Analyst: PS3 continues to lack a clear ‘must-own’ title that will drive sales

[darconi]

dhummel said:

MontanaHatchet said:

dhummel said:

MontanaHatchet said:

dhummel said:

coolestguyever said:
I don't even know what this guy was thinking really. Just looking at metacritic theres tons of great games.

You got shooters like MGS4, Killzone 2 (soon), Call of Duty 4

Racing like Motorstorm and GT5P

Action like Uncharted and GTA

Platformer in LBP


We got all the basics covered

Those games are good but not "must own"s. How can the forth installment of a plot-heavy tactical shooter be a "must own"? Especially when the third iteration sold fewer than 5 million copies with a userbse of over 100 million consoles? Not too many people can pick up MGS4 as their first MGS and play through while understanding the plot, which is one of selling points of the game. As the sales show, less than 25% of current PS3 owners have deemed the title worthy of a purchase anyway. Furthermore, the online component has a medium sized, dedicated following and nothing more. "Must owns" can garner 100-200k per weekend online at any time, like the CoD's do on PS3 and 360 and like Halo 3 still does on occasion. You are confusing personal and critical favorites with mass appeal games that transcend even the gaming realm and draw laymen into the fold.

 

The bolded statement could be twisted in so many ways that I'm actually finding myself amazed with the possibilities. Let's take Super Mario Galaxy for example, which got incredible reviews and is now at about 8 million sales. How can the (too many to count) installment of a plot-thin platformer be a "must own?" We all know that a "must own" title is decided by sales and not quality, so let's look at Super Mario Galaxy. Clearly it's not a must own title since the last major iteration barely did 6 million with a userbase of 22 million. Less than 20% of Wii have deemed Super Mario Galaxy worthy of a purchase anyways. And we all know that high selling, "must own" are heavy on the online. See Wii Sports, Wii Play, and Wii Fit.

 

I never claimed Mario Galaxy was a "must own" title. You gave a good argument for it not being so in your post. I'm not sure what you are getting at.

 

I know you didn't, I was using another example. Super Mario Galaxy is most certainly a must own title due to it being one of the greatest games of all time. I was arguing how your qualifier of "must own" being high sales or a large online community is just wrong. It's almost like the sarcasm flew over your head.

 

Actually I just chose to ignore your sarcasm. Clearly Galaxy is not a must own title because most Wii owners do not feel the need to own it. There are plenty of absolutely great games that are not must owns. Think of the PC - Total annihilation is not a must own, yet it no doubt one of the best Strategy games I have ever played. It sold poorly in comparison to SC, despite glowing critical reviews, and thus the gaming community deemed SC instead of TA the "must own" of 1997.

A must own game does not mean a game meets some set of abstract standards that automatically give it the title. Must own games are defined by their reception, partially critical reception, but more importantly user's perceptions, which we see most evident in whether or not they purchase and continue to play a game. Furthermore, a must own game compels people who would have passed on playing the game or system to reconsider due to wide recognition of the game's superior gameplay, presentation, and fun factor. A must own needn't be simply the highest selling game for a system, because perhaps the game only attracted current owners of the system (albeit a high p[ercentage (25-20 atleast) and thus did not become a must own. MGS4 and Mario Galaxy cannot be said to have done these things. MGS4 in particular failed to attract even a sizable portion of the PS3 community, a fact that would have been apparent from the get go had anyone bothered to see the sales reception MGS3 received, which, while large, definately indicated a niche market and not something on the scale of GTAIII or the original Halo for Xbox.

Must have games are rare - uber rare, as in if you are lucky there will be one franchise per system per generation that meets that qualification. The only one this generation so far to meet that standard is Halo 3. Perhaps, if KZ2 attracts enough people that would normally pass on the game and also manages to convince people to buy a PS3, KZ2 can slowly gain the title of must have.

NES - Super Mario Bro

SNES - Super Mario World

Genesis - Sonic 2 (maybe?)

PS1 - FFVII

PS2 - GTAIII

N64 - Ocarina

GC - none

GB - Tetris

Xbox - Halo: CE

360 - Halo 3

PS3 - none

Wii - none

How do you say Halo 3 is a must own and yet Wii Sports/Wii Fit not be? Wii Sports and Fit practically redefined system sellers.