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Media Create Sales: Week 17, 2013 (Apr 22 - Apr 28)

Next week is GW isn't it? And then drop off from GW. I don't think we can say what the baseline is for Vita or WiiU just yet.

With so many new releases hitting the charts for PS3, you'd think that system would see a hardware bump, not the Vita. It's weird.

I honestly think the only thing that can bump the PS3 is a price drop. The system still hasn't reached 19,990Y yet. Well either that or a main exclusive game in a major JP franchise (DQ, KH, MH, FF). Since the latter is not happening, the former is the only way IMHO.
 
To be fair, the system was stabilised around 9k right? Or am I remembering wrong? Still bad and its a big improvement.

No, during the worst part it dropped to the 6k range. I don't believe it ever went below 5k.

Edit: I wouldn't be surprised if Wii U remained stable next week and didn't go up.
 

TAS

Member
The one positive we can take from this is that Nintendo launched a year before its rivals--so even though they screwed the pooch to this point, they still have the opportunity to turn it around before PS4 and Xbox launch. Without this extra year the situation would have been cataclysmic.
 
You're making it look like Vita is dying, but it's actually gaining strengh. It may be slow, but it's a positive dynamic. You're saying there won't be any new announcement, but if there was announcement when it was selling under 10k, don't you think the park growing and the sales growing, with a now less expensive console, would give more confidence to devs ?

It's the thing with the Vita.It was really in bad shape at first cause it was NOT marketed to regain the psp market. The thing you see happening now, with all those psp/vita games, is an actual shift, a generational transition. Now that it's engaged, vita is more safe. PSP stopped selling crazy, Vita is selling better, big psp games are also coming on Vita. You see, the dynamic is there now. Vita will have all the usual sellers on PSP. In 1-2 years from now, there won't even be a psp version anymore. And the market will be healthy enough for third parties to release original games. But i think SS or Gravity Daze were rentable already you know..

Honestly, I don't think those 5k or 8k units Vita gained on a weekly basis are enough to give developers confidence in developing bigger projects, in particular considering that its situation is even more worrying in the West. They will keep developing niche games, targeted to otaku, or portings, or trying to find the next MH, but I cannot see a brand new Kingdom Hearts, or a brand new IP from Level-5, or a brand new Ace Combat on that thing.

I don't see the dynamic you're depicting. If there is a transition from PSP, it's on 3DS, which is getting MH, KH, many otaku games (Senran Kagura is a 3DS game originally), tie-in from anime (Toriko, Dragon Ball, etc.), even Hatsune Miku is having another entry. Vita has some multi-platform with PSP, but I don't see how this might help, the last he received sold much more on PSP (LBX W, AKB). But if you see great sales from Vita versions of PSP games just let me know.

I'm not so confident now, also because we don't have any announcement since when? Mind Zero? Where are Capcom, Square Enix, Konami, big PSP supporters? Even Atlus has nothing planned on Vita, while having 4 games for 3DS in 2013..
 

ULTROS!

People seem to like me because I am polite and I am rarely late. I like to eat ice cream and I really enjoy a nice pair of slacks.
Next week is GW isn't it? And then drop off from GW. I don't think we can say what the baseline is for Vita or WiiU just yet.



I honestly think the only thing that can bump the PS3 is a price drop. The system still hasn't reached 19,990Y yet. Well either that or a main exclusive game in a major JP franchise (DQ, KH, MH, FF). Since the latter is not happening, the former is the only way IMHO.

GW is this week, so the results will be up next week.
 
The one positive we can take from this is that Nintendo launched a year before its rivals--so even though they screwed the pooch to this point, they still have the opportunity to turn it around before PS4 and Xbox launch. Without this extra year the situation would have been cataclysmic.

I don't really see that much of an upside. The earliest they will do anything is July, and more likely nothing will change until later in the year when they release their bigger games meaning they basically have a couple of month headstart considering the mindshare for Wii U is basically 0 right now.
 

javac

Member
The one positive we can take from this is that Nintendo launched a year before its rivals--so even though they screwed the pooch to this point, they still have the opportunity to turn it around before PS4 and Xbox launch. Without this extra year the situation would have been cataclysmic.

At the same time if they had launched at the end of the year a lot more software at launch, and more in the pipeline at a steady pace during the time after, would of have been better off? I mean it wouldn't steal anybody from the ps4 and the Xbox but at least the Nintendo fans would be buying it. Even now a lot of people who want Mario kart and pikmin and what not aren't on board.
 

Frillen

Member
For a system that used to do 5k and below I would say that's a pretty good recovery.

You say that like it did 5k consistently. It didn't.

The reason why Sony isn't slashing the Vita price outside of Japan is because they don't have a huge title to slash it with. For a price cut to have a meaningfull bump, you need a huge title, like the 3DS had with New Super Mario Bros. What's the next big title for Sony outside of Japan? Killzone?
 
The one positive we can take from this is that Nintendo launched a year before its rivals--so even though they screwed the pooch to this point, they still have the opportunity to turn it around before PS4 and Xbox launch. Without this extra year the situation would have been cataclysmic.

Not sure how much of a positive it will ever be since the other two will outclass it in both hardware specs and HD game development (according to Iwata's statement on the difficulties of HD game development).

The biggest thing Nintendo needs is the 3rd parties back on board, unless they hit the lottery again and make a "Wii Sports" part deux (but again I think its getting too late for that to work even now).

Another long term action? Go back to development and try to get a new console out in 3 years or so. Any longer and might as well wait the full 7 years or so for the next "next generation".
 

Taker666

Member
The official price drop certainly helped Vita.....perhaps even more than the new software. Of course now that stock is readily available (of certain colours at least)..it remains to be seen where it will level out.

Wii U is just going to drop,drop,drop for the next 3 months.

Considering how there seem to be no retail releases until late July..

.... I'm surprised they didn't sell Pokemon Rumble U at retail for a low price and bundle some figures with it. They need something new on store shelves.

..to be honest I'd be tempted to release Super Luigi U at retail as well (or at least a new version of New Super Mario bros U with the Luigi DLC bundled). Budget new releases or special editions are better than no releases at all.

A yellow Pikachu Wii U with Pokemon Rumble pre-loaded and all the figures bundled would have at least sold something.
 

Rolf NB

Member
You say that like it did 5k consistently. It didn't.

The reason why Sony isn't slashing the Vita price outside of Japan is because they don't have a huge title to slash it with. For a price cut to have a meaningfull bump, you need a huge title, like the 3DS had with New Super Mario Bros. What's the next big title for Sony outside of Japan? Killzone?
Tearaway + some action thing to tackle the market from two ends of the spectrum at once. Killzone could be that second game.
 

Oemenia

Banned
I'd say there's a market saturation for the ps3 at that price point. Once it gets a discount this year we'll probably see it surge for the last time for a few weeks and that's it for the PS3 in Japan.
True, its got a good userbase but it hasnt made console gaming relevant. The Saturn and PC-Engine sold less but had titles coming out for them regularly whereas the PS3 is mostly AAA stuff. You could compare it to the success of the N64, sold a good amount of units with a number of heavy hitters.
 

Spiegel

Member
Talking about 'active' consoles... is PSP the longest active console?
I mean, 9 years in and is still doing >7k weekly.

Were GB or PSX doing better numbers at this point?
 
Edit: I wouldn't be surprised if Wii U remained stable next week and didn't go up.
Would be interesting if the Golden Week bump was essentially counterbalanced by underlying decline. But it will probably go up.

Post-Golden Week should be interesting though; sales typically fall a lot akaik.
 

orioto

Good Art™
Honestly, I don't think those 5k or 8k units Vita gained on a weekly basis are enough to give developers confidence in developing bigger projects, in particular considering that its situation is even more worrying in the West. They will keep developing niche games, targeted to otaku, or portings, or trying to find the next MH, but I cannot see a brand new Kingdom Hearts, or a brand new IP from Level-5, or a brand new Ace Combat on that thing.

I don't see the dynamic you're depicting. If there is a transition from PSP, it's on 3DS, which is getting MH, KH, many otaku games (Senran Kagura is a 3DS game originally), tie-in from anime (Toriko, Dragon Ball, etc.), even Hatsune Miku is having another entry. Vita has some multi-platform with PSP, but I don't see how this might help, the last he received sold much more on PSP (LBX W, AKB). But if you see great sales from Vita versions of PSP games just let me know.

I'm not so confident now, also because we don't have any announcement since when? Mind Zero? Where are Capcom, Square Enix, Konami, big PSP supporters? Even Atlus has nothing planned on Vita, while having 4 games for 3DS in 2013..

Well i can see that's what you want indeed, but i personally prefer some competition for a console! And no, as great the 3ds is, it's not yet the perfect host for any game and any audience. There is a possibility for something else. The 3ds is not a psp yet i'm sorry. I don't see any falcom games on it yet for exemple. And there are still some games than can sell better on Vita than 3ds, it's not the same demographic.

There is still room for a more mature, hardcore japanese market on Vita. It's enough to make it survive.
After that well.. Monster Hunter wasn't a 4 million seller before its first version you know..
What Vita needs is new ips that can create a strong community, and massive group of people buying the console to play together. That's how you build a market in japan now. Monster Hunter and Animal Crossing are exactly that.
 
You're making it look like Vita is dying, but it's actually gaining strengh. It may be slow, but it's a positive dynamic. You're saying there won't be any new announcement, but if there was announcement when it was selling under 10k, don't you think the park growing and the sales growing, with a now less expensive console, would give more confidence to devs ?

It's the thing with the Vita.It was really in bad shape at first cause it was NOT marketed to regain the psp market. The thing you see happening now, with all those psp/vita games, is an actual shift, a generational transition. Now that it's engaged, vita is more safe. PSP stopped selling crazy, Vita is selling better, big psp games are also coming on Vita. You see, the dynamic is there now. Vita will have all the usual sellers on PSP. In 1-2 years from now, there won't even be a psp version anymore. And the market will be healthy enough for third parties to release original games. But i think SS or Gravity Daze were rentable already you know..

Beaten to this, but are you saying that you expect the major third parties like SE, Capcon, KojiPro, and Bamco to all start putting out Vita exclusives comparable to their PSP output?
 

Raist

Banned
The one positive we can take from this is that Nintendo launched a year before its rivals--so even though they screwed the pooch to this point, they still have the opportunity to turn it around before PS4 and Xbox launch. Without this extra year the situation would have been cataclysmic.

Without this extra year they'd have more games to sell with their system. They ruined their 1 year headstart.
 

Road

Member
Talking about 'active' consoles... is PSP the longest active console?
I mean, 9 years in and is still doing >7k weekly.

Were GB or PSX doing better numbers at this point?

I don't even think we need to look to know GB/GBC was doing better. Its 9th year was 1997, right during the Pokemon craze.

I'll see if I can make some chart.

Edit: I think this is right (didn't double check, sort of in a hurry):

Code:
               GB                  PS2                     PSP
1997-08-18  23,359    2008-06-30 11,256     2013-04-08    7,778
1997-08-25  33,692    2008-07-07 11,272     2013-04-15    8,377
1997-09-01  19,503    2008-07-14 10,278     2013-04-22    8,265
1997-09-08  30,499    2008-07-21  9,707     2013-04-29
1997-09-15  26,392    2008-07-28  8,626     2013-05-06
1997-09-22  32,790    2008-08-04  8,000     2013-05-13

Game Boy numbers may or may not be right... haha
 
Well i can see that's what you want indeed, but i personally prefer some competition for a console! And no, as great the 3ds is, it's not yet the perfect host for any game and any audience. There is a possibility for something else. The 3ds is not a psp yet i'm sorry. I don't see any falcom games on it yet for exemple.

There is still room for a more mature, hardcore japanese market on Vita. It's enough to make it survive.
After that well.. Monster Hunter wasn't a 4 million seller before its first version you know..
What Vita needs is new ips that can create a strong community, and massive group of people buying the console to play together. That's how you build a market in japan now. Monster Hunter and Animal Crossing are exactly that.

3DS is having a lot of competition from mobile and social gaming. All those small games companies are releasing for Mobage and stuffs would have been DS games once (like the last Final Fantasy Tactics). So there's indeed competition for certain types of games. 3DS is perfectly capable of supporting PSP-like games (MH and KH are clear examples); it's not having some niche jRPGs such as Falcom ones, but what else? 3DS is also in its third year in the market; just look at DS and PSP line-ups in the first two years, you can spot many differences.

I don't even get your "mature hardcore japanese market". What does this mean exactly? It will be fine with otaku and niche games, and occasionally some known IP, it's nothing weird or special, other consoles have survived in the market such that.
 

ULTROS!

People seem to like me because I am polite and I am rarely late. I like to eat ice cream and I really enjoy a nice pair of slacks.
I'm sorry but 3DS is not the next PSP in my personal opinion (I don't care MH at all).

3DS doesn't have Falcom, Final Fantasy, and Persona (which I care about). PSP has them, Vita has them.

It's really NDS->3DS, PSP->PSV. Both are still poor (compared to their high and mighty counterparts) but growing successors.
 
Vita will likely to continue to get more niche games, but who is going to actually try with a substantial Vita project when Vita's western prospects are a nightmare right now. With games Vita can turnaround in Japan, but nothing is saving it in the west.



How about actually explaining instead of talking to yourself?




I'm sorry I'm really not seeing this amazing shift you're talking about. What was announced recently to make you think all this?
You asked why should the Vita be as cheap as the 3DS, umm to compete maybe, I mean I know how much you hate when people say the two consoles are not directly competitive, would you not agree that a similar price point would better achieve such?

And many of the west best developers have expressed interest I'm bringing their top franchises to Vita, it's amazing hardware and controls making it an ideal fit for the transition especially so considering that's the point of the console....the real only hurdle was getting the sales to a point where it would be financially viable, and the Vita is currently as expensive if not more so than the PS3 here in the west. So maybe a good price cut could boost sales so that it does become financially viable, I mean it won't take much. Black Friday proves there is more than enough interest in the console it just needs to be at the right price and its future looks so dire because its not.

I'd say this generation is not over for the Vita, quite the contrary in fact, its only just begun
 
That's a lot of new PS3 games, didn't do anything for the hardware though.
Infinite sold like crap, was hoping it would do a bit better.
 
Talking about 'active' consoles... is PSP the longest active console?
I mean, 9 years in and is still doing >7k weekly.

Were GB or PSX doing better numbers at this point?

From Media Create Apr 27 - May 3 2009:

| PS2 | 5,479 | 4,524 | 100,165 | 21,499,694 |

PSP doing pretty well in comparison to PS2 it seems.

Although it is 2 million behind it at this point.
 
Tearaway is not a huge title though. It's too niche. It's like Gravity Rush.

Killzone isn't either, speaking realistically, Sony's current first-party schedule would seem to leave room for an unannounced holiday title in November, but then, they're presumably launching PS4 that month.
 
I'm sorry but 3DS is not the next PSP in my personal opinion (I don't care MH at all).

3DS doesn't have Falcom, Final Fantasy, and Persona (which I care about). PSP has them, Vita has them.

It's really NDS->3DS, PSP->PSV. Both are still poor (compared to their high and mighty counterparts) but growing successors.

If we look at the overall line-up, 3DS is resembling more PSP than Vita, come on.
Other than Monster Hunter, also Kingdom Hearts, Tekken, Ace Combat, Hatsune Miku, Little Battlers eXperience, IPs like Senran Kagura, all those Atlus games. There's still time from Falcom (they stated they're interested in 3DS), Final Fantasy (do you think Square Enix won't put any FF on 3DS? Also: Bravely Default), and Persona. Of course, the line-up is not the same, but Vita neither is having the same line-up. And which Final Fantasy Vita received? X HD? Ehrm.
 

Pie and Beans

Look for me on the local news, I'll be the guy arrested for trying to burn down a Nintendo exec's house.
The one positive we can take from this is that Nintendo launched a year before its rivals--so even though they screwed the pooch to this point, they still have the opportunity to turn it around before PS4 and Xbox launch. Without this extra year the situation would have been cataclysmic.

If Nintendo had waited a year, produced a system more in-line with next-gen and launched with a big 3D Mario, Retro's game, and Wind Waker HD, they'd have stood more a chance. More still if it wasn't shackled to the loss-maker that is the GamePad since the market has unsurprising responded in complete ambivalence to it, especially Japan where if you wanted a portable to play away from a TV, you most likely already own one.
 

NotLiquid

Member
I expected Wii U to drop even more at this point. I'll be impressed if it stabilizes at 8k considering how abysmal it's doing right now.

Nice bump for Vita which seems to be taking solace in being something of a niche machine. I don't see it mattering anywhere outside of Japan though.

Looking forward to Golden Week.
 
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