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Forums - Sales - Switch overtakes total PS4 sales in Japan, in less than half the time

Pinkie_pie on 31 May 2019
Jranation said:
DonFerrari said:

It is the main big reason. Basically the opposite of what the OP is trying to defend.

Yeah I sort of agree. In Japan I would say 70% Portability 30% Games. While in the US it would be the opposite and leaning more to the Games side.

See even jranation, one of nintendo biggest fan on vgchartz admit portability is the biggest factor.

curl-6 said:
Pinkie_pie said:

Lol you said its all about the games and now its this and that but no mention of portability being the reason why vita outsold the wii u. What flawed concept did the wii u had that it only sold half as much as the vita? That flawed concept is because it wasnt portable 

Everything about the Wii U was flawed except the games. As a concept it was fundamentally broken.

But we've made a breakthrough here; you call the Vita "a portable with no 1st party support and no AAA third party games". We are in agreement; it is its library that let it down, hence why it was outsold in Japan by the PS4 in Japan; because the PS4, while lacking portability, offered more games that Japanese gamers wanted to play. The Switch outsold the PS4 for the same reason; because it offers games that better appeal to the particular tastes of Japanese gamers. The software charts confirm this.

Wii u also offered more games that japan gamers wanted to play. The software charts confirmed that. Im not saying games isnt a factor. Its a factor and that is why ps4 outsold the vita. Ps4 needed many, many better games to outsell the vita. If the ps4 didnt have the 3rd party AAA games like the vita it wouldnt sell half as much as the vita. 



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curl-6 on 31 May 2019
Pinkie_pie said:
Jranation said:

Yeah I sort of agree. In Japan I would say 70% Portability 30% Games. While in the US it would be the opposite and leaning more to the Games side.

See even jranation, one of nintendo biggest fan on vgchartz admit portability is the biggest factor.

curl-6 said:

Everything about the Wii U was flawed except the games. As a concept it was fundamentally broken.

But we've made a breakthrough here; you call the Vita "a portable with no 1st party support and no AAA third party games". We are in agreement; it is its library that let it down, hence why it was outsold in Japan by the PS4 in Japan; because the PS4, while lacking portability, offered more games that Japanese gamers wanted to play. The Switch outsold the PS4 for the same reason; because it offers games that better appeal to the particular tastes of Japanese gamers. The software charts confirm this.

Wii u also offered more games that japan gamers wanted to play. The software charts confirmed that. Im not saying games isnt a factor. Its a factor and that is why ps4 outsold the vita. Ps4 needed many, many better games to outsell the vita. If the ps4 didnt have the 3rd party AAA games like the vita it wouldnt sell half as much as the vita. 

By the same token though, without having appealing games a system as atrociously designed and marketed as the Wii U wouldn't have sold 300k much less the 3.3 million it finally reached. I don't deny portability is a factor either, it clearly is an element in Switch's favour. But without its killer library, Switch would've just been another Vita, a portable that falls short of the PS4 sales due to a lack of system-selling software.



linkink on 31 May 2019
curl-6 said:
Pinkie_pie said:

Your argument falls apart as soon as we consider that the vita, a portable with no 1st party support and no AAA 3rd party games, sold twice as much as the wii u which had many 1st party AAA games and a few AAA 3rd party games 

Except it doesn't because I already explained that the Wii U was crippled by an unwanted and fundamentally flawed concept and Vita had no such handicap.

So I ask you yet again, why did the PS4 outsell the Vita if portability is the deciding factor? The more you refuse to answer, the more obvious it becomes that your premise is flawed.

It's just not Wii U. WII, GC and N64 all sold horribly in japan. Wii not so much, but only 4-5 million more then the vita, is kinda pathetic when you think about it. Obviously japan prefers handheld, at the same time what if there was no Nintendo handheld how would japan get the nintendo fix they love? would a traditional console sell over 15 million? it's something we will never know.

EDIT: so I just found out vita outsold N64, and GC in japan. SMH.

Last edited by linkink - on 31 May 2019

0D0 on 31 May 2019
linkink said:
curl-6 said:

A console by itself is just a means through which to play games. Judging from not only hardware sales but also the software charts, it would seem the Japanese are simply more interested in playing the games offered by the Switch, from Pokemon to Splatoon 2 to Smash Bros.

Only 3 PS4 games sold over a million in Japan in the almost 5 years it was out until VGC tracking ended at the close of 2018, while Switch already had 5 million sellers in Japan after less than 2 years.

Japan is a becoming a very niche market. They are only interested in a few franchises, that get the ball rolling, and of course being a handheld also helps. Even with switch reckoning 3ds software sales, and  it being a handheld and a console, it's still not lighting up the charts, and selling worse then 3ds. Just look at psp sales, it only had monster hunter games sell over a million, and it got over 20 million.

Japan is becoming a very Nintendo portable market actually.  It seems like it's the only thing they care about.

sethnintendo said:
What the fuck are we arguing now? Vita? Wii U? Who gives a fuck they both sold like shit? The best companies can learn is not make same mistake twice and let me tell you they were both mistakes. They both been aborted if Alabama didn't pass that pro incest law. I blame Alabama for Japanese companies mistakes.

I give a danm. It's a good discussion. lol

curl-6 said:
Pinkie_pie said:

Lol you said its all about the games and now its this and that but no mention of portability being the reason why vita outsold the wii u. What flawed concept did the wii u had that it only sold half as much as the vita? That flawed concept is because it wasnt portable 

Everything about the Wii U was flawed except the games. As a concept it was fundamentally broken.

But we've made a breakthrough here; you call the Vita "a portable with no 1st party support and no AAA third party games". We are in agreement; it is its library that let it down, hence why it was outsold in Japan by the PS4 in Japan; because the PS4, while lacking portability, offered more games that Japanese gamers wanted to play. The Switch outsold the PS4 for the same reason; because it offers games that better appeal to the particular tastes of Japanese gamers. The software charts confirm this.

I'd say that PS4 almost didn't have competition. It was fighting Wii U in Japan. We must consider that too.

Even though I agree with you that games are very important, I believe portability is much more. Wii U had lots of great games that cater to the Japanese. It had almost everything Nintendo-wise and regarding Nintendo consoles, usually Nintendo games are the only ones that matter and about the easiest to become million sellers.

In terms of games, Wii U was brilliant for the Japanese audience. Wii U looked very flawed for the worldwide audience, but for the Japanese, it looked like a very good and decent home console, a proper Wii successor.



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My Total Sales prediction for PS4 by the end of 2021: 110m+

When PS4 will hit 100m consoles sold: Before Christmas 2019

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wombat123 on 31 May 2019
0D0 said:
curl-6 said:

Everything about the Wii U was flawed except the games. As a concept it was fundamentally broken.

But we've made a breakthrough here; you call the Vita "a portable with no 1st party support and no AAA third party games". We are in agreement; it is its library that let it down, hence why it was outsold in Japan by the PS4 in Japan; because the PS4, while lacking portability, offered more games that Japanese gamers wanted to play. The Switch outsold the PS4 for the same reason; because it offers games that better appeal to the particular tastes of Japanese gamers. The software charts confirm this.

I'd say that PS4 almost didn't have competition. It was fighting Wii U in Japan. We must consider that too.

Even though I agree with you that games are very important, I believe portability is much more. Wii U had lots of great games that cater to the Japanese. It had almost everything Nintendo-wise and regarding Nintendo consoles, usually Nintendo games are the only ones that matter and about the easiest to become million sellers.

In terms of games, Wii U was brilliant for the Japanese audience. Wii U looked very flawed for the worldwide audience, but for the Japanese, it looked like a very good and decent home console, a proper Wii successor.

Eh....to me, the only games of consequence the Wii U got that could appeal to Japanese audiences were Mario 3D World, Mario Kart 8, Smash 4, Mario Maker, Minecraft, NSMBU, Splatoon and maybe Pikmin 3.  And that list looks even worse when you consider that three of those titles (Splatoon, Mario Maker and Minecraft) released after Nintendo announced the NX and, for Mario Maker and Minecraft, after they crapped out their disastrous 2015 E3 presentation which all but declared that Nintendo were moving on from the Wii U.



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Alby_da_Wolf on 31 May 2019
RolStoppable said:
linkink said:

It's just not Wii U. WII, GC and N64 all sold horribly in japan. Wii not so much, but only 4-5 million more then the vita, is kinda pathetic when you think about it. Obviously japan prefers handheld, at the same time what if there was no Nintendo handheld how would japan get the nintendo fix they love? would a traditional console sell over 15 million? it's something we will never know.

EDIT: so I just found out vita outsold N64, and GC in japan. SMH.

I covered why the N64, GC, Wii and Wii U didn't exceed 15m units in Japan in this post:
http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=9016438

The NES and SNES both sold more than 15m units, so we do know.

@curl-6 You got yourself under pressure regarding Wii U sales because you forgot to point out the large gaps between game releases that the console had. It was common for the Wii U to go more than one month without any retail release and that only got worse over time.

The data you bring as proof could also mean that since GB, both Japanese gamers favour and 3rd party support switched mainly to portables.
Wii was very successful WW, but neither Japanese gamers nor 3rd party devs supported it at the level of Ninty best sellers in Japan. So it could mean that portability changed the game in Japan, they supported home consoles more only until a viable portable alternative became available (older portables with just one or very few hardwired games can't be considered a viable portable platform, as it requires to buy new HW for every new game).



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linkink on 31 May 2019
RolStoppable said:
linkink said:

It's just not Wii U. WII, GC and N64 all sold horribly in japan. Wii not so much, but only 4-5 million more then the vita, is kinda pathetic when you think about it. Obviously japan prefers handheld, at the same time what if there was no Nintendo handheld how would japan get the nintendo fix they love? would a traditional console sell over 15 million? it's something we will never know.

EDIT: so I just found out vita outsold N64, and GC in japan. SMH.

I covered why the N64, GC, Wii and Wii U didn't exceed 15m units in Japan in this post:
http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=9016438

The NES and SNES both sold more than 15m units, so we do know.

@curl-6 You got yourself under pressure regarding Wii U sales because you forgot to point out the large gaps between game releases that the console had. It was common for the Wii U to go more than one month without any retail release and that only got worse over time.

N64, GC, AND WII U  sold like pile of turd. Sure, it's understandable  not to exceed 10-15, but not even exceed 5.6 million with how loved Nintendo ip's are is  shocking to me.

The NES, had 0 competition. you could almost say the same  for SNES, genesis was it's very weak competition, it only sold 17 million, this was when nintendo had amazing third-party support as well. Once playstation came into the picture is a much better way to judge, since that's the only other console in japan to do descent number. So yea we will never know.



linkink on 31 May 2019

Double post.

Last edited by linkink - on 31 May 2019

linkink on 31 May 2019
RolStoppable said:
Alby_da_Wolf said:

The data you bring as proof could also mean that since GB, both Japanese gamers favour and 3rd party support switched mainly to portables.
Wii was very successful WW, but neither Japanese gamers nor 3rd party devs supported it at the level of Ninty best sellers in Japan. So it could mean that portability changed the game in Japan, they supported home consoles more only until a viable portable alternative became available (older portables with just one or very few hardwired games can't be considered a viable portable platform, as it requires to buy new HW for every new game).

The shift in development priority has more to do with PlayStation ceasing to be viable than portability. The PS3 was expensive to develop for and it didn't sell well. The Wii didn't have either one of those drawbacks, but the general mindset among developers was that the Wii didn't sell to real gamers (basically, they were butthurt because the PS3 failed). This combination of "we can't afford it" for PS3 and "we don't want to" for Wii led to a tremendous increase in the quality and quantity of games that were made for the DS and PSP. Since the handheld consoles had so many more games to play during that generation, they outsold their home console counterparts.

Neither Wii U or PS4 delivered any reasons why home consoles should be prioritized again. Switch makes the distinction meaningless because it's both home console and portable.

linkink said:

N64, GC, AND WII U  sold like pile of turd. Sure, it's understandable  not to exceed 10-15, but not even exceed 5.6 million with how loved Nintendo ip's are is  shocking to me.

The NES, had 0 competition. you could almost say the same  for SNES, genesis was it's very weak competition, it only sold 17 million, this was when nintendo had amazing third-party support as well. Once playstation came into the picture is a much better way to judge, since that's the only other console in japan to do descent number. So yea we will never know.

Nintendo IPs are very popular, but that has limits on hardware sales when Nintendo IPs are more or less the only thing worth buying due to a lack of third party support. The Vita had many more game releases than the N64, GC and Wii U, but it's basically a bad situation in reverse. Vita lacked the big sellers, the three Nintendo consoles lacked the fillers.

Your second paragraph reeks of denial. Every generation helps to judge the big picture, so excluding Nintendo consoles with good third party support makes no sense. If we were to judge the success of PlayStation in Japan, but excluded the PS1, PS2 and PSP for some arbitrary reason, people wouldn't take that lightly either.

Nintendo IPs sure are doing it for switch, so that doesn't make any sense. when it's a console nintendo ip have little effect, sales are still bad, now look at the switch, it's selling good mainly because of Nintendo ip's

I'm not sure where the denial is. NES, and SNES, didn't have any competition. NES literately had 0, and SNES was a genesis that only sold 3 million. it's the same reason why PS2 sold so well in the US, it had 0 competition. It's like looking at ps2 sales in the US, and ignoring the major reason why ps3-ps4 sales have declined, and it's mainly because of xbox giving them competition in that region. 



linkink on 31 May 2019
RolStoppable said:
linkink said:

Nintendo ips sure are doing it for switch, so that doesn't make any sense. when it's a console nintendo ip have little effect, sales are still bad now look at the switch, it's selling good mainly because of nintendo ip's

I'm not sure where the denial is.

Switch has third party games that act as fillers and, more importantly, the Nintendo IPs have been released faster than on previous consoles. Software sells hardware, so a steady flow of new and interesting releases is crucial for sales momentum. Switch's output over two years is basically equal to the whole lifetime of the N64, GC and Wii U, so while it might look like there's no difference, time is a significant factor here.

Sure let's come with every excuse in the book. You realize how pathetic N64, and GC sold mainly because they were consoles. Mario 64 was a launch title, mario kart 64 out came out a year later. Then zelda OOT, those were generation defining games that made PS look pathetic, if they were on a handheld at that time, that handheld would have easily sold 20 million in japan. GC  4 LTD million had smash it's first year. you can't just explain those things away. Every console since after ps2 hasn't broken the 15 million barrier in japan. I respect your opinion, but disagree.

Last edited by linkink - on 31 May 2019