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NPD Sales Results for December 2009

avatar299

Banned
speculawyer said:
Yes . . . piracy on the PSP is out of control and people are not big fans of 2D.
So you use that excuse for the PSP version, but not the DS version, despite piracy being bigger on the DS?
 

Firestorm

Member
speculawyer said:
It is a top 10 but really only 6 different games. That is kinda sad.
As mentioned, Steam. I know L4D2 beat MW2 a couple of times in the Steam Top 10 and in both cases the retail versions need to be activated through Steam. If the Top 10 includes games activated via voucher, maybe l4d2 just has a much higher Steam percentage?
 

boiled goose

good with gravy
speculawyer said:
No matter how much you hope, the Wii simply cannot run the CoD:MW, RAGE, Unreal, or other engines used in most M-rated games on the HD consoles. Sorry.


Yes . . . piracy on the PSP is out of control and people are not big fans of 2D.

Many multiplatform games sell better on the wii.
Shaun White, Tiger Woods, Guitar Hero, Most other music games, the Lego games, etc.

Piracy is huge on both Wii and DS as well. Psp's software selling problems in the west are due to more than just piracy...
 
speculawyer said:
No matter how much you hope, the Wii simply cannot run the CoD:MW, RAGE, Unreal, or other engines used in most M-rated games on the HD consoles. Sorry.

Both World at War Wii and Modern Warfare Reflex run on the 360/PS3 COD4 engine. Unreal Engine 3 can and does run on the freaking iPhone, it can run on the Wii.

Look up your facts dude. :lol
 

Jokeropia

Member
avatar299 and amtentori took care of the GTA issue.
speculawyer said:
No matter how much you hope, the Wii simply cannot run the CoD:MW, RAGE, Unreal, or other engines used in most M-rated games on the HD consoles. Sorry.
This has got nothing to do with the point.

FYI, I own a 360 and have no interest in MW2.
speculawyer said:
Is there any point here?
Yeah, I find your complaints about "Nintendo fanboy Jihadism" to be silly.
 
Lord Error said:
Amazon broke the launch date:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/94165-Amazon-Breaks-PS3-Slim-Launch-Date

Even if what you're saying is true as far as the launch date officially not existing, unless Slim did indeed start selling on 1st of August (it didn't, it was close to the end of August), and was counted into NPD from that date, you cannot claim with any certainty that what he was saying is untrue. It may have well outsold X360 just by a bit less than 150K, if you count from 25th of August, instead of 1st of September.

Everyone was selling them. How can you break a street date that never existed in the first place? Again, Sony said that stores should be in stock by the first week of September... not that it was the actual street date. Best Buy, Amazon, Walmart, and Gamestop were all selling them the second they arrived in the stores with permission from Sony before the September date.

http://gizmodo.com/5345241/some-best-buys-already-have-the-ps3-slim-confirmed-we-bought-one

You can read the comment two ways from the original I quoted. It can be either a total or month by month. On a month by month basis, the PS3 outsold the 360 3/5 months the slim was on sale... or since launch.
 
Jokeropia said:
avatar299 and amtentori took care of the GTA issue.
No they did not.

You posted:
The PSP version sold much worse and that's with an established GTA audience. There might be something more than the platform here.
Suggesting that there was something wrong with GTA CW in response to the DS being unfavorable for Mature games.

They posted:
Piracy is huge on both Wii and DS as well. Psp's software selling problems in the west are due to more than just piracy...
Suggesting that there is something wrong with PSP sales in general, not GTA.

And just because it makes an awesome quote:

This has got nothing to do with the point.

FYI, I own a 360 and have no interest in MW2.
 

donny2112

Member
Sho_Nuff82 said:
but what is your source? I'm finding nothing on google.

I believe we got a LTD update in Sept-06 that put it over 1.4m, and it was selling > 50K per month (the $20 price drop had doubled its sales by that point; Nintendo needs a Player's Choice line). 2.5m seems possible if it continued at that rate for a while.

Edit:
And it charted at #13 in March 2007.
 

Fularu

Banned
Lagspike_exe said:
All right, since you seem unable (or unwilling) to grasp the connection between Prologue and Full versions sales, I'll help you out.

Do you see how much GT4: Prologue sold? Now, check GT4. See the difference?

Sure, there are many other factors involved, and GT5 won't sell 1000% more than it's Prologue, but saying that GT5, one of the strongest series in the entire world, is going to sell 50% less than it's predecessor is simply laughable.

Can you give me one single name of a game on a Playstation platform that went from selling >10kk to around 5?

GT4 prologue mostly saw a japanese release and GT4 did 33% more sales than its prologue counterpart.

If we follow the same logic, GT5 should sell something like 5.5 to 6 million units.

/shrug
 

Cromat

Member
Rush2thestart said:
Both World at War Wii and Modern Warfare Reflex run on the 360/PS3 COD4 engine. Unreal Engine 3 can and does run on the freaking iPhone, it can run on the Wii.

Look up your facts dude. :lol

Why would you WANT Modern Warfare and games like that to be on the Wii?
They are better suited on the HD consoles.
Even if a Wii version does come out eventually it would still be inferior to the HD version. If you want to play these games, get a 360 or PS3.

IMO the Wii should be getting games that are possible only on the Wii (Trauma Center, Zack and Wiki etc), and of course the Nintendo games you can't play anywhere else.
There is no point in having a Wii port of MW2, Assasin's Creed 2, Dragon Age etc...

Before someone shoots me I own a Wii, and I enjoy it for the games that it has..... but there is no point in fighting to change reality so that the Wii gets the biggest games. It won't happen, and it SHOULD not happen, because some games are only as great as they are on the HD consoles. At this point, the situation is hardly going to change.
If you can't fight them (and why should you?) join them.
 
Fularu said:
GT4 prologue mostly saw a japanese release and GT4 did 33% more sales than its prologue counterpart.

If we follow the same logic, GT5 should sell something like 5.5 to 6 million units.

/shrug

Sales of games that come out first time on a next gen system usually sell better. It's hard to look at GT3 for this example since sales numbers are bloated because they are using pack in numbers in there too but you can see this example in other games.

The wild card is GT5P since there has never been a Prologue released in the States before this so I'm not sure how the game is going to be received. But I don't know if basing it on GT4 is a good example since it was the second title to come out for the system.
 

Eteric Rice

Member
Cromat said:
Why would you WANT Modern Warfare and games like that to be on the Wii?
They are better suited on the HD consoles.
Even if a Wii version does come out eventually it would still be inferior to the HD version. If you want to play these games, get a 360 or PS3.

IMO the Wii should be getting games that are possible only on the Wii (Trauma Center, Zack and Wiki etc), and of course the Nintendo games you can't play anywhere else.
There is no point in having a Wii port of MW2, Assasin's Creed 2, Dragon Age etc...

Before someone shoots me I own a Wii, and I enjoy it for the games that it has..... but there is no point in fighting to change reality so that the Wii gets the biggest games. It won't happen, and it SHOULD not happen, because some games are only as great as they are on the HD consoles. At this point, the situation is hardly going to change.
If you can't fight them (and why should you?) join them.

*shakes head*

There are a lot of people out in the world who don't give a shit about it being "inferior," they just want to play it. Why deny them that?
 

donny2112

Member
Cromat said:
Why would you WANT Modern Warfare and games like that to be on the Wii?

Controls. To be clear, I don't want a ton of FPSs on the Wii. However before 2009, there were like 4 non-WWII FPSs on the system in more than 2 years on the market. That's just ridiculous. With The Conduit and Modern Warfare Reflex out in 2009, the only thing I'm really wanting on the Wii now is more RE4-type games with RE4 Wii controls. That's part of why Dead Space: Extraction was such a disappointment to me when it was revealed to be a light-gun game. :(
 

Hero

Member
Cromat said:
Why would you WANT Modern Warfare and games like that to be on the Wii?
They are better suited on the HD consoles.
Even if a Wii version does come out eventually it would still be inferior to the HD version. If you want to play these games, get a 360 or PS3.

IMO the Wii should be getting games that are possible only on the Wii (Trauma Center, Zack and Wiki etc), and of course the Nintendo games you can't play anywhere else.
There is no point in having a Wii port of MW2, Assasin's Creed 2, Dragon Age etc...

Before someone shoots me I own a Wii, and I enjoy it for the games that it has..... but there is no point in fighting to change reality so that the Wii gets the biggest games. It won't happen, and it SHOULD not happen, because some games are only as great as they are on the HD consoles. At this point, the situation is hardly going to change.
If you can't fight them (and why should you?) join them.

The reality of the situation here is that the mentality among most third parties this generation has lead to a very dire situation for HD development. For every blockbuster mega-hit like Call of Duty on the HD systems there's probably a dozen games that bomb because they're "me too" shooters or what have you. It's only this generation that one bomb can lead to an entire studio closing down. (Factor 5 with Lair for example.)
 

Eteric Rice

Member
donny2112 said:
Controls. To be clear, I don't want a ton of FPSs on the Wii. However before 2009, there were like 4 non-WWII FPSs on the system in more than 2 years on the market. That's just ridiculous. With The Conduit and Modern Warfare Reflex out in 2009, the only thing I'm really wanting on the Wii now is more RE4-type games with RE4 Wii controls. That's part of why Dead Space: Extraction was such a disappointment to me when it was revealed to be a light-gun game. :(

I get the feeling you're about to be told to wait for the PS3 wand, etc.
 

Fularu

Banned
OldJadedGamer said:
Sales of games that come out first time on a next gen system usually sell better. It's hard to look at GT3 for this example since sales numbers are bloated because they are using pack in numbers in there too but you can see this example in other games.

The wild card is GT5P since there has never been a Prologue released in the States before this so I'm not sure how the game is going to be received. But I don't know if basing it on GT4 is a good example since it was the second title to come out for the system.

The thing is, as shown by GT4P/GT4, while there's always some overlap, most people are usually prety satisfied with the prologue product they bought and GT5P is hardly a small game (it's arguably bigger than the original GT1 on PSone)
 

ethelred

Member
Hero said:
The reality of the situation here is that the mentality among most third parties this generation has lead to a very dire situation for HD development. For every blockbuster mega-hit like Call of Duty on the HD systems there's probably a dozen games that bomb because they're "me too" shooters or what have you. It's only this generation that one bomb can lead to an entire studio closing down. (Factor 5 with Lair for example.)

The Factor 5 thing gets repeated a lot, but it simply isn't true. Factor 5 did not shut down because of Lair. Factor 5 did not lose money on Lair, as they weren't the publisher; Sony was. And Factor 5 was still getting publishing agreements after Lair (such as with Nintendo, of all companies). Factor 5 shut down because it formed a long-term agreement with a publisher (Brash Entertainment) and was developing games for them that they never got paid for when Brash Entertainment went under.

In short, the reasons Factor 5 went out of business had nothing to do with the prohibitive cost of HD development and the onerous risks of a single bomb -- it went out of business because of poor business decisions. It signed on with a risky and unreliable publisher that had just started up and had a really terrible strategy (focusing entirely on low profile licensed games). The same thing with Grin -- Grin went out of business because of really poor business strategies (overexpansion on the level of Krispy Kreme) and multiple project failures that made future publishing partners wary.
 

Cromat

Member
Eteric Rice said:
*shakes head*

There are a lot of people out in the world who don't give a shit about it being "inferior," they just want to play it. Why deny them that?

Is enjoying certain videogames games some sort of basic human right?
No one is 'denying' anything.
Those people bought the Wii for something and chances are (outside of this forum) they got it. I also enjoyed the Wii for what it has. The emphasis is on the 'has'.
People should buy a console for the games it already has, or definitely will have, not for the games that it COULD have.

If you want a game like Modern Warfare 2, get the damn system it's on, not the system it you think it SHOULD ALSO be on, because of things like marketshare and motion controls.

This is an entertainment industry, not some sort of sport. Spend your money on the products that deliver the kind of entertainment you want, not the product you support for whatever reason. This 'protest' is useless. You could argue that the 3rd party situation on the Wii is a dumb step by 3rd parties (it really is dumb), but at the end of the day, you want to play the damn games, don't you?
 

cakefoo

Member
OldJadedGamer said:
Bunch of semantics over the word "since"
And who'd you say cares about stuff like this???

I can solve the argument in a single post: since launch, the PS3 has outsold 360 by ~145k units. He wasn't clear enough for you to assume that he meant every individual NPD, so there's no reason to go on this many posts bickering about it if it's so simple to understand why the bickering is taking place.
 

Stumpokapow

listen to the mad man
ethelred said:
The Factor 5 thing gets repeated a lot, but it simply isn't true. Factor 5 did not shut down because of Lair. Factor 5 did not lose money on Lair, as they weren't the publisher; Sony was. And Factor 5 was still getting publishing agreements after Lair (such as with Nintendo, of all companies). Factor 5 shut down because it formed a long-term agreement with a publisher (Brash Entertainment) and was developing games for them that they never got paid for when Brash Entertainment went under.

In short, the reasons Factor 5 went out of business had nothing to do with the prohibitive cost of HD development and the onerous risks of a single bomb -- it went out of business because of poor business decisions. It signed on with a risky and unreliable publisher that had just started up and had a really terrible strategy (focusing entirely on low profile licensed games). The same thing with Grin -- Grin went out of business because of really poor business strategies (overexpansion on the level of Krispy Kreme) and multiple project failures that made future publishing partners wary.

Ultimately I think that anyone arguing on either side of the "single bomb" idea needs to provide historical perspective. Obviously the proposed causal mechanism of "larger teams means more expenses, so the cost of operations during downtime is more onerous. Milestone payments are also theoretically larger, so the actuarial cost of having an unforseen missed payment could be higher. Because costs are up while unit sales are relatively flat generally speaking, fewer developers should be getting post-release royalties. Major publishers have started studios in developing nations to take care of low-cost outsourcing, removing a source of possible supplemental income that many developers have historically relied on. " makes sense, but as you note in many of the closure cases we've seen there have been some pretty spectacular collapses that really go far beyond the single bomb.

So, I would ask... Are more developers closing now than prior to now? Are fewer developers getting post-release royalties than prior to now (this, obviously, would be a hard question to answer because I don't think many devs are going to open up about that)? Are publishers withholding or default on milestone payments more often than before? Who knows?

I kinda feel like listing a developer that closes and saying "That's the high risk HD model" might be kinda like going outside in a snowstorm and saying "Global warming? Hah!". Like, missing the forest for the trees, I guess?
 

No6

Member
Eteric Rice said:
I get the feeling you're about to be told to wait for the PS3 wand, etc.
It'd be easier to simply point at his predictions and excitement for "T-Con". When someone tells him to "wait for the PS3 wand" what he really hears is "wait for the PS3 wand and then find some inbred albino Deliverance hillbilly to rape you with it while screaming at you to squeal like a pig for betraying Lord Nintendo."

At this point in the generation anyone who was actually interested in playing those games and couldn't bring themselves to betray their holy corporation of choice would simply buy an off-the-shelf PC for cheap, because outside of a couple of very specific PS360 games, a midrange PC will rusty butt rape dildo megazord the equivalent PS360 port and words cannot describe the unspeakable horrors that PC would do to games released on the Wii, although I will add that "rusty butt rape dildo megazord' doesn't come close to what it would be like unless you added the words "loli" and "4chan" and stuck "-megazord" to the end of the first megazord.

Also, anyone using God Hand as a comparison for anything other than awesomeness is a god damn retard. Sadly, much like a retard, I doubt the retards who think that God Hand is a useful comparison will be able to understand how fucking stupid it is, and will instead start whining about IGN or some "coming NWO".
 
cakefoo said:
And who'd you say cares about stuff like this???

I can solve the argument in a single post: since launch, the PS3 has outsold 360 by ~145k units. He wasn't clear enough for you to assume that he meant every individual NPD, so there's no reason to go on this many posts bickering about it if it's so simple to understand why the bickering is taking place.

The reason there were so many posts is because there was some dispute (incorrectly) when people were misinformed that the slim didn't launch until September 1st when in fact there was never an official date and the system started to be sold a week before the end of the month of August.
 

legend166

Member
No6 said:
It'd be easier to simply point at his predictions and excitement for "T-Con". When someone tells him to "wait for the PS3 wand" what he really hears is "wait for the PS3 wand and then find some inbred albino Deliverance hillbilly to rape you with it while screaming at you to squeal like a pig for betraying Lord Nintendo."

At this point in the generation anyone who was actually interested in playing those games and couldn't bring themselves to betray their holy corporation of choice would simply buy an off-the-shelf PC for cheap, because outside of a couple of very specific PS360 games, a midrange PC will rusty butt rape dildo megazord the equivalent PS360 port and words cannot describe the unspeakable horrors that PC would do to games released on the Wii, although I will add that "rusty butt rape dildo megazord' doesn't come close to what it would be like unless you added the words "loli" and "4chan" and stuck "-megazord" to the end of the first megazord.

Also, anyone using God Hand as a comparison for anything other than awesomeness is a god damn retard. Sadly, much like a retard, I doubt the retards who think that God Hand is a useful comparison will be able to understand how fucking stupid it is, and will instead start whining about IGN or some "coming NWO".


Your obsession with rape is pretty strange. This isn't the first time you've made a post like this.

Did someone do something to you when you were a child?
 

Eteric Rice

Member
Cromat said:
Is enjoying certain videogames games some sort of basic human right?
No one is 'denying' anything.
Those people bought the Wii for something and chances are (outside of this forum) they got it. I also enjoyed the Wii for what it has. The emphasis is on the 'has'.
People should buy a console for the games it already has, or definitely will have, not for the games that it COULD have.

If you want a game like Modern Warfare 2, get the damn system it's on, not the system it you think it SHOULD ALSO be on, because of things like marketshare and motion controls.

This is an entertainment industry, not some sort of sport. Spend your money on the products that deliver the kind of entertainment you want, not the product you support for whatever reason. This 'protest' is useless. You could argue that the 3rd party situation on the Wii is a dumb step by 3rd parties (it really is dumb), but at the end of the day, you want to play the damn games, don't you?


I'm just saying that if people want to play an inferior version on the Wii, stop bitching about them wanting it. A lot of people don't really care about HD or the online.

They might not get it, but they can bitch about it.

And honestly I stopped buying Activision games because of that CEO of theirs, so it's not my problem.
 

jcm

Member
OldJadedGamer said:
The reason there were so many posts is because there was some dispute (incorrectly) when people were misinformed that the slim didn't launch until September 1st when in fact there was never an official date and the system started to be sold a week before the end of the month of August.

You're being silly about it though. August included 3 days of spotty availability after 25 days of slow sales due to widespread knowledge of the upcoming price cut and hardware refresh. Counting it in this manner doesn't make any sense at all. The fact is, since the first full month of slim availability, the PS3 has outsold the 360 in the US. Whether it can continue that performance is of course an open question. Personally, I think the 360 will outsell the PS3 in the US for 2010.
 
speculawyer said:
Durrr. I was not correcting his grammar. I was pointing out that they made one DS game in the past and that I doubt they are planning any additional games considering how that very high quality game sold.

:lol My bad, then, sorry.

speculawyer said:
What is the point of this jihad beyond Nintendo fanboyism? If you want really good M-rated games, pick up a PS3 or 360. You can get 360s for less than $200.

I've had both since launch; it's not fanboyism. And sure, they're both bursting at the seams with M-rated games.
It's just that the few (and mostly not great) 1st- and 3rd-person shooters we've had on the Wii, I've really enjoyed due to the excellent controls. It's not M-rated games I want, necessarily, just good pointer control-based games, like shooters. I'd love to see some more 2D shooters, too, like Geometry Wars, but in other genres like side-scrollers or top-scrollers that use the pointer. These genres have no substitutes on the PS3 or 360; those can only do the traditional versions of these game types. Maybe these will happen on the PS3 once it has it's clone controls, or on future systems, which is fine. But right now, I'd like more on the Wii.
 

Mario

Sidhe / PikPok
Stumpokapow said:
So, I would ask... Are more developers closing now than prior to now?

The past two years, I think, have seen a higher rate of developer closures than any time in the previous decade.

Are fewer developers getting post-release royalties than prior to now (this, obviously, would be a hard question to answer because I don't think many devs are going to open up about that)?

Hard to say. I don't think most developers saw meaningful royalties in previous generations anyway. It has always been challenging to earn out on the dev budget advance, and in the current climate of crowded retail it has been even harder. I suspect with diversification into smaller games and digital distribution more developers have passive revenue streams than previously which is good.

What is certainly apparent is pressure to cut margins on development. If you combine that with there not being a lot of dev contracts around, it makes it easier to understand why a lot of studios haven't made it and a lot are on the brink.



Are publishers withholding or default on milestone payments more often than before?

In general, I don't think so, but I have seen a trend to try and backend more money to milestones towards the end. That lessens the risk for publishers and raises it for devs, not to mention making mid project cancellations especially painful.
 

Alcibiades

Member
Nintendo fanboyism has nothing to do with the fact that 3rd parties would benefit by bringing their AAA, blockbuster games to Wii.

Would Nintendo fanboys appreciate it and jump in? Yeah no doubt some of us would give games like Dead Space, MGS4, RE5, etc... a chance (all that said I have a 360 in my possession) on the Wii if they were released. But his is a SALES THREAD - not a personal preference thread.

Telling the Wii audience to buy a 360/PS3 is one of the worst 3rd-party strategies I've heard suggested here. :lol

We have sales evidence that M-rated, hardcore properties can succeed on Wii. Give the Wii mainline, flagship titles from 3rd parties with lots of advertising (like with World at War) and you'll find success on the system. Even if not 360/PS3 level success - why leave money on the table?
 

test_account

XP-39C²
I read an article where it said that Microsoft had said that 10 million Xbox 360 consoles were sold in North America in 2009, but the NPD numbers for 2009 says that 4.7 million Xbox 360 consoles were sold in North America in 2009:

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/37166/Confusion-over-360-sales-numbers

Did Microsoft clearify this, if it was a mistake or if they ment something else?

Maybe this has already been answered, but i havnt read any of the other posts in this thread (sorry for not wanting to read through about 1980 posts to find the answer :)).
 
Alcibiades said:
Telling the Wii audience to buy a 360/PS3 is one of the worst 3rd-party strategies I've heard suggested here. :lol
Stand back.

We have sales evidence that M-rated, hardcore properties can succeed on Wii. Give the Wii mainline, flagship titles from 3rd parties with lots of advertising (like with World at War) and you'll find success on the system. Even if not 360/PS3 level success - why leave money on the table?
Because leaving adopters dissatisfied with a Nintendo console is part of an elaborate long-term strategy to funnel future gaming interest to less competitive grounds. They are content to let Nintendo grow the gaming audience knowing it will eventually disperse to other brands when Nintendo fails to satisfy on it's own.
 

Alcibiades

Member
Son of Godzilla said:
Because leaving adopters dissatisfied with a Nintendo console is part of an elaborate long-term strategy to funnel future gaming interest to less competitive grounds. They are content to let Nintendo grow the gaming audience knowing it will eventually disperse to other brands when Nintendo fails to satisfy on it's own.
I can't tell if you're serious but I don't think anybody sane believes that.

If you see an opportunity you can't wait 5 years and assume things are going to go according to convention (read: Nintendo's expanded audience will all go hardcore after a few years).

The smart thing to do is to seize the "moment" (this generation) and do what you can with it. I think even most 3rd parties realize this because they have been "trying" on the Wii - it's just that they've been stupid about their approach.

They've made terrible assumptions about who the audience is and aren't willing to spend money to make money. Nintendo doesn't do either of these no matter what comes out of their mouths. All their talk about expanded audience and making gaming more accessible didn't stop them from spending the necessary amount for hardcore/traditional games like Smash Bros., Mario Kart, and Metroid.

Sure Nintendo talks a good casual game - but it's not like they are canceling their mainline Mario, Zelda, and Metroid games or turning those franchises into low-budget spinoffs.
 

AniHawk

Member
Son of Godzilla said:
Because leaving adopters dissatisfied with a Nintendo console is part of an elaborate long-term strategy to funnel future gaming interest to less competitive grounds. They are content to let Nintendo grow the gaming audience knowing it will eventually disperse to other brands when Nintendo fails to satisfy on it's own.

If history's taught us anything, it's that western publishers are short term thinkers.
 

jvm

Gamasutra.
test_account said:
I read an article where it said that Microsoft had said that 10 million Xbox 360 consoles were sold in North America in 2009, but the NPD numbers for 2009 says that 4.7 million Xbox 360 consoles were sold in North America in 2009:

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/37166/Confusion-over-360-sales-numbers

Did Microsoft clearify this, if it was a mistake or if they ment something else?

Maybe this has already been answered, but i havnt read any of the other posts in this thread (sorry for not wanting to read through about 1980 posts to find the answer :)).
Microsoft screwed up, sent out a correction. I suspect not everyone went back and fixed their news items. (I saw the correction via Gamasutra, and I believe it had been corrected in the news item prior to that because the mistake was obvious. But I wasn't involved directly, so YMMV.)
 

cakefoo

Member
OldJadedGamer said:
The reason there were so many posts is because there was some dispute (incorrectly) when people were misinformed that the slim didn't launch until September 1st when in fact there was never an official date and the system started to be sold a week before the end of the month of August.
I'm talking about the back-and-forth about whether the guy meant individual months, or the past 5 months added together. Just ask him for clarification instead of assuming he meant the one that makes him incorrect. There's no logical reason to assume he meant the individual months- it would be more logical to assume that when a poster speaks, he speaks informed, rather than misinformed.
 

test_account

XP-39C²
jvm said:
Microsoft screwed up, sent out a correction. I suspect not everyone went back and fixed their news items. (I saw the correction via Gamasutra, and I believe it had been corrected in the news item prior to that because the mistake was obvious. But I wasn't involved directly, so YMMV.)
Ah ok. Do you know if Microsoft gave any reason for the mistake or was it just an honest mistake? Thanks for the info! :)
 
cakefoo said:
I'm talking about the back-and-forth about whether the guy meant individual months, or the past 5 months added together. Just ask him for clarification instead of assuming he meant the one that makes him incorrect. There's no logical reason to assume he meant the individual months- it would be more logical to assume that when a poster speaks, he speaks informed, rather than misinformed.

He's a Junior, they are all misinformed by default ;)
 

Dragmire

Member
Cromat said:
Why would you WANT Modern Warfare and games like that to be on the Wii?
I love the FPS genre on the Wii, and I really like playing it with the Zapper. It made the single player in World at War far more interesting to me. It was just a more active, unique experience. But I don't plan on getting Modern Warfare 2 on Wii just because it's an overpriced, late port.

I feel like early on, people really wanted to see what the Wii did for the FPS genre. But we still haven't seen much in that category. Red Steel was the first and only original game to do that for, what, years? People didn't seem to like The Conduit. Put good FPSs on the Wii, that are made for the Wii, and they'll sell. I keep wondering why DS has gotten more original, good FPS since Wii came out (Renegade Kid's Dementium and Moon and probably others).
 

Brofist

Member
Cromat said:
Is enjoying certain videogames games some sort of basic human right?
No one is 'denying' anything.
Those people bought the Wii for something and chances are (outside of this forum) they got it. I also enjoyed the Wii for what it has. The emphasis is on the 'has'.
People should buy a console for the games it already has, or definitely will have, not for the games that it COULD have.

If you want a game like Modern Warfare 2, get the damn system it's on, not the system it you think it SHOULD ALSO be on, because of things like marketshare and motion controls.

This is an entertainment industry, not some sort of sport. Spend your money on the products that deliver the kind of entertainment you want, not the product you support for whatever reason. This 'protest' is useless. You could argue that the 3rd party situation on the Wii is a dumb step by 3rd parties (it really is dumb), but at the end of the day, you want to play the damn games, don't you?


That is debatable, I don't get the impression that any of these complainers actually want to play said games.
 

Hero

Member
ethelred said:
The Factor 5 thing gets repeated a lot, but it simply isn't true. Factor 5 did not shut down because of Lair. Factor 5 did not lose money on Lair, as they weren't the publisher; Sony was. And Factor 5 was still getting publishing agreements after Lair (such as with Nintendo, of all companies). Factor 5 shut down because it formed a long-term agreement with a publisher (Brash Entertainment) and was developing games for them that they never got paid for when Brash Entertainment went under.

In short, the reasons Factor 5 went out of business had nothing to do with the prohibitive cost of HD development and the onerous risks of a single bomb -- it went out of business because of poor business decisions. It signed on with a risky and unreliable publisher that had just started up and had a really terrible strategy (focusing entirely on low profile licensed games). The same thing with Grin -- Grin went out of business because of really poor business strategies (overexpansion on the level of Krispy Kreme) and multiple project failures that made future publishing partners wary.

My previous post did over-generalize the situation with Factor 5 and the problem did stem from piss poor business/management decisions. However with the failure of Lair I'm sure other publishers were hesitant to trust Factor 5 with their game development. After all, they were big supporters of the Gamecube after all. So it was wrong of me to cite Lair as a specific, direct reason for Factor 5's closure but one that was on the top of my head.

But this just further proves the underlining point in most of the discussion of the last few pages that third parties continue to be run by people who don't understand how to operate in the industry anymore. And it's just sad because the people who work at these companies who have a passion for our hobby are the ones being laid off while the big wigs who don't care how good the end product is as long as it puts money in the bank. But it seems like that methodology isn't working too great anymore for most devs/publishers.
 

Ceebs

Member
Firestorm said:
2009 Top 10 Retail PC Game Software Titles, Sorted By Units
1. The Sims 3 - The Sims Studio / June 2009
2. World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King - Blizzard / Nov. 2008
3. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe - Maxis / April 2008
4. World of Warcraft: Battle Chest - Blizzard / September 2007
5. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 - Infinity Ward / Nov. 2009
6. World of Warcraft - Blizzard / November 2004
7. The Sims 3: World Adventures Exp. - The Sims Studio / Nov. 2009
8. Spore - Maxis / September 2008
9. Dragon Age: Origins - BioWare / October 2009
10. Empire: Total War - Creative Assembly / March 2009

http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/61955

2 things I see as interesting about this list.

1. Other than Spore, all of those games require a pretty modern PC to run, showing that it's not a matter of barrier of entry in the PC space.

2. It shows that the upper tier of PC sales are more like first party Wii titles. They may not post huge numbers up front, but the do have an extremely long tail.

To me it seems that PC sales will amount to decent numbers over time, but they need just that, time to sell. In this case digital distribution is a godsend since they are not having to put up huge numbers up front to keep their shelf space in stores so that they can eventually reach decent sales figures.
 
Ceebs said:
2 things I see as interesting about this list.

1. Other than Spore, all of those games require a pretty modern PC to run, showing that it's not a matter of barrier of entry in the PC space.

2. It shows that the upper tier of PC sales are more like first party Wii titles. They may not post huge numbers up front, but the do have an extremely long tail.

To me it seems that PC sales will amount to decent numbers over time, but they need just that, time to sell. In this case digital distribution is a godsend since they are not having to put up huge numbers up front to keep their shelf space in stores so that they can eventually reach decent sales figures.
WOW and Sims don't require a modern PC at all, MW2 isn't pushing any boundaries, not sure on Dragon Age or E:TW but RPGs and Strategy are usually less GPU focused and more cpu/ram.
 

Arnie

Member
Lagspike_exe said:
5 million? :lol



Basically, you're predicting more than 50% drop from the last game and something like 10 millions less than the first PS2 Gran Turismo? :lol
Why the condescending "lol" emoticon. Yes I predict 5 million sales. Let me divulge.

Firstly, I'm not including bundles. Every Gran Turismo game is bundled to hell, I even bought my PS3 in the Prologue bundle despite knowing the game wasn't for me, simply because it was the same price. Secondly I also believe the racing sim genre isn't as popular as it was in the PS2 era, simply because of the ascendance of other genres such as first person shooters. Finally I think that although in other cases the Prologue games have been a testbed in terms of sales, I believe this time that Prologue sales will be some way indicative of the final product. It has the Gran Turismo name on it, it was sold at half the standard RRP, and it was and still is a graphical showcase for the system.

I honestly don't expect there to be another 5 million PS3 owners that I am missing out, who didn't buy Prologue but are desperately waiting for 5.

I may be wrong but that is my prediction.
 
Arnie said:
Why the condescending "lol" emoticon. Yes I predict 5 million sales. Let me divulge.

Firstly, I'm not including bundles. Every Gran Turismo game is bundled to hell, I even bought my PS3 in the Prologue bundle despite knowing the game wasn't for me, simply because it was the same price. Secondly I also believe the racing sim genre isn't as popular as it was in the PS2 era, simply because of the ascendance of other genres such as first person shooters. Finally I think that although in other cases the Prologue games have been a testbed in terms of sales, I believe this time that Prologue sales will be some way indicative of the final product. It has the Gran Turismo name on it, it was sold at half the standard RRP, and it was and still is a graphical showcase for the system.

I honestly don't expect there to be another 5 million PS3 owners that I am missing out, who didn't buy Prologue but are desperately waiting for 5.

I may be wrong but that is my prediction.
You really think there aren't people who skipped Prologue waiting for the real thing? Every retailer you'd go to when Prologue launched would tell you it wasn't the real thing. I'd say there is a huge bevy of people who didn't touch Prologue but will go in for GT5. Myself included.
 
speculawyer said:
No matter how much you hope, the Wii simply cannot run the CoD:MW, RAGE, Unreal, or other engines used in most M-rated games on the HD consoles. Sorry.
How did Reflex came to be then? Magic?

speculawyer said:
Yes . . . piracy on the PSP is out of control and people are not big fans of 2D.
Piracy? Why did the other GTAs sell on the PSP then? Not to mention people do love 2D (look at the the top game in this NPD).
 

Arnie

Member
Chuck Norris said:
You really think there aren't people who skipped Prologue waiting for the real thing? Every retailer you'd go to when Prologue launched would tell you it wasn't the real thing. I'd say there is a huge bevy of people who didn't touch Prologue but will go in for GT5. Myself included.
Like I say, maybe I'm wrong, but my prediction is around the 5 million mark. Whatever it sells, it will post huge numbers however I think it will fall just short of PS2 numbers for obvious reasons such as install base and market change.
 

[Nintex]

Member
Arnie said:
Like I say, maybe I'm wrong, but my prediction is around the 5 million mark. Whatever it sells, it will post huge numbers however I think it will fall just short of PS2 numbers for obvious reasons such as install base and market change.
I think it'll sell less than other GT games because the racing genre(outside of Mario Kart Wii) has seen a sharp decline in sales for a while.
 

mclem

Member
Cromat said:
Why would you WANT Modern Warfare and games like that to be on the Wii?
They are better suited on the HD consoles.
Even if a Wii version does come out eventually it would still be inferior to the HD version. If you want to play these games, get a 360 or PS3.

I dislike the attitude that it's an incontrovertible fact that "better graphics" trumps "better controls". I have all three systems, and the shooter I have enjoyed most - by *far* - has been the rerelease of Resident Evil 4 on the Wii. Everything else is just a bit, well, tired, gunplay-by-numbers. Count me as another person disapponted that we didn't see anyone take the opportunity to build on that.

I'm looking forward to the rerelease of RE5 with PS3 wand support, I've a lot of hope that that'll be the first HD shooter I truly love playing.

(NB: I should add that I liked Bioshock a lot, too, although for ambience; the gameplay got pretty tiresome)
 
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