NPD February 2011
- Thread starter AlphaWolf
- Start date
Prophecy2k
Veteran
Prophecy2k
Veteran
I really don't think that the quality of COD games, setting, graphics or any of that is what is driving the sales of COD games at this point in the gen.
At this point it's more of the success of past games and potency & prevalence of online gaming. COD is now a brand in and of itself, a cultural phenomenon even. BLOPS had a lower metacritic score than MW2 and yet outsold it. It was also widely regarded (ok maybe not all that widely) before release as being from the COD "B-Team" rather than the Inifinity Ward guys of COD4:MW fame.
COD is like Word of Warcraft at this point. It will only grow and even if the next COD game has a completely crap SP game (i thought most of the SP campaigns were crap aside from MW1) the game will always be based on the MW-Style MP formula that the prevailing majority of customers of the franchise only really care about.
Everybody flocks to COD because everybody flocks to COD. At the same time that's not a slight on the work of the developers, as despite my personal distaste of the series, i still agree that they are solid FPS games (just not to my personal tastes).
In a sense though i agree with you though Laa-Yosh, it isn't that people are chasing shit en masse. However it's undeniable that there are a whole lot of games out there that are far superior in every way to COD games, yet they haven't sold nearly as much.
To me COD, Halo, GTA and Gran Turismo (posssibly not as much now tho) are in my view in a group of games along with stuff like Angry Birds which become more than games and go on to be cultural phenomenons. I don't believe that the quality of the games alone is the reason for it. I don't believe that anyone really knows the reason those games ascend to super star-dom where other superior games fail.
I think it's much more likely a "perfect storm" of circumstances that causes it.
Customers are trying to avoid risk as much as the publishers, hence the flocking. You only have money for a single FPS game, will it be an unknown or the one you remember to have enjoyed last year? Or the one you didn't really like that much, like Killzone?
This will have interesting consequences to games that don't have recent precedents like Duke Nukem or Rage. The marketing departments should concentrate on building up the studios' behind these games in the publicity campaigns, associate Rage with Doom as much as they can, and even if it's not entirely their work, Duke should also get mentions of Borderlands on the box, IMHO.
This will have interesting consequences to games that don't have recent precedents like Duke Nukem or Rage. The marketing departments should concentrate on building up the studios' behind these games in the publicity campaigns, associate Rage with Doom as much as they can, and even if it's not entirely their work, Duke should also get mentions of Borderlands on the box, IMHO.
There aren't a lot of games that are far superior to COD in even a few ways. I've grown tired of the series, unless they change something, and I prefer Battlefield to it in most ways, but I could never say that COD isn't an incredibly high-quality series. They're pumping them out fast, but the quality is there, and they've found a formula that works for a lot of people. Some of the sales are definitely explainable by herd mentality, because people are likely to try out the games they see all of their friends playing. If my entire friends list is playing COD, I'm less likely to get Battlefield instead, and vice versa.
Prophecy2k
Veteran
I'd argue that this is true of the mass market but not necessarily as much the core gamer. Core gamers are imho more likely to take risks because they are generally the guys who can afford to buy more than a couple of games a year.
The mass market casual consumer that the COD userbase constitutes generally tend to really only play COD and very little else. Anecdotal i know, but i have many work friends who all went out to buy xbox 360s to play with each other on COD because their gamer friend was enjoying it so much. Barely any games have the power to make people do that, and hence the reason barely any games do COD-level numbers in sales.
Otoh, we have examples of games without recent precedants that were released no too long ago to good success. Games like RDR did very very well (imho) on the back of it being an incrdible game from a dev with a solid pedigree. Rockstar themselves are a brand as well as their core series GTA, and this is exemplified in the success of their game which is an open world game set in a setting that many cried was niche before it's release (and i'd argue still is niche). Then we have games like borderlands also that sold extremely well on the back of being both an incredible game with a solid coop experience, and also releasing in a period where all other major titles were delayed for fear of COD, so that the non-COD playing userbase had little other options for their holiday game but borderlands which reviewed really well and was a very different experience.
If you'd qualified it with "imho" and/or "more recent games" and/or "FPS games" then i'd have agreed. The 3-4 most recent COD games are def top-tier FPS games, but imho there are lots of games that are far far far superior than them. But it's ultimately subjective because i only really care about SP parts of the games i play and thus i think COD's SP games outside MW1 have been utter tripe. In terms of MP COD is up there with Halo 3 & Reach.
What I mean is the quality of the game is undeniable high, to the point where you cannot objectively say that there are any games that are far superior in every way. I might think Bad Company 2 is far superior in every way, but I can't expect anyone to agree, and the sales kind of prove that. I might be surprising that COD sells 13 million copies, but it isn't surprising that it is one of the better selling games.
Yeah, sure, otherwise we wouldn't see any other games sell well. But the customer behavior has changed, probably due to limited budgets for games because of the recession.
Also, I know it's very morbid, but what do you guys think the disasters in Japan will do to the console market in the short term?
It certainly will affect Sony to some extent. This article gives a pretty clear picture (not just about Motorstorm):
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-03-15-motorstorm-apocalypse-uk-launch-delayed
This is an interesting blog entry about the quake/tsunami's impact on gaming:
http://www.hbhud.com/2011/03/14/massive-earthquake-hits-gaming-mecca/
More generally:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-20042075-93.html
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Prophecy2k
Veteran
If i say that there are many far superior games to COD, and you say that the quality of COD games is undeniably high then we're saying subtly different things. There are many polished high quality games that are simply bad games. There are lists of design flaws, graphical issues, art design issues and gameplay scenario design flaws that exist in COD games. What COD games do well (i.e. the multiplayer aspect) they do exceedingly well, arguably better than most other FPS games. There are still lots of far superior games out there, with equal or superior levels of polish, equally or superior gameplay, superior level and scenario design, much better stories & voice acting, far better sound design & direction etc etc etc...
Sales are also not a sensible testament to a game's overall quality. If anything BLOPS proves my point over MW1 which was a superior game. Still, fundamentally i agree that COD games are high quality experiences, but they're not the best games ever made, there are far more better games that have been made in existence and thus i can and will happily say that there are many far superior games. You may disagree but you're entitled to your own opinion and subjective tastes ;-)
Silent_Buddha
Legend
It's obviously your opinion that the story for COD:BO wasn't as good as COD:MW1, but that doesn't do anything to prove any points. It's fine to have diverging thoughts and opinions, just realize that those opinions often prove nothing since everyone has differing opinions.
Hell just look at me, I'm in the minority when it comes to thinking certain games sucked (ME2 and Doom 3 for instance). I found all three stories well done, but if anything COD:BO was a far more intricate and perhaps well thought out experience. I also pretty much only get games for their SP anymore (with rare exceptions). Likewise, I thought MW2 was far better than MW1, but its shortness made it roughly equal in my own opinion.
Basically more people's opinions had COD:BO as a better game overall than pretty much any other FPS in recent memory. That's pretty undeniable. It wouldn't be absolutely demolishing, not just exceeding but demolishing, sales records if it wasn't. Or perhaps not better, but it did a far better job than any other FPS ever made at giving people what they wanted in a FPS.
It may or may not line up with things like Metacritic or reviews or personal opinion, but all that shows is that online console warriors don't represent your average everyday person that likes to game but doesn't have the time nor inclination to hang out on forums.
Regards,
SB
I just don't understand what your line of thinking is. Your personal preference tells you other games are far superior to the COD franchise, but what can that tell you about sales in North America? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Can a game sell 13 million copies without being a high quality title? Not really. People don't like broken games that aren't fun to play. You can think it isn't deserving of the sales, but millions of people disagree with you. If you want to understand why it sold so well, you can't start with your personal preference and assume that there must be some weird societal condition that is affecting the sales. The easiest explanation for the sales, which seems pretty intuitive, is that those millions of people find the game very enjoyable to play. That speaks a lot about quality. It isn't my favourite franchise, but I think there are much worse games out there. I wish Battlefield had the sales of COD, but it doesn't. I'm not going to assume those millions are wrong.
Prophecy2k
Veteran
You've severely missed the entire point of everything that i've said compltely and quite frankly i'm wondering whether you even read my posts before responding. I have not the energy to go through the above indicating where i categorically didn't say or even imply the things you assert i said. Frankly i give up have no further comment as you're obviously not comprehending the main point of any of my posts.
Perhaps try reading what i said alone, and not trying to tranpose other's posts onto my view before replying. Reading is key
You are saying that COD is a good title, even though there are far superior alternatives, but the reason for the millions of sales is not the quality, but a followers mentality, or some social mind-share the brand has gained over time. I'm saying that's probably bogus, and while you think many games are superior, the people playing COD would probably disagree.
I re-read all of your posts, and that's the only way I could interpret them.
Better is entirely subjective. While one might think there are several 'better' titles and many other people may agree, but they may not agree on which titles are better. CoD is being rated higher by the majority of consumers. It's undoubtedly helped by its past successes and strong advertising budget but it's not mass hypnosis.
In a good way I assume? If so, thanks. The team spent many hours fiddling with the MEC algorithm to get the best performance we could out of it. In the end we exceeded what MSR had told us we could expect.