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[mdkirby]

Players is buyers in the case of Yōtei.

That said, those charts very well illustrate the crisis of the industry, in that 70-80% of all gamer time is spent on literally a dozen long running franchises/gaas, most of which released at least 5 years ago. Any new release is not fighting over the full gamer demographic but fighting for a slither of only that 20% that aren't just playing Fortnite, or fifa etc…. Not only that but each year sees more and more new releases (many thousands) than ever before.

 

[tanners]

I don't believe the game is available in any subscription, so number of players should pretty much be sales.

Used physical copy also could count as a player number, But still only one copy sold

 

[L*][*N*K]

The funny thing is that the budget shouldn't be astronomical. They built a lot of the assets with the original game.

But then again. Spider-Man 2 had three times the cost of the first one, with there being a handful of new animations and a small piece of extra map. So you know that Sucker Punch spent a shit ton on this one too.

200m, without a single doubt.

 

[Thief1987]

Used physical copy also could count as a player number, But still only one copy sold

Used copies? During the launch week? How many it will be, something like 0,01%?

 

[bighugeguns]

Players is buyers in the case of Yōtei.

That said, those charts very well illustrate the crisis of the industry, in that 70-80% of all gamer time is spent on literally a dozen long running franchises/gaas, most of which released at least 5 years ago. Any new release is not fighting over the full gamer demographic but fighting for a slither of only that 20% that aren't just playing Fortnite, or fifa etc…. Not only that but each year sees more and more new releases (many thousands) than ever before.

Yep, going to get harder to ship mid shit and make it too.

 

[mdkirby]

Yep, going to get harder to ship mid shit and make it too.

Sadly it's at the point now, where yes there's a mountain of crap and a mountain of mid, but there's tons of actually great games all releasing at the same time, that even great games with low budgets can struggle (cronos being a good example).

 

[BlackTron]

Why talking about sales when you can push your new metric you want to sell as much as possible: engagement

Yet another gift from Microsoft

 

[Ass of Can Whooping]

200m, without a single doubt.

 

[March Climber]

Way too much energy is being spent on this game's sales.

Because a chance of success doesn't fit the much needed narrative that some desire.

 

[CentralScrutinizer]

4.4% of an unknown number being compared to 4.4% of a different unknown number.

We have no idea what he is counting as a 'weekly active user' (unless Circana explains the methodology somewhere?), nor what the 'total' is in either case.

Regardless, I would think the expectation is for the first sequel to a successful new IP to have a stronger opening than the first game, not merely to match it. ie for sales to be more front-loaded for the sequel.

We know what he's not counting, and that's very telling.

 

[Embearded]

The assumption that people boycotting it due to the Kirk incident and that developer, is making a change in sales is as stupid as the one people made in Era for Hogwarts Legacy right before release.

 

[Karim]

Number of players = winning, of course. But if Ghost of Yotei is outselling the original game, why doesn't Mat or anyone else just say so in plain English?

They say it outselling the original? I guess for them it's still a positive result. What was the total ps4 userbase number in 2020 and the actual of the ps5? You have just to calculate the 4,4% and you will solve the mistery.

 

[Ogbert]

Numbers be damned. Less than 5% of your player base engaging with a tentpole first party release is not good.

 

[Karim]

Numbers be damned. Less than 5% of your player base engaging with a tentpole first party release is not good.

3500000 of players the first weeks approximately is bad now? PS5 sold around 80200000 console, 4,4% is that.

 

[Ogbert]

3500000 of players approximately is bad now?

Yes. For the budget involved and the seeming importance of first party titles.

It's not a Sony thing, it's an industry thing (with Mario and a few Nintendo titles aside). The level of investment does not justify the return.

Games cost too much to make.

 

[Karim]

Yes. For the budget involved and the seeming importance of first party titles.

It's not a Sony thing, it's an industry thing (with Mario and a few Nintendo titles aside). The level of investment does not justify the return.

Games cost too much to make.

Are you kidding? It costed a quarter of Battlefield 6 and 3500000 players is bad? Wut. It's also a single player game. How many SP games did better?

 

[jm89]

Yes. For the budget involved and the seeming importance of first party titles.

It's not a Sony thing, it's an industry thing (with Mario and a few Nintendo titles aside). The level of investment does not justify the return.

Games cost too much to make.

Sucker punches budget on games have been typically on the lower end of playstation studios.

If they make decent profit it absoltley justifies the return.

 

[Gaiff]

Way too much energy is being spent on this game's sales.

The latest soldier to have been conscripted in the culture war.

 

[MondoPentecost]

It's not an iron clad rule but it's a good heuristic in gaming, when the sales were good they shout from the roof tops about them, when they use other metrics they are not so good.

 

[Boss Mog]

I don't believe the game is available in any subscription, so number of players should pretty much be sales.

Not necessarily, you can have more than one person using a console at home, each with their own account. Lending the game to a friend, or even just showing it to a friend at their house for 10 minutes will also inflate player count. All that is required for a "player" to be counted is that they booted the game on their account.

 

[Karim]

It's not an iron clad rule but it's a good heuristic in gaming, when the sales were good they shout from the roof tops about them, when they use other metrics they are not so good.

Opinable and not always true. Could be others the reasons because they used such data.

 

[Woopah]

Number of players = winning, of course. But if Ghost of Yotei is outselling the original game, why doesn't Mat or anyone else just say so in plain English?

Or he could give us a direct comparison to Ghost of Tsushima instead of this roundabout way of saying it didn't sell as well as the previous entry. If it did, Sony and Sucker Punch would have said so, and Matt would have shouted it out from the rooftops of the eco chamber, Bluesky. Thanks for confirming the obvious that the "Chuds" won.

Mat won't have the total unit sales data yet. That will be included in the October monthly report (though you need to subscribe to get the actual numbers).

3500000 of players the first weeks approximately is bad now? PS5 sold around 80200000 console, 4,4% is that.

It's 4.4% of active PS users (including PS5 and PS4) in the US, not a % of the worlwide PS5 installbase.

 

[MonkD]

According to co-founder of sucker punch, both games have similar budgets.

Glad to hear it. Because the miney that went in to Spider-Man 2 gave us nothing that was better than the original. And they also had the investment from Mikes going in to it.

GoY has a new map. So it's not the exact same situation either. In this case you could motivate in inflated budget.

But then Insomniac has a much better track record at getting their games out. Insomniac has had at least 3 games out in the same span as GoY development. Would be interesting to see their respectice roi.

I'm not expecting these sales to have much of an impact on Sony regardless. Wolverine and Spider-Man are far along. So is Naughty Dogs game, and maybe even the next God of War. But I'm expecting the AAA female protag to start going away soon. But it seems to be more of a problem with the US devs and less the protag gender. Japanese female led games are still doing well enough. And I think we all know why.

 

[Ogbert]

Are you kidding? It costed a quarter of Battlefield 6 and 3500000 players is bad? Wut. It's also a single player game. How many SP games did better?

Very few single player games, with the exception of Nintendo.

Which is why I mentioned Nintendo.

And why I said it's an industry thing rather than a Sony thing.

And where did I claim Battlefield 6 was a good example of anything?

 

[Embearded]

If we are counting people lending the game do we also count people that never go online with their PS?

 

[MondoPentecost]

Opinable and not always true. Could be others the reasons because they used such data.

That why the first thing I said is it's a good heuristic but not an ironclad rule

 

[DenchDeckard]

Numbers be damned. Less than 5% of your player base engaging with a tentpole first party release is not good.

This is a great point.

Only 4% of your entire active userbase is playing your game....thats pretty bad. I bet Nintendo's is much more than that.

 

[Tiago Rodrigues]

Yes. For the budget involved and the seeming importance of first party titles.

It's not a Sony thing, it's an industry thing (with Mario and a few Nintendo titles aside). The level of investment does not justify the return.

Games cost too much to make.

When did it became okay to judge a game by their first week sales alone? Or just the first 3 days? This game will keep on selling for years to come.
I do think games have or are about to peak in terms of cost with AI being a thing int he future (present really).

 

[willothedog]

3500000 of players the first weeks approximately is bad now? PS5 sold around 80200000 console, 4,4% is that.

I did not know the US PS5 install base was 80,200,000 PS5's, link to that data please.

 

[Woopah]

This is a great point.

Only 4% of your entire active userbase is playing your game....thats pretty bad. I bet Nintendo's is much more than that.

A huge chunk of PS' active userbase don't even have PS5s yet. There will be loads of upcoming Nintendo games that hit 4% or under that.

 

[Ogbert]

When did it became okay to judge a game by their first week sales alone? Or just the first 3 days? This game will keep on selling for years to come.
I do think games have or are about to peak in terms of cost with AI being a thing int he future (present really).

Again, this is not specific to GoY. As you say, it may well have legs. It will return a profit. We will see a third game.

But single player first party titles, with the exception of a few Nintendo titles, are simply not getting the traction they should. Even something as exceptional as Astrobot wasn't received in sales anywhere near as much as it deserved.

I'm talking about the industry, not this title.

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

Numbers be damned. Less than 5% of your player base engaging with a tentpole first party release is not good.

Just confirms the vast majority of gamers do not really care about spending their money on exclusives

The money goes to COD (maybe BF6 this year) and yearly sports titles and the rest of their play time is invested into games like Fortnite

 

[Tiago Rodrigues]

Again, this is not specific to GoY. As you say, it may well have legs. It will return a profit. We will see a third game.

But single player first party titles, with the exception of a few Nintendo titles, are simply not getting the traction they should. Even something as exceptional as Astrobot wasn't received in sales anywhere near as much as it deserved.

I'm talking about the industry, not this title.

Astrobot was made in Japan and by 60 people. It broke even on its first few days alone for sure.

As long as these games make money, who cares? What does that even mean? "Single player first party titles, with the exception of a few Nintendo titles, are simply not getting the traction they should"? What are the expectations? Uncharted 2 and 3 on PS3 sold like 5M tops and the console sold like 84M. Then Uncharted 4 sold around 20M on PS4. We couldn't go on with those increases forever.
Yotei will end up selling above 10M and that's more than fine for the game to turn a profit.

 

[Ogbert]

Just confirms the vast majority of gamers do not really care about spending their money on exclusives

The money goes to COD (maybe BF6 this year) and yearly sports titles and the rest of their play time is invested into games like Fortnite

Absolutely.

And the individual that is interested in single player titles is more than likely going to gravitate towards PC.

 

[Ogbert]

As long as these games make money, who cares?

Publishers do. Because the investment is high and the margins are small.

If they miss, then it's however many tens of millions down the drain, an empty slot in their schedule and years until that studio puts out another game (if they get given the opportunity). High stakes stuff.

And it's why they're all chasing GAAS, as they're trying to appeal to that huge base that isn't buying first party.

 

[Woopah]

Because he's trying to make it look bad. Why put it at the #1 sales that week when he can put it at #12 instead.

This has nothing to do with trying to make anything "look bad".

Edit: what is the reasoning/logic behind your claim demigod ?

 

[Varteras]

 

[L*][*N*K]

Sure sweetie, Spider-man cost 340m but a fully open world game that was in development for 5 years is what? 70? Keep telling yourself that.

 

[Skifi28]

Sure sweetie, Spider-man cost 340m but a fully open world game that was in development for 5 years is what? 70? Keep telling yourself that.

I mean, we seem to have info straight from the horse's mouth, but ok.

 

[Zathalus]

Sure sweetie, Spider-man cost 340m but a fully open world game that was in development for 5 years is what? 70? Keep telling yourself that.

Insomniac games is three times the size of Sucker Punch, and on top of that Sucker Punch doesn't need to pay any sort of licensing fee for the setting or characters. Insomniac is also located in California and not Washington, where developer salaries and associated costs are higher. GoY being less than a third (or even less) to develop is no great shocker.

 

[Kacho]

Megabonk is a beast!

 

[Ass of Can Whooping]

Sure sweetie, Spider-man cost 340m but a fully open world game that was in development for 5 years is what? 70? Keep telling yourself that.

The other two already gave you the info but if you need help activating your neurons so you can understand it just holla

 

[diffusionx]

A good lineup of first party games attracts people to your platform and differentiates it. That's something you want when you own a platform. It's why say Apple spends all this money on different TV shows. It's costing them over $1B a year for that service but they see it as investment.

Obviously you don't want to lose money but if you can make money and attract people and hold onto people who like these sorts of games, it's what you want.

Insomniac games is three times the size of Sucker Punch, and on top of that Sucker Punch doesn't need to pay any sort of licensing fee for the setting or characters. Insomniac is also located in California and not Washington, where developer salaries and associated costs are higher. GoY being less than a third (or even less) to develop is no great shocker.

Washington is not a cheap place at all. I would bet that costs are comparable. That said, Spiderman 2 was a disaster and I wouldn't be surprised if Insomniac had to make some changes afterwards. I think Yotei's approach is the new way forward.

 

[Horseganador]

It's easy to wait for Sony to give exact figures (which they will), but it's clear that the game is selling well, judging by the sales charts.

 

[Peroroncino]

Super happy to see it, I hope it stagnates from here and dies

 

[Soren01]

Borderlands 4 is selling really well, despite the massive whining from the nerds

 

[diffusionx]

Well, according to your data, player spending has decreased on new games (like GoY) and increased much more on microtransactions and services. That tells us two things: 1) games like Call of Duty and Fortnite are soaking up a greater share of revenue (at the expense of new games), and 2) more customers are cost-conscious and are using services like PS Plus rather than buying up multiple new games each year.

So if customers are less inclined to buy new games and a large portion of them (Fortnite + CoD players aside) are more cost-conscious in their purchasing habits, that means less sales for new games and more indirect methods of accessing games (subscription, borrowing, playing on other's accounts). Or more simply: more players and less sales.

The one thing to note... is that Ghost of Yotei is out now. It is out forever. People can discover the game in five years on PS6 and play it again. They can put it on sale and get a new audience. They can put it on graphics to point out how great the PlayStation library is. They can resell it over and over like they have for GoT, Days Gone, TLOU, Uncharted, etc.

 

[Roman Empire]

Way too much energy is being spent on this game's sales.

Thought about this. People just want to validate it.

Idk if the sales are better or worse than Tsushima. But one thing is certain, the general perception of this game is worse than Tsushima's.

 

[AJUMP23]

I am sure it will sell just fine. PS hasn't had a tent pole release in a bit.

 

[Astray]

Although I am unsure they are dancing around instead of clearly saying GoY is performing better than GoT

Because he's trying to make it look bad. Why put it at the #1 sales that week when he can put it at #12 instead.

Mat is not gonna post premium info for free, but he still wants Circana to be visible in the public eye, so we get riddles like this instead of straight info.