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[XOMTOR]

One potential problem for Vita is that existing PSP users may become fence-sitters, and there's a lot of 'em. Like the Go, there's currently not much incentive to upgrade to Vita. Lack of backward compatibility is never a good thing in the early days of a system launch when the new library is so small.

In the case of a dedicated handheld gaming system, in 2012, you'd think that enticing your existing customers to upgrade would be a priority as opposed to trying to drum up completely new business. This may have been possible in a pre-smartphone world but nowadays, a dedicated gaming handheld is a tougher sell to Joe average (unless you're Nintendo it would seem). Unfortunately, Sony made a bone-headed move when they introduced the UMD format and painted themselves into a fine corner.

 

[Forever]

Announcing it wouldn't be a so quiet way to announce it. Absolutely, since you would drop a megaton with all the investors present.

Speaking of which, will this conference be streamed? And in how many hours can we expect it, exactly?

 

[slaughterking]

How do you figure? It's not like IV PS1 and IV-VI DS were out of place on those systems. But when they last remade a game on hardware beyond that level it was a fully 3D Dragon Quest V for PS2.

It's difficult to make a game that would look out of place on the original DS, but the Zenithia trilogy is still very much showing how lazy SE got with those games. The asset re-use was through the roof, to the point were I couldn't even beat the sixth game because of it.
But if these games showed anything is that SE can get away with it and there are probably diminishing returns for more expensive remakes.

 

[Mpl90]

Speaking of which, will this conference be streamed? And in how many hours can we expect it, exactly?

I don't know if there will be a stream. If it happens like last times, there will be a stream after the actual meeting happened. And however, it's still more than a day fare away the investor's meeting. In hours will have last quarter's financial results.

 

[Forever]

I don't know if there will be a stream. If it happens like last times, there will be a stream after the actual meeting happened. And however, it's still more than a day fare away the investor's meeting. In hours will have last quarter's financial results.

If shit does go down, I assume someone at the conference will leak it immediately?

 

[Brazil]

Eh, no. Even in recent times DQIX probably eclipses it.

Seriously? Not only it'd be a handheld game (like DQIX), but it'd probably be considered the biggest betrayalton ever by Sony fans. It'd be much bigger than FFXIII coming to the 360.

It'd be cool.

If shit does go down, I assume someone at the conference will leak it immediately?

Just check Andriasang or GAF in two days.

 

[pulga]

Why did we ever doubt the 3DS? The thing is a beast.

 

[JoshuaJSlone]

It's difficult to make a game that would look out of place on the original DS, but the Zenithia trilogy is still very much showing how lazy SE got with those games. The asset re-use was through the roof, to the point were I couldn't even beat the sixth game because of it.
But if these games showed anything is that SE can get away with it and there are probably diminishing returns for more expensive remakes.

Three related games announced together sharing a lot of technology and assets, sure. I don't think that indicates anything about things outside of that trio, though.

 

[Busaiku]

Wait, is the investor meeting today?

 

[Takao]

Speaking of which, will this conference be streamed? And in how many hours can we expect it, exactly?

lol

It's an investor report meeting. If it'll be streamed, it'll be after the fact with a Japanese only audio recording.

This isn't E3. This is Nintendo conducting business.

 

[Forever]

Seriously? Not only it'd be a handheld game (like DQIX), but it'd probably be considered the biggest betrayalton ever by Sony fans. It'd be much bigger than FFXIII coming to the 360.

It'd be cool.

Remember that Dragon Quest is a bigger series than Final Fantasy in Japan, and the mainline series had always been on consoles. No one saw the DQIX betrayalton coming. Everyone expected it to come to PS3.

Just look at how people melted down. (Fun starts on Page 21)

 

[Piercedveil]

3DS is still doing pretty well. 15k for Vita :| crazy.

 

[slaughterking]

Three related games announced together sharing a lot of technology and assets, sure. I don't think that indicates anything about things outside of that trio, though.

Well, you brought the trio up. I think everything DQ-related SE did over the last generation bar IX didn't have much effort put into.
Mind you, in general I still really, really like those games. I'm part of the problem here.

 

[Aostia]

Not compared to its launch sales:

　　　　3DS　  　　　PSP　  　　PSVita
1　　374,764　　166,074　 　321,407
2　　209,623　 81,355　   72,479
3　　96,463　　　92,515 　  42,648
4　　61,394　　　111,194   42,915
5　　50,710　　　55,358    18,361
6　　42,979　　　57,383    15,219
7　　32,910　　　66,601
8　　28,252　　　71,200

you're absolutely right. I was comparing vita with the actual psp ^_^

 

[liger05]

Why did we ever doubt the 3DS? The thing is a beast.

And some dummies thought Nintendo need to make games for ios.

 

[bigtroyjon]

lol

It's an investor report meeting. If it'll be streamed, it'll be after the fact with a Japanese only audio recording.

This isn't E3. This is Nintendo conducting business.

Most businesses stream their investor conference calls live. Is this an actual physical meeting or is it a conference call?

 

[lunchwithyuzo]

GBA launch game got the magic 300K. F-Zero GX reached 100K. The later GBA games didn't do squat.

The SFC original shipped 890,000. X only sold around 100k though.

 

[Neo C.]

Why did we ever doubt the 3DS? The thing is a beast.

I'm looking forward to see what a redesign could do in terms of hardware sales, without expecting it to perform like the DS lite though.

 

[oldie-newbie]

Remember that Dragon Quest is a bigger series than Final Fantasy in Japan, and the mainline series had always been on consoles. No one saw the DQIX betrayalton coming. Everyone expected it to come to PS3.

Just look at how people melted down. (Fun starts on Page 21)

Excellent. A lot of fun in this thread !!!

Where is Panther Lotus ? I miss him...

 

[lunchwithyuzo]

Well, you brought the trio up. I think everything DQ-related SE did over the last generation bar IX didn't have much effort put into.
Mind you, in general I still really, really like those games. I'm part of the problem here.

I think Swords was pretty impressive for the time. Game itself wasn't great, but it's production values were better than any previous DQ spinoff.

 

[Wazzim]

Why did we ever doubt the 3DS? The thing is a beast.

it's easy to talk about things in retrospective

 

[Father_Brain]

For clarification: All Nintendo is releasing tonight is the Q3 results, around 3 AM EST. The Tokyo investor briefing, from which some actual news has emerged before, isn't until the following day JST, or around 9-10PM tomorrow EST. The English version of Iwata's presentation probably won't be posted until Friday morning.

 

[slaughterking]

I think Swords was pretty impressive for the time. Game itself wasn't great, but it's production values were better than any previous DQ spinoff.

It was a good looking game and fun for what it was, but also with a pretty limited scope.

 

[test_account]

Why did we ever doubt the 3DS? The thing is a beast.

$250 pricetag, several of games werent announced at the time, people didnt want to give it time to see how it would sell in the long run etc. Same thing can be said about the PSP too (here people gave it more time though since it took about 2-3 years or so before the PSP started to sell really great), and we see signs of it now with the Vita as well. It is ok to discuss it early of course, i'm not saying anything against that, but no one knows for sure how a system will ultimately end up selling in the long run.

 

[beje]

Remember that Dragon Quest is a bigger series than Final Fantasy in Japan, and the mainline series had always been on consoles. No one saw the DQIX betrayalton coming. Everyone expected it to come to PS3.

Just look at how people melted down. (Fun starts on Page 21)

Extra lulz for the people that dissed it and actually expected DQX appearing shortly after on the HD twins. Now look at the outcome.

 

[Optical_Matrix]

Why did we ever doubt the 3DS? The thing is a beast.

Playing my copy of Resident Evil Revelations at the moment. I wholeheartedly agree. Although I'll be buying a Vita on day one, it's games like Resi Revelations and Super Mario 3D Land that get people to buy systems. Vita needs those killer apps. But, where're they going to come from?

 

[Oxx]

DQVII is a pretty substantial game, right? Remaking the entire thing in a new engine would be quite an undertaking. It's definitely the preferable option in my eyes, but would a straight(-ish) port sell considerably less than a remake? I'm not so sure.

 

[lunchwithyuzo]

It was a good looking game and fun for what it was, but also with a pretty limited scope.

It was also partly voiced and had original Bird Studio character designs which was pretty big iirc.

If DQVII 3DS happens, I expect it'll be Arte Piazza and Matrix, running on the DQV PS2 engine. Low budget, but still a big step up from the PS1/DS engine the original pioneered.

 

[mj1108]

Why did we ever doubt the 3DS? The thing is a beast.

Never doubt a Nintendo portable.

 

[Kazerei]

Note that Vita's first week had two days of sales, but PSP's first week had only one day. So Vita got off to a slightly better start, but then dropped off very steeply. PSP gradually slowed down to roughly 20k through the summer (lowest point was 19k), before picking up again in September. Vita is already below 20k.

 

[Forever]

Note that Vita's first week had two days of sales, but PSP's first week had only one day. So Vita got off to a slightly better start, but then dropped off very steeply. PSP gradually slowed down to roughly 20k through the summer (lowest point was 19k), before picking up again in September. Vita is already below 20k.

Can you plot the 3DS and DS on those?

 

[Duxxy3]

Vita am doomed.

 

[luca1980]

It was also partly voiced and had original Bird Studio character designs which was pretty big iirc.

If DQVII 3DS happens, I expect it'll be Arte Piazza and Matrix, running on the DQV PS2 engine. Low budget, but still a big step up from the PS1/DS engine the original pioneered.

Dq7 on 3ds would not be fair: not after mh4 lol

 

[beje]

It was also partly voiced and had original Bird Studio character designs which was pretty big iirc.

If DQVII 3DS happens, I expect it'll be Arte Piazza and Matrix, running on the DQV PS2 engine. Low budget, but still a big step up from the PS1/DS engine the original pioneered.

DQVII is most likely the only option as it's the next one in the remake line. For FF, they would have to remake FFV and FFVI first. Besides, FFVII is much trickier because they would have to remake a huge ammount of 3D assets (especially highly detailed 2D backgrounds, and remember SqEnix stance on "HD towns") plus cutscenes in the most likely cases they lost the source files or they are completely unreadable with nowadays tools. In the other hand, remaking DQVII is actually much easier given that the original 3D backdrops made for a less ambitious-looking game.

Of course, they can also take the original 2D backdrops full of jpeg compression artifacts, shove the game exploration in the lower screen (pixel perfect resolution), 3D battles in the top one and call it a day. I wouldn't be surprised at all honestly.

 

[airmangataosenai]

It sold around 70k with an install base of around 1-1.5m. In comparison, the best selling Tales of Port for PSP was Tales of Destiny 2, also around 70k with a PSP install base of around 4m at the time. I honestly can't see TOIR doing better than 50k, which is also the absolute minimum I expect out of RE:R.

I'd be all for a ToHearts remake though. More FMVs, full voice, slightly better quality sprites; it'd be wonderful.

Did I miss something? There's no way it'd be that low. Any predictions below even 100k seem insane to me given how the HD ports alone did like, 90k on PS3 opening week.

 

[jeremy1456]

Why did we ever doubt the 3DS? The thing is a beast.

Those who did threw logic out the window. It was obvious that the 3DS was going to make a huge comeback, even had it stayed at the high price.

 

[Maedhros]

Those who did threw logic out the window. It was obvious that the 3DS was going to make a huge comeback, even had it stayed at the high price.

I really doubt it.

 

[Road]

Why did we ever doubt the 3DS? The thing is a beast.

Outside of people expressing their bias, nobody did really, reasonably, doubt the 3DS. What people commented was on how it was performing poorly, below expectations.

 

[lunchwithyuzo]

Did I miss something? There's no way it'd be that low. Any predictions below even 100k seem insane to me given how the HD ports alone did like, 90k on PS3 opening week.

Yeah, even Mercenaries 3D did 60k 1st week.

 

[Takao]

I really doubt it.

Pokemon, and Mario Kart are all known quantities... 3DS had system sellers that would save it if it floundered.

 

[Jokeropia]

Can you plot the 3DS and DS on those?

Garaph is your friend:

 

[Road]

Didn't Nintendo say last Investor's Meeting that they would start doing specific events to talk about games (like they one they did for MH3G/4) and keep the meetings more about business?

I think the biggest news out of the Financial Report will be we knowing the 3DS was the best selling system of 2011 (shipment).

 

[Chris1964]

Nintendo has given secondary treatment to retailer meetings lately as Nintendo Direct is what they currently push. Any potential big announcement won't come from financial reports, that's for sure.

 

[Kazerei]

Can you plot the 3DS and DS on those?

This comparison is a bit more awkward, because the DS launched Dec 2, and the 3DS launched Feb 26, and the holiday season has a significant effect on sales.

Meanwhile, the PSP launched Dec 12, and the Vita launched Dec 17, so their launch-aligned comparison makes alot of sense.

The first graph uses DS sales starting the last week of Feb 2005, the second graph uses DS sales starting from launch.

 

[Kazerei]

Either way you look at it, the 3DS had a better first year than the DS. However, the DS really took off in its second year, so it'll be interesting to see if the 3DS can keep up.

Also this week's pie chart.

 

[Ignis Fatuus]

DQVII is most likely the only option as it's the next one in the remake line. For FF, they would have to remake FFV and FFVI first. Besides, FFVII is much trickier because they would have to remake a huge ammount of 3D assets (especially highly detailed 2D backgrounds, and remember SqEnix stance on "HD towns") plus cutscenes in the most likely cases they lost the source files or they are completely unreadable with nowadays tools. In the other hand, remaking DQVII is actually much easier given that the original 3D backdrops made for a less ambitious-looking game.

In my view, this is why an FF7 remake could only happen on the 3DS. It would still look nice but would probably be orders of magnitude easier to do.

DQ7 is absolutely more likely for all the reasons already discussed, but I wouldn't rule out FF7. Keep in mind that they're already remaking FFX. There's no reason they have to go in "order".

 

[Takao]

In my view, this is why an FF7 remake could only happen on the 3DS. It would still look nice but would probably be orders of magnitude easier to do.

If they wanted to do a FF7 remake, they could've dropped the bomb on PSP. They had already remade a portion of the game in Crisis Core.

 

[Ignis Fatuus]

If they wanted to do a FF7 remake, they could've dropped the bomb on PSP. They had already remade a portion of the game in Crisis Core.

I'm assuming they would want such a game to sell in the west.

 

[Takao]

I'm assuming they would want such a game to sell in the west.

They moved Final Fantasy Agito XIII and The Third Birthday over to PSP likely due to Crisis Core's success. Those games just took way too long to come out... If they had planned a remake they could've used Crisis Core as the testing bed, and as a test Crisis Core did very well.

 

[Ignis Fatuus]

They moved Final Fantasy Agito XIII and The Third Birthday over to PSP likely due to Crisis Core's success. Those games just took way too long to come out... If they had planned a remake they could've used Crisis Core as the testing bed, and as a test Crisis Core did very well.

That's assuming that the idea of remaking FF7 on portables would've been an old one and not a recent one prompted by a franchise in crisis and a company-wide failure to handle HD development. A lot has changed since Crisis Core. But indeed the existence of Crisis Core means that they have some assets and such that they could recycle, so that's another point in favor of remaking FF7 itself.