Sales Data Famitsu Sales: Week 9, 2024 (Feb. 25 - Mar. 3)

[Tentacle-tropes]

I can hear the keyboards from here, lol


now that 2023 numbers are out on install base, DQ11S (once again) shows its legs. I'd say a lot of people skipped out on the PS4 version, that could have happened here as well. of course, depending if they even want the game

I regret nothing

 

[Jon Turner]

Rebirth is still one of the biggest opening week games in Japan on PS5, as was 16 before it. I think if there's a funeral it's for the PS brand in Japan which is having a negative impact on FF due to it being an exclusive.

That will only be true technically until May 29. That's when it expires. Although it may take time for the ports to arrive. It'll depend on whether they want to finish the trilogy first.

 

[ngpdrew]

That will only be true technically until May 29. That's when it expires. Although it may take time for the ports to arrive. It'll depend on whether they want to finish the trilogy first.

It will certainly come to PC but I don't see much reason to believe it will appear elsewhere. I'm having a hard time picturing Rebirth on an eventual Switch 2.

 

[Jon Turner]

It will certainly come to PC but I don't see much reason to believe it will appear elsewhere. I'm having a hard time picturing Rebirth on an eventual Switch 2.

That will depend on how well Switch 2 can handle it. Although key here is DLSS. Apparently that may help. Also keep in mind the project was done on UE4, so it is scalable. Again, I'm not saying i know when the ports will arrive, but I don't expect this trilogy to stay exclusive, especially if S2 proves to be a hit. As for whether it will hit XBOX, that's up in the air. There were rumors of Remake and 16 hitting XBox, but I don't know just yet. Also note that before deleting his tweet, the man who wrote the article on FF Trilogy now suspects that a Switch 2 port might be plausible given its Japanese sales. But it's all up in the air at this point. Either way that article didn't tell us anything we didn't already know and was a misreport.

 

[Djehuty]

This was a foregone conclusion. We should have had that funeral when it was clear Japan was done with home consoles.

they aren't done with home consoles.

sony fucked up
square fucked up
THEY fucked up

its not the consumers fault for not supporting unappealing products.

 

[ngpdrew]

they aren't done with home consoles.

sony fucked up
square fucked up
THEY fucked up

its not the consumers fault for not supporting unappealing products.

I mean... it sure seems like they're done with home consoles?

 

[Zalman]

Japan isn't done with home consoles. Sony consoles simply aren't providing games that appeal to that market anymore.

Splatoon became a million-seller in Japan on Wii U, which a home console. PlayStation consoles have a hard time getting even a single million-seller, even in cases where said systems are bigger successes than Nintendo's.

Ring Fit Adventure became a million-seller on Switch. That's not a game you take with you on the go. It's purely for the home.

PS4 also outsold the Vita in the country. PS5 being a home console is not the problem. It's the games.

 

[ngpdrew]

Japan isn't done with home consoles. Sony consoles simply aren't providing games that appeal to that market anymore.

Splatoon became a million-seller in Japan on Wii U, which a home console. PlayStation consoles have a hard time getting even a single million-seller, even in cases where said systems are bigger successes than Nintendo's.

Ring Fit Adventure became a million-seller on Switch. That's not a game you take with you on the go. It's purely for the home.

PS4 also outsold the Vita in the country. PS5 being a home console is not the problem. It's the games.

It's the games!

Japanese players appear to prefer games that can be comfortably played on a handheld device.

Ring Fit is its own thing; I wouldn't use its success as proof of a market that still wants home console gaming.

 

[Tentacle-tropes]

It's the games!

Japanese players appear to prefer games that can be comfortably played on a handheld device.

Ring Fit is its own thing; I wouldn't use its success as proof of a market that still wants home console gaming.

I mean Ring Fit very much is proof considering how well it has sold within the region & not its own thing.

If they cared this much about handheld gaming then the Lite should have gained more traction. Xbox has been irrelevant since early 360 & Sony has largely abandoned the region for about 2.5gens now. What exactly do people in the Japanese home console gaming market actually have to look forward to in this segment.

 

[ngpdrew]

I mean Ring Fit very much is proof considering how well it has sold within the region & not its own thing.

If they cared this much about handheld gaming then the Lite should have gained more traction. Xbox has been irrelevant since early 360 & Sony has largely abandoned the region for about 2.5gens now. What exactly do people in the Japanese home console gaming market actually have to look forward to in this segment.

I feel like a fitness game being successful is not indicative of the potential for other non-lifestyle experiences to succeed in the home console market.

And, I mean, I see the temptation to use the Lite as a gotcha, but I think its relative lack of success is a little more complicated. It came out two years into the Switch's life, isn't that much more portable than a Switch, had only two years on the market before being replaced by a superior (and barely larger) form factor, etc. They're all handheld devices and it's arguably the worst one.

 

[Djehuty]

I mean... it sure seems like they're done with home consoles?

a Nintendo home console will sell 20 million with no portable easily.

a sony portable device would struggle to reach 5 mil.

you can say home console is dead all you want but the only thing we have any evidence for is that sony is.

if home console was did splatoon wouldn't be selling 5mil. thats a game that you kind of have to play with internet.



i'll make a comparison here.

your 2 options are the psp and the stadia.
the stadia doesn't sell well, home console is ruined and dead.

that is essentially the gaming market in japan.

stadia being dead in this example does not mean home consoles are dead, it means stadia is dead and stadia is the only home console.

you can not say home consoles are dead when there isn't a home console by the leading company on the market.

 

[ngpdrew]

Edit: Too flippant! Sorry.

 

[karmitt]

Japan isn't done with home consoles. Sony consoles simply aren't providing games that appeal to that market anymore.

Splatoon became a million-seller in Japan on Wii U, which a home console. PlayStation consoles have a hard time getting even a single million-seller, even in cases where said systems are bigger successes than Nintendo's.

Ring Fit Adventure became a million-seller on Switch. That's not a game you take with you on the go. It's purely for the home.

PS4 also outsold the Vita in the country. PS5 being a home console is not the problem. It's the games.

You don’t think the Switch has changed things a bit? It’s like the advent of the laptop. It really wouldn’t surprise me if there’s more aversion to a larger stationary machine when there’s now a very competent flexible alternative. Games might have been one of the initial reasons, but I don’t expect a reverse of fortunes with Sony releasing a few more good games.

I also happen to think moving towards hybrid devices is an inevitable shift elsewhere in the world. It just might take longer to get there (ie. when incredibly few games can take meaningful advantage of the best hardware).

 

[Tentacle-tropes]

I feel like a fitness game being successful is not indicative of the potential for other non-lifestyle experiences to succeed in the home console market.

And, I mean, I see the temptation to use the Lite as a gotcha, but I think its relative lack of success is a little more complicated. It came out two years into the Switch's life, isn't that much more portable than a Switch, had only two years on the market before being replaced by a superior (and barely larger) form factor, etc. They're all handheld devices and it's arguably the worst one.

I think it very much proves so if the software is appealing to users & the base is active enough. We saw this w/PS4 to a degree. The problem here is that neither of the other two are providing anything worth getting excited over. Thus the home console market suffers because it increasingly is pulling a worse WiiU.

It’s not really a gotcha but sentiment at the time was that the Lite was given to do really well in JP; cause the notion is that JP only cares about handheld gaming. It has nothing to do with timing nor the fact that it isn’t as portable. It has everything to do with not being a hybrid. Consumers want the full suite which includes the console gaming portion of said hybrid.

Console gaming is very much alive in JP. Who it isn’t alive for is Sony & to a small extent MS. There is a reason PC is starting to eat into PS’ market share & it’s not because they are rejecting console gaming.

 

[ILikeFeet]

Japanese players appear to prefer games that can be comfortably played on a handheld device.

do you think this is because the games they want to play happen to be on switch or because switch is portable, they happen to buy games? there isn't much of a study here to show one or the other to be the case.

 

[AngryAlchemist]

I don't think there's any way home consoles come back in Japan, at least realistically. There's probably some universe where the successor to the Switch is a home console and that might sell 16m units or something but while that would be high for consoles that'd still be a huge decrease for the Switch. I think that there are just so many compounding factors that have made home consoles unpopular over time and it's unlikely they'll ever be a huge section of the market again.

But I still think it's very important to understand why we got here because there's a lot of things people say about Japan to try and explain why home consoles aren't popular anymore that were true for decades even when home consoles were still very popular. I don't think it's as simple as just a cultural lifestyle differences for example, we don't have anything super concrete but honestly I think Lelouch's theory about it was a pretty good one. The Wii not having a chance to be a second PS2, and all the big third parties going towards the expensive home console definitely killed some momentum for home consoles in general, especially considering the PS3 ended up being near the Wii's total despite having a disasterous launch and the Wii selling like gangbusters at first. It also makes some sense because this was the last time a lot of franchises were still mainstay juggernaughts (FF and RE)

So I think it's important to think about it on a deeper level than just "home consoles disliked" because leaving it at that is leaving out a lot of details. I also doubt that the Switch is being underutilized as a home console in Japan. Either way PS5's software sales are exceptionally bad for a home console.

 

[JoshuaJSlone]

I feel that all we need is a Final Fantasy to be hyped for, and a pivot into trad armour & castles was never going to be it. I think they wanted to make a play for the XIV crowd but seems like what works in MMO doesn’t in single player.

As someone who has pretty much had my fill of the MMO grind, something similar to XIV but offline I would've been very interested in. But a linear action game is not that.

 

[ngpdrew]

do you think this is because the games they want to play happen to be on switch or because switch is portable, they happen to buy games? there isn't much of a study here to show one or the other to be the case.

I think it's pretty clear what I think!

Ah, well. Only time will tell. Personally, I see home consoles becoming a niche worldwide in the near future, especially as handhelds become increasingly capable.

 

[Imitatio]

The lifestyle aspect might play a big role in pure home console's decline in Japan (probably does); but I also do have to wonder whether JP folks simply are (steadily) growing bored of traditional home consoles and the experiences they offer at this point. I mean, there's obviously quite a bit of evolution throughout the generations of PS1 to PS5, but at the end of the day these boxes do very similar things. It's a continued process of refinement over decades. The technical jumps used to be the exciting stuff. But even the most exciting stuff becomes stale at one point. (Sony was early in on the VR train for a reason here, I think, trying to be on top of a potential shift this time around. Which, yeah, hasn't quite played out yet.)
And it's also not like the software that defines these higher end machines has drastically changed since HD development became a thing with the PS3. A lot of repeated game design choices and formulas to reduce risks of financially ruining yourself. Which combines with longer and longer development cycles, making it more difficult for developers to ensure they can keep people's attention for years.

The Switch in this instance has at least done something new and exciting for the market hardware wise, and thus in terms of experience, with its hybrid approach. It might not be an outright revolution of gaming hardware, but it's the closest we've gotten in a long time while still relying on certain familiar traits.

I also expect for other markets to slowly get to that point eventually, much like karmitt said.

You don’t think the Switch has changed things a bit? It’s like the advent of the laptop. It really wouldn’t surprise me if there’s more aversion to a larger stationary machine when there’s now a very competent flexible alternative. Games might have been one of the initial reasons, but I don’t expect a reverse of fortunes with Sony releasing a few more good games.

I also happen to think moving towards hybrid devices is an inevitable shift elsewhere in the world. It just might take longer to get there (ie. when incredibly few games can take meaningful advantage of the best hardware).

 

[Dardan Sandiego]

The reasons for Rebirth's somewhat muted commercial reception are probably a little more complex than "Japanese people don't want home consoles" or "Final Fantasy doesn't appeal to Japan anymore". It's most likely a combination of factors that put the series at odds with what Japanese gamers want, which is leading to it losing relevance. I've long since suspected that series like Final Fantasy are declining in Japan because they appeal to a demographic that is gradually ageing out of gaming (30y/os) while failing to attract younger gamers. Part of that is obviously platform choice but I don't think it's the only reason.

I personally don't know what it'd take for FF to be big in Japan again. At the same time, I don't think it makes much sense to look at the reception of Rebirth, to see the near universal praise for it and come to the conclusion that this is a direction not worth pursuing. It's clearly resonating with a lot of people outside of it being a love letter to a game that is nearly 30 years old and part of that appeal is owed to it targeting powerful hardware. Square Enix is ultimately going to have to decide, if they haven't already, how relevant of a market Japan is to them. I'm not sure they can afford it currently but Capcom showed that they don't need it to turn Resident Evil into a 10m+ seller.

 

[Djehuty]

The lifestyle aspect might play a big role in pure home console's decline in Japan (probably does); but I also do have to wonder whether JP folks simply are (steadily) growing bored of traditional home consoles and the experiences they offer at this point. I mean, there's obviously quite a bit of evolution throughout the generations of PS1 to PS5, but at the end of the day these boxes do very similar things. It's a continued process of refinement over decades. The technical jumps used to be the exciting stuff. But even the most exciting stuff becomes stale at one point. (Sony was early in on the VR train for a reason here, I think, trying to be on top of a potential shift this time around. Which, yeah, hasn't quite played out yet.)
And it's also not like the software that defines these higher end machines has drastically changed since HD development became a thing with the PS3. A lot of repeated game design choices and formulas to reduce risks of financially ruining yourself. Which combines with longer and longer development cycles, making it more difficult for developers to ensure they can keep people's attention for years.

i would say the opposite is true

the games ps is selling now have become homogenized.
its the pikmin effect. having big games is a plus but keeping those 100k sellers around is very important.

variety is what modern sony lacks.

( spoilered cause it turned out to be really long)

Spoiler

even if their old quirky games didnt sell amazing or drive engagement they each draw in someone who might not have otherwise got drawn in.

for example animal crossing drew in people who dont play video games, and then animal crossing fans bought pikmin 3.

setting the stage for pikmin 4, the way these games interact and how their audience align is important.

all of nintendos ip's cover different bases entirely,

sonys ips are all different ips but pretty much all the same genre, the audience is a circle, they aren't attracting anyone who doenst care for action adventure games,

of course sony used to rely on 3rd party exclusives. but the only one dumb enough to stick with that was FF.

which puts sony in a tight spot ip wise, if you aren't attracted to their ip there is no reason to get a PlayStation, unless you just dont want to get a PC.

the ip that would provide variety are not there anymore, they got killed by sony never expecting the day that they would have to rely on their own ip like nintendo.

in essence sony was 1 part of a larger whole, and when the rest of that whole left so too did the audience it attracts, meanwhile nintendo basically covers the whole medium in terms of genres, one interting thin is the didnt used to, they were the same as sony during the snes days, they had their genres and they stuck to it. that kept around for the n64 because they expected everyone to stick with them but they all left bassicaly making the n64 very platformer weighted.

its around that time as well that nintendo really branched out in terms of genres on the animal crossing, horror games, rts's, getting monolithsoft, golden sun to fill in the role of traditional rpg, rythm heaven and so on.

the n64-gamecube era was what transfomred them from a regualar game company to a microcosm of the industry pretty much. no matter if 3rd party were their or not you could still expereince puzzles, platformers, fighting games, life sims, rythm games, party games, rpgs, even visual novels, horror games, shooter games, racing games and so on.

sony is bassically in thier own n64 period rn, not becuase they arent getting games from 3rd parties they still are, but the current market it makes exclsuives a bad idea, so any console has them and thus they are a less enticing reason to go for playsation. the difference is playsation has tons of ips they just never bothered to grow them and killed them off.

just like the n64, if you like platformers you will have a hell of a time, if you like cinematic adventure with lite arpg mechanics you'll love playstation.
it isnt as extreme obviously but i hope you get the point im making.

these little games matter even if they dont sell like crazy they provide an option and the option exisiting is so important.

all the 3rd parties went for the multiplat money.