PS3 outsells Wii for 2nd straight week in Japan

[Zeus]

http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?optio ... 7&Itemid=2

Numbers are about equal to the week before for the two consoles.

So, with this price drop, will this be what the PS3 needs to eventually surpass the Wii or is it just temporary? Only time (and Seek's postings) will tell.....

[Julius Seeker]

My intuition says this lead will last until the first week of December.

[RentCavalier]

Hmmm...

It's a pity that Nintendo doesn't have a huge Christmas release to clinch the year...February will be a big game/system seller, for sure.

[Julius Seeker]

It depends on how you look at it. They're in a position that they can spend a lot of money, and they will if they think it will re-establish strong demand in Japan again. They were in a position for quite a while where they were selling everything and just needed to coast. PS3 saw a large rise, but its sales are still very low along with the Wii.

Though, it was when Wii was heavy on the more casual game releases that it was doing fantasticly well in Japan. Zelda did not sell a huge amount there, but Wii Sports and Warioware did. That is why I think the upcoming December releases will really help its position there. Look at the handheld and mobile industries in Japan as well for further example, they're booming. Of course, also consider that RPGs are still going to sell very well in Japan, so Pokemon, Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, and Animal Crossing, these titles I can see Nintendo aggressively pursuing.

[Zeus]

Hmmm...

It's a pity that Nintendo doesn't have a huge Christmas release to clinch the year...February will be a big game/system seller, for sure.

Yeah, it's not like they have a Mario game or anything.....oh, wait.....

[bovine]

does this coincide with some retarded game that the japanese love.... like dynasty warriors or something? Like how they went apeshit over ace combat (which I love, but I recognize that it is not that great a franchise) and they ate up those 360s.

[Zeus]

does this coincide with some retarded game that the japanese love.... like dynasty warriors or something? Like how they went apeshit over ace combat (which I love, but I recognize that it is not that great a franchise) and they ate up those 360s.

Yeah, seems to be the Dynasty Warriors one, which has sold about 264k in two weeks

[Oracle]

All I can say about this is install base. Wii has had ungodly high numbers this past year, most everyone who wants one in Japan probably has one.

I'm guessing many of those PS3s were bought by people who already have Wiis.

[Julius Seeker]

NDS Lite - 76,069 [6,034,166]
PSP - 65,609 [2,310,547]
PlayStation 3 - 39,178 [883,746]
Wii - 36,230 [2,896,560]
PlayStation 2 - 8,855 [667,628]
Xbox 360 - 6,525 [195,241]

Well, it looks like we have our answer. I think the reason why PS3 had two weeks in a row with similar numbers is because the price drop occurred most of the way through the first week, while the price drop was in effect for all 7 days of the second week so it gave the illusion that the PS3 sales were not in decline.

The next update should show a an increase in DS sales as Dragon Quest 4 DS, Square Enix's latest remake, sold a whopping 360K its first day of release: November 22nd. DS is already destined to be the highest selling system in the history of Japan, it is almost there now and next year will be its biggest year yet for releases; which will include DQ9 with voice acting which I forsee being Square/Enix's biggest selling game in their history on the Japanese market.

[Julius Seeker]

I forgot to note that September-November in Japan is traditionally very slow, Wii is still keeping its head above the 100K mark for those months. It should be noted that during those months the PS2 rarely sold more than 100K. December, however, typically sees a huge surge in sales.

[Zeus]

I forgot to note that September-November in Japan is traditionally very slow, Wii is still keeping its head above the 100K mark for those months. It should be noted that during those months the PS2 rarely sold more than 100K. December, however, typically sees a huge surge in sales.

Yeah, but it's not just Japan. There's reports out in the US that the NPD numbers for November may show about 500k systems sold during that month. That's HUGE considering they haven't even hit 200k once since release (on a side note, I wonder who the hell is buying them? Maybe my bud's EB isn't the best source for empirical data, but he's had almost the same systems for the last couple of months; they've hardly moved at all).

We'll wait for the final figures, but what I've been saying all along is that you have a bunch of sheep who only care about brand name (even the most hardcore Sony fan will have a hard time justifying there's enough software to warrant the system's price) just waiting for the system to drop to a reasonable price to pick it up. Once that happens, you're gonna see it take off big time. And with Sony's "prestige" and marketing muscle, you can bet they'll push it with all their might. So much so that I think it will pass the Wii in total systems sold later in the systems' lives, likely in 2009, maybe 2010, and will still be the best overall in sales, just not nearly the margin they had the last two generations.

[Julius Seeker]

It is just Japan, in North America September-November typically have higher sales than the rest of the year with the exception of December. In Japan, December typically has high sales, but September-November has the year's lowest sales.

500K in North America is not ahead of Wii, nor is it a lot for November in North America; and this 500K is the result of a price drop sales spike. The DS sold nearly 700K last week in the US alone without any such aid. The Wii has been selling out of its 300-350K weekly shipments all month, it will have far more than 500K sold for November (and it sold 500K+ in September and October). Not sure about Xbox 360. Also, the Playstation brand loyalty has been dead for a while now, mostly due to their policies with the PS3. The PS3 will be third overall; even though it is selling better than Xbox 360 in some regions, it is usually only by a small amount, not nearly enough to make up for the North American sales of Xbox 360, let alone Wii. Currently PS3 has had worse sales in this past year than Gamecube had during any of its first 4 years (in addition, Gamecube sold about 500K on average in November during its lifespan), just to give you a comparison. I am estimating now, 18-20 million PS3 sales by 2011; it is just not nearly as attractive of a product.

[Julius Seeker]

NDS Lite - 116,694 [6,150,860]
PSP - 75,027 [2,385,574]
Wii - 54,362 [2,950,922]
PlayStation 3 - 50,564 [934,310]
PlayStation 2 - 14,875 [682,503]
Xbox 360 - 7,117 [202,358]
GameCube - 44 [10,385]
GB Micro - 42 [27,746]
GBA SP - 31 [21,817]

Wii is ahead again, PS3 sales are up with the release of the new Fifa game. Nintendo DS had by far the top selling game of the week with Dragon Quest 4 which sold 600,000 copies, who says Square Enix shouldn't be doing remakes on the DS again?

[Blotus]

who says Square Enix shouldn't be doing remakes on the DS again?

People who want more attempt at original games out of them? Unfortunately, I think SE is at the point Nintendo is at now where new IP's can't possibly approach the popularity of their established franchises so why bother.

I don't really count myself as part of that group, though... hell, of the last four SE games I bought, two of them were remakes (FF4 and 6, FF12, Valkyrie Profile 2). I'm looking forward more to FF4 for the DS than Last Remnant or the dreadfully titled: Infinite Undiscovery.

[SineSwiper]

So, Lotus, you're telling me that you're a part of the problem. Yeah, keep spending money on FF4 for the fourth remake. How many times are they going to remake every NES/SNES FF game before they get to, say, the PSX generation of Final Fantasy games?

You know, the only remake I would ever bother with is FF7. The graphics in that game were horrible, yet it was such a good story. After all, FF7 was their best selling game of all time.

[Blotus]

So, Lotus, you're telling me that you're a part of the problem. Yeah, keep spending money on FF4 for the fourth remake. How many times are they going to remake every NES/SNES FF game before they get to, say, the PSX generation of Final Fantasy games?

I will spend money on my fourth copy of FF4 (2 SNES, 1 GBA, soon 1 DS). Like FFVI and Chrono Trigger, it's a game that holds so much nostalgic value for me that I could play them once a year.

I guess you could say I am part of the problem, if it is that. It remains to be seen if Square's new IP's are any good. I shouldn't have included Infinite Undiscovery in the last post because that's a Tri-Ace game, technically. I'm hoping Last Remnant will be good, but the fact that they're making it for "a worldwide audience" worries me a bit. Combat looks interesting, though.

I think my waning interest in JRPG's (hell, RPG's) in general is making me more apathetic to what SE is putting out. What's new and exciting that they've put out in the last five year? And don't mention Kingdom Hearts because I could care less.

You know, the only remake I would ever bother with is FF7. The graphics in that game were horrible, yet it was such a good story. After all, FF7 was their best selling game of all time.

They're working on it in some capacity, no doubt. I'll buy it for sure whenever they decide to release it.

[Julius Seeker]

Play FF7 again (if you haven't played it recently), and see if you still think the story is very good.

FF7's story was fairly boring (in my opinion), but it had some interesting locations in the game: Midgar is one of the coolest locations the series has ever seen, I also really liked Junon Harbour, and that Winter City (forget the name of it), and even that rundown rocket town had its charm. Hojo was an alright character, as was the first Shinra President, but I didn't find many of the characters to be enjoyable.

Then again, I know there were people here who really didn't like Xenogears' story, which I really loved. It's a matter of taste. I also quite liked the Xenosaga series story, particularly the third part; which Zeus is still waiting on for a price drop, a year and a half later =P

On old FF re-releases, the GBA FF4 had a really special location in it, I think anyone who was even remotely a fan of the game would appreciate the new area (Essentially it is a Lunarian location which completes the plot for each of the characters in the game). Not to mention all of the complaints that the original version of the game had, on SNES, have been fixed. FF4 Advance is a really solid title, though the DS one coming in the future is something much better. FF6 on GBA, well, I always wanted to play FF6 on a handheld system, it has a better translation (though there are some old parts that I will miss), and some new features; certainly not the vast improvement that FF4 Advance was over the first, but mostly those FF4 improvements brought FF4 up to FF6's standard; FF6 didn't have very far to go.

I have no doubt that FF7 is being remade, I can't say for certain where it is coming, though I would guess it will be a next generation DS, particularly since the ARM cpu technology will be up to about 1GHz by that time; the Cortex processors are that high already, it is just a matter of driving the price down now.

[Blotus]

Play FF7 again (if you haven't played it recently), and see if you still think the story is very good.

While I don't think it's bad, it's definitely not excellent.

Then again, I know there were people here who really didn't like Xenogears' story, which I really loved. It's a matter of taste.

I think I completely tuned out of the story somewhere during the second disc. Maybe it's because I kept falling asleep.

[Zeus]

The second disc of Xenogears saved the game IMO. By the end of the first disc I had gotten so sick of the cool yet extremely shallow fighting system that I was running from everything I could. Once I got to stop playing and just enjoyed the story, it was great.

[Blotus]

I remember liking the game but not being inclined to play it again at all. Someday, perhaps.

[Julius Seeker]

"I'm coming Solaris"
"Seibzehn and I shall be the dark wings which carry you all to your deaths!!"

-Genocidal little girl from Xenogears =)

[RentCavalier]

I would certainly consider picking up a FFVII remake, but...

I dunno. I'm just so...SICK...of FFVII, y'know? They've spun-off'd it to hell, and Nomura's recent artistic stylings just piss me off incredibly. Well-adjusted human beings do NOT NEED that many zippers.

Ever. Plus, not a single good Nomura-helmed/designed game has come from SE since Kingdom Hearts 1.

[Zeus]

I'm also quite sick of all this gaga bullshit over such a mediocre RPG

[Eric]

Best RPG Ever you mean, zing. More FFVII please. I need more.

[Julius Seeker]

Well they saw potential in sequels to FF7 after a highly successful FFT "sequel" on GBA and a smash hit success sequel to FF10. The thing is none of the FF7 sequels turned out to be highly successful. People do remember the game being better than it actually was, kind of like Link to the Past and Mario World, while those games were decent, I wouldn't call them great on the level of Super Mario Brothers 3 or Ocarina of Time, for example (all four of which I have played in the last year).

[SineSwiper]

I don't see why. FFTA, while being a decent game, pales in comparison to the original. And the sequel to FFX was a complete joke, through and through.

[Blotus]

Sine you're asking why a Final Fantasy game sells well?

As to Seeker's point about the FF7 spinoffs not being successful, go dig up some numbers for Crisis Core. As far as I know, the game sold a ton of PSPs in Japan. I can't speak to Dirge of Cerberus's sales, although I imagine it didn't bomb despite it's apparent shittiness.

[Julius Seeker]

Sine you're asking why a Final Fantasy game sells well?

As to Seeker's point about the FF7 spinoffs not being successful, go dig up some numbers for Crisis Core. As far as I know, the game sold a ton of PSPs in Japan. I can't speak to Dirge of Cerberus's sales, although I imagine it didn't bomb despite it's apparent shittiness.

I said none of them turned out to be highly successful like FFTa or FF10-2.

[Zeus]

Sine you're asking why a Final Fantasy game sells well?

As to Seeker's point about the FF7 spinoffs not being successful, go dig up some numbers for Crisis Core. As far as I know, the game sold a ton of PSPs in Japan. I can't speak to Dirge of Cerberus's sales, although I imagine it didn't bomb despite it's apparent shittiness.

I said none of them turned out to be highly successful like FFTa or FF10-2.

I think Crisis Core has been pretty damned successful, the only FF7 offshoot to be truly successful

[bovine]

what about the mobile phone ff7 spinoffs? I heard they were pretty popular in japan

[Eric]

Mobile phone games in Japan are far and beyond anything we have over here. They get games like MGS, Devil May Cry, we get games like Bounce.

[Blotus]

Who cares? Anybody really want to play MGS on their phone with number keys?

[Eric]

Who cares? Anybody really want to play MGS on their phone with number keys?

Their Phones have joysticks and D-pads.