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[Nirolak]

Haha, I mean, have you seen the game though? The focus on idols in all their forms is leagues beyond any samurai references in SMT4. They went IN and that's why you see so many who were turned off.

I do think they went for something that was really trying to double down on the otaku teenage anime audience. We even have 30 year old doughnut loving Naruto in the game.

That said I think it's still something more similar to Tokyo Xanadu, TWEWY, or Persona than an actual rhythm game. However, that audience isn't always huge, is not tremendously easy to cater to, and is not what I'd immediately associate with the Wii U.

Going back to the Splatoon comparisons I did earlier, that is also a game about embracing youth culture, but it tries to do it on a more abstracted level and put in elements from around the world instead of going 100% in on the more intense parts of Akihabara culture.

 

[theprodigy]

one last comgnet comparison to hit the road, debut week points:

Genei Ibun Roku #FE: <=21 (it does have a bundle though...a very limited one)
Bayonetta 2: 30

also given how fast the numbers are shooting up in the Americas, 80% of XCX's sales coming outside of Japan may have been undershooting it

 

[randomkid]

The idea of the project was to make a Fire Emblem game immersed in modern Japanese youth culture. They decided to go with modern day teens in Tokyo who have a connection to Fire Emblem characters (a la Personas in Persona) instead of sending Lucina and Chrom through a time machine to 2015. Atlus is a pretty obvious partner for that kind of thing since they're one of the few studios that really excel at this. The other option would have been signing a Nomura group at Square Enix or something, but that would probably be way harder than an independent studio whose parent company was going bankrupt.

I guess I would say I think that the Devil Survivor director and a lot of the new younger Atlus staff members are really just major otaku and ended up turning this into a passion project for themselves without really considering whether the market was interested or existed (I think I've read articles on SMT4's development where there were tensions between character preferences between older and newer staff). I remember the director even came up with a sad little mythological justification for the idol focus, I guess thinking that this would somehow appeal to SMT fans. Every character in the game is in the idol industry or wants to be a part of it and everything in the game is designed around that, and I'm just not sure if there's a market for this idol stuff outside of rhythm games.

 

[Moor-Angol]

15 reviews for the Xbox One, 812 for the New 3DS AC adapter.

15 people spent 40,000yen for a complete system, 812 people spent 1,000yen for something which should be included with the system

 

[metalslimer]

I don't think xenobkade x will make much money if any at all but I think Nintendo is happy having that type of title on their system. The next one should probably be cross platform with the NX handheld though. I don't think Nintendo is going to fundamentally change the types of games monolith makes anytime soon.

 

[Nirolak]

I guess I would say I think that the Devil Survivor director and a lot of the new younger Atlus staff members are really just major otaku and ended up turning this into a passion project for themselves without really considering whether the market was interested or existed (I think I've read articles on SMT4's development where there were tensions between character preferences between older and newer staff). I remember the director even came up with a sad little mythological justification for the idol focus, I guess thinking that this would somehow appeal to SMT fans. Every character in the game is in the idol industry or wants to be a part of it and everything in the game is designed around that, and I'm just not sure if there's a market for this idol stuff outside of rhythm games.

The game is a good example of a marketing failure, and I don't mean that in the promotion and advertising sense.

There's a front end to marketing which is basically establishing the parameters of your project and making sure that you have a clearly defined, believably present audience for whatever you're making given the circumstances under which you're making it.

This is not a project that paid attention to that.

I don't think xenobkade x will make much money if any at all but I think Nintendo is happy having that type of title on their system. The next one should probably be cross platform with the NX handheld though.

Xenoblade strikes me as a long term play in the same way that Forza is a long term play for Microsoft.

Nintendo wants more of the JRPG audience. Microsoft wants more of the European audience. They're investing in series that might not necessarily be their first choice if not for wider strategic goals.

 

[Scum]

The game is a good example of a marketing failure, and I don't mean that in the promotion and advertising sense.

There's a front end to marketing which is basically establishing the parameters of your project and making sure that you have a clearly defined, believably present audience for whatever you're making given the circumstances under which you're making it.

This is not a project that paid attention to that.

It's amazing, and yet appalling, how NCL become completely lost with initial marketing of titles that are not "Nintendo titles". They handled Splatoon from start to finish brilliantly but then foul up with Bayonetta 2. lool
They need to get their act together with these kind of games, though. Then again, they hardly ever make them, so...

 

[horuhe]

15 people spent 40,000yen for a complete system, 812 people spent 1,000yen for something which should be included with the system

Hino-sama wanted the Kimishima's head with that comment, lol.

------

Btw, can we expect at least #FE to enter the Media Create Top 20?

 

[Akhe]

Bombing or not, I want #FE so badly.

 

[randomkid]

The game is a good example of a marketing failure, and I don't mean that in the promotion and advertising sense.

There's a front end to marketing which is basically establishing the parameters of your project and making sure that you have a clearly defined, believably present audience for whatever you're making given the circumstances under which you're making it.

This is not a project that paid attention to that.

Yuuuup, that about covers it. I just don't see any evidence that even modern Persona's audience wanted to see an idol-focused RPG.

 

[Nirolak]

It's amazing, and yet appalling, how NCL become completely lost with initial marketing of titles that are not "Nintendo titles". They handled Splatoon from start to finish brilliantly but then foul up with Bayonetta 2. lool
They need to get their act together with these kind of games, though. Then again, they hardly ever make them, so...

...That's not the kind of marketing I'm talking about.

I mean the type of "marketing" you do before you even make a game, which is "market research".

For Bayonetta 2, the primary failure was picking it up at all given the type of audience they were likely to get, but it was done for strategic reasons that didn't really pan out.

Console vendors sometimes make unusual moves you wouldn't see out of third parties because they're making investments in trying to grow their reach instead of just maximize profits, but by nature they're high risk ventures since you're explicitly releasing something that doesn't appeal to an audience you know you have.

However, there are better and worse bets on that front in terms of likelihood to succeed. You want to pick the best bets instead of every bet.

 

[Scum]

...That's not the kind of marketing I'm talking about.

I mean the type of "marketing" you do before you even make a game, which is "market research".

For Bayonetta 2, the primary failure was picking it up at all given the type of audience they were likely to get, but it was done for strategic reasons that didn't really pan out.

Oohhhhh. I see what you mean.

 

[Mory Dunz]

one last comgnet comparison to hit the road, debut week points:

Genei Ibun Roku #FE: <=21 (it does have a bundle though...a very limited one)
Bayonetta 2: 30

also given how fast the numbers are shooting up in the Americas, 80% of XCX's sales coming outside of Japan may have been undershooting it

wait what happened?

I don't think xenobkade x will make much money if any at all but I think Nintendo is happy having that type of title on their system. The next one should probably be cross platform with the NX handheld though. I don't think Nintendo is going to fundamentally change the types of games monolith makes anytime soon.

it seems to be more about building an environment than actually posting a huge profit from XCX. Though that would also be welcome.

 

[ivysaur12]

wait what happened?



it seems to be more about building an environment than actually posting a huge profit from XCX. Though that would also be welcome.

There is a monster in Xenoblade X that can be killed once at the beginning of the game that you have to kill for the story to continue, and it's tallied regionally in the game. The NA total has (presumedly, I'm still at my parents's house) shot up in recent days from a number that already fast eclipsed the Japanese YTD.

 

[theprodigy]

Hino-sama wanted the Kimishima's head with that comment, lol.

------

Btw, can we expect at least #FE to enter the Famitsu Top 30?

top 30? is that a joke

now for top 10, which you had pre-edit, well here's this week:

01./00. [3DS] Monster Strike <RPG> (Mixi) {2015.12.17} (¥4.860) - 425.268 / NEW <40-60%>
02./01. [3DS] Monster Hunter X # <ACT> (Capcom) {2015.11.28} (¥6.264) - 159.806 / 2.267.916 <80-100%> (-16%)
03./00. [PS4] Fallout 4 # <RPG> (Bethesda Softworks) {2015.12.17} (¥8.618) - 121.099 / NEW <60-80%>
04./02. [3DS] Yo-Kai Watch Busters: Red Cat Team / White Dog Squad <ACT> (Level 5) {2015.07.11} (¥4.968) - 99.190 / 1.860.532 <80-100%> (+50%)
05./04. [WIU] Super Mario Maker # <ACT> (Nintendo) {2015.09.10} (¥6.156) - 80.807 / 576.913 <80-100%> (+95%)
06./03. [WIU] Splatoon # <ACT> (Nintendo) {2015.05.28} (¥6.156) - 77.028 / 966.801 <80-100%> (+76%)
07./11. [3DS] Disney Magic World 2 # <ETC> (Bandai Namco Games) {2015.11.05} (¥6.145) - 43.331 / 203.262 <60-80%> (+86%)
08./13. [3DS] Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer # <ETC> (Nintendo) {2015.07.30} (¥4.320) - 40.896 / 1.222.487 <80-100%> (+94%)
09./07. [3DS] Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam <RPG> (Nintendo) {2015.12.03} (¥5.076) - 38.962 / 119.091 <40-60%> (+30%)
10./17. [3DS] Rhythm Heaven: The Best+ <ACT> (Nintendo) {2015.06.11} (¥5.076) - 34.198 / 560.698 <80-100%> (+183%)
11./00. [PSV] Miracle Girls Festival <ACT> (Sega) {2015.12.17} (¥7.549) - 33.580 / NEW <60-80%>
12./15. [PSV] Minecraft: PlayStation Vita Edition <ADV> (Sony Computer Entertainment) {2015.03.19} (¥2.592) - 27.159 / 431.229 <80-100%> (+96%)

yeah...

edit: top 10 to top 30 to top 20? pls I can't keep up with all these edits

it's impossible for not to... not entering top 20 is like less than 3k?

top 20 MC cutoff is 10500 this week and should be higher next week, that being said even #FE should make that easily

 

[kuroneko0509]

Hino-sama wanted the Kimishima's head with that comment, lol.

------

Btw, can we expect at least #FE to enter the Media Create Top 20?

it's impossible for not to... not entering top 20 is like less than 3k?

top 30? is that a joke

now for top 10, which you had pre-edit, well here's this week:

so it went from top 10 to top 20 and now top 30? horuhepls

 

[TheGreatLugia]

wait what happened?

There is a monster in Xenoblade X that can be killed once at the beginning of the game that you have to kill for the story to continue, and it's tallied regionally in the game. The NA total has (presumedly, I'm still at my parents's house) shot up in recent days from a number that already fast eclipsed the Japanese YTD.

The NA number was at 211k when I checked last night.

 

[Kanann]

&#9839;FE

Great game (still playing), but I understand why it doesn't sell.
Shame to you all, Megaten fans!

 

[Mory Dunz]

There is a monster in Xenoblade X that can be killed once at the beginning of the game that you have to kill for the story to continue, and it's tallied regionally in the game. The NA total has (presumedly, I'm still at my parents's house) shot up in recent days from a number that already fast eclipsed the Japanese YTD.

The NA number was at 211k when I checked last night.

Ohh...wow, that's cool. I didn't know about that. I've been watching my brother play it when I've been there.


that being said, you kinda got my hopes up lol. With how theprodigy phrased it at first.
December is about over, and I expected 200-250k for Xenoblade first month. 211k so far is kinda...eh to me. Oh well, maybe it'll get legs.

 

[horuhe]

top 30? is that a joke
edit: top 10 to top 30 to top 20? pls I can't keep up with all these edits
top 20 MC cutoff is 10500 this week and should be higher next week, that being said even #FE should make that easily

Haha, you caught me. I wasn't sure what to ask.

it's impossible for not to... not entering top 20 is like less than 3k?
so it went from top 10 to top 20 and now top 30? horuhepls

I got confused with the numbers, sorry guys for the edits, haha.
Thanks for the answer, yes I thought it could enter top 10, but it obviously can't. Hope it enter top 20, at least, but also seems very difficult, though.

 

[Nirolak]

Oohhhhh. I see what you mean.

Another good example of great front end marketing would be the PAYDAY series. There were basically no games that really tried to simulate performing heists, especially as their primary focus, and definitely not in multiplayer.

There were games where you "heisted things" in that you played a completely normal first or third person shooter in the context of a bank heist, or maybe there was a heist mission or two in game like GTA 4, but there was nothing dedicated to the idea with lots of explicit mechanics to make it feel like you were performing heists instead of just experiencing window dressing.

So the first game didn't do that much better of a job than other games prior, being more of a horde mode game, but with the sequel and its updates they really went all in on coming up with a progressive skill system full of options for different types of heisting, choices between stealthy and loud routes, trade offs in terms of getting more money or less risk, many different scenarios, a scouting phase, a planning phase, various loadouts, and increasing scope and scale as you became better robbers. It was a concept that was immediately appealing to people despite all its faults and sold a lot even with relatively weak reviews.

We can see the same with Destiny and its marriage between loot games, MMO mechanics, co-op experiences, and strong shooting gameplay. Only ended up with a 76 on Metacritic, but sold incredible well. Now, both of these games also had quality back end marketing, but that wasn't the crux of their success. Borderlands 1 had a similar conceptual triumph and the first game shipped over 6 million copies with only one week of television advertising.

 

[shadow2810]

Haha, you caught me. I wasn't sure what to ask.

I got confused with the numbers, sorry guys for the edits, haha.
Thanks for the answer, yes I thought it could enter top 10, but it obviously can't. Hope it enter top 20, at least, but also seems very difficult, though.

It needs to sell at least 10k to have a chance in top 20, which seems... possible?

 

[ivysaur12]

Ohh...wow, that's cool. I didn't know about that. I've been watching my brother play it when I've been there.


that being said, you kinda got my hopes up lol. With how theprodigy phrased it at first.
December is about over, and I expected 200-250k for Xenoblade first month. 211k so far is kinda...eh to me. Oh well, maybe it'll get legs.

You did?

 

[kuroneko0509]

Oh I forgot this is holiday period, top 20 cutoff is higher than usual. Then again I still believe it can get to top 20 easily

 

[Mory Dunz]

You did?

uh yeah...is there something wrong with the bolded?

 

[kuroneko0509]

uh yeah...is there something wrong with the bolded?

you expected a certain range of sale for the 1st month, then 'eh' at the result which achieved your expectation... so ivysaur12 got confused

 

[Hero of Legend]

...That's not the kind of marketing I'm talking about.

I mean the type of "marketing" you do before you even make a game, which is "market research".

For Bayonetta 2, the primary failure was picking it up at all given the type of audience they were likely to get, but it was done for strategic reasons that didn't really pan out.

Console vendors sometimes make unusual moves you wouldn't see out of third parties because they're making investments in trying to grow their reach instead of just maximize profits, but by nature they're high risk ventures since you're explicitly releasing something that doesn't appeal to an audience you know you have.

However, there are better and worse bets on that front in terms of likelihood to succeed. You want to pick the best bets instead of every bet.

Actually I think Nintendo accomplished something amazing for picking up Bayonetta 2 (and 1) that's not in sheer profits.

First, they now have to their name one of THE greatest critically acclaimed games of all time exclusively.

But also it surely opened up something special, see her being voted top in EU and Top 5 in NA to be in Smash. Do you think for one second that she would've had any chance period had Nintendo not picked up the games? I highly doubt it, especially prior to Bayonetta 2 being announced, she had ZERO association with Nintendo. Even Cloud had cameos here and there on Nintendo systems, plus of course he's very iconic.

To me Nintendo's choice was not in vein, they honestly were rewarded in other ways. Hell NPD leaks show it's not even doing that bad IIRC. Wasn't it selling at a faster rate than both the 360 and PS3 versions of the original on a FAR smaller userbase?

 

[ivysaur12]

uh yeah...is there something wrong with the bolded?

Well, first, the number in question would be right in line with your estimate. Second, I still will be surprised if Xenoblade crosses 200k in America in its first month.

 

[KillerMan91]

1.1m wasn't launch for the west, it was pre-launch. Sega booked that sell-in about a week before NA/EU street date in their IR reports. That extra 250k could've shipped before launch too, although it's not that much of a surprise some additional copies would be moved in the early window depending on regional distribution. And the fast and steep price drops (along with the NPD sellthrough figures we got) don't really paint the picture of a game that wasn't insanely overshipped. It's not like channel stuffed efforts never ship anything else either, Lost Planet 2 being another good example with even worse sellthrough/price slashing yet somehow higher shipments. Capcom used to really be the king of channel stuffing though.

You also have to consider more than development budget if you want to make a direct XCX comparison. Bayonetta was being heralded as the spiritual successor to DMC, it had a gigantic push in the enthusiast press, it was developed basically as a 360 exclusive and had to have a contracted PS3 port added to the budget... I don't think it's difficult to see how Sega might've had bigger expectations versus the results they saw with it. Meanwhile Takahashi's interview sort of implies and Nintendo probably had more managed expectations for his game and he was probably budgeted accordingly.

Well considering how Xenoblade X seems to be Nintendos main game for WiiU in west during these holidays it shouldn't have the smallest marketing budget either. Nevertheless I guess it's rather impossible to prove who is right and who is wrong without knowing the actual budget. It would not be first time though that the first party publisher publishes games that don't even target to make that much money. I have hard time to believe that original Xenoblade was big enough success to greenlight HD sequel based on sales alone (at least if you were third party publisher). Other case being Bayonetta 2. Xenoblade X could be game simply to diversify the first party line up and bring JRPG demographics to WiiU that then would buy other similar games. Very much like Sony funded various AAA shooters last gen that I doubt made a significant amount of money ( or money at all).

 

[Mory Dunz]

you expected a certain range of sale for the 1st month, then 'eh' at the result which achieved your expectation... so ivysaur12 got confused

my "eh" doesn't have a negative connotation here.

Maybe I should've said, "nice".


When I heard "how fast the numbers are shooting up in the Americas" my mind just went a bit higher is all.

....judging by the reaction, what were general expectations here for xeno in NPD? I'm guessing lower than 200k?

 

[theprodigy]

my "eh" doesn't have a negative connotation here.

Maybe I should've said, "nice".


When I heard "how fast the numbers are shooting up in the Americas" my mind just went a bit higher is all.

....judging by the reaction, what were general expectations here for xeno in NPD? I'm guessing lower than 200k?

er...with or without digital? asking in case Nintendo doesn't give PR

(P.S. kuroneko0509 you can give us an EU update, NA got quite the Christmas bump)

 

[horuhe]

It needs to sell at least 10k to have a chance in top 20, which seems... possible?

As far as we know, it already sold that 10k. However, the game only was counted that two days. Let's suppose there were shipped 50k units, and keeping in mind in sold at least the 40% of that shipping (it was confirmed around 20% for the first day, and usually the second day games don't sell the same first-day sellthrough) in could have sold only 20k. It is possible to chart, yes. But, don't forget this is the highest week of the year, in terms of numbers. We've got some realeses this week, and games that this week are between the 20th and the 30th position, could easily go up some good numbers. The cutoff maybe could be between 12k and 16k.

Yeah, it could enter but in my opinion, is not that easy as maybe we can expect.

 

[Sammy Samusu]

I don't think xenobkade x will make much money if any at all but I think Nintendo is happy having that type of title on their system. The next one should probably be cross platform with the NX handheld though. I don't think Nintendo is going to fundamentally change the types of games monolith makes anytime soon.

It will definitely make money. X will not bomb in the US. Also, it's selling systems so that's more money for Nintendo (and also an opportunity to sell more games).

 

[Mory Dunz]

er...with or without digital? asking in case Nintendo doesn't give PR

(P.S. kuroneko0509 you can give us an EU update, NA got quite the Christmas bump)

The 211k number is with digital right? So I guess with digital.


Oh...so it was selling at cerain rate, but it increased a fair amount with christmas. Now I get what you meant before by shooting up.

 

[Sandfox]

The 211k number is with digital right? So I guess with digital.


Oh...so it was selling at cerain rate, but it increased a fair amount with christmas. Now I get what you meant before by shooting up.

I wouldn't take that number as gospel because there are other factors at play.

 

[theprodigy]

I wouldn't take that number as gospel because there are other factors at play.

well the numbers obviously don't go up at the same rate as actual sales (like I'd imagine the Christmas bump was copies bought way earlier finally being played as much as anything else), but I'm fairly sure the ratio between that number and actual sales will be less than 1 (although since it includes the entire Americas on top of digital, this won't be so easy to verify)

edit: oh and of course connectivity rate is probably the biggest variable here

 

[TheGreatLugia]

I wouldn't take that number as gospel because there are other factors at play.

Yeah, and not just from not knowing the physical/digital split. I think it's alright for the info to serve as a rough estimate to give a more general idea, though.

 

[LiveFromKyoto]

I feel the core issue here though is that the people who own a Wii U don't see it as a game they want to buy.

If Nintendo teased a new Mario X Kirby game in a way that made everyone convinced it was a 2D platformer where you played Kirby in Mario worlds and it turned out it was a 3D platformer where you played Mario with some light Kirby thematic elements, that strikes me as something that would still sell, even if there was a number of upset Kirby fans.

Yeah, they just messed up the theme. SMT & FE both have audiences on 3DS, the Wii U audience is largely a subset of the same folks. Had they gone with something that more straightforwardly represented those franchises, they could have had a hit. Instead, they went with something that would have been a better fit on the Vita.

 

[hiska-kun]

Tsutaya's Ranking Week 52 2015 Biggest week of the year

01./02. [3DS] Monster Hunter X <ACT> (Capcom)
02./01. [3DS] Monster Strike <RPG> (Mixi)
03.00. [PSV] Mobile Suit Gundam Extreme Vs-Force <ACT> (Bandai Namco Games)
04./04. [WIU] Splatoon <ACT> (Nintendo)
05./12. [3DS] Yo-kai Watch Busters: White Dog Squad <ACT> (Level 5)
06./03. [PS4] Fallout 4 <RPG> (Bethesda Softworks)
07./14. [3DS] Yo-kai Watch Busters: Red Cat Team <ACT> (Level 5)
08./10. [WIU] Super Mario Maker <ETC> (Nintendo)
09./15. [PSV] Minecraft: PlayStation Vita Edition <ADV> (Sony Computer Entertainment)
10./06. [3DS] Disney Magic World 2: My Happy Life <ETC> (Bandai Namco Games)
11./17. [3DS] Rhythm Heaven: The Best+ <ACT> (Nintendo)
12./08. [3DS] Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam <RPG> (Nintendo)
13./16. [3DS] Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer <ETC> (Nintendo)
14./00. [3DS] Medarot 9: Kabuto Ver. <RPG> (Rocket Company)
15./19. [3DS] Sumikko Gurashi: Omise Hajimerundesu <ETC> (Nippon Columbia)
16./00. [WIU] Shin Megami Tensei x Fire Emblem <SLG> (Nintendo)
17./07. [PSV] Exist Archive: The Other Side of the Sky <RPG> (Spike Chunsoft)
18./29. [3DS] Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer (NFC Reader / Writer Set) <ETC> (Nintendo)
19./00. [3DS] Medarot 9: Kuwagata Ver. <RPG> (Rocket Company)
20./25. [PS4] Star Wars: Battlefront <ACT> (Electronic Arts)

 

[Scum]

Another good example of great front end marketing would be the PAYDAY series. There were basically no games that really tried to simulate performing heists, especially as their primary focus, and definitely not in multiplayer.

There were games where you "heisted things" in that you played a completely normal first or third person shooter in the context of a bank heist, or maybe there was a heist mission or two in game like GTA 4, but there was nothing dedicated to the idea with lots of explicit mechanics to make it feel like you were performing heists instead of just experiencing window dressing.

So the first game didn't do that much better of a job than other games prior, being more of a horde mode game, but with the sequel and its updates they really went all in on coming up with a progressive skill system full of options for different types of heisting, choices between stealthy and loud routes, trade offs in terms of getting more money or less risk, many different scenarios, a scouting phase, a planning phase, various loadouts, and increasing scope and scale as you became better robbers. It was a concept that was immediately appealing to people despite all its faults and sold a lot even with relatively weak reviews.

We can see the same with Destiny and its marriage between loot games, MMO mechanics, co-op experiences, and strong shooting gameplay. Only ended up with a 76 on Metacritic, but sold incredible well. Now, both of these games also had quality back end marketing, but that wasn't the crux of their success. Borderlands 1 had a similar conceptual triumph and the first game shipped over 6 million copies with only one week of television advertising.

Cheers for the info.
Would it be right of me to say that this is the kind of thinking that Nintendo Garage had with Splatoon then? Either way, I'd love for Nintendo to spend some more time with their market research for the games that they'd like Atlus and PlatinumGames to create for them. #FE is such a "Vita game". lool

 

[Vena]

Japans tracking of XCX from Volkampf was off by about 10-20k, iirc. Actual sales as far as we have overshot the Volkampf estimate. So its decently accurate.

 

[Psycho_Mantis]

I do think they went for something that was really trying to double down on the otaku teenage anime audience. We even have 30 year old doughnut loving Naruto in the game.

That said I think it's still something more similar to Tokyo Xanadu, TWEWY, or Persona than an actual rhythm game. However, that audience isn't always huge, is not tremendously easy to cater to, and is not what I'd immediately associate with the Wii U.

Going back to the Splatoon comparisons I did earlier, that is also a game about embracing youth culture, but it tries to do it on a more abstracted level and put in elements from around the world instead of going 100% in on the more intense parts of Akihabara culture.

err what lol
I honestly don't know why Nintendo/Atlus went down such a route to attract a JRPG audience. Were they trying to replicate the success of Persona, if so, surely they could see how bad the game is at imitating what made Persona such a beloved series.

 

[AyanFaust]

err what lol
I honestly don't know why Nintendo/Atlus went down such a route to attract a JRPG audience. Were they trying to replicate the success of Persona, if so, surely they could see how bad the game is at imitating what made Persona such a beloved series.

What made Persona beloved for you? For me it was the game play, characters and writing. #FE already looks like it has very solid gameplay from what I've heard from fellow Gaffers, and I haven't heard anything bad about the characters or writing. Is there something else that I'm missing(besides "lol idols")?

I'm excited for it and a little disheartened by it getting low sales. I'm assuming there's no other indication for why it's doing poorly besides the fact it's sort of targeted to the wrong crowd, and the crowd that's for it isn't exactly large anyway since I've been hearing mostly very positive things about the game.

 

[Sterok]

Did Nintendo do anything beyond funding and a little promotion for it? I can't imagine the idol stuff would be their idea.

 

[metalslimer]

It will definitely make money. X will not bomb in the US. Also, it's selling systems so that's more money for Nintendo (and also an opportunity to sell more games).

It doesn't have to bomb in the US for it not to make money. That being said my point wasn't about whether it would make money but that Nintendo likely wasn't expecting a big windfall from the title.

 

[sörine]

Well considering how Xenoblade X seems to be Nintendos main game for WiiU in west during these holidays it shouldn't have the smallest marketing budget either. Nevertheless I guess it's rather impossible to prove who is right and who is wrong without knowing the actual budget. It would not be first time though that the first party publisher publishes games that don't even target to make that much money. I have hard time to believe that original Xenoblade was big enough success to greenlight HD sequel based on sales alone (at least if you were third party publisher). Other case being Bayonetta 2. Xenoblade X could be game simply to diversify the first party line up and bring JRPG demographics to WiiU that then would buy other similar games. Very much like Sony funded various AAA shooters last gen that I doubt made a significant amount of money ( or money at all).

Yeah, without the actual budgets it's really academic. I can tell you though we had Bayonetta ads on tv in the US but not Xenoblade X. Or Bayonetta 2 actually.

I also agree can circumstances can differ for 1st party versus 3rd party games, and a first party can see sunk costs for diversification as a net positive. Also a 1st party game doesn't have to hand 15-20% royalties off the top to another publisher, so the finances immediately work out a bit different.

 

[sörine]

Tsutaya's Ranking Week 52 2015 Biggest week of the year

01./02. [3DS] Monster Hunter X <ACT> (Capcom)
02./01. [3DS] Monster Strike <RPG> (Mixi)
03.00. [PSV] Mobile Suit Gundam Extreme Vs-Force <ACT> (Bandai Namco Games)
04./04. [WIU] Splatoon <ACT> (Nintendo)
05./12. [3DS] Yo-kai Watch Busters: White Dog Squad <ACT> (Level 5)
06./03. [PS4] Fallout 4 <RPG> (Bethesda Softworks)
07./14. [3DS] Yo-kai Watch Busters: Red Cat Team <ACT> (Level 5)
08./10. [WIU] Super Mario Maker <ETC> (Nintendo)
09./15. [PSV] Minecraft: PlayStation Vita Edition <ADV> (Sony Computer Entertainment)
10./06. [3DS] Disney Magic World 2: My Happy Life <ETC> (Bandai Namco Games)
11./17. [3DS] Rhythm Heaven: The Best+ <ACT> (Nintendo)
12./08. [3DS] Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam <RPG> (Nintendo)
13./16. [3DS] Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer <ETC> (Nintendo)
14./00. [3DS] Medarot 9: Kabuto Ver. <RPG> (Rocket Company)
15./19. [3DS] Sumikko Gurashi: Omise Hajimerundesu <ETC> (Nippon Columbia)
16./00. [WIU] Shin Megami Tensei x Fire Emblem <SLG> (Nintendo)
17./07. [PSV] Exist Archive: The Other Side of the Sky <RPG> (Spike Chunsoft)
18./29. [3DS] Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer (NFC Reader / Writer Set) <ETC> (Nintendo)
19./00. [3DS] Medarot 9: Kuwagata Ver. <RPG> (Rocket Company)
20./25. [PS4] Star Wars: Battlefront <ACT> (Electronic Arts)

Oh yikes, outsold by Metabots!

 

[Sandfox]

err what lol
I honestly don't know why Nintendo/Atlus went down such a route to attract a JRPG audience. Were they trying to replicate the success of Persona, if so, surely they could see how bad the game is at imitating what made Persona such a beloved series.

I would say the issue is more the situation than the game.

 

[Jon Carter]

15 people spent 40,000yen for a complete system, 812 people spent 1,000yen for something which should be included with the system

More like 812 people felt the need to leave a review for something as simple as an AC adapter. "Yep, electricity goes through. 5/5"

 

[Ekai]

It's meant to appeal to people who like games like Persona. Take Rise, for example.

As a fan of Persona 2: Innocent Sin (still need to play P2: Eternal Punishment, I own it but am beating Innocent Sin-to be fair the Persona 2 duology and Persona 1 are markedly different from Persona 3 and 4 in gameplay and story-it makes little sense to consider them the same series) and P3P, I am not at all interested in #FE. It's a bastardization of Persona/SMT and Fire Emblem.