By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
Oblivion86 on 31 May 2011
Edit Thread
brendude13 said:
Mr Khan said:
brendude13 said:
Mr Khan said:
 

What is with all these people making the "if you have less choice, you'll buy what's there, and that's why it sells more," argument? Sales absolutely do not work like that

I think they do, I mean the game has to be good aswell, but having less of a choice will boost the sales of what's left.

It really only has effect in the launch period, or at least it shouldn't have too much of an effect after that. You must realize that not all customers feel compelled to buy games all the time. They buy what they want, and don't buy what they don't want. It's not like "i bought the N64 with Mario 64, and now i have to buy Pilotwings because there's nothing else," you just don't buy anything else. Only a small segment of gamers will do that

If there is only one good game in a particular genre, it would sell substantially better if there were two good games in that genre.

People don't always look for a specific game, they look for a specific genre or type of game. If there is less to choose from, the odds are, what's left will sell better.

A good example is Halo CE on the original XBOX, at that time, it was probably one of the only games worth buying on the XBOX, if the XBOX recieved as much 3rd party support as the PS2 then the sales of Halo CE would have taken a huge hit.

I understand what you mean about people only wanting to buy one specific game, but if they can't find that they buy the most similar game. I have done this myself, back in 2008 I was going to buy Tomb Raider Underworld, but then I read the positive reviews for Uncharted and played that instead, because there was more to choose from, Tomb Raider Underworld lost a sale. If Uncharted didn't exist then Tomb Raider sales would be significantly boosted.


I disagree, at launch word of mouth sold Halo not the supporting library. It was the launch game that everyone wanted regardless of what else was out there. Then since the original was such a huge hit, hype for the sequels went through the roof. So no it didn't make one bit of difference.