News We Care About Update

You don’t catch someone by running slower (than they are running)
Eurogamer is one of my favorite sites but they’ve hit on one of my many pet peeves – inaccurate sales language. In Japan, the PS3 has been doing a little bit better lately while Wii sales have been slowing down. Eurogamer describes this as Sony catching up to Nintendo.

The Wii is actually pulling away from the PS3 at a less dramatic pace but every week it outsells its competition, the Wii is indeed putting more distance between it and the PS3. In order for Sony to even begin to catch up, more PS3s need to be sold than Wiis.

I think this stuff may actually be calculus, which would possibly explain why so many paid writers can’t grasp sales shifts. The other explanation is that, “Sony catching Nintendo,” is a slick headline whereas “Sony being beaten less badly by Nintendo,” is not.

What the implications of the sales shift are is still unclear. Some people are declaring the Wii a dead fad (which is easier to do if you also think Sony is “catching up”) while others just blame lower sales on the post new year slump. If the Wii continues to lag behind in Japan while it sells amazingly in other territories, it’s not insane to think Nintendo may focus hardware tweak efforts on the homeland like they have done with the DSi.

You know what they really need to do to save the Wii? Make a WiiHD that’s four times as large and loud, costs $500 and plays all the best PC games.

Blow working on new game
The creator of Braid has set his sights on a 2D RPG. I’m unimpressed as it’s been done before. Let’s see a 1D WJSARPG, Jonny.

Somebody set us up the something big gone wrong
Hiroshi Kamide, a KBC Financial Products analyst, is worried about Nintendo. The company has downgraded their profit forecast by a third, at least partly due to the strong yen. But Kamide thinks there is more to it, “Today’s revision suggests that the roaring pace of Wii growth that we’ve seen until now may be over.”

The Wii is still breaking sales records but it is only rational to assume what goes up must come down. It cannot maintain the same speed indefinitely, and, like all consoles before it, Wii sales will begin to slow and decline. This is all obvious.

Less obvious is Kamide’s other line of reasoning, “they [Nintendo] know something big has gone wrong, and that people are not buying the machines.” I am not sure what this even means. There are bodies set up to track sales in most regions and it is a fact that the Wii is selling better than its competition. The console is sold out on Amazon at the moment I write this and it launched over two years ago.

It is good to see that the Wii bubble theory hasn’t gone anywhere and will likely die only when the console is retired. I can understand why a segment of whiny manchildren gamers hopes the Wii market is volatile and built on sand, but why are so many analysts eager to jump on board? Pachter has always been a Wii bubble proponent and when you’re making the same predictions as Pachter, it’s time to retire (or be given more prominence, invitations to speak with every game site and a raise).

Summoning the Devil
Concisely named Atlus RPG Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. The Soulless Army is getting a PS2 sequel which total n00b5 are calling Devil Summoner 2 (which is actually a 12 year old game called Soul Hackers). Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner 2: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon seems to be following in the tradition of Atlus first releasing a game then tweaking, improving and releasing a sequel. Think P3 to P4. And yes, Atlus America is full of totals n00b5 who are afraid of acknowledging games that didn’t come out in the West.

The Megami Tensei series has always appealed to me, but beyond an hour of Persona 1 I have never actually played any of it, which is strange considering I own six (of the 87 total) entries. I will be buying Devil Summoner 4, but it appealing to my delicate tastes is only a secondary reason. I will be buying 27 copies of Devil Summoner 4 because Atlus games are often under printed and because games that come out at the end of a console’s life are often rare.

Those two factors combine to guarantee that each copy of Devil Summoner 4 bought at $39.98 will be worth at least $129.46 by the year 2087. That means in a scant 78 years I will have made a cool $2415.96. Early retirement, here I come.