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Official July 2008 NPD Results Thread
- Thread starter sonycowboy
- Start date
Saint Gregory
Member
ShockingAlberto said:
Yeah, that's something I conviently ignore and should take into account but it's still hard (for me) to use that as an excuse. You'd think, when given the option, most devs would be excited by the notion of slowing down the hardware race and lowering development costs but yet we can see that most are still greenlighting big budget HD products even in the face of all we know now.
I'm not against HD gaming. I don't want to see my 360 and PS3 gather dust in the coming years. But when I look at numbers like these and the profit reports from last quarter I don't see health there. I see one company making multitudes more than all the others and that's not good for gaming, even when it's a company I support.
Kasumi1970
my name is Ted
The difference you had to buy the hd player, it was not built into the system. If it was built into the system, i could see HD format still being around. Most 360 owners I know bought the system for games, not movies.MechDX said:If attach rates were important than HD DVD won the HD format war.
Private Hoffman said:
400k for a new IP being released mid to end October? I'm not taking a ban bet either, but I highly doubt it. I think we'll be lucky to see LBP break 200k for its first NPD.
I want to see LBP do well, but I think it will be a harder sell to the casual crowd.
Freedom is the ability to do more.Deku said:
Including make more mistakes.
The things you can create while under limits are a subset of the things you can create with absolute freedom. Any technical restriction you have could just as easily be self-imposed, so why would you want to force it to be so?
No, there's better reasons to use the Wii than that the processors are less capable than those of the 360 and PS3.
Zombie James
Banned
Struct09 said:
How quickly people forget Gears, apparently.
_leech_ said:
Yeah, I realize that I worded that poorly. While Gears was a new IP at the time, it has the appeal of your typical western shooter. I don't think LBP has nearly that kind of appeal in the US, it's something completely new. We're excited about it, but I just don't see the average Joe caring as much, and that's where the big numbers would come from.
Trust me, I hope I'm wrong.
EDIT: Also, Gears came out at the beginning of November. That means it got a whole month's worth of sales for NPD, including Black Friday.
Agent Icebeezy
Welcome beautful toddler, Madison Elizabeth, to the horde!
_leech_ said:
They also forget Uncharted. The best game on the console, in November, didn't sell anything near that. Neither did Ratchet
Slavik81 said:
I largely agree with this analysis, but I think it's fair to point out that what you're saying is purely theoretical. What is theoretically possible with absolute freedom and what people actually do with absolute freedom are two very different things.
But again, to repeat, I don't really buy the notion that more limits are better for game design.
Zombie James
Banned
Agent Icebeezy said:
Poor marketing, bad publicity for the system, and a low install base tends to do that. Things are much different now:
phalestine
aka iby.h
Zoe said:
Push as in advertisement? Because Uncharted had a great marketing campaign. but yeah the larger userbase will help the game.
Opiate said:
I agree.
However, that leaves two questions: what kind of technical limits are we talking about, as far as game design is concerned ? Most importantly, regarding the current consoles, can it be assumed that the horsepower difference between the Wii and the PS360 greatly limits the possibilities in terms of once again game design? I personally think it doesn't. There might be SOME limitations, in fact, I think that's a good possibility, but nothing more. Were the gap even wider (another generation of difference), then maybe, just maybe, the limits would become problematic.
And then, of course, you've always got to throw a little bit of pragmatism in the mix when discussing those things: having infinite possibilities is all fine and dandy, but infinite cash is rarely a given, so... There's an issue.
phalestine
aka iby.h
Loudninja said:
Maybe you should read up a little, he is making a point, I wont tell you what it is though. :/
Agent Icebeezy
Welcome beautful toddler, Madison Elizabeth, to the horde!
Loudninja said:
Everyone is talking about LBP first month sales. Uncharted, in November, didn't get off to that much of a hot start. I personally think the game is too smart for the masses. I've stated that previously and I will again. It seems like VP redux, due to the fact that on the exterior, Viva Pinata looks like a family, kid friendly game, but it really isn't. I see this as being the same way. Perhaps they should drop the price like Microsoft has done with the Rare games.
titiklabingapat
Member
I agree.Agent Icebeezy said:
Again, no mouse will make it harder to break through the non-gaming masses.
The gaming pad is probably the most inconvenient control scheme for these types of games.
The PS3 is mouse compatible, so....hint hint, nudge nudge.
dirtmonkey37
flinging feces ---->
Wait, the 360 had a price drop in July? I thought we were talking about the rumored "September" 299 price drop here.
Agent Icebeezy
Welcome beautful toddler, Madison Elizabeth, to the horde!
Loudninja said:
That is expected though. That is the Christmas season at work. To be honest, I do fear for my beloved Banjo. It has equity in the brand because the previous games were classics, but there are a lot of games that are going to be vying for the consumer dollar this fall. A 39.99 price gives it more visibility though. Not to mention that October is GH4 month.
Saint Gregory
Member
Agent Icebeezy said:
This encapsulates exactly how I feel about LBP but I've been trying my best to be kind because deep down I actually hope I'm wrong about it. I really liked VP but in the end I couldn't help but wonder who the game was for. It was too cute for hardcores and to deep for kids/casuals and the sales seemed to reflect that. VP had a big marketing campaign (including a cartoon) yet sold less than most expected given it's quality.
I look at LBP the same way. It seems to be practically invented for the kind of gamers who frequent boards like these and the gaming press with its virtues (high prod. values, commmunity sharing of user created content, etc) but it just doesn't strike me to be the kind of game changer that a lot of its fans here think it is. I'll pick it up first day, but I expect to see shelves full of them.
titiklabingapat
Member
LBP won't be the next VP, it will do massiverly better. I just don't think it's gonna change the tides of anything.
Agent Icebeezy
Welcome beautful toddler, Madison Elizabeth, to the horde!
Saint Gregory said:
That is what VP" Trouble in Paradise is aiming to fix. Rare has said that they made VP a bit selfishly in that we made a game that we wanted to play.
Saint Gregory
Member
Agent Icebeezy said:
If the "we" stands for "anyone who loves games" then they accomplished their goal.Best Rare game in a decade and I expect LBP to be even better. I just suspect that LBP will suffer VP's fate. I wonder if Sony will be willing to give it another chance like MS is doing with VP:TiP if my suspicions are correct.
Edit: Just to be clear, I don't think LBP will be a bomb because I don't consider VP a bomb. I just think they're both games that have an uneven focus in terms of which market they're aiming for. It's kind of sad that games need that kind of focus nowadays...
Agent Icebeezy
Welcome beautful toddler, Madison Elizabeth, to the horde!
Saint Gregory said:
The only reason that VP is being made again is due to the numbers it pushed with bundling and the success of the cartoon
I don't know, Viva Pinata's a complex single-player strategy game, vs LBP being a 4-player online/offline 2.5D sidescroller with two main buttons, jump and grab.Agent Icebeezy said:
With kids:
With adults:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I13hyWNWwq4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysn6w82eEfQ
Agent Icebeezy
Welcome beautful toddler, Madison Elizabeth, to the horde!
cakefoo said:I don't know, Viva Pinata's a complex single-player strategy game, vs LBP being a 4-player online/offline 2.5D sidescroller with two main buttons, jump and grab.
With kids:
With adults:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I13hyWNWwq4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysn6w82eEfQ
Nerds and gamers like us go to Comic-Con, you can't use that to persuade me. My two oldest daughters have been playing the Sims since they could use a PC. Moving to a game like Viva Pinata is a piece of cake as this is. They play Trackmania and build tracks. They are into that creativity thing because it has been in their faces and hands for years. Besides, when I do have my neices and nephews over, the hot thing to play is the Wii. They have tried VP before, they didn't get it. I think that all platformers that isn't on the Wii have their work cut out for them.
Saint Gregory
Member
Agent Icebeezy said:
Really? I didn't realize the cartoon did well. Never saw it myself but whatever gets a sequel done is good in my book.
dirtmonkey37
flinging feces ---->
Zoe said:
Oh, right right. Now I remember. My brain couldn't automatically associate price drop with what really happened.
It's interesting that didn't spur sales.
TheGrayGhost
Banned
cakefoo said:
Holy crap is that floaty. Looks more floaty than Luigi in SMB2 :lol
BLaZiN PRopHeT
Member
cakefoo said:
Off Topic
jw but isnt VP2 4 player co-op i thought that i read it was one of the achievements.
Private Hoffman
Banned
Agent Icebeezy said:
At a time when the PS3 userbase was still very small in the US, having done terribly during its launch and throughout most of 2007, only receiving large increases AFTER both of those games shipped.
The PS3 userbase of October 2008 is going to be significantly different than the PS3 userbase of October 2007 [Note: 1.98 million PS3s were sold up until the time when Uncharted/Ratchet were released, compare that with how many PS3s are in circulation in the USA now at about 5.08 million with a projected 5.5+ million when Little Big Planet finally releases in the US. Definitely a large enough userbase to support my estimate of 400k assuming less than a 10% attach ratio (which, I personally think LBP will have a better attach ratio than that).]
It also has to be worth mentioning that the hype for Ratchet / Uncharted was muted because of Sony's failed marketing AND the fact that these titles released amidst Halo 3, Call of Duty 4, Assasin's Creed, Mass Effect and others. This year, the competition isn't nearly as stiff. Little Big Planet releases before the mad rush of other titles and will likely receive very positive praise and media buzz given how revolutionary it is.
Agent Icebeezy said:
Aye, and I bought them both when I first bought my first PS3 that month. I was pretty surprised with the numbers as they are both excellent titles. Not planning to get LBP, but I think the earlier comment with first month 400k doesn't sound too off the mark if not a little bit more.
polyh3dron
Banned
There are still a small number of working old 360s out there that haven't RROD'd just yet.. My bro's 2nd 360 just RROD'd last week and I'm on my 3rd 360 (non Falcon or HDMI) and it's been freezing a lot lately. So even if they did fix the RROD problem there are a whole bunch more ticking timebombs out there.Wollan said: