Nice work in compiling all that sales data ZhugeEX, it's very interesting to read and look at.
DW8 sales kill me inside as it is the best mainline game in the series since DW4 (in my opinion at least, 7 was really good too).
Thanks. I'll try and do a write up for Warriors Orochi when I get time. The series actually sells very well with the first game selling over 1.5m units worldwide across all platforms. That's just as good as Dynasty Warriors 5 sold worldwide and Samurai Warriors 1 sold.
DW8 really did badly when it really is the best and most complete game of this gen. Thankfully we still get XL overseas (and on PS4 as well!!)
I was burned by DW6 and have been hesitant to pick up DW games in general since then, lol. I wouldn't be surprised if other people felt the same way.
I stopped after DW6. In fact I didn't even buy DW6, I only played it a couple of times at a friends house. (have it on PC now). It was only thanks to Koei facebook and koei warriors website that I started to get hyped again and got DW7.
Now the games just feel cheap on the higher difficulties rather than just challenging.
Anyway I say DW3 is the best. I really liked leveling the bodyguards into elite super warriors
I agree, the AI really needs to go back to the way it was. Still keep an easy mode for that hack and slash action, but don't just have more damage taken on hard, make it so you actually have to block, time attacks and enemy's are smarter.
Oh and DW2 is my favourite due to pure nostalgia, after that it's DW5 due to how much hours I put into the game.
On a side note, I am curious what will KOEI do for Dynasty Warriors' 15th anniversary.
We're nearing it as it'll be in 2015, and if KOEI is keeping with the yearly DW release, we could see 8 Empires this year and DW9 in 2015.
I agree with this. I think DW9 will have more of an open world feel, be a true next gen game, have better AI and options + build on the characters and movesets of DW8.
Not sure about 8 Empires but it would allow KOEI to cash in more on PS3 era, something they did during late PS2 era a lot.
I just hope KOEI support the overseas community and that we can support them.
On a slightly different note though, I find the lifetime sales gap between DW5 and future titles (DW6, 7, and 8) really perplexing though. It's like a big chunk of fans of the series lost complete interest after the series moved on from the PS2, and 5 didn't really do anything offensive or horrible to push fans away either.
It's because hack and slash expanded a lot. Warriors Orochi came out which combined both DW and SW and sold ~700k units on PS2. DW Gundam sold over 600k as well, One Piece sold over 800k, FOTNS sold over 600k. And a lot of these games came out around DW6 and after, and near DW7. So people are moving to other games in the same genre, plus the DW series has always been on a steady decline, plus next gen hasn't taken off compared to last gen. PS3 is at half the amount of units sold compared to PS2. Also as you put, DW6 wasn't exactly well received.
