The battle for 3rd party exclusives seems to be dwindling down this generation. More 3rd parties are choosing the multiplatform route. You guys have a few in your lineup — No More Heroes and Ar Tonelico 3 come to mind. Is Sony still working with 3rd parties to secure exclusives or…?
We work very closely with our 3rd parties publishers, not necessarily to lock down games exclusively, but to lock up exclusive parts of games. A good example is Batman: Arkham Asylum, where you could only play as the Joker on PlayStation 3. When you make a title exclusive, you limit its promotional power; we don’t want to do that. We want games to be as big as possible — it’s great for the industry. However, we want to make sure that you play it on the best system possible, so we like to take parts of games and make them exclusive to the PlayStation system.
Personally, I like the "exclusive content" thing more than "exclusive game". Atleast you get to play the game, even if you don't get every bonus level and whatnot.
reVerse on
0
Brainiac 8Don't call me Shirley...Registered Userregular
edited February 2011
yea, Blur was pretty heavily advertised and tanked pretty badly.
That video was super depressing, Activision are such dicks. It's like Bizzare was set up to fail, releasing Blur right next to Split/Second, Red Dead, and Alan Wake, then Bloodstone right next to Goldeneye/CODBLOPS.
Edit: Modnation Racers also came out the same day. Seriously, WTF.
You know, Bizarre was based in the UK. Maybe part of this is Activision being pissy about the UK government shooting down the proposed video game industry tax credits?
I'm not quite sure how Blur slipped my mind. Can anyone think of a few other examples?
I'm trying to think of why publishers would be afraid to spend money on promoting anything but the blockbusters and the only thing I could really think of was, well, a number of situations like Blur where the advertising budget just added to the loss.
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.
Marketing departments only mass advertise for blockbusters because these are the safe bets. Buying ads for games that aren't expected to sell well is viewed as a waste of money. So pissing a way massive amounts of money for something like Call of Duty is an easy way to make it look like their spending is effective. When they could probably slice of ten percent of a CoD budget and give it to a smaller game and see even better overall results.
Fear, basically. They're afraid of losing their jobs by spending money on something that won't make a significant impact.
Under one-fifth of PS3 sales included bundles with Sony’s Move controller, suggesting another modest month (we have chosen not to subscribe to peripheral data). Just under three-fifths of Xbox 360 sales included bundles with Microsoft’s Kinect peripheral, as Xbox 360 Kinect console bundles again outsold PS3 Move console bundles by almost 5:1. We note that the top selling Kinect software titles easily outsold their Move counterparts
Wedbush:
Current generation (PS3, Wii, 360, PSP, DS) software sales were $572 million, $52 million above our estimate, while legacy software sales were $4 million, $6 million below our estimate. Wii software sales were $179 million (down 20% y-o-y), Xbox 360 sales were $170 million (up 8%), and PS3 sales were $141 million (up 24%). DS software sales were $72 million (down 13%), while PSP software sales were $10 million (down 37%). The increases in sales for the PS3 and Xbox 360 platforms have become the norm, and declines for the other consoles have also become the norm. Over the next year, we expect Wii and DS software sales to continue the negative trend, but anticipate strong sales for Nintendo’s 3DS that should spur overall handheld software sales back into positive territory. We expect PS3 software sales to spike when several high profile releases launch in the coming months, and believe that overall PS3 software sales would benefit immensely from a hardware price cut, expected in June.
Marketing departments only mass advertise for blockbusters because these are the safe bets. Buying ads for games that aren't expected to sell well is viewed as a waste of money. So pissing a way massive amounts of money for something like Call of Duty is an easy way to make it look like their spending is effective. When they could probably slice of ten percent of a CoD budget and give it to a smaller game and see even better overall results.
Fear, basically. They're afraid of losing their jobs by spending money on something that won't make a significant impact.
So basically rather then do their jobs the marketing people just throw money at guaranteed sellers to make themselves look good.
I kind of wish that gaming magazines would take a principled stand and not do any stories or ads about Topware "You want to blacklist them? We'll blacklist you."
Of course, that would require gaming magazines to have principles.
I'd actually say this kind of thing is much harder for them to get away with these days.
There are enough relatively independent publications/web sites that if you try to pull a trick like this, you're more likely to get exposed (like in this example).
In the days before the internet, I imagine publishers got away with far more shady stuff we never heard about.
Marketing departments only mass advertise for blockbusters because these are the safe bets. Buying ads for games that aren't expected to sell well is viewed as a waste of money. So pissing a way massive amounts of money for something like Call of Duty is an easy way to make it look like their spending is effective. When they could probably slice of ten percent of a CoD budget and give it to a smaller game and see even better overall results.
Fear, basically. They're afraid of losing their jobs by spending money on something that won't make a significant impact.
So basically rather then do their jobs the marketing people just throw money at guaranteed sellers to make themselves look good.
Yup. They also generally don't know how to do their jobs, so falling back on marketing the easy stuff is a way to get buy. In the games industry, it's compounded by the fact that many of them aren't game players in the first place. So ads also end up pandering to base assumptions about the audience.
Just to contextualize, Sony had once a 90% market share in Portugal making justice to the "Sonyland" epithet. Other data of interest show that Portugal showed in 2010 a healthy growth in the market of video games following an already excellent year of 2009.
Gfk reported a 17,4% growth in 2009 to a total value of 184.000.000€ and the preliminary data shows that 2010 followed that tendency.
So, market share numbers:
Nintendo Wii: 25,4% (+375.000 units) growth of 52,2%
PS3: 24,3% (+-359.000 units) growth of 11%
Xbox360: no data on the article besides the info that though it's the console with the smallest installed base it had a notable growth of 43% last year. And that Kinect should give it some momentum.
Marketing departments only mass advertise for blockbusters because these are the safe bets. Buying ads for games that aren't expected to sell well is viewed as a waste of money. So pissing a way massive amounts of money for something like Call of Duty is an easy way to make it look like their spending is effective. When they could probably slice of ten percent of a CoD budget and give it to a smaller game and see even better overall results.
Fear, basically. They're afraid of losing their jobs by spending money on something that won't make a significant impact.
So basically rather then do their jobs the marketing people just throw money at guaranteed sellers to make themselves look good.
Yup. They also generally don't know how to do their jobs, so falling back on marketing the easy stuff is a way to get buy. In the games industry, it's compounded by the fact that many of them aren't game players in the first place. So ads also end up pandering to base assumptions about the audience.
Hence, the dippy "hey let's make fun of Mario Kart" idea. Which, regardless of whether you thought it was annoying or not, turned out to be a pretty crappy way to get people to buy the game.
At any rate. Man, the PSP is sinking in both hardware and software.
Those touting the end of packaged software “don’t share the same reality as consumers,” says Fischer.
Nintendo has said the rise of low-cost smartphone and downloadable games has not forced a shift in focus to digital sales, and dismissed the notion of increased digital revenues impacting on retail sales.
Speaking at the European 3DS launch event in Amsterdam last month, Nintendo of Europe’s MD of marketing and PR, Laurent Fischer, told us: “We have been very clearly communicating for a long time that the packaged software or retail market is the one that’s going to drive the mass market.
“We have never seen any link between growth in the mobile gaming market and decrease in the normal software market. It’s two different markets, two different topics. We couldn’t find any evidence of those two markets being linked.”
Fischer is dismissive of the eagerness with which the industry jumps on new trends, saying that until consumers show a real appetite for fully digital distribution, the high street will always be Nintendo’s priority.
“It’s the users that decide it,” he said. “Every time we have a new technology or trend coming in, every time people say: ‘That’s the new expectation. It’ll be the mass market in one, maybe two or three years.’ You can bet it’s always wrong.
“Sometimes it’s quicker than anyone expected, sometimes it’s dead before we can even talk further about it, and sometimes it is five or ten years later than anyone planned. None of us can tell that.
“People who talk about the end of physical media don’t share the same daily reality as most consumers.”
Marketing departments only mass advertise for blockbusters because these are the safe bets. Buying ads for games that aren't expected to sell well is viewed as a waste of money. So pissing a way massive amounts of money for something like Call of Duty is an easy way to make it look like their spending is effective. When they could probably slice of ten percent of a CoD budget and give it to a smaller game and see even better overall results.
Fear, basically. They're afraid of losing their jobs by spending money on something that won't make a significant impact.
So basically rather then do their jobs the marketing people just throw money at guaranteed sellers to make themselves look good.
Yup. They also generally don't know how to do their jobs, so falling back on marketing the easy stuff is a way to get buy. In the games industry, it's compounded by the fact that many of them aren't game players in the first place. So ads also end up pandering to base assumptions about the audience.
Hence, the dippy "hey let's make fun of Mario Kart" idea. Which, regardless of whether you thought it was annoying or not, turned out to be a pretty crappy way to get people to buy the game.
Oh god, my brain had tried so, so hard to forget that ever existed. That's revenge for me trying to get you to think about Facebook games, isn't it? :P
A three-judge panel on Tuesday rejected Activision Blizzard Inc.'s motion to throw out a lawsuit filed in 2009 by the rock band No Doubt, dealing a minor blow to the Santa Monica video game giant.
The ruling by the federal district court of appeals paves the way for No Doubt to proceed with its suit, which alleged Activision breached its contract with the group when it allowed players of Activision's video game Band Hero to use band members' avatars to perform songs they did not write.
The band, in its lawsuit, said the game's feature "transformed No Doubt band members into a virtual karaoke circus act."
Activision Blizzard filed a motion to have the lawsuit dismissed, saying it had the right of creative expression. The motion was rejected in April by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Kenji Machida. The appellate court Tuesday agreed with Machida, saying No Doubt can pursue its case against Activision.
While the decision is probably a mere prelude to further legal maneuvers by both sides, the Guitar Hero video game series itself, which had once generated more than $1 billion in revenue for Activision, was recently declared dead. Activision last week said it would shut down its Guitar Hero business, lay off 500 workers and cease development of a Guitar Hero title that was slated for release this year.
Activision can flog an entire video game genre into the ground before the wheels of the justice system can even get rolling.
lowlylowlycook on
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
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Brainiac 8Don't call me Shirley...Registered Userregular
edited February 2011
"I've heard some pessimistic comments on 3DS capabilities before the launch from some game creators but they obviously have not seen Super Street Fighter IV 3D or Resident Evil games on the 3DS. When I first had the chance to see 3DS I went over the moon three times because of the 3D vision, hardware spec and the extensive network functions. With Super Street Fighter IV 3D you will see the best yet graphics on a handheld with specially tuned shaders and effects. I also think those game creators should stop slacking and just start making good games rather than whine about the tools given!" - Yoshinori Ono
Remember how Kotaku and the rest of the Gawker family came up with that horrible redesign that somehow made 90s-style frames worse, based on the executive's notions that advertisers like it and it somehow makes it not a blog anymore, because being a blog is a bad thing for some reason? Well, based on something Tycho just posted on the front page, I found the stats for Kotaku's recent siteviews:
Gawker itself is even worse:
EDIT: Never mind, the drop is a reflection of Gawker dropping the service, not a drop in pageviews.
What's the difference between visits and page views? In the first one, only page views drop dramatically, but in the second one they both do.
I dug up this on the site:
When you are browsing a site, every time you follow a link, it is treated as a single "page view". Site Meter defines a "visit" as a series of page views by one person with no more than 30 minutes in between page views.
According to my friend (whose best man writes for Jalopnik), they stopped using SiteMeter with the redesign, so I wouldn't read too much into those numbers.
It looks like the new Kotaku design doesn't reload the entire page when clicking stuff, which could explain the lower page views. It still shows different ads on different articles, so is it really bad for Gawker?
More good Sony news, hackers can unban themselves and ban innocent people, maybe: For whom the bell trolls
As Sony finally begins to use their ban hammers against those who have jailbroke their consoles’, hackers have now found a way to Unban their PS3 console’s and ban legitimate users. Yes, you read that correctly. Hackers can now ban you in the process for doing absolutely nothing .
Website, PSX Scene is the first to report on user’s actually being able to do this.
From the forum post:
Hot off the press, and on the heels of Sony trying to find all the modded PS3 consoles, comes a funny story from SKFU’s Blog (an PS3 researcher/developer), along with a real way to UNBAN yourself, but watch out LEGIT PS3 owners, you could end up being banned by another user!
1) The bans are based on the users’ account and console ID’s.
2) We can modify all traffic sent and received by the PlayStation3
What if some skiddies start to modify their sent traffic to appear as another user and use backups?
The PSN servers would recognize the TOS violation and check the online user database for known connections based on the ID’s. The user and his consoles who really owns the ID’s would be banned.
Even a simple Windows application which goes through ALL ID’s may be possible. 24 hours and any console worldwide would be banned.
This should definitely be double-checked by SONY.
Now with these tool’s out, legit PSN users can be banned by the simple use of a program. We will not post the link to the forum post since we do not condone any use of these hacking tools at all on our site. But with the ablilty for hackers to ban and unban PS3 Consoles, what more can PSN user’s endure and what can Sony do about this now?
Picture Proof
We have been getting reports from multiple people that this is legitimate.
[UPDATE]
The Forum post on PSX Scene has been removed however this was NOT our original source. We’ll keep you up to date on the findings on this latest hack and update later to confirm if this is real or not.
Posts
Personally, I like the "exclusive content" thing more than "exclusive game". Atleast you get to play the game, even if you don't get every bonus level and whatnot.
Nintendo Network ID - Brainiac_8
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Fixed for racial stereotyping.
Nintendo Network ID - Brainiac_8
PSN - Brainiac_8
Steam - http://steamcommunity.com/id/BRAINIAC8/
Add me!
Clearly Activision is paying dearly for that.
Oh hush, he was joking.
Nintendo Network ID - Brainiac_8
PSN - Brainiac_8
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Edit: Modnation Racers also came out the same day. Seriously, WTF.
I'm trying to think of why publishers would be afraid to spend money on promoting anything but the blockbusters and the only thing I could really think of was, well, a number of situations like Blur where the advertising budget just added to the loss.
If you ever need to talk to someone, feel free to message me. Yes, that includes you.
Fear, basically. They're afraid of losing their jobs by spending money on something that won't make a significant impact.
Wedbush:
So basically rather then do their jobs the marketing people just throw money at guaranteed sellers to make themselves look good.
We know this because they told publications that gave Two Worlds 2 a score of 6/10 that they were being blacklisted because of the low score.
Lewis Denby (editor of Beefjack.com) said on twitter:
I kind of wish that gaming magazines would take a principled stand and not do any stories or ads about Topware "You want to blacklist them? We'll blacklist you."
Of course, that would require gaming magazines to have principles.
Edit: Oops, research note. nevermind.
There are enough relatively independent publications/web sites that if you try to pull a trick like this, you're more likely to get exposed (like in this example).
In the days before the internet, I imagine publishers got away with far more shady stuff we never heard about.
Yup. They also generally don't know how to do their jobs, so falling back on marketing the easy stuff is a way to get buy. In the games industry, it's compounded by the fact that many of them aren't game players in the first place. So ads also end up pandering to base assumptions about the audience.
Hence, the dippy "hey let's make fun of Mario Kart" idea. Which, regardless of whether you thought it was annoying or not, turned out to be a pretty crappy way to get people to buy the game.
At any rate. Man, the PSP is sinking in both hardware and software.
The US TV ad for DOA3:
She Kicks High!
The UK TV ad for DOA3:
Adjust To Reality
Only one of those makes me feel shame for being a 'gamer'.
Twitter
Oh god, my brain had tried so, so hard to forget that ever existed. That's revenge for me trying to get you to think about Facebook games, isn't it? :P
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
http://www.officialnintendomagazine.co.uk/23888/news/game-creators-should-stop-slacking-ono/
I'm thinking this was a burn. :P
Nintendo Network ID - Brainiac_8
PSN - Brainiac_8
Steam - http://steamcommunity.com/id/BRAINIAC8/
Add me!
Gawker itself is even worse:
EDIT: Never mind, the drop is a reflection of Gawker dropping the service, not a drop in pageviews.
I dug up this on the site:
For whom the bell trolls
Betting fake yet this is Sony so...