Global Hardware/Software Up - 1 November 2014

[binary solo]

For me SO floppage or not floppage comes down to how many white bundles were sold. Let's not kid ourselves that people bought the SO bundle for the game. They bought it for the white console, that's the reason is sold out on Amazon so phreakin' fast. If the white bundle represents a large proportion of the sales, then with all it's marketing and promotion, and it being "one of the big games for Xb one for Holiday 2014", the first week result is underwhelming when you look at people who actually bought the game because they wanted the game and not because they wanted a white console.

It's a pretty huge deal that a game like Sunset Overdrive got its very own special edition console. So this of course raised significant expectations, especially that MS are expecting big things from the game in terms of its hardware moving potential. If we wanna do a contemporary comparison with a new IP getting it's own special edition console we need look no further than Destiny. And we all know how Destiny sold in its first week. Sure Bungie has a great rep on Xbox, but they are as much an unknown quantity on PS as Insomniac is on Xbox. Still it is fair to expecty a game like Destiny from a Developer like Bungie to do better than Sunset Overdrive from Insomiac. But 10 times better? And it being a multiplat game too?
What's obvious to me is that whatever strategy was involved in grabbing Insomniac exclusivity from the console wars perspective it did not really pay off at least in terms of launch week sales. Longer term I expect SO to get respectable sales. But I also don't expect it to be a break out success like Uncharted. Europe is dead for Xb one, which means it's gonna be a wasteland for pretty much all Xb one exclusive new IP. MS is going to be 90% reliant on the US market to give their exclusive games a look of sales respectability, which is why they are going all out with that market.