When "Must-Have" Games do not sell, who is to blame?

The Round Peg - 701 days 1 hour ago

PS3 sales are split between gamers and hi-def/blu-ray enthusiasts. Hi-def enthusiasts buy the PS3 to watch Blu-ray movies, and they usually do NOT buy or play games.

It's hard to gauge how many PS3 owners out of the 8.41 million units are actual gamers. A lot of them are not gamers, but video freaks who bought the console to watch movies (because it's the cheapest Blu-ray player for a very long time.) So, the actual number of PS3 owners who are real gamers is really much lower than 8.41 million.

So, basically the game attach rates for the PS3 have been deflated by people who bought the console to watch Blu-ray movies and not to play game. (Hopefully your math sense is good enough to see how that works.)

The reverse is also true for Blu-ray. That's why Blu-ray attach rate is also much lower than HD DVD, because some people who bought a Blu-ray player (which is usually a PS3) are actually gamers. And gamers buy games, not movies.

Basically, the attach rates of Blu-ray *and* games are being split between gamers and hi-def movie enthusiasts, (i.e., some PS3 owners buy Blu-ray movies but no games, and some PS3 owners buy games but no movies); and either attach rate figure ends up getting deflated by the other side.

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Xbox is the BEST - 701 days ago

FTW

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jack who - 701 days ago

ps3 suck wii suck

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Capt CHAOS - 700 days 22 hours ago

Because it obviously wasn't as the lack of sales prove it.

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Noodlecup - 700 days 21 hours ago

Well Halo certainly isn't a must have, enough idiots bought it though.

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-_-_-_-_-_-_- - 700 days 21 hours ago

Movie-based games and Madden will always outsell a real masterpiece like Ico or SOTC. It's for the same reason that we have wars, people are generally just too stupid. I can't wait for neuro-implanted-brain-enhancer s!

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Dark_Vendetta - 700 days 21 hours ago

@Peg: Even if there are a lot of people who bought a Ps3 just because of the BR player, I still think most of them would buy a game because they have the possibility.
B2T:
It's sad to hear that such good games (like Uncharted: Drakes Fortune) don't sell as good as the Wii or DS (High School Musical) crap games, but I think at the end it will still sell a lot. People will stay interested in this game until something new (with the same optic/the same genre)gets released, and as I know there isn't anything coming in the near future.
Unfortunatly the same happened to Beyond Good & Evil. I really loved this game, so I don't understand why people didn't buy it, especially because there was a lot of advertisements (in germany).

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Zhuk - 700 days 21 hours ago

The developer and/or publisher is to blame when the 'must have' game is not made on the Xbox 360, which dominates the software market. If you want a game to have the best chance of succeeding in the marketplace and making a profit, it has to be on the Xbox 360

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Noodlecup - 700 days 21 hours ago

Why would I be jealous that a game with decade old PC gameplay, 2 year old graphics and a weak story outsold a game with great gameplay, great graphics and a good story? I wouldn't because sales get me nothing, I bet bungie are laughing all the way to the bank at you idiots who think Halo is some sort of next-gen masterpiece when we all saw the exact same gameplay in 1998.

@Zhuk

Why play a good lengthy game when your console fails or freezes after 2 hours of play?

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Prismo_Fillusion - 700 days 21 hours ago

I think the Wii just has too many games.
I'm sure that a lot of the more casual gamers would buy the titles like Zack & Wiki if they weren't confused by the dozens of crap games on the shelves alongside it.

I think the PS3 base is still rapidly growing. The games will sell, just give it some more time.

360 games are selling well. Can't really say much about that. Well, I can say one thing. Some of the "best" games on the 360 aren't as good as they were hyped to be, or as they were reviewed. (Halo 3 should've gotten an 8, Mass Effect maybe an 8.5, but Bioshock deserved its very high rating)

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Noodlecup - 700 days 20 hours ago

The PS2 lazers were a small problem and were fixed, I don't seem to recall hearing about a bluray problem? maybe you made it up so other people wouldn't feel left out of your pain?

I guess you're lucky but it doesn't take away the FACT that the Xbox 360 is the most unreliable console in the history of videogames. That's got to be be somewhat embarrassing for Microsoft.

Besides, you talk like you're some wierd virgin PR guy for Microsoft, why should anyone believe you when you say you haven't had the RRoD when you'll give your left nut to defend a company you make no profit from?

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Monteblanco - 700 days 20 hours ago

The Round Peg, in the very first post of this topic give a good cause why ps3 games are trailing in sales. In the other hand, it is not hard to understand how the three "average" games cited in the article are good sellers. Kane & Lynch received strong marketing support, High School Musical is a Disney game based in a popular tv show for kids -- and a safe bet to parents looking for gifts, and Mario Party 8 is much better than its scores in the specialized media suggest. At least to casual players that are buying it and are not concerned with the lack of online features or novelties over the previous releases in the series. Most of the game reviewers are not scoring the casual games in such way that it is meaningful to casual players and thus the surprise over Mario Party 8 or Carnival Games.

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aba - 700 days 20 hours ago

Did you even read the second part of my original comment? No of course not. If you did you'd know I was right. PS3 owners don't buy games, the attach rate sucks. Thats a fact. Hell I only have 2 PS3 games compared to over 10 360 games.

@noodlecup: Dude you fail so hard I feel sorry for you. Weak graphics? Yeah I bet you weren't saying that when you saw COD 4. Yet that games resolution is even lower than Halo 3's. Weak story? Halo's story is epic, and its great. Uncharted is more of an Indiana Jones type story so I duno why your even comparing them. As good a game as Uncharted might be, how many times can you play it before you get bored? Meanwhile Halo has campaign co-op, multiplayer, new maps and the forge. So yeah if you wanna compare em, go head but Halo wins. So again, YOU FAIL.

"Masterchief has the charisma and personality of a wet towel and we all know what sort of people that game attracts."

-Bullsh*t argument. What about Half-Life? Gordan Freeman doesn't have a goddamn word of dialogue. So I guess he and Half-Life must suck too huh? GTFO, YOU FAIL AGAIN.

EDIT: @prismo: It is epic tard. A collection of alien races that believe the ancestors of humans were gods and now seek to conquer and convert everyone. The flood, an enemy so great that the only way to defeat them was to destroy all life in the universe. Halo's story is epic, f**king get over it. If you want generic sci-fi just flip on the sci-fi channel and watch some of their original movies.

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