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happydolphin on 26 September 2012
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RolStoppable said:

This is your thread. You said that Nintendo should copy Sony. When asked why, you answered because it will lead to prestige. Now you should answer how important said prestige is and why it is important.

So far your justification for "Nintendo should copy Sony" is little more than "I personally want such games".

My first thought is prestige makes consoles sell better on the long run (increased total HW sales, and in turn increased total SW sales), and ensure a certain userbase (mostly the one that was supporting the PSX, PS2, N64 and GC),  but I'm not sure how to quantify that sentiment or support it with numbers.

I believe what Nintendo has to gain in the long run from such games is a boost in total HW sales, a boost in total SW sales (for HW-affected games like MK), a better representation within the community, a stronger presence within the industry, more weight to their needs and decisions, and more popularity, leading to a more robust brand and a stronger image.

 

I'm not sure SW sales are the proper indicator of the success of a prestige game, as these rarely sell over 1M, except in a very small handful of cases.

So, I asked a series of questions that anyone is free to answer, this is a thread that is meant to encourage intelligent debate. This far you have provided much more than I expected and I am content, but anyone is free to pick up the questions I'm asking. Perhaps I will begin a new thread to answer the deeper questions.

 

"How important is prestige?", I like the question. I could answer that subjectively, but how could we measure concepts so as to make the judgement objective? Questions of value:

 

  • How to define the level of prestige of a game?
  • How to define the impact of a game on total HW and SW sales, and as such profit, and especially how over a longer period of time.
  • How to measure the success of a game amongst other games that help sustain a system, with the theory that the synergy of those games are greater than the sum of their sales?
  • How to define successful sales, over what time period, can it span generations? Can we use the concept of brand loyalty to accept a lesser sale as invaluable towards the sustenance of sales and interest in the brand in the future?

 

That would be my approach to it, at least those are the questions that come to my mind.

 

I'll try to answer these:

How to define the level of prestige of a game?

I believe the level of prestige in a game is a subjective measure that can be judged by a reliable community of people who have taken the time to understand the matter, and should be relied on based on their track record. Sadly I'm not sure this exists for games, though I believe it exists for movies (I'm not sure).

How to define the impact of a game on total HW and SW sales, and as such profit, and especially how over a longer period of time.

I believe this is a very difficult task, and is nearly impossible. We know that the Playstation and the Playstation 2 strived on multiple sales of smaller games like Xenogears, Chrono Chross, and say Suikoden or Star Ocean.

Maybe the lead would look at the number of small-seller that are considered AAA per system and compare it to the evergreen (make a ratio), and then compare that value to the total HW sales of the system in study.

(I am not sure I'm on the constructive path so I will wait for feedback before continuing.)