These DS Games are selling poorly. WHY!?

[the7k]

Why are these games selling poorly? You haven't been in the gaming biz for very long, have you?

None of these games have "Call of Duty", "Guitar Hero", "Halo" or "God of War" in the title. That is why they haven't sold worth a damn. Also, they're good games. Good games always sell like crap, and it's usually related to the fact that bad games sell like hot-cakes.

[jfrost]

If you think SMT titles sell badly in the US, you probably don't know their sales figures in Japan. Persona 3 sold roughly 200,000 copies, while Persona 4 moved about 400,000. They're not mega hits, although they surely are successful games.

Only? Wow, P3 even got an anime series and it only sold 200K units?

Yeah, saw it here: http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=900 ... Id=5725436

[Dylan]

None of these games have "Call of Duty", "Guitar Hero", "Halo" or "God of War" in the title. That is why they haven't sold worth a damn. Also, they're good games. Good games always sell like crap, and it's usually related to the fact that bad games sell like hot-cakes.

That's pretty much a perfect summation of the gaming market. Well done.

[sneth]

the market is saturated with some of this trash.
while most of those are good games, they are nothing new.

hopefully the USA is losing some of its anime nerdiness.

[Erik_Twice]

the market is saturated with some of this trash.
while most of those are good games, they are nothing new.

Well, if you don't think a game can't be good if it's not new then you are missing what makes a good game. Also both KitiN and SMT: DS are prety innovative, perhaps if you tell me why they are nothing new I could try to see where you are going because I have played both and they are very quirky.

I wonder, what games do you play? Because if you don't play anything "old" your options are quite limited. Is Super Mario Bros a bad game because DK came first?

hopefully the USA is losing some of its anime nerdiness.

If you don't like japanese animation don't watch it. Nobody is forcing you, I like animation, you don't, that's all.

[Funk, E]

Why are these games selling poorly? You haven't been in the gaming biz for very long, have you?

None of these games have "Call of Duty", "Guitar Hero", "Halo" or "God of War" in the title. That is why they haven't sold worth a damn. Also, they're good games. Good games always sell like crap, and it's usually related to the fact that bad games sell like hot-cakes.

Wow, that's pretty cynical.

[equalsign]

Why are these games selling poorly? You haven't been in the gaming biz for very long, have you?

None of these games have "Call of Duty", "Guitar Hero", "Halo" or "God of War" in the title. That is why they haven't sold worth a damn. Also, they're good games. Good games always sell like crap, and it's usually related to the fact that bad games sell like hot-cakes.

None of those series are bad.

Guitar Hero may not be my thing, but calling it bad would be a stretch even by me.

[the7k]

Cynicism? I just see the world for what it is, is all.

As for those series, I suppose 'mediocre' is a better word for them than bad. Sure, Halo is nothing but a three-hour campaign with a multiplayer mode that isn't much better than any free Half-Life mod, but I guess it's still adequate. Sure, God of War is nothing but a Quick-Time Event marathon mixed with a snuff film, but I guess people know what they're paying for. Sure, Call of Duty is only good when Infinity Ward is making them, but a 50% good game ratio is still passing to most people.

Except for Guitar Hero. That series is absolute crap, and has been ever since Activision has seen fit to drive the brand into the ground with terrible game after terrible game - all the while with an intolerable smugness that they can charge out the ass for bundles that have cheaply made plastic instruments that break within a few weeks of serious play.

[equalsign]

Cynicism? I just see the world for what it is, is all.

As for those series, I suppose 'mediocre' is a better word for them than bad. Sure, Halo is nothing but a three-hour campaign with a multiplayer mode that isn't much better than any free Half-Life mod, but I guess it's still adequate. Sure, God of War is nothing but a Quick-Time Event marathon mixed with a snuff film, but I guess people know what they're paying for. Sure, Call of Duty is only good when Infinity Ward is making them, but a 50% good game ratio is still passing to most people.

Except for Guitar Hero. That series is absolute crap, and has been ever since Activision has seen fit to drive the brand into the ground with terrible game after terrible game - all the while with an intolerable smugness that they can charge out the ass for bundles that have cheaply made plastic instruments that break within a few weeks of serious play.

Popularity does not make a game crappy.

I've never been much for any type of multiplayer shooter, but the Halo series' campaigns have excellent production values and are a blast. I've had a better time with them than any other first person shooter I can think of (sorry Timesplitters!). I'm betting that'll change as soon as I get my hands on Bioshock, but for now it stands. Half-Life 2 (a game I HATED, by the way) has sold far better than any individual game in the Halo series. Why does it get a free pass out of this generalization?*

*Going along with the Half-Life reference you made. If you hate it too then more power to you!

I've always thought of God of War as the love child of an action adventure game and a beat 'em up, and as that I think it stands very strong. In regards to your comments on the game, I've heard people scorn Shenmue with same words. Those who get it, love it. Those who don't should just move on.

The Infinity Ward Call of Duty games (aka the really good Call of Duty games) sell far better than the Treyarch ones anyways. Dissing the franchise for that would be like panning the Star Fox series for Namco's Star Fox Assault or criticizing A Link to the Past for Capcom/Flagship's The Minish Cap being less than stellar.

I'm a fan of Harmonix's work in the rhythm genre (not all rhythm games have to be fruity as hell dammit) and was happy to see them have success with the first two Guitar Hero games and eventually the Rock Band series (although I personally have never purchased one and don't enjoy playing them myself mostly because I'm not a huge rock fan). The series has changed very little since its original incarnation, so it's kind of null to say it's much crappier now than it was before. Plus, from what I understand Guitar Hero 5 did a ton to evolve the series feature wise (even if its song selection was stretched too far and too thin). Had Guitar Hero stayed niche I'm sure the hardcore would be much kinder to it.

Also, they hardly make anything off of those bundles and plastic instruments. Big boxes and heavy weight mean that it's expensive to ship them and they pay out of their ass for the shelf space they take up at retail. MTV (RockBand's publisher) has even begun to pull away from them. They're still trying to get rid of their original Rockband instruments as part of The Beatles Rockband "value" bundle (aka the normal bundle). They even went as far as to say “Let others take on the burden of getting those super-tight margin instruments out there," suggesting to the LA Times that RockBand owners look to Guitar Hero of their plastic instrument needs. Besides, I don't think you'd want to pay the price "quality" instruments come at - link.

Plenty of great games sell well (Bioshock, Super Mario Galaxy, Resident Evil 4, Persona 3 and 4, ect), plenty of great games sell poorly (Little King's Story, Jet Grind Radio, Retro Game Challenge, inevitably A Boy and His Blob, ect), plenty of games we'd normally think would be niche sell well (Shadow of the Colossus, Cooking Mama, Viewtiful Joe, ect), but very few terrible games sell shiploads (damn you Ubisoft and your Imagine series).

I've been up for way too long so I'll be going off to bed real soon, but more of my opinion on the issue of "hadcore" games can be found here (at the bottom of the page)- link. You posted in this thread so you've probably read it already, I'm just too tired to retype and contextualize it here. The gist is that if you want more games targeted at us buy more of these games at full price. The hardcore is a fickle crowd who too often look for any little nitpick of an excuse we can find in reviews around the net to hold off on picking up the games we'll bitch about people not having bought tomorrow. God only knows how many times I've seen someone not buy a game because they heard it had a wonky camera sometimes or is over just a little too soon to justify the price.

Buy the games you like, and more will come. They might not have the budgets and production values of other similarly priced games, but aren't we the ones always preaching to the kids today that it's all about the gameplay!!! Be happy that someone's still making games for you and just keep playing.

[the7k]

You really think Guitar Hero is just as good now as it once was? Lemme give you the run down...
All but the last five songs = amputees can do it
Last five songs = SNK Boss Syndrome

Every non-Harmonix GH I've played has been like this.

As for Half-Life, I love it. It's of the same ilk as Quake, Unreal, etc. Ya know, none of the hand holding crap that got popularized by... wait for it... Halo!

If a isn't game worth full price, I won't pay full price. I still buy games I want to support at full price, but I ain't gonna spend $60 on a game like Arkham Asylum, a game that can be completed in a weekend. The reason we "Hardcore" are so picky is because unlike casuals, we know what a game is worth. Let the casuals spend $50 on Deca Sports 2, we'll save our money.