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Media Create Sales: Week 20, 2014 (May 12 - May 18)
- Thread starter Chris1964
- Start date
GhostTrick
Banned
I suspect that 5 or 6 titles are sharing that mobile gaming cake. I don't think that people migrated away from Sony/Nintendo but more like publishers such as Square Enix did.
Just wait for dat Platinum bump
And_Gignac
Member
Lmao.
LordOcidax
Member
Like W101 did?
It's almost certainly top heavy, but so are consoles. At least in the West (where we have some more concrete numbers on mobile sales), iOS is not notably more (or less) top heavy than consoles are.
Which is an indictment of all of those platforms, frankly.
Psycho_Mantis
Banned
Wow
The Abominable Snowman
Member
Gaming in japan is mobile phones.
These sales are terrible.
These sales are terrible.
Historically abysmal sales.
The thing I question is the vitality of the platforms, not just in Japan but worldwide. In the past the more moderate dev costs meant more releases all the time, which kept the gamers engaged. Not every game had to sell 6+ million copies.
This time it is different: big software hitters will come, but the implosion of the mid-tier means that you have to wait for a long time for any new releases in the genres you enjoy (with the possible exception of FPS games). This allows the attention and engagement of gamers to drift into other forms of entertainment.
Japan itself is a clear case: the money is made in mobile, so that’s where we are seeing vitality: yes lots of the releases are of low-quality, but at least there is something new to play all the time for almost all the genres.
Quality matters, but so does output.
The thing I question is the vitality of the platforms, not just in Japan but worldwide. In the past the more moderate dev costs meant more releases all the time, which kept the gamers engaged. Not every game had to sell 6+ million copies.
This time it is different: big software hitters will come, but the implosion of the mid-tier means that you have to wait for a long time for any new releases in the genres you enjoy (with the possible exception of FPS games). This allows the attention and engagement of gamers to drift into other forms of entertainment.
Japan itself is a clear case: the money is made in mobile, so that’s where we are seeing vitality: yes lots of the releases are of low-quality, but at least there is something new to play all the time for almost all the genres.
Quality matters, but so does output.
reptilescorpio
Member
Parakeetman
No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
Unless you are in Japan dont really think it should matter to you either way.
It actually seems even worse considering there are so many more SKU's in 2014 than 2004
Shmuely Bully
Member
Game development and publishing are never safe, but western devs remain far more relevant and successful than Japanese ones.
Companies like Konami are making most of their money outside of videogames while EA, Activision, Ubisoft, Blizzard, Valve, etc. continue to grow bigger. When is the last time a big Japanese dev did anything interesting to non-Japanese audiences? How about the last time they did several in a row? Most of them don't even try despite the country having a birth rate below the rate of replacement for decades.
This picture used to represent a console being left outside in the cold whilst the rest of the consoles had a party on the inside.
In Japan at least, I'm starting to wonder now if theyre just staring into an empty room, strewn with the remnants of a party finished long ago.
Just bummed myself out
GhostTrick
Banned
The main problem here I think is that I think that more people share the cake on the console market. You can be niche and be really profitable, while on iOS... well you're likely to disappear in a huge sea.
Of course, I may lack concrete data, But I also think that's because actual data are showing mobile revenue as a whole and not detailled enough.
It'll get better but too bad none of those will hit the market within the next 12 months.
Activision/Blizzard and Valve are certainly growing bigger. EA and Ubisoft are not. Do not let their "hardcore" credentials fool you; the western publishers are not doing very well. Not dying, but not growing significantly, either.
Well in the end it will matter to all who like Japanese games on consoles.
gigantor21
Member
Most of my all-time favorite games and franchises are from Japan, and shit sales like this means yet more Japanese development being pushed to mobile/tablets. So yeah, it kind of does. :/
I'm reasonably confident this really isn't true. The last I checked (circa 2011), ~85% of all third party sales on 360 were Ubisoft/Take 2/Activision/EA. Four companies. In general, the iOS market is more diverse and more open to competition, which is why you see so many small companies entering the mobile market rather than the console one. If you need me to pull it up, I can show you the number of smaller developers and publishers active in the iOS space relative to the console space.
michaelius
Banned
I can put together iOS game in garage in two weeks and then publish it. You can't do that with consoles.
Mid-tier games are being replaced by the rise of indie games. While they were previously confined to PC, the platform holders are doing everything to get them on board now. And this is bringing in a lot of games which are higher quality than the few "mid-tier" efforts that still exist (ASM2, Bound by Flame).
Interfectum
Member
Interesting you say that in a thread where people are expecting Mario Kart 8 and Final Fantasy XV to single handedly save their respective consoles from their horrible sales.
GhostTrick
Banned
Four companies, but how many titles ? Also, I'd be glad to see those iOS numbers, since I have troubles to search them from mobile !
Well... that's not me saying that.
Flurry says 875 developers have 1 million or more active monthly users (ie healthy userbase).
They are calling it (you guessed it) mid-tier. And I doubt Flurry has the data of Asian devs. Thats a whole lotta devs with enough users to pay the bills.
Of course number of failures is still far greater.
What Japanese indie devs are making inroads into the console market, anyway? I don't really hear much on that front.
ItWasMeantToBe19
Banned
So in the 18 months between now and the probable release of FFXV, does the PS4 have anything fairly big coming out for Japan? Because I don't know if a game system can go 18 months like this.
Love indies.I hope they can stem the decline of consoles. But I do miss a lot of games like Wild ARMS -bigger than indie, but cheaper to make than AAA.
I wonder if there's any chance of Driveclub tapping into the GT market.
GhostTrick
Banned
Then again; those are blurry numbers to me. It's showing growth, but between those 875 devs, what's the share ? How much of a revenue does it means ?
There really isn't an indie scene in Japan except for visual novel like doujin games to fap to on PC.
Psycho_Mantis
Banned
Right, that's a major part of the reason iOS is such a flourishing ecosystem. It's significantly more open to new entrants with lower barriers to entry. I can't tell if you're disagreeing with me somehow or simply explaining why my point is correct.
This is what they are seeing in the room:
The inconsistent button orientation on that handset bothers me.
gundamkyoukai
Member
Things not going get any better over in Japan especially on consoles .
There is nothing coming up for months that can do anything not even cross gen stuff .
O well last gen i was playing less and less Japanese software it just going to happen again .
I won't really call it a flourishing ecosystem it's basically the same as consoles if you work the number of hits to failure .
Of course the entry level is much easier \ lower but that happening now on consoles that to all indies and PC ports .
There is nothing coming up for months that can do anything not even cross gen stuff .
O well last gen i was playing less and less Japanese software it just going to happen again .
I won't really call it a flourishing ecosystem it's basically the same as consoles if you work the number of hits to failure .
Of course the entry level is much easier \ lower but that happening now on consoles that to all indies and PC ports .
D
Deleted member 125677
Unconfirmed Member
Well, it's sort of romantic watching PS4 and Wii U die together in Japan.
It should bring us together
Wonder what effect MK8 will have hardware-wise, and how many weeks we will see a bump, if any.
It should bring us together
Wonder what effect MK8 will have hardware-wise, and how many weeks we will see a bump, if any.
On the other hand, I have an idea for an indie game, that'd take a bit longer than two weeks to bash together - I'm thinking well over a year for single-person development...
...and I'm not sure that if I 'paid myself a decent wage' for that time, it'd be profitable.
Unfortunately, expect Pixel (Cave Story) I can't think of anybody. Which is a shame.
I can only try to explain this with the fact that the japanese population as a whole is getting older, but there should still be some guys trying to break into game development. Can't really understand why there is no big indie movement coming from there.
That would make an interesting topic, by the way.
Dragon1893
Member
PS4 sales are hardly surprising. Combine the lack of appealing software with the state of Japan's home console market...
MS shouldn't even bother releasing the X1 there.
Weird how they're still tracking the 360, feels kinda pointless. Look at this: 100 units sold!
Hopefully the Vita will continue to manage staying above 10k even during slow weeks.
MS shouldn't even bother releasing the X1 there.
Weird how they're still tracking the 360, feels kinda pointless. Look at this: 100 units sold!
Hopefully the Vita will continue to manage staying above 10k even during slow weeks.
bigmit3737
Member
Wow, I was hoping for the Vita to keep up in 20k's but it keeps dropping.
Principate
Saint Titanfall
Wow such a target you've placed there,
There's Infamous for PS4, I guess. The previous games were at 20-30k first week, 40k LTD.
It'll probably do similar numbers.
Hahahahahaha!
Infernal Monkey
Member
SEGA sure stuck with the dumbest possible time to release Sonic Racing Transformed in Japan.