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[Plinko]

Before they saw how awful Wii U sales were, they had already paid Warner Bros. for an exclusive game in Lego City, paid P* for W101 (which costs 1.5 times the original Bayo), paid Sega and P* for Bayo2. Their R&D expense and staff hiring has increased by a significant amount over the last three years. They hired Leo Burnett to run the marketing campaign (in NA) for both 3DS and Wii U. Again, I'm not defending Nintendo or the Wii U here].

And he should never be hired again.

 

[Yasumi]

And he should never be hired again.

He is the devil, after all.

 

[Steve Youngblood]

And he should never be hired again.

Not to nitpick semantics you most likely don't care about, and pardon me if I'm just not in on the joke here, but Leo Burnett is just a company name now. Leo Burnett himself died over forty years ago.

 

[Myshkin]

Microsoft EDD still lost money last quarter. They had the 900m write down on Surface inventory but Y/Y they still had consecutive losses.

MS was down a incredible ~11% on Friday which baffles me considering how many funds own $ms but the PC and surface data was incredible, but XBox still isn't even making a mark on it. Translation rev is up but the division overall is still losing many Q4 (though profitable annually). Still, MS must be desperate to milk as much profit as possible out of Xbox Live and its platforms. And, as a shareholder, I hope they do. (Though I still don't know if I want to game on one myself.)

In this context I'm not surprised by the Xbox One decisions.

Curious to see how MS EDD does in the pre-One window and post-Surface discount.

Sometimes companies just overreach. Right now MS is trying to squeeze extra dollars out of MS Office. On the corporate side it has a chance of working. For individuals there's no way that doesn't just implode. I guess they've seen the results there; they recently had a promotion - get Office365 and a XBLA store credit. WTF, who uses Office and is taken aback by 365 and will come on board for an XBox store credit? It's like they're unhinged and spewing a random promotion.

 

[Sho_Nuff82]

Right, so you're point is that before dual analog FPS games became more popular... M+K was preferred and people eventually got used to using dual analogs... and somehow the IR pointer controls in Metroid Prime could never possibly have the potential to become mainstream in some fashion (with or without the Wiimote).

That's what your saying? Okay...

Anyway, back to your original point:



Controls are at the bottom of the list when it comes to "why Metroid wouldn't move big enough numbers."

IR controls are never going to be a thing for console fps. Neither will m&kb (I say this as a PC gamer). It's time to let it go. The market has spoken, on two consoles no less.

 

[Tagg9]

Regarding future Metroid games:

Internally, Nintendo of America considers the following as its tentpole / marquee franchises:

MARIO
POKEMON
DONKEY KONG / DIDDY KONG
ZELDA
YOSHI
STAR FOX
KIRBY
WARIO
METROID

I assume, given NOA's closeness to its parent company NCL (Kimishima / Iwata), that same policy would be reflected across recent game output.

After all, we've seen in the past two years:

MARIO[B] - NSMB U, NSL U, etc.[/B]
POKEMON [B]- Pokemon X / Y[/B]
DONKEY KONG / DIDDY KONG[B] - DK: TF[/B]
ZELDA [B]- Zelda: Wind Waker HD, Zelda Wii U, Zelda: A Link Between Worlds[/B]
YOSHI [B]- Yarn Yoshi and Yoshi's New Island[/B]
STAR FOX [B]- Star Fox 64 3D[/B]
KIRBY [B]- Kirby Mass Attack, Kirby: Return to Dreamland, Kirby Dream Collection, and most likely Kirby 3DS[/B]
WARIO [B]- Game and Wario[/B]
METROID

It's only Metroid that remains without some form of recent / announced title related to the IP.

Naturally, I bet Metroid is not going unnoticed by NCL. We even got a small teaser with the "Metroid Blast" minigame in Nintendo Land. While it may not be a big-budget Wii U production by Retro, I reckon some form of 2D Metroid exists within the depths of Nintendo SPD as a future, unannounced game.

You know, a reboot ala. Zelda: A Link Between Worlds for the 3DS.

I'd be curious to know where you got this information.

I believe Nintendo was ready to drop Donkey Kong as a franchise before giving it to Retro, and Star Fox has been abandoned since the Gamecube (the 3DS remake does not count). They are admittedly pushing out two Yoshi games within the next 18 months, but this comes after a long period without any major titles starring the green guy (and even then, these games have been outsourced to Good Feel & Arzest).

You're missing Fire Emblem and, in particular, the Wii Party/Sports/Fit "franchise", which I'd argue is right up there with Mario in terms of their priorities

 

[metalslimer]

Yeah its interesting because this year's wiiu lineup was decided before it became clear what a disaster wiiu would be. I mean if we knew the lineup last year we would think it pretty good, but on the back of horrendous sales makes the lineup of platformers seem sub par. And basically Iwata cant course correct and whatever he could do won't show up until 2015 at the earliest and by then the system could be done. They are basically in the same position Sony was in with 2012 vita but with the benefit of bigger games but i do wonder if nintendo follows the same path with no price drop

 

[Aaron Strife]

I'd be curious to know where you got this information.

I believe Nintendo was ready to drop Donkey Kong as a franchise before giving it to Retro, and Star Fox has been abandoned since the Gamecube (the 3DS remake does not count). They are admittedly pushing out two Yoshi games within the next 18 months, but this comes after a long period without any major titles starring the green guy (and even then, these games have been outsourced to Good Feel & Arzest).

You're missing Fire Emblem and, in particular, the Wii Party/Sports/Fit "franchise", which I'd argue is right up there with Mario in terms of their priorities

NOA would certainly consider Fire Emblem a niche franchise in the US, even if Awakening has sold fairly well. With the exception of offbeat shit like Tingle's Rupee Land, every game in the series on that list is guaranteed a Western release, whereas FE is determined on a case-by-case basis.

I also wouldn't be surprised if the Wii ___ line were classified differently internally by Nintendo, since all the games are vastly driven and unlike Mario, Metroid, Zelda etc. they aren't character-driven. They share some elements, like Wuhu Island appearing in Fit and Sports Resort, but overall the experiences are vastly different.

That being said if that's true, it seems odd Animal Crossing wouldn't be on that list.

 

[Massa]

Yeah its interesting because this year's wiiu lineup was decided before it became clear what a disaster wiiu would be. I mean if we knew the lineup last year we would think it pretty good, but on the back of horrendous sales makes the lineup of platformers seem sub par. And basically Iwata cant course correct and whatever he could do won't show up until 2015 at the earliest and by then the system could be done. They are basically in the same position Sony was in with 2012 vita but with the benefit of bigger games but i do wonder if nintendo follows the same path with no price drop

What would you read as "course correct" on their part?

 

[metalslimer]

What would you read as "course correct" on their part?

Well for one i think the wii series games coming out are going to bomb and not do a thing for wiiu sales and think those developmental resources could have been used on something more productive, hell like diverting those ead members to get mario kart ready for the holidays. Also more 3rd party mid tier investment like what they are doing with platinum but with developers whose games actually have a history of selling.

 

[Massa]

Well for one i think the wii series games coming out are going to bomb and not do a thing for wiiu sales and think those developmental resources could have been used on something more productive, hell like diverting those ead members to get mario kart ready for the holidays. Also more 3rd party mid tier investment like what they are doing with platinum but with developers whose games actually have a history of selling.

I think those Wii series games are pretty cheap to make, and they fit well with Nintendo's established family-friendly audience. Mario Kart would have been great this Fall but it's not like you can just dump endless resources to finish a game.

Their 3rd party relations are all kinds of fucked up and at this point I don't see what they could do to fix it.

 

[cafemomo]

Project X Zone doing 50K should be considered a success, right?

For a heavily niche game like that, yes it would.

 

[pieatorium]

Any third party game thats still releasing on ps360 they should be actively chasing, big game or not they need to fill out their release schedule. They need to follow X up with other stuff that will hit that action/adventure or rpg audience aka Zelda fall 2014 at the latest.

Sports games, GAF derides the yearly roster update cycle that these games fall into but they are yearly consistent releases that are cheap and sell.

Mario Kart would have been great this Fall but it's not like you can just dump endless resources to finish a game.

Ubisoft would disagree

 

[Massa]

Any third party game thats still releasing on ps360 they should be actively chasing, big game or not they need to fill out their release schedule. They need to follow X up with other stuff that will hit that action/adventure or rpg audience aka Zelda fall 2014 at the latest.

Sports games, GAF derides the yearly roster update cycle that these games fall into but they are yearly consistent releases that are cheap and sell.



Ubisoft would disagree

Ubisoft games take just as long if not longer than the industry average.

As for the first part of your post, getting PS3/360 ports is not enough. If Nintendo wanted that demographic they should've made exclusive games that catered to them. They should have designed the Wii U hardware in such ways that facilitated the development of those games. They did none of that.

 

[pieatorium]

Ubisoft games take just as long if not longer than the industry average.

As for the first part of your post, getting PS3/360 ports is not enough. If Nintendo wanted that demographic they should've made exclusive games that catered to them. They should have designed the Wii U hardware in such ways that facilitated the development of those games. They did none of that.

There are ps3 games in their demos that aren't hitting WiiU at least from japanese third parties. I never said ps360 ports would be enough but it is a shitload better than what they are getting.

 

[StevieP]

IR controls are never going to be a thing for console fps. Neither will m&kb (I say this as a PC gamer). It's time to let it go. The market has spoken, on two consoles no less.

Which is a shame, because IR was the closest thing we were going to get to the mouse on a console within the confines of a controller. And though it wasn't perfect, it was drastically better than the garbage that is dual analog. The market didn't know (or was too stubborn?) to know what it was missing. With improvements it could've been something. Now we are still stuck with cheating algorithms and dumbed down game design to facilitate the analog stick that wasn't designed to be a pointer in the first place. Fps, tps, strategy, and other popular genres are not better off without it, even as a mostly PC gamer myself. Consoles almost had something that would've improved the landscape for those types of games drastically in both controllability and design with some improvements.

 

[John Harker]

Not to nitpick semantics you most likely don't care about, and pardon me if I'm just not in on the joke here, but Leo Burnett is just a company name now. Leo Burnett himself died over forty years ago.

Also LB has been their agency forever...

 

[Aquamarine]

Also LB has been their agency forever...

Initially, NOA was primarily involved with Foote, Cone & Belding.

But they soon transitioned over to Leo Burnett (in August 1991) as their core advertising agency and stuck with them for decades.


Specifically, Leo Burnett was involved in:

1) Game Boy advertising

2) Late-gen NES advertising

3) SNES advertising

4) N64 advertising

5) GameCube advertising

6) Game Boy Advance advertising

7) Nintendo DS advertising

8) Wii advertising ("Wii Would Like to Play")

And others.

I don't understand why people keep saying Leo Burnett's involvement in 3DS / Wii U advertising is a bad thing.

They've done wonders for Nintendo in the past.

 

[spwolf]

Sometimes companies just overreach. Right now MS is trying to squeeze extra dollars out of MS Office. On the corporate side it has a chance of working. For individuals there's no way that doesn't just implode. I guess they've seen the results there; they recently had a promotion - get Office365 and a XBLA store credit. WTF, who uses Office and is taken aback by 365 and will come on board for an XBox store credit? It's like they're unhinged and spewing a random promotion.

whats the problem with office now? you can still purchase it...

 

[Pie and Beans]

Well you're only as good as your latest ad campaign for the client, and there hasnt been much wowzer good advertising for Nintendo in a long time.

I'm honestly pretty baffled the celebrity+celebrity/family white room of glowing heaven setup hasn't been used to great success again recently.

 

[Myshkin]

whats the problem with office now? you can still purchase it...

I suppose many people take the long-term view, just as they do with concerns over the Win8 store. You can expect any success with 365 to mean that MS would offer perpetual licenses on harsher terms. Their ideal situation is to lock people into automatic-upgrade licenses, then advance the project very gradually - although it might be hard to discern any change, given how little Office changes from edition to edition.

MS updates so slowly that a significant amount of changes are trying to play catchup with free or inexpensive add-ons available. Then MS decided to stop giving upgrade discounts. So lots of people just sit on their version, when before they would have upgraded every 3 or 6 years. So now MS tries to bring them back with 365, saying essentially they must pay to upgrade continuously without knowing whether the upgrade is worthwhile.

New people just coming into having Office will probably get sucked into 365 due to its smart phone sales model - even worse, one where you don't even get to keep the product as a kindle reader if you don't keep subscribing. MS focus is inevitably going to shift to these smart phone model people. Don't expect to see standalone Office a decade from now.

 

[Plinko]

Not to nitpick semantics you most likely don't care about, and pardon me if I'm just not in on the joke here, but Leo Burnett is just a company name now. Leo Burnett himself died over forty years ago.

It was sarcasm. I know it's a huge company.

 

[AniHawk]

because it's halfway through the year,

retail releases this year (in terms of number per system):

ps3 > 40 > 360 > 30 > 3ds > 20 > wii u > 10 > ps vita > nds > psp

bioshock sold the most across multiple consoles, but the last of us is the best-selling game on a single-platform. wii u's best selling 2013 game doesn't make it to the top 10 on the ps3 or 360, but it almost matches all of the ps vita's 2013 releases.

as far as sales are concerned, it's 360 > ps3 > 2x3ds > 3ds > 5xwiiu > wiiu > vita

 

[Serenity]

because it's halfway through the year,

retail releases this year (in terms of number per system):

ps3 > 40 > 360 > 30 > 3ds > 20 > wii u > 10 > ps vita > nds > psp

bioshock sold the most across multiple consoles, but the last of us is the best-selling game on a single-platform. wii u's best selling 2013 game doesn't make it to the top 10 on the ps3 or 360, but it almost matches all of the ps vita's 2013 releases.

Is the difference between ps3 and 360 simply first party. I can't think of more than mlb sly and gow:a.

 

[Mpl90]

because it's halfway through the year,

retail releases this year (in terms of number per system):

ps3 > 40 > 360 > 30 > 3ds > 20 > wii u > 10 > ps vita > nds > psp

bioshock sold the most across multiple consoles, but the last of us is the best-selling game on a single-platform. wii u's best selling 2013 game doesn't make it to the top 10 on the ps3 or 360, but it almost matches all of the ps vita's 2013 releases.

That's nice and all, but I still want both 3DS and Vita best selling ranking by creamsugar, like he did in last year's NPD Thread. Heck, Wii U too. ;_;

 

[jvm]

because it's halfway through the year,

retail releases this year (in terms of number per system):

ps3 > 40 > 360 > 30 > 3ds > 20 > wii u > 10 > ps vita > nds > psp

bioshock sold the most across multiple consoles, but the last of us is the best-selling game on a single-platform. wii u's best selling 2013 game doesn't make it to the top 10 on the ps3 or 360, but it almost matches all of the ps vita's 2013 releases.

I have this in my own spreadsheets:

Xbox 360: 38 retail releases
Wii U: 12 retail releases
PS VIta: 8 retail releases

Don't have sheets on the others. I'm not counting special editions, etc. Hopefully my figures are roughly correct.

 

[AniHawk]

I have this in my own spreadsheets:

Xbox 360: 38 retail releases
Wii U: 12 retail releases
PS VIta: 8 retail releases

Don't have sheets on the others. I'm not counting special editions, etc. Hopefully my figures are roughly correct.

yeah that matches up.

 

[A Human Becoming]

This NPD period ends August 3rd, correct? August 15th for the NPD sales results then?

 

[jvm]

yeah that matches up.

Yay. I'm not doing a horrible job!

Thanks.

This NPD period ends August 3rd, correct? August 15th for the NPD sales results then?

Yes.

Here is a sheet showing the periods.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AtXhc02VTSWzdFQ4ejJFMUtXdXlpM3NrREg3Z1c5eFE&usp=sharing

 

[creamsugar]

2013 new game LTD (Include special ED but not include HW bundle)

250k
FE
Pokémon

200k
DK
LEGO

150k
MH

55k
SS

45k
LOS-MOF

35k
ED4

30k
DS-SH

example: 250k > FE

 

[rjc571]

2013 new game LTD (Include special ED but not include HW bundle)

250k
FE
Pokémon

200k
DK
LEGO

150k
MH

55k
SS

45k
LOS-MOF

35k
ED4

30k
DS-SH

example: 250k > FE

I take it "ED4" is supposed to be "EO4"?

 

[metalslimer]

Donkey Kong and Lego over 200k is great. Soul Sacrifice....at least it will probably ship 500k in the end WW

 

[Mileena]

150k for MH3U 3DS + Wii U seems kinda low, no? Didn't it do better on Wii alone?

 

[metalslimer]

150k for MH3U 3DS + Wii U seems kinda low, no? Didn't it do better on Wii alone?

Those are portable game ltds so i doubt it includes wiiu. And MH3 got a heavy ad push and was a brand new game at the time so i dont think this version being over 250k combined is so bad.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Has creamsugar or anyone revealed the sales of TLOU?

 

[idlewild_]

Has creamsugar or anyone revealed the sales of TLOU?

Ellen Page ~ 985K (2 editions)

.

 

[DaBoss]

2013 new game LTD (Include special ED but not include HW bundle)

250k
FE
Pokémon

200k
DK
LEGO

150k
MH

55k
SS

45k
LOS-MOF

35k
ED4

30k
DS-SH

example: 250k > FE

Thanks.

Will put full titles of the games here (same order as above):
Fire Emblem Awakening
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity
Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D
Lego City Undercover: The Chase Begins
Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate
Soul Sacrifice
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate
Etrian Odyssey 4 (assuming that is what cs meant)
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers

 

[metalslimer]

Well i guess thats sadly the end of Castlevania on 3ds

 

[DaBoss]

Well i guess thats sadly the end of Castlevania on 3ds

I'm hoping we get an actual Igavania.

That demo for the 3DS game really did not please me (especially the frame rate dips and combat) and I imagine many others feel the same.

 

[Bruno MB]

Thank you for the data.

Well i guess thats sadly the end of Castlevania on 3ds

Yep, I'm surprised to see that Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate LTD sales are below 45,000 units. It sold 30,000 units during its first month (March), so bad sales and terribly short legs.

Here's what NDS Castlevania titles sold:

(LTD as of January 2009)

[NDS] Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow - 280,000
[NDS] Castlevania: Portrait of Ruins - 248,000
[NDS] Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia - 140,000

[PSP] Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles - 207,000

Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate is over 200,000 units between both versions.

 

[Mileena]

ah, so at least 50k. Not terrible I guess?

 

[ohlawd]

35k for EOIV and 30k for SH.

I don't like these tiny ass numbers but niche games, man. I wonder how many people bit when they dropped to 29.99 (I think the sale's still ongoing?.... >_>)

 

[jrDev]

I just wonder when they will show games that make the old feel new again. Stuff like DKCR or NSMB U doesn't really feel new. It feels like more of the same, pretty much like Wii games with a resolution bump while not really increasing the quality of textures and the polycount. There's no game really showing why the Gamepad is worth it and it doesn't seem like there is any game going to do that soon. At least Nintendo hasn't shown such a title yet.

Really? Really??? DK and Zelda looks amazing! The HD art styles brings a whole new life.

 

[Usobuko]

Is there Ni no Kuni numbers?

 

[MasterSheen]

Donkey Kong and Lego over 200k is great. Soul Sacrifice....at least it will probably ship 500k in the end WW

Under 200k.

 

[RoboPlato]

Not to nitpick semantics you most likely don't care about, and pardon me if I'm just not in on the joke here, but Leo Burnett is just a company name now. Leo Burnett himself died over forty years ago.

Dead for 40 years? That explains why he's done such a bad job marketing Wii U.

 

[John Harker]

Dead for 40 years? That explains why he's done such a bad job marketing Wii U.

Here's a little tip... An ad agency is only as good as the client making the approvals

 

[DarkLordMalik]

Is there Ni no Kuni numbers?

Would love to know about this as well. The first month sales were ~200k, IIRC

Great numbers for Fire Emblem. 250k is pretty damn good IMO. Hopefully, Nintendo will keep releasing and localizing them on 3DS.

 

[Madouu]

Would love to know about this as well. The first month sales were ~200k, IIRC

Great numbers for Fire Emblem. 250k is pretty damn good IMO. Hopefully, Nintendo will keep releasing and localizing them on 3DS.

And it performed extremely well on the eShop let's not forget. It might be a million seller WW (retail+digital).

 

[Muzy72]

Is the 250k for Fire Emblem retail+digital?