Historically, how good was the PS3's performance in Japan considered to be? Depending on that, the ability of the PS4 to just about keep up with it could be interpreted differently.
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Media Create Sales: Week 27, 2019 (Jul 01 - Jul 07)
- Thread starter Chris1964
- Start date
Too bad that some of the games you listed supposedly are "AAA" games and only KH3 sold like an actual big game.
These are one-off performances. They came and went. Which is fine, not all games tend to chart for a long time. The issue is the lack of evergreens but this is due to the homogenous PS4 audience. No kids and no families which help selling the platform outside the outliers. Price is a factor which is linked to product positioning by Sony. Of course PS4 is very successful abroad and also much more casual-oriented (FIFA, Call of Duty) but Japan is a different story.
It doesn't really matter. Whether PS4 is going to sell a bit less or a bit more doesn't change the fact that the PS4 audience (and Sony platforms since a long time) is homogenous and very specific and doesn't help selling big numbers. If you want to be really mainstream in Japan you must have a low price and kid/family friendly games. It doesn't seem PS5 will be able to attract a more heterogenous audience as it will still be positioned as a premium product. Which is fine: just realize its reach in Japan will be limited.
Yep, it shows that so far, Switch has really been selling to a completely different audience from the 3ds: only 3M out of 12M Switch owners in US own(ed) a 3ds. That leaves a 22M market of previous 3ds owners to tap into, which is really a massive untapped market when you consider it's not the main market it's been tapping into over there. The Switch Lite wi tap more into that 3ds audience, meaning they get to tap into two quite separated markets now.
It's also why saying that Japan is the main focus for this is not really deducible from the available evidence: other markets show a large potential boost for a handheld only cheap version.
Japan will gain a lot due to the massive price drop, though, just as the rest of the world did when the price dropped a ton around August. Regardless of whether the market allows expensive ipads or phones for their kids, making a dericated gaming item 10k yen less expensive should push a ton - this even works for PS4, as we saw last holiday season, and it definitely worked that way for 3ds.
There have definitely been some stand out releases but PS4 software on the whole has not been doing super well. More title are released on the PS4 than the Switch. Also Switch Hardware LTD is only slightly over PS4 Hardware LTD but yet so far this financial year the Switch is selling more than twice as many pieces of software.
Now of course most of those sales are of Nintendo 1st party titles because you can't sell 3rd party titles if they don't put them on the platform. And when they DO put them on the platform they usually sell close or over the PS4 version.
These numbers are from Dengeki last week.
SOFTWARE
Code:
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| Model | This Week | Week(%) | FY 2019 | FY(%) |
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| Switch| 399,005 | 78.9% | 2,246,257 | 62.6% |
| PS4 | 88,321 | 17.5% | 1,096,936 | 30.6% |
| 3DS | 11,255 | 2.2% | 171,116 | 4.8% |
| Vita | 6,634 | 1.3% | 60,120 | 1.7% |
| ETC | 597 | 0.1% | 13,111 | 0.4% |
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| Total | 505,812 | 100.0% | 3,587,540 | 100.0% |
--------------------------------------------------------Last year the numbers were (if I remember correctly) a lot closer. It seems PS4 is on a downswing with not much on the near horizon to reverse the trend (MH Word expansion being the only one that comes to mind)
I could very well be wrong (more data points would be appreciated) but it seems that in general PS4 owners are buying less software for their machines.
Poor. Not complete bomb due to sustained push by third parties in an extended lifetime (largely due to the MS/Sony cold war which extended that generation), but it came distant fourth in its generation, selling less than 1/3 the #1 platform.
Considering they also plan to release Baldurs Gate, BG2 , Icewind and Planescape on the same day, they want a RPG Battle Royale in September.
Posting sales just from one week doesn't make any sense.
For example, last week Switch had 2 new noticeable releases (Famitsu: Super Mario Maker 2 - 196.153 and Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball - 75.505) + 2nd week for Yokai Watch (Yo-kai Watch 4 – 40.376). Combine them - and you'll get like > 311K (or 78% of all NSW software sales on that week).
If you really wanted to make a proper comparison, you should post this:
https://twitter.com/GameDataLibrary/status/1147287199395676160
(retail only)
See, difference is not that bigger like in your example.
Not to mention that MHW is responsible for like > 39% Last YTD for PS4 :)
3DS got a price cut to $179 just 5 months after the launch so 2DS $99 price point was welcomed but 3DS was already affordable almost from the get go.
Switch maintained its price point at $299 for at least 2 years and half.
IMO Switch Lite will be more impactful in part because the starting price point, before the cheaper alternative, is higher.
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You should note that the drop in price in Japan was to 15k yen for 3ds, so the price drop is 10k yen in both cases.
I think he was posting Dengeki data to show YTD different between software sales not weekly one.
Basically they started with Smash (2018 title, but it was released very close to 2019) and NSMBUDX
Makes me wonder... They can easily drop to $180 even right now by not including an adapter, but I'm not sure if this will ever happen because USB C is too widely used and with all the millions of different chargers out there, Nintendo will be the one receiving the complaints if anything happens since they didn't include it. 3DS on the other hand uses proprietary.
NSMBUDX sure but by normal software standards a game released in early December will be moving very small numbers in January. That speaks directly to the strength of Switch as a platform and Nintendo as a publisher.
I agree for the strenght of Nintendo, but not for the Switch, because Minecraft is the only third party Switch game which has comparable legs. Even small Nintendo games (like 1, 2 Switch, Arms or Mario Tennis Aces) sells more on Switch than games like Octopath Traveler or Monster Hunter XX.
No shit a launch party game, a highly promoted Nintendo fighting game and a Mario sport game sells more than a new 2D jRPG and a port of a game that already sold million elsewhere!
Also, Taiko is still charting and will chart all year long selling eventually more than the games you mentioned. In terms of legs, Super Bomberman has occasionally charted more than two years after launch.
You listed three fully original Switch games vs a late port of a spinoff of a spinoff and a jrpg which had horrible stocking issues.
Third parties have gotten exactly the sales they deserved, often more than they deserved.
With Switch and Switch Lite everything is setup for a strong Monster Hunter-type titles to be released on Switch. I think by next fall we will have at least two mayor players who will try there luck with new Action-Hunting type games on Switch. Expect Square Enix to be one of them.
Pretty much. Octopath had a significant digital share because Square Enix completely kneecapped its shipments.
Considering how badly Bamco is handling the GE3 port and in general how bad third parties are at capitalizing on audiences on Nintendo platforms I wouldn't be too sure.
Dauntless is coming this year on Switch and is F2P.
I wonder how successful it is currently in Japan.
It'd be amazing if GE3 has legs on Switch also thanks to Switch Lite and becomes the hunting action game to go in Japan, lol
Posting sales just from one week doesn't make any sense.
For example, last week Switch had 2 new noticeable releases (Famitsu: Super Mario Maker 2 - 196.153 and Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball - 75.505) + 2nd week for Yokai Watch (Yo-kai Watch 4 – 40.376). Combine them - and you'll get like > 311K (or 78% of all NSW software sales on that week).
If you really wanted to make a proper comparison, you should post this:
https://twitter.com/GameDataLibrary/status/1147287199395676160
(retail only)
See, difference is not that bigger like in your example.
Not to mention that MHW is responsible for like > 39% Last YTD for PS4 :)
The Dengeki numbers I posted were cumulative. They represent the financial year 2019 so far:
Here are the important numbers with the superfluous data omitted:
Switch 2,246,257
PS4 1,096,936
This is the "is selling more than twice as many pieces of software" I was referring to. Had I only been talking about the sales last week, I would have said "is selling more than five times as many pieces of software"
I only mentioned they were last weeks numbers since we do not have cumulatiove numbers including this week yet.
As for the chart you posted. I make reference to that information in my post:
But thank you for finding the actual chart for me, that's the one I was looking for.
I am sorry if my post was unclear.
I genuinely can not believe what I just had to read on the last two pages. A version of the switch specialised for handheld use will have a comparatively small impact in japan. What.
The literal one thing holding switch back in japan, the reason it gets so close to breaking out but just falls short, is that it is not a traditional handheld. The lowered price will massively help too, not necessarily because of any difference in price sensitivity in japan, but because a lower entry price is a vital part of a successful handheld.
The literal one thing holding switch back in japan, the reason it gets so close to breaking out but just falls short, is that it is not a traditional handheld. The lowered price will massively help too, not necessarily because of any difference in price sensitivity in japan, but because a lower entry price is a vital part of a successful handheld.
That would be good entertainment. I don't expect it but I sure hope that it happens.
Tomorrow we'll get preliminary data on Pokemon and the Switch Lite Pokemon Edition.
Can't wait !
Can't wait !
GE3 is a late port of a PS4 game that started development when Switch wasnt a factor for Bamco.
Games unveiled in the next 12-18 months will be developed with the Switch in mind from the start.
Switch still isn't a factor for Bamco...
I thought we were meant to see the ground up Switch games in 2019? Now it's 2020?
The game doesn't have JP localization, so they will need a partner to assist with that. And MHW is already on other systems, so I can't see it doing too well unless they can release on switch with a big ad campaign
Just the pokemon variant. Data will be good but pretty limited
Ace Combat used to be a series that could push 500k. But these days yeah...
How many units will be available for Switch Lite launch? Can we expect a 300k+ week? I wonder if there will be droughts.
It may be true that the audience overlap isn't huge but in terms of pure numbers the Switch audience is bigger than the 3DS audience was (launch aligned) in the West, while it was not in Japan.
Therefore it's more important to sell this for the Japanese market. It's obviously important everywhere but Japan is in more need of such a device than the rest of the world if Nintendo wanted to reach their maximum sales potential.
I agree with him. What is guiding this though process that we are still 12-18 months away from games developed with Switch in mind? Its 2.5 yeats old and publishers have known about it for longer than we have. How much time do people think it takes?
Who knows, really. The DS Lite launch had only 68k (probably with shortages), so we aren't even guaranteed enough stock. 300k seems pie in the sky type of numbers, tbh. Other comps:
3DS price drop:
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| 3DS | 196.077 | 4.132 | | 1.506.365 | | 1.506.365 |2DS release (2.5 years after the release in the US, WTF?):
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| 2DS | 18.754 | | | 18.754 | | 18.754 |If things go massively well, a 200k+ launch is possible imo, but it depends on how much this downgraded sku takes away from the OG Switch in Japan, and how appealing the 20k yen is in comparison to 3DS' 15k yen price point.
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There is a difference between knowing about a plattform and being fully committed or on board with it.
You know how long it roughly takes to develop a current gen console title.
You think with next gen looming in 12-18 months you'll see more software built with Switch in mind despite pretty much everything Japan currently makes already being more than fit for the the platform? I dont. Especially not from Bamco.
3DS sold 261.873 units at the launch of New 3DS. I think Switch Lite is a more important Sku release because of the pricedrop. I don't predict a 300k week but it's not outlandish because of past data.
My original point was actually about Bamco sending the Switch version of God Eater to die and not tapping into its full potential on the market.
Speaking of my copy just got delivered a day early(and I've got the day off work):
Specifically speaking about Bandai Namco they are currently announcing games that started development in 2017 and are releasing in 2020. That's the exact timeframe you would expect Switch SKUs to solidify in their lineup.
Their announcements for next year will have started development in 2018 for release in 2021, and they will have to consider PS5/Scarlett SKUs for those which means potential Switch SKUs will be an even lower priority.
Speaking of my copy just got delivered a day early(and I've got the day off work):
Specifically speaking about Bandai Namco they are currently announcing games that started development in 2017 and are releasing in 2020. That's the exact timeframe you would expect Switch SKUs to solidify in their lineup.
Their announcements for next year will have started development in 2018 for release in 2021, and they will have to consider PS5/Scarlett SKUs for those which means potential Switch SKUs will be an even lower priority.
I think the new 3DS sales number has more to do with this:
01./00. [3DS] Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate # <ACT> (Capcom) {2014.10.11} (¥6.264) - 1.446.289 / NEW <85,40%>
... than with the revision, tbh. Switch Lite has nothing on that scale releasing that week.
Well N3DS and MH4U was a synergistic effect because the N3DS offered a superior experience for the game. It wasn't just a release at the same time.
Sure, but if we took away MH4U, I am very doubtful N3DS would have reached anything close to that - or even gone much above 100k, tbh. For example, a similar boost happened with the original release of MH4:
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| 3DS # | 276.792 | 79.191 | 60.903 | 2.813.463 | 3.120.009 | 12.593.343 |Funny, I was actually (one of) the first to float 1M sales lifetime for TLOZ:LA! It's going to do very well, but nothing like how MH sells.
