I just thought of something --- how much in advance did Best Buy have to decide on this sale?

After all, those circulars are printed up in advance (sometimes several weeks) and sent to newspapers for distribution. They are not (generally) printed by the local newspaper.

So I wonder how much data Best Buy even had when it made this decision. Or whether it is just a one-week marketing stunt to get people in the door.


Mike from Morgantown

This. I'm not saying the game looks like crap, but this game is supposed to be for adults. I know a lot of gamers saying the same thing, just looking at the graphics and considering it "Kiddy" or Crap. Graphics do matter for a lot of people, and this is probably a reason the game didn't sell as well the first weeks (it seems to have legs though)

Define hardcore. Because, from what I've seen, GTA is a mainstream game. Considering the DS audience is mainstream it would seem like a good fit on the outside. Now hardcore game would be something like Fire Emblem. I doubt that would sell off the DS on PS3, 360, or PSP. Point taken.

Yes choosing your audience wisely is a good decision what platforms your video games are going to be on. However, there is a reason you don't do risk analysis for any of the major companies. Why? Because by your reasoning you would have led to the downfall of almost every major developer in the world. Risk analysis is exactly as it sounds. How much risk do you want to take and what will the outcome be of each risk. You have to go over multiple scenarios and numbers. However, by your simplistic view (which is indeed very very basic) you take nothing but safe routes. What is the path of least resistance? Now on the outside this doesn't seem like a bad idea. But, it's an awful business plan.

You'd sell PS3 at $800 when it launched, would have released the 360 2 years later, and would have kept standard controllers for the Wii. You wouldn't have made Call of Duty 4, never put a GTA game on the original Xbox, never would have agreed to the deal of Resident Evil to go to Gamecube, and so on in any fashion such as that. There is more to risk analysis than simply finding a path of least resistance. A lot of times it's about taking a huge risk and hoping outcome turns out fine. Even more so it's about a long process of doing it. Such as if the original GTA games had not been put on the original Xbox and built up a large base, then GTA IV on the 360 would have done terrible in comparison. Or by not putting the RE's on the GC then the ones on Wii would have done poorly.

By taking a risk in COD4 Modern Warfare they were able to explode the series into something they could have never imagined after the first few. All of these are NOT the path of least resistance. It is going against what you know your audience will buy or what they know and love. Rockstar and Sega took a path of resistance. By placing games on the DS and Wii that have not known to sell well (well not Madworld considering that kind of game hasn't sold well on any platform ever) they could build up a base and a following. For Madworld, well it didn't seem to turn out well. For GTA, though, they've got themselves a respectable starting to building up a base to hopefully tap into that large userbase. They didn't have the luxury of brand ties like PSP did as it was a majority PS2 user transfer to the platform in the beginning. Started fresh and new with the Nintendo handheld. We'll see if it pays off in the long run.

Understand how important risk analysis is in gaming and any other business. Stop thinking simplistically because there is nothing in business or sales that is simple. Remember that next time before you think you want to understand business models. No one says the risks will pay off but there are reasons it is done... reasons apparently you can't understand.

By applying the same logic, I guess all these PS3 titles bombed. (Resistance 2, Fallout 3, Mirror's Edge, Bioshock, MotorStorm 2, LBP; all of them are 50%-73% off)

http://www.psxextreme.com/ps3-news/4987.html

Especially LBP. Such a highly reviewed popular game should not be down to 20% of RRP already. Know your audience.

http://www.vg247.com/2009/04/27/lbp-and-bioshock-drop-to-895/

Despite expectations for this game compared past GTA blockbusters, I don't see how selling 415,000 DS copies in such a short timespan can be considered a failure.

I've never seen anyone say that DS games have to sell a lot right out of the gate. How much do they need?