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NPD September 2019: NBA 2K20 #1, already #1 year-to-date, Borderlands 3 #2, Link's Awakening #4, Gears 5 #7, Code Vein #8

cw_sasuke

cw_sasuke

Member
Oct 27, 2017
26,320
Only on ERA and with Switch involved would people call a re-release of a one year old JRPG you can get for 1/3 of the price on PS4/P selling 75k week1 a flop.

DQ is just fine. The release did what it was supposed to do - setting the stage for future titles.

Edit. Impressive Spyro performance on Switch.
 
Phendrift

Phendrift

Member
Oct 25, 2017
32,267
How could Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age Definitive Edition do so poorly when Hero from Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age Definitive Edition was playable in Super Smash Bros Ultimate for Nintendo Switch?
 
nib95

nib95

Contains No Misinformation on Philly Cheesesteaks
Banned
Oct 28, 2017
18,498
bcatwilly said:
Anyone that tries to analyze the Gears 5 NPD #7 ranking as a bomb or any such thing is basically an idiot to be honest when you consider Game Pass impact here. Myself and every other friend of mine that games on Xbox all played it on Game Pass because we are all subscribed to be able to play such games as this and of course Outer Worlds on October 25th. We won't know whether Microsoft achieves their ultimate ambitions with Game Pass until some time into next generation at least, but trying to analyze NPD charts is definitely not useful at this point either.
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The thing is, both Sea of Thieves and Forza Horizon 4, much less prominent franchises than Gears, had 2 million players in a week, whilst Gears 3 had 3 million. That player number includes Game Pass, retail sales, used games, shared or multiple accounts, grey market sales etc, and that's despite Game Pass already having "millions of subscribers" prior to Gears 5's launch, GP being far more popular today than a year ago (at SoT's and FH4's launch), and also despite Gears 5 being given away basically for free.

Honestly, neither the Gears 5 player numbers or sales seem particularly impressive. Player numbers despite basically being given away for free and at a time Game Pass already has millions of subscribers, are still less than the actual retail only sales of Gears 3 in the same time frame.
 
Oregano

Oregano

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
22,878
cw_sasuke said:
Only on ERA and with Switch involved would people call a re-release of a one year old JRPG you can get for 1/3 of the price on PS4/P selling 75k week1 a flop.

DQ is just fine. The release did what it was supposed to do - setting the stage for future titles.

Edit. Impressive Spyro performance on Switch.
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We have literally no idea how many units it sold, or how that compares to last year's year original release.
 
MegaXZero

MegaXZero

One Winged Slayer
Member
Jun 21, 2018
5,079
cw_sasuke said:
Only on ERA and with Switch involved would people call a re-release of a one year old JRPG you can get for 1/3 of the price on PS4/P selling 75k week1 a flop.

DQ is just fine. The release did what it was supposed to do - setting the stage for future titles.

Edit. Impressive Spyro performance on Switch.
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We don't have any numbers so I'm not sure where you are pulling that from.
 

Deleted member 43

Account closed at user request
Banned
Oct 24, 2017
9,271
nib95 said:
The thing is, both Sea of Thieves and Forza Horizon 4, much less prominent franchises than Gears, had 2 million players in a week, whilst Gears 3 had 3 million. That player number includes Game Pass, retail sales, used games, shared or multiple accounts, grey market sales etc, and that's despite Game Pass already having "millions of subscribers" prior to Gears 5's launch, GP being far more popular today than a year ago (at SoT's and FH4's launch), and also despite Gears 5 being given away basically for free.

Honestly, neither the Gears 5 player numbers or sales seem particularly impressive. Player numbers despite basically being given away for free and at a time Game Pass already has millions of subscribers, are still less than the actual retail only sales of Gears 3 in the same time frame.
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Yes, it is undeniable that Gears is not the franchise it once was sales wise, though I do expect the tail on GP to be pretty good.
 
Terraforce

Terraforce

One Winged Slayer
The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
18,910
asagami_ said:
Last year it was also a new title. So that helps :(
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It also had way more competition and a fraction of the marketing when it released on on PS4. DQ has been in pretty much every direct since its announcement and even in several Smash catered reveals. You'd think it would at least chart top 20 even if it performed worse all things considered.
 
Phendrift

Phendrift

Member
Oct 25, 2017
32,267
With how much better the Switch version is and how much promo it got, I'd say it would've done way better if that was the version that came first.

It's like they blew a load early and it wasn't as big as it could've been
 
Phendrift

Phendrift

Member
Oct 25, 2017
32,267
Terraforce said:
It also had way more competition and a fraction of the marketing. DQ has been in pretty much every direct since its announcement and even in several Smash catered reveals. You'd think it would at least chart top 20 even if it performed worse all things considered.
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Huh?! This September is probably the busiest month the Switch has had yet.

Game released the same week as a fucking Zelda!
 
ShinUltramanJ

ShinUltramanJ

Member
Oct 27, 2017
12,949
- Great sales for Borderlands. I dislike Randy Pitchford, but damn does Borderlands 3 look good. I'm probably going to break down and either get it during a holiday sale (assuming Epic does one), or Christmas.

- Great to see Code Vein on the list.

- I'm surprised Gears 5 did as well as it did. I expect it to drop off quickly because of Game Pass.

-A lot of disappointment in DQXI, but personally I don't think it's that great of a game.
 
Proven

Proven

Banned
Oct 29, 2017
5,841
I don't think game pass is ever going to help increase sales of day one first party titles, but there's been a lot of evidence that it does increase temporary third party games sales.
 
Mezoly

Mezoly

Jimbo Replacement
Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,395
Spyro is a Re-release with much less added content and marketing on Switch and did pretty well.

Maybe it's DQ that doesn't sell in the West regardless of platform and marketing.
 
MegaXZero

MegaXZero

One Winged Slayer
Member
Jun 21, 2018
5,079
Terraforce said:
It also had way more competition and a fraction of the marketing. DQ has been in pretty much every direct since its announcement and even in several Smash catered reveals. You'd think it would at least chart top 20 even if it performed worse all things considered.
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Last year it also had a month of sales and digital to get to #11. Still not good for S but lets not go overboard here.
 

Pokémon

Member
Oct 27, 2017
11,677
Terraforce said:
It also had way more competition and a fraction of the marketing when it released on on PS4. DQ has been in pretty much every direct since its announcement and even in several Smash catered reveals. You'd think it would at least chart top 20 even if it performed worse all things considered.
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At the end of the day it's still an enhanced port being sold for full price. To be honest I am legitimately shocked that DQ11S is not in the Top 20 even topped by a game like Catherine. It's really weird.
 
bonch00ski

bonch00ski

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
3,813
Gears 5 charting at #7, while being on game pass is nothing short of great. Taking into account all of the crazy game pass promos and the combing of xbox live and game pass as well.
 
Phendrift

Phendrift

Member
Oct 25, 2017
32,267
Honestly though Daemon X Machina, as a completely new game that was in like FIVE directs, is the true flop here
 
RockmanBN

RockmanBN

Visited by Knack - One Winged Slayer
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Oct 25, 2017
27,933
Cornfields
Mezoly said:
Spyro is a Re-release with much less added content and marketing on Switch and did pretty well.

Maybe it's DQ that doesn't sell in the West regardless of platform and marketing.
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All Spyro had was that little clip in the highlight real and did really well. DQ11 was advertised like hell in many directs and even had a Smash Bros. advertisement. Not even that helped it here.
 
Soul Skater

Soul Skater

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,201
I think the demo was way too long

It was 10 hours. I can see some people who played it and liked it but thought why would I buy it when I haven't even finished the demo yet
 
Splader

Splader

Member
Feb 12, 2018
5,063
nib95 said:
The thing is, both Sea of Thieves and Forza Horizon 4, much less prominent franchises than Gears, had 2 million players in a week, whilst Gears 3 had 3 million. That player number includes Game Pass, retail sales, used games, shared or multiple accounts, grey market sales etc, and that's despite Game Pass already having "millions of subscribers" prior to Gears 5's launch, GP being far more popular today than a year ago (at SoT's and FH4's launch), and also despite Gears 5 being given away basically for free.

Honestly, neither the Gears 5 player numbers or sales seem particularly impressive. Player numbers despite basically being given away for free and at a time Game Pass already has millions of subscribers, are still less than the actual retail only sales of Gears 3 in the same time frame.
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It was 3 million for the weekend, if I remember right.

Also, how many times can gamepass be given for free? Are you going to say the same thing a year from now for Infinite? Or wait, the argument then would probably be "the console comes with a month of gamepass!".

Matt said:
Well, that's not true. The retail sales of Gear are awful worldwide anyway you slice it.

We don't need to sugarcoat that, because the retail sales just doesn't matter anymore.
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By retail, you also mean digital, right? While 7th on the overall list isn't great, third on Xbox isn't bad.

I'm still curious about number of players though, we got that snippet of 3 mill at launch weekend, but I wonder if we'll hear anymore.
 
Zalman

Zalman

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Oct 25, 2017
5,896
pld said:
At the end of the day it's still an enhanced port being sold for full price. To be honest I am legitimately shocked that DQ11S is not in the Top 20 even topped by a game like Catherine. It's really weird.
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I can think of two reasons for this:
1. The busy Switch schedule. September was absolutely packed.
2. The 8-hour demo.

Jawmuncher said:
Wonder if DQ12 will finally go the ARPG route.
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That's an incredible risk to take. DQ9 was supposed to go in a different direction, but the initial reaction was rough. At least now they're a guaranteed multi-million seller in Japan. It's such a storied franchise there that I can't see them mess with it that much.
 

Dark Cloud

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Oct 27, 2017
61,087
DQ will have to make changes if they want it to be more popular in the west. That's just how it is.
 

Deleted member 9135

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Oct 26, 2017
5,435
Gears 5 bombed? Retail maybe but there's no way to conclude how much they made off Game Pass is there?

I just don't think retail is indicative of a game's financial success anymore. At least not on a platform that has Gamepass
 
DriftingSpirit

DriftingSpirit

Member
Oct 25, 2017
17,897
pld said:
Sorry if that sounded rude or anything. I didn't want to insult Catherine. I have played the original game and it's great and deserves the sales. All I tried to say is that it's an even older enhanced port and it managed to chart while DQ did not lol.
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Oh no, I was agreeing with you lol. Catherine is a pretty obscure game. The fact it charted at all is surprising.
 

Deleted member 43

Account closed at user request
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Oct 24, 2017
9,271
Splader said:
By retail, you also mean digital, right? While 7th on the overall list isn't great, third on Xbox isn't bad.

I'm still curious about number of players though, we got that snippet of 3 mill at launch weekend, but I wonder if we'll hear anymore.
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Retail means copies bought from a store. The Xbox marketplace is a store, so yes, I'm including physical and digital sales.

Again, we don't need to say "it did good considering..." That just isn't a meaningful argument anymore. It's all about GP.
 
Voke

Voke

Banned
Oct 28, 2017
1,336
itt people who forgot dragon quest doesn't push a lot of units in the West.

sad to see Nintendo push it so hard only for it not to chart here, if any series deserved that kind of push here it was DQ for sure
 

Deleted member 9584

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Oct 26, 2017
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Honest question, does DQ even need to be more popular in the west? As long as it remains a massive hit in Japan and sells enough to justify a localization, it really doesn't need to blow up in the West.

I've always looked at DQ like this. It is made for the Japanese market and then sells only to the fans in the West. I doubt Nintendo or even Square ever expect it to be a chart topping seller. I doubt they will ever develop a DQ game with the West in mind. The series is too big in Japan for them to change it for western popularity sake.

Also, Hero wasn't put in Smash to make the series big in the West, he was put in because Dragon Quest is huge in Japan.
 

Deleted member 6730

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Octopath Traveler had two demos and it did well.

The demo isn't the issue, releasing it not even a week after a Zelda game was.
 
jroc74

jroc74

Member
Oct 27, 2017
28,985
Oheao said:
Wow, I thought Gears 5 would have been higher, I guess Game Pass really did a number on its sales.
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doncabesa said:
Wow, surprised to see Gears 5 so high with the fact that it's on GamePass.
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Was this intentional? lol

I'm surprised to see it chart at all going by some of the Gears 5, game pass threads, posts.

And lol at those thinking Borderlands 3 bombed.

And I just realized, Control must have super bombed, damn.....
 
Zalman

Zalman

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,896
Scrawnton said:
Honest question, does DQ need to even be more popular on the west? As long as it remains a massive hit in Japan and sells enough to justify a localization, it really doesn't need to blow up in the West.

I've always looked at DQ like this. It is made for the Japanese market and then sells only to the fans in the West. I doubt Nintendo or even Square ever expect it to be a chart topping seller. I doubt they will ever develop a DQ game with the West in mind. The series is too big in Japan for them to change it for western popularity sake.

Also, Hero wasn't put in Smash to make the series big in the West, he was put in because Dragon Quest is huge in Japan.
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I believe you're right. Nintendo of America have called DQ9 a success on multiple occasions despite it not "blowing up" in the West. I'm sure they (and Square) have their expectations in check.

Having said that, there is always a wish for it to become bigger than it is - largely because they're always such well-made games.
 
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