Topic: Official Sales Thread

[Ceric]

Rampage was much better in 2D.

[BlackNMild2k1]

Wii = fastest selling home console in UK ever

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Last week, Nintendo announced that consumers snapped up 50,000 Wii units within 12 hours of the console going on sale.

The tills continued to ring over the next two days, making the Wii the first console to sell more than 100,000 units during its opening weekend.

Of the 14 software titles launching with the Wii, six made it into the all-formats top 40 - including Zelda, which debuted at number 5. Other popular titles included Wii Play and Ubisoft's Red Steel.
It was also a great week for Nintendo's handheld, with around 110,000 DS units sold, and 14 games in the top 40.

So basically Wii sold 105k in its opening weekend and between the Wii & DS Nintendo has 20 of the UK Top 40 sofware titles.

and just for comparison sake, Wii sales in one weekend = about 10% GC LTD sales in  the UK

 

[Jin-X]

Man I wish DBZ had the original Japanese soundtrack to go along with the Japanese voices, its so much better than the weak generic soundtrack they have in the game.

[Spak-Spang]

Since when did this thread become hijacked by Dragon Ball Z fans?  Is the world about to end?  Are we in the tribulation?  Where was the trumpet.  Please tell me there will be a Trumpet before it gets any worse!!!

[segagamer12]

:blows trumpet:


DBZ Rules and its on the Wii so it there fore must be what is selling the Wii. yes Nintendo is on top sony is dieing it surely is the end of the world

[Darc Requiem]

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Originally posted by: Luigi Dude
So DBZ:BT2 does contain the original Japanese voice work.  Well this game is a definate buy for me now, of course I'm still going to wait for a price drop.

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I personally can't stand Goku or Gohan's Japanese Voice Acting. Its obvious that they are voiced by women.

I think it depends on what was the first voice people heard Goku with.  I notice alot of people who first saw DBZ through the dub where Goku had a manly voice can't stand his original Japanese voice.  But for people like me who heard Goku's original voice before ever seeing the dub, Masako Nozawa IS Goku.  She's done his voice from the very begining back when Dragon Ball first air back in 1986 and has matched Goku and his personality perfectly.  

To listen to Goku without her voice to me would be like listening to Homer without Dan Castellaneta voicing him, it just doesn't sound right.

Thats not the case with me. I just plain don't like male characters sounding like women. Well, if its for comedic effect its fine but I find it grating otherwise. Seriously can't stand the sucked on helium voice Goku has in the Japanese voice tracks. I didn't even like how high pitched Goku's voice was in the Ocean original English dub of season one. It didn't bother me with Gohan until the Buu Saga.

Of course DBZ got less enjoyable to me as it went through each saga. My two favorite characters are Piccolo and Ten Shin Han. Ten Shin Han is pretty much worthless from the beginning of DBZ and Piccolo's last hurrah was during the Cell Saga. Not to mention the fact that Gohan's character seemed to get the shaft after the Cell Saga. I seriously think Toriyama altered his out come for DBZ because of the Japanese hatred of Gohan. I know he originally intended to end DBZ with the Goku vs. Frieza battle but continued to produce the manga because of the rabid fan base. In DBZ it seems that Toriyama was slowly trying to hand off the reigns from Goku to Gohan over time but he seemed to bend to the will of the fans but that is another topic completely. Jeez sorry for the rant guys.

Okay something Wii related. In Europe DBZ: BT2 is getting 6 new characters and 1 new background. Also 105,000 Wii's were sold in the UK.

[Hocotate]

DBZ:BT2 has become my most played Wii game! I'm putting roughly 5 hours a day on this game and before this I would only spend 30min-1hr on average. You don't even have to be a DBZ fan to enjoy this game, best fighting game I've played in a loooong time (definately the best 3D fighting game I've EVER played). Apparently the UK ver will get six(?) new characters not found in the US ver... (not sure about JP).

edit just saw Darc Requiem's last sentence (he beat me to it).

[Strell]

All I want to say re: voices in DBZ is that the first original American cast was absolute perfection in my humble opinion, and their legacy is destroyed by the second cast that took over when it failed to be a hit pre-Cartoon Network days.  I reco'nize I am probably in the minority here, but every voice was so distinctive and had TONS of inflection, with remarkable one-liners in a cheesy "you HAVE to love it, it's so bad" sort of way.  From Tien's "This cowboy's goin' for one last ride!" to Goku's "Whooooaaaa beans give me problems!" I seriously think it is one of the best works by an American cast for an anime in a long, long time.

That said, boo-urns to UK getting more stuff in their version.  I was going to pick up it up, but it seems like I might as well wait until I can either find it used or for what is probably an inevitable sequel.

[Hocotate]

I'm with you 100% on this Strell. The Pioneer dub of DBZ was perfect, it wasn't until Funimation took over that they got Chris Sabbat (however you spell his name) and he pretty much single handedly ruined the dub DB (he did Vegeta, Piccolo, and pretty much everyone else's voice...along with casting the rest of the voice actors I am told. The man is probably the worst dub I've heard in an anime... he botches Vegeta so badly >< ).  

[Strell]

It was so disheartening to be back in high school when I finally found out new episodes of DBZ were going to air.  My friends and I, for the period it wasn't on CN (which I guess was about a two year span) would religiously wake up at about 6 AM on Saturday (or just not go to sleep altogether) in order to watch our new episode of DBZ, which was (at the time) only shown once a week.  At 6 you got a re-run from the previous week, and at 6:30 you got a new episode.  There's a chance it was 6:30/7:00 respectively, but it doesn't really matter.  Point is that it came on EARLY and ONCE A WEEK, and if you wanted to see how something was goin' down, it took some dedication.

So when CN gets the episodes and announces new ones, I was giddy with excitement.  Then the new episode airs - it was during the Frieza saga, and was immediately after Goku beat Racoome, when Jace and (purple dude) start attacking Goku, and the voices were SO TERRIBLE.  And the music was SO TERRIBLE.  

None of it compared to the first run, where they took so much time and effort to deliver an excellent voice recording and wonderfully addictive music.  I didn't mind the editting so much - there were massive lengths taken to get rid of blood, mature ways for people to die, Vegeta always saying "I'm sending you to the next dimension" instead of "I'm killing you," etc etc etc - simply because the presentation and delivery was executed perfectly, with impeccable attention to detail.

After a while I resolved myself to simply watch the new episodes and sort of "get over" the new voices, and after a while I almost did, but I seriously give thought to how it would have turned out if the original crew stayed in control.  They even went as far as to edit out some of the nonsense that DBZ is so full of, boiling down the story to a slightly-more palatable/more consumable morsel, instead of the random assortments of crap I tended to see when the second crew re-dubbed the first couple of seasons.

But yea, it was a total shock/disappointment.  I was just CRINGING when I watched that first episode, and had to call my friend immediately and bitch about "OMFG THEY CHANGED THE VOICES???"  Which was something I had feared when they ran commercials, because they sounded a bit different....

I mean, Goku's new voice worked for the most part, and occassionally the other characters actually had....character in them, but they simple cannot compare.  You do not compare to Brian Drummond as Vegeta.  There's really no other way to express it.  

And yea, Hocotate, that was the impression I got from the new cast - "Wtf, are there like 2 people voicing EVERYONE now?"  

Anyway, yea, something that hits me a more personal note than most other things, and I realize it is so simple and stupid that I shouldn't care, but it was a travesty and absolutely a kick in the guts.  

I sometimes fantasize about the episodes all being with the original cast.  If that were the case, they'd be sitting on my DVD shelf right now.  DBZ is the perfect slice of anime cheese for me, and when you had such incredibly sharp writing and voices as the original cast, I can't imagine anyone looking for a bit of mindless fun not enjoying the show.

Anyway, yea, enough off-topic ranting for me.  It's good to know some other people out there enjoy the original cast.  I almost threw up when I saw a review on Amazon.com from some punk kid saying re: the original DVDs "don't get these, they suck, cuz there's no blood in them and you don't want people like Krillin saying gosh goku this sure is hard to do!"  Stupid kids.  Can't understand how amazing the original cast was...

[BlackNMild2k1]

I don't mean to de-rail this DBZ thread but I wasn't sure where to post this Wii sales info.

www.nintendo.co.uk

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As the must-have product for the festive season Wii was an instant hit. Attracting vast crowds and selling out in stores all over Europe in just a matter of hours, a breathtaking 325,000 units were sold in the first two days making it the fastest selling home console in history.

Demand for Wii has been so great that shops all over Europe had large queues forming outside for up to three days before the launch and hundreds of shops opened their doors at midnight on launch day to allow gamers to get their hands on Wii. After just one weekend on sale, shops across Europe sold out of Wii consoles and daily shipments are now arriving across Europe to replenish stock.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess proved to be a favourite for avid gamers, with 240,000 copies snapped up over launch weekend in Europe, representing 74% of all hardware purchasers. Wii Play was also a big hit with over 50% of people buying the game (which includes a Wii Remote) along with their Wii console.

~

Wii mania in Europe follows the phenomenal success of Nintendo’s console in the Americas and Japan, where over a million units have been sold in just three weeks. In the Americas, where the console launched on the 19th of November, 600,000 consoles were sold in the first 8 days from launch. The Japanese launch saw similar success with around 400,000 units being shipped to stores for launch day and selling out during the first morning on sale. After just a few days of sales in Europe the Wii seems to be achieving similar success.

While Wii enjoyed a hugely successful launch, Nintendo DS also had a record-breaking week with 515,000 units sold across Europe last week, which is not only the highest week's sales since the console’s launch but also the most any console across all formats has ever sold in a week! Nintendo’s handheld phenomenon has taken Europe by storm since its release in March 2005, with over 8.5 million consoles now sold across Europe.

Well it looks like Nintendo can do no wrong right now(except not make enough of these damn Wii's), I wonder how many developers are scrambling to get software ready for Wii now that its about to take off. Looks like Nintendo is well on its way to taking its throne as the king of gaming.

and for those that are wondering, this put Wiiat about 1.3 Million for WW launch #'s and if shipments keep up easisly at 2.5 Million WW before the end of December. Thats around a 3rd of Xbox 360 WW #'s in less than a month.

This also puts DS at a whopping 30+ Million sold WW, and people wonder why SE is putting DQIX on the DS.... it wouldn't make sense to put it anywhere else. The DS is moving on to be not only the fastest selling gaming "console" of all time, but the one with the highest overall installed base too.

edit: Zelda: TP is now offically at more than 1 Million sold WW too.  

[Athrun Zala]

it's amazing how well the Wii is selling!
I mean, I didn't expect it to sell so well right from the getgo...

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Originally posted by: Ghisy

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Originally posted by: Athrun Zala
does the game have Japanese VO?

I can confirm it does!! w00t!
I remember asking some guy at the Nintendo World Store in NYC and he was like "no, I think it only includes the VA". Dude, sorry but you lose!

awesome

and regarding the voices....I prefer the Japanese ones over the English ones and Spanish ones, although the latter were pretty good actually (even more considering it was completely unedited)

[couchmonkey]

In a way I expected Wii to do even better than this - because I expected Nintendo to ship 4 million instead of 2.5 million.  However, I didn't expect those 4 million to get snapped up as fast as Nintendo could release them, I just figured they'd sell at a reasonable pace.  Now it seems like they actually would sell as fast as Nintendo can release them.

[Kairon]

So... Nintendo... can you resupply?

And will your Q2 2007 lineup get hardcore gamers excited like your Q1 lineup?

~Carmine M. Red
Kairon@aol.com

[Artimus]

One of the EB Games here (in Toronto) still has people lined up 2 hours before opening every single day (7AM).

[IceCold]

Wow, BnM's whole post brings tears to my eyes

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And will your Q2 2007 lineup get hardcore gamers excited like your Q1 lineup?

I'm not worried about that at all - look at Nintendo's unreleased games..

[odifiend]

If Nintendo is unlike Sony in that they count actual sales instead of ship units, current sales figures might be deflated.  Still Wii-less (), I'm asking a lot of questions at local retails.  I keep getting told similar stories once we get past the "No one knows when we'll get more."  I keep hearing that retailers get shipments weekly but several plan to do advertised relaunches before xmas.  It might be that an accurate picture of the Nintendo's demand (and competence, for those questioning) will be available after the 25th.  

[Spak-Spang]

I actually expected Nintendo Wii to do this good and better.  I predict 2007 will be the year of the Wii and Nintendo, and it will sell extremely well.  But I believe either late 2007 or early to mid 2008 Wii sales will start to drop significantly as the PS3 and Xbox 360 begin to really push their upper limits of graphical power.  

Then I unfortunately predict a steady decline for Nintendo.  The Wii will have been a huge success probably doubling the Gamecube sales in just one year, and 3rd parties will continue to make games for the system, but it just won't be as steady of sales for Wii for the rest of its lifecycle.

I hope I am wrong...but that is my realistic prediction.

As for all this Dragon Ball Z talk.  I hate the show.  It takes way too long to tell a single story...with a single fight taking 5-10 episodes (slight exaggeration) and the english voices and narrator is annoying and obnixious.  

However, I really want to try this Dragon Ball Z game out.  Is it good with the Wii controller?  better with the classic?

And after you answer this question...please let this thread go back to Sales.  

[SixthAngel]

If the current graphics in games like gears of war don't stop people from buying Wii I doubt the slight upgrade in the future will.  I see all kinds of sites predicting that Wii will start to be over taken because of graphics in the future and I think it is bullcrap.  If the graphics aren't stopping people now I certainly don't think it will in the future.  Besides both Wii graphics and motion control will be improved as well.  I think this prediction is just a slightly more cautious version of everyone who said the DS would fail.

[BlkPaladin]

I watched the entire series of Z, and I basically lost interest after the Friesa Saga. When you have a fight that 30 episodes long with 10 of them flash backs. (A little exageration but the combined Friesa fight did take about 30 episodes, I own all 300+ episodes, just because I happened on them cheep.

As for the Wii it will be like the DS, the DS still hasn't reached its sales plateau as of yet, especially in Japan, and usally you reach the plateau before the half way point of it life which is in 6 months.

[Sessha]

Hmm referring to your question about the DBZ game.  I would rent it first and see if you want to buy it.  The learning curve with the Nunchuk and remote takes a long time (Not like Red Steel it's just really really complicated no real control problems after a while it becomes second nature) Although it's more satisfying firing a kamehameha then one of those other point to  one side of the tv and bring it back to the middle energy attacks.   The story mode is well the story no changes really although the cutscenes are really bad.  They saved a lot of money on those.  I haven't tried it with gamecube controller, because I don't think there is a button layout in the manual.  But using the remote won't tire you out and it's always more fun with the remote anyway.  If your a fan of DBZ then of course your going to like this.  But if not a little try before you buy  

[Ceric]

Spak-Spang:  If the show just takes to long with fights for ya, which it actually does for me, I seriously consider reading the Manga.  Fights go much quicker because you sort of skim through the pictures.  I enjoyed it when I had my Shounin Jump Subscription.  Also Sandland is really good to even if it's just one book.

Ummm... Wii Sales...  I think Nintendo will have Version 2 of the Wii ready before the graphics become a problem.  I think that the Wii hardware will have a short lifecycle say ~3-4 years.  At that point Nintendo will have learned enough to make the super Beefy Wii2.  Which won't disappoint in the graphics and processor area, maybe even use the successor to flash internal to boot.  They'll mantain full backward compatibility, controllers and all, and that will be the system that Nintendo will bank on for at least 6 years.  With different redesigns and the like through that lifetime, become smaller, getting optical out, etc.
 

[couchmonkey]

IGN says Wii sets weekend sales record in Australia - but it's only 32,901 for Wii to 30,000 for Xbox 360.  PS3 can probably break that again if Sony actually has enough supply.

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(SixthAngel) If the current graphics in games like gears of war don't stop people from buying Wii I doubt the slight upgrade in the future will. I see all kinds of sites predicting that Wii will start to be over taken because of graphics in the future and I think it is bullcrap. If the graphics aren't stopping people now I certainly don't think it will in the future.

QFT!  The fact is, no matter how good PSP's graphics get, it will never outsell DS.  Not only that - here's the delicious part - a PSP2 with even better graphics won't outsell the DS either.  Why?  Because PSP already has much better graphics than DS and nobody cares!  It would have to offer similar features to DS or preferably something brand-new.

If Nintendo keeps this pace up with Wii, it will be almost the same thing.  Graphics will be a proven failure in the face of Wii and no amount of graphical improvement will change that.  Wii will begin to get superior third party support, and gamers that complain about the graphics will be sucked in by the games - just like DS.

What might make a slight difference in the Wii situation is that PS3 and Xbox 360 arguably have a bit more momentum than PSP (especially Xbox 360) plus Microsoft has tons of moneyhat resources.  In the end, though, it won't make a big difference if Nintendo's philosophy strikes a chord with consumers.  Nothing short of a complete re-thinking of the competing strategies will stop Nintendo if Wii disrupts the market like DS did.

Edit: fixed quote tags.

[Ceric]

A piece of Tumbleweed has more momentum then the PSP, and better load times.  

[BranDonk Kong]

According to NGW, Wii now has 16.1% of the next-gen market.
http://nexgenwars.com/