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The story
On Amazon.com’s bestseller rankings, the new Fire Emblem title ‘Bansei Sengo’ (out September 17) sitting at #7 and Marvel’s new Wolverine game (out September 15) at #9 became a hot topic on 5ch’s console-wars board (Gehā). Posters were surprised to see a niche Nintendo SRPG series outranking Wolverine, backed by the far more widely recognized Marvel IP, and opinions split on why. Several factors were floated — differences in installed hardware base, increased exposure from a recent Nintendo Direct, and Wolverine’s souring pre-release buzz — and the thread kept debating whether it was even fair to call either side the ‘winner.’
What people said
Wolverine — Out September 15
Wolverine should have the advantage here, so why?
This is the homeland of Marvel.
Sales breakdown:
First-week domestic sales: approx. 143,000 units
Cumulative domestic sales: approx. 580,000 units (as of end of March 2020, etc.)
Cumulative worldwide sales: approx. 4.12 million units (as of end of December 2022)
And this new one is technically a spinoff/related entry to a series that ranks lower in the global market anyway, right?
Ocarina of Time: approx. 100,000
Spider-Man 2: approx. 80,000
Wolverine: approx. 40,000
GTA 6 PS5 (code-in-box edition): approx. 15,000
Still, at half of Spider-Man 2's numbers, Wolverine's doing fine all things considered.
Switch 2's North American install base is like 8 million, tops, even being generous.
Then PS's numbers are even lower.
PS5's main battleground is the UK and Spain.
Oh, it's fine if PS5 disappears lol. We can just release on Switch 2 lol
Three Houses sold around 4 million, so it's a decent-sized IP.
I mean, would they even buy a game where some stumpy old dude is flailing around like a tantrum-throwing baby?
If it's only a 3-spot gap on Amazon, NPD easily goes to PS5. Back in January–February, Switch 2 was single digits and PS5 was around #14, and PS still won on NPD.
Honestly, if they're going to phase out physical discs, they should at least lead by example and drop them for their own first-party titles first.
There's already data showing new releases split roughly 50/50, and publishers have already stated that for older titles, digital sells better.
Save that jab for when Wolverine's actually ranked higher.
Bansei Sengo also had bad pre-release buzz, so that excuse doesn't fly.
Intelligent Systems has fewer than 200 employees, so even with heavy outsourcing, it's probably still a fraction of the budget.
Probably somewhere between Engage and Three Houses.
I'd guess around 3 million.
People who buy physical copies are basically an endangered species these days — outside of Nintendo, anyway.
I wonder. Sony disclosed in earnings that the average digital sale price is 3,500 yen, and publishers have said over half their revenue comes from physical copies. That suggests users are buying full-price new releases physically.
And Wolverine really doesn't have much originality going for it…
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
It’s worth remembering that Amazon.com’s rankings — as opposed to Amazon.co.jp — are a reference indicator reflecting pre- and post-release preorder and purchase activity, not the same thing as actual sales figures from a tracking firm like NPD. As posters in the thread pointed out, PS5 is said to have a high digital download ratio, so a ranking based on Amazon’s physical-leaning distribution alone doesn’t necessarily capture real-world performance. It’s also worth noting that while Fire Emblem: Three Houses is the series’ high-water mark with roughly 4.12 million copies sold worldwide, the most recent entry reportedly underperformed, and thread posters didn’t agree on what baseline of expectations this new title should be measured against. Where opinion really split was over whether to read this result as ‘Nintendo’s popularity in North America’ or ‘a stumble for a Marvel-licensed title’ — with side discussions touching on cost structures like development scale and licensing fees. And with plenty still unsettled — post-price-hike sales trends, per-platform install bases, and so on — the thread never arrived at a firm conclusion.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Hardware/Industry (Gehā)) thread “[Amazon US] FE’s Bansei Sengo at #7, Wolverine at #9.”
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