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Retro City Rampage sales breakdown

Are you sure? I think sales will be pretty much down after relatively high launch sales because nobody seems to be using WiiWare anymore. And I doubt that it's going to get any better in a year or so.

he likely only needs to crawl a short way to get there though
 

Vashetti

Banned
He's been really vocal about how surprisingly easy it was to get everything running on the Vita. It's no wonder we're seeing so many indies flocking to that platform at the moment.

Is the Vita really easy to develop for?

Seems like more developers would get on board if they realised that it was actually very simple to create/port games for the Vita.
 

rjc571

Banned
Are you sure? I think sales will be pretty much down after relatively high launch sales because nobody seems to be using WiiWare anymore. And I doubt that it's going to get any better in a year or so.

Lets say he has 5000 sales total - 3500 in NA and 1500 in Europe. He only would need 500 sales to reach the threshold in each region. If this is the case, he doesn't even need to manage one copy sold per day in each region to get there. And like somebody else said, even if he can't do that he can always give away free copies to get over the threshold.

"Clarification: Those sales numbers per platform circulating are not accurate, extrapolated from a bar graph that didn't show to-the-digit."

https://twitter.com/RetroCR/statuses/318031938524966912

"RCR hasn't sold close to that on Wii, significantly more on the other platforms. Around 100,000 units total across all platforms 5+mo in."

https://twitter.com/RetroCR/statuses/318032548628402178

Ah, well in that case he's probably screwed.
 

sangreal

Member
Specifically US PSN. EU/PAL PSN users didn't get it until a couple of weeks after XBLA.

But does it really matter? You can make excuses for XBLA all you like but they're just that, excuses. The fact is, if Microsoft wanted the release to be day and date, it reflects badly on them and it's their responsibility to correct it. Do the people making these kind of arguments make the same excuse when the PS3/WiiU receive a delayed or shitty port?

Jesus you take this console war shit too seriously. All I was responding to was a post that said "Whats up with XBLA sales being super down recently?." I think the fact that the XBLA version was released later is a perfectly reasonable, non-controversial explanation for why the sales are lower on that platform. I'm not making an "excuse' because I don't care which platform the system sold the most on, and yes I would give the same explanation for weaker sales on a delayed or poor port to any platform. That's the whole reason timed exclusives exist. Could it have been on XBLA day one? Maybe, but clearly Microsoft did not care about this game, and neither did gamers as evidenced by its 100k WW sales.
 
I liked the game. I'm surprised so many said it was plain bad...

I would have bought it on WiiWare if it remained a (timed) exclusive or if it weren't for the fact that it has no filters (which is understandable, but it still makes it gimped). So instead, I got it day 1 on PS3.

However, on my CRT TV, there is a lot of messed up colors on the PS3 version because the game isn't 1:1 with the pixel grid. The Wii version would look significantly better on it I'm sure.

Shame they may not have gone over the WiiWare threshold, though.
 
If I was an indie console developer, I wouldn't release my game this late to the gen. All of those numbers are very low if you ask me. People just don't care that much when the next gen is closing in.

For a game that was mostly made by one person, $1.2+ million gross after 5 months of sales counts as a huge success.
 
It's the main reason I didn't buy it. I was really looking forward to be but the feedback after the US PSN and Steam release completely destroyed any interest I had in the game/ This is why developers should aim for simultaneous release on all platforms, if you don't and your game isn't very good, you're going to suffer tremendously in terms of sales.

Uh, he was. A few of us have already pointed that out in this very thread. Problem was that he was left waiting for a slot for months so he just decided to get the versions he already had ready (the US PSN and PC versions) out there.

Jesus you take this console war shit too seriously. All I was responding to was a post that said "Whats up with XBLA sales being super down recently?." I think the fact that the XBLA version was released later is a perfectly reasonable, non-controversial explanation for why the sales are lower on that platform. I'm not making an "excuse' because I don't care which platform the system sold the most on, and yes I would give the same explanation for weaker sales on a delayed or poor port to any platform. That's the whole reason timed exclusives exist. Could it have been on XBLA day one? Maybe, but clearly Microsoft did not care about this game, and neither did gamers as evidenced by its 100k WW sales.

I'd agree that it's an unfair comparison but I just didn't like what came across to me as a dismissal of what happened when in reality, it should be used as a lesson to Microsoft. Obviously they didn't care about this game but they should care about any game coming to their system, especially if it's also coming out on a rival console (which has ultimately resulted in good publicity for Sony and negative for Microsoft).
 

rjc571

Banned
Seems like the update for WiiWare is under 2,000 units now. So they are indeed far from the threshold.

Yeah, he told Destructoid that it was about 25% of the way there, which would put it at around 1000 units in the US and 500 in Europe. If this is how bad a hyped game (albeit one that's been available on other platforms for a while) like RCR sells on Wiiware, I'd hate to see how poorly the lesser known releases have been selling recently.
 
Yeah, he told Destructoid that it was about 25% of the way there, which would put it at around 1000 units in the US and 500 in Europe. If this is how bad a hyped game (albeit one that's been available on other platforms for a while) like RCR sells on Wiiware, I'd hate to see how poorly the lesser known releases have been selling recently.

problem with hyping a game 2 or 3 years before a release is no one gives a shit when it comes out and even less of a shit when it comes out earlier on other systems and is apparently pants
 

Roto13

Member
He really should have released it on WiiWare first.

Though there's no guarantee that it would have reached the threshold even then. Nobody buys WiiWare games. Even I don't buy WiiWare games any more.
 
Provinciano said he spent the most development time on the Xbox Live Arcade port, on a platform he called the most expensive. "Knowing what I know now, I would've skipped it," he said. Though he considered the WiiWare version a $20,000 gift to fans, the XBLA port ended up costing more.
That's brutal. Less and less people are wanting to choose XBLA...
 
Uh, he was. A few of us have already pointed that out in this very thread. Problem was that he was left waiting for a slot for months so he just decided to get the versions he already had ready (the US PSN and PC versions) out there.

Doesn't ring true. The Live Arcade release had some significant changes made. If he had been left waiting months for a slot, he wouldn't have been able to make those changes as it would have undergo the cert process again and wait even longer for a slot.
 

Vegivo

Member
I never got a chance to nab this off of psn. It goes on sale for half off on xbl this coming week. I will buy it then. I loved these retro 2d games.
 
Doesn't ring true. The Live Arcade release had some significant changes made. If he had been left waiting months for a slot, he wouldn't have been able to make those changes as it would have undergo the cert process again and wait even longer for a slot.

He said the XBLA version was 99.9% done when the US PSN version released and he was just waiting for a slot. US version released on October 9th, changes were done by November 15th and released in a patch for both PS3 and PC versions.

But what of the WiiWare and XBLA versions? Brian says that WiiWare should be getting its fix shortly following PSN, while XBLA will get its due once a release slot is finalized. Excited yet?

http://www.destructoid.com/retro-city-rampage-is-out-october-9-on-ps3-vita-and-pc-236139.phtml

“On Xbox,” he continued, “I’m not sure if you know about the slot setup, but pretty much, your game gets out there when they say it can. You have very little control. You’re just lucky to get whatever slot you get. That one reason alone is a big factor as to why I’ve been able to have so much success on PlayStation and less on Xbox.”

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/03/22/indie-dev-talks-playstation-versus-xbox-development
 

efyu_lemonardo

May I have a cookie?
This is a pretty lousy situation all around for Nintendo. They should just get somebody to round up all the data on WiiWare games that didn't pass the thresholds and give developers a cut. It doesn't seem to be that hard since they probably already have this information neatly organized somewhere. Figuring out the amounts and who to pay them to shouldn't be more than a week's work for one person, and it would garner a lot of good will towards the company which it could use on the eShop.
 

GRW810

Member
Yeah, he told Destructoid that it was about 25% of the way there, which would put it at around 1000 units in the US and 500 in Europe. If this is how bad a hyped game (albeit one that's been available on other platforms for a while) like RCR sells on Wiiware, I'd hate to see how poorly the lesser known releases have been selling recently.
Let's not blame WiiWare or Nintendo, as this post seems to suggest. Fact is WiiWare has been dead for two years and the Wii for at least one. A lot of people have probably either gotten rid of their Wii or at least unplugged it and packed it away. Plus many will have already bought the game on other platforms. At this stage every single sale is a surprise.

Let's not forget that in its heyday WiiWare proved very successful for World of Goo, LostWinds and Bit.Trip. Two years ago this would have sold thousands.
 

serplux

Member
Let's not blame WiiWare or Nintendo, as this post seems to suggest. Fact is WiiWare has been dead for two years and the Wii for at least one. A lot of people have probably either gotten rid of their Wii or at least unplugged it and packed it away. Plus many will have already bought the game on other platforms. At this stage every single sale is a surprise.

Let's not forget that in its heyday WiiWare proved very successful for World of Goo, LostWinds and Bit.Trip. Two years ago this would have sold thousands.

Hell, if WiiWare was connected to the Wii U eShop the same way DSiWare is to the 3DS eShop, it would've done sold thousands.
 

GRW810

Member
Hell, if WiiWare was connected to the Wii U eShop the same way DSiWare is to the 3DS eShop, it would've done sold thousands.
Yep. I still don't understand why Nintendo haven't made the WiiWare library available on the eShop like the 3DS has DSiWare.
 

serplux

Member
Yep. I still don't understand why Nintendo haven't made the WiiWare library available on the eShop like the 3DS has DSiWare.

I'm guessing technical reasons. The eShop really provided a new lease on life for DSiWare and gave the eShop a lot of good games right off the bat. I'm sure they'd do that again with WiiWare if they could.
 

rjc571

Banned
Let's not blame WiiWare or Nintendo, as this post seems to suggest. Fact is WiiWare has been dead for two years and the Wii for at least one. A lot of people have probably either gotten rid of their Wii or at least unplugged it and packed it away. Plus many will have already bought the game on other platforms. At this stage every single sale is a surprise.

Let's not forget that in its heyday WiiWare proved very successful for World of Goo, LostWinds and Bit.Trip. Two years ago this would have sold thousands.

Nintendo could/should have done a lot more to keep Wiiware alive. The sales requirement and the idiotic submission process were the two main things that led to its downfall, and both of those things were fixed when they launched DSiware way back in 2009, so there's no reason for them to not have implemented changes to the way Wiiware operates. I don't agree with your statement that the Wii is dead for general use, either. The Last Story was the most successful game in XSEED's history, Epic Mickey 2 sold better on the Wii than on the other platforms, and it's still the most popular platform for using Netflix. People are still using their Wii's, and would be more than happy to buy some new games for it if Nintendo or 3rd parties would bother releasing them.
 

M3d10n

Member
I'm guessing technical reasons. The eShop really provided a new lease on life for DSiWare and gave the eShop a lot of good games right off the bat. I'm sure they'd do that again with WiiWare if they could.

I'm almost convinced the team that worked on the Wii U OS was either not as skilled as the team that worked on the 3DS or was understaffed.

Having "launcher" titles in the Wii U side that simply boot Wii mode directly into the selected app nd having the Wii U eShop inject the titles/tickets directly into the Wii NAND should not have been a big issue at all and wouldn't compromise security.
 

efyu_lemonardo

May I have a cookie?
Having "launcher" titles in the Wii U side that simply boot Wii mode directly into the selected app nd having the Wii U eShop inject the titles/tickets directly into the Wii NAND should not have been a big issue at all and wouldn't compromise security.

This is something I've been thinking since Wii U's launch, but since I'm no expert programmer I was never certain it wouldn't cause a compromise...
 

serplux

Member
I'm almost convinced the team that worked on the Wii U OS was either not as skilled as the team that worked on the 3DS or was understaffed.

Having "launcher" titles in the Wii U side that simply boot Wii mode directly into the selected app nd having the Wii U eShop inject the titles/tickets directly into the Wii NAND should not have been a big issue at all and wouldn't compromise security.

They had more forward-thinking when making they made the DSi than they did when they made the Wii. I don't really know, because the Wii U eShop as a layout is the best thing they ever made. It might have made for a bit of a jarring experience to switch from one storefront to another, plus you'd have to have a Wiimote to use the Wii Shop Channel.
 

Shai-Tan

Banned
I liked the game myself. It's simple sure, but it's good fun while listening to a podcast or something.

I hated it at first but it grew on me. I wouldn't say it's fantastic but running around shooting stuff with dual sticks is kind of fun.
 
I'm almost convinced the team that worked on the Wii U OS was either not as skilled as the team that worked on the 3DS or was understaffed.

Having "launcher" titles in the Wii U side that simply boot Wii mode directly into the selected app nd having the Wii U eShop inject the titles/tickets directly into the Wii NAND should not have been a big issue at all and wouldn't compromise security.

after the degree to which the Wii was hacked I don't blame them for completely locking away all the Wii stuff into its own sandbox
 

efyu_lemonardo

May I have a cookie?
after the degree to which the Wii was hacked I don't blame them for completely locking away all the Wii stuff into its own sandbox

Even then there are better ways to do it than completely isolating the Wii Shop.

Just off the top of my head, Wii Shop games could have their own page on the eShop to show an overview and a trailer/screenshots and allow you to make a purchase. Once you do, a ticket is passed between the eShop servers and Wii Shop servers so next time you boot into Wii mode and enter the shop, the game would display as 'downloadable' or 'gifted' just like any other Wii Shop game was on Wii.

This is a cumbersome setup to be sure, but it's still better than what Nintendo have in place right now, and the only exchange of information between Wii U and Wii infrastructure happens on the side of Nintendo's servers, so they could make sure it's secure.
 

Davey Cakes

Member
I'm almost surprised that the game is on track to eventually pass the WiiWare threshold. It just came out, after all, and it has two years.

When the game was originally announced, people got pretty excited for the WiiWare version. This of course was back when WiiWare was still picking up steam.

The game releasing way later, in pure stealth fashion, certainly didn't help it. Looking at the PR update in the Nintendo Downloads thread was funny. RCR was at the very bottom. Like "oh, that game released too." It missed its chance to release in high-profile fashion on the service. WiiWare is pretty terrible at times but I imagine worthy games still see success on it.
 

pswii60

Member
Skulls of the Shogun failed to make even 10000 on XBLA. Sine Mora with an 83 Metacritic sold about the same as RDR on XBLA. Conversely Deadlight which was by many accounts shit sold a lot more.

This is hardly a XBLA problem. How is that any different to retail sales? And on any platform? Or other mediums like books and movies?

It's about games having an appeal to enough people, not how critically acclaimed it is. PS3's audience is likely to skew more towards the core, given the higher price of the console over time and the more niche first party and Japanese titles on the platform. Hence, a game like this (with all its substance based on retro videogame references) probably suits PSN's audience better.
 

Shahed

Member
How is that even related

Not sure how much it matters in the grand scheme of things, or if it does at all. But some people (like myself) won't get anything digital from Nintendo until they have a proper account in place. Pity because I like the look of games like Pushmo

I'm assuming that lack of an account translates to less sales for TheSeks
 
He really should have released it on WiiWare first.

Though there's no guarantee that it would have reached the threshold even then. Nobody buys WiiWare games. Even I don't buy WiiWare games any more.
I probably would've bought it last spring/summer/fall when it was continually promised. I still bought La-Mulana and various VC games (Monster World IV, Last Blade 2, Mega Man X2, etc).

Actually, I wonder if La-Mulana made the sales thresholds for NA/EU?
 

efyu_lemonardo

May I have a cookie?
I really think we should have a thread just so that people can complain about the lack of an account system on Nintendo consoles, so that we don't see it popping up in every eShop thread.

that would go against Gaf's policy on dedicated, centralized mega threads
 

zroid

Banned
Not sure how much it matters in the grand scheme of things, or if it does at all. But some people (like myself) won't get anything digital from Nintendo until they have a proper account in place. Pity because I like the look of games like Pushmo

I'm assuming that lack of an account translates to less sales for TheSeks

It's WiiWare, man. RCR not generating revenue has nothing to do with an account system -- it's the fact that it's a dead platform, along with Nintendo's ill-conceived policy of a minimum sales threshold, which is also a dead policy.

I imagine releasing a game on WiiWare seemed like a great idea to Provinciano back when he thought of it. I'm sure he didn't predict the game would take so long to develop, nor the current state of the Wii and WiiWare when it did finally release.

If the game were released on 3DS or even Wii U, those versions would have been met with much more success.
 

Shahed

Member
It's WiiWare, man. RCR not generating revenue has nothing to do with an account system -- it's the fact that it's a dead platform, along with Nintendo's ill-conceived policy of a minimum sales threshold, which is also a dead policy.

I imagine releasing a game on WiiWare seemed like a great idea to Provinciano back when he thought of it. I'm sure he didn't predict the game to take so long to develop, nor the current state of the Wii and WiiWare when it did finally release.

If the game were released on 3DS or even Wii U, it would have met much more success.

Hey I'm not saying I agree the lack if an account is the reason for poor sales. I'm just coming up with a reason why someone would think it'd contribute. It's not my own view

I was (partially) joking. It's a bit annoying seeing people go into eShop threads just to say that they won't buy stuff.

While I agree with you in principal. As in people shouldn't post in topics they don't care about. But this isn't really an eShop thread
 

zroid

Banned
Hey I'm not saying I agree the lack if an account is the reason for poor sales. I'm just coming up with a reason why someone would think it'd contribute. It's not my own view

Sorry, I didn't mean to target you specifically there. I knew you weren't defending the original point. Was just trying to expand on my disbelief.
 

beril

Member
Yea Wiiware has had it's issues, but I wouldn't really hold RCRs sales against it. It's dead platform, people have moved on ages ago. Nintendo are barely even releasing VC games for the wii anymore.
 
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