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NPD Sales Results for April 2009

Vinci said:
My point is that this is the only thing I've noticed in terms of Capcom failing to properly market a title. There is no excuse - none - for Monster Hunter to be a commercial dud in the United States. It makes no sense when you look at what the game does and its subject matter.

Also, the buying public of MH games in general has massively expanded since the PS2 versions.
Capcom has failed to market every MH title it's brought to the NA and I doubt MH Tri will be any different. If there hasn't been a large fanbase for MH here in the past, Capcom is not going to spend a fortune marketing the next one.
 

Shaheed79

dabbled in the jelly
You guys expect Nintendo to cut the price of Wii after one month of 340k sales? The Wii has truly raised the bar of disappointment. They still doubled the nearest competitor. The Wii price tag isn't budging a cent this entire generation.
 

Vinci

Danish
Hellsing321 said:
Capcom has failed to market every MH title it's brought to the NA and I doubt MH Tri will be any different. If there hasn't been a large fanbase for MH here in the past, Capcom is not going to spend a fortune marketing the next one.

And I'm saying that is still a failure. The continuation of earlier failures does not somehow negate the fact that a product that should not fail has.
 

Scrubking

Member
Omar Ismail said:
You know how people are saying that 3rd parties have dropped the ball on the Wii?

Well 3rd parties have dropped the ball on the HD consoles when it comes to providing a Wii-like experience.

Why hasn't there been a 3rd party Wii-like peripheral for the PS360 with their own Wii Sports/Wii Fit?

It wouldn't stop the Wii, but said 3rd party would make a killing.

No they wouldn't.

The PS360 was designed for technophile, ultra "hardcore" gamer and they have firmly established themselves in that arena. An arena that wants nothing to do with casual gaming or casual gamers and will attack them at every opportunity.

In other words PS360 owners don't want a Wii-like experience.

Are you crazy?! MH will never sell a million in NA. It couldn't on the PS2 so why would it on the Wii.

Because that was then and this is now. The fate of MH is in Capcom's hands and how they advertise it (as I said earlier). However, I seriously doubt that they will push the game in any real way and just like all of their other Wii efforts simply send it out to fend for itself.
 

Vinci

Danish
Scrubking said:
Because that was then and this is now. The fate of MH is in Capcom's hands and how they advertise it (as I said earlier). However, I seriously doubt that they will push the game in any real way and just like all of their other Wii efforts simply send it out to fend for itself.

In that case, I think Nintendo should step in and pay to air the most recent trailer of MH Tri on television here in NA. In all honesty, they should want it to succeed in NA just as much as Capcom should. If Capcom's going to be stupid, someone needs to make up for the oversight.
 
Vinci said:
And I'm saying that is still a failure. The continuation of earlier failures does not somehow negate the fact that a product that should not fail has.
Ok I see where your coming from now. I disagree that MH ever had a chance in NA though. It missed the lootwhore wagon and came well after the PSO bubble burst. Anyone who enjoys the type of game MH is is already addicted to WoW, Diablo 2, or twiddling their thumbs for Diablo 3.
 

Vinci

Danish
Hellsing321 said:
Ok I see where your coming from now. I disagree that MH ever had a chance in NA though. It missed the lootwhore wagon and came well after the PSO bubble burst. Anyone who enjoys the type of game MH is is already addicted to WoW, Diablo 2, or twiddling their thumbs for Diablo 3.

If all one needs is the genre king, why the hell are there dozens of FPS titles released every three months?
 
1) From both a hardware and software perspective, Nintendo is pretty much carrying the entire industry at this point. If it wasn't for Nintendo, things would look pretty grim.

2) Given the success of the DSi, I've no doubt that the DS will easily sail past the PS2 and become the best selling video game system ever.

3) Even though the Wii numbers aren't as astonomical as they have been, it still outsold the 360 and PS3 combined. Furthermore, the Wii also did better than PS2 ever did in April. (The biggest number PS2 ever did in April was 330,000 back in 2005.) It's amazing that the Wii can have a YOY drop of 50% and still outperform the PS2 at its peak. All this "doom and gloom" surrounding the Wii is laughable.

4) The PS2 outselling the PS3 at this point would be akin to the NES outselling the SNES in 1994. In other words, it's something that simply shouldn't happen. Those numbers have to be pretty painful for Sony.
 
Vinci said:
If all one needs is the genre king, why the hell are there dozens of FPS titles released every three months?

The lootwhore genre is a different beast than FPS games. They take much more commitment and time from the player and players aren't quick to jump to the next game that comes around when they've sunk all those hundreds of hours into the game they have now, often while paying a monthly fee in the case of WoW.
 
I asked this earlier but it got lost in the flood...

Does anyone know how close the 360 is to outselling the original xbox in the US? I can't seem to find the final LTD number for the xbox anywhere.
 

Scrubking

Member
Vinci said:
In that case, I think Nintendo should step in and pay to air the most recent trailer of MH Tri on television here in NA. In all honesty, they should want it to succeed in NA just as much as Capcom should. If Capcom's going to be stupid, someone needs to make up for the oversight.

I kind of agree, but If Capcom doesn't care about their game enough to support it why should Nintendo? I think the 'pay for 3rd party support' and 'advertise other people's games because they don't feel like it' precedent is dangerous.
 

Vinci

Danish
Hellsing321 said:
The lootwhore genre is a different beast than FPS games. They take much more commitment and time from the player and players aren't quick to jump to the next game that comes around when they've sunk all those hundreds of hours into the game they have now often while paying a monthly fee in the case of WoW.

I understand the genre fans are different, but you're mentioning games that are either years old, years away, or not popular simply due to their 'lootwhore' aspects. Playing MH and WoW, based on my limited experience and lengthy experience respectively, are virtually nothing alike in gameplay.

You're telling me that an action-oriented title that allows for online coop gameplay that is about hunting down giant monsters, carving them up, and turning them into new weapons isn't inherently appealing to people?

I don't see how that's possible.
 

Jokeropia

Member
Psychotext said:
I asked this earlier but it got lost in the flood...

Does anyone know how close the 360 is to outselling the original xbox in the US? I can't seem to find the final LTD number for the xbox anywhere.
~14.5m. 360 exceeded it earlier this year.
 
Vinci said:
I understand the genre fans are different, but you're mentioning games that are either years old, years away, or not popular simply due to their 'lootwhore' aspects. Playing MH and WoW, based on my limited experience and lengthy experience respectively, are virtually nothing alike in gameplay.

You're telling me that an action-oriented title that allows for online coop gameplay that is about hunting down giant monsters, carving them up, and turning them into new weapons isn't inherently appealing to people?

I don't see how that's possible.
Oh it's definitely appealing to people. Thats why WoW has 12 million subscribers. While the mechanics between WoW and MH differ then end goal is the same. Get loot.
 
Hellsing321 said:
The lootwhore genre .
:lol Great term.


I agree with your thesis too . . . not very many MMORPGs can be supported simultaneously since there is a limited audience and the games require a lot of commitment.
 

Vinci

Danish
Hellsing321 said:
Oh it's definitely appealing to people. Thats why WoW has 12 million subscribers. While the mechanics between WoW and MH differ then end goal is the same. Get loot.

Just illustrating that I think MH should sell better here. That's all. I think Capcom has failed the franchise when trying to market it in the West, and after its vast success on the PSP and particularly in Japan, they should be very interested to make sure all future versions sell well across the globe.

Still find your WoW comparison to be rather weak though, to be honest. WoW is appealing for far more reasons than lootwhore alone. Lootwhoring isn't why WoW is popular - it's the reason it retains people brought in for other reasons.
 

jrricky

Banned
Oh god, I just realize that Im going to keep Wiifit on top by adding 1 more sale today. :-O

Also, +1 for punch out this month.
jetjevons said:
Same with pretty much all new, well received games (Wheelman, Excitebots, Rhythm Heaven, etc.)

It's all very sobering.
Actually rhythm heaven will be the winner out of all these games. We all thought layton was doing badly, look where its at now...over a million.
 

Rolf NB

Member
Coolio McAwesome said:
The PS2 outselling the PS3 at this point would be akin to the NES outselling the SNES in 1994. In other words, it's something that simply shouldn't happen. Those numbers have to be pretty painful for Sony.
PS2-pricedrop-to-99-dollars.swf

ffs
 
Struct09 said:
http://wiieveryday.blogspot.com/2009/05/npd-412009.html

I love the one and only comment:

anonymous said:
Creamsugar, What you have posted (Top 20 by platform) is prohibited by NPD's terms and conditions. You must pull this immediately, and cease any further publication. Continuing to publish this information will result in swift legal action. Questions? Contact NPD at 1-516-625-4600 and ask for a corporate marketing representative for the North American video games industry. Thank you for your immediate attention to this matter.
 

Firestorm

Member
I see no way Monster Hunter would hit it off here... Didn't it get popular in Japan due to the popularity of handheld gaming + concentrated populations which made adhoc multiplayer easy? I don't think online with a console really fosters the same social experience.
 

Vinci

Danish
Firestorm said:
I see no way Monster Hunter would hit it off here... Didn't it get popular in Japan due to the popularity of handheld gaming + concentrated populations which made adhoc multiplayer easy? I don't think online with a console really fosters the same social experience.

Live was a failure?
 

toxk_02

Black Republican
nincompoop said:
So according to this Mario & Sonic would be the 4th highest Wii game but according to Creamsugar it was 8th?
Check the actual link, it's the DS version of Mario & Sonic.
 
Cosmonaut X said:
I don't think so - IIRC the GBA version was a slow-burner and it peaked a lot lower than RTGold.
Yeah. First (and best) week of 25K, 100K after five weeks, final total of about 270K. It was also a GBA game released half a year after the DS Lite, so it was probably a bit late to become a phenomenon.
Hellsing321 said:
Are you crazy?! MH will never sell a million in NA. It couldn't on the PS2 so why would it on the Wii.
Not to say it will do so, but it's not like a sequel has never been more successful than its predecessor. Since Monster Hunter has been such an example of a "late bloomer" in Japan, they're definitely wanting to see if they can do the same elsewhere.
Shaheed79 said:
You guys expect Nintendo to cut the price of Wii after one month of 340k sales? The Wii has truly raised the bar of disappointment. They still doubled the nearest competitor. The Wii price tag isn't budging a cent this entire generation.
Selling 340K each month in a slow time is definitely an enviable position to be in. But production rates are pretty high now. If it gets to the point where they need to choose between either scaling that back, or selling another hundred thousand or two each month at a $50 lower price point, it's not like they won't consider the option.
Psychotext said:
I asked this earlier but it got lost in the flood...

Does anyone know how close the 360 is to outselling the original xbox in the US? I can't seem to find the final LTD number for the xbox anywhere.
Not an NPD figure, but their final shipping number for North America was 16 million. X360 is at 15 million in the US now; with the rest of NA added in it should be past the original.
Vinci said:
I understand the genre fans are different, but you're mentioning games that are either years old, years away, or not popular simply due to their 'lootwhore' aspects.
He's also mentioning exclusively PC games.
 
JoshuaJSlone said:
Selling 340K each month in a slow time is definitely an enviable position to be in. But production rates are pretty high now. If it gets to the point where they need to choose between either scaling that back, or selling another hundred thousand or two each month at a $50 lower price point, it's not like they won't consider the option.
I mostly agree with the argument for why Nintendo might cut the price, but I think it's most likely to happen in Japan first, but after MHTri, and then the US and Europe after the holidays, if the holidays don't manage to push demand as high as they would have liked to have seen.
 
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