What the hell is up with infamous

[wholikeswood]

mrstickball said:

starcraft said:

wholikeswood said:

How good of you to lump together these multiplats into one figure - makes for such a fair table!

Assassin's Creed 360: 4.52m
Assassin's Creed PS3: 3.44m
Saints Row: 1.98m
Crackdown: 1.51m
Prototype 360: 0.85m
inFamous: 0.84m
Prototype PS3: 0.56m
Godfather 2 360: 0.47m
Godfather 2 PS3: 0.36m

Now when I look at that, I see Prototype 360 and inFamous neck-and-neck, with both likely to end up approximately on par with Crackdown. Seems like fairly "mid-tier" sales to me.

 

I think the reasonable methodology lies somewhere between the two of you.  It may be wrong to lump the two platforms together, but at the same time history has led us to the assumption that on these two consoles exclusives are normally capable of more than multiplatform games (with some exceptions).

That said, I doubt either inFamous or Prototype (360) will reach Crackdown levels.

I believe it is wrong to parse out titles by platform, when it's the same game. It relies on the false assumption that exclusivity does nothing for the sales of a game. Had InFamous been multi-plat, one can only assume it would of done better, as almost every multi-plat has behaved that way: Lower sales on any given one console, but more overall.

Look at the comparables among exclusive sandbox titles - Crackdown and Saints Row. If you want to argue parsed out sales by platform, then you have to go back to comparables, which would be new, exclusive sandbox IPs. Of which, it skews the comparison further against InFamous. Look at Saints Row 1 and 2 for a valid comparative argument: SR1 was exclusive to the 360, and sold just at 2 million copies. Saints Row 2 was multi-plat, and has sold better, but the X360 version has taken a sizable hit in terms of sales. With such data available, why and how would you argue parsed sales?

I would argue parsed sales because, although I don't think either method is perfect, comparing one game to one game (e.g. inFamous to Prototype PS3) seems somewhat fairer since it's not guaranteed that the multiplat will always "take a hit" and even when it does it's not guaranteed to be a "sizeable" one, whereas with one game vs two platforms (e.g. inFamous vs. Prototype combined) then 99 times out of 100 it will always end up in favour of the multiplat. I guess I prefer a fighting chance to a duel that's already decided before they're released.

I'm happy actually, so long as we have both tables there. Just to see the two sides of the coin. Hope that's a compromise.