Crysis and UT3 Sales Falter
Crysis and Unreal Tournament 3 have launched on November 13 and 19th respectively. Both have been welcomed by critics with open arms and hands ready for some FPS action. Unfortunately, since launching on November 13, Crytek and EA baby Crysis has only managed to sell 86,633 units. NextGeneration put it best by stating the following:
A Metacritic average review score of 91 wasn’t enough to overcome the apparent apprehension regarding the game's relatively steep hardware requirements. A PC with a dual core processor, 2GB of RAM and a mid-level DX10 card runs the game at around 30 framers per second average at midrange resolution.
My PC doesn't have any of that. In fact, the b/f and I have been entertaining the purchase of a high-end MacPro and dual booting with XP. That can be some heavy duty processing power and I should be good to go on PC games for at least a year...maybe. Still, it does become exceedingly expensive to keep up with the latest and greatest technology to play the newest PC games in this day and age. At least that is my humble opinion.
Moving on to Unreal Tournament 3, it only managed to get to 33,995 people to take it home to their PCs. Fortunately, it will be coming out on both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Both of those games were really high profile and I'm a bit surprised to see those figures from NPD Group. Could it be that keeping up with the latest technology to play new games on the PC is becoming too expensive? It is for me. ...or could it be that PC gaming is on the decline?
Keep in mind, NextGen points out that these two games came out in a crowd of FPS champions with the likes of BioShock, Halo 3, Call of Duty 4 and The Orange Box. Of those, I have three (meaning I did not get Call of Duty 4). I certainly don't have the time or technology to play UT3 or Crysis on my sadly obsolete PC. What's your take on it?
Crysis, UT3 Sales Fall Flat [Next-Generation]
Super Timsy
Posted to Video Games on 17 December 2007
· Comments (9)
Other stuff like this: crysis, crytek, ea, electronic arts, epic games, midway, npd group, pc, unreal tournament 3
I picked up Crysis for myself and the bf, despite the fact that I do not have a dual core chip (only a 2800 AMD), 2 gigs of ram, and a fairly nice vid card (512 DDR3) - and I can run it fairly decent on Medium settings. Sure, I'll occasionally have slowdown, but I grew up with a slow computer and often don't see the need to require 60fps constant on everything.
Crysis was and is beautiful, and will be even more so when I upgrade to the "next gen" computer - but I'm glad I picked it up now and enjoyed a very unique and what I'd regard as the second best FPS of the year (Bioshock being the first).
-m.
I totally agree. I haven't even given crysis a look knowing that my 1 year old then top of the line laptop will suffer to much to play the game. Especially during this time of year I can't afford a 2,000$+ system. Who has time to play those when there is World of Warcraft to play.
I bought a 360 in order to get out of the PC technology chase, which was both expensive and frustrating. I'm perfectly happy to let my computer age gracefully, and let the xbox take the brunt. Let the game designers spend hours trying to get a game to run on my hardware, that's what they get paid to do.
I was reminded of the pain of PC gaming when I tried to boot up Tomb Raider and found that there was no sound. It only took a half hour to track down and fix the problem, but I kept thinking that the time could have been better spent actually playing the game.
As a member of a UT clan, I can tell you that many people who followed the UT franchise have dissappeared completely. I'm not surprised to be honest, I mean they released the game for PC with so many problems that their first official patch was almost 70mb
Some people can't afford the upgrades, Some people hate Gamespy,Server Admins are pulling their hair out because of lack help and support, Map creation is way more time consuming.
Mix those all together and you get a game where noobies try it and think "meh, I'll try something else that actually works right and people play"
I was a huge UT fan. I even upgraded my computer when UT2004 came out so I could enjoy my high-res nightly fragging.
But I'm with Zadie. I'm tired of chasing the $2000 dragon.
Two things changed for me...
My next computer purchase will be a laptop, not a desktop. When I looked at the various options, it seemed insane the amount of weight, size, and price differences I would have to tolerate to get a "gaming" laptop. I don't want a 10-pound laptop.
After seeing my friend's PS3 on his HD TV, I realized you don't need a computer to get high-res graphics anymore. For the price of a gaming laptop, I could get a HD TV *AND* an Xbox 360. Most of the games I want to play are coming out for the Xbox, so why would I want to spend $2000+ on a desktop again?!
I've been TF2'ing on my new Xbox and couldn't be happier. Now, when Spore comes out, I may have to rethink my decision, but I doubt it.
Because I'm already forced to give money to M$ for my PC operating system, I refuse to give them any more money by buying a 360. And given the crippling technical tricks hidden in the HDMI interface I won't buy an HD TV that requires such an interface. AND now that Sony is removing backwards compatibility for PS2 games, I don't have any compelling reason to buy a PS3. AND because 360 owners are shackled to the Live program, they're going to be nickel-and-dimed to death from now on (Oblivion Horse Armor, anyone?)
So, it's PC gaming all the way for me (it helps that I know how to build a computer so I can upgrade parts as necessary). If you plan it out right, you won't be spending $2000 every couple of years, but easily less than a quarter of that. You'd likely spend that much on the extra cost of console games compared to PC game prices.
There are many PC games out there that have great modding communities so that your game experience can remain fresh. How many non-PC Orange Box players got to play the Portal level designed by that Bethsoft developer? Any? Unfortunate, because it was a fantastic, challenging level.
There's been too many good games in recent weeks and it will be hard as they all compete with each other. Maybe the games market is becoming saturated, but that is always good for consumers.
I used to play UT2004, and liked the unrealistic graphics a lot. But I always hated the bunny hopping moves many/most gamers used. There are now other great FPS games that don't rely on this type of stupid technique. Maybe I'll get the new UT when I see it for $15 in the sales bin just to see what changed.
Crysis was damn fun, but too short, I expected the long slough of Far Cry. UT3 is simply amazing, insipid campaign, and some bugs, but everything else is pure gold: the speed, the new level designs (especially for DM), the vehicles, I cannot stop playing. Getting flattened by a giant burning piece of a Darkwalker that your teammate blew up when you were minding your own business trying to cap a flag is not to be missed. Games like Bioshock and Crysis get played through once or twice and then sit in a box ever-after. UT3 is a hobby game. It will be constantly played over the course of the next 2-3 years. I'm waiting for the day there are servers with people that have both PC's and consoles. Then the superiority of the mouse and keyboard that everyone keeps talking about I can live and pwn.
I built my PC to play Oblivion last year, and it plays UT3 great, Crysis, not so much: but Doom 3 was the same thing a few years ago. Those of you that didn't see the writing on the wall when Oblivion hit and are still stuck with an AGP mobo and video card, you should stick to your consoles, but if you built a machine based on solid research and an upgrade path in the last year everything should run better than fine (Crysis aside).