Video Game Industry Thread: January's done, use the next thread

cloudeagle

Hi! Welcome to the sales thread. Here we talk about how games have sold, marketing, PR comments, analysis of analysts and all kinds of other business-related stuff. Occasionally we make [strike]poop[/strike] pee jokes.

Here's a summary of what you missed since last time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMSHvgaUWc8

And now, December's info. Yes, game sales are combined across systems now. Yes, we aren't getting concrete console sales now. Yes, it sucks.

Wii - 2.36 million
360 - 1.86 million
PS3 - 1.21 million

Call of Duty: Black Ops** (360, PS3, Wii, NDS, PC) 1 ACTIVISION BLIZZARD
Just Dance 2 (Wii) 2 UBISOFT
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm** (PC) 3 ACTIVISION BLIZZARD --1.5 Million
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood** (360, PS3) 4 UBISOFT
Donkey Kong Country Returns (Wii) 5 NINTENDO
Disney Epic Mickey** (Wii) 6 DISNEY INTERACTIVE STUDIOS --1.32 Million
Madden NFL 11 (360, PS3, Wii, PS2, PSP) 7 ELECTRONIC ARTS
Michael Jackson The Experience** (Wii, NDS, PSP) 8 UBISOFT
NBA 2K11 (360, PS3, Wii, PSP, PS2, PC) 9 TAKE 2 INTERACTIVE
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (360, PS3, Wii, PC) 10 ELECTRONIC ARTS --906.4K

toxk_02 wrote: »

Single SKU Top 10:

01. Just Dance 2 (Wii)
02. World of Warcraft: Cataclysm (PC) - 1.5 Million
03. Donkey Kong Country Returns (Wii)
04. Disney Epic Mickey (Wii) - 1.32 Million
xx. Call of Duty: Black Ops (360)
xx. Assassin's Creed Brotherhood (360)
xx. Kinect Sports (360)
??
??
??

And the 2010 totals:

NDS - 8.56 million
WII - 7.07 million
360 - 6.76 million
PS3 - 4.33 million

Annual 2010 Top 10 Games (New Physical Retail only; across all platforms incl. PC) Rank Publisher
Call of Duty: Black Ops** (360, PS3, Wii, PC, NDS) 1 ACTIVISION BLIZZARD
Madden NFL 11 (360, PS3, Wii, PS2, PSP) 2 ELECTRONIC ARTS
Halo: Reach** (360) 3 MICROSOFT
New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Wii) 4 NINTENDO
Red Dead Redemption (360, PS3) 5 TAKE 2 INTERACTIVE
Wii Fit Plus** (Wii) 6 NINTENDO
Just Dance 2 (Wii) 7 UBISOFT
Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2** (360, PS3, PC) 8 ACTIVISION BLIZZARD
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood** (360, PS3) 9 UBISOFT
NBA 2K11 (360, PS3, PS2, PSP, Wii, PC) 10 TAKE 2 INTERACTIVE

Dr Mario Kart wrote: »

US Hardware Benchmarks:

PS2 - 25,720,000 (50 months) (Nov 2004)
PS2 - 30,932,000 (62 months) (Nov 2005)

Xbox - 14,064,000 (50 months) (Dec 2005)
Xbox - 14,354,000 (62 months) (Dec 2006)

GCN - 10,720,000 (50 months) (Dec 2005)
GCN - 11,460,000 (62 months) (Dec 2006)

PS3 - 15,458,700 (50 months) (Dec 2010)
Wii - 34,204,700 (50 months) (Dec 2010)
360 - 18,469,000 (50 months) (Dec 2009)
360 - 25,393,190 (62 months) (Dec 2010)

I've got all hardware going back to Nov 2001, which means I'm missing the first year and change of PS2 (Oct 2000). Both systems peaked in its 2nd full calendar year.

PS2             Wii
2002	8,420,000
2003	6,320,000
2004	4,630,000
2005	5,540,000
2006	4,700,000         1,080,000
2007	3,945,000         6,290,000
2008	2,503,000        10,171,000
2009	1,800,200         9,595,000
2010	 261,800*          7,069,900

*No PS2 data from Mar 2010 onward. Also, note the sharp year over year drops the PS2 suffered from its peak in 2002 to 2004. They are even sharper than the last 2 year over year drops for Wii. So the gap in the US at least, is still widening.

If Nintendo were following the PS2 handbook, they still have drops to $179, $149, $129 and $99 that can keep year over year declines limited to 10-20% for as many as 4-5 years.

Pata

On a scale of one to ten how doomed is the 3DS.

cloudeagle

Pata wrote: »

On a scale of one to ten how doomed is the 3DS.

My doomometer is picking up 42,000 millidooms, over 100 times the normal background doom.

fragglefart

Doomed to wild success!

NPD in 2 days?

Pata

I knew it.

Couscous

Ghosts 'n' Goblins NES was removed from the VC store.

It was not our decision to remove the game from the Virtual Console. Nintendo has a policy stating that if a game doesn't sell enough units they can remove it from their online service. This is the case with the NES version of the game. If you wish to see this game on the Virtual Console again I suggest you contact Nintendo and request come back.
CAPCOM Customer Support

Henroid

Nintendo's policies for online stuff continue to be baffling. I mean, on the one hand yeah if it doesn't sell well it doesn't sell well. But how much is it costing them to have it be available?

On other topics:

The urinal thing is just fucking weird. What the hell.

The stuff about Sony having remote control of your PS3 and access to it, isn't that old news? Or is this confirmation that they do indeed have the ability to just brick your ass out of a multi-hundred dollar investment? It's funny that, if Sony's Console Entertainment division were to go under they could just go out with a bang and brick everyone in the world. And scary. This is what Joe Lieberman wanted the USA to do with the internet. A kill switch.

SirUltimos

Couscous wrote: »

Ghosts 'n' Goblins NES was removed from the VC store.

It was not our decision to remove the game from the Virtual Console. Nintendo has a policy stating that if a game doesn't sell enough units they can remove it from their online service. This is the case with the NES version of the game. If you wish to see this game on the Virtual Console again I suggest you contact Nintendo and request come back.
CAPCOM Customer Support

Now that's just stupid.

Couscous

Now they just added it back.

Henroid

That didn't take long. Good on them I guess?

cloudeagle

That sure wasn't handled well.

Synthesis

Kind of surprised about the PS3 slowdown. Given the popularity of Move, and the relentless advertising campaign for it (that has seemed to have wound down since then).

cloudeagle

Synthesis wrote: »

Kind of surprised about the PS3 slowdown. Given the popularity of Move, and the relentless advertising campaign for it (that has seemed to have wound down since then).

...WHAT relentless advertising for Move? That's part of the problem.

I think it's more Microsoft managing to get people excited about Kinect, and Nintendo traditionally getting more of a boost during Christmas/smart use of bundles.

Couscous

Move games are performing poorly compared to the Kinect games in the UK despite the Kinect coming with a game while the Move just comes with some demos in the UK. I haven't seen anything suggesting the situation is different in the USA though the Move comes with a game here.

Henroid

Maybe Sony was hoping for viral stuff to happen with regard to advertising Move? Somehow? I'm trying to make sense of a plan. I've only ever seen the one commercial of whats-his-ass going into some people's home, and I haven't seen it in months.

Santa Claustrophobia

Henroid wrote: »

Nintendo's policies for online stuff continue to be baffling. I mean, on the one hand yeah if it doesn't sell well it doesn't sell well. But how much is it costing them to have it be available?

Keep this in mind:

HMX recently made available the final nine songs from RB2 as a free pack. Nintendo refused to allow it.

So apparently, it costs them a fucking fortune to host stuff.

Synthesis

cloudeagle wrote: »

Synthesis wrote: »

Kind of surprised about the PS3 slowdown. Given the popularity of Move, and the relentless advertising campaign for it (that has seemed to have wound down since then).

...WHAT relentless advertising for Move? That's part of the problem.

I think it's more Microsoft managing to get people excited about Kinect, and Nintendo traditionally getting more of a boost during Christmas/smart use of bundles.

Hey, a month ago, Move advertisements were fucking inescapable on cable where I lived.

Curiously enough, this was still a few weeks after it first came out. But every other time I looked at my TV, that fake vice president guy was wearing his Viking helmet and singing.

Pretty much always the same ad. I was glad when it ended.

Couscous

Santa Claustrophobia wrote: »

Henroid wrote: »

Nintendo's policies for online stuff continue to be baffling. I mean, on the one hand yeah if it doesn't sell well it doesn't sell well. But how much is it costing them to have it be available?

Keep this in mind:

HMX recently made available the final nine songs from RB2 as a free pack. Nintendo refused to allow it.

So apparently, it costs them a fucking fortune to host stuff.

It might just be a thing like MS where they force people to charge for shit.

cloudeagle

Henroid wrote: »

Maybe Sony was hoping for viral stuff to happen with regard to advertising Move? Somehow? I'm trying to make sense of a plan.

It's exactly the plan Sony's using to sell the PSP Go.

...to be fair they are shifting a fair amount of Moves, but not nearly as many systems or games as Kinect is, even accounting for Kinect's greater popularity. So what the hell are people using the big, long, shaftlike, throbbing Move for?

For the love of God, don't answer that.

Santa Claustrophobia

Couscous wrote: »

Santa Claustrophobia wrote: »

Henroid wrote: »

Nintendo's policies for online stuff continue to be baffling. I mean, on the one hand yeah if it doesn't sell well it doesn't sell well. But how much is it costing them to have it be available?

Keep this in mind:

HMX recently made available the final nine songs from RB2 as a free pack. Nintendo refused to allow it.

So apparently, it costs them a fucking fortune to host stuff.

It might just be a thing like MS where they force people to charge for shit.

Maybe. But MS doesn't always force that. They do for XNA shit, for sure.

Of course, part of the problem here is that the pack is 200MB and Nintendo probably also doesn't want a file that size being free. So there's no word if HMX will attempt to submit the songs individually.

Henroid

cloudeagle wrote: »

Henroid wrote: »

Maybe Sony was hoping for viral stuff to happen with regard to advertising Move? Somehow? I'm trying to make sense of a plan.

It's exactly the plan Sony's using to sell the PSP Go.

...to be fair they are shifting a fair amount of Moves, but not nearly as many systems or games as Kinect is, even accounting for Kinect's greater popularity. So what the hell are people using the big, long, shaftlike, throbbing Move for?

For the love of God, don't answer that.

On that note though, MS must be relieved that their huge advertising spend for Kinect is working in putting them over the competition. What was the amount they've allocated to advertising Kinect, again? I keep forgetting. But I'm sure there's more to come from that money.

I'm also kind of humored that Kinect is performing better than Move because of how vitriolic people on this forum have been toward Kinect. I've never -ever- touted it as being a great thing, I've only defended it from being the worst-thing-ever. Still waiting on hardcore gaming killer app that makes more devs give it a shot.

Brainiac 8

Generally Nintendo hasn't allowed any of the free packs to be available online whether it be Harmonix or Activision.

I wonder if it's due to a fault in their online infrastructure...or at least I would think that was it. Here's to hoping Nintendo has an overhaul in the works for the launch of the Wii2. From the looks of how they are handling the 3DS, I'm hoping that it's the case.

Santa Claustrophobia

Brainiac 8 wrote: »

Generally Nintendo hasn't allowed any of the free packs to be available online whether it be Harmonix or Activision.

I wonder if it's due to a fault in their online infrastructure...or at least I would think that was it. Here's to hoping Nintendo has an overhaul in the works for the launch of the Wii2. From the looks of how they are handling the 3DS, I'm hoping that it's the case.

Actually, now that I remember it, one of the HMX devs stated they were actually limited to the number of free content they can attempt to have. So I'm pretty sure nine individual songs would be too much and prevent other stuff, too. But like you suggest, I can't remember the last genuinely free thing for Rock Band that Nintendo allowed.

Henroid

Isn't part of their 3DS battlecry a reworking of their online structure for stuff?

Brainiac 8

Henroid wrote: »

Isn't part of their 3DS battlecry a reworking of their online structure for stuff?

It's what they're saying, and I hope it's true.

Jintor

So I'm hearing Japanese support confirmation for region locking on the Three Dee Ess.

Balls. What will I do when Ouendan 3 comes out?

Lorahalo

Region locking sucks.

Henroid

Unless Nintendo incentivizes porting more!

Ruins

So when do we find out the price/release date of the 3DS in NA? I'm out of the loop, if you can't tell.

Santa Claustrophobia

Henroid wrote: »

Unless Nintendo incentivizes porting more!

Let's just imagine that I put lots of 'hahaha' and leave it at that.

Jintor

Ruins wrote: »

So when do we find out the price/release date of the 3DS in NA? I'm out of the loop, if you can't tell.

Simultaneous events in New York/Amsterdam on the 19th of Jan, so most likely then.

Henroid

Santa Claustrophobia wrote: »

Henroid wrote: »

Unless Nintendo incentivizes porting more!

Let's just imagine that I put lots of 'hahaha' and leave it at that.

Don't worry, I was being facetious.

cloudeagle

Henroid wrote: »

What was the amount they've allocated to advertising Kinect, again? I keep forgetting.

A hundred billion zillion.

I'm not sure we actually got a number, but they said it's more than they spent during the 360's launch. So, a lot.

Santa Claustrophobia

cloudeagle wrote: »

Henroid wrote: »

What was the amount they've allocated to advertising Kinect, again? I keep forgetting.

A hundred billion zillion.

I'm not sure we actually got a number, but they said it's more than they spent during the 360's launch. So, a lot.

I'm remembering the number as either 50 or 500 million. I think it was 500 because everybody here went ballistic over how stupid it was.

Henroid

It definitely was some hundreds-of-millions, I just don't know how much exactly. We got the number though.

Darth_Mogs

Yeah, it was 500. Link

400 on Windows Phone 7 too, apparently.

cooljammer00

Are we talking about geohot and failoverflow getting sued for the PS3 thing yet?

Henroid

Darth_Mogs wrote: »

Yeah, it was 500. Link

400 on Windows Phone 7 too, apparently.

Holy shit, that's like karmic balance of the universe. Isn't the Windows Phone deal doing poorly relatively speaking? I don't pay attention to that market a whole lot, so this may just be angry-internet-guy talk I've heard.

Couscous

http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/11/sony-sues-geohot-fail0verflow-over-ps3-exploits/

We knew Sony would be non-plussed about the PlayStation 3 jailbreak, and now we have a better idea as to the full extent of its anger. The company has filed suit against George "Geohot" Hotz, the "hacking group" fail0verflow (Hector Cantero, Sven Peter, "Bushing," and "Segher"), and numerous John / Jane Does over the exploit and its release. To be more specific, the company cites violations of Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, various copyright infringements, and other acts of binary malfeasance. A temporary restraining order has also been sought, asking that all "circumvention tools" be taken offline and his computers and related media (i.e. anything storing said tools) be impounded. It looks like Geohot's servers are being slammed at the moment, so we've gone ahead and hosted the relevant PDFs ourselves below. We're still sifting through ourselves and will let you know what we unearth.

Sony to spend money in a lawsuit to accomplish nothing.

The Wolfman

Inevitable, but ultimately fruitless. A scare tactic, nothing more. I mean, I suppose they did have to drop the lawyer bomb to make it look like they're doing something so they could appease... someone. But nothing will happen. Sony certainly isn't going to succeed where Apple failed, after all.

Brainiac 8

http://www.joystiq.com/2011/01/11/super-street-fighter-4-3d-edition-will-support-online-multiplaye/

Fight fans looking for some portable pugilism take note: Super Street Fighter 4 3D Edition will have online multiplayer support. Word comes via G4, which spoke with Capcom's Yoshinori Ono at last week's Nintendo World event.

There will be two different types of online multiplayer in the game: worldwide online play and Channel Live. The former is pretty self-explanatory (this is the place you go to fight people from all over the world), while the latter is a place to go to watch live matches. Of course, there are also the figurine-collecting and random street fighting modes, which were previously announced.