Enough to be profitable.
If you make money, you didn't fail at what you wanted to do.
If you don't make money, you do fail.
This might seem a little rude of me, but those who thinks that what was sold in the previous generation should be a marker for the current generations number for success of the console are being unrealistic. Markets fluctuate all the time. This generation could possibly see itself lower than the previous generation on all sides.
OT: I personally think a console isn't a failure if it at least brings in profits for the company. Higher number of sales can mean more profits, but it also depends on the console as well. How much does it need to sell in order to become profitable? Depends on how much they spent and how they priced it.
| BraLoD said: I think people are not getting the point of this thread, the OP asks for the number of sales a consoles need to not be considered a failure. That have nothing to do with money, he's asking about the market view, what number people will look and say: that console was/wasn't a failure. Just like we point to the GC and say it failed because how badly it sold compared with the PS2. Or to PSV with the 3DS, and the likes. That's what I understood he want to be answered, if not, pretend I posted nothing here xD |
To be honest, if that's the case then there's really no point in asking.
Most of the "market" (by market it seems like you're talking about consumers) don't care about the numbers.
| JazzB1987 said: if it breaks even its not a failure because its not only about money but about reputation and about establishing your product etc and about making consumers happy. (fuck the stupid greedy shareholders they are just parasites) The whole industry and the internet community has a flawed opinion on what a failure is. E.g. Lets say you are RockstarGames you do NOT want to make GTA5 on WiiU because you are not sure if it will be as successful as on PS3 or 360. This is a valid point BUT your IP is so huge it will sell and it will 100% break even. But deciding against it is a mistake because there is not only short term profit but also long term profit. You will establish your IP and then the next instlallment (as long as the quality is there) will sell even better. If you act as Activision did on the other hand with delaying the most important game in the series (modern warfare1 that made it a huge success) for over a year and then another installment completely skips the Nintendo platform then you just sabotaged your own effort in establishing your IP. If you dont lose money on something and you make people happy it was def worth it and was not a failure. The Vita for example is also not a failure because it is profitable. It might not sell that much but the device does have its fanbase and thats what counts. I mean seriously people bash a console they have no interest in and say it fails but why do they care about it? Its like saying a movie was shit and failed when it was in italian and you just understand english it was clearly not ment for you so your opinion is irrelevant. I also think its pretty funny that alof of companies that have games that sell 1-5m at max dare to say a system that sells 5-10m is a failure. I mean there is more than 3x as many people that are willing to pay 3-6x the money for that "failing system" than there are people that want to buy the devs 60 dollar game. So whose product is a failure now huh? |
you sound bitter :(
150 million. if you cant beat the ps2, then youve failed.
BraLoD said:
Why not? People always wonder what others consider being a failure around here, as some states the PSV and NWU are/will be failures and will sell low, I don't really see people asking themselves if the consoles are bringing profit to the companys, only if they can reach certain numbers against the competition, it's all about winning or losing in sale numbers, this site is meant to provide data to this. (or try to provide data...). So he is just curious about what is the number people take for a console being a failure or not, not to the company itself, to the market view. |
I was going based off of your wording about how the "market" views it. Your post was pretty much using the word "market" to mean the "consumers." While people on this site ARE consumers, consoles will sell regardless of our presence. We are NOT the majority who buys consoles. The majority of people who DO buy consoles do NOT care about numbers of consoles sold. Their view of whether or not a console is a success or failure tends to be on their personal enjoyment of the console.
And the reason why profits matter are the exact same reason why numbers matter when you ask someone who ISN'T the company about it. Why do consumers care? That same question goes back to why consumers should care how many units a console sells, and the answer for why they should will be the same.
On this site, what SHOULD matter is if those sales numbers are meaningful. If you sell 10m copies of a piece of software, but you make a net loss on the game, can you really say the game was successful? Same goes for consoles. Just because a niche game doesn't sell 10m doesn't mean it's a failure.
From a business standpoint, as long as the console made the company money it wasn't a failure. Which is why in the eyes of Nintendo the N64 or GameCube were not failures. Personally if the Wii U can outsell the GameCube or N64 I think it would have been a success.
"I think it will be the HDS"-Me in regards to Nintendo's next handheld.
| JazzB1987 said: I also think its pretty funny that alof of companies that have games that sell 1-5m at max dare to say a system that sells 5-10m is a failure. I mean there is more than 3x as many people that are willing to pay 3-6x the money for that "failing system" than there are people that want to buy the devs 60 dollar game. So whose product is a failure now huh? |
Cause devs/publishers look at install bases differently than you do. A publisher usually doesn't expect more than 5-10% of the installed base of any platform to buy their game. So to them, if a console has an install base of around 30M worldwide, they won't expect more than 1.5M to 3M of that base to buy their game.
And yh, you sound bitter.
It s multiple areas that indicate success or failure and they will differ somewhat w each company - But the basics are : financial performance, market share and investor expectations
Merely making a profit is probably not enough for any of them to be considered a success- if MSFT loses a bunch of market share but makes a small or moderate profit ( this generation) they will prob consider it a failure - if Nintendo loses a bunch of market share AND makes significantly less money than they did on the Wii it will prob be considered a failure
About Us |
Terms of Use |
Privacy Policy |
Advertise |
Staff |
Contact
Display As Desktop
Display As Mobile
© 2006-2025 VGChartz Ltd. All rights reserved.
xD
