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Vita's going to sell like this till there are a bunch of must buy games. Dropping the price now will result in short term sales, but without any impactful games sales will go down again which Sony can't afford. They should release as much software as they can and drop the price next year. It's a tough situation for them, though.

And yeah, rear touchpad has mostly been optional for many games, so removing that isn't a bad idea.

 

[Cygnus X-1]

These aren't the sales you're looking for.

LOL

 

[John Harker]

Fire Emblem: Awakening still selling very well for such a slow month.
Scary to think that no PSV games sold more than 2,819 units this week.

I wonder if new 3DS users who picked the system up for Monster Hunter are also giving FE a shot for the first time.

 

[Vinnk]

We need your report's return starting next week. Please

Sure, if you think they would be of any interest. This gen is pretty boring so far. I was hoping Vita would do something other than just roll over. But if there is anything specific you would like me to check out, I would be happy to do so.

 

[NervousXtian]

Vita was expected, but ouch on Starhawk.. and if the UK thing is true.. double ouch.

What's the NA sales?

 

[onilink88]

I wonder if new 3DS users who picked the system up for Monster Hunter are also giving FE a shot for the first time.

I don't follow. What would make you think that?

 

[Cygnus X-1]

Ah, that should pump things up a little. I don't know if Monster is a big deal though, I would assume not but it is Dragon Quest.

DS Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker Square Enix 1,458,149
DS Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 Square Enix 1,283,423
DS Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 - Professional Square Enix 532,656

Dragon Quest Monsters will definitely output some big numbers.

 

[wrowa]

I don't follow. What would make you think that?

FE3DS is already the best-selling Fire Emblem since the SNES. He's simply searching for a reason why the popularity of the brand increased on the 3DS.

 

[Mpl90]

Sure, if you think they would be of any interest. This gen is pretty boring so far. I was hoping Vita would do something other than just roll over. But if there is anything specific you would like me to check out, I would be happy to do so.

Since I said next week, basically Dragon's Dogma & Mario Tennis Open launch ( how it affects 3DS hardware sales, how the games goes ), anticipation for Pokèmon, DQ, Persona, how is going the MH userbase transition on 3DS,... things like this. Aaaaaaand if there's the Vita's version of the "Old reliable".

 

[lunchwithyuzo]

All people are focusing on how bad PSVita performed last week but...



...I think this number is interesting as well; 13k units is pretty low for the leading home console.

Should be fun to watch Wii U later this year, could easily go either way imo.

 

[DECK'ARD]

Rear touch panel is useless and just adds cost to the product though.

Bit late now though.

Vita was an odd approach. Get costs down with off-the-shelf CPU/GPU, but then throw in extra things like the rear touch-pad just for the sake of it which ups the cost again. It showed a lack of direction really, which has now manifested itself in the line-up (or lack of currently) games. It was still old Sony, focus on the hardware and hope the content comes later. And it's content which sells hardware.

Preserving the PSP's form-factor was a mistake as well in my opinion. In the West the PSP's image had long-diminished from the goodwill it had at its original launch, and in Japan where the PSP is still strong it's just cannibalising Vita sales with its much larger library.

Vita's price is one thing, but it has no identity which means no place in the market. They really need to address this hard at E3.

 

[Vinnk]

Aaaaaaand if there's the Vita's version of the "Old reliable".

With recent numbers, I fear all Vitas are "Old reliables".....

 

[Cygnus X-1]

I don't think we can take a snapshot of one week and assess a situation based on that.

Even LTD Handheld hardware numbers are stable compared to last year. These additional numbers are consistent with that.

 

[John Harker]

FE3DS is already the best-selling Fire Emblem since the SNES. He's simply searching for a reason why the popularity of the brand increased on the 3DS.

Yah. I'm skeptical the artstyle alone would do it, just looking for other possible reasons, and I don't think "the 3DS is on fire" is an answer. I think "some core gamers who only owned a PSP to play Monster Hunter bought a 3DS. They were used to playing years of SRPGs on PSP, so are curious about FE and gave it a shot." Or something like that.

 

[UncleSporky]

It ain't a ban bet or anything, but never forget:

PSVita will sell from 8 to 10 millions more worldwide from today to next year.

It's going to be a long year.

 

[grimshawish]

Hmmm, I hope the future western support is enough to satisfy my Vita seeing as Japan will probably have zero confidence in the device shortly.

The what?

E3 is pretty critical, as that will be the games for the end of the year. If they botch its first Christmas in the West then with the cost and time of development for Vita titles, combined with the shift of resources to next-gen, then Vita will be in a very difficult position to come back from indeed.

The thing is, E3 'might' promise more Vita...BUT if you were Sony, would you wait for E3 if you seriously had a load of things lining up? :/

I wonder if new 3DS users who picked the system up for Monster Hunter are also giving FE a shot for the first time.

Best to just say 'PSP Users' as it means less confusion
I think it is partly that and just people trying the series - the visuals appear to be a big selling point; maybe the series has just come of age? The fantastic packaging can't have too bad an effect either!

 

[Anustart]

Sony should jump on the kickstarter bandwagon and raise some funds to keep the vita going.

 

[onilink88]

FE3DS is already the best-selling Fire Emblem since the SNES. He's simply searching for a reason why the popularity of the brand increased on the 3DS.

I would think that its renaissance would be relegated to factors such as:

- new game mechanics
- the resurgence of old ones
- art direction that's more attractive to today's audience
- other things that I'm not thinking of at the moment

But I don't see why the MH fanbase would suddenly be interested in playing FE.

 

[test_account]

Also I believe that people are probably still a bit sour over the PSP fiasco.

What PSP fiasco? If you mean the PSN hack, then i doubt that this have anything to do with it. It didnt seem to affect the PS3 sales.

How.... how did Sony let it get that bad....

Planned for something, then it didnt go after plan. After that, it takes times to change it. Just look at the 3DS, same thing there. Nintendo planned something, then it didnt go after the plan like they hoped. Took them many months to drop the price. Stuff like that requires replaning, and that can take time.

 

[KillerMan91]

People are spinning the 3DS number as bad?
It has sold better than anything in post GW for 2011, 2010 and 2009. Something called Wii wasn't doing too shabby in Japan in 2008 you know...

Because DS sold 90k during the same week in 2006 and it had pretty huge supply problems . 3DS is failing against it predesessor. Probably soon against GBA too. (although in the end it should easily surpass GBA's lifetime numbers because GBA was killed so early)

 

[test_account]

Just noticed the low software numbers, under 5k at number 10. New low record?

And is Mario Party 9 still a lock for 1 million copies? Maybe a bit too early to tell.

 

[Aostia]

I didn't remember such big drops in the post-GW week, but looking at the past, it seems quite normal.

 

[Sammy Samusu]

Just to put things in the right perspective, the past "post GW weeks", with the comparison with the GW itself

2007

1. NDS - 163,824 | 285,192 | 3,052,216 | 17,057,895

What kinda monster?

 

[gogogow]

Planned for something, then it didnt go after plan. After that, it takes times to change it. Just look at the 3DS, same thing there. Nintendo planned something, then it didnt go after the plan like they hoped. Took them many months to drop the price. Stuff like that requires replaning, and that can take time.

Sony's Vita plan didn't include MH, that's the problem. Looking at Vita's release schedule, there really isn't much besides the "Western friendly" launch titles. Nintendo always had SM3DL, MK7, Pokemon, SSB etc. to fall back on. Hopefully Soul Sacrifice will be a success for the Vita. Sony needs to market the shit out of it.

 

[muu]

I would think that its renaissance would be relegated to factors such as:

- new game mechanics
- the resurgence of old ones
- art direction that's more attractive to today's audience
- other things that I'm not thinking of at the moment

But I don't see why the MH fanbase would suddenly be interested in playing FE.

Depends who you see the MH fanbase as. There's certainly a lot of them that only play MH, sort of like the dudebro fans that play CoD and nothing else. But there's still tons of people that were playing a lot of the (S)RPGs on the PSP as well, that were also MH players. You know, the folks that avoided Nintendo games before for one reason or another. FE's always been heavy on the 'anime-ish' side of things for a Nintendo game (even if it's often been years off the 'popular art style' curve) so the targeted marketing efforts likely had a impact on initial sales. After that, the accessible and polished finish of the game itself led to the legs it's been having.

 

[frankie_baby]

Sony's Vita plan didn't include MH, that's the problem. Looking at Vita's release schedule, there really isn't much besides the "Western friendly" launch titles. Nintendo always had SM3DL, MK7, Pokemon, SSB etc. to fall back on. Hopefully Soul Sacrifice will be a success for the Vita. Sony needs to market the shit out of it.

sonys plan obviously did include monster hunter, they just forgot to ask capcpom

 

[DECK'ARD]

The thing is, E3 'might' promise more Vita...BUT if you were Sony, would you wait for E3 if you seriously had a load of things lining up? :/

Yeah, it's not saying there will be a huge amount of stuff at E3. Personally I think there's been a hell a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes with Sony trying to get content on it from 3rd parties but the will (and money) isn't there to make it happen. How many publishers are adopting a way and see approach will be key.

The other thing working against Vita is there isn't the will for more expensive platforms to develop on, this gen has been costly enough and next-gen will only be more so. For a handheld market feeling more pressure than ever from other forms of entertainment Vita was always going to be a very hard sell to developers and publishers.

When faced with such a small userbase currently, and the immediate future, it's hard for anyone to justify that reallocation of resources to a Vita title. Vita by the way Sony positioned it was always going to be an afterthought, but the catch 22 situation now is whether that afterthought is even worth it.

 

[test_account]

Sony's Vita plan didn't include MH, that's the problem. Looking at Vita's release schedule, there really isn't much besides the "Western friendly" launch titles. Nintendo always had SM3DL, MK7, Pokemon, SSB etc. to fall back on. Hopefully Soul Sacrifice will be a success for the Vita. Sony needs to market the shit out of it.

Yes, it was a gamble. I just wanted to mention that if the initial plan doesnt go like one hoped, then it can take time to fix it.

 

[EloquentM]

Post golden week numbers, hm?

 

[gogogow]

sonys plan obviously did include monster hunter, they just forgot to ask capcpom

Well, I should say MH wasn't included in their final plan, it was in their initial plan. Capcom did show MHP3rd during Vita press conference. But obviously nothing came out of it afterwards.

 

[mclem]

FE3DS is already the best-selling Fire Emblem since the SNES. He's simply searching for a reason why the popularity of the brand increased on the 3DS.

What's the advertising been like for this entry as opposed to the DS entries? I gather Harvest Moon was advertised much more than usual, and that's had similar huge gains.

 

[Mpl90]

Where's the comparison graph for Vita? The one with Dreamcast too? It needs to be updated.

 

[Principate]

Because DS sold 90k during the same week in 2006 and it had pretty huge supply problems . 3DS is failing against it predesessor. Probably soon against GBA too. (although in the end it should easily surpass GBA's lifetime numbers because GBA was killed so early)

DS had both the DS and the DS lite going on at that timeand had been on the market around a year longer than the 3DS, it's not really a fair comparison. You should at least wait an extra year or a revision before making that comparison.

 

[wrowa]

Yah. I'm skeptical the artstyle alone would do it, just looking for other possible reasons, and I don't think "the 3DS is on fire" is an answer. I think "some core gamers who only owned a PSP to play Monster Hunter bought a 3DS. They were used to playing years of SRPGs on PSP, so are curious about FE and gave it a shot." Or something like that.

I would think that its renaissance would be relegated to factors such as:

- new game mechanics
- the resurgence of old ones
- art direction that's more attractive to today's audience
- other things that I'm not thinking of at the moment

But I don't see why the MH fanbase would suddenly be interested in playing FE.

I think that the explanation is actually quite a bit simpler: Over the last decade the FE series has been established as a handheld franchise, but FE:3DS is the first "big budget" (relatively speaking) FE released on a handheld. The FE games with better production values have been exclusive to the Gamecube and Wii so far while the GBA and DS games have been pretty barebones technically. With FE:3DS they finally released a FE game on the more popular type of plattform that also has high production values. This being rewarded with great sales.

 

[DECK'ARD]

Well, I should say MH wasn't included in their final plan, it was in their initial plan. Capcom did show MHP3rd during Vita press conference. But obviously nothing came out of it afterwards.

Nintendo have been pretty ruthless in that regard as well.

They realised the best response to the increased pressure on handhelds was to cannibalise both the DS+PSP markets. To reduce the risk of failure by having it all to themselves.

Sony for their part shouldn't have lost MH at any cost, but even ignoring whatever moneyhats and deals were done the Vita's hardware again worked against it. MH on 3DS was the easier most cost-effective route to go down for Capcom.

 

[Mpl90]

Some good news for Vita

PlayStation Vita may have its biggest software release yet with Persona 4 The Golden. We've been hearing reports from a few retailers of strong pre-orders for the game. Now one major retailer is making an even bolder claim.

Taketo Matsuo, merchandizer at Tsutaya, which runs 500 game shops throughout Japan, says in his periodic column for Mantan Web that customer pre-orders for The Golden have already more than doubled pre-orders for the PS2 version of Persona 3.

Matsuo expects strong Vita showing in June's top 10. Here's his predictions for June's top sellers:

1. Pokemon Black 2 (DS)
2. Pokemon White 2 (DS)
3. Dragon Quest Monsters Terry's Wonderland 3D (3DS)
4. Persona 4 The Golden (Vita)
5. Dragon's Dogma (PS3)
6. Tokyo Jungle (PS3)
7. Gundam Seed Battle Destiny (Vita)
8. Kenka Bancho Bros. Tokyo Battle Royal (PSP)
9. Metal Gear Solid HD Edition (Vita)
10. Culdcept (3DS)
In addition to these major releases, Vita will see its Crystal White color variation on June 28.

Sony Computer Entertainment Japan CEO Hiroshi Kawano has also recently been hyping up Vita's June lineup. In an interview with Famitsu this week, Kawano said that Vita's true fight begins now, with a "mountain" coming in June. Vita's June lineup is seeing strong reaction and pre-orders, said Kawano, and Sony is putting efforts into its promotions and bonus items (major releases include a system skin).

 

[onilink88]

But there's still tons of people that were playing a lot of the (S)RPGs on the PSP as well, that were also MH players.

I didn't know that. Not that I'm not going to take your word for it, but out of curiosity, is there empirical evidence that demonstrates this, or is it an educated deduction (which I'm fine with as well).

Since we've already seen this level of sales in past entries of the series, I figured that FE: A was hitting all the notes necessary to reattain those numbers (in conjunction with old and new fans).

 

[KillGore]

Rear touch panel is useless and just adds cost to the product though.

I agree with you but I also think two screens is basically useless on 99% of the games. Just as Nintendo took a gamble with two screens, Sony did on the rear touch panel, unfortunately for them, people do not care for a rear touch panel.

 

[impact]

3DS is a juggernaut. I really don't see anything beating this machine. Not Vita, Wii U, PS3, etc. Now imagine if they got some good RPG titles. I imagine FF Type 0 IN 3D would be the final nail in the coffin for Vita.

 

[DECK'ARD]

I agree with you but I also think two screens is basically useless on 99% of the games. Just as Nintendo took a gamble with two screens, Sony did on the rear touch panel, unfortunately for them, people do not care for a rear touch panel.

The other side-effect of the 2 screens though was to make it a very appealing form-factor for a portable device.

It even made a big impact back in the Game & Watch days

 

[AceBandage]

I agree with you but I also think two screens is basically useless on 99% of the games. Just as Nintendo took a gamble with two screens, Sony did on the rear touch panel, unfortunately for them, people do not care for a rear touch panel.

Difference is Nintendo had software to back their choice (Brain games, Nintendogs, Kirby, ect).
Sony... I have no clue what they have at all.

 

[Baconsammy]

After pathetic NPD charts now this - Gaming is officially dead.

1 million+ copies of Minecraft on XBLA say otherwise. As do 200,000+ copies of Trials Evolution. Gamers aren't done gaming. They're just gaming elsewhere.

 

[Man God]

Even in the laziest of situations the bottom screen of the 3DS is used for actual useful things like HUDs, maps, or quick access to menus where most lazy developers will just ignore the back touchscreen on the Vita.

 

[gogogow]

Difference is Nintendo had software to back their choice (Brain games, Nintendogs, Kirby, ect).
Sony... I have no clue what they have at all.

Little Deviants, duh!

But it's probably gonna be used to replace the non-clickable L/R sticks and missing R2/L2 buttons. Sony dropped the ball by not having a true DS3 interface. The Vita is fat enough to have those buttons.

 

[KillGore]

The other side-effect of the 2 screens though was to make it a very appealing form-factor for a portable device.

It even made a big impact back in the Game & Watch days

Yup, but all I'm saying is that both are gimmicks (with the touch pad being the most gimmicky). If only Sony could find the correct software to use it, but they probably wont.

Difference is Nintendo had software to back their choice (Brain games, Nintendogs, Kirby, ect).
Sony... I have no clue what they have at all.

So you're comparing a console that's been out in the market for almost 8 years to one that's been out half a year? Doesn't seem that fair to me. If they find the right developers, it can be used in a very fun way. Will they find those devs? probably not, but I'm sure Nintendo would find ways to use it. Like I said, it was a gamble.

Little Deviants, duh!

But it's probably gonna be used to replace the non-clickable L/R sticks and missing R2/L2 buttons. Sony dropped the ball by not having a true DS3 interface. The Vita is fat enough to have those buttons.

Four shoulder buttons would be awkward, and the vita is not fat enough to have them, since it's even thinner than the PSP 1000. I wish it had four shoulder buttons but I'm not sure if it would be that durable, considering it'll be sticking out of the back part of the console.

 

[jman2050]

Some good news for Vita

The Vita's fight begins when Pokemon rampages and destroys everything in sight... yeah.

 

[muu]

I didn't know that. Not that I'm not going to take your word for it, but out of curiosity, is there empirical evidence that demonstrates this, or is it an educated deduction (which I'm fine with as well).

Since we've already seen this level of sales in past entries of the series, I figured that FE: A was hitting all the notes necessary to reattain those numbers (in conjunction with old and new fans).

Pretty much an educated guess, but you see it all the time. A killer app draws in the audience, and part of that audience buys other games and follower titles. We've seen it with the 360 (Halo/Gears/CoD fans buying other stuff as well), we've seen it with the PS3 (fans waiting for FF13 buying other games), we've seen it with 3DS (they came in for Mario but buy other stuff). What would make you think that Monster Hunter is any different?

 

[AceBandage]

So you're comparing a console that's been out in the market for almost 8 years to one that's been out half a year? Doesn't seem that fair to me. If they find the right developers, it can be used in a very fun way. Will they find those devs? probably not, but I'm sure Nintendo would find ways to use it. Like I said, it was a gamble.

Nintendo had those games in the works before the DS even came out...

 

[Man God]

The Vita's fight begins when Pokemon rampages and destroys everything in sight... yeah.

Yep, a one or two week bump versus whatever the hell Pokémon does from its launch until Mario comes out.

 

[Hammer24]

We need your report's return starting next week. Please

Co-signed.
Request: Whats the Vita second hand market like, availability and pricing.

Thanks, Vinnk!