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NPD May 2012 Sales Results [Up4: Max Payne 3, Dragon's Dogma, Ghost Recon]

M

mujun

Member
Clear said:
Polish is by definition superficial; its like saying a shaped and polished piece of quartz is more valuable than a rough diamond - appearance and intrinsic value don't always tally.

Sorry my reply (to Piano) was a bit snarkier than I'd like, very late (and very tired) when I wrote it.

My complaint is basically the superficiality of a lot of reviews. Its understandable that pandering to the lowest-common-deniminator (i.e. most superficial) wants and demands of consumers is the most direct route to mass-market sales, but when the enthusiast press colludes with this in order to maximize their revenues (circulation/page-hits) they are actively enabling a culture of safe mediocrity.

This works great in the short-term, but over a longer time-span the sort of malaise we're seeing with NPD's like these starts creeping in.
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Long story short, you are angry about DDs (lack of) sales, right?
 
K

Kai Dracon

Writing a dinosaur space opera symphony
Little Green Yoda said:
Granted, I don't read "professional" gaming reviews any more, but I think Clear's point isn't that negative reviews are bad, just that the flaws of certain games are overlooked while the flaws of others are overblown. But what more can one expect from subjective ramblings?

Perhaps, a case can be made that the pool of reviewers may be too homogenous in their tastes and their biases towards/against certain types of games may be present?
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This, more than people griping about 'fanboys', is probably what's really wrong.

There are PLENTY of games that get ripped on. There's plenty of criticism going around in the gaming press.

The problem is that there isn't enough variety in opinions, and this leads writers and reviewers to nearly uniformly give certain games a 'pass' for particular negatives, while almost uniformly roasting other games for details that are either:

1. An actual negative point, but may be over-exaggerated.

2. Something that isn't a negative attribute but is currently 'unfashionable'.

Example: around 2004, I noticed a distinct trend in game reviews to venerate orchestrated and licensed music while mocking 'game bleeps'. By game bleeps, reviewers meant anything like traditional game-specific soundtracks or music. Whether or not they were actually chip tunes in style. At that time, everyone was riding on a high of the PS2 and big budget games that were either using generic symphonic music that westerners would recognize from motion pictures, or shoving trendy licensed pop and rock tracks into the game. This, in the view of a lot of reviewers 'legitimized' games and was 'progressive'. So games with unabashedly gamey-music were simply demerited for their 'uncool' and 'lame' choice in music.

Fast foward to today and it's all hip and shit to be down with Dat 8-Bit Swag (even if 8-bit is often a misnomer). Now you find celebrations in the popular press, almost to the last man, of games that get in on the trend of employing 'retro' soundtracks. Now it is hailed as a celebration of the 'culture of video games' and whatnot. Now, while I do like chip tunes, this just an example of how reviewers and the press often seem to ebb and flow in monoblocks of critical standards.

Thus, if a game that is full of things to criticize hits a few key points that currently earn near universal praise, odds are a lot higher than any negatives in the game will be glossed over or downplayed. Regardless of whether or not they're actually minor negatives. If a game does not appeal to the current groupthink, then it has a much higher chance of either A: earning a diversity of opinions or B: being set upon by most critics for failing to pander to what is presently popular.

A side issue here is that the expectations of the audience, the gamers, is pretty warped too. Too many people seem to think a game is either "all awesome" or "a pile of crap!" Therefore, they hang on the number given out by a review, to determine absolutely whether a game is good or bad. 8 and above, it must be awesome and I'm sure to love it. 7 or below, and ha ha this must be crap and anyone I see playing it is an idiot who doesn't know what good games are.

Some people are griping that you can't go into an OT on a place like gaf without being attacked by 'fanboys' but I don't think this is generally true. A place like this is still a far better alternative to getting real discussion about games, but some don't seem to like it when they come in to say "this game is complete shit because of this one part I hate!" and someone else says "yeah, that part isn't its strength, but I love the rest of it". Or when they claim that X feature is completely broken and doesn't work, and other people say it works for them. I mean, we have people who literally call others liars if they claim they enjoy a certain aspect of a game.
 
O

OldJadedGamer

Banned
AdventureRacing said:
The original sold like 2.5 million i think but it has steadily lost popularity since then. Each release has sold like 700K less than its predecessor (except 3 which i think sold better than 2).

It's nowhere near the big franchise it once was in Japan. Actually same goes for the US, it has mostly become just a big franchise in europe.
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Makes sense with GT3 as it was the biggest Pack in game of the PS2 era.
 
M

mysocksarepink

Banned
“PC Games sales realized a year over year increase of 230% realizing $80MM in sales, which softened the decline in software sales overall.”

bubububub pc gaming.. is..


long live the king

long live the pc
 
C

confuziz

Banned
Baconsammy said:
And selling on average 10k a week in Japan. Yet Sony thinks it'll do 10 million in a year. Either every European gamer is buying 10 each, or Sony's miscalculated.
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According to the graphs released by Nintendo it is indeed selling a bit better (like 20-25k a week) =P
 
L

lunchwithyuzo

Banned
Baconsammy said:
And selling on average 10k a week in Japan. Yet Sony thinks it'll do 10 million in a year. Either every European gamer is buying 10 each, or Sony's miscalculated.
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The recent baseline was 6-8k weekly, but it's now getting key software driven spikes so we'll have to see where the dust settles in July.
 
M

Miles X

Member
Hard to imagin Sony shipped more than 1m this past Q. Q3 will be devastatingly low, like sub 500k ...

They're expecting a huge holiday ... like 6m ..
 
S

SparkTR

Member
Saty said:
Any ideas about Witcher 2 360 LTD?
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From what I gathered it shipped 500k and sold probably just over half that worldwide. CDP were looking for one million so it didn't do the greatest for them. Lack of exact sales figures at their presser and lack of any console talk for Cyberpunk loosely supports this.
 
S

SparkTR

Member
CadetMahoney said:
Just out of curiosity what year(s) was PC gaming dead "for real" - 1995?
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The year Descent, Dark Forces, Command & Conquer and Mechwarrior 2 released? Defs not. I'd say it took a back seat to the overwhelming surge of next-gen console hype around 2006-2008, at that time I'm sure people would have predicted it'll be miniscule by 2012 (including me). But even then it continued to get good exclusives so the real answer is it was never dead 'for real'.
 
P

perfectchaos007

Member
Celine said:
I think he was sarcastic (!!!).

Rough estmates/guesses (given Sony silence)
210+75+55 = 340K
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Bingo. This will always be the case with the new and deproved NPD of missing information. This time we fortunately had some outside info to fill the gaps but thats not always the case. Like someone else said earlier, Sony would have reported the sales if they were significantly in their favor, and I don't approve when companies that only report positive info. It makes it harder for an investor to make a sound decision on investments and gives so called "insiders" a reason to be paid for information. So obviously I'm not just picking on Sony here...Nintendo and Microsoft are guilty of this at times as well as other companies.
 
W

wages

Banned
wages said:
It would be interesting if Microsoft's big announcement this coming Monday were the announcement of their new console. That and/or a price drop could be interesting. I know it's a long shot, but it would be a major move.

Clever strategies indeed, think about it. MS had to have an idea of what the numbers were going to look like, so, wait until E3 and see what cards are being held by the competition then, a week or so later, have your own major event-all to yourself mind you-and unleash the beast. If not then...
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;)
 
M

MrCookiepants

Member
Biggzy said:
Very surprising. You would have expected a GT title to break the 1 million barrier.
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Eh. Not really. GT was popular during (arguably) the golden age of Japanese sports cars and even then its success in Japan was an anomaly. It's been steadily losing popularity over the years which is offset by the growth of the franchise in Europe.
 
K

klee123

Member
Celine said:
Not by Media Create account (one of the tow main japanese tracker).

Prologue+Prologue Spec 2 = 530K
5 + 5 Spec 2 = 640K
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Media create also does not account for the online sales via Amazon and other websites either. Just like how NPD does not account for online sales and from certain large retailers.
 
F

Fafalada

Fafracer forever
Gez said:
I don't understand this point, if it's not an issue for PC gaming why is it an issue for consoles?
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It is an issue for PC gaming - that's why 99% of high-budget games on PC are console ports.
 
GraveRobberX

GraveRobberX

Platinum Trophy: Learned to Shit While Upright Again.
AniHawk said:
160GB ps3 + vita (4-8GB card Included!) for $349.99, sound shapes comes with every bundle.
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Fixed!

Breakdown:

160GB PS3 ($149.99) + VITA Wifi [8GB Card] ($199.99) + Sound Shapes Double Wombo Combo, throw in PS+ Month card for "Complete Global Saturation"

If you buy 160GB stand alone it's $179.99 or $199.99
VITA $199.99 but nothing given with it

That will move a huge amount during Holiday times if it came out
Remember you have to make the consumer feel like you made a mistake with your price, and the consumer thinks "Holy Fuck!, that's a steal"

Also every title shown @E3 had some sameness to them, nothing stood out, like Damn 6 years in and we are finally seeing the "true potential"

Last of Us blurs into Tomb Raider which Blurs into MOH: Warfighter, which blurs into Splinter Cell Blacklist, which blurs into... etc.

Also so many fucking sequels/spin-offs/HD remasters are tiring people out
Dead Space is up to 3, add the spin-offs, you have 5 titles you can play through
God of War is up to 5, will be 6 with Ascension with-in ONE FUCKING GENERATION! with all those collections
etc.
 
F

Fafalada

Fafracer forever
GraveRobberX said:
Dead Space is up to 3, add the spin-offs, you have 5 titles you can play through
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There are only two Deadspace games and one spinoff.
EA mobile release has cemented that phones can't do survival horror (the fact it cost 60cents should have told me as much), and while I saw some travesty announced at E3 by EA, Deadspace was a no show this year.
 
M

Miles X

Member
LTD's if anyone is interested

Wii: 39.460M
360: 34.125M
PS3: 21.170m

Amazing how much 360 has crept up on Wii since the slim, nearly 4m.
 
L

lunchwithyuzo

Banned
klee123 said:
Media create also does not account for the online sales via Amazon and other websites either. Just like how NPD does not account for online sales and from certain large retailers.
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It varies. It is worth noting though that those GT5 Prologue sales include copies bundled with hardware, which was close to 300k iirc.
 
M

Miles X

Member
TheOddOne said:
Don't think they will pass the Wii, but still amazing.
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It was a dead cert imo until the whole market just crashed. Remains to be seen if MS can ignite the flames once more this holiday for the 360 with their strategy (they need a long overdue price cut)

Wii is pretty much on its deathbed though, it won't get huge bumps again and I doubt it'll ever be over 600k in any NPD ever again.

If 360 is to overtake Wii, it needs a good holiday.
 
G

grimshawish

Banned
Dynopia said:
It was a dead cert imo until the whole market just crashed. Remains to be seen if MS can ignite the flames once more this holiday for the 360 with their strategy (they need a long overdue price cut)

Wii is pretty much on its deathbed though, it won't get huge bumps again and I doubt it'll ever be over 600k in any NPD ever again.

If 360 is to overtake Wii, it needs a good holiday.
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Could come down to the success of WiiU - likely to cut into 360 sales where Sony has not.
If successful that is.
 
A

AniHawk

Member
planar1280 said:
Is this the smallest number for a monthly leader
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it probably is the smallest in over a decade. maybe the lowest since it was the snes, saturn, psx, and game boy, before the game boy got pokemon, before the n64 was released, and before the psx really took off.
 
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