All purpose sales and sales rumors/anecdotes thread next gen+

[Phil]

MS naturally has less first parties, and ships less games in a calendar year than Sony. So an exclusive 2nd party dev deal with MS makes sense for Insomniac, who were looking to gain more exposure for their studio as well as to launch their own fully owned IP.

This is all true, but if it makes sense or not, will largely depend on if they will get the attention and establish themselves with their game, on the new platform among the new userbase. I also wonder if the Xbox userbase is the right one; To me, I've always thought of the Xbox userbase to be a majority of hardcore gamers more into shooters, where as the PlayStation userbase has been historically very diverse and family friendly. This may have been less of a factor last generation in NA with the X360 being the top-selling console and capturing many of the more mainstream gamers outthere, but this generation, things are looking to be reversed again.

What if SO sells well under expectations? It may have not been a huge hit on the PlayStation, but I'm quite confident a typical high quality game from Insomniac usually would be easily a guaranteed "success" - success being perhaps close to a million sales if not over, even for a rather niche game. They might get more attention on the Xbox platform, I agree, but attention alone won't guarantee sales if the average consumer isn't interested in the game/genre enough.

I guess we'll see.... when is it coming out?

 

[MrFox]

You're anticipating the XB1 to have sold 10 million units by the time SO launches?

I'm sure you meant 20% tie-in ratio, which would be great for both MS and Insomniac, and especially so for the latter who will be looking to bring the unwashed Xbox-owning masses to the joys and sheer creativity of Insomniac's games.

I reckon with MS pushing it hard (and they will, since they've got hardly anything else for this fall/holiday), SO can do 2.5 million LTD. And that will be a success, given the tie-in ratio and the exposure it will give Insomniac as a 2nd party Xbox developer.

I don't even think MS are expecting it to do much better than that tbh.

Just saying that 10% tie-in seems like a good threshold for success, whatever the XB1 install base is.

I was thinking about what the install base would be throughout the period where SO is still available as a bundle, that should keep adding sales with a longer tail than the usual launch weeks, so it includes the holidays. The important for Insomniac is that a lot of people get the game (and hopefully they like the game), so the franchise becomes strong enough to make serious money with a sequel. Nowadays new franchises are horribly difficult to monetize, so I like that they are trying.

 

[DrJay24]

It comes out in four days and is #28 on Amazon, if the reviews are stellar (a first for an Insomniac game) then it could reach the top ten.

 

[MrFox]

It comes out in four days and is #28 on Amazon, if the reviews are stellar (a first for an Insomniac game) then it could reach the top ten.

http://www.metacritic.com/company/insomniac-games

They've had amazing reviews for all their games until 2011-2012, which I guess is when they started spreading too thin by working with too many publishers at the same time.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

It comes out in four days and is #28 on Amazon, if the reviews are stellar (a first for an Insomniac game) then it could reach the top ten.

You need to do some review research my friend.

 

[Lager]

It should make top ten easily. Compared to what Horizon 2 did on Amazon there's no compare...

I don't know man. The game is even more niche than FH2.

 

[DrJay24]

You need to do some review research my friend.

Look at their output in the last 5-7 years, it has been getting worse with every release.

 

[wco81]

Did Sony nix Resistance for PS4, is that why they're making a driving game instead?

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Look at their output in the last 5-7 years, it has been getting worse with every release.

That wasn't what you said. You need to review your earlier message my friend

 

[MrFox]

Look at their output in the last 5-7 years, it has been getting worse with every release.

I agree that they turned to shit about 4 years ago, but in the last 5 to 7 years they released the two best platformers of the decade, ToD and ACiT were incredible and R3 also had great reviews. There was nothing progressive about it, the quality dropped like a brick suddenly, right when they started restructuring for multi-platform and stuff. I call this spreading too thin, maybe I'm wrong.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Did Sony nix Resistance for PS4, is that why they're making a driving game instead?

Insomniac's Ted Price indicated (Eurogamer) they didn't want to do another sequel, they're been looking at doing their own thing with them owning the IP.

I genuinely liked Resistance 1 and 2 but have still not played 3. I'm astonished Sony have not made this free with PS+ and I'm holding out for that!

 

[DrJay24]

You are forgetting a few games like All4One and Full Frontal Assault. They peaked in 2003-2004. I like R3, but the MP was garbage and it was missing the great co-op from R2.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

You are forgetting a few games like All4One and Full Frontal Assault. They peaked in 2003-2004. I like R3, but the MP was garbage and it was missing the great co-op from R2.

Oh good grief, This is what you said:

if the reviews are stellar (a first for an Insomniac game) then it could reach the top ten.

And yet you seem to be overlooking the metecritic 9/10 for Going Commando and Up Your Arsenal, not to mention a bunch of games just shy of 9/10.

 

[tuna]

http://www.metacritic.com/company/insomniac-games

They've had amazing reviews for all their games until 2011-2012, which I guess is when they started spreading too thin by working with too many publishers at the same time.

Wasn't that the same time they published their (very flawed) "60 fps doesn't matter" survey? I think there is a correlation there....

 

[MrFox]

Wasn't that the same time they published their (very flawed) "60 fps doesn't matter" survey? I think there is a correlation there....

If there's any correlation it would be because there was some management change, and it impacted everything?

I forgot about that 60fps thing. It's quite a 180 for a company with such a long history of great 60fps platformers. If they make the next Ratchet 30fps, that will feel very wrong.

 

[tuna]

If there's any correlation it would be because there was some management change, and it impacted everything?

I forgot about that 60fps thing. It's quite a 180 for a company with such a long history of great 60fps platformers. If they make the next Ratchet 30fps, that will feel very wrong.

Try the latest ps3 ratchet (nexus) if you want to try it...

 

[Shifty Geezer]

You are forgetting a few games like All4One and Full Frontal Assault. They peaked in 2003-2004. I like R3, but the MP was garbage and it was missing the great co-op from R2.

As DSoup says, you claim a good review for SO would be a first for Insomniac. Don't you think that's disingenuous? Average career score for Metacritic = 80. Bungie's 86. Valve is 85. R* = 81. Nobody but 1 or 2 title indies (eg Mojang) has higher career scores than the 80s, it would appear. And unless you only count any reviews above a 92% average as stellar (even if some of the reviews within a lower average are 10/10), clearly your assertion Insomniac has never had a stellar review is wrong.

You probably want to retract and refine your initial sentiment, and qualify it within a contemporary time period or something, if you want to wipe the egg from your face.

 

[Goodtwin]

There's been a good marketing push from MS for Sunset Overdrive, and it's a safe genre. It's hard to determine what the threshold is for success with exclusives, since they get some financial safety from the platform holder. If it sells 1 million that would be over 10% of the install base, that would be good? 2 million would be really impressive.

Considering how much Insomniac wanted to own the IP, it would be a shame if it failed to draw enough attention at the first game, then it would never become a viable multi-plat franchise for them.

Will totally depend on the games budget. A million sold should very much be considered a success. Assuming the financial breakdown of a $60 game is accurate, the publisher/developer should get about $38 in profit per copy sold, then a million sold is 38 million dollars. I would hope they didn't spend that much money on an exclusive releasing early on in a consoles life. Even at 500k, that would still be 19 million. I know budgets have gotten pretty high, but you would hope that a new IP's budget would kept under control. When you look at sales figures for software on X1, even the 500k mark is not guaranteed. Only about 8 titles are over the million mark, and then it quickly drops to less than 500k sold. People assume that the majority of games sell over a million copies, but that's only true for about 10 IP's such as COD and FIFA.

What is sort of sad, is that some people actually root against a games success when its not coming to their platform of choice. If Sunset Overdrive comes out and puts up pretty low numbers, these clowns will celebrate as if they somehow won something. The same thing is happening right now with Bayonetta 2 on Wii U. These clowns are so bitter than its not coming to their console that they hope it fails. Some of them even claiming to be Bayonetta fans. Think about that, what are the chances of a third Bayonetta game being developed if Bayonetta 2 bombs? The chances wont go up, that's for sure. Many of these IP's go exclusive because the console manufacture is often the only one willing to fund it. Publishers like Activision and Ubisoft are less and less likely to publish anything that doesn't have that very broad mainstream appeal.

 

[DieH@rd]

Microsoft Q1 financial report is out [July-Sept], Xbox family shipped 2.4 million consoles. They did not offer split between X360 and Xbone [who added 28 more countries in this quarter].

via GAF

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Do we know how many XB's sold in that period via NPD?