've read.
edit: and for clarification, I don't think this guarantees what you said is wrong, just that it seems they're looking into making wii fit a more socially integrated experience via miiverse. We haven't seen much yet though.
metalslimer
Member
Once again if these sales are what convinces people you wont see a non port till next year. Games dont magically come out of nowhere. What we get in the near future will be the result of last years sales so...
No, but simply looking at the graph and saying "wow, Wii U is now falling way behind the GameCube" seems a bit disingenuous.