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Media Create Sales: Week 1, 2015 (Dec 29 - Jan 04)

hiska-kun

Member
Sony used Media Create as a Source when PS4 reached 800k units sold in Japan by the end of November.
Sony used again MC yesterday for the million sales.

Nintendo also uses MC for its sales reports.
As a subscriber, they have acces to the numbers before us.
 

Chris1964

Sales-Age Genius
We don 't know if Sony used Media Create or internal estimates. Actually I don't even know if Media Create report for week 1 was out when Sony claimed 1 million.

It wasn't. The business meeting was yesterday.

So Media Create is more accurate in this case.

Subscribers (and especially these like Sony and Nintendo) don't wait for Media Create to make public this mini weekly report in order to get numbers.
 

Spiegel

Member
It needed that, and also being released not so close to MH4G.

Wouldn't that excuse be more applicable to Phantasy Star Nova (released a month after MH4G)? You shouldn't be so shocked about its bad performance then!

Or it's just games on Nintendo consoles the ones who suffer about this phenomenom?
 

Oregano

Member
Wouldn't that excuse be more applicable to Phantasy Star Nova (released a month after MH4G)? You shouldn't be so shocked about its bad performance then!

Or it's just games on Nintendo consoles the ones who suffer about this phenomenom?

Not that I agree with him(it was plenty far away) but being on the same system means it's in more direct competition.
 
Wouldn't that excuse be more applicable to Phantasy Star Nova (released a month after MH4G)? You shouldn't be so shocked about its bad performance then!

Or it's just games on Nintendo consoles the ones who suffer about this phenomenom?

Yes, both. As, in my opinion, Tales of Graces on Wii was affected by Final Fantasy XIII on PS3, released a week or two later. FFEX, though, sold not well but ok-ish so at least it was able to become popular on its own. If SQEX would have put a higher quality title, it would have sold even better. It's a start, maybe a sequel could reach a wider audience.
 

duckroll

Member
It feels like one of those games that came out a couple of years too late. It'd probably be huge if it had been released close to God Eater back when the PSP was relevant, before the industry was completely taken over by Hunting games.

I don't think it's too late at all. I think it's more about the product. The tone they went for in FF Explorers definitely feels like a very misguided attempt to fit the product to bad preconceptions about the platform (needs to look SD, feel more kid friendly than a "serious" FF game, lower production values, outsourced development).

If this were something that looked like Dissidia, Crisis Core, or Type-0, except a full 4 player co-op hunting game with Nomura designs, it would probably have a good shot at doing >1 million if the word of mouth is good.
 

Spiegel

Member
Yes, both. As, in my opinion, Tales of Graces on Wii was affected by Final Fantasy XIII on PS3, released a week or two later. FFEX, though, sold not well but ok-ish so at least it was able to become popular on its own. If SQEX would have put a higher quality title, it would have sold even better. It's a start, maybe a sequel could reach a wider audience.

MH4G has little to do with the performance of FF:Explorers.
It's more about what duckroll is saying. The game is doing okay/good for what it is, but it could have been so much more.

If this were something that looked like Dissidia, Crisis Core, or Type-0, except a full 4 player co-op hunting game with Nomura designs, it would probably have a good shot at doing >1 million if the word of mouth is good.

I still don't get why Square didn't do this on PSP after MHP2G was clearly an unprecedented success. Lack of resources, most likely. They had plenty of psp games in development at that point.
 

Oregano

Member
I don't think it's too late at all. I think it's more about the product. The tone they went for in FF Explorers definitely feels like a very misguided attempt to fit the product to bad preconceptions about the platform (needs to look SD, feel more kid friendly than a "serious" FF game, lower production values, outsourced development).

If this were something that looked like Dissidia, Crisis Core, or Type-0, except a full 4 player co-op hunting game with Nomura designs, it would probably have a good shot at doing >1 million if the word of mouth is good.

The bolded is really prevalent, and really bizarre at this point. Games like Shin Megami Tensei, Monster Hunter and even stuff like Ocarina of Time and Smash Bros shows it's unnecessary.

You even still see people claim the 3DS isn't powerful enough to do normal proportioned character models.
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
I don't think it's too late at all. I think it's more about the product. The tone they went for in FF Explorers definitely feels like a very misguided attempt to fit the product to bad preconceptions about the platform (needs to look SD, feel more kid friendly than a "serious" FF game, lower production values, outsourced development).

If this were something that looked like Dissidia, Crisis Core, or Type-0, except a full 4 player co-op hunting game with Nomura designs, it would probably have a good shot at doing >1 million if the word of mouth is good.
At the rate we're going they'll end up doing this and then putting it on a platform where selling a million seems nigh impossible.
 

Oregano

Member
At the rate we're going they'll end up doing this and then putting it on a platform where selling a million seems nigh impossible.

It's pretty much exactly what Tabata said he would do if he made a Vita game. So.... Vita game incoming?
 

Chris1964

Sales-Age Genius
Even that seems moderately unlikely, as Shinra stated.

I'd add that it's particularly bad when you put it in context. The PS4's lower sales rate could be justified if Nintendo were lighting the world on fire. That is, a PS4 that sells 80% as well as the PS3 would actually be a very good thing if the Wii U were on pace to sell 20M units, because that would suggest the overall market was growing, and that Sony was holding relatively steady even in the face of a competitor sucking the air out of the room.

The fact that the Wii U is on track to sell ~4M instead suggests the opposite; the PS4 should be outselling the PS3 by a significant margin, to compensate for the collapse of Nintendo's home console. But it's not, which makes the PS4's sales seem particularly unfortunate for the console market in general.

That's something I completely agree, has been discussed very few before and not given the proper attention.
 

sörine

Banned
With which Nintendo seems to agree, since they use Media Create data themselves.
And this is another ridiculous conclusion. Please keep going.

Actually, Sony Computer Entertainment is a company dedicated to the business of video game entertainment.
Similar to how Famitsu Marketing Data Services is a company dedicated to the business of games market data tracking and analysis.
 
I don't see FFEX as a success. I would of thought a FF in MH genre would do very well. Maybe Se's lack of effort into the title (or its lack of quality?) is hurting it. Is it even going to outsell Freedom Wars? I want to see if it has legs after the holidays.
 

Oregano

Member
I don't see FFEX as a success. I would of thought a FF in MH genre would do very well. Maybe Se's lack of effort into the title (or its lack of quality?) is hurting it. Is it even going to outsell Freedom Wars? I want to see if it has legs after the holidays.

I doubt Square Enix had big expectations for it, it's quite clearly low budget and they only shipped 250K for the holidays. It's a very conservative product.

Freedom Wars is a much bigger budget game and had a much bigger push but it is actually possible that FF Explorers catches up/surpasses it. Their third week sales are really close(22.9K for FF Explorers vs 20.6K for Freedom Wars) and as a general trend 3DS games have better legs.
 

Foshy

Member

cw_sasuke

If all DLC came tied to $13 figurines, I'd consider all DLC to be free
FFEX looks fucking terrible and performs embarrassingly bad, I'm shocked it sold more than 70k tbh.
Yeah, kinda shocked that it sold as much on the name at all... Probably the worst looking MH type game you can buy right now lol.
 

sörine

Banned
I don't see FFEX as a success. I would of thought a FF in MH genre would do very well. Maybe Se's lack of effort into the title (or its lack of quality?) is hurting it. Is it even going to outsell Freedom Wars? I want to see if it has legs after the holidays.
It could outsell FW actually. The only Vita game that's probably out of reach is GE2.

Is this the best selling game Racjin's ever made?
 

wrowa

Member
Is the Final Fantasy brand outside of the main titles even still something that raises a lot of attention? After a decade of slapping "Final Fantasy" onto pretty much everything, I don't feel like the name alone is enough to raise a lot of awareness these days. Final Fantasy Explorers even looks like your regular random, low-budget, mediocre-to-good Final Fantasy spin-off developed without too much ambition. People aren't dumb and have realized for years that "Final Fantasy" in the title doesn't mean that a game is something special.
 

Aostia

El Capitan Todd
FFex is doing right, looking at the reception even we had, at the effort put in the development from what we have seen, at the import impression and at the promotion it get. it did better than expected looking at Comgnet preorders too. I read it as: at the end, if you put a FF game with hunting action on 3DS around Xmas, you can sell decently.
It still is far away from the success that a "real" FF hunting game could have found on 3DS, imho, but that's more "in line" with SE fault than anything else imho.

I also think that PS Nova did decently as FFEX, looking at Vita's potential, compared to the PSP golden hunting-games era.
 
sörine;146506091 said:
It could outsell FW actually. The only Vita game that's probably out of reach is GE2.

Is this the best selling game Racjin's ever made?

Properly made? Maybe? Involved with? HELL NAH!

They worked on all three Mario & Sonic games on Wii. They must've been swimming on that cash if they got any per-copy payments.
 
I don't think it's too late at all. I think it's more about the product. The tone they went for in FF Explorers definitely feels like a very misguided attempt to fit the product to bad preconceptions about the platform (needs to look SD, feel more kid friendly than a "serious" FF game, lower production values, outsourced development).

If this were something that looked like Dissidia, Crisis Core, or Type-0, except a full 4 player co-op hunting game with Nomura designs, it would probably have a good shot at doing >1 million if the word of mouth is good.
Yeah, I assume if they were making the game for Vita they'd never with go that approach. It's a handheld mentality they reserve sepcifically for Nintendo handhelds. I remember the producers of Bravely Default saying they went for chibi designs specifically because they thought it'd sell better. It's shocking how bad FFEX looks compared to the premier PSP efforts.
 

Brazil

Living in the shadow of Amaz
Right. It's not fulfilling the full potential of the concept. If it was a big budget, internally developed game with a big push(like Dissidia) it could/would have done a lot better.

It would probably help if it was good as well.

EDIT: It's almost the poster child for Nirolak's point about the big JP publishers being too gun-shy.

I really don't think timing is FFEX's problem. It needed to be a complete, quality, polished and more expensive product. Instead it's just a cash grab.


EDIT: My man, Oregano!

I don't think it's too late at all. I think it's more about the product. The tone they went for in FF Explorers definitely feels like a very misguided attempt to fit the product to bad preconceptions about the platform (needs to look SD, feel more kid friendly than a "serious" FF game, lower production values, outsourced development).

If this were something that looked like Dissidia, Crisis Core, or Type-0, except a full 4 player co-op hunting game with Nomura designs, it would probably have a good shot at doing >1 million if the word of mouth is good.

That makes sense too. I admit that I was put off by the "kid-friendly" graphical style. It doesn't fit with the genre at all.
 

wrowa

Member
Yeah, I assume if they were making the game for Vita they'd never with go that approach. It's a handheld mentality they reserve sepcifically for Nintendo handhelds. I remember the producers of Bravely Default saying they went for chibi designs specifically because they thought it'd sell better.

To be fair, though, 3DS's low-res is partly at fault for that. A lot of developers chose Chibi designs with big characters, because more realistic 3D models can become quite a mess when the camera isn't close to them.
 

Oregano

Member
That makes sense too. I admit that I was put off by the "kid-friendly" graphical style. It doesn't fit with the genre at all.

Even for the art style it looks poor. It barely looks better than the DS Crystal Chronicles game which had a very similar style.

To be fair, though, 3DS's low-res is partly at fault for that. A lot of developers chose Chibi designs with big characters, because more realistic 3D models can become quite a mess when the camera isn't close to them.

That's kinda bullshit. The PSP was only marginally higher res and they didn't have a problem there.
 

Vena

Member
Another week, another weird tracking discontinuity between Famitsu and MC. When will we see Dengeki to serve as our middle man?

To be fair, though, 3DS's low-res is partly at fault for that. A lot of developers chose Chibi designs with big characters, because more realistic 3D models can become quite a mess when the camera isn't close to them.

SMTIV did it just fine.
 

cw_sasuke

If all DLC came tied to $13 figurines, I'd consider all DLC to be free
To be fair, though, 3DS's low-res is partly at fault for that. A lot of developers chose Chibi designs with big characters, because more realistic 3D models can become quite a mess when the camera isn't close to them.
They didn't have the problem on PSP though, just look at Crisis Core and Type 0... No reason why 3DS can't have SE games with such character models.

And Tri G proved 3 years ago how a Hunter game can look on the system.
 

Shengar

Member
GTA V's leg is amazing, I wonder what the secret sauce of its success? Probably good word of mouth, but what exactly caused it in the first place?
 

Amused

Member
PS4 not too far behind what PS3 did in the same time frame.

So my question, has the reports of PS4s death in Japan been greatly exaggerated? Or is it just that the PS3 did shit numbers as well?
 
I don't see FFEX as a success. I would of thought a FF in MH genre would do very well. Maybe Se's lack of effort into the title (or its lack of quality?) is hurting it. Is it even going to outsell Freedom Wars? I want to see if it has legs after the holidays.

I don't see how 250k (FFE's first shipment) can be considered a flop.

You can't just declare FFE as Monster Hunter meets Final Fantasy and expect it to do comparative numbers in a vacuum.

Just look at it, it was outsourced to a tiny pretty unknown indipendant developer that developed some weird Nippon Columbia games and a Cooking Mama spin-off before and it had like 2 Nico Nico streams as marketing....and really not much else (as far as I know, someone from Japan could correct me though)

Thats not how you treat a property you expect to do gangbusters .
 

Darius

Banned
To be fair, though, 3DS's low-res is partly at fault for that. A lot of developers chose Chibi designs with big characters, because more realistic 3D models can become quite a mess when the camera isn't close to them.

It was already mentioned but are you ignoring the Monster Hunter games on 3DS on purpose? This was a deliberate decision and has nothing to do with hardware restrictions.
 

duckroll

Member
Is the Final Fantasy brand outside of the main titles even still something that raises a lot of attention? After a decade of slapping "Final Fantasy" onto pretty much everything, I don't feel like the name alone is enough to raise a lot of awareness these days. Final Fantasy Explorers even looks like your regular random, low-budget, mediocre-to-good Final Fantasy spin-off developed without too much ambition. People aren't dumb and have realized for years that "Final Fantasy" in the title doesn't mean that a game is something special.

I think it depends on how you look at it. Brand power isn't about blind trust or mindless consumers. People aren't that stupid as you said. I think the FF brand where it counts is still pretty strong. What I mean here would be that there is still a strong passionate fanbase for the series though, and this doesn't really mean "main titles", but rather, the type FF that people are excited for.

Dissidia wasn't popular because it had the FF name on the box, it was popular because it was a fun versus action game with actual FF characters, high production values, and lots of care put into the fanservice (sometimes overbearingly so). Everything from the music, the character choices, the art direction, and the actual polish in the game was exactly what long time FF fans (especially those who got into the series with FFVII onwards) would want in such a versus action game.

A hunting action game with a similar approach would be a very strong formula for success, even now. Simply putting the FF name on something isn't very effective, but making a game which dedicated FF fans would be excited about would certainly be very effective.
 
PS4 not too far behind what PS3 did in the same time frame.

So my question, has the reports of PS4s death in Japan been greatly exaggerated? Or is it just that the PS3 did shit numbers as well?

The difference was that during the PS3 you had the Wii selling incredibly well. PS3 was priced high so it was slightly more justified. The system took off closer to the rebrand with the slim, a number of Japanese titles, and a lower price. I believe that was around mid 2009.
 
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