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GameCube Outsells PlayStation 2 In Japan
Thanks to Gamesindustry.biz for their article discussing the latest Japanese console hardware sales, in which it's revealed that the GameCube marginally outsold the PlayStation 2 this week, by 35,600 units to 35,300 units, largely "thanks to the release of Namco's RPG Tales of Symphonia", whose success we mentioned a couple of days back. Unfortunately, the third major console fared less well: "The picture was a little less bright for the Xbox, which slipped behind the PSone in the rankings again - selling 650 units to the PSone's 960. In market share terms, it was only one tenth of a percentage point ahead of Bandai's SwanCrystal. Ouch."
HA-HA!
Normally I would applaud any failure on Microsoft's part, but in this case I see it more as a Japanese backlash to and American company attempting to gain a foothold in the historically closed Japanese market. Anyone versed in the auto industries similar attempts over the years will understand where I'm coming from.
"Buy American" is just a slogan here in the States, whereas the Japanese consumer is much more likely to support the home team, especially in something like consumer electronics. Is this a good/bad thing? Doesn't make a difference, and it's their choiice what they buy and don't buy. I'm just saying this to say that maybe we should pay more attention to sales data here in this country as an idea of how popular the Xbox is.
El riesgo vive siempre!
It's a tough question. Of course, maybe someone at Microsoft will see this post and say, "Uh oh, this Acidic_Diarrhea guy on Slashdot thinks we're in trouble in Japan! I better call Bill."
Or maybe not...
I hate liberals. If you are a liberal, do not reply.
Another great RPG was released very recently, which quite boosted Nintendo's both living-room and handheld consoles sales : Final Fantasy : Crystal Chronicles
In fact, in the charts I read, the GBA SP was first, followed by the Cube, and then by the PS2, and I just thought FF:CC might be more than a bit responsible for this...
Who needs a
A similar bundle has been available in the US for a couple months now, but they held off on introducing this in Japan, presumably because they didn't have as much inventory to liquidate.
GameCube production has been stopped a while as warehouses were already full of the units. Rumor on the game boards is that if the volume keeps up at these levels, production will start up again before Christmas, and we'll see a few new GameCube colors AND TEXTURES! I don't know if it's speculation or more, but the models are rumored to include a black case with glow-in-the-dark green details and a limited edition brushed aluminum model, either tied to some contest or sold at a premium price.
According to this list:
Nintendojo
The combined sales of the two wonderswans is 700, where the Xbox is 650. The crystal and color wonderswan is the same except the crystal has better battery life and a nicer screen.
What's more surprising than the small number of XBox's being sold is the relatively large number of PSOnes being sold. 960...in one WEEK. Christsakes...you can get these things off eBay for $5!
If we were talking about overall sales, that would have been remarkable. But let's face it: Most of the people who want a PS2 already have one. I bet a large number of PS2s sold now actually replace worn-out (played-out?) units.
In contrast, since the Gamecube is much less popular overall, there are many more potential new owners. RPG fans, for example, who must have every major new title, or fans of the "Tales of" series. They might have never seen the "need" to own a cube before.
It's completely possible that the nokia n-gage will outsell the GBA - for the first week or two. It still won't mean the GBA is dethroned.
I'll probably pick up the new 'tales of' title once it arrives here. I loved the way the last title I played in the series (Tales of Eternia) let you save almost AT ANY POINT (unless you're in the middle of a fight or a puzzle). It worked great because when you restored the game, you'd continue at the last save point, but you never had to keep playing until the next save point even when you needed to stop playing, under penalty of losing all of your progress (levels+items+puzzles etc).
Slightly off-topic stupidity:
Tales of Destiny was published in the U.S.
Then Tales of Eternia was published in the U.S. as "Tales of Destiny 2" to capitalize on name recognition.
Now a sequel to Tales of Destiny, called "Tales of Destiny 2" is available in Japan. Is this title going to make it stateside? What will it be called?
Canada??!@?!@!!!
HA-HA
this sig has been discontinued.
I really see your point on the "new" need of consoles. I bought my first PS for FF7, now I'm planning to buy a GC and GBA:SP for the square enix goodness to be released. If not for those new games, I'd have no need to spend that $300 on nintendo equipment.
It's all about the console's killer app.
Unfortunately this means little to nothing outside japan, this is good news for GC owners though because it means they will probably be more japanese support for the console. but chances for this to revive the gamecube worldwide are minimal.
Is impressive though..
Go ahead MOD my day!
More opinions here
I don't think the numbers suggest that Sony is being dethroned, in Japan or anywhere else.
What I think it does suggest is that the American gamers who seem bent on proclaiming the death of the GameCube seem to think that America is the only place where games are played.
Sure, the N-Gage might outsell the GBA in their first week of release, but this isn't the GameCube's first week of release. It's rising sales are being pushed by a game with high fan interest, just like they thought was going to happen back when Wind Waker was released. Contrary to the belief of the anti-Nintendo crowd, that's a perfectly valid way of demonstrating continuing fan support for a console. Especially a year or two into its release, when hardware specs and whether it looks "modern" or not doesn't matter anymore.
In fact, though it may not be the reality of the industry, I'd venture to say that a console that sells for the sake of a game that a gamer *really* wants to play has more value than a console that is bought for the sake of owning the console. That's just my opinion, though.
So why is it in every single one of these articles, they have to attribute high sales to some new-fangled game that was released, or poor sales due to no new (or interesting) games being released....
I mean, from a strictly mathematical / statistical point of view - and taken to the extreme - this would indicate that most consoles are purchased with only one game ever being bought (which we know not to be the case).
Now granted, this is just a rant but I get tired of reading that one console sold better *simply* because of a certain title being released for it. In fact, couldn't we extend this to PC sales as well, or at least video card sales? They are planning on bundling half-life 2 with the fancy pants new Radeon 9800 to be released....
Which of course further skews the numbers...
Admittedly, I purchased a gamecube looking at what titles were available at the time, what had been announced (Zelda, Metroid, etc.), and planned (Mario Kart?). So yes, in that way software did drive this purchasing decision --- but I also planned on, and in fact have purchased numerous titles.
Wouldn't it be nice to link in software sales as well?
Nobody would ever purchase a console with the intent of playing only one game, with the possible exception of old bargain bin consoles like the N64 or the Dreamcast. Following the logic to that end is pretty ridiculous. But for those who were kind of interested in a console's lineup of games, but not yet willing to buy it, the killer app is the catalyst. I'd think that if a game came out that a gamer had to have and was willing to buy the hardware for it, s/he would rationalize it by saying to themself, "well, I can also get game X and game Y for it, too, eventually." That's precisely what happened when I bought my GameCube, and my PS2, as well. That's most likely what nearly every non-hardcore gamer does.
Likewise with Sega - their SegaCD and 32X hurt sales of the Saturn and subsequent sales of the Dreamcast.
The SegaCD sold over 500,000 copies in the US alone, making it the most successful console add-on in history. In fact, it convinced SEGA that the future of consoles was 'upgrading,' the same as PCs. We know how well that turned out...
Also, the Saturn was an unqualified success in Japan, although dwarfed by the Playstation, which simply exploded the size of the video game market.
The Dreamcast did well in the US and Europe too...and once they dropped the price to $50 in Japan, it sold out. They actually started remanufacturing Dreamcasts in Japan due to demand.
It's tied because when there is a large jump between this week's numbers and the numbers for the last several months, we are forced to ask "what changed?" One option is that pure randomness took hold. While possible, that is less than likely due to the very large number of people buying consoles tens or hundreds of thousands weekly. Next on the causality list might be that something made gamecube more desirable this week than it was last week. It is in the same colors and at the same price as last week so we can probably rule out the hardware (someone did mention the gameboy linker being included though). That just leaves software. If there is a highly anticipated game coming out, and there is a chance people who were considering buying the console would become convinced by that game, it makes sense to credit that game(s) with the higher sales of hardware.
"Nobody would ever purchase a console with the intent of playing only one game"
No, but there are plenty of people who buy a console because of one game. In fact, almost every person who owns a console buys it because of one, solitary game.
Different consoles have different games. For me for the Xbox, it was Jet Set Radio Future. Unless you're a collector or a casual user, you will buy a console because one game will make your decision.
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