Hi! Welcome to the video game industry thread. Here we discuss things like sales figures, game development, studio closures, executive quotes, marketing and general business stuff. Also poop jokes. And frequent references to this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMSHvgaUWc8
And now, January's NPD numbers.
1. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (360, PS3, Wii, PC)**
2. Just Dance 3 (Wii, 360, PS3)
3. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (360, PS3, PC)**
4. NBA 2K12 (360, PS3, PSP, Wii, PS2, PC)
5. Battlefield 3 (360, PS3, PC)
6. Madden NFL 12 (360, PS3, Wii, PSP, PS2)**
7. Mario Kart 7 (3DS)
8. Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure (Wii, 3DS, 360, PS3, PC)**
9. Zumba Fitness 2 (Wii)
10. Saints Row: The Third (360, PS3, PC)**
Xbox 360 -- 270,000
Posts
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/40349/Sony_promotion_highlights_crossplatform_features_for_PS_Vita_launch_games.php
Remind me, are there games where you can play on one system and resume the same save on a different system yet?
Plus Nintendo made sure to announce that New Super Mario Bros 3DS was on the way. Things are looking pretty awesome on the 3DS front. I just hope Sony can turn this sinking ship around, as I want a Vita. As it stands I'll probably grab a PSP3000 at some point before they stop selling them.
Like was said, Nintendo had to get their big guns out plus drop the price to turn around the low sales of the 3DS. The Vita getting out MH will not do it by itself. They also need to drop the price (they won't) and get some games out that will sell the system. (MH would be a good start, but then, will people buy a new system and game when they already have the game for the 3DS, plus have MH4 to look forward to, also on the 3DS?)
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That's true, Vita's hitting just at the moment that the 3DS is going big guns. Given that Vita is selling pretty damn badly in Japan, it's frighteningly possible that profit-concerned game makers will jump ship on a moment's notice.
I agree with this, but as I said, that moment is after the Western launches, not before.
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Sony is really pushing crossplatform shit.
http://blog.eu.playstation.com/2012/02/16/try-ps-vitaps3-cross-play-content-for-one-price/
I think this would be applicable if the PSP didn't have such a tough time in the western market.
Ah, true. As someone who really fuckin' loved his PSP, I'm having a hard time being sold on the Vita because the software between them will be so similar this go-round.
That, and going into this next generation of hardware and consoles I'm trying to limit my spending so I don't end up with with more hardware & software than I have time to support like I did last time.
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Did the price drop do more for 3DS in Japan, or was it the trifecta? The fact that MH is in there does make it a little unfair, though.
I wish we had better US data.
Ah cool, thanks.
Something people forget is that when the PSP came out, there was an absolute flood of games for it. Far too many for a game reviewer person I know to keep up with. But those games didn't really sell, and so that flood turned into a drought pretty quick.
Publishers definitely make snap decisions, and it seems they're getting snappier.
When I read that I imagined Bobby Kotick looking at sales data on his Minority Report-esque holodesk, and then snapping his fingers:
"Make it so."
I got a little excited when I saw your ship.
I mean last one I found of him he thought he was subject to a conspiracy. Or at least got talked into it.
I realize these are men dealing with cultural and language barriers. Heck most tech and computer guys aren't naturally great at the ambush interview or presentation, period. Miyamoto tends to give a mediocre interview that reeks of press release where his displays aren't 'worked.' But he seems genuine at points and mostly tries to let his work speak. Title of the article aside he was pretty on point with the Forbes interview explaining his activities and decisions.
But still Inafune is in such a position that if anyone is close to him they should be keeping him from mic and cameras he either is coming off as crazy or actually going it. Neither I can assert perfectly. but he's in the position where he needs to avoid the press until he has some backing again and not let fans and press lead him on.
I guess this is prompted by a research session in response to TekkenxStreetfighter's Megaman
I finally got around to trying the demo and really, really enjoyed it, but the price seemed to drop very quickly here, did it get lost in the Xmas crush? Fare better on PC?
First world problems, man, I actally have a backlog of demos I'm trying to work through!
Yea, Sony definitely has an uphill battle ahead of them. Not only are they introducing an expensive piece of tech in a region that rejected another expensive piece of tech last year, but they have the mantra of the PSP to contend with, which didn't exactly set the US on fire, or even set a small spark.
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I think it charted, but the impression I get is that it didn't meet expectations.
Especially with this:
http://www.joystiq.com/2012/01/10/bethesda-confirms-layoffs-at-id-software-work-on-future-id-tit/
You and me both, I've got so many demos and trials that I keep meaning to play. Hell, if I find my way to liking half of them, I'll be half way through the next round of consoles before needing to buy one.
Actually, the PSP sold just fine in the US for several years. It's the software sales that bombed big-time since piracy was so huge on the system.
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Sorry, I should have specified PSP software, as this mantra could have an adverse effect on the Vita. The whole 'no games' thing.
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Are there any hard numbers that Piracy was the killer of the PSP? Custom Firmware was something that wasn't so easily to fuck around with, and if anything pirating DS games was easier.
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It's pretty much the only thing that explains why hardware sales were so great for so long and software sales were so shitty from pretty much day one onward. Seriously, the gulf between the two was staggering.
All signs pointed to it doing bad on both consoles and PC. It did poorly on the PC due to not working on any ati cards for weeks at least, and also it took a while for the PC to get any sort of graphics options as the makers thought it best to just set the graphics settings for you and not let you change them. It seemed to do poorly on consoles due to the fact that people seemed to draw comparisons to open world games like fallout when in fact the world was just used as a way to get between linear shooting levels, it was also quite short and had no replay value to speak of.
All that said I really enjoyed it, though its basically an 8-10 hour FPS with no replay value at all but I knew what it was before diving in and I managed to get most of my money back by selling it before the first price drop hit.
Just that software sales were much lower than you'd expect with the kind of install base the PSP had.
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Sony sure has had bad timing with all of this stuff in the last several years.
PSP software failed mostly because it didn't offer the games that people wanted to buy.
I've gotta ask - I've seen people defend the Vita's poor Japanese sales by claiming it is meant for the North American market. Now, is that fans of Sony projecting that wall of defense, or is that something Sony has stated as part of their battle plan? It makes absolutely no sense to me given that the PSP had a lot of love in Japan, though that seemed to be because of third party support (so, just like the actual Playstation home console).
Of course this happened before smartphones became huge and became the all-in-one media devices people apparently wanted.
I think the fairly low sales of the GoW PSP games though should be a warning to not expect extremely high sales on Uncharted.
... and the GoW PSP games are generally considered to be among the best on the system.
Right now Uncharted Vita's got an 80 on metacritic, significantly lower than the other Uncharted games. It's not appearing on a lot of "must-have Vita launch titles" shortlists.
Not to mention, well, we just got a mainline Uncharted game. Bad timing indeed.
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Only on metacritic can an 80/100 be considered bad.
Fixed. Movies don't have to deal with that kind of grade inflation, sadly enough.
1) remove metacritic from existence.
2) make it impossible for anyone to conceive of another site / system similar to metacritic, to prevent it being replaced.
3) make me forget metacritic existed, so I can be that much happier in life.
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I'm not sure how anyone could make the assertion that it was meant for NA. I do admit that the flagship title (Uncharted) was meant for the West, and they lacked really strong Japanese-aimed IPs, but that's on Sony not getting the developers rounded up, not an actual intention by the company.
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I write about video games and stuff. It is fun. Sometimes.
"This game gets a muffin from me, because it's short and sweet."
Personally I'd say Xenoblade for example is a large pizza. A very, very large pizza with a mountain of toppings.
I got a little excited when I saw your ship.
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I would say the 3DS's third-party support only seems strong in comparison to the PSVita. For some reason the line-up on the 3DS still hasn't jumped out at me in a "get this NOW" way. But all things considered, lined up against the Vita, it's like, well, we have a clear winner.
Here's how to solve everything wrong with review scores. No more early review copies, make reviewers go out and buy their games. No more free swag and parties for them either. Cut advertising on gaming sites to 1/3. Just flat out kill modern game reviewing and start from scratch. Companies should actively attack reviewers who have done a piss poor job at reviewing and are getting facts wrong about the game.
Kill'em all.
Anyway, however bad you think western PSP software sales were, they were worse than that. It's hard to imagine that piracy wasn't an issue.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)