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Media Create Sales: Week 49, 2014 (Dec 01 - Dec 07)

Keyouta

Junior Member
Guess that's it for the Wii U, it's still performing worse than last year. 25k with Smash launching during the holidays sucks. The game sales seem pretty good though.
 

test_account

XP-39C²
Yeah but if they want to people to buy a Wii U they should have saved Smash 3DS until after the 2014 holidays and then announced it.

They keep hurting the Wii U with the 3DS. 1st they release a NSMB on the 3DS right before the Wii U launches and then they release Smash on it before the Wii U version
I think that Nintendo maybe calculated what would be the best business in the long run. Very hard to say what would be the most optimal solution regarding gaining most profits though, but i think they made the right decision with Smash Bros. It is of course possible that they would have seen strong sales of the 3DS version if they released it after the WiiU version though, but at least the serie seem to be very popular with the way that they (Nintendo) did it now.


It seemed like a very superficial and not thought out move from the very beginning to me, it´s kind of surprising to see such silly decisions beeing made by a big corporation to be honest and I can´t say to be surprised by SWC3 results.
That is fair i think. I mostly wanted to comment on that i dont think it was greedy to release the game as multiplatform :)
 
All those iterations are confusing as hell but, if I'm looking at it correctly, Xrd has underperformed against each of its mainline entry games barring the first one.

Actually, never mind, I've got no clue what's going on in all of that.

From my understanding the mainline titles are :

GG
GGX
GGX2
GG Isuka
GGXrd

GGX and GGX2 are the only one that have outperformed GGXrd. Maybe its the X series thats popular in which case this being GGX3 is a disappointment. I
 

TI82

Banned
Been safe for over a year.

Yeah, but as the famous chalk board shows Wii U fans have been clinging to any game they can lately. There was even one thread here where the OP claimed that captain toad would be the best selling game this holiday season and revolutionize games by taking fps and action games down.

Needless to say its been weird
 

Busaiku

Member
From my understanding the mainline titles are :

GG
GGX
GGX2
GG Isuka
GGXrd

GGX and GGX2 are the only one that have outperformed GGXrd. Maybe its the X series thats popular in which case this being GGX3 is a disappointment. I
Isuka's a spinoff, but otherwise you're right.
 

Crom

Junior Member
Yeah, but as the famous chalk board shows Wii U fans have been clinging to any game they can lately. There was even one thread here where the OP claimed that captain toad would be the best selling game this holiday season and revolutionize games by taking fps and action games down.

Needless to say its been weird

The chalkboard thing was a joke. People aren't clinging on to it
 

Yuuichi

Member
Those Xrd sales are ugly, but it's important to remember that the game made money in arcades too, so it probably at least came close to breaking even.
 

Gleethor

Member
Yeah, but as the famous chalk board shows Wii U fans have been clinging to any game they can lately. There was even one thread here where the OP claimed that captain toad would be the best selling game this holiday season and revolutionize games by taking fps and action games down.

Needless to say its been weird

The sarcastic chalk board posts have outnumbered the number of posts sincerly suggesting that anything would "save" the wii u for a while now.
 
Yeah, but as the famous chalk board shows Wii U fans have been clinging to any game they can lately. There was even one thread here where the OP claimed that captain toad would be the best selling game this holiday season and revolutionize games by taking fps and action games down.

Needless to say its been weird


The chalkboard is a joke based off actual people saying "wait for _____"

People stopped posting the chalkboard a year ago. I think you know the reason why. We have reached a stage of acceptance.


Isuka's a spinoff, but otherwise you're right.

Cool. Wonder why they suddenly had the X there instead of GG2 etc.
 

ishibear

is a goddamn bear
So, Koei removes a fan favorite feature from SW Chronicles 3 (the personal events), making the focus on an original character pointless since now they're just background decoration... and also announced a SW4 update with a new character already missing here... and the game bombs? Well, expected, but still, it's always annoying when developers basically just implode their own series.

It's likely that's why the game is suffering. Chronicles games are more about the CAW experience but this one really comes off as a spin on the Orochi games (only without the DW and other cameos).

Taking away that key element (CAW importance) was probably the the worst move they could have made.
 

Darius

Banned
That is fair i think. I mostly wanted to comment on that i dont think it was greedy to release the game as multiplatform :)


Since you really were extremely nitpicky, just out of curiosity, what is the fundamental difference between the desire for profit maximazing and greed in your opinion? ;)

Call it whatever you want that´s not that important, my point is that out of their desire of maximazing profits, they made quite an ignorant move by simply adding a new version (like 1+1=2 right? ;)), without any consideration to what their product and target audience actually is. Your comparison with SSB4 actually shows the exact opposite, which is proven by an actual tangible expansion/increased sales.
 

LOCK

Member
Nintendo needed more than Smash for the Wii U this holiday, because let's face it if you are a Mario fan then you're most likely a Smash fan.

They needed something that appeals to a different audience. I'm really confused about Animal Crossings absence for example.
 

Tadaima

Member
Yeah but if they want to people to buy a Wii U they should have saved Smash 3DS until after the 2014 holidays and then announced it.

They keep hurting the Wii U with the 3DS. 1st they release a NSMB on the 3DS right before the Wii U launches and then they release Smash on it before the Wii U version

At the time of NSMB2, Nintendo desperately needed a catalyst to push 3DS sales. They scrambled a team of young developers together in order to get it out as quickly as possible. It seems that Nintendo planned NSMBU long in advance of NSMB2, and that they believed both titles would be evergreen and not eat into each others' sales (similar to the situations with NSMB DS/Wii, MK DS/Wii, and others) over time. Nintendo Land was the planned "system seller" for Wii U, but it never panned out. Ultimately, Wii U sales stalled and NSMBU got brushed under the rug. In addition, NSMB2 was sloppy and weakened the appeal of the series. Their strategy failed devastatingly.

With Smash, Nintendo announced its release across multiple platforms before Wii U bombed and while 3DS was still struggling. Perhaps it was seen as an easy opportunity to stimulate sales of 3DS. As time went by, the NSMB failure (above) occurred, 3DS took off, and Wii U continued to stall with almost zero third party releases. Perhaps they would have adjusted their strategy (such as release Smash Wii U 6 - 12 months later) had the situation been different – such as if there was to be more third party content filling the gaps, or if Wii U was shifting enough units off the back of Kart, 3D Land, and Wii Fit U, but nothing went according to plan and they ended up cornering themselves.

I'm not sure they had any other option than to push Smash 3DS out and release Smash Wii U this side of Christmas. Nintendo must be praying that it'll be a slow burner with long legs.

I can almost guarantee that the Wii U will receive a price cut between the end of Q1 and Golden Week in order to bolster software sales – with a return to profitability, cheaper parts, and an attach rate of 2 - 3 games per system, they can easily swallow a deep price cut at around that time.
 
N64 : Super Smash Bros. ( Nintendo ) { 1999-01-21 } - 183,097 / 1,632,055
NGC : Super Smash Bros. Melee ( Nintendo ) { 2001-11-21 } - 357,101 / 1,349,418
WII : Super Smash Bros. Brawl ( Nintendo ) { 2008-01-31 } - 816,198 / 2,303,103
3DS : Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS ( Nintendo ) { 2014-09-13 } - 987,239 / 1,841,754
3DS : Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS [Nintendo eShop] {DL} ( Nintendo ) { 2014-09-13 } - - / 112,041
WIU : Super Smash Bros. for Wii U ( Nintendo ) { 2014-12-06 } - 244,747 / 244,747

Oh wow. Super Smash Bros. for Wii U really underperformed.

I really hope it does a lot better in the USA.
 

Tadaima

Member
Nintendo needed more than Smash for the Wii U this holiday, because let's face it if you are a Mario fan then you're most likely a Smash fan.

They needed something that appeals to a different audience. I'm really confused about Animal Crossings absence for example.

Here is the Animal Crossing release schedule:

2012.11: New Leaf (portable) – just two years ago
2008.11: City Folk (console)
2005.11: Wild World (portable)
2001.12: Animal Crossing (console)

The pattern is one or a combination of these:
• One AC game every 3 - 4 years (4 cases)
• One AC console game every 7 years (2 cases)
• AC console game 3 years after a AC portable game (1 case)

By this schedule, we can expect Animal Crossing Wii U to ship in either November 2015 or 2016 – but most likely 2015, due in part to Nintendo's desperation to flesh out the library, to City Folk arriving 3 years after Wild World, and to console AC games arriving every 7 years.
 

Mory Dunz

Member
Nintendo needed more than Smash for the Wii U this holiday, because let's face it if you are a Mario fan then you're most likely a Smash fan.

They needed something that appeals to a different audience. I'm really confused about Animal Crossings absence for example.

Is that...neccessarily true?

Most of the people who I remember playing Melee and Brawl with didn't care or own 2D or 3D Marios.

Anecdotal of course, but I really don't think there's just this "Nintendo genre" audience.
 

test_account

XP-39C²
Since you really were extremely nitpicky, just out of curiosity, what is the fundamental difference between the desire for profit maximation and greed in your opinion? ;)

Call it whatever you want that´s not that important, my point is that out of their desire of maximazing profits, they made quite an ignorant move by simply adding a new version (like 1+1=2 right? ;)), without any consideration to what their product and target audience actually is. Your comparison with SSB4 actually shows the exact opposite, which is proven by an actual tangible expansion/increased sales.
When we talk about companies, personally i consider greed as a more malicious way and desire to simply get more and more without caring about the surroundings (for example, not caring how something will affect other people, the enviorment/nature and similar things as long as it brings in a lot of profit, or doesnt affect the expences). Greed is often seen as a negative thing, which is one of the main reasoning why i brought it up, because i cant see anything negative with trying to get more sales through making a multiplatform game (the result of losing money might naturally be negative, but i dont see anything negative in trying).

Maximizing profit can also be a negative thing, depending on how far one goes trying to maximize the profit (which then could be turning into greed), but it can also be done with taking the surroundings into concideration and it doesnt have to be malicious at all. Maximizing profits can be done within boundries that are generally accepted.

I think there is a pretty substantial difference between greed and maximizing profit, so i'm not cosidering that as nitpicking at all. I think it was a bold claim to say that releasing a game as multiplatform is a pretty good example of greed, that is why i commented on it, not because i wanted to nitpick anything. I dont agree with that claim regarindg it being greed, but i think its fair to have an opinion that it wasnt the best decision to make it multiplatform.

But i see now that you were referring to maximizing profit, and that is fair enough =)

Yeah, i agree that making Smash Bros for the 3DS was a smart move because it expanded the userbase by a lot, and it also made the game portable, but i just mentioned that example to show that i dont consider Nintendo as greedy because they took the opportunity to make Smash Bros multiplatform, wanting to sell a lot more copies, just like Koei Tecmo wanted with Samurai Warriors Chronicles 3. That was the only comparison i was going for.

By the way, i'm pretty sure i've seen someone arguing that Musou games sells better on Sony platforms, and looking at the sales numbers, there might be some truth to it. I dont think it was ignorant by Koei Tecmo to try a multiplatform release on 3DS and Vita. Hinsight is always 20/20, unless someone made a clear prediction before the game was released that it would sell pretty much the same in week one compared to Samurai Warriors Chronicles 2nd.

EDIT: I added some text and fixed a few typos.
 

Vena

Member
I can't see the 4DS launching until 2016. Such a quick change from hardware refresh to brand new hardware is going to burn a lot of the userbase, I would think, and I doubt Nintendo wants to do such a thing for their longterm plans.

Oh wow. Super Smash Bros. for Wii U really underperformed.

I really hope it does a lot better in the USA.

Hasn't NA Smash WiiU more than doubled the opening of Smash Melee? I need to go check on that.

WIU: Super Smash Bros. for Wii U - 490,000ish
GCN: Super Smash Bros. Melee - 250,000ish

Sources:
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/nintendo-announces-more-sales-figures/1100-2832770/
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/481700/smash-bros-becomes-fastest-selling-wii-u-game-in-the-us/
 

Clov

Member
I can't see the 4DS launching until 2016. Such a quick change from hardware refresh to brand new hardware is going to burn a lot of the userbase, I would think, and I doubt Nintendo wants to do such a thing for their longterm plans.

I agree, bringing in the successor so soon would just upset the userbase. Sega did that with the Saturn, and it ended pretty badly for them. Of course, that was a different time and with consoles instead of handhelds, but I can't picture it going well.

As for the numbers, I didn't expect Smash Wii U to bring in Smash 3DS-like numbers, but that's still worse than I thought it would do. Much worse. Not a great bump on the hardware either. Pretty bad stuff.
 
Holy shit that's a terrible 2 week for Nova.
Smash did as I expected, I wonder how it's legs are.


Attack of the Titans - is this an expansion?
The first did really well I thought.
 
I can't see the 4DS launching until 2016. Such a quick change from hardware refresh to brand new hardware is going to burn a lot of the userbase, I would think, and I doubt Nintendo wants to do such a thing for their longterm plans.



Hasn't NA Smash WiiU more than doubled the opening of Smash Melee? I need to go check on that.

WIU: Super Smash Bros. for Wii U - 490,000ish
GCN: Super Smash Bros. Melee - 250,000ish

Sources:
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/nintendo-announces-more-sales-figures/1100-2832770/
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/481700/smash-bros-becomes-fastest-selling-wii-u-game-in-the-us/
Yeah. There were only 800k GCs to sell SSBM to.
 

Ricky 7

Member
Wii U sales are so crap, not much Nintendo can do now expect ride it out for 2 more years. At least the games are good. It's kinda like a GameCube 2.
 

LOCK

Member
Is that...neccessarily true?

Most of the people who I remember playing Melee and Brawl with didn't care or own 2D or 3D Marios.

Anecdotal of course, but I really don't think there's just this "Nintendo genre" audience.

Well we could change Mario with Nintendo, and it could be true. A Nintendo fan would most likely buy Smash, and could most likely already have the system.
 

Astral Dog

Member
is6YGZy44Xo1o.gif

I dont know what this means.
 
Wii U sales are so crap, not much Nintendo can do now expect ride it out for 2 more years. At least the games are good. It's kinda like a GameCube 2.

I think they'll have a better holiday in the west this year, but there's pretty much no hope of it outselling Gamecube.
 

Vena

Member
Eh, GameCube had third party support.

Indies.

Gamecube had none. They fill the void well enough, no? (Not in terms of making the system more appealing to someone outside of the system, but for thing for consumers who have the system to keep buying and playing.)
 
I'm really confused about Animal Crossings absence for example.

Lazy rehashes, whose equivalents are on superior platforms like the 3DS, are one of the bigger reasons why the Wii U is a failure. Another iteration of arguably one of the laziest series out there hence wouldn't help, the audience is certainly still content with the 3DS title right now. Splatoon wouldn't help sales either at this point, but unlike some AC cash in, the project at least doesn't shit on the hardcore audience, by not phoning it in for once. It's good for the team too.

It's kinda like a GameCube 2.

Only without the ambition, innovation and 3rd parties. Yeah. I mean, I really wish this would be true. GCN in the same time frame had REmake, Rogue Squadron F-Zero GX, Eternal Darkness, back then still new IPs in Pikmin and Luigis Mansion, and motherfucking Metroid Prime among others. Unfortunately, what I get on Wii U is... phoned in NSMB packs and minigame schlock, plus eventually a good niche game every 6 months.

WiiU got what it deserves, got little to do with ,,lol Japan handheld''. It's expensive and has no appealing games, just like PS4. Coming from market domination, an at least decent console certainly wouldn't have flopped this hard and arguably could have been a mild success at the very least.
 

Celine

Member
Only without the ambition, innovation and 3rd parties. Yeah. I mean, I really wish this would be true. GCN in the same time frame had REmake, Rogue Squadron F-Zero GX, Eternal Darkness, back then still new IPs in Pikmin and Luigis Mansion, and motherfucking Metroid Prime among others. Unfortunately, what I get on Wii U is... phoned in NSMB packs and minigame schlock, plus eventually a good niche game every 6 months.
At least WiiU has a far superior Mario 3D game than the one on GC.
 

Balb

Member
Indies.

Gamecube had none. They fill the void well enough, no? (Not in terms of making the system more appealing to someone outside of the system, but for thing for consumers who have the system to keep buying and playing.)

Wii U makes GameCube look like the PS2 in terms of 3rd party support. It had a lot of third party exclusive and multi platform games.
 

redcrayon

Member
Nintendo needed more than Smash for the Wii U this holiday, because let's face it if you are a Mario fan then you're most likely a Smash fan.
I don't think that's necessarily true. Despite Smash Bros. popularity on forums, Mario platformers sell far more copies. Personally I love the 2D platformers but have zero interest in fighting games, even if they have the same characters. I love Megaman, Starfox, Metroid and Fire Emblem too, and still am not interested in Smash.
 

Hindl

Member
whoa whoa what is this, trash on Gamecube's library day?

GC had an amazing library, but I don't think it's a stretch to say 3DWorld > Sunshine and Pikmin 3 is the most refined Pikmin. Mario Kart 8 and Double Dash are better than each other for different reasons though
 
I don't think that's necessarily true. Despite Smash Bros. popularity on forums, Mario platformers sell far more copies. Personally I love the 2D platformers but have zero interest in fighting games, even if they have the same characters. I love Megaman, Starfox, Metroid and Fire Emblem too, and still am not interested in Smash.
yeah, but the reverse (if you're interested in Smash you're interested in something else already on the system) is probably true
By saying...

3D World > Sunshine
MK8 > MKDD
Pikmin 3 > Pikim 1,2
?

I wouldn't really call that trashing...

we'll take the Mario Kart discussion elsewhere :p
 
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