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[bigmit3737]

Can someone explain which reporting is considered more accurate for hardware sales, MC or Famitsu?

Also, how is the data collected? How accurate is the data?

Thanks!

 

[Hero of Legend]

Speaking of ports, is anyone kinda feeling we will indeed see Persona 3 on Vita, maybe even at the event going on right now?

You got the movies coming out currently, you had P4G which did really well.

Not to mention that wasn't P3P a very scaled down version of its PS2 counterpart? Wouldn't a complete version on Vita be very appealing?

Just for fun, isn't the main color blue in that game? Persona 3: Indigo anyone?

Ha ha.

Can someone explain which reporting is considered more accurate for hardware sales, MC or Famitsu?

Also, how is the data collected? How accurate is the data?

Thanks!

From my understanding, both trackers both track mostly the same stores, but in addition also track their own other stores. So I don't think there's a perfect and one true tracker.

 

[Fdkn]

Everybody knows the next p3remaster is Azure.

 

[RPGamer92]

Speaking of ports, is anyone kinda feeling we will indeed see Persona 3 on Vita, maybe even at the event going on right now?

You got the movies coming out currently, you had P4G which did really well.

Not to mention that wasn't P3P a very scaled down version of its PS2 counterpart? Wouldn't a complete version on Vita be very appealing?

Just for fun, isn't the main color blue in that game? Persona 3: Indigo anyone?

I'm kinda surprised Atlus hasn't already done a Persona 3 FES Vita version yet.

 

[casiopao]

Short-term? Definitely, no doubt. Long-term is what remains to be seen, though. It would be really interesting to see how n3ds affects the 4DS.

Without New 3DS, 3DS is going to be below PS4 right now.

 

[duckroll]

I'm kinda surprised Atlus hasn't already done a Persona 3 FES Vita version yet.

It's obvious they're stretched a little thin right now. Plus, they seem to enjoy dipping hard into the Persona 4 cast instead, and spreading them across multiple genres.

 

[RPG_Fanatic]

Glad to see Devil Survivor 2 Break Record have a good opening week.

I really want Devil Survivor 3 to happen.

 

[DrWong]

Short-term? Definitely, no doubt. Long-term is what remains to be seen, though. It would be really interesting to see how n3ds affects the 4DS.

But it's a "short plan" move...

 

[Robert at Zeboyd Games]

Really surprised that Devil Survivor 2: Devil Harder did as well as it did, given that's it basically just the original game + a low-budget sequel/expansion pack.

Speaking of ports, is anyone kinda feeling we will indeed see Persona 3 on 3DS, maybe even at the event going on right now?

You got the movies coming out currently, you had P3 be half of Persona Q, and PQ did really well.

Not to mention that wasn't P3P a very scaled down version of its PS2 counterpart? Wouldn't a complete version on 3DS be very appealing?

Just for fun, isn't the main color blue in that game? Persona 3: Sapphire anyone?

If they decide to make a 4th version of Persona 3 any time soon, I would expect they would make a definitive version. The 3DS has an even worse resolution than the PSP so I can't imagine a 3DS version of P3 working very well.

But I really don't expect them to do another version of P3 now. I'm guessing all hands are on deck with finishing up P5 & the few people who aren't busy with that are on the dancing game.

 

[Aquamarine]

Can someone explain which reporting is considered more accurate for hardware sales, MC or Famitsu?

Also, how is the data collected? How accurate is the data?

Thanks!

Famitsu tracks approx. 3,600 participating stores across Japan who send in sales data on a regular basis.

Media Create tracks more than 3,000 stores across Japan the same way.


Both companies extrapolate out to the rest of the Japanese market they don't directly track using proprietary algorithms.

Neither company is a perfect tracker of the Japanese market.

Famitsu has more historical data available (they're older) and tracks a few hundred more stores...but Media Create probably has more major customers in the video game industry...but Famitsu is partnered with NPD and GfK...etc.


Media Create's major customers:

Nintendo
Sony
Microsoft
Square Enix
Capcom
Konami
Bandai Namco
Sega
Electronic Arts
Dentsu Inc.
Other major publishers / developers / researchers


Basically, you can go back and forth with the two. It's best to just look at both sets of numbers and respect them equally.

Personally, Famitsu is my favourite.

 

[allan-bh]

Can someone explain which reporting is considered more accurate for hardware sales, MC or Famitsu?

Both are considered good. There is no way to tell which one is more accurate.

People prefer one of them based on personal choice.

 

[vicissitudes]

Bloodborne numbers were supposed to be out next week

I don't even care about the game I just wanted to see the sales.

 

[sörine]

Do they really? Maybe this was true 10 years ago, where Japanese publishers might be reluctant to sign on if there's no Japanese presence, but today we're seeing major Japanese publishers choose to not release multiplatform games on Xbox in Japan while not shying away from supporting the platform overseas. The landscape has changed so much that I think even if MS completely exited the Japanese market, big Japanese publisher would be unable to ignore the Xbox outside of Japan for AAA titles.

Oh sure, we may already be at the tipping point where MS could drop Japan. I don't think that sentiment was there before One launched but we might be there now.

Konami seems like a good example of what you're talking about with 3rd parties dumping the system nationally but still maintaining western support. I believe they did the same thing with the original Xbox early on too.

Unless it is sold as a SaGa game, people will not make a connection with a SE game, published by Nintendo and properly advertised and a game that is not that appealing in the west (lacks story and many of the 1-star reviews are complaining it is not like SaGa at all). If every publisher would take the most successful game of a genre to measure the success they might have, they'd all be bankrupt by now.

SaGa itself isn't much of a pull in the west, the better marketing angle would be to position it as a game from former Square staff behind some of their classics in general. That's pretty much the connection to Bravely Default too, they're similarly nostalgic JRPGs. They even have a similar visual style, it's not a hard leap to make here.

Also, Bravely Default isn't a unique case of genre success on 3DS or even the most successful RPG on the system. The genre does very well in general on the platform, in some cases franchises are even outperforming their PS2 or DS predecessors. It's probably the best system right now for localizing something like LOL.

 

[Psycho_Mantis]

So there was some discussion about re-releases last week that I meant to weigh in on then, but never got around to.

I believe the four examples brought up were:
- Tales of Zesteria PS3 -> PS4 (presumed)
- Tales of Vesperia/Graces -> PS3
- Miku Diva F vs F 2nd
- Persona 3/4

I feel these are all rather different scenarios and aren't necessarily great comparison points, even though they're technically all late ports. Well, maybe they are, but more in the sense of different strategies you can take than things to do 1:1 comparison between.

1.) Tales of Zesteria PS3 -> PS4 (presumed)

This is a case where Tales is going from its best platform to its second best platform, which is not the case we've seen with other Tales recent ports (where they're usually going to better platforms). It's not unreasonable to think that the sales on PS4 would be rather marginal given how the PS4 is doing, the likelihood of how low effort the upgrade would be, and if I'm understanding these threads correctly, that Tales of Zesteria is not a very good game.

Excellent post but the bolded from what I've read is not true at all. It seems to be a notably better game than Xillia. Backlash is coming from one character or lack of said character.
A PS4 port would also help a lot in the West but with localisation apparently coming by this Summer I don't know what's going to happen.

I would think the best thing for Namco would be to do Tales of Zestiria f for PS3/4 with a WW release in the holidays, making sure that they rectify their mistakes.

Speaking of ports, is anyone kinda feeling we will indeed see Persona 3 on Vita, maybe even at the event going on right now?

You got the movies coming out currently, you had P4G which did really well.

Not to mention that wasn't P3P a very scaled down version of its PS2 counterpart? Wouldn't a complete version on Vita be very appealing?

Just for fun, isn't the main color blue in that game? Persona 3: Indigo anyone?

hahaha

 

[DarkLordMalik]

I honestly wouldn't really mind another Persona 3 port which is the definitive version of the game.

 

[Nirolak]

Western sales must be also taken in account when speaking about PS4 port of Zesteria. Xillia sold pretty well in west (230k shipped during launch quarter) and with dying PS3 they are not going to reach anywhere close to those numbers with PS3 only release.

Excellent post but the bolded from what I've read is not true at all. It seems to be a notably better game than Xillia. Backlash is coming from one character or lack of said character.
A PS4 port would also help a lot in the West but with localisation apparently coming by this Summer I don't know what's going to happen.

I would think the best thing for Namco would be to do Tales of Zestiria f for PS3/4 with a WW release in the holidays, making sure that they rectify their mistakes.



hahaha

Yes, Tales PS4 would be notably important in the West.

I was only skimming the last thread, but IIRC the debate was about whether or not it could make up a notable portion of the Xillia gap in Japan.

I could be mistaken.

 

[Opiate]

Famitsu tracks approx. 3,600 participating stores across Japan who send in sales data on a regular basis.

Media Create tracks more than 3,000 stores across Japan the same way.


Both companies extrapolate out to the rest of the Japanese market they don't directly track using proprietary algorithms.

Neither company is a perfect tracker of the Japanese market.

Famitsu has more historical data available (they're older) and tracks a few hundred more stores...but Media Create probably has more major customers in the video game industry...but Famitsu is partnered with NPD and GfK...etc.


Media Create's major customers:

Nintendo
Sony
Microsoft
Square Enix
Capcom
Konami
Bandai Namco
Sega
Electronic Arts
Dentsu Inc.
Other major publishers / developers / researchers


Basically, you can go back and forth with the two. It's best to just look at both sets of numbers and respect them equally.

Personally, Famitsu is my favourite.

Do we have any idea how large "the rest of the Japanese market is?" MC has 3,000 stores. How many stores total are there, approximately?

 

[Psycho_Mantis]

Persona 3 : 210k
Persona 3 FES : 165k
Persona 3 Portable : 209k
Total : 584k

Persona 4 : 294k
Persona 4 Golden : 293k
Total : 587k

Persona 3 FES and 4G HD collection for PS3/4 anyone?

Yes, Tales PS4 would be notably important in the West.

I was only skimming the last thread, but IIRC the debate was about whether or not it could make up a notable portion of the Xillia gap in Japan.

I could be mistaken.

Its clear ToZ won't get anywhere near ToX, it might not even get close to ToX2 but with an updated port its total sales could fall more in line with previous mainline entries.

 

[Hellraider]

Without New 3DS, 3DS is going to be below PS4 right now.

But it's a "short plan" move...

Yeah the problem is we don't know what short term means for Nintendo. Or to be precise what their long term plans are.
Is 4DS supposed to come this year? The next one? 2017?
If n3DS hadn't come out would 4DS be due for this year? The next one? 2017?

For example one could say that it would be better for Nintendo to suffer from half a year of mediocre to bad sales and then go full offensive with 4DS compared to dragging on for a couple of years of decent to bad to terrible sales and launch their new system like this.

 

[Nirolak]

A variety of mobile news, some of it significant.

1.) Chronos Ring is out today. This is the Konami/Tri-Ace game.

2.) As a reflection of the changing times, Monster Strike was a lot more popular than Mario x P&D at Tokaigi: http://www.serkantoto.com/2015/02/01/monster-stadium-monster-strike-mixi-2121/

While GungHo presented the first playable demo for “Puzzle & Dragons – Super Mario Bros. Edition”, the 3DS game that will be released in Japan in April, the Monster Strike booth was much more popular and attracted huge crowds.

This was especially the case when Mixi (2121) demonstrated Monster Stadium on-stage for the first time, the follow-up to their mega hit action RPG.

3.) On that note, Monster Stadium was unveiled (the Monster Strike PvP spin-off). This is a separate app, not an update to the existing app. P&D tried something like this once and failed, which is why P&D:W was an update to P&D, but we've seen companies like King succeed at this. Will be a very interesting one to see play out.

In fact, the company revealed the release date (spring 2015 in Japan) of the game and also what it will be actually about.

Just as previously hinted at, Monster Stadium will focus on PvP, namely 4 against 4 battles and time attack as central game elements. (In contrast, the original is also focusing heavy on the multi-player mode but just lets players cooperate, not battle against each other.)

The way it will work is that Monster Stadium players will need to choose a stage, put together a deck of monsters, become part of a team of up to 4 members, and then clear the stage of monsters – before the other team does. (Monster Strike, however, offers no element of time.)

 

[Pennywise83]

Do we have any idea how large "the rest of the Japanese market is?" MC has 3,000 stores. How many stores total are there, approximately?

This is hard to tell. Video games are sold by a lof of different categories of store, from convenience to department stores, and then there are dedicated stores, consumer electronic stores, and so on.

 

[DarkLordMalik]

Persona 3 : 210k
Persona 3 FES : 165k
Persona 3 Portable : 209k
Total : 584k

Persona 4 : 294k
Persona 4 Golden : 293k
Total : 587k

Persona 3 FES and 4G HD collection for PS3/4 anyone?

No thanks. These visuals are best suited for a portable unless they go over and completely overhaul everything.

 

[Fisico]

Speaking of ports, is anyone kinda feeling we will indeed see Persona 3 on Vita, maybe even at the event going on right now?

You got the movies coming out currently, you had P4G which did really well.

Not to mention that wasn't P3P a very scaled down version of its PS2 counterpart? Wouldn't a complete version on Vita be very appealing?

Just for fun, isn't the main color blue in that game? Persona 3: Indigo anyone?

What about a full remake with all content from both P3P and FES on PS4 in 2017 using the P5 engine to celebrate the release of the fifth movie ?

It's a bit weird they haven't announce something already, and it would be even weirder if they don't release some kind of remake/port/spin-off before the release of the last movie.

 

[Aquamarine]

Do we have any idea how large "the rest of the Japanese market is?" MC has 3,000 stores. How many stores total are there, approximately?

This is hard to tell. Video games are sold by a lof of different categories of store, from convenience to department stores, and then there are dedicated stores, consumer electronic stores, and so on.

It is indeed very hard to tell.

You have a few big retailers that comprise a lot of the market.

I remember Media Create saying the Top 10 had like 52%.



And it makes sense, considering their influence. Yamada Denki (ヤマダ電&#27231 has 960 retail stores, and the vast majority of those sell video games.

Geo has 1,234 retail stores that sell new video games.

Tsutaya has 584 retail stores that sell new video games.

etc.



I've come across the 30,000 total video game stores number:

But I don't know how to relate it to the 3,600 stores figure.

For example, Famitsu + Media Create track Tsutaya. But I don't know if the 3,600 Famitsu / 3,000 Media Create figures count Tsutaya as 1 "store" (retailer), or if they count Tsutaya as 584 individual stores. Probably the latter.

 

[Guamu]

I see that PS4 is expected to rise more because of DQ.

Still, I don't think it will be enough to pass WIIU's LTD by September like some predicted on past threads.

PS4 needs to sell 32244 more units than WIIU on average each week until week 40 (end of September) to Overcome WIIU's LTD.

It needs 24088 more units each week to do it before the year ends.

 

[Coulomb_Barrier]

Upcoming PS4 release schedule looks nice. It's probably not due to Far Cry alone, but people picking up the console in anticipation for titles that interest them.

02/05
Dragon Ball: Xenoverse

02/11
Sengoku Musou 4-II

02/12
Lords of the Fallen

02/19
Dead or Alive 5: Last Round
God Eater 2: Rage Burst
Terraria

02/20
The Order: 1886

02/26
Dragon Quest Heroes: Anryuu to Sekaiju no Shiro

03/05
Evolve

03/12
Ryu ga Gotoku Zero: Chikai no Basho

03/19
Battlefield Hardline
BioHazard: Revelations 2
Final Fantasy Type-0 HD

03/26
Bloodborne
Kagero: Mou Hitori no Princess
Disgaea 5
One Piece: Kaizoku Musou 3
Sengoku Hime 5: Senkatatsu Haoh no Keifu
Senran Kagura: Estival Versus

04/02
Chikyuu Boueigun 4.1: The Shadow of New Despair
LEGO Marvel Batman 3: The Game - Gotham Kara Uchuu e

04/09
Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin

04/16
Dying Light

04/23
BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma Extend
Shin Jigen Game Neptune V II
Toukiden: Kiwami

Great line-up. This should kick-start things with Japanese gamers.

 

[cafemomo]

Poor ace combat

 

[vinnygambini]

Tales collapsed ;.;

It's odd to me that Tales is considered the 3rd biggest JRPG franchise in Japan after Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy as the last 2 iterations of Tales, Xilia 2 & Zestiria, are equivalent or slightly less than Zelda: A Link Between Worlds sales.

 

[Kresnik258]

Well then, that hardware is pretty dire across the board. I was hoping Vita wouldn't have reached these lows again so quickly. And WiiU...

Devil Survivor 2 actually did as I expected based on pre-orders (thanks COMG!) but I didn't realise it was such a strong performance historically for the series. Good for it! I'll have to look into the first game on 3DS.

Bladestorm, yikes. And Durarara did even worse than I expected on already-lowered expectations.

 

[kewlmyc]

Excellent post but the bolded from what I've read is not true at all. It seems to be a notably better game than Xillia. Backlash is coming from one character or lack of said character.
A PS4 port would also help a lot in the West but with localisation apparently coming by this Summer I don't know what's going to happen.

I would think the best thing for Namco would be to do Tales of Zestiria f for PS3/4 with a WW release in the holidays, making sure that they rectify their mistakes.

Rereleasing a game not even a year later that "fixes" everything about the previous release seems kinda messed up and a big "screw you" to the consumers. "We know you weren't the biggest fans of the game when it first came out, but we fixed it 9 months later and are charging the same price for it again to play the correct version." Maybe they should just move on to the next installment at this point.

 

[The Horror the horror]

Those Devil Survivor games are like crack.

Staying far away from 2.

 

[cafemomo]

Rereleasing a game not even a year later that "fixes" everything about the previous release seems kinda messed up and a big "screw you" to the consumers.

lol yeah, this might happen again

 

[dakkumauji]

lol yeah, this might happen again

For all the 'outrage' over Zesitira, I'm surprised this hasn't happened yet.

 

[Psycho_Mantis]

Rereleasing a game not even a year later that "fixes" everything about the previous release seems kinda messed up and a big "screw you" to the consumers. "We know you weren't the biggest fans of the game when it first came out, but we fixed it 9 months later and are charging the same price for it again to play the correct version." Maybe they should just move on to the next installment at this point.

I mean like Graces f. Fix bits but also include a future arc with lots of new content.

Tales collapsed ;.;

It's odd to me that Tales is considered the 3rd biggest JRPG franchise in Japan after Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy as the last 2 iterations of Tales, Xilia 2 & Zestiria, are equivalent or slightly less than Zelda: A Link Between Worlds sales.

Tales of Xillia did 670k though. Its pretty much a yearly franchise now. Persona could very well overtake it with Persona 5.

 

[Sammy Samusu]

Tales collapsed ;.;

It's odd to me that Tales is considered the 3rd biggest JRPG franchise in Japan after Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy as the last 2 iterations of Tales, Xilia 2 & Zestiria, are equivalent or slightly less than Zelda: A Link Between Worlds sales.

Are you saying Zelda is a JRPG?

 

[Oregano]

I mean like Graces f. Fix bits but also include a future arc with lots of new content.



Tales of Xillia did 670k though. Its pretty much a yearly franchise now. Persona could very well overtake it with Persona 5.

Is it a good idea to burn their Sony audience with an obvious beta release? I'm not sure.

I wouldn't be surprised if Fire Emblem and Bravely are also bigger than Tales in the future. Xillia seems like the outlier now.

 

[Takao]

I figured Persona 3: Fourth Time's The Charm would've already been out by now, but I dunno what Atlus is doing.

 

[vinnygambini]

Are you saying Zelda is a JRPG?

Sammy pls

I'm mentioning that the considered third biggest JRPG is doing less or equivalent #'s to Zelda. Many say that Zelda titles don't sell anymore in Japan and yet it's doing the equivalent of a Tales game. Food for thought.

 

[Spiegel]

I figured Persona 3: Fourth Time's The Charm would've already been out by now, but I dunno what Atlus is doing.

Persona 4 Golden apparently taking more time and work than Atlus expected + Persona team busy with Persona 5 + everyone else at Atlus making 3DS games.

After Persona 4 Golden I would have expected better support from Atlus for Vita, but it's not like their 3DS games are selling badly, and those teams are used to DS/3DS hardware.

 

[Mory Dunz]

Wii U....just wow.

Looks like PS4 is about to comfortable become the 2nd best selling system in Japan. Not too difficult, but it seems like the surge is beginning.

With the Wii U selling like it is and the PS4's sales numbers how long will it actually take the PS4 to overtake the WiiU in Japan?

A lot sooner than I originally thought. Sheesh.
Maybe early 2016?

 

[BishopLamont]

ps4 will struggle to keep up with vita numbers, people should take it easy on the wii u overtaking.

 

[antibolo]

ps4 will struggle to keep up with vita numbers, people should take it easy on the wii u overtaking.

Hasn't the PS4 already outsold the Vita in equivalent timeframe?

 

[Pennywise83]

Tales collapsed ;.;

It's odd to me that Tales is considered the 3rd biggest JRPG franchise in Japan after Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy as the last 2 iterations of Tales, Xilia 2 & Zestiria, are equivalent or slightly less than Zelda: A Link Between Worlds sales.

Pokémon is way bigger than all of them.

 

[faridmon]

Holy shit at that Tales of Zestiria drop.

Is that normal for a Tales game?

 

[Principate]

Hasn't the PS4 already outsold the Vita in equivalent timeframe?

I believe he's talking about the year the PS Vita didn't do extremely awful, the year it got it's price cut. It probably won't keep track during the period but it'll be interesting if it manages to beat it's second year.

 

[Soriku]

Holy shit at that Tales of Zestiria drop.

Is that normal for a Tales game?

Yes. Tales is very frontloaded series.

 

[BishopLamont]

Hasn't the PS4 already outsold the Vita in equivalent timeframe?

Vita sold better in its second full year, ps4 has to surpass that.

whats the numbers for equivalent time frame?

i feel like the ps4 barely beat vita numbers if it did.

I believe he's talking about the year the PS Vita didn't do extremely awful, the year it got it's price cut. It probably won't keep track during the period but it'll be interesting if it manages to beat it's second year.

vita has been selling crap since last quarter, that is when the ps4 really has a chance to surpass it, all depends on how much momentum ps4 library gives it.

going by what we've seen so far, i dont think ps4 has enough to do much this year, maybe next year

 

[sörine]

Tales collapsed ;.;

It's odd to me that Tales is considered the 3rd biggest JRPG franchise in Japan after Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy as the last 2 iterations of Tales, Xilia 2 & Zestiria, are equivalent or slightly less than Zelda: A Link Between Worlds sales.

Wouldn't DQ and FF themselves be lower behind Pokémon? Yo-Kai Watch should be ahead of FF too.

 

[antibolo]

Vita sold better in its second full year, ps4 has to surpass that.

whats the numbers for equivalent time frame?

i feel like the ps4 barely beat vita numbers if it did.

The Vita's first year was a total trainwreck, it took more than a full year to reach one million. Meanwhile the PS4 got there in about 10 months.

 

[Nirolak]

Wouldn't DQ and FF themselves be lower behind Pokémon? Yo-Kai Watch should be ahead of FF too.

Mario & Luigi is pretty competitive too on the Tales level.