| superchunk said:
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Using the Vita isn't really an accurate way to see how big of a system seller Uncharted is.
Firstly, the Uncharted IP, like most console IPs, is meant for consoles. People aren't going to buy a portable FOR Uncharted when there is a superior version on the PS3. A big game on home consoles wouldn't necessarily be a big game on portables. I'd go out on a limb and say that even Call of Duty: Declassified will see 'low' sales and won't push the Vita to success. It may even sell less than Uncharted. Does that mean Call of Duty isn't a system seller? Of course not. People just aren't going to buy it when there's a better alternative. Really, this has been discussed a lot already. Portables don't do well with console-suited games, nor do console-suited games do well on portables. Forming analysis of a console IP based off of portable sales is terribly flawed.
Also, Golden Abyss simply isn't as good as Naughty Dog's games. It's metascore is 80. That's almost a C-level game. A franchise can have system-selling power, but that doesn't mean that the lower-quality titles will move consoles.
Lastly, The Vita simply isn't attractive. The console is over-priced (from a consumers perspective) and it has little to no known games. And Sony's marketing hasn't been exactly stellar either. Uncharted is the only moderately large IP on the Vita. Aside from maybe 2D Mario, no IP is big enough to single-handedly push an utterly unattractive console into success. The console has to at least have a few other incentives in games and/or price, even for a system seller (unless it's 2D Mario). The Vita doesn't need just a system seller, it needs a miracle. That is one thing that Uncharted is not.
And even with those things considered, Uncharted: GA is still the best selling Vita game by a wide margin. One in four Vita owners own Uncharted. That figure is probably a lot higher when considering digital purchases. Uncharted has definitely been a big factor in a lot of Vita sales. Sure, Uncharted couldn't bring the VIta to massive success. But without Uncharted, I fear the Vita would be a LOT worse than where it currently is. Did I forget to mention that Uncharted is a console IP, and not a portable IP? Imagine the impact Uncharted would have when launching with a home console.
I'm not saying Uncharted is a system seller to the magnitude of Halo or Mario, but we don't know yet. Uncharted didn't become 'big' until Uncharted 2. By then, the PS3 was three years old, much too late for any titles to push massive hardware, aside from Mario. However, 2009 was the PS3's biggest year at the time, so who knows how huge impactful Uncharted was? We don't have enough information to say whether or not it's a system seller. The one time it did release early in a console's life, it was extremely unestablished. And the Vita doesn't count for the reasons I said above. We'll see how big it is when the PS4 releases, but until then, I think it's at least as big as Zelda for pushing hardware. We'll have to wait and see though.
God of War III had similar disadvantages to Gran Turismo 5. It released in 2010, four years after the PS3's launch. At that moment in time, no one title outside of Mario (Halo included) would be able to move substantial hardware. It was simply too late for a large effect. That doesn't mean it didn't have any effect. GoW3 did cause quite a stir. Check out this graph. Ps3's March sales were the highest in 2010. March 2010 was also the year when GoW3 release. Clearly GoW3 caused the surge in sales. Also, this was four years after the PS3 launch. Imagine the effect it would have if it released early in the console's life. Again, I'm not saying God Of War is a huge system selling, but it is definitely a contributing factor and shouldn't pushed to the side as meaningless.
God of War and Uncharted didn't have a chance to release early in a console's life after being established franchises. We'll see how they do with the PS4. I don't expect them to be huge individually, but collectively, they should have at least a moderate effect. And this is without considering Gran Turismo, which in itself is a game on par with Halo.
