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Media Create Sales: Week 13, 2015 (Mar 23 - Mar 29)

test_account

XP-39C²
Yeah, i think Fantasy Life 2 has a chance to make a lot more money on mobile compared to what it has to on 3DS. I would guess that is what Level-5 also is thinking.
 

hiska-kun

Member
Tsutaya's report

- As it was expected 3rd Super Robot Wars Z: Tengoku-Hen for PS3 and PSV were first and second respectively. Compared with the last entry, this time the difference between versions is smaller. It shows Vita's strength.
- One Piece Pirates Warriors 3 holds its position.
- Earth Defense Force 4.1 was almost sold out, and Bloodborne was completely out of stock. Both games are popular for PS4.
- Minecraft for Vita is emerging. This title and others releases are pulling Vita's Hardware.

For next week:

- The New School Term starts (April 6th), becoming one of the quietest times of the year. Almost no games are sold during this season.

----

Mpl90, could you add Media Create Top 50 in the opening?
 

extralite

Member
Well, I didn't say it'd be a good idea business-wise, just in concept. :p

I think lack of portability is the bigger hurdle for putting it on Wii U than its popularity.

For Snack World, the people who will collect the merchandise and the people who play the game don't have to overlap much, actually. Putting an NFC toy to the device doesn't just grant you that item. It makes it available in ingame stores, or if it's already on them, gives you a timed discount.

So some people will just buy the treasure boxes because they think they make for neat key holders. And players can talk to people they meet on the street and ask them to let them use their treasure. Thanks to the discount system, the same NFC item might be asked for again and again.

Also, the NFC treasures are related to real life brands and some are rarer than others. So you have a gacha element to it and someone with a rare brand item might become very popular.

So you have a strong social component to the Snack World franchise, it's an opportunity to talk to strangers you meet on the street. The Wii U isn't on the streets, simple as that.
 
Tsutaya's report

- As it was expected 3rd Super Robot Wars Z: Tengoku-Hen for PS3 and PSV were first and second respectively. Compared with the last entry, this time the difference between versions is smaller. It shows Vita's strength.
- One Piece Pirates Warriors 3 holds its position.
- Earth Defense Force 4.1 was almost sold out, and Bloodborne was completely out of stock. Both games are popular for PS4.
- Minecraft for Vita is emerging. This title and others releases are pulling Vita's Hardware.

Everything in this post sounds great!!!

For next week:

- The New School Term starts (April 6th), becoming one of the quietest times of the year. Almost no games are sold during this season

nevermind :/
 
Their overexploitation is annoying, but at least it's because of that they are forced to making a new ip nearly every year, which is great, especially for GAF sales-age.
 

Chris1964

Sales-Age Genius
Most interest thing this week is how low PS4 will be since next week it will drop further and will give a first hint if after Golden Week we'll start seeing sub 20k or sub 15k numbers.
 

Aostia

El Capitan Todd
Yeah....looks like all hope is now on the PS4 game.

wai..uot?!
why should I be interested in the 3DS games?
I'm still here waiting for YW to be localized, and seems pretty interesting. The snack world seems really cool.

About number leaks: seems good for Super Robo, decent for Xeno considering that it is a N3ds exclusive
I still believe that PS4 will hold pretty decently in the incoming weeks. I'm more "concerned" about the Q3 so far (until MGSV hit)
 

Mpl90

Two copies sold? That's not a bomb guys, stop trolling!!!
It seems like a decent debut for Xenoblade, considering it's a mere port with very little additions and that it's a New 3DS exclusive.
 

Sandfox

Member
3DS and mobile focus was the expected. I can't imagine anything else (logical) they could have done that would be appealing

There are 3DS and mobile games I find appealing so my issue is that I just didn't happen to like what was shown off. People who were a fan of L5 prior to this current shift they seem to be going through are likely to be be disappointed with the conference from a gaming standpoint though.
 
Getting hype looking at the number one spot, facepalming at 2nd place.
That's my reaction.

Also, want to say, Bloodborne must be doing great here in the US too: it's been sold out every store in my town since it launched.
 

Bruno MB

Member
Mmmm

SupaRobo (Total) - 230k
Xeno - 57k

I don't know how front-loaded Xenoblade Chronicles 3DS will be, but so far that looks like a good performance. It being the only exclusive New Nintendo 3DS title has helped, I wonder when Nintendo will announce more exclusive titles.
 

Darius

Banned
Xenoblade 3D sales are ok, considering it´s a port and New3DS exclusive, but I wouldn´t be surprised if expectations were a little higher. It´s interesting that it isn´t too far off (1stweek: 60k vs 90k) compared to the more mainstream Final Fantasy equivalent FFType0+FF15demo combo.
 

L~A

Member
I don't know how front-loaded Xenoblade Chronicles 3DS will be, but so far that looks like a good performance. It being the only exclusive New Nintendo 3DS title has helped, I wonder when Nintendo will announce more exclusive titles.

Most likely at E3. Maybe another Wii port to tie-in with a Wii U game?
 
Xenoblade 3D sales are ok, considering it´s a port and New3DS exclusive, but I wouldn´t be surprised if expectations were a little higher. It´s interesting that it isn´t too far off (1stweek: 60k vs 90k) compared to the more mainstream Final Fantasy equivalent FFType0+FF15demo combo.

Well i would assume that original Xenoblade was very well received also in Japan so it would make sense there to be more double dippers and people trying to try it than with Type-0 that had kinda mixed reception. Of course it also helps that even New 3DS has bigger install base than PS4 lol.
 
In what sense? Please tell us what deep insight you have on the gameplay of Snack World and what similarities it shares with Fantasy Life.

I don't have any deep insight. World-map exploration looks very similar, and there's also a job system; setting looks quite the same. Graphics look similar as well. Since Hino talked in early 2013 about FL becoming a franchise, the company might have started developing a sequel that then turned into SW.

Yes, I think something obviously changed along the way. Along with the previous series six or so series I've mentioned, Majin Station and Wonder Flick R have also disappeared. Layton 7 has zero relation to the thing they originally unveiled as well.

They also announced Chikyū Kaimetsuteki B-kyū Kanojo for mobile phones... Has this game disappeared as well?

Level 5 seems to have revamped their entire product pipeline with this conference showing the new vision.

During this conferences, Level-5 has always revamped the entire product pipeline. FL was shown as a DS game, then turned into a 3DS game; TT from a 3DS game became a 3DS/PSP/PSV game; Cinderella's RPG from browser to 3DS; YW from probably home consoles to 3DS; Layton 7 from 3DS/mobile to mobile. Etc.

1.) I would argue there's a transitory component here coupled with some light diversification. The biggest hits are still on 3DS (though Snack World is notably also on mobile), but there's a vast increase in focus on mobile with this conference and the last time they held one compared to prior years.

I would actually point to notably large publishers as the model here. If we look at a company like EA, they release major blockbusters at retail (and a DLC pipeline to support them), and focus most of their other efforts into mobile. We see Activision acting a lot like this as well, but instead of mobile, the expanded market focus is on f2p games from Blizzard and some f2p dabling from Activision. Warner has smaller titles, but again they aim for pretty big games and converted a bunch of other studios to mobile dev (along with starting a few dedicated mobile studios).

Take-Two and Ubisoft act a bit differently, but it's more that their standalone mobile and online efforts are failures than them not following the pattern of shrinking to just releasing the largest titles at retail and focusing the rest on digital. Take-Two manages solid digital revenue despite this, but Ubisoft's digital revenue is embarrassing to the point that they're shoving microtransactions in everything and praying that it works. We can actually look at Capcom for an extreme example of this strategy by comparing mainline MH/RE to everything else.

It doesn't make sense to give up the 3DS while it's still making money, at least for the big earners. If your strategy is mobile-centric though, it makes sense to refocus your other efforts onto mobile and try to get hits, especially if you view it as the long term future of your company or perhaps even the industry. If the 4DS and 5DS are major successes, well great, you still have your biggest hits there and can make more if you continually fail at mobile. Snack World is an interesting way to try and amortize risk. I'm curious to see if it's f2p on 3DS as well (presumably with an optional retail bundle you can buy so they have a store presence for little kids).

2.) On this note, my impression is that they feel it's only worthwhile to release retail products tied to their biggest brands. If we look at Square Enix in their heyday, shoving Final Fantasy on everything made a few cheaper products sell a lot better than they would otherwise and made it into a good ROI. Fantasy Life (or at this point, things with any brand except Yokai Watch) don't have that benefit. Notably they also have three smartphone apps coming tied to the IP as well in an attempt at saturation. If the retail titles don't perform decidedly well though (compared to what you'd expect out of this type of product), I'd be surprised if they got continued given Level 5's other actions.

3.) I agree and feel that they've completely redone their corporate strategy as noted above.

1) to be honest, L5 Vision 2015 just showed a general increase in output, not a different ration 3DS / mobile with respect to L5 Vision 2013; back then, we had announced Wonderflick and the two other mobile games, along with Layton 7 on 3DS / mobile and Inazuma Eleven Go 3 for 3DS and IE Online for browsers. Actually, this L5 Vision had much more on 3DS than the previous one. It seems clear that L5 has been trying to move towards mobile since many years ago, but since then it has yet to succeed. L5 Vision 2013 was quite clear in stating Hino's strategy, but all those mobile efforts bombed, while the success was found on 3DS. L5 wants to refocus in the mobile industry, but everything showed how actually it is not able to do so, but can succeed to a great extent on traditional platforms (Ni no Kuni also sold notably well worldwide).

2) The fact is, FL2 might be more riskier on mobile than on 3DS, given past history of the company. L5 already attached one of its popular IPs on a mobile game, and I don't think it went well; perhaps this time it might go better but when the company already showed to be strong on 3DS (and now they could have also advertised the game in light of YW) this seems a big risk to take. Of course the game looks so cheap that development costs will be lower than developing a full-fledged sequel.
 

Kyoufu

Member
EDF2p (PSP) went bad? i don't remember actually and i'm from my phone, can't check data

130k, but I'm going to credit PSP's resurgence for that one.

(My original comment is being made less and less valid, damn you)

Wasn't expecting much for 4.1 so if it sells over 20k then I'll be pleased.
 

L~A

Member
Media Create:


PS4 26,738
New3DS LL 22,183
Vita 21,584
New3DS 8,242
Wii U 7,486
PS3 5,743
3DS LL 2,256
3DS 1,893
Xbox One 902
Vita TV 672

Xeno 3D at 56k
 

Aostia

El Capitan Todd
3ds back on top, but more because of PS4 bigger drop than expected (even if: was there any new release on PS4?), than because of its own merits: it still seems declining compared to last year while I was expecting better hold (looking at the start of the year)
Xenoblade decent but still small, considering that they probably tried this move to spread the brand awarness for the spiritual successor. Vita and Wii U stabilizing at different weekly pace, while back in the days (I mean at the beginning of Vita performances on the market) we could have seen a smaller gap between the two.
 

L~A

Member
Just realised that Rodea was nowhere to be seen... well, RIP my dear. At least you came out, eventually. That's a victory.

RIP in Peace in RIP, Kaio.
 
3ds back on top, but more because of PS4 bigger drop than expected (even if: was there any new release on PS4?), than because of its own merits: it still seems declining compared to last year while I was expecting better hold (looking at the start of the year)
Xenoblade decent but still small, considering that they probably tried this move to spread the brand awarness for the spiritual successor. Vita and Wii U stabilizing at different weekly pace, while back in the days (I mean at the beginning of Vita performances on the market) we could have seen a smaller gap between the two.

To be precise, 3DS went up with respect to the previous week.
 
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