RolStoppable said:
How would you know which numbers I am thinking of when I never mentioned any? But anyway, logically the sales of three games wouldn't equal triple the sales of only one game being released in the system's lifetime. The more important point is that three releases generate more interest in the hardware than only one release, because new games draw attention. The most difficult part is to get people to buy the hardware, but once they own it, they will buy games. It isn't about maximizing the sales potential for a single game in the Super Mario Bros. series, it's about maximizing the amount of hardware that can be sold and thus the overall amount of software that can be sold (which goes way beyond Super Mario Bros. games alone). You see, a game like Wii Sports Resort didn't hurt the Wii, it only helped because it renewed interest in the system. Sequels don't have to sell more than the initial game on the system to justify their existence. |
I phrased myself a bit poorly there. The point is, I'm not sure there is a demand for several 2D Mario games on a system. The 3 Super Mario Bros games would be made instead of something else on the same machine. I really have trouble seeing how making 3 games in one series/genre will equate to higher hardware sales than three different series/genres. The sequels simply don't make as many people buy the system as the first one did. You can see this in the weekly boosts the systems gain in the release weeks quite easily.
The way I see it, same-system sequels both sell less software and less hardware than you would get by making games in different genres.