Thread Description: In this series of posts I'm picking a franchise and then looking at how the franchise is doing in sales this generation compared to last generation, and then asking people why they think that change in sales occurred.

Change in Sales Game of the Day

Article to be released 10/5

Need for Speed

Note: * signifies not having data for Others region for that version. Also, DS sales are not included as we don't have sales of last gen's Gameboy Advance games so I'm reasoning they probably approximately cancel out.  Plus, the DS versions of the game are so different than the other consoles it is almost like a separate game.

Description: Today's Change in Sales Game of the Day is actually a lot of games on a ton of platforms, because we are looking at the Need for Speed series. Last generation, especially with the "Underground" games, Need for Speed had established itself as one of the biggest franchises in gaming. This generation, while the sales for the games are still strong, they have a noticeable decline of ~22% on average, despite being released on more platforms with a greater number of owners. So why has one of last generations biggest franchise seen a relatively steep decline this generation?  Is there more competition in the racing genre or is a decrease in quality to blame? Or is it something else.  Answer the poll in the second post, then let us know what you think by leaving a comment.

Previous Change in Sales Threads

Halo 3 (9/28)  (link to article)

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (9/18)  (link to article)

Forza 2 (9/13)

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Scroll down for poll...still looking for a better provider.

If you hit view results you will not be able to cast your vote.

The series has gone way downhill, and even with its increased quality in its latest installment, I just don't see it regaining its former sales. It's the same with Medal of Honor and dozens of other franchises.

I need to get some more votes/comments in here. What do people think about the "not as culturally relevant" choice. When I thought of that the popularity of the "Fast and Furious" movies came to mind. Plus (at least in America) it seemed like the trend of customizing cars was much more popular a few years ago. So do you think that has had a significant impact on the Need for Speed franchise?

I haven't noticed NFS sales were so high the shocking thing is they're still pretty high.

I think the franchise bland approach (exclduing) Overshadows better more ambitious racers like Burnout.

Racers in general seem to be receiving less attention.

Burnout: Paradise is down 50% from Burnout 3. Burnout: Revenge actually sold even less than that.

Project Gotham Racing 3 & 4 are down from 1 & 2, despite having a larger userbase.

Furthermore, there are few new racer games with the same sales as Crazy Taxi and the Simpsons racers had.

It seems the the "real racers" (non Mario Kart really) are down a fair bit this gen.  It's not that the quality has decreased, because relative to the sales of the racing genre, it's not down a lot.

I think there are many factors involved for the quality going down:

1. Quality -- The need for speed game released in 2007 & 2008 has really sub-par quality, Need for Speed was respected as a great racing franchise, the 2007 version ruined its reputation, this is why Need For Speed : Undercover did so bad in comparison, the franchise lost fans.

2. Racing Genre Decline -- There has been a serious decline in the sales of racing games this gen in general. Forza 2 did very well due to bundling, apart from Forza 2 most racing games havn't done too hot. Actually GT5 is the banner racing game, as its not released yet ther may be many racing game fans who do not have a console yet.

3. Focus moving from traditional NFS -- EA change the focus of a NFS every year, this gives us all a very mixed message about the series.

1. WHY DO WE NEED A NEW NEED FOR SPEED GAME EVERY YEAR?! Seriously! Need for Speed: Undercover was launched in November 2008, and by January 2009, EA was already talking about the next one! Then Shift is released in September 2009...less than a year between titles. Enough! Maybe the number of people wanting to buy the game decreases because they're sick of buying them.

2. Need for Speed has an identity crisis. I think games are sick with EA's attempts at constantly changing the direction of the series. Look at it: Police > No Police > No Police > Police > Police > No Police > Police > No Police...Make up your minds EA!

3. Definite decrease in quality. I believe after Most Wanted, the quality of the NFS series declined. Carbon was basically Need for Speed Most Wanted with all the great stuff taken out, and with slightly better graphics. Then came the undisputed failure of ProStreet. What is it - arcade or sim? Where are the police? It was terrible. Then came Undercover. In my opinion, this one was better than ProStreet, but still that does not excuse bad framerates, braindead AI, etc. Although, I believe Undercover still tops the charts for PlayStation2 because of decreasing number of games available for the system. Shift also had a lot of mixed hype before launch. I remember all the YouTube threads where gamers were branding it 'ProStreet 2.0.'

I think jackkl makes an interesting point (even if it is not exactly th epoint of this thread), about the yearly editions of Need for Speed. Obviously EA has annual editions of their sports franchises, but I wonder if they skipped a year between Need for Speed releases, if more people would pick them up when they are released. Or if skipping a year would allow new games to grab some of their market instead? What do you all think?

I don't think that, profit wise, it would be wise for EA to not have yearly editions of NFS. As NFS builds on the same engine every year, it's one of the rather few series that EA certainly earns money on.

Across the Ps3 and X360, the Need for Speed series actually have 25% of the total racer sales. That's likely to drop a bit to ~ 20%, but still - NFS is enormous in its genre. Very few series hold as large a percentage of the total sales as NFS does.

There's little EA can really do to boost the interest, at least as I see it. The racing genre has had a decline, but NFS is still a large series, and it's likely to be rather profitable as it is.