Famitsu Sales: Week 20, 2020 (May 11 - May 17)

[Mnementh]

src said:

noshten said:

Its pretty well know that SE and Retailers didn't order enough physical copies for the launch of Trials of Mana(on the Switch).

This is the main reason its down 57% on the PS4 this week and up 128% on the Switch. They could have been much closer if SE and retailers didn't underestimate demand.

Sadly with a JRPG once you miss this first launch window, used copies appear on the market, so companies never really gain back that loss. Still good for retailers since a lot of them resell used copies in Japan. Long term Switch version will end up outselling the PS4 version in Japan but neither version will get over 200K. 

[PS4] Trials of Mana # (Square Enix) {2020.04.24} (¥5.980) - 5.467 / 122.753 <80-100%> (-57%)
[NSW] Trials of Mana # (Square Enix) {2020.04.24} (¥5.980) - 4.951 / 90.068 <80-100%> (+128%)

Misjudging demand is one of the reasons FF XV never sold its initial shipment, SE & retailers overestimated demand and in the end, retailers had to sell at a loss in order to get rid of inventory. Still I think Trials of Mana is a game that will make the majority of its sales overseas, so these missed sales aren't much of an issue for SE, since they will make up on it through the digital sales World Wide. 

Same thing happened with Octopath which had big shortages at launch on the Switch. There might have been another SE game I cant remember that faced similar issues. 

Highly doubt this is the case. If it was undershipped significantly we would eventually see replenish and overtake the PS4 SKU. Instead its 30k behind and still getting beaten by PS4.

A sudden increase by 128% is a strong indication, that the week before it was supply constrained. I doubt though that it will outsell the PS4-version long-term as the poster before claimed, that ship has sailed with the initial undershipping.

Last edited by Mnementh - on 23 May 2020