Top 100 Selling Games Last 12 Months (All Platforms)

[Shifty Geezer]

I think from a developer's POV they are trying to make enough money to fund their next, likely even more expensive.

Subsequent costs after the first game should go down. The first new gen platform game needs an entire engine and getting to grips with the platform. Things learnt will streamline efficiencies and require more in the way of 'fixing' than 'building'. The start of a console is viewed as an expensive, difficult period with a lot of investment.

 

[Tap In]

Ted Price has said Ratchet & Clank is over a million.

maybe he and other 1 million sources meant "shipped to retailers" which is sold to them

these numbers are sold through to consumers

81. Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction
PS3 Exclusive
600K
88%
October/Action
SCEA/Insomniac

 

[dobwal]

WW figures aren't going to coorelate with these numbers especially WW shipped figures. These numbers cover retails sales in NA and Western Europe only, which means a good 25%-30% of the WW is not even being included.

Also, there is going to be a healthy amount of games on retail shelves at any one time so a 200k discrepancy between shipped and retail sales isn't hard to believe given the area being covered.

 

[Arwin]

Other then your few exception exclusive titles (Halo, Mario Galaxy, GT5P) the future is in multiplatform release. Which as a gamer I'm fine with (even owning both consoles.) The more gamers hands you can get your game into, the better it will be. AC or COD4 sales would of paled in comparison to if it was released exclusively for either system.

Well, maybe, maybe not.

Exclusives still rule, and Wii rules exclusives—out of the 100 games on this list, a full 34 are exclusive to one platform. The Wii’s unique development environment ensured it the plurality of these exclusives, with eleven games on this list (twelve if you count Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition). The DS has a similar number, while the Xbox 360 only mustered a tepid three.

 

[AlNom]

Well, maybe, maybe not.

How many of those Wii titles did Nintendo develop/publish though?

 

[deepbrown]

They said to break even on the first day they would need to sell a million copies on the first day, which tells us the cost of creating MGS4 is covered in a million units revenues. I guess that places the amount of money the publisher gets from a game sale as pretty high, 'coz MGS4 can't have been cheap.

No, they didnt. That was a misquote and taken out of context. They don't have to sell 1 million copies "on the first day". This was denied by Ryan Payton.

 

[AlNom]

Here's their analysis they promised:
http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9900&Itemid=2&limit=1&limitstart=0

Interesting breakdown.

 

[patsu]

[Skim through thread]

Looking good. PS3 will likely show the most improvement this year then. It launched in March 2007 for Europe, and has a small user base for half of 2007.
MotorStorm, Resistance, Uncharted, R&C, Warhawk all are doing well. It is more interesting to find out how they are selling now vs the new games in 2008.

I know Resistance is still strong because earlier on the online user base kinda dwindled a little (around when CoD4 was launched), but it went back up again. I played against mostly new users in the last 1-2 months compared to before.


The top 100 chart is most interesting for identifying consume taste in game types. Yeah, that "Must make money by selling 1 mil at launch" myth has been debunked.

The NextGen's analysis is flawed if they don't normalize using the userbase (e.g., both MS and Sony studios are exclusive, so naturally they will sell less compared to others).

 

[mrcorbo]

Subsequent costs after the first game should go down. The first new gen platform game needs an entire engine and getting to grips with the platform. Things learnt will streamline efficiencies and require more in the way of 'fixing' than 'building'. The start of a console is viewed as an expensive, difficult period with a lot of investment.

But are you going to make the same game again? Of course not. You're next game is going to have to have either more or better content and preferably both. And given the typical development cycles we are seeing you are going to have to meet gamers' expectations as they are 2 or even more years advanced of what they were at the release of your last game. Every (good) game released raises the bar for the next and every studio is going to try to do everything they can to make their title stand out enough to really hit it big.

Having better technology and experience is actually going to raise the quantity and quality of the content you are going to have to produce to fully take advantage of the resources of the system(s) you are developing for. And if you don't attempt to do this, your competition surely will and your game is going to suffer by comparison.

As a practical example, do you think Gears Of War 2 isn't going to cost more to produce than Gears Of War 1?

There's a reason why in a market that is expanding rapidly even in the face of poor economic times that we are regularly seeing studio closures and publisher restructuring. This is a tough business and it is only getting tougher.

 

[Gradthrawn]

They said to break even on the first day they would need to sell a million copies on the first day, which tells us the cost of creating MGS4 is covered in a million units revenues. I guess that places the amount of money the publisher gets from a game sale as pretty high, 'coz MGS4 can't have been cheap.

No, they didnt. What was a misquote and taken out of context. They don't have to sell 1 million copies "on the first day". This was denied by Ryan Payton.

Yeah, that was mis-quoted and then further taken out of context by other media and press. Ryan Patton's correction.

 

[AntShaw]

Well, maybe, maybe not.

COD4, DMC4, AC say maybe so.

If each of those were exclusive its fair to say they would of sold half as well. At a 3 mil difference for COD4, thats a fair shake of $$.

Thats a lot of $$ to be left on the table for big budget exclusives.

Fanboy, and Studio preference aside, Uncharted and Ratchet would of sold like gangbusters on 360. Thus leaving all the $$ on the table.

Thats my only point.

 

[patsu]

Yes, it is a point Sony acknowledges themselves.

The question is can they extend the gaming market further ? Both Wii and PS3 have (new) mechanisms to grow the space. The former has a tsunami-like success, the latter is moving along slowly.

It would be interesting to see how close Sony's 10 year growth plan is playing out so far. At this point, I'd say their own software delays are more detrimental than any external factors. Exclusive developers probably get better updates than us in terms of Sony's internal plans.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

No, they didnt. That was a misquote and taken out of context. They don't have to sell 1 million copies "on the first day".

And you misunderstand what I say, like everyone misunderstood the original quote1 They do not have to sell a million copies on day one. The quote was regarding how many sales would they need to break even, and the answer was a million. Clearly a ball-park figure. The time taken to sell that many is irrelevant but what everyone jumped on.

 

[deepbrown]

And you misunderstand what I say, like everyone misunderstood the original quote1 They do not have to sell a million copies on day one. The quote was regarding how many sales would they need to break even, and the answer was a million. Clearly a ball-park figure. The time taken to sell that many is irrelevant but what everyone jumped on.

Firstly you said "They said". Secondly...stealth edit? "They said to break even on the first day they would need to sell a million copies on the first day" You didn't have that bad sentence structure saying "on the first day" twice...

 

[deepbrown]

COD4, DMC4, AC say maybe so.

If each of those were exclusive its fair to say they would of sold half as well. At a 3 mil difference for COD4, thats a fair shake of $$.

Thats a lot of $$ to be left on the table for big budget exclusives.

Fanboy, and Studio preference aside, Uncharted and Ratchet would of sold like gangbusters on 360. Thus leaving all the $$ on the table.

Thats my only point.

AC and COD4 sold very well on seperate platforms - they would be considered successess even if they were exclusive to one console.

Secondly - from my original understanding, Uncharted sold on percentage more per user base than Mass Effect per user base. With these estimated Euro sales numbers - things don't look the same.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I haven't edited any of these posts. Try reading this again...

They said to break even on the first day they would need to sell a million copies on the first day

That's where the first day sales nonsense came from. The guy was talking about how many they needed to sell, and if they were to manage break-even on day one, those day-one sales would have to amount to one million. If they were to break even in the first month, the first month sales would need to be one million. See? That bad sentence structure is supposed to be highlighting the 'On day one' time-frame used in the interview response, telling us how many units they need to sell.

 

[AntShaw]

AC and COD4 sold very well on seperate platforms - they would be considered successess even if they were exclusive to one console.

Secondly - from my original understanding, Uncharted sold on percentage more per user base than Mass Effect per user base. With these estimated Euro sales numbers - things don't look the same.

I agree to all you said.

Uncharted on 360 and PS3 would of sold better then Uncharted only on PS3? Correct?

I personally think in this era, with development costs on all sides rounding out, exclusivity to one console will more often then not, leave a lot of left over money in the market for said game.

 

[deepbrown]

I agree to all you said.

Uncharted on 360 and PS3 would of sold better then Uncharted only on PS3? Correct?

I personally think in this era, with development costs on all sides rounding out, exclusivity to one console will more often then not, leave a lot of left over money in the market for said game.

O.K. But is this really the case in all situations? Why have the producer that made AC multi-platform, made Haze exclusive?

 

[deepbrown]

WW figures aren't going to coorelate with these numbers especially WW shipped figures. These numbers cover retails sales in NA and Western Europe only, which means a good 25%-30% of the WW is not even being included.

Also, there is going to be a healthy amount of games on retail shelves at any one time so a 200k discrepancy between shipped and retail sales isn't hard to believe given the area being covered.

200k? How about a 2million descrepancy. Motorstorm was released in NA and Europe in March 2007. Thus this list is meant to show its total sales in these territories (minus pack ins). 2million accounted for in pack ins?

 

[patsu]

I agree to all you said.

Uncharted on 360 and PS3 would of sold better then Uncharted only on PS3? Correct?

I personally think in this era, with development costs on all sides rounding out, exclusivity to one console will more often then not, leave a lot of left over money in the market for said game.

It is one of the common growth models, but there are risks and other options. e.g., If Insomniac were to go cross-platforms, their existing skillsets and edge will need to be re-evaluated (Their cost and performance may take a hit).

If they license it out for someone else to port at no risk/cost to themselves, then it may be fine. OTOH, remaining PS3 exclusive allows them to manage their cost and honed their skills further -- provided the PS3 growth is healthy.

With their understanding of PS3, they can also explore other businesses within that space (e.g., Explore other genra, Blu-ray related, or Home related, or other stuff). Not everyone needs to be big. Some huge companies make less profit than smaller ones.