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[sörine]

and of course 3DS is the only safe place for the whole videogame industry, the only platform which can guarantee strong sales for every titles.
all publishers should move on it

All publishers looking to do kids games or mainstream multimillion sellers should certainly make 3DS their priority as it's basically the only platform where those efforts have been really successful for 3rd parties. At least amoung dedicated game systems, obviously smart devices hit those same demographics too and often even better depending on the title.

Vita and consoles are fine for their specific niches (otaku fanservice and Sony subsidized hunting games on Vita, AAA global hits and PS3 ports on PS4, Nintendo family fare on Wii U) but they're still niches. Level 5's been making the right calls on platforms for their games the past several years I think. Safe and smart.

 

[Pennywise83]

I highly doubt that's true. As I said earlier, LBX Explosive Boost was announced for 3DS the same day that LBX W was announced. At that time LBX W was PSP exclusive. That's a firm indicator that the plan was to move to 3DS eventually. The Vita version of LBX W wasn't announced until a few weeks before Explosive Boost launched. It was given low priority, as evidenced by almost all of the media focusing on the PSP version. Heck, Sony's own PV for the game did that too. As someone who has played the Vita version, it's an incredibly bare bones port. The only difference between playing it and just loading up the PSP release is the resolution. No touch screen navigation was added, even for the menus. No support for the second analog stick either. It was like they took LBX Wpsp.iso and converted it to LBX Wpsv.img.

The truth is likely that Sony paid for LBX W on Vita. The platform's software lineup in fall 2012 was really, really terrible. It likely cost Level-5 little to port it over and I'm sure they were willing to take whatever incentives (probably marketing given the Sony PV above) they tossed their way.

Maybe. Level-5 might have also thought that PSV was going to be a better fit for the franchise, given the fact the IP was selling well on PSP. Also, typically multi-plat releases are made with something in mind for the franchise on the platforms, so it'd be weird to think L5 developed LBX W on PSV only because of Sony money.

LBX W release : October 2012
Vita release : December 2011

dead after 10 months...

and of course 3DS is the only safe place for the whole videogame industry, the only platform which can guarantee strong sales for every titles.
all publishers should move on it

PSV was selling really bad during the first months. Anyway, I just said that I'd see 3DS as a better fit for Ushiro. What's your opinion on the matter?

 

[Takao]

Something like Yokai Watch shouldn't be on Vita, but this? With an art style more closely resembling this? That looks like a perfect fit for a PlayStation release.

 

[Pennywise83]

Something like Yokai Watch shouldn't be on Vita, but this? With an art style more closely resembling this? That looks like a perfect fit for a PlayStation release.

3DS is not only Yo-kai Watch. It got games such that Monster Hunter (3-4m), Fire Emblem: Awakening (500k), Attack on Titan, Resident Evil: Revelations (300k or so), Shin Megami Tensei IV (250k).

Of course if L5 aims at 100-150k units sales, then also PSV might fit. A Western perspective, though...

 

[sörine]

I think Ushiro makes the most sense where it is. Dead.

Any potential investment there is probably better spent elsewhere.

 

[Pennywise83]

I think Ushiro makes the most sense where it is. Dead.

Any potential investment there is probably better spent elsewhere.

Investing in the novels, though, might signal an interest in bringing the IP in other media markets..

 

[DarkLordMalik]

Something like Yokai Watch shouldn't be on Vita, but this? With an art style more closely resembling this? That looks like a perfect fit for a PlayStation release.

I would love to play this game. Looks so damn good!

 

[Yasumi]

I think Ushiro makes the most sense where it is. Dead.

Any potential investment there is probably better spent elsewhere.

There's interest in expanding the series beyond just novels.

Kadokawa and Fields, in cooperation with Level-5, also want to expand Ushiro to other media, but note that the launch of the Ushiro game is not yet decided.

The original game's premise was a ghost boy who possessed and manipulated suicidal girls for reasons unknown, fighting peoples' inner demons JRPG-style, in a grotesque meat dimension. This game would be niche as heck regardless of what system it lands on. It seems more suited to the Vita due to the audience being receptive to more mature content.

 

[Chris1964]

YSO predictions

Week 15, 2015 (Apr 06 - Apr 12)

[PS4] Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin < 20k

 

[Kresnik258]

This game would be niche as heck regardless of what system it lands on. It seems more suited to the Vita due to the audience being receptive to more mature content.

Don't be saying things like that with Pennywise around.

Nor is it unreasonable to suggest a game announced for PSP gets revived on hardware of the same lineage.

Not unreasonable, but given that things like Resident Evil Portable were announced for PSP and then two handheld titles in the series came out on 3DS, I'd guess that bigger publishers don't pay much heed to things like that.

I think Ushiro makes the most sense where it is. Dead.

Kind of agree with this to be honest. I'd like to have seen what they had in mind with Ushiro, but I can't see it being a particularly big deal for Level-5 at this point and is probably better off left dead.

 

[Pennywise83]

Well, L5 is also a much bigger name right now than ever, so there might be some push and additional advertising (there was something similar when IE was released, with banners on the game box-art saying that it was from the developers of Prof. Layton, or something like that).

 

[mao2]

Terra Battle reached the 1.8 million downloads milestone.
http://www.terra-battle.com/en/news/2015/04/1-8mdl.html

Another 200K more to go for the console version.

 

[Pankratous]

Where's the Week 14 thread (and PAL?)

 

[noobie]

YSO predictions

Week 15, 2015 (Apr 06 - Apr 12)

[PS4] Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin < 20k

these are not very encouraging numbers. wander how much PS4 is going to fall

 

[duckroll]

Terra Battle reached the 1.8 million downloads milestone.
http://www.terra-battle.com/en/news/2015/04/1-8mdl.html

Another 200K more to go for the console version.

Who cares about the console version, Mistwalker needs to put out the next part of the story before everyone stops playing! Still no Sakaguchi boss event. Still no Matsuno dungeon event. At least two more co-op quest Eidolons with no date. They've been teasing Part 2 of the story for months now. I think they have more things to worry about than a console game which they haven't even really thought about much so far!

 

[Nirolak]

Terra Battle reached the 1.8 million downloads milestone.
http://www.terra-battle.com/en/news/2015/04/1-8mdl.html

Another 200K more to go for the console version.

Yeah about that: http://www.polygon.com/2015/3/5/8157971/terra-battle-console

The end goal of the Download Starter campaign lists "Terra Battle World," which Sakaguchi has referred to as a console MMO version of the game in the past. But speaking to Polygon earlier this week at the Game Developers Conference, Sakaguchi says he's still unsure what form that game will take.

"I'll be open. I have absolutely no plans," says Sakaguchi. "[Initially], we weren't even thinking that two million was going to be in reach. We obviously put that Download Starter campaign milestone together, and it has been our final goal, but we weren't certain that we would hit that number. But we're now approaching that very quickly — we're past 1.7, and hopefully 1.8 within X amount of days. When we land at 2 million, I don't know what were going to do. But I can tell you that if you have any ideas, now is the time to submit them."

Asked if he envisions the console version as a small enough project that Mistwalker can develop it mostly in house with its full time staff of less than 10 people, or if he will need to align with external teams as he has done in the past, Sakaguchi says even that is still up in the air.

"I can't say for sure," he says. "I'm going to have to check with my staff what they think of hiring or putting together a dev team."

Sakaguchi says he can see two ways the console version of the game could go. On one side, he sees a hypothetical idea where Mistwalker could develop the game for a larger screen. If a player had a 60-inch touch screen in their home, Sakaguchi says he could see Mistwalker increasing the mobile game's resolution and making a console version where players could huddle around that screen together. That, he says, would be a way to develop the game internally since it wouldn't require as many resources on the software side.

"But obviously such a device doesn't exist right now — a 60-inch touch panel that everyone would gather around and play the game — so maybe that's sort of out of the question," he says.

... a lot more here ...

It was a ploy to get people to download the game.

 

[mao2]

Who cares about the console version, Mistwalker needs to put out the next part of the story before everyone stops playing! Still no Sakaguchi boss event. Still no Matsuno dungeon event. At least two more co-op quest Eidolons with no date. They've been teasing Part 2 of the story for months now. I think they have more things to worry about than a console game which they haven't even really thought about much so far!

Yeah about that: http://www.polygon.com/2015/3/5/8157971/terra-battle-console



It was a ploy to get people to download the game.

Wow I didn't know about this... ah well. :/

 

[duckroll]

Wow I didn't know about this... ah well. :/

Mistwalker is tiny studio. There are like 5 internal staff. I don't even think it's entirely based in Japan. Sakaguchi shuffles between Hawaii and Tokyo all the time. What's likely to happen in the near future is that they'll partner with another developer and publisher. I don't expect it to have a huge budget either. Based on who they've worked with before in the past, I'll say Marvelous is a likely candidate, and maybe something for the 3DS or Vita rather than an actual home console game.

 

[Moor-Angol]

PSV was selling really bad during the first months.

3DS sold terrible for 6 months

 

[theprodigy]

whoa Nirolak's avatar looks different with dark theme

since this thread is more active than PAL charts, when is next (this) week's PAL thread going up?

 

[sörine]

3DS sold terrible for 6 months

In it's first six months 3DS sold about half of Vita's current ltd.

 

[Moor-Angol]

In it's first six months 3DS sold about half of Vita's current ltd.

so why Nintendo made a price drop?

charity ?

 

[Nirolak]

Guys I know about 50%+ of you come here to wage varying degrees of console wars in the region where handhelds actually do well, but if you didn't notice last week, the warnings have largely stopped and three people already fell off a cliff.

 

[test_account]

these are not very encouraging numbers. wander how much PS4 is going to fall

Its basically the 3rd version of the game (first Dark Souls 2 PS3, then DS2 Scholar of the First Sin PS3, and now the PS4 version). The PS3 version of DS:SOFTFS didnt sell that much either, so the PS4 version isnt going to sell that much, most likely. By the way, its spelled "wonder". Its not like it matter that much though, but i've seen you said it a few times, so i just wanted to mention it

EDIT: It could also be a possiblity that Bloodborne will have a positive effect for the re-release of Dark Souls 2 on PS4 as well. I dont think it will sell a lot though, but it might end up selling a decent amount of copies in total.


Speaking of language, can someone explain to me how the "shi" is written in this picture?

http://i.imgur.com/6GsosZr.jpg

It looks like just a straight line. I'm not very good with japanese though, but i couldnt identify that writing as "shi" (&#12375. Or does it just say Uuro?

 

[KoopaTheCasual]

Yeah about that: http://www.polygon.com/2015/3/5/8157971/terra-battle-console



It was a ploy to get people to download the game.

That headline is quite forgiving. I guess Guch's legacy grants him a lot of forgiveness. Well... at least he was upfront about pretty much lying.

 

[Vena]

these are not very encouraging numbers. wander how much PS4 is going to fall

DS2's fourth (?) release isn't very indicative of anything other than people not buying a fourth (?) release of the same game. What's more telling is how everything else (seemingly) fell from opening week, but we won't really know how things will shake out for a few more weeks because of Golden Week.

Seems nothing outside of the handhelds or isn't named Mario Kart 8 has any particularly long legs which, to me, would indicate that the blitz of releases got a few fence sitters to jump over but the titles were otherwise picked up by people who already bought the console and knew the title was coming. Kind of like how whoever wanted Mario Kart 8, for the most part, already had a WiiU.

 

[Welfare]

whoa Nirolak's avatar looks different with dark theme

since this thread is more active than PAL charts, when is next (this) week's PAL thread going up?

Today there's a holiday, so tomorrow?

 

[crinale]

Speaking of language, can someone explain to me how the "shi" is written in this picture?

http://i.imgur.com/6GsosZr.jpg

It looks like just a straight line. I'm not very good with japanese though, but i couldnt identify that writing as "shi" (&#12375. Or does it just say Uuro?

It really isn't a straight line (see a slight curve there?) So yes it does say "&#12375;" (in script form really).

 

[Mario007]

DS2's fourth (?) release isn't very indicative of anything other than people not buying a fourth (?) release of the same game. What's more telling is how everything else (seemingly) fell from opening week, but we won't really know how things will shake out for a few more weeks because of Golden Week.

Seems nothing outside of the handhelds or isn't named Mario Kart 8 has any particularly long legs which, to me, would indicate that the blitz of releases got a few fence sitters to jump over but the titles were otherwise picked up by people who already bought the console and knew the title was coming. Kind of like how whoever wanted Mario Kart 8, for the most part, already had a WiiU.

I guess you're right, that's exactly why PS4 has sold around 200k units I'm the last month.

 

[horuhe]

GamesMaya invited me to the Level 5 Vision after party. She will introduce me Akihiro.

Do you want that I say something to him? lol

Maybe why Inazuma Eleven doesn't have online multiplayer, and if they consider to add it in future releases.

 

[theprodigy]

has anyone compiled how close YSO predictions are? I want to see how much of a cushion they give themselves lol

 

[saichi]

3DS sold terrible for 6 months

When 3DS was selling terrible for 6 months, it was selling 25K a week.

VITA was selling 1/3 of that when it was selling bad.

 

[Moor-Angol]

When 3DS was selling terrible for 6 months, it was selling 25K a week.

VITA was selling 1/3 of that when it was selling bad.

even 3DS was selling bad in the beginning, so I meant that it's a bit odd to say that a system is dead after one single month

Spoiler

except you call yourself Xbox One

but i would like to stop this topic, Nirolak was clear

 

[Moor-Angol]

has anyone compiled how close YSO predictions are? I want to see how much of a cushion they give themselves lol

last week they said SRT vita > SRT PS3 (140k vs 130k iirc)

 

[Vena]

So would that mean Battlefield and Call of Duty are the same IP as well, or are they simply in the same genre?

This is a sales discussion. Bloodborne is new in name and release date only, its a tested and stable formula from a singular studio with a new name slapped on it to disassociate it from the other three titles.

Dark Souls was much the same but the name was changed because FROM wanted their own franchise and could not call it Demon's Souls 2 or whatever, and so they created, effectively in name only, a new IP.

Fans and shoppers know what they are getting and so the "newness" of the IP isn't nearly as much of a handicap or untested waters as would normally be the case where some buyer caution and uncertainty can come into play. This is especially true when a developer tries to do something they've never done before with a new IP, then the caution is doubly notable. Of course, there's some chance that such an untested venture may draw more attention than normal too.

So, saying that Bloodborne did well for a "new IP" seems like a totally erroneous statement to me. The Order was a new IP.

 

[noobie]

Its basically the 3rd version of the game (first Dark Souls 2 PS3, then DS2 Scholar of the First Sin PS3, and now the PS4 version). The PS3 version of DS:SOFTFS didnt sell that much either, so the PS4 version isnt going to sell that much, most likely. By the way, its spelled "wonder". Its not like it matter that much though, but i've seen you said it a few times, so i just wanted to mention it

EDIT: It could also be a possiblity that Bloodborne will have a positive effect for the re-release of Dark Souls 2 on PS4 as well. I dont think it will sell a lot though, but it might end up selling a decent amount of copies in total.


Speaking of language, can someone explain to me how the "shi" is written in this picture?

http://i.imgur.com/6GsosZr.jpg

It looks like just a straight line. I'm not very good with japanese though, but i couldnt identify that writing as "shi" (&#12375. Or does it just say Uuro?

Thank you for the information. I didnt know it is releasing third time. How much PS3 version of the scholar of first sin sold?

Also thank you for the correction, i am not a native speaker so i am bound to make some mistakes, but i am glad you pointed out.

 

[theprodigy]

has anyone compiled how close YSO predictions are? I want to see how much of a cushion they give themselves lol

heh I did it myself

of the 50 predictions posted from week 48, 2014 (excluding week 49 cause I was lazy), 33 out of 50 were correct, and an additional 8 were fairly close (<10% off)

shoutouts to Pokemon ORAS for apparently trolling the hell out of them, it's singlehandedly responsible for 4 of the incorrect ones and 3 of the not even close ones

 

[small44]

so why Nintendo made a price drop?

charity ?

To sell as well as DS i think,saying 3ds are terrible is exaggerated it sold a lot better then all 8th gen consoles and handheld

 

[hiska-kun]

I'm lining to enter the Level 5 Vision.

 

[Pennywise83]

I'm lining to enter the Level 5 Vision.

Could you already spot something?

 

[John Bender]

these are not very encouraging numbers. wander how much PS4 is going to fall

30K / 28K is my guess.

 

[hiska-kun]

Already inside, but photos are prohibited -.-

We're waiting while we're listening Youkai Watch's songs.

I saw Professor Layton creator.

 

[ULTROS!]

Already inside, but photos are prohibited -.-

We're waiting while we're listening Youkai Watch's songs.

I saw Professor Layton creator.

Anything PS4/Vita related?

 

[Chris1964]

30K / 28K is my guess.

PS4 will sell 30k after March rush with important releases ending 2 weeks ago. Now that's something I want to see.

~20k is the prediction for top selling game for week 15, so prepare for low numbers across the board.

 

[Sangetsu-II]

Already inside, but photos are prohibited -.-

We're waiting while we're listening Youkai Watch's songs.

I saw Professor Layton creator.

Remember to keep an eye out for that PS4 collaboration project.

 

[DrWong]

so why Nintendo made a price drop?

charity ?

They didn't have lowered expectations... ^^

 

[Moor-Angol]

I had a lot of trolling idea before our Vision conference and switching Fantasy Life 2 to mobile seems like was appreciated

 

[Pennywise83]

Level-5 announced Layton 7 for smartphones, which doesn't have anything of Layton besides some cards with Layton on them; and Fantasy Life 2 for smartphones, which is basically a re-skinned Fantasy Life 1 with Castele directly for Cityville. While the former might be a neat idea, I don't see why the second one came to life. In Japan, FL has a fanbase on 3DS; releasing a sequel, which is basically thr first one adapted for smartphone will not attract the original fanbase, and might look weird for new users.

As predicted, YW Busters will be a re-skinned version of the action mode which was already in YW3. It will be released in Summer on 3DS with two versions.

 

[Eolz]

I guess Level 5 didn't like how Yokai Watch was successful and wanted to run it into the ground earlier than what they could have...

Nintendo has better make it easy to port mobile games on NX too...

 

[Pennywise83]

Well, after all there's just one spin-off on dedicated devices, and then YW3. Mobile spin-offs should be innocuous, and actually propel main materials even more.