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[Wollan]

Sony is the company that takes best care of Europe.

- They haven't been selling a system for two years knowing a third will die, this should be illegal in the first place
- They heavy localize most of their 1st party games, even for languages/countries that stand behind just a couple thousand sales, this also includes tailored made games like various SingStar releases
- The downloadable titles are fairer priced than the competition
- Region free gaming

 

[Bojanglez]

Care to give some examples?

Well I do not speak a language other than English or live in a country that speaks another language, so it would be hard for me to sight specific examples of poor localisation. All I was suggesting is that maybe Sony and Nintendo understand the regional requirements more within Europe, and maybe that is why they are more successful in Europe outside the UK than MS.

 

[Wollan]

Care to give some examples?

I can play R&C, Uncharted, MotorStorm, SingStar, Buzz, HS..etc...etc with Norwegian voices and texts.
Also recognize that this is a country with only four million people in it.

I can't get Microsoft games (there is one exception here, Viva Pinata) or Nintendo games in these languages.

 

[Tieno]

Well I do not speak a language other than English or live in a country that speaks another language, so it would be hard for me to sight specific examples of poor localisation. All I was suggesting is that maybe Sony and Nintendo understand the regional requirements more within Europe, and maybe that is why they are more successful in Europe outside the UK than MS.

I play all my games in english even if localised, so hence my question as I don't know this.

 

[Vaandaviii]

Sony treats europe better than the other two. Yes, ok, they took like a century to bring PS and PSP here, and the PSN contents are scarce, but... thats all! Everything else is just fine.

For example you CAN'T buy most nintendo games because the distribution is veeery weak, you must wait for nintendo games to be traslated into 4 or 5 languages for several months, while sony delivers their first party titles dubbed in 17 languages by the same guys that dub the hollywood movies much earlier. Besides, the pricing of the PSN is simply awesome compared to the XBLA and VC.

 

[Bojanglez]

I play all my games in english even if localised, so hence my question as I don't know this.

Well it seems Wollan has given some specific examples. I am sure Sony don't hold things up just for the sake of it. Obviously as I am in the UK I am not bothered about localizing for other languages, but millions of others in Europe probably are.

Maybe another factor is that Sony has quite a few dev studios based in Europe, so maybe their games relate to Europeans more?

 

[RubberJohnny]

Nintendo treat Europe/PAL the worst out of the three, and they're still number 1 in the majority of countries. Maybe we're suckers for punishment.

 

[Chinner]

Okay chumps, anyone know what the Mass Effect sales are?

 

[Busty]

I can play R&C, Uncharted, MotorStorm, SingStar, Buzz, HS..etc...etc with Norwegian voices and texts.
Also recognize that this is a country with only four million people in it.

I can't get Microsoft games (there is one exception here, Viva Pinata) or Nintendo games in these languages.

I've been saying this for ages. Peeople make alot of noise about Sony and how Europe is 'Sonyland'. While that tag is hyperbole, Sony have taken the time to cater to the market. Local languages on games is a massive deal.

When Eastern Europe and Russia start to open up as larger gaming markets it's Sony that's going to be there. Nintendo, I can sort of understand, because they've never given a fuck abut Europe. But I honestly don't understand why MS aren't doing this.

 

[szaromir]

I've been saying this for ages. Peeople make alot of noise about Sony and how Europe is 'Sonyland'. While that tag is hyperbole, Sony have taken the time to cater to the market. Local languages on games is a massive deal.

When Eastern Europe and Russia start to open up as larger gaming markets it's Sony that's going to be there. Nintendo, I can sort of understand, because they've never given a fuck abut Europe. But I honestly don't understand why MS aren't doing this.

Localising games and Sony is almost mutually exclusive with only one Sony game translated game here in Poland. So while I can't say who'll be a market leader, Sony is not the one who's trying the most.

 

[broadwayrock]

This isn't true either.

You're assuming people are simply settling for GH3, which neither of us can't actually know for sure. I'm sure there are plenty of people who:

A: Only own a Wii and love guitar hero
B: Only own a Wii but don't want GH and only want RB

or C:

They must be shifting the manufacturing of the guitars over to the Wii Sku. It seems odd for the sudden rise.

 

[pswii60]

I've been saying this for ages. Peeople make alot of noise about Sony and how Europe is 'Sonyland'. While that tag is hyperbole, Sony have taken the time to cater to the market. Local languages on games is a massive deal.

When Eastern Europe and Russia start to open up as larger gaming markets it's Sony that's going to be there. Nintendo, I can sort of understand, because they've never given a fuck abut Europe. But I honestly don't understand why MS aren't doing this.

This is true, as I said earlier, it's not when but what you bring to Europe that matters. I know if I was from Norway, I'd be incentivised to buy games that are in my native language, whether we all spoke English as a second language or not.

However, MS finally opened a fully-fledged European MGS office last Summer, so we could start seeing the results of that later this year with better localisation on first party stuff etc. I think up until that office opened, MGS were pretty disconnected from Europe. In fact, it is interesting that a European-developed game, Viva Pinata, is the only one Wollan mentioned to be in Norweigan. We're probably more aware of this in the UK than the executives in the US. Still haven't noticed any games in Manx Gaelic yet, though.

 

[acabado]

Numbers of Rock Band SE for PS2?

 

[solid2snake]

Sony is the company that takes best care of Europe.

- They haven't been selling a system for two years knowing a third will die, this should be illegal in the first place
- They heavy localize most of their 1st party games, even for languages/countries that stand behind just a couple thousand sales, this also includes tailored made games like various SingStar releases
- The downloadable titles are fairer priced than the competition
- Region free gaming

but still no fucking PSN prepaid cards here

 

[Tom Penny]

So basically the PS3 only sold more than the X360 due to shortages? Is MS retarded with no "game" planning skills. No pun intended

 

[Rolf NB]

So basically the PS3 only sold more than the X360 due to shortages? Is MS retarded with no "game" planning skills. No pun intended

If Sony had launched with 2 million units distributed across all territories on the same day, they'd have been much better off. They would have had a strong christmas period, they would have literally doubled their software sales during the first three or four months, and they would have avoided a great deal of bad press. That would have been good for them.

But it hasn't happened.

A fumbled month is still a fumbled month. It's not as if outside sabotage is the reason for Microsoft's poor performance, it's all their own doing. No excuse in the world just makes the result go away, which is that Sony's monthly marketshare gain was a lot higher than usual this month, so they are moving up the ranks on the software front faster as well. Some of that will be felt for the rest of the year, some of it won't. But in the end Microsoft still lost a month.

 

[legend166]

I wonder why all the people that jumped on the "So why can't I get a Wii yet/Is Nintendo creating artifical shortages for the Wii" bandwagon aren't having a go at Microsoft.

Atleast Nintendo has the 'fastest selling console ever' excuse. Microsoft are selling fairly well in one region, average in another and is completely dead in the third. I don't know how they let this happen.

Speculawyer, where are you?


p.s. if this is the result of a new sku with a lower price I will forgive them because I want to buy a 360.

 

[Metalmurphy]

Localising games and Sony is almost mutually exclusive with only one Sony game translated game here in Poland. So while I can't say who'll be a market leader, Sony is not the one who's trying the most.

Well, they obviously can't do it for all countries.

 

[Stumpokapow]

They must be shifting the manufacturing of the guitars over to the Wii Sku. It seems odd for the sudden rise.

Actually, it's that the Wii SKU was undershipped massively in December because of the mono issue. It was only early January when they actually started reliably shipping Wii GH3 again.

 

[botticus]

Notice that this is NOT what iSuppli said. This is what Botticus claims iSuppli said, but he's wrong. I explained it in that thread already, but here it is again.

I'm sorry, are you saying I created that graph? That is actually Figure 1 referred to in their press release. They predict the LTD for Wii and 360 will decrease between 2010 and 2011.

I even provided a link in that post: http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/36067/118

It is interesting to note that iSuppli actually believes that beginning in 2011, Nintendo and Microsoft will see installed base decreasing. The Wii is listed at 37.7 million in 2001, down from 39.5 million in 2010. The Xbox 360 is estimated to decrease from 33.1 to 32.3 million in the same time frame.

And barring any communication mixups and sonycowboy's confirmation - yay NMH!

 

[Thrakier]

Next month without shortages MS will be back and they will have one of their famous partys.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DNK5vNt83c&feature=related

 

[Sho_Nuff82]

MS updated next-gen.biz on the nature of the shortages:

http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9133&Itemid=2

 

[Dead Prince]

MS updated next-gen.biz on the nature of the shortages:

http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9133&Itemid=2

It only works for Nintendo. ;o

 

[VanMardigan]

Shortages or no shortages, I hope to see Ps3 and Xbox 360 continue to sell neck and neck. That can only benefit the consumers. And I hope they stay close to the Wii in sales, so Nintendo can rush WiiHD out.

 

[Dunlop]

Shortages or no shortages, I hope to see Ps3 and Xbox 360 continue to sell neck and neck. That can only benefit the consumers. And I hope they stay close to the Wii in sales, so Nintendo can rush WiiHD out.

QFT...except the last part. I don't get what the fuck WiiHD would be. It is not a HD system and devs are not going to start and try to optimize the code for 1080P and better audio codex's (does the Wii even do 5.1? I know there is no optical out by default. I ran out of ports on my receiver so I only get the sound from the TV).

Nintendo has been very smart with a single SKU, there is no customer confusion on what they are purchasing.

 

[greendublin]

ULTRA MEGA MEGA TON

I did not expect PS3 to outsell 360 (and almost Wii) until Metal Gear came out...... I don't know to what extent I buy the 'shortages' excuse, I just know year-over-year PS3 is doing very well to start this one off. Totally unexpected!

As always, let's see what happens next month.

 

[VanMardigan]

QFT...except the last part. I don't get what the fuck WiiHD would be.

An HD capable Wii that plays all Wii games. Plus it has DD 5.1 sound. I don't care about your specific receiver situation. I want Nintendo games in HD and with true digital surround sound. Plus, hopefully it upscales the current Wii games as well. I don't even care about 1080p, either. 720p/1080i output is fine, and I'll let my tv deinterlace the signal.

 

[AppleMIX]

It only works for Nintendo. ;o

I don't know, the whole Xbox Live is down because we sold too many Xbox's in December makes the argument more convincing.

 

[Randy Lanzarote]

QFT...except the last part. I don't get what the fuck WiiHD would be. It is not a HD system and devs are not going to start and try to optimize the code for 1080P and better audio codex's (does the Wii even do 5.1? I know there is no optical out by default. I ran out of ports on my receiver so I only get the sound from the TV).

They could chuck a good scaling chip inside the Wii to ouput all content to 720p/180p. They have an ATI graphics chi in there, so I wonder if they could slap a AVIVO video processor onto it, ala Xenos. If its all handed natively by the OS then developers wouldn't start shitting bricks at the thought of new dev kits and hardware to play with.

 

[pswii60]

I don't know, the whole Xbox Live is down because we sold too many Xbox's in December makes the argument more convincing.

I think MS expected the 40gb PS3 to have more of an impact on its sales in Nov/Dec than it actually did.

 

[_mo]

Actual vs Pachter

Nintendo DS: 251k, 350K
PlayStation 2: 264k, 190K
PlayStation 3: 269k, 240K
Sony PSP: 230k, 200K
Nintendo Wii: 274k, 420K
Xbox 360: 230k, 290K

 

[VanMardigan]

So we won't see the unabashed Pachter butt-kissing from last month, then? Good. It's amazing how badly a paid analyst can do with all the resources available to him. Let's see how much gaffers were able to (again) do better than someone whose job it is to get these numbers right, or at least be close.

 

[Kestastrophe]

Actual vs Pachter

Nintendo Wii: 274k, 420K

Ouch

 

[Thunder Monkey]

Actual vs Pachter

Nintendo DS: 251k, 350K
PlayStation 2: 264k, 190K
PlayStation 3: 269k, 240K
Sony PSP: 230k, 200K
Nintendo Wii: 274k, 420K
Xbox 360: 230k, 290K

I didn't do that well either though.

I didn't expect shortages to have been that much of a problem, and I never expected the PS3 to have as good a January as it did.

 

[spwolf]

I've been saying this for ages. Peeople make alot of noise about Sony and how Europe is 'Sonyland'. While that tag is hyperbole, Sony have taken the time to cater to the market. Local languages on games is a massive deal.

When Eastern Europe and Russia start to open up as larger gaming markets it's Sony that's going to be there. Nintendo, I can sort of understand, because they've never given a fuck abut Europe. But I honestly don't understand why MS aren't doing this.

Sony is already here in Eastern Europe. I got Croatian Singstar with 15 local songs, country with 4million people that dont buy legal games usually.

It matters a lot - nobody wants to sing English songs for instance even if english music is what we listen usually.

 

[turk128]

Wish I had an anigif of the Apolo Ohno crash durring the Olympics; ya know, the one where all the top skaters wiped out and a bottom tier skater from Australia won.

 

[Sho_Nuff82]

I think MS expected the 40gb PS3 to have more of an impact on its sales in Nov/Dec than it actually did.

I think MS was expecting a lot more people to 'Jump In' on the low end Arcade model. It was clearly overshipped and there was much greater demand for the SKUs with HDDs (and access to LIVE) than anticipated. The less said about the mean green machines, the better.

One really has to wonder at what point MS is going to acknowledge that their pricing strategy for their cheapest SKU is borked. The premium comes with two games that were (at the time) a $90 value, completely offsetting the price advantage of the arcade.

 

[Redd]

An HD capable Wii that plays all Wii games. Plus it has DD 5.1 sound. I don't care about your specific receiver situation. I want Nintendo games in HD and with true digital surround sound. Plus, hopefully it upscales the current Wii games as well. I don't even care about 1080p, either. 720p/1080i output is fine, and I'll let my tv deinterlace the signal.

That could work as long the old wii could still play then new games in SD. Could take awhile though, Nintendo cant seem to keep up with the demand as it is and you're hoping for another sku. I'm just hoping for a hard drive, its pretty sad I have to get rid of some stuff to download new games on VC.

 

[AceBandage]

Nakayama, president of MMV confirms NMH numbers in his blog.
100k + (sell through) in US, 160k pre-orders in Europe.

http://www.mmv.co.jp/message/president.php

edit: uh, it's NMH, not NHM. I bought one of 40k copies. Sorry rest of the world.

Excellent. Maybe now Suda can stop complaining about there not being a core audience on the Wii and get to work on a sequel to NMH that has NOTHING to do with the original.

 

[Dunlop]

An HD capable Wii that plays all Wii games. Plus it has DD 5.1 sound. I don't care about your specific receiver situation.

I didn't say that I didn't want them to do it because of my "specific receiver situation". I said don't do it because it was not originally designed for that splitting your userbase capabilities does not work well in North America (see:Sega CD or 32X)

 

[spwolf]

I think MS was expecting a lot more people to 'Jump In' on the low end Arcade model. It was clearly overshipped and there was much greater demand for the SKUs with HDDs (and access to LIVE) than anticipated. The less said about the mean green machines, the better.

One really has to wonder at what point MS is going to acknowledge that their pricing strategy for their cheapest SKU is borked. The premium comes with two games that were (at the time) a $90 value, completely offsetting the price advantage of the arcade.

If other games follow suit as Burnout, then MS strategy with Arcade has been disaster of mega proportions. They really did not need that Arcade SKU, even if it helped them during holidays.

 

[Crushed]

So has sonycowboy woken up yet.

 

[The Faceless Master]

Hmm... Maybe he won't read the post carefully and agree!!

Too all you Burnout Paradise haters... YOU SUCK

Seriously though, the hate this game has garnered makes absolutely no sense, don't judge the game based on the demo. Its frikkin awesome...

For only being available for ten days, 144K sales on 360 and probably around 110K on PS3 (guesstimate) is not bad at all!

i went to buy it, and failed, then i went to retry... but i bought something else instead... ooops!

 

[hellclerk]

No More Heroes didn't chart :'(

no dance for the internets.

 

[_Alkaline_]

No More Heroes didn't chart :'(

no dance for the internets.

Did you miss the celebration thread?

 

[DeaconKnowledge]

I find it funny that nobody's buying Arcades at all, and frankly, I think that says a lot about the people buying 360's: super-informed hardcore gamers.

Great for MS software, but terrible for a company that wants to be market leader.

 

[pswii60]

I find it funny that nobody's buying Arcades at all, and frankly, I think that says a lot about the people buying 360's: super-informed hardcore gamers.

Great for MS software, but terrible for a company that wants to be market leader.

Really? I'm pretty sure if we could look at the split between PS3 80gb and 40gb units, we'd find that 80%+ are 80gbs. Still, 9 million super-informed hardcore gamers in the US and counting. I think you've made a silly statement though - I have a bunch of friends with 360s and none of them are 'super-informed hardcore gamers' (only me!). But they still have brains and can work out which is better value when they a) look online or b) go in to a store and ask. Also, the Pro and Elite are the main SKUs being pushed by retailers everywhere. But, whatever you say Deacon

Spoiler

of no

Knowledge

 

[MaX_PL]

I find it funny that nobody's buying Arcades at all, and frankly, I think that says a lot about the people buying 360's: super-informed hardcore gamers.

Great for MS software, but terrible for a company that wants to be market leader.

yeh it is funny, funny that you think casual gamers are stupid and just buy whatever is cheap. they obviously dont care that theyre friends and family, along with just about everyone else, buys the premium or elite versions with HDDs.

 

[DeaconKnowledge]

yeh it is funny, funny that you think casual gamers are stupid and just buy whatever is cheap. they obviously dont care that theyre friends and family, along with just about everyone else, buys the premium or elite versions with HDDs.

I find it funny that you think it's stupid to assume this would happen as that's basically the reason the Arcade exists in the first place: a cheap alternative for casual players to get in on the ground floor with the 360.

Do you honestly think that a nations worth of casual fly by night gamers are looking at the 360 and saying "man, i'll wait for a Premium"?

The Arcades are dying because the market they're intended for doesn't want a 360.

Really? I'm pretty sure if we could look at the split between PS3 80gb and 40gb units, we'd find that 80%+ are 80gbs. Still, 9 million super-informed hardcore gamers in the US and counting. I think you've made a silly statement though - I have a bunch of friends with 360s and none of them are 'super-informed hardcore gamers' (only me!). But they still have brains and can work out which is better value when they a) look online or b) go in to a store and ask. Also, the Pro and Elite are the main SKUs being pushed by retailers everywhere. But, whatever you say Deacon

Spoiler

of no

Knowledge

Ah, your friends. Much better barometer of performance than NPD.

I'm sorry, but what i'm seeing here is that people are claiming shortages when a gaggle of Arcades are languishing on the shelves. The thought that a seemingly large amount of people are outright ignoring that SKU as well as the dog shit Halo version tells me that the 360 is selling to a specific set of gamers. We're 3 years into the life of the 360; why is adoption of the console still so conditional? Surely there is a subset of gamers who just want to get in on the console and its 20+ million selling library without spending a fortune. Microsoft obviously believes this, as that's the whole purpose of the Arcade, so why are we giving MS a mulligan for a tiered SKU that's not selling?

 

[Woo-Fu]

Every 360 owner should buy an arcade unit. Makes a good cold standby for when your main 360 shits the bed. Just move your hard drive over, switch the cables and you're good to go while the original is out for repair.

Cheapest route to multiple screen Forza 2 goodness as well, it would seem.