Latest console sales figures from Japan...no surprises (1 Viewer)

[James D S]

And the phantom instigator strikes again...

 

[Graeme Clark]

I'm going to send the SPCA after you guys!

But it's already dead!!

 

[Dan B]

But it's already dead!!

No it's not. It's just sleeping.

 

[Romier S]

Ryan,
I had to add that Horse beating smiley to my collection. That was hilarious!

 

[Masood Ali]

Sony owns the sales numbers. However, at E3...

Metroid. Mario. Zelda. Blinx. Splinter Cell. Brute Force. Panzer Dragoon Orta. Sega GT 2002. Star Fox. Ninja Gaiden. Resident Evil 0. FFXI.

Those were the games that I got really excited about. Only the last one is a PS2 title.

Of course, this is my personal opinion, and for some people the best game of E3 could have been Kingdom Hearts. To each his own.

 

[JoshF]

Definitely to each his own. Blinx, while it sounds cool, doesn't seem to do much for me in terms of looks. Panzer Dragoon never interested me. Ninja Gaiden never interested me, either, and I find it interesting that suddenly so many people are interested in this one - it's been an underground sleeper in the past.

Ratchet and Klank, FFXI, Mario, Zelda, and Kingdom Hearts all are what have me excited.

 

[James_A]

Kingdom Hearts, Blinx, Zelda, Mario, DoA V-ball, Shinobi, Metroid, it's all good...
Oh, and that Panzer thing that's about tanks, right?
Jim

 

[Anthony Thorne]

Newspaper articles down here in Australia last week reported that the X-Box was being outsold by the PS1. Not the PS2, the PS1, and this is after X-Box's near 50% price cut in Australia. A Microsoft spokesman remained upbeat.

GameCube sales were (from memory) a sizable amount more than the X-Box, but still generally under PS2 sales. Given the huge library of PS2 titles now available (for sale, rental or for high-school kids to borrow from their mates) I'm not really surprised. I suspect things will even out a bit as more games become available for the newer systems.

I don't have any of the three consoles yet but plan to get a GameCube. My interest is piqued by the new batch of games previewed at E3. I intend to start my libary with these 2nd(?) generation GameCube games and ignore (or just rent) the earlier titles. JAMES BOND: NIGHT FIRE, STAR FOX ADVENTURES, SUPER MARIO SUNSHINE, METROID, SMBALL 2 and ZELDA all look great to my eyes.

It's not the intention of my above post to knock the X-Box, btw. Various online reviews of the SPIDERMAN game indicate that the X-Box version is the only one of the three that features all the levels and graphical enhancements. That alone indicates to me that X-Box carries various aces up its sleeve that make it a worthy system for anyone interested. Those low sales figures have been heavily promoted in the Oz press down here though. I'll be interested to see how the console (along with the GameCube) fares over the coming year or so.

 

[JoshF]

Anthony: Interesting. The Xbox isn't doing so well sales-wise, which is kind of sad, and at the same kind of expected. We'll see what happens.

Regarding Spiderman, I believe (and someone correct me if I'm wrong) that Microsoft has some sort of policy that requires (or reqests) that the Xbox version of a multi-platform game has more levels/features than the other versions. On one hand this is cool for Xbox owners, but on the other it's pretty shady business, and is probably keeping even more developers from putting out games on the platform.

 

[Dave Falasco]

Well I doubt that is an official policy, but certainly each of the three companies would hope that their version has more levels, characters, costumes, etc. It's not a hard and fast rule, though--look at Wreckless.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

Developers have been adding features to X-Box version of multiplatform games because the X-Box is powerful enough to handle the extras or MS bought the features.

 

[BrianB]

[snip]

 

[Iain Lambert]

As a general rule, in my experience its not particularly the Microsoft version that gets extra things, but whichever one is released last. An extra level or two doesn't really require any extra power from the hardware (though they can obviously tailor that level to the exact performance of the game on that machine), but is about attempting to make it worthwhile for the multiplatform people to buy the game twice, or even more - how many varieties of Street Fighter II were made?

 

[Trevor Harveaux]

Iain,
Not nessisarily true. Look at Spiderman. It was released for all three consoles at the same time. But the XBOX version got added levels and features. Microsoft DOES ask that the XBOX version has extra features for games that show up on multiple consoles. In fact, I think it may be in the contract, I could check, and that really isnt my dept.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

One of the smarter moves with console specific features is a game where the multiplayer maps are different for each console. I think XIII is doing this.

 

[Iain Lambert]

Well, you say smart, but in my opinion its FAR better if you can actually manage to make the multiplayer maps the same and then play against people with different hardware. The short time for which the patch levels matched up and Dreamcast owners could play against PC owners on Quake 3 Arena was a revelation, and also means that you're far more likely to be able to find a local, populated server.
Of course, many DC Q3A owners died that day, but thats experience for you

 

[Michael St. Clair]

Of course, many DC Q3A owners died that day, but thats experience for you

I'd say it is also hardware for you. A 640x480i/p DC at 30 fps or so matched against a 1600x1200 pc at 90fps is going to yield some issues between good, equal players...

 

[Joel Mack]

More likely keyboard/mouse players kicking the crap out of controller players...

 

[Iain Lambert]

Aaah, but unlike certain ports of PC FPS games, the DC Q3A can be played with keyboard and mouse as well!

 

[paul h]

Xengamers.com have just posted last weeks hardware sales in Japan...i know it's cheap but i'm surprised to see the PSOne outselling the Gamecube and XBox!

Like it or not IMHO as long as Sony keep giving the gaming masses what they want as in another Final Fantasy, Tekken, GranTurismo or whatever they will continue to be no.1 as far as sales are concerned. Brand recognition is a huge factor, the Playstation name is as well know as Nike or Coke...it's seen as trendy/cool or however you put it and that aint gonna change anytime soon. The most powerful machine does not mean a top seller, the N64 proved that and as good as the XBox is it won't come close to the PS2 in overall sales. In 5 years time, unless something drastic happens, i see the PS3 continuing Sony's domination.


Sony PlayStation 2: 60,000
GameBoy Advance: 36,200
Sony PSone: 7900
Microsoft Xbox: 5700
Nintendo GameCube: 5400
GameBoy Color: 2200
WonderSwan Color: 1700
WonderSwan: 280
Dreamcast: 260
Nintendo 64: 100
GameBoy: 40
PocketStation: 20