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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.
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.
'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...