| Kasz216 said: 1. Not sure how the most recent call of duty game is relevent... since it's neither a retail game, and is a series so popular that their is going to be sevre supply contraints on production. Either way if the argumenet that monster hunter 4 would leg out it's way to where it would be via bargain sales isn't exactly inspiring.
2. Has it? First off, you are forgetting Vgchartz numbers include bundles. Which resistance was heavily bundled throught the entire first half of the PS3's life. Way more so then any temporary bundles MH has gotten. At some points you essentially couldn't buy a PS3 without being given a copy of Resistance and Motorstorm. Secondly, Resistance was popular in two specific regions, North American and Europe. Where it topped 1.6 Million a piece... with the ridiculious bundling. So... 1.8 Million for a launch monster hunter? Seems fair.
3. and yet again, that doesn't reconcile the fact that those people who put their consoles away later pulled them out again. There is no gurantee those same people would buy the vita, and if anything... almost definitly wouldn't have. Hence why Capcom left and decided to lead development on the 3DS. It doesn't make logical sense to move to the vita and pray things work out when it seems pretty obvious it wouldn't. If you'll notice back with systems that struggle in sales, publisher push back release dates. Are they all wrong? They want the userbase to already be their before they release the game, because they know if the userbase isn't already their, it won't get the sales it should. For Publishers it's an accepted fact that hardware sales do effect software sales, quite a bit, as the rest of your optimium userbase won't just magically appear the day your game drops.
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1. Neither a retail game? I'm not sure I understand. Do you mean not only a retail game, as in it's also downloadable?
2. Haha, no. Fair enough about the Resistance bundles, but that was just one example off the top of my head. There's often one or two per console that become early life touchstones and even evergreens. Mario 64 and Halo (which was only bundled briefly long after it was a big hit) and RIIIIIIIIIDGE RACERRRRRRRRR and Rayman and Tekken Tag Tournament... being a launch title is as much an opportunity as a liability. Most launch window flops would have flopped any other time, too, while on the flip side there are plenty of games that had surprisingly good sales as launch titles but their sequels wilted when released against stiffer competition (like my beloved Kessen).
It's a bit of a self fulfilling prophecy to say, "We'll just throw this piece of shit at this new console because it won't sell anyway." Which it doesn't because it's a piece of shit. I suspect there's a little more to it than that, though. A lot of teams are still coming to grips with the new hardware at that point, so it makes more sense to make a quickie game that is as much a learning experience as it is a commercial endeavor rather than to try and bang out a new classic on unfamiliar hardware on a tight deadline.
3. Well, that's a chicken and egg problem. No, they're not wrong to want a user base to be there before releasing games. But if they don't release games. there will never be a user base. That's not their responsibility, of course. It's the responsibility of the first party. Only the first party has a bird's eye view of what the software situation is looking like, so only they can detect gaps in the line-up and fill them so as to create the kind of critical mass of software that makes for a compelling product.
For most titles I'd agree that you want to target as large a user base as possible. It doesn't always make a difference, as in the recent case of Rayman Legends where Ubi could hardly have done worse releasing on just the Wii U way back when. But it's a good rule of thumb, sure. However, at any given time there are a very few mega powered franchises which can command the rapt attention of their audiences, and for them I don't really think it matters a great deal. I think Monster Hunter is one of those franchises right now, and it's far from obvious to me that it wouldn't have worked out had it been on the Vita.
Capcom made a smart move regardless. Whatever incentives Nintendo did or didn't offer, at the very least they weren't showing them the back of their hand like SCEA did. The ugly mutation that is the Circle Pad Pro is a testament to Nintendo's willingness to be a partner to them, and I'm sure they're not crying over 2 million in sales this week, either.
