| Shadow1980 said: There's nothing inherently "broken" about the current console market. Ninja Theory's problem is that people just weren't buying their games in sufficient quantities in their eyes. Heavenly Sword sold 1.6 million copies, while DMC sold only 850k and Enslaved only 980k. That's not enough? Oh well. Too bad. Welcome to the free market. Just like how not every film can be as big as Star Wars, The Avengers, or Avatar, neither can every game sell as well as Mario, GTA, or COD. Even as big as gaming has gotten, that 10 million mark is very elusive, and few games are lucky to hit even 5 million. Most should be happy to sell a million or two. There's still plenty of room for niche titles and new IPs to exist alongside the big "tent-pole" titles that get released each year. Properly budgeted, there's no excuse that even a game that sells only a million copies can't be profitable. Platinum Games seems to do find despite their games selling like the niche titles they are. If Ninja Theory wants to go mobile, that's their prerogative. They'll most likely fade into obscurity like so many other people who thought that $2 iPhone games were the next big frontier, because for every Rovio or Pop Cap, there's countless others who have failed miserably, and even those rare successes are still small fry in the gaming world (Rovio posted $205 million in revenue last year; GTA5 made over a billion in 24 hours). The gaming world will continue on with or without Ninja Theory. Companies have come and gone in the past 30 years. Some can hack it, some can't. EDIT: And it looks like it's all a moot point now. Looks like Ninja Theory is still sticking with consoles. I just wasted several minutes. I guess that's what happens when I walk away in the middle of writing to go do other stuff and don't bother checking to see if anything else has happened in the meantime. |
According to Capcom DmC sold 1.2 mil units.
In terms of what your saying Platinum Games is in a similar situation, yet the only way Bayonetta 2 could be made is through funding from Nintendo. That game would not exist without first party publisher support.
I also expect that Metal Gear Rising was funded by Konami, not by Platinum Games. So I don't think Platinum Games are surviving any better than Ninja Theory. Since Platinum Games have also discussed how the sales of their games have not been as good as they wanted.
I do agree with what your saying though, a properly budgeted product can yield good profit margins if the budget is maintained with respect to the sales expectation.
I just hope they keep doing what theit doing. Diversity is healthy for a gaming market, having the same COD, FF, Fifa releases all the time is not where I want to see the industry go.
