So... is Twisted Metal a failure?

[Kresnik]

Mr Puggsly said:

Kresnik said:

Not that I really know the full story of Apocalypse, but releasing around the same time as the 2011 Earthquake/Tsunami really hurt the game.  It never came out in Japan, release dates were constantly pushed back in the USA/UK, and shipments stopped to Australia for quite a period.

Still wouldn't have had stellar sales, but I would imagine it would've done a lot better (closer to 1 million) had none of this occurred. 

That's crap. Release dates often get pushed around. The countries it didn't release or where shipments stopped weren't going to make a big difference in overall sales either.

I could argue Twisted Metal had some of the same problems. It wasn't released in Japan. Its release was pushed around. Yet it has still managed to sell considerably better than MS: Apocalypse.

There is often excuses on why a game flopped. In the case of MS: Apocalypse, maybe people didn't like previous games in the series.

Why is it crap? Stop and think about it for a second.

The game has a set release date for the UK.  That release date is delayed indefinitely (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/video-games/8383384/UK-release-of-Motorstorm-Apocalypse-delayed-in-light-of-Japan-tsunami.html).  

The game releases, at a later date, with absolutely no advertising which has all been pulled due to the parallels with the disaster.  Of course it's going to hurt sales.

You could say the same for Twisted Metal, sure, but TM had quite a lot advertising around its new release date while Motorstorm didn't at all.  It kind of just snuck under the radar and released - people in the know would buy it, most people would miss it.  A lot like Starhawk.

Again, I'm not saying the game would have had crazy sales, it probably would have struggled to get to 1 million.  And I'm not saying there weren't other factors too - the game was very similar to Split/Second which had already been out a year, and it wasn't as good a game as Pacific Rift.  But to say that none of the troubles with the release had an effect on the number of copies shifted is just really silly.