Mike_L said:
I don't think people keep questioning you (and Mazzy) to be jerks towards you or because they cannot handle if Uncharted 4 didn't sell as well as Sony expected (personally, I was a bit disappointed with the game and look forward to The Last of Us 2). I really just think they're a bit confused as to what these alleged expectations are and where they come from.
You may be right that Uncharted 4 didn't meet Sony's expectations but what are that based on? To be honest, it's primarily based on my own expectations. Do you see why some may feel that it on the contrary possibly met Sony's expectations? Of course I see why a lot of people think that, and they may very possibly be right. Being Sony's fastest selling 1st party game ever It's not (at least they didn't say so). It's their fastest selling PS4 1st party (by a wide margin too, but that was to be expected). with 2.7 mill sales (including digital) first week. Launching at number 1 all over the world (even Japan). Selling 200,000 copies more (US alone) than its predecessor in its first month. Selling twice as many copies (US alone) as Doom (on all platforms) in its first month. Selling equal to Halo 5: Guardians (US alone) in its first month (no matter what that's a pretty big turn of events for Uncharted in Xbox's home turf). All great achievements for a game, yes, but it doesn't necesarily imply that it did as well as Sony expected. To be honest, those things were expected and not really surprising. And regarding the 200,000 above Uncharted 3, we have to consider that digital is much bigger now (~30%) than it was when Uncharted 3 launched. If we include digital Uncharted 4 did indeed break a million (US alone) in its first month. Some speculate that it did at least 1.15 mill including digital. That'd be 450,000 more than Uncharted 3's first month of 700,000 in the US. A growth of 64.29%. For me only Square Enix would be disappointed with that kind of growth. UC3 did 838k first month in the US including bundles, UC4 did 879k first month including bundles. Of course this is only physical, and with digital the gap will obviously be higher (but keep in mind, UC3 will have digital sales too, even though the ratio will favour UC4). Good numbers, but not mindblowing growth. http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=7933388
As said, Uncharted 4 may have fallen short of Sony's expectations but me (and others) have a hard time finding the numbers that indicate this. Please don't see this as a butt hurt witch hunt being done to shut down every negative word on Uncharted 4 sales. This is rather the opposite. I'd be really interesting to discuss why you think its sales fell short of expectations. I asked Mazzy the same question but he fled the conversation.
Genuine question. What numers do you think Sony expected? 1 mill in the US first month (it did that with digital)? 1.5 mill in the US first month? It's very hard to say, given that publishers normally don't announce expectations for titles, in case they don't meet them. I'd wager Sony probably were pleased with FW sales, but it dropped off a bit faster than they expected (not saying it tanked ofc). This could be rectified if it shows good legs which, I'll admit, at least from the UK charts it has been demonstrating, which could indeed influence my thoughts if it continues. But If I had to give a guess as to what Sony expected... 1.3 million in the US first month including digital? ~1 million physical, ~300k digital. So by no means do I regard UC4 a "bomb", I believe it came very close to what Sony were expecting, but wasn't quite the humongous seller they thought it might be. |
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