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Jay520 on 11 February 2012
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sales2099 said:
Jay520 said:
sales2099 said:

Theres always a angle or spin one can use. But marketing is a huge factor as you know. And I would say Gears of War 3 is unattractive to casuals, but like the thread is all about, fewer retail exclusives = more marketing $$$ per game. 


Wrong wording. Instead of casual, I should have said typical userbase. Gears appeals to a very large userbase. It's a shooter with smooth controls, good graphics, and it's accessible to anyone with decent skill. But a game like Killzone, no matter how much marketing it gets, I don't think it could sell beyond 3-3.5million because of how the game is made.

Marketing helps, but in the case of many of the PS3 exclusives last year, I don't believe marketing would have caused any drastic increase in sales. Had the games been made to be potential big sellers in the first place, then they would have seen nice sales. And at that point, you can start marketing them more. 

Marketing is like the icing on the cake, while the games are the cake. Icing wouldn't do very much to help a B-Level cake taste like a A-Level cake.

In regards to the bold, they would have been big sellers in the first place if Sony spent enough marketing. Low marketing for the first game and a surge in marketing for the 2nd game like you say wont have the same effect. In many ways Sony doomed some of its best franchises this gen by not marketing the original enough. Now the sequels are doomed to a particular barometer of sales. 

And I may downplay PS3 exclusives based on sales, but quality is quality. Most of them deserve Gears or Halo sales, but alas Sony is the biggest barrier to their own games success. 


In regards to the bold, by "made" I meant developed or created. Had the games have had the quality of blockbuster, that's when Sony should have dumped marketing on them. You don't dump marketing onto a game that are very hardcore or average quality or niche or any other adjective that makes it unappealing to the typical to the userbase.

I don't know what you mean by "Low marketing for the first game and a surge in marketing for the 2nd game like you say wont have the same effect

The only games developed with blockbuster quality are Uncharted and God of War . And maybe Gran Turismo, but I 've never played it. LittleBigPlanet & Killzone are not very appealing, though are still great. Socom 4 & Ratchet & Clank: A4O were bad games. Resistance and Infamous (I know I'm going to get flamed for this) are not top tier quality compared to other games in their genre. Heavy Rain, though very good and I loved it, wasn't very appealing to the userbase, it was actually a niche game. 

The only games with top tier quality AND massive appeal are currently the ones seeing big sales (God of War, Uncharted, and maybe Gran Turismo). Can you think of any games that do have those two components, yet see marginal sales?