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Pachter on Wii U, Next-gen, CoD, Activision and more.

People seem to be deliberately ignoring the context in which Pachter describes CoD as a "failure." And focusing purely on the word used.

Reading it, he's looking at it as a missed monetization opportunity. And in that respect he's probably right.
 
-Wii U will have a great future thanks to awesome support.
-DLC will continue to make up for lower sales of most titles
-Next XBox and PS4 will have no hard drive
-Call of Duty will continue to be a success
-Next Bungie game will be multiplayer only and the single player aspect will be subscription only. Activison will screw up Vivendi. Take-Two and Zynga will both share Activision.
-Everyone else becomes irrelevant except Nintendo

should be included in OP imo
 
I'm more interested in knowing which developers will and will not survive this upcoming generation. A lot of companies went *POOF!* this time around, and it looks like plenty of others have learned nothing from this..
 
So what did Nintendo do to Pachter? I don't think he's been right even once in regards to them and very clearly has an axe to grind.

I dunno how petty he can be, but remember when for a full year, Pachter insisted that Nintendo was going to release a HD Wii? Like, just a regular Wii that was upscaled to HD?

And when Reggie was finally asked about it, he laughed it off and was like, "Haha, Pachter says alot of things." And then they never released such a thing?

Those wounds, they do not heal.
 
If those Actiarseholes are buying Take Two, then there will be yearly installments of GTA. Yay.
Oh wait... No more Take Two a games for me then...

Kotick can lick my console ass.
 
I dunno how petty he can be, but remember when for a full year, Pachter insisted that Nintendo was going to release a HD Wii? Like, just a regular Wii that was upscaled to HD?

And when Reggie was finally asked about it, he laughed it off and was like, "Haha, Pachter says alot of things." And then they never released such a thing?

Those wounds, they do not heal.

I think he predicted the Wii HD for 3 years in a row?
 
He's right on the large HD front. Given the consumer shift towards buying digital services and goods, it'll be counter productive for console manufacturers to ship with anemic amounts of storage next gen.
 
Yeah. Just look at Stea-
Oh...oh...oh :/

Seriously it'll just reduce overall revenues and they won't realise till the end of the generation.

Used games are not THAT important. Used games sales make like 10% of overall sales? With prices dropping so fast and other platforms being fine without the possibility, i doubt it's going to be a big factor beyond bad PR.

Of course if one platform is anti used sales and the other isn't that might give a small advantage.

To be fair, PC games are pretty much dead at retail outlets. Also, Steam sales and the ability to buy Steam keys for games at very low prices mitigate the disadvantages of not having a used market. In fact, having digital games at cheap prices is common to all the major digital game distributors except the console makers... Valve, Apple, Google, and Amazon all have either massive sales or $1 games.

In addition, a platform preventing used games is bound to anger GameStop, the biggest video game retailer out there. They may decide not to support a console as much as the others if said console does not support used games. Also, to require CD Keys to play games would require consoles to be online to activate which many people won't do for their console at all. There are a number of difficulties and differences that consoles have compared to PCs or Mobiles when it comes to trying to prevent used games which make it unfeasible.
 
I don't know. For some reason people keep interviewing him and forums keep discussing what he has to say. That doesn't really sound like irrelevancy to me.
Pachters a bit like are reverse Candyman, he needs his name repeated. To what end? Only Pachters heart knows.

Oh gentle Pachters heart?
Like a pea stifled twixt
Yonder mattresses twain
'Pon gentle rumination
Of important game factors:
Beluga caviar and champagne or Pop-tarts?
 
I bought a WiiU and said 'I am going to play call of duty'. Clearly I must be out of my mind o/

Exactly. The lure of pointer controls sealed my launch purchase ( that and Zombi U ) and I even ended up abandoning plans to buy it on the PS3.

I've got to say that I really love this guy, he makes such bold predications and though I hardly ever agree with him, he always entertains.
 
Nobody in their right mind would buy a Wii U and say 'I'm going to play Call of Duty.' That's like saying 'I gave up Facebook, and it's Google+ now'.”

Guess I'm not in my right mind, because that's exactly what I'm doing. (Not the Google+ part.)
 
Didn't he say Wii U would be sold out for months - so now he's changed his mind after his prediction was wrong? Why is he regarded as an expert on this stuff, anyway?
 
honestly for all of the lol pachter comments I think he has some good points on almost all of the things he brought up apart from the 2TB hard drive. No way that will happen.
 
Of course not. That would run like $100. Removable/external HDD support is the best we can hope for.

Yep. That's an extra $70 / $80 bucks tacked onto the price of consoles. Considering how low prices are a very important factor in today's market, there is no way either company would splurge on that.
 
I dunno about 2TB hard drives

Biggest 2.5" hard drive right now is 750GB, and that costs about $80

It would have to go to 3.5" to get to 2TB, and that costs anywhere from $100-$150.
 
I dunno about 2TB hard drives

Biggest 2.5" hard drive right now is 750GB, and that costs about $80

It would have to go to 3.5" to get to 2TB, and that costs anywhere from $100-$150.

The biggest 2,5" drives with regular 9mm build height right now are of 1TB capacity. There are 15mm 2,5" 2TB drives on the market as well, which could suit consoles.

I think 2TB drives as standard (or even an option) at launch are illusory, Pachter just doesn't seem to know the hard drive market all that well.

Guess I'm not in my right mind, because that's exactly what I'm doing. (Not the Google+ part.)

With most Black Ops 2 MP modes on Wii U completely devoid of players and barely any people on the leaderboards, it doesn't seem like that version is the best (or even popular) choice.
 
Just that line? You should've quoted the entire post. The whole thing is terrible.

Actually, that 2TB line is the only terrible quote. He's right about several things.

honestly for all of the lol pachter comments I think he has some good points on almost all of the things he brought up apart from the 2TB hard drive. No way that will happen.

The 2TB line was just him not understanding the tech and the ramifications of that. His other points are very solid.

Guess I'm not in my right mind, because that's exactly what I'm doing. (Not the Google+ part.)
He's implying that nobody would buy it just to play Call of Duty. Read into the context of the quote.
 
2 tb might be the high end in a few years, but it's perfectly reasonable no?

Next gen games ain't gonna be small, and I really doubt they gonna go flash based.

Most of his statements make valid points for investors. What is gaf flipping out about?
 
stone-cold-laugh-o.gif


Seriously... 2 tb? Hell the 360 launched with a 20gb HD... No way it's happening.

Also I dunno what he has against nintendo. I'll agree that it's 3rd party support may go away a bit, but nintendo's courting the smaller devs these days:

1) eShop has a good rep with Smaller devs.

2) Nintendo making a deal with Unity technologies to make Unity games easily ported to the wii U, which is huge(A ton of small games are running with that engine).

Those are REALLY good moves, but nintendo should actively promote it's eshop in a commercial. Seriously.
 
His view on CoD success being its fall is very interesting and reasonable. Activision is already on the path to monetize the multiplayer portion of CoD with CoD Elite though. I guess the next step is eliminating single player campaign altogether or make it separated from the online experience through a payed wall.
 
His comments on the subscription don't make sense. Activision sells map packs for essentially the same price as wow charges for content updates, don't they? How are cod players who buy the map packs any different from wow players who pay the sub fee?
 
His comments on the subscription don't make sense. Activision sells map packs for essentially the same price as wow charges for content updates, don't they? How are cod players who buy the map packs any different from wow players who pay the sub fee?

Those are only a fraction of the whole player base, while in WoW everyone pays a subscription.
 
I think he's spot on about a lot there. The WiiU and Call of Duty. Console needs to hit the ground running, without a strong 2013 the console won't survive, there's just too much choice out there.

His prediction on Nintendo is a hard one to call either way as there are too many unknowns. We don't know if downports from 720/PS4 are possible. We don't know if pubs will bother. We don't know what they have up their sleeves for 2013. We don't know if it will catch on with the mainstream.

The Wii U is attempting to offer features for everyone. It has a raft of non-gaming functionality in TVii, TV Remote, browser etc. It has more traditional controls for gamers, is HD with a more modern feature set. However in going for everyone they run the risk of appealing to noone. They are also constrained by their choice of controller (expensive) and price (Not $4-500 "high-end" tech)

If I had to call it, I'd say Nintendo has the best chance by going for the casual market as well as trying to keep the Nintendo fans with the Wii U as their main gaming platform. The multiplatform release schedule for next year is looking like a desert for Wii U and 720/PS4 look to be shaping up to be machines that might make downports unworkable. Essentially I see almost ever 360/PS3 gamer just moving up to next-gen on their platform which leaves Nintendo fans who still like multiplatform games. This latter group I think is what Nintendo is trying to keep when they mean "going after the core gamer".
 
It should be fairly self-evident to boot, but this gaming industry - more so than any other precinct of the corporate world- should be COMPLETELY devoid of self-proclaimed pundits and analysts. As a matter of fact, any low-validity environment in which even the most sensible, "informed" forecasts invariably falter warrant more negative attention. I digress, though.

It's one thing to listen to an individual with at least some industry acumen, clearly reasoning through WHAT it is he/she believes to be the fine line between success and abject failure in the market. I personally find these analyses shallow, but to each their own I guess. On the flip side, there's the Pachter breed; the obscenely biased, condemning, loose-canon archetype.

Not very long ago, I believe Mr. Pachter conceded in an interview that he is mildly facetious when it comes to prognosticating the future of the industry. It's rather disappointing that, in light of these sentiments, he still has little to no idea that shouting blasphemy from roof tops actually does resonate within certain circles. With humans being as irrational as they are, we certainly do not need publicized statements of this nature proliferating message boards and gaming media outlets.
 
Hmmm Can't you play a Character for free, till you hit lvl 20 ?

Yes, I think so, but even if WoW should go F2P this year that doesn't remove the fact that through 8 entire years it had millions of people paying a monthly subscription. The percentage of people taking advantage of the free lvl 20 offer should be a small fraction of the player base. I would expect the inverse ratio from the people that pay for DLC vs. people that don't buy it on retail games.
 
Just when I think Pachter can't be any bigger of a tool. COD is a failure because they don't charge $180.00 a year? Nintendo, irrelevant? Activision, greedy? Well, OK, I'll give im that one.
 
Why does he think Activision deserves more money if people play CoD for hours & hours?

If I buy a shovel and use it every day should it cost more than a shovel another guy buys to dig 3 holes a year?

I don't play WoW but don't they do all sorts of stuff to keep the game running smoothly and adding new content occasionally? (As opposed to CoD which pretty much just runs on its own.)
 
The WiiU is NOT going to die. It is just going to be another Gamecube for Nintendo. Not the big hits the N64 and Wii were . . . but a console that survives with Nintendo's dedicated fanbase, Nintendo's guaranteed IP, and some not-so-enthusiastic third-party support.
 
Why is he calling Activision greedy pigs? For years he's been saying that they will/should charge for people to play CoD online, and they haven't done it. I know they get a lot of shit, but they really haven't done anything greedy. They don't even do online passes.
 
2 tb might be the high end in a few years, but it's perfectly reasonable no?

Next gen games ain't gonna be small, and I really doubt they gonna go flash based.

Most of his statements make valid points for investors. What is gaf flipping out about?

The WiiU already has a 17GB game on the eshop, and it's just assassins creed 3. So yes, having tons of storage going forward is completely reasonable. People have bandwidth caps to worry about, so why would they want to delete a 25GB game they downloaded.

MS and Sony aren't going to include a 2TB drive ever though, and it's probably better to wish that they simply allow you to use your own external sources.

The WiiU is NOT going to die. It is just going to be another Gamecube for Nintendo. Not the big hits the N64 and Wii were . . . but a console that survives with Nintendo's dedicated fanbase, Nintendo's guaranteed IP, and some not-so-enthusiastic third-party support.

That's not really a great position for them though. They let the Wii die hard and then are completely unable to capture any of that lightning and massive audience buzz again. I'm sure their investors will really be happy to hear that the WiiU is the next GameCube.
 
The WiiU is NOT going to die. It is just going to be another Gamecube for Nintendo. Not the big hits the N64 and Wii were . . . but a console that survives with Nintendo's dedicated fanbase, Nintendo's guaranteed IP, and some not-so-enthusiastic third-party support.

N64 was a big hit? Most people I know had a PS1. I had both but yeah just saying
 
Why does he think Activision deserves more money if people play CoD for hours & hours?

If I buy a shovel and use it every day should it cost more than a shovel another guy buys to dig 3 holes a year?

I don't play WoW but don't they do all sorts of stuff to keep the game running smoothly and adding new content occasionally? (As opposed to CoD which pretty much just runs on its own.)

For the shovel making company it's a better business model to rent you one shovel for a subscription fee of 10$/month than to sell you one shovel per year for 60$.
 
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