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Media-Create Sales: May 4-10, 2009

sphinx

the piano man
wouldn't kids have time to play videogames at home if they were in quarantine because of the swine flu? I'd ask my parents to buy me games and stay home all day, I am not sure how can the flu hurt the sales of software.
 
Those hardware numbers are certainly reminiscent of pre-ds and psp times, check out this post-gw week in 2004:
http://garaph.info/weeklyoverview.php?week=2004-05-10


[PSP] Bleach: Heat the Soul 6 (SCE) - 41k
How they get away with the blatant milking escapes me, but its the best start ever for this Bleach series, all famitsu data, 1st week comparison:

March 2005: "BLEACH Heat the Soul 1" 39k
September 2005: "BLEACH Heat the Soul 2" 26k
July 2006: "BLEACH Heat the Soul 3" 36k
May 2007: "BLEACH Heat the Soul 4" 36k
May 2008: "BLEACH Heat the Soul 5" 40k
May 2009: "BLEACH Heat the Soul 6" 41k

[PSP] Growlanser (Atlus) - 30k
Pretty good too, healthy weekend unlike Persona and barely down from the last main entry, updated code rehash ahead:
Code:
       Title  	      Releasedate  	Plat  	1st Week  2nd  	3rd  	[B]LTD[/B]
 ▼ Growlanser  	99.11.25  	PS  	37,736  8,259  	-  	[B]56,574[/B]
 ▼ Growlanser II 	01.07.26 	PS2 	44,587 	8,556 	- 	[B]81,666[/B]
 ▼ Growlanser III 	01.12.06 	PS2 	47,444 	11,935 	- 	[B]74,814[/B]
 ▼ Growlanser IV  	03.12.18 	PS2 	62,121 	13,520 	- 	[B]107,134[/B]
 ▼ Growlanser IV (R) 	05.03.10 	PS2 	13,266 	- 	- 	[B]19,885[/B]
 ▼ Growlanser V  	06.08.03 	PS2 	42,667 	- 	- 	[B]69,711[/B]
 ▼ Growlanser VI 	07.06.21 	PS2 	32,914 	9,352 	- 	[B]58,451[/B]
[B] ▼ Growlanser  	09.05.14 	PSP 	30,000 	- 	- 	30,000[/B]
 
sphinx said:
wouldn't kids have time to play videogames at home if they were in quarantine because of the swine flu? I'd ask my parents to buy me games and stay home all day, I am not sure how can the flu hurt the sales of software.
well if people are too scared to go to the shop that would hurt sales massively, on the other hand i'd expect wiiware, xbla and psn to do massive business in that situation
 

donny2112

Member
manueldelalas said:
Fixed, now they look prettier.

Wow. The 360 sold 4000 consoles in just last week. That's just flatout amazing. That means 4000 individual people said to themselves last week, "You know, I think I'm going to go buy a 360 today." And that was just in Japan. Japan hates the 360. Wow. That sure puts things in perspective. Thanks for adding in those zeroes. :)
 

-Kh-

Banned
donny2112 said:
Wow. The 360 sold 4000 consoles in just last week. That's just flatout amazing. That means 4000 individual people said to themselves last week, "You know, I think I'm going to go buy a 360 today." And that was just in Japan. Japan hates the 360. Wow. That sure puts things in perspective. Thanks for adding in those zeroes. :)

The 360 sells just as much as the DSL, that shows how popular the 360 is too! :p
 

donny2112

Member
AFreak said:
Did nothing release this week?

T-Virus
, aka. Swine Flu.

I will not be available to post the thread tonight. If Cheesemeister has his parser ready, that could take care of it. If not, though, someone else will need to post the thread. Any volunteers? :)
 

donny2112

Member
AFreak said:
There's like 5-10k max confirmed cases of swine flu.

Capcom Japan cancelled their travel to E3 due to Japanese international travel restrictions. Multiple school districts closed down last week in Japan. Apparently a lot of people are walking around Japan with face masks, and apparently a lot of people are not taking an extra trip to the game store while they're out.
 

Rolf NB

Member
AFreak said:
There's like 5-10k max confirmed cases of swine flu. Why the fuck was it even considered a pandemic?
Because it's a serious health hazard and can kill people if not treated quickly?
 

Eteric Rice

Member
Nintendo really needs to do something while everything is so low. They could really grab the spotlight in Japan if they wanted to right now.
 

donny2112

Member
AFreak said:
So is the common cold.

The common cold kills you if not treated quickly?

Eteric Rice said:
Nintendo really needs to do something while everything is so low. They could really grab the spotlight in Japan if they wanted to right now.

Swine-flu themed Wii consoles. Every new reported case is free publicity! "There's no such thing as bad publicity."
 

markatisu

Member
Eteric Rice said:
Nintendo really needs to do something while everything is so low. They could really grab the spotlight in Japan if they wanted to right now.

Can't be too hard, the spotlight for consoles is like 40k-50k :lol
 

test_account

XP-39C²
donny2112 said:
The common cold kills you if not treated quickly?
I dont know about common cold, but i think that the "normal" flu can be pretty dangerous as well, depending on how strong your body's imune system is. Havnt most of those people who died from swine flu been old and/or had some other illness as well by the way? I havnt really followed the news around it too much, but i mean i heard something about this at least.
 

AFreak

Banned
donny2112 said:
The common cold kills you if not treated quickly?



Swine-flu themed Wii consoles. Every new reported case is free publicity! "There's no such thing as bad publicity."

Maybe not in the US, but in undeveloped countries, the common cold is definitely a high risk for infants and young children.

Point is, there are probably just as many deaths from regular Influenza, so I don't see the big fucking deal. Of course you should go get treated if you have the the flu, but acting like it's the end of the world is also fucking stupid.
 

Johann

Member
donny2112 said:
Swine-flu themed Wii consoles. Every new reported case is free publicity! "There's no such thing as bad publicity."

Now that's some positive thinking!

Hell, there is probably some Japanese Adult Filmmaker thinking of all the Swine Flu based plots he can create.
 

Minsc

Gold Member
AFreak said:
Maybe not in the US, but in undeveloped countries, the common cold is definitely a high risk for infants and young children.

Point is, there are probably just as many deaths from regular Influenza, so I don't see the big fucking deal. Of course you should go get treated if you have the the flu, but acting like it's the end of the world is also fucking stupid.

Just as many? Try a magnitude or four higher. There's ~30,000+ deaths in the US from the regular flu each year alone, and the swine flu has taken 7 so far.
 

AFreak

Banned
Minsc said:
Just as many? Try a magnitude or four higher. There's ~30,000+ deaths in the US from the regular flu each year alone, and the swine flu has taken 7 so far.

Well, then the swine flu is even less of a worry then.
 

Jokeropia

Member
donny2112 said:
Wow. The 360 sold 4000 consoles in just last week. That's just flatout amazing. That means 4000 individual people said to themselves last week, "You know, I think I'm going to go buy a 360 today." And that was just in Japan. Japan hates the 360. Wow. That sure puts things in perspective. Thanks for adding in those zeroes. :)
I mean, how many people even live in Japan? 300,000? Wow.
 

donny2112

Member
AFreak said:
Well, then the swine flu is even less of a worry then.

It's a related strain to what killed millions in the early 20th century flu epidemic. Being a new strain, most people's immune systems have not been prepared to fight it, so it can cause a larger impact on typical individuals than just "any old flu virus." As there aren't natural roadblocks to its spreading in the form of people who've already had this strain and can easily fight it off, this can spread more rapidly and widely than a typical flu virus. If 30,000 die in the U.S. from strains of flu that a lot of people already are somewhat protected from, consider how many might die if this strain of flu without those natural roadblocks became widespread.

Given the option of taking steps to prevent exposure to a new (and likely more impactful) form of flu or doing nothing and letting it come to your country naturally before any vaccines are prepared against it, the choice is pretty clear.
 

Minsc

Gold Member
donny2112 said:
It's a related strain to what killed millions in the early 20th century flu epidemic. Being a new strain, most people's immune systems have not been prepared to fight it, so it can cause a larger impact on typical individuals than just "any old flu virus." As there aren't natural roadblocks to its spreading in the form of people who've already had this strain and can easily fight it off, this can spread more rapidly and widely than a typical flu virus. If 30,000 die in the U.S. from strains of flu that a lot of people already are somewhat protected from, consider how many might die if this strain of flu without those natural roadblocks became widespread.

Given the option of taking steps to prevent exposure to a new (and likely more impactful) form of flu or doing nothing and letting it come to your country naturally before any vaccines are prepared against it, the choice is pretty clear.

Yea, and the story on the news tonight was how "worried wells" (new term coined for people who think they might sick) are checking themselves in to the hospitals by the 100s, taking up valuable resources from those that actually need help. Adults are calling ambulances to take them to the hospital only to be determined to be perfectly healthy because of all this news coverage. Parents are keeping kids from schools even when no announcements have been made, because they feel the attendence in the school has gotten too low, when in fact, they're only adding to the problem.

I agree it's good to be cautious, but the US media is only capable of two speeds really, totally ignoring things (dead stop), or RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!!!! (full out panic).
 

mujun

Member
so i posted an observation of something from my environment which may or may not have some bearing on the topic at hand.

then a bunch of "friendly" posters try to paint me as a wannabe authority on japan and in turn make themselves look like the ones who are proud of how much they know about japan?
 

apujanata

Member
JoshuaJSlone said:
:lol That was noticed more quickly than I anticipated.

Yeah. I've put them back in:

Dsi 035k
DSL 004k
PSP 030k
Wii 013k
PS3 009k
360 004k

Lol. I was looking for 007, but I couldn't find him. I can only find two double O agent, 004, 009. Hint of "007:Missing agent" game in the future ? :D

mujun said:
so i posted an observation of something from my environment which may or may not have some bearing on the topic at hand.

then a bunch of "friendly" posters try to paint me as a wannabe authority on japan and in turn make themselves look like the ones who are proud of how much they know about japan?
I think they are not making fun of you. They are making fun of a certain poster (forgot the id) that claim that "he" is an expert on Japanese / British / US culture, and then spout some "nonsense".
 

Spiegel

Member
Perhaps it's time to drop the prices:

PSP

December '04 (launch) - 20,790 Y
September '07 - 19,800 Y

May '09 - 19,800 Y

- 990Y in 53 months

DS

December '04 - 15000Y
Ds Lite - March '06 - 16,800 Y
Dsi - November '08 -18,900 Y

May '09 - 18,900

- 0Y (+ 3,900Y) in 53 months



Wii

December '06 (launch) - 24,999 Y

May '09 - 24,999 Y

- 0Y in 29 months
 

mujun

Member
apujanata said:
I think they are not making fun of you. They are making fun of a certain poster (forgot the id) that claim that "he" is an expert on Japanese / British / US culture, and then spout some "nonsense".

you could be right, i certainly felt like i was getting unfairly mocked.
 

Vinnk

Member
mckmas8808 said:
Japan can't be like that for real are they?

It is indeed pretty crazy here. I came back from a 3 week trip to the states to visit my family. When I left Japan everything was normal but when I cam back it was like something out of a horror movie. After my plane landed in Narita, doctors in full plastic body suits came onto the plane to examine all the passangers. When we were finally allowed to deplane we were all given face masks. At the airport there was almost no one not wearing one of these masks.

When I finally got back to my city I was told (by the local government) that I would be under house quarantine for 1 week. I was not to leave my house for any reason and was told I could not have guests (including my wife). I was not sick in any way and the systoms are supposed to show up within 72 hours, but to be safe, they made it a week.

When I was finally able to leave my house I went to do a bit of shopping. There are noticebly less shoppers around and a lot of them are wearing masks. I did not visit any game stores so I can not make any calls on that. But I do know parents are being very protective of their kids lately and telling them to stay out of large groups.

I do not think this is the only factor for the horrible sales, I think the fact that it is after golden week and that school sports festival season is right around the corner (at least in my area) would probably have equal if not greater impacts. (not to mention no one has any money)

But to answer the question, Yes there is a lot of swine flu panic here.
 

schuelma

Wastes hours checking old Famitsu software data, but that's why we love him.
I know this sounds like a joke but I'm actually going to Tokyo tomorrow on my honeymoon with my new wife. Tickets have been booked for months, everything is non refundable, so we're going. Hope things go ok.
 

spwolf

Member
schuelma said:
I know this sounds like a joke but I'm actually going to Tokyo tomorrow on my honeymoon with my new wife. Tickets have been booked for months, everything is non refundable, so we're going. Hope things go ok.

why wouldnt they?
 

spwolf

Member
Vinnk said:
It is indeed pretty crazy here. I came back from a 3 week trip to the states to visit my family. When I left Japan everything was normal but when I cam back it was like something out of a horror movie. After my plane landed in Narita, doctors in full plastic body suits came onto the plane to examine all the passangers. When we were finally allowed to deplane we were all given face masks. At the airport there was almost no one not wearing one of these masks.

When I finally got back to my city I was told (by the local government) that I would be under house quarantine for 1 week. I was not to leave my house for any reason and was told I could not have guests (including my wife). I was not sick in any way and the systoms are supposed to show up within 72 hours, but to be safe, they made it a week.

When I was finally able to leave my house I went to do a bit of shopping. There are noticebly less shoppers around and a lot of them are wearing masks. I did not visit any game stores so I can not make any calls on that. But I do know parents are being very protective of their kids lately and telling them to stay out of large groups.

I do not think this is the only factor for the horrible sales, I think the fact that it is after golden week and that school sports festival season is right around the corner (at least in my area) would probably have equal if not greater impacts. (not to mention no one has any money)

But to answer the question, Yes there is a lot of swine flu panic here.

that sounds crazy dude. woa, makes my eastern europe crazy war torn country look like heaven :)

maybe they know something general population doesnt?
 

kswiston

Member
donny2112 said:
It's a related strain to what killed millions in the early 20th century flu epidemic. Being a new strain, most people's immune systems have not been prepared to fight it, so it can cause a larger impact on typical individuals than just "any old flu virus." As there aren't natural roadblocks to its spreading in the form of people who've already had this strain and can easily fight it off, this can spread more rapidly and widely than a typical flu virus. If 30,000 die in the U.S. from strains of flu that a lot of people already are somewhat protected from, consider how many might die if this strain of flu without those natural roadblocks became widespread.

Swine flu has infected over 6400 people in Canada and the United States, and so far 9-10 people have died. Current mortality rate is about 0.2%. Regular flu kills 1-2% of people who get sick, so even if swine flu's mortality rate goes up, I doubt it will be any more deadly than regular flu strains.

Swine flu reminds me a lot of SARS. People went crazy in Ontario over SARS, when in reality it wasn't any deadlier than regular pneumonia. 8000 people caught SARS and about 800 died. Mortality rate was around 10%. Mortality rate for regular pneumonia is 5-10% Mortality rate of both is very low in young adults (1-2%) and very high in the elderly (30-50%).
 
spwolf said:
you aint married, are you? :lol
no :lol , was suppose to go to Japan this summer myself but my damn friend's girlfriend who we where going to see there and stay with decided to come here, boring NYC for me instead.
 

DMeisterJ

Banned
Spiegel said:
Perhaps it's time to drop the prices:

PSP

December '04 (launch) - 20,790 Y
September '07 - 19,800 Y

May '09 - 19,800 Y

- 990Y in 53 months

DS

December '04 - 15000Y
Ds Lite - March '06 - 16,800 Y
Dsi - November '08 -18,900 Y

May '09 - 18,900

- 0Y (+ 3,900Y) in 53 months



Wii

December '06 (launch) - 24,999 Y

May '09 - 24,999 Y

- 0Y in 29 months

Especially with a strong Yen, wouldn't a JP price drop be more realistic than NA? Good god, no wonder sales are down, no real price cuts.
 

Vinnk

Member
schuelma said:
Well, its not really ideal if everything is shut down.

Other than some schools in the Kansai area and maybe a few Mom and Pop shops, I don't think anything has been closed. Be prepared to see a lot of masks and perhaps smaller crowds but other than that it should be business as usual. Oh, and make sure you have a lot of time between connecting flights (if you have any) because sometimes the health checks take a while.

Oh and as others have said, have some newlywed sex. Before that dries up. The games will always be there later as a substitute.
 

schuelma

Wastes hours checking old Famitsu software data, but that's why we love him.
Vinnk said:
Other than some schools in the Kansai area and maybe a few Mom and Pop shops, I don't think anything has been closed. Be prepared to see a lot of masks and perhaps smaller crowds but other than that it should be business as usual. Oh, and make sure you have a lot of time between connecting flights (if you have any) because sometimes the health checks take a while.

Oh and as others have said, have some newlywed sex. Before that dries up. The games will always be there later as a substitute.


Cool, thanks.
 

mujun

Member
kswiston said:
Swine flu has infected over 6400 people in Canada and the United States, and so far 9-10 people have died. Current mortality rate is about 0.2%. Regular flu kills 1-2% of people who get sick, so even if swine flu's mortality rate goes up, I doubt it will be any more deadly than regular flu strains.

Swine flu reminds me a lot of SARS. People went crazy in Ontario over SARS, when in reality it wasn't any deadlier than regular pneumonia. 8000 people caught SARS and about 800 died. Mortality rate was around 10%. Mortality rate for regular pneumonia is 5-10% Mortality rate of both is very low in young adults (1-2%) and very high in the elderly (30-50%).

one of the main problems i think is the media. they never let up here, its pretty much week after week of 24/7 swine flu.

the other morning i was watching the light morning news program my wife watches out of the corner of my eye and they were demonstrating how to put on masks and how to friggin wash your hands (you have to do it for 15 seconds apparently).

about 4 or 5 years ago when all the shit was going down with the ppl north korea kidnapped from japan in the late 70s the news was a joke. they literally ran nothing but that news for 3 months solid. every single news show dedicated about half its time to rehashing the story over and over again. they had endless footage of one woman in particular doing the most mundane things like wash dishes and go shopping.
 

test_account

XP-39C²
schuelma said:
I know this sounds like a joke but I'm actually going to Tokyo tomorrow on my honeymoon with my new wife. Tickets have been booked for months, everything is non refundable, so we're going. Hope things go ok.
Maybe i am alittle late with the congratulations, but congratulations with the marriage and have a nice trip to Japan! :)


mujun said:
one of the main problems i think is the media. they never let up here, its pretty much week after week of 24/7 swine flu.

the other morning i was watching the light morning news program my wife watches out of the corner of my eye and they were demonstrating how to put on masks and how to friggin wash your hands (you have to do it for 15 seconds apparently).

about 4 or 5 years ago when all the shit was going down with the ppl north korea kidnapped from japan in the late 70s the news was a joke. they literally ran nothing but that news for 3 months solid. every single news show dedicated about half its time to rehashing the story over and over again. they had endless footage of one woman in particular doing the most mundane things like wash dishes and go shopping.
Ye, i think that the media is one of the reasons why there are so much focus on the swine flu. I think it is good that people take the deseases seriously though since the desease can kill, but i dont know how big of a chance there is to die from it if someone should get infected, especially if you have a good imune system.
 
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