NPD April 2010
- Thread starter obonicus
- Start date
They're already suffering without high risk projects and the only one trying to bring loads of new IP to the market (EA) is making huge losses...
No official news yet.
Sony already took the risk of launching new IPs at the beginning of this gen. ^_^
There were also some new and innovative sleeper hits along the way.
The next waves will be the natural interface games, and may be a few 3D ones.
I think you could have something here but as far as being short, it does not make sense since its a single player game, I think where your logic can apply is to those consumers that have a habit of beating games like a one nite stand only to immediately sell to get some other game to beat and rinse and repeat.
Also like you said, gamestop is really killing these game sales when you have people that just wait for the used copy.
I could not agree more.
I dunno, I think its just because the reality is this is no holiday season so gamers or consumers are not in a spending mood.
I have to put my opinion though, something had to give there were too many must play/have games put out in the last two months, in my case managing bills and the games I already own that I have to complete I could not afford to get Heavy Rain so I got GoWIII CE only and put SSFIV on a hiatus on if I should get it, I never liked SFIV because as an old time SF and 2d fighter player (I also play Virtua Fighter and Tekken) there was too much cheapness in the zooming in certain special moves and supers that seems to not really get mentioned in how that affects the gameplay of a game set in a 2d fighting plane.
High risk can be mitigated by lower investment. You don't need to invest a $25-$50 million game to introduce new unique titles, you can look at LBP.
There is a lack of diversity in full packaged titles because all the pubs are in an visual arms race pouring in million while mitigating risk by focusing on proven IPs. Yet when you look at the smaller arcade type titles you are exposed a more diversified lineup yet require very little investment.
But there is no middle ground. And thats is disturbing because games like Halo, GT and COD all had humbled beginnings.
Its not the fault of the underlying tech because the underlying tech doesn't dictate that every title have to be the upmost visual presentation that money can buy nor does consumers. You ever notice how the PC market is construed as needing highend cards and how PC developers themselves contributed to such outlook by demoing using those highend cards, yet the most successful PC title like WOW or the Sims are some of the most GPU friendly titles available?
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LBP mostly sells to girls, at least based on anecdotal evidence from friends and co-workers 
The visual arms race is true however. Not taking part is a risk, you can get ignored more easily.
Also, both COD and especially Halo have always been strong in the visual field; the later is one of the better looking titles on the original Xbox. Heck, when they've introduced terrain rendering to UE2, Tim Sweeney said that Halo was the visual bar to beat.
What you say about the PC best sellers is interesting though. But there's a lot more to it IMHO, even if I can't put it into words right now... (and I've got a lot of sleeping to do, there's a friend's wedding to attend tomorrow
The visual arms race is true however. Not taking part is a risk, you can get ignored more easily.
Also, both COD and especially Halo have always been strong in the visual field; the later is one of the better looking titles on the original Xbox. Heck, when they've introduced terrain rendering to UE2, Tim Sweeney said that Halo was the visual bar to beat.
What you say about the PC best sellers is interesting though. But there's a lot more to it IMHO, even if I can't put it into words right now... (and I've got a lot of sleeping to do, there's a friend's wedding to attend tomorrow
LBP mostly sells to girls, at least based on anecdotal evidence from friends and co-workers
>_< Doubt that's true in the general case. If you look at the GAF and B3D fora, guys can like LBP also.
LBP mostly sells to girls, at least based on anecdotal evidence from friends and co-workers
Isn't that the ideal situation, though? Women have money and very few games cater to them without being pandering.
I expected a much stronger launch for the new Pokémanz.
Anyway. Plain graphs for the bloody peasant in all of us:
Version with aligned launches: http://i42.tinypic.com/1z5htub.png
Hardware share progression: http://i41.tinypic.com/dccup2.jpg
Anyway. Plain graphs for the bloody peasant in all of us:
Version with aligned launches: http://i42.tinypic.com/1z5htub.png
Hardware share progression: http://i41.tinypic.com/dccup2.jpg
Silent_Buddha
Legend
Sales of consoles about where I expected them. Though PS3 still lower than expected (aren't supplies starting to pick up?) and Wii a little lower than expected. At least for me.
God of War 3, I'm really surprised at the huge drop so quickly. ME3 (another single player only game) had a much worse first month (half the sales) but a much better second month (50% more sales. In other words, GoW 3 dropped to 25% of sales in one month while ME3 only dropped to 50% of sales.
Yes, yes, I know different games, different genre's. Just using the ME3 data point as it was the easiest to look up to show the rather drastic drop for GoW 3. Still comparable in a way. ME3 being possibly the most highly anticipated X360 title so far this year and same going for GoW 3 thus far. Although ME3 followed more closely after holiday season (so some buyer fatigue possibly explaining more legs going into the second month).
Anyways. Other than that, pretty ordinary April numbers. Pretty even distribution of titles across platforms. PS3 again beats out the X360 in top 20 in total number of titles, but I think X360 may have have more unit sales in top 20. Close enough to be basically a dead heat though.
Regards,
SB
God of War 3, I'm really surprised at the huge drop so quickly. ME3 (another single player only game) had a much worse first month (half the sales) but a much better second month (50% more sales. In other words, GoW 3 dropped to 25% of sales in one month while ME3 only dropped to 50% of sales.
Yes, yes, I know different games, different genre's. Just using the ME3 data point as it was the easiest to look up to show the rather drastic drop for GoW 3. Still comparable in a way. ME3 being possibly the most highly anticipated X360 title so far this year and same going for GoW 3 thus far. Although ME3 followed more closely after holiday season (so some buyer fatigue possibly explaining more legs going into the second month).
Anyways. Other than that, pretty ordinary April numbers. Pretty even distribution of titles across platforms. PS3 again beats out the X360 in top 20 in total number of titles, but I think X360 may have have more unit sales in top 20. Close enough to be basically a dead heat though.
Regards,
SB
@ Silent_Buddha
You have to factor in the release day of a game in a NPD covering period.
ME2 was released Jan 26th giving it 5 days in January NPD (ended 30th).
GoW3 was released March 16th giving it 19 days in March NPD (ended 3rd of April), thus explaining the much higher drop-off.
You have to factor in the release day of a game in a NPD covering period.
ME2 was released Jan 26th giving it 5 days in January NPD (ended 30th).
GoW3 was released March 16th giving it 19 days in March NPD (ended 3rd of April), thus explaining the much higher drop-off.
Don't know where to stick it. Since this is a sales thread, I'll just park it here:
http://kotaku.com/5541239/why-are-people-buying-ps3s
http://kotaku.com/5541239/why-are-people-buying-ps3s
Polling 700 people aged between 7-54, all of whom were in the market for a PS3, the company asked what it was exactly that was driving these people to purchase Sony's home console. Their responses show that, at least by this stage in the console's lifespan, anyone thinking individual games like Metal Gear Solid 4, Uncharted or Killzone had a big influence on console sales is crazy.
[
...
"I like the library of games available." I've always maintained that it's library and not specific titles that shift consoles! The telling metric IMO was 62% valuing upgrading from PS2. I wonder if the same question asked of XB360 buyers would show upgraders from PS2 or new gamers?
ShadowRunner
Veteran
True but a single title in addition to the rest of the existing library can be enough to tip the scales, so in that sense a single title release can sell hardware. I would think the unique games are more valuable here though, releasing another shooter on a console with a library full of shooters isnt likely to increase the appeal too much no matter how good it is.
I know, I just didn't think it would hold it back as much. The originals were ancient, and a big chunk of the traditional target demographic never played them. The 12yo kids of today will not have played the Gameboy versions, so to them these should count as new games.
I don't know if it's a sound theory, but maybe even the knowledge of something being "old", even if you weren't there and have never seen it, is enough to taint the appeal of some products.
That, or Pokémon is losing its draw on children altogether, and is becoming a franchise for nostalgic grown-ups.