Which Games Are Underperforming?
In these uncertain financial times, it's nice to escape into a videogame, but it would seem that some gamers are making do with what they've already got, as early holiday sales numbers aren't quite meeting industry hopes. EA has run into trouble with Mirror's Edge. We've written a lot about it, but it seems the mainstream audience isn't really aware of it, and poor sales could mean that this first chapter of a proposed trilogy remains a standalone game. They're also running into trouble with Rock Band 2, which is facing stiff competition from Guitar Hero World Tour. Activision seems to have done well by pushing GHWT in Black Friday sales, and numbers have spiked.
Sadly, one of the games that isn't moving as well as expected is everyone's favorite, Fallout 3. Of course, the sales aren't exactly poor. Bethesda has already shipped over 4.7 million copies worledwide, which racks up to over $300 million in revenue. But sales were weak compared to Fable II, which launched a week earlier.
"It's a core game," says Sean Kauppinen, founder of the International Digital Entertainment Agency, a gaming industry consulting firm. "And core games in [the role-playing] genre do not sell as well as shooters. ... Make no mistake, Fallout 3 is a great game, but it's not a pure shooter that people can wrap their head around like Halo or Gears of War."
Of course, there are bright spots. As I mentioned, GHWT has spiked during the early holiday shopping season, and Gears of War 2 and Call of Duty 5 are doing well. And naturally, Nintendo continues to dominate sales charts with both the Wii console and mass-appeal games like Wii Fit.
I'd wonder if the more hardcore games like Fallout 3 are losing out to mainstream titles like Nintendo's mass-market casual titles like Wii Fit, but nobody could call Gears 2 "casual" by any stretch of the imagination. It's a shame when innovative and quality titles aren't embraced by the audience, but numbers seem to be down across the board. I know my gaming budget is lower than ever. I'm holding out for those AAA titles and spending less on impulse buys. Hopefully this will turn around and it won't affect future game development!
Videogame Misfires [Forbes.com]
Wootini
Posted to Hot Stuff, Video Games on 2 December 2008
· Comments (11)
Other stuff like this: ea, economic recession, fallout 3, mirror's edge, sales figures
I'm just glad Fable 2 is doing well...I'm already looking forward to Fable 3...though I'm sure I'll have a very long time to wait.
I highly doubt Fallout 3 is losing out to Wii Fit, since nobody can even find a Wii Fit.
...
Also the yoga I do on Wii Fit isn't casual, it's fuckin' hard-core.
And don't you forget it.
The one game I fear that might be underperforming is Left 4 Dead.
I told everyone to download the demo and they loved it. But then I told the same friends to ACTUALLY buy the game and I keep getting the same response "Uh yeah, maybe I will."
It's frustrating! I just want to go through the campaign with friends! Instead, I have to play with random people who run off on their own and don't believe that the game is all about teamwork/sticking together.
Mirror's Edge flopped because it's pretty crappy.
I'm surprised to see rock band 2 on this list. No one plays GHWT on my friends list but everyone plays RB2. Hell I refuse to pay more than $20 for ghwt because the vocals are garbage and it's my favorite thing to do and I also own half the songs already.
I also feel Fallout 3 is a niche title. I found it to overwhelming to drop $60 on. It's something that required more focus than I was willing to offer it.
And then it's sad that Cod% is doing so well but again no one on my list plays it except 1 person (out of 80 or so people).
i actually blame pricing. i mean look at all the mediocre titles on the Wii. they sell for some reason, but even their hit titles aren't more than 50 bucks. look how well the 360 arcade is selling now that it officially the lowest price point on the market, but i still notice that people are rummaging the bargain bins for the most part. unless, it just has to be a specific title for a gift.
In these "not a recession" times, I've had to choose my games carefully (and believe me, its been hard). Left 4 Dead, Soulcalibur 4, Gears of War 2, and Fable 2 have all been purchases I technically can't afford, but have proven to be well worth it. I was interested in Mirror's Edge, and hope it gets a sequel, but I really can't afford to take risks on new franchises that didn't get relitivley great reviews. (Left 4 Dead I loved so much as a demo I must have played it through a couple dozen times alone. Well worth the purchase, best co-op game there ever was. Well, besides Gauntlent.)
There are a lot more factor than pricing, even though I agree with M0taku. The main reason mediocre title on Wii are selling is because the unit has shipped twice the number and have none new good titles (if you ask me). Reasons for mirror´s edge and left4dead is for me pretty clear. you (litterally) run through the edge in five (or less) hour and even if it is a unique feel, it got me thinking it was a ripoff at 600sek (50€). In a way I got the feeling it was missing a lot, I´m not saying combat, but something (but yeah, its a great parkour game).
Left4dead didn´t got me neither. I think its because
a) you CAN do it with bots (why? the sensation of coop is gone),
b) the zombie theme is good but people have no "connection" to it (we all "know" Marcus Fenix, We "are" our fable character)
c) people dont want to buy a game that req. four copies to be fun (again 50€ for a game you have to wait for 3 other friends to buy before being fun) and
d) WAY to much rince/repeat... yeah I know it is supposed to be that but its not fun in the long run.
For Fallout3 and Cod5... well people seem to like over-action-shoot-everybody-and-dont-have-some-reflection-about-it.... which gets Cod5 (lousygame) on top and Fallout3 on bottom. And another raeson fallout3 is underperforming is that old fans are not picking it up. Three of my friend that put F2 highest on their list of greatest game has not even looked at F3 plus the introduction in F3 is bad, at least.
As for RB2 I can't say anything about USA (since I´m from sweden) but here, you cant even buy it in stores (even if it is supposed to have been released). Why? I dont know. I think the gap between RB1&RB2 (three months) is also a mayor factor here. It "doesn´t" exist in sweden compared to GHWT. No advertising, BAD advertising for RB1 (again less than 3 months ago).
I think most people on the internet are thinking about this from a core gamer perspective, including me I guess.
Shooters sell a lot easier than RPGs, adventure, etc. Mainly because they are casual in a way (even though core gamers don't like to admit it). You just point and shoot, avoid gun fire, there's hardly any thinking to do. You don't even need to care about the cut scenes. A lot of my friends just play FPS without even knowing what's really going on.
One of the reason why they don't sell better to the mass-market is because not everyone likes action and/or violence - which is the same trend as movies. Or they don't like to play the role of the action hero.
BTW, Are the vocals on RB2 any better? I guess it doesn't really matter as we cant find it in the UK and ended up getting GHWT.
Fallout 3. Meh. It isn't Fallout, at least not in the gaming sense. It's a RPG-shooter in a Fallout universe, but it's not a continuation of the series. They shouldn't have named it 3 if it wasn't a turn base RPG. Seriously I hope they don't get their mitts on the XCom series! Despite being a game, it's not for the mass-market nor the original fans.
CoD has a lot of players, but I have the same problem where none of my friends have it. Fallout 3 is awesome, and a lot of people aren't giving it a chance because it's different. It might not be the same gameplay wise, but the game is incredibly well done and really does deserve at least a moment of everyones time. 4.7 mil does NOT equal underperforming in my book, annnnnnnnd... Far Cry 2 still looks pretty good! I wonder how LBP will do...
EA can only blame themselves... they totally botched Rock Band prices and release dates (Autumn 08 in Australia, wtf) for PAL users and then stripped out content for Wii. That's how to p1ss off about 50% of gamers, and how to allow GH:WT to trounce RBs sales.
It's the gay content I tells ya!
Better put some in Fallout 4 Bethesda.