inFamous 2 did almost 370K its first month. So Prototype 2 did significantly worse.
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April 2012 NPD Sales Results [Up3: Best selling game sold less than 236K, Kid Icarus]
- Thread starter Nirolak
- Start date
inFamous 2 did almost 370K its first month. So Prototype 2 did significantly worse.
Jive Turkey
Unconfirmed Member
We really shouldn't have to call Nintendo to download a game we bought on more than one piece of hardware we own. I don't have to contact Valve to download games I have installed on my desktop to my laptop.
Nobody is doing it the way Nintendo is and for good reason: Nintendo's download/account system is stupid.
OldJadedGamer
Banned
Personally, there is nothing left for me this gen. All I see are rehashes of games I've already played this gen except with a different number on the end. Sure there are exceptions but the are rare. I'm just biding my time until the WiiU this year.
No company would dare be stupid enough to pull a $600 price tag again. I expect none of the new systems to go past $399 which is fine considering the tech.
See thats the thing though. The wait til may thing is a tad disingenuous. When the Wii was at its Peak and decimating records left and right the "Industry" was seeing profit levels etc never seen before yet in reality the Industry wasnt seeing shit. Nintendo was seeing it. Nintendos explosive reality made a stagnant industry look good.
In May Diablo 3 will make a stangnant to failing industry look good.
RukusProvider
Banned
I don't see it. The market of handhelds will continue to shrink as smartphones, tablets start hitting new generations.
The hand me downs and second hand purchases will saturate the consumer budget for handhelds.
I strongly believe that you will not see a traditional gaming handheld do well.
DR2K
Banned
They'll bundle a game/integrel accessory and more memory.
It would go up because of one game, but everything else is pointing down. That's the trend that's been happening for months.
It's about the games. It's always about the games.
timetokill
Banned
Time to post Nintendo's chart where Nintendo was responsible for 99% of all industry growth.
Metallix87
Member
I've been saying this for years. This was the single biggest screw up third parties have ever unleashed on the industry. The sheer fact that the clear market leader saw little-to-no real third party support, and experienced several noticeable software droughts, is absolutely appalling.
Unless it grew wings instead of legs, then yea, under 100k.
RukusProvider
Banned
For the hardcore, yes. For the casuals, they will find their gaming on other platforms.
Well, if the systems are still selling to the core then there is still a market. Nintendo will never release their games on ios or other platforms so its not like they are going anywhere even if their handheld HW sales decline in NA.
I agree. I think we're in the midst of the slow(?) death of traditional handhelds in the US. I would not be surprised if the Vita is Sony's last dedicated handheld gaming device. Nintendo will hold on longer due to Mario, Pokemon, etc...But they will have a much smaller slice of the pie to work with.
TheNatural
My Member!
3DS is going to stay down until August when NSMB 2 comes out, then it will get a big boost. Vita will stay down until whenever Sony decides to drop the price.
OldJadedGamer
Banned
Well, at $399 the launch 360 came with a headset, a media remote control, and HDTV cables.
Four_Chamber
Member
Ouch, absent real numbers we have to guess that KI dropped from the 135k of last month. Pretty good feeling that Vita is sub 100k in the US. Vita sales are just abysmal right now. I don't see any title that's going to change the fortune of the Vita here in the US. Heck, even a $50 price drop may not do the trick.
06nbarnhill
Member
Months is not a significant trend......plus Diablo would not ONLY sell in one month.
Would it make other games sell more? No thats stupid. Would it prop up the industry as a whole for a while? Yeah.
Petrae
Member
I think that's a bit extreme. More realistically, handhelds are a diluted market as iOS/Android have eaten into some of the potential consumer base. There is still a market, but not nearly the market there was for the DS during its heyday.
SapientWolf
Trucker Sexologist
To a degree, yeah. But I think we're also seeing the death of the mid-tier. It's pretty much either AAA or XBLA selling these days.
timetokill
Banned
Bam!
That's what I'm talking about! High-five.
No one is comparing the 3DS to Steam.
Has the 3DS online service ever been hacked, and has it resulted in Club Nintendo accounts ever being hacked?
Anyone can formulate any metric on which to evaluate a service. I can easily say Nintendo's online service is leagues ahead of XBL and PSN because it is unhackable. The stores are hosted on simple, hidden web-pages that, if you even manage to find, you can't do anything on, and their accounts are not 100% directly connected to their service, sparing the consumers issues.
I can easily say I shouldn't have to buy XBL point cards to use XBL services because accounts are being hacked left and right and I do not want to put my CC info on there. I can also say I shouldn't have had to wait a month to use service when PSN went down, and I shouldn't of had to get a new credit card just to use an online service.
Acting like Nintendo's system is a terrible service because you have to call Nintendo and talk to some of the nicest representatives in the industry is a fallacy in every regard. At least you can make a case and get through to them, unlike Microsoft's reps who try to up-sell you when you call and later refuse to even do what you ask them (like remove your CC info from your account or cancel automatic payments on XBL).
Every system has issues. I like Nintendo's. The use of friend codes lets me use any name I want without having to worry about someone else getting it first. Keeping their systems locked up tight prevents me from having to worry about my information being stolen and me losing money. Has there EVER been downtime for Nintendo's service? When is the last time NWFC was down for maintenance?
I like XBL too, as well as PSN. And I <3 Steam more than all of them. But acting like any of them are without their own issues is just stupid. Period.
Everything digital has room to grow. Any time you try to tell me Nintendo needs to catch up to Microsoft and Sony, I'll let you know that MS and Sony need to catch up to 2001 with regards to online gaming as it was and is on the PC.
plagiarize
Banned
'traditional' hand helds are basically already dead, in the sense that i can browse the internet, download apps and watch netflix on the 3DS and PS3. traditional consoles are dead too. the Wii just flatout died, and the PS3 and 360 have evolved from pretty traditional affairs at launch to general purpose entertainment boxes.
if 'traditional handheld' means it has buttons... then no, those won't be going anywhere.
but traditional handhelds are dead. the only real difference between a Vita and an iPad other than screen size and buttons, is that one has a much more tightly controlled app store than the other.
well, and that people want to buy the iPad.
SapientWolf
Trucker Sexologist
It's not unhackable. It's just not worth hacking.
boiled goose
good with gravy
Vita under 100k so near launch.... fuuuuuu
outunderthestars
Banned
I agree that prices for portable games are simply too high. The easiest way to get prices lower is to really push downloadable games, and smaller games as well. It's hard to get there though when Nintendo can still sucker $40 out of people for Pilotwings or Steel Diver.
No, it's just a month with no good game launches. Dial down the baseless hysteria a bit.
Giant Panda
Member
It's looking more and more like Steam-like models are the only sustainable business models in the industry. But can Steam be replicated on a console?
MasterSheen
Member
Holy shit.Bam!
plagiarize
Banned
because you can't get an experience like RE:Revelations for $5. it's pretty simple. if you just look at games as $5 worth of fun, then yeah, the iphone style of game makes you expect a crapload more 'fun' for $40, but it isn't as simple as fun vs fun. it's not even about *quality* of enjoyment, but *type*. $40 games offer more types of enjoyment than $5 games can.
no $5 title gives me what i get from many $40 titles.
and don't start quoting ports at me. those ports only exist because the big budget big price sticker versions were made first.
i'm not belittling the type of games that can be profitable at $5. i love loads of them, but you are much more limited at those kind of budgets, and you always will be. i'll spend $40 for a ten hour game, even if i can get 40 ten hour $1 games for that price if it offers me an experience none of those $1 games do.
antiquegamer
Member
They drop the price to 399. It's a good deal now if you want hard drive xbox and Kinect. Could always sell that crappy SW game....That said the price are just too high ... I can't believe at the end of generation and hardware are still 300.
Catchpenny
Member
Who cares? Some people eat Big Macs every day; I'd rather save up for a nice dinner. Just because McDonalds is successful doesn't mean steakhouses are going out of business.
I do think the dedicated portable market, like the console market, needs to have more flexible pricing and multiple price tiers, but there is still a place for high quality, long lasting, expensive games on portables.
Does that chart work if you assume Wii is this gen's leading console, replacing the PS2, or is it based on 360/PS3 being this gen's PS2?
Nintendo definitely wasn't responsible for all of the handheld growth, since they had 100% of the market the generation before.
If you subtract GBA sales last gen from DS sales this generation, PSP was responsible for at least 40% of the total handheld market growth this generation (worldwide. Less in the US). Nintendo went from a 100% share last generation to a 70% share this generation while doubling their hardware and software sales over the GBA. Handheld growth this generation was nuts.
Max Payne and Diablo are both breaking 500k next month with ease.
Prototype was a sequel to a game that wasn't very loved, and who a lot of people didn't know was even coming out. And Witcher is a niche European RPG. The only real disappointment is Kinect Star Wars, but it just seems to suggest Kinect really won't have much staying power.
Too much gloom and doom about sales numbers this month.
Prototype was a sequel to a game that wasn't very loved, and who a lot of people didn't know was even coming out. And Witcher is a niche European RPG. The only real disappointment is Kinect Star Wars, but it just seems to suggest Kinect really won't have much staying power.
Too much gloom and doom about sales numbers this month.
outunderthestars
Banned
It does when the steakhouse's business plan relied on the sales volume of the fast food place.
HocusPocus
Member
Yep and games like Plants vs Zombies and Angry Birds are selling great on the mobile platform that more people seem to be choosing.
DR2K
Banned
Every month since December has been YoY signifigantly lower.
It would be frontloaded for its first month and continue to sell at a much smaller pace for a while.
Not really because if the majority of the games are losing money and continue to lose money, then it just means the industry itself is getting smaller, which in turn would hurt the blockbousters like MW3 for example.
creamsugar
Member
PSP < ? < Vita < Wii < ? < 3DS < 150k < PS3 < 200k < 360
I believe you guys could figure out what is '?' stand for.
I believe you guys could figure out what is '?' stand for.
MasterSheen
Member
Reminds me of the anticipation of Vita going sub-10k in Japan. Sony couldn't have chose a more ironic name.
outunderthestars
Banned
It's a damn shame. The vita's death would leave the portable market up to a severely underpowered 3ds and phones/tablets.
It would be the end of my time with portable games.
I wonder if the 1.2M copies of Diablo 3 that Blizzard is giving away to their WoW annual pass subscribers worldwide will hurt first month sales for the game. If about half of those were from North America, that's 500-600k copies of Diablo 3 that won't be on the May NPD results. What did Starcraft 2 sell first month in the US?
No DS?