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Media Create Sales: Week 14, 2016 (Apr 04 - Apr 10)

RedZaraki

Banned
These. It's all SO IV's fault.

And Suikoden IV killed Suikoden.

It seems it's always the previous title that determines the sales (to some extent) of the next. Suikoden V was actually a great game, but lots of people opted out because of the bad taste IV left in their mouth.

SOV LOOKS better than SOIV, on the surface. But it might face the same trouble.
 

Takao

Banned
duckroll's example of Namco is quite good. Naruto and Dragon Ball console games aren't being made for the domestic market, but Dragon Ball Z: Dokkan Battle on mobile certainly is (and is interestingly one of the only Japanese mobile games to succeed overseas, but that's a bit of a happenstance).

I'd be surprised if Dragon Ball Project Fusions is being made for any market outside of Japan.
 

Sterok

Member
I still don't quite get why JP publishers didn't bet more on the Wii. Or did they try and fail, and I just missed it? Well, either way that's the past, and now the remnants need to decide which markets are worth vying for. Mid-tier JRPGs sadly might not be one of them.
 

horuhe

Member
When are the Wii U stock issues expected to be resolved now?

No info about it. I suppose by the end of May, the supply issue will be solved if that is the reason of no having stock anywhere. During this month is the Nintendo investors meeting and Nintendo will give some hints about what happened, if this situation was intentional or not.
 
And Suikoden IV killed Suikoden.

It seems it's always the previous title that determines the sales (to some extent) of the next. Suikoden V was actually a great game, but lots of people opted out because of the bad taste IV left in their mouth.

SOV LOOKS better than SOIV, on the surface. But it might face the same trouble.

I agree. If you put out a very bad sequel of a game or two & then put out a good/great sequel to try to repair a series' reputation, it'll be too late.

Sequels of games such as Mega Man X6 & X7, Suikoden IV, & Star Ocean IV are perfect, prime examples of how to kill off your series. Mega Man X8 (plus Command Mission), Suikoden V, & now Star Ocean V are all victims of their awful predecessors.
 
SOV is just crazy. I know the import thread was pretty positive, but was that a case of import bias? What's the sentiment in the Japanese market about the game?
 

Vena

Member
I still don't quite get why JP publishers didn't bet more on the Wii. Or did they try and fail, and I just missed it? Well, either way that's the past, and now the remnants need to decide which markets are worth vying for. Mid-tier JRPGs sadly might not be one of them.

They didn't know how to cater to them, and collapsed on the market they were comfortable with.
 
Sales used to be very strong in the region.

Here's a few example series from the PS2 era that did either quite well or absolutely great, yet have declined significantly or disappeared all together:

Ridge Racer V: 611,507
Virtua Fighter 4: 541,973
Suikoden III: 377,729

You're going to make me cry.

I never see anyone playing Tekken 7 at game centres either, I fear for that series' future.
 
You're going to make me cry.

I never see anyone playing Tekken 7 at game centres either, I fear for that series' future.

From what I heard, Namco's already made a lot of profit from Tekken 7 at Arcades & are about to put out a upgrade of it called "Fated Retribution" this summer. :)
 

Ōkami

Member
At the end Star Ocean V is going to sell less than The Witcher 3 and Fallout 4 on PS4, by a pretty large margin, likely less than Final Fantasy Type 0 HD, hell the game might just barely outsell Xenoblade X.

On Famitsu retail + digital news.
  • Minecraft on PS4 is on it's way to outsell Dragon Quest Builders.
  • Dark Souls III outsold GTAV and it's just behind Bloodborne (All SKUs combined).
  • Minecraft Vita is less than 8k from a million.
  • Splatoon hits 1.4m sold. Due to the known digital error by Famitsu it's now likely higher than 1.5m sold, we'll have to wait for Nintendo's numbers in a few weeks.
  • Only on retail Animal Crossing: New Leaf + Happy Price Selection has outsold Pokémon X/Y (this happened some weeks ago but I just noticed) retail + digital the difference is less than 14k and dwindling.
  • Pokémon OmegaRuby / AlphaSapphire seems to be going to outsell Monster Hunter Generations back, less than 25k difference between the two.

Real shame Quantum Break didn't make it to Famitsu, really wanted to add a new Xbox One game, also PS3 below 1000 on Famitsu now.
 

test_account

XP-39C²
04./00. [3DS] Art Academy: Lessons for Everyone <HOB> (Nintendo) {2012.09.13}
(¥3.800) - 35.910 / NEW
01./00. [3DS] Pokemon Art Academy <HOB> (Nintendo) {2014.06.19} (¥3.908) - 31.080 / NEW <70,11%>
04./00. [3DS] Disney Art Academy <HOB> (Nintendo) {2016.04.07} (¥3.700) - 17.717 / NEW

Really not a bad showing for Disney Art Academy at all. I think it represents a more niche product than either of its predecessors.
I'm not sure if Disney in general is that more niche than the other two.


The legs on DSIII are just awful.

02./00. [PS4] Dark Souls III <RPG> (From Software) {2016.03.24} (¥7.430) - 210.141 / NEW <82,51%>
04./02. [PS4] Dark Souls III <RPG> (From Software) {2016.03.24} (¥7.430) - 33.406 / 243.547 (-84%)
05./04. [PS4] Dark Souls III <RPG> (From Software) {2016.03.24} (¥7.430) - 15.274 / 258.821 (-54%)

ETA: Star Ocean makes it look a lot better in comparison though, lol.
The legs are actually very close when it comes to both Dark Souls 1 and 2.

01./00. [PS3] Dark Souls <RPG> (From Software) {2011.09.22} (¥7.800) - 279.567 / NEW <90,09%>
03./01. [PS3] Dark Souls <RPG> (From Software) {2011.09.22} (¥7.800) - 34.718 / 314.286 (-88%)
06./03. [PS3] Dark Souls <RPG> (From Software) {2011.09.22} (¥7.800) - 15.853 / 330.139 (-54%)


01./00. [PS3] Dark Souls II <RPG> (From Software) {2014.03.13} (¥7.800) - 255.197 / NEW <90,19%>
10./01. [PS3] Dark Souls II <RPG> (From Software) {2014.03.13} (¥7.800) - 37.285 / 292.482 (-85%)
13./10. [PS3] Dark Souls II <RPG> (From Software) {2014.03.13} (¥7.800) - 17.771 / 310.253 (-52%)

Well, unless you think that the Dark Souls 1 and 2 legs were just awful too though :p There is also the Xbox 360 version that sold some thousands units, but overall i dont think it made a very big difference.
 

matmanx1

Member
Here's my thoughts on Japan:

- IIRC they actually have a shrinking economy AND a shrinking population, which is crazy. There are literally fewer children being born each year than in the past.

- Ever since the Tsunami that took out Fukushima, it feels like everyone there has been in hardship. They appear to work long hours and have little time to spare on pasttimes or raising families.

- I totally understand why mobile is attractive. They play for half hour chunks while on the train or whatever.

- The PS3 -era decline in Japanese titles was partially the developers fault. I think there was a very real drop in quality in an absolute sense. I'm not sure if this was talent leaving companies, or problems with the toolsets used for PS3, or what. But there seriously were a lot of mediocre or straight up bad RPGs from that era that damaged the reputations of some series (and some series are straight up dead now).

- With all your favorite game series either disappearing or releasing disappointing entries, and you are now strapped for time and cash, it's only natural their interests would change.

- I still think that there's an audience for ambitious console JRPGs etc, but it might not be in Japan itself. I hope that the Japanese developers look outside their own country when thinking about these things. Just because something fails in your own country doesn't mean it won't work.

- I personally have no interest in mobile games, now or in the future. So any game there is basically non-existent to me.

Responding to what I bolded: This is why I am so glad that Igarashi went to Kickstarter with Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night with Ben Judd on board. It's a true multi-national game with support from a lot of different countries and backers. And the demand is clearly there for quality, old school RPG's from proven developers.

I just hope that SO5's performance doesn't kill Tri-Ace or console RPG's going forward. I haven't played SO5 yet but I do have it reserved for when it comes out in the US in June.
 

Pancake Mix

Copied someone else's pancake recipe
I can't comment on other reviews but....Amazon.co.jp reviews can be brutal. Not sure if that's as fair a barometer as others.

No Vita version killed Star Ocean.

Considering a Vita version would have killed the scope...yeah no thanks. It's up to a miracle from the West (and in a different era) to save SO5 and Tri-Ace from mobile doom now.

http://www.tri-ace.co.jp/en/company/sales.html If this were 1998-2005-ish it'd be no problem. Probably not now...
 

Saoshyant

Member
I would not take Amazon JP's user ratings at face value since they are constant victims of 2ch trolling and this game already got too much bad attention from those people because of a minor, dumb change.

However, I read some of that impressions thread in GAF and it certainly did not seem as positive as mentioned above: "small world" and "paper thin characters" were words mentioned more than once. The game is coming out soon here and I will wait for the proper reviews, but I don't feel confident. Just being better than SO4 isn't much of an achievement.
 

Pancake Mix

Copied someone else's pancake recipe
Killed the scope... of a game with a smaller scope than SO2? Lol.

I've heard it only takes place on one planet
until the very end
and is relatively short, but...the Vita is between the PS2 and PS3 in power. I don't want its limitations affecting Star Ocean, Persona, or Tales of, including potentially file size. There are what look like ambitious environments for a PS3 game here and I'm happy they didn't compromise further to something they could scale down to Vita.

Edit: The game is 27.2 GB on PS4 according to the Japanese PS Store. Compression or not that's not getting down a to a file size the Vita can handle. That's like all of the free room on a 32 GB card is it not?

Source: https://store.playstation.com/#!/ja-jp/star-ocean5-integrity-and-faithlessness-/cid=JP0082-NPJB00727_00-FULLGAME00000000
 

Darius

Banned
That's an interesting suggestion. Do you think the current state of affairs would have been avoided in some fashion? Were the Japanese market not always destined to go completely mobile? How could publishers have revived the scene a long time ago?



This must make it really difficult for executives and decision-makers, I imagine. How do you balance two contradictory markets? Is there some sort of compromise between the two?

Vena made a comment I agree with that surely was one major factor in the transition to this gen.

But just look at the publishers actual decisions in recent years. PS4 performed similar to WiiU in Japan and SQEX was like "full speed ahead, what could possibly go wrong with our Japan focused games". The major thing that did soften the blow for some publishers was that they went multiplatform, something that they basically squandered in SO5s case by delaying the PS3 version.

What publishers could have done/do for their Japan focused IPs? There´s a big elephant in the room, that gets ignored deliberately. It is a quite unpopular idea here because of certain preferences, but there actually is a rather healthy dedicated system in the market in Japan, namely 3DS. It wouldn´t work every time but chances are a lot higher, it´s no coincidence that it has by far the most software sales be it 1st or 3rd party software.

Another unpopular idea, instead of trying to safe a failed system, it would have been a better idea in the long run to launch your games on a healthy system the chances to benefit their IPs would have been higher and at the same time this would have helped to guarantee that the userbase remains healthy and they actually keep a viable option going forward and doesn´t just dry up prematureraly, due to a barren lineup. Surprise, this is something publishers usually do. It´s kind of crazy to do the opposit and actually expect great results.
 
I wonder how it how much better it would have done had 4 not been so... Bad.

SOV is just crazy. I know the import thread was pretty positive, but was that a case of import bias? What's the sentiment in the Japanese market about the game?

The type of people who go out of there way to import this kind of game are obviously going to be more biased.
 

Vena

Member
The game is 27.2 GB on PS4 according to the Japanese PS Store. Compression or not that's not getting down a to a file size the Vita can handle. That's like all of the free room on a 32 GB card is it not?

This (file size) has nothing to do with scope. You can play Xenoblade on a 3DS.

SOV is just crazy. I know the import thread was pretty positive, but was that a case of import bias? What's the sentiment in the Japanese market about the game?

Its meh, at best, and depending on where you look it could be downright poor.
 

Pancake Mix

Copied someone else's pancake recipe
This (file size) has nothing to do with scope. You can play Xenoblade on a 3DS.

No you can't, it would run too poorly on that. You can only play it on a New 3DS because of the increased secs which allow it to be ported down from Wii essentially intact (aside from resolution). Even then some texture resolutions were reduced. Xenoblade Chronicles 3D essentially proves my point. It's a Wii era game, that it has an amazing scope is relevant to the fact that it ran poorly on the original 3DS.



Digital Foundry:

Xenoblade Chronicles New 3DS vs Wii Graphics Comparison

Xenoblade Chronicles New 3DS vs Wii Frame-Rate Test

I didn't think it necessary to stipulate *New* 3DS for Xenoblade... and to completely have my point missed.

What point? It's a Wii game with textures designed for a standard definition game. That is not fair to compare to an HD game with larger assets. That the 3DS had games with 4 GB cards is irrelevant when we're not talking 27.2 GB down to a Vita game limit.

GTAV is 17gig on PS3, 42gig on PS4, and 65gig on PC. It's the same game.

The PS360 version was built around 2 Xbox 360 DVD's. Compression and stuff like lower res textures play into that. Even then, it'd be interesting to talk to someone from Rockstar and see if they thought the game could be ported down to Vita and 8 GB.... Considering how that's viable in Asia, I think something like Persona 5 or Tales of would be as well if the publishers in question wanted to limit themselves, but they don't and won't.
 
GTAV is 17gig on PS3, 42gig on PS4, and 65gig on PC. It's the same game.

The trick is to finding out what the real sizes of the games are, as most of the space on the disc/digital download copy of the games could come from just installing the games onto the console or on PC.
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
I'd be surprised if Dragon Ball Project Fusions is being made for any market outside of Japan.

That's handheld though, yeah?

Sorry, by consoles I meant literally home consoles instead of dedicated devices. I should have been more specific.
 

Vena

Member
I didn't think it necessary to stipulate *New* 3DS for Xenoblade... and to completely have my point missed.

Xenoblade Chronicles 3D essentially proves my point.

Xenoblade on the *New* 3DS proves that sacrifices can make these things possible and file size have nothing to do with the scope of a game.
 

Pancake Mix

Copied someone else's pancake recipe
Anyways, perhaps I'm wrong about what can be compressed, and I undoubtedly strayed a bit off-topic, sorry about that.

However, there's no denying that Bandai Namco and Atlus aren't doing it for two rather large JRPG projects either. There must be a reason, especially since the PS3 version of at least Berseria won't be leaving Japan and is probably still the base version being developed, so it's not like an exclusive SKU to Japan or Asia is not a thing. It might simply be more difficult to scale down to Vita than many perceive. It's not like Star Ocean V runs fantastically on PS3 either, base platform or not, and a more powerful platform than Vita.
 

MANUELF

Banned
The charts have become monotonous and rather boring without much variety or excitement, what glorious days were the DS and early Wii
 

Chris1964

Sales-Age Genius
Famitsu Sales: Week 15, 2016 (Apr 04 - Apr 10)

01./01. [3DS] Yo-Kai Sangokushi <SLG> (Level 5) {2016.04.02} (¥4.600) - 111.579 / 375.216 <80-100%> (-58%)
02./03. [3DS] Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 3 <RPG> (Square Enix) {2016.03.24} (¥5.250) - 46.224 / 531.210 <80-100%> (-58%)
03./00. [PS4] Far Cry Primal <ACT> (Ubisoft) {2016.04.07} (¥8.400) - 28.799 / NEW <40-60%>
04./00. [3DS] Disney Art Academy <HOB> (Nintendo) {2016.04.07} (¥3.700) - 18.318 / NEW <20-40%>
05./04. [PS4] Dark Souls III <RPG> (From Software) {2016.03.24} (¥7.430) - 17.325 / 277.239 <80-100%> (-58%)
06./02. [PS4] Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness <RPG> (Square Enix) {2016.03.31} (¥7.980) - 11.336 / 128.795 <80-100%> (-90%)
07./05. [WIU] Pokken Tournament # <FTG> (Pokemon Co.) {2016.03.18} (¥7.200) - 7.531 / 127.706 <80-100%> (-45%)
08./06. [3DS] Mario & Sonic at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games <SPT> (Nintendo) {2016.02.18} (¥4.700) - 7.009 / 145.123 <80-100%> (-34%)
09./12. [WIU] Splatoon # <ACT> (Nintendo) {2015.05.28} (¥5.700) - 6.472 / 1.272.268 <80-100%> (-4%)
10./08. [PSV] Minecraft: PlayStation Vita Edition <ADV> (Sony Computer Entertainment) {2015.03.19} (¥2.400) - 6.264 / 655.585 <80-100%> (-35%)
11./00. [PSV] Brothers Conflict: Precious Baby <ADV> (Idea Factory) {2016.04.07} (¥6.800) - 5.799 / NEW <60-80%>
12./11. [3DS] Animal Crossing: New Leaf [Nintendo Selects] <ETC> (Nintendo) {2016.03.17} (¥2.700) - 5.560 / 24.478 <40-60%> (-30%)
13./09. [3DS] Ansatsu Kyoushitsu: Assassin Ikusei Keikaku!! <ACT> (Bandai Namco Games) {2016.03.24} (¥5.700) - 5.271 / 33.504 <60-80%> (-41%)
14./21. [WIU] Super Mario Maker # <ACT> (Nintendo) {2015.09.10} (¥5.700) - 5.220 / 855.816 <80-100%> (+25%)
15./07. [PSV] Hatsune Miku: Project Diva X <ACT> (Sega) {2016.03.24} (¥6.990) - 4.215 / 90.516 <80-100%> (-58%)
16./14. [PS4] Tom Clancy's The Division <RPG> (Ubisoft) {2016.03.10} (¥8.400) - 3.617 / 131.449 <80-100%> (-37%)
17./15. [PS4] Nobunaga's Ambition: Sphere of Influence - Sengoku Risshiden # <SLG> (Koei Tecmo) {2016.03.24} (¥8.800) - 3.392 / 30.486 <80-100%> (-29%)
18./17. [3DS] Pokemon Red / Green / Blue / Yellow _3DS Virtual Console Version_ |DL| (Dedicated Download Card Special) <RPG> (Pokemon Co.) {2016.02.27} (¥1.389) - 3.037 / 144.726 <80-100%> (-32%)
19./19. [3DS] Yo-Kai Watch Busters: Red Cat Team / White Dog Squad <ACT> (Level 5) {2015.07.11} (¥4.600) - 2.975 / 2.134.514 <80-100%> (-32%)
20./16. [3DS] Tomodachi Life [Nintendo Selects] <ETC> (Nintendo) {2016.03.17} (¥2.700) - 2.964 / 15.269 <40-60%> (-34%)
21./23. [PSV] Nobunaga's Ambition: Sphere of Influence - Sengoku Risshiden # <SLG> (Koei Tecmo) {2016.03.24} (¥7.800) - 2.658 / 21.648 <60-80%> (-35%)
22./18. [PSV] Digimon World: Next Order <RPG> (Bandai Namco Games) {2016.03.17} (¥6.800) - 2.607 / 70.229 <80-100%> (-41%)
23./24. [PS3] Nobunaga's Ambition: Sphere of Influence - Sengoku Risshiden # <SLG> (Koei Tecmo) {2016.03.24} (¥8.800) - 2.593 / 20.565 <80-100%> (-35%)
24./26. [3DS] Pokemon Omega Ruby / Alpha Sapphire # <RPG> (Pokemon Co.) {2014.11.21} (¥4.571) - 2.497 / 2.973.420 <80-100%> (-28%)
25./00. [3DS] Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer # <ETC> (Nintendo) {2015.07.30} (¥4.000) - 2.122 / 1.364.437 <80-100%>
26./00. [PS4] Minecraft: PlayStation 4 Edition <ADV> (Sony Computer Entertainment) {2015.12.03} (¥2.400) - 2.076 / 70.264 <80-100%>
27./00. [3DS] Mario Kart 7 <RCE> (Nintendo) {2011.12.01} (¥4.571) - 2.013 / 2.536.793 <80-100%>
28./10. [PS4] Winning Post 8 2016 <SLG> (Koei Tecmo) {2016.03.31} (¥7.800) - 2.011 / 10.033 <60-80%> (-75%)
29./30. [PSV] Attack on Titan: Wings of Freedom # <ACT> (Koei Tecmo) {2016.02.18} (¥6.800) - 1.980 / 103.857 <80-100%> (-34%)
30./25. [3DS] Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon [Nintendo Selects] <ACT> (Nintendo) {2016.03.17} (¥2.700) - 1.958 / 11.622 <40-60%> (-44%)

Top 30

3DS - 13
PS4 - 7
PSV - 6
WIU - 3
PS3 - 1

HARDWARE
Code:
+-------+------------+------------+------------+------------+------------+-------------+
|System |  This Week |  Last Week |  Last Year |     YTD    |  Last YTD  |     LTD     |
+-------+------------+------------+------------+------------+------------+-------------+
|  PS4  |     23.095 |     33.440 |     16.831 |    477.461 |    395.172 |   2.608.194 |
| 3DS # |     21.221 |     25.520 |     23.537 |    473.911 |    691.943 |  20.510.867 |
| PSV # |     12.860 |     17.741 |     16.056 |    392.538 |    339.519 |   4.774.955 |
|  WIU  |      5.229 |      2.678 |      5.208 |    159.898 |    137.995 |   3.103.485 |
|  PS3  |        918 |      1.170 |      4.466 |     23.315 |    102.018 |  10.230.056 |
|  XB1  |        144 |         87 |        625 |      2.298 |      6.998 |      66.349 |
+-------+------------+------------+------------+------------+------------+-------------+
|  ALL  |     63.467 |     80.636 |     66.723 |  1.529.421 |  1.673.645 |  41.293.906 |
+-------+------------+------------+------------+------------+------------+-------------+
 

Ryng_tolu

Banned
Looks like week by week 3DS on Media Create and Famitsu is starting to be close.

WEEK 11 = 28% diff
WEEK 12 = 23% diff
WEEK 13 = 17% diff
WEEK 14 = 14% diff
 

Chris1964

Sales-Age Genius
This is the first time PS3 fell below 4 digits at Famitsu.

And for some reason they keep tracking Vita TV (20 units).
 

-Horizon-

Member
SOV is just crazy. I know the import thread was pretty positive, but was that a case of import bias? What's the sentiment in the Japanese market about the game?

I just don't read import impressions anymore. Either they're too critical of things I personally would've been fine with or they just downplay negatives.
 

Pancake Mix

Copied someone else's pancake recipe
I don't think the west ever cared about Star Ocean if we're talking about that.

Not necessarily true.

I agree that it's not likely to make a huge difference now, but this has been posted before:

http://www.tri-ace.co.jp/en/company/sales.html

Hell, Star Ocean's 2's 2nd (important to note) full month in the US it did 38k in a far more flooded JRPG market as a sequel to an unreleased Super Famicom game and in the Summer back in 1999, (credit to Gaffer Square2015) and that was just the first game released outside Japan. It kind of goes without saying that the market was smaller in July 1999 than it is now too, and again, the game was a virtual unknown, and in its 2nd full month. Could have been worse and the game's sales just grew from there.

Tri-Ace says it went on to sell 370k overseas on PS1, which pales to the 626k they attribute to SO3 on PS2 overseas, which is only 16k shy of the Japanese total for both versions of that game. The SO2 figure does not include the later PSP port, for which I guess we don't have reliable Western data, as that page hasn't been updated since September 2005. It doesn't account for a small amount of final re-release sales of SO3 either if there were any really late prints.

15641_front.jpg


I think it's pretty obvious why Square Enix is happily releasing the game in just less than 3 months after the Japanese release, but it remains to be seen if the 1999-2004 overseas successes can be repeated. One thing seems guaranteed though, and that's for the rest of the world to sell more than 150k copies of Star Ocean 5 on PS4 alone. So in a way, yes the West may care more about Star Ocean. ¯\_(&#12484;)_/¯
 

Eolz

Member
Not necessarily true.

I agree that it's not likely to make a huge difference now, but this has been posted before:

http://www.tri-ace.co.jp/en/company/sales.html

Hell, Star Ocean's 2's 2nd (important to note) full month in the US it did 38k in a far more flooded JRPG market as a sequel to an unreleased Super Famicom game and in the Summer back in 1999, (credit to Gaffer Square2015) and that was just the first game released outside Japan. It kind of goes without saying that the market was smaller in July 1999 than it is now too, and again, the game was a virtual unknown, and in its 2nd full month. Could have been worse and the game's sales just grew from there.

Tri-Ace says it went on to sell 370k overseas on PS1, which pales to the 626k they attribute to SO3 on PS2 overseas, which is only 16k shy of the Japanese total for both versions of that game. The SO2 figure does not include the later PSP port, for which I guess we don't have reliable Western data, as that page hasn't been updated since September 2005. It doesn't account for a small amount of final re-release sales of SO3 either if there were any really late prints.




I think it's pretty obvious why Square Enix is happily releasing the game in just less than 3 months after the Japanese release, but it remains to be seen if the 1999-2004 overseas successes can be repeated. One thing seems guaranteed though, and that's for the rest of the world to sell more than 150k copies of Star Ocean 5 on PS4 alone. So in a way, yes the West may care more about Star Ocean. ¯\_(&#12484;)_/¯

Uh, nice to know, I didn't remember SO3 breaking past 500k in the west.
Let's see how it does this time...
 
It's me that i'm wrong or it's already the second time (or maybe more) that M-C has a XBO game and Famitsu hasn't ?

3k on M-C and less than 1k on Famitsu it's a huge difference
 
Here's my thoughts on Japan:

- IIRC they actually have a shrinking economy AND a shrinking population, which is crazy. There are literally fewer children being born each year than in the past.

- Ever since the Tsunami that took out Fukushima, it feels like everyone there has been in hardship. They appear to work long hours and have little time to spare on pasttimes or raising families.

- I totally understand why mobile is attractive. They play for half hour chunks while on the train or whatever.

- The PS3 -era decline in Japanese titles was partially the developers fault. I think there was a very real drop in quality in an absolute sense. I'm not sure if this was talent leaving companies, or problems with the toolsets used for PS3, or what. But there seriously were a lot of mediocre or straight up bad RPGs from that era that damaged the reputations of some series (and some series are straight up dead now).

- With all your favorite game series either disappearing or releasing disappointing entries, and you are now strapped for time and cash, it's only natural their interests would change.

- I still think that there's an audience for ambitious console JRPGs etc, but it might not be in Japan itself. I hope that the Japanese developers look outside their own country when thinking about these things. Just because something fails in your own country doesn't mean it won't work.

- I personally have no interest in mobile games, now or in the future. So any game there is basically non-existent to me.

There has always been a culture of working long hours and hardly taking any paid holiday in Japan. It isn't a recent thing over the past five years at all. Perhaps it is now affecting more gamers than before, who are working, as opposed to being at school and university.

The low birthrate is indeed going to be a problem, but fewer babies being born compared to the past isn't as incredible as your post seemed to imply. There are other countries with birthrates of less than two. The problem of shrinking population in Japan is made worse, of course, because immigration is also very low.
 

ULTROS!

People seem to like me because I am polite and I am rarely late. I like to eat ice cream and I really enjoy a nice pair of slacks.
bah. So disappointing.

That's kind of what I often think about import threads but there's no tactful way to say, "hey guys is this actually shit?" :p

The people in the import thread say it has its flaws but it's still fun (and somehow better than SO4). It could have been something special if it had more polished according to a few users, but for now it's alright.
 
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