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Media Create Sales: Week 49, 2011 (Dec 05 - Dec 11)

test_account

XP-39C²
It's an alright number. Good when observed in a vacuum, but potentially ominous considering the ample stock and the fact that we're right in the holiday season.
I dont see why it is potentially ominous because it is in stock 4 days after release. Being in stock could simply mean that Sony calculated the first shipment good enough to make sure that it is easy available during this holiday season, and this can be quite important concidering the heavy competition from the 3DS. It is too early to say anything about Vita's continuous sales pattern. I know that you said 'potenially', but based on what we know, personally i dont think it looks more potentially ominous than the 3DS, which is also in stock and easy to get.
 

gkryhewy

Member
I dont see why it is potentially ominous because it is in stock 4 days after release. Being in stock could simply mean that Sony calculated the first shipment good enough to make sure that it is easy available during this holiday season, and this can be quite important concidering the heavy competition from the 3DS. It is too early to say anything about Vita's continuous sales pattern. I know that you said 'potenially', but based on what we know, personally i dont think it looks more potentially ominous than the 3DS, which is also in stock and easy to get.

A launch really should sell out unless the shipment is just massive, which this wasn't.
 

Erethian

Member
The article isn't listed at Nikkei News sector.

I'm assuming by that you mean it could be an article where the shipment information was sourced from another media outlet?

Edit: And on the topic at hand the only "potentially ominous" issue I see regarding the Vita is the possibility it ends up like the 3DS pre price-cut, and whether Sony has as much ability to manoeuvre as Nintendo did.
 

test_account

XP-39C²
A launch really should sell out unless the shipment is just massive, which this wasn't.
Not necessarily. As i mentioned it can be that Sony shipped enough to make sure that they have enough stock this holiday season. And 500k (if that is the real number) is quite big in my opinion. Maybe not over-the-top-massive, but still quite big.

Selling 321k in two days is very good in my opinion, especially concidering the heavy competition from the 3DS. The 3DS is 10k-15k cheaper and it has currently 3 killer apps out there (MH3G, MK7, SM3DL). Hell, you can get a 3DS + those 3 games for the same price as the Vita Wifi/3G model :) I can easily see that people go for this option instead this holiday season, but yet the Vita had a strong opening. And that is good news, it shows that there are interest in both systems so far.

From what we know (that the Vita sold 321k in two days, and that the WiFi model is sold out at Amazon (not that this means everything in the big picture, but it is at least an indication that the Vita is still selling)), things look quite good right now i'd say. People can speculate if they want of course, by all means, i'm not saying anything against that, but i dont see any reason to be pessimistic yet based on what we know.
 
And on the topic at hand the only "potentially ominous" issue I see regarding the Vita is the possibility it ends up like the 3DS pre price-cut, and whether Sony has as much ability to manoeuvre as Nintendo did.

Well, that's the big question, isn't it?

The Vita seems to be selling roughly in line with the 3DS at launch - though the Vita has the benefit of hitting during the holidays - but I don't see anything that suggests the system won't see the same rapid drop-off that the 3DS did.

And if it does, what options do Sony have to "right the ship" in the way that Nintendo were forced to? Do they have the same room to manoeuvre on price and can they act as quickly? Have they got some major announcements waiting in the wings?

EDIT:

I think there's a tendency for people on the Sony side of the fence to get a bit defensive about these kind of questions, especially in light of a pretty decent FW, but I think it's fair to ask what makes the Vita so special compared to the 3DS - especially in Japan - that we're not going to see the same sales pattern? I'd argue that it lacks the list of compelling announcements that the 3DS did, even at launch - everyone knew MK was coming early, other popular first-party titles like Animal Crossing were certs, third-party stuff like Kingdom Hearts and RE was known about - and while the machine is certainly a beast, specs have never sold to any but a sliver of the potential market.
 

rpmurphy

Member
Vita's business model doesn't really rely on exclusive games being made for it, at least not until the current gen is phased out. There's little to no reason to keep a major release exclusive when they have the chance to get extra revenue from a port, either from or to the Vita. If anything that makes the Vita a much more attractive option for devs, creating a Vita version is easy and there's little to no risk of loss the way there is with 3DS. With the Wii on it's last leg if a 3DS game that's it, there aren't many options to recoup loses besides the iOS.
Uhh, I hope they keep that to a very short duration of the system's launch, because it is a horrible business model for the Vita if they rely on Vita software sales coming from people just happening to choose that version over identical versions on other platforms or double-dippers. It is just too high-end of a portable device and at this point a very limited seller in terms of potential demographics. Sony absolutely needs to get strong exclusives for the platform to thrive, and port-machine-age should be a byproduct of it being successful. Not the other way around.
 

test_account

XP-39C²
And if it does, what options do Sony have to "right the ship" in the way that Nintendo were forced to? Do they have the same room to manoeuvre on price and can they act as quickly? Have they got some major announcements waiting in the wings?
5k Yen pricedrop + bundling of game and/or memorycard perhaps.


I think there's a tendency for people on the Sony side of the fence to get a bit defensive about these kind of questions, especially in light of a pretty decent FW, but I think it's fair to ask what makes the Vita so special compared to the 3DS - especially in Japan - that we're not going to see the same sales pattern? I'd argue that it lacks the list of compelling announcements that the 3DS did, even at launch - everyone knew MK was coming early, other popular first-party titles like Animal Crossing were certs, third-party stuff like Kingdom Hearts and RE was known about - and while the machine is certainly a beast, specs have never sold to any but a sliver of the potential market.
First i must say that i dont think this is anything special about the Sony side. I've seen it for all systems, so i'd think it fairly equally for all systems.

But i'm not sure if you're referring to what i said, but what i said in my previous posts here is not about being defensive. I'm just saying that from what we know as a fact right now, nothing looks to be bad for the Vita sales. If someone says that the 3DS could still "fail" after this holiday season, i'm sure that many will comment on it and point to how good the 3DS is selling now because we know as a fact that the 3DS is really popular now, but i dont concider this as being defensive (again, i'm not sure that you're referring to what i said, but i'm just mentioning it anyway =)).

If there is anything that we have learned from the last 5-6 years is that things might not turn out the way it looks. Things can go both ways for sure, so people have choice of either being pessemistic, neutral or optimistic about the outcome, there is no right or wrong about this. In the very early life of a console it is pretty much just a wild guess anyway since we wont know the final answer before years later. And everyone is free to speculate all they want of course.
 

gkryhewy

Member
Not only is that a moving target but it's based on really ... nothing.

You're right; it's qualitative and subjective. What I mean is that it seems to be what every console manufacturer is after when they allocate their launch supplies. A short-term sellout has strong PR value, and if followed by steady shipments, can be accomplished without leaving sales on the table - a win/win. My read is that if Sony shipped 500k, they did so because they thought they could sell 500k at launch, although of course they'll never say any such thing.
 

jman2050

Member
Not necessarily. As i mentioned it can be that Sony shipped enough to make sure that they have enough stock this holiday season. And 500k (if that is the real number) is quite big in my opinion. Maybe not over-the-top-massive, but still quite big.

Selling 321k in two days is very good in my opinion, especially concidering the heavy competition from the 3DS. The 3DS is 10k-15k cheaper and it has currently 3 killer apps out there (MH3G, MK7, SM3DL). Hell, you can get a 3DS + those 3 games for the same price as the Vita Wifi/3G model :) I can easily see that people go for this option instead this holiday season, but yet the Vita had a strong opening. And that is good news, it shows that there are interest in both systems so far.

From what we know (that the Vita sold 321k in two days, and that the WiFi model is sold out at Amazon (not that this means everything in the big picture, but it is at least an indication that the Vita is still selling)), things look quite good right now i'd say. People can speculate if they want of course, by all means, i'm not saying anything against that, but i dont see any reason to be pessimistic yet based on what we know.

The pessimism comes from a host of factors and conjectures that were made by many members long before the launch ever happened, some valid, some not-so-much. Some are just making the mistake of trying to use the launch as evidence of their previous suppositions and not just letting time take its course to see if they were right or not.
 

BurntPork

Banned
I think you might could change that to how close it will get to 4.5mil.

Eh... Maybe. It will most likely do it, but nothing's a sure thing until it happens. I mean, I though Vita selling through at least 80% of the launch stock was a no-brainier.

Though, perhaps the real question is, will 3DS hit 5 million LTD in it's first year? :p
 

haadim

Member
In US and EU, yea. Pretty sure 3DS has outsold the DS 95% of the time since it launched in Japan.

Since its debut 3DS has been outsold by DS only once, the week just before the price slash.

Wonder if PSVita can maintain that kind of dominance over PSP in the coming days?
 

DCharlie

And even i am moderately surprised
Capcom just announced that MH3G shipments exceeded 1 million.

and that explains the 1600 yen price cut and the utter glut of stock everywhere!

... congratulations?
 

jeremy1456

Junior Member
and that explains the 1600 yen price cut and the utter glut of stock everywhere!

... congratulations?

You shot yourself in the foot. What we want is a public apology and for you to cancel your previous statement.

Or you can kiss your business good bye.

EDIT: So the real question is what the game will sell in its second week, which will be revealed tomorrow.

Was it supply constrained? Can we expect 400k, or is 300k pushing it even?
 

DCharlie

And even i am moderately surprised
You shot yourself in the foot. What we want is a public apology and for you to cancel your previous statement.

Or you can kiss your business good bye.

a public apology ? for what exactly?
 

DCharlie

And even i am moderately surprised
Sorry, my bad attempt at the FFXIII on 360 meme.

haha, i assume i'd missed something ;)

Was it supply constrained? Can we expect 400k, or is 300k pushing it even?

Tokyo is bursting with copies and the price has gone down so i don't think 200-300k is an impossibility.
 

jeremy1456

Junior Member
Tokyo is bursting with copies and the price has gone down so i don't think 200-300k is an impossibility.

When I said supply constrained, I meant the week before. I was wondering if the demand was higher than supply so that much of it would still carry over to last week.
 

DCharlie

And even i am moderately surprised
Funniest thing about the PR statement?

Based on its multi-platform strategy, Capcom will continue to perform research involving new types of hardware in order to maximize earnings

Oh BABY!

When I said supply constrained, I meant the week before. I was wondering if the demand was higher than supply so that much of it would still carry over to last week.

well, my theory was -no- but i guess we'll find out. I sincerely hope that Capcom do -not- get burnt on this. Prediction aside, there's nothing i'd like better than to see them see more success with Monster Hunter.
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Full press release:

Capcom IR said:
December 21, 2011
Press Release
3-1-3, Uchihiranomachi, Chuo-ku
Osaka, 540-0037, Japan
Capcom Co., Ltd.
Haruhiro Tsujimoto, President and COO
(Code No. 9697 Tokyo - Osaka Stock Exchange)

Capcom's Popular "Monster Hunter 3 (Tri) G"
Breaks the One Million Mark!
- First Monster Hunter title for the Nintendo 3DS™
quickly tops one million units in Japan -

Capcom Co., Ltd. (Capcom) is pleased to announce that shipments of "Monster Hunter 3 (Tri) G" for the Nintendo 3DS have surpassed one million units in Japan.

"Monster Hunter" is a series of hunting action games in which players go up against enormous monsters against a backdrop of spectacular scenery. Playing the game by using communications to cooperate with friends to fight powerful monsters has created a new style of communicating that sparked a social event called the "Monster Hunter craze". The number of fans has increased steadily since the first "Monster Hunter" title made its debut in 2004. The series has grown into a mega-hit with cumulative sales of more than 20 million units.

"Monster Hunter 3 (Tri) G" adds many new elements to fully utilize the capabilities of the Nintendo 3DS. This game is based on "Monster Hunter 3 (Tri)" for the Wii®, a title that was introduced in August 2009. Players can enjoy three-dimensional images with greater depth. The game allows players to customize the touch screen for smoother operations. Players can also enjoy the extremely challenging G-rank quest as well as monsters that appear for the first time in the "Monster Hunter" series. With these and other features, "Monster Hunter 3 (Tri) G" has become popular among a broad range of people extending from current to new game players. Furthermore, prior to the release of this title, Capcom distributed sample versions of the game and sent a truck with game playing machines to 18 locations throughout Japan, starting in Sendai. As a result, the number of shipments in Japan has quickly surpassed one million units in the new Nintendo 3DS segment of the game market.

Along with the launch of "Monster Hunter 3 (Tri) G", Capcom started selling promotional products by collaborating with Asahi Soft Drinks Co., Ltd. and CALBEE, Inc. In addition, Capcom placed two types of coin-operated games in its arcades that use the "Monster Hunter" theme. Overall, Capcom has been conducting many activities aimed at further boosting the value of the "Monster Hunter" franchise.

Based on its multi-platform strategy, Capcom will continue to perform research involving new types of hardware in order to maximize earnings. Through these activities, Capcom aims to supply games that can achieve a high degree of satisfaction among a diverse spectrum of users around the world.
Source: http://www.capcom.co.jp/ir/english/news/html/e111221.html
 
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