The Wonderful 101 Reportedly Shipping Just 30,000 Copies for Japanese Launch

Remember little kings story? Brilliant game, wasn't available in shops anywhere. I had to actively fight to even get my hands on it.

And publisher wonder why good games don't sell... make it available to the public to pick up in the first place, that would work.

Japanese love this type of a game, where group of superheroes work together to defeat enemies and giants. I don't get this move.

If the same numbers come out for the state-side release, it might become a case of Xenoblade Chronicles all over again.XD

I can't remember if I've preordered it or not, but if I haven't I'm going to wait and see what joe public thinks of it. On the demo the camera was a disgrace and the controls were hit and miss at best.

And platinum seem to keep recycling bosses every 5 minutes which is a pet hate of mine. Not looking good!

@erv
Remember also that we now have the eShop. And though of course physical copies are still a must-have requirement, They're no longer as requested or required as pre-eShop days

Im starting to wonder if Nintendo and any parties involved with the wiiu are conducting some elaborate and expensive customer experiment to see how long customer's will hold onto a system... Not even second party wiiu games are getting fair treatment. I just dont understand what is going on in this industry anymore and worryingly I dont think nintendo do either

does seem to me like a game japan would eat up. i can easily imagine this on some futuristic arcade cab.

@Le_Gazman Wait, aren't those not considered bosses? Because, if I recall correctly, the bosses from the trailers were very huge and required different styles of gameplay.

@Le_Gazman honestly the camera is fine once you get used to it i cant see another way they could have done it.i only had problems with it getting stuck abit in the warehouse.

@Le_Gazman According to the review on NL there is an option to zoom out, only a few indoor sections were cited as having awkward camera angles in the final product. At lease that's what I seem to remember reading.

Whoever was in charge of taking this decision deserve a Unite Slap!!!

Hopefully the cited blog was mistranslated or mistaken or "whatever".... How this game is even supposed to reach the pubblic with only 30,000 copies scattered around the whole Japan? >.>;

Kamiya will set this straight

Perhaps the numbers are showing a strong preference for download as opposed to retail purchases on Wii U - I could especially see that given the discount being offered for this title in the eShop for people who bought Pikmin 3. No point in printing physical media if they don't think people will buy it.

Increasingly the traditional method of tracking software sales is going to be more and more meaningless and if Nintendo and others aren't willing to share information relating to download sales then there's not going to be much point in reporting on It any more.

As everyone else has stated, the eShop makes numbers of physical discs available somewhat moot. No doubt Nintendo will have been tracking sales figures of their other releases this summer to see what's working.

Its childish, super-hero, vibe does seem very Japan friendly, which might be symptomatic of some of the negative reviews in the West.

@Azooooz it's an action game. Those usually don't sell in Japan as well as an RPG or monster hunter. Also its a console game, Japan is mostly on handhelds. With only 1 million Wii U's in Japan it might actually be a spot on prediction. But remember an unlimited supply will be on the eshop.

Either Nintendo is dead on in their prediction, or they are intentionally under shipping it to create demand or they re trying to push as many people into digital as possible.

Shrug, Nintendo knows their home country better than we do.

Potentially good move. No point printing a million copies if it's not going to sell a million. That's just a waste of money.

@erv Little King Story was incredible!

I wonder if this is just a joke/stunt to make people panic buy the game. Everyone will think they can buy a copy and resell it for $500 in 2019 if there are that few copies being made.

@Le_Gazman Juggle between L and R to zoom in and zoom out, Controls need some getting used for some, others in here found them actually intuitive and empowering.

Looks good to me!

@Nintenjoe64 At which point it would still and forever be 10 times cheaper on the eShop.

I have a theory on this move, but in order to not get mislead just like with that inexistant "Squeenix-no-KH3-no-Wii-U" announcement, I'm gonna have a deeper look at the source.

So Siliconera isn't directly quoting any source, and their Japanese source doesn't seem to work, at least on my GamePad. It's not even worth wasting my time trying to explain it. I'll wait to see the numbers of the first week of sales.

@DePapier Hopefully Nintendo will bring HD eshop releases for Xenoblade and Prime Trilogy!

Man, I hope this doesn't mean I'll have to look hard for a copy of this game when it comes my way.

@Nintenjoe64 No one said they can't sell Wii iso (games) directly through the eShop later in the Wii U's lifespan. At a VC-style discounted price, obviously.

@ricklongo Amazon.

P.S.: (I hope that's not considered crude advertising.)

@DePapier Well, yeah, that's always an option. But I just love coming to a local store day one and going home with the brand new game. I'm a dying breed, I know.

They can ship as many as they want at release as long as they are willing to ship more when the supply runs out. Maybe they'll only have 30k at launch due to manufacturing or transportation delays?

Or Japan is just really big on digital. Though this game is 10GB so that leaves out Basic owners w/o an external HDD. It would take my Wii U forever to DL 10GB, and it would stop and restart at least 1,000 times.

If there are a million Wii Us in Japan this really should do more than 30k though, in 1 form or another.

Wish there was a chart which included sales from BOTH physical copies and digital downloads - especially since digital downloads are becoming more popular.

Nintendo can always print more if it sells well. It is available on eshop as well, so people can still buy it.

It reminds me of the fire emblem launch for 3ds. Fire emblem was hard to find in physical copies at first, and then once the reviews starting coming in positive, more copies were printed and you can usually find 1-2 on store shelves now.

Obviously a mario/pokemon/zelda game will have more copies printed - and I usually see 8-10 copies on store shelves.

Nintendo knows what it is doing. The game deserves to get epic sales because it is original and new (thank you gaming gods!!!), but it won't rack up COD sales.

I basically agree with @Phatosaurus ; If Nintendo doesn't expect the game to sell millions of copies, then there's no point in printing millions of copies. Budget appropriately and you'll be rewarded.

@Phatosaurus Nah! it couldn't be that simple mate. Nothing to do with downloads being popular, 30% discounts, testing the retail waters and Nintendo saving money... You should know by now about the crazy conspiracy theories

@Nintenjoe64 Oooooo that would be great, MPT and the "Operation Rainfall" collection..

They are being. Realistic. Look how little pikmin moved in japan. 1st ok, then dropped big time in 2nd, and now not even on the top 10. They know from pikmin, its just overstocking. The base is so small. @Marshi

That's the beauty of the eshop. I bet Nintendo is trying to get more DDs to squeeze more profit out of the game.

@Azooooz I don't get why this game is Japanese friendly.

I understand that physical copies are slightly less demanded with download capabilities, but maybe im one of the few who fears breaking their system and losing a bunch of games. I am far to lazy to buy an external hard drive.

@Nintenjoe64
...and also bring fatal frame 4 please.

This game just exudes the wacky Japanese humor in every fiber of its being so why wouldn't they think it will sell well???
This doesn't bode well for the North American release. I'm definitely getting it but with all the other big titles hitting in September/October I have a feeling this game is just gonna be completely lost in the shuffle.

I wont get this game, too childish to me, even the demo did not impress me, maybe the best part of the game is the gameplay but didn't like the art style, music,story, graphics, etc.

Hmm limited stocking perhaps.. 30,000 should still be enough to get you on a chart in Japan.. maybe they need more time.. which will come more order.. which will come more sells.. it could do 30,000 one week.. and do 40,000 the next the way things are going.. supply and demand.. and at a little over a million sold in Japan.. a 30,000 start while not great.. is good enough..

I really hate to say this, but printing only 30,000 copies for a major title that Nintendo is pushing just sounds fishy to me. I have a gut feeling that Nintendo is trying to push more people towards digital downloads, and the best way to do that is to limit the number of print copies.

Nintendo does have a history of playing around with the number of printed copies of a game. This was a common tactic back during the NES era to ensure they controlled supply and demand.

30,000 just seems like a very low number for a game Nintendo is pushing and helping to publish. The limited print run is to force download sales. It makes no sense to limit a print run by this much. What video game limits their print run to 30,00 copies? Especially a somewhat major title?

Got to love eshop, unlimited distribution of a software.

I guess as time goes on, they can always print more copies if there's a demand for it.

thats kinda strange it reminds me of what me and my friends went through last night, we went to pick up splintercell blacklist at the midnight release ( i was the only one who pre ordered) the store only got that one copy of the game, we tried 10 other game stops in the area and each store only got one copy of the game.... i find that kinda strange but hopefully more people pre order wonderful 101 in america, this game looks great and i hope it gets the success it most likely deserves

Hmmm..... 30 000 dont know kinda cant take it for real but what do i know...

Tried the demo and really liked it. Hopefully it sells well enough to warrant plenty of re-shipments.

Perhaps they have high expectations as far as digital sales go?

I'm suprised, I thought the Japanese would love this game. It's probably going to be even worse in Europe and America. There hasn't been any marketing for this game beyond Nintendo direct and it doesn't seem to be the type of game that would appeal to many western audiences. That even Japan isn't interested is worrisome. I guess we have to wait for games that release in Q4 that games around the world will actually have an interest in.

If this becomes another rare title (much like Xenoblade), then people might have to UNIIIIIIIITE BUILD a bridge over the ocean to Japan to beg for more production... I've already UNIIIIIIIIIITE PRE-ORDERED, so I'm good

It is my belief that this is a tactic used by Nintendo to artificially manufacture a little extra hype, by ensuring that all available copies are sold out. We saw it with Fire Emblem Awakening- a truly wonderful gem of a game that not too many were familiar with, and it worked. I think Nintendo is once again using this strategy to ensure stock is hard to come by on launch day, which in turn will give the appearance that the game is highly sought after, which in turn will heighten interest in the game.

Let Nintendo do what they do. If people want to buy the game, they'll buy it, even if it means going digital when they wanted physical, or waiting an extra week to obtain a copy if need be. I don't think this will damage sales numbers- if anything, it should increase total sales. After all, I believe that's the whole reason they're shipping limited copies in the first place.

Here we go again! This doesn't bode well for the European release! At the end of the month I wanted to get both Wonderful 101 and Rayman legends, but I guess I will never see the former! Good job as always, Nintendo!!

I'm starting to think that Ninty is actually wanting us to use the digital store.

How would you have guessed?!

On the other hand: They will have thousands of Mario 3D world copies! They hope that The wonderful 101 flops, so they can continue with the only franchises they care about: Mario and Zelda!!

I do not understand this. Especially with it being a new IP. I would never have picked up Pikmin if it wasn't for me finding it used. And that was FAR after it came out. I didn't expect to like it and knew that GameStop would refund the full amount if I returned within a week. Instead? I had Pikmin 2 within that week and had to actually MAIL MYSELF my own game to prevent myself from playing it before I completed the first 100%. (And that was the only thing that would have stopped me! Pikmin is great!).

In reflection, if I didn't already plan on getting this when I pick up my WW Wii U, I wouldn't ever - probably.