The Wonderful 101 had Platinum's biggest team size and their longest dev cycle

outunderthestars said:
I think it is also important to remember that a great deal of that 1.1 million was sold at a steep discount.

Platinum seems to make somewhat expensive games for somewhat niche audiences. A bad mixture....
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Sometimes you need loss leading games.
I'm sure Nintendo would love W101 and Bayo2 to sell millions of copies, but I don't think they're betting on the games to do even close to that.
Nintendo is in a position where they don't have a choice but to fund these games, even if it incurs a loss.
 
Shahadan said:
I think you're not familiar with their sale history. Only Bayonetta did decently, and even then that wasn't enough. Rising did ok but that was very recent.

It's funny to see how much they got screwed by publishers. Infinite Space got screwed by Sega and should have sold much more, Anarchy Reigns was handled poorly, as well as Vanquish who had little marketing.
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I don't think Platinum's ultimately problem is that this game is going to sell notably worse than Anarchy Reigns, given that it's almost assured to hit at least that low bar, but that the number of Japanese publishers willing to fund major console games with a fair chance to bomb is dwindling quickly as they polarize to the extremes of "AAAA blockbuster" and "social/mobile game".

If Nintendo and Konami are fine with signing more projects indefinitely they don't really have an issue, but that's the main question facing them, since places like Square Enix, Capcom, and (obviously) Sega aren't likely to pick up their projects, and companies like Tecmo Koei and smaller aren't likely to have the funds to fund them.
 
This game will do OK over time, it won't sell all that great out the gate but I think word of mouth will carry it. It looks like a great fit for the Nintendo crowd and the Wii U is starving for great games.

Feeling genuine excitement here, It's like Bayonetta all over again. I was hyped for Rising but a new Kamiya game is always extra special!
 
Nirolak said:
If 1 million copies was enough to be profitable in the AAA game industry, we would have about 100 more developers still open and Sega would still be publishing Platinum.
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I miss the days of 500 thousand in sales getting you a "Best Sellers" or "Platinum Choice" tag.
 
It's a philosophy that's plain when you look at most of Platinum's previous releases, most of which feature multiple skill levels that reward deeper exploration of how the gameplay system works. "With action games I'm involved with," Kamiya said, "I don't want people to just play them one time through. Ideally I'd like them to play their whole lifetime. There are certain action games that I'm still playing to this day, after all. It's not because I want to see the ending, but because the gameplay itself is fun; it feels good to control. That's the kind of game I try to make, and while I don't like to say things like 'There's X amount of content until the ending,' I will say that there's more volume to this game than Bayonetta
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Leonardo-DiCaprio-Django-Unchained-You-Had-my-Curiosity.gif
 
Nirolak said:
I don't think Platinum's ultimately problem is that this game is going to sell notably worse than Anarchy Reigns, but that the number of Japanese publishers willing to fund major console games with a fair chance to bomb is dwindling quickly as they polarize to the extremes of "AAAA blockbuster" and "social/mobile game".

If Nintendo and Konami are fine with signing more projects indefinitely they don't really have an issue, but that's the main question facing them, since places like Square Enix, Capcom, and (obviously) Sega aren't likely to pick up their projects, and companies like Tecmo Koei and smaller aren't likely to have the funds to fund them.
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Worse than Anarchy Reigns? After how Sega handled its Western release. I can't believe that. How much did Anarchy Reigns sell?
 
outunderthestars said:
Who paid for the development? Will its looming commercial failure damage Platinum?
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Nintendo, and most likely not. Because everybody will blame Nintendo and the Wii U if it bombs, not Platinum. And as long as the game is good, Nintendo in particular would most likely continue to work with them either way.
 
SatoAilDarko said:
Worse than Anarchy Reigns? After how Sega handled its Western release. I can't believe that. How much did Anarchy Reigns sell?
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Sorry my phrasing was poor there.

I meant to imply it's not going to do that and thus isn't their problem.

I edited my post to make it a bit more clear.
 
Nirolak said:
If 1 million copies was enough to be profitable in the AAA game industry, we would have about 100 more developers still open and Sega would still be publishing Platinum.

Even Vanquish shipped 820,000 copies up front, and that's the game that started Platinum down the abyss.
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I'm under the assumption that Nintendo budgets smarter than most publishers. Sometimes they misjudge (Sin & Punishment, Other M) but they're usually on the mark.
 
Snowden's Secret said:
I'm under the assumption that Nintendo budgets smarter than most publishers. Sometimes they misjudge (Sin & Punishment, Other M) but they're usually on the mark.
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I'm not even sure that S&P2 was over budgeted. It's an amazing game, but it's not exactly a video game marvel. And rail shooters are a lot cheaper to make.
 
nintendo could ride the full value out of this game by using it as an incentive like they did with 3D Land and some of their other early 3DS titles. it has only half a decade left for them to get the value out of it. i'm sure the game is going to do just fine.
 
Snowden's Secret said:
I'm under the assumption that Nintendo budgets smarter than most publishers. Sometimes they misjudge (Sin & Punishment, Other M) but they're usually on the mark.
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The combination of largest staff + largest development time means this cost more than Vanquish or Bayonetta.

We're probably looking at something that's at least in the $12-$15 million range if not more, and then they have to pay to advertise the thing.

Now, if they sold a million copies at full price, sure, but that seems quite unlikely. If you end up at a million LTD, it would usually be surprising if even half of that is full price.
 
Riki said:
I'm not even sure that S&P2 was over budgeted. It's an amazing game, but it's not exactly a video game marvel. And rail shooters are a lot cheaper to make.
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I think the size of the team that made it was something like 14 people, unless I'm misremembering.
 
Shahadan said:
I think you're not familiar with their sale history. Only Bayonetta did decently, and even then that wasn't enough. Rising did ok but that was very recent.

It's funny to see how much they got screwed by publishers. Infinite Space got screwed by Sega and should have sold much more, Anarchy Reigns was handled poorly, as well as Vanquish who had little marketing.
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Publishers? All three of those examples were Sega screwing them over.
 
I had the most fun with this at the Wii U event last summer and that was an early build. Can't wait to play the finished product.


With that said, I really hope it's good and does good sales.
 
I hope this game moves 200k in North America. That would be a success in my eyes. Likely won't happen, but I hope it does.
 
wsippel said:
Not necessarily, if you take outsourcing and marketing into account.
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Outsourcing is usually done to bring costs down, so I doubt it overly inflated projects like Vanquish or Bayonetta.

In Kamiya's Let's Play of Bayonetta, he even points out how one of the bosses was made entirely of existing elements of the game because they didn't have all that much budget money to work with. Half the game's cutscenes are even a series of stills, saving a lot in cinematics cost. I don't get the impression Sega was pouring in the outside resources.

Marketing is a separate topic, but yes if Nintendo doesn't spend any money marketing the game, it would probably be less than Bayonetta with marketing.
 
Nirolak said:
If 1 million copies was enough to be profitable in the AAA game industry, we would have about 100 more developers still open and Sega would still be publishing Platinum.

Even Vanquish shipped 820,000 copies up front, and that's the game that started Platinum down the abyss.
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your forgetting this is nintendo here, they know how ot manage their money, pretty much guesstimate that 95% of the titles they have developed and/or published on the wii have been profitable for them, and i wouldnt be surprised if 100% of wiiU games they've been behind have atleast reached breaking even
 
Expected a thread full of "bomb" posts and almost noone talking about the article. GAF delivered as always.

Valnen said:
I would assume most publishers would know that it's not really Platinum's fault the game isn't gonna sell.
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You completely forgot what happened to Bayonetta 1, didnt you?


MikeE21286 said:
I'm amazed at grasshopper myself.

They continuously make epic bombs and still stand...
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Gungho.
 
Everyone that buys this, fill out the club nintendo survey... and under the question did you purchase a Wii U to play this software? CLICK YES! Even if it does bomb maybe they will see the message that it was worthwhile for the core.
 
This game doing poorly is completely on Nintendo. They determine how well or how badly it sells. If they do nothing to advertise this game on TV they should be asked over and over again why they even bothered to have it made. A Nintendo Direct is nice but what matters is TV advertising to let the masses know the game exist. However they hardly ever do it for their own in house developed titles. They likely won't be doing it for this game even after funding it.

I just simply don't understand spending money to make something and then letting it die when it comes to actually selling the product to people.
 
Nirolak said:
The combination of largest staff + largest development time means this cost more than Vanquish or Bayonetta.

We're probably looking at something that's at least in the $12-$15 million range if not more, and then they have to pay to advertise the thing.

Now, if they sold a million copies at full price, sure, but that seems quite unlikely. If you end up at a million LTD, it would usually be surprising if even half of that is full price.
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Unless it's a colossal bomb, most Nintendo games stay full price over the course of the generation.

And since this is both an early gen game and likely to review well, we'll probably see it show up again later in life as a Nintendo Select, helping the profitability.

Nintendo plays the long game.
 
Certainly didn't take long for people to rush in here and make a post about how this game will bomb. Can't we talk about... oh... I don't know... what the TOPIC is about? Yes, sales potential is related to W101 but it's not related to this article. Is no one excited to hear about the potential of content in this game and how much work Platinum put into it? No?

Then don't post. Shitting up the thread with it. No, every W101 thread is shitted up with it. It's as bad as Killer is Dead threads or any of Suda51's game threads where people go, "Oh another Suda51 game, instant BOMBA". It's not funny because it's Platinum Games, and while yes you may have actual sympathetic feelings about it, endlessly bringing it up changes nothing. If you want the game to sell well, fucking buy it even if you don't own a Wii U.
 
If Cartoon Network had the rights on a cartoon series, I'm sure kids would pick it up.

If it was an anime, that would sell the game as well. Or a movie like they did with Animal Crossing.

HENSHIN A GO-GO BABY!
 
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