Topic: Official Sales Thread

[ShyGuy]

I feel the need to troll that top ten list of best selling Wii titles. I think nine of them could be disqualified.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

Yeah, only Mario Kart belongs on there.

[Kairon]

I don't want to believe that gamers are sexist just yet, though it's an idea that I can no longer ignore.

Instead, I prefer to think that Mirror's Edge is simply not riding on some trends that gamers today subscribe to: open-ended gameplay, social-networking/multiplayer, ...ummm... guns?

I mean, seriously, Mirror's Edge is a first-person single-player platformer. The only descriptor there that holds any luster in today's game market is "first person" and even then, considering Resistance 2's lackluster performance, it isn't much of a guarantee.

[GoldenPhoenix]

I don't want to believe that gamers are sexist just yet, though it's an idea that I can no longer ignore.

Instead, I prefer to think that Mirror's Edge is simply not riding on some trends that gamers today subscribe to: open-ended gameplay, social-networking/multiplayer, ...ummm... guns?

I mean, seriously, Mirror's Edge is a first-person single-player platformer. The only descriptor there that holds any luster in today's game market is "first person" and even then, considering Resistance 2's lackluster performance, it isn't much of a guarantee.

Open ended gameplay like Gears of War II's single player campaign, right?

[Kairon]

I don't want to believe that gamers are sexist just yet, though it's an idea that I can no longer ignore.

Instead, I prefer to think that Mirror's Edge is simply not riding on some trends that gamers today subscribe to: open-ended gameplay, social-networking/multiplayer, ...ummm... guns?

I mean, seriously, Mirror's Edge is a first-person single-player platformer. The only descriptor there that holds any luster in today's game market is "first person" and even then, considering Resistance 2's lackluster performance, it isn't much of a guarantee.

Open ended gameplay like Gears of War II's single player campaign, right?

Bu.bu.bu.multiplayer?

[Chozo Ghost]

We shouldn't crap on it though.  We should always be in favour of the development of quality games.  A good game that sells poorly should be a tragedy on any console.  A crap game that sells like hot cakes should be seen as a bad thing as well.  Now that Nintendo's winning again I think there's too much emphasis on financial success.  Whether you like Sony or not it should be sad that a good game is getting ignored.

Actually, I think we should crap on it, since it is yet another blatant attempted rip-off by Sony of a successful Nintendo franchise. Sony's entire video game division is built from rip-offs of Nintendo stuff. It all started with the original PS which was blatant rip-off of the SNES and the cd-rom drive for it that never was released, and the controller is configured exactly like an SNES controller with N64 thumbsticks tacked on. And now we have Sony trying to rip off Nintendo's motion control innovations as well.

So when they fail, I say its what they deserve and I have absolutely no sympathy for them. You are right it is a great game I'm sure, but any clone of greatness is probably also going to be great, naturally. That doesn't mean it isn't a ripoff and deserving of failure, though. What Sony lacks is originality, and can only get good ideas by imitating what other companies are doing. Their failure right now is nothing short of Karma, IMHO.

[DAaaMan64]

I think you are being unfair with your original PS analogy. Sony had the console basically finished with Nintendo. Nintendo abandoned them, and Sony just "Released what they had." I don't see Sony's thought processs unreasonable there.

[ShyGuy]

Why does it always have to be about sex? Dead Space is losing money because people are sexist against space mutants?

[Kairon]

Why does it always have to be about sex? Dead Space is losing money because people are sexist against space mutants?

Maybe it's about hair? Women have hair. And maybe deadspace guy has hair too. Maybe Bionic Commando will bomb. Unless Dreds != hair.

[Urkel]

The general difference is that the old casual gamers were not turned off by good games, they just were easily distracted by superficial crap.  They would buy a crap game because it had tits or blood and would ignore a good game because it looked too childish or too Japanese or too arty or too old or whatever.  They are the group that would reject a game like Mirror's Edge because the female character is not dressed like a slut.  Not hardcore gamers.  Hardcore gamers just see that gameplay and make their purchase decision based on that.

I was using the stupid internet definition of "hardcore" gamer. Apparantly everybody that owns a PS360 is automatically considered to be hardcore.

Anyway, I don't think sexism is the sole factor in the sales of Mirror's Edge, but I do believe it contributed to it. I've been thinking about this ever since the original Beyond Good and Evil bombed. Sure, that game was also overshadowed by bigger hyped games, but it really bombed and I've always wondered why.

I've been trying to think of game series' that had a female lead (without the option to play as a male character) who didn't dress like a prostitute that actually sold well, and I'm coming up with nothing. Well, Ms. Pac-man.

But then again she was kinda hawt.

[KDR_11k]

If you want my oppinion on ME's failing it's that it's a first person platformer. Platforming is the most reviled aspect of first person games and ME doesn't even use the standard "if you can get your feet on the horizontal part you can land there" logic but has tons of maneuvers like grabbing, wallrunning, ... that make the movement even less obvious. The Sonic-style momentum stuff doesn't help much either and makes it harder to judge which jumps you can make. The demo didn't feel like something I'd want to play for a prolonged period of time.

BG&E simply had a quirky theme with talking animals and stuff, not exactly popular with older gamers. Can't say I liked the game either, got stuck when I couldn't solve a stealth scene just by sniping all the guards.

[NWR_insanolord]

Mirror's Edge isn't selling because it's a 6-hour game with no multiplayer that's getting scores in the 8 range and was released in the busiest time of the gaming year. It's also a new IP, which is a good thing, except when it means that nobody who hasn't followed it in the media has any idea what it is. I bought it, though, and I really like it.

[MaleficentOgre]

If you don't live for gaming news you don't know what mirror's edge is. That's why it bombed. This time of year marketing sells games (wii play excluded) more than anything else. You put your game all over tv and people buy it. Why does Guitar Hero sell so much on Wii as opposed to other games? Because Activision says "you can actually buy this game on wii." No one else is that smart. Like, did you guys know samba de amiga was out for Wii? I had no idea until I saw it at wal mart this weekend. Seriously, I had no clue.

[NWR_Lindy]

Mirror's Edge isn't selling because it's a 6-hour game with no multiplayer that's getting scores in the 8 range and was released in the busiest time of the gaming year. It's also a new IP, which is a good thing, except when it means that nobody who hasn't followed it in the media has any idea what it is. I bought it, though, and I really like it.

Insanolord wins this part of the thread.

[Spak-Spang]

Changing the topic slightly.  Ian Sane brought up an interesting point about the definition of hardcore gamers and gamers.

I will not rehash his point, but it is true that the definitions have changed since Nintendo began marketing to new audiences with the blue ocean strategy.  Before there were two categories Gamers/hardcore gamers and everyone else...seriously they didn't have a label...but we all knew who they were.  (And they weren't people not playing games, they were exactly the people Ian Sane was describing the Madden/Halo/ crowd.)  The population that was coming into gaming because it was becoming cool, but were tainting the market and not buying good games, but just specific genres.  But the industry embraced this new player because mostly they were playing what the industry was designing anyway, and more importantly making lots more money. 

Now Nintendo changed the rules and there is again only two categories of players Gamers/Hardcore gamers and Casual Gamers.  But the casual market is now a larger assault on the Gamers ideals because they require different types of games, are challenging the ideas of what a game is...and in the process taking resources away and "tainting" the very nature of gaming with: Brain Age, Pet Simulations, Cooking Games, Wii Music, Mini Party Games...games that the hardcore see as a slap in the face to art they have supported for years.

Well before the true Gamers allowed the populous in to grant us endless supply of FPS, Sports Franchise games, and Bloody Sandbox games...the true gamers would have embraced the ideas and art of the new casual market games as something new and revolutionary. 

To me this is a shame.

[GoldenPhoenix]

Mirror's Edge isn't selling because it's a 6-hour game with no multiplayer that's getting scores in the 8 range and was released in the busiest time of the gaming year. It's also a new IP, which is a good thing, except when it means that nobody who hasn't followed it in the media has any idea what it is. I bought it, though, and I really like it.

Insanolord wins this part of the thread.

I am pleased that Resistance 2 bombed, maybe people are actually getting smarter in the types of games they buy!

[Ian Sane]

I've been thinking about this ever since the original Beyond Good and Evil bombed. Sure, that game was also overshadowed by bigger hyped games, but it really bombed and I've always wondered why.

My friend has BG&E.  I gave it a shot and I can say it's clearly a good game.  But it's not THAT great.  It's like an overrated underrated game, if that makes sense.  It's underrated because it didn't sell so well but those that rave about it overhype as if it's some must-play classic that somehow slipped through the cracks.  It isn't like how Gunstar Heroes was ignored on release and then later became regarded as one of the Genesis' best games.  BG&E is not one of the best Cube, Xbox or PS2 games.  It wasn't the best game released that year or around that time period.  It would have been nice if it sold better but it wasn't entitled to high sales or anything.

Oh and whoever mentioned Ms. Pac-Man note that she is completely naked in that game except for a bow on a her head.  Not dressed like a slut?  How about not dressed at all? 

[Kairon]

Yeah, BG&E was very well done, but... it didn't inspire me to play very far in it at all. I don't know.

[Spak-Spang]

I think BG&E shows how hard it is to get the Zelda type adventure game formula done right.  Actually several games have tried and failed...and I wonder if Zelda was a new franchise would it be able to garner the success it has as a legacy franchise?

But seriously, to create a world where every item is useful and fun to use and dungeons that build on puzzles and item clever/creative item usage is very hard.  Zelda is a linear/nonlinear adventure game...and as such it can be difficult to design levels and gameplay that is interesting and engaging. 

What more, it is difficult to create fantasy worlds that people embrace...specially if you are moving away from the traditional fantasy realms people already have a grasp of. 

[KDR_11k]

Before this whole "demographics" talk I defined hardcore as highly competitive but I don't think anyone else shared that definition. "We gamers" were regular/veteran gamers (who are acquainted with the idiosyncrasies of modern games, read reviews and sometimes whine on forums), "casual" to me was someone who invested money but didn't dedicate much time to it (especially not to things like reviews and forums) and "non-gamers" were the kind that plays games where they are available but doesn't spend money on them. Of course Nintendo managed to make the non-gamers start buying stuff so the definition isn't very accurate anymore. Gaming was never a mere hardcore-casual split, there was always a pretty much sliding scale, the bar just gets moved sometimes. And then you hand Tetris to a non-gamer and see how silly the distinctions are anyway.

Within each group you have different interests of course.

I don't think anyone ever called Halo fans casual though, maybe stupid, ignorant, misguided, gore-loving, graphics-whores, etc but never casual. That was for the people who didn't know much about gaming beyond Madden and whatever was sold to them via ads. I'm not sure where those people went, you'd have to look for sales on stuff like sports games to track them and I really don't recall those.

Oh and it's funny how people complained about graphics whores and that games should innovate and prefer gameplay over graphics, yet now they see that's not what they really wanted.

[Chozo Ghost]

Oh and whoever mentioned Ms. Pac-Man note that she is completely naked in that game except for a bow on a her head.  Not dressed like a slut?  How about not dressed at all? 

Much could be said about Ms. Pac-man's killer curves.

[Kairon]

Oh and whoever mentioned Ms. Pac-Man note that she is completely naked in that game except for a bow on a her head.  Not dressed like a slut?  How about not dressed at all? 

Much could be said about Ms. Pac-man's killer curves.

Oh geez. *facepalm*

[Bill Aurion]

That pun deserves Greenie...

[Flames_of_chaos]

Media Create 12/08 - 12/14

Media Create Sales: 12/08 - 12/14

01. [WII] Taiko no Tatsujin Wii (Bandai Namco) - 105,900 / 105,900
02. [WII] Animal Crossing: City Folk (Nintendo) - 97,700 / 587,000
03. [NDS] Kirby Super Star Ultra (Nintendo) - 94,500 / 629,400
04. [NDS] Wagamama Fashion: Girl's Mode (Nintendo) - 63,100 / 341,700
05. [NDS] Penguin no Mondai: Saikyou Penguin Densetsu! (Konami) - 59,000 / 59,000
06. [NDS] Professor Layton and the Last Time Travel (Level 5) - 57,600 / 492,000
07. [NDS] Pokemon Platinum (Pokemon) - 57,500 / 2,066,300
08. [NDS] Rhythm Heaven (Nintendo) - 45,200 / 1,289,400
09. [WII] Wii Fit (Nintendo) - 43,000 / 2,916,900
10. [WII] Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo) - 34,300 / 1,938,400

11. [PS3] Pro Evolution Soccer 2009 (Konami)
12. [PS2] Dragon Ball Z: Infinite World (Namco Bandai)
13. [NDS] Tamagotchi Star School (Namco Bandai)
14. [WII] Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat Wii (Nintendo)
15. [NDS] Chrono Trigger DS (Square Enix)
16. [WII] Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Cross Generation of Heroes (Capcom) 24,100 / NEW
17. [PS3] Gran Turismo 5 Prologue Spec III (SCE)
18. [NDS] Tongariboushi and the 365 Days of Magic (Konami)
19. [PSP] Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G (PSP the Best) (Capcom)
20. [NDS] Animal Crossing: Wild World (Nintendo)
21. [WII] Wii Sports (Nintendo)
22. [PSP] Musou Orochi: Maou Sairin (KOEI)
23. [PSP] Kenka Banchou 3: Zenkoku Seiha (Spike)
24. [WII] Wii Music (Nintendo)
25. [PSP] Gundam vs. Gundam (Namco Bandai)
26. [WII] 428: Fuusa Sareta Shibuya de (SEGA)
27. [WII] Wii Play (Nintendo)
28. [NDS] Mario Kart DS (Nintendo)
29. [NDS] Inazuma Eleven (Level 5)
30. [NDS] Taiko Drum Master 2: The Seven Island Adventure (Namco Bandai)

Dsi 173,700
Wii 91,600
PSP 71,500
PS3 33,700
DSL 31,100
X360 11,800
PS2 6,700

[BlackNMild2k1]

Wow look at that Nintendo Sandwich!!

Some thick Wiit bread with lots of N.D.S. in the middle

Mmm Mmm good.