Author Topic: About Player's Choice Titles (Read 5179 times)

Nemo · « **on:** March 12, 2004, 06:23:25 AM »

With Enter the Matrix joining the Player's Choice games, I got to wondering...

What are the requirements for a game to become a Player's Choice?

How many GameCube Player's Choice games are there?

Are there a lot more XBox Platinum Hits games? (I'm sure there's a ton more PS2 Greatest Hits games.)

ruby_onix · « **Reply #1 on:** March 12, 2004, 12:34:50 PM »

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What are the requirements for a game to become a Player's Choice?

It used to be that a game could go "Players Choice" (if the publisher wanted it) after the game sold 1 million copies (Worldwide, I think), but Nintendo seems to have loosened the rules on that (none of their competition had any rules about games having to actually "sell" before becoming a "hit", so Nintendo had to change with the times).

Like, that Pac Man World game that came with "Pac Man VS" for free went "Players Choice" right off the bat.

Nemo · « **Reply #2 on:** March 12, 2004, 05:22:21 PM »

Wait, there's no requirement to be Greatest Hits/Player's Choice/Platinum Hits? That's super lame. :\

Cap · « **Reply #3 on:** March 12, 2004, 05:36:05 PM »

i'm pretty sure that there are certain numbers that the game is supposed to reach. i'm also pretty sure that all 3 consoles are different. i'm just guessing, but i think i remember hearing that a game had to sell 250,000 units on xbox for a platinum title, and 400,000 on gamecube for a players choice. i have no guess as to what the ps2's titles would have to sell. even if those numbers are correct though, i think there would be exceptions to those. as ruby onix mentioned, pacman world 2 went players choice and i have hard time believing tha game sold that well.

Mingesium · « **Reply #4 on:** March 12, 2004, 06:46:38 PM »

SCEA's "Greatest Hits" status is given to games that have sold more than 400,000 copies for the PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system. The "Platinum Hits" series includes a line-up of titles for the Xbox® video game system from Microsoft that have proven to be all-time favorites, having sold well at retail and been on store shelves for at least nine months. Nintendo's newly launched "Player's Choice" program, recognizes games which have shipped 450,000 units for the Nintendo GameCube(TM).

Cap · « **Reply #5 on:** March 12, 2004, 07:21:19 PM »

well that was a better answer than mine.

nintendo having higher requirements than the ps2 for their budget titles is ridiculous.

mouse_clicker · « **Reply #6 on:** March 12, 2004, 07:23:22 PM »

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nintendo having higher requirements than the ps2 for their budget titles is ridiculous.

Actually, if Mingesium is right, Nintendo has lower requirements. The number may be 50,000 units more than Sony's, but it's number of units shipped, while Sony's is sold- that's a big difference.

Cap · « **Reply #7 on:** March 12, 2004, 07:28:37 PM »

i noticed that, but regardless of that i'm pretty sure any mult-console game is going to sell or ship more on the ps2. why would anyone buy it for gamecube, especially when their players choice titles are more expensive?! now that i think about it, i shouldnt have said it was ridiculous but more like a complete joke.

mouse_clicker · « **Reply #8 on:** March 12, 2004, 07:31:19 PM »

You do realize that units shipped has nothing to do with sales, right? A game could ship a million units and not sell a single one- this makes Nintendo's requirements very lax, which is probably also why the price drop isn't as much, since proportionally so many more games qualify.

Mario · « **Reply #9 on:** March 12, 2004, 07:37:50 PM »

Either way, Nintendo has less Players Choice games than Sony and Microsoft have Platinum or Greatest Hits or whatever they're called, and it makes it seem like GameCube has less good games than PS2 and Xbox, which is bad.

Cap · « **Reply #10 on:** March 12, 2004, 07:42:22 PM »

it doesnt seem like there are many players choice titles available compared to both the ps2 and xbox. i dont know, maybe the actual numbers of titles are comparable but i cant buy them in my town. either way, its frustrating to see nintendos players choice titles at $30-$40(canadian) while the ps2 and xbox titles range from $20-$30. honestly though, it doesnt bother me becouse i buy most of the games i want the week they come out, and i have to give nintendo credit that their new game prices are seem to getting cheaper every time i buy a game. i just think that if someone went in to buy a console and saw the sheer number of titles avaiable for both the ps2 and xbox, and the number of games at cheaper prices their decision on which to purchase isnt going to be very hard.

WesDawg · « **Reply #11 on:** March 12, 2004, 07:52:19 PM »

I think, despite the wording Mingesium chose, that both companies rely on units shipped for their sales data. Every report I've ever seen Sony, M$ or Nintendo put out has touted units shipped as actual sales numbers.

From the way my local game store talks though, Ninty is the only one that refuses to reimburse merchants if the price of a game drops before they manage to sell it. They all hate Nintendo for doing that, and for shipping new releases to them later than they ship 'em to big merchants like Best Buy and Wal-Mart. I know thats kinda off-topic, but its always bothered me that Nintendo treats the little man so crappily.

mouse_clicker · « **Reply #12 on:** March 12, 2004, 08:01:46 PM »

Eh, my Electronics Boutique always has Nintendo games on release date while my local Wal Mart generally won't have the game for quite literally weeks. Don't take what one or two guys told you as unadulterated fact, Wes.

Thanks for correcting me about units shipped vs. units sold, though.

KDR_11k · « **Reply #13 on:** March 13, 2004, 03:08:05 AM »

The small shop here actually has most games a day before the release date. But yeah, it sucks that GC games rarely ever drop in price. You can pick up older PC titles very cheap, but GC games are full price up until they get thrown off the shelves...

joshnickerson · « **Reply #14 on:** March 13, 2004, 03:31:36 AM »

In my experience it's the Nintendo published games (ie, first or second party games) that seem to stay on the high price end. Probably because they know people are going to buy them. Third party games, on the other hand, seem to drop quicker. Most of the 3rd party games in my collection I've picked up for under twenty bucks, even before they went to Players' Choice.
I agree that Nintendo should probably have a more consistent price range in the twenty dollar area, but at this point, I don't think having Smash Bros or Mario Sunshine available at 19.99 instead of 29.99 is going to drive Nintendo to first place.

KDR_11k · « **Reply #15 on:** March 13, 2004, 09:22:57 AM »

Well, even older, especially good third-party ones, stay at EUR60 seemingly forever. I rarely (means once every two months or so) see any cheap games outside of the player's choice series.

Bloodworth · « **Reply #16 on:** March 13, 2004, 10:15:13 AM »

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Originally posted by: ruby_onix

Like, that Pac Man World game that came with "Pac Man VS" for free went "Players Choice" right off the bat.

That game didn't go Player's Choice until a year after it came out, and they added Pac Man VS as a bonus.

Bloodworth · « **Reply #17 on:** March 13, 2004, 10:18:35 AM »

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Originally posted by: joshnickerson

I agree that Nintendo should probably have a more consistent price range in the twenty dollar area, but at this point, I don't think having Smash Bros or Mario Sunshine available at 19.99 instead of 29.99 is going to drive Nintendo to first place.

This is one of those things that NOA and NCL have arguments about. NOA would love to drop the price, but they're not getting the go-ahead from Japan.

On a similar note, it will be interesting to see how cheap NOA can get the Famicom Mini selections over here.

Mingesium · « **Reply #18 on:** March 13, 2004, 10:52:15 AM »

I should've put it in quotes, but that was taken straight from the spider-man going PC/GH/PH press release. PC is indeed shipped units while GH are sold.

There are around 75 greatest hits, 20 player's choice, and 40 platinum hits. I think that Nintendo has done a good job with their budget line. You don't want too many Player's choice games because they do take away sales from the newer games. Also, games like Smash Bros. and Mario Sunshine continue to sell very well at $30 so it wouldn't make sense to drop the price.

mouse_clicker · « **Reply #19 on:** March 13, 2004, 10:59:49 AM »

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Also, games like Smash Bros. and Mario Sunshine continue to sell very well at $30 so it wouldn't make sense to drop the price.

Halo remained $50 up until very recently, and for very good reason- it was still selling great.

savanna03 · « **Reply #20 on:** March 13, 2004, 11:33:30 AM »

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Originally posted by: Bloodworth
Quote
Originally posted by: joshnickerson

I agree that Nintendo should probably have a more consistent price range in the twenty dollar area, but at this point, I don't think having Smash Bros or Mario Sunshine available at 19.99 instead of 29.99 is going to drive Nintendo to first place.

This is one of those things that NOA and NCL have arguments about. NOA would love to drop the price, but they're not getting the go-ahead from Japan.

On a similar note, it will be interesting to see how cheap NOA can get the Famicom Mini selections over here.

wow... really... oh man... but all i know is, before the GCN, the PLAYER CHOICE requierment was 1 million sold in one territory, but since GCN is struggling, i dont know whats their requirement...

Nemo · « **Reply #21 on:** March 13, 2004, 06:09:28 PM »

(I work at Wal-Mart.) The reason why Wal-Mart gets their 'new-release' games after EB is because of the way they distribute their games. If Wal-Mart wants to buy 100,000 of a game, the distributor (such as Nintendo) will send the game to Wal-Mart's main distribution center (which I would assume would be in Bentonville, Arkansas). From there, the product gets split up, along with many other products, to go to the regional warehouses (on a truck). At the regional warehouses, the product gets split up by store once again and gets put on another truck to go to the actual stores. EB, on the other hand, has the games sent directly from the distributor (like Nintendo) straight to each and every store. It costs EB a lot more money to have to pay for the direct shipping, but customers get the games on time.

And it's very annoying that Nintendo doesn't cut prices on older games. We have about 12 copies of Mickey Mouse and 2 copies of NBA Courtside 2002 that will never ever sell at $49.96. If Wal-Mart marks it down, that comes out of Wal-Mart's (admitidly very large) pockets, but I think it may also come out of my annual bonus check (I'm not really certain of this, though). Anyway, it's not cool. $:-\$

And I think it's shady that Microsoft doesn't have a set number of games sold or shipped. Rather they're games that are "proven to be all-time favorites". Ah well.

joshnickerson · « **Reply #22 on:** March 14, 2004, 03:05:41 AM »

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Originally posted by: Nemo
(I work at Wal-Mart.)
And it's very annoying that Nintendo doesn't cut prices on older games. We have about 12 copies of Mickey Mouse and 2 copies of NBA Courtside 2002 that will never ever sell at $49.96. If Wal-Mart marks it down, that comes out of Wal-Mart's (admitidly very large) pockets, but I think it may also come out of my annual bonus check (I'm not really certain of this, though). Anyway, it's not cool. $:-\$

At some point (I think 60 days) of not being scanned or bought, those games will drop out of the system, then you can add them back onto the system (using the Telxon) at whatever package cost and retail cost you'd want.

Nemo · « **Reply #23 on:** March 15, 2004, 04:14:12 AM »

I always scan them to see if the price dropped... (kinda dumb, since I could almost know that it would still be the same price). I'll try not scanning them for 2 months.

I think I tried doing that with Crazy Taxi (which was up until recently) $30. I marked it down to $20, but someone caught onto it and marked it back up. $:-\$

I'll see if I can get the department manager to mark them down some. ::shrugs::

mjbd · « **Reply #24 on:** March 15, 2004, 11:26:36 AM »

I would like to see the players choice lineup expand a bit. Even though there may be 20 players choice titles, how many are restocked? I usually on see maybe 5 players choice titles on the shelf. Also, I feel that dropping certain games to $30 instead of $20 is smart, look how well Smash Bros. continues to sell, and when it slows down, drop it to $20. I really feel that alot of casual gamers look at the players choice/greatest hits/platinum hits, mainly because of the price.

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Author Topic: About Player's Choice Titles (Read 5179 times)