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Forums - Sony - Did Ninja Theory shoot themselves in the foot?

 

Did Ninja Theory shoot themselves in the foot?

Yes 60 72.29%
 
No 23 27.71%
 
Total:83
9087 on 27 February 2013

http://www.vgchartz.com/companies/11174/ninja-theory/

Ninja Theory was a little, unknown studio when Heavenly Sword was released as an exclusive on PS3. It went on to sell-through 1.5+million copies. Not bad considering the time it came out was when PS3 had a very small user base. 

They could've stuck with Sony and made Heavenly Sword 2, and 3.... Nariko would probably be one of Sonys mascots, right up there with Kratos and Nathan Drake. 

Sony probably would've bought them out and founded all of their games.... similar to what they're now doing with Sucker Punch (developers of InFamous) and Media Molecule (LittleBigPlanet). Ninja Theory would have great stability and couldve expanded their studios, with every resource given to them by Sony. 

 

But instead, Ninja Theory went on record to say they barely broke even with Heavenly Sword, and would be going multiplatform. How is that working out? 

 

They released Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, published by Namco games.

Enslaved was a sales failure and crushed Ninja Theory's plans of expanding. Despite now being on TWO platforms, and having to spend money/time developing on two consoles.... Enslaved's combined sales on both PS3 and 360 are much lower than Heavenly Sword's sales. 

It almost ruined the developer and put them out of business. They were lucky CAPCOM gave them a chance with making DmC.

http://www.gamesradar.com/enslaveds-low-sales-prevented-studio-expansion-ninja-theory-sequel/

 

 

But now look at DmC's numbers. Surely there wont be a sequel by Ninja Theory. It has barely sold HALF a million on PS3 and 360 combined. 

 

You have to think.... If Ninja Theory barely broke even on Heavenly Sword... they mustve taken big losses on both Enslaved and DmC. 

It's a shame because I really like Ninja Theory's games and they always have a lot of potential. They were in a position with Sony where they could've become much bigger than they are right now, but they fumbled it with dreams of going multiplat, and ended up selling less games. 

 

 

 

 

 

 



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Lostplanet22 on 27 February 2013

No, Heavenly Sword was lucky to get a lot of free advertisements of being one of the first games on PS3.



 

9087 on 27 February 2013
RolStoppable said:
Perhaps Ninja Theory went on record to go multiplatform, because Sony didn't want to buy them?


Nope. They went multiplat because they were complaining Heavenly Sword barely broke even despite selling 1.5 million.

Basically -- they THOUGHT they would sell a lot more by going multiplat... but they didnt. Heavenly Sword on PS3 has sold way more on PS3 alone than both DmC and Enslaved combined on 360.

 

PosGamePlatformYearGenreDeveloperPublisherGlobal
1. Heavenly Sword PS3 2007 Action Ninja Theory Sony Computer Entertainment 1.57
2. Enslaved: Odyssey to the West X360 2010 Action Ninja Theory Namco Bandai Games 0.48
3. Enslaved: Odyssey to the West PS3 2010 Action Ninja Theory Namco Bandai Games 0.45
4. DMC PS3 2013 Action Ninja Theory Capcom 0.41
5. DMC X360 2013 Action Ninja Theory Capcom 0.20


Nsanity on 27 February 2013

I bet a lot of that 1.5 million came from bundles, also they made no money on Heavenly Sword: http://www.computerandvideogames.com/240867/ninja-theory-we-made-no-money-on-ps3-with-heavenly-sword/



happydolphin on 27 February 2013

9087 said:

Pos Game Platform Year Genre Developer Publisher Global
1 Heavenly Sword PS3 2007 Action Ninja Theory Sony Computer Entertainment 1.57
2 Enslaved: Odyssey to the West X360 2010 Action Ninja Theory Namco Bandai Games 0.48
3 Enslaved: Odyssey to the West PS3 2010 Action Ninja Theory Namco Bandai Games 0.45
4 DMC PS3 2013 Action Ninja Theory Capcom 0.41
5 DMC X360 2013 Action Ninja Theory Capcom 0.2

Your table was screwed up.



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badgenome on 27 February 2013

They shot themselves in the foot by being such asses to people who weren't really keen on Dante looking like Hayden Christensen. Turns out that confrontational PR is bad PR. Lesson learned, I hope.



happydolphin on 27 February 2013
pezus said:

They made money on Enslaved?

OT: The same mistake Insomniac are making. Thinking going multiplatform will save them from their own faults.

The truth is that going exclusive offers a marketing edge, in that loyalty sells in this market, in general. When people see an exclusive for their platform, generally they will talk very well about it and spread the word a lot more than for a multiplatform.

I'm not sure whether it's human stupidity or if it's really just a matter of strength in community.

But imho exclusives generally have a competitive edge. There are exceptions to this of course, for example Resi 4.



Nsanity on 27 February 2013

Namco Bandai Blames Enslaved's Low Sales on Poor Timing: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/107706-Namco-Bandai-Blames-Enslaveds-Low-Sales-on-Poor-Timing



9087 on 27 February 2013
Nsanity said:
I bet a lot of that 1.5 million came from bundles, also they made no money on Heavenly Sword: http://www.computerandvideogames.com/240867/ninja-theory-we-made-no-money-on-ps3-with-heavenly-sword/


Broke even = made no money

 

yeah. It was mentioned in the OP



9087 on 27 February 2013
RolStoppable said:
9087 said:
RolStoppable said:
Perhaps Ninja Theory went on record to go multiplatform, because Sony didn't want to buy them?

Nope. They went multiplat because they were complaining Heavenly Sword barely broke even despite selling 1.5 million.

Basically -- they THOUGHT they would sell a lot more by going multiplat... but they didnt. Heavenly Sword on PS3 has sold way more on PS3 alone than both DmC and Enslaved combined on 360.

You are missing the point.

Sony funds Heavenly Sword, quite an expensive game. The game doesn't sell particularly well and only makes it past the 1m mark after it gets discounted. Ninja Theory asks Sony, if they are willing to fund another game. Sony declines, because they don't see enough sales potential in the Heavenly Sword IP or an entirely new IP by the same studio after HS didn't generate a profit for them (and consequently Ninja Theory didn't profit on the game either).

So Ninja Theory is on their own and they decide to go multiplatform, because everyone else in the industry is doing the same in fear that exclusives don't generate enough revenue to cover the development costs. They wouldn't have gotten a publisher deal, if they decided to work on only one console. Since Enslaved sold badly, Ninja Theory had yet again to look for another publisher.

It's not that Ninja Theory is arrogant or anything for going with a different publisher each time. It's that they simply had no other choice, because the same publisher was never willing to fund another game of theirs.


Actually... You are WRONG.

There is proof and existing artwork that shows Sony's Cambridge studio was working on Heavenly Sword 2 at one point. That alone proves Sony had an interest in continuing the Heavenly Sword franchise. 

 

They also had Nariko in PSASBR. And Nariko was featured numerous times in last weeks highlight videos about Playstation. 

 

 

The fact is, Ninja Theory are not the victims here. They thought they would sell more by being multiplat.... and the opposite happened.