I seriously love Iwata, the man is like the most humble CEO in the history of companies. The dude just cannot be drawn into mud slinging.
He got burned when he called the iPad a bigger iPod touch. Apple fans got really bitchy about it.
Then he offered another reason why he doesn’t like to comment on other company’s products. About a year ago, he was asked at another meeting with analysts about his thoughts on Apple Inc. iPad -– a newly-announced product at the time.
He said he thought it was like a big iPod Touch. “I didn’t say it with any positive and negative connotation,” said Mr. Iwata.
His comments were translated into English by the foreign media and gained enough attention that it was translated back into Japanese, at which point “the nuance had gotten distorted,” he said. “So then it became a story about how I trashed the iPad as just a bigger iPod Touch.”
Of course, this put Mr. Iwata in the line of fire from Apple’s renowned fan-boys who are quick to criticize any comments they view as an affront to HQ back in Cupertino.
“I read these remarks online and the situation had become almost surreal,” he said as the room broke into laughter. “So my view now is that it’s not good to even give my first impression.”
And according to the Not-PSP2 thread, the Not-PSP2 isn't going to have any internal storage. ....man, when Sony backs away from the Go, they really back away. Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the 3DS have internal storage? Oh, and all the physical media slots in the Not-PSP2 will be proprietary. Wheee.
I mean, you have to have internal storage. What about downloadable games, music, videos, backgrounds?
Well, you'd think the head Sony exec being interviewed on the subject would know whether there's internal storage or not. And given all the other specs announced in copious detail, why would this be omitted? Also, combine Sony's apparent embarrassment over the Go, their hatred of piracy and the company's absolute love for inventing/selling proprietary formats, and it's entirely possible they've gone in this direction.
Edit: To be fair, loads and loads of people were calling the iPad a big ole iPod Touch. Even after release.
yeah....yamauchi never really understood games or considered himself a gamer. i recall a story of him being an avid go player, and when presented with a virtual version of it on the NES, became frustrated with the controller and ended up telling his aides to move "that" piece "there" by pointing at the screen.
more than anything he was a brilliant business man who saw a market in which his company could sell product. and boy did they ever.
Is that a true conversion rate? By that I mean - are the sales from total sales, or out of those people who tried it? I know I personally didn't try the demo and just purchased it - so that would have an affect on the conversion rate if it was included in those #'s.
conversion rate stuff
I wonder if Valve tracks anything like that. It seems likely that they could check how many people have played both the full and demo versions of a specific game.
Is that a true conversion rate? By that I mean - are the sales from total sales, or out of those people who tried it? I know I personally didn't try the demo and just purchased it - so that would have an affect on the conversion rate if it was included in those #'s.
conversion rate stuff
I wonder if Valve tracks anything like that. It seems likely that they could check how many people have played both the full and demo versions of a specific game.
Oh, I'm sure they do. I'm sure Valve has all kinds of fascinating sales information that they REFUSE TO GIVE OUT BECAUSE THEY'RE ALL BIG FAT POOPYHEADS GRRRRAAAAAHHHHH *punches hole in the wall*
cloudeagle on
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SirUltimosDon't talk, Rusty. Just paint.Registered Userregular
edited January 2011
I really wonder what things would be like if Yamauchi were still CEO in this age where people on the internet will bitch endlessly about the tiniest little detail. NeoGAF would probably combust every two days.
Since the iphone4/ipad they've been pretty antsy to start getting their engine available on portables. I think they're less interested in putting Gears on the thing than they are convincing devs that Gears is the kind of game that should be on the thing.
Random information:
- Information which has GFK/Media Control/Chart-Track/Nielsen as a source only accounts for the UK, Germany, France and Spain - these four markets make up 75-80 percent of all European sales.
- Only Xbox 360 sales slightly increased, despite being still lower than those of both competitors.
- Wii marketshare down 5 percent, Xbox 360 up 4 percent, PS3 up 1 percent
Random information:
- Information which has GFK/Media Control/Chart-Track/Nielsen as a source only accounts for the UK, Germany, France and Spain - these four markets make up 75-80 percent of all European sales.
- Only Xbox 360 sales slightly increased, despite being still lower than those of both competitors.
- Wii marketshare down 5 percent, Xbox 360 up 4 percent, PS3 up 1 percent
Is that a true conversion rate? By that I mean - are the sales from total sales, or out of those people who tried it? I know I personally didn't try the demo and just purchased it - so that would have an affect on the conversion rate if it was included in those #'s.
It's not actually a true conversion rate, but rather the term "conversion rate" has just become the term to refer to the ratio of purchases to trials generally since there's no way to track the exact # of people who tried it and bought it as opposed to those who just bought it without the trial.
Incidentally there were a few weekends in BODVII's life where the "conversion rate" was over 100%, meaning more people bought it than people tried the demo. So yeah the term is just a useful handle but it's still kind of a misnomer.
Conversion rate is a generally useful piece of data because it tells you how interested people are in the game once they try it. Is your game hooking people, that sort of thing. If conversion rates are really really high it usually means there's something in addition to the purchases from trial that are resulting in people buying the game without feeling the need to download the trial first, such as media coverage or really positive word of mouth etc. Of course the better the "deal" or the value a game presents usually the higher the conversion rate. So if you provide a great game and/or a game with a lot of content for the price, usually the rate is higher. Which helps BODVII maintain a high conversion is that it's a dollar and provides a good game with a good amount of content. CSTW we spent a tremendous amount of time and effort to provide the quality and content that would more than justify the 240 msp price. We went in expecting conversion rate to be lower than BODVII (because it's easier to drop 80 msp than 240 msp) but overall it is working out.
This is really good to hear. I was worried that an irrational prejudice against non $1 games would hurt your second game. I also see that your "conversion rate" holds steady over time. I would have guessed that the press and forum exposure would have driven it up early on and it would fall to a lower level over time. Nice to see.
Now: Steam Please!
lowlylowlycook on
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
It is awfully nice to have the relevant information posted in the thread with a link available for further reading. I also like posters who bold the important sentences when posting an excerpt.
I think that the internet has been for years on the path to creating what is essentially an electronic Necronomicon: A collection of blasphemous unrealities so perverse that to even glimpse at its contents, if but for a moment, is to irrevocably forfeit a portion of your sanity.
Xbox - PearlBlueS0ul, Steam
If you ever need to talk to someone, feel free to message me. Yes, that includes you.
...for Live. For the games that have leaderboards. But sales nonetheless!
Of the 38 new games we could follow by the end of 2010, discounting any games released for free, sales were quite good. Eight of those games added over 100,000 players during that time, including Super Meat Boy and Monday Night Combat.
The clear winner this year was Dead Rising Case 0, a game released for just $5 and was picked up by an impressive amount of players. The winner money-wise was Playdead Studios' Limbo, which neared 600,000 players, and is now one of the best selling downloadable games of all time. Other popular games included Monday Night Combat, Lara Croft: Guardian Of Light and Hydro Thunder -- all parts of Xbox Live timed promotions.
It’s nice to see that all of these titles tried tackling something different. Few of the top games had any sort of crossover in terms of gameplay styles, and if there were any similarities in terms of genre, the top titles offered different experiences.
On the other hand, it also means that a lot of games didn’t do so well. Twelve games failed to hit 10,000 players total for their six month tenure on the platform, with one of them (Microsoft Research's Path Of Go) not even hitting 1,000 players total.
In addition, games like Unbound Saga and Quake Arena Arcade, despite supposedly being in popular genres, failed to gain players, although they were released relatively late in the year.
It's still early for a few of the games that currently fall under the 100,000 sales mark -- Pac Man CE DX will hit over 100,000 players, we strongly believe, as well as World Of Keflings, DeathSpank and others. Ultimately it is difficult to hit this 100k worldwide milestone on XBLA at all -- this is a key thing to remember when putting money into making digital games such as these.
We also have stats for those games we followed in the first half of 2010. Of the 22 titles we could follow using Leaderboards, two continued on to sell another 100,000 units or more in the second half.
RISK Factions and Toy Soldiers were both tremendous successes for the platform, and Snoopy Flying Ace was able to cross the 100,000 player mark for the year. Few games were able to continue selling a lot after their time on the new release list.
Based on these statistics, two games just can’t be stopped -- The Behemoth’s Castle Crashers, and RedLynx’s Trials HD. Both games added 300,000 new players each in the past six months.
Other big winners include the old favorite UNO with 134,000 new players, and Peggle with 110,000 in the past six months. Geometry Wars 2, 'Splosion Man and A Kingdom for Keflings also held on strong throughout the year, certainly helping those developers when it came to developing their new titles.
Outside of possibly Limbo, it doesn't seem like 2010 created that "ultimate money maker." Limbo and Dead Rising Case 0 have made bank, that's for certain, but to whether they'll cross a million users like the biggest XBLA titles is uncertain at this point. And this is despite 6.8 million new Xbox 360 consoles sold in America alone during 2010.
We will continue to publish an analysis of Xbox Live Arcade each month through 2011, and we will come back to the big list at the end of June. With several promotions at hand such as the "House Party" and publishers like Disney looking towards the digital realm, who knows what might be in store for the rest of 2011?
Wow. The first Wallace and Gromit did decently, but the others dropped like a rock.
[...]
Yup, Penny Arcade 2 was kinda meh.
We're a long, long way from episodic gaming being particularly viable on consoles. Also, people tend to eschew follow-ups without heavy buzz behind them.
Wow. The first Wallace and Gromit did decently, but the others dropped like a rock.
[...]
Yup, Penny Arcade 2 was kinda meh.
We're a long, long way from episodic gaming being particularly viable on consoles. Also, people tend to eschew follow-ups without heavy buzz behind them.
Geometry Wars 2 still sold. A lot. Yet Activision flushed Bizarre down the toilet.
In their defense, what else would Bizarre Creations be good for? Poor performing racing games?
Plus, you can't really exploit XBL games very well. It's hard to brag when you can't point to shelf space.
That would be fine if Bizarre was JUST a racing game company, but they've managed to make other types of games that have brought in a ton of money this year with zero advertising. I mean, Sony didn't fire anyone when Eye of Judgment didn't succeed.
Wow. The first Wallace and Gromit did decently, but the others dropped like a rock.
[...]
Yup, Penny Arcade 2 was kinda meh.
We're a long, long way from episodic gaming being particularly viable on consoles. Also, people tend to eschew follow-ups without heavy buzz behind them.
Geometry Wars 2 still sold. A lot. Yet Activision flushed Bizarre down the toilet.
In their defense, what else would Bizarre Creations be good for? Poor performing racing games?
Plus, you can't really exploit XBL games very well. It's hard to brag when you can't point to shelf space.
That would be fine if Bizarre was JUST a racing game company, but they've managed to make other types of games that have brought in a ton of money this year with zero advertising. I mean, Sony didn't fire anyone when Eye of Judgment didn't succeed.
Wow. The first Wallace and Gromit did decently, but the others dropped like a rock.
[...]
Yup, Penny Arcade 2 was kinda meh.
We're a long, long way from episodic gaming being particularly viable on consoles. Also, people tend to eschew follow-ups without heavy buzz behind them.
I imagine PA2 sold poorly for the same reason that Deathspank 2 did poorly (both by Hothead BTW). In both cases, they took the gameplay of the 1st game and copy pasted it into the second one with very few changes. After playing through one game, I don't want to play through the exact same game with different jokes.
Wow. The first Wallace and Gromit did decently, but the others dropped like a rock.
[...]
Yup, Penny Arcade 2 was kinda meh.
We're a long, long way from episodic gaming being particularly viable on consoles. Also, people tend to eschew follow-ups without heavy buzz behind them.
I imagine PA2 sold poorly for the same reason that Deathspank 2 did poorly (both by Hothead BTW). In both cases, they took the gameplay of the 1st game and copy pasted it into the second one with very few changes. After playing through one game, I don't want to play through the exact same game with different jokes.
I felt the changes to PA2 made it a much better game than the first one. But again, the problem is that it's episodic. Just how different can it be? If it had lasted, would it have received a 'bundle'? If so, you don't want it to be too radically different. And at that point it becomes four separate games if you make too many changes.
I don't doubt that PA2 wasn't helped by the similarities to PA1, but that still pales in comparison to short game, expensive price, niche IP.
Wow. The first Wallace and Gromit did decently, but the others dropped like a rock.
[...]
Yup, Penny Arcade 2 was kinda meh.
We're a long, long way from episodic gaming being particularly viable on consoles. Also, people tend to eschew follow-ups without heavy buzz behind them.
I imagine PA2 sold poorly for the same reason that Deathspank 2 did poorly (both by Hothead BTW). In both cases, they took the gameplay of the 1st game and copy pasted it into the second one with very few changes. After playing through one game, I don't want to play through the exact same game with different jokes.
I felt the changes to PA2 made it a much better game than the first one. But again, the problem is that it's episodic. Just how different can it be? If it had lasted, would it have received a 'bundle'? If so, you don't want it to be too radically different. And at that point it becomes four separate games if you make too many changes.
I don't doubt that PA2 wasn't helped by the similarities to PA1, but that still pales in comparison to short game, expensive price, niche IP.
It's not that they need to drastically reinvent the game each time. However, episode 2 should feel like a continuation of episode 1 - not like you're restarting episode 1, but everything's reskinned.
That would be fine if Bizarre was JUST a racing game company, but they've managed to make other types of games that have brought in a ton of money this year with zero advertising. I mean, Sony didn't fire anyone when Eye of Judgment didn't succeed.
Technically, Eye was SCE Japan Studio, so who knows if anyone got demoted because of it. Firing is usually not the case in many Japanese studios.
The Western publishers will cut staff if you look at them funny.
Wow. The first Wallace and Gromit did decently, but the others dropped like a rock.
[...]
Yup, Penny Arcade 2 was kinda meh.
We're a long, long way from episodic gaming being particularly viable on consoles. Also, people tend to eschew follow-ups without heavy buzz behind them.
Tales of Monkey Island and Sam and Max Season 3 seem to have performed just fine on the PS3.
Telltale's model, selling season passes and releasing each episode on a set schedule, is what every episodic series should be doing regardless of whether they're on PC, console or even handheld.
Wow. The first Wallace and Gromit did decently, but the others dropped like a rock.
[...]
Yup, Penny Arcade 2 was kinda meh.
We're a long, long way from episodic gaming being particularly viable on consoles. Also, people tend to eschew follow-ups without heavy buzz behind them.
Tales of Monkey Island and Sam and Max Season 3 seem to have performed just fine on the PS3.
Telltale's model, selling season passes and releasing each episode on a set schedule, is what every episodic series should be doing regardless of whether they're on PC, console or even handheld.
Wow. The first Wallace and Gromit did decently, but the others dropped like a rock.
[...]
Yup, Penny Arcade 2 was kinda meh.
We're a long, long way from episodic gaming being particularly viable on consoles. Also, people tend to eschew follow-ups without heavy buzz behind them.
Tales of Monkey Island and Sam and Max Season 3 seem to have performed just fine on the PS3.
Telltale's model, selling season passes and releasing each episode on a set schedule, is what every episodic series should be doing regardless of whether they're on PC, console or even handheld.
The thing is that they're also really good at maintaining that release schedule. They take the episodic thing to heart and release at regular intervals. Everyone else is always "Eh, we released the first epsiode now, we'll get the second one out whenever we're done with it."
When you buy you're promised bite sized gaming every month, and they deliver.
Wow. The first Wallace and Gromit did decently, but the others dropped like a rock.
[...]
Yup, Penny Arcade 2 was kinda meh.
We're a long, long way from episodic gaming being particularly viable on consoles. Also, people tend to eschew follow-ups without heavy buzz behind them.
Tales of Monkey Island and Sam and Max Season 3 seem to have performed just fine on the PS3.
Do we have specific sales figures for them on PS3?
Wow. The first Wallace and Gromit did decently, but the others dropped like a rock.
[...]
Yup, Penny Arcade 2 was kinda meh.
We're a long, long way from episodic gaming being particularly viable on consoles. Also, people tend to eschew follow-ups without heavy buzz behind them.
Tales of Monkey Island and Sam and Max Season 3 seem to have performed just fine on the PS3.
Telltale's model, selling season passes and releasing each episode on a set schedule, is what every episodic series should be doing regardless of whether they're on PC, console or even handheld.
The thing is that they're also really good at maintaining that release schedule. They take the episodic thing to heart and release at regular intervals. Everyone else is always "Eh, we released the first epsiode now, we'll get the second one out whenever we're done with it."
When you buy you're promised bite sized gaming every month, and they deliver.
They let the Bone game wither and disappear in classic episodic style. On the other hand, the first two were pretty dull.
Yeah, Wallace and Gromit is way better known than the other titles you listed. I'd say Penny Arcade is also better known than Sam & Max and probably a tie with Monkey Island.
Come to think of it, did Telltale release any of their games episodically on any of the consoles aside from Wallace and Gromit? I think Sam and Max and Monkey Island all came in big blobs after the fact, with W&G the only exception.
Maybe PC gamers, who have to pretty much rely on digital distribution nowadays, are more receptive to episodic gaming than console gamers.
cloudeagle on
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reVerseAttack and Dethrone GodRegistered Userregular
Come to think of it, did Telltale release any of their games episodically on any of the consoles aside from Wallace and Gromit? I think Sam and Max and Monkey Island all came in big blobs after the fact, with W&G the only exception.
Maybe PC gamers, who have to pretty much rely on digital distribution nowadays, are more receptive to episodic gaming than console gamers.
Strongbad and monkey island on wii.
agoaj on
0
Brainiac 8Don't call me Shirley...Registered Userregular
Come to think of it, did Telltale release any of their games episodically on any of the consoles aside from Wallace and Gromit? I think Sam and Max and Monkey Island all came in big blobs after the fact, with W&G the only exception.
Maybe PC gamers, who have to pretty much rely on digital distribution nowadays, are more receptive to episodic gaming than console gamers.
Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People was released episodically on WiiWare.
Posts
I wish Yamauchi was still making awesome quotes.
Well, you'd think the head Sony exec being interviewed on the subject would know whether there's internal storage or not. And given all the other specs announced in copious detail, why would this be omitted? Also, combine Sony's apparent embarrassment over the Go, their hatred of piracy and the company's absolute love for inventing/selling proprietary formats, and it's entirely possible they've gone in this direction.
Edit: To be fair, loads and loads of people were calling the iPad a big ole iPod Touch. Even after release.
He is literally insulting a huge portion of the people he sold product too. Classy.
more than anything he was a brilliant business man who saw a market in which his company could sell product. and boy did they ever.
I wonder if Valve tracks anything like that. It seems likely that they could check how many people have played both the full and demo versions of a specific game.
Oh, I'm sure they do. I'm sure Valve has all kinds of fascinating sales information that they REFUSE TO GIVE OUT BECAUSE THEY'RE ALL BIG FAT POOPYHEADS GRRRRAAAAAHHHHH *punches hole in the wall*
Anyone surprised?
Since the iphone4/ipad they've been pretty antsy to start getting their engine available on portables. I think they're less interested in putting Gears on the thing than they are convincing devs that Gears is the kind of game that should be on the thing.
Steam ID: slashx000______Twitter: @bill_at_zeboyd______ Facebook: Zeboyd Games
Software
PSP is dead in Europe.
Germany top 20
France
Not-Spain
UK (No DS titles included as of September?)
There is also software and hardware number calculations using the charts.
Quoted so people can actually see this stuff.
This is really good to hear. I was worried that an irrational prejudice against non $1 games would hurt your second game. I also see that your "conversion rate" holds steady over time. I would have guessed that the press and forum exposure would have driven it up early on and it would fall to a lower level over time. Nice to see.
Now: Steam Please!
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
It is awfully nice to have the relevant information posted in the thread with a link available for further reading. I also like posters who bold the important sentences when posting an excerpt.
Just sayin...
If you ever need to talk to someone, feel free to message me. Yes, that includes you.
...for Live. For the games that have leaderboards. But sales nonetheless!
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/32659/InDepth_Xbox_Live_Arcades_2010_Sales_Revealed.php
Wow. The first Wallace and Gromit did decently, but the others dropped like a rock.
Holy crap the Sonic games sold well.
Space Giraffe is still selling?
Yup, Penny Arcade 2 was kinda meh.
Geometry Wars 2 still sold. A lot. Yet Activision flushed Bizarre down the toilet.
We're a long, long way from episodic gaming being particularly viable on consoles. Also, people tend to eschew follow-ups without heavy buzz behind them.
In their defense, what else would Bizarre Creations be good for? Poor performing racing games?
Plus, you can't really exploit XBL games very well. It's hard to brag when you can't point to shelf space.
That would be fine if Bizarre was JUST a racing game company, but they've managed to make other types of games that have brought in a ton of money this year with zero advertising. I mean, Sony didn't fire anyone when Eye of Judgment didn't succeed.
I'm 'defending' Activision.
I imagine PA2 sold poorly for the same reason that Deathspank 2 did poorly (both by Hothead BTW). In both cases, they took the gameplay of the 1st game and copy pasted it into the second one with very few changes. After playing through one game, I don't want to play through the exact same game with different jokes.
Zeboyd Games Development Blog
Steam ID : rwb36, Twitter : Werezompire, Facebook : Zeboyd Games
I felt the changes to PA2 made it a much better game than the first one. But again, the problem is that it's episodic. Just how different can it be? If it had lasted, would it have received a 'bundle'? If so, you don't want it to be too radically different. And at that point it becomes four separate games if you make too many changes.
I don't doubt that PA2 wasn't helped by the similarities to PA1, but that still pales in comparison to short game, expensive price, niche IP.
It's not that they need to drastically reinvent the game each time. However, episode 2 should feel like a continuation of episode 1 - not like you're restarting episode 1, but everything's reskinned.
Zeboyd Games Development Blog
Steam ID : rwb36, Twitter : Werezompire, Facebook : Zeboyd Games
Technically, Eye was SCE Japan Studio, so who knows if anyone got demoted because of it. Firing is usually not the case in many Japanese studios.
The Western publishers will cut staff if you look at them funny.
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/
I write about video games and stuff. It is fun. Sometimes.
Tales of Monkey Island and Sam and Max Season 3 seem to have performed just fine on the PS3.
Telltale's model, selling season passes and releasing each episode on a set schedule, is what every episodic series should be doing regardless of whether they're on PC, console or even handheld.
At what point do Wallace and Gromit or PAA even remotely equal the notoriety of either Monkey Island or Sam and Max?
The thing is that they're also really good at maintaining that release schedule. They take the episodic thing to heart and release at regular intervals. Everyone else is always "Eh, we released the first epsiode now, we'll get the second one out whenever we're done with it."
When you buy you're promised bite sized gaming every month, and they deliver.
Do we have specific sales figures for them on PS3?
My mom knows who Wallace & Gromit are.
my twitter | my youtube
So? Did she buy any of the games?
They let the Bone game wither and disappear in classic episodic style. On the other hand, the first two were pretty dull.
Soo... Where the fuck is Half-Life 2: Episode 3?
This has been this weeks episode of "Where the fuck is Half-Life 2: Episode 3"
Zeboyd Games Development Blog
Steam ID : rwb36, Twitter : Werezompire, Facebook : Zeboyd Games
Maybe PC gamers, who have to pretty much rely on digital distribution nowadays, are more receptive to episodic gaming than console gamers.
When it comes out, it'll be called Half-Life 3.
Strongbad and monkey island on wii.
Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People was released episodically on WiiWare.
And it was awesome.
Edit: Dagnabbit Agoaj!
Nintendo Network ID - Brainiac_8
PSN - Brainiac_8
Steam - http://steamcommunity.com/id/BRAINIAC8/
Add me!