Pachter: Lame Games like TLG and Shenmue 3 Won't Sell Many Units

[nuckles87]

"But people expect that one of the top five will come out every year, and they just haven’t been able to deliver, and I’m not sure why.”

This. Nonsense like this right here is why gamers shouldn't really take this man seriously. He sees the video game industry squarely through the eyes of a detached business man. How many units are sold, how much money is made. Big franchises should just be released every year, because they are big franchises and that is what you do.

Nintendo has many big franchises for one very good reason: they care about the quality of their games, and will delay their games or cancel their games if they believe a game's quality isn't good enough. They rarely ever rush a game out the door because they "need a big franchise for this quarter". When they DO release a game in one of these franchises, they rarely ever release a second on the same console. This is why most Nintendo consoles only see one Mario Kart, one Smash Bros, one 3D Mario, one 2D Mario, and typically only one or two entries in most any other series. It's why we didn't a Star Fox or F-Zero on the Wii. It's why Pikmin, Punch Out, Metroid, and Donkey Kong have all taken breaks.

Nintendo has still released plenty of less than stellar games in their history (Star Fox Assault and Other-M are two such titles) but they could have released plenty more if they did what Pachter wants them to do. By delaying, canceling, and staggering the releases of games, Nintendo protects the value of their own brand and the brands of their video games. The fact that Pachter doesn't understand this is what can make him such a poor analyst of the industry. There's more to video games than just sales numbers.

It's funny that he says Sony is "far better at getting big franchises out than Nintendo". I bought a PS4 at launch and I'm still waiting for that big, quality franchise title. The PS4 has certainly gotten some high-quality games (Bloodborne, Last of Us Remastered) but none of them have been new entries in the "major franchises" Pachter is putting on a pedestal here. Most of them are remasters of PS3 games rather than full fledged new titles. As far as the big franchises guy, Sony has released precisely two brand new games: an okay Killzone sequel and a solid Infamous sequel.

This month will probably see the first quality releases of Sony franchises in the PS4's lifespan. Uncharted 4 and Ratchet and Clank are probably going to be DAMN excellent releases. But they are also coming roughly 2 and a half years into the PS4's lifespan. Because they were delayed. Because Sony, like Nintendo, knows that releasing a quality game is much more important than releasing a major franchise every quarter. This is why Sony isn't flooding their ailing Vita with God of War, Gran Turismo, Uncharted, Killzone, and Ratchet and Clank sequels. This is why it's taken the PS4 so long to start getting games like Uncharted and Ratchet and Clank.

And finally...

"The ones that get delayed are the lame ones. I mean, come on, The Last Guardian– however fun you think that’s going to be, it’s hardly Uncharted or The Last of Us. It’s a kind of a niche title. Shenmue is the same. It’s an okay title but outside of Japan, how many millions of units will it sell? Not very many.”

Ignoring the fact that Shenmue 3 isn't a Sony franchise, this mindset should completely disqualify Pachter as a video game analyst. The "lame" ones? This is one of the most juvenile things I've read from someone in this industry, which has plenty of immature people. Those "lame" titles are practically Sony's bread and better. The company is at its best when it throws caution to the wind and funds a game because it will be GREAT, not because it will get "all the money". Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, Journey, Flower, Gravity Rush, Unfinished Swan, Heavy Rain, Dyad, Soundshapes, LocoRoco, Flow, Frequency, Tearaway, Patapon, not to mention others. Some of these games sold well, some of them didn't. But Sony would be a lesser company without games like this. Their consoles would have lesser libraries without "lame" games like these. Sometimes they sell really well, sometimes they don't. Either way, Sony continues to cultivate a healthy base of hardcore fans through games like these. Through games like The Last Guardian. Games that prize artistry in game design over being multi-million selling hits for the masses. Those games can be great too, and they serve an important role in this industry, but they are by no means "better" than niche titles. Unless, of course, you are looking at them through the eyes of an out-of-touch analyst who uses the word "lame" to describe a highly anticipated game from one of the best developers in the game industry's history.

This all comes from a bitter Dreamcast fanboy, by the way. It was through games like these that I've come to love Sony nearly as much as Nintendo.