Update: Rumor: Poor Sales May Have Killed Dead Space
- Thread starter Karloff
- Start date
Do you think any studio heads or publishers will learn the lesson? As we watched Dead Space become a legitimate hit, the watched Dead Space 2 follow on it's heels with some changes and stray a bit from what made Dead Space such a good game but still perform well and be considered a good game. Then Dead Space three came along and tried to be Space Marines, by all accounts (haven't played, myself) and sales are not what's expected, or even close, and we have to wonder why studios think that monetization, mainstreaming or pandering to the FPS crowd is what gamers want.
Yeah, it's obvious that the hardcore shooter crowd is pretty huge and a lot of people play those games. That doesn't mean every game can expand to fill that niche, becuase then obviously the genre becomes saturated and all but the preferred franchise(s) suffer low sales.
We can only imagine what sort of games we might have gotten if Dead Space 2 and 3 had adhered more closely to the formula laid down by the original game. Maybe the series would have died early or maybe DS4 would be a guarantee... Oh well, c'est la vie.
Yeah, it's obvious that the hardcore shooter crowd is pretty huge and a lot of people play those games. That doesn't mean every game can expand to fill that niche, becuase then obviously the genre becomes saturated and all but the preferred franchise(s) suffer low sales.
We can only imagine what sort of games we might have gotten if Dead Space 2 and 3 had adhered more closely to the formula laid down by the original game. Maybe the series would have died early or maybe DS4 would be a guarantee... Oh well, c'est la vie.
If this isn't true, then it isn't true and that's that.
If it is true, then "haha", "fu***ng EA again" and cue the rest.
Perhaps if they hadn't made such a bland, uninspired, poorly written and boring, linear game with unnecessary features, controversial (ie. deplorable) microtransactions built in to it and the rest, when they had the opportunity to actually make something decent, then who knows.
Liked one, enjoyed two, loathed three. Couldn't care less if this series lives or dies hereafter quite frankly.
If it is true, then "haha", "fu***ng EA again" and cue the rest.
Perhaps if they hadn't made such a bland, uninspired, poorly written and boring, linear game with unnecessary features, controversial (ie. deplorable) microtransactions built in to it and the rest, when they had the opportunity to actually make something decent, then who knows.
Liked one, enjoyed two, loathed three. Couldn't care less if this series lives or dies hereafter quite frankly.
This is one of EA's biggest flaws. They invest insane amounts of money into a product without properly gauging how much revenue they'll actually need to make. They then pawn this off on the reception of the game instead of accepting that whoever signed off on that budget should be fired. This is a fatal flaw in ANY company. Failure to budget properly.Alandoril said:
It's the equivalent of insisting to hire three booth babes, TV and newspaper adds, a Cordon Bleu trained chef and using only premium meat in order to make, market and sell a $1 hotdog. Yes, the hotdogs may be delicious and the marketing is perfect so people will know its there, but you probably spent so much on the product you'll never get a return on investment.
This completely unrealistic mindset deserves to be punished. Anyone who thinks that's the IP's fault is blind to the realities of actually allocating appropriate funds to make and market a game. Seriously, can you think of many other companies who spend so much money on marketing? I don't know about you, but right now I see four adds on this page for Sims 3 (EA game). A banner at the top, two side banners, and a small "Learn more" video ad in the bottom right. This cost money and I'm happy that they're giving Escapist marketing money, but really? This is just one of many sites. EA doesn't know what they're doing. They think they can throw money at any problem to make more money.
It isn't to say that marketing is bad. It's just the degree to which they do it. There is diminishing returns at some point where more money thrown at a problem is just lost money. At least this is a gaming site.
According to Vgchartz...0.88 million combined 360/PS3/Boxed PC. Meaning XBL on demand, PS3 download, and Origin not included. Plus the real number is usually a little higher than their data shows. There's still not a chance in hell it hit 5 mil, or will hit 5 mil. There was a -78% drop in sales from week 1 to week 2 on the 360. Does not include sales data post- Feb 23, but there had been over 100% drop by that point.Zhukov said:
http://www.vgchartz.com/gamedb/?name=dead+space+3
Sounds like the sentiment of giving someone a 95 year prison sentence instead of for life.Sixcess said:
They plan to inevitably axe it, but rather than doing it outright they set nigh impossible goals to create some marketing hype before ending it with an attempted justification.
I guess that's one thing we can commend RE6 for. It may be horror watered-down to the brim with action set-pieces now, but even they haven't gone that route.Church185 said:
They'd be fools to let the Dead Space franchise drop. It's proven to be bankable, and I think we can easily assume DS3 will break profit (even if it won't break the ridiculous 5 million unit expectation EA have set). Even with all the drastic changes in the new game, I heavily enjoyed it and the fans seemed to as well with an 80% approval rating on Gamerankings and Metacritic.
Can't tell if serious.MercurySteam said:
That would be a bittersweet ending.erttheking said:
Of course gamasutra says the rumor is false, so we're still on the fence right now. https://twitter.com/gamasutra/statuses/308965374483898369
Careful. People are bound to start using the tired "hipster" argument to defend their sacred cows here.Trishbot said:
Even when there's clear evidence that the Business part of Gaming Business is encroaching too much over the "game" part.
The longer this generation has dragged on, it seems more how the Big Publishers want to emulate the Hollywood Studio model, only with microtransactions in place of concession stands, and DRM in place of a theater.
How do you drop MORE than 100%? 0_oDrunkOnEstus said:
Are most people giving the game back?
I'm not even sure half the people in this thread actually played DS3. The microtransactions were totally optional, the Co-Op was totally optional, and I didn't really see it as any more "pure action" than the first two. The first two Dead Space games were amazing as tense, unique third person shooters, but as horror games they were laughably inept, so I see no problem with DS3 focusing on what has always been the series strength. Calling it a CoD clone is wrong on basically every level, but this community uses "CoD clone" and "Gears clone" more to mean "game I don't like" rather than "game with a extreme resemblance to GoW/CoD.
Exorbitant budgets is what killed this franchise.
Needing to sell 5 million copies JUST to break even tells you one thing and one thing only. This game cost at least 150 million dollars. A 150! (going by the 30-35$ cut for the publisher) For a AAA title that really isn't that weird but when you compare it with how the game got started. It was almost made for peanuts compared to that seeing as it sold to date roughly 3 million copies and was profitable enough for 2 sequels.
That is just ludicrous, we already had the rumoured 300 million dollar MMO bomb. I wouldn't be to surprised if EA had fireplaces in every office that only accepts 100 dollar bills as fuel with the way they manage money.
Needing to sell 5 million copies JUST to break even tells you one thing and one thing only. This game cost at least 150 million dollars. A 150! (going by the 30-35$ cut for the publisher) For a AAA title that really isn't that weird but when you compare it with how the game got started. It was almost made for peanuts compared to that seeing as it sold to date roughly 3 million copies and was profitable enough for 2 sequels.
That is just ludicrous, we already had the rumoured 300 million dollar MMO bomb. I wouldn't be to surprised if EA had fireplaces in every office that only accepts 100 dollar bills as fuel with the way they manage money.
I agree that it wasn't a clone and I think people who use such terms are being silly because they don't understand the difference between genres and actually copying stories/gameplay directly.major_chaos said:
That being said, it being poorly done horror and it not being horror at all are two completely different things. You may not pesonally think so, but the people who opened their wallets for 1 and 2 thought so and that's what matters.
Let that be a lesson to EA! They need to wake the fuck up and stop trying to copy everyone else's business practice!
EA wants lightening to strike twice but that doesn't happen!
Make your own damn lightening EA.
EA wants lightening to strike twice but that doesn't happen!
Make your own damn lightening EA.
agreed unless someone has the figures for digital sales im going to say it was at most 1 million, and that is at a huge stretch, realistically id say shy of 0.5 mil, again thats just a guess but either way thats under 2 million, so no where near their 5 million markZhukov said:
purifico said:
Hey, leave the state of Oregon out of this! They didn't do anything!punipunipyo said:
<__>
...right?
So, brain-flash... Why is EA advertising to a site that hates its guts? Have they never been here before? I KNOW they don't have pattern recognition, but COME ON!Lightknight said:
Yea I'm so proud of you guys **** about things that you have blown way out of proportion and killing franchise I love. gamer power. wooo. if gamers "voted with their wallets" on every game that caused a shitstorm with something insignificant the only thing left would be pretentious "indie" "gaums are ART guise" nonsense and all of my favorite companies would be gone.purifico said:
Oh I hope not. After the way Dead Space 3 ended, the situation with the Unitologists may finally be resolved, but the stuff involving the Markers is got a whole lot worse. Of course, after Dead Space 4 I think they should retire the franchise. After you start killing something that big multiple times, there's really no sense of threat left.
I said that wrong. I meant to say that the sales have already dropped by more than half from week to week, and got my percentages all fucked up...I had just woken up, that's my excuse. Either way, Dead Space = 3.1 Mil, Dead Space 2 = 2.6, Dead Space 3 = 860,000. I wish Steam/Origin released their numbers, because before them we could actually figure out the PC sales. Dead Space 1 sold half a million on PC, and I'm pretty sure PC sales have increased in the move to digital distribution. I'm thinking publishers only look at PS360 and consider the PC just some extra sales that boost the bottom line a little.Atmos Duality said:
No worries, just needed some clarity there.DrunkOnEstus said:
I had to do a double take initially..
"Surely, Dead Space 3 wasn't THAT bad."
