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Media Create Sales: Week 5, 2015 (Jan 26 - Feb 01)

Takao

Banned
Isn't it kind of crazy that Breath of Fire 6 was announced in August 2013 and still isn't out yet? How many phone/browser games have a dev cycle that long?
 

Grakl

Member
If anyone here is in Boston my school is hosting a weekly meet up and tournament this Saturday. Lmk if you're interested.
 
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.

Not really a beta release. I was saying that Tales of Zestiria will just include a future arc like Graces coming almost a year later. Lot of games do this in, in fact I would say fans would jump on that quickly if Alisha's character progression is rectified.
 

Salex_

Member
If anyone here is in Boston my school is hosting a weekly meet up and tournament this Saturday. Lmk if you're interested.

BSfbbIOCMAEcAUu.jpg
 

Soriku

Junior Member
Not really a beta release. I was saying that Tales of Zestiria will just include a future arc like Graces coming almost a year later. Lot of games do this in, in fact I would say fans would jump on that quickly if Alisha's character progression is rectified.

The DLC scenario already seems to be taking place after the main game...
 

Mory Dunz

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

I feel like the Vita will be dropping a lot this year so the PS4 should regularly be in 2nd witht the games it has.

About coming up to Wii U, catching up sometime in 2016 isn't exactly an out-there prediction imo.
 

Oregano

Member
Not really a beta release. I was saying that Tales of Zestiria will just include a future arc like Graces coming almost a year later. Lot of games do this in, in fact I would say fans would jump on that quickly if Alisha's character progression is rectified.

It still has the end result of telling people "Don't buy the first version", which could negatively affect future entries.
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Isn't it kind of crazy that Breath of Fire 6 was announced in August 2013 and still isn't out yet? How many phone/browser games have a dev cycle that long?

I'm not sure it's actually that uncommon at this point.

Usually they're a bit truncated, but not super truncated.

Of course, a fair amount of that is often testing in a small market and slowly adjusting things based on user feedback.
 
Money. Why else? I mean, they're even doing pre-order mystic artes now.

they didn't expect the fallout to be this bad
they expected mad dlc $$$

So they specifically marketed Alicia as a important character to make people like her, way before the release, so that they could make money from the DLC that involved her, which was planned to be released right after the game's launch.

I would of thought my way would of made more money and would of not have had such a bad reaction.

It still has the end result of telling people "Don't buy the first version", which could negatively affect future entries.

1 year is a suitable amount of time to stop that notion, especially now that we get a Tales nearly every year.
 

Oregano

Member
1 year is a suitable amount of time to stop that notion, especially now that we get a Tales nearly every year.

It's the kind of thing you can get away with if you have goodwill, but I don't think it would go well if it's an effort to "fix" a game. It's playing with fire.

It's probably best to move on to the next game.
 
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.


Thanks ! Very informative post.
 

Prophane33

Member
Say what you will, but Dragon Quest: Heroes should have been a PS4 exclusive. I'm sure it will sell well, but I (and many people) pre-ordered the PS3 version (same with DB:Xenoverse). I refuse to upgrade until there are more exclusive games. VERY curious to see how the sales figures compare on the two versions though.
 

Sandfox

Member
I really don't think a remake would be all that well received from the current Bamco in this situation.

It's probably best to move on to the next game.

That's basically what they said in a recent interview in addition to the fact that the Tales team is a lot smaller than it used to be so we probably won't be seeing a crazy amount of remakes like we're use to.
 

Kid Ying

Member
Say what you will, but Dragon Quest: Heroes should have been a PS4 exclusive. I'm sure it will sell well, but I (and many people) pre-ordered the PS3 version (same with DB:Xenoverse). I refuse to upgrade until there are more exclusive games. VERY curious to see how the sales figures compare on the two versions though.
Im very curious to see the effect of the ps3/vita over the sales of the ps4 versions. When people list the upcoming games, theres no doubt its a great lineup, but most of it is also coming on the ps3 or vita or both.

The ps4 already had a couple of multiplatfor big japanese games and nome of them resulted in higher sales and in most of the cases, the audience just got divided. I think DQ heroes is the first title that can actually have some nice sales across both consoles. I've got no hope for the other titles at all.
 

Oregano

Member
Im very curious to see the effect of the ps3/vita over the sales of the ps4 versions. When people list the upcoming games, theres no doubt its a great lineup, but most of it is also coming on the ps3 or vita or both.

The ps4 already had a couple of multiplatfor big japanese games and nome of them resulted in higher sales and in most of the cases, the audience just got divided. I think DQ heroes is the first title that can actually have some nice sales across both consoles. I've got no hope for the other titles at all.

Well the thing is the PS4 is the one leeching titles from PS3 and Vita, not the other way around. Especially in regards to stuff like God Eater and Toukiden.
 
Well the thing is the PS4 is the one leeching titles from PS3 and Vita, not the other way around. Especially in regards to stuff like God Eater and Toukiden.

PS4 SKU in such cases was probably added for Western sales. Its a good decision but lets see how it turns out.
 

Oregano

Member
PS4 SKU in such cases was probably added for Western sales. Its a good decision but lets see how it turns out.

That's true but I mean in the sense that if only one of the SKUs existed I doubt it would be the PS4 one. I am also curious to see how those game do on PS4, both in Japan and the west.
 

ZhugeEX

Banned
Say what you will, but Dragon Quest: Heroes should have been a PS4 exclusive. I'm sure it will sell well, but I (and many people) pre-ordered the PS3 version (same with DB:Xenoverse). I refuse to upgrade until there are more exclusive games. VERY curious to see how the sales figures compare on the two versions though.

My estimate is that PS3 will easily outsell the PS4 version but the PS4 version will become the best selling PS4 game in Japan (excluding Knack)
 

small44

Member
Say what you will, but Dragon Quest: Heroes should have been a PS4 exclusive. I'm sure it will sell well, but I (and many people) pre-ordered the PS3 version (same with DB:Xenoverse). I refuse to upgrade until there are more exclusive games. VERY curious to see how the sales figures compare on the two versions though.

On Comgnet store the ps3 version pre-order is ahead of ps4 version so i don't think it's a good thing for square enix to make it exclusive to ps4
 
On Comgnet store the ps3 version pre-order is ahead of ps4 version so i don't think it's a good thing for square enix to make it exclusive to ps4

Well the whole project smells like small moneyhat from Sony so in case of it being only on PS4 Sony would have had to pay more for lost sales of PS3 version. I guess they didn't want to.
 
PS4 will beat Wii U sales but don't think it will be this year. Can't think of any big guns for Wii U that have yet to release but it's the opposite case for PS4 where no big game I can think of has released. Dragon Quest and MGS V weeks for example should see big boosts in PS4 sales, I can't see MGS V week not having PS4 sales being at least 70k+. Hope Persona 5 does well for Atlus, the game has been in development for a very long time now.
 

hiska-kun

Member
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 (ヤマダ電機) 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:

sQBdbE2.png


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.

Not all Tsutaya stores sell videogames.
Tsutaya stores also sell CD and DVD and some shops are just specialited in these two articles, not selling videogames.
 
Not all Tsutaya stores sell videogames.
Tsutaya stores also sell CD and DVD and some shops are just specialited in these two articles, not selling videogames.

Indeed. Media Create + Famitsu only track the 584 Tsutaya stores that sell new video games, not the 822 Tsutaya stores that don't.
 

Kasumin

Member
Alisha was marketed as the main heroine, but she ended up being a minor character you can't play for most of the game. But they're releasing a DLC with her as the main character (free for a limited time) soon. Most people are mad their waifu got slighted.

If you read the impressions from level headed people in the import thread on here or a few threads on GameFAQs, the game has a few issues, but it's a pretty good game.

Getting really tired of seeing this blanket statement trotted out here to dismiss any complaints directed towards
the Alisha DLC
.

I don't even care that much about the character. What I do care about is that Tales games have been having more and more content ripped out of them and put out as DLC. And now they're having an entire DLC chapter devoted to a character
that was marketed in a misleading manner, with even the game Tales of Asteria listing Alisha as the heroine of ToZ until recently.
I'm angry about the DLC practice. I'd be just as mad if it were a DLC chapter with Sorey or Mikleo or Lailah or whatever. I don't get how that point gets brushed under the rug because of "lol waifu." To me, increasing amounts of DLC is the much, much bigger problem here. And if they get away with this, past precedent shows that they'll just take more content out of future games and make them DLC.

The DLC being free for a short period doesn't excuse it either, in my opinion.
 

Soriku

Junior Member
Getting really tired of seeing this blanket statement trotted out here to dismiss any complaints directed towards
the Alisha DLC
.

I don't even care that much about the character. What I do care about is that Tales games have been having more and more content ripped out of them and put out as DLC. And now they're having an entire DLC chapter devoted to a character
that was marketed in a misleading manner, with even the game Tales of Asteria listing Alisha as the heroine of ToZ until recently.
I'm angry about the DLC practice. I'd be just as mad if it were a DLC chapter with Sorey or Mikleo or Lailah or whatever. I don't get how that point gets brushed under the rug because of "lol waifu." To me, increasing amounts of DLC is the much, much bigger problem here. And if they get away with this, past precedent shows that they'll just take more content out of future games and make them DLC.

The DLC being free for a short period doesn't excuse it either, in my opinion.

We're talking about Amazon Japan users here, and they were giving the game bad scores before the DLC info came out. So no, the waifu talk is pretty accurate. Not to say Namco didn't do a bad job in marketing Alisha's true role in the game, but Zestiria is obviously not a 1-star game.

Most people who buy Tales games in Japan buy it in the first week. The DLC is coming out on the 13th, so nearly all of them will have access to the Alisha DLC for free during the time period. You wanted more Alisha, you got it.
 

extralite

Member
So they specifically marketed Alicia as a important character to make people like her, way before the release, so that they could make money from the DLC that involved her, which was planned to be released right after the game's launch.

I would of thought my way would of made more money and would of not have had such a bad reaction.



1 year is a suitable amount of time to stop that notion, especially now that we get a Tales nearly every year.

I mentioned this last thread already but to explain it in more detail: 1300 yen without retailer's cut, cost for pressing discs, keeping stock, logistics etc. is a lot. And Bamco get that from most second hand buyers as well, because few would pass on such an important part of the game.

If you buy a lot of games and need to save money, you will rely on the second hand market. That is the reason why most single player core games collapse in the second week, because by then already used copies turn up in stores. Since rentals are prohibited in Japan the used market took its place.

Multiplayer (or other long term enjoyable content) and DLC are the best tools to combat lost profits from the used market. A second version for PS4, even if it sold as well as PS3 ports (and we know it wouldn't even be close), would only about double the original sales. I'm pretty sure on the used market the factor of additional players is significantly higher so they try to translate that to DLC downloads.
 

Kikujiro

Member
I hope Bamco realizes that their money grabbing policies will hurt them in the long, or maybe they are already making enough money so they just don't care.
 
Isn't it kind of crazy that Breath of Fire 6 was announced in August 2013 and still isn't out yet? How many phone/browser games have a dev cycle that long?
Hopefully the game is scrapped and Capcom is now working on a proper sequel for Breath of Fire.
 

monpiece

Banned
I think it is a bit worrying that Namco keeps making mistakes that turn off some of their fans with Tales series. Market is not in a situation that may allow them to make mistakes now and recover later.

The series have many dedicated fans and judging by the historical sales, sell mostly to their established fanbase. If the recent mistakes drive away part of their fanbase, it might become unrecoverable even if they make a great Tales game in the future.
 

Chris1964

Sales-Age Genius
new releases

{2015.02.11}

[3DS] Nanatsu no Taizai: The Seven Deadly Sins - Unjust Sin <ADV> (Bandai Namco Games) (¥6.145)

[PSV] Samurai Warriors 4-II # <ACT> (Koei Tecmo) (¥6.264)
[PSV] Samurai Warriors 4-II (Treasure Box) <ACT> (Koei Tecmo) (¥11.664)
[PSV] Ukiyo no Shishi <ADV> (Spike Chunsoft) (¥6.264)
[PSV] Gakuen Heaven: Boy's Love Scramble! <ADV> (Prototype) (¥5.940)

[PS4] Samurai Warriors 4-II # <ACT> (Koei Tecmo) (¥7.344)
[PS4] Samurai Warriors 4-II (Treasure Box) <ACT> (Koei Tecmo) (¥12.744)

[PS3] Samurai Warriors 4-II # <ACT> (Koei Tecmo) (¥6.264)
[PS3] Samurai Warriors 4-II (Treasure Box) <ACT> (Koei Tecmo) (¥11.664)
[PS3] Rewrite <ADV> (Prototype) (¥6.588)


{2015.02.12}

[PSV] Hyakka Yakou <ADV> (Idea Factory) (¥6.264)
[PSV] Daitoshokan no Hitsujikai: Library Party <ADV> (Kaga Create) (¥7.344)

[PS4] The Lord of the Fallen <RPG> (Ubisoft) (¥7.992)


{2015.02.14}

[3DS] The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D # <ADV> (Nintendo) (¥5.076)
[3DS] The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D (New Nintendo 3DS The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D Pack) <ADV> (Nintendo) (¥24.840)
 

L~A

Member
I was wondering why so many releases were on a Wednesday, turns out Feb. 11 is actually a public holiday.
 
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