there aren't free samples , the people are paying to access the samples.
I think you need a new example than this.
Sony PlayStation cross-platform game strategy
- Thread starter Shifty Geezer
- Start date
there aren't free samples , the people are paying to access the samples.
I think you need a new example than this.
Silent_Buddha
Legend
True, but I believe that the GT series is probably the best racing game in terms of teaching players how to drive within the environment provided by the game. While, I don't play racing games anymore, I can't think of any racing game that does as good a job as GT when it comes to teaching people how to drive in the game.
That could give it a leg up on the competition on PC, if they can get non-diehard racing fans interested in a racing game.
One place I see sales for it potentially taking off is in Japan where PC gaming has been steadily growing.
Regards,
SB
Silent_Buddha
Legend
While sales obviously aren't 18 million, we do know that it sold well. FH4 sold faster in its first month than any other racing game on any Xbox platform in the history of the platform (PC not included as it wasn't yet on PC, and also only including racing games up to 2018). FH5 has sold faster than any previous Forza title in the series.
But as I've previously mentioned, the sales performance of Forza Horizon games doesn't correlate well with sales of traditional racing games. While Forza Motorsports has been on a downward trend WRT to sales of titles within that franchise, sales of Forza Horizon games have been increasing with each new entry. Those increases have been rather dramatic for the last 2 entries in the FH series.
So, in that sense whatever number is used to reflect people's willingness to play or buy Forza Horizon 5, that number is not representative of player engagement with or willingness to buy racing games in general.
Regards,
SB
Some needed to see that to believe it.
They also aren't paying to try FH5; they are paying to try a whole library. The only people you could count as paying to try FH5 would be those who didn't already have a GP sub who got one to play FH5. Everyone else, about 25 million people, already owned GP and got to play FH5 at no extra cost. So yeah, it's not free-free, in the same way PS+ or Games with Gold aren't free, but in terms of cost to the users it's far, far, far removed from buying the titles.
If Sony wanted record numbers of GT7 players, they could release it day one on PS+. Might get 30, 40, 50 million downloads. Doesn't mean the market is larger than it was for previous iterations though; just that people like getting their money's worth. There are many titles I've downloaded to try at no additional cost, and only downloaded them because they were 'free'. We all have.
Indeed. Those wanting to argue driving games aren't in decline really should be looking for a better case study than FH5; it's so not representative on so many levels!
Here's a graph. No idea how valid it is and of course it's very out of date, but it's at least useable data one the state of the racing game market.
Edit: Another possible indicator, contrast the number of racing games released in 2021/2020 with those launched in earlier years. Massive drop in number of racing games being released:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_racing_video_games
Yes thats true. VF:US5 was another example of this. Once it was released it was free on PS+.If I recall it was maybe free for everyone too for a limited time or maybe it was the online? Cant remember. Sega announced a large amount of players. Once thst ended it dropped hugely and it takes ages to find online matches.
Silent_Buddha
Legend
Here's a graph. No idea how valid it is and of course it's very out of date, but it's at least useable data one the state of the racing game market.
View attachment 6246
That graph makes me kind of sad.
But I'm guessing it either doesn't include PC data or has incomplete data on PC games. I say that because Strategy games are one of my favorite genres and interestingly enough Strategy games are one of SEGA's highest selling game genres. IIRC in their latest financials they point out that the Total War series is their highest revenue generating IP. That's remarkable considering that it's only available on personal computing platforms.But yes, racing games are definitely a small niche.
And even if there's increased interest, it'll likely still remain a small niche even if the pool of racing game (non Forza Horizon) consumers doubles. Regards,
SB
Dunno, but it also only goes up to 2015 and there could have been a revival since then with several big name driving games. Also the Wiki list doesn't indicate driving has necessarily shrunk - we could potentially be seeing a consolidation with driving games reaching the same size audience, just across fewer titles. Although realistically I think that's not true. Anecdotally, I recall a friend who had many driving games on PS1 and PS2; can't recall the last time he played one. Likewise another friend who enjoyed GT who has no more interest. I wish I could remember which developer it was who said driving games aren't selling any more and see how things have changed since that date!That graph makes me kind of sad.
I think it is easy to intepet the reduction of popularity in racing games.
The racing genre is much narrower, more specific. The shooter genre in comparison is much broader.
As we approach realism, there isnt much to set apart racing games from each other.
How many sims do we need, with the same cars, the same tracks, and realistic physics? ProjectRacing, GT or Forza?
How many rally games do we need? WRC or Dirt? What about F1? When it comes to realistic racing games they choose the few most popular, usually the ones with proper license too.
So we just have realistic racers and arcade racers. Where arcade races are concerned, we again have realistic visuals with the same cars. The gameplay more or less doesnt differ between each other. People focus on just a few franchises.
Its much different compared to the 16 bit and 32 bit times when we had Ridge Racer, Sega Rally, Daytona, Colin McRae, Nascar, Need for Speed etc each playing and looking a lot different.
Shooters include sci fi, realistic, semi realistic, set in the future, set in the past, set in the present, we can have Gears, Returnal, Doom, Wolfstein, COD etc, they play and look different significantly. They are completely different experiences.
Not so much between racing games.
That's also true. The market for drivers might not have shrunk - just the market for shooters etc. grown and shrunk its proportion of the market. Might well be seeing a few factors at play.
Silent_Buddha
Legend
Except that sales data doesn't really back that up, at least ones that I've seen. I've already posted some examples of Forza Motorsport seeing declining sales for each new game in the series compared to previous games in the series.
Gran Turismo also suffers from declining sales with each new game in the series. PS2 and PS3 represent the peak of sales for that series. Sales started to dip after GT4 although GT5 came close to selling as much as GT4.
Gran Turismo | Video Game Sales Wiki | Fandom
For Forza one could make the argument that the 2 year cadence of releases might impact sales of Forza Motorsport, however as a counterpoint to that I've shown that sales of Forza Horizon (which was also on a 2 year cadence before Covid) increased sales with each successive release in the series.
Sales data for the Need for Speed IP is incomplete here but it still shows the trend.
Need for Speed | Video Game Sales Wiki | Fandom
NFS: Underground (2003) and NFS: Most Wanted (2005) sold vastly more copies than any other entry for that IP. Coincidentally GT4 came out in 2004.
GT5 might be some evidence that racing gamers might have consolidated to that racer on console as it released in 2010 and still sold well while many historically well performing racing IP had died off by 2010 or would soon die off after 2010.
But if so, that didn't do much to maintain racing game interest in the genre as it continued to decline with GT6 selling less than GT5. On the bright side GTS did end up seling more than GT6 so perhaps that'll be an indication that there's still the possibility that GT7 might see increased adoption. I personally hope it does as the GT series has a special place in my heart. I loved playing the GT games back on PSX and PS2.
Regards,
SB
https://www.ledevoir.com/economie/670113/jeu-video-sony-mise-sur-montreal-pour-dejouer-microsoft
An interview of people from Haven in french first studio to confirm live service game release day one on PC and PS console. I heard by someone working in the industry all Sony live service game will release day one on PC. Mark Cerny will help the programmer of the studio for pushing as far as possible the Ps5.
Partial translation from Uzupedro era
An interview of people from Haven in french first studio to confirm live service game release day one on PC and PS console. I heard by someone working in the industry all Sony live service game will release day one on PC. Mark Cerny will help the programmer of the studio for pushing as far as possible the Ps5.
Partial translation from Uzupedro era
Last edited:
https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/...4xYame6dV4C4tSZNFJHf-z5vjay5MafPzJT_xzTtzbwzk
Eurogamer article on Haven. Simultaneous PS5/PC release indeed as stated by Chris1515 above.
Eurogamer article on Haven. Simultaneous PS5/PC release indeed as stated by Chris1515 above.
Does it say that?
English is not my first language, but I read that as the it will be for PS5 and PC, nothing says that it will release for both platforms at the same time. Albeit its not farfetched that it will, but then again I did not see that it said so.
And I am getting old and my memory fails more often these days, but I thought Redmond was a producer on AC, not a co-creator.
But yeah, memory...
More PC rumors...
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From 2023 onward we will only see PS5 exclusives from first party developers along with the shift to PC ports becoming more and more gradual.
PS4 ports for Demon Souls, Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart, and Deathloop amongst others have already been canned or are going to be dropped past this point.
Said games including Ragnarok, Rift Apart, Demon Souls, Forbidden West, GT7, Ghost of Tsushima and the likes will all be receiving PC ports.
Guerilla Games will handle Forbidden West, Iron Galaxy is porting Uncharted to PC, Blind Squirrel games and Jetpack interactive are currently busy porting over Ratchet 2016 and Rift Apart to PC. Polyphony is doing GT7. Bluepoint is bringing Demon Souls to PC. Nixxies has been working on Ghost of Tsushima and it's DLC for some time now.
God of War Ragnarok will come to PC as well with Jetpack interactive and Blind Squirrel collaboratibg again once they finish work on the Ratchet ports. After this Sony will begin to phase in PC ports more casually so they can release them within months to a year from it's original release.
______
From 2023 onward we will only see PS5 exclusives from first party developers along with the shift to PC ports becoming more and more gradual.
PS4 ports for Demon Souls, Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart, and Deathloop amongst others have already been canned or are going to be dropped past this point.
Said games including Ragnarok, Rift Apart, Demon Souls, Forbidden West, GT7, Ghost of Tsushima and the likes will all be receiving PC ports.
Guerilla Games will handle Forbidden West, Iron Galaxy is porting Uncharted to PC, Blind Squirrel games and Jetpack interactive are currently busy porting over Ratchet 2016 and Rift Apart to PC. Polyphony is doing GT7. Bluepoint is bringing Demon Souls to PC. Nixxies has been working on Ghost of Tsushima and it's DLC for some time now.
God of War Ragnarok will come to PC as well with Jetpack interactive and Blind Squirrel collaboratibg again once they finish work on the Ratchet ports. After this Sony will begin to phase in PC ports more casually so they can release them within months to a year from it's original release.
