ComputerNerd said:
Software companies don't give a rats ass about tie ratios. Why should they? There's only one thing they care about. How much their game will sell.
Would they be stupid enough to put a project on a console with a 5 million user base, and sell 500K units (for a 10% attach rate), rather than a console with a 100 million user base, and sell 2 million? (a 2% attach rate) Not counting things like development costs, the answer should be clear. Unless the CEO wants to be fired, he'll put the game on the console that will generate sales of 2 million units.
Software companies use sales stats to determine how much their games will sell.
As for the question of why would a 3rd party put a game on the Wii instead of 360/PS3/PC, well, I don't see why they can't make a Wii version along with a 360/PS3/PC version. But if it has to be on one or the other, they'll determine whether they think the Wii version would sell better than the 360, PS3, and PC versions combined. While also accounting for development costs. When (or if), the Wii has sold more than the 360 and PS3 combined, we may see some 3rd party titles moved over.
It's hard to say though. Like I said earlier, why not put it on all 4?
That's true, but I still think tie ratios are important for future predictions. Let's say you've got a project in development that's going to launch in late 2009. It has been speculated that PS3 owners do not buy as much software as 360 owners. If this is the case, then even if one believes that the PS3 is set to reduce the gap in installed base between itself and the 360 worldwide, or even surpass the 360, in those two years of development, it may still be the smart move to lead on the 360, or accept moneyhats to keep it exclusive, since the sales of your PS3 version will still be less than the sales of your 360 version. On the other hand, if you believe that PS3 owners buy software at about the same rate as other console owners, your thinking will be different. The most reliable way of divining this information is through tie ratio, though as has been mentioned many times in this thread, it's not completely accurate.
HyperionX said:
Because it's going on hype. Without that hype, Wii could be $99 and not sell (just like GC).
Is it so impossible to believe that a lot of people, including core gamers, really want to play Wii sports?
DeadGzuz said:
So if you don't like another's opinion just call them a troll over and over. You are clever.
Sorry I don't see any real value in the Wii. The game are essentially GC games, some use the waggle, but most don't need it. Sure they have some critically successful games like Galaxy, Zelda, RE4, etc. but all of them could have been GC games (some were) and saved everyone $200 bucks. Just because they made a fad with old folks and Wii sports and sold a bunch of consoles does not make it worth $250. Movies like Titanic make a bundle of money, are you going to argue Titanic is the end all to movies?
If you can argue the system is good while ignoring sales data and make the case the game would not work on the GC (Galaxy would, Zelda did, RE4 did, etc.), then you might have some merit. At $99 I can see it's value as a Wii Sports and VC box, at $250 I'm scratching my head.
I don't really care if the game could have been done on a gamecube, as long as they're fun. If they're good games, I don't really give a damn. I'm not really a graphics whore, so I'd be fine with Halo 3 on the Xbox, or Ratchet and Clank future on the PS2. At any rate, I concur with another poster that, although the game could have been done on previous hardware, waggle often makes the experience better. RE4 Wii, MP3, and Zack and Wiki benefited as much from waggle as Halo 3 did from increased graphical power.
As for long range predictions, this year looks considerably better than the last for the PS3, and considering that they edged the 360 out by about a million last year WW, that's good news indeed. I'd expect them to run about even with the 360, maybe 5-10% lower, for the rest of the year here in the states, while continuing their victories in Japanese and European markets. They'll make up a couple million on that deficit this year, and should pass the 360 WW LTD sometime in mid 2009.
Of course, anything can happen. This is assuming status quo, but price drops and other random factors can come into play. After all, last January I wouldn't have predicted this at all, with the 360 having such a huge price advantage, and being in a much better position to price drop, but the RROD warranty billion dollar fiasco rather put the kibosh on that.
