Nobody should play Gears 4 on insane difficulty (even those who have done it will tell you that). I can only speak for normal difficulty (will try a hardcore run on Scorpio with dat 60fps) but there's plenty of damage feedback and the shotgun makes short work of most enemies. Even early on in the game you can make a mess of the robots with the boom shot.
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How did Gears of War 4 sell?
- Thread starter jelly
- Start date
Nobody should play Gears 4 on insane difficulty (even those who have done it will tell you that). I can only speak for normal difficulty (will try a hardcore run on Scorpio with dat 60fps) but there's plenty of damage feedback and the shotgun makes short work of most enemies. Even early on in the game you can make a mess of the robots with the boom shot.
family_guy
Member
There's a bit too much history though and they are only serving their already dwindling fanbase for these games. They aren't bringing in new customers. I'd say even Uncharted 4, while selling well, didn't get that much fanfare. Many don't even talk about it anymore. I think franchise fatigue has finally become a thing this gen. We're seeing it with other big franchises like Call of Duty and Assassin's Creed. Microsoft needs new IP to remain relevant in today's climate.
I agree. I was pretty underwhelmed with Gears4 looking worse than Gears UE. The "wow" we all had with Gears back in 2006 was probably only reached by The Order, which was a pretty bland game though.
Art direction wasn't that good this time, the general story was better though.
kraspkibble
Permabanned.
they pretty much gave it away for free in the XB1 bundle so if the sales are bad then it's their own fault for allowing it. i paid £310 for my 1tb system and got GoW/Fallout 4 and 2 month Now TV pass. fallout 4 is about £20. Now TV pass has a value of £21. That would've put it at £270 for the XB1 and GoW on it's own. right now it cost £290 for the GoW bundle. If that £270 price includes the full retail price of the game then the XB1 only cost me about £220.
RichiRamjag
Member
They won't most likely.
Coupled with all the MAUs this translates to 30m units sold.
I picked it up day one but with the intent of playing the campaign, I never really cared all that much for multiplayer Gears. I then sold it for a $15 loss so it was pretty much a rental.They need to spread out releases a bit more I think and give greater digital discounts/incentives.
GoW4: Came after judgement and was more of the same
Halo5: Came after the shitshow that was MCC and Halo4 didn't exactly inspire confidence
Deus Ex MD: Took too long and was essentially just a more refined version of HR
Dishonored 2: Same as Deus Ex
Watch Dogs 2: Came after WD1 which disappointed many
COD:IW : Franchise fatigue taking its toll
Titanfall 2: Bad timing and wasn't marketed as heavily as the first one
You'd also be naive to think they weren't already working on it prior to the acquisition, in anticipation of the likely outcome.
I don't think we know how well Gears 4 is selling. People take first month NPD number as if the game was discontinued after that. The game is still selling folks. If the rumors are true that MS sold 1 million Xbox consoles in Nov. Thats a large potential for new Gears sales.
Also comparing Gears 3 sales from 2011 when XB360 had a console base around 50-60 million vs Gears 4 on XB1 with a console base around 20 million seems to be unequal to me.
We dont know if it sold well or poor. We only have some UK launch sales but its now still every week arround top 10 in UK. We dont know US where Gears is bigger and offcourse we dont know digital wich is probably abit higher then normal because of play anywhere. Believe it was third in october in US without even digital counted.
Indeed.
Indeed.
That was due to pre roll ads and not due to people actively looking for it and watching the trailer
Franchise fatigue is real plus the FPS and TPS genre are pretty crowded these days. Even the new CoD is significantly down. Even new stuff in the shooter genre like Evolve and Titanfall are having a hard time.
In regards to Halo 5 underperforming, Halo 4 alienated a lot of fans and MCC was just a total cluster fuck. You don't get to do that without some significant consequences. I'm guessing a lot of those prior fans found new homes with CoD, Destiny, and now Overwatch.
On top of that the Xbox brand still has a ways to go to win back the mass appeal it had last generation, if that's even possible.
I think the IP can be recovered if they made them feel like something new and exciting, but I think that's hard with well established universes and then they risk alienating long-time fans. I love both series, but I wouldn't mind there being 5-6 years between mainline entries so The Coalition and 343 could try new things between them. If those new things pay off, like TLOU did for NaughtyDog, it could bring more fans over to the studio's other franchises.
I think there was probably incredibly early pre-production work going on, but I don't think it hit the ground running until Rod joined the studio in the same month they bought it. In previous interviews it seemed like Rod was the one who knew where to take the story and then he was the one who started bringing in people from EPIC to help folks at The Coalition learn how to design stages and encounters for Gears.
Because they are. Many sequels are selling much softer compared to their predecessors this year (and gen).
DriftingSpirit
Member
I see what you're saying but making big new IP would be too risky for MS. They probably feel that relying on what they have (eve if it is dwindling) is better than putting effort into something new only for it to not become big. I'm just looking at it from MS' perspective, mind you. Personally, I would just put effort into making something big and new.
UC4 had the best opening of any UC game. So, I don't think we can say it hasn't got much fanfare. ND is retiring the IP at its best instead of leading it into decline.
It was already stated that they are the Gears studio. They cancelled Shangheist in order to make Gears.
We already have the info we need.
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=226400260&postcount=65
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=225683963&postcount=70
It didn't do well.
Katana_Strikes
Member
There was a time somewhere earlier in this gen that people thought Gears could outsell Halo this time. Turned out it couldn't even get close to a much weaker Halo. Definitely a fall in grace for 2 of MS' once heavy hitters. And without yet finding a new IP to replace them.
BigTuna109
Member
This describes my relationship with my Xbox one exactly. I freaking loved halo and gears 1-3. Unfortunately, I did not enjoy halo 4 or 5 very much, gears judgement is a joke, and gears 4 just plays it so damn safe that it doesn't offer anything I haven't already experienced 2-3 times in the gears 1-3. The flagship franchises that I adored on 360 have gotten old and tired for me, and there just isn't enough otherwise (again just speaking about me) to justify the console. My old gears squad and I barely played gears 4 for a week before moving on. We were all so excited to kind of relive those old days with gears....but it just didn't quite do enough for any of us.
Of course it's gonna sell after the first month. The problem is it's not doing as well as it should.
Also, people are comparing it Judgement sales more than 3 which is pretty bad.
Those guys are insiders? Dont know.
DriftingSpirit
Member
As a fan of the Gears of War franchise, MS should consider killing it off or taking a long break and finding a new direction for it.
The formula hasn't changed since 2006, and I think that's a huge problem with it. Also, younger people aren't gravitating towards the game at all.
The formula hasn't changed since 2006, and I think that's a huge problem with it. Also, younger people aren't gravitating towards the game at all.
FUBAR McDangles
Member
I think an issue with Gears of War is how tough the multiplayer is. It's great for competitive sessions and e-sports and all that but the learning curve is insane, and the lack of options for new players to pick it up and learn the mechanics (even just aiming and running and going into cover, all three basic things that I see new players struggle with) is really cutting down on the number of customers.
I've been playing Gears since the first one, and while I'm not great at the multiplayer I can pick it up and generally go positive (I think my K/D right now is like a 1.1 or 1.2?). I'm not great but I still have fun. That said, I still get frustrated because there really aren't any options for weaker players. My options are to go into social quickplay, which will occasionally be match me with average players but almost always there are 1-2 people who just go 15-1 or 12-2 or something similar that ruin it for everyone. I can deal with it because I know those players aren't really common and I can work everyone else and hope things go well and the good players screw up.
Otherwise I go into core modes which is the same situation as above but worse, or the competitive which is even harder. Yes I know the 5 qualifying matches bring you a rank that is supposed to help you out but in the only two that I have fully completed those 5 (Dodgeball and Warzone) I still have the same issues. One or two players just destroy everyone. It ruins the fun. And I'm what I would call an average player, or hope to be called that. I can't imagine how dejecting and demoralizing it is to be someone who would be considered bad or below average going against these guys.
Meanwhile, I try to get friends to buy it - a crew that generally all gets the same games together to play together - and none of them want to. "It's too hard" is a common saying. Two of them agreed and said that buying Gears 4 would only be for campaign because the multiplayer is full of people who "only play Gears. They're all way too good at that game." None of them knew Horde mode is a thing. When I explained it, they all thought it could be cool but they want to go against other human players and with the brutal learning curve and lack of introductory learning they simply won't. This group buys damn near every multiplayer game together and they all skipped Gears. Looking at the sales numbers I can't help but think it's a common thought process.
Coalition (and yes, I imagine they're going to keep making only Gears games because they changed their name to reflect that - Coalition, Coalition of Ordered Governments [COG], much like 343 Industries and Halo) need to do something to open up the games to the general public. E-Sports is obviously growing but when everything is done to appease that crowd they lose the much larger general group that just want to have fun.
Looking strictly at campaign and horde: Campaign was really great overall, but the opening was really, really bad. People who got past that initial Act probably had a lot of fun (aside from a lackluster finishing endgame boss). Horde is fun but I can't get into a full game. I've tried three or four times and people always quit before it starts and then by wave 5 you're down to 2-3 people. Matchmaking is incredibly bad for Horde.
I've been playing Gears since the first one, and while I'm not great at the multiplayer I can pick it up and generally go positive (I think my K/D right now is like a 1.1 or 1.2?). I'm not great but I still have fun. That said, I still get frustrated because there really aren't any options for weaker players. My options are to go into social quickplay, which will occasionally be match me with average players but almost always there are 1-2 people who just go 15-1 or 12-2 or something similar that ruin it for everyone. I can deal with it because I know those players aren't really common and I can work everyone else and hope things go well and the good players screw up.
Otherwise I go into core modes which is the same situation as above but worse, or the competitive which is even harder. Yes I know the 5 qualifying matches bring you a rank that is supposed to help you out but in the only two that I have fully completed those 5 (Dodgeball and Warzone) I still have the same issues. One or two players just destroy everyone. It ruins the fun. And I'm what I would call an average player, or hope to be called that. I can't imagine how dejecting and demoralizing it is to be someone who would be considered bad or below average going against these guys.
Meanwhile, I try to get friends to buy it - a crew that generally all gets the same games together to play together - and none of them want to. "It's too hard" is a common saying. Two of them agreed and said that buying Gears 4 would only be for campaign because the multiplayer is full of people who "only play Gears. They're all way too good at that game." None of them knew Horde mode is a thing. When I explained it, they all thought it could be cool but they want to go against other human players and with the brutal learning curve and lack of introductory learning they simply won't. This group buys damn near every multiplayer game together and they all skipped Gears. Looking at the sales numbers I can't help but think it's a common thought process.
Coalition (and yes, I imagine they're going to keep making only Gears games because they changed their name to reflect that - Coalition, Coalition of Ordered Governments [COG], much like 343 Industries and Halo) need to do something to open up the games to the general public. E-Sports is obviously growing but when everything is done to appease that crowd they lose the much larger general group that just want to have fun.
Looking strictly at campaign and horde: Campaign was really great overall, but the opening was really, really bad. People who got past that initial Act probably had a lot of fun (aside from a lackluster finishing endgame boss). Horde is fun but I can't get into a full game. I've tried three or four times and people always quit before it starts and then by wave 5 you're down to 2-3 people. Matchmaking is incredibly bad for Horde.
Ah oke.
They even gonna make a movie haha.
But i think they did a good job with GOW 4, People say they played it safe but that was the only way imo. Otherwise you get a Halo 4 kind of thing and then the next game suffers. Looking at Halo 5. Wich restored abit of faith again with the support and best MP since years.
Coulomb_Barrier
Member
To be fair to MS they had the foresight to try and replace the fading Gears with a fresh new major franchise like Sunset Overdrive or Quantum Break but as we know sales of those were poor as well. They probably won't try again this gen as there's nothing major on the horizon outside Halo and Forza.
Right. Even Fergusson was saying they have to get it right before they change it. I think they've proven they can make it like old Gears, now they have an even harder job of doing something new with it.
Agreed. I kept putting the game down for days or weeks through the first couple of acts. Was hard to put down after I got to Act 3.
Comparing it to Judgement sales doesn't erase the fact you are comparing sales of a game to drastically different console bases as far a numbers. Just don't think its a fair comparison. Nobody is really questioning the quality of the game (Gears 4) unlike Judgement. So the only reason to me for lower launch sales is because XB1 simply has a much lower console base than Xb360 at the time of release.
Let's compare it to the first Gear of War then. GoW was released in the 360's first year and sold over a million in its first month. GoW4 was released in the xbone's 3rd year and sold 400~500k. Even taking digital into account which would bump it to roughly 600+k, the disparity is still noticeable.
pr0cs
Member
I didn't realize it didn't sell well, a shame really because while I haven't finished the campaign I'm having a good time. It is safe but there are enough good set pieces that I can overlook that they havent added much new gameplay.
Too bad but a sign that MS old standbys aren't holding the weight anymore
Too bad but a sign that MS old standbys aren't holding the weight anymore
If I had an Xbox One i'd buy it, was a game I was hyped for all year tbh. As I only have a gaming PC and I don't like anything I have heard about the Windows store, so I either have to pray for a Steam release (not happening) or spend £200.
PC being locked to Windows 10 store can't be doing it any favours tbh.
PC being locked to Windows 10 store can't be doing it any favours tbh.
The Xbox One install base is about the same as the 360 when Gears 2 launched, and the same when comparing Halo 5 to 3. Install base isn't the issue here, and saying its unfair to compare these games to their impressive highs isn't a good counter to that as another poster here said earlier. It wouldn't explain why the sales have declined this much. As I said earlier, Ratchet & Clank, inFamous Second Son and Uncharted 4 have all released to series highs.
AnthonypUK
Member
thats a pretty poor excuse, e.g. the original titanfall sold more than gears of war 4 despite the user base being smaller, uncharted 4 sold more than gears 4 and its predecessor despite a smaller user base, Fifas up, battlefields up, R&C was the highest selling R&C game.
These are supposed to be Microsoft tentpole releases, these are the reason why you buy an xbox,yet xbox users aren't buying them like they used to be.
About as well as any windows store exclusive, I imagine.
Their company being renamed to a Gears of War-related name should tell you enough about what projects they have lined up.
IcyRhythms
Member
This happens often with other IP's, but Gears 4, as far as I'm conerned, is the best one. It selling somewhat poorly is surprising and at the same time not. I'm sure we all have at least one IP that will really enjoy where the one we feel is best is the one that sold the least, and possibly received the least amount of praise. The marketing was really good. It's possible people are just tired of Gears.
blue_phazon
Member
This bugs me so much, and I think Gears 4 is the best gears game.
It would have been so much better if they had a live team support gears 4 for a couple of years while working on a new IP.
Just from gears 4 I can tell they are so talaented and really good at managing the esports scene.
Titanfall 2 ;_;
For Ratchet and Uncharted 4 I think time since previous big releases is a factor (i.e. consumers have had time to forget about them), plus the fact that PS4 has so much momentum behind it. Ratchet ACIT was 2009 and Uncharted 3 was 2011. Infamous released pretty close to PS4 launch when there wasn't a lot to choose from, which is probably why RYSE sold more than a million, plus Infamous had some pretty great entries on the PS3. I also think PlayStation has a lot of fans of SP games.
Meahwhile, in Xbox land, Halo 4 was 2012 and Halo MCC was 2014, both meeting heavy criticism for valid reasons. Gears 3 was 2011, but Gears Judgment was 2013 and met with heavy criticism and then Gears Ultimate was 2015. Gears and Halo are largely driven by their popularity in MP, with both series having at least one big misstep that's still fresh enough to remember. I think when that happens those fans find other games to play with their friends and then they get comfortable there.
Phew, thank god. The Coalition must be so relieved.
CassidyIzABeast
Member
With a toxic brand perception that still lingers and software being in the shitter across the board I'm absolutely shocked that Gears isn't selling as well.
IcyRhythms
Member
Gears 4 also released at that time of the year when people are getting ready to buy the big hitters. COD, BF, and Titanfall all being right around the corner were on the minds of many. People don't have 60 bones to drop for all of them, so they're forced to make a decision. Gears 4 would be the less popular game out of all of those.(I guess we couldn't have known TITANFALL 2 wasn't going to set the world on fire like it did the first time.)I really can't say why Gears 4 sold poorly. Just trying to think of a few things. Gears 1 and 2 came out before COD was everything its become, BF was anything that just another BF game, and stuff like Titanfall(throw in a variety of other semi-popular games here)didn't exist.
I highly doubt Microsoft greenlit those games to replace Gears. I mean MS don't even own the IP to sunset overdrive, they were the only one that took the bait when insomniac was shopping around for a publisher. I very much doubt Quantum Break was also suppose to do the same, that game looked very much like it was greenlit to push their TV focus during launch.
This is just the usual MS partnership with external developers to fill out the game releases. They haven't tried to create a new IP to join their halo/gears/forza tentpole series in a long time, everything is just one off games that get no sequel,no improvements, no trying to grow into a franchise.
I haven't played gears4 but i have friends who bought Gears4 and from his words story is meh and everyone leaves horde nornal mode before round 5 that there is no point even queuing up. He enjoyed Killing Floor 2 much more vs Gears4.
None of those games were there to replace Gears lol.
To the bolded, Crackdown? Scalebound? Sea of Thieves? And who knows what they have coming out in 2018+.
There attempts at new IPs (despite how good some have been) tend to fizzle, while the alternative of relying on their older, more renown IPs has been exhausted.
Seems like they're just stuck.
hogendaz85
Member
Gears 4 did not look worse than Gears UE, the alpha test of course did but the final game looks phenomenal. Watch the DF tech analysis if you haven't actually played the game