PS3 Strategy/Confidence Retrospective

Asking people, NS/NC = doesn't know/doesn't answer. The data is from [SIZE=-1]the Interactive Software Federation of Europe[/SIZE]. It may not be very accurate but you can use it to compare platforms/countries.

 

I'm just reminding you that sales and piracy are orthogonal and independent matters. I think it's Shifty's argument that suggests they are something exchangeable, not mine. They want more sales AND less piracy. They are greedy!

People tend to protect expensive goods, installing anti-theft tools in laptop PCs and cars. As for PS3 it's offered by the platform, I doubt publishers do care the extra cost.

 

I replied before Shifty's comment. I'm also not arguing that developers do or do not want piracy... but you're reply was to someone saying exactly what I am... better sales and some piracy is better than poor sales and no piracy. You seem to be dodging the point.

Do you concede that developers prefer the high sales + some piracy on 360 to poor sales and no piracy on PS3?

Your initial point was the PS3 was "developer friendly" by design. There's nothing less developer friendly than making a loss because no one buys your game. Hell, Heavenly Sword barely cracked three figures in its launch month... surely publishers aren't sitting in board room meetings, looking at missed sales targets and low profits, but congratulating themselves by saying "sure, but no piracy!"

 

It's pretty obvious that X360 is the only viable platform for 3rd party exclusives at this point in time. The PS3 userbase isn't there yet and Wii owners mainly only buy Nintendo titles.

 

And there's also a point people will stop trying because its not worth it. And there's an extra cost associated with manufacturing blu-ray discs, I'm not certain, but I doubt Sony is covering that. Your claim that publishers care about the small amount of piracy on the 360, but not about the extra cost for producing on the ps3 is ridiculous.

 

You have to start somewhere. In fact, I am very happy with PS3 games so far. Even joker454's trouble is getting figured out. ^_^

They are getting there (I criticized Sony for lack of marketing just 2 weeks ago, but unknown to me, they have already put something together).

 

Big thing about 360 is Xbox Live does a fairly strong job of curbing piracy at least to some extent, and games with worthwhile Live content are that much more likely to sell rather than be pirated.

 

I think that's to some extent offset though by the ability to have a single SKU serve a global market. Don't know if all companies are using that yet though, but it's a good possibility that's being used by some games effectively already. That means having to create and test fewer masters and being able to manage stock more efficiently. I don't know how big the cost savings are there, but there are bound to be some at least.

 

Enough about Blu-ray, look at these babies!

Metal Gear Solid 4
Gran Turismo 5
Final Fantasy 13
Tekken 6
LittleBigPlanet
Killzone 2
L.A. Noire
The Agency
Coded Arms: Assault
Eight Days
FIA World Touring Car Championship
The Getaway 3
Red Dead Revolver 2
Heavy Rain
Infamous

 

Resistance has sold ~2 million copies and has been very well received by players. EoJ is similarly attracting some gamers like no other game can and is loved by those who play it. A game doesn't have to score 90+ MAS to be worth having or to drive a system. I absolutely agree that one shouldn't assume these upcoming, some very unknown, titles should be worth getting excited about, but I also don't think the measuring stick of what constitutes a worthwhile, 'gotta get me a PS3' title, should be so darned small!

 

But we don't know what's going to be a platinum million unit seller. You gave R@FoM specifically as an example of not AAA, but that certainly helped to shift units and did sell millions. My point isn't that a game doesn't have to sell well to be important, but that it doesn't have to reach a minimum quality criteria. Whatever standard you use to measure R:FoM as not AAA, that didn't stop it being a success. Likewise Heavy Rain or L.A.Noire might not be AAA titles by that standard, but may still attract significant sales. I wouldn't assume they are worth getting excited over as Vic did, but I also wouldn't discount them out of hand as they may actually hit a market sensitive spot.

 

^_^ Very long legs = Addictive and butter-smooth gameplay online and offline

 

Hugely underrated. I wish I had the time to spend more with the game. It deserved much more than what it got.

 

You mean, bundles

 

Could be, but it was also one of the best PS3 games out at launch and stayed that way for quite a while. There were lots of interesting things in there (especially physics, ragdoll, weapons, quite a lot of variety) and it kept me going from start to finish. But where it really stands out is in online, which with its 40 player dedicated server, clans, lots of achievements, spectator mode, play as chimera fun, loads of customisations, and very decent support to fix issues and balance gameplay (always as options) allowing the game to have really long legs.

Of course, bundles have helped, but I think they've helped it to get to 2 million rather than just 1.

Motorstorm also deserves its status as a bundled classic. It's still awesome fun and with 12 player online also no slouch.

 

Perhaps... and also the Cathedral incident, but it hit 2 million (shipped) in April I think. MotorStorm is also bundled but I don't know its number.

Still doesn't mask the fact that it's a top notch game, and people are still playing and buying it.

 

Motorstorm is well above a million, probably around one and a half as well. AFAIK a lot of the Starter Packs have these two games as a bundle.