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[Nirolak]

SEGA releases almost one Yakuza game each year now, right?

As it stands, Sega expects three PS4 SKUs for this fiscal year.

Alien: Isolation covers two of them (US and Europe release), so either they're also releasing it in Japan, or they have an additional PS4 Japan-only title.

It's possible they will do something like port Diva F 2 to PS4 or have a Yakuza game ready, though I'm kind of not expecting the next Yakuza until Fall 2015.

 

[Exile20]

| PS3 | 6.681 |
| PS4 | 6.527 |

hmmm……..

 

[Dragon1893]

PS3 about to hit that 10 million milestone.
Vita should hit 3 million in a couple of weeks.

Pretty depressing numbers overall though.
Why do they still bother with the 360 lol?

 

[zeromcd73]

Week 25, 2007 (Jun 16 - Jun 22)

1. NDS   -   163,918 |   118,684 | 3,814,038 | 17,819,717
2. WII   -    65,582 |    65,521 | 1,880,933 |  2,800,576
3. PSP   -    32,984 |    33,359 | 1,044,842 |  5,576,971
4. PS2   -    11,962 |    11,974 |   404,057 | 20,558,916
5. PS3   -     9,581 |     9,481 |   481,017 |    938,575
6. 360   -     3,369 |     7,583 |   115,429 |    380,131
7. GBA   -       414 |       867 |    40,232 | 15,338,311
8. NGC   -        82 |       223 |     8,308 |  4,177,776

Week 25, 2014 (Jun 16 - Jun 22)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|System | This Week  | Last Week  | Last Year  |     YTD    |  Last YTD  |     LTD     |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| 3DS # |     26.311 |     26.575 |     43.269 |  1.036.955 |  1.884.537 |  15.698.875 |
| PSV # |     13.381 |     14.735 |     13.422 |    621.578 |    508.995 |   2.976.935 |
|  WIU  |     10.715 |     12.249 |      5.329 |    276.166 |    325.941 |   1.801.596 |
|  PS4  |      7.009 |      8.395 |            |    612.560 |            |     612.560 |
|  PS3  |      6.339 |      6.564 |      9.816 |    287.672 |    460.745 |   9.997.346 |
| PSP # |      2.335 |      4.325 |      5.091 |     90.109 |    290.605 |  20.158.518 |
|  360  |        214 |        231 |        282 |      6.465 |     14.945 |   1.645.781 |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dammit. I just had to get into gaming the year the Japanese industry dies

As long as Nintendo doesn't change the type of games they make I'm still good, otherwise I'm done

 

[Opiate]

Honestly I don't see much of a future for consoles in general in Japan.

The Japanese third parties collectively put up the poorest showing I've ever seen at an E3. They're not really interested in competing on this front anymore.

I think it speaks volumes that almost every larger scale Japanese console game shown there was published by a console vendor.

Agreed. Pretty clearly, Japanese developers no longer consider consoles a lucrative market for them. Consoles have been trending downward for a generation now, and there's no reason to expect this trend to reverse (please note: this doesn't mean the console market can't still have upweeks or upmonths with big new releases, just that the general trend is downward).

 

[Tripon]

What do you mean the mid tiers in Japan were main thing driving the PS3 for years, as far as slack pulling they have been doing far longer and likely greater than even the indies currently have. The difference is I imagine they're either on the PSV or mobile.

We do not not know if they'll return in any great amount.

Right, and if they're here for the coming generation, Japan's going to be hurting bad.

 

[Aostia]

MC PS4 figures were somehow revive my hope in PS4 but Famitsu came and hit me.
Is it really doing worst than Wii U, or it's just because of the Xmas Wii U launch?

 

[darkwing]

MC PS4 figures were somehow revive my hope in PS4 but Famitsu came and hit me.
Is it really doing worst than Wii U, or it's just because of the Xmas Wii U launch?

PS4 is doing worse because of no games

 

[Jamix012]

MC PS4 figures were somehow revive my hope in PS4 but Famitsu came and hit me.
Is it really doing worst than Wii U, or it's just because of the Xmas Wii U launch?

The rate it's selling, even with a holiday launch, i don't think it'd be trending ahead of the Wii U.

 

[gngf123]

MC PS4 figures were somehow revive my hope in PS4 but Famitsu came and hit me.
Is it really doing worst than Wii U, or it's just because of the Xmas Wii U launch?

It is doing worse.

 

[TheChaos0]

Depends

Will mobile games and trends retain a level of quality that retains our attention for years to come

You can only play so many f2P match 3 games before you get sick of it...

Or maybe I am just a dying breed of gamer

Oh don't worry, I got bored of those after 2 game

There has to be some kind of Gundam game coming or something for PAy coming. Those numbers are horrible. Sony seemed to have borrowed Nintendo's strategy for Japan. Have no games ready from the first year and see what happens.

I'd image there was a lack of interest from the Japanese publishers when then Sony has approached them initially. Japan Studio should have had something ready for at least the first holiday season and got some PS3 only games to become cross platform (Tales, Persona, etc).

 

[Opiate]

I just don't understand the constant talk like the Japanese market is somehow getting worse than it was. When are these people comparing to? Let's look back 7 years ago, PS3 was at 9,581 Xbox 360 at 3,369, and the Wii at 65,582. What's the big difference here? The Wii U is not making up for the Wii sales, but again, that's the same every where not unique to Japan. So why are people always talking about this Japan console doom? Japan has pretty much always been like this.

As for big budget Japanese centric games, that was always going to be the case because the west will always be a bigger market than Japan and as development costs rise it doesn't make sense to make them any more. The majority of Japanese games have always been decidedly not big budget though, so I really don't see a big shift, except maybe for western gamers.

Because the Wii is gone. Simply dismissing it as "well that's true everywhere" is silly. Instead of one console performing well, one performing decently and another performing poorly (Wii/PS3/Xbox One), we have three consoles all underperforming simultaneously. It would be okay, for instance, for the PS4 and Xbox One to bomb if the Wii U was selling gangbusters. It's kind-of-okay for the Wii U and Xbox One to be struggling in America because the PS4 is doing so well, and so forth.

If you want me to put it another way: the Wii U will hugely undersell the Wii, the PS4 will likely sell less than PS3, and the Xbox One is tracking below the not-great-anyway 360. It's a massively contracting market.

 

[BadWolf]

MC PS4 figures were somehow revive my hope in PS4 but Famitsu came and hit me.
Is it really doing worst than Wii U, or it's just because of the Xmas Wii U launch?

WiiU at least started with some strong games.

PS4 has nothing worth mentioning in Japan.

 

[Principate]

The rate it's selling, even with a holiday launch, i don't think it'd be trending ahead of the Wii U.

I don't think Sony consoles even get the same sort of Christmas boosts Nintendo's get in Japan, even the vita with all the momentum it had sold less in that period than the wii u so yeah probably would have done badly either way.

 

[Boogdud]

So, did Japan find another hobby?

 

[zeromcd73]

MC PS4 figures were somehow revive my hope in PS4 but Famitsu came and hit me.
Is it really doing worst than Wii U, or it's just because of the Xmas Wii U launch?

17 Weeks launch aligned:

Wii: 1,953,633
NDS: 1,809,306
PSP: 1,143,386
3DS: 1,126,513
NGC: 1,064,457
WiU: 839,284
PS3: 746,971
PSV: 639,685
PS4: 599,014
DC: 543,241
360: 125,858

 

[Asd202]

So, did Japan find another hobby?

Yes mobile.

 

[Opiate]

So, did Japan find another hobby?

No, gaming is doing very well in Japan. It's growing, last I saw. Just not on home consoles or portables.

 

[BadWolf]

So, did Japan find another hobby?

Nope, they took that hobby to mobile.

 

[Smiles and Cries]

Did PS3 just beat PS4 in Famitsu?? =_=

 

[gngf123]

So, did Japan find another hobby?

The gaming industry is actually growing in Japan. Just not the dedicated portion.

Free to play mobile games have exploded.

 

[And_Gignac]

Japan has fallen. This is what the HD arms race got us into. ;_;

And wow stock issues really hit Persona Q. Hopefully downloads will make up for it.

 

[saichi]

Sheesh, its only been out in Japan for like 4 months. Can we give it at least one holiday season before declaring the PS4 dead in Japan?

I've heard this before... I wonder where...

 

[Mpl90]

This week's Famitsu has download sales for May, so MK8 is there. Hiska-kun said he was going to buy it, interested in seeing the numbers

 

[McHuj]

Slightly OT, but are tablets popular in Japan? Or is gaming there now dominated by just phones?

 

[Hiltz]

Wow, the market in Japan really needs to be revitalized. At least Wii U reached 1.8 million units there, but it sure took long to get to it. It's a shame Mario Kart 8 has had little overall impact on hardware sales. Wii U's fucked if it can't turn things around quickly in Japan and North America.

 

[The Horror the horror]

Because the Wii is gone. Simply dismissing it as "well that's true everywhere" is silly. Instead of one console performing well, one performing decently and another performing poorly (Wii/PS3/Xbox One), we have three consoles all underperforming simultaneously. It would be okay, for instance, for the PS4 and Xbox One to bomb if the Wii U was selling gangbusters. It's kind-of-okay for the Wii U and Xbox One to be struggling in America because the PS4 is doing so well, and so forth.

If you want me to put it another way: the Wii U will hugely undersell the Wii, the PS4 will likely sell less than PS3, and the Xbox One is tracking below the not-great-anyway 360. It's a massively contracting market.

Would it be accurate to say that the Japanese market, as it stands now, simply cannot support the current multi-console environment any longer, as opposed to saying that it has moved on from consoles in general? In other words, if there were one commercially sustainable handheld and one commercially sustainable console, supported universally by all Japanese publishers, Japan could reinsert itself as the predominant voice in video games?

 

[RPGamer92]

If MGS and Bloodborne come out around the same time, how much could they boost PS4 sales?

 

[Sakura]

Because the Wii is gone. Simply dismissing it as "well that's true everywhere" is silly. Instead of one console performing well, one performing decently and another performing poorly (Wii/PS3/Xbox One), we have three consoles all underperforming simultaneously. It would be okay, for instance, for the PS4 and Xbox One to bomb if the Wii U was selling gangbusters. It's kind-of-okay for the Wii U and Xbox One to be struggling in America because the PS4 is doing so well, and so forth.

If you want me to put it another way: the Wii U will hugely undersell the Wii, the PS4 will likely sell less than PS3, and the Xbox One is tracking below the not-great-anyway 360. It's a massively contracting market.

All I was saying is that the market in Japan hasn't changed in terms of consoles. It's not like gamers there no longer like consoles or something like I see so many people constantly imply. Yes it hurts that nobody is picking up the Wii's slack.

And really, in the west, the PS4 isn't picking up the Wii's slack either. Is it doing better than the PS3? For sure. But console hardware in total is still down is it not? The Wii sold 338,000 units in May 2007 in the US. The PS4 only sold just under 200k. I really don't think the situation in Japan is that different than it used to be.

 

[cacildo]

I can already see the future. We will depend on translators for Japanese SNES, Ps1 and Ps2 games if we want anything from Japan.

Lucky it seems there's still amazing games from these systems yet to be translated

 

[phanphare]

If MGS and Bloodborne come out around the same time, how much could they boost PS4 sales?

bout 3.50

 

[KtSlime]

Slightly OT, but are tablets popular in Japan? Or is gaming there now dominated by just phones?

I usually see 10-20 tablets each time I take the train to work and home. I even saw my first Surface in the wild yesterday.

Let's put it this way, on an average trip I see more tablets than I see 3DS/vita. But anyone without a tablet/handheld has a smartphone, and is using it.

 

[cm osi]

maybe i don't really need a ps4 afterall....

 

[RalchAC]

As it stands, Sega expects three PS4 SKUs for this fiscal year.

Alien: Isolation covers two of them (US and Europe release), so either they're also releasing it in Japan, or they have an additional PS4 Japan-only title.

It's possible they will do something like port Diva F 2 to PS4 or have a Yakuza game ready, though I'm kind of not expecting the next Yakuza until Fall 2015.

Yeah, I expect a Fall 2015 title too. It'd leave this fiscal year with 3 Alien SKUs or 2 Alien SKUs + 1 JP only port (Hatsune Miku will be weird. If they develop it they'll release it in the West along the PS3/V versions, right?). The PS4 could have some decent results by then if both Tales and Yakuza have and exclusive game for the system.

I don't know how Bamco is going to release a new Tales each year considering they've fused Team Destiny and Team Symphonia, though.

Slightly OT, but are tablets popular in Japan? Or is gaming there now dominated by just phones?

That's a good question. But I think somebody said a few months ago they weren't that popular in Japan.

 

[Bruno MB]

17 Weeks launch aligned:

Wii: 1,953,633
NDS: 1,809,306
PSP: 1,143,386
3DS: 1,126,513
NGC: 1,064,457
WiU: 839,284
PS3: 746,971
PSV: 639,685
PS4: 599,014
DC: 543,241
360: 125,858

These numbers don't look even worse for PS4 because it had a good launch (near 400.000 units in 9 days), its post-launch performance is a complete calamity.

This year's Christmas will be a mirror of PS Vita in 2012 (20.000 - 30.000 units during the busiest weeks).

 

[Evenflow]

17 Weeks launch aligned:

Wii: 1,953,633
NDS: 1,809,306
PSP: 1,143,386
3DS: 1,126,513
NGC: 1,064,457
WiU: 839,284
PS3: 746,971
PSV: 639,685
PS4: 599,014
DC: 543,241
360: 125,858

Pretty crazy how good a start Gamecube got off to for a low selling system , that's like 1/4 it's ltd. Power of Smash at launch I guess. Will be interesting to see Smash 4 hardware impact this holiday.

 

[Opiate]

All I was saying is that the market in Japan hasn't changed in terms of consoles. It's not like gamers there no longer like consoles or something like I see so many people constantly imply. Yes it hurts that nobody is picking up the Wii's slack.

And really, in the west, the PS4 isn't picking up the Wii's slack either. Is it doing better than the PS3? For sure. But console hardware in total is still down is it not? The Wii sold 338,000 units in May 2007 in the US. The PS4 only sold just under 200k. I really don't think the situation in Japan is that different than it used to be.

Yep, down in the West too. The trend is just farther along in Japan. We're seeing market contraction for consoles worldwide.

 

[metalslimer]

I wish I could still cling on to hope about a miraculous recovery but the Japanese console market is done. Time to accept it

 

[BadWolf]

Would it be accurate to say that the Japanese market, as it stands now, simply cannot support the current multi-console environment any longer, as opposed to saying that it has moved on from consoles in general? In other words, if there were one commercially sustainable handheld and one commercially sustainable console, supported universally by all Japanese publishers, Japan could reinsert itself as the predominant voice in video games?

Don't think that's the issue, their software output on handhelds and consoles has dried up overall compared to previous generations.

The 3DS is a clear winner so it would be the obvious choice to support for handhelds.

PS4 will be the clear winner worldwide so its the obvious choice for consoles.

They just aren't making games like they used to, neither in terms of quality or quantity (speaking generally here).

 

[phanphare]

Yep, down in the West too. The trend is just farther along in Japan. We're seeing market contraction for consoles worldwide.

Opiate
Depressingly Realistic

 

[Mpl90]

Yep, down in the West too. The trend is just farther along in Japan. We're seeing market contraction for consoles worldwide.

Yeah, PS4, while certainly doing well, isn't just doing so good to think "Ok, One and Wii U are doing badly / awful, but at least PS4 is selling for them as well!!!". This in US, since we have datas for that.

P.S. Didn't read the PM I sent you days ago?

 

[KillerMan91]

Yep, down in the West too. The trend is just farther along in Japan. We're seeing market contraction for consoles worldwide.

In west the contraction is mostly because of Nintendo though. I think Shinra-bansho had that fancy chart in NPD thread that showed PS/Xbox are selling like they have pretty much always sold. Still of course contraction but repeating Wii is pretty damn hard as the success was combination of gimmick and games and not games alone.

 

[zeromcd73]

7. GBA - 414 | 867 | 40,232 | 15,338,311

Hmm... Buy a GBA or wait for next gen Nintendo handheld hoping for a full digital GBA library with proper accounting system.

 

[Opiate]

In west the contraction is mostly because of Nintendo though. I think Shinra-bansho had that fancy chart in NPD thread that showed PS/Xbox are selling like they have pretty much always sold. Still of course contraction but repeating Wii is pretty damn hard as the success was combination of gimmick and games and not games alone.

I think in terms of demographics, and I'd rephrase this to say that everyone but males 16-35 are leaving consoles in the west. Children of both genders, elderly men, middle aged women, elderly women, and so forth. Nintendo happened to have most of those other consumer demographics recently, but they didn't always.

 

[Opiate]

Yeah, PS4, while certainly doing well, isn't just doing so good to think "Ok, One and Wii U are doing badly / awful, but at least PS4 is selling for them as well!!!". This in US, since we have datas for that.

P.S. Didn't read the PM I sent you days ago?

Yes, the PS4 has to carry the weight of two particularly poorly selling second and third place consoles. Even if it sells, let's say, 110M units (which is certainly plausible), that doesn't make up for second place and third place consoles perhaps combining for 60M units total.


I did read the PM; I just haven't responded yet. I apologize.

 

[kenji_sama]

there is posibility that Dragon Quest coming to PS platform

http://blog.esuteru.com/archives/7742238.html

 

[AniHawk]

In west the contraction is mostly because of Nintendo though. I think Shinra-bansho had that fancy chart in NPD thread that showed PS/Xbox are selling like they have pretty much always sold. Still of course contraction but repeating Wii is pretty damn hard as the success was combination of gimmick and games and not games alone.

i think it's hard to paint the market as okay or healthy and when you have to ignore giant portions of it to do so. and not just giant portions, but giant portions that had been successful for generations (like in human terms), and ones that had been giant very recently. if the market was able to move on for one or both of those fairly quickly, then nothing is safe.

 

[Jamix012]

Yes, the PS4 has to carry the weight of two particularly poorly selling second and third place consoles. Even if it sells, let's say, 110M units (which is certainly plausible), that doesn't make up for second place and third place consoles perhaps combining for 60M units total.


I did read the PM; I just haven't responded yet. I apologize.

I've kind of been tooting this horn as well, except I'm a bit more pessimistic. Xbox One + Wii U to maybe make 50 Million Imo and PS4 to make 85 million would be my guess. Of course, 85 million isn't a bad number for an individual console, but the overall contraction of the market will be back to around N64/PS1 numbers would be devastating. That's not even accounting for the massive contraction in the handheld space.

In west the contraction is mostly because of Nintendo though. I think Shinra-bansho had that fancy chart in NPD thread that showed PS/Xbox are selling like they have pretty much always sold. Still of course contraction but repeating Wii is pretty damn hard as the success was combination of gimmick and games and not games alone.

Showing launch alligned graphs doesn't really help a lot honestly as console launches have fundamentally changed. The Wii U was also tracking ahead of the PS3 and 360 worldwide for it's first 6 months, because of its launch. If you ignore the launch and go for 2014 numbers only, current gen is down on 2007. Yes, if you discount Nintendo, they're about level, but there's more reason than that to be concerned.

The more striking problem to me is last gen. In 2007, The PS2 was still selling. I just pulled up March 2007 NPDs. PS2 sold 280,000 units (combined with the GC, that's over 300,000 units.) Currently last gen is selling around half that in total. The point is, back then, you had an indication that there was a healthy pool of people buying older video game consoles who would eventually be ready to move on to the current generation. On top of that their own purchases were funding the market. In 2014? That's not the case. Last gen is down the tube. That'd be ok if Next gen instantly picked up the slack, but it's not.

 

[Mpl90]

there is posibility that Dragon Quest coming to PS platform

http://blog.esuteru.com/archives/7742238.html

Already posted in the other MC thread; it's basically nothing.

 

[robjoh]

Yep, down in the West too. The trend is just farther along in Japan. We're seeing market contraction for consoles worldwide.

To be honest is that surprising? Look at the games released for consoles in the west, which at least seems to get games, they are focused on one small demographic. Combine that with hardware prices above what I think made Wii strong.

WiiU is 300 USD in USA, that is 50 USD above Wii.

Why Microsoft thought it was a good idea to launch at 500 USD after the fiasco that was 599 for PS3 is for me a large question.

Even if PS4 has a better price than Xbone, it is still not at a casual pick up price at 399 USD.

Why would anyone that is a casual gamer, maybe buying one to three games a year buy a console for above 300 USD? Mobile is winning casual gamers due to software price and types and that they do not need to spend more money on hardware.