I don't know that we can say that RE: UC sold entirely on name alone. It's also unique among rail shooter games in that it really seems to have been designed for the home console. Just look at how much longer it is compared to the average rail shooter.
Given the massive marketing push EA gave Dead Space, including a goddamn animated feature, it's absolutely baffling they didn't try to continue their media blitz with Extraction.
Or maybe they realized their efforts didn't pay off on the original game, said "fuck it" and released the Wii game anyway just to try to recoup some of the development costs.
40 people showed up at my Gamestop for the Borderlands midnight launch. Remember how I speculated that either 2K has high expectations or that the game sold a bunch of preorders?
"Yeah dude, forty people showed up. Two bought Borderlands and another guy bought Fifa."
I really want Dead Space Extraction. In fact, I kind of wish I had held off on Overkill and had waited for that instead, but I'm also in the cross-section of people who 1) Played and loved the original Dead Space, 2) Own both a Wii and a 360, and 3) Like rail-gun games enough that I'd buy another one after the wave of earlier light-gun games.
There are a crazy number of factors at play, but a complete dearth of marketing on pretty much any Wii game not from Nintendo is a major reason why none of these games sell. There's sparse marketing of DS titles too, now that I think about it, but the DS audience has somehow been trained to appreciate a diverse lineup and seek out info on their own.
From my own experience, Microsoft takes a very vested interest in pushing both first- and third-party games into the media spotlight, and I think it's something Nintendo should learn from if it has any interest in creating a healthy environment for third-party games to flourish ... assuming that's something they want and it's not too late in the generation, two assumptions that I don't feel completely comfortable making.
One thing I would suggest is that this kind of leads some places to lower the marketing budget if the title itself wasn't expensive to make. It's a weird sort of correlation. The kind of thing that spirals HD development costs out of control is the same thing that reigns budgets in for more cheaply produced titles.
I think some companies just simply believe that anything that was cheap to make will be viewed as not having much value by the consumer and therefore they shouldn't spend any money hyping a cheap game. Also, nobody wants to go out on a limb and suggest that marketing budgets for a cheap to make game should be very high. The Bottom Line is still King with many.
What makes it worse is when you see companies spell a gazillion dollars to market a game that really doesn't need the hype (GTA pops to mind) but won't spend much on a game that could really use the push (pick your favourite 'niche' title here).
That's probably it—I would wager that in general industry terms, marketing is a set percentage of the total budget of the project. Spending more than 15 or 20 percent or whatever of the total budget on marketing is probably lunacy and will get your boss yelling at you to rein in costs.
40 people showed up at my Gamestop for the Borderlands midnight launch. Remember how I speculated that either 2K has high expectations or that the game sold a bunch of preorders?
"Yeah dude, forty people showed up. Two bought Borderlands and another guy bought Fifa."
.facepalm
Uh, what were the other 37 people doing, then?
Dehumanized on
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Brainiac 8Don't call me Shirley...Registered Userregular
I don't know why everyone seems to give DS: E so much credit. It's not an awful game, but it is definitely not worth anywhere near its 85% on GameFAQs.
- The main storyline is pretty short and has a disappointing, deflated ending.
- The lighting makes the game extremely difficult to play at some points.
- The audio is mixed terribly and the dialogue sounds like it was recorded in a closet.
- It's riddled with frustrating glitches and bugs, like turning away from enemies or facing into corners for no reason.
- Besides the boss on chapter 9, the game is a total cakewalk on every difficulty.
- Theres pretty much no reason to complete the challenge modes or replay the main storyline because, as far as I can tell, there aren't any unlockable features.
- The motion comics are way more compressed than they probably need to be. Baked in, off center letter boxing is a personal pet peeve of mine.
At $60 this game was a poor decision on my part. I was hoping that I'd at least match the 30+ hours I put into Umbrella Chronicles, but now that I've played through the main storyline and gotten pretty much everything there is to get I don't see much of a reason for me to take this off the shelf. Considering how much I loved the original this was a big let down.
40 people showed up at my Gamestop for the Borderlands midnight launch. Remember how I speculated that either 2K has high expectations or that the game sold a bunch of preorders?
"Yeah dude, forty people showed up. Two bought Borderlands and another guy bought Fifa."
I still don't get why no one makes another RE4 style game on the Wii. A port sold over 1.5 million and yet no one tries to repeat that success. They all make lightgun games.
Rakai on
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]XBL: Rakayn | PS3: Rakayn | Steam ID
I still don't get why no one makes another RE4 style game on the Wii. A port sold over 1.5 million and yet no one tries to repeat that success. They all make lightgun games.
Ah, but Rakai, you're not thinking like a proper third party.
Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition wasn't a "resi4 style game." It was a Gamecube port! Therefore, any smart third party should know that the best way to succeed on Wii is to port gamecube games and shoehorn in that waggle!
Which they did. Therefor, they attempted to follow RE4WE's model indeed!
Then when RE:UC sold well they tried to copy that too! It's a rail shooter with some cool story elements and horror elements, so let's copy that!
I mean, if resident evil sells well, then surely my game that attempts to duplicate it will sell well too, eh?
That actually sounds contradictory. One that would fail because it would just be a hasty Gamecube port with tacked-on waggle, rather than imitating RE4's style of gameplay, the other that would fail because it imitated RE:UC's gameplay style.
darleysam on
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Brainiac 8Don't call me Shirley...Registered Userregular
- Sin & Punishment 2 (8/8/8/7, 31 points): "The game's remarkably compatible with the Wii remote. Aiming takes a while to get used to, but I couldn't imagine playing any other way by now."
Yadda yadda Famitsu sucks and all....but this is a pretty decent score. It's around what I figured the game would get, I really can't wait till it hits our shores.
- Sin & Punishment 2 (8/8/8/7, 31 points): "The game's remarkably compatible with the Wii remote. Aiming takes a while to get used to, but I couldn't imagine playing any other way by now."
Yadda yadda Famitsu sucks and all....but this is a pretty decent score. It's around what I figured the game would get, I really can't wait till it hits our shores.
That score pretty much translates to "we expect this game to sell decently to people who remember the first game." Wake me up when someone actually reviews the game itself.
That actually sounds contradictory. One that would fail because it would just be a hasty Gamecube port with tacked-on waggle, rather than imitating RE4's style of gameplay, the other that would fail because it imitated RE:UC's gameplay style.
tbh, I was just joking around.
But i'll respond to this anyway because it's valid discussion:
You've got it backwards. Games don't fail because they imitate RE:UC's gameplay; rather, RE:UC succeeded as well as it did because it was "Resident Evil." Would it have failed without the REsident Evil name? Maybe, maybe not. But the reason it was a million+ seller is because it was "Resident Evil." Do you agree with that at all?
Without that huge mainstream name, RE:UC would have likely done about as well as any other rail shooter, at best. Publishers like Sega understand the rail shooter market and plan for moderate (ie not million+ sales) accordingly, and succeed. They know how niche the market is and keep their budgets and expectations in line accordingly.
They don't just take some relatively fresh franchise that sold mediocre on a couple of platforms then expect it to sell as well as an established, well known, major mainstream and already-extremely-popular franchise. But that's what EA did.
And so while we don't know what EA was expecting per se, assuming they were expecting REUC sales, this was a mistake because "Dead Space" doesn't have nearly the sway that "REsident Evil:" does.
To say that third parties flunk because they "imitate REUC" is making the logical fallacy that REUC succeeded as well as it did only because of its gameplay and ignores how much it succeeded because of its name.
I still don't get why no one makes another RE4 style game on the Wii. A port sold over 1.5 million and yet no one tries to repeat that success. They all make lightgun games.
Ah, but Rakai, you're not thinking like a proper third party.
Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition wasn't a "resi4 style game." It was a Gamecube port! Therefore, any smart third party should know that the best way to succeed on Wii is to port gamecube games and shoehorn in that waggle!
Which they did. Therefor, they attempted to follow RE4WE's model indeed!
Then when RE:UC sold well they tried to copy that too! It's a rail shooter with some cool story elements and horror elements, so let's copy that!
I mean, if resident evil sells well, then surely my game that attempts to duplicate it will sell well too, eh?
To be fair, I would posit that RE4 Wii sold well primarily because it's goddamned RE4. Even twice baked over, it's still better than a large chunk of games from this gen and last; the new controls make it even more delicious.
A lot of people say that any good RE4-styled game would still sell just as well on Wii, and I agree that a version of RE5 would have been a no-brainer to sell at least a million, but I don't know if that style of game without the RE brand—and specifically, the halo effect of RE4—would do nearly as well.
But this does kind of highlight why the whole test-game scenario—and if you're really feeling cynical, any sort of voting with your wallet in general—is bullshit. The parties who are proctoring these tests will twist the results any which way they want, so you can't really win, and you can't specifically tell someone "I'm not buying this game because of X, Y or Z."
I still don't get why no one makes another RE4 style game on the Wii. A port sold over 1.5 million and yet no one tries to repeat that success. They all make lightgun games.
Ah, but Rakai, you're not thinking like a proper third party.
Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition wasn't a "resi4 style game." It was a Gamecube port! Therefore, any smart third party should know that the best way to succeed on Wii is to port gamecube games and shoehorn in that waggle!
Which they did. Therefor, they attempted to follow RE4WE's model indeed!
Then when RE:UC sold well they tried to copy that too! It's a rail shooter with some cool story elements and horror elements, so let's copy that!
I mean, if resident evil sells well, then surely my game that attempts to duplicate it will sell well too, eh?
To be fair, I would posit that RE4 Wii sold well primarily because it's goddamned RE4.
That's exactly what I'm saying
Third parties ignored that fact
Just like they ignored the fact that REUC sold because its goddamn Resident Evil.
to be honest, I don't think RE4We was the main reason some parties waggleported GCN games. I think they did so mostly because it was quick and easy and an attempt at a cash-grab at the new and growing Wii crowd more than anything else.
40 people showed up at my Gamestop for the Borderlands midnight launch. Remember how I speculated that either 2K has high expectations or that the game sold a bunch of preorders?
"Yeah dude, forty people showed up. Two bought Borderlands and another guy bought Fifa."
.facepalm
Uh, what were the other 37 people doing, then?
Buying Dead Space: Extraction.
Hang out.
Because there's nothing to do in this town.
I got locked into the Gamestop when the Wii launched because two groups of highschoolers from different schools started a little gang fight out front because "B Town is our turf".
And the goober at the counter wanted to know why I skipped the midnight launch.
I'd like to see some kinda side by side by side thing with Extraction, HotD, and RE.
Sheep on
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Brainiac 8Don't call me Shirley...Registered Userregular
- Sin & Punishment 2 (8/8/8/7, 31 points): "The game's remarkably compatible with the Wii remote. Aiming takes a while to get used to, but I couldn't imagine playing any other way by now."
Yadda yadda Famitsu sucks and all....but this is a pretty decent score. It's around what I figured the game would get, I really can't wait till it hits our shores.
That score pretty much translates to "we expect this game to sell decently to people who remember the first game." Wake me up when someone actually reviews the game itself.
Was this not a review of the game itself?
Like I said, it's not much to go on, but I also am looking forward to seeing reviews of the game over here when the actual release starts happening.
TBH I was joking about third party mentality anyway. Yes, some third parties waggleported GCN games. But maybe it was and maybe it didnt have anything to do with RE4WE. probably it had more to do with trying to make a quick buck than anything to do per se with RE4WE.
However, EA may have tried to replicate REUC's success by trying to imitate its style and genre. IF they did this, with this mentality, they made the mistake of ignoring REUC's biggest factor in selling over a million copies - the Resident Evil name.
Let's not forget, either, that we only have data on 2 or 3 days of sales on Dead Space Ex, and we Don't know EA's expectations. Surely it won't hit REUC numbers for obvious reasons, but it will be interesting to see how well it does manage to do compared to other rail shooters on the system.
Brainiac 8Don't call me Shirley...Registered Userregular
edited October 2009
RE: Dead Space Extraction...
“Electronic Arts didn’t market Dead Space Extraction as much as it does with other titles. And the success or failure of a Wii title usually correlates directly to marketing spend. If Electronic Arts spent little on marketing, I am sure the sell through was no surprise to them. So I do not believe sell through was a disappointment to EA. Given Wii games tend to have a flatter sales curve, I don’t think 20,000 plus units is out of the question for October and maybe we get a holiday bump in November and December. Most games have a 12 to 24 month development schedule and over a year ago the industry was under the assumption that mature-rated games could succeed on the Wii. Unfortunately, as we progressed and witnessed the sales results from games such as MadWorld, it became pretty clear the market size for games with mature-content was extremely small, much smaller than any other home platform. The truth is most core gamers who gravitate towards mature content likely own more than just a Wii.” - EEDAR analyst Jesse Divnich
- Sin & Punishment 2 (8/8/8/7, 31 points): "The game's remarkably compatible with the Wii remote. Aiming takes a while to get used to, but I couldn't imagine playing any other way by now."
Yadda yadda Famitsu sucks and all....but this is a pretty decent score. It's around what I figured the game would get, I really can't wait till it hits our shores.
That score pretty much translates to "we expect this game to sell decently to people who remember the first game." Wake me up when someone actually reviews the game itself.
Was this not a review of the game itself?
Like I said, it's not much to go on, but I also am looking forward to seeing reviews of the game over here when the actual release starts happening.
It's a review of a game in that there is a number attached to a game, yes. But the editors at Famitsu decide on which number to use based on how popular they think the game will be with the buying public, and they'll cheerfully admit this over drinks.
In other words, Famitsu reviews are utterly, utterly meaningless.
cloudeagle on
Switch: 3947-4890-9293
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Brainiac 8Don't call me Shirley...Registered Userregular
- Sin & Punishment 2 (8/8/8/7, 31 points): "The game's remarkably compatible with the Wii remote. Aiming takes a while to get used to, but I couldn't imagine playing any other way by now."
Yadda yadda Famitsu sucks and all....but this is a pretty decent score. It's around what I figured the game would get, I really can't wait till it hits our shores.
That score pretty much translates to "we expect this game to sell decently to people who remember the first game." Wake me up when someone actually reviews the game itself.
Was this not a review of the game itself?
Like I said, it's not much to go on, but I also am looking forward to seeing reviews of the game over here when the actual release starts happening.
It's a review of a game in that there is a number attached to a game, yes. But the editors at Famitsu decide on which number to use based on how popular they think the game will be with the buying public, and they'll cheerfully admit this over drinks.
In other words, Famitsu reviews are utterly, utterly meaningless.
Oh ok, gottcha. I just posted it as it was the first review type thing for the game that I've found.
I'm taking in what I can for this game....I so loved the first one. :P
Don't get me wrong, I'm with you on this. The game could well be extremely groovy and I'm curious to hear what people think of it too.
On top of that, the fact that Nintendo is spending the money to localize this game based purely on the fact that the first one sold well on the VC is all kinds of impressive. Nintendo usually doesn't take these kinds of chances on games such as this. *stares hard and angrily at Another Code R* :x
A lot of people say that any good RE4-styled game would still sell just as well on Wii, and I agree that a version of RE5 would have been a no-brainer to sell at least a million, but I don't know if that style of game without the RE brand—and specifically, the halo effect of RE4—would do nearly as well.
To which we ask 'How well did Dead Rising do in this case?'
A lot of people say that any good RE4-styled game would still sell just as well on Wii, and I agree that a version of RE5 would have been a no-brainer to sell at least a million, but I don't know if that style of game without the RE brand—and specifically, the halo effect of RE4—would do nearly as well.
To which we ask 'How well did Dead Rising do in this case?'
Despite launching on four platforms and over a week earlier, Activision Blizzard's Guitar Hero 5 only sold 499,000 units through 3 October. Again the Xbox 360 was the lead platform with 42% of the total units while the PlayStation 3 version claimed 21%. The PlayStation 2 version and Wii collectively accounted for the remaining 37%, although precise figures were not made available to us by the NPD Group.
...
For some perspective, the software category as a whole is behind by $720 million compared to the first three quarters of 2008. That is, the revenue drop in the Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchises accounts for more than half of the drop in revenue across all software from 2008 to 2009.
The one part of the business that we cannot see directly is the revenue that comes in from the sale of songs and song packs through each game's online store. At the moment Rock Band has the larger catalog of songs and has recently touted over 60 million downloads since the launch of the first Rock Band.
Even at $2 per song, the additional $120 million in revenue over the last two years doesn't come close to offsetting the drop in retail revenue just in 2009.
...
...
According to exclusive data provided to Gamasutra by the NPD Group, Microsoft's Xbox 360 has improved its tie ratio to 8.8 titles per system as of September 2009, up from 8.6 titles per system three months ago. The Nintendo Wii's tie ratio also increased in that period, from 6.4 to 6.5 titles per system.
Only the PlayStation 3 held its tie ratio essentially constant in the last quarter. According to NPD Group data 6.8 titles have been sold for each system. The tie ratio for the PS3 may remain constant, or even decline, as its hardware sales pick up and a commensurate jump in software sales lags a month or more behind.
Note that these figures are for software sold at retail only. Software sold on each system's online storefront are not included in NPD Group retail figures, although the firm does separately track such sales. Those figures are not publicly available.
...
As the graph below shows, both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 have seen about 20% growth in software unit sales over the first three quarters of 2008. During the same period, however, Wii software sales have been flat. Even though Wii software sales are still higher than either of the other platforms, there is clearly something amiss.
One possibility is that Wii software sales were extraordinarily high during the first three quarters of 2008. Certainly Nintendo's first-party software dominated during that period with titles like Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Mario Kart Wii, and Wii Fit launching while Wii Play continued to appear in the all-format top 10 software chart month after month.
However, a closer look at the underlying figures suggests that Wii software sales really have slowed down throughout 2009, precisely in the period during which Wii hardware sales have also shown declines. It is also notable that Nintendo has not had a truly big first-party software release on the Wii this year.
Even with the price cut stimulating hardware sales and New Super Mario Bros. Wii, due out in November, it will probably be quite difficult for Nintendo to demonstrate growth of software for the year. According to our figures, over 36 million units of Wii software were sold in just the fourth quarter of 2008.
...
We estimate that in the U.S. the average PS3 and Xbox 360 Call of Duty: World at War consumer has paid approximately $65 for the game. This takes into account the PS3 and Xbox 360 consumers who bought only the game along with those who bought one or more map packs. In effect, the DLC sales have increased the revenue per software unit by 15%.
There are several assumptions we've made along the way. First, we have neglected Windows PC sales of Call of Duty: World at War. While the retail sales figures we have cited did not include that version of the game, it is not perfectly clear whether those figures were included in the map pack download totals that Activision Blizzard publicized. We don't believe so, but cannot be positive.
GH5 360: 210.8k
GH5 PS3: 105k
GH5 Wii+PS2: 183.2k
Here's a fun stat: the average price of the was $218 in Sept. NPD. The Wii was at $200 for only one of the five weeks. That breaks down to 41.67k per week for the 4 weeks before the price drop (166.7k total) and 296.12k the week after the price drop.
A lot of people say that any good RE4-styled game would still sell just as well on Wii, and I agree that a version of RE5 would have been a no-brainer to sell at least a million, but I don't know if that style of game without the RE brand—and specifically, the halo effect of RE4—would do nearly as well.
To which we ask 'How well did Dead Rising do in this case?'
Capcom pleads the fifth.
Am I missing a joke? Incriminate them how? For assuming the same damned thing that every other 'let's put it on the Wii and we'll make bank' developer has done?
A lot of people say that any good RE4-styled game would still sell just as well on Wii, and I agree that a version of RE5 would have been a no-brainer to sell at least a million, but I don't know if that style of game without the RE brand—and specifically, the halo effect of RE4—would do nearly as well.
To which we ask 'How well did Dead Rising do in this case?'
Most Wii third party efforts can be divided into a few categories:
1. spinoffs or versions of games on the 360/PS3. You can get a shittier version of the game originally on the 360/PS3 or you can buy a much better game that isn't shittier on the Wii than elsewhere (even if it is just because it is a Wii exclusive).
2. they barely tried either at a basic level like making it not suck or a marketing level
3. the "wait, why the fuck did you expect it to do differently" category
Hm. Just curious, how does this month's performance of Beatles Rock Band and GH5 across all platforms compare to the first month of release for Rock Band 2 and GH4 across all platforms?
I tried to look at the video game sales wiki, but that site gave me pop-ups insisting I needed to download some virus scanner I've never heard of. Bah.
cloudeagle on
Switch: 3947-4890-9293
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Brainiac 8Don't call me Shirley...Registered Userregular
A lot of people say that any good RE4-styled game would still sell just as well on Wii, and I agree that a version of RE5 would have been a no-brainer to sell at least a million, but I don't know if that style of game without the RE brand—and specifically, the halo effect of RE4—would do nearly as well.
To which we ask 'How well did Dead Rising do in this case?'
Capcom pleads the fifth.
Am I missing a joke? Incriminate them how? For assuming the same damned thing that every other 'let's put it on the Wii and we'll make bank' developer has done?
Yea, it was a lame joke, but Dead Rising Wii was a joke of a port and the posterchild for why throwing a popular game/franchise on the Wii to make a quick buck just doesn't work as well as maybe it does on a chalk board.
A lot of people say that any good RE4-styled game would still sell just as well on Wii, and I agree that a version of RE5 would have been a no-brainer to sell at least a million, but I don't know if that style of game without the RE brand—and specifically, the halo effect of RE4—would do nearly as well.
To which we ask 'How well did Dead Rising do in this case?'
Capcom pleads the fifth.
Am I missing a joke? Incriminate them how? For assuming the same damned thing that every other 'let's put it on the Wii and we'll make bank' developer has done?
Yea, it was a lame joke, but Dead Rising Wii was a joke of a port and the posterchild for why throwing a popular game/franchise on the Wii to make a quick buck just doesn't work as well as maybe it does on a chalk board.
Maybe after we finally kill that meme, we can work on 'only Nintendo games do well on the Wii'. It's a pipe dream, I admit, but it sure would be nice.
It looks like Borderlands, well-received by critics, is having trouble getting received at all by some potential purchasers, with retail shortages being reported in the US. Canada is also dealing with supply issues, possibly as the result of the game's $40 price tag in the region.
Gearbox's Steve Gibson has contacted Joystiq regarding the matter, noting that the shortage is mostly limited to the Xbox 360 version, particularly on the east coast. Gibson states that Gearbox is "working with production and distribution at ramping up to catch up with demand," adding that fresh copies should hit "as early as Thursday or Friday."
Meanwhile, the PS3 version has run into supply problems on the west coast, but Gibson says these "are mostly regional and can be addressed by reallocation." Gibson notes that this should happen "quickly."
So, how about it? Have you had trouble snagging a copy of Borderlands?
To get enough copies out to meet demand.
darleysam on
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Brainiac 8Don't call me Shirley...Registered Userregular
edited October 2009
Pachter on Music games:
“We expected far higher sales for the month, as we succumbed to much of the hype surrounding the relatively high-profile launches of The Beatles: Rock Band and Guitar Hero 5. We had expected the former to sell 1.3 million units, and thought that sales of the disc would drive sales of older Rock Band bundles; instead, the game sold fewer than half our estimate, and overall sales came in at $73 million, well below our $140 million estimate. Similarly, we thought that the giveaway of a voucher for Guitar Hero Van Halen would have great appeal, and would drive Guitar Hero 5 sales. The game sold fewer than our 700,000 unit estimate, and overall Guitar Hero sales were only $43 million, well below our $75 million unit estimate." - Wedbush analyst, Michael Pachter
“We expected far higher sales for the month, as we succumbed to much of the hype surrounding the relatively high-profile launches of The Beatles: Rock Band and Guitar Hero 5. We had expected the former to sell 1.3 million units, and thought that sales of the disc would drive sales of older Rock Band bundles; instead, the game sold fewer than half our estimate, and overall sales came in at $73 million, well below our $140 million estimate. Similarly, we thought that the giveaway of a voucher for Guitar Hero Van Halen would have great appeal, and would drive Guitar Hero 5 sales. The game sold fewer than our 700,000 unit estimate, and overall Guitar Hero sales were only $43 million, well below our $75 million unit estimate." - Wedbush analyst, Michael Pachter
/facepalm
Couscous on
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Brainiac 8Don't call me Shirley...Registered Userregular
“We expected far higher sales for the month, as we succumbed to much of the hype surrounding the relatively high-profile launches of The Beatles: Rock Band and Guitar Hero 5. We had expected the former to sell 1.3 million units, and thought that sales of the disc would drive sales of older Rock Band bundles; instead, the game sold fewer than half our estimate, and overall sales came in at $73 million, well below our $140 million estimate. Similarly, we thought that the giveaway of a voucher for Guitar Hero Van Halen would have great appeal, and would drive Guitar Hero 5 sales. The game sold fewer than our 700,000 unit estimate, and overall Guitar Hero sales were only $43 million, well below our $75 million unit estimate." - Wedbush analyst, Michael Pachter
/facepalm
He really needs to stop lurking at gaf, I swear it's making him look more and more silly.
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Or maybe they realized their efforts didn't pay off on the original game, said "fuck it" and released the Wii game anyway just to try to recoup some of the development costs.
So what were the other 37 people there for?
That's probably it—I would wager that in general industry terms, marketing is a set percentage of the total budget of the project. Spending more than 15 or 20 percent or whatever of the total budget on marketing is probably lunacy and will get your boss yelling at you to rein in costs.
Uh, what were the other 37 people doing, then?
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- The main storyline is pretty short and has a disappointing, deflated ending.
- The lighting makes the game extremely difficult to play at some points.
- The audio is mixed terribly and the dialogue sounds like it was recorded in a closet.
- It's riddled with frustrating glitches and bugs, like turning away from enemies or facing into corners for no reason.
- Besides the boss on chapter 9, the game is a total cakewalk on every difficulty.
- Theres pretty much no reason to complete the challenge modes or replay the main storyline because, as far as I can tell, there aren't any unlockable features.
- The motion comics are way more compressed than they probably need to be. Baked in, off center letter boxing is a personal pet peeve of mine.
At $60 this game was a poor decision on my part. I was hoping that I'd at least match the 30+ hours I put into Umbrella Chronicles, but now that I've played through the main storyline and gotten pretty much everything there is to get I don't see much of a reason for me to take this off the shelf. Considering how much I loved the original this was a big let down.
Buying Dead Space: Extraction.
Steam ID: slashx000______Twitter: @bill_at_zeboyd______ Facebook: Zeboyd Games
It means no Boy and his Blob, TMNT: Smash Up, or Marvel UA2 this year.
I'm a sad broke panda.
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I know,I was just being picky. And I agree. $50 is too much to ask for this good yet short game with not much replay / lasting value.
Even as a rail shooter fan I bought it in the B2G1 Free deal at TRU.
edit: I didn't have any glitches while playing though.
Steam ID: slashx000______Twitter: @bill_at_zeboyd______ Facebook: Zeboyd Games
Ah, but Rakai, you're not thinking like a proper third party.
Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition wasn't a "resi4 style game." It was a Gamecube port! Therefore, any smart third party should know that the best way to succeed on Wii is to port gamecube games and shoehorn in that waggle!
Which they did. Therefor, they attempted to follow RE4WE's model indeed!
Then when RE:UC sold well they tried to copy that too! It's a rail shooter with some cool story elements and horror elements, so let's copy that!
I mean, if resident evil sells well, then surely my game that attempts to duplicate it will sell well too, eh?
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Yadda yadda Famitsu sucks and all....but this is a pretty decent score. It's around what I figured the game would get, I really can't wait till it hits our shores.
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That score pretty much translates to "we expect this game to sell decently to people who remember the first game." Wake me up when someone actually reviews the game itself.
tbh, I was just joking around.
But i'll respond to this anyway because it's valid discussion:
You've got it backwards. Games don't fail because they imitate RE:UC's gameplay; rather, RE:UC succeeded as well as it did because it was "Resident Evil." Would it have failed without the REsident Evil name? Maybe, maybe not. But the reason it was a million+ seller is because it was "Resident Evil." Do you agree with that at all?
Without that huge mainstream name, RE:UC would have likely done about as well as any other rail shooter, at best. Publishers like Sega understand the rail shooter market and plan for moderate (ie not million+ sales) accordingly, and succeed. They know how niche the market is and keep their budgets and expectations in line accordingly.
They don't just take some relatively fresh franchise that sold mediocre on a couple of platforms then expect it to sell as well as an established, well known, major mainstream and already-extremely-popular franchise. But that's what EA did.
And so while we don't know what EA was expecting per se, assuming they were expecting REUC sales, this was a mistake because "Dead Space" doesn't have nearly the sway that "REsident Evil:" does.
To say that third parties flunk because they "imitate REUC" is making the logical fallacy that REUC succeeded as well as it did only because of its gameplay and ignores how much it succeeded because of its name.
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To be fair, I would posit that RE4 Wii sold well primarily because it's goddamned RE4. Even twice baked over, it's still better than a large chunk of games from this gen and last; the new controls make it even more delicious.
A lot of people say that any good RE4-styled game would still sell just as well on Wii, and I agree that a version of RE5 would have been a no-brainer to sell at least a million, but I don't know if that style of game without the RE brand—and specifically, the halo effect of RE4—would do nearly as well.
But this does kind of highlight why the whole test-game scenario—and if you're really feeling cynical, any sort of voting with your wallet in general—is bullshit. The parties who are proctoring these tests will twist the results any which way they want, so you can't really win, and you can't specifically tell someone "I'm not buying this game because of X, Y or Z."
That's exactly what I'm saying
Third parties ignored that fact
Just like they ignored the fact that REUC sold because its goddamn Resident Evil.
to be honest, I don't think RE4We was the main reason some parties waggleported GCN games. I think they did so mostly because it was quick and easy and an attempt at a cash-grab at the new and growing Wii crowd more than anything else.
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Hang out.
Because there's nothing to do in this town.
I got locked into the Gamestop when the Wii launched because two groups of highschoolers from different schools started a little gang fight out front because "B Town is our turf".
And the goober at the counter wanted to know why I skipped the midnight launch.
I'd like to see some kinda side by side by side thing with Extraction, HotD, and RE.
Was this not a review of the game itself?
Like I said, it's not much to go on, but I also am looking forward to seeing reviews of the game over here when the actual release starts happening.
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However, EA may have tried to replicate REUC's success by trying to imitate its style and genre. IF they did this, with this mentality, they made the mistake of ignoring REUC's biggest factor in selling over a million copies - the Resident Evil name.
Let's not forget, either, that we only have data on 2 or 3 days of sales on Dead Space Ex, and we Don't know EA's expectations. Surely it won't hit REUC numbers for obvious reasons, but it will be interesting to see how well it does manage to do compared to other rail shooters on the system.
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It's a review of a game in that there is a number attached to a game, yes. But the editors at Famitsu decide on which number to use based on how popular they think the game will be with the buying public, and they'll cheerfully admit this over drinks.
In other words, Famitsu reviews are utterly, utterly meaningless.
Oh ok, gottcha. I just posted it as it was the first review type thing for the game that I've found.
I'm taking in what I can for this game....I so loved the first one. :P
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On top of that, the fact that Nintendo is spending the money to localize this game based purely on the fact that the first one sold well on the VC is all kinds of impressive. Nintendo usually doesn't take these kinds of chances on games such as this. *stares hard and angrily at Another Code R* :x
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To which we ask 'How well did Dead Rising do in this case?'
Capcom pleads the fifth.
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http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4172/npd_behind_the_numbers_september_.php
GH5 360: 210.8k
GH5 PS3: 105k
GH5 Wii+PS2: 183.2k
Here's a fun stat: the average price of the was $218 in Sept. NPD. The Wii was at $200 for only one of the five weeks. That breaks down to 41.67k per week for the 4 weeks before the price drop (166.7k total) and 296.12k the week after the price drop.
Am I missing a joke? Incriminate them how? For assuming the same damned thing that every other 'let's put it on the Wii and we'll make bank' developer has done?
Most Wii third party efforts can be divided into a few categories:
1. spinoffs or versions of games on the 360/PS3. You can get a shittier version of the game originally on the 360/PS3 or you can buy a much better game that isn't shittier on the Wii than elsewhere (even if it is just because it is a Wii exclusive).
2. they barely tried either at a basic level like making it not suck or a marketing level
3. the "wait, why the fuck did you expect it to do differently" category
I tried to look at the video game sales wiki, but that site gave me pop-ups insisting I needed to download some virus scanner I've never heard of. Bah.
Yea, it was a lame joke, but Dead Rising Wii was a joke of a port and the posterchild for why throwing a popular game/franchise on the Wii to make a quick buck just doesn't work as well as maybe it does on a chalk board.
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Maybe after we finally kill that meme, we can work on 'only Nintendo games do well on the Wii'. It's a pipe dream, I admit, but it sure would be nice.
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BORDERLANDS AM FAIL!
To get enough copies out to meet demand.
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/facepalm
He really needs to stop lurking at gaf, I swear it's making him look more and more silly.
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