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Forums - Sales Discussion - Alan Wake's Low European Debut (88K) - Will it make a profit?

richardhutnik on 21 May 2010

Any kind of TV advertising for Red Dead Redemption? I am just curious because people are saying slow sales out of the game for Alan Wake are because it wasn't advertised. However, Red Dead is being talked about as having really good initial sales. Could it be possibly that the market for a "psychological thriller" (want to call it a horror game? fine) just isn't as large as people think it should be on here and in the industry? So, no matter how good the game is, it isn't going to generate huge sales.

Look up the sales numbers on Deadly Premonition. It is hit or miss, but it is $20. If there was a large demand for games in this genre, don't people think Deadly would also get a larger number of sales associated with it? 

Heavy Rain sets out to be something different, in that it it supposed to be a movie-like experience, LITERALLY playing out like a movie, and there is an under dog rooting appeal of it, because people were telling Sony fans the game wouldn't do well.



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Reasonable on 21 May 2010
richardhutnik said:

Any kind of TV advertising for Red Dead Redemption? I am just curious because people are saying slow sales out of the game for Alan Wake are because it wasn't advertised. However, Red Dead is being talked about as having really good initial sales. Could it be possibly that the market for a "psychological thriller" (want to call it a horror game? fine) just isn't as large as people think it should be on here and in the industry? So, no matter how good the game is, it isn't going to generate huge sales.

Look up the sales numbers on Deadly Premonition. It is hit or miss, but it is $20. If there was a large demand for games in this genre, don't people think Deadly would also get a larger number of sales associated with it? 

Heavy Rain sets out to be something different, in that it it supposed to be a movie-like experience, LITERALLY playing out like a movie, and there is an under dog rooting appeal of it, because people were telling Sony fans the game wouldn't do well.

I've seen way more RDR marketing, but I agree that AW simply isn't in a genre that, RE5 aside, has really shown huge sales on 360/PS3 this gen.

Heavy Rain did mange to come across a bit more unique in it's marketing, which probably helped that title, whereas AW marketing I've found rather bland - standard US supernatural thriller approach really with little to really differentiate it.

It think the dropping of PC (which is more popular in Europe for gaming vs US) was seen as a negative move, which wasn't good by association.

I think it's too early to call, and I would be surprised if over time the title didn't perform decently, but I don't see it being a bit hit as it stands, at least in Europe anyway.

 



Try to be reasonable... its easier than you think...

Garnett on 21 May 2010
GodOfWar_3ever said:

This is getting WAY off topic.

 

 

Yeah this is getting off topic, and i would love to debate but not in this thread.

 

But im predicting that AW will sell a million units by July.



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GameAnalyser on 21 May 2010

all depends on the sales in America...with atleast 300K being sold.



Cross-X on 21 May 2010
Seece said:
Cross-X said:
Seece said:

Whenever someone says "this game will have legs" it usually sounds like the same old tripe. In regards to most 360 games too.

But I truly believe Alan Wake will get good word of mouth, some games I have expected to be a solid 90+ this gen, Bioshock 2, Splinter Cell ect, after playing I realise .. no, they were never going to be 90+. This is the first game this gen, that's score I don't agree with. I can't fathom how a reviewer would give this 6/10 because it took five years. IT'S IRRELEVENT TO THE FINAL PRODUCT.

You might not like horrors, you might not like shooters, but play Alan Wake, and you'll see it deserves no less than 7.5/10. All these 7's and 6's are from reviewers who review from entirely their opinion. Which never makes for a good review.

From Edge:

"But while the plot moves with all the pace of a pulp paperback, the gameplay fails to keep pace. The solid combat struggles to develop beyond throwing more enemies at Wake, puzzles are rarely more than perfunctory, and the set-pieces only really set the pulse racing in the game’s final hours. Later in the adventure, for instance, the darkness diversifies by possessing inanimate objects. Combine harvesters, monster trucks and, heck, even demonic parade floats are fine, but car tyres and oil drums? Even the use of light begins to run out of juice once all of the light-emitting weapons have been introduced, which happens early on.

Ultimately, Alan Wake is every bit as compulsive and satisfying as the fiction on which it riffs, but it also runs the risk of being equally forgettable. It’s a game that delivers the requisite number of twists, turns and thrills, but the only real revelations take place on those scattered manuscript pages. As a franchise, Alan Wake’s future is assured – Remedy is already working on downloadable content and has plans for a sequel – but next time around the action will need to keep pace with the deft plotting."

7/10

So you reckon Edge's review is from a reviewer who's review is from entirely their opinion?

If you have read Edge's review, they'll compliment the game for clever story telling but what I posted above is one of the criticisim Edge mentions. Gameplay. Ultimately, gameplay is the most important thing for games. They're saying gameplay is boring and doesn't stand up to the same level of story telling. And in fact, most reviews criticize AW for repetitive gameplay.

And no one is gonna play games which are not their type of genre. If a person doesn't like a horror game, why should they play it? Just to prove that it doesn't deserve anything below a 7.5? That's like me saying "You might not like RTS games, but go play Starcraft and you'll see it deserves no less than 8/10." How is someone who doesn't like RTS games supposed to enjoy playing Starcraft?

Edg'es review isn't gospel, and I wasn't talking about them in the first place?

No it's obviously not the gospel of video game reviews but their reviews are pretty genuine and no you weren't talking about them specifically in the first place but I did mention because maybe you said any review with 7 or 6 isn't good and because Edge gave it a 7 so it was worthy of being mentioned.



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AnthonyW86 on 22 May 2010

If people are calling this a low debut than the first Uncharted was a fail to, because that only sold 86k first week in others. Oh but wait.... uncharted sold 3 million ltd.... Not saying Alan Wake will do that, but it wil sell 1.5/2 million in the end easily.



Lolcislaw on 22 May 2010

I think Alan Wake will sell ok in a longterm, it has a medicore debut but loads of other games do.

I still need to pick this up, along with Read Dead Redemption



Lurker on 22 May 2010

Alan Wake might have had to get really high reviews to have a big first week. I think it hurt the game having scores in the 80's, people picked up RDR instead.



palitococo on 22 May 2010
Garnett said:
pezus said:
Garnett said:
libellule said:
Who is surprised here ?

This game was overhyped on the whole internet because it was supposed to be the "BEST GAME EVA", the BEST GFX EVA, the best survival horror game that is so good that you DO NOT HAVE the right to call it a survival horror game (thx you Remedy for this last point)

also, the game has no online multiplayer which seems to be more and more important for gamers today ...

It is released close to RDR which is getting high praising

AND the pre-orders where showing us since numerous weeks that game will not have amazing sales.

Conclusion : plz port the game to PC and I will buy it. Thx you Remedy.

Were not talking about the following gamese

  • Uncharted 1/2
  • LBP
  • R2 (Remember that guy who said Its the best looking game of 2008? LOL!)
  • MGS4
  • Selnor
  • Westley Yin-Poole (He said Crysis 2 on 360 was better than PC crysis LOL!!!)
  • GT5
  • GoW3
  • Gears 3

 

 

But this game is incredible, The graphics are mind blowing.

Since when were these "overhyped" ?

There was that stupid "HUGE" Bullshit going around when LBP was gonna come out, it was supposed to move millions of playstations and sell a million first day.

 

GT5 is supposed to be the saving god of the PS3 for some reason, people are hyping it up like it was just announced.

 

UC1/2 is the best game ever cus its only on the PS3 and the graphics are amazing and anyone who gives it less than a 100 are Xbots.

GoW3 has amazing graphics and can only be done on the PS3 and blah blah blah. We get it the game is good no need to over hype everything.

First: Uncharted 2 its one of the best games, and you can see the metascore or the users score everywhere, the thing is that Alan Wake was overhyped for a few Xbox fans, but that doesn't mean that the game do not deserve great sales, i think its a great game, beautiful in every way, but when people hope for the best game of the gen can be dangerous.

And yes GOW3 cant be made on other console than PS3 or at least the game will be diferent.



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thismeintiel on 22 May 2010
AnthonyW86 said:
If people are calling this a low debut than the first Uncharted was a fail to, because that only sold 86k first week in others. Oh but wait.... uncharted sold 3 million ltd.... Not saying Alan Wake will do that, but it wil sell 1.5/2 million in the end easily.

You're forgetting something in that equation, though.  Install base.  When Uncharted released in Nov. '07, there were only 2.3 mil PS3's out there in Others.  However, 360 has 15.5 mil (almost 7x more) consoles out there in Others, now.  If you look at the first week of Uncharted 2, though, you see it had sales of over 378K in Others.  Of course, that isn't 100% fair, since Uncharted was an established franchise by that point.  But still, even though AW may be a good game, it just isn't as huge as 360 fans were hyping it up to be.  Graphically or financially.  I still see it going on to sell at least 1 mil copies, though.  But, with 5 years development time (originally across 3 platforms) and the extra content made for the release, I don't know if that will be enough to make a profit.

I think it would have been better if AW had stayed in its original form, a sandbox multi-platform game.  Oh well, I guess.  Just have to see how things play out.