Jimquisition: Dark Souls and Dark Sales

[Another]

I think it is worth mentioning that Tomb Raider is just using Crystal Tools (Final Fantasy XIII's engine) so there is saved money.

I had heard earlier that Tomb Raider was using the same engine as Deus Ex Human Revolution, and after your post I was thinking "No way was DEHR running Crystal Engine, some of those faces and areas looked like arse (compared to the FF games)!" turns out you were right. Just goes to show how different studios can make games running the same engine look quite different.

Note: I'm not saying DEHR looks entirely bad, most of it is quite atmospheric and pretty. However, there were some faces, animations, and textures that were just awful.

 

[Living Contradiction]

I think, 2K called the new XCOM a success despite selling only over 1 million copies.

Then again, I also don't remember the new Tomb Raider being called a failure because it didn't sell (yet?) it's expected 6 million copies... Just that they hoped for that and didn't got that far.

I think the 6 million sales expectation was for the first month of sales. I could be wrong though.

No, you aren't wrong. http://www.gameranx.com/updates/id/13895/article/square-enix-thought-tomb-raider-would-sell-5-6-million-in-its-first-month/

They also didn't bother to count any digital sales because nobody buys things online, right?

Alas, the poor little rich publisher who can no longer afford to make media splashes and will have to resort to grousing about how it was hard done by the softening of markets and the unpredictability of critical acclaim to guarantee sales if it wants any press.

 

[Azhrarn-101]

I bet most of a AAA budget is wasted on legalities, royalties, executive wages, lunches, handkerchiefs for the divas and actors and musicians... how much could be cut out if they tossed out the top actors and hire decent average actors to do the voices ? How many LESS copies if another actor did Soap McTavish in CoD ? Will Metal Gear fail because Hayter isnt Snake ?

Well a good example (well, future example really) is going to be Bioshock Infinite.
It's total development budget was in the region of $100 million (as stated by their publisher).
They then went and spent a mind-blowing $100 million on marketing the bloody thing.

Anyone want to place bets that someone (the publisher) is going to call Bioshock Infinite a disappointment sales-wise because it didn't make back that $200 million in its first month of sales?!

That marketing budget is the issue here, $100 million for a Triple A game is a lot, but recoverable, doubling that target because of the marketing budget sure as hell is a lot harder!

There's your issue. Money is literally thrown away, does $100 million in marketing even double the sales of anything, let alone a title people are expected to pay $60 for.

 

[Mangod]

Why do I imagine this child dresses exactly like you Jim, including a tiny pair of sunglasses and a Willem Dafoe Jr.

Not quite complete. He needs a friend who's a miniature version of Yahtzee.

Here's the two of them playing with each other.

 

[Gottesstrafe]

The nail. You've hit it. Right on the head. Again. Thank god for you.
Also:

Let us engage in JOLLY COOPERATION!

Spoiler: Wait, does this mean Jim finally played Dark Souls?

 

[Vegosiux]

Quote of the week - "Expecting to sell as much as CoD based on little more than wishes and gum drops is fucking silly bones".

Indeed. This is now officially my favorite Jimquisition episode just for that.

Captcha: Trolololol...and yes, I had to make sure I put in the correct number of "lo"s. Seriously, captcha

 

[King of Asgaard]

Praise the Sun!

Praise it good!

This thread needs more Praise the Sun.

 

[Sheo_Dagana]

This is pretty much what's wrong with the gaming industry now. It's too much about the big budget graphics, new engines, and frame rates and other such shit. They think that if they throw a ton of money at a game, it'll magically create a fortune for them. On top of that, they think that because they spent so much money on that, that I should have to do my part and buy it NEW and get the season fucking pass.

I know that Call of Duty is a huge fad this generation, but you don't have to reinvent the wheel to get me to play your game. Just make something fun. Metal Gear Rising is an incredibly flawed game and many would consider it a 'niche title', but ya know, it as the most fun I've had with a game in ages.

 

[Gottesstrafe]

Praise the Sun!

Praise it good!

This thread needs more Praise the Sun.

Ugh, all this sun praising is making me feel so grossly incandescent...

Nice vid, though

 

[Johnson McGee]

I view COD and similar titles (also Angry Birds, etc.) as the junk food of gaming. If Joe Schmo is all out of brain at the end of the day and just wants to sit on the couch and shove COD down his throat then good for him. Trying to make all games like that is dumb. Having 30 different kinds of chips available to buy doesn't mean 30 times as many people will buy chips, throw in some granola, ice cream and fancy dessert if you want more people to buy.

Same with games, there's a place for serialized blockbusters but also everything else down to 8-bit retro. Making everything a co-op ultra-graphics multiplayer action shooter is just limiting the market and no amount of dollars spent on fancy packaging is going to address that.

 

[TheSapphireKnight]

I think it all really depends on what the budgets actually are with some of these games, maybe I am just not looking in the right places, but the games industry seems a lot less transparent as far as budgets are concerned than say the film industry.

Though it often doesn't include marketing, it is much easier to tell when a movie has generally succeeded or failed. I am curious to know what the budget is on Tomb Raider, it would be a lot easier to tell how reasonable or unreasonable Square is being. I hope they are indeed covering their budget at the very least and even though I have yet to pick it up, I like the direction they seem to be taking and I would like to see where they can take it from here.

I totally agree with Jim in that a lot of it comes down to publishers expecting huge sales numbers rather than hoping for it or planning appropriately. I feel that EA is the absolute worst in this regard. EA's plan in regards to shooters seems to be "alright, THIS is the year we will get COD level of success with Battlefield" and spend ridiculous amounts of money on marketing. I enjoy BF3 a lot and by all accounts enjoyed a huge amount of success.

If BF3's sales were any indication of what the future of the franchise is, it seems to occupy a solid 2nd place in terms of shooters. But that is never enough for EA so it comes as no suprise to me when they end up posting losses and laying-off employees.

 

[Lazy Kitty]

That bee shirt is so cute...
I want one.

 

[Hellfireboy]

One of the best things about having children (I have two) is that you get to see all of the worst parts of human nature, such as the delusion you mention, as they develop. Then you wonder why it is that some of these traits that are clearly bad and start when your five still persists into adulthood in some people. The idea though that the chickens coming home to roost and ruining some of these companies for their eagerness to embrace a delusion over reality is coming rather than already here I disagree with. It seems like game companies have been falling like flies and the fact that EA and SquEnix haven't folded yet just mean that they are bigger flies. From is a quirky company though and they don't make things trying to be the next CoD. But they have made some great games several of which will never leave my possession for the used bin at GameStop even after I am cold and in the ground. Dark Souls is a game that prove though that you can create a top quality experience without having to take a mortgage out on your soul.

 

[OldNewNewOld]

I completely agree with Jim and I just wanted to point out that CoD is far from the biggest game sales vise. If you're looking for a game that sells ridiculously well, a game that can say that 6 million is nothing, look at the NSMB series.

NSMB DS sold almost 30 million, Wii version sold ~26 million, NSMB2 sold ~6 million (which can be attributed to the low 3DS sales and the number is sure to increase with time unlike each entry in CoD that sells almost everything in the release month).

 

[mjc0961]

Before watching video: because publishers are goddamn stupid these days, spending countless millions of dollars trying to get as many sales as Call of Duty (which will NEVER happen) and also wasting even more money on garbage like Tomb Raider's crappy multiplayer mode that nobody liked and nobody asked for in the first place or Lara's fucking hair that's only impressive if you have a high end PC anyway. Stop spending so much money and 3 million sales will be the astounding success it should be, not a failure.

And now to watch.

Yep. Once again, the only ones who don't fucking get it are the publishers themselves. New game industry crash, here we come. And yeah, good point bringing up fucking Crytek, bloody idiots.

Also, get well soon.

I completely agree with Jim and I just wanted to point out that CoD is far from the biggest game sales vise. If you're looking for a game that sells ridiculously well, a game that can say that 6 million is nothing, look at the NSMB series.

NSMB DS sold almost 30 million, Wii version sold ~26 million, NSMB2 sold ~6 million (which can be attributed to the low 3DS sales and the number is sure to increase with time unlike each entry in CoD that sells almost everything in the release month).

Call of Duty is the biggest game sales wise when looking at launches, which is the only thing most publishers do. Nintendo is one of the intelligent exceptions who knows that their games sell well over time and don't get disappointed when, for example, New Super Mario Bros DS sold "only" about 480,000 copies on launch day in Japan.

 

[Seydaman]

Escapist, you failed, the platforms section in the description, Dark Souls is out on the PC. Please fix.

On the video: Makes sense, economic smarts means you make a profit, economic derp means you lose money. Believe that's just logic, also.

PRAAISSEEE THE SSSUUUUNNNNN

Edit: Also

Spoiler

 

[Arcane Azmadi]

Why is this reminding me of the 1983 crash where Atari supposedly made more copies of ET than there were consoles in existence in the insane hope that it would sell more than was physically possible?

 

[Ham Blitz]

You know, when I read the Dark Souls sales thing the other day I was actually happy for the game and was all like "Good for them, that game was awesome". I didn't even think about the Dead Space 3 thing and Tomb Raider thing at all, but as soon as I read the description of the video, I was like "Oh yeah, those things happened".
Anyway, Good video and Praise the Sun.

 

[chozo_hybrid]

This reminds me, I need to play more Dark Souls, and by play more I mean start a new game as I had a power cut last time I played just as it was saving and yeah... (Was about 10 hours in.)

OT: I think he introduced Mrs hammer to Mr nail on this one, some of the sales targets these publishers expect are ludicrous, and they will learn the hard way, when their companies start collapsing that they should focus on a better budget for their games.

 

[Baresark]

I'm also not afraid to say that Dark Souls is a much better game than Tomb Raider. Yeah, it didn't have all the heart wrenching wimpering and crying or whatever, it just had way way way way way better gameplay and design. And it is a pretty great looking game in my opinion.