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Alic0004 on 18 December 2009
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johnsobas said:
Alic0004 said:
If you completely throw out the significance of attach rates and user bases, you also throw out the notion that one console gaining huge market share should encourage third party developers to make games for that console.

Should games like Final Fantasy be thought of as in no way limited by attach rates? Should they be developed for whatever console Square Enix feels like developing for, completely regardless of user base?

The attach rate data is definitely misleading if you're comparing early gen and late gen, though. A sequel to a popular game isn't going to sell ten times as much just because there are ten times as many consoles out there, after all.


Brief version: If Square Enix weren't concerned with the size of of the PS3 user base in some way limiting their sales, would they have bothered developing the game for 360 as well?

the numbers don't back you up at all.  We are talking about Japan only so you can throw the 360 out the window, the 360 version wouldn't exist in a Japan only world.  Explain to me which FF games sold more on a bigger userbase?  I'm pretty sure It went like this FF7>FF8>FF9 and FFX>12.

In Japan they don't seem to be limited by attach rates.  People will buy it regardless, the evidence is all there in the sales history.

 

   You're saying that in all of Japan, there is not a single person who bought a Wii or 360 instead of a PS3, and is saying to themselves "I think I'll skip buying Final Fantasy this time around, since I don't have a PS3."  Because if one person in Japan did make that decision as a consumer, then the PS3 losing a sale has also meant FFXIII has lost a sale.  That's the direct effect of having a small userbase, and of not being a first place console.  And that's why attach rate, nebulous as it is, does offer some perspective of how well a game can perform.

 

    When I mentioned the 360, I didn't say anything about sales in Japan.  I mentioned the 360 version because it's a good example of Square Enix being aware of the limits of the PS3 userbase.  To clarify, I did mean the worldwide userbase.  I assume Square Enix is capable of applying the logic they use in their worldwide business to their Japanese business as well.