Xeke said:
This is why I feel like that Wii gets shafted in these threads. What was MH3 "supposed" to do? It's going to pretty much sell out its first shipment but people on GAF create their own goalposts for what should be considered a success and if it doesn't live up to those sometimes wild expectations then its a bomba.
I am not sure what people expected MH3 to sell. Maybe some people thought that the MH3 sales were a bit disappointing because it took relatively long before MH3 sold out it's first shipment and that some store chain did a price drop rather quickly (although the increased the price again later on if i remember correctly)? But unfortunately i dont know. I think that MH3 has sold good at least
Xeke said:
Alternatively it seems PS3 games get a pass when they sell well, even if its less than their previous installments because people for some reason expect them to sell less and the goal post isn't as far.
Ye, i think this is the reason indeed. Since the PS3 is a "2nd choice console" (or what i shall call it, Wii is the 1st choice console because it has sold the most) maybe some people dont expect PS3 software sales to be just as good as their previous installments. I think that it is a bit fair to expect lower software sales on a PS3 because of this, but how much lower software sales that is "accepted" (or what i shall say) is a good question i think
Xeke said:
Had FXIII been on the Wii this launch would probably have been construed to be a failure. We'd be seeing things like...
"Well the Wii has a large install base than the PS2 did at the launch of FFX and only managed 1.5M, bomba!"
Yeah, i also think that we might have seen some comments like this indeed if FFXIII was on the Wii and if it sold 1.5 million copies.
Xeke said:
Even though the PS3 has roughly the same install base if not more?
Yep, the PS2 and the PS3 install base were roughly the same indeed. When FFX was released, the PS2 install base was at 4,574,562. When FFXIII was released, the PS3 install base was at 4,265,969. That is a difference of 308,593 consoles.
Some interesting stuff i think, FFX sold 233,205 more copies than FFXIII in the first week, and the PS2 install base were 308,593 consoles bigger than the PS3 install base. The number of more copies of FFX sold and the number of more PS2 consoles isnt really that far away from each other, at least in my opinion
All these numbers that i just mentioned are Famitsu numbers.
Xeke said:
And why do people continue to discount first party sales for the Wii? It is by far the largest segment of sales. We're always comparing third party sales but why not ever first party sales? Why doesn't Sony get ripped on as much for their hideous first party sales as Nintendo does for third party sales?
Are third party sales a holy grail or something?
I think that this is a good question. The only thing that i can think of is that in general there are much more 3rd party games compared to first party games, so that it is important that 3rd party sales also are good. But i think that the most important thing is that a company (generally speaking, this isnt aimed specifically to Nintendo) is able to survive and make money, no matter if they make most of their money from first party sales or from third party sales (or making money of both first party sales and third party sales)
I dont know who is getting more ripped on between Sony's first party PS3 games (or do you mean PSP games as well?) and Wii's 3rd party sales in Japan, but i do remember that there were some comments when Minna no Golf 5 didnt sold as well as the previous Minna no Golf games, and i also remember that there were some comments when Gran Turismo 5: Prologue didnt sell as well as Gran Turismo 4: Prologue did.
By the way, has Sony released many first party PS3 games in Japan that hasnt met people's sales expectations? If they havnt, maybe this is why we see less people ripping on Sony's first party PS3 games sales? While on the Wii, there are more 3rd party games released compared to how many first party PS3 games Sony has released in Japan. Therefor the opportunity to rip on Wii 3rd party sales is bigger because there are more 3rd party Wii games being released compared to first party PS3 games.