Video Game Industry Thread: June-July is done, go to the next thread

cloudeagle · July 2011

Speaking of Vida, the folks at Crytek are a little skeptical about it.

The PlayStation Vita was showcased to the world at E3, garnering positive feedback from around the industry, but some remain skeptical about the rising tide of mobile platforms. One such developer is Crytek, who is slightly concerned that the Vita might have missed an opportune launch date.

"The Vita is an absolutely fantastic platform, but it will have a hard time, and it might be too late," said Crytek boss Cevat Yerli. "I love Sony as a company, and we have great relations with them, but the Vita is going to have a hard time against the next generation mobiles and all the tablets. There's also the 3DS investing in this market."

What really matters is the way each platform is going to be able to bring content to players. Devices running iOS, Android and other OS systems are relying on digital distribution to provide content. Even the 3DS is able to work around digital distribution, but the Vita is going to have to deliver in a way that appeals to owning a dedicated platform. To Yerli, it is all about “the platform’s ability to receive the content.”

At this time, Crytek has not announced any projects for the Vita.

http://www.industrygamers.com/news/crytek-ceo-might-be-too-late-for-vita/

Now, if Sony managed to randomly shoehorn the word "cry" in the name of the console I'm sure this guy would dig it.

And the new best-selling third-party Wii game is:

Nintendo's Wii hasn't exactly been a haven for third parties (something the company aims to correct with Wii U), but certain casual titles have done phenomenally well on the platform, and according to Ubisoft, none have done better than Just Dance 2.

The publisher said today, after the June NPD report, that Just Dance 2 has become the best-selling third-party Wii title ever. It's been in the top spot since its October 2010 release. Ubisoft did not provide exact sales numbers for Just Dance 2, but the company did note that the franchise as a whole (Just Dance 1 & 2, Just Dance Kids) has shipped more than 14 million units to date.

Laurent Detoc, president of Ubisoft North America, stated: “Ubisoft is incredibly proud of the monumental success Just Dance 2 has had the past nine months. The game’s outstanding performance solidifies the Just Dance brand as a pop culture phenomenon. We’re excited to bring fans that are eagerly awaiting the release of Just Dance 3 in October a new selection of dance tracks to play with Just Dance Summer Party."

http://www.industrygamers.com/news/nintendo-wiis-best-selling-3rd-party-game-ever-just-dance-2/

RainbowDespair · July 2011

Stronger library.

This is assuming that A) titles that are currently scheduled for the PS Vita's launch don't get delayed and B) there are no surprise games on the 3DS that turn out to be amazing.

Brainiac 8 · July 2011

Bit.Trip Saga will be amazing!

cloudeagle · July 2011

If Mario Kart doesn't send 3DS sales through the roof, nothing will. Remember how much the DS one sold?

Sheep · July 2011

01. L.A. Noire (360, PS3) Take 2 Interactive - 419,000

GOOD.

Meh game, asshole studio.

Shadows of the Damned must have done < 50K on both platforms. Or some variation there of. That's disappointing after I heard such great stuff. Suda was involved, right? I like that guy on principle.

Shame no more Brink numbers but whatdyaexpect?

Rakai · July 2011

I think people are putting way too much stock into a "system seller". Single games only push a handful of systems. It's about ultimately creating a product at a price point that will continue to appeal to people over a long period of time at which point new games aren't "system sellers" so much as they help keep the system in the public eye for when someone is looking for something to buy. Mario Kart didn't sell the DS/Wii so much as the systems had mainstream appeal to which Mario Kart was the game that had the most appeal. If Mario Kart was the reason they bought the system then you would expect all the sales to happen in the first year if not the first few months.

Ragnar Dragonfyre · July 2011

Rakai wrote:

I think people are putting way too much stock into a "system seller". Single games only push a handful of systems. It's about ultimately creating a product at a price point that will continue to appeal to people over a long period of time at which point new games aren't "system sellers" so much as they help keep the system in the public eye for when someone is looking for something to buy. Mario Kart didn't sell the DS/Wii so much as the systems had mainstream appeal to which Mario Kart was the game that had the most appeal. If Mario Kart was the reason they bought the system then you would expect all the sales to happen in the first year if not the first few months.

I dunno... whenever I buy a new system, historically I've done so because there is a single game that I can't live without. N64 it was Mario 64, PSX was FF7, PS2 I bought just 'cuz, 360 was Gears of War, PS3 was Demon's Souls... I've just come to expect that systems will get better games as they age.

cloudeagle · July 2011

While system sellers don't universally have the power people usually assign to them, they're much more influential when, well, there really aren't many other compelling games available. Which is apparently the case with the 3DS at the moment.

Couscous · July 2011

cloudeagle wrote:

lionheart_m wrote:

Wow...first time I do this. Quoting GAF (what was the quote tag...oh right!):

5-week tracking month; Reporting Period 5/29/11 through 7/2/11

Software (New physical retail only, across all platforms including PC)
01. L.A. Noire (360, PS3) Take 2 Interactive - 419,000
02. Duke Nukem Forever (360, PS3, PC) Take 2 Interactive - 376,300
03. Infamous 2 (PS3) Sony - 369,200
04. Lego Pirates of the Caribbean: The Video Game (Wii, 360, NDS, PS3, 3DS, PSP, PC) Disney Interactive Studios
05. Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D (3DS) Nintendo - 283,200
06. Call of Duty: Black Ops (360, PS3, Wii, NDS, PC) Activision Blizzard
07. NBA 2K11 (360, PS3, Wii, PS2, PSP, PC) Take 2 Interactive
08. Mortal Kombat 2011 (PS3, 360) Warner Bros. Interactive
09. Cars 2 (NDS, Wii, 360, PS3, PC) Disney Interactive Studios
10. Just Dance 2 (Wii) Ubisoft

Hardware
Xbox 360 - 507,000
Wii - 273,000
PS3 - ~276,000 (extrapolated)
3DS - 143,000
DS - 386,000

Additional information:

Originally Posted by IGN News Director Jim Reilly:
June NPD sales for Shadows of the Damned are pathetic. You can forget about a sequel. Alice: Madness Returns did much, much better, however.

Well, LA Noire and Duke Nukem did pretty decently, better than I would have guessed. Though the number one game sitting at just over 400,000 seems to indicate a fairly slow-moving month.
Zumba FINALLY dropped off.
Great googly moogly, look at the 360 go! It's stolen the Wii's mojo.
So, no big bump for the 3DS with Zelda? Yeah, it's looking like the system's in a little trouble.

The poor sales for Shadows of the Damned obviously means shooters are doomed on the 360 and PS3.

mere_immortal · July 2011

How did Shadows do in Japan, or has it even been released there yet?

Automaticzen · July 2011

mere_immortal wrote:

How did Shadows do in Japan, or has it even been released there yet?

We got Shadows first despite it being a collaboration with Japanese rockstar creators.

cloudeagle · July 2011

Couscous wrote:

The poor sales for Shadows of the Damned obviously means shooters are doomed on the 360 and PS3.

The obvious takeaway is "crazy crap doesn't sell? Let's make our shooters even MORE realistic! And more brown!"

vagrant_winds · July 2011

Shadows of the Damned was a fantastic and fun game.

Ah_Pook · July 2011

apparently shadows of the damned sold 24000 copies, children of eden sold 34000. thats rough. were either games marketed at all?

cloudeagle · July 2011

Here's a fascinating youtube video that has a behind-the-scenes look at Tim Schafer giving a pitch to a studio executive, and the pitch doesn't really go well.

You really, REALLY need to see this.

Edit: Child of Eden not selling well isn't a shocker, since the game is artsy-fartsy as all hell (and I say that as someone who loves it). Shadows of the Damned doing even worse, though? Yikes.

Couscous · July 2011

People expected Child of Eden to sell that well? That game has niche appeal written all over it.

an_alt · July 2011

I'm happy for Alice: Madness Returns even though we don't have numbers. Like the original, the gameplay isn't nearly as awesome as watching it, but sometimes gorgeous is enough. Just don't apply that to picking a spouse.

Child of Eden I could see having a long tail. I didn't see any marketing for it, though that probably doesn't mean much...

jothki · July 2011

pslong9 wrote:

Hedgethorn wrote:

Hoggely moggely. That's a lot of 360s sold in June. Does anyone know what could have caused Microsoft's sales to double between May and June?

Also, DNF sold quite a bit better than I thought it would. I was expecting something on the order of 175K sales.

One theory floated on GAF is that the sales include the "buy a laptop, get a 360 free!" deal that Microsoft was doing. That would make sense to me. I can't really think of anything else that would explain it.

I just purchased a new computer from Dell, and they billed it as a full price 360 and a computer with a $200 discount, so I'm guessing that's the case.

RainbowDespair · July 2011

Ah_Pook wrote:

apparently shadows of the damned sold 24000 copies, children of eden sold 34000. thats rough. were either games marketed at all?

Children of Eden selling 34k in its first month is way better than I expected.

Henroid · July 2011

cloudeagle wrote:

Here's a fascinating youtube video that has a behind-the-scenes look at Tim Schafer giving a pitch to a studio executive, and the pitch doesn't really go well.

You really, REALLY need to see this.

I'm sure there's people raging the fuck out over Schafer selling out or whatever, but that was pretty great.

Brainiac 8 · July 2011

Meh, the only thing he's done I liked was Psychonauts. Everything to me has been 'ok' to 'mediocre.'

I do find funny how had this been made for the Wii, it would have been laughed off the playground, but on the 360, tis ok.

That was amusing though, I still have fond memories of watching classic seseme street as a kid....before they ruined it with Elmo and his horrible grammar and the other terrible new monsters....also for ruining Cookie Monster.

I still miss the days when noone believed that Snuffie existed.

Couscous · July 2011

RainbowDespair wrote:

Ah_Pook wrote:

apparently shadows of the damned sold 24000 copies, children of eden sold 34000. thats rough. were either games marketed at all?

Children of Eden selling 34k in its first month is way better than I expected.

It feels like a respectable number for a niche game that probably wasn't horribly expensive to develop.

DaveTheWave · July 2011

Just wanted to let Slash and RD know that they have my $2.53 AUD.

Thanks for the Steam port.

Moioink · July 2011

Couscous wrote:

RainbowDespair wrote:

Ah_Pook wrote:

apparently shadows of the damned sold 24000 copies, children of eden sold 34000. thats rough. were either games marketed at all?

Children of Eden selling 34k in its first month is way better than I expected.

It feels like a respectable number for a niche game that probably wasn't horribly expensive to develop.

It's not a respectable number, it almost certainly made a loss. Things are so dire with COE that Ubisoft have slashed the price of the PS3 version before it has even been released: I was able to pre-order my copy for £15 with a free COE t-shirt.

Gdiguy · July 2011

Well it may have been a loss for Ubisoft, but for anyone objective and reasonably intelligent a game like COE at $50 isn't exactly going to light the world on fire. I'm looking forward to picking it up at some point, but as someone without Kinect yet, there's no way that that's worth anywhere near $50 to the general public

If it had come out as an XBLA game (with XBLA pricing) I'd have been much more enthusiastic about picking it up immediately

Avicus · July 2011

jothki wrote:

pslong9 wrote:

Hedgethorn wrote:

Hoggely moggely. That's a lot of 360s sold in June. Does anyone know what could have caused Microsoft's sales to double between May and June?

Also, DNF sold quite a bit better than I thought it would. I was expecting something on the order of 175K sales.

One theory floated on GAF is that the sales include the "buy a laptop, get a 360 free!" deal that Microsoft was doing. That would make sense to me. I can't really think of anything else that would explain it.

I just purchased a new computer from Dell, and they billed it as a full price 360 and a computer with a $200 discount, so I'm guessing that's the case.

Do you know if Sony counted the PS3s they gave away during the 'Buy a Sony HDTV, Get a PS3' deal?

Dr Mario Kart · July 2011

It better have cost a lot to make. Otherwise I dont know what the hell Mizuguchi is doing with all his time. Its not like the dude puts out games all that often.

Couscous · July 2011

So how many people ended up think Child of Eden was Kinect only?

Also, Breath of Death/Cthulhu Saves the world has a ten percent discount on Steam. It is only 2.69 instead of the normal 2.99!

Hybrid · July 2011

DaveTheWave wrote:

Just wanted to let Slash and RD know that they have my $2.53 AUD.

Thanks for the Steam port.

Same here.

cloudeagle · July 2011

Gdiguy wrote:

Well it may have been a loss for Ubisoft, but for anyone objective and reasonably intelligent a game like COE at $50 isn't exactly going to light the world on fire. I'm looking forward to picking it up at some point, but as someone without Kinect yet, there's no way that that's worth anywhere near $50 to the general public

If it had come out as an XBLA game (with XBLA pricing) I'd have been much more enthusiastic about picking it up immediately

Um, it's perfectly playable without Kinect. Did you play Rez? It's pretty much like that. Kinect mode is interesting, but you're not really missing all that much.

I dunno, Ubi doesn't seem to have given Child of Eden the Beyond Good and Evil treatment yet... a quick check on Amazon shows the $50 price stands on both versions.

Shadowfire · July 2011

I've seen some rumors posted, but hadn't seen this in the thread.

Battlefield 3 Won't Appear on Steam, Says Gamestop.
The latest news between Electronic Arts and Valve now has it that Battlefield 3 will not be making an appearance on the Steam platform. Retail giant, GameStop, now says that the publisher will not be pushing Battlefield 3 out on Steam but will be pursuing Impulse.

Financial researchers are intrigued by the news, saying that “Given Steam's dominance – and insistence on users downloading a Steam client application – publishers are likely to be receptive to a competitive alternative.” The statements come from research firm Baird, who recently held a meeting with GameStop.

With EA working on launching Origin, a digital distribution platform, and GameStop finally launching Impulse, the fight against Steam is heating up. Valve recently pulled Crysis 2 from Steam, saying that the action was due to ‘business terms.’

EA remains steadfast in saying that they are not looking to block any of their titles from distribution platforms and that the Crysis 2 decision was “not an EA decision or the result of any action by EA.”

Neither Valve nor EA has commented on the Battlefield 3 distribution claims made by GameStop.

There's a shitload of Steam faithful here who are looking forward to having BF3 to play this year, and will shun MW3. I'm wondering how much this move will affect that sentiment.

Lepwave · July 2011

Shadowfire wrote:

I've seen some rumors posted, but hadn't seen this in the thread.

Battlefield 3 Won't Appear on Steam, Says Gamestop.
The latest news between Electronic Arts and Valve now has it that Battlefield 3 will not be making an appearance on the Steam platform. Retail giant, GameStop, now says that the publisher will not be pushing Battlefield 3 out on Steam but will be pursuing Impulse.

Financial researchers are intrigued by the news, saying that “Given Steam's dominance – and insistence on users downloading a Steam client application – publishers are likely to be receptive to a competitive alternative.” The statements come from research firm Baird, who recently held a meeting with GameStop.

With EA working on launching Origin, a digital distribution platform, and GameStop finally launching Impulse, the fight against Steam is heating up. Valve recently pulled Crysis 2 from Steam, saying that the action was due to ‘business terms.’

EA remains steadfast in saying that they are not looking to block any of their titles from distribution platforms and that the Crysis 2 decision was “not an EA decision or the result of any action by EA.”

Neither Valve nor EA has commented on the Battlefield 3 distribution claims made by GameStop.

There's a shitload of Steam faithful here who are looking forward to having BF3 to play this year, and will shun MW3. I'm wondering how much this move will affect that sentiment.

EA would be cutting off a fairly large chunk of PC sales if this were true.

Astale · July 2011

Shadowfire wrote:

I've seen some rumors posted, but hadn't seen this in the thread.

Battlefield 3 Won't Appear on Steam, Says Gamestop.
The latest news between Electronic Arts and Valve now has it that Battlefield 3 will not be making an appearance on the Steam platform. Retail giant, GameStop, now says that the publisher will not be pushing Battlefield 3 out on Steam but will be pursuing Impulse.

Financial researchers are intrigued by the news, saying that “Given Steam's dominance – and insistence on users downloading a Steam client application – publishers are likely to be receptive to a competitive alternative.” The statements come from research firm Baird, who recently held a meeting with GameStop.

With EA working on launching Origin, a digital distribution platform, and GameStop finally launching Impulse, the fight against Steam is heating up. Valve recently pulled Crysis 2 from Steam, saying that the action was due to ‘business terms.’

EA remains steadfast in saying that they are not looking to block any of their titles from distribution platforms and that the Crysis 2 decision was “not an EA decision or the result of any action by EA.”

Neither Valve nor EA has commented on the Battlefield 3 distribution claims made by GameStop.

There's a shitload of Steam faithful here who are looking forward to having BF3 to play this year, and will shun MW3. I'm wondering how much this move will affect that sentiment.

I don't know about the rest of that, but fuck Impulse, Gamestop is the absolute worst way to go. Fuck Origin as well, though not quite as much. I could see myself getting it off of D2D maybe? Or retail? Actually, given this I'm probably just not going to get it anymore. I mean, I'll feel sad about it for about three minutes then I'll forget it exists. And no, I'm not going to get MW3 or whatever instead, I'll just spend it on something else deserving.

Since around DA2 EA has been on a stupid trip or something, did they change CEOs or something around that time?

mere_immortal · July 2011

Lepwave wrote:

Shadowfire wrote:

I've seen some rumors posted, but hadn't seen this in the thread.

Battlefield 3 Won't Appear on Steam, Says Gamestop.
The latest news between Electronic Arts and Valve now has it that Battlefield 3 will not be making an appearance on the Steam platform. Retail giant, GameStop, now says that the publisher will not be pushing Battlefield 3 out on Steam but will be pursuing Impulse.

Financial researchers are intrigued by the news, saying that “Given Steam's dominance – and insistence on users downloading a Steam client application – publishers are likely to be receptive to a competitive alternative.” The statements come from research firm Baird, who recently held a meeting with GameStop.

With EA working on launching Origin, a digital distribution platform, and GameStop finally launching Impulse, the fight against Steam is heating up. Valve recently pulled Crysis 2 from Steam, saying that the action was due to ‘business terms.’

EA remains steadfast in saying that they are not looking to block any of their titles from distribution platforms and that the Crysis 2 decision was “not an EA decision or the result of any action by EA.”

Neither Valve nor EA has commented on the Battlefield 3 distribution claims made by GameStop.

There's a shitload of Steam faithful here who are looking forward to having BF3 to play this year, and will shun MW3. I'm wondering how much this move will affect that sentiment.

EA would be cutting off a fairly large chunk of PC sales if this were true.

Don't be silly, the lack of sales will obviously be due to piracy.

Peewi · July 2011

Shadowfire wrote:

I've seen some rumors posted, but hadn't seen this in the thread.

Battlefield 3 Won't Appear on Steam, Says Gamestop.
Article

There's a shitload of Steam faithful here who are looking forward to having BF3 to play this year, and will shun MW3. I'm wondering how much this move will affect that sentiment.

Why would EA even say to Gamestop what services BF3 is going to be on?

Valve recently pulled Crysis 2 from Steam, saying that the action was due to ‘business terms.’

Either this is poorly phrased or the bolded part is new to me. I'm pretty sure it's EA and not Valve that has said it's due to business term. As far as I know, Valve still haven't said anything about it at all.

I'm sure BF3 will be great, but personally I'm not hyped for it at all and it not being on Steam will probably make me skip it.

Sigtyr · July 2011

I pity anyone dumb enough to download this game off Origin.

Steam allows pre-downloading for a reason. Having everyone download the same game on the exact same day is a recipe for disaster.

amnesiasoft · July 2011

Because, you know, the majority of games with pre-orders on Steam allow pre-loading...

...oh wait...

Shadowfire · July 2011

Peewi wrote:

Shadowfire wrote:

I've seen some rumors posted, but hadn't seen this in the thread.

Battlefield 3 Won't Appear on Steam, Says Gamestop.
Article

There's a shitload of Steam faithful here who are looking forward to having BF3 to play this year, and will shun MW3. I'm wondering how much this move will affect that sentiment.

Why would EA even say to Gamestop what services BF3 is going to be on?

Perhaps Gamestop has an exclusive deal with EA, so Gamestop is talking it up? I mean, we don't know, but that's the likely explanation.

Rorus Raz · July 2011

This really sucks becauss BF3's looks to have way better PC support than most titles these days. No Steam will be a nasty chunk outta sales, and could deep-six future effort into PC versions.

Peewi · July 2011

Shadowfire wrote:

Perhaps Gamestop has an exclusive deal with EA, so Gamestop is talking it up? I mean, we don't know, but that's the likely explanation.

But they don't. There was also a page that listed a whole bunch of services BF3 would be on.

Penny Arcade

Video Game Industry Thread: June-July is done, go to the next thread

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