NPD Nov. You know you want it!

[Skrying]

Another interesting thing to note is that Crysis hasn't even made 100K in the US. Console versions are practically confirmed.

That's laughable. Who seriously expected much more? That's perfectly in line for US PC sales. When you make a PC game you're aiming for the much larger market that is outside the US.

You might get a "Crysis" game, but it won't be the Crysis that's on PC. I will put my PC on that one.

 

[AlNom]

Yeah, PC gaming is back! needs to stop

Where's the infamous Crysis? :| Did the hardware reqs scare everybody?

Even if PC sales are expected to be low, the amount of development that went into this particularly exceptional title makes me wonder how they expect to continue operating financially.

Disappointing to see Mass Effect doing only 470K. That game deserves better.

It needed a higher marketing budget and a better advertising director (IMHO).

470K isn't bad at all considering it was out since November 20th or so. The NPD data goes from November 1 to 30 I would wait until December numbers arrive for this title.

 

[Laa-Yosh]

They won't turn their console on after the first week, until somewhere deep in 2009 when Blu-ray discs appear in the video rental shop down the street.

I don't think so, the two big games of this month, Assassin and COD4 are selling at almost the exact same attach ratio on both consoles.

It's even stranger than this: the hardware is more expensive, the PS3 versions are generally considered to be slightly inferior, COD4 has Live on the 360, and people aren't really buying BR movies either.
So there's probably some truth in your theory of brand preference, because it's totally illogical to get a PS3 just for multiplatform games...

 

[Laa-Yosh]

That's laughable. Who seriously expected much more? That's perfectly in line for US PC sales. When you make a PC game you're aiming for the much larger market that is outside the US.

What much larger market? Even if they sell 5 times as many copies they'll still be in the red, considering how much that game must have cost them.

You might get a "Crysis" game, but it won't be the Crysis that's on PC. I will put my PC on that one.

They'll have to re-use all their assets, maybe they'll build new levels from them -but don't bet your PC if you plan to use it. All the dev talk about that big difference was only PR to try to sell the game...

 

[Laa-Yosh]

Oh, and Activision Blizzard is going to pwn EA as it seems.

 

[Nesh]

Here comes the "it'll have great legs!!!" train. That's pitiful.

If you want your game to be sent out to die, make it a PS3 exclusive.

My take

Wii: we knew it was going to dominate. Still supply constrained. F'in amazing
360: Good numbers. I expected about 800k but 770 is good.
PS3: I thought 550-600k due to the price cut and a better marketing effort. Fair numbers

Software:
If you want to sell a game, PUT IT ON THE 360! Lesson learned, right devs!?

what are you suggesting? That the PS3 should lose value???

That my purchase isnt worth having games or exclusive games on it?

That they should let PS3 die??

 

[Nesh]

That's laughable. Who seriously expected much more? That's perfectly in line for US PC sales. When you make a PC game you're aiming for the much larger market that is outside the US.

You might get a "Crysis" game, but it won't be the Crysis that's on PC. I will put my PC on that one.

Piracy

 

[22psi]

Oh, and Activision Blizzard is going to pwn EA as it seems.

3.3m+ s/w copies sold in November. I'd say you're right.

 

[AlphaWolf]

Yep, deja vu here. Remember last month, the response was "it was released at the end of the month, it'll chart in November." If December is a similar story for Uncharted it'll be a sad state of affairs for top quality exclusive PS3 games.

I really can't see uncharted making any surge to chart in December. Most of the November chart toppers will still be well above the 117k uncharted moved. At least this month the ps3 owners have a bit of an excuse as there are some quality titles out competing against it.

Where's the infamous Crysis? Did the hardware reqs scare everybody?

It moved like 88.6k or something.

 

[Skrying]

What much larger market? Even if they sell 5 times as many copies they'll still be in the red, considering how much that game must have cost them.

They'll have to re-use all their assets, maybe they'll build new levels from them -but don't bet your PC if you plan to use it. All the dev talk about that big difference was only PR to try to sell the game...

Europe for one. Also keep in mind that the game will easily sell a couple hundred thousand over its life time in the US alone. PC games tend to have good lives, especially as hardware improves and people go out and purchase games they otherwise felt they couldn't have played right in the past. As for the "PR" about it, my opinion has nothing to do with that bullshit, and I will bet my PC on it. This isn't the thread to talk about what is possible and not possible on consoles though, so I'll end my discussion on that right here.

what are you suggesting? That the PS3 should lose value???

That my purchase isnt worth having games or exclusive games on it?

That they should let PS3 die??

From a developer and publisher perspective, no your platform isn't worth having games on. They perform horribly in sales compared to what similar quality games on "other" platforms do. Don't be upset, my own platform of choice does the same.

Piracy

Make a compelling multiplayer, will fix that issue. Single player focused games are at a end of life on PCs as far as sales go, I will admit that much.

 

[AlNom]

From a developer and publisher perspective, no your platform isn't worth having games on. They perform horribly in sales compared to what similar quality games on "other" platforms do. Don't be upset, my own platform of choice does the same.

IMHO, I wouldn't go so far as to exclude a game entirely. Surely there are enough sales that a multi-platform development would still garner some profit from the re-use of assets.

 

[Colourless]

PC Gaming is in all sorts of trouble. FPS's seem to be dead on the platform, which is really surprising considering how much people say consoles suck to them. Compare Crysis, UT3 and ET:QW which were all PC exclusive (for now) vs Bioshock and COD:4 that were also released on the 360. They all did 'bad' on the PC, but Bioshock and COD:4 got good or great console numbers. UT3's PS3 numbers will be very interesting to watch next month.

 

[assen]

Europe for one. Also keep in mind that the game will easily sell a couple hundred thousand over its life time in the US alone. PC games tend to have good lives, especially as hardware improves and people go out and purchase games they otherwise felt they couldn't have played right in the past.

Late in the life of a game it is severely discounted, and the developer hardly sees anything from its new 19.99 price.

Crysis is a vanity project for EA, I don't think anyone there seriously expected it to pay for itself. Still, the state of the PC market is sad.

Oh, and Europe has considerably higher piracy rates than the US,

 

[Laa-Yosh]

Believe what you want, but the numbers are unforgiving. Crysis and UT3 has sold about 120K on the PC in the US, let's just double that for wordwide sales. Now COD4 and Halo3 have sold at least 8 million already and will pass 10 in december easily. The difference is two orders of magnitude. Europe just can't compensate for this.

 

[Skrying]

IMHO, I wouldn't go so far as to exclude a game entirely. Surely there are enough sales that a multi-platform development would still garner some profit from the re-use of assets.

Talking about exclusives only there. There seems to be extremely little point to develop a exclusive for the PS3.

PC Gaming is in all sorts of trouble. FPS's seem to be dead on the platform, which is really surprising considering how much people say consoles suck to them. Compare Crysis, UT3 and ET:QW which were all PC exclusive (for now) vs Bioshock and COD:4 that were also released on the 360. They all did 'bad' on the PC, but Bioshock and COD:4 got good or great console numbers. UT3's PS3 numbers will be very interesting to watch next month.

PC gamers say that about the console FPS games, console gamers don't say that about console FPS games. PC gaming is also a bit unique, as you'll notice that it is often times extremely hard for a gamer to "switch" games. You come attached to the community, the mod scene for a game, or your clan/guild. Many of the most hardcore PC gamers spend upwards of 3 or 4 years on ONE game, but they play it all the time. Totally different to the console gamer. Unless you're that lucky one game everyone gravitates to then you're out of luck on the PC market. Look at the Counter Strikes, WoWs, and soon as it appears the Call of Duty 4s of the world. Packs of gamers go for this one game. From there it'll receive tons of mods, league play, and clans will build extremely personal relationships (relatively) with each other. The problem with UT3 for instance is that it others nothing but graphics over the past games in the series, little reason to switch from UT2K4 then.

 

[AlNom]

which is really surprising considering how much people say consoles suck to them.

Just be mindful of which people are saying this.

 

[Skrying]

There really is a totally different mindset between the console and computer gamer. Especially when it comes to multiplayer games. I don't think a console gamer understands it, not that it's worse, it's simply different. How many of you will willing skip all other games in 2 or 3 years simply to play nothing but one game? Just a few of you I'm willing to bet.

 

[djskribbles]

i find it very strange that multiplatform titles are selling better than PS exclusives. you would think it would be the other way around. a lot of PS3 owners own 360's as well, so they usually opt for the 360 version. a lot of 'PS360' owners say they own the PS3 for their exclusives but the numbers don't really show this.

anyway, i don't think Uncharted did as bad as RobertR1 made it sound... the 360 has roughly 3.3x the user base than the PS3 in the North America, and Uncharted and Mass Effect were released on the same day and ME sold roughly 4x as many as Uncharted.

 

[Nesh]

From a developer and publisher perspective, no your platform isn't worth having games on. They perform horribly in sales compared to what similar quality games on "other" platforms do. Don't be upset, my own platform of choice does the same.

Then under that logic they should have abandoned Nintendo and MS a very long time ago and leave them to die

 

[AlphaWolf]

Europe for one. Also keep in mind that the game will easily sell a couple hundred thousand over its life time in the US alone. PC games tend to have good lives, especially as hardware improves and people go out and purchase games they otherwise felt they couldn't have played right in the past. As for the "PR" about it, my opinion has nothing to do with that bullshit, and I will bet my PC on it. This isn't the thread to talk about what is possible and not possible on consoles though, so I'll end my discussion on that right here.

Unfortunately that does not translate into the same developer profits as initial sales.