This Week In Sales: So NieR, Yet So Far

By Ishaan . May 2, 2010 . 2:25pm

As reported previously, Cavia-developed NieR Replicant sold out of its first shipment during launch week, pushing publisher Square Enix to release more copies of the game to retail as early as the following weekend. In a recent interview, NieR producer Yosuke Saito stated that the company developed the game intending for it to be a “second action-RPG pillar” alongside the well-established Kingdom Hearts franchise.

Looking at actual first-week sales of NieR Replicant, it’s safe to say Square Enix were rather conservative with their initial shipment. The PS3 version of NieR sold 60,174 copies in its first week, topping the Media Create sales chart. While a somewhat respectable achievement for a new franchise, 60,000 units isn’t quite what one would expect of a game intended to stand alongside Kingdom Hearts. Whether or not overseas sales will contribute positively remains to be seen.

The top-ten for the week of April 19th – 25th is as illustrated below, with more observations following the chart:

Lw	Tw	Title	Tw. Sales	Tot. Sales	Sys.	Publisher
New	01.	NieR Replicant	60,174	New	PS3	Square Enix
01.	02.	New Super Mario Bros. Wii	28,757	3,715,496	Wii	Nintendo
New	03.	Tokyo Mono Hara Shi: Karasu no Mori Gakuen Kitan	21,953	New	PSP	Atlus
02.	04.	Tomodachi Collection	19,681	3,130,665	DS	Nintendo
New	05.	Ys: Oath of Felghana	16,167	New	PSP	Falcom
03.	06.	Pro Baseball Spirits 2010	15,607	118,340	PSP	Konami
09.	07.	Wii Fit Plus	15,217	1,847,757	Wii	Nintendo
15.	08.	Mario Kart Wii	13,671	2,711,000	Wii	Nintendo
New	09.	The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (GOTY)	14,685	New	PS3	Bethesda
06.	10.	Pokemon Ranger: Tracks of Light	12,408	408,906	DS	The Pokémon Company

NieR Gestalt, the less effeminate Xbox 360 game, debuted at #11, just off the top-ten chart. According the Dengeki’s sales tracker, it sold in the range of 10 – 12,000 units.

The other very interesting title in the top-ten is Mario Kart Wii, which crawled its way up the chart owing to a new commercial featuring a popular Japanese idol. Media Create also speculate that people who picked up a new Wii for New Super Mario Bros. Wii are purchasing Mario Kart as their second game of choice.

Also, as predicted in previous weeks, the PSP version of Pro Baseball Spirits 2010 is set to outlast its PS3 counterpart, despite the latter version including an exclusive online mode that allows the game to download updated baseball rankings. While the PSP version enjoyed another week in the top-ten, the PS3 game dropped to #12.

Other notable releases during the week are as follows:

#26 – Knights in the Nightmare (PSP)
#40 – Disgaea: Infinite (PSP)

And finally, both versions of No More Heroes: Heroes’ Paradise dropped off the top-ten, with the PS3 version at #29 and the Xbox 360 version vanishing from the top-50 chart entirely.

Aoshi00

I just started playing Nier yesterday (5 hrs-in), it’s awesome, better than most of the stuffs come out from S-E in recent years (at least more of an RPG than FFXIII), and this isn’t even made by them. The graphics might not be mind blowing, but it feels like Ico or Shadow of the Colossus hauntingly beautiful, but could be very detailed at times like the first boss, made my jaw drop. It’s too bad people keep thinking the game got Americanized, while actually the opposite is true, it’s Replicant that got Japanized w/ its girly hero, I can’t imagine their relationship not being father-daughter. The voice acting is excellent, Kaine is certainly an interesting character, so are Nier and Grimoire Weiss, very funny at times :) I’m kind of worried playing Replicant would lessen the experience.

I know the 360 ver. would always sell fewer units in Jpn, but for Nier’s case, it might have to do w/ Gestalt having only Eng. voice acting, while Replicant has Jpn.

And guess the patch is coming too late for NMH huh, bad word of mouth is alrdy out…
- http://gameplay.pl/keii Keiician
  
  Ah, lucky you. Because of the small amount of copies my yes-asia order which I made a few days before the release has been delayed to 5th of May (from 24th of April). Guess I should’ve ordered it earlier :<
  - Aoshi00
    
    Actually I just ordered Replicant from Play-Asia the other day, so I wouldn’t get it in a while either (wonder if I would still be getting that pre-order soundtrack). I was looking forward to the game, but was a little cautious to wait for the reviews, and it seems positive across the board, and now I get to try it myself it is a great game, enjoying it a lot, the game is fun, so much to do (I’m learning how to fish now), looks and sounds beautiful. One minor complaint is the text is kind of small-ish, like most HD games, but readable at least.
    - http://gameplay.pl/keii Keiician
      
      Hope I’ll like it too.
      3D Dot Game Heroes from yes-asia’s spring sale will probably come earlier though (would’ve got it by now, but that stupid ash cloud got in the way :|).
- niconic
  
  Last night I just finished NieR and got the A ending, which was overall a blast with some mindfuck/plottwist, with some bits of annoyence here and there with the magic lock on.But about the hero, I just can’t shake the feeling that the real hero should be/orginally the younger brother type of NieR. Not because of his looks (hey some eye candy for a lady,heh) or that the design of the father is out of place. But more the interactions, reactions and talkings of the hero with the other characters and NPC’s, as EvilAkito above mentions about it. It all point to a ‘typical teenager brother’ instead of a mature, knowlegeable and wiser father type.A great example of this, in the second half of the game, when Emil and Kaine got kicked out of the village by Devola an Popola, which enraged Nier by this (all three of them just saved the very village from a big Shade)he just keep yelling and screaming cursing how unjust this was at the twins, and then he just go to sleep. While in his dreams he wanted to strangle and killing the twins.And in several futher cutscenes in the game especally in the final moments of the game, the hero just reacts what like a 22 year old acts towards his sister and the situations with other characters. Or the hero just got mentaly younger while the body just forgot to get younger.So I really think that NieR got Amercanized instead of Japanized. Not still I really enjoyed the game, and loved the hommage to other games (<3 the Zelda),but it would have really been better if we got the younger brother type instead of the father type.(still going strong with D ending XP)
  - Aoshi00
    
    Sry I couldn’t read the 2nd half of your post yet due to avoiding spoilers, I just finished catching my first fish (need to resort to FAQ unfortunately) and helping out the lighthouse old lady, so funny.
    
    The impression I got so far is old man Nier is the original, being the dedicated father, I thought that’s what they showed in the initial trailers too, then later Replicant popped up (some suggested Replicant comes later like how the word is used in “Blade Runner” as “copy”). I dunno, I got used to Yonah calling Nier dad instead of “onii-chan” in the Jpn ver, guess I’ll need to play more to find out. Also I don’t want another brother-sister relationship again since it’d be too much like Drakengard (which I liked too). And I thought old Nier and Kaine are good contrast to each other. I don’t know what the horrible plot twist is yet, I’m sure it’s a big one since “nothing is as it seems” is emphasized on the back of the box.
    
    A-D endings? I hope you can get all of those in end game, there’s only 3 game saves and I don’t want to play the game all over again, since I’m going to play Replicant after I finished this.. the variety of gameplay is definitely amazing, 2-D platforming, Zelda top-down view, etc, presentation is very nice and thoughtful, compared to say FFXIII, which didn’t spark my imagination at all. So far the camera angle is okay for me, dunno about later. Wonder how hard is to get the trophy/achievement, I’m playing Nier on 360 now and will be getting Replicant on PS3 later, just thought I might as well have each ver. on a difff. system.
    
    EDIT: also one interesting thing is there is no trailers for Replicant on PSN at all on both Jpn and US PSN even now, while Nier was advertised prominently in both US and Gestalt in Jpn on Xbox Live, so it makes me think Replicant comes later. Sadly it makes no difference in Jpn since PS3 is still the system of choice. I like we don’t have a good looking young hero though, just makes it more unique.
    - niconic
      
      Hahaha that old lady, for all I care that she will jump out the lighthouse and die like a mermaid (minor spoiler)
      
      As for the spoiler in my previous reply, good thing that wasn’t major :)
      
      Yes there are 4 differents ending for NieR, a good thing is you don’t have to play from the beginning again.
      
      When the endcredits roll then the game asks you to save a clear data, when you load it, you will start at the second part of the game
      (5 years later after picking the vapor moss),
      
      while you retaining all your items, exps, skills, money, completed quests and words from you previous playthrough.
      
      (the button set up will be resestte and also your wordsedit for your magics, minor spoiler). It is in a way an effective ‘new game+’ so the your next playthourgh will a breeze, so don’t worry about the 3 slot limit :P
      
      (For your questsprogress, I suggest to complete all of them, before you pick up the vapor moss. If not, as you will progess in the second half, you CAN’T complete them in the second half of the game !!!)
      
      For explanation the JPN title Replicant, Gestalt, I suggest lay off the trailers and teasers and spend your time better in progress in the game further and you will know it yourself, why Replicant is the initial concept, as the back state ‘nothing is as it seems…’. :P
      
      (Strangly yet, why is there JPN NieR Replicant trailer on my PS3?)
      
      (Still mad at the censors in Drakengard, ooh Furiae ;<)
      - Aoshi00
        
        *closed eyes like facing Medusa*.. There were several Replicant trailers online, but I don’t see them anywhere on Jpn PSN, I just did a title search under either Ni or Re, where did you download it from? But there are trailers on both US and Jpn Xbox Live.
        
        I’m doing all the sidequests now (even though I really want to advance the main story), at first I told myself I wasn’t going to fish or garden, but they’re very addictive and useful and related to the story, just got them “singing”.
        Also USB flash drives gives us more saves too :)
        
        I finally got the Heavy Rain taxidermist DLC from Jpn PSN today, took them long enough (not up until 4/28) and had to buy more playstation ticket too.. quite worth it too bad not addt’l trophy.
  - Tokyo Guy
    
    Do you think you could try putting spoiler warnings into a post next time? You just gave away a major point of the game.
- EvilAkito
  
  I have to agree. I wasn’t too fond of the game when I first started, but as I got into it, I’ve really started to enjoy it. Definitely one of the best Square Enix games I’ve played in a long time (admittedly coming from someone who hasn’t been a Square fan since the 16-bit era).
  
  But I have to say, there are a few little things here and there that sort of make me feel like Nier is suppose to be an older brother and not a father. One thing in particular is that there is no mention of him having a deceased wife or anything (at least not as far as I’ve played). Yet at the same time, there was the quest where he selflessly wanted to help those two boys whose mother had gone missing, which Weiss opposed, and then Nier explained that it’s tough growing up without parents, which kind of implies that he’s an orphan himself (and fits in better with the brother/sister scenario).
  
  Either way, I’m enjoying the game and I really like the characters (particularly Weiss and Kaine), and I’m pretty much indifferent to whether we have father-Nier or brother-Nier.
malek86

KITN performed a little worse than I expected, but I wasn’t expecting much. I mean, when was the last time a Sting game actualy sold well?

On the other hand, Disgaea Infinite is really too low for its own good.

Maybe next time they should try and release them in a less busy week?
- kupomogli
  
  Nothing is ever too low for Disgaea. Infinite isn’t an RPG, so it might actually be good like Prinny was. Prinny is amazing. Stick with platformers NIS, your RPGs are no good.
  - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1472407455 Charles Lupula
    
    So which is it? Are you intimidated by grinding or are you unable to play a game with less than state-of-the-art graphics? Any NIS haters I’ve ever met fall into at least one of those two categories.
    - http://honorless.net honorless
      
      …Did you seriously just call grinding “intimidating”?
      
      Grinding is not “intimidating”. It’s a waste. One that should be entirely unnecessary if you’ve got a clear head and a well-balanced game. While I can forgive it in more traditional RPGs, the idea that grinding is a good idea in a game billing itself as a “strategy” RPG is completely mindboggling to me. Because mindlessly hacking away at cannon fodder enemies 4 teh goldz/statz is the very antithesis of strategic combat.
      
      I’m going to troll-question you the same way you did kupomogli:
      “So, which is it? Are you intimidated by strategy games that present you with truly difficult situations which you must think through rather than level through, or do you just enjoy slaying the same five palette-swapped enemies over and over again?”
      
      One last thing: How is dude a “NIS hater” for thinking one of their games—one that recycled most if not all of its graphical assets from Disgaea, no less—was amazing?
      - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1472407455 Charles Lupula
        
        Actually, I enjoy both NIS-type strategy and something like Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3, so the answer is neither. I’m open-minded enough to appreciate both styles.
        
        And I actually happen to enjoy grinding in RPG’s, strategy and otherwise.
        
        You’ll also notice I didn’t make any comment on his liking Prinny. It was more his “Your RPG’s are no good” statement I was commenting on. Prinny is an exception to what they’ve typically released in America, not the rule.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1472407455 Charles Lupula

I would really like to play an American version of Replicant, but I’m a Westerner, so apparently, I like playing a neanderthals. When Nier either releases Replicant DLC or goes down in price to $20, I’ll check it out.
Jaxx-Leviathan

Seems to be a reasonably good first week for Tokyo Mono Hara Shi, a game I really want localized so hopefully this’ll give Atlus incentive to do this.
cowcow

“the less effeminate Xbox 360/PS3 game” – Lol.. for all the Gears of War/Halo/God of War testosterone masculine enticed Western gamers that can still deal with a hermaphrodite side character.
Oh the irony….
http://twitter.com/Sieghardt Sieghardt

Pretty shameful for their “second action-RPG pillar” to sell so poorly, but not nearly as shameful as it selling better than Ys: Oath in Felhana, one of the absolute best action-RPGs around

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