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[charlequin]

So it's okay to compare games across generations, but it's not okay to understand the differences between their sales and why they happened unless it counts as a failure?

We are understanding the differences between their sales and why they happened: GT5, if it underperforms (which once again I'm not convinced will happen) will have been a moderate sales disappointment, and the reason why will have been that it's on a system that was a huge sales disappointment.

 

[LQX]

I'm in the camp that was interested in Blur being from Bizarre Creations and cart racing oriented and completely turned off by it looking like a Need for Speed reject.

vs.

Maybe I'm missing something but that's how that have always presented the game. Did you play it at all?

 

[Zen]

Holy shit. Seriously... holy shit.

That's amazing. Over two platforms no less.

 

[Vinci]

That's amazing. Over two platforms no less.

That's like ExciteBots sales on each system. I mean, I was thinking it'd do in the 70-80k range, but it's just ridiculous.

 

[KJ_Wii]

Well it placed in the Top 20 for the month and Blur didn't, so yeah, you can sort of back it up.

No I mean that:

(MKWii May Sales - MKWii April Sales) > 31,000

ie: implying that the Blur ad did more to spur MKWii sales than Blur sales. But clearly the funnies was too complicated.

 

[Zen]

That's like ExciteBots sales on each system. I mean, I was thinking it'd do in the 70-80k range, but it's just ridiculous.

I was trying to think of a bomb to compare it to, but everything I could think off sold exponentially better. I'm impressed that you were able to draw a comparison, bravo.

RIP Bizarre. :\

I'm still pretty dumbfounded by this whole concept. If controller-less driving control made any sense, they would put that technology in real cars. It doesn't make sense. It is just stupid. I don't get it.

Hm, maybe I'm just weird, but to me controller less racing seems like a great idea. It might not be a great idea for actual automobiles in a legitimately dangerous environment, but for a video game it seems like a cool idea that could help non gamers play racing games without having to buy expensive wheels.

My dad wants nothing to do with video games, except Gran Turismo. The issue is that he can't play with a Dual Shock, and will have to get an expensive PS3 steering wheel. I'd imagine being able to steer without paying 200 dollars would be cool beans for some people.

 

[Confidence Man]

Bizzare needs to reevaluate the kind of games they make. The formula of taking an established genre and making an utterly generic clone that only differentiates itself by adding some arcadey twist to it clearly has no appeal to anyone. They may have gotten away with it as a platform-driving first party developer, but not anymore.

 

[AceBandage]

Hm, maybe I'm just weird, but to me controller less racing seems like a great idea. It might not be a great idea for actual automobiles, seeing as you want a more reliable solid method of driving in a legitimately potentially dangerous environment. But fora video game?

I would also say that just because it hasn't been done yet doesn't mean that it isn't a good idea in theory for the consumer. My dad wants nothing to do with Video games, except Gran Turismo. The issue is that he can't play with a Dual Shock, and will have to get an expensive PS3 steering wheel. I'd imagine if he'd be able to steer without paying 200 dollars, that might be a good thing from his point of view.

It would get tiring very quickly. Having to hold your hands out in front of you.

 

[Kai Dracon]

Blur had way too much against it.

Released same month as Red Dead Redemption.

Same month as Split/Second.

Same month as Modnation Racers.

(SEE A PATTERN YET.)

Worse, I think a lot of Blur's potential sales were divided with Split/Second. On the surface and in ads S/S /looks/ like the true successor to Burnout even tho it's not that deep of a game and its online pales before Blur.

Blur, meanwhile, at a glance looks like another night time underground street racer with very little in its presentation to make it appear to be anything new or interesting. There should have been a campaign showing off is powerups and the pyrotechnics that fly in an insanely crowded race. Unfortunately, Bizarre's chosen art style for Blur does hold the game down. It's samey and doesn't "pop" like the PGR games did. All the tracks look the same thanks to the exact same time of day and dim dusk lighting. (Even though the tracks are all vastly different and incredibly well laid out.)

Blur is, sadly, the definition of a sleeper hit. It WILL have a long tail, especially because it treats local multiplayer seriously and with respect. There's nothing else like it on the 360 side - only Wipeout HD on PS3 is in the same ballpark for multiplayer combat racing. (And Wipeout doesn't have comprehensive local multi modes.) It wouldn't be so bad if Activision (and everyone else) hadn't had such high hopes for it, thinking it'd be the next big thing in multiplayer games.

 

[water_wendi]

Controller-less gaming for extended periods of time (more than 30 minutes) is horrible. ive already experienced it with the Eyetoy and the lack of tactile sensation gets annoying quickly. i could not imagine playing a racing game like that. Give me a wheel with force feedback, please.

 

[Zen]

It would get tiring very quickly. Having to hold your hands out in front of you.

Controller-less gaming for extended periods of time (more than 30 minutes) is horrible. ive already experienced it with the Eyetoy and the lack of tactile sensation gets annoying quickly. i could not imagine playing a racing game like that. Give me a wheel with force feedback, please.

Fair enough, I've never played with the eyetoy or any controller-less gaming, so I'm pretty in the dark on what the end experience is actually like.

 

[Ash Sparrow]

Loved the first Project Gotham games, its hard for me to feel sorry for anyone thats makes a racer and fails, to me that market is has been too over saturated for years.

 

[Owzers]

Maybe I'm missing something but that's how that have always presented the game. Did you play it at all?

I bought Split Second after being hyped by the demo, played it for an hour or two, tried playing it online and realized that the only way to be competitive at all was to get the best cars in single player since there is no matchmaking....then sold the game to Amazon.

After selling Split Second i tried the multiplayer demo for Blur and didn't like it. I'm not a huge racing game fan though so i'm pretty hard on them.

 

[Sean]

Geometry Wars Retro Evolved 3 (XBLA)
Geometry Wars Anthology (PSN/PSP/iPhone)
Geometry Wars Galaxies 2 (Wii/DS)
Geometry Wars 3D (3DS)

Heck, they had Geometry Wars running on "Natal" last year..so make that too.

Not while they're still under Activision (who have made it pretty clear they're only interested in multi-million selling blockbuster franchises). It's kinda funny/sad though that Geometry Wars has become way more popular than their full-fledged retail titles.

I'm gonna predict this is the beginning of the end for Bizarre Creations. Either Activision shutters the studio or they get forced to milk proven franchises they don't want to (Call of Duty) which causes an exodus.

 

[JasoNsider]

It has nothing to do with the fact that it's Kinect, new tech or even that it's coming from Microsoft.

It's that absolutely NO ONE else in the console space is positioning ANY product to capture a new audience at an affordable price point for the remainder of this year apart from Kinect. The existing hardcore audience & even the entrenched casuals are clearly being more selective with their consumer dollars that will only flock to the established standouts thus leading to many quality developers getting thrown to the wolves after sales disasters like Blur and Split/Second. This is pure economic "law of diminishing returns".

I'd suggest the only other product that stands out in that space is Epic Mickey and we still haven't seen how it's going to be marketed.

Eh, you are putting funny constraints on this though. It's not like the industry is in a tailspin. Companies are going through major growing pains here - mostly learning they've got to make great games and then release them in a strategic timeframe. RDR and Mario Galaxy 2 are both fantastic titles and cleaned up because of it. End of story.

If anything, the 3DS is the one to watch out for now. People seem to put funny constraints on seperating console from handheld spaces, but we're slowly getting to a point where that line is blurring. The interest for 3DS is damn high and you can feel the excitement from people regarding it's release. A year from today we'll be saying "holy hell, how are these things still sold out!?" all over again.

 

[[Nintex]]

31k for Blur, jesus. Ah well the marketing was stupid. "Lol lets make fun of one of the most popular and best selling game this generation without showing what our game is actually about!"

 

[Sammy Samusu]

Monster Hunter?

Hopefully it made Top 30, hell, maybe Top 21!

 

[TheOddOne]

I imagine Bizarre Creations will get sold back to Microsoft for some magic beans.
They will in turn be tasked with the challenge of making controller-less racing games that one has to play standing up actually "fun".

I was under the impression MS wanted to buy them, but Bizarre would be stuck making PGR games. Something Bizarre did not want.

 

[DaBuddaDa]

It doesn't surprise me that Blur and S/S sold poorly. They were released at awful times too closely to each other, Blur's ad campaign was lame, and $60 is way too high a price for what you get with them. $40 would have been much better.

 

[Eteric Rice]

Monster Hunter?

Hopefully it made Top 30, hell, maybe Top 21!

I wonder what it's sold overall so far?

Are people still playing it?

 

[BishopLamont]

Lol at the people still bitter over the commercial. It was a fucking commercial guys, not an insult to your way of life.

Looks like Bizzare creations are the only one still bitter over the commercial.

No I mean that:

(MKWii May Sales - MKWii April Sales) > 31,000

ie: implying that the Blur ad did more to spur MKWii sales than Blur sales. But clearly the funnies was too complicated.

Pretty much guaranteed that MK increased by at least that much considering it went up a few ranks this month.

I think people are fooling themselves if they think a PC version of Alan Wake wouldn't at least have matched the 360 sales for May (US+UK).
Looking at competition-wise only, a PC sku wouldn't have faced titles such as RDR and UFC.

Yeah pretty ironic since it was announced for PC from the get-go.

 

[Saty]

I think people are fooling themselves if they think a PC version of Alan Wake wouldn't at least have matched the 360 sales for May (US+UK).
Looking at competition-wise only, a PC sku wouldn't have faced titles such as RDR and UFC.

 

[Trurl]

Lol at the people still bitter over the commercial. It was a fucking commercial guys, not an insult to your way of life.

I'm not bitter about the commercial. To be honest, I knew nothing about Blur (I took a long break from following games that only ended with E3) but the commercial gave me a strong feeling that the game sucked. A friend of mine who isn't much of a gamer happened to say "I bet that game is going to suck" after seeing the commercial.

Perhaps the commercial would have worked better if Blur was already a known entity, but mocking one of the most beloved racing franchises made it seem like the people behind Blur had no idea what makes a game fun.

Also, the first few times I saw I thought it was going to be an ad for Gamefly. :lol

 

[BishopLamont]

Fair enough, I've never played with the eyetoy or any controller-less gaming, so I'm pretty in the dark on what the end experience is actually like.

You can experience it right now in your house.

With motion controls it just looked stupid but once you try it, it feels natural. Controller-free gaming not only looks stupid but it also feels stupid.

 

[shintoki]

Seeing the 31k for Blur, I wouldn't be surprised if they sold more this month with all the sales and promotions :lol

 

[NeoUltima]

Damn at top 20, and lack of Blur & S/S. May was a really loaded month. Some of that stuff might of been helped if they got delayed a bit.

I fear for early next year. It's even more packed than this year was.

 

[MirageDwarf]

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-fi-ct-games-20100702,0,3292949.story

Awesome.

 

[soldat7]

The game sold 31,000. So no, it wasn't.

The game was stillborn in the research phase of the project. Marketing Blur a different way would likely have had zero effect.

Interesting, Mario Kart outselling all of its would-be competitors in their debut months.

There was never a competition (aside from the ad.) Blur and S/S are not even on the same system as Mario Kart. Joe Sixpack and Sara Soccermom do not walk into Gamestop and weigh the differences between Blur and Mario Kart.

There is a place for maybe 80-90% of all gaming software made (and it's always been this way): The Bargain Bin. It's almost easy for folks here on GAF to identify the bargain bin titles (Blur, S/S, Singularity, Alpha Protocol, 99.9% of PSP games, 90% of DS games, loads of downloadable titles) before they even hit the market, yet somehow and for some reason, these titles get the green light with nothing more than tepid press and weak advertisement, if any at all. It's sad really, but if every game is super, no game is super.

 

[bryehn]

It was a good idea for marketing, but it unintentionally made people want to play Mario Kart.

:lol :lol :lol

 

[YoungHav]

:lol wow @ UFC. UFC and skate have no business being annual releases. Serves them right. When do the June numbers come out?

 

[Kilrogg]

Joe Sixpack and Sara Soccermom do not walk into Gamestop and weigh the differences between Blur and Mario Kart.

You know, I'm really getting tired of those disdainful nicknames. They're really insulting.

 

[Jive Turkey]

I was under the impression MS wanted to buy them, but Bizarre would be stuck making PGR games. Something Bizarre did not want.

They may be seriously rethinking that stance now.

 

[yurinka]

duckroll can explain the whole thing better than I can, but the basic idea is that first Capcom had the idea of generating new IPs internally to take advantage of the HD generation, which might have some superficially Western-friendly elements but were still pretty clearly weird Japanese games (and this worked extremely well for them, with LR and DR) and then they decided to expand that strategy by either handing IPs to terrible Z-list Western developers (Dark Void, DR2, Bionic Commando) or shoehorning in superficially "Western" ideas like central multiplayer (LP2) which has worked out consistently terribly for them in every case.

Basically, every idea that Capcom has about implementing this Western-market strategy is bad. :lol All their success in terms of crossover hits* has been in designing games that were actually good games foremost and used relatively "universal" narrative themes (dude fighting zombies, dude with guns fighting robots, etc.), they have had literally zero success in trying to wrap their minds around what the "Western market" wants and predictively give it to them.

*And this goes for everyone else too, really.

I agree, Bionic Commando Rearmed is the only exception in terms of sales and quality. The other outsourced Capcom AAA stuff to western devs is mediocre or shitty. They need to hire great western devs if they want to achieve great AAA games.

Ready at Dawn and Proper games did good job even they had little projects. Backbone stuff was embarassing even some worked in terms of sales because they basically were ports of really popular IPs.

 

[Valkyr Junkie]

They may be seriously rethinking that stance now.

Well, the last PGR game was a massive bomba in the US as well judging by first month sales. Although it still managed twice the sales on a single platform :lol

 

[soldat7]

You know, I'm really getting tired of those disdainful nicknames. They're really insulting.

OK, so Average Joe, Joe Schmoe and John Q. Public go to a Gamestop...

 

[Zuhzuhzombie!!]

Do we get last month's numbers in a few weeks?

 

[Lagspike_exe]

Sara Soccermom :lol

 

[TheOddOne]

They may be seriously rethinking that stance now.

More like regretting :lol

Development of PGR4 did not go smooth though. Mostly because of Microsoft deadline. Right after release of PGR they where bought out by Activision. The whole Microsoft policy must have driven them over the edge to sign with Activision.

 

[soldat7]

Development of PGR4 did not go smooth though. Mostly because of Microsoft deadline. Right after release of PGR they where bought out by Activision. The whole Microsoft policy must have driven them over the edge to sign with Activision.

Hey, that's just Microsoft doing what Microsoft does best.

 

[Sammy Samusu]

I wonder what it's sold overall so far?

Are people still playing it?

NPD April = ~130k?
NPD May = ~40k?

Day one gamers are most likely done, but go check GameFaqs most discussed boards... So yeah, I'd say people are still playing it.

 

[yurinka]

Am I crazy to be disappointed by those SMG2 numbers? I was really hoping for a million plus first week sales. It's one of the best games I've ever played. Oh well.

SMG2 will continue selling well during years. Mario games have legs.

 

[legend166]

It was a good idea for marketing, but it unintentionally made people want to play Mario Kart.

I really don't think it was a good idea at all. Don't attack the absolute, without a doubt, undisputed genre king when you're trying to appeal to that audience. It makes no sense.

Blur should have been trying to get Mario Kart's table scraps, not trying to take its crown.

 

[DeaconKnowledge]

It has nothing to do with the fact that it's Kinect, new tech or even that it's coming from Microsoft.

It's that absolutely NO ONE else in the console space is positioning ANY product to capture a new audience at an affordable price point for the remainder of this year apart from Kinect. The existing hardcore audience & even the entrenched casuals are clearly being more selective with their consumer dollars that will only flock to the established standouts thus leading to many quality developers getting thrown to the wolves after sales disasters like Blur and Split/Second. This is pure economic "law of diminishing returns".

I'd suggest the only other product that stands out in that space is Epic Mickey and we still haven't seen how it's going to be marketed.

Handhelds.

 

[FrankT]

Gamasutra on May NPD: Microsoft Attach Rate Hits 8.9, PS3 Supply Improving

Should break through that 9.0 barrier soon enough. Demand should be clear enough if supply is improving in the US.

In response to May's U.S. industry sales results revealed earlier today, the company says its new slim Xbox 360, unveiled last month at E3, is experiencing "unprecedented demand" at retail. Microsoft also stated that along with the recent $50 price cut on the older Xbox 360 models, the company is seeing a "significant sales spike" for the console overall.

Haven't seen them use this kind of language in awhile. It should make for a nice June NPD and likely July, which will set up nicely for a new Arcade plus Reach going into Aug/Sept.

 

[jgwhiteus]

I really don't think it was a good idea at all. Don't attack the absolute, without a doubt, undisputed genre king when you're trying to appeal to that audience. It makes no sense.

Blur should have been trying to get Mario Kart's table scraps, not trying to take its crown.

I actually don't think it was a horrible idea, in terms of (jokingly) trying to get gamers to "graduate" to more "serious" racers than Mario Kart. It wasn't meant to be taken seriously - it's like those old Crash Bandicoot commercials.

The bigger problem? Mario Kart is a Wii game. Blur is a 360 / PS3 game.

So if you're a Wii owner, and you see a commercial trying to encourage you to get into more serious racing games...great! Um, just plop down $60 for the game, oh and an extra $200-$400 for a system you don't own.

If you're a 360 / PS3 owner, and even if you also own a Wii, you probably already have access to a lot of "serious" racing games, so why would a commercial making fun of Mario Kart want to make you pick up another one?

If Blur were on the Wii, I could maybe see the concept of the commercial working - getting you to try out something different on the same system. Otherwise, making fun of games on other systems only works if you've got a serious system seller, not another racing game in a genre full of them. Seems like the commercials didn't quite know or think through which audience they were targeting. Ultimately, I don't think it's to blame for the poor sales as much as oversaturation and general weakness all around for May.

 

[-viper-]

Nintendo #s -- not too far ahead of everyone else.




So basically it's just a slow boring month. Yawn.


Only thing interesting: SMG2's nice sales.

I saw this post and it caused me to yawn.

 

[fernoca]

Wow!..Sara Soccermom?!?!!!... :lol :lol :lol

 

[Haunted]

Oh wow, Blur is a massive bomb. First PGR4, now Blur. Not looking good for Bizarre Creation racers in the future.


How much did Split/Second sell?

 

[B-Rad Lascelle]

Handhelds.

3DS isn't coming out until 2011.
And it will be priced over $200.
And they haven't showcased anything apart from Nintendogs Redux that can bring in new gamers vs. existing gamers.

Granted, I can see 3DS being successful but at present it's initial success would appear to come at the expense of DS & console titles. Not bring in new people.

 

[JudgeN]

So did we get any 3D Dot Heroes numbers?