News: Poor 3DS Sales Delay Natsume Page 1

Duggler657 26.08.2011#1

Wow. And it's not like Natsume is a massive publishing house, like Ubisoft, that can afford to delay what are key entries in their franchises like this. I am now officially worried that the 3DS is going to become Nintendo's first real handheld failure.

On a brighter note, Anybody know anything about that old Harvest Moon artwork that's used in this story? It's either from the PSone Back to Nature game or the one for the 64. I was just wondering who the artist of it was. I love that old washed out water color manga look. Wish they had kept that art direction for the series.

dummy (guest) 26.08.2011#2

the 3ds is selling well now....

ChaosOnline 26.08.2011#3

Duggler657 said:
Wow. And it's not like Natsume is a massive publishing house, like Ubisoft, that can afford to delay what are key entries in their franchises like this. I am now officially worried that the 3DS is going to become Nintendo's first real handheld failure.
On a brighter note, Anybody know anything about that old Harvest Moon artwork that's used in this story? It's either from the PSone Back to Nature game or the one for the 64. I was just wondering who the artist of it was. I love that old washed out water color manga look. Wish they had kept that art direction for the series.

Yeah the reason there are so few 3DS sales is because all the good games keep getting delayed. Maybe if they'd release their games, the 3DS would sell more.

Actually that's from A Wonderful Life for the GameCube, I don't know who the artist is though sorry. But yeah they should've used that style more it's really nice.

( Edited 26.08.2011 13:49 by ChaosOnline )

Darkflame 26.08.2011#4

They could also just release the game now, and when the userbase is higher run a marketing campagn.
I dont get why this gets them more money overall.

http://www.fanficmaker.com <-- Tells some truly terrible tales.
Last update; Mice,Plumbers,Animatronics and Airbenders. We also have the socials; Facebook & G+.

EdEN 26.08.2011#5

Well, as long as we're talking delays and not cancellations... we can wait a couple of months. At least they'll have a presence during the holiday rush which SHOULD give them great numbers thanks to all the 3DS that will be sold at the new price point.

EdEN 26.08.2011#6

@Darkflame: Nope. Getting the cartridges ready costs money and Natsume, Atlus, Xseed and NISA, to name a few, need as many month 1 sales as possible to justify the cost of getting copies to retailers. The lower install base right now would mean they'd have to wish reaaaally hard that the games sell enough as to not be lost at retail and bring a good profit to their small bank accounts.

Duggler657 26.08.2011#7

Darkflame said:
They could also just release the game now, and when the userbase is higher run a marketing campagn.
I dont get why this gets them more money overall.

Bingo! Build it and they will come, that's my philosophy.

What I don't get is that videogames have apparently become so big an industry that selling only 5 million systems in a 9ish month period is bad? what? Really? Explain that to me somebody. How is five million users a bad start?

ChaosOnline said: Actually that's from A Wonderful Life for the GameCube, I don't know who the artist is though sorry. But yeah they should've used that style more it's really nice.

Thanks! I should have noticed it was AWL, I have that game, after all. That artstyle was just so much more pleasant than the direction they tried to take afterward with some of the handheld titles...

Azuardo 26.08.2011#8

Duggler657 said:
What I don't get is that videogames have apparently become so big an industry that selling only 5 million systems in a 9ish month period is bad? what? Really? Explain that to me somebody. How is five million users a bad start?

Really? Which companies have regarded that as bad?

Duggler657 26.08.2011#9

Article said:
It's not the first third party release to see delays and cancellations. With a lower price point and attractive first party offerings, Nintendo should be able to grow the the 3DS install base to satisfy the needs of publishing houses that are starting to shy away from the new hardware.

Natsume, Capcom, and Ubisoft to name a few.
Not to mention Nintendo themselves weren't happy with the systems sales performance and decided to go ahead with what looks to be one of the biggest, if not most publicized, price-cuts in the industry. That all happened after the system broke U.K. Amazon pre-order records and had an install base of roughly 4 million users worldwide. Is that really reason to delay and cancel games?

Edit: Excuse me, 3.61 users worldwide. Which was short of Nintendo goal. Yeah, I'm typing before I'm thinking again. But still, Its not like they were way off the mark with their numbers.

( Edited 26.08.2011 18:57 by Duggler657 )

Darkflame 26.08.2011#10

EdEN said:
@Darkflame: Nope. Getting the cartridges ready costs money and Natsume, Atlus, Xseed and NISA, to name a few, need as many month 1 sales as possible to justify the cost of getting copies to retailers.

Why? Theres loads of 3DS shelf space right now. What difference if its sold now or in 3 months.
All those games there now will still be sitting there.
Its not like DS games yet were things get burried pretty quick.

http://www.fanficmaker.com <-- Tells some truly terrible tales.
Last update; Mice,Plumbers,Animatronics and Airbenders. We also have the socials; Facebook & G+.

Squidboy (guest) 27.08.2011#11

They're much better off waiting till January in the West. Although, October would be a good time for Japan. I think Taiiku no hi would be perfect, I've always found HM to be very Zen like.

Guest 27.08.2011#12

Noone is buying it because i hardly has many games excluding remakes, and games are getting delayed/canceled because noone is buying the thing. Nintendo, this is the point of strong launch titles, you should know this, you used to put a game in the consoles box! We get nothing these days.

Darkflame 27.08.2011#13

Guest said:
Noone is buying it because i hardly has many games excluding remakes, and games are getting delayed/canceled because noone is buying the thing. Nintendo, this is the point of strong launch titles, you should know this, you used to put a game in the consoles box! We get nothing these days.

Not true on both counts.
There was bundled versions of games with NES/SNESs, but there was also perfectly stand alone ones. (in NA the snes came with MarioWorld for a higher cost. In Japan it launched with nothing bundled, and hardly any games on the shelfs at all)

N64,Gamecube,DS never had anything with them..
..and the DS...the most succesfull console in history had nothing (and also a poor launch line up + one decent remake/port)

The 3DS, meanwhile comes with, relatively, shitloads of stuff built in.

Also, Ocarina of Time is a great game, but its still only one. So thats "remake" not "remakes".
3rd partys do lots of remakes/ports - but you can hardly expect Nintendo to order them not too. That would be a worse situation.

http://www.fanficmaker.com <-- Tells some truly terrible tales.
Last update; Mice,Plumbers,Animatronics and Airbenders. We also have the socials; Facebook & G+.

crackedthesky 27.08.2011#14

Oh no, how will I ever live without whatever the fuck "Gabrielle's Ghostly Groove" is?

In all seriousness, what was the other game? A mainstream Harvest Moon? I don't really play Harvest Moon but my sister loves those games.

Maybe they're trying to push them as close to Christmas as they can, hoping to bank on a 3DS sales boost for the season. Personally, I'd aim for whenever StarFox or the Mario games come out, those are sure to boost 3DS sales, whereas with Christmas, the whole industry will be getting a bump and some kid is likely to pick a Halo or Final Fantasy or Skyward Sword or what have you over Gabrielle's Ghostly Groove.

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crackedthesky 27.08.2011#15

Darkflame said:

Not true on both counts.
There was bundled versions of games with NES/SNESs, but there was also perfectly stand alone ones. (in NA the snes came with MarioWorld for a higher cost. In Japan it launched with nothing bundled, and hardly any games on the shelfs at all)
N64,Gamecube,DS never had anything with them..
..and the DS...the most succesfull console in history had nothing (and also a poor launch line up + one decent remake/port)
The 3DS, meanwhile comes with, relatively, shitloads of stuff built in.
Also, Ocarina of Time is a great game, but its still only one. So thats "remake" not "remakes".
3rd partys do lots of remakes/ports - but you can hardly expect Nintendo to order them not too. That would be a worse situation.

Your second point only stands if you take into account only released games. that's sort of spinning the subject. Nintendo's first big game for the 3DS was Ocarina of Time, a remake. Their next one will be StarFox, also a remake. Then it'll be MarioKart, which is a new title in the franchise but by the time it comes out, the 3DS will have been on shelves for a half a year. Third parties are doing the same. Capcom's first big title? A Resident Evil port. Another big title is Cave Story, which is another remake. Those two aren't exactly Nintendo's fault, but in a way it goes back to Nintendo lacking as a developer. The DS and the Wii were both riddled with remakes and ports. Nintendo basically comes up with something truly innovative to the industry, and then becomes one of if not the only company to actually develop ideas around it. Everyone else decides to use it to remake or port games instead of making something actually good. Nintendo should've seen this coming with the 3DS and made sure they had some great launch titles out instead of waiting 6-9 months to get anything on the shelves.

Back on topic, there are people who look at the 3DS's upcoming lineup and decide not to buy it because they aren't interested in remakes and ports and that's all that's been coming out. I was one of them; my sister bought the whole family a 3DS when she got a bonus and I'm greatful of course, but nobody really plays it at the moment. We got two games for it and beat them both, and aren't really interested in anything out for a while.

The Mario games will give the system a boost, but if you aren't a Mario fan, there's still almost nothing on the radar, save for vague hints of games with no solid release info.

Edit this post:

[quote][b]Darkflame said:[/b]<br/>
Not true on both counts.
There was bundled versions of games with NES/SNESs, but there was also perfectly stand alone ones. (in NA the snes came with MarioWorld for a higher cost. In Japan it launched with nothing bundled, and hardly any games on the shelfs at all)

N64,Gamecube,DS never had anything with them..
..and the DS...the most succesfull console in history had nothing (and also a poor launch line up + one decent remake/port)

The 3DS, meanwhile comes with, relatively, shitloads of stuff built in.

Also, Ocarina of Time is a great game, but its still only one. So thats "remake" not "remakes".
3rd partys do lots of remakes/ports - but you can hardly expect Nintendo to order them not too. That would be a worse situation.[/quote]

Your second point only stands if you take into account only released games. that's sort of spinning the subject. Nintendo's first big game for the 3DS was Ocarina of Time, a remake. Their next one will be StarFox, also a remake. Then it'll be MarioKart, which is a new title in the franchise but by the time it comes out, the 3DS will have been on shelves for a half a year. Third parties are doing the same. Capcom's first big title? A Resident Evil port. Another big title is Cave Story, which is another remake. Those two aren't exactly Nintendo's fault, but in a way it goes back to Nintendo lacking as a developer. The DS and the Wii were both riddled with remakes and ports. Nintendo basically comes up with something truly innovative to the industry, and then becomes one of if not the only company to actually develop ideas around it. Everyone else decides to use it to remake or port games instead of making something actually good. Nintendo should've seen this coming with the 3DS and made sure they had some great launch titles out instead of waiting 6-9 months to get anything on the shelves.

Back on topic, there are people who look at the 3DS's upcoming lineup and decide not to buy it because they aren't  interested in remakes and ports and that's all that's been coming out. I was one of them; my sister bought the whole family a 3DS when she got a bonus and I'm greatful of course, but nobody really plays it at the moment. We got two games for it and beat them both, and aren't really interested in anything out for a while.

The Mario games will give the system a boost, but if you aren't a Mario fan, there's still almost nothing on the radar, save for vague hints of games with no solid release info.