Sales Bore | Media Create And Other Sale Numbers |OT|

[archie4208]

I wonder how much Football Manager costs to make.  I'm sure licensing is expensive, but the actual development can't be over $20 and a turkey sandwich.

[pilonv1]

FM Handheld is probably pretty cheap, PC version will have some expense but not a great deal. They usually don't do complete re-writes so they're reusing stuff every year. The match engine is constantly updated though, but they're usually incremental (but still excellent) updates.

I wouldn't be surprised if some of the licencing doesn't cost them as they get exposure that they wouldn't usually get.

[maxy]

http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/IR/financial/fr/12q3_sony.pdf
http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/IR/financial/fr/12q3_sonypre.pdf

Sony Corporation (Reported in Millions of U.S. dollars)

Sales ---> $22,391


Operating Income ---> $534

Net Loss ---> $124

-------------------------------------------

Game (Reported in Millions of U.S. dollars)

Sales ---> $3,086

Operating Income ---> $53

I guess PS3 *goes* back to the third place.

PSP/Vita FC down to 7 million(16 originally,10 million last quarter).

[Cerveza mas fina]

Year of the PS3 profit

[maxy]

Game business is turning an okay profit, too bad it's not enough to staunch the bleeding.

Did you see over 40000 yen PS4 price "report"?

If true,what do you think,how would Japanese market respond to that?

 

[Momo]

There is bank to be made in selling a console at a higher price around October then dropping it to a more reasonable price late November/ early December

[maxy]

So about the same as West,I think.Anything above $400 is just pushing luck.

Ubisoft results
https://www.ubisoftgroup.com/comsite_common/en-US/images/Ubisoft%20Q3%20FY13%20Englishtcm9982637.pdf



hmm

Vita>3DS

[hampster]

In other news Assassins Creed 3: subtitle confirmed for a fall release

[maxy]

well

[cool breeze]

people also found that Rayman Legends Wii U was delayed (again?) to September (?)

...and that Rayman Legends is now coming to 360 and PS3

[Steve Youngblood]

In regards to that Sega Sammy post above, Sonic All Stars Racing ended up doing decently? Almost a million sales? That's good, right? I only ask because I hope they make more games in that series, but Oscar sounded really down on the November numbers. Is that figure better than you were anticipating based on the November numbers, or are they just spinning here?

[Don Flamenco]

how has the Little Big Planet series done?   Between LBP1, 2, PSP, Vita, and Karting.

I wouldn't say Sackboy has exactly hit feature mascot status, as much as they would've liked, but they still churn these games out...

[Father_Brain]

600K worldwide for Liberation is actually pretty solid from Ubi's perspective, given everything the game had going against it commercially (being on Vita, being a $40 M-rated handheld game in 2012).  I doubt Sony is satisfied with the ROI they got from their co-marketing deal for it, though.

[maxy]

Interesting piece of info
Vita digital sales
15-20%, more important in US than EU.

[AdmiralViscen]

I am surprised Ubi doesn't make money on all their DS shovelware. I thought they were all over that shit.

Is that Rayman info true or rumor?

[maxy]

I am surprised Ubi doesn't make money on all their DS shovelware. I thought they were all over that shit.

Is that Rayman info true or rumor?

lol
check gaming forums

[Don Flamenco]

Interesting piece of info
Vita digital sales
15-20%, more important in US than EU.

where'd you see that?   

interesting, i fall right in that.  I have 2 physical games, and a lot more digital full titles. apparently $40 can still be within my impulse buy range (but that's how i got VLR and Persona 4, so it's okay.)

[Cerveza mas fina]

Not suprising since people still think they need a CC for DD, and CC is not popular in Europe at all.

So in USA every person has 2.5 credit cards while in Germany only 1 in 5 people have one.

Under this light DD sales in Europe are very good.

[maxy]

Interesting piece of info
Vita digital sales
15-20%, more important in US than EU.

where'd you see that?   

interesting, i fall right in that.  I have 2 physical games, and a lot more digital full titles. apparently $40 can still be within my impulse buy range (but that's how i got VLR and Persona 4, so it's okay.)

Ubisoft answer to shareholder question

[Sho Nuff]

34,000 units of software were sold for Weeoo TOTAL in the UK this month

That Rayman decision makes more and more sense

[hampster]

34,000 units of software were sold for Weeoo TOTAL in the UK this month

That Rayman decision makes more and more sense

Less than the Vita even though it didn't have a retail release
 
(although I don't know if the Wii U had one either)

[archie4208]

34,000 units of software were sold for Weeoo TOTAL in the UK this month

That Rayman decision makes more and more sense

If Rayman had came out it might have got up to 35,000.

[maxy]

I was bored and watched Pach attach,some interesting stuff about NPD

NPD is a voluntary reporting service,software built into cash registers.Retailers report because they want to know their market share.
NPD started as National Purchase Diary,people scribbling into a diary about things sold.

Question was about XBL/PSN numbers.

[AdmiralViscen]

http://www.edge-online.com/features/something-about-japan-suda-51-on-selling-grasshopper-manufacture-and-the-state-of-the-industry/

I thought those DQX sales seemed low.

In financial news, MSN Japan has reported that Square Enix is in the red after failing to meet sales expectations for the period of April to December 2012, the first time the company has reported a loss since the merging of former rivals Square and Enix in 2003. Square Enix’s business in the mobile market seems to have performed well, in particular their Sengoku IXA game and their Final Fantasy social games, but they haven’t had a real smash hit in their core home console market in some time.

“The slump is reportedly down to the company’s new online RPG venture, Dragon Quest X,” reports MSN. “While the disappointing financial turn for the company can be partially attributed to the burden of running the new online service, it is also down to game sales not meeting expectations. The Wii (and soon to be Wii U) game is however, making ‘steady progress’ according to Square Enix.

[MyNameIsMethodis]

Football Managers success surprises me so much. I mean it's a great game but for what it is (a crazy hardcore sim game) it's insane how well it does. Makes me wonder why Sega never forced them to do other sports also.

That said, they also have to hire scouts and that eats up ALOT of development cost, but a reminder that actual football teams liscence the game out (Everton) to do scouting of youth players and such. It's that crazy realistic/in deep that real top tier football clubs use it to scout out future players.

[Joe Molotov]

Time to trim the fat and focus on what sells.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Final Fantasy mobile games

[close]

[Mr. Gundam]

DQX should be an offline game.

STOP FUCKING MAKING BELOVED FRANCHISES INTO MMOS GODDAMMIT.

Ok, I'm good now.

[pilonv1]

Football Managers success surprises me so much. I mean it's a great game but for what it is (a crazy hardcore sim game) it's insane how well it does. Makes me wonder why Sega never forced them to do other sports also.

They used to do Eastside Hockey Manager. I'd imagine they don't make them do other things because it would probably reduce the quality of FM and they've been making this game for nearly 20 years.

[MyNameIsMethodis]

Woah I need to check that out then. When did it come out

[tiesto]

I was under the impression that DQX was doing quite well for itself... Perhaps they'll re-jig it into an offline game?

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

They're just waiting for the Wii U version

[Huff]

upfront sales were by several orders of magnitude higher than any MMO ever in Japan.  as recently as a month ago, Square-Enix had been expressing satisfaction with how well it was doing.  I'm guess subscriptions are falling off hard, but I don't know what they were expecting.  DQ fans are usually older than FF fans and not nearly as obsessed with the franchise on a regular basis.

it's not really re-jiggable into an offline game, and even if it were, that would be pointless.  gotta strike while the iron is hot, and for DQX, that time is over.

is this game set up to be turned ftp without much trouble?

[Rahxephon91]

Is the game good at least? Does it have good word of mouth?

[AdmiralViscen]

When does DQ7 come out in the US? Or does it?

[Huff]

Not announced. I imagine at least 6mo to a year if it comes

[maxy]

http://www.polygon.com/2013/2/11/3969140/next-game-from-journey-developer-thatgamecompany

Journey was a financial disaster, Chen tells me. Pushed back twice, the game bankrupt thatgamecompany. Eventually, it did make it's money back plus some, but not Minecraft money, Chen says. While it was well received, it wasn't well received by a big enough audience for Chen.

"I wouldn't say that the development of Journey was a successful example of game development," he said. "We bankrupted the company."

"I think to have a financial success, that is going to change everyone, it has to be much bigger than a game on the Playstation platform."

Chen is quick to point out how much he appreciates the support of Sony and their willingness to delay the game not one year, but two, at the insistence of the developers. Had Sony pushed thatgamecompany to his their initial deadline it's likely Journey wouldn't have been realized.

But Chen feels that limiting the game to a single platform prevented it from achieving a broader, bigger success.

And it's not really the money that's motivating him, it's the obligation he feels to prove something to the game industry and publishers.

"My resolution is to create a big financial success,"he said.

For Chen, that means creating a game that can be played on any platform. That's why he sought out venture capital funding, and received it, and that's why the game the team is working on now won't be exclusive to any one system.

[Shaka Khan]

TGC won me over with their third attempt, notwithstanding gamers' obsession over "categorizing what Journey is" and where it stands on the gaming spectrum. I'd really like to see them pump out more "artistic" games, as long as long they don't overstay their welcome. So if that involves going multi-platform or mobile exclusive, so be it — as long as they have a platform and enjoy financial success, I'll be content.

[Don Flamenco]

I wonder how much funding their next game will secure if they just barely survived this last game.

[Cerveza mas fina]

The type of game they make shouldnt cost too much and should be self published type of thing across steam/xbl/psn.

[Shaka Khan]

Journey was indeed a money sink for what it was, I remember their interviews regarding how much time they invested in developing the sand tech/physics, which was admittedly the most complex part of the game... And then you have the delays which accounts for even more expenses.

I'm obviously speaking in relative terms, keeping in mind their size and budget.

[Don Flamenco]

I can't quite tell just from looking at the game how it did so much financial damage.  But if they really spent years upon years to make it, including scrapped builds, then it might say more about the difficulty of making an art game that catches a relatively wide audience with its graphics/sound and gameplay.  He might be in for a rude awakening with multiplatform development...

Large budget art games must be a pretty crazy risk-- you can't just crumble up the paper after you've completed most of the drawing.
but it sounds like they got lucky and Sony let them do just that.

[treythemovie]

I wonder how much funding their next game will secure if they just barely survived this last game.

TGC? Most of the team left and the rest are on iOS from here on out.

[maxy]

Wedbush / EEDAR January 2012 hardware sales estimates (change year-on-year):

360 - 180,000 (-33%) / 260,000 (-4%)
3DS - 160,000 (-7%) / 120,000 (-30%)
PS3 - 145,000 (-24%) / 120,000 (-37%)
Wii U - 125,000 (n/a) / 110,000 (n/a)
DS - 60,000 (-21%) / 31,000 (-59%)
Wii - 52,200 (-66%) / 39,000 (-74%)
Vita - 45,000 (n/a) / 35,000 (n/a)
PSP - 7,500 (-63%) / (n/a)
PS2 - 300 (-96%) / (n/a)
Total - 775,000 (-13%) / 715,000 (-20%)

[Cerveza mas fina]

Is this usa?

[Don Flamenco]

I wonder how much funding their next game will secure if they just barely survived this last game.

TGC? Most of the team left and the rest are on iOS from here on out.

looks like we both missed the last sentence: 

For Chen, that means creating a game that can be played on any platform. That's why he sought out venture capital funding, and received it, and that's why the game the team is working on now won't be exclusive to any one system.

[pilonv1]

Woah I need to check that out then. When did it come out

Mid 2000s? I have no idea, check out www.sigames.com

[Don Flamenco]

DQX should be an offline game.

STOP FUCKING MAKING BELOVED FRANCHISES INTO MMOS GODDAMMIT.

Ok, I'm good now.

Wada's special "sorry we suck shit" letter said that they are basically putting all their eggs in the MMO basket.

which is smart because, you know, Final Fantasy XI made so much damn money. 

in a time when people barely knew what a MMO was and after you told them what it was and that's what the next FF game was, they shit their pants.

and said time was also pre-WoW.

so, he specifically mentions that they want to be more influenced by WoW.

I'm pretty sure Japan is actually located several jillion light years away, so in their space-time continuum, it's 2006. 

[Rusty Shackleford]

[pedant]

I think 7 light-years would suffice.

[/pedant]

[Rusty Shackleford]

Does anyone know how well the PS3 Ni no Kuni did?

[Rusty Shackleford]

Yes, in NA it was like late January.

You were talking about it being a disaster for Level 5 in another thread; I was curious about the extent of the disaster.

[maxy]

It did about 25k so far in UK,i think.

[Don Flamenco]

Wada's special "sorry we suck shit" letter said that they are basically putting all their eggs in the MMO basket.

which is smart because, you know, Final Fantasy XI made so much damn money. 

in a time when people barely knew what a MMO was and after you told them what it was and that's what the next FF game was, they shit their pants.

and said time was also pre-WoW.

so, he specifically mentions that they want to be more influenced by WoW.

I'm pretty sure Japan is actually located several jillion light years away, so in their space-time continuum, it's 2006.

WoW was entirely irrelevant to FFXI's success.  FFXI's success was almost entirely contingent on Japan, and in Japan, WoW does not exist. 

It's kind of funny.  In the rest of the world, new MMOs can't succeed because customers are pretty much satisfied with WoW and there's little room for anything else.  In Japan, new MMOs can't succeed because the people don't give a rat's ass about MMOs.

oh, i was just making a joke about how out of touch S-E seems, banking on MMOs in an era like this.   Wada cited WoW influence specifically when talking about what they needed to look at in revising FFXIV.  That didn't inspire confidence, given the trail of bodies leading up to that sentence. 


anyway, in your opinion Oscar, if XIV Remake doesn't live up to its expectations, could S-E get into serious financial trouble or would they just have to cancel some stuff and tighten their belt? 

[Rusty Shackleford]

Yes, in NA it was like late January.

You were talking about it being a disaster for Level 5 in another thread; I was curious about the extent of the disaster.

If it had been a regularly budgeted title, it would have been fine with the sales it pulled.  It's not a regularly budgeted title though.  The voice cast in Japan is full of expensive celebrities, they paid Ghibli to design the characters and do some animation (this had to have cost a bloody arm and a leg, given Ghibli had kept a pretty big distance from the games industry before), had a huge advertising campaign, and of course, also has that book that they had to have created and printed (though at least with the PS3 version they were mostly redistributing unsold copies of the DS version's book).  This is all on top of the game's production budget, which was probably on the upper end of the JRPG spectrum.

It's not going to kill Level 5, but it was a very high profile failure for the company.  Probably the most money they've gambled on anything, and probably the poorest result they've had (outside ol' Gundam Age, anyway).

It was well-received critically, right? It's a shame it didn't do better.

[maxy]

DQ7 remake sold shipped 1M units in Japan. Biggest 3DS software launch ever.

Methinks DQ series are never leaving Nintendo domain again.

Fixed.

50% day one sellout,btw.

[Cerveza mas fina]

Ni No Kuni looks so pretty, how come it sold so bad?

[maxy]

Ni No Kuni looks so pretty, how come it sold so bad?

Are you asking about Japan or West?Not sure what exactly graphics has to do with sales,it's just one of many many factors,pretty minor one imo.West is more sensitive to graphics but not as much as some people think.

In Japan DS game is probably a big factor.

[HyperZoneWasAwesome]

its gotta be selling better then any JRPG in the West not named Final Fantasy is years, hell, it'll probably cruise past its JP PS3 number.  In Sushi land, it might have been an underwhelming release, overseas I can't see it as anything but an unqualified success.

what's funny is that the overseas release could have helped build a brand that Level 5 probably has absolutely no interest in revisiting.

[hampster]

Yeah, I wonder if Ni No Kuni and Fire Emblem are doing well or it just seems that way because of how they were released. Hopefully something leaks from the NPDs


In other news: Ragnarok Odyssey Ships 250k Copies Worldwide

The PS Vita exclusive action rpg from Game Arts has shipped some 250k copies across Japan, Asia and North America.
This newest figure was shared this week by the game’s publisher ( in Japan & Europe ) GungHo President & CEO, Kazuki Morishita, during an interview with Cnet Japan. Morishita also expressed satisfaction with the attachment rate for the title but didn’t provide any details on its percentage.

http://thesilentchief.com/2013/02/08/ragnarok-odyssey-ships-250k-copies/

Pretty good for an average game and bodes well for Soul Sacrifice in April

[HyperZoneWasAwesome]

okay, I'll STFU because I should, it should be a 'qualified success', as it hit #1 in the UK and that's damn unusual for a JRPG.  It could outsell Devil May Cry there, and hitting 70-90K still puts it leagues ahead of anything that comes out of NIS, Atlus, Aksys, and the like.

I forgot that Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey, Valkryia, Demon's Souls, etc. benefited from great timing, money hatted marketing, terrific reviews, and such.  But all of those are still years in the past.  Ni No Kuni is still kicking ass, rocking the Amazon chart (for whatever that's worth) and probably exceeding the rather modest expectations placed upon its Western debut.  I'd call that a success, but I should temper my enthusiasm.

[Cerveza mas fina]

Yeah the number 1 spot in the uk means good things i think.