By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
makingmusic476 on 27 July 2009
Edit Thread
Reasonable said:
makingmusic476 said:

I'm pretty disappointed with Killzone 2's sales overall. It had a much better opening week than I expected (I didn't think it'd come close to World at War 0_o), but after that it dropped like a rock. Its legs are crap, and it won't come close to the 4 million prediction I originally had for the game.

I'm not sure why it didn't pick up with the hardcore crowd. It may have been the controls, or it may have been because it was exclusive to the ps3 (CoD, afterall, had players from three different platforms singing its praises, getting the word out there), or a combination of these and other factors. I'm not sure how it is elsewhere, but up until recently ps3 owners were pretty few and far between in my area (though I know quite a few now that I work at a game store). Because of this, you're less likely to hear about an awesome ps3 exclusive from a friend, while you'll definitely hear about CoD from one of your 360 or PC owning friends.

Whatever the cause, the game has fallen flat, and probably won't near even 3 million without bundles.

In the end, I think Uncharted 2 and Killzone 2 will sell about on par with each other (2.5 million or so, though Uncharted 2 may get a boost over Uncharted 1 because of the added multiplayer modes). Bundles could swing this either way, however.

I hope they bundle the hell out of Killzone 2. If nothing else, it'll get the game into more people's hands. Even if 1/10th of those people end up liking the game, that's still a larger base to which you can market Killzone 3. It'll help get the brand out there, and help make Killzone another franchise synonymous with PlayStation (like Gran Turismo, though sadly far less popular).

 

I think the following affected sales, in order given:

 

1) very quick, vocal and negative responses around the controls - I liked 'em, but I like things that dare to be different, etc.  The masses don't and I think this seriously cut into the initial sales right after launch

 

2) Post launch the general vibe seemed to be the SP was a little weak, with some annoying characters (hello Rico) - this coupled with 1) I think again muted the interest of those who like to 'wait and see'

 

3) I think that known frachises, particularly in FPS, have more pull than exclusive IP on the PS3, so with CoD4, WaW, etc. the potential market was smaller than it might appear.

 

I actually liked it.  The controls threw me at first but I saw what they were aiming for, I saw the controls were 'deliberate' - i.e. not just poorly tuned, and once I got used to their feel I liked the sense of weight and presence they imparted vs the floating gun feel of CoD, etc.  I also thought the MP was good and was impressed it had Bots - so far as I'm concerned all MP titles should have Bots and Halo, CoD, etc. should all be docked points in reviews for not having them.

I think it'll limp past 2M WW, but really its a more than good enough game, with amazing polish and visuals, to deserve 3M plus - but there you go.

 

 

Have you played the game with the latest patch?  They've added a "High Precision" mode that is enabled by default.  The shaky camera feel when walking is still there, but the accuracy of aiming has been increased dramatically.  It feels much closed to CoD now.

I too liked the old controls, and now I'm torn between my preference for the weighty feel the old controls provide and the increased accuracy from the new controls.

Had this mode been there from the getgo, I think the game would've been more successful in the mass market.

I think the game will break 2 million before the year is out (Best Boy bundles notwithstanding - if those are effective enough, it could excel past 2.1 million), but the real question is how well it'll sell 1+ years down the road.  Given that it's already down to 10k weekly, I doubt it'll be selling 4-6k a week three years out like the original God of War or other similarly popular Sony IPs (2-3 million sellers).  Even Uncharted was selling better at this point in its life (by a good bit - 14k vs 10k a week), despite having the 07 holiday season over which to exhaust its potential buyer base.  The game somehow managed to pick up with consumers, though, in a way Killzone 2 seemingly has not.

I think the oversaturatioin of the shooter genre is effecting the legs of most shooters.  While shooters like Far Cry 2 may perform quite well over the first few weeks, just six months in they're selling under 2k a week.  It seems only Call of Duty and Halo have legs these days.