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Forums - Sales - Mistakes of the Video Game Industry

fishamaphone on 26 April 2007

Darc Requiem Said:
Your Sega comments are off base. I will tell you what Sega's mistakes truly were. Sega of Japan should have just let Tom Kalinske do his job and Sega of America. The most successful Sega console was the Genesis and lion's share of its user base was built in the US under Kalinske. He told Sega of Japan not to release the 32X. They didn't listen and it was a major reason he resigned. I mean if I have sold less than 4 million consoles and I have an employee that has sold 26 million consoles, I would think he would know his market better than I.

The resignation of Kalinske created a domino effect at Sega of America that resulted in the Saturn's abysmal failure in the US. The early launch fiasco being one of them. That Saturns early launch hurt the DC's ability to get stocked at several major retailers in the US. Bernie Stolar, Kalinske's replacement, was completely incompetent. He basically did to Sega of Japan, what they did to Kalinske. He pressured them to kill of the Saturn, which was doing well in Japan, and shift efforts to it successor. Stolar didn't bring some of Sega's better titles from Japan to the US, mismanaged the ad campaign for the Saturn, etc. Not only that, his actions lowered consumer confidence in Sega in Japan. The Saturn should have been the Japanese equivalent of the Genesis for Sega. Instead, the Saturn was killed off too early because Stolar so royally botched the Saturn in the US.

Sega's biggest mistake was not listening to Kalinske. If they had listened to him, I can guarantee you that they'd still be in the hardware business today. I'm not saying the Saturn would have outsold the PS1 or even the N64, but if Kalinske was around it would have been a viable system in the US for a lot longer than 3 years. Without the 32X fiasco, consumer confidence in Sega would have been higher and based on his record, I can assure you that Kalinske could have gotten better third party support for the Saturn. Sega of Japan and there less than 4 million Mega Drive sales thought they new the US better than Kalinske and his 26 million Genesis sales. Dumb move, dumb move that slowly killed the whole company.



I honestly had no idea.  Good to know.  I still think if Dreamcast had been released in '98 in N. America, it would have been able to survive through the entire generation.  Maybe the solution was to launch a new console in one region, but delay its release in the other.



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SlorgNet on 26 April 2007

The single most bone-headed mistake any game company has ever made, probably in the history of the biz:

 

Microsoft pulling the plug on the Xbox as fast as it did, and basically telling Xbox owners to buy a 360.

 

Why? Simple: China, Russia, Eastern Europe, urban India and Latin America are all growing like mad. That's a potential market of 500 million consumers, maybe more. Microsoft is thinking like a software monopolist: those regions have low average GDPs, can't afford namebrand software and pirate like mad, so forget about them. But Sony and Nintendo are thinking long-term: go ahead, buy those mod-chipped PS2/PSP/Wii/DS units and ripped software. We don't care -- because we'll sell zillions of handhelds, electronics and Blu-Ray discs to newly-wealthy consumers who realize "Sony + Nintendo = outrageous pixel fun." Microsoft has almost nothing to offer the single most important growth market for games over the next 10 years. Unfreakingbelievable.



Crazyglues on 26 April 2007

This such a good topic, for one The biggest Mistake in the Next gen gaming generation is NOT HAVING A KILLER GAME AT LAUNCH! I can't stress this point enough..

 To this day I know people who have not bought a Xbox 360 because they are waiting for Halo 3, seriously.

 People buy gaming systems when they feel like they have to have a certain game. When they can see the reason behind the purchase - Because no matter how much you tell someone this has next gen graphics and it's more advance, if they can't see their self playing a game they will love then what's the point in buying it.

Who really cares about Blu-ray or HD-dvd, nobody, and the numbers speak for their self. The truth is the consumer is a real simple person. They want to consume.. but only when it makes sense.

 Right now the gaming industry is not giving them much sense. -The only people who are thinking clearly seems to be nintendo and you see how their numbers are. The only reason I don't have a Wii is because I can't find it in the store. 

Look halo the first one -sold xbox... Period. If it wasn't for halo xbox would have been selling like the Zune.. not so good.

So when you decide to launch your next gen System Launch it with HALO 3, that's how you sell systems. Period

 

The biggest mistake in the video Gaming Industry is not having their killer game ready at launch. MICROSOFT NEEDED Halo 3 & PLAYSTATION 3 NEEDED Metal Gear Solid... Period.

 because once you sell units then it's not hard to sell games because once people have already bought the system they are going to buy games. I GUESS THE WAR WILL BEGIN AGAIN THIS FALL AT CHRISTMAS WHEN BOTH KILLER GAMES WILL BE OUT FOR BOTH SYSTEMS.



z64dan on 27 April 2007

 Microsoft has almost nothing to offer the single most important growth market for games over the next 10 years. Unfreakingbelievable.


Omg you are forgetting about the Zune. I saw these guys in a commercial. They were dancing with their Zune. They seemed happy, man. HAPPY. Anyway, mistakes:

 

Sega: Couldn't recover from a failure.

Sony: $600 for a console. What is this, a 3DO? "Despite a highly-promoted launch and a host of cutting-edge technologies, the system's high price ($699.95 USD at release) and an over-saturated console market prevented the 3DO from ever achieving any real market penetration." Subtract 100 dollars and change 3DO to PS3 and you might have the future.

Nintendo: Not finishing their contract with Sony. The playstation was originally an add-on for the SNES. Nintendo should have kept it that way, but they couldn't tell the future, and told sony to buzz off, thus the PS1 was born. Obviously the Virtual Boy was a failure, but atleast they tried, and didn't lose too much money. The Gunpei Yokoi guy was fired though, and died a few years later. So nintendo lost more than just $$ with the virtual boy.

Microsoft: They've never made money on games since the xbox. I guess thats their biggest problem, LOL!



LordTheNightKnight on 27 April 2007
ChichiriMuyo said:
LordTheNightKnight said:

Sony: Turning the Playstations into kitchen sink devices, and forgetting that they were gaming systems more than anything else.


You're wrong, though, the PS has always been a vehicle for Sony to sell its multimedia functions. Those functions are just becoming more and more advanced as new PlayStations come along. The PS was made to sell the multimedia functionality of CD-ROM. The PS2 was made so that DVD could spread wide enough to replace VHS outright. The PS3 was made to win a format war. Sony has always made their systems to push far more than games.

And Robjoh, the reason Europe doesn't have a date for that game is because Europe usually doesn't buy those kind of games. The real reason Nintendo has been so weak in Europe is because, for the most part, European gamers just don't like the types of games that go on Nintendo systems. This looks to be changing, but the simple fact of the matter is that things that can wonderful in the US and/or Japan can fail miserably in Europe AND developers/publishers have to take that risk at a much higher cost thanks to all of the languages and other issues. If you want games faster, you need to convince all of the countries in Europe to change their tax laws, official languages, and many other factors or you have to wait until it's feasible for a company (any company) to wade through all of that bs without getting bogged down.


 What was the multimedia of the PS1? As far as I could tell it was only designed for games and CDs, which had already caught on. And my point was that the PS1 and PS2 were PRIMARILY gaming systems, not that they didn't have multimedia AT ALL.



A flashy-first game is awesome when it comes out. A great-first game is awesome forever.

Plus, just for the hell of it: Kelly Brook at the 2008 BAFTAs

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HappySqurriel on 27 April 2007
Crazyglues said:

This such a good topic, for one The biggest Mistake in the Next gen gaming generation is NOT HAVING A KILLER GAME AT LAUNCH! I can't stress this point enough..

 To this day I know people who have not bought a Xbox 360 because they are waiting for Halo 3, seriously.

 People buy gaming systems when they feel like they have to have a certain game. When they can see the reason behind the purchase - Because no matter how much you tell someone this has next gen graphics and it's more advance, if they can't see their self playing a game they will love then what's the point in buying it. 


Even though I agree with you, I think that there is more to this than simply having one great game at launch ...

The cost of entry has risen much higher due to higher console costs ($100 to $300 higher), higher controller costs ($20 to $30 higher), and higher game costs ($10) which means that the console manufacturer has to provide that much more of a reason why people should upgrade to their new system.



FinalEvangelion on 28 April 2007
Crazyglues said:

Who really cares about Blu-ray or HD-dvd, nobody, and the numbers speak for their self. The truth is the consumer is a real simple person. They want to consume.. but only when it makes sense.



 I guess I know quite a few people who do, including less technically inclined people.  HDTV adoption rate is skyrocketing and HD DVD/ BD player prices are sinking like a rock.

 

To answer the question....

N64 - cartridges

GC - had trouble recovering from N64.

Wii - HDTV rate is adopting very quickly (don't know if this is a weakness yet) 

Xbox - SHOOTERS, SHOOTERS, SHOOTERS, SHOOTERS, SHOOTERS.  At least that was the reputation.  Appealed to American Violence-loving male demographic.  Didn't go to well in Japan.

 Xbox 360 - Red Ring of Death.  Trying to get Japan Back.

PS2 -  Disc Read Error

PS3 - "Welcome to the Sony Country Club.  By the way, Europe, We hate you." 



"Naturally the common people don't want war: Neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, IT IS THE LEADERS of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is TELL THEM THEY ARE BEING ATTACKED, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. IT WORKS THE SAME IN ANY COUNTRY."  --Hermann Goering, leading Nazi party member, at the Nuremberg War Crime Trials 

 

Conservatives:  Pushing for a small enough government to be a guest in your living room, or even better - your uterus.

 

mrstickball on 28 April 2007

I think the little-known fact of this generation isn't the whole "HD generation" or the "Wii generation", but more of the online generation. Every system has online, but I think Nintendo has made a mistake in not promoting online gaming with the Wii vs. what Sony and MS have. It might be a trojan horse for them in the future, as broadband continues to increase exponentially, and Wii has yet to allow for online functionality outside of VC and other stuff.

IMO, if Wii Sports was online, it'd be truely the biggest baddest best game, but it totally missed out.

Killer launch titles don't really mean everything. N64 had Mario 64 - certainly the biggest game to ever launch on a system @ time of sale. What really matters are those 6 month to 12 month titles. Nintendo never delivered on N64 and GC in that time period, and suffered greatly.

MS's main mistake thus far is not reducing the price on the 360.

Sony ruined their 120m+ fanbase by launching the PS3 at a price that isn't competitive in the market. A $300 PS3 would easily beat the Wii out, but its $600 pricetag is floundering.



Back from the dead, I'm afraid.

HappySqurriel on 28 April 2007
mrstickball said:

I think the little-known fact of this generation isn't the whole "HD generation" or the "Wii generation", but more of the online generation. Every system has online, but I think Nintendo has made a mistake in not promoting online gaming with the Wii vs. what Sony and MS have. It might be a trojan horse for them in the future, as broadband continues to increase exponentially, and Wii has yet to allow for online functionality outside of VC and other stuff.

IMO, if Wii Sports was online, it'd be truely the biggest baddest best game, but it totally missed out.

Killer launch titles don't really mean everything. N64 had Mario 64 - certainly the biggest game to ever launch on a system @ time of sale. What really matters are those 6 month to 12 month titles. Nintendo never delivered on N64 and GC in that time period, and suffered greatly.

MS's main mistake thus far is not reducing the price on the 360.

Sony ruined their 120m+ fanbase by launching the PS3 at a price that isn't competitive in the market. A $300 PS3 would easily beat the Wii out, but its $600 pricetag is floundering.


I'm not so sure as to whether Online gaming will have the impact on sales that people believe it will. I've been in online gaming (essentially) since it began (I remember meeting up with people on BBS systems to play games of Doom) and there has always been this constant optimistic belief that Online gaming was just about to break into the mainstream. Now, there are lots of reasons why Online gaming has not become mainstream but I don't think that Sony, Nintendo or Microsoft have found the magic Key which solves all of those problems.