Not a huge fan of him, but watching the inevitable video of him talking about the death of Dead Space...not gonna lie...that's gonna be a little hard to watch.wyldefire said:
Update: Rumor: Poor Sales May Have Killed Dead Space
- Thread starter Karloff
- Start date
Well Dead Space 3 is just short of 900kfix-the-spade said:
http://www.vgchartz.com/gamedb/?name=dead+space+3
And Crysis 3 is around 560k
http://www.vgchartz.com/gamedb/?name=crysis+3
Not exactly living up to the standards set by previous installments in the series.
I disagree with this notion. Strongly, actually. There was rampant misinformation about Dead Space 3, despite Visceral and EA's best efforts to clear it up (Like the prevalent belief that co-op was mandatory, and you'd get an AI partner without a friend). I'm blaming the gaming community on this one.erttheking said:
I think EA pushed the in-game microtransactions, less horror and more action, and I think it backfired and put a lot of people off the game, and now they are just burying their mistake.
The Dead Space IP will probably resurface somewhere down the line.
The Dead Space IP will probably resurface somewhere down the line.
No no....nonononononono, we are not going down the path of everything that is wrong with the gaming industry is the fault of gamers just...don't go there. I blame microtransactions, changing the formula in the middle of the series, extremely poor PR and EA's poor reputation. Not gamers.Kopikatsu said:
Imagine this:Kopikatsu said:
You're a fan of the Nightmare on Elm Street horror flicks. Hypothetical Dave is not.
Next, imagine that someone takes the Nightmare on Elm Street and decides to make a movie on the IP that is not horror but is action adventure.
Now, you follow news on the topic because you like it and you hear this. So you're hesitant to buy it and already feel sold out by the company before it ever hits theaters. Other people like you do the same and not only does it have poor initial sales but upon waiting it really isn't horror so you decide not to view it at all or you forget about it.
Hypothetical Dave doesn't even follow news about the series and so his eyes gloss over every time some commercial comes up claiming it's action, not horror. He's already not going to see it because the IP has a long history of being something he does not like. People like him either don't go for the same reason or hold off because they haven't been watching the series and assume there's too much they'd have to know going in.
This is what EA did with Dead Space. They alienated their niche customers by making a grab for a larger market that is not interested in the series. The microtransactions and the misinformation were bad, but nothing close to that. I will admit that microtransactions are an automatic no for me where pre-ordering or day-one purchases are concerned. But EA has every bit of blame here. If there's a lot of mininformation flying around, then their marketing/PR teams are at fault. You cannot get around blaming EA.
That's not nearly as bad as I was expecting actually. Although that doesn't yet show how either's sales will be long term, I can't see them selling solidly for a couple of years Battlefield 3 style.erttheking said:
Five million or bust, got to love hubris.
EA's problem is that they constantly try to change series to appeal to the shooter crowd. Not make them, but change established series into something that will draw those people in.
It is the same mistake MMO developers keep making. People who want to play WOW are already playing it, they don't want a clone of it because they already have it. The same goes for EA games. Why is a COD player going to pick up Mass Effect 3 just because it has more explosions in it? They already have their action packed shooter, they aren't going to want to switch to something else just because it has vague similarities.
They are trying to appeal to everybody at once, and it is failing, but they don't learn from it.
That's not to say that all the games are failures critically, but from a sales perspective, they are spending an awful lot of money trying to impress people who don't give a damn, and it isn't working.
It is the same mistake MMO developers keep making. People who want to play WOW are already playing it, they don't want a clone of it because they already have it. The same goes for EA games. Why is a COD player going to pick up Mass Effect 3 just because it has more explosions in it? They already have their action packed shooter, they aren't going to want to switch to something else just because it has vague similarities.
They are trying to appeal to everybody at once, and it is failing, but they don't learn from it.
That's not to say that all the games are failures critically, but from a sales perspective, they are spending an awful lot of money trying to impress people who don't give a damn, and it isn't working.
Call me ignorant, but I must not have been paying attention earlier last year when they said something like this before that they needed " 5 million copies" in order to break even. I mean yes I've heard of it, but I still don't get it. What on Gods Green earth makes Dead Space 3 so costly that it requires 5 million copies sold? not including tax or the amount stores get for sales, that's roughly 300 million dollars.Not including DLC either I might add.
It's news like this, of a game that isn't even in the next generation yet, needing RIDICULOUS numbers in order to "survive". How many copies of Killzone or Infamous Second Son will need to be sold in order to justify their sale? Will the price of games go up? Sadly the economy isn't helping people out with fewer people being able to afford games or the new consoles. This could really suck for the community as a whole.
It's news like this, of a game that isn't even in the next generation yet, needing RIDICULOUS numbers in order to "survive". How many copies of Killzone or Infamous Second Son will need to be sold in order to justify their sale? Will the price of games go up? Sadly the economy isn't helping people out with fewer people being able to afford games or the new consoles. This could really suck for the community as a whole.
I believed them when they said that they needed to sell 5 million units.Alandoril said:
It falls right into place with the extreme emphasis game publishers have been putting on graphics and marketing.
If they really must go penta-platinum just to make their investment back...they need to change their business model.
Badly.
Are there really people out there for whom lack of multiplayer is a no-sale? I mean, maybe if it's a tennis game, or a racer, but... Was anyone desperate for Bioshock 2 to have multiplayer? Or Spec Ops: The Line? Or is there just some widely-held marketing misconception that the absence of multiplayer is all that stands between your first or third person shooter being the next Call of Duty?
Ah, well, maybe EA will learn from its mistakes and take more interest in what players are actually looking for from their games, rather than trying to dictate what they want to them. Now if you'll excuse me, this purple unicorn isn't going to fly itself back to Jupiter.
Ah, well, maybe EA will learn from its mistakes and take more interest in what players are actually looking for from their games, rather than trying to dictate what they want to them. Now if you'll excuse me, this purple unicorn isn't going to fly itself back to Jupiter.
So, whaddya think? 50-50 odds?
Exactly.Atmos Duality said:
I find it tragically hilarious that game budgets are getting out of control and becoming so expensive... and yet they aren't becoming more FUN to play. Seriously, the games I played a decade ago didn't look as good but they were just as fun, if not more so, than the games being released today.
I mean, the games from 10 years ago also didn't have online passes, forced Origin integrated, unnecessary online multiplayer, day-1 DLC, retailer-exclusive DLC, pre-order content withheld, always-on online connections, or the success of Call of Duty to chase after in a pathetic race from everyone to be "second place".
I played a massive game like Xenoblade on the Wii, and Nintendo revealed it sold about 100,000 copies in the US (not the 5 million EA expected from Dead Space)... and Nintendo said that the game had been a financial success for them and nearly sold through their entire US stock of the game.
When a bigger, better game on the Wii can sell literally 1/50th of what EA expected from Dead Space 3 and still be considered a sound investment and financial success, then it certainly looks like EA's entire business approach is hilariously out of touch with reality.
EA...
Your problem... Oregon.
Your solution... Steam
Put that game on steam, you'll have my/my brother's money, and probably a million others...
Your problem... Oregon.
Your solution... Steam
Put that game on steam, you'll have my/my brother's money, and probably a million others...
"Better to die with some semblance of dignity than to live on as a dehydrated zombie cow", I always say.