Support NeoGAF

[Eolz]

First day Sell-Through {2015.03.12}

[PS3] [PS4] Yakuza 0 <ADV> (Sega) (¥8.845) - 40-50% ok start

[PSV] Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth <RPG> (Bandai Namco Games) (¥7.171) - almost 80% (stock problems)

[PSP] Uta no Prince-Sama: All Star After Secret # <ADV> (Broccoli) (¥6.264) - 60%

[PSV] Harukanaru Toki no Naka de 6 # <ADV> (Koei Tecmo) (¥7.344) - 60%
[PSP] Harukanaru Toki no Naka de 6 # <ADV> (Koei Tecmo) (¥7.344) - 50%

[3DS] Ansatsu Kyoushitsu: Korosensei Daihouimou!! <ACT> (Bandai Namco Games) (¥6.145) - 30-40%

[WIIU] Mario Party 10 # <ETC> (Nintendo) (¥5.616) - 15%

Hmmm disappointing for Yakuza, reports about it seem weird, wonder what will be the final numbers.
Expected a bit better (25%) for MP10 as well, even if the shipments are usually pretty big. There's no bundle right, apart from one with an amiibo?

 

[Nirolak]

Marvelous' write-down on KAIO is $3.8 million: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...s-takes-USD3-8m-hit-on-cancelled-inafune-game

 

[duckroll]

Marvelous' write-down on KAIO is $3.8 million: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articl...s-takes-USD3-8m-hit-on-cancelled-inafune-game

That's not their only write-down according to that press release. They declared a total of 878 million yen in extraordinary losses. 461 million yen is for the cancellation of the Kaio project, while 417 million yen is impairment loss from the arcade title Puzzle & Dragons Z Tamer Battle. They say that actual results from the product has lagged behind their expectations. Sounds like things aren't looking up for Marvelous' ambition in expanding in big mainstream spaces.

 

[vinnygambini]

That's not their only write-down according to that press release. They declared a total of 878 million yen in extraordinary losses. 461 million yen is for the cancellation of the Kaio project, while 417 million yen is impairment loss from the arcade title Puzzle & Dragons Z Tamer Battle. They say that actual results from the product has lagged behind their expectations. Sounds like things aren't looking up for Marvelous' ambition in expanding in big mainstream spaces.

In conjunction with their press releases, their forecasts for FY15 increased from 25,000 to 25,500 in Net Sales, and Operating Income increased from 3,800 to 4,200. Though a write-down decreased their net income goals by 540.

So it's not all bad news per se; their growth segment is mobile according to their IR data so we will most likely see a shift to concentrate the bulk of their efforts in that space as their consumer games weighed down on the results also.

I think we already see the beginnings of their transition with the purchase of G-Mode.

http://pdf.irpocket.com/C7844/QPg3/BIKv/hTfS.pdf

 

[Nirolak]

In conjunction with their press releases, their forecasts for FY15 increased from 25,000 to 25,500 in Net Sales, and Operating Income increased from 3,800 to 4,200. Though a write-down decreased their net income goals by 540.

So it's not all bad news per se; their growth segment is mobile according to their IR data so we will most likely see a shift to concentrate the bulk of their efforts in that space as their consumer games weighed down on the results also.

I think we already see the fruits of their transition with the purchase of G-Mode.

http://pdf.irpocket.com/C7844/QPg3/BIKv/hTfS.pdf

This game is frequently in the top 3-7 top grossing apps,which means there are a lot of times it's making 1 million a day, especially at the higher end of that range: http://www.appannie.com/apps/ios/app/jianto-mo-fanoroguresu-inishieno/

Unfortunately for Marvelous, the developer is going public, so they're not necessarily going to get to public their other games. I suspect the acquisition is in part to try and ensure more inhouse mobile developers.

 

[duckroll]

This reminds me. Square Enix also has a more elaborate Puzzle & Dragons arcade game right? I wonder how that's doing.

 

[Pennywise83]

I wonder why Marvelous cancelled Kaio. After all, L5 has shown that a multi-media franchise can be successful, and among the bunch (Hero Bank, Gyrozetter, Gaist Crusher) this one seemed the most promising in terms of appeal.

 

[vinnygambini]

This reminds me. Square Enix also has a more elaborate Puzzle & Dragons arcade game right? I wonder how that's doing.

Maybe Puzzle & Dragons fatigue has kicked-in.

Personally, I think Super Mario Puzzle & Dragons Edition will not reach 1 million as its predecessor did, but will do good business nonetheless 400-500k ltd.

Gungho waited a tad too long.

 

[Psycho_Mantis]

First day Sell-Through {2015.03.12}

[PS3] [PS4] Yakuza 0 <ADV> (Sega) (¥8.845) - 40-50% ok start

[PSV] Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth <RPG> (Bandai Namco Games) (¥7.171) - almost 80% (stock problems)

[PSP] Uta no Prince-Sama: All Star After Secret # <ADV> (Broccoli) (¥6.264) - 60%

[PSV] Harukanaru Toki no Naka de 6 # <ADV> (Koei Tecmo) (¥7.344) - 60%
[PSP] Harukanaru Toki no Naka de 6 # <ADV> (Koei Tecmo) (¥7.344) - 50%

[3DS] Ansatsu Kyoushitsu: Korosensei Daihouimou!! <ACT> (Bandai Namco Games) (¥6.145) - 30-40%

[WIIU] Mario Party 10 # <ETC> (Nintendo) (¥5.616) - 15%

Glad this is doing well. Actually looks like a great rpg.

 

[Parakeetman]

This reminds me. Square Enix also has a more elaborate Puzzle & Dragons arcade game right? I wonder how that's doing.

I totally forgot about that thing. All I remember was it had a loc test in Shinjuku then do not recall what happened after that.

 

[casiopao]

I wonder why Marvelous cancelled Kaio. After all, L5 has shown that a multi-media franchise can be successful, and among the bunch (Hero Bank, Gyrozetter, Gaist Crusher) this one seemed the most promising in terms of appeal.

Well, sometimes taking some loss is better than betting on some bet u know had almost zero chance being successful. Not only the art looks kinda bland, we haven't even see any video about the game gameplay. Which seeing Yaiba.....makes me worried.

 

[Takao]

I wonder why Marvelous cancelled Kaio. After all, L5 has shown that a multi-media franchise can be successful, and among the bunch (Hero Bank, Gyrozetter, Gaist Crusher) this one seemed the most promising in terms of appeal.

Marvelous are a smaller company than Sega, Square Enix and Capcom. They probably saw them fail and figured if those guys couldn't launch a successful kids IP they probably couldn't.

To be honest with you, Kaio looked kind of forgettable.

It's nice to see PSV having its own monster-breading franchise. I wonder whether Digimon could reach the popularity it achieved on DS, with two entries around 200k on average.

It would certainly be cool if Cyber Sleuth did 200k, but I don't think that's likely. The majority of DS Digimon games weren't near 200k:

NDS : Digimon Story ( Bandai Namco ) { 2006-06-15 } - 44,932 / 217,986
NDS : Digimon World: Dusk / Dawn ( Bandai Namco ) { 2007-03-29 } - 72,308 / 185,110
NDS : Digimon Championship ( Bandai Namco ) { 2008-02-14 } - 17,812 / 46,860
NDS : Digimon Story: Lost Evolution ( Bandai Namco ) { 2010-07-01 } - 36,105 / 80,279
NDS : Digimon Story: Super Xros Wars Blue / Red ( Bandai Namco ) { 2011-03-03 } - 28,499 / 77,871

In fact, there are only 3 Digimon games that have pushed 200k in Japan. Two of those were 16 years ago.

 

[Oregano]

I wonder why Marvelous cancelled Kaio. After all, L5 has shown that a multi-media franchise can be successful, and among the bunch (Hero Bank, Gyrozetter, Gaist Crusher) this one seemed the most promising in terms of appeal.

Nah, it's pretty obvious why. I don't know why they didn't just put the game out top recoup some investment though. Maybe it still needed too much work.

 

[Chris1964]

02./00. [3DS] Etrian Mystery Dungeon <RPG> (Atlus) {2015.03.05} (¥7.538) - 65.226 / NEW <91,96%>
___

21./16. [PS4] Dragon Ball: Xenoverse <FTG> (Bandai Namco Games) {2015.02.05} (¥7.690)
22./22. [3DS] Yo-kai Watch 2: Ganso / Honke <RPG> (Level 5) {2014.07.10} (¥4.937)
23./10. [3DS] Nanatsu no Taizai: The Seven Deadly Sins - Unjust Sin <ADV> (Bandai Namco Games) {2015.02.11} (¥6.145)
24./07. [PSV] Yuuki Yuuna wa Yuusha de Aru: Jukai no Kioku # <ACT> (FuRyu) {2015.02.26} (¥6.998)
25./15. [PS3] Samurai Warriors 4-II # <ACT> (Koei Tecmo) {2015.02.11} (¥6.264)
26./28. [3DS] Mario Kart 7 <RCE> (Nintendo) {2011.12.01} (¥4.800)
27./24. [WIU] Kirby and the Rainbow Curse <ACT> (Nintendo) {2015.01.22} (¥3.996)
28./20. [PS4] The Order: 1886 # <ADV> (Sony Computer Entertainment) {2015.02.20} (¥6.372)
29./29. [3DS] Kirby Triple Deluxe <ACT> (Nintendo) {2014.01.11} (¥4.800)
30./21. [PS4] Dead or Alive 5: Last Round # <FTG> (Koei Tecmo) {2015.02.19} (¥7.344)
31./40. [PS4] Grand Theft Auto V # <ACT> (Take-Two Interactive Japan) {2014.12.11} (¥7.992)
32./31. [PS3] Far Cry 4 <ACT> (Ubisoft) {2015.01.29} (¥7.992)
33./26. [PSV] Samurai Warriors 4-II # <ACT> (Koei Tecmo) {2015.02.11} (¥6.264)
34./25. [PS3] Dead or Alive 5: Last Round # <FTG> (Koei Tecmo) {2015.02.19} (¥6.264)
35./00. [PS3] Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor <RPG> (Warner Entertainment Japan) {2015.03.05} (¥8.208)
36./14. [PSV] Parfait # <ADV> (Technical Group Laboratory) {2015.02.26} (¥5.378)
37./43. [PS3] Yakuza 1 & 2 HD Edition <Yakuza \ Yakuza 2> [PlayStation 3 the Best] <ADV> (Sega) {2014.12.11} (¥1.944)
38./34. [3DS] DoraMoji: Nobita no Kanji Daisakusen <EDU> (Shogakukan) {2015.02.26} (¥4.937)
39./37. [3DS] Sumikko Gurashi: Koko ga Ochitsukundesu <ETC> (Nippon Columbia) {2014.11.20} (¥5.184)
40./46. [3DS] Mario Party: Island Tour <ETC> (Nintendo) {2014.03.20} (¥4.800)
41./23. [PSV] OZMafia!! Vivace # <ADV> (HuneX) {2015.02.26} (¥7.452)
42./38. [PSV] Persona 4: Golden [PlayStation Vita the Best] <RPG> (Atlus) {2015.02.05} (¥4.298)
43./33. [PS3] Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin <RPG> (From Software) {2015.02.05} (¥4.936)
44./44. [PS3] Grand Theft Auto V [New Price Edition] <ACT> (Take-Two Interactive Japan) {2014.06.26} (¥5.389)
45./32. [PS4] Far Cry 4 <ACT> (Ubisoft) {2015.01.29} (¥9.072)
46./30. [PS4] Samurai Warriors 4-II # <ACT> (Koei Tecmo) {2015.02.11} (¥7.344)
47./47. [3DS] Taiko no Tatsujin: Don to Katsu no Jikuu Daibouken <ACT> (Bandai Namco Games) {2014.06.26} (¥5.119)
48./35. [PS3] World Soccer Winning Eleven 2015 <SPT> (Konami) {2014.11.13} (¥8.208)
49./48. [3DS] Tomodachi Life # <ETC> (Nintendo) {2013.04.18} (¥4.800)
50./41. [3DS] Gotouchi Tetsudou: Gotouchi Chara to Nihon Zenkoku no Tabi <TBL> (Bandai Namco Games) {2014.11.27} (¥5.626)

Top 50

3DS - 20
PS3 - 11
PS4 - 9
PSV - 7
WIU - 3

SOFTWARE

+-------+------------+------------+------------+------------+------------+
|System | This Week  | Last Week  | Last Year  |     YTD    |  Last YTD  |
+-------+------------+------------+------------+------------+------------+
|  ALL  |    518.000 |    974.000 |    597.000 |  6.672.000 |  8.659.000 |
+-------+------------+------------+------------+------------+------------+

 

[Eolz]

Kirby and DOA holding way better than what I expected. Nice.

 

[KuwabaraTheMan]

It would certainly be cool if Cyber Sleuth did 200k, but I don't think that's likely. The majority of DS Digimon games weren't near 200k:

NDS : Digimon Story ( Bandai Namco ) { 2006-06-15 } - 44,932 / 217,986
NDS : Digimon World: Dusk / Dawn ( Bandai Namco ) { 2007-03-29 } - 72,308 / 185,110
NDS : Digimon Championship ( Bandai Namco ) { 2008-02-14 } - 17,812 / 46,860
NDS : Digimon Story: Lost Evolution ( Bandai Namco ) { 2010-07-01 } - 36,105 / 80,279
NDS : Digimon Story: Super Xros Wars Blue / Red ( Bandai Namco ) { 2011-03-03 } - 28,499 / 77,871

In fact, there are only 3 Digimon games that have pushed 200k in Japan. Two of those were 16 years ago.

Worth noting that Digimon Story, the last one to do so, came out alongside Savers airing. With Tri getting ready to start up, higher sales than the franchise has seen in the last few years doesn't seem like too much to ask.

200k would be a lot, but the nostalgia hype from Tri could potentially lead to better legs. Xros Wars failed to really push game sales, but that was airing at 6:30 AM on TV Asahi.

 

[Shizuka]

Digimon is #1 at Amazon JP right now. I think it might hit 200k LTD after a few years and a budget release.

 

[Chris1964]

Maybe Puzzle & Dragons fatigue has kicked-in.

Personally, I think Super Mario Puzzle & Dragons Edition will not reach 1 million as its predecessor did, but will do good business nonetheless 400-500k ltd.

Gungho waited a tad too long.

Puzzle & Dragons Z is at 1,5m. New entry won't collapse at only 500k LTD.

Maybe L5 will wait until December for YW3 this time.

 

[Psycho_Mantis]

There is Adventure 3 coming in Spring as well.

 

[vinnygambini]

Puzzle & Dragons Z is at 1,5m. New entry won't collapse at only 500k LTD.

Maybe L5 will wait until December for YW3 this time.

You may be right, and I hope so for Gungho's & Nintendo's sake.

In regards to YW3, I mentioned as such due to another Toho film in the planning for December.

I think summer will be reserved for their spin-off title; we'll see at their summit fairly soon.

 

[Kresnik258]

I wonder why Marvelous cancelled Kaio. After all, L5 has shown that a multi-media franchise can be successful, and among the bunch (Hero Bank, Gyrozetter, Gaist Crusher) this one seemed the most promising in terms of appeal.

It'd have to hope to perform considerably better than those 3 based on that promise to be worthwhile, though.

Out of interest, what was it about it that seemed most promising in terms of appeal?

 

[Moor-Angol]

Puzzle & Dragons Z is at 1,5m. New entry won't collapse at only 500k LTD.

Maybe L5 will wait until December for YW3 this time.

P&D is not popular as it was back in 2013, and 3DS game was a rpg aimed to younger audience
I don't know what SMB version is, still a rpg or just a gameplay like the smartphone versions? if the latter, paying 4,000 yen for a F2P gameplay with Mario characters i dunno how it is worth
at the opposite, if it is a rpg it should sell well, probably in the long run


YW3 in December with the 2nd movie on the road should be the best decision and summer for the spin-off release (maybe with the anime new season starting?)
and I think there are the most logical releases date

 

[shinra-bansho]

So I haven't partaken in MC for a while, and I'm going to introduce a new discussion strain just for something different...

How much of Japan's decline in competitiveness in the global VG market can we attribute to insularity? And if it's a lot, what impact do people think new codes of corporate governance (from the middle of this year Japanese companies are expected to have at least two outside directors on their boards for instance) will affect these publishers. For the better? For the worse? Not at all?

 

[Nirolak]

So I haven't partaken in MC for a while, and I'm going to introduce a new discussion strain just for something different...

How much of Japan's decline in competitiveness in the global VG market can we attribute to insularity? And if it's a lot, what impact do people think new codes of corporate governance (from the middle of this year Japanese companies are expected to have at least two outside directors on their boards) will affect these publishers. For the better? For the worse? Not at all?

When duckroll first explained to me that Japanese companies often have their board of directors consist of their ranking executives, I felt it explained a lot to me.

Like doing this basically sets up the board as a rubber stamp for whatever strategy the company wants to take on an indefinite basis. It's ludicrous from a shareholder's perspective.

I'm not even talking about just Nintendo here to note (as they're often the topic of board discussions). This seems like a country wide major issue to me, and I'm not sure anything short of more than 50% external board members would put on pressure to actually perform and adapt Japanese businesses to modern market conditions both domestically and abroad.

 

[BKK]

I think annual Yakuza might be too much. Maybe every 1.5 years... although Ishin and 0 aren't exactly mainline sequels.

It's been an annual franchise since it started ten years ago, if that was too often it would have shown in the sales way before now. Generational transition issues seems like a more logical reason for the drop in sales to me.

 

[shinra-bansho]

Yeah, I thought I'd do a quick google, and surprisingly Capcom does have some non-executive directors. Konami seem to lump in their external auditors? But the large proportion of their board is still internal.

Nintendo probably stands out prominently as, so far as I can tell, there are essentially none?

Essentially you have Boards reporting to the CEO who reports to the Board, in this circular echo/rubberstamp chamber.

I mean if we just look at Apple's board for a moment to compare, other than Tim Cook, the board is largely non-executive with the likes of Al Gore, Rob Iger from Disney, Arthur Levinson from Genentech.

I think other parts of these new codes discourage, for instance, the hoarding of cash and basically convoluted cross-company shareholding to discourage foreign takeover.

So I do wonder a) whether these companies will actually act on this code (since it's not actually a regulation, more of a guideline, and b) how much of a shake up to their strategy and operations will occur if they actually do modernise.

 

[BKK]

So I haven't partaken in MC for a while, and I'm going to introduce a new discussion strain just for something different...

How much of Japan's decline in competitiveness in the global VG market can we attribute to insularity? And if it's a lot, what impact do people think new codes of corporate governance (from the middle of this year Japanese companies are expected to have at least two outside directors on their boards for instance) will affect these publishers. For the better? For the worse? Not at all?

Probably for the same reasons that most mid-tier western publishers have declined, they're simply not big enough to compete with the EAs, Activisions, Ubisofts, and Take 2s of this world in terms of development and marketing budgets. The same thing has happened in the UK, which is left with maybe just Codemasters as a notable British publisher.

 

[Takao]

Everyday Adventure Tri doesn't get a broadcast partner and timeslot announced is another day closer to it A) missing the spring season entirely, B) becoming an online exclusive ala Sailor Moon Crystal.

 

[duckroll]

Everyday Adventure Tri doesn't get a broadcast partner and timeslot announced is another day closer to it A) missing the spring season entirely, B) becoming an online exclusive ala Sailor Moon Crystal.

Saint Seiya Soul of Gold is also an online exclusive. Maybe TV stations are tired of Toei!

 

[vinnygambini]

Saint Seiya Soul of Gold is also an online exclusive. Maybe TV stations are tired of Toei!

There's a new Saint Seiya???

 

[duckroll]

There's a new Saint Seiya???

Yeah. It'll be a streaming series starting this Spring.

http://saintseiya-gold.com/

 

[vinnygambini]

Yeah. It'll be a streaming series starting this Spring.

http://saintseiya-gold.com/

Well I'll be damned. I thought since the movie flopped it wouldn't warrant any continuation whatsoever of the franchise.

Hopefully it's better than the first season. Looking really forward to Digimon though!

 

[Nirolak]

Yeah, I thought I'd do a quick google, and surprisingly Capcom does have some non-executive directors. Konami seem to lump in their external auditors? But the large proportion of their board is still internal.

Nintendo probably stands out prominently as, so far as I can tell, there are essentially none?

Essentially you have Boards reporting to the CEO who reports to the Board, in this circular echo/rubberstamp chamber.

I mean if we just look at Apple's board for a moment to compare, other than Tim Cook, the board is largely non-executive with the likes of Al Gore, Rob Iger from Disney, Arthur Levinson from Genentech.

I think other parts of these new codes discourage, for instance, the hoarding of cash and basically convoluted cross-company shareholding to discourage foreign takeover.

So I do wonder a) whether these companies will actually act on this code (since it's not actually a regulation, more of a guideline, and b) how much of a shake up to their strategy and operations will occur if they actually do modernise.

I think ZeniMax is one of my favorite examples of a company with an interesting board that had and interesting change last generation.

In 2005, ZeniMax was essentially irrelevant, having only the 1-2 million selling Elder Scrolls series and a few studios that did things like licensed Star Trek games and some hockey titles. There was also a slightly more ambitious title or two like Call of Cthulhu. As a private company without much cash, they even had other publishers distribute their games for them, including Oblivion by Take-Two in 2006.

This was a breakout success for the company by selling 3+ million copies, and emboldened by this, they decided to try and become a notable publisher.

Let's take an aside and show their board for a second:

Board of Directors

Robert A. Altman
Chairman & CEO

Ernest Del
President

Jerry Bruckheimer
Jerry Bruckheimer Films

Michael Dominguez
Managing Director, Providence Equity Partners Inc.

Leslie Moonves
President & CEO, CBS Corporation

Cal Ripken, Jr.
President & CEO, Ripken Baseball, Inc.

Harry E. Sloan
Chairman, Global Eagle Acquisition Corp.

Robert S. Trump
President, Trump Management, Inc.

You will notice they have two internal directors and six external directors, and that the six external directors are all from companies with venture capitalist arms. Now, ZeniMax is a private company, so we can't be 100% certain, but I feel it's self evident that each one is a notable investor in the company and got a board seat because of that.

As a side note, this also isn't an uncommon ratio in the West. For example, EA has their former CEO (Larry Probst), their current CEO (Andrew Wilson), and seven outside directors. They're also the biggest traditional video game vendor at this point since they overtook Activision Blizzard by about $1 billion in market cap. Activision is also a 2 internal to 6 external ratio.

Back to ZeniMax, with the money they could extract from their investors based on their success with Oblivion, they decided to notably expand. Their success at first was a pretty mixed bag. They made some money, but their output was a mix of more Bethesda Game Studios games, Brink, WET, Rogue Warrior, Hunted, and buying id software.

Since only about half of this made money, they had to reform their business again or get kicked out by their board for wasting money. At this point, they reorganized around what being a boutique publisher actually meant. They went out and found genres that were once popular, but now underserved (Dishonored is in the vein of Thief or even Hitman, Wolfenstein is a campaign focused FPS, TESO was a somewaht PvP focused MMO, The Evil Within was a survival horror game) and actually started landing notably more success. They even tried to buy Relic to get into the RTS business (another once popular but faded genre) before Sega outbid them. By delivering good products and aggressively lowering their price over time in tandem with word of mouth, they actually have started to get a stable of successful franchises going and are now expanding even more aggressively.

Now, was the board a big part of this? Obviously we don't have a lot of evidence given they're a private company, but given that they radically changed up their strategy twice in one generation (including shutting down their old studios for the first one and then dropping almost all their old development partners for the second one) and continually got notably more capital for their ambitions, someone was driving a lot of pressure on them to perform and grow into a stable and profitable company. Notably their board of directors also have significant incentive to ensure they're successful not only today, but even more so in 10 years, since they're basically all long term investors who are trying to grow their money supply.

It's been ten years since 2005 and it's actually not unfeasible that in a few more ZeniMax will have went from a totally irrelevant publisher to having more market share than every Japanese publisher with the possible exception of Nintendo. This is despite them still being a private company and having made a ton of mistakes along the way.

Speaking of private companies that presumably have to answer to investment backers, Level 5 has been a shining star in the traditional Japanese market despite spending much of their self-publishing life in the era of decline.

 

[Scum]

Level 5, you glorious cunts. I tip my hat off to you, Hino. Here's hoping every other publisher in Japan takes note.

When duckroll first explained to me that Japanese companies often have their board of directors consist of their ranking executives, I felt it explained a lot to me.

Like doing this basically sets up the board as a rubber stamp for whatever strategy the company wants to take on an indefinite basis. It's ludicrous from a shareholder's perspective.

I'm not even talking about just Nintendo here to note (as they're often the topic of board discussions). This seems like a country wide major issue to me, and I'm not sure anything short of more than 50% external board members would put on pressure to actually perform and adapt Japanese businesses to modern market conditions both domestically and abroad.

I'm no good at this company shenanigans but I just knew something like this was the very problem with many of these companies. I can only imagine how much further along NCL could be if Iwata and his hired goons thought and acted on a global scale....

 

[vinnygambini]

Nirolak, you should also look at Bandai Namco Holdings, a healthy percentage of their board or directors & auditors are outside members of the company.

Ever since their restructure in 2010, the company has done splendidly.

I agree on Nintendo though, they do need outside members, too insulated.

 

[Nirolak]

Nirolak, you should also look at Bandai Namco Holdings, a healthy percentage of their board or directors & auditors are outside members of the company.

Ever since their restructure in 2010, the company has done splendidly.

I agree on Nintendo though, they do need outside members, too insulated.

Yeah, I think that actually speaks well to the benefits of having outside directors as well.

These days Namco is focusing on their strengths and exploring new markets where it makes sense for them (they have notable Western success, are expanding into f2p, and have had a lot of luck on PC in the West) rather than trying to make low budget direct competitors to vastly superior funded Western titles or take an extreme turn toward only focusing on the domestic market.

They also didn't notably scale down their ambitions relative to what they were doing when they were successful and investigated things like outside technologies such as Unity and Unreal for increasing productivity or shoring up visual deficiencies.

 

[Scum]

What happened to that posting from NCL a while back? Looking for their own 'Cerny', weren't they?

Nirolak, you should also look at Bandai Namco Holdings, a healthy percentage of their board or directors & auditors are outside members of the company.

Ever since their restructure in 2010, the company has done splendidly.

I agree on Nintendo though, they do need outside members, too insulated.

How about Shibata as a Director outside of NCL?

 

[vinnygambini]

Yeah, I think that actually speaks well to the benefits of having outside directors as well.

It does indeed.

How about Shibata as a Director outside of NCL?

Personally, I would like Akihiro Hino to be a member of the board due to his expertise on crafting multi-media franchises, and Shukuo Ishikawa, CEO & President of Bandai Namco Holdings, to also be part of the board due to the turnaround the company had on his guidance.

I'd also like a Disney representative to be on the board but alas I don't think that's going to happen with current management

I mean, Bandai Namco back in 2010 when they announced their restructure, several new board members and outside auditors joined in order to guide the company to profitability and growth; one of those board members was Avi Arad! You know, previous CEO of Marvel Entertainment!

Never going to happen with Nintendo, but that's what it needs, fresh blood.

 

[Hero of Legend]

Not as a member of the board of directors, but Nintendo has hired outside folk in there at points. I remember Martin Hollis was at I think NOA working on the GC prior to launch, and did they not hire someone from 4kids years ago?

Dan Adelman of course also was a key player on the XBL foundation team no?

And of course they grabbed numerous key Wizards folks at Pokemon USA when their partnership ended on the TGC, that partly resulted in a lawsuit that was settled out of court.

So they don;t always just promote internal folks or bring in members from their closest devs (not sure if Wizards would count, maybe Martin Hollis?), but all these were western so yeah, Nintendo doesn't do it as much in Japan.

However, in Japan, did they not take in the director of the Zelda games at Flagship who went on to direct Skyward Sword?

 

[Scum]

It does indeed.



Personally, I would like Akihiro Hino to be a member of the board due to his expertise on crafting multi-media franchises, and Shukuo Ishikawa, CEO & President of Bandai Namco Holdings, to also be part of the board due to the turnaround the company had on his guidance.

I'd also like a Disney representative to be on the board but alas I don't think that's going to happen with current management

I mean, Bandai Namco back in 2010 when they announced their restructure, several new board members and outside auditors joined in order to guide the company to profitability and growth; one of those board members was Avi Arad! You know, previous CEO of Marvel Entertainment!

Never going to happen with Nintendo, but that's what it needs, fresh blood.

Imagine Nintendo as Disney's main publisher in Japan. Iwata, pls.

 

[Hero of Legend]

Imagine Nintendo as Disney's main publisher in Japan. Iwata, pls.

I was thinking of some kind of mutual partnership not long ago that could work. Like they help each other, for instance, Nintendo gives Disney exclusive use of their merchandise (sans Pokemon which Creatures and whatnot are already firmly established anyway, but I think some changes could work like the toy line and what not, of both Disney and the current setup), where only Disney can make and sell toys and make movies and TV shows of Nintendo's lot. Nintendo merchandise I believe would be gigantic for Disney. Especially if they get Disney Feature Animation to make Nintendo theatrical films.

On the flip side, Disney grants Nintendo exclusivity of their IPs. Everything from Mickey, Kingdom Hearts, Star Wars, Marvel, could be a big win for Nintendo. Yeah I know a lot would get sick thinking of that idea, but it's just a thought. They'd certainly get huge benefits.

And don;t forget about Disney Land/World possibilities!

All without one owning the other.

Thoughts?

All this in a Japanese sales thread. I was thinking of making a thread about it, wonder if that'd be a good idea.

 

[Scum]

I was thinking of some kind of mutual partnership not long ago that could work. Like they help each other, for instance, Nintendo gives Disney exclusive use of their merchandise (sans Pokemon which Creatures and whatnot are already firmly established anyway, but I think some changes could work like the toy line and what not, of both Disney and the current setup), where only Disney can make and sell toys and make movies and TV shows of Nintendo's lot. Nintendo merchandise I believe would be gigantic for Disney. Especially if they get Disney Feature Animation to make Nintendo theatrical films.

On the flip side, Disney grants Nintendo exclusivity of their IPs. Everything from Mickey, Kingdom Hearts, Star Wars, Marvel, could be a big win for Nintendo. Yeah I know a lot would get sick thinking of that idea, but it's just a thought. They'd certainly get huge benefits.

And don;t forget about Disney Land/World possibilities!

All without one owning the other.

Thoughts?

All this in a Japanese sales thread. I was thinking of making a thread about it, wonder if that'd be a good idea.

I'm not sure about creating a thread for it. You might not get the responses you want...
But yeah. A Disney/Nintendo collab is something that would quite grand if it ever happened. I'll eagerly await Mushroom Kingdom Hearts if it ever took place.

 

[Hero of Legend]

I'm not sure about creating a thread for it. You might not get the responses you want...
But yeah. A Disney/Nintendo collab is something that would quite grand if it ever happened. I'll eagerly await Mushroom Kingdom Hearts if it ever took place.

I know, I said that they wouldn't exactly like Nintendo getting KH, Marvel, and SW.

That's why I didn't make it.

 

[small44]

Marvelous are a smaller company than Sega, Square Enix and Capcom. They probably saw them fail and figured if those guys couldn't launch a successful kids IP they probably couldn't.

To be honest with you, Kaio looked kind of forgettable.



It would certainly be cool if Cyber Sleuth did 200k, but I don't think that's likely. The majority of DS Digimon games weren't near 200k:

NDS : Digimon Story ( Bandai Namco ) { 2006-06-15 } - 44,932 / 217,986
NDS : Digimon World: Dusk / Dawn ( Bandai Namco ) { 2007-03-29 } - 72,308 / 185,110
NDS : Digimon Championship ( Bandai Namco ) { 2008-02-14 } - 17,812 / 46,860
NDS : Digimon Story: Lost Evolution ( Bandai Namco ) { 2010-07-01 } - 36,105 / 80,279
NDS : Digimon Story: Super Xros Wars Blue / Red ( Bandai Namco ) { 2011-03-03 } - 28,499 / 77,871

In fact, there are only 3 Digimon games that have pushed 200k in Japan. Two of those were 16 years ago.

How PSP ones does?

 

[crinale]

Well, sometimes taking some loss is better than betting on some bet u know had almost zero chance being successful. Not only the art looks kinda bland, we haven't even see any video about the game gameplay. Which seeing Yaiba.....makes me worried.

I posted on other thread too but media tie-ins are extremely important, and if they couldn't get the contract to get good backup from media conglomerate (magazine pubs, TV stations and such) then sometimes it is better to just abandon it as a whole.
Someone (who works at Japanese game dev) told me that it is very common to build project budget around not only to game it self but with all other "media" things included (he admitted that many cases game alone never recoups the cost spent for marketing and development).

 

[shinra-bansho]

Didn't realise that about Bandai Namco. It really does speak to the idea of how much outside and diverse input can help in formulating a solid strategy.

One interesting Western one though is Ubisoft, I didn't realise until now but a majority of the board is actually comprised of the Guillemot family; they do have then have strict requirements for having external directors as well.

Regarding these talks of Disney and Nintendo collaborations, is there room for licensing (largely from the latter to the former in terms of generating cross-media products) sure.
But frankly, beyond that it really ignores the difference in scale and competencies of the two companies. The Disney of today is a master of monetizing intellectual property. But Disney frankly doesn't really need Nintendo for anything, let alone granting any exclusive rights.

 

[Takao]

How PSP ones does?

Here's the PSP duo:
PSP : Digimon World Reigitize ( Bandai Namco ) { 2012-07-19 } - 73,468 / 153,980
PSP : Digimon Adventure ( Bandai Namco ) { 2013-01-17 } - 45,438 / 80,833

While Cyber Sleuth isn't a sequel or even developed by the same studio, it's kind of a followup to Reigitize. Both are re-imaginings of their respective Digimon game series with art by Suzuhito Yasuda.

IIRC neither of those had a Digimon anime on the air to promote them. Though Reigitize may have caught the tail end of Xros Wars.

 

[Hero of Legend]

Speaking of Digimon and tie-ins. Is it likely they might attempt to port Adventure to 3DS like they did with Re:digitize for Tri's airing? It'd make a lot of sense to bring that back for the long awaited continuation of the series.

Prope also has 3DS experience (a Mii Plaza mini game) so that might help also for what it's worth.

Just thinking they'd put it on 3DS rather than Vita since they ported the other PSP game to 3DS, hell it's not the only one BN have done this with, One Piece: Romance Dawn is another. Not sure if they ported a PSP game to Vita. Was Sword Art Online one?

 

[crinale]

IIRC Bamco openly admitted Cyber Sleuth is targeted to adult audience who enjoyed the series in their childhood.

 

[KuwabaraTheMan]

Here's the PSP duo:
PSP : Digimon World Reigitize ( Bandai Namco ) { 2012-07-19 } - 73,468 / 153,980
PSP : Digimon Adventure ( Bandai Namco ) { 2013-01-17 } - 45,438 / 80,833

While Cyber Sleuth isn't a sequel or even developed by the same studio, it's kind of a followup to Reigitize. Both are re-imaginings of their respective Digimon game series with art by Suzuhito Yasuda.

IIRC neither of those had a Digimon anime on the air to promote them. Though Reigitize may have caught the tail end of Xros Wars.

No, Reigitize missed even that. Hunters wrapped up in March of 2012. It actually came out a pretty bad time for the franchise, and yet it still sold quite well.