Video Game Industry Thread: The other shoe drops at Sega

slash000

People usually buy when a game comes out at release and not some random point later down the line is because all of the hype and marketing effort focuses on the release date. 6 months later the marketing spend on a game is going to be next to nothing and people aren't going to be talking about it any more.

Unknown

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SwashbucklerXX

slash000 wrote: »

People usually buy when a game comes out at release and not some random point later down the line is because all of the hype and marketing effort focuses on the release date. 6 months later the marketing spend on a game is going to be next to nothing and people aren't going to be talking about it any more.

Nintendo being the exception here... that company actually markets its games for a while after release. Funny, they tend to sell for quite a while after release, too.

Renzo

I get the impression that Europe gets a lot more special editions of games than the US does.

http://www.siliconera.com/2012/06/29/europe-gets-a-ni-no-kuni-wrath-of-the-white-witch-wizards-edition/

It comes with a 300-page hardcover book.

What are the odds of this making it to the US? I thought the DS game didn't make it over here because the required book would take up way too much space on retailer shelves.

slash000

SwashbucklerXX wrote: »

slash000 wrote: »

People usually buy when a game comes out at release and not some random point later down the line is because all of the hype and marketing effort focuses on the release date. 6 months later the marketing spend on a game is going to be next to nothing and people aren't going to be talking about it any more.

Nintendo being the exception here... that company actually markets its games for a while after release. Funny, they tend to sell for quite a while after release, too.

True but the sales are still heavily loaded around release day. We still see Mario Kart (whatever version) pop back into the various sales charts, but it doesn't hit #1 or #2 after its first month.

slash000

As a side note, if a game flops at release, retailers have stock sitting around taking up space and then don't bother to reorder copies. If that happens, then the publisher has already given up on the game as a flop and isn't producing and selling any more to retailers, so it's already deemed a failure. And retailers tend to be happy to get rid of slow-selling stock.

The whole system is practically designed to move as many units as possible in the first month, and so as a result publishers tend to deem successes and failures based on that.

There are some publishers who are the rare exception but by and large this seems to be the case. Unfortunately.

agoaj

LockedOnTarget wrote: »

Dragkonias wrote: »

Sigtyr wrote: »

I wonder how many of those people don't realize they have bandwidth caps.

Well...you know I'm wondering how big of a deal bandwidth caps would be in the first place.

I mean I have a 250GB/month cap and I would consider myself "hardcore" as far as gaming goes.

I would also say I probably buy maybe 1 game a month if that.

So that's like what...an extra 10GB a month.

I would say that the bigger problem isn't so much bandwidth as not everyone has high-speed options available to them. Which is more the fault of greedy cable companies than anything.

Where I am caps are around 80. Which isn't hard to get to if you watch a lot of streaming video on top of any downloading.

80? That's a level cap not a bandwidth cap!

SwashbucklerXX

And this is why digital is awesome. Now if only we can get broadband companies to stop being stupid.

cloudeagle

Assorted commentary on the frontiers of social/casual gaming:

Each time you complete one of the racing challenges or level up in Asphalt 7: Heat, the new iOS racing game prompts you with a “share your results” screen that ties into Facebook. Since it’s quite easy to earn experience points or clear challenge requirements, I often found myself tapping the “no thanks” button on the share screen three or four times after every race.

Asphalt forces you to click through this barrage of screens even if you’ve elected not to connect your social media accounts to it. It makes no pretense that the share button is there because it’s something players would actually want to do. It’s something Gameloft wants you to do, and it will punish you with pop-up windows to hammer down your resolve.

What Gameloft doesn’t seem to understand is that there isn’t a single person I know who would care about my performance in Asphalt 7. I can’t even fathom a scenario in which someone congratulated me on my totally rad race time in the second event of cup number six.

It’s become standard practice in games to plead with players to tweet about their progress, but most games at least have the decency of leaving players alone if they choose not to participate. Not Asphalt 7.

http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2012/06/review-asphalt-7-heat/

Couscous

Got to get the players to give free advertisement for the game.

Unknown

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POKÉMON MASTER WT SHERMAN

Renzo wrote: »

I get the impression that Europe gets a lot more special editions of games than the US does.

http://www.siliconera.com/2012/06/29/europe-gets-a-ni-no-kuni-wrath-of-the-white-witch-wizards-edition/

It comes with a 300-page hardcover book.

What are the odds of this making it to the US? I thought the DS game didn't make it over here because the required book would take up way too much space on retailer shelves.

Anecdotally speaking in the States they always seem to end up flatlining with a lot of excess stock. There are still a lot of Uncharted 3 LEs at the Rockville Best Buy. The Gamestop in Frederick has Ninja Gaiden 3 LEs. Halo Reach's Legendary package could be gotten for $50 from Amazon at its low point, and the Duke Nukem Forever LE was under $20 on Amazon like a month ago. Skyrim's LE was I think around $60 on Newegg not too long ago. DNF and NG3 you could make the argument that, hey, the special editions aren't selling because the games aren't worth playing, but the others are all prominent, popular games. Is it different in Europe?

(Tangentially I'd pick up that Ni No Kuni package if it came out stateside, as I'm a horrible nerd wastrel, but if not I'll grab the Euro release off of NCSX I guess. Looks neat.)

EvilRedEye

MOVE IT WITH BUNMASTER!!! wrote: »

Anecdotally speaking in the States they always seem to end up flatlining with a lot of excess stock. There are still a lot of Uncharted 3 LEs at the Rockville Best Buy. The Gamestop in Frederick has Ninja Gaiden 3 LEs. Halo Reach's Legendary package could be gotten for $50 from Amazon at its low point, and the Duke Nukem Forever LE was under $20 on Amazon like a month ago. Skyrim's LE was I think around $60 on Newegg not too long ago. DNF and NG3 you could make the argument that, hey, the special editions aren't selling because the games aren't worth playing, but the others are all prominent, popular games. Is it different in Europe?

It depends. Often they'll linger around discounted, often not. I guess the dynamics are slightly different here in Europe because you've got different countries, with different SKUs (for example the languages in manuals will vary etc.) The Project Rainfall RPG special editions were a bit of an exception as they only had one SKU and the steelbooks had backwards German spine orientation and extra doorstoppy manuals with all the European languages.

Undead Scottsman

Aegeri wrote: »

There already is a game like that comic, made for parody purposes as well called Cow Clicker. Sadly the cows were taking by the rapture and aren't there anymore, but there is some kind of weird cube replacing it.

It was an oddly very successful parody, which probably shows the state that those kind of games are in.

It actually completely failed as a parody as a ton of people played and paid for stuff unironically. To the point where it was a better success at being the mindless moneymaker that it was trying to parody, than it was as being biting commentary.

slash000

So what you're saying is that the line is thin between purposefully making an extremely, pants-on-head stupid "click on shit" casual game parody and a real, money-making "click on shit" casual game?

Dragkonias

That line being whether or not some people you know thinks its funny/cool more than likely.

Undead Scottsman

I'm saying the dude went out of his way to make a game to point out "All those stupid mindless clicking for reward/microtransaction games are stupid and pointless. Here is a game that distills that down to it's base essence to show you just how pointless it is" and people went "Oh hey, cool, check out this neat Cow Clicker game. Let me give you my $$$."

So while it pretty much failed the artists purposes, it did succeed in making him a bunch of money. From what I remember though, he was pretty bummed it became a success. It was kinda like when Lisa tried to show Homer that just because there wasn't any more bear sightings, it doesn't mean the bear patrol was working: and to demonstrate she offered him a "tiger repellant rock" which Homer, instead of getting the point, offered to buy from her.

Dragkonias

Well, I wouldn't get to bummed about it.

People spend their money on stupid shit, this has always been true.

Then people see people spending on stupid shit and their like "Man, if they'll buy this...then more than likely they'll buy this too." even though it doesn't really work that way.

So yeah, while a few of these games will go off and making some crazy money, the grand majority of them will be dead in the water.

I will say the real shame of it all, just like with XBLIG, is that the honestly good stuff tends to get drowned out in a sea of crap.

an_alt

Wired had a pretty good article on Cow Clicker. It's worth a read: link

Couscous

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/gamehunters/post/2012/06/battlefield-3-premium-tops-800000-within-first-2-weeks/1#.T-3ngvWCVZ3

Within the first two weeks of availability, more than 800,000 players signed up for the Battlefield 3 Premium service, says EA Games chief Patrick Soderlund in an interview with Game Hunters.

The service tied to EA's popular first-person shooter gives players early access to the game's downloads, including the recently released Close Quarters.

Soderlund says the initial response has topped EA's expectations. "We are very pleased with the performance so far," he says.

...

Every Tom, Dick, and Shooter is going to introduce this into their multiplayer game now, aren't they?

Undead Scottsman

Battlefield Premium is just an overpriced expansion pack with some services though, isn't it? It's a one-time fee; basicaly a grossly overpriced season pass I thought, which are already becoming popular anyway. It's not like COD Elite which is a monthly fee, I thought.

Blendtec

BF3 premium works well though. Assuming all the future DLC is going to be $15/each, you save $10 by signing up for it plus you get other random bonuses. You're just giving them money in advance for products you know you would've purchased in the future anyways. I personally wouldn't mind it if more games did DLC that way. Still have an option to buy individually when it's released, but allow a pre-purchase with some savings. If you don't think the game will hold your attention for too long, wait and buy the DLC you want. If it's something you're into and you know you'll be playing for months if not longer, pay up front.

Allforce

Or be that 90% who never buy a single piece of DLC

wakkawa

People that complain about BF3 premium are either ignorant or just dumb.

Spoit

Aegeri wrote: »

You are thinking if binary domain. It was always doomed being put up against me3.

I sometimes wonder what would happen if XCOM hadn't been delayed into oblivion and met its date with ME3 coming out. That would have been amazing.

Probably the same thing that happened with SEGA meaninglessly delaying Alpha protocol past ME2 (and splinter cell)

Dragkonias

From what I understand isn't it basically like Elite where you "pre-purchase" all the DLC beforehand but overall you get it at a reduced price.

I mean if you know you're going to get all the DLC anyway...I really don't see what's bad about it.

Heck, I didn't even think Elite was bad, I just didn't know if MW3 would hold my interest long enough for buying all the DLC flat-out to be worth it. Especially now that the way they distribute the maps kind of fucked matchmaking.

Sterica

Yeah, this is just the "Season Pass" shit that games like Saint's Row and (more recently) Quantum Conundrum have been offering. It's hardly surprising that discounts for preorders would be successful. I just dislike it because any DLC that fractures the playerbase (buying maps, game modes) is a shitty thing to do.

Couscous

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-29/vivendi-said-to-plan-sale-of-stake-in-activision-blizzard.html?cmpid=yhoo

Vivendi SA (VIV), the media and telecommunications company that ousted its chief executive this week, plans to seek a buyer for its $8.1 billion stake in Activision Blizzard Inc. (ATVI), a person with knowledge of the situation said.

Should no buyer emerge for the 61 percent holding in the Santa Monica, California-based video-game publisher, Paris-based Vivendi plans to sell a partial stake on the open market, said the person, who declined to be named because the plans are private.

Vivendi Chairman Jean-Rene Fourtou is under pressure from investors to restructure the company and boost the stock price from a near nine-year low. Activision, maker of the “World of Warcraft” and “Call of Duty” titles, is among the easiest assets to sell since it is traded publicly.

...

What potential buyers have that much money?

skeldare

Couscous wrote: »

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-29/vivendi-said-to-plan-sale-of-stake-in-activision-blizzard.html?cmpid=yhoo

Vivendi SA (VIV), the media and telecommunications company that ousted its chief executive this week, plans to seek a buyer for its $8.1 billion stake in Activision Blizzard Inc. (ATVI), a person with knowledge of the situation said.

Should no buyer emerge for the 61 percent holding in the Santa Monica, California-based video-game publisher, Paris-based Vivendi plans to sell a partial stake on the open market, said the person, who declined to be named because the plans are private.

Vivendi Chairman Jean-Rene Fourtou is under pressure from investors to restructure the company and boost the stock price from a near nine-year low. Activision, maker of the “World of Warcraft” and “Call of Duty” titles, is among the easiest assets to sell since it is traded publicly.

...

What potential buyers have that much money?

Nintendo?

Ov3rcharge

Rorus Raz wrote: »

Yeah, this is just the "Season Pass" shit that games like Saint's Row and (more recently) Quantum Conundrum have been offering. It's hardly surprising that discounts for preorders would be successful. I just dislike it because any DLC that fractures the playerbase (buying maps, game modes) is a shitty thing to do.

Actually I was hoping someone would bring this up, the only two games I've seen avert this are TF2 and Mass Effect 3, both of which offer the player the option to purchase micro-transactions but in return give away new content for free. Why haven't we seen more publishers adopt this practice? I can't imagine that Valve or EA are losing money with this method.

The Wolfman

With game companies spontaneously exploding left and right, it seems to me like a gamble to buy into any "season passes". Like, what if Prototype 2 offered something like this? I'd be feeling pretty ripped off right about now. What's going to happen to that whole "55 free DLC" deal they had going for buying at launch, or did they already get all that out the door before they vanished?

L.A Noire is kind of another example. At least price wise it worked out that you saved money buying the Rockstar pass. But looking at the list, 5 missions were put out. Except that 4 were just the ol' dumb retailer preorder stuff. Only one was what I would technically call legitimate DLC, released after the fact. If I had bought that pass, it would have been with the general hope that I'd be getting a few more like that, not from the "Fuck you for not buying from our store" list.

thursdaynext

Honestly, I didn't even think about how successful Quantum Conundrum would be, and whether it would be capable of providing on the promise of the season pass before buying it. I'd already passed up the Rockstar Pass with Max Payne 3, the Gears of War pass, the Call of Duty pass, but I don't think I'll feel ripped it off if I end up spending...four dollars? Five dollars more for that QC season pass? I've spent more money on worse.

tyrannus

Couscous wrote: »

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-29/vivendi-said-to-plan-sale-of-stake-in-activision-blizzard.html?cmpid=yhoo

Vivendi SA (VIV), the media and telecommunications company that ousted its chief executive this week, plans to seek a buyer for its $8.1 billion stake in Activision Blizzard Inc. (ATVI), a person with knowledge of the situation said.

Should no buyer emerge for the 61 percent holding in the Santa Monica, California-based video-game publisher, Paris-based Vivendi plans to sell a partial stake on the open market, said the person, who declined to be named because the plans are private.

Vivendi Chairman Jean-Rene Fourtou is under pressure from investors to restructure the company and boost the stock price from a near nine-year low. Activision, maker of the “World of Warcraft” and “Call of Duty” titles, is among the easiest assets to sell since it is traded publicly.

...

What potential buyers have that much money?

leveraged buyouts?

DarkPrimus

The Wolfman wrote: »

With game companies spontaneously exploding left and right, it seems to me like a gamble to buy into any "season passes". Like, what if Prototype 2 offered something like this? I'd be feeling pretty ripped off right about now. What's going to happen to that whole "55 free DLC" deal they had going for buying at launch, or did they already get all that out the door before they vanished?

L.A Noire is kind of another example. At least price wise it worked out that you saved money buying the Rockstar pass. But looking at the list, 5 missions were put out. Except that 4 were just the ol' dumb retailer preorder stuff. Only one was what I would technically call legitimate DLC, released after the fact. If I had bought that pass, it would have been with the general hope that I'd be getting a few more like that, not from the "Fuck you for not buying from our store" list.

I don't know how you can label them "dumb" and somehow consider them beneath purchasing simply because they were also offered as pre-order incentives. They were full-fledged game missions. Apparently you'd prefer that they just never get played by anyone who didn't pre-order from four different retailers.

cloudeagle

Wait, QC has a season pass now? Huh. If there's a "smaller" game that has a season pass, I can't think of one.

The Wolfman

DarkPrimus wrote: »

The Wolfman wrote: »

With game companies spontaneously exploding left and right, it seems to me like a gamble to buy into any "season passes". Like, what if Prototype 2 offered something like this? I'd be feeling pretty ripped off right about now. What's going to happen to that whole "55 free DLC" deal they had going for buying at launch, or did they already get all that out the door before they vanished?

L.A Noire is kind of another example. At least price wise it worked out that you saved money buying the Rockstar pass. But looking at the list, 5 missions were put out. Except that 4 were just the ol' dumb retailer preorder stuff. Only one was what I would technically call legitimate DLC, released after the fact. If I had bought that pass, it would have been with the general hope that I'd be getting a few more like that, not from the "Fuck you for not buying from our store" list.

I don't know how you can label them "dumb" and somehow consider them beneath purchasing simply because they were also offered as pre-order incentives. They were full-fledged game missions. Apparently you'd prefer that they just never get played by anyone who didn't pre-order from four different retailers.

No, I would prefer that this stupid notion of retailer exclusive content to be flushed down the toilet like the bullshit that it is, and let me be free to choose which store I buy my product from, without being (initially) jacked out of the content.

They were good, full fledged missions. They just should have been in every copy, rather than granting me the privilege of buying them 2 months down the line.

Gandalf_the_Crazed

skeldare wrote: »

Couscous wrote: »

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-29/vivendi-said-to-plan-sale-of-stake-in-activision-blizzard.html?cmpid=yhoo

Vivendi SA (VIV), the media and telecommunications company that ousted its chief executive this week, plans to seek a buyer for its $8.1 billion stake in Activision Blizzard Inc. (ATVI), a person with knowledge of the situation said.

Should no buyer emerge for the 61 percent holding in the Santa Monica, California-based video-game publisher, Paris-based Vivendi plans to sell a partial stake on the open market, said the person, who declined to be named because the plans are private.

Vivendi Chairman Jean-Rene Fourtou is under pressure from investors to restructure the company and boost the stock price from a near nine-year low. Activision, maker of the “World of Warcraft” and “Call of Duty” titles, is among the easiest assets to sell since it is traded publicly.

...

What potential buyers have that much money?

Nintendo?

Turns out, Nintendo doesn't want or need third party support -- they're just going to buy all the things and every game will be first party. :P

Undead Scottsman

cloudeagle wrote: »

Wait, QC has a season pass now? Huh. If there's a "smaller" game that has a season pass, I can't think of one.

You can pay five bucks more for a special version that gives you the two upcoming DLC packs when they come out.

Werewolf2000ad

Aegeri wrote: »

There already is a game like that comic, made for parody purposes as well called Cow Clicker. Sadly the cows were taking by the rapture and aren't there anymore, but there is some kind of weird cube replacing it.

It was an oddly very successful parody, which probably shows the state that those kind of games are in.

From the news post to the comic:

we’re already getting pitches to make the game detailed in the strip, which is sorta like… dudes. I’m not sure you understand this one.

Zephiran

Gandalf_the_Crazed wrote: »

skeldare wrote: »

Couscous wrote: »

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-29/vivendi-said-to-plan-sale-of-stake-in-activision-blizzard.html?cmpid=yhoo

Vivendi SA (VIV), the media and telecommunications company that ousted its chief executive this week, plans to seek a buyer for its $8.1 billion stake in Activision Blizzard Inc. (ATVI), a person with knowledge of the situation said.

Should no buyer emerge for the 61 percent holding in the Santa Monica, California-based video-game publisher, Paris-based Vivendi plans to sell a partial stake on the open market, said the person, who declined to be named because the plans are private.

Vivendi Chairman Jean-Rene Fourtou is under pressure from investors to restructure the company and boost the stock price from a near nine-year low. Activision, maker of the “World of Warcraft” and “Call of Duty” titles, is among the easiest assets to sell since it is traded publicly.

...

What potential buyers have that much money?

Nintendo?

Turns out, Nintendo doesn't want or need third party support -- they're just going to buy all the things and every game will be first party. :P

I doubt they're gonna find a buyer for the whole package, not at the price they're wanting to sell it. There's probably not a single sane company in the world willing to drop that much cash in a shaky economy on anything. A small part though, I could see Nintendo acquiring in order to have some leverage for strongarming some Activision Blizzard games onto their new platform, if that would even be a viable strategy. There's a good few games coming from the A/B teams that I'd imagine Nintendo would want on the train without having to bother with the usual 3rd party uhm-ah-ing.