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Sales Figures


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22 replies to this topic

#1
RedTail

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Well, it's Friday—exactly one week since NiGHTS launched (on XBLA anyway). If you scroll through the cumbersome leaderboards menu for NiD's first dream, you can see that AT LEAST 4,123 people have bought the game thus far. To put that in perspective, let's use another semi-recent downloadable SEGA title that we can track, Daytona USA. Daytona was released nearly one year ago on XBLA (Oct. 20). Since then, it's garnered 18,860 downloads. Now Daytona is one of the highest grossing arcade games of all time, so using that number as a benchmark is probably a bit unrealistic, but if NiGHTS even manages to sell, say, around two-thirds of that in the same amount of time, I'd call that a success. What do you guys think?

For people playing the PSN version, what do the numbers look like there? I'd expect NiGHTS to be doing a lot better there due to that service's larger Japanese userbase.

#2
Draikin

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The PSN leaderboard seems to be limited to 1000 players (or it's a real coincidence and exactly 1000 players were listed on Spring Valley), is this not the case for the XBLA version then? I'm not sure how to interpret the numbers though. For what it's worth, the game seems to be following just behiond Sonic Adventure 2 in overall sales. I'd like for it to do better though, there doesn't seem too much hype around the release.

#3
Thoughtcrime82

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I'm not sure about what the numbers mean but I do share your concern at the lack of hype for Nights. XBLA don't really seem to be pushing it in the same way they pushed JSR and other Sega games. If Nights made an appearance on the XB dashboard it would help a lot I reckon.

#4
Draikin

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If Nights made an appearance on the XB dashboard it would help a lot I reckon.

Actually last time I checked, it was in fact displayed on the XB dashboard just like JSR. What's disappointing is the lack of positive reviews on Metacritic. I'm seeing a lot more (smaller) positive reviews on the game lately yet its been at 72 on Metacritic with only a few reviews for a while now. Speaking of Metacritic, only my user review is listed there at the moment. So I could really use some help from the other fans, if the reviews fail to explain what's so good about the game, then the fans certainly should ;) Please don't bring down the score because of the controls though, especially now that we're still trying to get those fixed.

#5
RedTail

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The PSN leaderboard seems to be limited to 1000 players (or it's a real coincidence and exactly 1000 players were listed on Spring Valley), is this not the case for the XBLA version then? I'm not sure how to interpret the numbers though. For what it's worth, the game seems to be following just behiond Sonic Adventure 2 in overall sales. I'd like for it to do better though, there doesn't seem too much hype around the release.


Nope, the XBLA leaderboards go beyond 4,100. I'm assuming they record everyone's score since all the scores on the bottom are F's.

#6
RedTail

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I'm seeing a lot more (smaller) positive reviews on the game lately yet its been at 72 on Metacritic with only a few reviews for a while now.


If you read some of the lower scoring reviews, the critics pretty much come right out and say that they either don't understand the game or just believe that its too hard. Heck, watch some of the gameplay videos the accompany the more positive reviews. While you can tell the critics understand the basic objectives, they still don't entirely get what they need to be doing to really get the most out of the game. Leaderboard replays and/or a tutorial video would've gone a long way in helping newcomers. Sometimes I wonder whether or not SEGA even understands NiGHTS anymore.

#7
Thoughtcrime82

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Actually last time I checked, it was in fact displayed on the XB dashboard just like JSR. What's disappointing is the lack of positive reviews on Metacritic. I'm seeing a lot more (smaller) positive reviews on the game lately yet its been at 72 on Metacritic with only a few reviews for a while now.

Oh, that's good to know they're advertising Nights a bit.

In both positive and negative reviews they tend to spend two thirds of the article waffling on about the game's story rather than the game itself - I find this weird.

#8
Thoughtcrime82

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Anyone know any news on the XBLA sales figures? I did try googling it but came back with sweet f.a.

#9
Draikin

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It's going to be difficult to find any actual numbers, but the game has dropped below Jet Set Radio in daily XBLA sales so that's not exactly a good sign. Unlike Sonic Adventure 2, the game doesn't seem to have much staying power in the charts. I'm not sure how much of that is caused by the control issues.

#10
RedTail

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4,986 people have played Spring Valley as of today. The game will probably end up selling 1,000 units in its second week. Considering it moved over 4,100 in its first week, that's a pretty sharp decline.

#11
Draikin

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In comparison, Jet Set Radio HD sold 10,000 copies in its first week and another 10,000 copies in its second week. It's indeed a sharp decline after an already relatively weak start. I think it shows that NiGHTS failed to reach a new audience, and judging from the reviews this has a lot to do with the game simply being too difficult to understand. Nowadays gamers expect games that are easy to get into and offer immediate rewards. NiGHTS does exactly the opposite, and while I think it makes sense that the game throws you into a dream world where you don't really know what to do, it's clearly being punished for it. The game desperately needs a tutorial area. That combined with the fact that it's not the definitive version of NiGHTS due to the controls issues translates into the poor sales that we're seeing now.

It's disheartening. I don't know how much the game needs to sell for it to be profitable, but this was just a port. A genuine sequel, even using the same engine, would cost considerable more than that. I think the lesson Sega and the fans learned with this release is that:

a) if you're going to rerelease a game like NiGHTS, you need to make sure the controls work or you ruin fan enthusiasm and the game's replayability.
B) NiGHTS is a niche game. Most of the time people either love it or hate it. Sega should release DLC for this game for the simple reason that, while few people buy the game, most of those are often willing to invest more money into it. I'm not saying they should have sold Christmas NiGHTS separately for example, I'm very much against that. But actual new content like additional costumes would be a good addition. I think what Sega did with VF 5 recently wasn't a bad idea, it just needs to be balanced.

I don't know if the fans can do anything to give the game a boost at this point. If Sega would fix the controls, maybe they could use that as a sort of a relaunch. But that's of course a big if.

#12
RedTail

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For those wondering, we're currently at 5,811 on XBLA. I probably won't update this again. It just takes too long to page down to the bottom of the leaderboards, and the server loves hitting me with errors if I go too fast.

#13
Chao Freak 1

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Well 2,000 more copies and we'll be caught up to the petition numbers... so that's not too bad I guess. :|

#14
Nemoide

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I'm not gonna lie, I bought a copy but haven't been in the mood to play yet.

#15
Draikin

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Well 2,000 more copies and we'll be caught up to the petition numbers... so that's not too bad I guess. :|

There's also the PSN version so it might have reached about 10,000 copies. The problem is that this places the game far behind Jet Set Radio HD and Virtua Fighter 5: FS, let alone Sonic Adventure 2... I'm not sure how much it needs to sell to be profitable, but I'm guessing it'll have to be more. I hope this doesn't make Sega change their mind about releasing the PC version.

#16
RedTail

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There's also the PSN version so it might have reached about 10,000 copies. The problem is that this places the game far behind Jet Set Radio HD and Virtua Fighter 5: FS, let alone Sonic Adventure 2... I'm not sure how much it needs to sell to be profitable, but I'm guessing it'll have to be more. I hope this doesn't make Sega change their mind about releasing the PC version.


I'm thinking this is probably the final nail in the coffin for the franchise. :\

#17
Nemoide

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I'm thinking this is probably the final nail in the coffin for the franchise. :\


Well NiGHTS and Reala are still in All Star Racing Transformed, so I wouldn't say final final nail.
IMO the important thing is that NiGHTS is accessible for people who might not be inclined to hunt down a 17-year-old console and a weird peripheral controller for one game. It might not be making Sega a mountain of cash, but it's improving the gaming landscape and we don't know if Sega actually lost any money on the port.

#18
JAZZ-man

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It's been a long time since I've been here but I have this to say. I'm already fearing that the PC Download port may not come. It's been over a month since the other ports have been launched and no updates have been confirmed. I'm giving Sega to the end of November. If the port is not launched on Dec 1, 2012 then I give up.

#19
TRiPPY

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lol don't be so dramatic dude, it's coming and I know this because DiGi's working on it and I know the actual release date. An announcement will happen soon I promise.

#20
Draikin

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lol don't be so dramatic dude, it's coming and I know this because DiGi's working on it and I know the actual release date. An announcement will happen soon I promise.

That's good to hear! With SA2 being announced for PC and no mention of NiGHTS I was getting a tad worried as well.

Here's a sales analysis of Gamasutra which basically confirms RedTail's findings:

http://www.gamasutra...ctober_2012.php

#21
RedTail

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That's good to hear! With SA2 being announced for PC and no mention of NiGHTS I was getting a tad worried as well.

Here's a sales analysis of Gamasutra which basically confirms RedTail's findings:

http://www.gamasutra...ctober_2012.php


At least it scored a higher MetaCritic average than SA2. Small victory...

#22
Draikin

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Interestingly the game seems to be doing well on the XBLA charts in Japan, where it's outselling Sonic Adventure 2. That's something, even though the audience is very limited there. On the US sales charts, the game entered the top 90 again so there's some recovery there. Also interesting is that Sega has 10 games in the top 90 XBLA US daily sales chart at the moment, so they're doing quite well there overall.

#23
Noctourne Wonderland

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I don't think we should be worried about sales figures. NiGHTS is weird for a number of reasons, but here are the two at hand:

- NiGHTS doesn't have a ton of fans like Sonic. The game didn't on the Saturn and it probably won't now. What makes NiGHTS great, though, is the staying power. NiGHTS fans may not have massive numbers, but we never stop being NiGHTS fans. Even if only a few people are introduced to NiGHTS through the port, they're people who will cherish the game forever and pass it on through word of mouth. Likewise, comparing JSR to NiGHTS is odd - JSR is flashy, but NiGHTS is intriguing. Flashy gets more impulse buys than intriguing, but if a fan is intrigued, they become devoted.

- Sega likes NIGHTS. He cameos everywhere. Remember last time we had 11 years between games with a bunch of cameos in between. Maybe we just need more patience for our beloved franchise to blossom again. :)

Plus, I still haven't bought I copy! Too concerned with fixing my Saturn (stupid battery!) and leading a hectic life. I will get it within the week as a late birthday/early Christmas gift for myself, though!




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