A combination of Japan's insular culture and Japan being the birthplace of the modern gaming era. However, GTAV proves that there are certain games that Japanese players are willing to buy.
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Media Create Sales: Week 22, 2014 (May 26 - Jun 01)
- Thread starter Chris1964
- Start date
A combination of Japan's insular culture and Japan being the birthplace of the modern gaming era. However, GTAV proves that there are certain games that Japanese players are willing to buy.
GTA5 is over 700K, isn't it? I don't think they're necessarily opposed to it.
ThatStupidLion
Member
Microsoft can't be feeling good about their Japan launch
Probably just general chat about the game. Hearing you peers talk about a game positively will make you want to buy it more than advertising will generally. The fact that people know it's a quality franchise will make the decision easier.
Smiles and Cries
Member
too many have been distracted by Japan as a whole to notice how poorly PS4 is doing maybe next year things can turn around I mean Vita was totally bombing but came back very strong for a while
It will be dead on arrival there. But I think MS is betting on other Asian markets. There's China for example.
Which, right now, is all of them.
Well it will become pretty isolated too, Japanese companies solely developing for Japan... I hope there will be a few companies which still will develop for western markets...
It's not that simple. It's not only the games.
Look at all the big sucess in japan in the last years. Pokemon, Animal Crossing, Monster Hunter... Japan has an idea of gaming that is focused on community and sharing now, and that means playing in group, with people from your social background, your job, your school.. Everyone of those success have this in common. A group of people decide to play the game together, and an other etc..
Also Japan won't buy an expensive console. Everything in the last decade showed that, even the 3ds launch debacle, remember.
Gaming has became a nomad, community thing in Japan. That is deep and cultural.
The best chance Sony and Nintendo would have to strike again, would be to work on cheap super accessible systems that focus entirely on connectivity, with new ips trying to create community trends. I'm not sure why it's not 80% of Japan effort right now.
Captain Smoker
Member
- Genji: Days of the Blade
- Miyazato San Kyoudai Naizou: Sega Golf Club
- Mobile Suit Gundam: Crossfire
- Resistance: Fall of Man
- Ridge Racer 7
- Mahjong Fight Club: Zenkoku Taisenban
- Mahjong Taikai IV
- MotorStorm
- Armored Core 4
- Need for Speed Carbon
- Railfan
- Sonic the Hedgehog
- Formula One Championship Edition
- NBA 07
- Enchanted Arms
- Virtua Fighter 5
Smiles and Cries
Member
they said MORE THAN 1.2 million so not sure if they were conservative or did not include eShop
I remember they came out and said what animal crossing new leaf did on eShop so if that number were anything impressive they might have shared it
they still have brag time during e3
Software is still expensive, right?
1st Course
Member
Good point.
prag16
Banned
Come on now, seriously? Next week?
Word of mouth as in, "This is drastically better than the very disappointing Mario Kart Wii in every conceivable way." Which I believe to be the case. Though obviously most people didn't find MK Wii very disappointing. So we'll see.
Habib Marwan
Banned
Yeah I get GTA is an extreme outlier, but just look at this week's list. Literally one game out of twenty was made by a developer outside Japan. There are some Ubisoft games that alone have 20 different countries working on it! Ok maybe an exaggeration (only slightly), but you get my point. For being the "birthplace of modern gaming era" (I agree), they sure have rather narrow gaming tastes.
Sony is not going to do that. The have success in the west and that is still more important than Japan. The west just needs online and good game sand we are happy. In that sense the west is pretty easy to cater to.
Smiles and Cries
Member
PS4 has no Ridge Racer yet? or Mahjong?
Well they are really pushing the XL more given the number of LEs that version is getting recently.
Right now probably they are betting more on 3DS software sales.
Steve Youngblood
Member
You mean the very same "disappointing" entry that was the best selling entry in the series by far?
Oh, I see you've already addressed this.
Jack Bauer is looking for you
it hasn't reached the 150-199 price points yet which brings it to impulse buy for a lot of people that missed out this generation or people that just had a wii.
It has a Mahjong game but it's a crappy one. I wish it had a good one because I would buy it...
shinra-bansho
Member
It's bundled software. They're not really loading up on those titles, they're simply buying the SKU that offers more value.
It's why none of them besides Mario Kart appear in the Media Create chart.
Nicktendo86
Member
Really sad the wiiu bump was so small, I still have no idea why they didn't do a mk8 bundle in Japan. Silver lining is at least the game got some good sales numbers
Real story for me, as I have not been keeping up with Japanese figures for ages, is how poor ps4 is performing and consoles in general. I knew people were saying the console market in Japan is dead, I didn't realise THIS dead. Shocking.
Real story for me, as I have not been keeping up with Japanese figures for ages, is how poor ps4 is performing and consoles in general. I knew people were saying the console market in Japan is dead, I didn't realise THIS dead. Shocking.
I think it could be coming soon.
A 40% drop YOY, no revision released in the last...two years, almost (3DS XL launched on July 28th in Japan, no 2DS so far)...does that remember you anything?
That's right, we're witnessing a very, veeeery similar scenario to when DS Lite sales started going waaay down compared to 2007 and when, later in 2008, Nintendo launched the DSi. The main difference is that there's no PSP post-MHP2nd around, this time. Numbers are different, but % wise the phenomenon is similar.
I think that a possible release date will be around the end of the Recommendation Software campaign (which will last for this Summer)...or maybe they'll decide to launch it around Smash Bros. (which, IMHO, will be released near/at Obon).
Smiles and Cries
Member
More than 1.2 million means it somwhere between 1.21-1.29. Probably
sure Nintendo is not the kind to lie and say 1.3 if they only sold 1,299,998
they are funny that way
They have the PS4 for that, but their portable system should be focused on that. It's not selling in the west anyway. Their portable system should be build around japan needs.
And that japan logic can also work in the west. I mean Animal Crossing or Pokemon are also huge hits in the west.
I'm not sure it's a conscious thing - I think there's a lot of Westerners who only play Western games, because those are the games that appeal to them.
Japanese games do have a distinct feel in many cases, and I do fear that that's something we may lose in the coming years.
Ridge Racer is dead, to be honest.
No Ridge Racer but there's a download-only mahjong game called Tottemo E Mahjong Plus by Arc System Works.
http://www.arcsystemworks.jp/e-mahjong/plus/
They also have a ton of local gaming output designed specifically for their tastes. Look at that same list and ask yourself how much of it could top the charts in the West.
Well that is going with the assumption that Sony will do another portable system which I doubt. Also the Japan strategy only works if it also has the online option.
Habib Marwan
Banned
Jack Bauer is looking for you
He is too busy in London to ever find me!!!!
This I totally agree with, and it makes me sad. I definitely feel like my gaming has been missing something since the PS2 and before era, and it is probably all the Japanese games that I haven't been playing. I should really just get a handheld...
michaelius
Banned
What improvements will it have that would make people interested in upgrading from 3DS OG to new model that aren't already in XL ?
Probably trying to push the older bundles more. I think at some point this year they'll bundle MK8 when the older bundles slowly get sold.
First of all that's not how people see video games, Western games in general are all treated as a single "culture". When taken that into account, there is a lot of people in the West who only play Western games and never play Japanese games.
I don't check NPD charts but I assume that there must not be a lot of Japanese games in there.
It goes both ways, really. Japanese games are now a niche outside Japan, just as non-Japanese games are a niche in Japan.
Looking at what garaph has it seems
week 1:
Ridge Racer 7
Mobile Suit Gundam: Target in Sight
Resistance: Fall of Man
Genji: Days of the Blade
Miyazato San Kyoudai Naizou: Sega Golf Club
week 2:
Mahjong Fight Club: Zenkoku Taisenban
week 3:
Mahjong Taikai IV
week 6:
Motorstorm
week 7:
Armored Core 4
Need for Speed: Carbon
Sonic the Hedgehog
Railfan
Week 8:
Formula One Championship Edition
Week 10:
NBA 07
Week 12:
Enchanted Arms
Week 14:
Virtua Fighter 5
Smiles and Cries
Member
who makes the good ones?
Well it was always a launch window title for everything I am just shocked it was not a thing this time
is that the bad one?
They should if they want to mean something in Japan again.
Mahjong Fight Club by Konami is good. Sega has a great arcade games that is also on mobile which is F2P.
I wouldn't be shocked.
My gut says Wii U will do around 12-13k next week..but dropping to 9k wouldn't surprise me given the current market.
Bumcleaver
Neo Member
Hardly surprising MK got to No.1, but a rather weak improvement in hardware.
Paracelsus
Member
What they should do is focus on creating a Kantai Collection smash hit, drm-exclusive to Sony smartphones. That's how you are going to mean something in Japan. Nintendo lives because it owns what's arguably the last portable third party KA left and a few strong first party ones. Sony lost the former and will never really be able to make the latter.