Japanese Charts: Pikmin 4 Continues To Dominate The Competition

These Switch numbers in its seventh year are truely remarkable.

Interesting to see that after a generation of talking about digital only, the disc edition of thenps5 outsells the digital edition 10:1

It’s such a good game. I only just picked it up but it’s such a chill experience to boot up after work.

@romanista that's what I'm always saying, one can keep repeating the same thing over and over, it just doesn't make it true. Most of my Switch library is physical.
You would actually have to pay for a game twice if you want two users to be playing a downloaded game on the same console. This is just nonsense imo.
Buying a console that restrict your choice/access to games is just not an option for me. Then you must buy all of your games at full price or just wait until you can maybe get a suitable discount.

Pikmin 4 for Game of the year, if it doesn't even get a nomination place then il be disappointed.

@Yalloo “You would actually have to pay for a game twice if you want two users to be playing a downloaded game on the same console”

That’s not strictly true. I’m actually not sure how it works on the Switch as my partner and I have our own but for PS5 and Xbox if the game is installed on the console either of us can play it on our own profile.

However I still prefer physical. Especially for big AAA releases where the file size of one download game can be half your internal storage, and then there’s updates on top of that.

@romanista I don't even know why they even need a digital edition, people buy the physical edition one cause it gives them more options, not necessarily because they want only physical games. Gamers love options they don't want to be limited to just one or the other. Had the physical edition not support digital as well then I believe people will find issue with that too. This is why VR and cloud gaming only platforms will never work as those can't sell or offer games by themselves, they need the other options or else they risk losing their own service. This is why a digital only game platform will also never work unless they had other options their users could rely on. PC and mobile phones are digital only but they had tons of features people rely on that those makes up for it whereas Ouya, Steam Machines, and PSP Go are all digital only but those don't had very many features people rely on thus they all failed.

@romanista The Series S is outselling the Series X, though.

it is impressive Pikmin 4 is already over 800k in Japan less than 2 months in, clearly its doing good in Japan but what about the rest of the world

@Ogbert EVERY single game on PS5 and XBOX Series needs to be installed anyway, so on those systems there is no real advantage to going physical over download. There is even an upside to download games, you don't need to insert the disc to run the game.
And with fast internet, downloading the game is often faster than installing it from a disc. Yes, I've tested this with some XBOX GamePass titles I also have on disc.

"but when the service goes offline I can't download the games.." 99,99% of modern XBOX / PS games have Day One patches that aren't on the discs, and often more than one patch. Downloading those is going to be a problem as well when the service goes offline. Making the "physical" version, nothing more than a paperweight.

And on Switch most games are small enough that you can have a decent library on a 256GB SD card. Which are surprisingly cheap.

On the 'Switch 2' I am going download only, even if it still accepts physical media.

Those two new games had some long ass confusing titles.

@sanderev Yeah but that's only because a lot of games on Xbox in Japan had no physical release. Elden Ring, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion, Star Ocean: The Divine Force, Street Fighter 6, and Forza 5 for Xbox Series consoles in Japan are all digital releases only. There's no point in buying a physical supported console like the Series X over there if that console doesn't had physical games at all.

@Ogbert So on my Switch, if I download a game with my user and try to play it with another user, it tells me that I need to buy the game with that second user as well.
Good to hear it's not the case with the other two, hopefully Nintendo can correct what I think is a big mistake.

Wow, look at PS5 sales this week. 😊

@Yalloo If the Switch console you had is your primary console then any users who login to that console could play any of your games just as long as you gave permission for them to do so. If the Switch console you had is your secondary console then any user that login who wants to play your games not only had to have your permission but they must verify their account online every time too but if they turn your secondary console into their primary console then you're out of luck and all your games on it must be verify by both you and them for y'all to play them again.

To them they likely had to purchase those games as the games aren't tie to their account. As for you, you must verify every time you want to play cause the console is not your primary console. If you play a game using your main account on your primary console then all your games on the secondary console can't be access but if someone use their account and access your games in your primary console, you could still play your games on your secondary console using your main account just as long as it's not the same game the other guy is playing. It's sounds confusing but that's how it works.

Over 30 million units of Switch hardware sold in Japan.

PS5 4.3 million
PS4 8 million
Xbox Series lol million

Go Pikmin! Great to see Ring Fit Adventure still doing well.

I’m loving Pikmin 4 🙂 have just cleared Serene shores (I like to 100% an area before moving on) I love the way the game drip feeds you everything. I know some people didn’t like this “slow” approach, but it suits me fine.

@Serpenterror it's indeed confusing, and still unclear to be honest. But thanks for taking the time to explain that to me. Do you know where is the option to "give permission" to the other user?
I've never seen this, either on my primary or secondary Switch. I just get the message that I need to buy the game as the second user.
I know to let the secondary user play my games on their console, but that is with my account, not theirs.

@Yalloo there is no option to give the user permission, it's just automatically happens once you make one of your switch consoles the primary account.

Heres a guide which may help you

https://www.wikihow.com/Can-You-Gameshare-on-Switch

And if you read this weeks sales numbers for Pikmin 4 backwards it's still the same number.

Such is the magic (power) of Nintendo.

I just picked it up today , but I wish Nintendo will continue update the game with a proper local split coop for the game , or at least something like the Pikmin 3 which is very fun . Is there a challenge mode ( like the Pikmin 3) where 2 player can work together towards to the goal ?

@KBuckley27 A past IGN NVC podcast mentioned that Japan has a huge marketing campaign for Pikmin 4. Ads and merch are everywhere. So it looks like it has paid off.

@Max_the_German japan is keeping switch sales up ..

@sanderev also switch physical games have a lot of resale value...

@Max_the_German japan loves the switch...

@Wyk126 There is no challenge mode for co-op. The only co-op is the version where one player is just a reticle that throws items and rocks at the screen.
Too bad! I sorely miss the incredible co-op from Pikmin 3 (and of course Pikmin 3 Deluxe). I would pay an irresponsible amount of money to get new 2-player challenge maps as DLC...

@Zaruboggan Ah that’s such a shame, me and my partner spent majority of time playing the challenge mode on Pikmin 3, we got all platinum, such a fun game.

@Zaruboggan Playing Co-op Pikmin 2 is one of my fondest memories, especially once Mr. President becomes playable, but Pikmin 3's story mode was locked to single player, and wasn't made multiplayer until Deluxe, that's probably one of the main reasons I think 2 is greater than 3.

@sanderev Why download only on switch 2?

@DwaynesGames so? Japan is a big market but America is bigger and Europe is also huge, combined its way bigger than Jalan and Pikmin 4 might just be selling average to below average

@Wyk126 Going for platinum on the challenge stages provided such a unique co-op experience. I loved planning out every minute of action with my brother before executing on it. Congratulations on getting every platinum medal!

@KBuckley27 I don’t think we disagree. Just pointing out that it may be selling better in Japan because of the extra marketing there.

@johnedwin I don't sell my games. Never have, never will.

@iihiirii1985; no need to change cartridges, and the current prices of high capacity MicroSD storage. I don't really need any physical gamecarts anymore.

@sanderev true i also have no intention of selling any of my games..

@Zaruboggan Thanks! and we played on the WiiU, my partner used the WiiU gamepad, I used Wii remote, my partner still prefer to use the WiiU gamepad to play pikmin as she said she can throw pikmin much faster by tapping using stylus than tapping on the buttons. lol

@Wyk126 I was on the Wii remote too haha (my brother was on the gamepad). Your partner may be onto something with that pikmin throw speed!

@sanderev Currently the prices in Japan (in yen) are:
PS5: 60,478
PS5DE: 49,478
XBSX: 59,978
XBSS: 37,978

The XBSS is much cheaper than the XBSX, so the tradeoff of not being able to use physical media isn't as bad.

Incidentally, while looking up the prices I found out that XB had a price hike in Japan. I remember there being quite the uproar over the PS5 price hike but I don't recall reading anything about this.

https://www.gematsu.com/2023/01/xbox-series-x-and-xbox-series-s-price-increase-announced-for-japan

Congrats to the 35 Japanese citizens just now getting in on the 2DS hype wagon