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Where Did the Games Go?
Gamaroo writes "EuroGamer.net has up an interesting editorial by Kristan Reed in regards to the lack of hits that result from so many game releases near the Christmas shopping season, and the resulting post-Xmas lull. As Reed stated, 'Note to publishers; we can't afford to buy 20 games in the run up to Christmas. Even 10 would be a struggle, and the truth is gamers are forced to play safe and go for the games they know are going to be good.' He goes on to state that, 'Of the eight or so games that Microsoft put out exclusively on Xbox, just one of them (Project Gotham Racing 2) actually sold in decent numbers. Of Sony's extensive line up, literally all of them flopped; leaving its summer hit Eye Toy: Play to fly the flag for its first party strategy.'" It's worth noting that the editorial refers to the UK charts/sales figures, so Xmas release dates differed somewhat from the States.
What does the title of this article have to do with its content?
In terms of US releases... and in terms of the Game Cube, which is where I do most of my gaming... I got Prince of Persia, 1080, Mario Kart, Pac-Man Vs., and Rebel Strike. Which of the big releases did I miss?
On GBA, I got Mario and Luigi, SMB3, and FF:TA.
Again, did I miss anything?
It's perfectly easy to buy all the good games around Christmas. I mean, 4 games at $50 and 4 at $20-30 isn't that much...
Philip Sandifer's academic website
Ahh /. effect.
Anyway, it's simple supply and demand. When you have 100 games all released for Christmas, it's not surprising that the huge supply and lower demand causes losses. Of course for that one game that outsells the best, maybe it's worth losses on other titles. Let's not also forget that a lot of titles just plain suck or are retreads. I can't tell which industry has suffered more from sequelitis, the movie industry or the video game industry.
When you have so many "me too" game developers out there, some of the genres are actually becoming diluted, IMO. Every game package reads "stunning graphics, fight through 20 levels, beat up gellatinous blobs."
Further, there really can be only one or two "platformers". Nintendo did this really well having only Mario Bros. and Zelda as their biggies. Actually, Mario Bros. games were generally so good, that everything since has been a distant second. Nothing on the PS2 really compares; Mario and Luigi to Nintendo are like Micky Mouse to Disney. Who does Sony and Microsoft have? Ratchet and Clank? Sonic sequels? A guy named Cid?
Vote in November. You won't regret it.
Perhaps the gaming industry will soon look like the film industry. There will be lots of releases from a range of game makers (from indies to EA) with a range of budgets -- some will be massively profitable, others will seem to sell well but not make up for their big budgets, others might sell poorly but be profitable for a small india game maker, and some will just suck. Games that do well will get sequels and mechandising tie-ins. Games that do poorly will dissappear or be relegated to second tier channels like the "free" games that might come with a console or the games you can buy for the price of shipping and handling from mail-order computer places.
Personally, I suspect that the game industry is maturing and diversifying into categories for different age groups and interests. The result will be lots of little hits (e.g., the best selling game for preteens) along with an occassional category-crossing megahit.
Its not a matter of how many releases are hits, but how many releases make enough money to pay back the development costs.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
The last 3 and next 3 months, at least for me and my beloved Xbox has seen a glut of games that might not be considered A+ titles by all, but are certainly a look:
Prince of Persia
Ninja Gaiden
Manhunt
SplinterCell 2
Chronicles of Riddick
Fable
Driv3r
Halo 2 (maybe soon?)
And probably a few others I've forgotten right now. And that doesn't even include PC titles.
It's always been somewhat of a problem, but it appears to have reached an all time high this year.
Where did the games go?
They left with the heros, the cowboys, and the left socks.
One bad monkey spoils the whole barrel.
Not to sound like flamebait, but are people too dense to hold on to their money during the rest of the year if they don't see anything that they like? Everyone knows that a tidal wave of games comes out at Christmas time, knowing this, is it really that hard to plan for it by putting away $10 or $20 a week during the rest of the year?
its probably a good thing at this point that most of nintendos big titles are nintendo published.
nintendo published/licenses generaly equals good.
In fact, it's weird, the availability of games seems pretty much the same all year round.
God Bless America. Why? Did it sneeze?
I have to agree with the article. There are so many times out of the year that I am waiting for my next gaming fix to come along. I remember last year, when Knights Of The Old Republic (xbox) Came out... it looked good, and there was nothing else really new, so I bought it. And boy was I not dissapointed. But if it had come out around Christmas, I probably wouldn't have given it a second look as I was all hyped about buying Arx Fatalis for the xbox and SSX3 along with the new Tony Hawk. (On the other hand, I'm wishing that another game around the same time as KotOR had come out at the end of the year.. Pirates of the Caribean (xbox).. what a dog). I don't know how many times I've gone into a video game store, jonesing for something new, just to walk out feeling dissapointed. I know it doesn't make sense, but I am sure that a lot of the games I never gave a second look at around Christmas would have been welcomed purchaces most any other time. I know they are still the same game, but it just doesn't feel the same if they have been out awhile. (And yes, I know it is completely irrational, but I am sure I am not the only one affect with this "Shiny New Game" disorder.)
It has released a bunch of online shooters, but they are all just very bad ports of popular PC titles. Xbox got GTA 3 and Vice City way too late for it to matter because of Sony's agreement with Rockstar, and they have waited way way too long with Halo 2.
Soldier of Fortune II on Xbox was horrible, on PC it is amazing, and on Xbox it reminds me of an N64 game.
I have been gaming since the days of Atari, and I, like many other gamers, am simply sick of being burned by games with a lot of hype that fall short of the expectations. Another trend in the gaming industry is making commercials for games that include NO GAMEPLAY footage, and also boxes that include no actual gameplay screenshots. None of us care about the cinematics and cut scenes in the game, those have looked good since Playstation, show us the gameplay!
I also will not purchase Xbox titles anymore without renting them. Even Halo 2 is going to get rented or played at a friends house before I buy it. I loved Unreal Championship, bought Ghost Recon, it was horrible, sold it, bought SOF2, sold it, Rainbow 6 sucked on Xbox too, Unreal II sucks, Counter Strike sucked, etc. And the only good single player game released on it in my opinion is The Elder Scrolls II : Morrowind.
I think they just need to spend more time in the production of these games. I do not mind waiting a long time for a game to be released, as long as it is as polished as it can be.
But don't get me wrong, I think the Xbox is the best console to date (insert anti MS comments and arguments here). It really made a lot of people who weren't used to Online gaming find the fun in playing against real human opponents, and the cheap rate for their live service was really cool of them. Perfect for younger gamers who do not have their own PC to game on.
Why do people feel they have to buy every game that is coming out during the release week? What do you get for buying early or pre-ordering? Overcharged? I usually wait 2-3 months and save about $20, or the full price if I hear the game sucks and I skip it.
'Same speed C but faster'
I agree bigtime that the industry is just aweful at selling games only around christmas time.
I find it hard to believe that kids can play 10 games in 2 weeks of christmas vacation versus just 1 game all summer long.
The real reason companies do this shit is to protect their prices. They don't want to release in March at $49, and have it be $29 at the end of the year.
The first 3 Crash Bandicoot games sold 8.35 million units between them in North America, making them respectively the number 6, number 2 and number 4 all time sellers on the PSone. Though you didn't mention them but someone who replied to you did, the 3 Spyro games sold 5 million units between them with the first title being number 7 on the PSone all time list. I've finished all six of those games and I would definitely say they are extremely high quality products.
The key here is the teams behind the two franchises, namely Naughty Dog and Insomniac. Once they moved on to new things and Universal handed the licenses to other teams, things went south.
Graham
'Not the performance Nintendo would have been looking for' is possibly the most accurate way to look at it. Yes, GameCube software sales rose by 26.5 per cent year on year by value, to 64.5 million (6 per cent of market value), but you'd expect that for a console only launched in May 2002. Units wise, sales rose by 63 per cent to 2.32 million, representing 4.8 per cent of all software sold.
I can think of quite a few companies and entire industries that would be ecstatic to see such growth, yet for the games industry this is not enough? Well, sorry if I take their next lament ("ohh, the evil pirates are destroying us!" or whatever crap) with a very large grain of salt...
Where do the games go when they don't sell well -physically ?
Do retailers do sell off all their stock at closeout prices, or can they return non-sold games to the distributor ?
And what do distributors do with non-selling games, sell them off cheap somewhere (where ??), export them to other countries, or destroy them ?
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I am personally getting ready for BF: Vietnam. It has 'gone gold' earlier this week and should be in stores mid-to-late march.
Yes, there is a traditional competition for Christmas games, but it honestly never affected me that much; it's not as bad as people make it out to be, and the majority of games I get used, or greatest hits (whoo: just got FFAnthology).
I picked one up on Ebay, with genesis and 32x for 30 bucks. Ironically, I ended up paying more than that for Dark Wizard, Vay, and Popful Mail (Awesome RPGs).
In a few months, I may go Saturn hunting for some of THOSE. The Sega systems have always had GREAT rpgs. (Thanks to Working Designs for the Lunar Complete releases for PSX, too!)