Famitsu sales: Week 23, 2021 - (May 31 - June 6)

[The_Liquid_Laser]

noshten said:

The_Liquid_Laser said:

I know this is from Atlus, but SMT V just got a November release date.  Do you have numbers on how much does SMT and/or Persona usually sell in Japan?  (or anyone really have numbers on this?)

The best-selling Shin Megami Tensei game is Devil Summoner on the Sega Saturn with 355K sales all the way back in 1995. The last entry in the franchise - Shin Megami Tensei IV on the 3DS managed 259K sales 

Persona 5 physical in Japan is over 400K in comparison. 

So for Shin Megami Tensei V anything above 300K physical would be a success. I think we can get a better idea of what to expect once we get closer to the launch, but considering the launch date everything would depend on WoM. Monster Hunter Stories 2 seems similar in scope and budget and might have a similar marketing push by Nintendo - so it will give us an idea of what's possible. 

The important thing to note is that the November slot will help it a lot if WoM is positive for the game, as we saw Nocturne has shipped over 100K on the Switch in Japan and that does tell us that there should be a decent audience for a new entry into the franchise. 

Overall with positive WoM I can see definitely see it becoming the best selling game in the franchise, but WoM will be the critical part - as we've seen how botched launches have hurt some games while others were really accelerated by positive WoM for example a year ago no one had even heard of Sakuna and now we know it shipped over 600K in Japan alone. 

Thanks.  That does give me some idea of what to expect.  SMT is no where near what a mainline Final Fantasy game would sell (much less Dragon Quest).  I'm kind of surprised the Saturn has the best selling entry.  I know the Saturn did decently well in Japan, but it's still not like PS1 or PS2.

Looks like the only big game this holiday will be Pokemon BD/SP.