AA6 first week sales: ~196,000 (down from AA5, up from DGS)

Thu Jun 16, 2016 1:41 am

Bolt Storm

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First week sales for AA6 have been listed by Media Create and Famitsu, and they're... decent.

Media Create wrote:

01./00. [3DS] Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Spirit of Justice # <ADV> (Capcom) {2016.06.09} (¥5.800) - 196.831 / NEW
02./02. [PSV] Dragon Quest Heroes II: The Twin Kings and Prophecy's End <RPG> (Square Enix) {2016.05.27} (¥6.800) - 20.517 / 180.164 (-47%)
03./01. [PS4] Dragon Quest Heroes II: The Twin Kings and Prophecy's End <RPG> (Square Enix) {2016.05.27} (¥7.800) - 16.712 / 245.173 (-62%)
04./04. [PS4] Overwatch <ACT> (Square Enix) {2016.05.24} (¥7.800) - 12.392 / 88.653 (-31%)
05./05. [3DS] Kirby: Planet Robobot <ACT> (Nintendo) {2016.04.28} (¥4.700) - 11.615 / 312.094 (-22%)
06./03. [PS3] Dragon Quest Heroes II: The Twin Kings and Prophecy's End <RPG> (Square Enix) {2016.05.27} (¥6.800) - 10.027 / 103.144 (-59%)
07./00. [PS4] Project CARS <RCE> (Bandai Namco Games) {2016.06.09} (¥7.200) - 9.470 / NEW
08./07. [PSV] Minecraft: PlayStation Vita Edition <ADV> (Sony Computer Entertainment) {2015.03.19} (¥2.400) - 5.878 / 792.864 (-10%)
09./00. [PS4] Mirror's Edge Catalyst <ACT> (Electronic Arts) {2016.06.09} (¥7.800) - 5.699 / NEW
10./10. [WIU] Splatoon # <ACT> (Nintendo) {2015.05.28} (¥5.700) - 5.214 / 1.383.099 (-3%)

While AA6 topped the charts and improved on DGS (which sold ~135,000 copies in its first week), it hasn't matched the success of AA5 or AA4 (~250,000 copies). Whether Capcom is satisfied with this level of sales, and whether the game will prove to have long legs, remains to be determined.

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Re: AA6 first week sales: ~196,000 (down from AA5, up from D

Thu Jun 16, 2016 1:47 am

AnsweringNOW

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So even with an anime (and apparently a bigger marketing push, according to some of the users in that thread), this installment has lower sales than the previous one.

Re: AA6 first week sales: ~196,000 (down from AA5, up from D

Thu Jun 16, 2016 1:48 am

Thunder84

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Bolt Storm wrote:

First week sales for AA6 have been listed by Media Create and Famitsu, and they're... decent.

Media Create wrote:

01./00. [3DS] Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Spirit of Justice # <ADV> (Capcom) {2016.06.09} (¥5.800) - 196.831 / NEW
02./02. [PSV] Dragon Quest Heroes II: The Twin Kings and Prophecy's End <RPG> (Square Enix) {2016.05.27} (¥6.800) - 20.517 / 180.164 (-47%)
03./01. [PS4] Dragon Quest Heroes II: The Twin Kings and Prophecy's End <RPG> (Square Enix) {2016.05.27} (¥7.800) - 16.712 / 245.173 (-62%)
04./04. [PS4] Overwatch <ACT> (Square Enix) {2016.05.24} (¥7.800) - 12.392 / 88.653 (-31%)
05./05. [3DS] Kirby: Planet Robobot <ACT> (Nintendo) {2016.04.28} (¥4.700) - 11.615 / 312.094 (-22%)
06./03. [PS3] Dragon Quest Heroes II: The Twin Kings and Prophecy's End <RPG> (Square Enix) {2016.05.27} (¥6.800) - 10.027 / 103.144 (-59%)
07./00. [PS4] Project CARS <RCE> (Bandai Namco Games) {2016.06.09} (¥7.200) - 9.470 / NEW
08./07. [PSV] Minecraft: PlayStation Vita Edition <ADV> (Sony Computer Entertainment) {2015.03.19} (¥2.400) - 5.878 / 792.864 (-10%)
09./00. [PS4] Mirror's Edge Catalyst <ACT> (Electronic Arts) {2016.06.09} (¥7.800) - 5.699 / NEW
10./10. [WIU] Splatoon # <ACT> (Nintendo) {2015.05.28} (¥5.700) - 5.214 / 1.383.099 (-3%)

While AA6 topped the charts and improved on DGS (which sold ~135,000 copies in its first week), it hasn't matched the success of AA5 or AA4 (~250,000 copies). Whether Capcom is satisfied with this level of sales, and whether the game will prove to have long legs, remains to be determined.

I wonder if this has to do with the poor reviews on Amazon.

Re: AA6 first week sales: ~196,000 (down from AA5, up from D

Thu Jun 16, 2016 1:56 am

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After DD, sales went down. After DGS, sales went up. Let's look at it that way, hey?

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Re: AA6 first week sales: ~196,000 (down from AA5, up from D

Thu Jun 16, 2016 2:04 am

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AnsweringNOW wrote:

So even with an anime (and apparently a bigger marketing push, according to some of the users in that thread), this installment has lower sales than the previous one.

There was a definite surge with AA5 and at least from my perspective, there was a lot more hype behind it. AA5 was the return of Phoenix and the first 3DS title, too. But you're right about the bigger marketing push, so there have to be some concerns about the lower sales of AA6.

However, 196K units shifted is not bad at all. We'll have to wait until later numbers come out, but my guess would be that's probably enough to green-light AA7 (that is, if they want to make it).

I never fully realized how poorly DGS sold, so it's no wonder why we didn't get it localized [yet].

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Re: AA6 first week sales: ~196,000 (down from AA5, up from D

Thu Jun 16, 2016 3:13 am

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I don't think the lower sales are due to the game being worse, I think DD did better because it was the first main series game in 3D, and back then Smartphones weren't as big as they are now. Now in 2016, smartphones in Japan seem to be the primary handheld gaming device, and so it's possible those that bought DD were just getting in on the latest trend, and weren't that interested to buy SoJ on week 1? This is just my guess.

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Re: AA6 first week sales: ~196,000 (down from AA5, up from D

Thu Jun 16, 2016 7:06 am

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Well, I suspect that some of the lost sales will be regained once they bother releasing the game for mobile devices.

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Re: AA6 first week sales: ~196,000 (down from AA5, up from D

Thu Jun 16, 2016 9:32 am

Aster Selene

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I feel like there's definitely a lot less reason to be hyped about the game if you're not a hardcore fan either, because the higher the title number a game in a series gets the more likely someone's gonna think "wow, this is a late-series entry, obviously I can't start with this game, forget it", and then they never become an Ace Attorney fan. (Or maybe this is just me making up stuff.) AA5 was drowned in hype just by Nick getting his badge back and the return of familiar faces. AA6 gives us Maya, but everyone's already adjusted to this sort of thing now.

Also, might have to do with AA5 itself as well. If people weren't impressed enough with the Yamazaki direction to the point of dropping the series, they wouldn't buy AA6 either. (I'm saying this as someone who personally liked the game, but I did watch a lot of people get turned off.)

There's also the fact mobile gaming is getting more and more popular in Japan and it's just turning out to be a bad time for gaming (handhelds in particular) in general. So lots of possible reasons in play here.

Incidentally, I think more than anything the nail in the coffin for DGS's sales was simply that people would probably only ever see it as a spinoff (even if Takumi was pushing it as having numbered title importance). The controversy over the game certainly didn't help, but in the end it's probably more like there were too many buyers going "it's not a main line game, so I don't really care." (And if I remember correctly, DGS was hyped up and advertised far more than AA6 was.)

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Re: AA6 first week sales: ~196,000 (down from AA5, up from D

Thu Jun 16, 2016 12:33 pm

linkenski

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I also think AA5 seemed very appealing, probably also to non-fans, with its seemingly grounded premise with its contemporary-ish setting and explosions (lol) and a very dramatic premise that a courtroom is destroyed, as opposed to how AA6 first and foremost is advertised with all the mystical and ethnic stuff that I've seen most people be skeptical about.

Still, it's not 24.000 copies on opening week like Ghost Trick, so I don't think Capcom is about to drop the franchise just because it didn't do better than AA4 or AA5 (which is still up in the air because this is just week 1)

A third factor is as is mentioned, 3DS is dropping out soon. On one hand it should have the biggest install base yet, but on the flipside a lot of people have dropped it because mobiles have grown so much both in tech and popularity and 3DS kinda feels like something that's 20 years old next to that with its 240p resolution and single-touch screen, at this point (exaggeration gets the point across)

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Re: AA6 first week sales: ~196,000 (down from AA5, up from D

Thu Jun 16, 2016 6:38 pm

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The game seems to have some problems as the reviews on Amazon indicating them.
Maya also seems to have had limited apperance and most of those times she was "away" so her fans (me included) wasn't necessarily happy.
Let's see what the DLC will deliver to the fans.

Re: AA6 first week sales: ~196,000 (down from AA5, up from D

Thu Jun 16, 2016 8:34 pm

Apollo4Justice

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Wait, so if Capcom isn't satisfied with the lower sales of Spirit of Justice, does that mean that they could potentially end localization of the game and future games? :beef:

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Re: AA6 first week sales: ~196,000 (down from AA5, up from D

Thu Jun 16, 2016 8:42 pm

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Apollo4Justice wrote:

Wait, so if Capcom isn't satisfied with the lower sales of Spirit of Justice, does that mean that they could potentially end localization of the game and future games? :beef:

It's possible, but we'd have to be seeing truly awful sales for that to happen. 196k is nowhere near that level - in fact, once you take "it's lower than AA5" out of the equation it's still an incredibly impressive figure, so there's no need to worry.

Right now the most important part is simply that Capcom makes sure it doesn't keep falling (or more specifically start falling at a significant rate). Since there are so many factors in play here, though, from the marketer's perspective they don't seem to have done anything seriously wrong that merits immediate addressing.

Re: AA6 first week sales: ~196,000 (down from AA5, up from D

Thu Jun 16, 2016 8:46 pm

Apollo4Justice

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Aster Selene wrote:

Apollo4Justice wrote:

Wait, so if Capcom isn't satisfied with the lower sales of Spirit of Justice, does that mean that they could potentially end localization of the game and future games? :beef:

It's possible, but we'd have to be seeing truly awful sales for that to happen. 196k is nowhere near that level - in fact, once you take "it's lower than AA5" out of the equation it's still an incredibly impressive figure, so there's no need to worry.

Right now the most important part is simply that Capcom makes sure it doesn't keep falling (or more specifically start falling at a significant rate). Since there are so many factors in play here, though, from the marketer's perspective they don't seem to have done anything seriously wrong that merits immediate addressing.

Alright, that sounds good. How low of sales would we be talking about for localization to be absolutely confirmed as dead?

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Re: AA6 first week sales: ~196,000 (down from AA5, up from D

Thu Jun 16, 2016 9:05 pm

Aster Selene

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Apollo4Justice wrote:

Aster Selene wrote:

Apollo4Justice wrote:

Wait, so if Capcom isn't satisfied with the lower sales of Spirit of Justice, does that mean that they could potentially end localization of the game and future games? :beef:

It's possible, but we'd have to be seeing truly awful sales for that to happen. 196k is nowhere near that level - in fact, once you take "it's lower than AA5" out of the equation it's still an incredibly impressive figure, so there's no need to worry.

Right now the most important part is simply that Capcom makes sure it doesn't keep falling (or more specifically start falling at a significant rate). Since there are so many factors in play here, though, from the marketer's perspective they don't seem to have done anything seriously wrong that merits immediate addressing.

Alright, that sounds good. How low of sales would we be talking about for localization to be absolutely confirmed as dead?

For the persistence of the franchise, it's hard to say because it's all dependent on factors - how much budget they expend on these games, how much profit they expect to get, etc. Obviously if they sell something like 50k that would be a very bad sign, but I can't see any main line AA game messing up badly enough to merit sales like that in the near future when the franchise name value already supplies it pretty significantly.

Incidentally, I'm curious what their mobile sales are like. Considering that Capcom's already been spending dedicated amounts of time porting the games to mobile, if the gaming climate in Japan causes handhelds to die so badly that it cuts severely into Ace Attorney sales, it might be feasible for them to start pushing their mobile versions more heavily. Of course, this depends on how much they're interested in keeping the franchise going and believing it's worth the effort of maintaining, but at least in theory the series has a lot of different ways to survive.

For localization, it's hard to cancel a localization that's already in deep development (since they must have already spent much of their budget already), so chances are if a localization hadn't been planned from the get-go (since Capcom US at least seems to be very quick on the uptake for main line games), the series sales would have already been suffering for a while. It depends on whether they think the Western sales won't make up for the cost of localization; I've seen games that completely tanked in Japan still get localized because the cost of localization (rather than development) would still be lower than the extra sales the localization would get them. Unfortunately, Ace Attorney, being a very text-heavy game, probably requires quite a lot of budget, and if the whole handheld thing stops working out then the fact the West hasn't taken as well to mobile gaming for long games puts it in a little more danger.

Re: AA6 first week sales: ~196,000 (down from AA5, up from D

Thu Jun 16, 2016 9:32 pm

Apollo4Justice

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Aster Selene wrote:

Apollo4Justice wrote:

Wait, so if Capcom isn't satisfied with the lower sales of Spirit of Justice, does that mean that they could potentially end localization of the game and future games? :beef:

It's possible, but we'd have to be seeing truly awful sales for that to happen. 196k is nowhere near that level - in fact, once you take "it's lower than AA5" out of the equation it's still an incredibly impressive figure, so there's no need to worry.

Right now the most important part is simply that Capcom makes sure it doesn't keep falling (or more specifically start falling at a significant rate). Since there are so many factors in play here, though, from the marketer's perspective they don't seem to have done anything seriously wrong that merits immediate addressing.

For the persistence of the franchise, it's hard to say because it's all dependent on factors - how much budget they expend on these games, how much profit they expect to get, etc. Obviously if they sell something like 50k that would be a very bad sign, but I can't see any main line AA game messing up badly enough to merit sales like that in the near future when the franchise name value already supplies it pretty significantly.

Incidentally, I'm curious what their mobile sales are like. Considering that Capcom's already been spending dedicated amounts of time porting the games to mobile, if the gaming climate in Japan causes handhelds to die so badly that it cuts severely into Ace Attorney sales, it might be feasible for them to start pushing their mobile versions more heavily. Of course, this depends on how much they're interested in keeping the franchise going and believing it's worth the effort of maintaining, but at least in theory the series has a lot of different ways to survive.

For localization, it's hard to cancel a localization that's already in development, so chances are if a localization hadn't been planned from the get-go (since Capcom US at least seems to be very quick on the uptake for main line games), the series sales would have already been suffering for a while. It depends on whether they think the Western sales won't make up for the cost of localization; I've seen games that completely tanked in Japan still get localized because the cost of localization (rather than development) would still be lower than the extra sales the localization would get them. Unfortunately, Ace Attorney, being a very text-heavy game, probably requires quite a lot of budget, and if the whole handheld thing stops working out then the fact the West hasn't taken as well to mobile gaming for long games puts it in a little more danger.

Considering how hyped everyone in the West seems, taking time out of their day to watch a Japanese stream and translate trailers, I don't think the sales will suffer that much, if at all....right? :payne:

But then again, who am I to speak for all Ace Attorney fans? :kristoph:

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Re: AA6 first week sales: ~196,000 (down from AA5, up from D

Sat Jun 18, 2016 2:49 am

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Huh... I didn't know mobile gaming was more popular in Japan... why the heck though. I mean, with a game like Ace Attorney, it's not too bad, but I can't imagine playing a game like Xenoblade on my phone.

Re: AA6 first week sales: ~196,000 (down from AA5, up from D

Sun Jun 19, 2016 11:56 am

linkenski

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scarlet-flowers wrote:

Huh... I didn't know mobile gaming was more popular in Japan... why the heck though. I mean, with a game like Ace Attorney, it's not too bad, but I can't imagine playing a game like Xenoblade on my phone.

Who knows, honestly, but one rationale for it is the fact that handhelds have always been more popular in Japan than home consoles, so the shift to smartphones and the more conventient accessibility plus the fact that visual novels are semi-popular I guess it's a very viable platform for a lot of gamers in Japan.

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Re: AA6 first week sales: ~196,000 (down from AA5, up from D

Sun Jun 19, 2016 12:39 pm

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It's mainly that it's a busy society and smartphone games are very pick up and play, perfect for when you're on the train or on a short break between classes and such. Heck, I didn't bother buying any 8th gen consoles and just stuck to my 3DS and iPhone.

With that said, I do agree we'll probably be seeing more AA6 sales if they release for mobile phones, it's just a lot more accessible imo.