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[Smiles and Cries]

Hyrule Warriors is coming out next week in Japan. I wonder how it will do.

I hope it does well they really pushed it and they really did a good job on it does not even look as bad as most DW games so I wish TK luck with this one

 

[Snakeyes]

IMO, Nintendo has an opportunity to rally Japanese third party developers with their upcoming console and handheld architecture, but they need to start courting them now. If executed properly, it would effortlessly bridge the gap between Japan and the West; Japanese devs could finally make a game once and deploy it on both consoles and handhelds with little to no extra cost.

 

[Mauricio_Magus]

IMO, Nintendo has an opportunity to rally Japanese third party developers with their upcoming console and handheld architecture, but they need to start courting them now. If executed properly, it would effortlessly bridge the gap between Japan and the West; Japanese devs could finally make a game once and deploy it on both consoles and handhelds with little to no extra cost.

I hope they at least do it with Japan...

 

[biglittleps]

IMO, Nintendo has an opportunity to rally Japanese third party developers with their upcoming console and handheld architecture, but they need to start courting them now. If executed properly, it would effortlessly bridge the gap between Japan and the West; Japanese devs could finally make a game once and deploy it on both consoles and handhelds with little to no extra cost.

For this unified architecture success both needs to come around 400$ and provide power similar or better than PS4, launch with their system seller software and have 3rd party support which i think is very hard to pull out. Currently mobile market is moving and going strong and Home console market is dominated by PS/Xbox, so nintendo really need a miracle to convince gamers to buy their hardware, otherwise they will have sales like Wii U from core Nintendo fans only who likes their exclusives.

 

[Mpl90]

Comgnet retail chain: preorder stats /comparisons - As of August 7th, 2014

[3DS] Monster Hunter 4G - 678pt

[3DS] Puzzle & Dragons Z - 262pt
[3DS] Yokai Watch 2 - 276pt + 205pt = 481pt
[3DS] Super Smash Bros. For Nintendo 3DS - 395pt

[3DS] Dragon Ball Heroes: Ultimate Mission - 158pt
[3DS] Dragon Ball Heroes: Ultimate Mission 2 - 115pt

[PS3] Persona 4 Arena - 77pt
[PS3] Persona 4 Arena Ultimax - 57pt + 28pt = 85pt

[PSV] Toukiden: The Age of Demons - 40pt
[PSP] Toukiden: The Age of Demons- 24pt
[PSV] Toukiden Kiwami - 42pt

[3DS] Senran Kagura: Burst - 45pt
[PSV] Senran Kagura: Shinovi Versus - 50pt + 49pt = 99pt
[3DS] Senran Kagura 2: Crimson Red - 32pt + 18pt = 50pt

[WiiU] Super Smash Bros. For Wii U - 21pt

[PS3] Shin Gundam Musou - 95pt
[PSV] Shin Gundam Musou - 17pt
[PS3] Samurai Warriors 4 - 80pt + 15pt = 95pt
[WiiU] Hyrule Warriors - 18pt + 15pt = 33pt

 

[Nirolak]

Road to TGS™.

Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies
Platform: iOS
Genre: Adventure Game
Publisher: Capcom
Developer: Capcom
Special Notes:
-It's out now!
-"The first episode is free, while episodes 2-5 can be purchased for 2000 yen as a pack, or for 600 yen each. The DLC episode is also available for 600 yen."

App Store Link: https://itunes.apple.com/jp/app/ni-zhuan-cai-pan5/id877880297?mt=8
Thread: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=869768

 

[L~A]

Comgnet retail chain: preorder stats /comparisons - As of August 7th, 2014

[3DS] Monster Hunter 4G - 678pt

[3DS] Puzzle & Dragons Z - 262pt
[3DS] Yokai Watch 2 - 276pt + 205pt = 481pt
[3DS] Super Smash Bros. For Nintendo 3DS - 395pt

[3DS] Dragon Ball Heroes: Ultimate Mission - 158pt
[3DS] Dragon Ball Heroes: Ultimate Mission 2 - 115pt

[PSV] Toukiden: The Age of Demons - 40pt
[PSP] Toukiden: The Age of Demons- 24pt
[PSV] Toukiden Kiwami - 42pt

[3DS] Senran Kagura: Burst - 45pt
[PSV] Senran Kagura: Shinovi Versus - 50pt + 49pt = 99pt
[3DS] Senran Kagura 2: Crimson Red - 32pt + 18pt = 50pt

[WiiU] Super Smash Bros. For Wii U - 21pt

[PS3] Shin Gundam Musou - 95pt
[PSV] Shin Gundam Musou - 17pt
[PS3] Samurai Warriors 4 - 80pt + 15pt = 95pt
[WiiU] Hyrule Warriors - 18pt + 15pt = 33pt

Smash still below Youkai Watch 2? Well I'll be damned... And did the Wii U version rise at all since the first time it appeared in the chart?
MH4G doing pretty good so far (why no MH4 comparison, though?).
DragonBall doing ok, I guess.
Toukiden is just an expansion/updated version, right? Sales seem pretty similar, at least for the PS Vita version.
Great for Senran Kagura 2, I guess a 100k opening is a lock?
As for Hyrule Warriors... yuck.

Anyway, I understand why there's so many Famitsu reveals this week... it's because this week's a double-issue. Looks like there's a break next week.

 

[RalchAC]

8-9 million is very unlikely in the current Japanese market. Anywere from 4-6 million is likely for the PS4.

PS3 just hit 10 million. There is no way the PS4 will end up that close. I think it would be a pretty big recovery just to hit 6 million, especially the way the Japanese market is headed. Also the Vita is not coming close to 8 million either.

If The PS4 lasts as long as the Ps3 or Japan doesn't want to go to the Ps5, I could see "just" a 20% drop when it's discontinued. That's if the ps4 performs like the Vita and lasts around 8 years

 

[mo60]

If The PS4 lasts as long as the Ps3 or Japan doesn't want to go to the Ps5, I could see "just" a 20% drop when it's discontinued. That's if the ps4 performs like the Vita and lasts around 8 years

The way every next gen console and handheld has been selling so far in Japan tells me that won't happen at all. The 3ds so far looks like it will be the only handheld or console that won't have a 50%+ decline compared to it's predecessor.

 

[NamikazeBurst]

Smash still below Youkai Watch 2? Well I'll be damned... And did the Wii U version rise at all since the first time it appeared in the chart?
MH4G doing pretty good so far (why no MH4 comparison, though?).
DragonBall doing ok, I guess.
Toukiden is just an expansion/updated version, right? Sales seem pretty similar, at least for the PS Vita version.
Great for Senran Kagura 2, I guess a 100k opening is a lock?
As for Hyrule Warriors... yuck.

Anyway, I understand why there's so many Famitsu reveals this week... it's because this week's a double-issue. Looks like there's a break next week.

I remember many people here debating whether Smash on 3DS will open over a million. I believe it will, but probably under what Youkai Watch 2 did. Also, I believe Smash for Wii U was at 19 points to begin with. It was at 21 the last time the comparison was posted.

 

[Psycho_Mantis]

http://gematsu.com/2014/08/downtown-nekketsu-koushinkyoku-remake-coming-playstation-3

Man if only it had local mulitplayer.

IMO, Nintendo has an opportunity to rally Japanese third party developers with their upcoming console and handheld architecture, but they need to start courting them now. If executed properly, it would effortlessly bridge the gap between Japan and the West; Japanese devs could finally make a game once and deploy it on both consoles and handhelds with little to no extra cost.

I think it has a big danger of alienating console games. With the handheld (presumably it will be weaker) it might be easy to port titles over to the console (whether they do though is reliant on the console's sales so its still not a guarantee)

The big console JP franchises such as FF,MGS,RE,KH etc rely more on western sales and will be made according to PS4. This means the console will have to be around the PS4's power and if it want's better chances have similar architecture but this may go against the handhelds architecture and obstruct the ease of porting. Again support probably relies on sales and if the publisher believe there's an audience there.

I honestly don't see how a console/handheld hybrid will help the third party situation.

 

[Darius]

Definitely great sales and like you said I also think MHP3 was the peak of MH so MH4 was never going to reach as high numbers. Still I also remember some posters claiming that it will outleg MHP3 and that way would reach it. As for selling your software on any system I think for mega franchises like DQ, MH and FF it really doesn't matter that much on what system they are. They sell regardless because of their immense brand power. Sure the actual popularity of the said system has some effect on sales and with some spinoffs and ports you can try to build the fanbase for the system but especially mainline MH and DQ games will be multimillion sellers regardless of that. For some other franchises it just seems that the fanbase is on some specific system. Sure it could be moved with enough work but why bother if it's already on that one system? For example with Tales Namco tried to release a main game for the most popular home console of the gen with Graces on Wii but it didn't do that hot. Then they ported the same game to PS3 and the port greatly outsold the original game. Then ToX was even bigger success as a original mainline title for PS3 and showed that they should have developed for PS3 since start of the gen (dat Vesperia moneyhat from MS).

In general it works with everything the only thing different is scale or are you honestly arguing against marketing? One of the most apparent examples that it wasn´t simply because it is on a Playstation system is the performance of both Tales of remakes on PSV that sold quite less than a simple Tales port on 3DS.

Your example actually proves my point, because out of the get go PS3 had the word of mouth that it will be the next "JRPG" machine but the merit to built the JRPG fanbase on the PS3 lies on SquareEnix. Their marketing in the beginning of the gen was the biggest reason and factor. They started with a FFVII-teaser to built hype among JRPG fans, followed by the announcement of not one but two big budget Final Fantasy games with FF13 and Versus. They even used FF7Advent Children as a marketing tool in Japan, a BlueRay release with a FF13 demo. Basically they built the JRPG fanbase on PS3 and it wasn´t simply because it was a Playstation, the latter sounds really very fanboyish with a touch of superiority complex.

When talking speciafically about the launch of Tales of Graces, keep in mind that it launched at the same timeframe as the overhyped FF13 release, it also didn´t help that only a few months before, Namco launched an enhanced port of Tales of Vesperia (at the same timeframe as the PS3 slim release), something that successfully helped in building a fanbase and reconfirmed (most importantely in the minds of the Tales fanbase) the precedent (ToSymphonia PS2) that the Tales games will be ported and enhanced eventually - case in point Tales of Graces f PS3.

In the end it´s just about good marketing, visibility and constancy. Something that games like DQ and MH are a good example of. If it really was simply because this games are on a Playstation system, also the systems wouldn´t sell as badly as they recently are, they would simply sell because they are Playstations.

 

[cw_sasuke]

Can we expect another L5 Vision event soon ?

Its been a while since we got an update on what they are working on, with their current Yokai Watch success and unveiling a bunch of mobile projects at their last event i wonder when and if we can even expect a home console title from them anytime soon.

- Layton 7 (Mobile/3DS)
We only saw a short gameplay clip of it looked kinda off - havent heard anything since last year.

- Yokai Watch 3 (3DS)
Its a given and it will be on 3DS.


- Wonder Flick Console Expansions ( every current system 3DS)
Thats also happening and probably the only project L5 is working on when it comes to home consoles. Wondering how Wonder Flick has been doing lately, i mean when it was unveiled it looked amazing and exactly like a kind a game that would perform well on the mobile market. I know they had a lackluster launch, but with all the ads and the planned console browsers versions this still seems to be their biggest project besides Yokai Watch.

- Bunch of mobile games
As stated they announced a bunch of other mobile projects besides Wonder Flick at the 2013 L5 event, that either under performed or just went MIA - so something feels off. Will they keep pushing for the market with new unveiling and games ? It feels like L5 has had a more difficult time to establish themselves as a major player in the mobile space than they anticipated. The Layton 7 route with developing games in a packaged version for handhelds as well as a mobile app might be their future.

With classic Layton games taking a break as well as Inazuma Eleven, Little Brawlers being dead and another big Ninokuni type home console game being unlikely i wondering what we can expect from L5 in the next 18 months*. We were just talking about the 4DS and we know that L5 was one of the biggest supporters 3DS supporters early on, so they would be a publisher that NCL would probably inform as soon as possible about their plans for the next portable - especially with Yokai Watch being the hot IP right now. This might end up in having upcoming 3DS titles like YW3 getting 4DS versions at launch as well and/or Level 5 targeting 4DS specs/performance level output for the mobile projects so they can port them very fast once the new system is out.


I doubt that L5 will work again on other publishers IPs, but if they do it would be only for big prestige projects like DQ XI, a title that is supposed to run on as many system as possible, like Wonderflick Level 5 already showed that they know how to transfer good looking handheld titles to even greater looking console games with Ninokuni. Its very unlikely but if DQ XI were to be a project that ends up on 3DS, WiiU, PS3, PS4 etc. they would be the ones able to pull it off.

 

[Mlatador]

PS4's success story in Japan continues.

 

[L~A]

Can we expect another L5 Vision event soon ?

Its been a while since we got an update on what they are working on, with their current Yokai Watch success and unveiling a bunch of mobile projects at their last event i wonder when and if we can even expect a home console title from them anytime soon.

- Layton 7 (Mobile/3DS)
We only saw a short gameplay clip of it looked kinda off - havent heard anything since last year.

- Yokai Watch 3 (3DS)
Its a given and it will be on 3DS.


- Wonder Flick Console Expansions ( every current system 3DS)
Thats also happening and probably the only project L5 is working on when it comes to home consoles. Wondering how Wonder Flick has been doing lately, i mean when it was unveiled it looked amazing and exactly like a kind a game that would perform well on the mobile market. I know they had a lackluster launch, but with all the ads and the planned console browsers versions this still seems to be their biggest project besides Yokai Watch.

- Bunch of mobile games
As stated they announced a bunch of other mobile projects besides Wonder Flick at the 2013 L5 event, that either under performed or just went MIA - so something feels off. Will they keep pushing for the market with new unveiling and games ? It feels like L5 has had a more difficult time to establish themselves as a major player in the mobile space than they anticipated. The Layton 7 route with developing games in a packaged version for handhelds as well as a mobile app might be their future.

With classic Layton games taking a break as well as Inazuma Eleven, Little Brawlers being dead and another big Ninokuni type home console game being unlikely i wondering what we can expect from L5 in the next 18 months*. We were just talking about the 4DS and we know that L5 was one of the biggest supporters 3DS supporters early on, so they would be a publisher that NCL would probably inform as soon as possible about their plans for the next portable - especially with Yokai Watch being the hot IP right now. This might end up in having upcoming 3DS titles like YW3 getting 4DS versions at launch as well and/or Level 5 targeting 4DS specs/performance level output for the mobile projects so they can port them very fast once the new system is out.


I doubt that L5 will work again on other publishers IPs, but if they do it would be only for big prestige projects like DQ XI, a title that is supposed to run on as many system as possible, like Wonderflick Level 5 already showed that they know how to transfer good looking handheld titles to even greater looking console games with Ninokuni. Its very unlikely but if DQ XI were to be a project that ends up on 3DS, WiiU, PS3, PS4 etc. they would be the ones able to pull it off.

Last year, Level-5 Vision event was announced on August 1st (iirc), and took place on August 26. So if there's one, it's probably not this month.

And Youkai Watch 3? Nope. This one won't be announced this year, or even in Q1. They'll reveal it as close to release as possible, just like YW2. Doesn't make any shred of sense to reveal it so close after YW2.

 

[Darius]

It´s really interesting how you can see certain trends in Japan way before many other territories. Already in the early 2000s you can see certain trends about portable telephones (and games for those) that have been now also apparent in the US for a few years with smartphones. Among certain demographics all-in-one devices always had been scuffed at (for example for its low quality) but a portable communication device *lol* in fact is a great "medium" to reach an all-in-one device.

Despite the low quality of the first games, photos, music, movies etc. we have already seen a big decline in digicams, music players etc.. Handhelds have been affected as well but in my opinion it is only a matter of time that also consoles will be affected quite a lot not only in Japan but also in the US. smartphones basically are little computers, right now it isn´t very common that these devices are connected to bigger screens, but looking at in what pace the resolution of these devices is improving, the incentive to connect those devices with a big screen will grow and likely be even a selling point in the coming years and therefore manufacturers will give their best to faciliate the connection as much as possible.

Consoles have the advantage that due to no need to be tiny in size and beeing connected with a power cable, the performance can be easily superior. But just looking at how we went from simple games like "snake" to games that actually look similar to last gen systems, it will only be a matter of time that to a majority it will reach a point of "good enough" as well. And we know that the market/publishers (worldwide) will adept accordingly.

Consoles or videogames in general have had a certain stigma which seemed to become less insulting in the recent years. While games in general maybe won´t be stigmitized as bad from now on, there´s a high chance that on the other hands dedicated systems will be. Basically, "hey you can have your "Madden,Fifa, CoD" fix on your TV with smartphones" are you really so obsessed with videogames that you actually need a console?

In my opinion this development is just getting a little bit slowed down due to ease of use of console and smartphones graphic capabilities beeing still not "good enough", but there seems to be a trend in that direction. The answer to this is exclusive content, but with EA Access we already have a glimpse to what influencial publishers are actually going after.

 

[Morfeo]

I just saw a documentary on the demographic challenges that face Japan, with there being more and more old people and less kids/teens. Im sure its already been mentioned, but I feel this has to be a major reason why dedicated video game plattforms see so much decline there.

 

[cw_sasuke]

Last year, Level-5 Vision event was announced on August 1st (iirc), and took place on August 26. So if there's one, it's probably not this month.

And Youkai Watch 3? Nope. This one won't be announced this year, or even in Q1. They'll reveal it as close to release as possible, just like YW2. Doesn't make any shred of sense to reveal it so close after YW2.

I was just mentioning projects they are working on, of course they won't talk about YW3 anytime soon. But compared to the past years the release schedule is really barren.

 

[Shizuka]

Now that YW2 is out for a couple of weeks, sales for YW are finally winding down.

 

[Nirolak]

Last year Level 5 Vision was announced on August 1st, so they are late this go around.

 

[tilinelson2]

I just saw a documentary on the demographic challenges that face Japan, with there being more and more old people and less kids/teens. Im sure its already been mentioned, but I feel this has to be a major reason why dedicated video game plattforms see so much decline there.

That doesn't explain why gaming in general is not in decline. Revenue is increasing and the addition of f2p means that probably people are playing more games than before.

The main reason is that people are still gaming, but nowadays there is no need to own a dedicated video game platform to play most kinds of games, so while many people still prefer traditional video games, many people see no reason to buy such a device when other devices they own for other purposes already provide them the gaming experience they need.

 

[L~A]

Last year Level 5 Vision was announced on August 1st, so they are late this go around.

They may also not have one this year, I remember them not doing one in 2011 (or was it 2012, or both?).

I was just mentioning projects they are working on, of course they won't talk about YW3 anytime soon. But compared to the past years the release schedule is really barren.

Ah, fair enough. I just keep seing people clamining it's going to be announced this year and whatnot...

I just saw a documentary on the demographic challenges that face Japan, with there being more and more old people and less kids/teens. Im sure its already been mentioned, but I feel this has to be a major reason why dedicated video game plattforms see so much decline there.

Possibly, but such a change wouldn't be visible within such a short period... not unless Japanese people all stopped having children at once, and started killing people aged 0-16.

 

[Nirolak]

I just saw a documentary on the demographic challenges that face Japan, with there being more and more old people and less kids/teens. Im sure its already been mentioned, but I feel this has to be a major reason why dedicated video game plattforms see so much decline there.

Interestingly in the West, gamers got much younger on average when handhelds and phones were added in.

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2012/07/how-gamings-demographics-reverted-back-to-2005/

Up through 2011, the ESA screened out the non-gamers from its annual questionnaire by asking each respondent, "Do you have a video game console in your home or do you have a PC that's used primarily to run video games." In 2012, that screening question was expanded to also include play on "a dedicated handheld system (like a PSP, etc.), a wireless device/tablet (e.g., iPad) or a phone used to play games." Anyone that played games across any of those devices for at least an hour a week was considered a "gamer" for the survey, while those that played at least ten hours were labeled "serious" gamers (even if they were just playing Words With Friends for those ten hours).

2011: Home console or PC question.

2012: Question expanded to include mobile and handheld.

Home consoles are expensive, have expensive games, are usually used with at least moderately expensive TVs, and have content that tends to target older audiences.

Now, one aspect here is that in Japan people are also home a lot less, especially among adults, so there's negative pressure on home consoles from every angle ranging from the needs of the audience to the needs of developers.

Almost everyone has a phone however, you can play a phone anywhere, and dedicated handhelds are at least portable and notably cheaper than a new home console (both on the hardware and game front).

If there isn't an older audience that wants a premium audio visual experience and is home often enough to justify one, then the market evaporates.

 

[Morfeo]

Good rebuttals of my point from many posters here, but I felt it at least was worth mentioning

 

[Nirolak]

Good rebuttals of my point from many posters here, but I felt it at least was worth mentioning

Oh it's definitely going to have an impact on the market in the long run.

As there are progressively less children, it would conceptually make it harder to launch things like Yokai Watch as time goes on (on the same scale of success), even if the timeframe for that impact isn't the immediate future.

Also, simply having less population leaves less and less people to both make and play games overall.

 

[Darius]

The so called "old gamers" have been used and accustomed to the typical software-prices for consoles that have been a standard for decades now, so it´s no surprise that videogames haven´t been as "devalued" in their opinion yet. Young gamers especially the ones accustomed to smart-devices, have quite a different view on how "valuable" games in general are. But let´s not try to be ignorant, also in the US among those "old-gamers" there are more and more getting used to more "convenient" prices and alternative offerings.

 

[Nirolak]

The so called "old gamers" have been used and accustomed to the typical software-prices for consoles that have been a standard for decades now, so it´s no surprise that videogames haven´t been as "devalued" in their opinion yet. Young gamers especially the ones accustomed to smart-devices, have quite a different view on how "valuable" games in general are. But let´s not try to be ignorant, also in the US among those "old-gamers" there are more and more getting used to more "convenient" prices and alternative offerings.

Well that's what drives polarization in general.

If you're going to spend $60 in 2014 instead of just playing an f2p game or buying a 6 month old title for $20, you expect something on the scale of GTA V, Assassin's Creed 4, CoD/Battlefield, Far Cry 3, Skyrim, or other really gigantic games.

That's why those games have such a gigantic sales lead over others and have killed off most mid-tier titles, and while the smaller ones of those often sell a lot of their copies at discount prices whereas the biggest keep their price.

 

[Darius]

Well that's what drives polarization in general.

If you're going to spend $60 in 2014 instead of just playing an f2p game or buying a 6 month old title for $20, you expect something on the scale of GTA V, Assassin's Creed 4, CoD/Battlefield, Far Cry 3, Skyrim, or other really gigantic games.

That's why those games have such a gigantic sales lead over others and have killed off most mid-tier titles, and while the smaller ones of those often sell a lot of their copies at discount prices whereas the biggest keep their price.

With this kind of devaluation of "not gigantic" games a lot of those won´t be a viable investment in future. We already see that publishers have cut off a lot of "normal"- sellers and put focus on their top franchises instead, EA is a good example their output decreased a lot compared to last gen. While those big IPs could even benefit of less competition due to the lack of mid-tier games, this also means there are even less games at a "normal" price-point which make these games look even more overpriced in comparison. But the bigger issue is, that this could lead to a very monotonous selection of games with an actual decent budget, and potentially to a decrease in interest in games in general that aren´t simply cheap time-wasters.

 

[ugoo18]

Man if only it had local mulitplayer.



I think it has a big danger of alienating console games. With the handheld (presumably it will be weaker) it might be easy to port titles over to the console (whether they do though is reliant on the console's sales so its still not a guarantee)

The big console JP franchises such as FF,MGS,RE,KH etc rely more on western sales and will be made according to PS4. This means the console will have to be around the PS4's power and if it want's better chances have similar architecture but this may go against the handhelds architecture and obstruct the ease of porting. Again support probably relies on sales and if the publisher believe there's an audience there.

I honestly don't see how a console/handheld hybrid will help the third party situation.

It can if 3rd parties are consulted in order to have an idea what sort of ball park range in terms of specs they want and then working from there. Wasn't it Bethesda that said that for the WiiU Nintendo really didn't do that or bring 3rd parties on board with what they were doing/making as opposed to showing it to them with a kind of here it is for your games attitude.

Which makes sense somewhat considering the similarities in architecture between the PS4 and XBO. 3rd parties would have played a part in that and i doubt that the ones that are at least on good terms with Nintendo such as Ubisoft, Activision or EA (before the fallout) wouldn't have at least tried hinting at altering some of the WiiU's specs to try bringing it more in line with the PS4 and XBO to make it easier for themselves to port games.

As i see it and correct me if im wrong but the first step to gaining any sort of 3rd party support is cutting down as many barriers as possible and giving them as little reason as possible to back out of supporting the console based on it's specs alone. From there then progress can start to be made. After all the SNES was really the last home Nintendo console that didn't have some sort of limiting quirk to it that gave a 3rd party a reason to not put a game on it purely based on the hardware itself.

N64 had cartridges
GCN had mini discs
Wii's hardware was too much of a step down for third parties compared to the PS360
WiiU's hardware apparently is too exotic as well as being somewhat lacking compared to the PS4 and XBO.

 

[Guymelef]

First week for first entry in series.
Zelda Musou vs:

Gundam Musou - 170,725
Hokuto Musou- 385.295
One Piece: Kaizoku Musou - 655.774

What do you think?

 

[phanphare]

First week for first entry in series.
Zelda Musou vs:

Gundam Musou - 170,725
Hokuto Musou- 385.295
One Piece: Kaizoku Musou - 655.774

What do you think?

what platforms were those released for? I have a really hard time believing Hyrule Warriors will open over 150k

but then again what do I know haha

 

[Guymelef]

what platforms were those released for? I have a really hard time believing Hyrule Warriors will open over 150k

but then again what do I know haha

PS3, for Gundam Musou release, PS3 LTD was 1,928,244, Wii U is 1.858.152 now.
Will be a fair comparison.

 

[metalslimer]

IMO, Nintendo has an opportunity to rally Japanese third party developers with their upcoming console and handheld architecture, but they need to start courting them now. If executed properly, it would effortlessly bridge the gap between Japan and the West; Japanese devs could finally make a game once and deploy it on both consoles and handhelds with little to no extra cost.

You make this sound much easier than it is. First of all, to bridge the gap between Japan and the west both of these platforms would have to be popular in both, and there is no guarantee a Nintendo console is going to be popular in the west anytime soon even with a lot of Japanese support behind it. In the end, mobile gaming will probably still be more appealing than spending the money to develop a higher end game.

 

[Cosmo Clock 21]

I think that developers still being hesitant to develop for the Wii, despite it printing money, is an example of the systemic problem Nintendo has with third party developers. Every game was a test, every game was a spinoff, every game was a late port farmed out to some other company. The one notable exception was Call of Duty thanks to Treyarch being Nintendo fanboys, and even MW2 never got a release on the Wii (I think that was actually the turning point for the system from rise to fall, but that's a topic for another day).

Even on the Wii U, you get seemingly little support unless you happen to be one of Nintendo's golden boys.

 

[phanphare]

PS3, for Gundam Musou release, PS3 LTD was 1,928,244, Wii U is 1.858.152 now.
Will be a fair comparison.

interesting...I guess it could go either way at this point. there's a lot of factors to consider. the PS3 audience is probably more receptive to musuo games but this one has a major amount of Zelda fan service. then again Zelda isn't as big in Japan as it is in the West. it will be very interesting to see how Hyrule Warriors opens.

 

[Sammy Samusu]

EDIT Wrong data, nevermind this post.

 

[StreetsAhead]

Friedly reminder that Comgnet still only represents a single chain of 16 stores in one Prefecture.

 

[hiska-kun]

GamesMaya report (first day sales):

- Pre-orders for Ultra Street Fighter IV rose suddently at the last moment. Limited version sold well.
- Dragon Ball Heroes 2 started slower than the last entry.
- Senran Kagura 2 limited version sold out. But the standard version had a slow start.

 

[Sammy Samusu]

GamesMaya report (first day sales):

- Pre-orders for Ultra Street Fighter IV rose suddently at the last moment. Limited version sold well.
- Dragon Ball Heroes 2 started slower than the last entry.
- Senran Kagura 2 limited version sold out. But the standard version had a slow start.

Did they say anything about DQX and BD? (EDIT: they didn't)

Both seem to be doing well at Yodobashi:

http://www.yodobashi.com/ec/product/stock/100000001002313292/index.html
http://www.yodobashi.com/ec/product/stock/100000001002327992/index.html

 

[Exile20]

Comgnet retail chain: preorder stats /comparisons - As of August 7th, 2014
[WiiU] Hyrule Warriors - 18pt + 15pt = 33pt

Is this a bad sign for the game?

 

[tilinelson2]

With this kind of devaluation of "not gigantic" games a lot of those won´t be a viable investment in future. We already see that publishers have cut off a lot of "normal"- sellers and put focus on their top franchises instead, EA is a good example their output decreased a lot compared to last gen. While those big IPs could even benefit of less competition due to the lack of mid-tier games, this also means there are even less games at a "normal" price-point which make these games look even more overpriced in comparison. But the bigger issue is, that this could lead to a very monotonous selection of games with an actual decent budget, and potentially to a decrease in interest in games in general that aren´t simply cheap time-wasters.

They are already not viable in most cases. The number of games being released for traditional gaming platforms is shrinking, because few companies are able to sell decent amounts that justify the investiment in "mid-tier" games. Worse than that, many mid-tier games of today are games from francises that were considered big, but declined considerably.

For every "mid-tier" game that has sold well on 3DS, Vita and PS3, for example, there have been many recent flops. Larger companies are reducing the number of games they release, concentrating on big franchises, and trying to break into mobile market. Smaller companies are sticking to their guns and producing more games from selected niche franchises instead of trying new things or making bigger games to try to break into the mainstream. Every system has experienced occasional "droughts" in their release schedules because there aren't enough mid-tier games to fill the gaps between AAA games, and many companies have been vocal about the current situation making some kinds games not viable economically anymore.

The selection is already monotonous. You hardly see a system that suits the needs of most gamers. That is why there is so much polarization in the market nowadays. That is why it is so easy to choose what system you will buy based on your tastes. There aren't many options, and you choose based on the "big games".

 

[Mpl90]

GamesMaya report (first day sales):

- Pre-orders for Ultra Street Fighter IV rose suddently at the last moment. Limited version sold well.
- Dragon Ball Heroes 2 started slower than the last entry.
- Senran Kagura 2 limited version sold out. But the standard version had a slow start.

Thanks as always (btw, thanks for last week's digital charts as well )

 

[iori9999]

Pretty bad week overall.. Not as bad for Nintendo I suppose..

 

[synce]

Doesn't Sony have Japanese studios? They shouldn't have focused all their PS4 efforts on the west

 

[Nirolak]

Doesn't Sony have Japanese studios? They shouldn't have focused all their PS4 efforts on the west

Somewhat.

They have SCEJ, which contains Polyphony, Team Ico (lol), and Team Siren as sub-studios along with staff that work on other projects.

They also have producers that team up with local developers.

Overall, they don't have that much of note though, and a lot of them are tasked with supporting the Vita. Certainly it's a much smaller investment than their Western studios, but that's also true of the relative size of the markets.

Or, I guess to put it another way, even if all their Japanese staff and partners were working on PS4, I don't think they would have sufficient output to change much.

 

[Takao]

Japan Studio has only released a single Vita game thus far. Everything else has been through external partnerships. Internally they put out Knack and Puppeteer in the last year.

 

[hongcha]

Right now, looking at Comgnet (33pt), it would be sitting at a ~35k debut, but we still have one more week to go. For it to have a 100k debut it would need more than 150pt, and that's not going to happen.

It will most certainly bomb in Japan, especially compared to those three. It will sell more in the west though.

Quite true. I am guessing a 30k opening week.

 

[sörine]

PS3, for Gundam Musou release, PS3 LTD was 1,928,244, Wii U is 1.858.152 now.
Will be a fair comparison.

You need more context than that. Back in the mid 2000s mainline Musou games could sell upwards of 700k, even 1m in some cases. The franchise was much stronger than it is today and Gundam Musou's ~300k was seen as something of a bomb given the brands involved.

 

[saichi]

As bad as 3DS has done, it's at least sold 50% of it's predecessor (and will go a bit father than that). Wii U, PS4 and Vita won't be managing that.

actually PS4 might get there purely based on the low bar of 5 million.

 

[Snakeyes]

I think it has a big danger of alienating console games. With the handheld (presumably it will be weaker) it might be easy to port titles over to the console (whether they do though is reliant on the console's sales so its still not a guarantee)

The big console JP franchises such as FF,MGS,RE,KH etc rely more on western sales and will be made according to PS4. This means the console will have to be around the PS4's power and if it want's better chances have similar architecture but this may go against the handhelds architecture and obstruct the ease of porting. Again support probably relies on sales and if the publisher believe there's an audience there.

I honestly don't see how a console/handheld hybrid will help the third party situation.

If I understand their strategy correctly, there won't be any traditional porting required - build your games once and they run on any device that is powered by their architecture at the appropriate settings, just like on PC. If this works out properly, Japanese third parties wouldn't have to choose between targeting their handheld-centric home market or the more console-friendly West anymore; they would be able to hit both without spending any extra resources. I feel this could be a very appealing prospect for Japanese developers that don't rely on IPs with massive Western appeal.

Besides, by 2016 we'll have affordable mobile chips with a featureset that is modern enough to support most of the popular third party engines. Unreal Engine 4, Cryengine and Unity are already running on the latest iDevices.

You make this sound much easier than it is. First of all, to bridge the gap between Japan and the west both of these platforms would have to be popular in both, and there is no guarantee a Nintendo console is going to be popular in the west anytime soon even with a lot of Japanese support behind it. In the end, mobile gaming will probably still be more appealing than spending the money to develop a higher end game.

Obviously, hence "if executed properly". I'd like to think Nintendo will come out of this gen with even more hunger and focus than after the GBA/GC era.