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[Moor-Angol]

Are people acting like SCEJ ever cared about handheld gaming? Its support was pretty barren even on PSP, which was selling way better than PSV. Outside Minna no Golf -and PSV has one- and Gran Turismo, all the other games were pretty low-profile, and some of them succeeded because of the huge installed base.

and which are the high-end profile games from SCEJ except those 2 mentioned by you?
I checked PS2 and PS3 top seller games and besides GT and MnG you can find some Ratchet & Clank games and one rpg per system :Rogue Galaxy and White Knight Chronicles

SCEJ always made a lot of low-end profile games, even today when I look for PS1 or PS2 games I still find some obscure titles made by them...

 

[BlowoverKing]

COMG! Pre-orders:

20. Minecraft: PlayStation Vita Edition - 24pts

 

[AcademicSaucer]

Sony just gave us oreshika , I bet that didnt make sense in their ROI, you cant really ask them more.

 

[duckroll]

Sony just gave us oreshika , I bet that didnt make sense in their ROI, you cant really ask them more.

Why wouldn't it make sense? It sold as well as the original on PSP. It's not even developed internally, both games were made by Alfa System, so it's not taking any resources away in terms of opportunity cost either.

 

[shinra-bansho]

So even ignoring all the other conceptual issues with Disney licensing their stuff exclusively to Nintendo when they make lots of money licensing Marvel to everyone from mobile devs to Namco Bandai and a few bigger deals like Star Wars core games to EA, Disbey actually wouldn't benefit much from a merchandizing deal since they outsource much of that themselves anyway.

For example they gave the exclusive Frozen toy license to Hasbro: http://www.wsj.com/articles/hasbro-to-partner-with-disney-to-make-princess-frozen-dolls-1411569855

If they're a company that licenses out merchandizing, what benefit do they get making merchandise for Nintendo?

If you want to read about how Disney handles merchandizing and brand awareness for Marvel for example, go here: http://variety.com/2015/film/news/m...age-of-ultron-make-the-big-bigger-1201449832/

Yep, something that I neglected in my last post. From memory Mattel are in a bit of a bind losing the contract/license for Frozen toys as Elsa and co was bringing in more than Barbie.

The only realm where it might maybe possibly make sense for Disney to licence from Nintendo is in generating film/television properties from Nintendo IP. But again the House of Mouse doesn't need the House of Mario for that, and it doesn't cover any particular weakness in their IP stable.

Again it probably really stems from not realising the relative positions of these companies.

 

[hiska-kun]

Etrian Mystery Dungeon is going to have a huge drop this week. The game is still sold out everywhere. I went to Tsutaya (Shibuya) and Bic Camera, Yodabashi, Yamada Denki (Shinjuku and Ikebukuro), and it was sold out at every shop.

Digimon is fully available, a new shipment came. Just sold out in Yamada Denki.

Other news, GamesMaya says that Yakuza 0 is moving black PS4 (DQH moved white ones).

 

[Oregano]

I honestly don't know right now. I just feel that Nintendo doesn't know what they should do next in terms of consoles. The WiiU is barely active now, so it's not going to be active in any sense in 2017. Random thought: What if Nintendo drops traditional consoles entirely?

My thought is that their next home console will literally be a more powerful version of their handheld. The vast, vast majority of releases would be for both.

The graphical difference between MH4U on 3DS and N3DS already show that it's possible to some extent.

 

[Pennywise83]

Etrian Mystery Dungeon is going to have a huge drop this week. The game is still sold out everywhere. I went to Tsutaya (Shibuya) and Bic Camera, Yodabashi, Yamada Denki (Shinjuku and Ikebukuro), and it was sold out at every shop.

Digimon is fully available, a new shipment came. Just sold out in Yamada Denki.

Other news, GamesMaya says that Yakuza 0 is moving black PS4 (DQH moved white ones).

EMD is taking the series back to its roots... The first EO was highly supply-constrained and sold A LOT over time.

 

[Kyoufu]

The graphical difference between MH4U on 3DS and N3DS already show that it's possible to some extent.

What graphical difference?

 

[Oregano]

What graphical difference?

Mostly just better textures and performance. Here.

 

[Parakeetman]

What graphical difference?

Its mainly texture stuff.

http://imgur.com/a/rzLJb

 

[Kyoufu]

Mostly just better textures and performance. Here.

Its mainly texture stuff.

http://imgur.com/a/rzLJb

Thanks. I just don't see developers wanting to spend more resources on including better assets suitable for a big screen when the vast majority of consumers in Japan will probably be playing the game on their handheld only.

 

[Oregano]

Thanks. I just don't see developers wanting to spend more resources on including better assets suitable for a big screen when the vast majority of consumers in Japan will probably be playing the game on their handheld only.

Well that's the thing, as far as we can tell there is only one set of assets on the MH4U card. The N3DS is simply better at showing them. Of course that means the difference will be smaller than port/remaster.

 

[Spiegel]

It's not like developers have been doing this for a long time with PS2/PSP, PS3/PSV and now PSV/PS4.

 

[Kyoufu]

Well that's the thing, as far as we can tell there is only one set of assets on the MH4U card. The N3DS is simply better at showing them. Of course that means the difference will be smaller than port/remaster.

Who does this appeal to? I'm really skeptical of whether this'll be a big draw for their new systems. I feel like they'd be better off devoting 100% of their resources in the 4DS or whatever it'll be called, just like how Sony would be better off focusing on PS5.

 

[Oregano]

Who does this appeal to? I'm really skeptical of whether this'll be a big draw for their new systems. I feel like they'd be better off devoting 100% of their resources in the 4DS or whatever it'll be called, just like how Sony would be better off focusing on PS5.

It appeals to people (in the west primarily) who prefer to play games on consoles. You only have to look at all the Vita games getting PS4 versions for the west. In Japan it would just be a poor selling SKU of the handheld.

More importantly it significantly lowers the risk of the consoles. The problem with the Wii U for Nintendo is that the poor hardware sales are holding back the software sales significantly. If the libraries were shared then only the total addressable install base would matter. As to the bolded it would mean that pretty much 100% of their resources are spent on the handheld anyway.

Saying that I'm probably giving Nintendo too much credit. There's signs that they're pursuing that strategy but I'm not sure they have the conviction to go all the way with it.

EDIT:

It's not like developers have been doing this for a long time with PS2/PSP, PS3/PSV and now PSV/PS4.

We even have a few examples on 3DS and Wii U like Monster Hunter Tri Ultimate & Rodea The Sky Soldier.

 

[Kyoufu]

It appeals to people (in the west primarily) who prefer to play games on consoles. You only have to look at all the Vita games getting PS4 versions for the west. In Japan it would just be a poor selling SKU of the handheld.

More importantly it significantly lowers the risk of the consoles. The problem with the Wii U for Nintendo is that the poor hardware sales are holding back the software sales significantly. If the libraries were shared then only the total addressable install base would matter. As to the bolded it would mean that pretty much 100% of their resources are spent on the handheld anyway.

Saying that I'm probably giving Nintendo too much credit. There's signs that they're pursuing that strategy but I'm not sure they have the conviction to go all the way with it.

I don't see that being a big draw though. Their problem in the west is that they lack the third party support and mindshare needed to pull in the crowd that plays mainstream titles that move systems (Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto) which are being played on systems with established online networks. If they're aiming to snatch that user base from Sony/Microsoft when they've never had a mainline GTA on their consoles before then they'd need to work miracles. That crowd won't jump onto Nintendo's next console so they can play Pokemon on their televisions.

Nintendo's best selling console wasn't even targeted at the core gamer audience. It was completely out of the box and its best selling titles weren't from third parties. They should be looking into recreating that formula because I feel that their efforts in regaining the core audience will be in vain, as evidenced by N64, GameCube and now Wii U.

At the end of the day it'll be interesting to see what their strategy will be but put me down as skeptical of a shared library being the level of success that they should be aiming for.

 

[Oregano]

I don't see that being a big draw though. Their problem in the west is that they lack the third party support and mindshare needed to pull in the crowd that plays mainstream titles that move systems (Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto) which are being played on systems with established online networks. If they're aiming to snatch that user base from Sony/Microsoft when they've never had a mainline GTA on their consoles before then they'd need to work miracles. That crowd won't jump onto Nintendo's next console so they can play Pokemon on their televisions.

Nintendo's best selling console wasn't even targeted at the core gamer audience. It was completely out of the box and its best selling titles weren't from third parties. They should be looking into recreating that formula because I feel that their efforts in regaining the core audience will be in vain, as evidenced by N64, GameCube and now Wii U.

At the end of the day it'll be interesting to see what their strategy will be but put me down as skeptical of a shared library being the level of success that they should be aiming for.

I don't think they would be aiming to snatch userbase from Sony or MS though, that being a losing battle is something we both agree on. But I don't think the Wii U's problem is that it's lacking a certain type of software, it's that it's lacking software altogether.

Something Iwata specifically talked about was changing the relationship between hardware and software and I think that's the key. I think there's three key points:

1) First party resources are now freed up. Not having to make both 3D Land and 3D World would open EAD Tokyo up for other projects.
2) Strong (Japanese) third party support for the portable would mean strong third party support for the console.
3) Games can appeal to different groups in different areas. Ex: Monster Hunter is vastly more popular on portables in Japan but in the west people would prefer console releases. Developers can target those groups simultaneously with minimal costs.

I also think that one of Nintendo's big issues with the Wii U has been competing against the 3DS. 3D Zelda, 3D Mario, Smash and Xenoblade are all on 3DS. If the audience is satisfied with that then they don't invest in the Wii U and that software ecosystem is then cut off.

 

[Kresnik258]

Are people acting like SCEJ ever cared about handheld gaming? Its support was pretty barren even on PSP, which was selling way better than PSV. Outside Minna no Golf -and PSV has one- and Gran Turismo, all the other games were pretty low-profile, and some of them succeeded because of the huge installed base.

Since we're talking about SCEJ here, rather than Japan studio, I think a lot of the smaller stuff they did for the PSP helped more.

Arguably I'd say they supported Vita better with "bigger" stuff - attempts at creating bigger new IP's with some marketing behind them (Gravity Rush; Soul Sacrifice; Freedom Wars) and some big-to-mid-tier stuff from previous gens (Minna no Golf and Oreshika). Barring Minna no Golf in that, though, I'd say it was all targeted at a pretty... "dedicated" (not sure that's the right word) audience.

What they did for the PSP was provided a much wider variety of stuff as a publisher. So you had things like, for example, 3 Boku no Natsuyasumi games including an original new title. I'd imagine those would at least appeal to a different subset of gamer due to the nature of the game. They put out the Ape Escape party games plus a couple of platformers - again, probably reaching a broader audience.

And then there's just the fact that they supported it more as a publisher of outsourced stuff than they do now. Things like Popolocrois; Brave Story; Wild ARMs XF; the Badman games etc. It's not loads of high-profile stuff, but it's still not really present anymore.

 

[Moor-Angol]

COMG! Pre-orders:

20. Minecraft: PlayStation Vita Edition - 24pts

Spoiler

only 24 points a week before its release it's not a good result, clearly it will bomba and probably Vita was not the right platform for that kind of game

meanwhile, on Amazon...

 

[michaelius]

It's Minecraft - it'll keep crawling below top 50 unnoticed and then 2 years later we will wonder how the hell it sold so much in that time

 

[Psycho_Mantis]

Isn't it already at 500k DL across PSV/3/4. 1 million LTD anyone?

 

[Oregano]

Also this was posted in the Nintendo Download thread but I don't think it was mentioned here. Circle Ent has three 3DS games that have sold 100K in Japan, most recent is Urban Trials(also on Vita). They also say that depending on the game the JP market is equal to NA and EU combined.

Link.

 

[Aostia]

I honestly don't know right now. I just feel that Nintendo doesn't know what they should do next in terms of consoles. The WiiU is barely active now, so it's not going to be active in any sense in 2017. Random thought: What if Nintendo drops traditional consoles entirely?

if they drop console, they will push even harder on portable.
but I doubt it will happen with next gen.
the one after? if wiiu2 will be as problematic as the wiiu then I think they'll drop homes for sure.
but their nature, money and revenue should lead them into at least another home project, unlike Sony on portables

 

[Exokell]

bloodborne next ps4 big release right?

 

[Mpl90]

Comgnet retail store chain: preorders stats / comparisons, as of March 15th, 2015.

[PS3] Dark Souls - 256pt**
[PS3] Dark Souls 2 - 114pt + 40pt = 154pt
[PS4] Bloodborne - 116pt

[PS3] 3rd Super Robot Taisen Z: Time Prison Chapter - 144pt
[PSV] 3rd Super Robot Taisen Z: Time Prison Chapter - 64pt
[PS3] 3rd Super Robot Taisen Z: Celestial Prison Chapter - 98pt
[PSV] 3rd Super Robot Taisen Z: Celestial Prison Chapter - 69pt

[PSV] Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment - 100pt + 75pt = 175pt
[PSV] Sword Art Online: Lost Song - 89pt + 76pt = 165pt
[PS3] Sword Art Online: Lost Song - 54pt

[3DS] Resident Evil Revelations - 128pt*
[PS3] Resident Evil Revelations - 88pt*
[PS3] Resident Evil Revelations 2 - 69pt
[PS4] Resident Evil Revelations 2 - 45pt

[PS3] One Piece: Pirate Warriors - 418pt + 39pt = 457pt*
[PS3] One Piece: Pirate Warriors 2 - 150pt + 20pt = 170pt*
[PS3] One Piece: Pirate Warriors 3 - 68pt
[PSV] One Piece: Pirate Warriors 3 - 33pt
[PS4] One Piece: Pirate Warriors 3 - 24pt

[PSP] Final Fantasy Type-0 - 549pt**
[PS3] Final Fantasy X | X-2 HD Remaster - 169pt*
[PSV] Final Fantasy X | X-2 HD Remaster Twin Pack - 63pt*
[PSV] Final Fantasy X HD Remaster - 16pt*
[PS4] Final Fantasy Type-0 HD - 66pt

[3DS] Kuroko's Basketball: Miracle Victory - 48pt
[3DS] Kuroko's Basketball: Ties to the Future - 41pt

[3DS] Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call - 31pt
[3DS] Theatrhythm Dragon Quest - 40pt

[PSV] Minecraft PlayStation Vita Edition - 24pt

[PS3] Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten - 103pt + 36pt = 139pt**
[PS3] Disgaea D2: A Brighter Darkness - 47pt + 27pt = 74pt*
[PS4] Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance - 21pt < x < 24pt

* = Comg preorder pts from 2012/2013
** = Comg preorder pts up to 2010/2011

Note: Comgnet's ratio between actual sales and pts has grown overall in the past year / years, and older preorder points are not as reliable for comparisons as most recent ones, especially if they are from years and years ago

 

[Oregano]

Nippon Ichi to be the next Imageepoch.

 

[Psycho_Mantis]

Nippon Ichi to be the next Imageepoch.

why?

 

[Oregano]

why?

[PS3] Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten - 103pt + 36pt = 139pt**
[PS3] Disgaea D2: A Brighter Darkness - 47pt + 27pt = 74pt*
[PS4] Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance - 21pt < x < 24pt

I'm (mostly) joking though.

 

[Kresnik258]

why?

[PS3] Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten - 103pt + 36pt = 139pt**
[PS3] Disgaea D2: A Brighter Darkness - 47pt + 27pt = 74pt*
[PS4] Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance - 21pt < x < 24pt

I would assume, since it is their flagship series. Added in with the fact that they've struggled to find a hit elsewhere (the "fate" series seems dead after the last one flopped; Witch & Hundred Knight sold well but was still financially in the red apparently).

 

[sphinx]

besides Nintendo going for a shared ecosystem, I wonder what nintendo will try to do with the style and appearance of their next hardware.

Nintendo getting support is not only a matter of being able to run games in the PS4/X1 generation but also being appealing to the crowd that appreciate those consoles.

but that's off-topic I guess, cause japanese still need to show they care enough for home consoles alltogether.

 

[Sammy Samusu]

RIP NIS

 

[Psycho_Mantis]

[PS3] Disgaea 4: A Promise Unforgotten - 103pt + 36pt = 139pt**
[PS3] Disgaea D2: A Brighter Darkness - 47pt + 27pt = 74pt*
[PS4] Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance - 21pt < x < 24pt

I'm (mostly) joking though.

I would assume, since it is their flagship series. Added in with the fact that they've struggled to find a hit elsewhere (the "fate" series seems dead after the last one flopped; Witch & Hundred Knight sold well but was still financially in the red apparently).

Disgaea 5 not selling well = the end of NI then?

 

[1st Course]

I would assume, since it is their flagship series. Added in with the fact that they've struggled to find a hit elsewhere (the "fate" series seems dead after the last one flopped; Witch & Hundred Knight sold well but was still financially in the red apparently).

Don't forget they lost Neptunia + Atelier western publishing rights recently too.

Disgaea + Danganronpa (publisher in the west) are the only successful IPs they have left.

 

[Oregano]

Disgaea 5 not selling well = the end of NI then?

Not necessarily but it would be a massive blow. They don't really have anything else.

 

[zeroOman]

Spoiler

only 24 points a week before its release it's not a good result, clearly it will bomba and probably Vita was not the right platform for that kind of game

meanwhile, on Amazon...

mmm is this good or bad .... it look bad

 

[spatenfloot]

I honestly don't know right now. I just feel that Nintendo doesn't know what they should do next in terms of consoles. The WiiU is barely active now, so it's not going to be active in any sense in 2017. Random thought: What if Nintendo drops traditional consoles entirely?

They could make the console just a docking station for the handheld. Come home, plug it in, and continue playing on the big screen.

 

[Pennywise83]

Disgaea 5 not selling well = the end of NI then?

NI's problems started well before D5.

 

[Psycho_Mantis]

Not necessarily but it would be a massive blow. They don't really have anything else.

Danganronpa is a growing franchise that has potential. It may even become their biggest franchise.

D1+2 have sales around 315k (JP+US).

If D5 does not do well WW I either expect them to do a port to Vita or just have another go at D6.

For instance Disgaea 3 opened at 56k and had a LTD of 93k while 4 showed a notable increase.

 

[Gucci Messiah]

and which are the high-end profile games from SCEJ except those 2 mentioned by you?
I checked PS2 and PS3 top seller games and besides GT and MnG you can find some Ratchet & Clank games and one rpg per system :Rogue Galaxy and White Knight Chronicles

SCEJ always made a lot of low-end profile games, even today when I look for PS1 or PS2 games I still find some obscure titles made by them...

I would love a remaster of Rogue Galaxy

 

[GhostTrick]

Danganronpa is a growing franchise that has potential. It may even become their biggest franchise.

D1+2 have sales around 315k (JP+US).

If D5 does not do well WW I either expect them to do a port to Vita or just have another go at D6.

For instance Disgaea 3 opened at 56k and had a LTD of 93k while 4 showed a notable increase.

The problem is, its not THEIR franchise.
What if Spike Chunsoft decided to open a western branch ?

 

[KuwabaraTheMan]

Danganronpa is a growing franchise that has potential. It may even become their biggest franchise.

I'm sure NIS America gets a decent amount from that, but it's still a Spike Chunsoft series. They could easily work with a different western publisher if they wanted (or even open their own branch). NIS needs something on their Japanese side if they want to continue operating.

 

[small44]

Spoiler

only 24 points a week before its release it's not a good result, clearly it will bomba and probably Vita was not the right platform for that kind of game

meanwhile, on Amazon...

The game has legs

 

[Oregano]

Danganronpa is a growing franchise that has potential. It may even become their biggest franchise.

D1+2 have sales around 315k (JP+US).

If D5 does not do well WW I either expect them to do a port to Vita or just have another go at D6.

For instance Disgaea 3 opened at 56k and had a LTD of 93k while 4 showed a notable increase.

As others have pointed out NISA only publishes Danganronpa in the west. Which also means they wouldn't be able to get the game out sooner if they need cash.

 

[Psycho_Mantis]

Oh right forgot about Chunsoft. I don't see Chunsoft opening a western branch just for one case and so I think NIS will remain the localiser for DR.

On the Japanese said, looking through their PS3 stuff, it really is just Disgaea with some other new titles that failed to pick up. The Witch is the only one that has decent sales. Its remarkable that they have been here for so long but its probably due to their titles having such low budgets. D5 looks pretty much the same as D3.

 

[Eolz]

Comgnet retail store chain: preorders stats / comparisons, as of March 15th, 2015.

Is there anything for Senran Kagura EV (compared to 2 and SV)?
Also, anything to compare the 116pts of Bloodborne to?

 

[HGH]

I would assume, since it is their flagship series. Added in with the fact that they've struggled to find a hit elsewhere (the "fate" series seems dead after the last one flopped; Witch & Hundred Knight sold well but was still financially in the red apparently).

Oh right forgot about Chunsoft. I don't see Chunsoft opening a western branch just for one case and so I think NIS will remain the localiser for DR.

On the Japanese said, looking through their PS3 stuff, it really is just Disgaea with some other new titles that failed to pick up. The Witch is the only one that has decent sales. Its remarkable that they have been here for so long but its probably due to their titles having such low budgets. D5 looks pretty much the same as D3.

Just elaborate on this, but I don't think Witch would have been profitable no matter how much it sold because it was a giant waste of time. I wrote some words on it elsewhere so here's the gist.

The original plan was open world.
It's funny that their concern was graphics and then it came out looking pretty dated.

Nippon Ichi also address the topic of the game’s delay. Development on The Witch and the Hundred Knights began three years ago(2010), while it was expected to be complete in one or one-and-a-half years, the game had piles of issues.

NIS say they didn’t want the graphics or visuals of The Witch and the Hundred Knights to look inferior to other titles. There was talk about making it an open world game, but instead NIS chose to focus on the 3D graphics technology. The development studio has been working on the action part of the game and reducing load times. It sounds like the open-world elements are gone.

Obviously that didn't pan out, what with the game being even more delayed for a year and a half (due 2012, then summer 2012, then came out summer 2013 in Japan), probably due to inexperience with 3D engines, and an employee walkout in 2013. So they likely had to retool the pre-existing assets into the current game's form (you can see a couple seemingly scrapped gameplay and story elements in some pictures here).

Given all the troubles, and the (I assume) massive money-sink, it's impressive the game came out and runs at all. Sounds like it was pretty much vaporware for a while.

So basically, tons of wasted time and money over assets that probably won't see much use. I doubt they'll make another full 3D game any time soon.

 

[AcademicSaucer]

But, what if NIS hits the jackpot with Rodea ?

Spoiler

jk

 

[Refreshment.01]

My thought is that their next home console will literally be a more powerful version of their handheld. The vast, vast majority of releases would be for both.

The graphical difference between MH4U on 3DS and N3DS already show that it's possible to some extent.

i made a thread some time ago about different potential busyness models for NIntendo. Among their options i was suggesting for them to only make handheld consoles and them:

A) Release an input device for PC or other home consoles that was a requisite to play their games.

B) That same handheld also works on PC or other consoles to play their games.

That way they still in the hardware busyness, they retain exclusivity and differentiation why potentialy increasing user base and cutting risks.

 

[Moor-Angol]

Wii U vs. GC

week 116 - 2,221,613  /  2,619,603           -397,990
week 117 - 2,227,228  /  2,657,867           -430,639
week 118 - 2,233,201  /  2,713,829           -480,628

worst gap ever (*), enough said....



PS3 vs. PS4

week 53 - 1,329,445  /   1,072,636   -256,809
week 54 - 1,382,261  /   1,119,131   -263,130 
week 55 - 1,440,642  /   1,152,077   -288,565

PS4 is rising, and so PS3 did



PS4 vs. Wii U

week 53 - 1,072,636  /  1,247,112    -174,476 
week 54 - 1,119,131  /  1,320,094    -200,963
week 55 - 1,152,077  /  1,439,253    -287,176

PS4 is rising, but Wii U made 120k on that week........



PS4 vs. Wii U vs. GC

week 53 -  1,072,636  /  1,247,112  /  1,564,954
week 54 -  1,119,131  /  1,320,094  /  1,577,738
week 55 -  1,152,077  /  1,439,253  /  1,592,978

(insert comment here)







(*) started from week 87 (-347k), lowest point on week 109 (-315k), highest point on week 118 (-480k), previous week 104 (-433k)