This is my first post/thread on Vgchartz so please don't be too hard on me. :)

Something I was thinking about a lot recently was that whilst I play a lot of first party PS3 games and exclusives on my PS3 I keep very few of them and looking at the sales data itself it makes me wonder if what my friends do is pretty similar to what happens in the wider world as well. 

I've been a lot more savvy with my purchases and I have taken advantage of the used game market, renting and gamefly a lot more than I did in the previous generation. Its been great and I got to play a lot of content but at the same time I noticed that im effectively renting most of the Sony produced games and whilst they are great to play they don't justify much more than a 2nd look. It feels that the content is great once but not so great for a 2nd or a third look. 

The thing im noticing with the top sales list is that in general the games which sell the most have a hell of a lot of content and the games which seem to maybe disapoint are lacking in the content in comparison. By content I mean the games that can be replayed a lot by having a multiplayer element, have a lot of single player content. By comparison I feel they put out a lot of flashy games which have a lot of impact on the player with a visual and environmental aspect but don't compell the players to keep hold of and they pass through many hands. This means a lot of people play their games but I feel maybe they have fewer actual sales than they could have.

Top 20 PS3 games by sales.

1. GTAIV
2. COD IV
3. COD VI
4. MGS IV
5. COD V
6. RFOM
7. AssC
8. MotoS
9. GT5 P
10. Unch
11. LBP
12. RE V
13. Fifa IX
14. Fifa X
15. KZ2
16. PES 2k9
17. Unch II
18. GH III
19. FallO III
20. PES 2k8

Now hopefully we can ignore the fact that many are sequels here but I want to point out some interesting stats for the games.

Only 3 are without pretty much any online component Aside from extra content downloads. I will include RE V here as it doesn't come with it out of the box. 

Only 6 are without local multiplayer.

12 have both online and offline multiplayer at the same time. However arguably the 3 in the top 10 which are GTA IV, MGS IV and AssC have a hell of a lot of content.

Also one thing to note is that 5 of the top 10 games aren't even rendered at an HD resolution.

Now their top 20 games they released are:

1. RFOM
2. MotoS
3. GT5 P
4. Unch
5. LBP
6. KZ2
7. Unch II
8. RFOM II
9. R&C TOD
10. HS
11. InFa
12. Socom
13. Sstar
14. MS: PR
15. HSG
16. Buzz!
17. SS: Abba
18. MLB 08
19. MLB 09
20. Warhawk

Now around 8 of these lack a local multiplayer element whilst around 8 don't seem to have much in the way of an online mode. Please bear with me here as my internet is slow so I cannot check up on all the different titles. 

Also only 5 of these titles have both a significant online and offline component. All four of these games appear in the top 5 for sales. 

So overall the problem with these titles seems to be that whilst they are pretty great titles released they don't give as much incentive for people to hold onto them for as long. My PS3 is the main centrepiece of my home entertainment centre and it makes it very difficult to get as much extended play time on games which don't come with a local multiplayer component so whilst many games which I sell back may have great replayability I simply cannot play them as often as I would like because of that fact. 

To sum up: Essentially the PS3 is a great system, but it seems the choices Sony makes with their games are problematic with how the system is used as the centre of an entertainment system. Games which can be shared seem to better fit this model than games which have to be played when other people don't want to use the TV as well. I think it shows in the sales that people don't retain the games which they cannot play as often as they don't offer nearly the same value as a game which can give you a lot of useage. 

Please don't nitpick as I've obviously made some mistakes with this post but ask yourself if there may be any truth in the overall message?

Maybe they should buy Activision so they can have COD. Seriously though i am confused by PS3 game sales. I still want to know how a demo outsold KZ2

GT5 obviously. It just seemed though that KZ2 had so much hype but then the sales became lacklustre

Great first post!

I think the industry realizes the importance of online gameplay. Many games now have online components tacked on in order to increase re-playability to get gamers to buy the game, and hopefully stop gamers from trading in the games.


SONY does have MAG coming out soon.

It would be nice to see them add offline co-op/ multiplayer to some of their franchises like Uncharted and Killzone.

I  believe your right but I probably feel that way because i hate racing simulators and i guess a lot of people like them.

Ofcourse, but we can have a game like "HANNAH MONTANA THE GAME" outsell killzone 2..

Not that they are targetted to the same audience, BUT it just re iterates the point I was trying to make, PS3 games are UNDERSELLING despite quality, and its because of the brand name, Playstation is really loosing its recognition..

Only eight of those titles lack local multiplayer:

MotorStorm
Uncharted
Killzone 2
Uncharted 2
Heavenly Sword
Ratchet & Clank
Infamous
Socom

rofl

PS brand is as good as its been, same games that sold big on PS PS2 are selling big on PS3 except the biggest ones on PS3 have yet to release.

PS had only one game cross 10m, GT.  PS2 had only 5 games cross 10m GTAs and GTs.  Those high quality games usualy did 2/3 million on PS2 some did 4million tops.  Same thing is happening on PS3.

Your last paragraph is irrelevant, XBOX had very little BIG selling ip, much less than the Playstation 2.. Madden, Halo, and maybe Call of duty were the big selling ip on the original XBOX.

Now going back to your GEARS OF WAR statement, an amazing ip, the true beginning of "current gen" gaming on XBOX 360. Uncharted a game that was also a new ip, and was considered the best looking game of the generation for quite sometime, sold what? 600K in the U.S? How much did Gears sell? 2,3,4 million? U.S alone?

My point isn't that the PS3 is the looser this gen, it clearly IS sales wise, but my point is that PLAYSTATION 3 games undersell. There is no reason why a game like UNCHARTED 2 should be struggeling to sell in the U.S, when there was a HUGE marketing campaign for it, and every single gaming site gave it astonishingly high reviews *higher than MWF2*

You're suggesting Sonys name is actually degrading a games sales? 

I think marketing has something, a massive something to do with it. Multiplatform games are marketed a lot better, and seemingly pushed by Microsoft, advertised almost as exclusives. Even though the MW2 eu advert only mentions XBOX360, every time it's played a PS3 user would consider this an advert for the game on there system, now compared to the Sony exclusives which are advertised... the multiplat games at the top see a whole lot more in terms of marketing. 

The only PS3 adds I've seen in EU have been Resistance 2 and UC2. 

It's also, hard as the op suggested to discount the fact that many of Sony's franchises are only just being launched. Let's look at the top 5

1. GTAIV
2. COD IV
3. COD VI
4. MGS IV
5. COD V

So these already have a decent reputation, and included is a PS3 exclusive. 

Now let's consider the other AAA exclusives which aren't so high on sales but are still considered great games. 

R2, KZ2, Motorstorm, Uncharted. 

Each of these are doing reasonable well, but haven't yet had time to build up a fantastic reputation.

I agree to some extent though, for some reason Sony are addressing several niche markets instead of marketing there games at there fanbase as a whole, for example Killzone 2, Socom, Warhawk, and Motorstorm have relatively high learning curves, and thus many turn these titles away in favour of... well the more accessable like COD and GTA. 

Just my thoughts.