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CGI-Quality said: Eh, I wouldn't call it downplaying. The franchise is on a sales decline. Relatively speaking, it's not terrible, but its better sales days could potentially stay behind it. The flip-side to this, however, is people shouldn't compare Horizon to Motosport, as historically, the latter appealed to a larger audience and debuts with larger numbers. |
I disagree with your first statement. Since this is a stronger start than other recent Forza games, doesn't that suggest it's possibly in a rebuilding/resurging phase now, as opposed to in a declining phase? If Forza Horizon 3 ends up outselling Forza Motorsport 6 and Forza Horizon 2 (the two previous games with Forza in the title), as these strong initial sales suggest it might, that would suggest the series did decline but is now in a growth phase again. All three games were made available on two platforms (Xbox One for FH3 and FM6, and Xbox One and Xbox 360 for FH2) which is why I focused my comparisons against those three. This is all especially impressive given there's more pressure to get this game digitally now if you own both an Xbox One and a gaming PC (or think you might be getting a gaming PC down the road), even if you picked up previous Forza games on disc. I imagine FH3 skews significantly more towards digital sales than previous Forza games, and yet its first week sales still outsold FH2 (and FM6?)
I agree with your second statement (comparing Horizon vs. Motorsport makes little sense), but I would add that I believe sim driving/racing games are in decline as we speak, whereas I'm not sure the same is currently true of arcade racers.
