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Forums - Sales - Yaho list the top game flops of 2010 ... so far

Mr Puggsly on 06 August 2010
d21lewis said:
Mr Puggsly said:

I fail to understand why everyone keeps calling Alan Wake a flop. Its not done selling yet, its still full price, and holiday sales will give it a boost. It should hit 1 million by the end of the year. Legs and price cuts might take it to 2 million.

Worst case scenario, it should break even.

I was in Gamestop a few hours ago (hell of a sale they've got going on--but I put the games I had back.  They were impulse buys) and Alan Wake was selling for about $35, I think.  Prince of Persia was about $40.  A lot of other games were selling at huge discounts AND at half price.  I think Madworld is selling for $6 (and somehow, I still didn't buy it).  I loved Alan Wake but the writing is on the wall for that one.

I believe GameStop is having a sale right now. I still see it for $60 everywhere else. Although, I imagine it'll be $40 relatively soon.

As long as it hits a million I think its in good shape. I find it really hard to believe it had to sell millions to make a profit. That's a huge risk most game can't accomplish.



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Dallinor on 06 August 2010
Mr Puggsly said:
Dallinor said:
Mr Puggsly said:

I fail to understand why everyone keeps calling Alan Wake a flop. Its not done selling yet, its still full price, and holiday sales will give it a boost. It should hit 1 million by the end of the year. Legs and price cuts might take it to 2 million.

Worst case scenario, it should break even.


It's an exclusive title that took 5 years to make from Remedy, a developer whose past franchise sold over 7 million units. Worst case scenario would actually be Remedy losing money I'd imagine.

It's been discounted in Ireland and the UK. I can't speak for mainland Europe or NA.

But Remedy is a small development team of about 40 employees. MS has also been backing the project since 2006 and apparently had a lot of say. So if anyone loses money it'll likely be MS.

Anyhow, its only been out for 3 months and legs are still pretty good. I highly doubt they dropped a mega budget for a survival horror game. If anything, most of the money probably went to creating the game engine which will likely be used for other games. Sequels should be cheaper and faster to create.

True, Remedy are small. It's amazing really what they accomplished even if it did take a long time. As for MS losing money:

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=245729

Oskari Hakkinen painted a disaster picture for the developer if Wake doesn't sell.

He said: "We are betting the farm on [Alan Wake] and if this isn't a success we'll be selling hotdogs in Helsinki. Really."

"We were in a good situation after Max Payne 2 and we invested everything after selling the intellectual property and putting it back into the love of making videogames."

He added: "Everything's gone into this project so this will ultimately set us up for how we continue and how many videogames we can make in the future."

Legs aren't really great so far, as I mentioned in one of my posts above it's now selling on par with Infamous in NA, a title that's been out for 50 weeks longer. I'm not sure the sales will warrant an Alan Wake sequel, which will put Remedy in a tough situation. Much like Team Ninja after the relative lack of success of Heavenly Sword, I'd imagine they'd try to start work on a new IP as soon as possible and switch to multiplatform. But can they switch to multiplatforms with only 45 devs under their roof?

We can only speculate on what their financial situation is. It would be a crying shame if another independent developer were to fold though.



 

Doobie_wop on 06 August 2010
axumblade said:

Most of those games listed aren't really games I would count as hype. I nfact, the only game I would really consider to be a major disappointment in the list is Dark Void....maybe Naughty bear. The rest are niche games or games that nobody really had high expectations for in the first place.

I was actually listing them based from the perspective of the developer. Niche games don't work in this market any more unless they pull a Demons Souls and sell 600k, I'm only basing this off on Nippon Ichis quarterly results, but some devs can't live off 50k to 100k sales here and there every few months.



Bet with Conegamer and AussieGecko that the PS3 will have more exclusives in 2011 than the Wii or 360... or something.

http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=3879752

Cross-X on 06 August 2010

I can understand why some would say Alan Wake deserves more sales, but I cannot understand how some can deny that AW is a flop...

No Advertising, Releasing in Same Timeframe as Red Dead Redemption, Less than expected Reviews all contributed to AW's low sales so how can anyone not call it a flop? Is it because it's the highest selling game from that list with 600k?

I mean does it hurt you if AW flopped? Does it affect your experience playing the game? Will it make you not sleep at night because AW Flopped in sales? A flop is a flop geez.



Mr Puggsly on 07 August 2010
Cross-X said:

I can understand why some would say Alan Wake deserves more sales, but I cannot understand how some can deny that AW is a flop...

No Advertising, Releasing in Same Timeframe as Red Dead Redemption, Less than expected Reviews all contributed to AW's low sales so how can anyone not call it a flop? Is it because it's the highest selling game from that list with 600k?

I mean does it hurt you if AW flopped? Does it affect your experience playing the game? Will it make you not sleep at night because AW Flopped in sales? A flop is a flop geez.

But 600K isn't the final number. It just a matter of time before its a million seller. And considering its a small studio, I can't imagine they had a mega budget to work with.



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Killiana1a on 07 August 2010

If Alan Wake is down to $35 at GameStop, then I am seriously tempted on picking it up. Great game, although a bit linear, yet a price of drop down to $35 from $60 in less than 3 months is almost unheard of. I guess GameStop over ordered and is trying to clear out the inventory space for the holidays.

Checked GameStop's website, Alan Wake new is $39.99 and used is $34.99. Looks like a have a new game to play this weekend :)



Tallgeese101 on 07 August 2010
Mr Puggsly said:
Cross-X said:

I can understand why some would say Alan Wake deserves more sales, but I cannot understand how some can deny that AW is a flop...

No Advertising, Releasing in Same Timeframe as Red Dead Redemption, Less than expected Reviews all contributed to AW's low sales so how can anyone not call it a flop? Is it because it's the highest selling game from that list with 600k?

I mean does it hurt you if AW flopped? Does it affect your experience playing the game? Will it make you not sleep at night because AW Flopped in sales? A flop is a flop geez.

But 600K isn't the final number. It just a matter of time before its a million seller. And considering its a small studio, I can't imagine they had a mega budget to work with.


5ish years of development and most future sales at a discounted price.  Its difficult to see them breaking even.