Category: Games

  • Debating the Best Non-Xbox Steam Controllers on 5ch: ‘Rugged Enough for Tanks’

    On 5ch’s Hardware/Industry (Geha) board, a thread was started by a self-proclaimed “die-hard Xbox hater” asking for controller recommendations to use with Steam. With the one rule being “anything but an official Xbox controller,” posters put forward several candidates — HORI pads, the DualSense, the Vader, and the original Xbox 360 controller among them — each with its own strengths and weaknesses. Durability sparked the most disagreement: some argued the DualSense is prone to stick drift, while others countered that Xbox controllers use the same potentiometer-based sticks and will eventually suffer the same fate. The thread also touched on wired-connection lag and how hard it is to get hold of the wireless receiver.

    1AnonymousSep 19, 2026 11:13
    Xbox controllers are a no-go
    4AnonymousSep 19, 2026 11:15
    Xbox controller
    6AnonymousSep 19, 2026 11:16
    Re: #4
    Can't use that filth
    Your fingers will rot
    8AnonymousSep 19, 2026 11:17
    Why not try a HORI controller?
    12AnonymousSep 19, 2026 11:19
    Re: #8
    What's the input lag like on this one?
    18AnonymousSep 19, 2026 11:24
    https://gamepadla.com/

    Then again, nobody's using a base-model Xbox pad without even back buttons, right?
    19AnonymousSep 19, 2026 11:24
    Tried a bunch of Chinese knockoffs and eventually settled on the DualSense, but now I'm on an Xbox controller.
    With PlayStation controllers, Steam automatically maps the Share button to Select, so you have to fix that for every single game — it's a pain.
    Also, the Vader's stick-tension adjustment feature is just unnecessary.
    29AnonymousSep 19, 2026 11:42
    Tried cheap generic pads and the DualSense too, but MS's controller is still #1.

    The grip feel in your hand, the stability of the analog sticks, how the D-pad and buttons feel to press — you really notice how much thought went into every little detail.

    And its biggest strength is durability.
    It's used in tanks and submarines, after all.
    I've heard it can go 30+ years without a single issue — basically tough enough to last a lifetime.
    36AnonymousSep 19, 2026 11:48
    Re: #29
    Personally I'm not a big fan of the D-pad
    30AnonymousSep 19, 2026 11:44
    I hear DualSense sticks break all the time, but I've never once heard of an Xbox controller breaking.
    32AnonymousSep 19, 2026 11:47
    Re: #30
    Xbox pads, Joy-Cons, and Pro Controllers are all potentiometer-based, so they'll all drift eventually.
    The DualSense's durability is defective-level bad, though.
    Actually, I think that thing genuinely is defective.
    33AnonymousSep 19, 2026 11:47
    At this point, only the clueless ("johjaku"/info-weak) are still using official Xbox controllers, right?
    38AnonymousSep 19, 2026 11:49
    Re: #33
    Xbox controllers run on AA batteries, so there's demand from people who don't like built-in batteries.
    Then again, I've never heard of a controller battery exploding.
    39AnonymousSep 19, 2026 11:51
    Real talk: get the 'wired' Xbox controller.
    Seriously, fix that garbage laggy Bluetooth spec already.
    42AnonymousSep 19, 2026 11:59
    Re: #39
    Don't they sell the receiver separately?
    46AnonymousSep 19, 2026 12:00
    Re: #39
    I tried wired too, but the cable's way too long. Wish they'd sell a ~1m version.
    51AnonymousSep 19, 2026 12:07
    If you buy an Xbox controller you also have to shell out for the receiver, which costs almost ¥5,000, right?
    53AnonymousSep 19, 2026 12:09
    Xbox 360 controller — personally I find it more comfortable to use than the current-gen one
    55AnonymousSep 19, 2026 12:10
    Re: #53
    The triggers are too stiff and the D-pad is unusably bad, so it's not for everyone
    63AnonymousSep 19, 2026 12:18
    Re: #55
    This.

    The triggers on Xbox controllers are way too stiff. The fanboys defend it for some reason, but when you ask 'Name one other controller with triggers this stiff — didn't the One controller make them softer?' they go quiet.
    66AnonymousSep 19, 2026 12:23
    Re: #55
    So you're saying the current Xbox controller has softer triggers and is the best, then?
    68AnonymousSep 19, 2026 12:24
    Really reminds me how clueless people on the console-war board (Geha) are about hardware and devices
    69AnonymousSep 19, 2026 12:25
    Re: #68
    I use Razer's Raiju V3 Pro — that's like 3x the price of the beitong Pangu, isn't it lol
    79AnonymousSep 19, 2026 12:36
    Don't use my Xbox controller or the Elite Controller 2 anymore, but I still break out the Xbox Adaptive Joystick sometimes.
    For eroge (adult games), though…
    82AnonymousSep 19, 2026 12:42
    Re: #79
    Does that actually get restocked?
    Bought one on a whim with my Rewards points but it's still sitting unopened.
    84AnonymousSep 19, 2026 12:52
    Re: #82
    Both the official store and Rakuten are sold out right now, but they restocked back in May this year so I grabbed another one. The price had gone up about 1.5x though.
    87AnonymousSep 19, 2026 13:02
    Re: #84
    Guess it does get restocked sometimes — thanks for the info
    88AnonymousSep 19, 2026 13:04
    So this is it —

    In the lawsuit over PS5 DualSense wear-related degradation, its lifespan was calculated at 417 hours (rewrite article)
    https://gamecolumn.jp/blog-entry-78125.html

    Lol, exposed as garbage right there in the court filings
    89AnonymousSep 19, 2026 13:05
    Re: #88
    Sony's gonna go bankrupt at this rate lol
    94AnonymousSep 19, 2026 13:15
    For PC gamers, wired is completely out of the question
    95AnonymousSep 19, 2026 13:19
    Re: #94
    If anything, PC gamers are the ones who should go wired — the tower's sitting right there next to you
    99AnonymousSep 19, 2026 13:25
    Why does someone keep making nothing but controller threads?
    100AnonymousSep 19, 2026 13:27
    Re: #99

    Because even a rehashed thread like this tends to rack up replies
    102AnonymousSep 19, 2026 13:28
    Re: #99
    Probably racks up views on aggregator ("matome") sites, I'd guess

    Background and Key Points

    The comments about DualSense durability draw on the overseas report cited in post #88; analog-stick wear over time (so-called “stick drift”) is an issue that has repeatedly come up in recent years with the PS5 and Nintendo Switch as well. That said, Xbox controllers also use potentiometer-type sticks — the same underlying mechanism — so claims that “Xbox controllers never break” should be read as individual, anecdotal experience shaped by usage frequency and unit-to-unit variation, not as a general rule. As for wireless lag, Bluetooth and the Xbox controller’s proprietary 2.4GHz receiver are different technologies with different susceptibility to interference from things like microwaves, which is why the claim in the thread that “the 2.4GHz band interferes with microwaves” drew pushback. It’s also worth noting that, as of this writing, official Xbox wireless receivers have remained unstable in stock as a standalone purchase, making accessory availability another factor in people’s choices.

    ※This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Hardware/Industry, aka “Geha”) thread “I’m a die-hard Xbox hater, recommend me a good Steam controller — anything but an Xbox pad.”

  • Pokémon Cards That Missed the ¥7,200 Lottery Now Reselling for ¥60,000 — Scalping and Production Debate Rages On

    On 5ch’s “Anything Goes Live G” board, discussion turned to the skyrocketing prices of the new Pokémon Card set. Packs that missed the ¥7,200 list-price lottery are reportedly circulating for ¥27,000, and some shops are now buying back those ¥27,000 items for as much as ¥60,000. Posters also pointed to the previous 25th Anniversary set, which started around ¥20,000 and climbed to nearly ¥400,000, sparking disagreement over whether to hold or sell. Meanwhile, the argument that “just printing more would fix it” drew pushback, with commenters noting it’s not that simple given production costs and no guarantee demand will last.

    1AnonymousSep 19, 2026 12:19
    List price: ¥7,200
    i.imgur.com/rb82YCV.jpeg
    5AnonymousSep 19, 2026 12:23
    I missed this lottery, but I did land the ¥27,000 one
    100AnonymousSep 19, 2026 13:30
    Re: #5
    Lucky you…
    I struck out on every single one
    7AnonymousSep 19, 2026 12:24
    Re: #5
    Shops are buying back the ¥27,000 one for ¥60,000 now.
    Congrats
    9AnonymousSep 19, 2026 12:25
    Re: #7
    Should I sell it?
    Torn on whether to hold onto it for a while
    13AnonymousSep 19, 2026 12:27
    Re: #9
    Personally, if you've got the storage space, I'd say don't sell — supply is thin.
    The 25th Anniversary one is going for about ¥250,000 now, so maybe use 10x face value as your benchmark for when to sell
    23AnonymousSep 19, 2026 12:31
    Re: #55
    Tch.
    Re: #9
    I bought something similar during the 25th Anniversary run for ¥20,000 and it's now worth ¥400,000.
    That's +¥380,000
    55AnonymousSep 19, 2026 12:44
    Prices are starting to shoot up like crazy
    24AnonymousSep 19, 2026 12:31
    This particular box isn't worth much though — they made enough of it that anyone can buy it
    29AnonymousSep 19, 2026 12:34
    Re: #24
    Other way around — the 25th Anniversary set was even selling below list price at first, but look at today's box price, it's eye-popping
    31AnonymousSep 19, 2026 12:35
    Re: #24
    Given the number of lottery winners plus convenience-store stock, it looks like about 5x the usual supply is circulating.
    Can't be very profitable as a resale item
    35AnonymousSep 19, 2026 12:36
    I never hear about anyone actually playing this card game, so why is everyone only talking about its resale value?
    39AnonymousSep 19, 2026 12:38
    Re: #35
    That's because you don't go to card shops.
    There are plenty of players — tournaments easily fill up with tens of thousands of entrants
    48AnonymousSep 19, 2026 12:42
    There's more supply coming anyway, so now's the time to sell.
    People are way too convinced everything just keeps going up
    53AnonymousSep 19, 2026 12:44
    Re: #48 By the 40th Anniversary five years from now it'll definitely be even higher.
    If you're short on cash, sell now for a small profit; if you can afford to wait, just hold it, let it grow, and sell later
    58AnonymousSep 19, 2026 12:45
    Re: #48
    I only sell as many boxes as I bought at list price to recoup my cost, and keep the rest in storage.
    If something spikes fast like the "151" set did, up to ¥70,000, I'll cash in a portion from there.
    Done this for 10 years and made a killing.
    I do file my taxes on it though
    54AnonymousSep 19, 2026 12:44
    If this one drops you could buy a car with it

    62AnonymousSep 19, 2026 12:46
    The miracle game where I've never once seen a single person actually play it
    66AnonymousSep 19, 2026 12:47
    Re: #62 Go outside once in a while (classic reply)
    68AnonymousSep 19, 2026 12:48
    Re: #62
    I'm a player too, you know.
    I go to tournaments every week.

    i.imgur.com/qoM8evl.jpeg
    70AnonymousSep 19, 2026 12:49
    Re: #68

    You probably look like this guy
    73AnonymousSep 19, 2026 12:51
    Re: #70
    Though I basically only enter adult-and-up tournaments.
    I smile for the camera though!
    96AnonymousSep 19, 2026 13:26
    Re: #70 The classic "big bro Kenjiro" reply (a recurring 5ch meme image)
    77AnonymousSep 19, 2026 12:54
    The manufacturer that does nothing to stop this is just as guilty.
    Or are they secretly in on it?
    79AnonymousSep 19, 2026 12:55
    Re: #77 They've actually done a ton to counter it.
    Supply just can't keep up with demand because it's that popular. And you can't outright ban resale anyway
    80AnonymousSep 19, 2026 12:56
    Re: #77
    No other company has gone further than tying purchases to My Number ID and banning listings on Mercari.
    Demand is just abnormally high
    86AnonymousSep 19, 2026 13:15
    If they'd just print a ton more, wouldn't it actually reach kids?
    Or are they secretly loving the current situation?
    87AnonymousSep 19, 2026 13:16
    It's the fault of trashy shops paying top dollar for unopened boxes.
    Feels like a bigger problem than the scalpers themselves.
    Re: #86
    Kids are getting them fine.
    They just can't compete with adults' wallets, but they can still buy them
    90AnonymousSep 19, 2026 13:23
    Re: #86
    Kids can buy them easily.
    There are tons of kids-only sales too
    107AnonymousSep 19, 2026 13:34
    Pokémon Card's maker just needs to massively ramp up production so it reaches kids.
    They need to kill any reason to buy from scalpers
    113AnonymousSep 19, 2026 13:38
    Re: #107 There's a limit to how much they can ramp up production since new sets come out every few months. If anything, total volume increases every year.
    And once something goes out of print, that's when the price-spike cycle kicks in
    117AnonymousSep 19, 2026 13:40
    Re: #113
    Why not just increase production capacity?
    The scalpers will buy it all up anyway
    120AnonymousSep 19, 2026 13:43
    Re: #117
    Ramping up production costs money too.
    That'd be fine if scalpers kept buying forever, but once they realize there's no money in it they'll pull out — and then it's a massive loss
    114AnonymousSep 19, 2026 13:39
    People online used to say Yu-Gi-Oh! was basically printing cash.
    Is Pokémon Cards even bigger than that?
    Which one actually sold more, comparing to Yu-Gi-Oh!'s peak?
    118AnonymousSep 19, 2026 13:42
    Re: #114 Pokémon Cards is overwhelmingly bigger.
    Yu-Gi-Oh!: ¥50 billion, Pokémon Cards: ¥200–300 billion
    119AnonymousSep 19, 2026 13:43
    Re: #114
    Pokémon Cards, by a landslide.
    It's beating everything else by double
    125AnonymousSep 19, 2026 13:45
    Re: #114
    You could actually buy Yu-Gi-Oh! cards without much trouble though.
    Not even being able to buy it at all is next-level abnormal
    128AnonymousSep 19, 2026 13:46
    Should I sell this one unopened instead?

    Background and Key Points of the Debate

    Pokémon Cards is said to vastly outsell Yu-Gi-Oh! in market size, with posters in the thread citing figures like “¥50 billion for Yu-Gi-Oh! versus ¥200–300 billion for Pokémon Cards.” Simply ramping up production isn’t a straightforward fix for a hit card game. Because new sets keep releasing every few months, expanding production lines requires capital investment and carries risk, with no guarantee demand will hold up. The very structure in which prices start climbing once a product goes out of print also makes limited-edition items easy targets for speculation. The thread also brought up cases of misprinted “error cards” unexpectedly fetching high prices — a reminder that ramping up production doesn’t necessarily increase these rarities in proportion.

    ※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Anything Goes Live G) thread “[Scalping] Pokémon Cards’ New Release Is Turning Into a Huge Mess.”

  • Wolverine Sells 1.9 Million in 3 Days, Barely Edging Out Death Stranding 2’s Lifetime Total

    Marvel’s new action game Wolverine has reportedly sold 1.9 million copies worldwide and earned $130 million in revenue in just three days, according to an overseas analytics firm — surpassing the lifetime total of director Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding 2 (1.8 million copies, $129 million), which has been out for over a year. However, Wolverine’s Metacritic scores — 77 critic / 6.4 user — fall well short of Death Stranding 2’s 89 critic / 8.7 user scores. On 5ch’s game-hardware (Geha) board, opinions were split over whether it’s even valid to compare a ‘3-day’ figure against DS2’s lifetime total, and whether 1.9 million copies can really be called a success against a development budget of $305 million (roughly ¥47.3 billion).

    1AnonymousSep 19, 2026 10:53
    Marvel's Wolverine has already put up staggering sales in just three days since launch — even as some fans complain it doesn't live up to the value of the adamantium in its retractable claws. Even so, Insomniac's new superhero game has already surpassed director Hideo Kojima's Death Stranding 2 in cumulative PS5 sales.
    Head of market analysis Reece Elliott explains in Alinea Analytics' latest Substack newsletter that the PS5-exclusive Wolverine rapidly racked up $130 million in revenue, while Death Stranding 2's total PS5 sales sit slightly behind at $129 million — despite having been out for more than a year. Likewise, Wolverine has already scored a hit with 1.9 million copies sold on PS5, while Death Stranding 2 lags behind with 1.8 million total.
    These numbers help explain PlayStation's decision to abandon Hideo Kojima's new stealth game Physint, pleasing its new publisher, Xbox. The underwhelming Wolverine holds a Metacritic score of 77, with an even harsher 6.4 user rating across more than 3,500 reviews, while Death Stranding 2 boasts a genuinely strong 89 on Metacritic and an 8.7 user score. But does anyone really look for critical merit in a PS5 game? Making easy money is so much better than that.
    5AnonymousSep 19, 2026 10:56
    Isn't Death Stranding 2 the game that bombed and got Kojima dropped (by Sony)…
    8AnonymousSep 19, 2026 10:58
    It's selling more than double what 'Toukon' did (a jab likely referencing some infamous flop title)…

    Is this supposed to be the punchline?
    10AnonymousSep 19, 2026 10:59
    They're spinning 2 million as some kind of achievement despite the exclusivity 'barrier' — is that really okay?
    96AnonymousSep 19, 2026 11:49
    Re: #10
    Everyone around is saying it's not good, but they're ignoring that and just treating it as '2 million sold.'
    It hasn't even outsold Spider-Man — I think that's a really shaky narrative.
    11AnonymousSep 19, 2026 10:59
    That's exactly why Kojima got cut over Death Stranding 2.
    12AnonymousSep 19, 2026 10:59
    Bragging about an all-time #1 based on just a 3-day window is the exact same trick 'Shitty Sony' used when they bragged about Spider-Man 2's disappointing sales.
    Did they just read the script Sony handed them word-for-word? lol
    13AnonymousSep 19, 2026 11:00
    Honestly, the fact that they specifically picked Death Stranding as the comparison point is hilarious in itself.
    25AnonymousSep 19, 2026 11:08
    Apparently Marvel set an 8 million target, but that looks rough.

    Spider-Man 1: 3.3M (3 days) (highly rated)
    Spider-Man 2: 2.5M (1 day) (highly rated)
    Wolverine: 1.9M (3 days) (terribly rated)
    42AnonymousSep 19, 2026 11:15
    Re: #25
    Didn't Spider-Man 2 also fall short of its sales target even with those numbers, and end up giving away a ton of copies?
    61AnonymousSep 19, 2026 11:27
    Just for the initial numbers, sure it'll sell some — it was getting a lot of buzz over there. Even so, that's still below Spider-Man 1 Re: #25
    If anything, it's precisely because it had a decent launch that the terrible content is now blowing up into this big pile-on.
    97AnonymousSep 19, 2026 11:49
    Re: #25
    Well, the Marvel quota can technically be hit even in the worst case by just giving copies away for free —
    though doing that makes clearing the already-tough profit line even harder.
    32AnonymousSep 19, 2026 11:10
    Is it really okay to use Death Stranding — a game that missed its own target — as the comparison, of all things?
    62AnonymousSep 19, 2026 11:28
    Re: #32
    That's because they were being developed around the same time.
    If they could've cancelled Wolverine, they'd have cancelled Death Stranding 2 too.
    Both had gone too far and spent too much money, so it was probably a case of 'better to ship and recoup something than scrap it outright.'

    Under the Marvel deal, Sony was also supposed to make two more X-Men games (each expected to sell 6+ million) besides Wolverine. So maybe they're worried about funding those, or worried that if Wolverine flops the exclusivity payment goes to waste and the remaining two X-Men games risk cancellation — and cutting the money-guzzling Kojima was a way to cover those potential losses.
    40AnonymousSep 19, 2026 11:13
    Wasn't the minimum target 6 million?
    Is this thing actually going to get there?
    52AnonymousSep 19, 2026 11:18
    Re: #40
    No way, obviously.
    A 'comes bundled free with something' campaign is going to start soon.
    41AnonymousSep 19, 2026 11:13
    They can just cover the payments to Marvel out of the earnings from the new Spider-Man movie.
    47AnonymousSep 19, 2026 11:17
    Re: #41
    Sony Pictures and SIE are separate companies, you know.
    Totoki (Sony's president) isn't going to let that slide.
    45AnonymousSep 19, 2026 11:16
    This feeling is familiar somehow.
    It's got the same vibe as [REDACTED], which cashed in and bailed, trading on nothing but its name value and trust from past titles.
    50AnonymousSep 19, 2026 11:18
    Re: #45
    This time the bad reputation has already spread, so it might not keep climbing in numbers the way Wilds (Monster Hunter Wilds) did.
    55AnonymousSep 19, 2026 11:19
    The bad reputation hitting sales is something that shows up later anyway.
    Even Wilds still sold 10 million.
    60AnonymousSep 19, 2026 11:22
    Re: #55
    Well, there is a segment of people who just tune out any bad news, so I guess that's fair…
    70AnonymousSep 19, 2026 11:35
    The fact that Sony hasn't made an official announcement says it all.
    86AnonymousSep 19, 2026 11:45
    Re: #70
    They can't release the numbers officially because it's a confirmed massive flop,
    but having their yes-men write puff-piece articles is the usual playbook.
    74AnonymousSep 19, 2026 11:38
    There's talk that Death Stranding 2's total sales have topped 2.5 million,
    and yet they're calling 1.9 million a 'huge hit' for a $305 million AAA title.
    This is Shitty Sony's specialty: a fabricated puff piece, lol.
    77AnonymousSep 19, 2026 11:40
    Re: #74
    Missed the 'dollars.'
    'Fartverine's' (a mocking pun on Wolverine's Japanese name) production budget is $305 million —
    about ¥47.3 billion, lol.
    75AnonymousSep 19, 2026 11:38
    Death Stranding collaborated with all kinds of celebrities and paid a ton in appearance fees, and still couldn't even sell 2 million.
    Sounds like the new one is going to load up on celebrities again too — no wonder Sony's cutting them loose.
    84AnonymousSep 19, 2026 11:44
    Re: #75
    On top of development costs, they've got that office and around 250 staff, five years of development since Death Stranding 1 —
    if anything, that might cost more than Wolverine.
    And yet Kojima Productions is doing just fine even with only 2 million sold, meaning they must be getting a solid chunk of money from Sony. On top of that, if they're saying they don't want exclusivity and want to keep the IP rights for themselves, well, of course they'd get cut loose.
    89AnonymousSep 19, 2026 11:46
    The root cause of all this is that game development budgets have ballooned so much that selling around 2 million copies no longer counts as a success.
    98AnonymousSep 19, 2026 11:50
    Re: #89
    It's not just development costs — it's also become way too much of a vanity business, with weird advertising, 'creators' (lol), 'performance' (lol), and 'superiority' (lol) piled on top.
    It doesn't look like they're making and selling games anymore — it looks like they're just spending huge money trying to manipulate the masses.
    They spend tens of billions hoping for a jackpot worth hundreds of billions.
    95AnonymousSep 19, 2026 11:49
    Did it really sell 1.9 million in its opening alone?
    102AnonymousSep 19, 2026 11:53
    Re: #95
    Well, 1.9 million in worldwide sales leans toward 'flop' territory anyway…
    especially since these guys spent way too much money.
    115AnonymousSep 19, 2026 12:00
    Re: #95
    Even the 'barrier' crowd (PS fanboys) who were fabricating claims of '2 million on day one' got called out on this —
    when you factor in the development costs, it's nowhere near enough.
    109AnonymousSep 19, 2026 11:56
    Nishi-kun (a mocking nickname for Nintendo fanboys) lost again, huh… lol
    118AnonymousSep 19, 2026 12:01
    Re: #109
    Even people overseas are saying this while ignoring the inconvenient Marvel quota line and the break-even line, so it's probably genuinely bad…
    113AnonymousSep 19, 2026 11:58
    There's no way 'about 2 million worldwide' is going to be acceptable.
    122AnonymousSep 19, 2026 12:01
    Well, I think it's safe to assume recouping the development cost is pretty much impossible.
    Actually, going by the footage circulating online right now, I'm not even sure that money can honestly be called 'development cost' in the first place.

    Re: #113
    Your 'satisfaction' is leaking out.
    114AnonymousSep 19, 2026 11:59
    That's some phrasing making it sound like Death Stranding 2 actually sold well, huh?
    123AnonymousSep 19, 2026 12:02
    Re: #114
    The claim boils down to: 'It sold more than titles that didn't sell'
    and 'it sold less than titles that did sell' —
    that's literally the argument being made here…
    125AnonymousSep 19, 2026 12:03
    Why compare it to Death Stranding? 🤔
    127AnonymousSep 19, 2026 12:04
    Re: #125
    Because 'world-famous Kojima' joined the Xbox family —
    it's meant to plant a negative image.

    Background and points of contention

    Marvel’s Wolverine is a PS5-exclusive big-budget project reportedly costing $305 million (roughly ¥47.3 billion) to develop. The overseas analysis behind this article (Alinea Analytics) compared Wolverine’s 3-day sales figures and revenue against the lifetime total of Death Stranding 2, which has been out for over a year, and claimed Wolverine came out ahead. The thread split mainly over two points. One was the validity of the comparison itself: Death Stranding 2 is widely seen as a title that fell short of its own targets and was cited as a factor behind Sony and Kojima Productions reassessing their relationship, so many questioned framing ‘outselling an underperforming title’ as an achievement. The other was the gap between raw unit sales and the actual break-even line — 1.9 million is a modest figure for a worldwide AAA release, and recouping a $305-million-plus budget would require getting close to the roughly 6-million-unit quota reportedly set by Marvel, which this falls well short of. Wolverine’s low Metacritic critic score (77) and user score (6.4), compared with Death Stranding 2’s 89/8.7, was also raised as evidence of a gap between hype and actual reception. The lack of any official sales announcement from Sony fed into the view in the thread that this was a ‘puff piece cherry-picking convenient numbers.’

    ※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Hardware/Industry, ‘Geha’) thread “Wolverine, despite everyone mocking it, becomes a huge hit — already surpassing Death Stranding 2 in just 3 days”.

  • Palworld Loses Players to Copycat Game ‘animo,’ Sales Rank Plummets to No. 102

    Palworld, which became a massive hit during its 2024 early access period and had expanded by 2026 into a full release complete with trading cards, has become a hot topic after disappearing from the concurrent-player rankings entirely. On the 5ch “Hardware/Industry (Geha)” board, the prevailing theory is that players have been flowing over to the new free-to-play title animo (which carries a Metacritic score in the 70s, roughly the same as Palworld’s), and reports noted that Palworld has also plunged to a global rank of 102 on SteamDB’s sales charts. Since Palworld itself borrowed heavily from ARK-style survival games, opinions were split between those amused by the “one copycat getting devoured by another copycat” irony and those who simply argued the game itself had gotten boring.

    1AnonymousSep 19, 2026 09:27
    Concurrent players have crashed so hard it's vanished from the concurrent-player rankings…😭
    3AnonymousSep 19, 2026 09:27
    A copycat losing to another copycat… I honestly don't even know what to make of this anymore.
    16AnonymousSep 19, 2026 09:32
    Re: #3
    Honestly, this was totally expected.
    It's always another copycat that ends up killing a copycat.
    Same thing happened with Genshin Impact going to war with other Chinese gacha games.
    9AnonymousSep 19, 2026 09:29
    It did well for an indie game, but beating Pokémon was always an impossible task (´・ω・`)
    10AnonymousSep 19, 2026 09:30
    Re: #9
    Pokémon is just on a whole different level.
    11AnonymousSep 19, 2026 09:30
    Lol, neither of them is even playable on Switch.
    19AnonymousSep 19, 2026 09:32
    Re: #11
    That's because Switch already has the real Pokémon to play.
    12AnonymousSep 19, 2026 09:30
    Palworld's just plain boring, honestly.
    15AnonymousSep 19, 2026 09:31
    Re: #12
    Exactly.
    Looking back on it now, it was a game that only ever had hype going for it.
    73AnonymousSep 19, 2026 10:01
    Re: #12
    You can build a base, but it's shockingly shallow.
    Crafting with no real production-line system is just boring.
    17AnonymousSep 19, 2026 09:32
    [Sad News] Palworld Loses to animo, a Copycat of Palworld Itself, in Concurrent Players
    https://krsw.5ch.io/test/read.cgi/ghard/1789764070/
    43AnonymousSep 19, 2026 09:43
    Re: #17
    Back then Palworld could still crack the top 18…
    Guess it's been completely eaten alive now.
    20AnonymousSep 19, 2026 09:33
    Palworld's like a game from years ago at this point.
    Who even cares anymore.
    21AnonymousSep 19, 2026 09:33
    Re: #20
    It only just got its full release this year and even got a trading card game, and this is how it ends up 😭
    29AnonymousSep 19, 2026 09:37
    Honestly the gameplay is nothing like Pokémon's (this one's a ripoff of ARK), so it was never going to eat into Pokémon's demand.
    33AnonymousSep 19, 2026 09:38
    Re: #29
    Exactly.
    Saying it's more fun than Pokémon just screams you've never actually played either one.
    31AnonymousSep 19, 2026 09:37
    Here we go again (a recurring copypasta):

    Soulslike? Great, go for it!
    Monster Hunter-like? Great, go for it!
    Pokémon-like? We'll spend 3 billion yen to crush you.
    77AnonymousSep 19, 2026 10:02
    Re: #31
    That's not a '-like,' that's a straight-up design ripoff.
    34AnonymousSep 19, 2026 09:39
    Copying someone else's game just means you're setting yourself up to be copied too.
    And if that copy turns out more fun, users will drop you without a shred of mercy.
    40AnonymousSep 19, 2026 09:41
    Re: #34
    It was undercutting Pokémon on price to get an edge, but once an even cheaper (free) game showed up, that was game over.
    50AnonymousSep 19, 2026 09:50
    And on top of that, even animo's own concurrent player numbers aren't all that high either.
    Guess they'll just keep eating each other alive, getting weaker, and fading out one by one.

    Meanwhile, Pokémon just kept setting new sales records.
    51AnonymousSep 19, 2026 09:50
    Re: #50
    At the end of the day, a fake can never beat the real thing.
    62AnonymousSep 19, 2026 09:56
    Even here on Geha, plenty of people can't name a single one of Palworld's monsters ("Palmon"), lol
    65AnonymousSep 19, 2026 09:57
    Re: #62
    Yeah, there's really no character that's actually become popular.
    67AnonymousSep 19, 2026 09:58
    So what ever happened to the card game?
    75AnonymousSep 19, 2026 10:01
    Re: #67
    A TCG with weak art appeal won't catch on even if the rules are fun, so it'll probably just quietly die off.
    78AnonymousSep 19, 2026 10:02
    Checked SteamDB and Palworld's sales drop is insane.

    World rank 102, that's absurdly low… it came out this year, no way…

    80AnonymousSep 19, 2026 10:02
    Re: #78
    Rank 102 is way too brutal, lol
    It's over.
    88AnonymousSep 19, 2026 10:06
    Re: #78
    Back when early access was the big talk, there were a few people saying 'I'll buy it when the full version drops,' but I guess there weren't as many as it seemed.
    99AnonymousSep 19, 2026 10:10
    Re: #78
    It was only ever hype to begin with, so once the hype's gone, so is the game.
    A developer whose only skill is copying was never going to manage ongoing content anyway.
    The copycats will just eat each other alive, and in the end the original — Nintendo — will be the one left standing.
    Honestly, you have to wonder what this game was even born to do.
    87AnonymousSep 19, 2026 10:05
    Falling all the way to sales rank 102 means demand genuinely got split off by the copycat.
    89AnonymousSep 19, 2026 10:06
    Re: #87
    Before the copycat showed up, I think it was sitting around rank 50.
    That was already low, but this is a brutal crash.
    96AnonymousSep 19, 2026 10:09
    It's probably sold something like 20 million copies on Steam, so does it really matter if concurrent players are low right now?
    100AnonymousSep 19, 2026 10:10
    Re: #96
    The real problem is the sales rank being low, not just concurrent players.
    It's at 102, after all.
    111AnonymousSep 19, 2026 10:16
    Palworld's company president: 'Just copy stuff! Since we're copying, we don't even need to write design docs!'

    China: 'Oh, is that so…❤'
    118AnonymousSep 19, 2026 10:21
    Re: #111
    A perfect picture of an idiot who helped create the very lawless environment that let rule-breakers run wild.
    114AnonymousSep 19, 2026 10:18
    Is animo actually any good?
    So is it the 'true Palworld' that surpasses Palworld, the so-called 'true Pokémon'?
    116AnonymousSep 19, 2026 10:19
    Re: #114
    For what it's worth, its Metascore is exactly the same as Palworld's, in the 70s.
    Since the reviews are about equal either way, I'd say animo's the better pick since it's free-to-play 😄
    121AnonymousSep 19, 2026 10:22
    Re: #114
    I played it a bit, and it feels like Palworld turned into a mobile gacha game cranked way up on microtransactions.
    There are limits on getting monsters that make it rough if you don't pay, but pay up and you get them instantly.
    Whether you think that's fine or garbage is up to you, but personally, I don't think it's fine.

    Background and Key Points of the Discussion

    Palworld became an explosive hit during its 2024 early access period, and by 2026 had progressed to a full release along with a card game rollout. Meanwhile, the buzzy new title animo carries a Metacritic score in the same 70s range as Palworld, with the main difference being that it’s free-to-play. In the thread, two different metrics get mixed together — “dropped out of the concurrent-player rankings” and “Steam sales rank 102” — the former referring to a ranking by simultaneous player count, the latter to a sales ranking. As for gameplay, some argue that animo, unlike Palworld’s ARK-style survival approach, leans more toward Pokémon-style collecting and raising, meaning the two aren’t simply interchangeable. The thread’s central disagreement boils down to this: did Palworld genuinely lose out on merit, or did it just get undercut by animo’s free price tag?

    *This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Hardware/Industry (Geha)) thread “[Sad News] Palworld Has Its Demand Completely Devoured by a Copycat Game Called animo 😭“.

  • GTA6’s 30fps Critics Now Defending Fire Emblem’s 30fps, 5ch Gaming Board Erupts

    In a thread on 5ch’s Hardware/Industry (“Gehā”) board, the crowd that had been mocking GTA6’s 30fps found themselves in the hot seat after being called out for defending Fire Emblem’s 30fps. Opinions split over whether SRPGs really need 60fps and whether framerate even matters during exploration sections, with someone at one point citing a stat claiming the game’s 24-hour review score was 69% positive. The thread also veered into a tangent about the buzzy “Wolverine” title from another thread, pulling the conversation further away from the original 30fps debate.

    1AnonymousSep 18, 2026 17:46
    Double-standard, two-faced, low-IQ Nishikun, huh…lol ("Nishikun" is 5ch slang mocking Nintendo fanboys)
    3AnonymousSep 18, 2026 17:48
    Weren't you guys the ones going on about eye strain and going blind?
    26AnonymousSep 18, 2026 17:56
    Re: #3 sums it all up.

    We honestly don't care either way.
    We're just mocking the fact that your bludgeon snapped in half.
    4AnonymousSep 18, 2026 17:48
    This is hilarious lol
    You mocked GTA6's 30fps and then got boomeranged right back by FE.
    10AnonymousSep 18, 2026 17:51
    FE is fine running at 30fps to begin with
    It's a simulation RPG.
    19AnonymousSep 18, 2026 17:54
    Nobody's spinning the camera wildly around the map in FE.
    22AnonymousSep 18, 2026 17:55
    Re: #19
    Yeah, you clearly haven't played it.
    If you have, you can show your playtime, right?
    Show us your playtime for Bansen Senkou (this FE title's Japanese name), Nishikun.
    33AnonymousSep 18, 2026 17:57
    Bansen's ratings are low.
    Search "Bansen ratings" on X sorted by latest and you'll see.
    41AnonymousSep 18, 2026 18:00
    Re: #33
    The 24-hour positive rating is 69%.

    43AnonymousSep 18, 2026 18:02
    "Shoshi-senban" (a pun on the game's title meaning "utterly ridiculous") has dungeons, so 30fps is flat-out garbage there — guess an armchair player like Boo-chan (a Nintendo-fanboy nickname) wouldn't get that.
    46AnonymousSep 18, 2026 18:03
    Re: #43
    30fps is way more fatal in an action game lol
    52AnonymousSep 18, 2026 18:05
    Re: #43
    You think you're being clever with that "Shoshi-senban" pun, don't you?
    47AnonymousSep 18, 2026 18:03



    55AnonymousSep 18, 2026 18:06
    Re: #45
    Well, Wolverine threads are hot right now, so everyone's coming to check it out.
    56AnonymousSep 18, 2026 18:07
    Re: #55
    Then why are you even in this thread lol?
    58AnonymousSep 18, 2026 18:07
    Huh? It started because PS fanboys were mocking Switch titles for being 30fps, so someone clapped back with "wait, does that mean GTA6's 30fps on PS5 doesn't count either? That's a boomerang."
    Bringing up Switch titles being 30fps again doesn't prove anything — the PS fanboys are the ones who threw the boomerang in the first place.
    66AnonymousSep 18, 2026 18:11
    Re: #58
    Exactly.
    Guess they forgot it was the roaches (🪳, 5ch slang for fanboys people despise) who threw the boomerang.
    67AnonymousSep 18, 2026 18:11
    Re: #45
    lol
    Their beloved Wolverine got mocked, so the annoyed roach (🪳) tries to change the subject — hilarious.
    68AnonymousSep 18, 2026 18:12
    Re: #67
    Who's even buying Wolverine?
    It's a walking red flag.
    82AnonymousSep 18, 2026 18:19
    This FE barely has any SRPG elements left, so you're clearly an armchair player, pig (a Nintendo-fanboy slur).
    If anything, it's mostly exploration sections that actually demand a solid framerate.
    85AnonymousSep 18, 2026 18:21
    Re: #82
    That's just an early-game impression.
    You'll get it once you're further in.
    84AnonymousSep 18, 2026 18:20
    The roach (🪳) says: "I think Wolverine's a red flag too!!"

    Except apparently they were over in the Wolverine thread defending it with "the water looks great, right?"

    lol
    89AnonymousSep 18, 2026 18:23
    Re: #84
    This guy's an idiot.
    I just posted something that looked like it'd get a lot of replies.
    91AnonymousSep 18, 2026 18:24
    344: Anonymous Trying Real Hard []: 2026/09/18 (Fri) 11:55:35.31 ID:DzYl3LxS0 ("Anonymous Trying Real Hard" is 5ch's default poster name, itself a running joke)
    Some people say the water looks great — so which is it?
    https://x.com/emula86/status/2100696441496674676

    That water-splash effect showed up, lol
    96AnonymousSep 18, 2026 18:25
    Re: #91
    What is this liquid? Looks seriously viscous.
    97AnonymousSep 18, 2026 18:26
    Re: #91
    Running the "desperation checker" on me, lol (a tool tracking how often one poster replies in a thread)
    Lots of replies today! Good way to kill some time.
    100AnonymousSep 18, 2026 18:27
    Got a ton of bites, lol
    FYI, I'm mocking Wolverine too 🤣
    108AnonymousSep 18, 2026 18:28
    Kind of rich for someone with way more "FE this, FE that" posts than actual Wolverine-mocking ones to be saying Re: #100.
    101AnonymousSep 18, 2026 18:27
    Re: #97
    This guy always says this — is it just that he can't admit he's losing the argument?

    Background and Key Points of This Debate

    The “Gehā” board (hardware and industry discussion) has a well-established culture of Nintendo fans and PlayStation fans trading nicknames while hammering each other with their own arguments, and this thread became a case of comparing two completely different genres — GTA6 and Fire Emblem — on the single axis of “30fps.” Some pointed out that SRPGs and action games have different framerate demands, so it isn’t simply a matter of one side being right. The “69% positive” review score cited in the thread came only from a screenshot, and the thread itself doesn’t clarify which title it refers to or over what period it was measured. Midway through the discussion, a tangent about a separate “Wolverine” thread got mixed in — unrelated to the original 30fps debate — which is typical of how conversations sprawl on this board.

    ※This article excerpts and summarizes the 5ch (Hardware/Industry (Gehā)) thread “[Sad News] Nishikun Mocked 30fps, Now Defending FE’s 30fps.”

  • Final FFVII Game’s File Size Set to Hit ~200GB — Switch 2 Version Reportedly Around 130GB

    At Tokyo Game Show 2026, Naoki Hamaguchi, director of the final FFVII-series title ‘FFVII Revelation,’ told VGC in an interview that “the game is probably going to be around 200GB.” Despite his caveat that things are still being adjusted, the 200GB figure took on a life of its own — and reactions on 5ch were split as posters weighed the free storage on PS5 versus Switch 2 against microSD card prices, trying to figure out where they’d actually fit the game. Some pointed out that the Switch 2’s 256GB of internal storage really only offers about 230GB of usable space, sparking discussion about how hard it’ll be to keep multiple big titles installed at once.

    VGC interviewed series director Naoki Hamaguchi at Tokyo Game Show 2026, asking mainly about the sheer volume of ‘FFVII Revelation.’ According to Hamaguchi, while cautioning that things are still being adjusted, he said: “it’s probably going to be around 200GB of game.”

    Source: automaton-media.com / Original article here

    2AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:27
    Honestly, this'll be a breeze on PS5 and PC.

    But Switch 2 is gonna be brutal — even at 130GB it'll eat up more than half the internal storage lol
    10AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:35
    Re: #2
    Bro's PS5 only has 660GB free out of the box
    and Genshin Impact alone already eats 200GB of that on PS5
    what are you gonna do with the remaining 200GB?
    GTA6 won't even fit lol, what about all the other free-to-play games?
    Star Rail and Zenless Zone Zero are both nearly 200GB too lol
    3AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:28
    Can you even keep both FFVII and FFXIV installed on a Switch at the same time?
    6AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:31
    Re: #3
    Switch 2 says 256GB but it's really only about 230GB usable, so after installing Revelation you'd have around 100GB left.
    That's seriously tight.
    40AnonymousSep 18, 2026 21:01
    Re: #3
    If you've got the 512GB one…
    4AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:28
    Personally, even compared to Rebirth and the Remake, this feels smaller than I expected.
    5AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:31
    The console only has 670GB total and you call that a breeze?
    8AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:35
    Re: #7
    >microSD Express cards
    >256GB for about ¥9,000
    >512GB for about ¥29,000

    lol
    90AnonymousSep 18, 2026 23:49
    Re: #8
    The Switch 2's real weakness is that even if you buy two 256GB cards for a combined 512GB, say each card has 20GB left over — you still can't install a single 40GB game spread across the two.
    You're stuck filling those leftover scraps with small games to make use of them.
    The more low-capacity cards you stack up, the more wasted space you end up with.
    9AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:35
    If it's over 256GB you'd go "huh?", but under that it's manageable somehow.
    11AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:38
    What the heck is eating up 200GB, or even 130GB….
    15AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:40
    Re: #11
    They can't subtract or optimize anything — bigger file size is just righteousness to them.
    That's the "Square Enix brain" wall right there.
    12AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:38
    I mean, realistically nobody's buying the Switch 2 version anyway, it's the downgraded port.
    And as a matter of fact, even Remake and Rebirth only sold around 30,000 copies (on Switch).
    14AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:40
    Lol, the Switch 2 version alone effectively costs ¥19,000 once you factor in the storage card.
    16AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:40
    Personally, if it's on sale, the Switch 2 version is my only pick.
    17AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:41
    The 200GB is probably from having separate cutscenes and textures for each resolution setting, right?
    18AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:42
    A single game eats up 60% of storage on the "latest" (lol) console lmaooo
    20AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:44
    Anyone planning to marathon the whole trilogy once it's all finally out just had their motivation completely crushed lol.
    Not that I know if such a person actually exists lol
    21AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:44
    29GB


    160GB


    200GB
    22AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:45
    Re: #21
    Replying to my own post — these are all screenshots from the same phone, by the way.
    24AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:47
    Re: #21
    What's the second one?
    33AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:54
    I wanted to give it a try, but I have no idea which one to start with, so I've decided to just skip it.
    36AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:59
    Re: #33
    Just buy the set of all three.
    52AnonymousSep 18, 2026 21:37
    17 GB


    160 GB


    200GB
    54AnonymousSep 18, 2026 21:37
    Re: #52
    Replying to my own post — all of these are screenshots taken on the same phone.
    57AnonymousSep 18, 2026 21:41
    File sizes just keep ballooning
    while the actual fun keeps shrinking.
    I wish Square would remember the days when they had to make do with the Super Famicom's tiny cartridge capacity.
    58AnonymousSep 18, 2026 21:45
    Re: #57
    Aren't there only like two or three people left from that era anyway?
    65AnonymousSep 18, 2026 22:15
    Storage prices are through the roof and everyone's struggling to manage space, yet Square Enix devs just casually ship a 200GB game.
    66AnonymousSep 18, 2026 22:19
    Re: #65
    PS5 comes with about 800GB from the factory, so 200GB isn't really a problem.
    70AnonymousSep 18, 2026 22:26
    Why does it even need that much? Seems way too big for the actual content.
    85AnonymousSep 18, 2026 23:07
    Re: #70
    They're definitely reusing maps from the previous two games, no doubt about it.
    74AnonymousSep 18, 2026 22:33
    Guess you'll need a 1TB microSD card.
    75AnonymousSep 18, 2026 22:40
    Re: #74
    The 512GB card is ¥28,980, so the 1TB one's gonna run over ¥50,000 lol
    84AnonymousSep 18, 2026 23:04
    Re: #75
    Even if you buy the 1TB one, you actually only get about 669GB of usable space.
    88AnonymousSep 18, 2026 23:39
    Does the physical/retail version need the full 200GB too?
    89AnonymousSep 18, 2026 23:42
    Re: #88
    How long has it been since you last actually played a game?
    108AnonymousSep 19, 2026 00:44

    Haven't played it, but I'm just curious whether they fixed this character's face compared to Rebirth.

    Background and Key Points of This Discussion

    The Switch 2 has moved to a new “microSD Express” card standard, which is faster than older microSD cards — and pricier as a result. The figures cited in the thread (around ¥9,000 for 256GB, nearly ¥30,000 for 512GB) reflect this new standard, so they look expensive when compared to old-style SD card pricing. Meanwhile, the fact that the PS5’s usable storage is smaller than its advertised capacity (roughly 660–670GB in practice) also caused some confusion in the thread, such as comments assuming the console had a full 670GB free. The ballooning file sizes aren’t unique to the FFVII series, either — other major titles like Genshin Impact, GTA6, Honkai: Star Rail, and Zenless Zone Zero have already reached the 150–200GB range, and some posters framed it as an industry-wide trend. One exchange containing derogatory language toward Switch 2 users has been excluded from this writeup.

    *This article was compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Hardware/Industry (Geha)) thread “Final FFVII game’s storage looking like ~200GB, and yeah the Switch 2 version is 130GB.”

  • Palworld’s TGS Booth Quality Stuns Fans — 5ch: ‘This Indie Studio Can Only Make Masterpieces’

    The craftsmanship of Palworld’s booth at the Tokyo Game Show became a hot topic online, with people saying “the quality is way too high for what’s basically a one-off exhibit,” sparking a thread on 5ch’s Hardware/Industry (Geha) board. The discussion ranged from astonishment at the exhibit’s polish to comparisons with Pokémon, the headcount at developer Pocketpair, trends in concurrent player numbers, and even the names of the artists behind the character designs. Opinions never converged, with voices questioning Game Freak’s development structure clashing against views that Palworld’s popularity has already cooled off.

    1AnonymousSep 18, 2026 19:41
    If they seriously built a theme park with this, it'd be amazing
    2AnonymousSep 18, 2026 19:41
    14AnonymousSep 18, 2026 19:46
    Re: #2
    The Pal (or Pokémon?) on the right looks like it'll be popular
    40AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:04
    Re: #2
    It's not really a Pokémon-lookalike design anymore
    Did they finally learn their lesson?
    104AnonymousSep 18, 2026 22:21
    Re: #2
    So they gave up on becoming a Pokémon-style hit that appeals across genders and generations, and shifted to raking in money from creepy otaku with lewd furry (kemono) designs instead?
    That's a franchise in decline right there
    5AnonymousSep 18, 2026 19:43
    Is this one ripping something off too?
    10AnonymousSep 18, 2026 19:44
    Re: #5
    The top hat and cane on its head is a classic trope that's been around forever
    And the way it's holding it, like some cheap magic trick — that's how low-effort it is
    13AnonymousSep 18, 2026 19:45
    Re: #10
    No, the concept literally is a magic trick, lol 😅
    16AnonymousSep 18, 2026 19:48
    https://twitter.com/poke_times/status/2100464778510532828?s=46&t=-Qau9LIQfbSHaroqhB3vEA

    Meanwhile, Pokémon
    https://twitter.com/thejimwatkins
    24AnonymousSep 18, 2026 19:53
    There's no point appealing to Japan
    They need to do this in China or America instead
    There's no point spending money on promotion here
    35AnonymousSep 18, 2026 19:58
    Re: #24

    Something like this, maybe?
    Re: #16
    18AnonymousSep 18, 2026 19:49
    This company can't survive without Pal anymore
    That's the kind of success they ended up having
    27AnonymousSep 18, 2026 19:54
    Re: #18
    They're clearly aiming for a second Palworld here
    They've got Craftopia, and they're working on a 2D action game too
    Once they bring in someone who can actually write a story, they'll be complete
    21AnonymousSep 18, 2026 19:52
    Meanwhile, Game Freak apparently can only develop pretty-girl games like Uma Musume

    Why does Pocketpair flat-out have more development muscle?
    Even Pokémon Pokopoke was outsourced to Koei Tecmo
    Are they trying to sink the company by resting on Pokémon's laurels?
    Bunch of useless employees
    70AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:57
    Re: #21
    If you're talking about "development," you mean Game Freak, right?
    They did put out stuff like Rinkane (fan nickname for a Pokémon spin-off), didn't they
    28AnonymousSep 18, 2026 19:54
    Whether or not Game Freak is incompetent, they've got the world's No. 1 character IP, so the company isn't going under
    Though this just reconfirmed they're coasting on that "Beast of Whatever" thing
    33AnonymousSep 18, 2026 19:56
    Re: #28
    I want Palworld to steal their customers
    Honestly, Z-A's quality is rough
    38AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:02
    Guess it really isn't popular after all
    They had a massive amount of floor space but it was totally empty, no one around
    There were a bunch of those mascot costumes — Jibanyan, was it? — but nobody went near them either
    An event that made Pal's lack of popularity crystal clear
    39AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:03
    Re: #38
    This guy's a Game Freak employee lol
    50AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:14
    Hasn't the concurrent player count already dropped back to pre-launch levels?
    That happened faster than expected
    51AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:15
    Re: #50
    Yeah, it's back down
    55AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:30
    Pokémon's character artists are publicly known, but what about Palworld's?
    62AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:47
    Re: #55
    Kizu Daiki and Katsuzaki Ayana
    61AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:45
    An indie studio that can only make masterpieces
    63AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:48
    Re: #61
    You mean a wannabe-indie studio that can only make ripoff games
    64AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:50
    That so-called "superior version" Animo gets ignored because it's basically a free-to-play gacha game
    68AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:55
    Re: #64
    Animo's human character designs are too creepy, can't get into it
    73AnonymousSep 18, 2026 21:07
    People kept saying it was a Pokémon ripoff to begin with, but is there actually anything that alike? It's mostly just "the colors match" type stuff
    What exactly did it copy?
    74AnonymousSep 18, 2026 21:11
    Re: #73
    They ripped off literally everything
    76AnonymousSep 18, 2026 21:14
    Palworld's always booked a huge booth space plus tons of big props, every single time since launch
    Pretty impressive for a self-proclaimed "small indie studio" — must have a major company backing them
    98AnonymousSep 18, 2026 22:08
    Re: #76
    As of this July they had 109 employees
    Probably a bit more by now

    Background and Key Points of This Discussion

    Palworld is the survival-crafting game released by Pocketpair in January 2024 that became a worldwide hit, and it has been compared to Pokémon since launch. In this thread as well, when someone asked “what exactly did it copy,” no one could give a concrete answer, showing how vague the basis for the criticism remains. The thread also shared the fact that as of this July, the company had 109 employees, setting up the discussion’s premise about how small its development scale is compared to major studio Game Freak. There’s also talk that concurrent player numbers have dropped back to pre-launch levels, but that’s based on data only some posters cited — it would be hasty to judge shifts in popularity purely from eyewitness impressions of how crowded the TGS venue looked.

    *This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Hardware/Industry) thread “[Good News] Palworld’s Quality Is So High It’s Going Viral! This Quality for a One-Off TGS Exhibit?“.

  • New Fire Emblem Title ‘Banshi Senkou’ User Rating Crashes to 1.3 — 5ch Suspects ‘Manipulation’

    The new Switch 2-exclusive Fire Emblem: Banshi Senkou has become a hot topic on 5ch’s Hardware & Industry (Geha) board after scoring a dismal 1.3 out of 5 — with 0% positive ratings — in the user review section of the strategy site gamewith.jp. Some in the thread pointed to the earlier case of the PS5-exclusive Marvel title Wolverine, which racked up suspiciously high scores, and speculated that “this time it’s manipulation in reverse.” Others focused on complaints about the game itself — its 30fps performance, the odd inclusion of dungeon exploration in an SRPG, and a battle-skip feature — leaving the thread split over whether manipulation was really behind the low score.

    User Review

    1.3

    0%

    Source: gamewith.jp / Original article here

    3AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:20
    Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah (´・ω・`)
    4AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:20
    A strategy that works fine as long as it fools people who never click through
    6AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:21
    Are they seriously astroturfing even here lol
    12AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:23
    Why does an SRPG even have dungeons?
    18AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:27
    Re: #12
    That's been a thing since Fire Emblem Gaiden
    13AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:24
    The people complaining about 30fps are just haters
    Nintendo fans who are used to low specs don't sweat that stuff
    15AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:25
    Re: #1's link
    16AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:27
    Re: #1
    Looks like the people who bombarded Wolverine with high scores have turned their sights on this one
    Bet it'll go the opposite way from Wolverine — the low scores will mysteriously vanish later lol
    19AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:28
    They're always bashing stuff with smear campaigns and fabrications, but this time they went as far as committing an actual crime to pile on — did it really hit the PlayStation crowd ("gokis," 5ch slang short for "cockroaches") that hard?
    Or are they just sure it's going to sell?
    24AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:30
    Re: #19
    They were promised guaranteed victory and a sense of superiority
    but then Insomniac's Marvel game turned out like that,
    and they've been mocked over just how pathetic it was ever since
    26AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:31
    Re: #19
    Anime-style SRPGs are a genre where you'd think similar games exist, but they don't really
    Even when they do, like Unicorn Overlord, they're multiplatform, so they can't be used as a club to beat anyone with
    FE is the pioneer of the genre
    Their sense of superiority is slipping away
    Hence the meltdown
    34AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:35
    Re: #19
    They worked hard spamming 10/10 scores for Wolverine,
    and having it all get wiped away might be what's stinging now
    20AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:28
    What value does a gamewith user rating even have
    21AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:28
    Another lie?
    Aren't they being way too scared of Fire Emblem…?
    23AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:30
    30fps, lol
    You guys really love talking about 30fps
    Whoever wins the 30fps blame game comes out on top 😤
    27AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:32
    Re: #23
    Normal people vs. people whose eyes are about to burn out, huh
    28AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:33
    So they're doing their little astroturfing campaign in a place like this, huh
    30AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:33
    Level 40 right from the start? Seriously?
    41AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:39
    Re: #30
    Seriously
    The protagonist doesn't properly join the fight until late in the game, so they need to be decently strong by then
    31AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:33
    I polled my followers and 65% said it's boring — a majority called it a shit game
    That's the voice of the public right there
    44AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:40
    Re: #31
    That's a textbook example of an echo chamber, lmao
    32AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:33
    Hmm
    This really smells like an ad campaign
    Nobody's even watching a place like this, how dumb
    33AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:34
    🐷<Oinkiiiiiiiii💢 (a mocking squeal aimed at Nintendo fans, who get called "pigs" on 5ch)
    35AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:35
    Maybe it's about time they actually listened to the people saying they don't want exploration or dungeons
    36AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:36
    Even if they are astroturfing, doing it somewhere not even Geha regulars know about…
    38AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:36
    What are you gonna do now, pig?
    Hey
    What are you gonna do?
    39AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:37
    Oh, it's the Fire Emblem-complex guy again
    Guess it really got to him
    40AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:39
    They probably want to divert attention from GTA and Wolverine, but I think this just adds another page to PlayStation's history of manipulation
    Sorry, but that's how it is
    47AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:42
    Re: #40
    They're so bad at deflecting and changing the subject that all they do is hand out fresh ammo for people to mock them with…
    How many times do they need to be told they'd be better off not pulling clumsy stunts like this?
    42AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:39
    Didn't know "Air-Play-With" was still a thing (a mocking nickname for gamewith implying its reviewers never actually played the games)
    43AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:40
    Fire Emblem is the undisputed top dog of the SRPG genre in every sense, so the jealousy must be especially intense
    45AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:41
    Quick Battle mode is just the wrong direction for this series
    And on top of that, you can skip it entirely
    51AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:47
    Re: #45
    If you don't skip it, you can minimize damage taken at maximum efficiency, so there's a point to using it
    If the level gap is big enough that you take zero damage no matter what, landing the first strike alone secures the win
    46AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:41
    30fps complaints, vague fuzzy impressions… you could at least hide your antennae a little better
    59AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:53
    Nintendo fanboys ("pig believers") are losing their minds lol
    61AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:57
    Re: #59
    Sounds like they think saying this makes them the winner
    74AnonymousSep 18, 2026 21:28
    Lmao, they're just getting back what they did to Wolverine
    75AnonymousSep 18, 2026 21:30
    Re: #74
    That one got a fair, legitimate evaluation and still ended up like that
    Tough luck

    Background and Points of Contention

    Banshi Senkou is a new Fire Emblem title released for the Switch 2. Because the gamewith.jp user review section referenced in the thread allows anyone to post freely, it has repeatedly been a venue where “review manipulation” — a concentrated burst of low ratings for a specific title shortly after launch — becomes a problem. The thread also brought up Wolverine, a Marvel action game released as a PS5 exclusive, which saw the opposite phenomenon: an unnaturally concentrated wave of high ratings that was later corrected. On the Geha board, opinions were split between those citing that incident to argue “this might be manipulation in the reverse direction” and those who believed the low score was simply genuine. The dispute extends beyond the question of manipulation itself to the game’s actual content — its 30fps performance, dungeon-exploration elements, and battle-skip feature. Readers should keep in mind that gamewith’s user ratings are user-submitted figures that tend to move in step with social media flare-ups and have inherent limits to their reliability, distinct from official review outlets’ scores or actual sales figures — a point of skepticism that came up within the thread itself.

    *This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Hardware & Industry / Geha) thread “Switch 2-exclusive Fire Emblem: Banshi Senkou drowning in bad reviews, user rating at a catastrophic 1.3.”

  • Names of old neighborhood used-game shops keep pouring in — 5ch thread: “The reality that Chameleon Club still exists”

    A thread listing the names of used-game shops that once dotted local neighborhoods went up on 5ch’s “Nandemo Jikkyo G” board. Posters rattled off names like Gangster, Chameleon Club, Famicom House, Wanpaku Kozo, and Brute — independent and regional chain stores that operated across Japan during the Famicom-to-Super Famicom era. A recurring theme in the thread was surprise at discovering that a shop assumed to be a local-only chain actually had locations nationwide, and several posters noted that some stores survived by switching to selling trading cards after closing as game shops.

    1AnonymousSep 18, 2026 18:44
    Gangster
    2AnonymousSep 18, 2026 18:45
    Touch
    Chameleon Club
    3AnonymousSep 18, 2026 18:46
    Famicom House disappeared before anyone even noticed, huh…
    4AnonymousSep 18, 2026 18:47
    Wanpaku Kozo ("Mischievous Brat")
    7AnonymousSep 18, 2026 18:47
    Theta Shop
    101AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:15
    Re: #7
    This one.
    Wait, where's this even local to?
    9AnonymousSep 18, 2026 18:49
    The reality that Chameleon Club still exists
    10AnonymousSep 18, 2026 18:49
    Ikkyu-san
    Museum
    Blues
    15AnonymousSep 18, 2026 18:52
    Famicom Land, that's the one
    25AnonymousSep 18, 2026 18:58
    Re: #15
    You lived in Narita, didn't you
    19AnonymousSep 18, 2026 18:56
    Every time I see the run-down shack where Brute used to be, it makes me sad
    20AnonymousSep 18, 2026 18:57
    Game cartridges in cardboard boxes back in the day were so exciting.
    And the instruction manuals too.
    22AnonymousSep 18, 2026 18:57
    Was Gangster only in the Senshu region?
    Or was it nationwide?
    27AnonymousSep 18, 2026 19:01
    Brute
    Chameleon Club
    Radio King
    Wanpaku Kozo
    32AnonymousSep 18, 2026 19:02
    Book Friend had such a friendly-sounding name, but if kids got rowdy in the card section in the back, the manager would come out and blast customers with an air gun.
    33AnonymousSep 18, 2026 19:03
    Model kit shops seem to be barely hanging on still.
    That's how completely game shops have vanished.
    36AnonymousSep 18, 2026 19:04
    There was also BOOK and Gachapin
    37AnonymousSep 18, 2026 19:05
    Going to Top Boy was genuinely so much fun
    38AnonymousSep 18, 2026 19:05
    The guy who ran an independent game shop closed it and started a card shop before trading cards got big — he's making a killing now
    44AnonymousSep 18, 2026 19:08
    Chameleon Club
    I feel like it's still around
    45AnonymousSep 18, 2026 19:09
    I want to say Hello Mac, but—
    Marutomi
    46AnonymousSep 18, 2026 19:12
    Last time I saw one still standing was about ten years ago in Itabashi Ward, but it's probably gone by now
    47AnonymousSep 18, 2026 19:12
    There were tons of shops named "Famicom [Something]" but most of them went under.
    Toward the end they were selling PC eroge (adult games) too.
    48AnonymousSep 18, 2026 19:14
    There was a shop called Cosmo that had a cartridge tier chart — you could trade within the same rank for 500 yen
    50AnonymousSep 18, 2026 19:17
    Namazu-do → PUKA PUKA (after the name change)
    61AnonymousSep 18, 2026 19:24
    So Brute was a nationwide chain.
    I thought it was Hiroshima-only
    79AnonymousSep 18, 2026 19:37
    Re: #61
    There was at least one in Sapporo
    63AnonymousSep 18, 2026 19:25
    Wanpaku Kozo
    I always looked forward to the Pakkun Pokke (grab-bag) deals
    65AnonymousSep 18, 2026 19:26
    Chameleon Club
    Famicom House
    68AnonymousSep 18, 2026 19:29
    F1
    I wonder what that old guy's up to these days
    77AnonymousSep 18, 2026 19:35
    Top Boy is still around in Kamata

    Momotaro
    78AnonymousSep 18, 2026 19:36
    I moved to a town where the building signage still said Famicom House.
    Couldn't find the actual shop no matter how I searched, so I asked someone at the building — turns out it had closed down but they just never bothered taking the sign off.

    Dammit.
    81AnonymousSep 18, 2026 19:39
    World ended up surviving by turning into a card shop
    82AnonymousSep 18, 2026 19:39
    I was shocked to see Emerson, aka Okamoto Shoji, running ads in Famitsu.
    Made me think, wait, is this little neighborhood shop actually a nationwide chain?
    They even had TV commercials.
    85AnonymousSep 18, 2026 19:43
    Used to buy Family Computer Magazine at the used game shop back in the day
    86AnonymousSep 18, 2026 19:49
    Emeeeeeeersooooooon
    88AnonymousSep 18, 2026 19:49
    In my hometown, a pawn shop called Shimizu ran everything
    92AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:02
    Pretty much all of them quietly turned into de facto Yu-Gi-Oh! card shops before disappearing

    Background and key points of discussion

    Independently owned and regionally chained used-game shops like these sprang up all over Japan during the Famicom-to-Super Famicom boom of the 1990s, but from the 2000s onward they were squeezed out by the expansion of major chains like Geo, TSUTAYA, and Book Off, as well as the shift to digital software distribution. Several moments in the thread highlighted mismatched assumptions about how widely these chains actually spread — one poster was stunned to learn that Brute, which they’d assumed was a local chain confined to Hiroshima or Sapporo, was actually nationwide, while the thread never quite settled whether Gangster was limited to the Senshu region or had locations across the country. Multiple posts also pointed out that many of the shops that avoided shutting down survived by pivoting to selling trading cards like Yu-Gi-Oh! and Pokémon — suggesting that the shrinking used-game market and the rising popularity of card games happened around the same time. A few unverified rumors about certain shop names also came up in the thread, but since they couldn’t be confirmed, this article does not include them.

    ※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Nandemo Jikkyo G) thread “[Shocking] Names of the “neighborhood used game shops” that existed when I was a kid wyyvw“.

  • ‘Super Kaguya-hime’ Blu-ray Ships 108,000 Units — But Fans Complain They Have No Way to Play the Bonus Soundtrack CD

    It’s been reported that the Blu-ray for the anime film “Super Kaguya-hime!,” released September 9, 2026, took 1st place (special limited edition) and 3rd place (standard edition) on the Oricon Weekly Rankings dated September 21, reaching cumulative shipments of 108,000 units. On 5ch’s hardware/industry board, discussion ranged from tying this figure to game console sales, to fans’ confusion over not owning a device to play the bonus soundtrack CD, to a debate over similarities between the film’s story setting and earlier works like “Sword Art Online” and “Collector Yui.”

    The Blu-ray for the anime film “Super Kaguya-hime!,” whose music and merchandise production was handled by Inks to Enter Co., Ltd. (headquartered in Shibuya, Tokyo; CEO: Yu Tamura), took 1st place (special limited edition) and 3rd place (standard edition) on the Oricon Weekly Blu-ray Rankings dated September 21.

    Released on September 9, 2026, the film comes in two versions: a special limited edition and a standard edition. The special limited edition in particular has recorded cumulative shipments of 108,000 units — including sales through the “Super Kaguya-hime!” official store in addition to regular retailers — earning support from many fans.

    Source: news.nicovideo.jp / Original article here

    4AnonymousSep 18, 2026 16:48
    Did it outsell Girls Band Cry (ガルクラ)?
    10AnonymousSep 18, 2026 16:50
    Re: #4
    I mean, easily, right?
    7AnonymousSep 18, 2026 16:49
    Re: #1
    They know the games aren't selling, so they're clinging to Blu-ray numbers instead lol
    11AnonymousSep 18, 2026 16:51
    Re: #7
    Sony's the one where both games AND anime sell
    14AnonymousSep 18, 2026 16:53
    Feels like there are people out there buying this without even owning a player
    16AnonymousSep 18, 2026 16:54
    Re: #14
    You've got the PS5
    20AnonymousSep 18, 2026 16:56
    Nobody even has a device to play BDs these days
    61AnonymousSep 18, 2026 18:54
    Re: #20
    That's exactly why I gave up on buying it
    Buying a PC drive just for that felt like a lot
    22AnonymousSep 18, 2026 16:58
    Re: #16
    It's already a hot topic that there's no hardware to play the bonus soundtrack CD
    https://av.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/topic/2140311.html
    30AnonymousSep 18, 2026 17:06
    Re: #22
    Lol
    There was a fanboy earlier insisting you could play the CD on a PS5
    35AnonymousSep 18, 2026 17:13
    Re: #30
    You'd know if you read the article body (there's a correction/addendum)
    Even the reporter didn't get it at first… lol
    43AnonymousSep 18, 2026 17:30
    Re: #30
    Wasn't it playable on Xbox?
    38AnonymousSep 18, 2026 17:23
    Does this even have anything to do with games?
    Take it to the Sony board.
    41AnonymousSep 18, 2026 17:28
    Re: #38
    It's very much related
    The Blu-ray market and the PlayStation market have a symbiotic relationship
    If PlayStation dropping discs destroys that, it hurts both sides
    52AnonymousSep 18, 2026 18:01
    Apparently the connection between Kaguya's director and Kaguya's voice actor started with Shine Post

    Even if a Kaguya game does come out, that connection doesn't seem like it'd be an obstacle
    58AnonymousSep 18, 2026 18:45
    Re: #52
    Someone posted a photo of that interview in the relevant thread on the game/hardware board
    So that's the booklet it was from
    53AnonymousSep 18, 2026 18:15
    It's bound to get scratched, yet people still buy discs anyway
    66AnonymousSep 18, 2026 19:16
    Re: #53
    You're just way too clumsy with yours, man
    60AnonymousSep 18, 2026 18:47
    Thought it'd be a historical drama but it's just a fan-service otaku anime (lit. "pig anime" — 5ch slang for shows that pander to otaku) lol
    99AnonymousSep 18, 2026 20:09
    Re: #60
    It does have something of a historical angle to it, and there's been some analysis of it
    Maybe around the founding of Japan? Though that's not that far back, is it
    62AnonymousSep 18, 2026 19:04
    Re: #57
    Super Kaguya-hime's popularity only exists because of pioneers like Collector Yui and PriPara
    Those shows had an influence that can't be measured by sales figures alone
    64AnonymousSep 18, 2026 19:09
    Re: #62
    Story and setting-wise, Super Kaguya is actually closest to SAO (Sword Art Online)
    65AnonymousSep 18, 2026 19:12
    Re: #64
    Huh? Where?
    What part did you think was similar?
    69AnonymousSep 18, 2026 19:21
    Re: #65
    A lot of people see Iroha's friction with her mother and think of Asuna in Mother's Rosario

    Building Kaguya a mechanical body at the end is straight out of Alicization
    Wanting her to still taste food even in a mechanical body is something SAO did too

    SAO is a virtual-world story that leads to the birth of a new kind of humanity without physical bodies
    Tsukuyomi is what the alien — whose body had vanished — built so it could interact with humans and meet Iroha again

    The movie also has AI idol live concerts, just like SAO
    72AnonymousSep 18, 2026 19:27
    The closest thing to Super Kaguya-hime is probably AiPri (アイプリ), which also has live idol scenes
    Otherwise there's WIXOSS, where winning card battles in a virtual space lets you perform live
    Collector Yui had an idol episode too, so I guess it's barely comparable as well
    73AnonymousSep 18, 2026 19:29
    Re: #72
    So basically Collector Yui isn't similar

    Forget card battles, Kaguya has straight-up weapon fights

    Background and Key Points of This Topic

    “Super Kaguya-hime!” is being released in two versions — special limited and standard — and the officially announced figures show the special limited edition at 1st place and the standard edition at 3rd place on the Oricon Weekly Blu-ray Rankings (dated September 21), with cumulative shipments of 108,000 units. While some thread comments claimed “the PS5 exists, so playback isn’t an issue,” it’s easy to overlook the point being raised that the bundled bonus soundtrack CD is a separate medium and can’t be played that way. A device that supports video-disc playback doesn’t necessarily support audio-CD playback too — compatibility varies by media format. It’s also worth noting that the debate over similarities to other works that heated up later in the thread isn’t based on any official statement from the production team — it remains purely the viewers’ own impressions.

    *This article is compiled as excerpts and a summary from the 5ch (Hardware/Industry, “Geha”) thread “Sony’s “Super Kaguya-hime” Blu-ray Actually Sells 108,000 Units wwwwwwwww.”