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[Nirolak]

Dem Top 10 Elitists!

Crazy to think that just a few years ago the top 10 was dominated by FPS... now it's Open World. What comes next?

I feel the trends have often followed the strength of what the newest consoles allowed, but that's becoming blurrier now.

Like online gaming got a huge boost with the 360/PS3, so we saw a ton of shooters (both competitive and co-op) taking off.

Near the end of last gen developers began pushing open worlds more and more as they were preparing for a very RAM heavy future that could open up their games a lot, and some of their heavy streaming technology allowed these games to show up on last-gen as well. Similarly we saw a lot more online connectivity taking off as they had lots of spare RAM and a better connection pipeline than existed before.

At this point, what's there that is really gated more by the physical hardware than the budget of the games? I don't think there's an obvious answer.

One area I do feel that's still underutilized though is co-op RPG progression games. We've seen Borderlands be a huge hit, Diablo 3 be an insanely huge hit, and Destiny be one of the biggest if not the biggest new franchise this generation. However, we still don't have a lot of games that are sitting there and trying to compete with that directly. It's basically the idea of scaling down an MMO into something where you can have more action oriented combat and have the players feel like they're doing a lot while still having all those other hooks in play.

There also seems to be a slow rolling movement into how to make MOBAs work on consoles since a lot of publishers seem to view that as an untapped market that could conceivably compete with shooters. Take-Two's 2K unit said that they're putting their biggest launch ever behind Battleborn (I'm assuming this is delayed to 2016 at this point?), Microsoft and Sony are courting and/or developing MOBAs internally, Activision has a lot of MOBA influence (combined with TF2) in Overwatch, and even games like Black Ops 3 are taking pointers from how MOBAs design their heroes with the multiplayer characters (and notably they're characters to boot) in its multiplayer modes. The popular answer here seems to be "try and merge them with shooters".

Beyond that, I'm not seeing a too much of a third emerging trend on the retail AAA side of things beyond more investment in what already works. I guess people are perpetually trying to get music games and racing games to work again, but I'm not sure how much gas is left in those tanks.

 

[PillarEN]

Impressive that two versions of FIFA are in the top 10. EA must be incredibly happy with that series.

 

[1st Course]

Watch_Dogs outsold Unity + Rough combined? Seems like Unity underperformed big time.

 

[Son Of D]

Smash beat Madden? What?

3DS + Wii U. Plus you have to consider that Madden only does well in one country whereas Smash is more global.

 

[jgf]

Because they're two entirely different games with different development studios and budgets that just happened to be released on the same day. This list is looking at the top-selling retail games, not franchises.

And if they're just putting together everything under the same tent, then why not combine FIFA sales?

If both ac variants where available for all systems then this would not make sense, granted. But that's not how it is.

FIFA is not merged for the same reason ac unity/rogue is not merged with ac4: they belong to different iterations/years of the francise.

 

[T.O.P]

Best COD since MW1, i ain't mad, loved it

 

[TheSlySoul]

This industry somehow teached a bunch of people to buy the same 5 games every fucking year so they don't have to buy anything else the rest of the year.

And you wonder why there's no Breath of Fire VI, Suikoden IV, Contra 5 or Klonoa 3 on consoles.

I agree with you.
Also Splatoon is not going to live up to all the hype surrounding it as well.

Seeing a Japanese game in the top 10 retail games is a rare sight.

 

[jaina]

And you wonder why there's no Breath of Fire VI, Suikoden IV, Contra 5 or Klonoa 3 on consoles.

That's mean

EDIT: also, I always knew FIFA was more popular than Madden simply because Fútbol makes American Football pale in comparison in popularity in the world but I didn't know it was this big. I assume this is worldwide? Or is it just US sales? Could the US really have Fifa sell more than Madden so much that two FIFAs are in the top 10!?

It's worldwide (NPD + Gfk data)

 

[Deleted member 125677]

Open Worlds everywhere!

Out of these titles I'm enjoying the hell out of Smash and GTA V. No escaping dat zeitgeist!

 

[mazpratim]

People disappointed with lack of variety should try out PC gaming

 

[CosmicQueso]

One area I do feel that's still underutilized though is co-op RPG progression games.

Betting there are some of those in development for sure.

There also seems to be a slow rolling movement into how to make MOBAs work on consoles since a lot of publishers seem to view that as an untapped market that could conceivably compete with shooters.

Think we might be (should be?) at the tail end of this speculative investing. There's a Coke/Pepsi battle going right now, with Blizzard trying to get in there too. That's a lot of powerful competition in this space, and since some have already been burned here... we'll see.

I guess people are perpetually trying to get music games and racing games to work again, but I'm not sure how much gas is left in those tanks.

I think a better use for the money being spent on music games would be to pile all the money up a burn it for warmth.

Slowly, everything will turn into an MMO.

I hear what you're saying... and to an extent, yeah.

I think we're headed to games as platforms/services whose lives are extended longer and longer. The breadth of offerings will continue to shrink, while the depth expands. Who knows.

Until the Next Big Idea happens... let's hope the Next Big Idea happens.

 

[ghibli99]

Dang, of those I only bought two, and of those two, I only truly played one (GTA5).

 

[Moneal]

Watch_Dogs outsold Unity + Rough combined? Seems like Unity underperformed big time.

I think Rogue was the underpreforming one.

 

[Crom]

Yay, more games where you follow the marker rather than pay attention to the actual environment.

Bingo.

Open empty worlds

 

[Nirolak]

Think we might be (should be?) at the tail end of this speculative investing. There's a Coke/Pepsi battle going right now, with Blizzard trying to get in there too. That's a lot of powerful competition in this space, and since some have already been burned here... we'll see.

On this one I'd like to clarify I don't mean League of Legends clones or direct competitors anymore (or even necessarily isometric games), but rather games that take a lot of concepts from MOBAs (characters with a handful of unique abilities, 5v5 or similar team set up, mid-match progression) and then put that into the framework of something else like a third person action game or a first person shooter.

I'd make the comparison to basically going from GTA clones like Scarface, Godfather, and early Saints Row titles to games that took a lot of cues from GTA, but were still notably different, like Assassin's Creed.

Similarly people stopped trying to make World of Warcraft competitors, but they didn't stop trying to make socially connected always online games with progression schemes as we can witness with Destiny and The Division.

Like to even use the Black Ops 3 example I had earlier as one of the most disconnected games:

The next big point is one that makes the MOBA player in me very, very happy. You no longer play as generic soldiers. Before a match begins, you pick a unique character, each with his, her, or its own unique power and weapon. You can only pick one though (the power or the weapon), and each is treated like a miniature score streak.

Though Treyarch is still tweaking things, when I played, I felt like I unlocked my weapon or power about as often as I unlocked a UAV.

Four Specialists have been revealed so far, with at least another five on the way.

• Ruin’s weapons are Gravity Spikes, which allow him to leap through the air and slam down on his target with an area-of-effect shockwave. His power, Overdrive, greatly accelerates all movement for a short time.
  
• Seraph’s (my personal favorite) weapon is the Annihilator, a huge, high-caliber revolver that kills enemies in one shot and has penetration rounds. If you can line up two enemies, you’ll take them both out. Her ability is Combat Focus, which triggers a bonus multiplier to score steak points.
  
• Outrider’s weapon is the Sparrow, a compound bow with explosive bolts. Her ability is Vision Pulse, which expands out from the player, tagging all enemies’ locations and allowing you to see them through walls.
  
• Reaper is a killer robot. His weapon is the scythe, a minigun that emerges from his arm. His ability, Glitch, allows him to flash back to wherever he was a few seconds ago.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/04...o-know-about-multiplayer-zombies-and-campaign

Reaper's power is literally Weaver's ultimate ability from DOTA.

Something like Battleborn on the other hand is much more directly a MOBA with base guardians and creep waves and everything, but still a Gearbox first person shooter.

 

[Meier]

Two Fifa games. My god. And fifa 15 is a bug fest. wtf this is crazy. I am shocked.

Man just how much money EA makes from yearly fifa games.

Tons. They make absolute huge amounts post release too due to FUT and this wouldn't be reflected here. It can be horribly frustrating but I'd say 85% or more of my console gaming for the past 3-4 years has been FIFA (mostly Pro Clubs with our GAF crew).

 

[Opiate]

The freedom of playing the same game I played last year with a different title.

I've got a different complaint: if there is anything that makes budgets balloon faster than graphical fidelity with high detail, it's open, huge worlds to put that detail in to.

The tastes of AAA gamers are like a how-to on building the most expensive possible game.

 

[Kill3r7]

I've got a different complaint: if there is anything that makes budgets balloon faster than graphical fidelity with high detail, it's open, huge worlds to put that detail in to.

The tastes of AAA gamers are like a how-to on building the most expensive possible game.

No different than summer blockbusters.

 

[Greddleok]

I wonder what happens when you normalise to marketing budget.

 

[1st Course]

I think Rogue was the underpreforming one.

Watch_ Dogs was at 10 million units shipped as of December 31, 2014. This mean Unity + Rogue combined shipped less than 10M. For comparison Black Flag shipped 11M by itself.

 

[stb]

Watch_ Dogs was at 10 million units shipped as of December 31, 2014. This mean Unity + Rogue combined shipped less than 10M. For comparison Black Flag shipped 11M by itself.

BF:
- shipped 6 SKUs simultaneously
- including the 2 with the largest install base
- at the time 2 new systems were releasing
- was also a "main line" game
- had approximately 2 extra weeks to sell in the calendar year
- I think the 11m figure was through Ubi's fiscal year (~April 2014) not just calendar 2013

ACU/ACR
- shipped 5 skus (PC Rogue was March 2015)
- 2 of which were on the "old" systems
- 2 of which were after there were many more games available for the new systems
- Rogue was not a mainline game

Where I'm going with this is that comparing apples (ACU + ACR) to oranges (BF) isn't a particularly useful exercise. There are way too many asterisks to draw anything from them, especially since I'm under the impression the "11m" figure for BF is for an entirely different period of time.

 

[evilromero]

1. FPS
2. Sport
3. Open World
4. FPS/RPG
5. Open World
6. Open World
7. FPS/Open World
8. Fighting/Party
9. Sport
10. Sport

Open worlds are great because they also include several genres in one. Racing, shooting (FPS/TPS), fighting, stealth, sports, etc. It's always been the trend for video games to put players in a simulated world to let them do what they want how they want. So it makes perfect sense to see us moving in that direction. Ever since I was a kid playing on our Apple computer in the 80s I always figured games would just give players more and more freedom and opportunities to explore simulated spaces.

 

[Mr. Sunny]

GTA 5 is the only above average game on that list and it's a port.

 

[March of the Crabs]

Go Smash go!!!

 

[kewlmyc]

Smash sold over 10 million copies at retail between the Wii U and 3DS versions.

Wait seriously!? Is this world wide sales?

 

[Circinus]

Open worlds are great because they also include several genres in one. Racing, shooting (FPS/TPS), fighting, stealth, sports, etc. It's always been the trend for video games to put players in a simulated world to let them do what they want how they want. So it makes perfect sense to see us moving in that direction. Ever since I was a kid playing on our Apple computer in the 80s I always figured games would just give players more and more freedom and opportunities to explore simulated spaces.

I agree. Open-world isn't a genre to me.

 

[RexNovis]

Does Destiny really count as open world?

I was asking the exact same question myself. It's more of a hubworld game akin to PSO or Demon's Souls than open world. I wonder what the % would look like without Destiny in the mix. Probably much closer to the other figure.

Also LOL at Ubisoft combining Unity and Rogue. That is some grade A PR spin right there.

 

[impact]

People disappointed with lack of variety should try out PC gaming

Just replace open world with MOBA and sports with MMO and you've got your list.

I'll take a bad open world game over the best MOBA any day of the week :x

 

[Courage]

FIFA being that high is worrisome, even though I knew of it. If Konami ditches Pro Evo, then EA will effectively monopolize soccer games, and probably neglect FIFA's quality even more.

 

[Ricky 7]

Does this include handhelds because I know Ubisoft don't like to include them?

 

[shinobi602]

During their fiscal year financials call, Ubisoft head honcho Yves Guillemot stated his company estimates that 30% of 2014 console games were open world. That’s twice as much as estimated in 2008.

Guillemot added that five of the top ten best-sellers of 2014 were open world titles.

Why? Well, Guillemot thinks he has it all figured out. “This confirms players’ appetite for more freedom and the possibility to define their own experience,” he said.

http://stevivor.com/2015/05/ubisofts-guillemot-30-of-games-in-2014-were-open-world/#

 

[BY2K]

Good on Ubi, can't wait for Nintendo to try their hand at that with Zelda.

 

[legacyzero]

Yeah, when you fucking do it right. Ubi, you dont do it right.

Dying Light did it right. Fallout did it right. Skyrim did it right. Your "Open World" games bore the fuck out of me.

If by "Defining my own experience" is you crafting a big level with a handful of a samey tasks... Well, just no.

 

[SpiceMelange]

One man can only climb so many towers and collect so many feathers. Ubisoft's open-worlds are boring and samey

 

[NZNova]

I'm kind of over open world to be honest... I mean it's neat but let's have a few games that aren't open world too. The Ubisoft Open-World Template (TM) in particular is boring as hell at this point.

 

[Tripon]

Destiny is not an open world game. Unless cooridors mean open world now.

 

[Simply Sami]

Next watchdogs won't sell as well unless the gameplay is changed massively.

Only reason people bought it was due to it being a new franchise and giving it a chance.

 

[nailbombxx]

The Ubisoft brand of open world games are huge snoozefests imo. This is not a good sign.

 

[LegalEagleMike]

I only want open worlds that are full of interesting content, not collectathons. Unless it is a 3d platformer collectathon!

 

[threelights]

Great, hopefully Ubisoft starts to learn how to make them too.

 

[Kallor]

Good. Love open world games and hope for many more good ones. Not a big fan of Ubi and others' Open-worldish collectathons though.

 

[Lunar15]

Not a gigantic fan of this gimmick. When it's done well, it's neat, but I much prefer a tight, streamlined experience. Freedom, to me, often comes at the cost of storytelling and good structured gameplay. There's a time and place for it, but I just don't want everything going that way. I think it's just a very easy way to make a game sound exciting.

I'm the old way though. Eventually the industry would stop focusing on me, and that's fine.

 

[ArkhamFantasy]

I think highlighting Destiny as an "open world" game kind of proves that they are simply using it as a marketing gimmick rather than using it to improve their game. Linear became a bad word towards the end of the last generation. However linear does not automatically mean bad design and open world does not automatically mean good design.

If you build an open world that is boring, empty, and serves no purpose then you've wasted your time (aka Destiny), you may as well have went with a linear design, at least that way you can spend more time developing the actual mechanics of the game and polishing them.

 

[Lonely1]

Ugh, give me a well crafted experience instead. Not a fan of getting lost.

 

[nib95]

Destiny is not an open world game. Unless cooridors mean open world now.

Being open world doesn't mean you can't have more confined interior locations, nor a mixture of some more linear objectives. Destiny very much has open world level design. It's actually similar to Witcher 3 in that it has several separate large open world areas, instead of one giant one.

 

[publicpwnerer]

Open world used to be mean sacrificing tight mechanics for a more grandiose approach, but the Arkham games put that to rest..with it's great stealth and melee combat.

Not only Batman, but many other shooting based open world games are exploring more refined cover mechanics, good driving mechanics and a wealth of other stuff, putting linear set piece games to shame.

Of course every genre and style has it's place, and possess strengths the others don't. We could very well see a more Tomb Raider'esque Uncharted, and have a large connected space. I think this generation is all about width..bigger worlds, more characters on screen, creating more immersive spaces, rather than just sheer graphical fidelity like some people continually expect.

 

[Lunar15]

Being open world doesn't mean you can't have more confined interior locations. Destiny very much has open world level design. It's actually similar to Witcher 3 in that it has several separate large open world areas, instead of one giant one.

That comparison couldn't be less apt. One of the sections of Witcher 3 is the size of Skyrim, if not bigger, for better or worse.

 

[TouchMyBox]

Yeah, when you fucking do it right. Ubi, you dont do it right.

Dying Light did it right. Fallout did it right. Skyrim did it right. Your "Open World" games bore the fuck out of me.

If by "Defining my own experience" is you crafting a big level with a handful of a samey tasks... Well, just no.

Bethesda crafts their giant open worlds to craft emergent player stories and experiences. Ubisoft crafts their giant open worlds to have big numbers on press releases.

 

[Easy_D]

I define my freedom by not having to climb towers to reveal the map after annoying repetetive cutscenes, can we get that? Loving Far Cry 3 but I dread everytime I climb a tower because of how annoying it is. Like I get it, map reveals interesting stuff! Yeah! Go explore!

I will, that's why I play the game, ffs D: Liberating camps would be a complete chore if it weren't for the fact that the shooting mechanics and all that jazz are really fun

 

[OrlanisWorks]

I think being turned off by Assassin's Creed after Brotherhood helped me keep Ubi open world fresh.

I love me some open world. Ubi needs help doing it better.