slaughterking
Member
Takumi works on it. They announced that in last weeks Direct.
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Media Create Sales: Week 8, 2014 (Feb 17 - Feb 23)
- Thread starter Chris1964
- Start date
Takumi works on it. They announced that in last weeks Direct.
It's the N64 light look is easy to process and will run on the oldest smartphones out there just fine. That's the main reason. Though it looks like sh#$% compared to the SNES Version.
That's the cool thing about Smartphones, you have to create games even for lowend models or old ones, this is even worse than on the PC where you can Scale engines much better nowadays...
Ah I see. I must have missed it.
My suspicion is that's their strategic goal for the series, because its continued existence and the nigh-complete absence of FF don't really make sense with the rest of Square Enix's strategy on the platform (or really any platform) otherwise.
Asano was also noting that the series future would depend on how Bravely Second sold, so if that's really their intention, expecting (in financial projection terms) at least a fair bit of growth out of it (100-150K more than the last one) would be realistic, and I could understand them canning it if it didn't hit that.
I mean why would you keep that ~300K series around when you drop every other one, especially when it doesn't seem as cheap as some other things that were selling in that range. Also, going full on with annual releases doesn't really make sense for something you aren't trying to make a larger series.
I could be wrong, but it just strikes me as a bizarre aberration in an otherwise consistent strategy of "AAAA, high profit margin, and/or digital".
Devilgunman
Member
Japanese devs never want to take a risk of sinking money to make HD games. According to Pachter, development cost jumped 4 folds from PS2 era to HD era. That's why many companies stuck with their SD assets and made games for ds/psp. In current market, the only systems that allow them to make games with small budget are 3DS and mobile and that's why the Japanese gaming industry is going down. They just refuse to take a risk.
ultimately i think it's going to be the mistakes of last gen finally catching up with this gen. i still don't have faith that the ps4 will save anything when it's just a continuation of those policies (now with more of a focus on the western market than any previous sony platform). i'm sort of expecting a point 2-3 years down the line when ps4 sales are obviously saturated and there aren't any actual big titles to push hardware because the gaps between releases will have grown too big. the system's four months old already and aside from its port-filled launch, it had a full-priced port of tomb raider and a discounted rayman legends. if that sort of thing doesn't scream 'holy shit we desperately need money' i don't know what does.
that's a good point. although i think it's bizarre that square enix is bothering with a sequel to theatrhythm. nintendo either fronted some cash or the eshop sales were pretty nice.
It was just in the Japanese Direct. If you didn't watch that one then it was easy to miss.
This is an aberration I feel I actually understand.
They said to Famitsu that this was the final Theatrhythm game and that it would become a DLC platform afterwards.
Now, that strategy doesn't make a lot of sense for a dedicated device game, but it's pretty much 100% how you handle major iOS titles.
My running theory is that they're releasing this on 3DS first to make packaged goods money up front and then turning it into an iOS title that they will just continue to update on a go-forward basis, putting the DLC on both platforms.
Now, something like Bravely Second doesn't immediately fit with that kind of a strategy, which is why I feel there has to be something different up with that one, which I feel is mostly likely "I want this to be an 800K+ selling series within a few entries if I'm going to keep going."
terrisus
Member
Mrgrgr.
Seriously though, I hope that does happen. The direction they've gone with the Final Fantasy series doesn't seem fit for handhelds at all.
Bravely Default, meanwhile, is perfect.
that's not really true. level 5, square enix, bandai namco, koei tecmo, capcom, sega, and konami all made games for the ps3 and 360 last gen. the issue was that no one was bit in. in the us, ps3 sales were low early on, and 360 gamers were far more into western-developed games aside from the early capcom stuff (which resembled western games) and lost odyssey.
the return on investment just wasn't there. why should level 5 commit a huge team to white knight chronicles when they could use similar resources and fund a lot of smaller games? i think out of all of them, only bandai namco managed success out of the generation with the gundam warriors games, tales of (eventually, when they put it on ps3), and the western publication of ni no kuni.
Part of the reason I think this is that after Matrix remade FF3 and FF4, they made FFG:4WoL, which I imagine was a reaction to FF4 selling less than FF3 and them soon running out of FF's to remake, so the idea was to start a new series.
BD was originally the sequel to that game, until they decided to rebrand it as a new IP, and conspicuously have no major FF titles on handhelds anymore.
However, I do feel this ultimately puts a rather big sales expectation strain on the series, at least over time, so whether it survives I think is fairly debatable given that Square Enix is pretty brutal with cancellations these days.
ThatStupidLion
Member
vita at a steady hold of 18k for the past few weeks is great. much better than it dropping a few thousand each week.
Psycho_Mantis
Banned
PS4 software sales look a bit better now seeing all the releases. What I am surprised about is the high sell through for nearly every launch title. Retailers will not be disappointed.
The rest of the week is pretty normal: WiiU dead, Vita somehow holding at 18k, and 3DS declining.
Nintendo need to seriously look at 3DS not just in Japan but also in the West. They can't ignore the problem.
The rest of the week is pretty normal: WiiU dead, Vita somehow holding at 18k, and 3DS declining.
Nintendo need to seriously look at 3DS not just in Japan but also in the West. They can't ignore the problem.
Canis lupus
Member
3DS sales are really fickle week to week but down by 50 percent over last year damn. Vita is holding well and no big drops.
PS4 the 3rd biggest console opening, unfortunately no SW to follow up in the coming months so it'll be bad once we're there.
PS4 the 3rd biggest console opening, unfortunately no SW to follow up in the coming months so it'll be bad once we're there.
Cygnus X-1
Member
Nintendo is still underestimating how serious their situation is and how much worse it can gets. One of the large misjudgement here are based on actual performance of 3DS ignoring the fact that it's dropping heavily in the States and now it starts to drop heavily in Japan too.
If the tastes of Japan shifts toward mobiles as heavily as other western countries, the entire development business of Nintendo will be in danger. Grave danger. How people do not see it, blows me away.
ThatStupidLion
Member
would have liked to see a vita increase to go along with ps4 launch.
Graphics Horse
Member
Uhhhuh.
Did they ever add DS4 support to Vita TV?
Phoenician_Viking
Banned
I wonder if Vita can sell 200k in March with the software it´s getting, and if it´s getting a price cut soon. I can´t believe that Sony is selling Vita 2000 as the same price as the Vita.
Cygnus X-1
Member
No you're not the only one. And the trend is not favourable to the dedicated industry as a whole. My personal idea is that in some years, everything will turn around the mobiles. Is it possible to prevent this to happen? Yes, everything is possible, provided some major innovation is brought to the market that the smartphones cannot offer. Continuing on this path without any changes will sooner or later cause a major collapse.
The Abominable Snowman
Member
3DS is such a weird case. It's doing "well" considering the market, but it is performing like how the second-tier platform would normally perform. I hope that trend doesn't continue.
I think we'll see PS4 at 100K next week. Wonder what the shipments are looking like now.
I think we'll see PS4 at 100K next week. Wonder what the shipments are looking like now.
Cygnus X-1
Member
The smartphones penetration will nothing, but increases in Japan. There is no reason to assume that things will get better.
Regarding Europe and States, I just read that the mobile market is getting saturated, i.e. it will not further massively expand. However, the number of people that will keep buying new phones replacing old ones will still be enormous. So, importantly, the industry will remain a giant worldwide, but probably the expansion rate will decrease during the next years.
It's extra bad since this is basically their software line-up for the foreseeable future.
Psycho_Mantis
Banned
Well the next major release is on May 30. 3 month drought. I think it will.
SwiftDeath
Member
I am fairly curious if the PS4 does hit 10K or so a week, how long it would take
KillerMan91
Member
Really. Is GTAV first game ever on PS3 to have some kind of legs in Japan? Usually even bigger games on PS3 vanishes from charts within few weeks. GTA have been in top 30 since its launch in october. Where is this world going.
I mean, support WILL arrive eventually, but it seems as though JP publishers will be lagging behind in adoption yet again. Not good at all :/
ItWasMeantToBe19
Banned
If the big games for the PS4 in Japan are FFXV, The Phantom Pain, GT7, KH3, and RE7 (and those games other than Metal Gear all have question marks about how big they still are but I think they're probably the biggest Japanese games it has) and those games don't come out until late 2015 (for Metal Gear and Final Fantasy) or sometime in 2016 (for the rest?), it could be a really long time before a userbase is established that other Japanese publishers feel comfortable green-lighting games for. And that could make it an extremely long time before a good bit of other Japanese games hit PS4. Maybe too long if this gen doesn't have a long cycle or if some other revenue source arrives to attract more Japanese publishers away from consoles.
I expect that with general purpose hardware like Smartphones being so prevalent dedicated hardware will be forced to be leaner and precisely targeted. So consoles and handhelds will be less bloated meaning much lower hardware prices.
It could be mobile for all we know
Sure, they talked for it at last Direct and it will be mobile.
Yeah the issue I see is that there are lots of Japanese developers who have announced games for PS4 or intentions to release their next game on PS4, but their announced title is either due in 2015 at earliest, or they're releasing a PS3 game in 2014 with no indication of when their PS4 title is coming.
It will reach mobile in 2018 when all the 3ds sales are sapped out.
Capcom in general seems very comfortable with how both Monster Hunter and Ace Attorney perform on 3DS. I don't think there's a near term threat for either of those leaving with mainline games.
Spin-offs and/or ports obviously have shown up on mobile and other platforms.
I know after Geist Crusher, Capcom would be hesitant to put another non MH/AA game on the 3DS, but a new RE or something would be fantastic
Pancakes R Us
Member
What's left? Mario/Kart/Pokemon/Monster Hunter/DRagon Quest Joker have all come and gone. Perhaps the next mainline Dragon Quest, but I suspect that won't have a massive impact on system numbers.
SwiftDeath
Member
What would the point be of stocking retail copies of knack at launch though?
I feel it's not just Gaist Crusher, but also E.X Troopers and the relatively ho-hum performance of Revelations relative to cost/effort that seem to have made them a bit cautious about what they announce anymore.
Psycho_Mantis
Banned
Ice cold.