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Many of October's biggest AAA titles seem to be underperforming greatly (NPD info)

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Toli08

Member
This just shows that Sony in a sense knows what they are doing. If by accident or purposely they are pushing their big hitters away from the Oct-Nov timeframe. Then you get people calling them out that they don't have exclusives. While who can actually buy all these games and enjoy them.

These publishers have to realize that selling your game in May isn't a bad thing. Less competition and more eyes on your product. There was no reason to release Battlefield 1 and Titanfall 2 in the same time frame. If it was released in April I would of gladly grabbed Titanfall. However right now I am happy with just Battlefield.

It just seems to me Sony is way ahead of everyone else. The rest still stick to this old way of thinking that nobody games after December.

Publishers start spreading out your releases and stop selling similar games in the same time frame.
 

takoyaki

Member
I wrote a post about the problem of “Sequelitis” that’s facing the movie industry (and maybe the gaming industry) in the WD2 sales thread.

The disappointing sales of those October games you listed certainly have to do with a crowded marketplace, but I also think there’s a bigger trend of sequel-fatigue going on this year even if previous installments were well-received (e.g. Street Fighter 5, Mirror’s Edge Catalyst, Deus Ex).

If it’s not an event game like Uncharted 4, more and more people are taking a wait and see approach (waiting for a price-drop, waiting until a couple of patches are out, maybe watch a Let’s Play first, etc.) or just don’t want to spend $60 on “more of the same” because there’s so many other options for you to spend your time/money on.

I think the big publishers need to mix it up again. And hey, just changing the setting seems to have done wonders for Far Cry Primal and BF1.
 
I think the age of the 50gb mega budget videogame is definitely nearing its end. But then hopefully we can get back to mid budget games again, and reset. Think Shadow Warrior.

My frustration with today's videogame market, much like Hollywood, is that we have very low budget games and very high budget games but little in between. But it's the in between where the real magic happens.

I don't think so we are just seeing people being more picking and don't have as much money .
People seem to forget games cost more than $60 now for some people .
People that like CODIW or BF1 already spend over $100 thanks to DLC , season pass etc etc .
 

Boke1879

Member
Totally. Most do it for that holiday/Christmas/BF rush. And it's not a dumb thing when it comes to marketing, but I wish they had more confidence.

Yup. I completely get why they do it. They are banking on the thanksgiving, BF and the christmas season to bank on extra sales.

Unfortunately there is so many games that people can only distribute their money.

Take me for example. I just bought TF2 at BB because I got it for 28 bucks.

This Black Friday I'm getting Skyrim and Batman: Return to arkham for $25 each.

Then on Friday I'll get a PS4pro and Watch Dogs 2.

I wouldn't have thought of getting Titanfall 2 if it was that price. That's another thing these publishers need to think about as well. The pricing to keep the game selling.
 
First thing these publishers need to stop cramming every damn thing into the last 3 months of the year.

Sony has had no issues doing this with their first party offerings and see it pay off. A lot of games could release in the dead summer months and they would sell just fine.

But they've received absolutely tons of shit for it. I hope that the journalists are paying attention.
 
Man, I'd love if the publishers worked out a deal to pepper out a AAA game or two a week spread out evenly throughout the year. Most of the games I want to play are now coming out in the first half of the year, I mean just look at Q1/Q2 2017. My wallet will be crying:

Resident Evil 7
Horizon: Zero Dawn
Switch w/ 3D Mario
Persona 5
Mass Effect Andromeda
Outlast 2
Yooka Laylee
South Park

Plus any other breakout hits....

That's not to say I won't enjoy Red Dead Redemption 2 in the Fall or maybe the Egypt Assassin's Creed. Hoping Spiderman from Insomniac is out soon also. God, I need to find more time to play these games :(
 
I have little faith in some of these publishers, I get the impression the very last thing they do is ask themselves could they have done anything better with the game in question.
 

inner-G

Banned
I got Gears and Skyrim free-ish, (nVidia promo and Steam upgrade) do those count towards NPDs?

I don't even like FPS that much, but I'm thinking of getting BF1 on Black Friday sale just to check out the campaign graphics.
 

keakster

Member
Any chance EA tries to port Titanfall to Switch to try go get some extra units across?

There won't be a lot of competition in that genre on the Switch, so they could dominate if EA doesn't bring BF and Acti doesn't bring CoD. But may just not be seen as a big enough market.
 
there are fewer games coming out on hardware than there were seven years ago. i don't think the problem has to do with the supply of games as much as the demand.

They might be few games but they cost a lot more in certain aspects .
Plus there also DD only games so few games in retail don't mean few overall .
 
Battlefield 4's launch was a disaster with crazy bugs. I would hope BF1 did better than that.

Mafia 3 put a lot of money in advertising and I am sure 90% of the buyers like me left disappointed so that pretty much sinks Mafia 4 if it happens.
 
Titanfall releasing at/around the same time as Battlefield and CoD. People had to pick something and they went with Battlefield.

Tomb Raider PS4 was never going to do well. The game is like a year old. People either played it or lost any hype there could have been with a regular release.

CoD sounds like CoD. It's old.

Skylanders sounds like Skylanders, only shorter than before. No thanks.

The list goes on.
 

Boke1879

Member
But they've received absolutely tons of shit for it. I hope that the journalists are paying attention.

Fuck what journalists think. A lot of them are still stuck in the same ways. What I meant was Sony themselves have no issues pushing their games out of this timeframe.
 
Sales of sequels don't reflect their quality so much as they reflect the previous game's quality. If you want to start a franchise, you've GOT to get it right the first time and have a critical success.

Both Titanfall and Watch Dogs started off on the wrong foot with very mixed reception and now the far superior sequels are reaping the sales results of that lingering poor sentiment.

Yup. Perfectly stated.
 

Fdkn

Member
there are fewer games coming out on hardware than there were seven years ago.

Only on retail. I know sales threads don't like digital only games, but they exist and are a factor to consumers and many are better than any shovelware from the older generations also.
 
Honestly each one of these games has different problems:

Titanfall 2 - bad release date, plain and simple. The beta problems were, as usual, a vocal minority complaining about change. However, it turned out quite well, and I feel it will have some legs in the months ahead.

Watchdogs 2 - Bad first game, plain and simple. I never bought the first one, never liked anything about the sequel's marketing, and from what I can tell the controls are weird. It won't have the legs Ubisoft is looking for.

Gears 4 - The sequel nobody asked for. It was over, done with. You can blame the poor sales on Judgement but I imagine many others like me were just tired of the Gears series and don't want to see it milked. Though I'm sure the diehards are going to keep it alive at least through one more entry.

Rise of the Tomb Raider - of course it wasn't going to sell well on PS4. You can't release a game a year late for the same price when Xbox One owners can get the game for $30 - which in my opinion is all the game is worth. SE needs to stop the budget bloat.

The rest I didn't really care for. Skyrim is selling well because...I dunno Bethesda puts cocaine in their code because paying $60 for that game is a stupid value proposition considering how cheap it's been on PC over the years.
 

Loudninja

Member
COD release every year but it seems this year they didn't really try to stand out much.

That combine with fatigue has damage it this year.
 

Y2Kev

TLG Fan Caretaker Est. 2009
This "release schedule is too crowded" thing is denial to me. We've had this issue for a hundred years. Only now is such a large percentage of aaa flopping. Reality is games as a service and mobile are taking over. Why buy tf2 when I play destiny two hours a day? Why buy bad Ubivendi game 4.0 now with new hat when I can play other soul sucking bad stuff on phone?
 
Be interesting next month when we se Dishonored 2, Watch Dogs 2, & CoD all come in way under expectations. We can come up with as many excuses as we want but this sure appears like a contraction. I'm expecting pretty big changes.
 
People want new. Why get Watch dogs when you can get GTAV? Why get Titanfall when you can get IW? Mafia, Battlefield, and even Skyrim are unique on the gen in their way. Watch dogs 1 was unique. "Safe games" aren't doing enough to stand out. Stand out(with gameplay, setting, amazing post launch support, etc) or go home.
 

Kill3r7

Member
Maybe stop releasing all your damn games in a 2 month time frame and I'll buy more. Titanfall 2's release date is still so baffling.

Big AAA Holiday releases have been the norm for as far back as I can remember. That is not the reason for the sudden underperformance of certain titles and is a question worth asking.
 

AHA-Lambda

Member
This "release schedule is too crowded" thing is denial to me. We've had this issue for a hundred years. Only now is such a large percentage of aaa flopping. Reality is games as a service and mobile are taking over. Why buy tf2 when I play destiny two hours a day? Why buy bad Ubivendi game 4.0 now with new hat when I can play other soul sucking bad stuff on phone?

Yeah, I'm not buying this excuse either, every fall is crowded with titles.

Something else is causing this but I'm hasty to make a guess as to what =/
Maybe it is these evergreen online titles that people are playing longer?
As we see more examples like DOTA 2, LoL, Overwatch, Rainbow 6 Siege etc.
 
Only on retail. I know sales threads don't like digital only games, but they exist and are a factor to consumers and many are better than any shovelware from the older generations also.

Is there some digital only game that is selling well? Looking at the PSN chart last month it and the only non retail games are Rocket League and Outlast which are old games.

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2016/11/11/playstation-store-octobers-top-downloads/

The industry is in a decline. This is peak time for a console cycle. Sales should be on fire and they are on the decline.
 
I wrote a post about the problem of “Sequelitis” that’s facing the movie industry (and maybe the gaming industry) in the WD2 sales thread.

The disappointing sales of those October games you listed certainly have to do with a crowded marketplace, but I also think there’s a bigger trend of sequel-fatigue going on this year even if previous installments were well-received (e.g. Street Fighter 5, Mirror’s Edge Catalyst, Deus Ex).

If it’s not an event game like Uncharted 4, more and more people are taking a wait and see approach (waiting for a price-drop, waiting until a couple of patches are out, maybe watch a Let’s Play first, etc.) or just don’t want to spend $60 on “more of the same” because there’s so many other options for you to spend your time/money on.

I think the big publishers need to mix it up again. And hey, just changing the setting seems to have done wonders for Far Cry Primal and BF1.

Watch Dogs 2 and Titanfall 2 are both better than Far Cry Primal. The three games you listed ranged from above average to below average.
 

Mathieran

Banned
The only game I bought day one last month was Rigs. I don't buy many games at launch anymore, maybe 2-3. I think people are learning that there isn't much sense to buy right away unless they are really excited about a game. Most of the games still need more work. If waiting for patches isn't a good enough reason, you can wait a couple months for the price to drop and the game will run better. I personally don't want to buy a game until I can get it with DLC for under 60.

Also a lot of the games that are underperforming are a sequel to a game that wasn't received well. I reckon a lot of people are waiting to hear how the game is before dropping 60 bucks.
 

Ridley327

Member
Be interesting next month when we se Dishonored 2, Watch Dogs 2, & CoD all come in way under expectations. We can come up with as many excuses as we want but this sure appears like a contraction. I'm expecting pretty big changes.

I don't see how Dishonored 2 and WD2 don't flop outright. The advertising has been such crap for both games.

CoD will be really, really interesting. It could underwhelm and still come in higher than virtually any other game on the market, but it seems like that they're already trying to cut costs on that series wherever they can. I wonder what Activision's danger threshold is set to for the series, especially with Skylanders cratering into the center of the earth.
 

Y2Kev

TLG Fan Caretaker Est. 2009
Yeah, I'm not buying this excuse either, every fall is crowded with titles.

Something else is causing this but I'm hasty to make a guess as to what =/
Maybe it is these evergreen online titles that people are playing longer?
As we see more examples like DOTA 2, LoL, Overwatch, Rainbow 6 Siege etc.

The reality to me is that the dedicated console base is just more hardcore than ever and plays games for longer, buys dlc, and gets new software at cheaper prices. This is a result of the dedicated gaming audience shrinking. Anihawk is totally right. It's not a supply issue. It's demand.

Asscrud bombing last year was a HUGE red flag. I guess I didn't think about it!
 

AniHawk

Member
Only on retail. I know sales threads don't like digital only games, but they exist and are a factor to consumers and many are better than any shovelware from the older generations also.

this thread is about retail.

this is also a sign that the old model of having a box or a thing that plays something you buy in a store is becoming even more outdated than it was at the start of the generation.

microsoft has the right idea of turning 'xbox' into a brand they can position on the pc, but they have a lot to do to catch up to valve in that arena. nintendo seems to be stubbornly all-in on hardware, but they're hedging their bets with mobile as a source of revenue and a means of promotion. sony appears to me to be all over the place in what they're doing and like they don't have a particular direction or any sort of idea of where the industry is headed - just doing their best to keep up with the changing trends instead of getting ahead of them.

The reality to me is that the dedicated console base is just more hardcore than ever and plays games for longer, buys dlc, and gets new software at cheaper prices. This is a result of the dedicated gaming audience shrinking.

Asscrud bombing last year was a HUGE red flag. I guess I didn't think about it!

and people have been saying this for years, but it gets written off whenever the ps4 or xb1 have a really good holiday month in just the united states - like just because it rains in southern california means the world isn't getting hotter.
 
there are fewer games coming out on hardware than there were seven years ago. i don't think the problem has to do with the supply of games as much as the demand.
It's a problem of demand in a way, yeah. People still buy a lot of games, but they aren't gonna buy similar games close to each other anymore, they're gonna choose.

So if you make the fall season nothing but shooters and open world experiences, someone's gonna fail hard.
 
I think Gears suffers from the taint of judgment and waiting too long to bring it back. People have moved on to other games. Also this fall had too many shooters releasing within weeks of each other.
 

RoKKeR

Member
People want new. Why get Watch dogs when you can get GTAV? Why get Titanfall when you can get IW? Mafia, Battlefield, and even Skyrim are unique on the gen in their way. Watch dogs 1 was unique. "Safe games" aren't doing enough to stand out. Stand out(with gameplay, setting, amazing post launch support, etc) or go home.

There are a lot of contradictions in this post.
 

Fdkn

Member
Is there some digital only game that is selling well? Looking at the PSN chart last month it and the only non retail games are Rocket League and Outlast which are old games.

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2016/11/11/playstation-store-octobers-top-downloads/

The industry is in a decline. This is peak time for a console cycle. Sales should be on fire and they are on the decline.

He was talking about the number of releases, there were many more games in retail 7 years ago, but that doesn't mean they all sold well. In fact now those 'smaller games' don't go to retail because it's a bigger risk, but there are success stories there.

this thread is about retail.

Actually no, NPD is trying to stop being only about retail, because digital matters a lot.
 

Schlorgan

Member
CoD will be really, really interesting. It could underwhelm and still come in higher than virtually any other game on the market, but it seems like that they're already trying to cut costs on that series wherever they can. I wonder what Activision's danger threshold is set to for the series, especially with Skylanders cratering into the center of the earth.

As far as I know, Activision hasn't released any press releases about Infinite Warfare being the "Biggest Entertainment Launch of the Year." I think that's a pretty big red flag.
 

Ridley327

Member
A full priced year late port flopped? Unexpected.

Way too many shooters this October.

At the same time, Skyrim is 5 years old now and still selling great numbers. Squenix has done everything in their power to make it extraordinarily annoying to buy RotTR, and they succeeded.
 
this thread is about retail.

this is also a sign that the old model of having a box or a thing that plays something you buy in a store is becoming even more outdated than it was at the start of the generation.

microsoft has the right idea of turning 'xbox' into a brand they can position on the pc, but they have a lot to do to catch up to valve in that arena. nintendo seems to be stubbornly all-in on hardware, but they're hedging their bets with mobile as a source of revenue and a means of promotion. sony appears to me to be all over the place in what they're doing and like they don't have a particular direction or any sort of idea of where the industry is headed - just doing their best to keep up with the changing trends instead of getting ahead of them.

What ??
Sony knew what they were doing .
There is a reason why they bought a online streaming game service .
But that going to take years so they will still use the old way more for now.
PS will be a service is just a question of when the internet will catch up and when it make no more sense to sell hardware .
 

Kill3r7

Member
As far as I know, Activision hasn't released any press releases about Infinite Warfare being the "Biggest Entertainment Launch of the Year." I think that's a pretty big red flag.

I think if you look at the PAL thread you will find a press statement saying they are the best selling FPS game this year LAUNCH ALIGNED.
 

Ridley327

Member
As far as I know, Activision hasn't released any press releases about Infinite Warfare being the "Biggest Entertainment Launch of the Year." I think that's a pretty big red flag.

Yeah, and the streaming numbers for the game have been pretty awful. It's constantly under Destiny on Live from Playstation, and the big streamers don't even touch it. They really fucked up the multiplayer this time around, and that does so much damage.
 

sphinx

the piano man
the video game insdustry will have to face the harsh reality:

In 2016 people have more entertainment options than ever before: netflix, the internet, phone apps, to name a few but the day still has 24 hours, we just don't have as much time as before.

if GAF didn't exist I'd play a lot more videogames, that's completely true.
 
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