LittleBigAgendas: Why didn't the mass market overlook LBP?
- Thread starter CowGirl
- Start date
Variety:
-More than 1.3 million unique users have played LittleBigPlanet. Note that this is not the same as Sony saying it has sold 1.3 million units of the game. There are more than 300,000 user-created levels already. It would take two straight years, non-stop, to play them all.
So does this mean LBP has sold 1.3 million copies or does it mean that it has been played from 1.3 million accounts ? Some sites says it's sold 1.3 million copies and some say that it has been played by 1.3 million unique users.
-More than 1.3 million unique users have played LittleBigPlanet. Note that this is not the same as Sony saying it has sold 1.3 million units of the game. There are more than 300,000 user-created levels already. It would take two straight years, non-stop, to play them all.
So does this mean LBP has sold 1.3 million copies or does it mean that it has been played from 1.3 million accounts ? Some sites says it's sold 1.3 million copies and some say that it has been played by 1.3 million unique users.
CiSTM said:
The problem this brings up is it doesn't say shipped, so 1.3 million unique players wouldn't mean guests, since they don't count (they're ad-hoc), so 1.3 million PSN accounts. But then that means that if you bought the game used, rented it, or borrowed it, you count. But if you don't have a PSN account, or if you don't have online, you don't count.
Not enough info to draw an actual conclusion on what 1.3 million means in terms of sales.
makingmusic476
Member
They were compiling weekly data, I believe.deepbrown said:
Ok._leech_ said:
DieH@rd said:
Guybrush Threepwood said:
CSSer said:1
Second said:
Wollan said:
Farnack said:
eatyobeans said:
CHRP718 said:
nelsonroyale said:
Snipes424 said:
Aenima said:
Looks to me like it's selling roughly at the median of what GAF expected. Hardly any reason for either side to crow too much, IMO.Sadaiyappan said:
UntoldDreams
Member
Jokeropia said:
Wasn't the original topic "Bomba"?
Regardless, I think the game will continue to sell quite well (only 2 months in so far) due to the online community and user generated content. If you want to revisit this in a year I'm pretty sure a large chunk of sales will have occurred.
Don't you think so?
charlequin
Banned
mr_bishiuk said:
It depends entirely on what your standard is in looking at the numbers.
Is LBP a big success for Media Molecule, a developer who created this game with a small team, on what had to be a lower-than-average current-gen-game budget? Absolutely; I don't think anyone can reasonably argue this. The game must already have recouped devcost and more, probably isn't done selling, will still generate more DLC sales, and should do very well as a pack-in title in 2009; Media Molecule is going to have no trouble getting funding for their next project.
Is LBP a big success measured in terms of being Sony's #1 game for the holiday? Well, um, hmm. It does seem like it probably outperformed their other titles, but then their other titles all performed adequately at very best. Mostly in this category what was see is "Sony first-party software performed kind of crappy this holiday."
Is LBP a big success compared to AAA holiday release titles as a category? Definitely not; there are tons of titles for all three systems that performed far, far better than LBP in one territory or worldwide.
Is LBP a big success as the latest "Wait for <X>!" title to right the floundering PS3? One word: :lol
Well, from what I'm reading elsewhere from someone who would know, "users playing" means the same as "sold to consumers". Basically, NPD/GfK/Enterbrain, to differentiate from "sold to retailers". Remember, it's a speech, not a press release.
It's also the most likely explanation, since users playing online would be a very strange metric to brag about sales, especially for a game with a strong single player component. I think even MMOs would rather talk sales and subscribers rather than current active players. And it's not like Sony knows how many people are playing offline/not logged into PSN, unless they look at the sales to consumer data... oh, wait.
It's also the most likely explanation, since users playing online would be a very strange metric to brag about sales, especially for a game with a strong single player component. I think even MMOs would rather talk sales and subscribers rather than current active players. And it's not like Sony knows how many people are playing offline/not logged into PSN, unless they look at the sales to consumer data... oh, wait.
Fenderputty
Banned
CiSTM said:
I don't really know why people are thinking its gonna be less than 1.3 million even if they're only talking unique PSN accounts. Sure there's some doubles and such, but I believe that I read somewhere stating that only 60% of the people buying LBP don't have online. One of these factors is probably greater then the other, but it's still going to have a leveling affect on the #'s. 1 million + doesn't seem like a ridiculous number at all.
androvsky said:
Having watched the keynote vid, he was talking about the network, and people creating and sharing, and all that jazz..and in the context, how many people were playing online and how much stuff they have created to date was the appropriate number to cite. Watching the whole presentation, it makes sense.
As for how that translates into sales..I'm gonna stick to my "circa 1m" estimate by end of 08
I don't get the sales defensiveness on this game, particularly by posters with editing capabilities. Is 1.3 million "users" worldwide really mass market acceptance?
This was a game that had a chance to introduce an entirely new genre (or rather way of experiencing games) if it were marketed in a smarter way. It's a decent hit, but the jury is still out on whether this kind of game experience will continue to be refined in any more advanced way.
The 'year of user-created content' turned out not so much.
This was a game that had a chance to introduce an entirely new genre (or rather way of experiencing games) if it were marketed in a smarter way. It's a decent hit, but the jury is still out on whether this kind of game experience will continue to be refined in any more advanced way.
The 'year of user-created content' turned out not so much.
Melchiah
Member
I think the marketing, or more precisely the lack of it, is mostly the blame. I live in Finland, and I haven't seen a single LBP commercial on TV, whereas I've seen a plenty of them about R2, Gears 2, Halo 3, and WiiFit. The mass market isn't familiar with the game. They don't read gaming magazines or websites. The only time when I've seen LBP on mainstream magazine, is when some store chain has had an advert for the LBP PS3 bundle. That's it.
EDIT: The old Sony was far better, when it comes to marketing for the masses. I remember seeing ads about Gran Turismo, Ratchet & Clank, and Spyro on TV quite often during the PS2 era.
EDIT: The old Sony was far better, when it comes to marketing for the masses. I remember seeing ads about Gran Turismo, Ratchet & Clank, and Spyro on TV quite often during the PS2 era.
fatigues_gasolini
Member
YakiSOBA said:
You post on a Gaming Messageboard and have no idea what a game is? You know Ive seen an official thread that could help you out.
Considering the quality of the game and how much it was marketed, people were ready to jump on the idea that it wasnt selling well. Now with more numbers, its not blowin away records, but it is selling better worldwide than some established franchises. I wouldnt say it has mass market acceptance, but it does have more appeal across the world than many other titles, and thats a very good thing.
I still say the create/share concept is flawed when it comes to the majority of gamers. But I always did think the best part about LBP was not the game itself, but the Sackboys. Sony's greatest potential mascot in years, with a charm that is only matched by Nintendo's top tier characters.
YakiSOBA said:
But it's your #2 game for 2008 GOTY?
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=14131711&postcount=1090
charlequin said:
That's pretty fair, it should be interesting to see how Sony proceeds with Media Molecule. After all, LBP is the type of game that can be DLC heaven. I wonder what Sony's plan is with MM. It would be hard to one-up LBP.
charlequin said:
I think it did pretty well for a 'floundering console'. Which isn't to say adequately at all, but then again selling a couple million copies is nothing to sneeze at, no matter if its Carnival Games or Zelda.
And it's really too bad. It's sad really. A developer comes out and does something different (Mirror's Edge and even Dead Space apply to a certain extent) and doesn't get rewarded. Meanwhile the franchise sports/music games can just release new versions with minor improvements and get away with it.
charlequin said:
I really wish the internet had a requirement for smilies. Something should have to be funny in order for them to be used.
badcrumble
Member
If Sony is smart, LBP2 will be built into every PS4 right from the start with some minor amount of integration with the OS, and your avatar will be your Sackboy (or, for the 0.01 people who prefer it, I guess your Home 2 avatar, if that's even still around).
UntoldDreams
Member
LBP just might be more of a "bridge the gap game" than a mass market game.
In most games, its simply unrealistic for me to play with many casual friends.
This includes girlfriends, neighbors, elder friends, family, etc.
Not many casual people are going to jump into a game of Resistance 2 with me or attempt to beat me in a Racing game. God help them if they try to play Street Fighter with a seasoned veteran.
** They would lose almost immediately simply due to the unfair amount of hours I've played these games.
LittleBigPlanet is a nice "all play" type of game. Its one of the best I've experienced where I'm equally happy just helping friends across a complex level rather than trying to show my "nerd mad platforming skills".
In most games, its simply unrealistic for me to play with many casual friends.
This includes girlfriends, neighbors, elder friends, family, etc.
Not many casual people are going to jump into a game of Resistance 2 with me or attempt to beat me in a Racing game. God help them if they try to play Street Fighter with a seasoned veteran.
** They would lose almost immediately simply due to the unfair amount of hours I've played these games.
LittleBigPlanet is a nice "all play" type of game. Its one of the best I've experienced where I'm equally happy just helping friends across a complex level rather than trying to show my "nerd mad platforming skills".
lowlylowlycook
Member
LBP's situation seems to be a lot like Wii Music's. Both haven't exactly bombed and you could argue that they are very pretty well for new IPs.
But Wii Music did not and will not meet up to the expectations of being associated with WiiFit and WiiSports. Neither did it hold up as "the" Nintendo game for late 2008 and WiiFit and Mario Kart filled that role even after being out for months already.
Likewise LBP did not match up to Sony's expectations as a system seller and certainly will have any long term effect on the battle for even 2nd place. Seems in the order of "wait for" games it did better than the flops but was pretty far short of MGS's success.
In addition to not being bombs in an absolute sense, both these games were probably on the lower end of development costs for this gen so financially both have easily made their money back.
The big difference is that Sony needed LBP to be something more and Nintendo's position is such that it is pretty far from needing Wii Music to do anything at all.
But Wii Music did not and will not meet up to the expectations of being associated with WiiFit and WiiSports. Neither did it hold up as "the" Nintendo game for late 2008 and WiiFit and Mario Kart filled that role even after being out for months already.
Likewise LBP did not match up to Sony's expectations as a system seller and certainly will have any long term effect on the battle for even 2nd place. Seems in the order of "wait for" games it did better than the flops but was pretty far short of MGS's success.
In addition to not being bombs in an absolute sense, both these games were probably on the lower end of development costs for this gen so financially both have easily made their money back.
The big difference is that Sony needed LBP to be something more and Nintendo's position is such that it is pretty far from needing Wii Music to do anything at all.
charlequin
Banned
TheBranca18 said:
No, it did badly. PS3's failure on the market doesn't counteract the failure of software that sells poorly on the system, it just explains it.
It's really not. The game did well for the publisher and hugely outperformed other games with similarly niche gameplay. Weird games with a high attention buy-in like LP are never going to sell as well as the games that truly appeal to everyone, and nobody should really be "sad" about that when the game still does well enough to be a monetary success for its creators. Guitar Hero and Madden sell well because they're incredibly fun and even if one objects to the specific way they're developed, no one should begrudge them their sales.
Oh, get over yourself. If you don't think the little fanboy backslapping teams that everyone forms around here are inherently worthy of mockery you're probably not worth talking to.
lowlylowlycook said:
You have to assume that Sony actually expected more out of this title than they got and weren't just talking it up because it's their job to talk up the games they're releasing and tell everyone why they believe in them, though. Maybe in some distant past Sony actually thought this was a huge weapon for the console war, but I doubt Sony-2008 ever really considered this anything besides what it turned out to be: a solid-selling, profitable title that makes the brand look good.
Similar threads
- Locked
- Poll