You may hate as much as you want but Tomb Raider = generic trash is over exaggeration at its best.
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Square Enix ships Tomb Raider 3.4M, Sleeping Dogs 1.75M, Hitman 3.6M
- Thread starter Pooya
- Start date
You may hate as much as you want but Tomb Raider = generic trash is over exaggeration at its best.
Cross gen titles. =p
metalslimer
Member
Wonder if Bioshock Infinite will break even
Aquamarine
Member
That's what I've been saying. This industry is just getting too unsustainable because people constantly expect prices to drop so quickly. :-(
Right, and that's a rather large distinction to make.
Everyone take a breath. 3.4 million units shipped is not the same as 3.4 million units sold.
digoutyoursoul
Member
I love video games, seeing news like this is just disheartening and I worry about the industry, especially with the next gen systems looming
D
Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
Jesus Christ... selling over 3 million copies of a game and still deeming it a failure.
SteveWinwood
Member
I don't know anyone who has bought a disc in... a really long time...
Not including digital sales, in your projections or actual figures, is silly.
Not including digital sales, in your projections or actual figures, is silly.
Which means that some number potentially significantly less than 3.4 million was actually sold through to consumers and a rather large number of copies are sitting on the shelves of retailers.
You don't know anyone buying discs on consoles?
Average selling price is also key.
Mirror's Edge sold over 2 million copies, but if half of that is at $5, it's not super helpful.
I saw tons of Tomb Raider ads.
EDIT: Okay maybe not tons, but a fair amount. More than Sleeping Dogs or Hitman anyway.
I don't think that really matters for Tomb Raider yet, considering it came out this March. It probably makes more of a difference for Hitman.
I remember one that made the game look very unappealing to me.
SteveWinwood
Member
I actually talked to a friend of mine last night over steam when he picked up Bioshock Infinite and I was really shocked. Why didn't you buy it on 360? I thought that was all you had played? Nah I haven't touched that thing in months he responded.
This guy is as middle of the road only buys AAA or whatever.
I'm not saying he's the norm, or that my friends are an appropriate sample size or anything, but the way people get their media is changing and it has been for years now. I don't know why digital sales aren't represented in this is all I'm saying.
It could be the way that sales figures are put in their contracts with the digital providers (steam or origin or whatever) I know you sometimes can't just give out hard numbers. But it's ridiculous that they are cutting out part of their complete picture and it benefits no one.
staticneuron
Member
FTA:
Meh, the sales of me and "many" others will not be counted because I purchase 2 of those 3 titles digitally.
Unspeakable Evil
Member
Yea, I recall the Gamestop and review score ads.
Wickerbasket
Member
There must be mismanagement of epic proportions at Square Enix if they can't make money off of those sales.
I'm going to guess Tomb Raider and Hitman are another FFXIII-2 case. Big shipment number, poor sales. Hitman basically went to bargain bin prices instantly so I'm sure that likely didn't perform well at all. I'll reserve judgment on TR for now since it's only just released, but I'm interested in seeing Tomb Raiders NPD results.
Yeah Hitman (and Sleeping Dogs) were the titles I had in mind for that statement.
Developers trying to find a middle ground between pleasing casual players and hardcore players.
Guess what? There is no middle ground in trying to please everyone. The video game industry is now able to only support really, really good games. Games that don't try to appeal to a certain audience or are market tested to hell, but games that are just good.
It doesn't help that there's fewer and fewer of those games released.
Guess what? There is no middle ground in trying to please everyone. The video game industry is now able to only support really, really good games. Games that don't try to appeal to a certain audience or are market tested to hell, but games that are just good.
It doesn't help that there's fewer and fewer of those games released.
It's not as simple as that. I and many others would say Sleeping Dogs is the best game out of these three but it has a poor metascore by AAA standards and the lowest sales.
Heart Attack
Member
Tomb Raider was in development for 5 years, and it was shoved down your throat with an expensive marketing campaign. Of course 3.4 million isn't enough, with that huge budget. I doubt the game will be profitable anyway. Serves them right for killing the franchise.
Using ps3/360/wii u sales to supplement the cost of development on the ps4/720?
Heart Attack
Member
I'm pretty sure FF XIII-2's budget was less than both games combined. So much content was recycled from the first one.
Come on now, read the rest of the paragraph. The budget for FFXIII-2 was most likely less, but it was massively overshipped. That's what I meant and I clarify it in the next sentence.
Well SE for example isnt exactly banking much on ps360.
SolidSnakex
Member
I love video games, seeing news like this is just disheartening and I worry about the industry, especially with the next gen systems looming
This is just something publishers need to get under control. If 3.4m is disappointing, then that suggests that expectations were too high and/or the game went over budget. David Cage recently noted that they were really happy with Heavy Rain's performance, and that it was highly profitable. That game ended up selling 2.3m as of the last time they updated the sales. So it's certainly possible to find a lot of success with AAA budget titles without putting up CoD-style numbers.
All of the games in the OP were PS360
Wickerbasket
Member
Good management and realistic sales expectations.
whatevermort
Member
8.
Man some publishers are gonna break :/
Exactly.
So for all we know, the game could have sold 1 million across all platforms, which would most certainly be a failure.
If the game actually SOLD 3.4 million copies and didn't meet expectations, then bring back the torches and pitchforks.
Ding ding ding.
Well, I'd argue that it's more because developers budget without taking into account that prices drop so quickly. A subtle difference, but important, I feel.
KillerMan91
Member
Eh. Doesn't publisher get its money when it ships game to retailer? So S-E has got its money for those 3.4 million shipped games? Of course in the future retailers will be wary of S-E titles if the actual sales are way less than the shipped numbers.
Not really. As explained right there in the OP's slide, they have to pay up when retailers cant move those units at full price
They know what the fans want from each of Eidios IP. In general they show respect towards the fans as well. Something Square no longer does.
NullPointer
Member
Amen.
Takamura-San
Member
You're basing calculations and budgets on just presumptions.
You should be fine with a website.
Hari Seldon
Member
I have been waiting for Tomb Raider to drop on Steam but as far as I can tell it hasn't. Thanks to this thread I checked Amazon and it is $35 download. Damn Steam price match this shit!
Pagusas
Elden Member
When 9's and 10's are handed out left and right, with an extraordinary use of superlatives and hyperbole, it's no fucking wonder that people have lost faith in contemporary game reviews.
When this has been the standard for several years now, it's perfectly understandable that the industry and the reviewers have created this weird vortex of financial reliance on Metacritic scores.
Hopefully you are right that consumers have realized this.
This is basically the US Education System grading system for there students, so it makes sense. At least for me growing up. Anything but an A was basically "average". And if you were in a class with lots of great students, even an A could be considered only "ok", when you could have got an A+ (or extra credit).