VF5 R & FS combined 3rd best income 2010 in Japan

http://p.twipple.jp/GfeJp

Harada (Tekken producer) recently uploaded a scan from amusement journal's current issue, showing that (unsurprisingly) Tekken 6BR has again topped the arcade income awards.

What was a little more surprising is that VF5R is in 5th place, and VF5FS is in 14th place, however if you combine them (as they are effectively competing against themselves) it adds up to 6084, which would be third place.



This seems to differ slightly from the arcadia lists.

 

Noodalls: Do you mind if I post this on my site, Versus City?

 

Not at all. I think I saw it on www.avoidingthepuddle.com first.

 

Curiously enough I think I see VF5FS listed as number 3 on the second chart below. Is that chart for new games of 2010? Also I see another Sega arcade game right above FS at number 13 and at 18. Anyone know what those were? I'm assuming one was Border Break and the other was that Project Diva game?

 

Yep, the second chart is for new releases in 2010. The small print is too blurry for me to read though, so I don't know how they've scored them.

For those who don't read Japanese,

1 Tekken 6
2 Gundam vs Gundam NEXT
3 Blazblue COntinuum Shift
4 Street Fighter 4
5 VF5R
6 King of Fighters 2002 Unlimited Match
7 Gundam SEED OMNI vs ZAFT 2
8 World Soccer Winning Eleven Arcade Championship 2010
9 Guilty Gear XX Accent Core
10 Melty Blood Actress Again
11 Street Fighter 3 3rd Strike
12 Hyper Street Fighter 2 Anniversary Edition
13 Power Smash 3 (Virtua Tennis)
14 VF5FS
15 Arcana Heart 3
16 Melty Blood Actress Again Current Code
17 King of Fighters 13
18 Virtua Striker 4 ver. 2006
19 King of Fighters 98 Ultimate Match
20 Gundam Extreme VS

2010 Games

1 Gundam Extreme VS
2 World Soccer Winning Eleven Arcade Championship 2010
3 VF5FS
4 Melty Blood Actress Again Current Code
5 King of Fighters 13
6 Arcana Heart 3
7 KOF Sky Stage
8 Enuain Perfect World
9 Akai Katana
10 Dodonpachi Daifukkatsu Black Label

VF5 did better than I was expecting actually. That's nice.

 

LOL. VF is behind 3rd strike.

 

... and SF2

 

No it's not, that's why it's at zero when FS debuted, the income switched over to FS.

 

Just a note. The first list counts total income from the entire year, so FS being up there despite only having been in arcades for the last 4 months of last year is pretty good.

The bad news however is despite being a new release, the average monthly income for VF5FS is only about the same as the monthly income for VF5R.

 

That's good information. And seeing that the boards were swapped out and R become FS it ensures the legitimacy of combining the two in order to get a true picture of where VF5 sits for the whole year of 2010.

3rd place overall is a true reflection of its standing in Japanese arcades, even though there has been a growing perception that even in Japan, VF popularity is waning.

It seems to be going steadily, or even fairly strongly, would people agree?

Final Showdown not gaining significant numbers of new players is not too surprising or a huge concern, I agree it's just good to know its maintained its base.

The question is what can Sega do to maintain the game from here. It seems they are doing well by allowing tournaments to be held, and considering it was competing in the local arcade market quite well, its understandable that no console version was announced at TGS, only 2 months out from Arcade launch.

The arcade operators would not be happy with home console competition for a strong title like this so soon.

But they DO need to do a home release in 2011 to maximise income from the development and increase the player base for VF.

If Sega were very smart they would promote community and tournament play for home console outside japan alongside home release and beyond.

 

This is great news! I'm surprised to see that VF is still doing so well in Japan. I was somehow under the impression that it wasn't that popular in arcades anymore. I'm Glad to see that I was mistaken.

Now I feel a lot more hopeful about the future of VF and the possibility of VF6 . Thanks, noodalls.

 

And it is said that American are the dumber-est.
----

Seeing this first hand at the arcades is depressing. At the place I go to, you can wait 6 hours and maybe get 1 or 2 games in vs. someone (if you're lucky), but with Tekken and Gundam there is a constant flow of players (lol, look at the gaijin playing the hard game).

 

Just would like to point out, as per their website, this is by a sample of 50 arcades. Whether this is more or less representative than arcadia's numbers is uncertain.

 

Arcadia also does a sample of 50 arcades, although I suspect their participants are very different

 

I dont really put my faith in arcadia. Its best to go to japan and see for youself first hand.

 

Myke: Yeah, you're right. VF5FS being able to hold on to its crowd can't really be a bad thing. I gotta be more positive.

On the discrepancy between this list and Arcadia's list, I remember when I was in Japan, VF would be absolutely huge at one arcade, but practically dead at others. It seems to do well at certain places only. Thus we get lots of contradictory reports of how well VF does.

Even Tokido told me "Not many people play it." But looks like it still does pull the numbers at some arcades.

 

What I saw on my most recent travels is that ALL the fighting games are suffering. Even Tekken 6 BR's figures are deceiving - a lot of places are giving out 2 plays for 100 yen on that one (same with VF5FS, incidentally). SSFIV AE is pretty damned expensive from what I was told, and so it's not really showing up in anywhere near as many places as you'd think.
Meanwhile, Gundam will always - always - have a crowd.

I talked to quite a few folks related to arcade development on this last trip, and the picture they painted of the scene in general wasn't a rosy one. I heard a few other interesting bits as well... and I'll just say that it's going to be some time before the prospect of a new arcade VF installment enters the development picture. Until then, well, I hope you like Vocaloid songs.

 

I think another message can be sent to Sega from this... Hey Sega, the #1 arcade revenue generator of 2010 had a console release in 2009...

I can't say about the potential sales figures for what VF5:FS (and/or R) would be for consoles, but I don't think it's going to damage the arcade performance much *wink*

But I would be very happy if you brought this game to consoles, in case you haven't heard ^_^