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Forums - Sales - IGN: Racing games didn't sell well these days

r3av3r2k1 on 06 July 2010

People that say mario kart is a racing game are completely out of they minds its one of the best party games ever but defenetly not a racer

I think the main problem for a game like Blur is that on paper it sounded like a sure fire hit, make mario kart with realistic cars and somewhat realist racing,  but in reality its just not what people want, as a racer its pretty average and as a party game its just terrible, miles behind MK, the game is too dark, has no charm to it, and just down right boring as hell

Split Second at least is more vibrant has better racing and is allot faster and deserves to sell better then blur in the long run 



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BBH on 06 July 2010
Demotruk said:
BBH said:
amp316 said:

Yeah.  It's hard to play most racing games after you've played Mario Kart.  Mario Kart's responsible for single handedly destroying that genre. 

Heck, Nintendo's own racers like Donkey Kong Barrel Blast and Excitebots: Trick Racing don't sell worth a darn.


The market that buys Mario Kart is mainly, vastly different to the market that buys a lot of HD Racing Games. You are assuming that millions of people:

a) Own a Wii and HD console

b) Prefer the Wii

c) And mainly race on Mario Kart

Not a chance.

I think the problem is that racing gamers have either been consumed by the many FPS games this generation, or are being smarter with their money and buying only the premium titles.

I can guarantee you there are millions of people who are all of the above. probably 2-3 million. 72 million Wii owners out there, 30% of which own a HD console (multiconsole ownership statistics that came up here before)
 and 22.5 million of those Wii owners bought Mario Kart, and Mario Kart is a very heavily played game going by the Nintendo channel statistics. So, assuming no particular alignments of taste, 30% * 22.5 million Mario Kart Wii owners  = over 6.5 million. In practice alignments of taste will reduce that, but it'll still unlikely to be any less than "millions" who are precisely what you said above.

 

:p

I forgot to add in point D, they key point.

- Users that previously had bought many other racing games.

What you are saying is that million of consumers who used to buy many racing games (like NFS for example), now don't bother and focus all their time on Mario Kart. I know there are people out there that are all of those point, but not enough to have a meaningful impact.

I mean - this is like saying last generation racing games sold poor beacuse everyone was playing GT on the PS2. We all know this isn't the case. I think it's just that old racers this gen haven't done enough to win over their fans, and that new racing games this gen aren't original enough.

I think Mario Kart caters more to the Mario market, rather than to the racing market.



Munkeh111 on 06 July 2010
ExtremeBrawler said:

Poor Blur and Split/Second.

As a matter of fact,launching Blur(no?)the same day as RDR has killed the former...stupid Activision,STUPID.


Yeah, that is what did it for me. I know they are different genres... and I decided just to get DiRT 2 instead, but those 2 racers are already being heavily discounted, they are £25 (down from £40) at most places already



tarheel91 on 06 July 2010
CDiablo said:

Honestly I dont understand how games like GT sell so well. I understand how Mario Kart and Modnation sell cause they are accessable and easy to play. Games like GT are for car junkies who want a super real experience which to myself is just too difficult. Most people I know that own(or have owned, I only know one PS owner this gen compared to like 50 PS2 owners) GT games will attempt to play them and show them off cause they look good but they cant play for shit and never actually play. Its amazing that GT sells so well(though it is the definitive driving sim) cause I dont know a single gamer that wants to take the time to learn to drive a car at 120 miles an hour. All that is really needed is a GT and a Forza as far as sims go cause everything else is probably lesser and not worth the money.


1) GT is not a super real experience.  Check out a few PC Racing Sims (that don't look anywhere near as good, but have much more invested into the physics).

2) The mechanics of a game like GT really aren't that difficult.  Once you understand how to go through turns in order to go fast, it just becomes a game of judging brake zones and turn in points.

3) As some have pointed out, the car community is MUCH larger than the video game community, and lots of people enjoy racing games.

The issue with racing games is like d21lewis said, they last too long.  Initial play through might take a few weeks, but there's plenty of replay value in trying to perfect your lap times, beat your friends, etc.



jarrod on 06 July 2010
r3av3r2k1 said:

People that say mario kart is a racing game are completely out of they minds its one of the best party games ever but defenetly not a racer

lol, it's like the Smash Bros excuse all over again.  What is it about Nintendo that makes some just incapable of acknowledging their successes?   To the point where they have to throw Nintendo games into their own separate little walled off genres (Smash Bros isn't a fighter, Mario Kart isn't a racer, Zelda isn't an ARPG, Pikmin isn't a RTS, Pokemon isn't an RPG, etc)?



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Alby_da_Wolf on 06 July 2010
Demotruk said:
BBH said:
amp316 said:

Yeah.  It's hard to play most racing games after you've played Mario Kart.  Mario Kart's responsible for single handedly destroying that genre. 

Heck, Nintendo's own racers like Donkey Kong Barrel Blast and Excitebots: Trick Racing don't sell worth a darn.


The market that buys Mario Kart is mainly, vastly different to the market that buys a lot of HD Racing Games. You are assuming that millions of people:

a) Own a Wii and HD console

b) Prefer the Wii

c) And mainly race on Mario Kart

Not a chance.

I think the problem is that racing gamers have either been consumed by the many FPS games this generation, or are being smarter with their money and buying only the premium titles.

I can guarantee you there are millions of people who are all of the above. probably 2-3 million. 72 million Wii owners out there, 30% of which own a HD console (multiconsole ownership statistics that came up here before)
 and 22.5 million of those Wii owners bought Mario Kart, and Mario Kart is a very heavily played game going by the Nintendo channel statistics. So, assuming no particular alignments of taste, 30% * 22.5 million Mario Kart Wii owners  = over 6.5 million. In practice alignments of taste will reduce that, but it'll still unlikely to be any less than "millions" who are precisely what you said above.

 

:p

Most probably you are right about the numbers, but BBH is most probably right too about the bolded sentence: I have various racers, a lot of them were bundled with magazines, but due to the higher replay value and better driving feeling of the best ones, I rarely play the less good ones.



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r3av3r2k1 on 06 July 2010
jarrod said:
r3av3r2k1 said:

People that say mario kart is a racing game are completely out of they minds its one of the best party games ever but defenetly not a racer

lol, it's like the Smash Bros excuse all over again.  What is it about Nintendo that makes some just incapable of acknowledging their successes?   To the point where they have to throw Nintendo games into their own separate little walled off genres (Smash Bros isn't a fighter, Mario Kart isn't a racer, Zelda isn't an ARPG, Pikmin isn't a RTS, Pokemon isn't an RPG, etc)?

Smash Brothers isnt a fighter



rockeford2010 on 06 July 2010
r3av3r2k1 said:
jarrod said:
r3av3r2k1 said:

People that say mario kart is a racing game are completely out of they minds its one of the best party games ever but defenetly not a racer

lol, it's like the Smash Bros excuse all over again.  What is it about Nintendo that makes some just incapable of acknowledging their successes?   To the point where they have to throw Nintendo games into their own separate little walled off genres (Smash Bros isn't a fighter, Mario Kart isn't a racer, Zelda isn't an ARPG, Pikmin isn't a RTS, Pokemon isn't an RPG, etc)?

Smash Brothers isnt a fighter

WTF? So what do you call a game when you pick characters and fight against other character??? ROFL!!!!!!!!



TX109 on 06 July 2010
r3av3r2k1 said:
jarrod said:
r3av3r2k1 said:

People that say mario kart is a racing game are completely out of they minds its one of the best party games ever but defenetly not a racer

lol, it's like the Smash Bros excuse all over again.  What is it about Nintendo that makes some just incapable of acknowledging their successes?   To the point where they have to throw Nintendo games into their own separate little walled off genres (Smash Bros isn't a fighter, Mario Kart isn't a racer, Zelda isn't an ARPG, Pikmin isn't a RTS, Pokemon isn't an RPG, etc)?

Smash Brothers isnt a fighter

....then what is it?....

OT: the racing genre does seem to be lagging a bit.



                                                                                                  
rockeford2010 on 06 July 2010
TX109 said:
r3av3r2k1 said:
jarrod said:
r3av3r2k1 said:

People that say mario kart is a racing game are completely out of they minds its one of the best party games ever but defenetly not a racer

lol, it's like the Smash Bros excuse all over again.  What is it about Nintendo that makes some just incapable of acknowledging their successes?   To the point where they have to throw Nintendo games into their own separate little walled off genres (Smash Bros isn't a fighter, Mario Kart isn't a racer, Zelda isn't an ARPG, Pikmin isn't a RTS, Pokemon isn't an RPG, etc)?

Smash Brothers isnt a fighter

....then what is it?....


A sandwhich i believe so....