Bodhesatva said:
For the most part, the PS2's diversity came from its enormous install base -- it still had a "core" of games that clearly made up the Sony-esque library. For example, Adventure games. The PS2 did have a few great adventure games; Okami is the obvious example. And guess what? That sold miserably. In fact, I can't think of a single adventure game in the PS library that has sold very well. Similarly, platformers. Ratchet is kind of a platformer, and even then it only sells at about 1/3 the speed of Mario despite the fact that it was on a systm with 5x the userbase last generation. Saying Ratchet is a strong platforming presence (at 1/5th the sales) is like saying Nintendo has a strong sports presence (PS3 Madden outsold Wii madden 2-1, for example). The types of games that have sold particularly well on the PS are, in my experience, RPGs, action games, racing games, shooters (especially third person) and sports. Nintendo platforms are strong with platformers, adventure games, puzzle games, and now mini games. The Xbox has been strong with shooters (especially first person), sports, and perhaps racing games. These are just general trends: there are exceptions, of course. |
Adventure games have never sold well on Sony platforms? Well, for starters, Okami sold over 350k copies, secondly, Tomb Raider only stopped selling once its quality dropped significantly. Before that, the games sold countless millions.
Games will do well if they're marketed well. The PS2 was the king of Platformers. They sold millions left and right.
Of the 360's 25 million sellers, just about 11 can be considered Shooters, 4 are Racers, and another 4 are Sports game.
Wii: 1 Platformer, 4 Minigame titles, 1 Adventure title, 1 Sports title, 1 first person game.
PS3: 1 Shooter, 1 Racing title.
Only the 360 has enough million sellers to really warrant a pattern.
Well, there's my 2 cents.