http://www.siliconera.com/2012/02/17/he ... n-release/
Not only did Konami anticipate less retail sales, they confirmed to themselves that whoever still buys Suikoden games were fully informed of the game having little to do with traditional "old world" themes. If the games were being reported as selling out at retailers, like Vextor mentioned, then it's likely that whoever missed out on a retail copy in their immediate area went for the digital purchase.Siliconera wrote:Suikoden: The Woven Web of a Century sold nearly the same amount of copies in its first week as Suikoden Tierkreis did in 2008. Here’s a comparison of first-week sales numbers for the two games:
Suikoden Tierkreis – 67,588
Suikoden: The Woven Web of a Century – 61,784
The primary difference here is that while Tierkreis sold only 45.67% of its shipment in its first week, The Woven Web of a Century sold 75.09%. This means that Konami — or retailers, who accept a certain amount of copies based on estimated demand — learnt something from Tierkreis and decided to have less copies shipped this time around.
Media-Create say that the majority of purchase intent for Suikoden: The Woven Web of a Century came about as a result of visiting the developer’s website. This isn’t much of a surprise, but it means that it was bought primarily by series fans who actively went looking for information on the game.
So it seems like this game will end up being a "strong seller" by Konami's standards. To put things into perspective:
Tierkreis initial shipment: 148,000 copies.
PSP initial shipment: 82,300 copies.
From current sales reports for Tierkreis, that initial shippment was barely matched by lifetime sales. If this newest game's sales follow a similar drop-off as Tierkreis (i.e. no more than a 3/4 drop in sales in week-two) it will likely exceed the initial shipment over its lifetime.
