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NPD Sales Results for February 2012 [Up 3: Kingdoms Of Amalur, Syndicate, Asura]

Owzers

Member
The fact that " QTE " is a genre is disappointing enough, let alone if it were a successful one. That stuff needs to die, especially when it's the base of a game. Even small QTE stuff in Kingdoms of Amalur is ridiculously stupid. Want more exp? Mash on a button! Interactive!
 
I decided to make a new GIF in honour of new occurances of BOMBA

HST7V.gif
 

MrPliskin

Banned
It seems you really are just joining planet Earth.

"Hello, I'm MrPliskin, and I am unaware that people regularly want things they like instead of things they don't like, and will frequently complain about those things that they don't like when it is impacting the things they do."

If you need a travel guide in your first trip to planet Earth, I can reference several websites that can help you. wikipedia is a good place to start

Good form.

Can you show me exactly how Asura's wrath impacted your gaming experience? Can you show me any Capcom games you were looking forward to that were canned because Asura's Wrath exists?

Basically what I'm asking is, do you have any solid proof that this title in any way impacted your life directly to the point you would hope for its failure. I'm willing to bet you can't, and won't, and you'll continue to ride that wave of hypocrisy.

You say people who enjoy a game you don't are on a rainbow/unicorn/fairy dust trip. I assume because you say they can't understand how your opinion differs from your own? Yet, you're basically saying you want a company to fail because their goals and direction don't align with your own.

Just seems a tad juvenile to me.
 

Dunlop

Member
This is probably the most entitled post I've ever read on GAF.

New to Amir0x posts? For sh!ts and giggles lookup posts from when Kinect was launching..and that was under the constraints that mods must be under

Now he is free of the shackles, heaven help us all
3AQmK.gif
 

Mpl90

Two copies sold? That's not a bomb guys, stop trolling!!!
New to Amir0x posts? For sh!ts and giggles lookup posts from when Kinect was launching..and that was under the constraints that mods must be under

Now he is free of the shackles, heaven help us all
3AQmK.gif

I just hope it isn't Sony's one, for the love of God...
What a bomb it was Asura's Wrath
 

MrPliskin

Banned
New to Amir0x posts? For sh!ts and giggles lookup posts from when Kinect was launching..and that was under the constraints that mods must be under

Now he is free of the shackles, heaven help us all
3AQmK.gif

I'm not new to him or his posts, but I never really found them to be this bad. It's one thing to be a typical member of GAF and believe your opinion supersedes everyone elses (I do it as well). It's another to hope a studio fails and people are put out of a job because they made a game that doesn't align with your "standards". It is no different from the review debacles that happen weekly on GAF where people are blown away their favorite series didn't get solid 10s across the board.
 

jedimike

Member
So why does xbox show 262k and the press release shows 426k? Is my browser (android) formatting it wrong or is it really listed wrong?
 

Amir0x

Banned
Good form.

Can you show me exactly how Asura's wrath impacted your gaming experience? Can you show me any Capcom games you were looking forward to that were canned because Asura's Wrath exists?

Basically what I'm asking is, do you have any solid proof that this title in any way impacted your life directly to the point you would hope for its failure. I'm willing to bet you can't, and won't, and you'll continue to ride that wave of hypocrisy.

Of course I don't have a paper trail that proves that they shifted funds in this specific case, but we certainly do have good evidence that this happens all the time in the gaming industry. Money is finite. One projects gets greenlit, it might mean another project does not. It is important to understand why projects get greenlit, and what that means. Do I know if Asura's Wrath was greenlit and a project I potentially could have liked was turned down as a result? No. Do I know that this has happened with money relating to other things in the past and that it is perfectly OK to wish the failure of a series of games that might lead to such an event in the future? Yes.

Asura's Wrath is an anti-game. It's a series of barely playable hyperactive cutscenes with occasional little blips of gameplay, but mostly a long suffering series of QTE sequences and slipfire over-the-top anime scenes. I can appreciate you enjoying it, but you have to stop taking this sort of thing personally. I wish Asura's Wrath failure, I don't wish you failure. I don't think less of you for liking it. I just think less of the developers who made it and want to hope it fails so they don't continue making games like it, thus -potentially- corrupting the industry in some way.

You say people who enjoy a game you don't are on a rainbow/unicorn/fairy dust trip. I assume because you say they can't understand how your opinion differs from your own? Yet, you're basically saying you want a company to fail because their goals and direction don't align with your own.

Just seems a tad juvenile to me.

That's not what I said, at least not what I meant anyway. What my comment about rainbow/unicorns was referring to is those who the second someone posts a negative comment about something they like, they pounce like a pack of rabid dogs with dismissive, derogatory language that has neither content nor arguments: empty posts devoid of intellectual merit. And then they'd blame me for the problem, even though I'd be the only one who actually contributed an argument about why I felt the way I did.

I want a GAME to fail because it is the antithesis of quality in gaming today, and if something like that caught on, others might feel inclined to copy it. I'll give you an example. Heavy Rain recently did 'decently', and it already has some developers listing it as inspiration for one thing or another (impossible to say if Asura's Wrath was directly inspired by it, although it certainly has a similar disdain for gameplay). That latest, currently unreleased Rainbow Six game was said to have Heavy Rain inspired gameplay. And Heavy Rain only did -ok-. That's an example of a shitty game coming out, corrupting the industry and then infecting series I do enjoy.

These games do not exist in a vacuum, sadly. If they did, I'd never complain at all. I'd live in a perfect bubble and ignore all these crappy products. But they don't.

New to Amir0x posts? For sh!ts and giggles lookup posts from when Kinect was launching..and that was under the constraints that mods must be under

Now he is free of the shackles, heaven help us all
3AQmK.gif

What a perfect example. Look at what has happened to Xbox 360 since Kinect has consumed its platform. Virtually every exclusive hardcore property has dried up in favor of laggy Kinect-fueled garbage, and if your name ain't Halo it ain't announced. Microsoft's system now looks like a veritable wasteland compared to PS3 in terms of exclusive hardcore games.

They focused on ONE thing in exchange for ANOTHER. Funds in the industry are taken from one place and go to a different place. It's the nature of the business. I can't always have the paper work to show the direct smoking gun line, but there is a lot of self-evidential results out there.

MrPliskin said:
It's another to hope a studio fails and people are put out of a job

I don't hope the people are out of a job. That's absurd. I hope they get a new job making a game that does not blow ass is all.
 

TheSeks

Blinded by the luminous glory that is David Bowie's physical manifestation.
Syndibomba.

Such a shame it sold so low, but being Left 4 Dead: Cyberpunk Edition kinda does that. :(

Was so hyped until the demo. What a letdown.
 

Amir0x

Banned
Syndibomba.

Such a shame it sold so low, but being Left 4 Dead: Cyberpunk Edition kinda does that. :(

Was so hyped until the demo. What a letdown.

Left 4 Dead sold well, why would being L4D: Cyberpunk Edition mean automatic failure?

If it had some competitive modes like L4D maybe it would have begun to catch on ;)
 

MrPliskin

Banned
Of course I don't have a paper trail that proves that they shifted funds in this specific case, but we certainly do have good evidence that this happens all the time in the gaming industry. Money is finite. One projects gets greenlit, it might mean another project does not. It is important to understand why projects get greenlit, and what that means. Do I know if Asura's Wrath was greenlit and a project I potentially could have liked was turned down as a result? No. Do I know that this has happened with money relating to other things in the past and that it is perfectly OK to wish the failure of a series of games that might lead to such an event in the future? Yes.

Asura's Wrath is an anti-game. It's a series of barely playable hyperactive cutscenes with occasional little blips of gameplay, but mostly a long suffering series of QTE sequences and slipfire over-the-top anime scenes. I can appreciate you enjoying it, but you have to stop taking this sort of thing personally. I wish Asura's Wrath failure, I don't wish you failure. I don't think less of you for liking it. I just think less of the developers who made it and want to hope it fails so they don't continue making games like it, thus -potentially- corrupting the industry in some way.



That's not what I said, at least not what I meant anyway. What my comment about rainbow/unicorns was referring to is those who the second someone posts a negative comment about something they like, they pounce like a pack of rabid dogs with dismissive, derogatory language that has neither content nor arguments: empty posts devoid of intellectual merit. And then they'd blame me for the problem, even though I'd be the only one who actually contributed an argument about why I felt the way I did.

I want a GAME to fail because it is the antithesis of quality in gaming today, and if something like that caught on, others might feel inclined to copy it. I'll give you an example. Heavy Rain recently did 'decently', and it already has some developers listing it as inspiration for one thing or another (impossible to say if Asura's Wrath was directly inspired by it, although it certainly has a similar disdain for gameplay). That Rainbow Six game was said to have Heavy Rain inspired gameplay. And Heavy Rain only did -ok-. That's an example of a shitty game coming out, corrupting the industry and then infecting series I do enjoy.

These games do not exist in a vacuum, sadly. If they did, I'd never complain at all. I'd live in a perfect bubble and ignore all these crappy products. But they don't.



What a perfect example. Look at what has happened to Xbox 360 since Kinect has consumed its platform. Virtually every exclusive hardcore property has dried up in favor of laggy Kinect-fueled garbage, and if your name ain't Halo it ain't announced. Microsoft's system now looks like a veritable wasteland compared to PS3 in terms of exclusive hardcore games.

They focused on ONE thing in exchange for ANOTHER. Funds in the industry are taken from one place and go to a different place. It's the nature of the business. I can't always have the paper work to show the direct smoking gun line, but there is a lot of self-evidential results out there.



I don't hope the people are out of a job. That's absurd. I hope they get a new job making a game that does not blow ass is all.

We should be clear, I don't like Asuras Wrath, nor did I play it beyond the first section of the demo. I didn't like Heavy Rain either. That doesn't mean I want either game / studio to fail.

Anyway, I'd love to continue the discussion, but it's clear that you believe that this game and games like it will be the downfall of the industry, even though no such evidence exists. Great core games are still being released, great indie titles are still being made, etc.

If you want to talk about the "industry" you should quickly come back down to earth (where you welcomed me so warmly) and realize that the market is growing, and as a result it must cater to a much wider group of people at times. It will continue to grow, and things will continue to change. There is nothing you, or I, can do to stop that. These kind of experiences will continue to be developed to test waters and find new markets, if possible. Your hardcore games aren't going to "die out and vanish". Hopefully you can sleep better at night knowing this.

Edit: Also, don't you think it's unfair to chastise a member for second guessing your opinion because it differs from their own, and then wish failure on a game because it might cater to a group whose tastes...differ from your own? Is there only room for opinions and tastes whenever it is convenient, or is it universal?
 

Jomjom

Banned
Wow pretty disappointed with all of the Sony hardware sales. They really need to do something to give their hardware a boost. The Vita online announcement thing was a big letdown.
 

Amir0x

Banned
We should be clear, I don't like Asuras Wrath, nor did I play it beyond the first section of the demo. I didn't like Heavy Rain either. That doesn't mean I want either game / studio to fail.

That's good. But I do. Because as I said, these games don't exist in a vacuum and they do infect and influence products I do like. There is already clear evidence of this, and choosing to ignore it is ok if you like but I won't. That's not tinfoilhat-ish.

Anyway, I'd love to continue the discussion, but it's clear that you believe that this game and games like it will be the downfall of the industry, even though no such evidence exists. Great core games are still being released, great indie titles are still being made, etc.

If you want to talk about the "industry" you should quickly come back down to earth (where you welcomed me so warmly) and realize that the market is growing, and as a result it must cater to a much wider group of people at times. It will continue to grow, and things will continue to change. There is nothing you, or I, can do to stop that. These kind of experiences will continue to be developed to test waters and find new markets, if possible. Your hardcore games aren't going to "die out and vanish". Hopefully you can sleep better at night knowing this.

I don't think it will be the 'downfall' of the industry. I believe that it exists in an industry that has finite funds, and I want these games that are as bad as Heavy Rain and Asura's Wrath to be destroyed in favor of funds going to titles that aren't awful. So they can stop potentially influencing products I do like (see: Rainbow Six example). This is a perfectly human and rational reaction to the situation at hand. I just don't understand why you think this is some over-the-top action. People root for one thing over another all the time, even when that one thing might have little to no impact at all on what they enjoy. Here we have stuff that definitely does have impacts on things we like, whether small or large, and you're wondering why one wishes for failure of certain products? Well, I'm not going to pretend I want it to do anything except fail.

Look in the case of FFXIII-2. If SquareEnix considers it a bomb, maybe they will begin to start implementing features that make the franchise relevant again. So it would be viable to wish FFXIII-2 is a failure, so that the motivation is there.

There are a billion reasons to hope something fails. You should not take it so offensively.

And as I said, you can just check out what happened with Kinect. Kinect was announced, Microsoft's hardcore exclusive games have virtually dried up across the board in favor of those horrific titles. Now they have multiplatform titles, Halo and Kinect games.
 

MrPliskin

Banned
Wow pretty disappointed with all of the Sony hardware sales. They really need to do something to give their hardware a boost. The Vita online announcement thing was a big letdown.

I don't really think there's much they can do at this point, barring deals with Activision for some exclusive CoD content.

They've tried to gamble with EA on exclusives, and it hasn't yet panned out for them in any notable manner. Things will probably get worse before they start to get better (and that's a terrible balancing act...could get really ugly).
 

Brandon F

Well congratulations! You got yourself caught!
One less company burning funds in an incinerator in embarrassing non-games with endless use of QTE and a Heavy Rain gameplay obsession?

Eh. The existence of Asura's Wrath is hardly cannibalizing the industry in any way, creatively or otherwise.

The fervent Capcom haters have a more compelling argument here.
 

MrPliskin

Banned
And as I said, you can just check out what happened with Kinect. Kinect was announced, Microsoft's hardcore exclusive games have virtually dried up across the board in favor of those horrific titles. Now they have multiplatform titles, Halo and Kinect games.

The writing was on the wall ages ago, long before we knew Kinect existed. MS was selling off their studios long ago, so I think we'd basically be looking as multiplat titles and Halo if Kinect didn't exist. Oh, and timed-exclusive CoD content.
 

Hero

Member
I'm perfectly okay with everything that bombed this month.

Capcom needs to be taken down a few pegs and Square-Enix needs to learn that they've alienated the majority of their fans by continually going more and more obscure.

Bring on next gen already so maybe these companies can show us some fucking originality.
 

Go_Ly_Dow

Member
Seeing the FF series decline so much is pretty depressing.

This should make S-E realise just how severely damaged the brand is at the moment.

I mean even with a lot of negative reception, XIII still managed to hit 6 mil + so I can see why that number probably made them so blind to it all. XIV was an MMO and a PC release so they probably thought the impact would be minimal on other mainline titles.

It's Versus or bust at the moment. If they fail to win back long-term and attract new fans with that, then the FF brand just might not be a very profitable venture in the future on home consoles.

Developing a 40-50 hour RPG on the PS4/Nextbox will be a very long and costly process.
 

Dunlop

Member
What a perfect example. Look at what has happened to Xbox 360 since Kinect has consumed its platform. Virtually every exclusive hardcore property has dried up in favor of laggy Kinect-fueled garbage, and if your name ain't Halo it ain't announced. Microsoft's system now looks like a veritable wasteland compared to PS3 in terms of exclusive hardcore games.

You mean how the 360 is outselling it's competition in North America?

My previous post was meant to be a joke, but I don't want to do the dance again, where you spout hardcore gamer every 2nd sentence and insult everyone outside of your personal definition of what this is.
 

Elios83

Member
So happy for the bomba FFXIII-2 numbers, the game is terrible, Square Enix knows it but finally the market gave them the middle finger they deserve.
Now it's time to either do what people really want from them (modern AAA JRPGs) or raise the white flag :D
 

watership

Member
are there any numbers for vita sales in europe?

sony said that they sold 1,2 million vitas worldwide in their release week.... so when they sold 600k in japan and 225k in usa, there must be 375k sold vitas in europe.... which i can't believe....

This is very Sony PR. I still think that 1.2 million Vitas were sold to retailers, unless Europe has incredible sales. But Sony has done this before, announcing they have reached a great milestone weeks before any real data will be released. Then the figures come out, and they're silent, and we have to do PR math to figure out what really happened.
 

Kunan

Member
If only SE had a proper ending in the game. I'm sure it's on its way as more freaking DLC. Their approach to DLC conveys an attitude that they had nothing to prove, when in fact the exact opposite was true.
 
FF needs to take a rest for a while I think. The brand is damaged.

Square - Enix is damaged. The brand is fine. FF13 was only the real 'bad' main FF. XII was great.

They need to release some sort of remake (to whatever degree) on FF7. I don't care if it makes sense artistically or what have you or whatever kind of arguments we bring up. It's something people want. It's a sure-fire LTD 3 + million seller. No publisher wouldn't green light a project like that where the projected sales from anticipation is at such a high. Granted, it was higher maybe back in 2008, but it's still high if they get the train rolling again. SE's excuse would be that it would be too expensive and hard, what a bunch of fucking morons. Yeah, no shit. No AAA big main stream game that has that projected appeal is easy or cheap to make. It's like they want to make an awesome, epic, huge game and not spend money on it. Shit doesn't work like that.

They also need to reevaluate what makes Final Fantasy appealing. And I think some of their designers need to go back and play Final Fantasy V and Final Fantasy VI. Try to find that old-school JRPG appeal and mix it in with modern wester RPG design philosophy. They also need to stop making their protagonist a 15 year old looking dude who looks more feminine than most women. I'd imagine most FF fans he grew up with the franchise are well into their 20's and 30's. A main character needs to reflect that. I can't help but only roll my eyes when I see somebody actually younger than me save the fucking universe. As for younger fans, it's easier for them to associate with an older protagonist anyway.

They don't need to give the brand a rest, they need to seriously, and intelligently pre-plan and pre-develop the fucking game before they just see one of Nomura's dumbass art designs and start developing the game.
 

Shard

XBLAnnoyance
Syndicate was not a EA Partners release, that was a regular EA Games release. The EA Partners release this month was Kingdoms Of Alumar: Reckoning.
 

Derrick01

Banned
The Syndicate sales make me smile even if it's only 5 days or whatever. EA shouldn't be rewarded by insulting classic franchises just to chase the whatever's currently popular dollar, and come up with a game that is such a lazy cash in. It was so watered down and terrible I couldn't even make myself finish it and let me remind people I finished FF13 and DA2. I can take a high dose of punishment.
 

Loofy

Member
Are these console sales indicative of the twilight years?

I vaguely recall PS2, Xbox, and GCN sales being alot worst. Like ~300k PS2, ~150k Xbox/GCN before this generation started.
 

Averon

Member
So, which game/work marked the decline of the Final Fantasy brand?

FFXII? FFXIII? FF VII: Advent Children? FF:Spirits Within?

This collapse wasn't sudden; the signs were there.
 
Are these console sales indicative of the twilight years?

I vaguely recall PS2, Xbox, and GCN sales being alot worst. Like ~300k PS2, ~150k Xbox/GCN before this generation started.

Total hardware sales across the 3 platforms seem so much higher this gen though so it wouldnt be fair comparing them. 2nd and 3rd place both @ over 50 million sold is pretty astounding to me.
 
Are these console sales indicative of the twilight years?

I vaguely recall PS2, Xbox, and GCN sales being alot worst. Like ~300k PS2, ~150k Xbox/GCN before this generation started.

The higher starting prices of the HD twins seems to be translating into a smoother and more gradual decline in these later years as their pricepoints have just recently hit the mainstream mark that consoles in previous generations started/nearly started at.
 

Mpl90

Two copies sold? That's not a bomb guys, stop trolling!!!
No 3DS games sold enough in the US to place in the top ten last month, according to NPD data. But 3DS sales were happening just under the surface, with many 3DS games making it into the (undisclosed) top 25 games of February.

The NPD told Joystiq that "some examples" of the 3DS titles that made the list include Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure, Mario Kart 7, Super Mario 3D Land, FIFA Soccer, Lego Star Wars 3: The Clone Wars, Lego Pirates of the Caribbean, Resident Evil: Revelations, and Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games -- the last two on that list being February releases.

That's ... a significant portion of the top 25. It's also evidence of a reasonably engaged 3DS install base, and therefore stiff competition for the PS Vita, which came out in February. The Vita's Uncharted: Golden Abyss placed somewhere in the top 20 (at least in retail; Vita games also have digital sales not charted by NPD).

http://www.joystiq.com/2012/03/09/npds-top-25-includes-at-least-eight-3ds-games/

Wow.
 
I'm perfectly okay with everything that bombed this month.

Capcom needs to be taken down a few pegs and Square-Enix needs to learn that they've alienated the majority of their fans by continually going more and more obscure.

Bring on next gen already so maybe these companies can show us some fucking originality.

I dont think SE's problem is that their games are to obscure now. I used to love FF games, and I even bought and finished XIII. The problem is now the games are like the opposite of what they used to be. In a turn-based game, you can ponder over every move and really delve into different tactics and such. In XIII though you set your gambits and then just sit back and watch the AI on your side fight the AI on the other side. It felt like they took so much of what made the games great out and didnt really replace it with anything else compelling. I really hope at some point they go back and make a game like FFX again. A huge world to explore, tons of areas to visit and people to interact with, and combat that you can get invested in understanding every nuance. Sadly I doubt that will happen and instead their next game will just totally play itself.
 
Square - Enix is damaged. The brand is fine. FF13 was only the real 'bad' main FF. XII was great.

a) Final Fantasy XIV

b) the Final Fantasy name has been slathered on so much garbage over the last 10 years or so that it means nothing. Less than nothing. Final Fantasy at this point is more albatross than golden ticket.

Square has one chance to turn it all around. Whatever they end up making as FFXV will either be an inflection point for the series like VII was, or it's dead forever.
 
I want a GAME to fail because it is the antithesis of quality in gaming today, and if something like that caught on, others might feel inclined to copy it. I'll give you an example. Heavy Rain recently did 'decently', and it already has some developers listing it as inspiration for one thing or another (impossible to say if Asura's Wrath was directly inspired by it, although it certainly has a similar disdain for gameplay). That latest, currently unreleased Rainbow Six game was said to have Heavy Rain inspired gameplay. And Heavy Rain only did -ok-. That's an example of a shitty game coming out, corrupting the industry and then infecting series I do enjoy.
Maybe they just want to use some ideas introduced by HR because HR tried to do some different things than most games? Plenty of games use influences and ideas from other games and then iterate on them. Whether you liked Heavy Rain or not, it did do some interesting things. Maybe other games can expand on those and make them better.
 
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