mrstickball said:
Would you mind replying to what I said that was factually wrong in my post, rather than say I am trolling? Infamous is a Playstation 3 exclusive, and like most exclusives, it needs a decent amount of copies sold to be profitable. Infamous is 3+ months old now, and not close to 1 million copies, given it's sales velocity (~17,000 units last week). Because of this, I would argue that the price has, or will, drop, reducing the profit per title sold, and increasing the number needed to be profitable for such a nice HD exclusive. Maybe inFamous will redeem itself with great legs like Uncharted did, due to boosts from the PS3 Slim. However, with 14 weeks in the bag, it's selling ~17,000 units a week. At such a velocity, it will take approximately another 10 weeks, or 'til December to hit 1 million copies. Assuming it hits that (and it's still dropping), it may redeem itself from. Maybe not a bomb, but I'd still argue it was below expectations, and not very good, given sales of similar titles. Again, I'd really like you to discuss the matter. It seems you love calling people out about trolling, yet never really bother discussing what they're presenting. Please provide a counter-argument, sir. |
It was trolling. Saying something like "ouch, bomba" when you have no idea how much the game cost to develop, or any idea of what its lifetime sales will be (it could easily double its LTD), then you're trolling. inFamous is a PS3 exclusive, and as such, it wasn't cheap. However, it was made by Sucker Punch, a second party developer. And since they're a second party developer, they're not only inclined to have lower budgets (it seems that most of the big financial flops on the PS3 have been from third parties), but they work more closely with Sony. Sony paid for publishing, and might have lent towards development. It wouldn't be as hard as you think to break a profit. Now, while inFamous is more than 3 months old, that doesn't mean it needs to have sold a million already. Prototype is also about 3 months old, and neither version (last I checked) has cracked a million. However, I wouldn't be surprised if Prototype was already profitable (although it does have the advantage of being multiplatform). If a game is still selling 17k a week 3 months after launch, the company won't be in a big rush to drop the price. If anything, those are great legs. I'm sure Sucker Punch is quite happy. There's nothin to indicate that the title will drop price, since it's selling just fine. And even if it does drop in price, the sales will adjust accordingly, making up for the losses. That's how price cuts work. Just because some HD exclusives bankrupt companies, doesn't mean all do.
If you're opening up for the possibility that inFamous will have legs on the level of Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, why even say something stupid like in your original post? Why say "ouch" as if it somehow causes you pain to see a game bomb on a system that you probably don't even like anyways? I'm more inclined to think that PS3 slim boosts would go towards more casual titles, and you can see evidence of this in the latest American charts. Besides, not every title needs to sell a certain amount of copies in a certain amount of time to be successful. Have the games with the biggest launches this generation been anywhere near the biggest selling or most profitable? Hell no. If it hits 1 million at December, it's already doing great. At 60 bucks a pop, that's already 60 million dollars. And if, say, Sucker Punch only gets $20 a copy, that's already 20 million dollars. Easily enough to cover the budget. And if it wasn't, there's a Christmas boost and future sales (2010 and beyond) to get it to 1.5 million or more, easily enough for a big profit. If it wasn't a bomb, you shouldn't have said it was a bomb in the first place. Whose expectations are we talking about anyways? I doubt Sony set ridiculous expectations, and inFamous looks like it will easily be Sucker Punch's best selling title (the original Sly Cooper standing at 1.06 million). Oh, and comparing it to other titles doesn't matter in its success. As an example, Gears of War sells a lot less than some of the other shooter series on the market. On the other hand, it's still widely successful. At the end of the day, the developer couldn't care less how it does compared to other games or game series on the market. I called you out for trolling because you're held to a higher standard. And you wanted a discussion, so have fun with this one. Please give me a better argument than that, or I'll just tear it all up again.
