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[Lord_Byron28]

I think it was around E3 but Nintendo said that they would be only showing launch window games because they didnt want to create a 3DS like situation where people bought the system for games they wanted but those games ended up coming out much much later.

They seemed to take a knee-jerk response and decided to do the complete opposite when they should be taking a middle ground. It seems kinda stupid to do that for Wii U when Wii U had a much much stronger launch lineup than the 3DS to support itself until those appealing far away titles came.

I dont doubt Nintendo is keeping peoples mouths shut. They held the unveilment of Activisions entire lineup and others like Epic Mickey 2 until September. We have evidence of other multiplatform games coming but no official unveil.

On top of that, I dont think most major 3rd party JAPANESE publishers are going to sit out like they appear to be. Capcom has such poor presence on the Wii U and its so uncharacteristic of them to be this MIA for the start of a new platform.

I don't get why they don't pull a Wii like situation where they announce a lot of titles coming in the 1st year and then throughout the year they sparse it out with smaller announcements. Wiis E3 showing was big and varied. Super Mario galaxy, metroid prime 3, Twilight Princess, Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Wii Sports all shown and most of those came out in the 1st year of the systems life.

I don't necessarily believe Nintendo is holding back 3rd party announcements anymore but who knows. There are a couple Wii U titles such as Tomb Raider that we know are coming but have yet to be officially announced much like CoD and madden over this summer. Maybe Nintendo is trying to focus on launch window software but I'd highly suggest them to lift up the curtains soon. I fear we won't hear anything of the 2nd half of Wii U's lineup until E3 which would be pretty bad for Q1 and Q2 of this year.

Level 5 sales by year or release (Famitsu):

year sales releases

2007	1.93	2
2008	1.27	2
2009	2.25	9
2010	2.03	4
2011	1.87	8
2012	0.56	10

millions of units.

Damn. L-5 is in even worse shape than I thought.

 

[Canis lupus]

Nice numbers for Yakuza!

 

[lunchwithyuzo]

What is there to assume is coming? Besides the stuff you mentioned and the AAA Square Enix port we've gotten no indication people are even working on anything Wii U.

In regards to Japanese stuff just PES2013/Deca Sports from Konami in Q1 (outed by EU retailer leaks) and there've been rumblings about a RE6 port (who knows when, maybe spring?). Other than that, it's been worryingly quiet.

 

[frankie_baby]

I'm disappointed that while so many people pointed out how stupid my early-morning post was, no one pointed out that MH3U is also part of a hardware bundle, so undoubtedly there are more copies out there than this. I guess there won't be a breakdown on how much each hardware version sold?

bundled games are counted

 

[metalslimer]

While there will continue to be debate if Nintendo is really holding back Wii U 3rd party games, they are 100% holding back their own titles which is completely stupid.

 

[Sandfox]

Nintendo dominated.

While there will continue to be debate if Nintendo is really holding back Wii U 3rd party games, they are 100% holding back their own titles which is completely stupid.

I wouldn't be surprised if their was a Nintendo Direct early next year or even just some kind of Japanese news blowout for smaller titles.

 

[fabricated backlash]

I kind of feel the "top secret NDA" suspicion has never panned out.

When the 3DS was announced, we found out about a huge slough of games. The only time it's really beneficial to hide what support you have is when, in reality, you don't have that much of it, since then you can at least try to push the idea that you have more support that's just being hidden.

If you really do have support though, it makes far more sense to just run around shouting about how incredibly well supported and successful you are so anyone who wants to buy your system will instantly know they will receive tons of high profile support.

Except for when you really want to push a currently available lineup. Nintendo seems desperate to at least have one or two (Ubi/Capcom) 3rd parties to sell well now.

Personally I also don't believe there's an amazing Lineup hidden beyond March 2013, but it would make sense to push the launch lineup. Given how ZombiU is doing quite well compared to Nintendos own releases I'd say they could hope for an inflated launch title sellthrough... though actual numbers show that this was a pipedream for most 3rd parties, with the exception of Ubi and Capcom.

 

[Lord_Byron28]

I'm disappointed that while so many people pointed out how stupid my early-morning post was, no one pointed out that MH3U is also part of a hardware bundle, so undoubtedly there are more copies out there than this. I guess there won't be a breakdown on how much each hardware version sold?

This is the 5th iteration in the same subset. As well as having 300k userbase what more could be expected? Capcom can only milk the MH3 universe for so long, selling 100K of a 3DS uport that is based on a Wii game to a userbase of 300K is insane and I don't think any other franchise could manage to get away with it.

 

[duckroll]

Level 5 has 280 employees, so 560k unit sales for 2012 would mean they sold about 2000 games for each employee they have. Lol.

 

[test_account]

The Wii U's situation is looking extremely similar to the Vita's. Let's see if the parallels continue with a harsh sales drop next week.

Yeah, it shall be interesting to see. The next Nintendo Direct will probably give some indication.

Q1 is pretty empty for 3DS as well, I'd say after Christmas. 3DS/Wii U mish mash

I'm looking forward to that Nintendo Direct =)

I dunno, even the 2nd version of DQX is bigger than pretty much everything Vita has lined up. Wii U is frighteningly barren, but it hasn't been bomb city quite yet like Vita so there's hope.

Actually, which system sold more 3rd party software in 2012 so far, Wii or Vita?

Even if DQX WiiU sells more, i still dont think that one title is concidered as good support in general. It is also a port. I would say the same with One Piece Musou 2 (where the previous game sold more than DQX) if that was the basically the only 3rd party Vita game. WiiU is kinda in bomb city already when it comes to announced 3rd party games. But i agree that it is too early to say anything concrete.

EDIT: Is Deca Sports and Pro Evolution Soccer 2013 announced for WiiU by the way? It wont surprise me if these games come out, but i'm just wondering if they are announced.

 

[Road]

Damn. L-5 is in even worse shape than I thought.

Well, 2012 isn't over yet. IEGo2 could add another 400k to 2012, and Layton vs. AA and LBXW still have stock left to sell.

But, unless Fantasy Life is their next big hit, it doesn't seem 2012 is going to be close to the 2m they have been managing the past years.

 

[impact]

Damn those ZombiU numbers are awful


Silly Japan

 

[test_account]

Damn those ZombiU numbers are awful


Silly Japan

One thing i found interesting with the ZombieU numbers is that is tracked to exactly 13.000. I dont think i've seen such "clean" sales number before in japanese sales.

 

[Road]

PSP doesn't have a perfect streak inside the Famitsu Top 30 since its launch, but this week is the first time since the PSP-3000 PSP-2000 + Crisis Core release in 2007 that no game for the system is in it -- 5 years.

 

[Man God]

Level 5's slump started midway through 2011.

Gundam AGE was announced midway through 2011.

Do the math.

 

[Father_Brain]

So, I can kind of see the argument behind wanting to get Final Fantasy on to a platform with a more broad audience than the ps4/720 may end up with in Japan, but is that really a concern for Dark Souls and Metal Gear?

I mean, from the perspective of Konami and FROM Software, how much do they really stand to benefit?

MGS is still quite a popular franchise in Japan, so I would think that Wii U versions of Rising/V would have a good chance of selling decently there. Dark Souls II, perhaps not quite so much.

My main concern in regards to Final Fantasy is that Square Enix might view appearing to have absolute top of the top tier graphics and technology as being incredibly important to Final Fantasy in the West, at which point trying to build the game in a way that makes it portable to Wii U could become unappealing.

Agni's Philosophy leads me to believe that this is indeed the direction SE is going in with FFXV. While I don't expect it to end well for them, I imagine that this is their reasoning, and that that will probably keep it off Wii U.

That wouldn't fully explain the absence of Lightning Returns, though.

 

[Nirolak]

I think it was around E3 but Nintendo said that they would be only showing launch window games because they didnt want to create a 3DS like situation where people bought the system for games they wanted but those games ended up coming out much much later.

They seemed to take a knee-jerk response and decided to do the complete opposite when they should be taking a middle ground. It seems kinda stupid to do that for Wii U when Wii U had a much much stronger launch lineup than the 3DS to support itself until those appealing far away titles came.

I dont doubt Nintendo is keeping peoples mouths shut. They held the unveilment of Activisions entire lineup and others like Epic Mickey 2 until September. We have evidence of other multiplatform games coming but no official unveil.

On top of that, I dont think most major 3rd party JAPANESE publishers are going to sit out like they appear to be. Capcom has such poor presence on the Wii U and its so uncharacteristic of them to be this MIA for the start of a new platform.

I feel this question is coming up now not because of how quiet they were before, but because how many of the games they weren't quiet about have already been released. There is an open question for anyone who bought a Wii U in Japan right now as to what is coming out that has not already come out.

Someone mentioned two titles earlier, but I haven't been following quite closely enough.

As an honest question, what is the announced Wii U line-up in Japan right now that hasn't been released? If that one is very short, I could understand why there is concern.

Except for when you really want to push a currently available lineup. Nintendo seems desperate to at least have one or two (Ubi/Capcom) 3rd parties to sell well now.

Personally I also don't believe there's an amazing Lineup hidden beyond March 2013, but it would make sense to push the launch lineup. Given how ZombiU is doing quite well compared to Nintendos own releases I'd say they could hope for an inflated launch title sellthrough... though actual numbers show that this was a pipedream for most 3rd parties, with the exception of Ubi and Capcom.

I feel this shouldn't be a major concern though. Simply by the virtue of further out titles not being out, while the launch titles are out, that should make them sufficiently attractive to buy. If it doesn't make them sufficiently attractive to buy to the point where all further titles must be hidden, that kind of raises the question of if they got attractive titles as support in the first place.

 

[Linkhero1]

Damn. Sad not to see a lot of Wii U titles up there, but this is only two days right?

 

[Nirolak]

MGS is still quite a popular franchise in Japan, so I would think that Wii U versions of Rising/V would have a good chance of selling decently there. Dark Souls II, perhaps not quite so much.



Agni's Philosophy leads me to believe that this is indeed the direction SE is going in with FFXV. While I don't expect it to end well for them, I imagine that this is their reasoning, and that that will probably keep it off Wii U.

That wouldn't fully explain the absence of Lightning Returns, though.

I guess my main question here is how many people do you feel would buy these products that would not be willing to buy them on PS3?

If they're simply selling copies on Wii U while lowering them on PS3, that's not really worth the investment unless they view the future of their series as the Wii U and thus want to move as much of their fanbase to the platform as possible.

In fact, if you don't intend to support the platform long term, getting people to buy it for your series might be unideal, since then they have less money to buy the platform you're actually going to support.

 

[Novid]

Level 5's slump started midway through 2011.

Gundam AGE was announced midway through 2011.

Do the math.

and people say im the conspericy theroyist.

 

[Lord_Byron28]

The Wii U's situation is looking extremely similar to the Vita's. Let's see if the parallels continue with a harsh sales drop next week

the situations are extremely different. Vitas software sales at launch were terrible meanwhile the attach rate for Wii U is pretty good. Not too mention Wii U has 3rd party titles announced that are bigger than any vita release. It has two titles released that will already be bigger than any Vita release. On top of that the Wii U will have strong 1st party support that will sustain it.

Well, 2012 isn't over yet. IEGo2 could add another 400k to 2012, and Layton vs. AA and LBXW still have stock left to sell.

But, unless Fantasy Life is their next big hit, it doesn't seem 2012 is going to be close to the 2m they have been managing the past years.

Unless IE or FL become smash hits, I don't see anyway possible to redeem 2012 looking at their releases to sales ratio.

Damn those ZombiU numbers are awful


Silly Japan

They're to be expected for Japan.

 

[cw_sasuke]

Level 5's slump started midway through 2011.

Gundam AGE was announced midway through 2011.

Do the math.

Standard slump between the generations, but in this thread people went mad when they realised their Layton launch game wouldnt sell as much as the DS titles. Most of their games are on 3DS/handhelds and use the same engine, other publishers would be happy to sell around 400-500K of these games.

 

[Father_Brain]

As an honest question, what is the announced Wii U line-up in Japan right now that hasn't been released? If that one is very short, I could understand why there is concern.

First-party:

Pikmin 3
Game & Wario
Wii Fit U
The Wonderful 101
Bayonetta 2
Rayman Legends (published by Nintendo in Japan)
Lego City Undercover
Super Smash Bros. 4

Third-party:

Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage 2
Dragon Quest X

I guess my main question here is how many people do you feel would buy these products that would not be willing to buy them on PS3?

If they're simply selling copies on Wii U while lowering them on PS3, that's not really worth the investment unless they view the future of their series as the Wii U and thus want to move as much of their fanbase to the platform as possible.

In fact, if you don't intend to support the platform long term, getting people to buy it for your series might be unideal, since then they have less money to buy the platform you're actually going to support.

If Japanese third parties don't see Wii U as a viable long-term platform for franchises other than DQ and MH... well, that's precisely the problem for Nintendo, isn't it?

 

[Linkhero1]

First-party:

Pikmin 3
Game & Wario
Wii Fit U
The Wonderful 101
Bayonetta 2
Rayman Origins
Lego City Undercover

Third-party:

Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage 2
Dragon Quest X

Rayman isn't a first party game. It's just being published by Nintendo and it's Legends

 

[Nirolak]

First-party:

Pikmin 3
Game & Wario
Wii Fit U
The Wonderful 101
Bayonetta 2
Rayman Origins
Lego City Undercover

Third-party:

Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage 2
Dragon Quest X

Okay, so I can definitely see why the concern was raised then in regards to third parties.

If Japanese third parties don't see Wii U as a viable long-term platform for franchises other than DQ and MH... well, that's precisely the problem for Nintendo, isn't it?

Yeah, I feel that's the primary open question.

That's also why I think just announcing a major list of support makes the most sense, since it removes the open question.

I do realize that isn't exactly Nintendo's style as of late, but if we're having this discussion here, I can't help but feel potential Wii U owners may be asking the same.

 

[Sadist]

See in crazy Nintendo land I firmly believe Iwata sincerely thinks that the 3DS 2010 mega game reel was a mistake.

Well of course, it had like three titles that were cancelled! (DJ Hero, Saints Row, Assassin´s Creed) Ahum. Serious post, the third party situation of Wii U is far more interesting than just the current ports available for it. I mean, I see someone’s concern regarding Namco-Bandai but that’s the least of Nintendo’s concerns.

Konami? Nothing. No PES Wii U Playmaker, Castlevania LoS 2 (even with the franchise being a certainty in the handheld space) or Metal Gear Solid. Granted, Kojima throws a bone every now and even if it’s MGS, it’s either a outsourced remake, a cameo appearance and a 3DS remake which needed a bit more time in the oven. So no MGS.

The Square side of S-E simply doesn’t give a fuck.

Namco-Bandai will have something, but mostly because of a deal Nintendo will make thanks to Smash Bros. Maybe Soul Calibur or a future exclusive Tales of… game.

Sega will probably have some sort of Sonic game ready for the platform, maybe several titles for eShop.

And Capcom… eh they will try something. It’s impossible to predict MH Tri G HD’s performance, but me thinks they wil have earned the costs back soon enough.

 

[Lord_Byron28]

I feel this question is coming up now not because of how quiet they were before, but because how many of the games they weren't quiet about have already been released. There is an open question for anyone who bought a Wii U in Japan right now as to what is coming out that has not already come out.

Someone mentioned two titles earlier, but I haven't been following quite closely enough.

As an honest question, what is the announced Wii U line-up in Japan right now that hasn't been released? If that one is very short, I could understand why there is concern.

I think all we have is fist of the northern star, DQX, Game and wario, pikmin 3, the wonderful 101, bayonetta 2, panorama view and Wii fit u. We have no firm date on any of these titles in Japan however we know all of these titles(except bayonetta and I assume since Nintendo has stopped talking about the wonderful 101 has been delayed too) are expected in Q1 or Q2 2013. That's all we know of. There is nothing known about titles past Q2 2013 except for bayonetta, wonderful 101 and super smash bros. We don't even know when the Q1/Q2 titles will release as Nintendo has yet to announce a Q1 lineup for Wii U or 3DS.

 

[VICI0US]

In total (through announcements or releases), there are around 65 retail Wii U games.

While that's not great, Nintendo HAS taken some steps to reveal future titles. It's not like the future of the Wii U is completely up in the air.

Yeah, don't get me wrong. I think the wii-u has a lot of great games released and in the pipeline. I own NSMBU, ZombiU, Sonic Racing, NintendoLand, Nano Assault, and Trine 2 from launch day alone. Bayonetta 2, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, Pikmin 3, Wonderful 101, and Rayman Legends are all really great 2013 exclusives.

It's just Nintendo has recently become very tight lipped about revealing games more than a quarter or two from release. I mean, I can't think of a single first party game releasing after Q2 2013 for Wii-U or3DS other than smash bros. We don't know anything about animal crossing 3DS outside japan. And heck, we wouldn't have even known about the US fire emblem localization in early 2013 if Reggie hadn't accidentally let it slip in a post-e3 interview. They were going to completely ignore that bit of news and spring it on us later, as they seem to enjoy doing lately. Mario Tennis Open was announced out of nowhere roughly a month before its retail release date. Guild 01 localization was announced about a week before the games started hitting the e-shop. Crashmo was similarly revealed out of nowhere only a month or so away from release.

Those kinds of surprises are nice but I think they're better suited to an already well established platform. In the case of the Wii-U, being new to the market, they need to lay out a better idea of its future from the get go. It doesn't even have to be third party, we know retro, monolith, EAD, and many more internal studios are at work, give us some teasers

 

[Lord_Byron28]

First-party:

Pikmin 3
Game & Wario
Wii Fit U
The Wonderful 101
Bayonetta 2
Rayman Legends (published by Nintendo in Japan)
Lego City Undercover
Super Smash Bros. 4

Third-party:

Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage 2
Dragon Quest X



If Japanese third parties don't see Wii U as a viable long-term platform for franchises other than DQ and MH... well, that's precisely the problem for Nintendo, isn't it?

I wouldn't exactly define legos, rayman or bayo as 1st party titles since all Nintendo is doing is publishing it in one region. I think the main point that this list addresses is we know next to nothing past Q2 which suggests that announcements are possibly being held back until a later date

Yeah, don't get me wrong. I think the wii-u has a lot of great games released and in the pipeline. I own NSMBU, ZombiU, Sonic Racing, NintendoLand, Nano Assault, and Trine 2 from launch day alone. Bayonetta 2, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, Pikmin 3, Wonderful 101, and Rayman Legends are all really great 2013 exclusives.

It's just Nintendo has recently become very tight lipped about revealing games more than a quarter or two from release. I mean, I can't think of a single first party game releasing after Q2 2013 for Wii-U or3DS other than smash bros. We don't know anything about animal crossing 3DS outside japan. And heck, we wouldn't have even known about the US fire emblem localization in early 2013 if Reggie hadn't accidentally let it slip in a post-e3 interview. They were going to completely ignore that bit of news and spring it on us later, as they seem to enjoy doing lately. Mario Tennis Open was announced out of nowhere roughly a month before its retail release date. Guild 01 localization was announced about a week before the games started hitting the e-shop. Crashmo was similarly revealed out of nowhere only a month or so away from release.

Those kinds of surprises are nice but I think they're better suited to an already well established platform. In the case of the Wii-U, being new to the market, they need to lay out a better idea of its future from the get go. It doesn't even have to be third party, we know retro, monolith, EAD, and many more internal studios are at work, give us some teasers

Actually, Mario Tennis was announced 6-8 months prior to release via Nintendo Direct. However your point still stands and I do agree with what you're saying.

 

[frankie_baby]

I wouldn't exactly define legos, rayman or bayo as 1st party titles since all Nintendo is doing is publishing it in one region. I think the main point that this list addresses is we know next to nothing past Q2 which suggests that announcements are possibly being held back until a later date


Actually, Mario Tennis was announced 6-8 months prior to release via Nintendo Direct. However your point still stands and I do agree with what you're saying.

Lego city and bayonetta are 1st party titles, they're published by Nintendo world wide

 

[Thraktor]

I wouldn't exactly define legos, rayman or bayo as 1st party titles since all Nintendo is doing is publishing it in one region. I think the main point that this list addresses is we know next to nothing past Q2 which suggests that announcements are possibly being held back until a later date

Lego City Stories and Bayonetta 2 are both funded by Nintendo, and will be published by them worldwide.

Edit: Beaten, and it seems I got the Lego game's name wrong too.

 

[Cosmo Clock 21]

Methinks Nintendo needs to do more "sweetening the pot" like they did for DQ, MH, and Bayonetta 2 if they want publishers to get over the stigma of third party games on the Wii U.

 

[Road]

Guys, Nintendo is just taking the month off in January: http://www.nintendo.co.jp/schedule/1301.html

They deserve a break.

 

[AranhaHunter]

On a related note, I'm genuinely curious as to why Bandai Namco and Koei Tecmo are still so bullish on Vita. Well, not that bullish - nearly all their upcoming titles are late ports or multiplatform with one of the other Sony platforms - but certainly relative to other Japanese third parties.

I think you answered your own question. The risk is EXTREMELY low there, everything is either a port or a simultaneous release with a more established userbase (PSP/PS3). Sony supposedly has an SDK that makes it simple to port ps3 games to vita and they most likely are helping with some of the ports/marketing.

Panic mode SCEI. Welcome to what you can get.

Marvelous AQL also has a strongish push for Vita coming up. All this plus SoulSac/PSO2 coming so close together in Q1/spring is feeling like a bit of an attempted platform relaunch/course correction. Or last gasp, take your pick.

If this is SCEI's panic mode then I'll laugh. If they plan to relaunch with just the stuff you mentioned plus BN and TK ports, I'll laugh harder.

EDIT: I actually think SCEI is just trying to carve itself a niche with the vita among manga/anime fans.

 

[Scum]

It's high time NCL got the VC service up to scratch too. Use it to plug the holes. Bayonetta on the eShop while I wait for Bayonetta 2 will be good start.

 

[Lord_Byron28]

Lego city and bayonetta are 1st party titles, they're published by Nintendo world wide

Thanks for the correction.

Methinks Nintendo needs to do more "sweetening the pot" like they did for DQ, MH, and Bayonetta 2 if they want publishers to get over the stigma of third party games on the Wii U.

Nintendo can't afford to just publish every single third party title that they want on their platform. Also most of the ones they do publish benefit the developer in some big way. Such as Nintendo being able to push DQ and MH in a much bigger way in the west than capcom or S-E is capable of. Or pushing Just Dance, Rayman, or goldeneye in Japan in a much bigger way than Ubisoft or Activision can.

 

[Tenki]

It's high time NCL got the VC service up to scratch too. Use it to plug the holes. Bayonetta on the eShop while I wait for Bayonetta 2 will be good start.

I'd double dip if this happens.

 

[staticneuron]

3DS selling 20x as many units as Vita

I can't imagine how much longer the Vita can survive. I still chuckle at those crazy projections Sony had for the Vita- they had to be predicated on gangbusters sales in Japan which is clearly not going to happen.

Possibly because it's survival isn't directly dependent on a competitors sales. On Sony's end, they wised up and made sure the Vita was "not" a loss leader, which means they are less likely to abandon it than they would the other consoles they have released which "were" loss leaders.

Also there is time for its base to grow and reach better numbers. It really hasn't been out that long for the execs to scrap it.

 

[electroplankton]

Such low numbers really scream that the market does not want the product. Even 360 shown to been able to sell more in December (2006, 2008). Let's see what happens but without games it will be difficult to sustain a certain trend.

 

[NateDrake]

Possibly because it's survival isn't directly dependent on a competitors sales. On Sony's end, they wised up and made sure the Vita was "not" a loss leader, which means they are less likely to abandon it than they would the other consoles they have released which "were" loss leaders.

Also there is time for its base to grow and reach better numbers. It really hasn't been out that long for the execs to scrap it.

It's nearing a year in Japan with sales barely over 1 million. Execs have to be scrambling to figure out a way to save it or at least make it desirable to consumers.

 

[Kandinsky]

Poor Vita doing 10k mid december is depressing D:

 

[AranhaHunter]

Possibly because it's survival isn't directly dependent on a competitors sales. On Sony's end, they wised up and made sure the Vita was "not" a loss leader, which means they are less likely to abandon it than they would the other consoles they have released which "were" loss leaders.

Also there is time for its base to grow and reach better numbers. It really hasn't been out that long for the execs to scrap it.

It's out long enough and sales are piss poor in every region. Execs either need to come up with a complex and thorough plan that includes stuff from redesign to price drops to big games to revive it and relaunch it or they need to ride out the wave and try to make much while slowly scrapping it. I'm fairly certain, based on their actions, that they chose the latter.

 

[Father_Brain]

On Sony's end, they wised up and made sure the Vita was "not" a loss leader

Source?

Yes, there are a few vague quotes from Sony which could be interpreted that way, but their overall handling of the platform (refusal to drop the price this year despite historically abysmal sales, obscene markups on memory cards) does not suggest that they're profiting or even breaking even on every unit sold.

 

[RurouniZel]

Level 5's slump started midway through 2011.

Gundam AGE was announced midway through 2011.

Do the math.

The lesson here: Do not fuck with Gundam.

 

[Cosmo Clock 21]

Nintendo can't afford to just publish every single third party title that they want on their platform. Also most of the ones they do publish benefit the developer in some big way. Such as Nintendo being able to push DQ and MH in a much bigger way in the west than capcom or S-E is capable of. Or pushing Just Dance, Rayman, or goldeneye in Japan in a much bigger way than Ubisoft or Activision can.

Well yeah, that's what I'm saying by "sweeten the pot". Leverage Nintendo power to push a few key third-party titles on the WiiU each year.

Actually, that's not so different from how Sony operates with its western PS3 third-party exclusives, isn't it?

 

[CronoShot]

Just noticed there's not a single PSP game in the top 30. When was the last time that happened?

 

[AranhaHunter]

Source?

Yes, there are a few vague quotes from Sony which could be interpreted that way, but their overall handling of the platform (refusal to drop the price this year despite historically abysmal sales, obscene markups on memory cards) does not suggest that they're profiting or even breaking even on every unit sold.

It also does not necessarily mean they are losing money on each unit sold, it does suggest that they would lose money if they were to drop the price though.

 

[A.E Suggs]

So TTT2 didn't chart at all for wiiU huh? Not surprising but still sad to me it didn't.

 

[Chris1964]

There was no evidence that Vita titles were getting held back. There is evidence that Wii U titles are. Nintendo basically said that they were by saying they were only focusing on launch window. I dont know how much simpler they could've said it without straight up saying it.

Iwata had also said some years ago that we should expect strong third party support for Wii and recently that strong 3DS software from western developers is on the way. They must have missed a turn somewhere and lost their way.

When I see it I'll believe it. Everything points to the exactly opposite right now.

 

[hiska-kun]

Just noticed there's not a single PSP game in the top 30. When was the last time that happened?

Answer:

PSP doesn't have a perfect streak inside the Famitsu Top 30 since its launch, but this week is the first time since the PSP-3000 + Crisis Core release in 2007 that no game for the system is in it -- 5 years.