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NPD Sales Results for September 2009
- Thread starter EviLore
- Start date
Cosmonaut X
Member
faridmon said:
Screw you right back - 80 games in my collection, including all of the above.
Even if all three were grade A games - and they certainly aren't - they each have issues with the way they were handled that likely contributed to their poor performance.
Frankly though, I've given up on seeing any significant support from third parties on the platform now so I'm just going to enjoy the good games that do appear and I'm not going to shed any tears when Game X bombs after - for example - garnering bad press on its unveiling, trying to force its way into a crowded niche, receiving zero advertising etc.
Mariah Carey
Member
mr_bishiuk said:
The more pressing fact is that 4 years in Sony still is losing money on a $300 machine.
Really, the industry needs to take a really good look at itself in the mirror because it can't keep going on business as usual.
AdventureRacing
Member
Mariah Carey said:
In terms of hardware this gen is performing far better than all previous gens.
The industry is also far bigger overall than it has ever been.
RBH said:
With numbers like these... I sort of feel like the industry is in trouble. I mean... jesus... if you aren't a triple A release...
Granted Artic Edge was only 4 days of sales.... fuck it there's no way to spin that number... PSN sales... GTPSP probably sold a decent amount over PSN, and was only recorded for 3 days of sales.
Wow at Deadspace...
Although the DL Voucher card idea seems pretty odd, I certainly wouldn't go to the store to get a voucher card when it's right there on PSN. Although it obviously works for the younger demographic whom wouldn't have a credit card.
Scribblenauts and Kingdom hearts seemed to do well though!
mr_bishiuk
Banned
Mariah Carey said:
Well Sony only really made one mistake and that was thinking their brand meant that they could charge a massive premium over their competitors and could therefore cram in a blu ray drive to assist with other parts of their business like TV's and Movies, it was however only one error really.
I also feel Wii games are over priced - the industry really needs to look at it's pricing, in general.
I mean I can get Fallout 3 for the PC; that gives me a 100 of hours of great gameplay for 25-50 (it was 50 when it came out). Or COD with it's online, easily a hundred hours of fun.
I'm just not getting the value from Wii games, even the polished ones. Only Nintendo games are usually worth the sticker price. I'd pay 25 for Dead Space EX and I feel that is fair.
I mean I can get Fallout 3 for the PC; that gives me a 100 of hours of great gameplay for 25-50 (it was 50 when it came out). Or COD with it's online, easily a hundred hours of fun.
I'm just not getting the value from Wii games, even the polished ones. Only Nintendo games are usually worth the sticker price. I'd pay 25 for Dead Space EX and I feel that is fair.
mr_bishiuk said:
I think their mistake wasn't necessarily the price:
It was the timing of the PSP - they created a whole new platform, which spread their seasoned devs too thin.
They tried to shore up the PS3 exclusives with new teams creating Heavenly Sword and Lair, but these titles were disasters when they needed something really amazing to justify the price of the SKU. Polyphony Digital, Sony Bend, Zipper, Studio Liverpool and Guerrilla should not all have been spending time on PSP games.
Amir0x said:
at the end of the day it is a low budget arcade spinoff of an unpopular game from other systems. it has no replay value, a terrible developer, a ridiculous price and a bunch of problems. EA also did the worst job i've ever seen for any game unveiling it and hyping it up
it was lucky to sell 9k
AniHawk said:
nope. i bought overkill (when it was about 20 quid) and i even bought one of them cannon things. i'm never buying extraction
EA killed a lot of people's interest in this game. EA priced it way too high. EA/Eurocom didn't add much in the way of replay value.
EmCeeGramr said:
you're the one who thought everything was peaches and cream and EA did an amazing job getting people interested in the game
they obviously didn't
Mariah Carey
Member
This is just me guessing but I'd wager third parties are being so obstinate because they're battling against their own irrelevance. There was a ten year space where third party support was considered the most important thing in the world for a hardware maker; moving to Wii would be conceding the mountain of clout they previously held, and they'd subsequently have to submit to not only Nintendo but any hardware maker's whims. Wii has become a competitor to them and the HD machines represent third parties themselves.
Vagabundo said:
The $50 pricetag needs to vanish for a lot of stuff. Excitebots was $40 (which is a steal- this has an insane amount of replay value), Klonoa was $30 (awesome), and A Boy and his Blob was $40. Muramasa was probably $10 above its sweet spot, and the lightgun games: Overkill, Extraction, and Umbrella are similarly overpriced.
Of course, the sixty dollar game needs to die too. It's the reason why I only own eight retail 360 games. They're just too goddamn expensive to justify a purchase unless they're extremely awesome (Orange Box, Mirror's Edge, Fallout 3, Mass Effect, Chronicles of Riddick, Batman, and Burnout Paradise- plus Banjo, but that was $40 and a bit more of an impulse buy). I guess it's a good way to weed out the bad ones, even if a stinker like Bioshock or GTA IV might sneak its way in every now and again. I can only guess to how something like Mirror's Edge would have done if it was maybe $10-$20 from the get-go. It had a great marketing campaign, but reviewers (incorrectly) said it was too short for the money. I still can't believe that. They say time trials is a neat little option thing if you want to do it. Since when does that not get reviewed as part of the total package? Does the multiplayer in Halo 3 act as a nice little addition to the single player campaign if you feel like checking it out? Morons the lot of them. I'll get them one day, you'll see. With my army of irradiated space mutants, each more mutated than the last.
Thunder Monkey
Banned
I can be your jester King of Sarcasm.AniHawk said:
kitchenmotors
Banned
Sipowicz said:
Blah Blah Blah Blah.
I'm proud to say I'm one of the 9k who bought the game and loved every minute of it. Sure, it has it's problems, but every game does.
Just because I'm not a fan of a game like Halo and never plan on buying a Halo game, doesn't mean I need to be a douche and bitch about the game like a drama queen.
mr_bishiuk
Banned
Stink said:
$600? really?
AniHawk said:
I'm - pretty much - in full agreement here
.Also, there is a worldwide recession going on here folks; lower your prices. I do not have as much money in my pocket as I did two years ago - when I bought full price Wii games willy and nilly...
Also, I am officially an idiot: Mirrors Edge was sitting there for 12 for the PC, yes 12 and I dithered. I don't know what is wrong with me; I think I've gone into lock down mode, taxes have gone up, up, up here in Ireland and I'm not buying anything that I don't really need.
I went back a couple of days later and it was sold out
...This is the reason why I want Digital Distribution to take off.AniHawk said:
Publishers need to acknowledge that consumers think about the production values and the hours of enjoyment they can get out of a piece of entertainment. That's why movie tickets can all be at the same price but games can't. You can't compare something like Braid (which is awesome but short and not really replayable) with something like Orange Box (which is huge and endlessly replayable due to multiplayer).
If there is anything this gen taught us, is that digital distribution is a great way of inovating on the pricing strategies, for better (hits like Braid were really difficult to reproduce on retail) and for worse (worthless expensive DLC).
Vagabundo said:I'm - pretty much - in full agreement here
Also, there is a worldwide recession going on here folks; lower your prices. I do not have as much money in my pocket as I did two years ago - when I bought full price Wii games willy and nilly...
Also, I am officially an idiot: Mirrors Edge was sitting there for 12 for the PC, yes 12 and I dithered. I don't know what is wrong with me; I think I've gone into lock down mode, taxes have gone up, up, up here in Ireland and I'm not buying anything that I don't really need.
I know if I had the money
or a paying job (I work, but I don't get paid in dollars)
I went back a couple of days later and it was sold out
That sucks. The game should be around for a little while longer, I'd imagine. I think its sweet spot might've actually been $20, but it was probably good for EA to get as many $60 purchases out of it as possible.
I don't know how it is in the states, but if you wait a little while here you can pick up games pretty cheaply. I saw Banjo for example available for 12 in my local Game recently. That's a little untypical, but pricing in the 20/30 ballpark is not uncommon for games that are a bit older.
Of course, the impact of these prices is blunted when they're not there at release, alongside marketing/reviews/core-buzz etc. But if you want to build out your library (relatively) cheaply it is possible, as long as you don't need to be there on day one for releases. Maybe I'm not remembering right, but I do think it's easier than it was even last gen...more games are getting discounted more quickly, or at least it seems that way to me. Maybe that's due to pressure on retail given the economic conditions etc.
Of course, the impact of these prices is blunted when they're not there at release, alongside marketing/reviews/core-buzz etc. But if you want to build out your library (relatively) cheaply it is possible, as long as you don't need to be there on day one for releases. Maybe I'm not remembering right, but I do think it's easier than it was even last gen...more games are getting discounted more quickly, or at least it seems that way to me. Maybe that's due to pressure on retail given the economic conditions etc.
AniHawk said:
Game had a deal last year; a PC game special every week. It was new release and was half price or more - usually 25. I ended up buy that special, nearly, every week and it brought me into the store to see what was on special. It suddenly stopped one day, I was very sad, but I had a huge PC backlog at that stage.
And I wonder are Wii gamers more price sensitive? If the, mythical, Wii Matures-Game audience are more value concious, is that what 3rd Parties are missing - <rant> apart from the complete cluster-fuck that was EA launch of Dead Space Ex - I only found one copy of Dead Space EX in my local game and it wasn't in the New Game section. And did they get a two year old to do the box art? Truly Hideous... </general ranting>
TheChewyWaffles
Member
RJT said:
How does any of that necessitate Digital Distribution? :lol
Vagabundo said:
I think most are. They look for the "best" deal they can find, and if that means a bowling game for $24.99, then that's a great deal (I think the game averaged somewhere between a 3-5 out of 10 from reviewers). Same goes with handhelds. Sony tried overpricing their games more than Nintendo had (that $5 increase from 9 years ago still sucks), and not a whole lot of people were going to pay $50 for a handheld game. Now, no PSP game goes over $40, and you can find some as low as $20. In a casual market, you need to price accordingly. It's kinda why games are taking off on the iPhone/iPod. For $1-$2 apiece, it doesn't really matter to most people.
mr_bishiuk
Banned
GeekyDad said:
jesus, when you put it like that and with a new sku n'all
Why Sony didn't simply add another anologue stick add a bit of memory, increase the processor speed and call it the PSP2 i'll never know
Tenkai Star
Member
Yey for Sony! Wonder how long it holds. X-mas will be interesting.
beelzebozo
Jealous Bastard
those of you conflating the lack of sales for DEAD SPACE EXTRACTION with a complete disinterest in mature games on wii are doing so erroneously, i think. since when has a rail shooter been expected to sell gangbusters on any system, in any series? you can't release a niche genre game and expect it to sell solely on the franchise you saddle it with, particularly when that franchise is very new and holds its primary identity in a completely different genre.
listen, i love mature games when they're good. and maybe DS:E was good. but i haven't liked or been interested in light gun games since HOUSE OF THE DEAD 2 on dreamcast, and i'm just not going to go buy a game because mature games need more of a home on wii. just like anyone else, i'll buy the games i want, and i didn't want a rail shooter. clearly not many others did, either.
listen, i love mature games when they're good. and maybe DS:E was good. but i haven't liked or been interested in light gun games since HOUSE OF THE DEAD 2 on dreamcast, and i'm just not going to go buy a game because mature games need more of a home on wii. just like anyone else, i'll buy the games i want, and i didn't want a rail shooter. clearly not many others did, either.
AniHawk said:
$1/$2 is impulse territory and is a sweetspot - some of those companies will make a fortune. The industry needs to have games in all the price tiers, and new games at that, not the current model of older, second hand games taking up the cheaper price tiers. (like those 3 for 15 PC games, some company with a Blue Label). It would be interesting to see if their sales have increased.
Not even sure if this is workable with the budgets for HD or compatible with large marketing. iPhone games will shake up the pricing, especally for DS/PSP games. The time of 30 for a DS game has gone and good riddance.
The Wii games market is a total mess too, 3rd parties (and Nintendo to some extent) are to blame. If the audience for these games was fed from launch we would be looking at a steady stream of interesting titles that would do well, if not stellar, and the system itself would have been pushed. Instead we have this stuttering wreak of market where good games bomb and shite games sell millions - sometimes - and is far too casual, where are the crossover games. (oh and the HD side is no bed of roses either, but they seem to be able to comfort each other and eke out a living like panhandlers)
Mariah Carey said:
:lol :lol
Gotta love the armchair CEOs on this forum. How in the world could you possibly know this or make any sort of evaluation on it? The industry has been going like this for the past 2 decades, what's changed other than it's larger and producing more revenue than ever before?
beelzebozo
Jealous Bastard
Crisco said:
not that i know much about the business side of all this, but devs have been claiming in the past few years that the costs of developing a game have skyrocketed since hd has become a factor.
BigNastyCurve said:
1-Costs asssociated with distribution of a retail release make it impossible to be creative on pricing. It's impossible to replicate Steam deals on retail, it's impossible to charge 5$ for a game at retail.
2-Modular games. MW2 could be 30$ for singleplayer, 30$ for multiplayer, and 50$ for both. They would get much more customers that way.
3-Charge for expanded demos. I'd like to play the first chapter of a game, and then unlock the rest if I like it.
4-Online Rentals. Money would go to the developer, everyone is happy.
Yes, I know there are a lot of bad things associated with digital distribution, but I believe the good far outweighs the bad.
Pennywise83
Banned
Anyone could tell me the last month that Ps3 sales was higher taht Wii sales?
Haunted
Member
We're seeing a consolidation of mega-publishers since it's become difficult for mid-tier and smaller publishers/developers to sustain themselves in critical economic times and a high-risk blockbuster model dominating the console landscape.Crisco said:
DD and self-publishing is the future, or we'll have only 7-8 companies left making games in the future (Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, EA, Activision, Ubisoft, S-E, Konamicom)
What was Anita Frazier's quote again? "The gaming industry's continued growth is is not a tide that lifts all boats".
RadarScope1
Member
Interesting historical take away. I tend to agree, though the real motive is probably much more simple. Less clout equals less money in the long run, so we're back to the 'third parties don't make money on Wii' argument.Mariah Carey said:
mr_bishiuk
Banned
tass0 said:
I reckon the PS3 will be approx 75k units above the 360, I think they will be level pegging over November and December though as the 360 Aracade comes more into play with cost conciouse parents.
The problem is, despite these consoles having extremely high userbase numbers, there is just WAY TOO MUCH product on the market. Geez when you walk into a gamestop there are literaly hundreds of games to buy, not necessarily just the new releases.
People only have but so much money to spend and now we have 5 viable platforms to buy games from?? It was much simpler when it was either a SNES, Sega Genesis or a Gameboy (which had ZERO competition in its market).
The way this industry is going its going to eventually collapse onto itself. Now they try to save profits by cutting back on advertisements and relying on the magic of the internet (read; twitter/facebook) to do their marketing/advertising for them. Then when their game bombs b/c they didn't want to do proper marketing/advertising (to save profit margins) they wonder what went wrong.
People only have but so much money to spend and now we have 5 viable platforms to buy games from?? It was much simpler when it was either a SNES, Sega Genesis or a Gameboy (which had ZERO competition in its market).
The way this industry is going its going to eventually collapse onto itself. Now they try to save profits by cutting back on advertisements and relying on the magic of the internet (read; twitter/facebook) to do their marketing/advertising for them. Then when their game bombs b/c they didn't want to do proper marketing/advertising (to save profit margins) they wonder what went wrong.
So we can't complain about a lack of third party titles because one of the titles you even didn't know about is performing badly? No offense, but what the hell are you talking about? Spyborgs might be a polished game when looking at the graphics but as a whole, it's nothing special. I bought Dead Space Extraction when it was released and is actually good. It's a shame it didn't sell, but it's a rail shooter.faridmon said:
Problem with these titles as you already stated with your Spyborgs comment, nobody knew something about it except for some active forum dwellers. EA and Capcom blew it.