Long story short, you are angry about DDs (lack of) sales, right?
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NPD May 2012 Sales Results [Up4: Max Payne 3, Dragon's Dogma, Ghost Recon]
- Thread starter Nirolak
- Start date
Long story short, you are angry about DDs (lack of) sales, right?
Kai Dracon
Writing a dinosaur space opera symphony
This, more than people griping about 'fanboys', is probably what's really wrong.
There are PLENTY of games that get ripped on. There's plenty of criticism going around in the gaming press.
The problem is that there isn't enough variety in opinions, and this leads writers and reviewers to nearly uniformly give certain games a 'pass' for particular negatives, while almost uniformly roasting other games for details that are either:
1. An actual negative point, but may be over-exaggerated.
2. Something that isn't a negative attribute but is currently 'unfashionable'.
Example: around 2004, I noticed a distinct trend in game reviews to venerate orchestrated and licensed music while mocking 'game bleeps'. By game bleeps, reviewers meant anything like traditional game-specific soundtracks or music. Whether or not they were actually chip tunes in style. At that time, everyone was riding on a high of the PS2 and big budget games that were either using generic symphonic music that westerners would recognize from motion pictures, or shoving trendy licensed pop and rock tracks into the game. This, in the view of a lot of reviewers 'legitimized' games and was 'progressive'. So games with unabashedly gamey-music were simply demerited for their 'uncool' and 'lame' choice in music.
Fast foward to today and it's all hip and shit to be down with Dat 8-Bit Swag (even if 8-bit is often a misnomer). Now you find celebrations in the popular press, almost to the last man, of games that get in on the trend of employing 'retro' soundtracks. Now it is hailed as a celebration of the 'culture of video games' and whatnot. Now, while I do like chip tunes, this just an example of how reviewers and the press often seem to ebb and flow in monoblocks of critical standards.
Thus, if a game that is full of things to criticize hits a few key points that currently earn near universal praise, odds are a lot higher than any negatives in the game will be glossed over or downplayed. Regardless of whether or not they're actually minor negatives. If a game does not appeal to the current groupthink, then it has a much higher chance of either A: earning a diversity of opinions or B: being set upon by most critics for failing to pander to what is presently popular.
A side issue here is that the expectations of the audience, the gamers, is pretty warped too. Too many people seem to think a game is either "all awesome" or "a pile of crap!" Therefore, they hang on the number given out by a review, to determine absolutely whether a game is good or bad. 8 and above, it must be awesome and I'm sure to love it. 7 or below, and ha ha this must be crap and anyone I see playing it is an idiot who doesn't know what good games are.
Some people are griping that you can't go into an OT on a place like gaf without being attacked by 'fanboys' but I don't think this is generally true. A place like this is still a far better alternative to getting real discussion about games, but some don't seem to like it when they come in to say "this game is complete shit because of this one part I hate!" and someone else says "yeah, that part isn't its strength, but I love the rest of it". Or when they claim that X feature is completely broken and doesn't work, and other people say it works for them. I mean, we have people who literally call others liars if they claim they enjoy a certain aspect of a game.
GT5 was too late and GT5P took some wind out of its sales, as it has sold more in Japan than regular GT5.
GT sales by version and region:
http://www.polyphony.co.jp/english/list.html
OldJadedGamer
Banned
Makes sense with GT3 as it was the biggest Pack in game of the PS2 era.
Not by Media Create account (one of the tow main japanese tracker).
Prologue+Prologue Spec 2 = 530K
5 + 5 Spec 2 = 640K
Heh, I'm glad we actually got enough numbers to dispel this nonsense.
I think he was sarcastic (!!!).
Rough estmates/guesses (given Sony silence)
210+75+55 = 340K
mysocksarepink
Banned
PC Games sales realized a year over year increase of 230% realizing $80MM in sales, which softened the decline in software sales overall.
bubububub pc gaming.. is..
long live the king
long live the pc
bubububub pc gaming.. is..
long live the king
long live the pc
Wow really? I swear it had 2 200k+ months, guess not.
Edit - Came out in Feb so think you've missed a month.
Baconsammy
Banned
And selling on average 10k a week in Japan. Yet Sony thinks it'll do 10 million in a year. Either every European gamer is buying 10 each, or Sony's miscalculated.
According to the graphs released by Nintendo it is indeed selling a bit better (like 20-25k a week) =P
They'll be lucky to get 5 million at this rate.
Metal Gear?!
Member
lunchwithyuzo
Banned
The recent baseline was 6-8k weekly, but it's now getting key software driven spikes so we'll have to see where the dust settles in July.
From what I gathered it shipped 500k and sold probably just over half that worldwide. CDP were looking for one million so it didn't do the greatest for them. Lack of exact sales figures at their presser and lack of any console talk for Cyberpunk loosely supports this.
CadetMahoney
Member
Just out of curiosity what year(s) was PC gaming dead "for real" - 1995?
BishopLamont
Banned
You know its gonna go back to that range, if not 6k-8k then 10k.
The year Descent, Dark Forces, Command & Conquer and Mechwarrior 2 released? Defs not. I'd say it took a back seat to the overwhelming surge of next-gen console hype around 2006-2008, at that time I'm sure people would have predicted it'll be miniscule by 2012 (including me). But even then it continued to get good exclusives so the real answer is it was never dead 'for real'.
BruceLeeRoy
Banned
Ha I didn't even know Ghost Recon was out. Really bad numbers all around.
Double whammy price cut of both PS3 and Vita for $199 each?
perfectchaos007
Member
Bingo. This will always be the case with the new and deproved NPD of missing information. This time we fortunately had some outside info to fill the gaps but thats not always the case. Like someone else said earlier, Sony would have reported the sales if they were significantly in their favor, and I don't approve when companies that only report positive info. It makes it harder for an investor to make a sound decision on investments and gives so called "insiders" a reason to be paid for information. So obviously I'm not just picking on Sony here...Nintendo and Microsoft are guilty of this at times as well as other companies.
FieryBalrog
Member
Not you specifically; you and your ilk.
This is such a terribly incorrect statement with respect to videogames (with an awful analogy attached to it)
CadetMahoney
Member
What's the song in that called btw?
MrCookiepants
Member
Eh. Not really. GT was popular during (arguably) the golden age of Japanese sports cars and even then its success in Japan was an anomaly. It's been steadily losing popularity over the years which is offset by the growth of the franchise in Europe.
Media create also does not account for the online sales via Amazon and other websites either. Just like how NPD does not account for online sales and from certain large retailers.
Which retailers is NPD missing?
GrandHarrier
Member
GarthVaderUK
Banned
They've got Walmart's numbers now.
flyinpiranha
Member
Not anymore. I believe they are tracking them now and before they estimated.
Wouldn't surprise me, even though Sony outlined plans to be profitable this year, if they did that I'm not sure how it'd be possible!
120 gig ps3 + vita for $399.99, sound shapes comes with every bundle.
GraveRobberX
Platinum Trophy: Learned to Shit While Upright Again.
Fixed!
Breakdown:
160GB PS3 ($149.99) + VITA Wifi [8GB Card] ($199.99) + Sound Shapes Double Wombo Combo, throw in PS+ Month card for "Complete Global Saturation"
If you buy 160GB stand alone it's $179.99 or $199.99
VITA $199.99 but nothing given with it
That will move a huge amount during Holiday times if it came out
Remember you have to make the consumer feel like you made a mistake with your price, and the consumer thinks "Holy Fuck!, that's a steal"
Also every title shown @E3 had some sameness to them, nothing stood out, like Damn 6 years in and we are finally seeing the "true potential"
Last of Us blurs into Tomb Raider which Blurs into MOH: Warfighter, which blurs into Splinter Cell Blacklist, which blurs into... etc.
Also so many fucking sequels/spin-offs/HD remasters are tiring people out
Dead Space is up to 3, add the spin-offs, you have 5 titles you can play through
God of War is up to 5, will be 6 with Ascension with-in ONE FUCKING GENERATION! with all those collections
etc.
There are only two Deadspace games and one spinoff.GraveRobberX said:
EA mobile release has cemented that phones can't do survival horror (the fact it cost 60cents should have told me as much), and while I saw some travesty announced at E3 by EA, Deadspace was a no show this year.
Petrae
Member
According to a retailer list .pdf that accompanied the NPD snapshot, Toys 'R Us is included in the data collection.
OldJadedGamer
Banned
Wow, didn't know it was so close to Wii and so far ahead of PS3.
Don't think they will pass the Wii, but still amazing.
lunchwithyuzo
Banned
It varies. It is worth noting though that those GT5 Prologue sales include copies bundled with hardware, which was close to 300k iirc.
It was a dead cert imo until the whole market just crashed. Remains to be seen if MS can ignite the flames once more this holiday for the 360 with their strategy (they need a long overdue price cut)
Wii is pretty much on its deathbed though, it won't get huge bumps again and I doubt it'll ever be over 600k in any NPD ever again.
If 360 is to overtake Wii, it needs a good holiday.
grimshawish
Banned
Could come down to the success of WiiU - likely to cut into 360 sales where Sony has not.
If successful that is.
planar1280
Banned
Is this the smallest number for a monthly leader
it probably is the smallest in over a decade. maybe the lowest since it was the snes, saturn, psx, and game boy, before the game boy got pokemon, before the n64 was released, and before the psx really took off.