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The story
Sony’s new title “Wolverine” became a hot topic on 5ch’s game hardware board (Gehan) after it was found to be discounted 44% in the German market just days after release. In the thread, users pointed out that the discount rate was also steep in Japan, while reports poured in of physical copies sitting unsold on shelves overseas as well, prompting comments like “You rarely see a game go on a worldwide fire sale like this.” The focus of discussion was why a title built around such a popular character — one expected to be a hit based on pre-order numbers — is struggling everywhere. Posters also noted that the Metacritic score came in lower than expected, and that the shift toward download-only releases makes it harder to gauge a game’s quality from the outside.
What people said
Nice…
Japan's down 75% from the last game's price while Europe's down 60%, so Japan took the biggest hit
Don't let it end up like that New Gundam Breaker mess (a notoriously bad PS game)
Nobody on Gehan saw that coming
Are we actually looking at a massive flop route here?
Well, when it's been dragged for a laugh on social media that much, of course it won't sell
It's a total trash game, straight up
Tons of bugs too
Way too many reasons for it to be crashing in value this fast lol
Is it another dud like that one "One Year War" game? (a notorious Gundam-themed flop)
Sounds like there was a wave of pre-order cancellations lol
PlayStation's gotten way too obsessed with Metascore
Nintendo's Iwata brought up Metascore as an example at a shareholder meeting or something too, but in practice they still mainly went by word-of-mouth user reviews — PlayStation's lost that flexibility and now treats Metascore like a must-hit number
Spider-Man actually sold best in Europe, so this is bad
In Japan too, Wolverine's Amazon pre-order ranking dropped right after the trailer went up lol
Yeah, that happened
There was a pre-order ranking thread on Gehan where people were like 'it was higher this morning…'
This is supposed to be a game with a ¥50 billion development budget?
It's just that Japan is bombing to an extreme degree — even a market the size of Spain moved 50k in its first week
The problem is, if a character with Wolverine-level brand power only sells this much, then no IP is going to justify a development budget this size
But by the looks of it, physical copies are just sitting unsold, so with no second shipment coming it doesn't look like numbers will grow
That's including digital sales though lol
Fire sale across the globe!
So this is what 'world-class' looks like, huh
You don't often see a game go on a worldwide fire sale like this
Yeah, unlike something like Patlabor, this is a world-class trash game
It's on a whole different level
Its price got slashed in half in North America pretty quickly too
Getting roasted after the trailer dropped, the linear path, even the QTEs where you don't actually have to press buttons — all overlaps with FF15
Well, to be fair, the first half of FF15 was at least open world, so it has some excuse
Though it's hilarious that they restricted flight to only above roads and then you still crash into rocks floating right above the road lol
Meaning you'd end up only able to buy a game like this digitally, with no way to return it. Whether you're a physical buyer or a digital-only buyer, there's nothing but downside here
Even for digital buyers, seeing physical copies get fire-saled is useful intel for spotting a trash game
Used prices crash, new copies stop selling, and the price drops
Sony, just hurry up and kill physical media already! Don't come crying when it's too late!
Things have shifted a bit with all the different movies releasing, but Wolverine is still top-tier even now
Then why isn't the game selling????
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
It’s not unusual for new games to get discounted shortly after release overseas, but what stood out in the thread was the disconnect: “pre-order demand was supposedly strong, yet physical stock is piling up on shelves, and the Metascore came in lower than expected at 75.” It’s worth noting that the specific discount percentages and shipment figures cited in the thread are all individual posters’ own estimates, not confirmed official sales figures. Posters also raised a broader point: as games move toward download-only releases, “market signals” like discounts and used-game circulation become harder to see, leaving buyers with less information to judge quality before purchase — making this more than just a question of whether one particular game is good or bad.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Hardware/Industry (Gehan)) thread “Sony’s Wolverine Already Selling at 44% Off in Germany Too♥.”
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