TTT2: Sales Performance in Japan from Media Create

The Beastnote Blog recently published a report detailing several fighting game's sales performance in Japan for their first week of release. Figures pulled from Media Create; a Japanese company specializing in the collection of digital entertainment and console hardware figures, show that maybe things might not be looking so up for the recently released title. You can review the data yourself below.

First week sales of fighting games between 2008-2012 in Japan by Media Create

1. [PSP] Dissidia Final Fantasy (Square Enix) {2009.12.18} - 489,100 | NEW
2. [PSP] Dissidia: 012 (Duodecim) Final Fantasy (Square Enix) {2011.03.03} - 286,117 / NEW
3. [PS3] Persona 4: Arena (Atlus) {2012.07.26} - 128,485 / NEW 
4. [PS3] Tekken 6 (Namco Bandai) {2009.10.29} - 103,105 / NEW
5. [PS3] Street Fighter IV (Capcom) {2009.02.12} - 86,000 / NEW
6. [PS2] Fate/Unlimited Codes (Capcom) {2008.12.18} - 82,900 | NEW
7. [PS3] Super Street Fighter IV (Capcom) {2010.04.28} - 80,882 / NEW
8. [PSP] Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha A's Portable: The Battle of Aces (Namco Bandai) {2010.01.21} - 76,088 / NEW
9. [PS3] Soul Calibur IV (Namco Bandai Games) {2008.07.31} - 74,607 / NEW
10. [PS3] Marvel Vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds (Capcom) {2011.02.17} - 67,187 / NEW
11. [PS3] Dead or Alive 5 (Koei Tecmo) {2012.09.27} - 66,586 / NEW
12. [PS3] Naruto Shippuden: Narutimate Storm Generation (Bandai Namco Games) {2012.02.23} - 65,758 / NEW
13. [PS3] Tekken Tag Tournament 2 (Bandai Namco Games) {2012.09.13} - 62,630 / NEW - Source
    
14. [PS3] Street Fighter X Tekken (Capcom) {2012.03.08} - 58,471 / NEW
15. [PS3] Dragon Ball: Raging Blast (Namco Bandai) {2009.11.09} - 57,972 / NEW
16. [PSP] Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha A's Portable: The Gears of Destiny (Bandai Namco) {2011.12.22} - 57,320 / NEW
17. [PS3] Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition (Capcom) {2011.06.30} - 54,924 / NEW
18. [PS3] BlazBlue: Continuum Shift (Arc System Works) {2010.07.01} - 49,871 / NEW
19. [PS3] Dragon Ball: Raging Blast 2 (Bandai Namco) {2010.11.11} - 47.610 / NEW
20. [3DS] Super Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition (Capcom) {2011.02.26} - 44,649 / NEW

Make sure to check out the Beastnote's Blog post to see the whole list. Following this predicament, we also currently have furthur sales figures from TTT2 in the following 2 weeks:

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Week 2 of Media Create Sales Figure for TTT2:

06./01. [PS3] Tekken Tag Tournament 2 <FTG> (Bandai Namco Games) {2012.09.13} (¥7.980) - 17.240 / 79.870 (-72%) - Source 

Week 3 of Media Create Sales Figure for TTT2:

17./06. [PS3] Tekken Tag Tournament 2 <FTG> (Bandai Namco Games) {2012.09.13} (¥7.980) - 7.468 / 87.338 (-57%) - Source 

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As of Week 3, TTT2 have sold 87,338 copies for the PS3 version while X360 version have sold at least an additional 5,000 copies. Quite interesting to note that TTT2 in 3 weeks still has not breached over 100,000 copies sold in Japan while Tekken 6 did it in its first week back in 2009. - Source

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Lastly, the YSO Monster Hunter group have also recently made a comparison chart regarding the Tekken series' sales performance. It's in Japanese but it's still worth mentioning:

From top to bottom you can see Tekken 2, Tekken 3, Tekken Tag Tournament 1, Tekken 4, Tekken 5, Tekken 6 and lastly highlighted in red Tekken Tag Tournament 2. The dark blue portion represents first week of sales in Japan for the title while the light blue portion represents sales in Japan from the second week to lifetime. Do note that the chart was created in TTT2's first week.

Sources:

• Media Create
• Neogaf.com - for collecting and organising the Media Create figures.
• BeastNote Blog - for compiling all the figures for Fighting Games in their first week.
• YSO Monster Hunter Group - for crafting the chart and tallying the figures.

Comments

[L_Z_N]

Maybe the current sales don't look as high as some expected, because people have been pre-ordering since a few months ago. Meaning when you combine the numbers after the release date, and from before the release date(i.e from the pre-orders) the sales total are over 100 K.

[Devil Kazuya]

Or maybe it's a commercial flop.....

Man, and that would be a travesty as it's by far the best fighting game, I have played in.. well yep i'm going to say it ... ever!

What sort of message are we sending to Namco and the development industry when a very lazy port like Tekken 6 and utter crap like sfxtekken so far seems to have gotten far more support than this game, a game which they have obviously poured time and resources into righting wrong's and doing what's right by the fans.... Not too mention all the content that's on the disk and the completness of the package without DLC.

If this game end's up being a commercial flop, we are in big big trouble......

[Watafag]

What about worldwide sells?

[3L1]

And after all that publicity too. Namco can't be happy...

[Legitcurry]

Word wide sales by vgchartz: http://www.vgchartz.com/gamedb/?name=tekken+tag+tournament+2

Doesn't look that good...

[loldongs]

I'd be more willing to bet that because people play it over at arcades so frequently they don't need to buy the console version, thus creating small sales number over at Japan. However, over here in the west, I'm willing to bet the sales are much better.

[robee_g]

The economy also plays a factor with sales.

[Andy C]

Ugh, Japan, why doesn't it surprise me that you wouldn't support one of the best fighting games to be released in 2012?

Now if these were Korean figures, I'd be worried.

Hopefully word of mouth will help this game get more of an audience because honestly, if Namco looks at this as a flop then everyone deserves the kind of shit we get in the future.

[oku]

http://www.vgchartz.com/gamedb/?name=tekken+6
Now we see what Harada was so nervous about.
Tekken 6 certainly did not sell too well in Japan compared to the rest of the world. However, numbers are numbers - plastic boobs (say hello to DOA) sell better than actual (if exaggerated) fighting. Guess we won't be seeing any DLC for TTT2. And some severe changes for the next Tekken, if they do not decide to drop it.

[DevilWindFist]

Final Fantasy Dissidia isn't even a fighting game.

[YourBigFatUglyMama]

Lol. Dead or Alive 5 sold more than TTT2. They wanna play a game where you can press the same button and do a combo, instead of remembering huge moveslist. It's understandable.

My theory is that people have a life. Nobody wants to put moths and months of hard practice and countless hours polishing combos and flashducks of strings and remembering where to side step certain strings and whatnot, you know, everything that is important to do to play Tekken even at intermediate level.

People play videogames to have fun, not to do a chore, which is what Tekken has become with its huge roster and enormous moveslist.

Namco need to cut the cast to about 30 and make the moveslist no bigger than 50 moves. And it should be easier to retreat and sidestep in the game. If you sidestep, then it should be sufficient, not as it is now, you don't only have to sidestep certain moves in a millisecond, you have to fucking sidestep tham the correct side too... how are you going to remember all this information for every string in the game for averu character.

No wonder people get fed up and don't care about this game!

[Fulcrum]

For Tekken fans, having to work to learn and improve IS having fun. Unfortunately that's not a popular attitude anymore.

[Miga-Oh]

"Namco need to cut the cast to about 30 and make the moveslist no bigger than 50 moves."
I don't want to go through a Tekken 4 roster again. More is better when it enhances variety; more is bad when it's five guys who throw fireballs.
Out of a list of 50, there are probably half as many (or fewer) moves an individual player uses consistently and considers effective, while the rest are very situational (for most characters, I think). I think new players are going for simpler games rather than complex games, and older players are... getting old.

There are numerous causes for the low sales numbers. To name a few:
Down economy (maybe bullshit, as people are still buying video games).
TTT2's overall similarity to Tekken 6 (compile those location test numbers).
Availability in game centers (or lack thereof in the west). >:(
Motivation to practice for live, in-person competition (nil in some areas).
Overall perception by new players (complexity versus simplicity, small roster versus large roster, etc.), who are those most likely to buy today's games in large numbers since many of us are getting old/have full-time jobs/family/other hobbies/broken fingers.
To get into the previous point a little more, the last DOA game was released in 2005 (7 years.) TTT2 was preceded by Tekken 6 in 2007 (5 years.) I think that lag time has to do with new players being exposed to DOA, many of whom probably haven't experienced DOA before and aren't intimated by it as much as TTT2.

I think the emphasis of video games as a "chore" is misplaced. Tons of people play games that are incredibly tedious and boring as fuck. So it can't be that.

And maybe the Snoop Dog stage wasn't enough promotion for most people, or was kinda crass and shit. Who knows what the head honchos who made that celebrity-endorsement decision were thinking?
Fight Lab might of been a little too shallow for new players to really get their feet wet, or too weird. Maybe Tekken is too weird for people these days. A boxing match between a raptor and a kangaroo and a metal robot and another metal robot might not get a rise out of people anymore. Reputation of Tekken could have been soiled by the Cross Street Fighter bullshit (the game itself).

There are tons of variables, most of them beyond any individual's control.

Overall, I don't think simplification is the answer. Catering to the lowest common denominator never brings good results in the long run.

I think the presentation of Tekken could be changed, the reputation of it being too complex can be dispelled. It's complex, but not as complex as people think and scares them off. If someone can put together short videos that explain game concepts to other people, it's not too complex for Average Joe to pay a little attention and execute, become addicted, and then practice. It's rocket science, but not molecular biology.

tl;dr: Tekken team should put future Tekken projects on hiatus and unfuck Soul Calibur.

[kerpal]

elitests - our gamez is the bestest and people dont play it cause they dumb, look how deep movement is! 100+ moves for each character! 100+ characters!

normals - not enough fadc into ultra into win or xfactor into win.

namco is just making the tekken niche smaller and smaller with each game.

[Tool God]

My theory is just that the genre right now is over saturated by a lot of fighters. Simple economics and people wanting to focus only on certain games made the sales sadly lackluster. Best game to come out in a long time, and it's drowning in a flood of other fighters. :(

[FixTekkenHaradaASAP]

It's so obvious why people do not wanna get into Tekken and it's not because ot the learning curve; IT'S THE DAMAGE OUTPUT!!!!! The damage in this game from juggles needs a HUGE nerf, period. Also, risk/reward needs a rebalance as well. A -13, low crushing, 15 frame hopkick risking 35-40 damage on punishmentt hat can lead to 120+ life on hit with a wall is extremely fucked up. On paper, Mishima's look like they should be winning, but lets be real here. I guarantee you in the coming months characters like Bob, Leo and Lars will be the only characters seen at high level play due to simple inputs, great frame data and massive damage. Yaaaaayyyy..... Fun times. GG Namco on Tekken 6:2.

Nerf the damage and make hopkicks -14 or more. By far, that is the biggest problem for people trying to get into the game and the reason why they don't stick around or even pick it up. And for those that say "just block it," okay, who wants to play/watch a turtlefest because no one wants to lose over half their life bar for attempting a low that will more then likely leave them negative afterwards anyways? If there is a T7, that shit's gotta go.

/rant

[rewre]

but this is such a good game!! apart from the goofy double tag outs at least the console mode is pure beast!

[IdleMind]

Fight Lab doesn't even teach you to Korean backdash, a cornerstone of the game that is changed in every iteration for balance purposes. On top of that, you have to press bb~d/b~b to move backwards instead of just pressing "back". We are used to it, but think about how stupid it is. On top of that you have half health combos off crush launchers which are barely punishable, and evade the strangest of things. On top of that you have 50 characters worth of strings and frame data to learn before you play the "real game" which looks nothing like the presented package. I remember having to unlearn things like throwing to break turtling, and ten strings, when I first learned to play the game "for real".

This is never going to be a game casuals enjoy, it's a relic from a bygone age of video gaming. it has more in common with a platformer now than a fighting game, it has its own esoteric rules which only make sense in the context of it's own world. That is a huge barrier to overcome for newer people. Logical control--> Effect consistency goes a long long long way.

Also the lack of scrub-stuff to do didn't help for sure.

[Newbie oldie]

I agree with a lot of the stuff ppl have said here. I am what you might call an older gamer being in the 35 to 40 bracket and now that i have kids etc i definately dont have the time to memorise and practice all the moves, juggles, frame data, dodges etc for every single player. When i used to have a lot more time around tekken 2 and 3 i played the game religiously i even bought a then unknown sony playstation 1 console solely because tekken 2 came out on it.

I still love the series and i even pre ordered ttt2 with all the dlc, unfortunately i havent been able to play it as much as i wanted to, the few times i did play online i literally got my anus handed to me by 10plus hit tag juggles just because i made the mistake of not blocking for a split second. It really put me off playing.

[wm4]

the numbers in VGChartz has not been updated for two weeks I think, for both TTT2 and DOA5.
I wish to see the update numbers!
I think TTT2 should pass 300K now.

I just think if TTT2 is simpler and fix some balancing issues (i know a hell for that roster) then
the causals would be more likely to buy it. I wish they fix Lili, too.
I had already pended my inquiry so far in the World Tekken Fed forum
http://wtf.tekken.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=3661