By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
Hyruken on 02 July 2010
Edit Thread
makingmusic476 said:
CDiablo said:

Honestly I dont understand how games like GT sell so well. I understand how Mario Kart and Modnation sell cause they are accessable and easy to play. Games like GT are for car junkies who want a super real experience which to myself is just too difficult. Most people I know that own(or have owned, I only know one PS owner this gen compared to like 50 PS2 owners) GT games will attempt to play them and show them off cause they look good but they cant play for shit and never actually play. Its amazing that GT sells so well(though it is the definitive driving sim) cause I dont know a single gamer that wants to take the time to learn to drive a car at 120 miles an hour. All that is really needed is a GT and a Forza as far as sims go cause everything else is probably lesser and not worth the money.


There's your problem.  Like you said, GT caters more to car enthusiasts than gamers.  It's like Madden in that respect.  There are quite a few people out there that buy Madden and just about only Madden, simply because they're big football fans.  Similarly, they have a lot of people (particularly in Europe) that buy GT and only GT. 

Given Yamauchi's aim to make GT5 a "car museum" while also including stuff from Top Gear and the like (the Top Gear Test Track will appear in the game, the actors are providing voice work for the game, and Top Gear snippets will be included in GT TV), GT5 has the potential to pull in more of your racing enthusiasts than ever before.


Last gen i might have agreed with you but this gen i don't.

There are few football games out there. So if we use Madden as the example those people who buy that game have little in the way of competition. In a way it is the same as Fifa in europe. I know so many people who have one game for their 360 and that is fifa. The reason for that is fifa is the definitive football game with all licenses etc..PES is it's competitor but fifa sells double what PES sells if not more. Point being if there was no fifa game then those people would buy PES. And vice versa. They are football fans and will naturally buy football games.

With racing games this gen it is very different. You have counltess racing games. They are like fps games in that they are chrurned out. That is because in the previous gen they were very succesful. If you look at europe sales for PS2 games i think 4 of the top 8 or something were racing games.

I do not believe for one second this myth that there are millions of GT5 racing fans waiting to buy a PS3. There are so many other racing games that would of pulled them in by now. Need for Speed Underground 1&2 was amongst the top selling PS2 games, especially in europe, selling nearly 13m units combined. 7m of those in europe. Proving that it was at least last gen a big franchise. If you look at the Need for Speeds this gen your see they are well down. The only reason they have got into the million bracket is due to sales in europe. The rest of the worlds numbers are pretty bad.

So while there will obviously be some people waiting to get a ps3 for GT5 i don't think that figure is going to be very high at all. The ps3 is a few months away from entering it's 5th year on sale. That is a longtime for people to not upgrade to this gens new consoles! If they were that die hard a gamer would they really continue to play the PS2 and miss out on other games? Very doubtful.

As the analyst mentions the reason sales don't look so good is simply because there are now more games to choose from but more importantly more formats to choose from. Those hardcore GT5 gamers who have the GT website have a Forza section on there which is very popular, that indicates that GT5 gamers have interest in other racing games.

People assume games from previous gens will sell just as well if not better this gen. For some franchises that is true, but for others it is not. For example GTA4 sold less on 2 formats then what GTA:SA sold on one. Last gen PS2 was king, it had basically 140m units out there. That is a vast amount of consoles. This gen see's three competitors so those figures are now split 3 ways. The Wii,PS3 and 360 combined have sold 147m combined. 72m of that on Wii. If you take away Wii and look at the hardcore numbers combined it is 75m. What happened to the other 70m that owed a ps2? Chances are they were casual gamers and bought a wii. A vast amount of those people will probably be people who bought the GT games on their ps2. Will they fork out £250 for a ps3 then £40 to get GT5 just to play that game? Very very doubtful. I am sure those people will probably have bought games like Mario Kart and me happy with that.

GT5 will have good sales but unlike Madden and Fifa there are lot's and lot's of alternatives for racing fans now. It just seems at least based on sales people are less interested in them. If there was less of them and they were released less frequently then i am sure interest would be higher.