"The west" is not Japan in regards of portability, but it's a bit exaggerated to say it doesn't care at all. The DS, 3DS and now, the Switch, sold/sell very well in "the west".
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NPD January 2018: Monster Hunter World #1 SW, Nintendo switch #1 HW
- Thread starter ZhugeEX
- Start date
"The west" is not Japan in regards of portability, but it's a bit exaggerated to say it doesn't care at all. The DS, 3DS and now, the Switch, sold/sell very well in "the west".
I mean, the first thing that "held back" MH in the west was the lack of marketing.
Everyone can agree that Capcom actually marketed it this time (and not just a bit), and it did wonders. They relied on Nintendo and Sony in the past (just like S-E relied on those two for Dragon Quest in the west).
Well I'm not saying all that yet.
Just I've seen no evidence over February Switch will have a disproportionately strong month compared to the other consoles.
It'll end up making way more money. That said, the amount of MH on the 3DS was high. Capcom wont be launching 5 MH games on consoles where they can all heavy reuse assets. So we'll have to see how they handle releases going forward.
But the game is probably on its way to 12-14m units plus MTX. And they still have a G release in the pipeline.
Could you say if you're seeing it as a weak month as of right now, as Rainrir is trying to read from your comment? I get it if you don't want to do that, of course.
Not necessarily weak no. I just wouldn't go into February NPD predictions expecting some sort of wide Switch blow out.
I am talking on the west. And I think if they gave the games a decent marketing budget it would be worth it, if it could crack 1 million with the minimal that they did before they could certainly could do much better.
You say lack of marketing, but even in the PSP days Monster Hunter had TV ads. Monster Hunter World had better marketing than previous entries, but let's not act as if Capcom had just been releasing the games into the ether before this entry. I genuinely don't actually see that much of a step up in that regards with World which is why I don't think the marketing has played into it as much as some think. The platform choice however has clearly benefited it greatly.
What's a decent marketing budget in your eyes? I have to ask, what is Capcom doing in the marketing department this time around that is so radically different to the previous games? I remember the PSP games and Tri at least had TV ads and Capcom even set up a Monster Hunter Gathering Hall slap bang in the middle of London throughout the summer of 2008,2009 for people to meet up and play. That wouldn't have been cheap.
The only major difference I see this time around is Capcom's capitalisation of social media has been far smarter this time around, rather than them just throwing more money at it.
Expected. Switch already had two month with more stock and didn't do insane ( WII / DS ) numbers ( September and October ). It's doing really good though and with a solid line up / price cut will perform very well in the next few years but i feel that someone "overhyped" it a little bit.
Not weak, but close in units is what I read from Benji's post
And probably way down vs others in revenue? Just a guess assuming units are close.
You should take a step back and relax because if you are seriously trying to read from a simple "Ehhhhh" that a "collapse" is happening then you have some serious problems.
I expect xbox to win February because of the great sales they have, it would be much easier to predict this, if we knew January numbers. If switch won by 10-20k i don't think it can take February.
You're quite presumptious lately. I think all he was saying is there is no reason to believe the Switch will have a huge Feb.
As far as the core MH experience is concrrned, MHW doesn't play all that differently from MH4U or MHGen (or XX really). I've played a bunch of both lately, its the same shit. MH on Switch will play similar to MHW.
As far as how a potential MH game on Switch would sell in the West (which I doubt Capcom even does but anyway), it'll sell well over double what the 3DS games managed in the West. The series was on an upward trend with the 3DS. The Switch has better software sales than the 3DS, the Switch is more popular than the 3DS and the series has extended popularity thanks to World.
There isn't much reason to believe a Switch MH wouldn't clear well over what the 3DS games did.
I see, thanks for the clarification!
Yeah, I'm not sure where the idea of February being huge comes from. Bayonetta is not a major release for pushing hardware sales, nor is DQB, and beyond that nothing notable released either. Seems like a month for bog-standard numbers (or for terrible numbers if we follow the Downfall Theory timeline Rainrir is pushing).
Alright, but why paint that as the start of a decline? Switch HW numbers have been in line with PS4's last year as well, so selling on par with PS4 in February should be considered the standard situation imo.
Lots of Nintendo fans claiming NSW will wreck faces once it has stock, so it's important to point out the reality that NSW can't sell if it only as a few new software released.
Japan already proved that, it didn't actually wreck anything even with better stock due to the lack of SW.
Situation is much better compared to before in Japan. Even if you don't find it in the first store you go to, you can find one in the second.
It stopped being supply constraint in the US after Christmas.
How exactly? In Japan the Switch sells consistently 40k without major new releases. That's not a low number at all.
World might sell at 60$ but development likely was leaps above 4, not counting in the marketing, entry pay for several consoles, and royalties. Game is gonna print money for capcom, but not sure if will be the most profitable
Lets see
>Japan still lack of stock and still without any important game keeps on 40K
>World Wide wise Switch is barely trailing behind Year 1 PS4 and had much more stock issues
>Switch keeps being the top Seller NPD units wise save from November cause PS4 price cut BF and May and June when stock was at worst
>This is without any major release since Xenoblade 2 at the start of December
what is with people trying to undermine the success of the Switch??
Arrogant Sony is finally back. No deals , no new bundles since November.
Yeah, I think X1 should have a solid February with that price cut. I'm interested to see how far it can go. A bigger game release like CD3 would have been useful too.
So basically your data right now show a close month for all 3 console, kinda like January ( even tho is hard to say since we have no January numbers yet ).
That said, even with small margins, what is the console you expect to win?
And about MHW, i'm surprised people are still talking about how much it will be profittable compared to the others platforms.
MHW is, by far, the biggest success Capcom ever made, in term of everything.
It also sold a significant amount more copies digitally which have higher margins for Capcom and at a $60 price point for those digital copies.
PC release will be nearly 100% digital share. It's goin of to be the most profitable by a non incremental amount
I legit thought this post was satire before realizing you're being unironically serious.
tell me if Im being wrong here but dont Steam take the same 30%ish cut Retailers take?
Its Capcom's first bonafide hit in ages. Its ultra weird we are still having this discussion about how much profit it'll generate. It's going to be a lot and well over the 3DS games by a significant degree.
ill argue that this is why it was a hit in Japan handheld ecosystem, Local Co-op
Physical boxed units have retailer cut as well as platform holder cut.
Digital only has platform holder cut i.e. 30% across PSN, Xbox, Steam. Digital games provider higher margins for publishers than physical
That isn't the type of numbers that will save the Japanese dedicated device industry.
I need to make this clear, I don't care who wins in the end, I only care that the JP industry lives domestically, preferable with the west as an pillar instead it being the sole life or death market.
PS4 isn't going to do much better than 10 million in Japan despite the Japanese market supporting it like a market leader (FF DQ MH and all games by default plus all western games), the 3DS is on its way out since it reached saturation in Japan (1 3DS sold for every 6 people ) the only hope left is NSW.
Companies like Bamco and SE, and devs for hire like Tose, and even Japan industry analysists (Mizuho, ACE, McAcquire) from the banks and securities all were so optimistic last quarter, thinking that maybe NSW can arrest the brutal 10 year decline of the JP dedicated induatry. The eh numbers shown basically means we are in for another decline.
Anyways this thread is about US NPD, so I shouldn't continue about JP sales.
If Bamco(and the majority of the Japanese publishers/developers) were pinning their hopes on the Switch in the domestic market they would be actually be supporting it.
Thats why what they say don't match the reality, even if NSW sales last year gave the domestic industry it's first expansion in a decade, it is a huge cause for my recent disillusionment with the domestic market.
While it takes time to move games over for the famously slow and cautious Japanese publishing houses, we are quickly reaching the point where this aint no excuse anymore. It is clear that JP 3P only wants the foreign market, the domestic market is merely a sideshow. We will see how long an "export only" industry lasts.
they why said PC MH would be 100% digital share?
also digital margins is mostly true to Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft as they save the Retailer cut, storage, printing. but 3rd party publishers, Digital (in this case PC) all they save is storage, printing and the (3-5$?) royalties cut to hardware. that is money that adds up but is not like they get all 60$ from each Steam sale
I feel like it's worth mentioning that MH4U sold over 1m in the west. The series definitely broke out in a major way with MHW, but it's not like it went from being a complete failure in the west to a success overnight.
Ever since MH3U Capcom have been saying that they wanted to make the series as popular as it was/is in Japan, in the west. Back then folks said they wanted the games on "main" consoles, and Capcom US/UK reps said that they were relaying that information to Japan. I don't think it's a coincidence that development on MHW seems to coincide with MH4U hitting that 1m milestone in the west.
Anyone that has been following the series for the last 5 years can tell you how MHW happened, and how it's doing well in the west. It kinda annoys me seeing all the hot takes around the game doing well, when there's a logical chain of events to MHW becoming a thing, and its success.
Ever since MH3U Capcom have been saying that they wanted to make the series as popular as it was/is in Japan, in the west. Back then folks said they wanted the games on "main" consoles, and Capcom US/UK reps said that they were relaying that information to Japan. I don't think it's a coincidence that development on MHW seems to coincide with MH4U hitting that 1m milestone in the west.
Anyone that has been following the series for the last 5 years can tell you how MHW happened, and how it's doing well in the west. It kinda annoys me seeing all the hot takes around the game doing well, when there's a logical chain of events to MHW becoming a thing, and its success.
Was MHW really marketed all that well? I didnt see much advertising beyond what places in-tune gamers might find it anyway. I think the series has reasonably good mind share to begin with, it just needed the right formula and platforms to shine.
You're underselling MHW marketing budget. MHW must have been one of the most advertised Japanese games of the past decade along with Nintendo top-tier games and Final Fantasy. At a certain point it was everywhere. Previous MH games were treated as second-tier games by Capcom: late localization, missing games, Nintendo handling all distribution and marketing efforts. I remember when MH3G released in Japan, Western gamers had to wait a full year to know about localization and more than one year to get the actual game. Similar story with MH. This clearly showed that Capcom didn't care enough for the franchise abroad. When they invested a lot with a new game on HD platforms they went all in.
I saw plenty of ads on mainstream media outlets in Italy (non-gaming press) and metro ads in Germany. I know TV commercials also aired a lot. I remember that when the game was announced there were a lot of ads on YT, something I have previously seen only for Destiny, Call of Duty and Battlefield.
Because most modern PC games do 90+% of their sales digitally.
And 3DS digital sales aren't comparable to PS4 / Xbox One / PC. Not even close
Yeah he has been repeating the "Switch will fall off the cliff in 2018 because the first half of Nintendo's software in 2018 is bad" narrative on a weekly basis.
Oh in that case I pretty much agree but I'd disagree with the way you've been framing it. The fact of the matter is that Nintendo is the only publisher which has faith in (dedicated) portable experiences and they're one of the only publisher who has confidence in their domestic market.
In my defense I only say H1, due to the new SW slate not looking strong enough to sell systems, and we don't know about H2. A weaker H1 can be salvaged by a very strong H2 (for example pokemon)
This is seperate from what I think is wider challenges with regards to Ninty's long term prospects.
Momentum and inertia is a thing. Plus software like BotW and Odyssey won't suddenly stop selling either. This is without accounting for things like Labo.
It took the PS4 a year and a half to start getting meaningful system moving software, that didn't stop it from continuing to sell out of sheer momentum through 2014.
He's talking about a 100% digital ratio, not 100% profit margin.
>look at 3DS numbers
HAHA HA nope. Mobile maybe have eat a chunk of it and reduce it, but there still space for dedicated hardware to play games.
if Handhelds were soo hated in the west then explain how SMO sold 9M on 1 platform alone?
and then there is a pletora of games in 3DS that sold even beyond that
so saying "MH did not sell cause handheld is a bottle neck market" is wrong in many way
You can't prove that people in the west love buying 3rd party games on handhelds like 3DS by telling them how well giant Ninrtendo first party games sell.
MH had no chance of thriving in the west on 3DS.