Next-Gen: Nintendo Not #1

[MaxwellGT2000]

PDF said:

SaviorX said:

• Dead Rising 2 - over 1 million in sales...and still did not meet Capcom expectations. 100 man dev team
• Darksiders - 1.46 million...took 3 years and 100 man dev team.
• Lost Planet 2 - .99 million...barely sold more than half of what it was supposed to with a 3 year dev time.
• Splinter Cell - Both on the 360 are over a million...but it had a 4 year dev time, mid-development revamp, and 4 delays. I won't laugh though. Alan Wake took 5 years and managed only half the sales.
• Supreme Commander 2 - mainly a PC game...but still it couldn't even hit 200k?

Where are you finding these numbers for how big the dev teams are?

I agree the Capcom games did not meet expectations they had after the success of their 1st games but we have two different meanings of bombed.  Most studios are happy with 1 million in sales.  After all Darksiders will have a sequel.  Games that bomb dont have sequels.

Well you see that's the plan for this generation, they make a big investment on the engine and art, second game rolls around and they keep most of the assets from the first game to make the second to substantially lower development costs, ever wonder why despite losing money on a title this gen companies praise HD console development, or instead of the standard 18 hours for a (good) action game last gen this has shortened to a third of that (6 hours) and its now a trilogy?

It is all because developers and publishers have invested so much in the first game, even if they lose money they're going to press forward with the second for the hope to break even, and by the third they hope they're in the black again.  Unfortunately that often isn't the case this gen.