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DmC Devil May Cry Ships 1 Million Copies; Forecast Lowered To 1.2 Million

Didn't buy and happy that I didn't.
 
Hematocryal said:
I'm a hater of hack n' slash but I'm an advocate of diversity and its kind of unsettling this games not selling well. Something happened to the market and while I'm not sure exactly what it was, its certainly not for the good. This is good quality too. It hasn't been out all that long though, so hopefully it looks up.
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Yeah, it is disappointing. I think it's interesting to think about, though.

Leading into this generation, DMC was still very much considered a top tier title, a franchise that was hugely relevant for Sony in the generation prior. People were excited for DMC4 the way they were excited for all the new "AAA" sequels - the Metal Gears and Grand Theft Autos.

The most distinct shift in the market since then is that we've basically seen the birth of a much more effective "blockbuster game" - one that takes a surface theme and fully devotes itself to emulating it. Whereas Metal Gear Solid was once considered "cinematic", it is now a staggeringly VIDEO GAMEY game compared to the mechanics of what's considered a cinematic game today. Mechanics are now often contextual to the story they're trying to tell, or the environment the game is trying to put you in.

Whereas DMC once passed for a "game where you punch guys", it's now kind of this overly complicated set of systems that bear little resemblance to the notion of beating people up. Batman or Sleeping Dogs, meanwhile, do a far better job of selling the "fighting fantasy". Gamers who first and foremost wanted a "playable kung fu movie" now have much more accommodating alternatives.

I think the style of video games that still try to develop satisfying and rewarding underlying systems are becoming increasingly impossible to sell to a general audience, an audience whose interest in a game is based on context. The actions it ostensibly aims to emulate. It just doesn't make sense to large parts of the audience that you need button combinations when the point of the game is the end result - the punching of a thing. Looking at a trailer for a game, the trailer communicates why you should care about the character, and it establishes a role that the player gets to inhabit. At that point it's hard to explain why this BADASS ASSASSIN - or whatever the game entails - needs to memorise combos.

I have a friend that continually laments the fact that fighting games let you air juggle people, because it's not realistic. He wants clothes to rip, bruises to appear, more context sensitive actions in the environment, more spectacle. He's played fighting games since the mid 90s because they're his gateway to being in a kung fu movie, or perhaps being in a real fight, sans the bit where you lose and your face hurts.

It's a broad generalisation, and I hope that much is understood about my wrestling this entire topic - but today's most successful games are the ones that effectively sell power fantasies with broad, strong thematic context. Games where intent translates directly into actions, with little fuss. The divide between the games that fully commit to that, and the ones that merely drape their elaborate systems in surface context, has grown very tangible. Whereas the was overlap between the two when all games were very video gamey, now there's a distinct difference that I believe parts the audience.


I think it's inevitable as we move forward that the divide between systems driven and context driven games increases further. Padding your video gamey levels with X hours of cutscenes won't sell a VIDEO GAME to an audience that is sold on context. Or rather, it may perhaps sell, but not necessarily connect with them. I'm hoping companies behind this type of games realise this and stop trying to pit their franchises against the five mega hits that keep hogging the market, and in desperate attempts to inch nearer in sales sacrifice the essence of what their thing is *about*. When a game like Devil May Cry can get by on selling to the people that actually enjoy it on its own terms, we'll have a way cooler video game market.

And I sound like I harp on context driven games. I don't. I enjoy pretty much any type of game, I just think expectations on sales should change accordingly and that measures should be taken to accommodate those expectations.
 
Really, the fact DmC got it's arse handed to it by Ni no kuni in the UK charts just gives me so much faith for this medium and its user base.
 
Conan-san said:
Really, the fact DmC got it's arse handed to it by Ni no kuni in the UK charts just gives me so much faith for this medium and its user base.
Click to expand...

DmC is a good game though. It just proves that Devil May Cry brand has lost its appeal and impact over the years it has been absent. I know people want to blame Ninja Theory for this, but their responsibility and obligation is to make a quality game in a timely manner.
 
DR2K said:
DmC is a good game though. It just proves that Devil May Cry brand has lost its appeal and impact over the years it has been absent. I know people want to blame Ninja Theory for this, but their responsibility and obligation is to make a quality game in a timely manner.
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Or maybe, just maybe, people simply weren't all that interested in how DmC did things?
 
Does this number include PC/Steam sales? Was going to pick it up once I'm done with Transformed and The Cave.

From the sounds of things it's a good game and definitely NT's best, but probably would've been better off both in terms of fan reception and overall quality if it was its own thing and not a DMC game. Is this a fair assessment?
 
Did my part by not buying it.

now give us a proper DMC5 that lives up to DMC3's greatness.


Feel sorta sad for NT, 3 bombs in a row, how much longer can they hold on?
 
Retro_ said:
I don't know I'm not sure how you could draw that conclusion
Click to expand...
Aside from the issue of lack of interest from fans of the original series (or worst case scenario, outright hostility prompted by the game's terrible PR), the whole idea with this reboot was to expand the audience to the point where enough people who had no interest in the franchise before made up the difference in sales, correct? Selling enough to make the game a success, even with sales projections being lower than that of DMC4?

Yet, while they caught the attention of at least some consumers who preferred this style and tone, it clearly wasn't anywhere near enough to justify this change in direction, leading it to sell worse than every previous game in the series so far. I concede that I doubt that a theoretical DMC5 would have done DMC4's numbers, but it just seems like a convenient excuse to blame the length of the series' absence for such a massive drop in business.

That said, I will admit that I found it strange that they didn't even bother with a TV ad campaign for the game in the US, seeing as every game in the original series had one. Lack of awareness certainly wouldn't have helped DmC's chances, either (they pretty much saved that marketing blitz for the internet).

EDIT: And my sarcasm detector is officially broken.

kurahador said:
Yet RE: Ops Raccoon City sold tons.
Click to expand...
Resident Evil is a much bigger franchise than Devil May Cry (pretty much always has been). It's quite astonishing that a legitimately terrible game like ORC sold as well as it did, but it can also be noted that, unlike DmC, it had a televised ad campaign. Furthermore, though not an especially popular take with fans of RE, it was never a reboot created to replace the old series, with two actual canonical RE games released the same year. Revelations didn't sell all that well as a 3DS exclusive, but RE6 sold considerably better than ORC, even with bad word of mouth eventually dragging things down.

Should Capcom actually be serious about coexistence of DmC and OG DMC (which I have every doubt was anything more than PR), or even were to actually make just a DMC5, it would be easier to gauge whether weakened brand power has anything to do with Devil May Cry's situation. Personally, I see it as more likely that we'll just get nothing else instead.
 
Korigama said:
Aside from the issue of lack of interest from fans of the original series (or worst case scenario, outright hostility prompted by the game's terrible PR), the whole idea with this reboot was to expand the audience to the point where enough people who had no interest in the franchise before made up the difference in sales, correct? Selling enough to make the game a success, even with sales projections being lower than that of DMC4?

Yet, while they caught the attention of at least some consumers who preferred this style and tone, it clearly wasn't anywhere near enough to justify this change in direction, leading it to sell worse than every previous game in the series so far. I concede that I doubt that a theoretical DMC5 would have done DMC4's numbers, but it just seems like a convenient excuse to blame the length of the series' absence for such a massive drop in business.

That said, I will admit that I found it strange that they didn't even bother with a TV ad campaign for the game in the US, seeing as every game in the original series had one. Lack of awareness certainly wouldn't have helped DmC's chances, either (they pretty much saved that marketing blitz for the internet).
.
Click to expand...

sarcasm internet etc. lol
 
Even if it makes me an ass i am glad dmc did not sale well.
I think the game is overrated and the reviews that rated the game a 8,9 or 10 are
insane. Well if i look at the scores of the other Ninja Theory games i guess it fits that reviewers
lose their fucking minds over Ninja Theory I just don’t get why. Its a average game that bombards you half of the game time with bad cutscenes even while in combat and that in a action game no less. What a cinematic experience :X The only hope now is Bloody Palace dont mess it up capcpom/ Ninja Theory!
 
Where are those DmC fans claiming victory and who said we should eat our crow? Here is where my former and now your beloved franchise sits, in sales failure which is where we expected it would end up. You don't tell fans of a niche franchise that depended on its fans to stay alive to fuck off and expect to make up the difference with people who didn't care about said franchise for almost a decade. Capcom has no one to blame but themselves for this. But this is Capcom so I expect to get Mega Man'd.
 
Well, that sucks. But not too surprising.

Regardless on whether one likes the game or not, I don't think people should wish for them to fail though. It's not like it was a complete pile of poop.
 
SimonM7 said:
Yeah, it is disappointing. I think it's interesting to think about, though.

Leading into this generation, DMC was still very much considered a top tier title, a franchise that was hugely relevant for Sony in the generation prior. People were excited for DMC4 the way they were excited for all the new "AAA" sequels - the Metal Gears and Grand Theft Autos.

The most distinct shift in the market since then is that we've basically seen the birth of a much more effective "blockbuster game" - one that takes a surface theme and fully devotes itself to emulating it. Whereas Metal Gear Solid was once considered "cinematic", it is now a staggeringly VIDEO GAMEY game compared to the mechanics of what's considered a cinematic game today. Mechanics are now often contextual to the story they're trying to tell, or the environment the game is trying to put you in.

Whereas DMC once passed for a "game where you punch guys", it's now kind of this overly complicated set of systems that bear little resemblance to the notion of beating people up. Batman or Sleeping Dogs, meanwhile, do a far better job of selling the "fighting fantasy". Gamers who first and foremost wanted a "playable kung fu movie" now have much more accommodating alternatives.

I think the style of video games that still try to develop satisfying and rewarding underlying systems are becoming increasingly impossible to sell to a general audience, an audience whose interest in a game is based on context. The actions it ostensibly aims to emulate. It just doesn't make sense to large parts of the audience that you need button combinations when the point of the game is the end result - the punching of a thing. Looking at a trailer for a game, the trailer communicates why you should care about the character, and it establishes a role that the player gets to inhabit. At that point it's hard to explain why this BADASS ASSASSIN - or whatever the game entails - needs to memorise combos.

I have a friend that continually laments the fact that fighting games let you air juggle people, because it's not realistic. He wants clothes to rip, bruises to appear, more context sensitive actions in the environment, more spectacle. He's played fighting games since the mid 90s because they're his gateway to being in a kung fu movie, or perhaps being in a real fight, sans the bit where you lose and your face hurts.

It's a broad generalisation, and I hope that much is understood about my wrestling this entire topic - but today's most successful games are the ones that effectively sell power fantasies with broad, strong thematic context. Games where intent translates directly into actions, with little fuss. The divide between the games that fully commit to that, and the ones that merely drape their elaborate systems in surface context, has grown very tangible. Whereas the was overlap between the two when all games were very video gamey, now there's a distinct difference that I believe parts the audience.


I think it's inevitable as we move forward that the divide between systems driven and context driven games increases further. Padding your video gamey levels with X hours of cutscenes won't sell a VIDEO GAME to an audience that is sold on context. Or rather, it may perhaps sell, but not necessarily connect with them. I'm hoping companies behind this type of games realise this and stop trying to pit their franchises against the five mega hits that keep hogging the market, and in desperate attempts to inch nearer in sales sacrifice the essence of what their thing is *about*. When a game like Devil May Cry can get by on selling to the people that actually enjoy it on its own terms, we'll have a way cooler video game market.

And I sound like I harp on context driven games. I don't. I enjoy pretty much any type of game, I just think expectations on sales should change accordingly and that measures should be taken to accommodate those expectations.
Click to expand...

Interesting and insightful perspective. An open world kung fu brawler like the ones you mentioned is easier to sell and are refreshing in this generation than a game with swords and guns that even mediocre titles like Neverdead do. I don't know if it being by Ninja Theory makes as much a difference, but that's hypothetical.

How was the marketing of DmC? I haven't seen any posters or trailers in other places like the cinema.
 
Korigama said:
Aside from the issue of lack of interest from fans of the original series (or worst case scenario, outright hostility prompted by the game's terrible PR), the whole idea with this reboot was to expand the audience to the point where enough people who had no interest in the franchise before made up the difference in sales, correct? Selling enough to make the game a success, even with sales projections being lower than that of DMC4?

Yet, while they caught the attention of at least some consumers who preferred this style and tone, it clearly wasn't anywhere near enough to justify this change in direction, leading it to sell worse than every previous game in the series so far. I concede that I doubt that a theoretical DMC5 would have done DMC4's numbers, but it just seems like a convenient excuse to blame the length of the series' absence for such a massive drop in business.

That said, I will admit that I found it strange that they didn't even bother with a TV ad campaign for the game in the US, seeing as every game in the original series had one. Lack of awareness certainly wouldn't have helped DmC's chances, either (they pretty much saved that marketing blitz for the internet).
Click to expand...

Pretty much this. The fact that Dragon's Dogma got a fairly decent marketing push, while DmC didn't, says a lot. This game was sent out quietly, and their initial shipment numbers out shows they knew it wasn't gonna set the world on fire. Either they knew it couldn't overcome the negativity or the interest was just so damn low (probably both), they were pretty much expecting this I'd say. Though it is a bit frustrating that a broken and extremely unpolished game like ORC manages to do exceedingly well. That's a title that people should be more upset about.

It's a shame too. It's not only NT's best game, but also one of Capcom's better western titles. It deserved better, but what can you do?

I'm very curious to see what happens next for Capcom JPN and NT.

Messofanego said:
How was the marketing of DmC? I haven't seen any posters or trailers in other places like the cinema.
Click to expand...

Post launch it just had web ads. The only country to have TV spots was Japan. Everywhere else it was largely kept to a minimum.
 
ezekial45 said:
Pretty much this. The fact that Dragon's Dogma got a fairly decent marketing push, while DmC didn't, says a lot. This game was sent out quietly, and their initial shipment numbers out shows they knew it wasn't gonna set the world on fire. Either they knew it couldn't overcome the negativity or the interest was just so damn low (probably both), they were pretty much expecting this I'd say. Though it is a bit frustrating that a broken and extremely unpolished game like ORC manages to do exceedingly well. That's a title that people should be more upset about.

It's a shame too. It's not only NT's best game, but also one of Capcom's better western titles. It deserved better, but what can you do?

I'm very curious to see what happens next for Capcom JPN and NT.

Post launch it just had web ads. The only country to have TV spots was Japan. Everywhere else it was largely kept to a minimum.
Click to expand...

Didn't Svensson said that DmC had about the same marketing budget as DMC4? Maybe they thought it was wiser to focus on web instead of traditional media.
 
Im pretty sure if the game comes up with title Devil May Cry 5 it would sell a lot more. I dont think people care about new Dante that much. Of course the game lost sale from many die hard fan though.
 
danmaku said:
Didn't Svensson said that DmC had about the same marketing budget as DMC4? Maybe they thought it was wiser to focus on web instead of traditional media.
Click to expand...

It didn't. He didnt specify exactly, but when asked about it he said that the belief the game had a larger or similar budget to DMC4 wasn't accurate.
 
If they're going to fuck around with the franchise like they did with DmC then don't ask me to support it. I'd never forgive the abomination that was the new Dante design.
 
the gameplay looks ok
the story seems like any other mediocre videogame story.

the only thing that i cared about in dmc3 other that the gameplay an challenges was the small character glimps that you would get from the short cutscenes. which is what i didnt like about dmc4, but it was ok cause of the gameplay.

will pick it when it gets to 50% on steam
 
danmaku said:
Didn't Svensson said that DmC had about the same marketing budget as DMC4? Maybe they thought it was wiser to focus on web instead of traditional media.
Click to expand...

Think it was less. Something about being more was inaccurate, but he was happy it seems that way.
 
Conan-san said:
Really, the fact DmC got it's arse handed to it by Ni no kuni in the UK charts just gives me so much faith for this medium and its user base.
Click to expand...

It did? How?

We have no numbers to compare and both were "no. 1" on the release week, which means basically nothing.
 
ezekial45 said:
It didn't. He didnt specify exactly, but when asked about it he said that the belief the game had a larger or similar budget to DMC4 wasn't accurate.
Click to expand...

sleepykyo said:
Think it was less. Something about being more was inaccurate, but he was happy it seems that way.
Click to expand...

My bad. Still, I don't believe more marketing would've made a big difference, there's just not much interest in the genre right now.
 
The initial reaction was just devastating to this game. It's clear they didn't recover from the backlash. Coming off what negative response DMC4 had to the series didn't help as well. That'll teach Capcom to mess with the formula too much hopefully.
 
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-02-05-capcom-reduces-devil-may-cry-sales-target-by-800k

Capcom has reduced its sales target for Ninja Theory's Devil May Cry reboot.

It had hoped to ship two million copies of the action game by the end of its financial year. It now expects to ship 1.2 million copies - 800,000 short of the initial target.

As of January 2013, one million copies had been shipped.

While sales of the PC version of the game are not included in Capcom's figures, they are further bad news for the game, which, despite hitting top spot in the UK chart at launch, has failed to match the performance of previous titles in the series.
Click to expand...
 
gP7YSmsl.jpg
 
Shame, it's a really great game, deserves to sell well.

I wonder what Capcom will do with the franchise going forward. The HD Collection selling so well must have told them that people still like the old universe.
 
I hope all these partial failures on Capcom's expectations mean something good for us in the future.

It won't

It would be perfect if Operation Raccoon City had bombed too.
 
Ein Bear said:
Shame, it's a really great game, deserves to sell well.

I wonder what Capcom will do with the franchise going forward. The HD Collection selling so well must have told them that people still like the old universe.
Click to expand...

Oh really? Guess I'll go and grab a copy of the HD Collection, just to rub it in.
 
Ein Bear said:
Shame, it's a really great game, deserves to sell well.

I wonder what Capcom will do with the franchise going forward. The HD Collection selling so well must have told them that people still like the old universe.
Click to expand...

I made a point to buy a copy of the HD collection around the time they were really pushing marketing for DmC. May just buy the digital version too just to further send a message.
 
I hope all the people laughing a DmC sales, realise that you wont magically get the original Dante back. You wont get anything at all. Capcom will scrap the franchise.
 
Valnen said:
I made a point to buy a copy of the HD collection around the time they were really pushing marketing for DmC. May just buy the digital version too just to further send a message.
Click to expand...

Maybe if they make DmC2 you will buy the old games AGAIN send that message to them hard!
 
Sad, I was enjoying the game more than DMC4.

Not entirely unexpected though, most of the fans seem to be too stubborn to give it a chance, and there wasn't any advertising to get new people playing it.
 
dan2026 said:
I hope all the people laughing a DmC sales, realise that you wont magically get the original Dante back. You wont get anything at all. Capcom will scrap the franchise.
Click to expand...

i don't know if there's anyone at capcom who knows what to do with it anyway. it seems like they released marvel vs. capcom 3 and the next day the company just started shitting everywhere.
 
dan2026 said:
I hope all the people laughing a DmC sales, realise that you wont magically get the original Dante back. You wont get anything at all. Capcom will scrap the franchise.
Click to expand...

But you see my friend, some fates are worse than death (see: Silent Hill).
 
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