I think when you've already put X million dollars into development, you're going to finish your game and get it out there. If the coming wealth of titles doesn't change the tide of Sony's fortunes, that's when you'll see a lot more developers abandon it, probably for the 360 with the throwaway titles on Wii.
Who will be the market leader (console sales) at the end of CY2007?
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I think when you've already put X million dollars into development, you're going to finish your game and get it out there. If the coming wealth of titles doesn't change the tide of Sony's fortunes, that's when you'll see a lot more developers abandon it, probably for the 360 with the throwaway titles on Wii.
Hopefully, with XBlive and Sony's (and to a limited extent, N's) DL service we can see these sort of actions stop as a game can be put on a server and downloaded for little cost in comparision to retail.
A game put on a server to download with no marketing is left out to die. Do you think Gamespot, IGN and Eurogamer even mention games without a serious marketing push behind them?
It costs them little to nothing to put a demo together, I'd check it out. If there are enough like myself that would do the same (as we do all other demo's) and the game was good ... it could turn out quite profitable.
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I refer you to the bigass GT HD thread. With digital distribution going increasingly more 'mainstream', I think it's getting less and less likely for near-finished games to simply be buried when there's the potential of salvaging some of it at little cost. Either through direct sales income or via marketing/content advantages.
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Good counterpoint.
I think I'd look at something like 'geometry wars' for proof of sales without marketing.
People downloaded it, liked it, and told friends about it.
Well, no. It's not a game marketed by Sony. The game is marketing by Sony. The point is, they took something they weren't going to release as a full game and turned into an asset instead of a total loss thanks to digital distribution.
In the same vein, a title that's 'suddenly' deemed not viable for traditional distribution might still be able to limit the losses digitally as the costs are much, much lower. That's not to say there won't be any marketing done or that no one in the press will care.
My post was made in the context of Laa-Yosh's statement that: "Canning a completely finished game is a totally realistic option and we've seen plenty of examples for this." These days there are other options.
Judging from the news, the 360 has not been doing that well so far.
Shipping just about 1.6 million units during a 6 months period in the second year of the consoles life time does not really sound too brilliant to me.
It has not really lived up to the expectations from last fall:
Maybe the price drop and Halo3 will help some this fall, but if the PS3 drops significantly in price it will be squeezed between the Wii offering fun social gaming and the PS3 offering HD games and movies. It will be really interesting to see how it pans out.
http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7224&Itemid=2
Shipping just about 1.6 million units during a 6 months period in the second year of the consoles life time does not really sound too brilliant to me.
It has not really lived up to the expectations from last fall:
http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4303&Itemid=2
Maybe the price drop and Halo3 will help some this fall, but if the PS3 drops significantly in price it will be squeezed between the Wii offering fun social gaming and the PS3 offering HD games and movies. It will be really interesting to see how it pans out.
Indeed. XB360 has really dropped momentum. 11 million after two years when it started out the gate well has to be ringing alarm bells for MS, and given the US sales, suggests Europe still isn't interested. I'd say the software has to be to blame.
Big question - Is the XB360 appealing to more people than XB, or is it only selling to the existing XB install base and will have trouble pushing past 25 million as a result?
Big question - Is the XB360 appealing to more people than XB, or is it only selling to the existing XB install base and will have trouble pushing past 25 million as a result?
No link handy, but in his last interview before moving to EA, Peter Moore said that 45% of XB360 owners had never owned an XBox-1.
Look at the graph of worldwide XB360 sales in the past 12 months, and it's clear that the right time for a price drop was March. Until February, the graph was on track to meet MS's targets. MS lost a lot of momentum from March thru July.
But evidence suggests that the worst months are behind them.
Look at the graph of worldwide XB360 sales in the past 12 months, and it's clear that the right time for a price drop was March. Until February, the graph was on track to meet MS's targets. MS lost a lot of momentum from March thru July.
But evidence suggests that the worst months are behind them.
Agreed.
I think many were under the assumption they would drop price in the spring as historically, that's when a console would time it's first price drop. I think they may have planned to do so, but saw the sales troubles ps3 was going through at the moment and decided to hold off and squeeze a few more dollars out of consumers while sacrificing a bit of momentum and userbase growth.
I think MS will continue to play a reactionary game with Sony and in the end it could cost them, but it seems a few factors are going their way which may help them keep ps3 at bay for the duration of the gen.
I guess that could be said about the PS3 as well, a price drop or two and some new game titles may breath some life into the sales figures of both these under-performing consoles.
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MS overstuffed the market with their consoles last year to reach that "magical" 10 Million milestone, that's why the shipped number for this year is so low. I think their sales numbers in the western markets have been solid and in my opinion X360 is doing much better in Finland than what the original did. Naturally the Finnish market is fly droppings, but I expect it do better in other European countries too.
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Joshua Luna,
http://vgchartz.com/hwcomps.php?cons1=Wii®1=All&cons2=DS®2=All&cons3=PS2®3=All&align=1
Wii, DS, and PS2 launches aligned.
Btw, it appears the PS3 is selling at the same pace the 360 and PS2 sold in their first years. The 360 fell off the pace and looks like it sorely needs a price cut as its sales rate plateaued. PS3 is still tracking PS2 sales so far.
http://vgchartz.com/hwcomps.php?cons1=Wii®1=All&cons2=DS®2=All&cons3=PS2®3=All&align=1
Wii, DS, and PS2 launches aligned.
Btw, it appears the PS3 is selling at the same pace the 360 and PS2 sold in their first years. The 360 fell off the pace and looks like it sorely needs a price cut as its sales rate plateaued. PS3 is still tracking PS2 sales so far.
Those charts actually lie... Truth is that in the US, after ten months the PS2 has sold about twice as many units as the PS3.
The trick is that PS2 had a Japanese-only launch and for the first few months it wasn't available in the rest of the world. Compared to Wii and X360, the PS3 is far, far behind. Even the first Xbox has sold better then the PS3 so far.
The trick is that PS2 had a Japanese-only launch and for the first few months it wasn't available in the rest of the world. Compared to Wii and X360, the PS3 is far, far behind. Even the first Xbox has sold better then the PS3 so far.
Considering those are the sales of each console at this particular point in time, there's no lie. This is WW.
If you want to reduce it down to US-only, then see this URL: http://vgchartz.com/hwcomps.php?con...3®2=America&cons3=PS2®3=America&align=1
The Wii is outpacing the PS2's US pace, albeit by the slimmest of margins. PS3 is far behind.
Japan's launches of the 3 systems, aligned: http://vgchartz.com/hwcomps.php?con...2=PS3®2=Japan&cons3=PS2®3=Japan&align=1
Wii is again slightly ahead of PS2's pace. PS3 is far behind.
Rest of the world launches of the 3 systems aligned: http://vgchartz.com/hwcomps.php?con...otal+Other&cons3=PS2®3=Total+Other&align=1
The Wii and PS2 lines are for all intents and purposes identical, with the Wii picking up ever so slightly at the end above the PS2 pace. PS3 is far behind.
Of course, we're talking #s that have the PS2 ramped up, supply wise, for each region. It also had no competition to deal with for its first year of availability. In about 6 months or so, we'll see what the curve looks like. At their respective points in sales on the WW chart, the PS2 had launched in all regions and had its first christmas. So even after that WW launch, the PS3 is still tracking along similar numbers.
My bet is it doesn't keep it up after another 6 months, but it does put things into perspective.
The PS3 tracks the X360's first year almost perfectly actually. What's saving them are their Japan and Europe sales in comparison to the 360. In the US, it's not close.
But again, just comparing WW to WW in the same time frame.
WW #s, Wii vs PS3 vs X360, launches aligned: http://vgchartz.com/hwcomps.php?cons1=Wii®1=All&cons2=PS3®2=All&cons3=X360®3=All&align=1
PS3 tracks 360's sales almost perfectly. Wii smacking them both down.
America's #s, Wii vs PS3 vs X360, launches aligned: http://vgchartz.com/hwcomps.php?con...®2=America&cons3=X360®3=America&align=1
PS3 tracks 360's sales almost perfectly until about week 20, at which point it plateaus. Wii is crushing them both.
Japan's #s, Wii vs PS3 vs X360, launches aligned: http://vgchartz.com/hwcomps.php?con...=PS3®2=Japan&cons3=X360®3=Japan&align=1
As expected, PS3 is killing 360 in Japan. Wii is smacking them both down.
Rest of the world's #s, Wii vs PS3 vs X360, launches aligned: http://vgchartz.com/hwcomps.php?con...tal+Other&cons3=X360®3=Total+Other&align=1
That big PS3 spike you see, and acceleration toward the 360, is the European launch. Wii is smacking them both down.
Short and skinny, PS3 is tracking 360 perfectly because of its Japan domination and Europe/rest of the world acceleration in sales. We'll see how things track in another 6 months or so, but this is how things stand right now. Given that the PS3 doesn't seem to have a Gears-level title coming out in the next 6 months, and Sony stubbornly refuses to lower the price, my guess is that the PS3's sales will fall off a cliff in launch-aligned comparison.
The release date of MGS4 is announced as "this winter" that suggests it's going to be out worldwide around the end of the next 6 months.
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