"Thin Tail" Call of Duty Drags Down Sales

[evilneko]

I hate to ask this... but I need concrete definitions, which I havent heard on alot of these terms.

What makes a gamer a casual gamer?
What are thin-tails, fat-tails, and long-tails?

Examples would be nice to. Im just in the dark with those terms right now.

In business a "tail" is continuing sales long after release of a product. It simply refers to how many sales a product makes after the initial peak. Statistically speaking it also refers to a situation where a majority of the population exists in the tail end of the curve--ie, more sales in say weeks 3-8 than the first two.

To say a product cannot sustain a long tail is to say sales are dwindling so quickly that the total sales at the tail end of the curve will never equal or exceed the peak.

 

[Xenowolf]

Lolwat? How is this because of used games? They are hardly anything knew so they shouldn't hae made much of a difference compared to BlOps last yeat. If anything, used sales have gone done because of the whole online pass bullshit...

If anything, this probabaly because of competition from Battlefield.

Not to revel in Schadenfreude too much, but I think this is good news, a sign that CoD as a franchise has peaked and is going into decline. If overall sales are declining, that's because a chunk of CoD players are not enthusiastic gamers and instead of trying out other games, will just sell their consoles and exit the market altogether. Good riddance.

Also, I am picturing Captain Price riding on a comet, for some reason.

Yeah, I do really hope that this is the beginning of the end for COD. Every installment has the same old dull repetitive gameplay, yet people seem to be stupid enough to buy it over and over again every year. And jjust look at all the stagnation this has cuased.

 

[Frankster]

COD isn't selling enough! Everyone panic! The doom of the game industry is on us!
*runs around flailing arms*

I'd have though COD selling less would mean more sales on other games at least, but guess it's just been a slow month without genuinely exciting releases.

 

[digital warrior]

It's not hard to figure out why sales are going down and its one word, oversaturation. How many modern shooters are out now? The answer is far to many. You cannot shit out a similar games every year while other companies do the same and expect it to keep up sales.

The exact same thing happened with ww2 games, it happened with guitar hero and it will happen to the next fad you decide to milk till the tit is dry, black and falls off.

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

Perhaps we are seeing a shift from the AAA market to less expensive titles more willing to take risks?

Quite probably.

Most of the games I've bought this year were smaller, cheaper indie titles. I tend to buy those pretty easily since they're cheaper and often more clever (if a bit rough around the edges).

For my to justify paying 60 bucks for a game, it had better be DAMN good. Not that many games have come out recently that make me want to buy.

Oh, and I'm not into CoD, so I guess I'm not contributing to their sales either.

 

[SargentToughie]

I see your PS2 and raise you a Dreamcast . Hello Jet Set Radio, Street Fighter Alpha 3 (and about 50 other amazing 2D fighters), Sonic Adventure and un-offical but totally the best version of Metal Gear Soild.

But seriously consumers hace hundreds of alteratives to AAA games such as cheaper modile games, indie games or indeed their back catalog and they are going to use them.

Grrrr!!!! You have a Dreamcast! I'm so jelly!

 

[Valok]

COD isn't selling enough! Everyone panic! The doom of the game industry is on us!
*runs around flailing arms*

Let me help you.

 

[Marudas]

4) Making and selling the same game several times in a row will eventually result in reduced interest in the game.

But no, its those damned consumers and their used games and casual games and other such nonsense. When did "The fifth installment of a series of games all released within the last 3 or 4 years that feature the same basic elements and is almost exclusively played for the multi-player didn't quite sell as well the fifth time around" become something unexpected?

Eventually even the big fans of your series will stick to the game they liked the most.

 

[Susurrus]

As far as I can see, the article merely states that MW3's sale pattern is more:

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instead of:


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Which is either an argument that more people are buying into the hype and pre-oredering/buying right away, or that people who are not pre-existing fans of the series are not convinced to invest if they did not buy in the initial rush, or that long periods before price decreases and/or used games sales are changing the sale pattern, or, more likely, a combination of all of these, plus some other stuff.

Which, given my dislike of Day 1 DLC, as well as pre-order bonuses which add (or rather, extract to re-add-in) significant content, I cannot see as a good thing, because the sensible thing for any company to do would be to maximize initial sales, as it seems this is by far where most of the sales (and, thus, inevitably, given high price at launch) the majority of their revenue comes from.

 

[wooty]

I read the title wrong, I saw "Thin Tali" and nearly flew into a rage, how dare they take away her curves!!

But OT: Most people I know missed out MW3 in favour of BF3, perhaps people knew that CoD was just going to be the same old tired shit and decided to try out pastures new?

 

[Daaaah Whoosh]

I can't tell if this article means it'd be a good idea to pick up MW3 or not. On the one hand, I could lengthen its 'tail', which seems to be the problem here, but on the other hand, I'd be supporting CoD.
Oh, well. First things first, I need to get Mass Effect 3 before anything else.

 

[WanderingFool]

How ironic. People claim that CoD is holding back the industry, when really it's one of the things that's keeping it afloat.

Doesnt really seem that ironic. If anything, the idea that COD kept the industry afloat is proof that COD is holding the industry back. If the industry is unable to support itself without COD than it really needs to be shaken up.

Thankfully, thats just not completely true...

 

[Fat Hippo]

Wow, who gives a shit? This is bad news FOR Activision, who have plenty of money as it is. It doesn't affect other companies in the slightest, as they weren't expecting to sell a lot of copies in March anyway. If they want people to buy more in March, maybe they should release more good games then, instead of loading everything into November like last year!

 

[Trekkie]

Yeah that's it, blame the pre-owned sales! Not the fact that we keep making the same game over and over a-fucking-gain!

 

[MrJoyless]

The reason CoD MW3 hasnt done as well as Black Ops is that its multiplayer is just....less fun to play. Hell last year me and all my co workers were playing Black Ops until August then took a week or 2 break MW3 lasted us all of 12 weeks before we all just stopped having fun.

T think some of the game balance issues (seriously WTF striker), completely schizophrenic map lay outs (every building has 4 ways in...), trickeling DLC to the "elite" members(seriously they released maps in 2s for 3 months!! then did a bundle buy...lame), and just overall multiplayer experience did MW3 in for me and my playgroup.

I dont know MW3 just seems more shoot other players in the back rather than actually out playing them or getting into actual fire fights, since you cant blackbird campers out of their hiding spots or nade/tube them (since they made explosives about as harmful as a powerful sneeze) so its WAY easier to just hide and wait with assassin on.

Most of us are back to playing Blops (which last time I was on still had over 100K people playing) to keep from getting rusty....

 

[Dastardly]

"Thin Tail" Call of Duty Drags Down Sales

This franchise is obviously too big to fail. We need to call for a government bailout.