Silicon Knights and Nintendo split

[cybamerc]

I don't have up to date numbers but ED has sold well over 200k copies in the US. It's about average for a game in that genre but not particularly well for a Nintendo published game. I don't think ED caused this though.

 

[zurich]

This would all make very much sense if it was sales-related. Nintendo probably got sick of keeping SK afloat and SK got sick of not making anything back on its GC games. Nintendo had a fidiciary duty to keep SK alive while under exclusive contract, something that apparently wasn't paying off.

I guess SK just signed on with the wrong console.

 

[Farid]

On MGS sales:

I don't know how MGS: TS is selling in the U.S or Japan. I haven't seen total sales of games since it was released. But here in the U.K its selling billiantly fom what I can see. It was sold out everywhere when I tried to buy it on release. My local GAME, HMV and three other independent stores I looked at were all sold out. Amazon was sold out, so was Play.com, Gameplay, SimplyGames ect I finally managed to buy the game a few days later as one local store got more stock. But everytime I look around in game shops (I work right next to a massive indoor shopping center so I'm often in there looking around on my dinner beak) its either out of stock or in stock then out the next day. Even now weeks after its release its still going out of stock regularly and HMV have it in there best sellers section. So it suprises me quite a lot that its doing so badley in the U.S and Japan, if that definitely is the case. Although it initially suprised me at how well it was selling here. After all it is just a remake...

There was a VERY little number of copies of MGS:TS distributed in europe...

VERY little number. It seems that Konami barely didn't believe at all in this game, yes that's strange.

 

[wazoo]

wazoo

Remember Rare was thrown away because Rare games did not sell anymore.

Rare were sold because they wee barely releasing games anymore never mind selling them. Star Fox Adventure sold well though AFAIR. Or at least ok anyway.

Both were part of the reasons. IMO, nintendo had never a good opinion on Rare games (just pretty graphics were the comments of Miyamoto on DKC and BK). Very good sales were the reasons of Rare buyout. As soon as the sales went down, and they went down with BT, JFG, Conker, they quit.

There's no way SN can be discarded because of poor sales from ED and MGS. ED was the first in a new franchise and was just one of those great games that slip through the cracks sometimes.

ED sales were very poor, considering it has the Nintendo marketing behind it. I do not say that expectations were too high, just that it did not met them by far.

MGS was a exactly what ED were asked to create, an updated remake of MGS. If it doesn't sell then its not really SN's fault. You have to be far more patient then 2 games with such a talented developer, especially when there games are getting/have gotten such good reviews.

Nintendo opinion, IMO, is that ED was a failed attempt, so give a known licence to SK and try one more time. Remakes sold very well all the time, especially in Japan. MGSTS was a big flop. You have to understand that brillant or not (and I think they are, in fact ED is one of my fav), they failed their mission of selling systems to "mature" people.

Nintendo opinion is not, btw, and that was also the case with Rare, that SK should not develop for GC, but that for being a 2nd party (fully financially sustained by Nintendo), they have to do more.

 

[Devourer]

UK Top 40 week ending April 10th

http://forums.gaming-age.com/showthread.php?threadid=87120



Last Week This Week

1 1 TOM CLANCY'S SPLINTER CELL: PANDORA
3 2 SONIC HEROES
2 3 JAMES BOND 007: EVERYTHING OR NOTHING
4 4 NORTON INTERNET SECURITY 2004
5 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP RUGBY
6 6 LMA MANAGER 2004
8 7 FIFA 2004
7 8 THIS IS FOOTBALL 2004
10 9 THE SIMPSONS: HIT & RUN
13 10 GRAND THEFT AUTO: VICE CITY
11 11 NEED FOR SPEED: UNDERGROUND
21 12 CRASH BANDICOOT - WRATH OF CORTEX
17 13 SCOOBY-DOO! MYSTERY MAYHEM
5 14 FAR CRY
9 15 TOM CLANCY'S RAINBOW SIX 3
31 16 THE SIMS
14 17 TOM CLANCY'S GHOST RECON: JUNGLE STORM
20 18 LORD OF THE RINGS: RETURN OF THE KING
12 19 TOM CLANCY'S SPLINTER CELL
24 20 THE SIMS: BUSTIN' OUT
21 WORMS 3D
15 22 FINDING NEMO
23 SCOOBY-DOO 2: MONSTERS UNLEASHED
35 24 ENTER THE MATRIX
29 25 PRINCE OF PERSIA: THE SANDS OF TIME
25 26 CRICKET 2004
27 MAFIA
27 28 TIGER WOODS PGA TOUR 2004
28 29 CHAMPIONSHIP MANAGER: SEASON 03/04
40 30 RUGBY 2004
33 31 MEDAL OF HONOR: RISING SUN
32 EYE TOY: GROOVE
16 33 BATTLEFIELD VIETNAM
18 34 SOCOM II: US NAVY SEALS
35 HARRY POTTER - CHAMBER OF SECRETS
36 THE CAT IN THE HAT
23 37 UNREAL TOURNAMENT 2004
38 38 MEDAL OF HONOR: FRONTLINE
39 SSX 3
26 40 FINAL FANTASY X-2

PS2 Top 10

1 1 JAMES BOND 007: EVERYTHING OR NOTHING
2 2 SONIC HEROES
3 3 LMA MANAGER 2004
4 4 THIS IS FOOTBALL 2004
5 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP RUGBY
6 6 THE SIMPSONS: HIT & RUN
8 7 FIFA 2004
5 8 TOM CLANCY'S RAINBOW SIX 3
12 9 SCOOBY-DOO! MYSTERY MAYHEM
10 NEED FOR SPEED: UNDERGROUND

XBOX Top 10

1 1 TOM CLANCY'S SPLINTER CELL: PANDORA
2 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP RUGBY
5 3 SONIC HEROES
7 4 PROJECT GOTHAM RACING
5 MAFIA
4 6 GRAND THEFT AUTO: DOUBLE PACK
3 7 JAMES BOND 007: EVERYTHING OR NOTHING
2 8 DEUS EX: INVISIBLE WAR
6 9 LMA MANAGER 2004
9 10 TIMESPLITTERS 2

Gamecube Top 10

3 1 SONIC HEROES
5 2 POKEMON CHANNEL
1 3 METAL GEAR SOLID - THE TWIN SNAKES
2 4 FINAL FANTASY: CRYSTAL CHRONICLES
6 5 SUPER MARIO SUNSHINE
7 6 JAMES BOND 007: EVERYTHING OR NOTHING
17 7 BILLY HATCHER AND THE GIANT EGG
14 8 THE SIMPSONS: HIT & RUN
8 9 STAR WARS: REBEL STRIKE - RS III
11 10 SONIC ADVENTURE 2: BATTLE


MGS:TT is the the third best selling Gamecube game, not even appearing in the all-systems first 40 chart... if this isn't a huge flop, really, I don't know what is.

 

[DeathKnight]

More bad news for Nintendo fans... Factor 5 is no longer making games for the Cube:

http://cube.ign.com/articles/506/506508p1.html?fromint=1

 

[I.S.T.]

That is a major blow to Nintendo. Losing SK could have been easily shrugged off, but I dunno how they will recover from this.

 

[PC-Engine]

More bad news for Nintendo fans... Factor 5 is no longer making games for the Cube:

http://cube.ign.com/articles/506/506508p1.html?fromint=1

That's because they're starting development for for nextgen, which they've confirmed. It makes perfect sense actually cosidering development times for nextgen games will be even higher than current gen.

 

[notAFanB]

More bad news for Nintendo fans... Factor 5 is no longer making games for the Cube:

http://cube.ign.com/articles/506/506508p1.html?fromint=1

That's because they're starting development for for nextgen, which they've confirmed. It makes perfect sense actually cosidering development times for nextgen games will be even higher than current gen.

er, that's not really a good thing for the Cube tho is it? it all points toward a more barrent landscape for titles on the lil box. and merely highligts the reduction in support already.

 

[Jabjabs]

Sure Factor 5 is leaving Cube but it is going to the next generation machines. It's like if and when Bungie finish Halo 2, if they announced something like this, does it mean that they abononing the Xbox?

Yes and No.

The thing that I noticed in the IGN post was this though.

The studio is currently creating software for other platforms.

It just strikes me that they are probably in works on other non-Nintendo machines, but even this is just speculation. You never know what will happen in this time and age.

 

[PC-Engine]

More bad news for Nintendo fans... Factor 5 is no longer making games for the Cube:

http://cube.ign.com/articles/506/506508p1.html?fromint=1

That's because they're starting development for for nextgen, which they've confirmed. It makes perfect sense actually cosidering development times for nextgen games will be even higher than current gen.

er, that's not really a good thing for the Cube tho is it? it all points toward a more barrent landscape for titles on the lil box. and merely highligts the reduction in support already.

F5 is a fairly small team. They can't work on multiple projects at the same time especially nextgen projects. Let's say they decided to work on another SW game for GCN and don't finish until mid 2005. How are they going to complete a nextgen launch game for N5?

 

[notAFanB]

F5 is a fairly small team. They can't work on multiple projects at the same time especially nextgen projects. Let's say they decided to work on another SW game for GCN and don't finish until mid 2005. How are they going to complete a nextgen launch game for N5?

I am not saying that it isn't the right decision from Factor5's POV. What I AM saying is that it is VERY difficult to put a spin on this news as somehow being positive for the GC at this juncture in it;s life.

 

[DeathKnight]

Exactly! There's nothing positive about it no matter how you try and spin it. They've stopped developing for the platform in a time when Nintendo needs all the support they can get (many devs have left Cube development). They don't need developers dropping support for the Cube to work on titles for a future platform that doesn't even exist yet and is a few years off in the future.

Julian's just issuing damage control as well to keep good relations with a company who they can possibly make an extra penny off in the future.

 

[PC-Engine]

But no one is trying to put a postitive spin on this news. It's just logical and makes sense just like how developers moved games in development for N64 to GCN. If F5 was working on something right after their second SW GCN game, they would've moved it over to N5 by now. However they usually take a short break after a game is complete because they don't have multiple projects in development. I also expect Capcom to move development to N5 after RE4 and K7 is complete. The difference here is that Capcom is in the middle of developing games for GCN while F5 has just recently finished their last GCN game. Some people are just blowing this news waaaay out of proportion for whatever reason(s). Even the SK split isn't as bad as everyone makes it out to be. I mean they've made ONE original game for GCN.

 

[notAFanB]

Some people are just blowing this news waaaay out of proportion for whatever reason(s).

really? (no honestly sarcasm aside) the only way I see it is:

*GC never had an lead in terms of 3rd pary support

*now they have one less

we can rationalise that this company only ever produced one title for the GC if you want, but that doesn't change the perspective that it profitability may be a concern for the move.

It's just logical and makes sense just like how developers moved games in development for N64 to GCN

and what did that indicate for the (already sparse) N64 library? actually I forget when developers started mirgrating across to this plaform so your comparison may be more valid that I think.

 

[Bohdy]

This is very surprising news, I would have never seen it coming with all of the rants Dyack has gone on in the past about how his philosophy meches so perfectly with Nintendo's and how he so deeply respects Miyamoto-san. :?

Hopefully they are not abandoning Nintendo altogether although I will be folowing their work no matter what platform its on.

And one other thing, given the way they have been presenting and phasing bad news in the worst possible way, is cube.ign trying to ruin Nintendo?

 

[cybamerc]

That is a major blow to Nintendo. Losing SK could have been easily shrugged off, but I dunno how they will recover from this.

 

[marconelly!]

MGS I think will probably qualify as a huge flop.

Probably :\ Stupid Konami USA and/or NOA... If there was one game that was ridiculously easy to advertise - there you have it. Kitamura pretty much did all the work for the advertisers. They could have shown ten seconds of that Gray Fox vs. Rex fight, and I'm betting the game would sell 10x as much as it would right now with, no commercials whatsoever.

Not only is this advertising behavior bad for the sales of MGS:TTS, but it's probably bad for the future installments of MGS franchise as well.

 

[PARANOiA]

And one other thing, given the way they have been presenting and phasing bad news in the worst possible way, is cube.ign trying to ruin Nintendo?

More hits that way more hits mean more clicks mean more cash. Pity about the morals and all that..

 

[cybamerc]

marconelly!:

> Probably :\ Stupid Konami USA and/or NOA...

The lack of advertising is Konami's fault although you have to wonder why Nintendo didn't help out as it has in the past with high profile 3. party titles.

> Not only is this advertising behavior bad for the sales of MGS:TTS, but
> it's probably bad for the future installments of MGS franchise as well.

Konami will advertise the hell out of MGS3 and most people probably don't know MGS:TTS even exists so I don't think it will have any effect. If MGS3 fails to sell as well as MGS2 it will be because gamers are cooling on the genre. But I expect it to sell great either way.