The Great Video Game Business and Financial (In)Stability Thread

garion333 wrote:
Parallax Abstraction wrote:

EDIT: Never mind.

You're wrong!

I said NEVER mind!

garion333 wrote:

Yeah, I thought that'd get a rise. There are certain things that set Gaf apart from other places and one of those things is the vehemence of certain people towards others.

That said, I'm more than willing to concede your two points though I really don't think cube truly wanted Sony to reimburse him for the game.

50%. I'm kinda thinking about it now.

Parallax Abstraction wrote:
garion333 wrote:
Parallax Abstraction wrote:

EDIT: Never mind.

You're wrong!

I said NEVER mind! :)

Yeah, well, whatever you said or whatever you wrote was wrong! So there!

I have been quashed.

Parallax Abstraction wrote:

I have been quashed. :(

You're wrong!

ClockworkHouse wrote:
Parallax Abstraction wrote:

I have been quashed. :(

You're wrong!

Me too :(.

ClockworkHouse wrote:
Parallax Abstraction wrote:

I have been quashed. :(

You're wrong!

Multiple wrongs combine into more rights, right?

I'm not quite sure where to put this, but I thought it was interesting: Only 3DS games sold over 1 million copies in Japan in 2013. The top eight best-selling games in Japan last year were 3DS games, and five of them were first-party Nintendo games. The three that weren't (Monster Hunter 4, Puzzles and Dragons Z, and Dragon Quest VII) sadly aren't out in the West yet.

Still, it really highlights how important handhelds are in the Japanese market and how important the Japanese market is to Nintendo.

P&D, bleh... did they actually add anything for the 3DS release?

Mr GT Chris wrote:

P&D, bleh... did they actually add anything for the 3DS release?

It's actually a really different game. They kept the basic match-three gameplay as the mobile game, but otherwise they rebuilt it from the ground-up to be more like a console RPG with a storyline, varied locations, and the like. At one point, Gung Ho was talking about localizing it in English, and I'm actually curious to see if they do, because I'm interested in what they ended up with. From what I read, it's like a Puzzles and Dragons take on Pokemon.

Oh that's interesting. I was wondering how they could charge 4000 yen for a port of a FTP iOS game. Wonder if it's any good? I got tired of the core P&D experience very quickly. But I played a lot of Puzzle Quest.

So I figured the number was big.. but I was even surprised on just how big

http://www.joystiq.com/2014/08/24/re...

My only fear (and we havent seen it yet) is that this ends the cross platform collectors edition sets for the PC market.. since afterall who is actually still buying them?

That's a little higher than I would've guessed, but not all that surprising. Since getting a Steam account in late 2007, I could probably count the number of physical games I've bought on one hand, the last being Dragon Age: Origins.

In other "I'm not really sure where to put this but it sort of fits here" news: Working For the Love of the Game: The Problem With Blizzard's Recruitment Video

TheGameguru wrote:

So I figured the number was big.. but I was even surprised on just how big

http://www.joystiq.com/2014/08/24/re...

My only fear (and we havent seen it yet) is that this ends the cross platform collectors edition sets for the PC market.. since afterall who is actually still buying them?

Yeah... 92% sounds like a crazy high number until you realize that the outlets for boxed PC games have pretty much disappeared.

The only PC games I still sometimes see in regular stores are Blizzard games. The rest is all shovelware.

ChrisLTD wrote:

The only PC games I still sometimes see in regular stores are Blizzard games. The rest is all shovelware.

It was a combination of this, plus the documentation/extras in PC game boxes dropping to either terrible quality or simply not being included, plus games requiring activation (and with growing frequency, installation) via online services like Steam, that eventually led me to abandon retail for PC games entirely. For a few years, I still bought my "big" PC releases at retail until these factors all combined together.

If, for example, non-collector's editions of games like Civilization 5 or Divinity: Original Sin came in boxed editions with full, high-quality manuals like PC games of old did (yes, I just wrote that un-ironically), I would have picked up retail editions for them.

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/iGqxknu.jpg)

Not if you live in Germany.

Spoiler:

Man, I wish I lived in Germany.

That's actually a screenshot from German Video Game Store Simulator 2014.

Doesn't shock me, where can one even buy PC games at retail anymore (I ask rhetorically)?

So many simulators!

RolandofGilead wrote:

Doesn't shock me, where can one even buy PC games at retail anymore (I ask rhetorically)?

Target has a lot. Most of them are $5 hidden object and bejeweled games, or really old (but still decent) games. That's about all I can think of though.

It's kind of amazing that NPD sales numbers are still posted as news stories like they were in any way relevant. Even funnier when those sites then use those numbers to say "look, PC games are dead!"

I want to try ProTrain Perfect.

Chaz wrote:
RolandofGilead wrote:

Doesn't shock me, where can one even buy PC games at retail anymore (I ask rhetorically)?

Target has a lot. Most of them are $5 hidden object and bejeweled games, or really old (but still decent) games. That's about all I can think of though.

It's kind of amazing that NPD sales numbers are still posted as news stories like they were in any way relevant. Even funnier when those sites then use those numbers to say "look, PC games are dead!"

Target and Wal-Mart both carry a lot of Blizzard and EA product. It's not hard to find AAA PC games there, as long as it's somewhat recent.

Their selection is usually better than GameStop and not nearly as hard to find.

Chaz wrote:
RolandofGilead wrote:

Doesn't shock me, where can one even buy PC games at retail anymore (I ask rhetorically)?

Target has a lot. Most of them are $5 hidden object and bejeweled games, or really old (but still decent) games. That's about all I can think of though.

It's kind of amazing that NPD sales numbers are still posted as news stories like they were in any way relevant. Even funnier when those sites then use those numbers to say "look, PC games are dead!"

NPD tracks digital sales now (but I expect this "NPD is not relevant" to continue for some time)

For an eagle-eye view of the market, this service covers the entire U.S. games industry at the category level. Our new core product for all U.S. games clients, it encompasses market size by segment, key market insights, and analysis of emerging trends. By integrating POS and consumer information, the service provides analysis of delivery method (physical, digital), hardware sales, accessories by type and platform, and gaming content. Its information on content includes new and used physical sales, digital downloads and add-on content, rentals, social network gaming, subscriptions, and mobile games
RolandofGilead wrote:

Doesn't shock me, where can one even buy PC games at retail anymore (I ask rhetorically)?

Germany, obviously.

Spoiler:

Last time I went into Best Buy they still had a couple of aisles of games. Of course, last time I went into Best Buy was a couple of years ago...

Farscry wrote:

plus games requiring activation (and with growing frequency, installation) via online services like Steam

It's been a long time since I was a PC gamer, but even back when I was, online activation made physical copies of games largely irrelevant. Once you'v installed and activated your game, the boxed copy is essentially useless. It saved you the time of downloading, but that's become significantly less important with the proliferation of broadband. DRM killed PC games at retail more than anything else.

Gremlin wrote:
Spoiler:

Last time I went into Best Buy they still had a couple of aisles of games. Of course, last time I went into Best Buy was a couple of years ago...

Spoiler:

Same.

I remember years ago when Best Buy was like an adult Toys R Us for me. Games, Music, Electronics, all under one roof. It was like a wondrous playground.

Then came the advent of online retail and digital distribution platforms. Your Amazon's. Your iTunes'. Your Steam's.

After giving up the former for the latter, I'm left scratching my head over why I was excited at all over the inconvenient brick & mortar experience. The travel time. Searching through a picked-over stock. Dealing with apathetic staff. Blarf.

Good riddance to B&M shopping.

TheGameguru wrote:
Chaz wrote:
RolandofGilead wrote:

Doesn't shock me, where can one even buy PC games at retail anymore (I ask rhetorically)?

Target has a lot. Most of them are $5 hidden object and bejeweled games, or really old (but still decent) games. That's about all I can think of though.

It's kind of amazing that NPD sales numbers are still posted as news stories like they were in any way relevant. Even funnier when those sites then use those numbers to say "look, PC games are dead!"

NPD tracks digital sales now (but I expect this "NPD is not relevant" to continue for some time)

For an eagle-eye view of the market, this service covers the entire U.S. games industry at the category level. Our new core product for all U.S. games clients, it encompasses market size by segment, key market insights, and analysis of emerging trends. By integrating POS and consumer information, the service provides analysis of delivery method (physical, digital), hardware sales, accessories by type and platform, and gaming content. Its information on content includes new and used physical sales, digital downloads and add-on content, rentals, social network gaming, subscriptions, and mobile games

I have to wonder what digital storefronts they track. Last I heard, Steam doesn't release sales figures. Since Steam is still the lion's share of the digital sales, wouldn't that mean that NPD is not getting data from a huge portion of the digital market?

Then again, if I'm remembering right (and I might not be), NPD numbers don't or didn't include Walmart sales either, right? And since Walmart sells a ton of games, there's another huge hole in the data.

Chaz wrote:
TheGameguru wrote:
Chaz wrote:
RolandofGilead wrote:

Doesn't shock me, where can one even buy PC games at retail anymore (I ask rhetorically)?

Target has a lot. Most of them are $5 hidden object and bejeweled games, or really old (but still decent) games. That's about all I can think of though.

It's kind of amazing that NPD sales numbers are still posted as news stories like they were in any way relevant. Even funnier when those sites then use those numbers to say "look, PC games are dead!"

NPD tracks digital sales now (but I expect this "NPD is not relevant" to continue for some time)

For an eagle-eye view of the market, this service covers the entire U.S. games industry at the category level. Our new core product for all U.S. games clients, it encompasses market size by segment, key market insights, and analysis of emerging trends. By integrating POS and consumer information, the service provides analysis of delivery method (physical, digital), hardware sales, accessories by type and platform, and gaming content. Its information on content includes new and used physical sales, digital downloads and add-on content, rentals, social network gaming, subscriptions, and mobile games

I have to wonder what digital storefronts they track. Last I heard, Steam doesn't release sales figures. Since Steam is still the lion's share of the digital sales, wouldn't that mean that NPD is not getting data from a huge portion of the digital market?

Then again, if I'm remembering right (and I might not be), NPD numbers don't or didn't include Walmart sales either, right? And since Walmart sells a ton of games, there's another huge hole in the data.

This is a common misconception about the relationship between NPD and its various research sources. Steam certainly has the right to not disclose their sales numbers but they have no right to stop their publishers from reporting their individual sales to NPD. So Activision could certainly share all their Steam (and other distribution channels) sales numbers with NPD not sure why people believe Valve can stop that or more importantly hide that information from the publisher.

Same goes for Walmart... so while NPD might not have the POS relationship with Valve and Walmart that doesn't mean they aren't tracking all sales.