Sales Numbers

[Velorath]

I'm just really not sure why some people bought a PS3 if they weren't interested in what few good PS3 exclusives came out this year.  As I mentioned in the Uncharted thread, sales on that game were pretty dismal, but even more surprising is that estimated total worldwide sales for Ratchet and Clank are just under 500,000 (having released in late Oct.).

Wii is still selling out.  Nintendo is working with Gamestop to provide rainchecks so kids will actually have something to open on Christmas (even if it's just a gift that says they gets to wait a month after Christmas before they actually get their present).  Rumor has it that they're going to introduce some new Wii colors in Japan early next year, so I expect the hardware numbers to jump back up a bit.  In the U.S., the DS sold more units than the PS2, PS3, and PSP combined.

The 360 still sells like shit in Japan, but new exclusive releases always seem to at least make the top 10 for a week.

[Soukyan]

Rumor has it that they're going to introduce some new Wii colors in Japan early next year, so I expect the hardware numbers to jump back up a bit.

Another good point for Nintendo and the marketing genius behind the Wii. Just as with the DS or even fucking cell phones and iPods, make some color options and people love it. So for games, make a gold "limited-edition" cartridge/disc/whatever and gamers get all silly about it. They can drive hardware and game sales with the must mundane psychological and emotional tricks.

Sony is trying to sell the console based on the hardware. Let's face it, as with cars, the only people interested in being sold a car with a killer powerful engine are a small niche compared to the overall car market. The new VW Beetle was nothing special really, but did you see the color options? And the holder for a flower vase? You get my point.

[stray]

Fuck a sales thread.

ICO, Okami, and Katamari sold like shit too. Grim Fandango sold like 8 copies. Whatever.

[SnakeCharmer]

And ads don't effect my game purchasing. At all.

Yeah, but you aren't normal.

[Velorath]

Fuck a sales thread.

ICO, Okami, and Katamari sold like shit too. Grim Fandango sold like 8 copies. Whatever.

I don't think ICO had quite the budget that Uncharted or Ratchet and Clank had, and Clover was shut down shortly after Okami's release.  Sales are important if you want to see your favorite dev teams continue to make games.

[schild]

Katamari cost nothing to make. And it sold like FIRE.

[Mrbloodworth]

I'm just really not sure why some people bought a PS3 if they weren't interested in what few good PS3 exclusives came out this year.

Ill tell you, becouse for consoles, its like upgrading your computer, and if you were one of the lucky ones..... All your old game still run on it. AND, you get to play new shiny game.......when they come out.

[Velorath]

I'm just really not sure why some people bought a PS3 if they weren't interested in what few good PS3 exclusives came out this year.

Ill tell you, becouse for consoles, its like upgrading your computer, and if you were one of the lucky ones..... All your old game still run on it. AND, you get to play new shiny game.......when they come out.

They aren't playing the shiny new games that are actually developed with the PS3 in mind though.  If someone is going to by a system to play stuff like CoD4, they might as well just stick with a 360 since multi-platform games tend to be better on the 360 right now, and it has a stronger online community.  PS3 right now is in a similar situation to what Nintendo has been in before, where they're going to be relying largely on their first party stuff, and they have the talent to do that.  Unfortunately, they either don't seem to have the marketing, their games don't have the mass appeal, or their franchises don't have that Nintendo nostalgia factor to get their first party software sales up to where they need to be.

[stray]

Fuck a sales thread.

ICO, Okami, and Katamari sold like shit too. Grim Fandango sold like 8 copies. Whatever.

I don't think ICO had quite the budget that Uncharted or Ratchet and Clank had, and Clover was shut down shortly after Okami's release.  Sales are important if you want to see your favorite dev teams continue to make games.

Insomniac, Team Ico, and ND aren't going anywhere, so I don't have to worry about that at least. I do understand what you're saying though. I just get tired of the kind of direction these threads tend to go: When gamers start talking about revenue and profit being the main points of relevance. Fuck that shit. Just play games, stay curious, and have fun.

[Velorath]

Fuck a sales thread.

ICO, Okami, and Katamari sold like shit too. Grim Fandango sold like 8 copies. Whatever.

I don't think ICO had quite the budget that Uncharted or Ratchet and Clank had, and Clover was shut down shortly after Okami's release.  Sales are important if you want to see your favorite dev teams continue to make games.

Insomniac, Team Ico, and ND aren't going anywhere, so I don't have to worry about that at least. I do understand what you're saying though. I just get tired of the kind of direction these threads tend to go: When gamers start talking about revenue and profit being the main points of relevance. Fuck that shit. Just play games, stay curious, and have fun.

Very few things seem to be permanent in the game industry.  Even if the studios don't fold, key personale could leave any of these studios.  Insomniac at least should have a new franchise in Resistance, so they aren't in too bad of shape.  ND... well, Uncharted is the first game they've realeased since Jak X in 2005, and it probably had a sizable budget.  They really needed this to be a hit, and I'd really rather see it do well enough to justify a sequel, otherwise you're going to be seeing ND churning out Jak PSP games or something in order to make up lost money.

I don't know, I like following sales because it gives you an indication of where the industry will be heading, and because I like to see when developers get the sales on a game they deserve.  I'm actually happy that CoD4 is doing well because the dev team seemed to put a lot of effort into making that game (although I'm sure they can't be happy that after all that effort, CoD5 is presumably getting churned out by Treyarch for a release next year).  Likewise I get disappointed when good games don't catch on.

[schild]

Treyarch and Infinity Ward had been planning on alternating for a while now. So... it wasn't surprising when announced.

[Jain Zar]

Yes, that's what's called a FAD Haemish.

It might as well be called the Wii Sports Box.

Much like the REBox of the last era. Or Smash Box. Whatever flavor you pick.

Except its almost outsold the Gamecube's lifetime sales IN ONE YEAR.  That's not a fad.
And itll get good games once they start releasing stuff other than minigame collections.  Of course people don't buy many of those.  When you have Wii Sports you already have all the minigames you NEED.
Developers are scrambling because they all thought like you.
Which is WRONG THINKING.
People didn't want a 600 dollar shitbox with about 5 worthwhile exclusives and inferior to the 360 ports.
Most people don't give a fuck about Blu Ray.  And that fucked the PS3.

You LOST.  Deal with it.

And Wii has online purchasable games too, so its attach rate if we count that is way higher too.

[schild]

I'm going to remember this post.

[Velorath]

I'm going to remember this post.

I still remember the post where you said it was retarted to think that Sony was sowing the seeds of 3rd place with the PS3. 

[schild]

I'm going to remember this post.

I still remember the post where you said it was retarted to think that Sony was sowing the seeds of 3rd place with the PS3. 

Slow buildup. Bad economy. Poor people.

People buy what they can afford. The Wii is affordable by those on welfare.

Not saying that is the case as I know a lot of rich folk who think it's the best thing since sliced bread.

But, again, people thought Tickle me Elmo and the Furby were also.

[Nerf]

People are going to start giving a shit about blu-ray as HD becomes the norm, and to say that people prefer games with shittastic graphics over the super shiny is just being stupid, if that logic held true SNES and Genesis would still be around, hell, my atari wouldn't be sitting in a fucking closet.

That being said, I'm looking forward to getting my Wii in January, because mindless controller waving is actually alot of fun.

Mindless controller waving really doesn't have much to do with the system though, the entire appeal of the Wii is it's controller, PS3 already has the six-axis, and they can start muscling into Wii territory if they'd make some games that actually fucking use it.  The six-axis arrow controls in heavenly sword made that game for me, I'd play that shit all fucking day.

[Jain Zar]

I'm going to remember this post.

I still remember the post where you said it was retarted to think that Sony was sowing the seeds of 3rd place with the PS3. 

Slow buildup. Bad economy. Poor people.

People buy what they can afford. The Wii is affordable by those on welfare.

Not saying that is the case as I know a lot of rich folk who think it's the best thing since sliced bread.

But, again, people thought Tickle me Elmo and the Furby were also.

Your elitist moneywasting gamer ways being knifed in the back pain is DELICIOUS.
And funny as hell.

[schild]

Your elitist moneywasting gamer ways being knifed in the back pain is DELICIOUS.
And funny as hell.

Moneywasting? Uncharted is better than anything that is OR WILL BE on the Wii. So sorry. Try again.

I know you still play games on the 70s, so uhm, your comment is thrown out with the trash.

[Velorath]

People are going to start giving a shit about blu-ray as HD becomes the norm,

That's great and all, but as we're starting to see, people buying PS3s as blu-ray players don't really do shit for developers trying to sell games.

[Jain Zar]

Your elitist moneywasting gamer ways being knifed in the back pain is DELICIOUS.
And funny as hell.

Moneywasting? Uncharted is better than anything that is OR WILL BE on the Wii. So sorry. Try again.

I know you still play games on the 70s, so uhm, your comment is thrown out with the trash.

Flavor of the month graphics whore ITT.

[Soukyan]

People are going to start giving a shit about blu-ray as HD becomes the norm, and to say that people prefer games with shittastic graphics over the super shiny is just being stupid, if that logic held true SNES and Genesis would still be around, hell, my atari wouldn't be sitting in a fucking closet.

That being said, I'm looking forward to getting my Wii in January, because mindless controller waving is actually alot of fun.

Mindless controller waving really doesn't have much to do with the system though, the entire appeal of the Wii is it's controller, PS3 already has the six-axis, and they can start muscling into Wii territory if they'd make some games that actually fucking use it.  The six-axis arrow controls in heavenly sword made that game for me, I'd play that shit all fucking day.

No. The logic does not lead to the NES and Genesis still being popular platforms. Market logic shows that new hardware replaces old hardware, otherwise, the market would still be saturated with 1st gen iPods. Of course people want updated graphics and more and better features, otherwise, how could the purchase of new and better hardware be justified? If PS3 quality graphics could be offered on the NES and Genesis, they would most certainly still be around. schild stepped out of the hardcore gaming geek bubble here and made a good point. The Wii is affordable and fun. Those two pieces right there are a huge win in the marketplace. Great graphics would be icing on the cake. Alas, their cake lacks that particular floral decoration. Then again, not everyone likes lots of icing on their cake, especially if the decorations cost extra.

As for the Blu-Ray player thing, I still think it's in the early adopter numbers of purchases, but perhaps a fair amount more will purchase it solely for watching movies. I doubt it will ride on that though. More likely, standalone players will become more affordable, or someone like Apple or TiVO will make a combo DVR/HDDVD player or somesuch.

[Tannhauser]

I'm going to remember this post.

I still remember the post where you said it was retarted to think that Sony was sowing the seeds of 3rd place with the PS3. 

Slow buildup. Bad economy. Poor people.

People buy what they can afford. The Wii is affordable by those on welfare.

Not saying that is the case as I know a lot of rich folk who think it's the best thing since sliced bread.

But, again, people thought Tickle me Elmo and the Furby were also.

People buy what they can afford? Not around here!  Oh and selling the PS3 to the rich is great strategy, that is if you don't want to sell a lot of units...

No, the strategy was to sell the unit at a high price and they assumed the gaming sheep as well as MomnDad would pony up the dough.  "That's some nice detective work there Lou."

Having said this I'm now considering buying a PS3 for the Blu-Ray.  Maybe they'll even develop some good games for it besides Resistance and Unearthed.

[Roac]

Except for nobody wanting one, the PS3 is awesome.

[Big Gulp]

People are going to start giving a shit about blu-ray as HD becomes the norm,

I can't see that.  I've got an HDTV, and I have zero plans to ever get into BluRay, because an upscaling DVD player does the job just fine.  I can't tell the difference between the HD channels on my satellite dish or an upscaled DVD.  They both look fantastic.

BluRay is a solution in search of a problem, and it's lifespan is limited at any rate, because DLC is right around the corner.  This was a last ditch attempt to cash in one more time on physical media, and I don't think it's going anywhere.

[Margalis]

What's the term for something that never caught on in the first place? I mean besides "failure."

And I'll second that Uncharted had terrible marketing. No matter how much I hear about it the back of my mind still says it must suck.

[stray]

What kind of TV do you have anyways Gulp? Just wondering. I'm not exaggerating when I say that I see a big difference between upscaled DVD and HD feeds and Blu-Ray discs. On DLP and Projection, not so much.


Anyways, I think it's too bad that some of you guys are concerned about marketing and revenue. Again I say, fuck sales thread. Really, I find that kind of heartbreaking! That isn't any kind of way to discover what's fun or not.

[Jain Zar]

Anyways, I think it's too bad that some of you guys are concerned about marketing and revenue. Again I say, fuck sales thread. Really, I find that kind of heartbreaking! That isn't any kind of way to discover what's fun or not.

No fuckie sales thread!  Its nice dumb fun!
But fun is subjective anyhow.  We all tend to forget that.  People playing Wii can have as much fun as people playing PS3 as can cell phone gamers or whatever.
Its mostly subjective taste now isn't it?
I love turn based games with a passion yet to someone else that's poop on a disk/cartridge.
To each their own.

[dusematic]

Yes, that's what's called a FAD [the wii]  Haemish.

Dude, you're sooooo desperate for the Wii. to fail. It represents everything you don't want to happen to gaming doesn't it?

I want the Wii to continue dominating.  With any luck, things can go back to a Nintendo Power world and we can have our Final Fantasy and eat our Mario too.

[Jain Zar]

^^ Dude, if we go back to that, its just Nintendo acting like Sony does.  Because Nintendo were a bunch of arrogant shitstains back in the NES days.
Which ended up putting them in third place last generation (unless you count portables anyhow...).

I don't want that Nintendo back.  I want the current cool(ish) Nintendo.

Oh yeah. 
POST 666!  Time to listen to some Dio!!!

[Margalis]

Not Iron Maiden?

[schild]

The PS3 is nothing like the N64.

[MahrinSkel]

And a year ago (before the Wii or PS3 had come out) people said I was crazy and/or stupid for thinking the only question about who was going to "win" this generation was if the PS3 was going to drop all the way to the bottom.  Right now, the PS2 is still outselling the PS3, a year after release.  Actually, you could make a good case that the winner for this generation is the PS2 (it's added more units than anything else).

--Dave

[squirrel]

i'm too fucking stupid and lazy to read this thread but here's what I bought last 6 weeks:

* Uncharted (PS3) - Loved the hell out of it. Awesome game. AWESOME. NO MORE WORDS.
* Mass Effect (360) - Awesome too. Not as awesome though. Too much time for me. But it's really good so far.
* Assassins Creed (360) - Solely for the achievements. Which I suck at anyway.

Truly if you're looking for the best game recently based on that weird "fun" shit - it's either Uncharted or Portal. Or not. I don't care, I just play what I can.

But if your game of the year isn't Portal or Uncharted I'd love to hear your reasoning. Cause I have no time for games, and even I know when the Gods cast us pearls.

[Velorath]

Anyways, I think it's too bad that some of you guys are concerned about marketing and revenue. Again I say, fuck sales thread. Really, I find that kind of heartbreaking! That isn't any kind of way to discover what's fun or not.

It would be sad if I let it keep me for enjoying games for some reason.  It doesn't though, and I love reading and talking about the console market.  As I've said, it gives you an indication of where gaming is heading.

[stray]

I understand, I guess. I just spent too much time reading GAF I think. Otherwise known as Sales Age Forums.