Sony's Exclusives Coming Up Short?

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

By Luke Plunkett, 6:30 AM on Mon Jun 29 2009

From the day of the PS3's launch, Sony have pursued a bold strategy of constantly launching new, original IP as exclusive titles on the console. But while it's a move that should be applauded on principle, it's just not translating into sales.

Number-cruncher Matt Matthews has, in a report over on GameSetWatch, detailed the sales performance of Sony's new, exclusive titles, revealing a lineup of games that are two-headed beasts: somehow managing to consistently find critical success while being, relative to their exposure and advertising backing, commercial flops.

Excluding games sold as part of hardware bundles, for example, only a single game published by Sony on the PS3 has sold over a million copies at retail, and that's the original Resistance. LittleBigPlanet is close to this figure, but many other high-profile releases - such as Killzone 2, Resistance 2 and Uncharted - are not.

The numbers look even worse compared to sales for exclusive titles on other platforms. Gears of War sold a million units in a month on the 360. Gears 2 sold 1.5 million in the same amount of time. Smash Bros has sold over 4 million units on the Wii, and Mario Kart over six million.

So what gives? Matthews raises the possibility that Sony put too much faith in new stuff. Rather than having Insomniac and Naughty Dog release Ratchet & Clank and Jak & Daxter games, which would have sold, Sony let them first release all-new titles, Resistance and Uncharted, neither of which have so far matched the sales or pulling power of their better-known PS2 platformers

We're also only seeing proper releases in Sony's two biggest series - God of War and Gran Turismo - now. Well, not even now. 2009, 2010. Three, four years after the console was first released. They should perform better than any of the above titles, but you have to wonder whether it has been wise of Sony to release nothing but original titles to date (Killzone aside), when a God of War or two by now may have spurred sales of both PS3 hardware and software.

Analysis: Was Using Original IP The Best Idea For Sony's PS3 Strategy? [GameSetWatch]

http://kotaku.com/5303488/sonys-exclusives-coming-up-short

[Sethos]

Whoa, I knew the interest in Motorstorm was low but damn!

[Brad.]

I personally though Killzone 2 would have sold 1mil+ copies of the game. One of the main things you've got to consider looking at that is that it does exclude bundles, I know a few people myself who bought a PS3 bundled with LBP/Killzone 2 and I would have been one of those people had the money :p

[Pupik]

That's still a lot of copies, for a console that used primary as Blu-ray player.

[Boz]

That's still a lot of copies, for a console that used primary as Blu-ray player.

I'd say it's pretty low for a console that's at 20+ million sold consoles.

I personally though Killzone 2 would have sold 1mil+ copies of the game. One of the main things you've got to consider looking at that is that it does exclude bundles, I know a few people myself who bought a PS3 bundled with LBP/Killzone 2 and I would have been one of those people had the money :p

Well bundles are not really sales in traditional sense. You get the games pretty much for free.. so those who wanted PS3 would've gotten the bundle rather than regular unit because of the value.

I've already posted in some other thread about poor sales of PS3 exclusive titles and was attacked by some (won't name any names ;) ). I'm glad this thread was created. Can't get more official than this.

What's shocking is that this article comes from Kotaku :)

[houlty]

whilst i can sit here and say i enjoy using my playstation and love a few of the games in that list (LBP, Uncharted, Hot Shots :p ), I can also say that it's now obvious that the ps3 is never going to be overtaking the 360 in this generation, and they've also given themselves a hill to climb for the next.

i think the main reason for this was that they were just too late to the game, and also lacked the user friendliness of the 360 and the broad appeal of the Wii.

[Livin in a box]

Next gen, Sony need to be first or second in there, they need to make it cheaper and I think maybe up the online a bit with more services. Exclusives need to come in earlier to, as said in that article.

[+Mystic MVC]

I can't believe R&C hasn't sold more. They invested a lot of advertising dollars on that one, the commercials for it were always on tv.

[red.]

Read this on Kotaku and just to be clear, this is US only so saying that it's for 20 million consoles is invalid. Another thing that seems a bit silly from the article is that he says:

rather than having Insomniac and Naughty Dog release Ratchet & Clank and Jak & Daxter games, which would have sold, Sony let them first release all-new titles, Resistance and Uncharted, neither of which have so far matched the sales or pulling power of their better-known PS2 platformers

In his own chart R&C sold less than Resistance and Uncharted so i'm not sure what he's talking about.

[Pablo2008jedi]

Personally, from a person who only owns a PS3, the price of games are also a concern.

The figures show the "retail" copies sold, I don't think this includes reselling (like pre-owned games). I mainly buy pre-owned due to the cost of games here in the UK, I find ?49.99 in shops to be way over priced, some online retailers do sell for ?35 for new games but I still feel that this is only worth it for high profile games, like GTA4 and MGS, the only games I paid full retail price. The most recent game I bought was Prototype, but that was due to a few trade ins and I only needed to pay ?12, but thats cleared out the majority of my old games.

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

Sales numbers don't affect my enjoyment of the titles, as long as the developers make profit and don't go bust over this keep bringing the 1st party stuff I say. As much flak as Sony get as a gaming division their internal studios deliver many awesome games of various genres. If studios are making a return they'll carry on producing games, leaving only people on forums to bicker about how selling 5 million instead of 3 million makes something a better game.

And yeah yeah what others have said this is USA sales only. The PS3 may have an install base of 24 million, but only around 6-9 million of those are probably in America. Europe will have the biggest piece of the pie, followed by USA, then Japan.

Look at something like Demons Souls, will probably never even break 1 million, yet it's my favourite game this generation.

[spenser.d]

Ok guys, really? You don't see the problem trying to make excuses like "this doesn't cover bundled games or resold games"? It's an irrelevant excuse because when you compare them to the numbers for other games, as this article did, those numbers fall under the same restrictions, so it's an even playing field anyways. No matter how you look at it, these games aren't selling as well as they probably should be.

-Spenser

[Ji@nBing]

I could totally see that. Sure, PS3 has a decent install rate, but how many of those were bought as Blu-Ray players? It kind of shows that those people who bought it for Blu-Ray might pick up something like CoD, but it's really a fairly small, hardcore crowd that are really into their PS3's and care about these exclusives.

The really scary thing for Sony is that these were supposed to be system sellers, and not only do they not seem to be selling to many systems, they aren't even selling all that well within the PS3 install base.

[AbandonedTrolley]

I could totally see that. Sure, PS3 has a decent install rate, but how many of those were bought as Blu-Ray players? It kind of shows that those people who bought it for Blu-Ray might pick up something like CoD, but it's really a fairly small, hardcore crowd that are really into their PS3's and care about these exclusives.

The really scary thing for Sony is that these were supposed to be system sellers, and not only do they not seem to be selling to many systems, they aren't even selling all that well within the PS3 install base.

+1 This really, the PS3 was pushed as a Blu ray player / Media Centre as well and as such many would have possibly bought it for that function rather than the gaming side.

I like Sethos though am very surprised by the lack of sales on Motorstorm. At the end of the day though, whilst I can still buy games for it, I'm happy :D

[Ricardo Gil]

I could totally see that. Sure, PS3 has a decent install rate, but how many of those were bought as Blu-Ray players? It kind of shows that those people who bought it for Blu-Ray might pick up something like CoD, but it's really a fairly small, hardcore crowd that are really into their PS3's and care about these exclusives.

I actually bought it for games when it came out, but I've recently realized that aside from watching a few movies I only turn it on once a week to play PES with my friends. The one game that pushed me over the fence to buy it was LBP, waited 2 years for it and then it wasn't all that. I lost interest and didn't even bother finishing the thing...

[soniqstylz]

+1 This really, the PS3 was pushed as a Blu ray player / Media Centre as well and as such many would have possibly bought it for that function rather than the gaming side.

I like Sethos though am very surprised by the lack of sales on Motorstorm. At the end of the day though, whilst I can still buy games for it, I'm happy :D

Motorstorm was an ok game released when the install base was quite low in the US, and was also bundled quite quickly. I'm not suprised at all.

[Sethos]

Motorstorm was an ok game released when the install base was quite low in the US, and was also bundled quite quickly. I'm not suprised at all.

This is pacific rift as well, so that won't really hold up in court?

[soniqstylz]

This is pacific rift as well, so that won't really hold up in court?

aka Motorstorm 1.5? The game that was released with no fanfare and middling reviews, even from Playstation-centric magazines?

[houlty]

aka Motorstorm 1.5? The game that was released with no fanfare and middling reviews, even from Playstation-centric magazines?

then your proving the point of the thread, surely? that it came up short for Sony, in both quality and sales.

[Sethos]

aka Motorstorm 1.5? The game that was released with no fanfare and middling reviews, even from Playstation-centric magazines?

Ah so you concede it has nothing to do with an install base, just an average game not doing well.

[soniqstylz]

http://www.edge-online.com/features/the-ga...tion-3?page=0,4

Sony announced a follow-up to the US, European and Japanese chart topper MotorStorm, which has sold more than 3.31 million units to date worldwide, at 2007?s Tokyo Game Show, along with its acquisition of UK-based developer Evolution Studios.

Sounds epic fail to me, too.

[soniqstylz]

then your proving the point of the thread, surely? that it came up short for Sony, in both quality and sales.

No, I'm proving the point that Motostorm: Pacific Rift was a shove-it-out-the-door-and-capitalize game that should have been a DLC expansion pack. The first game, which I have said I didn't really care for, was released damn near at launch, and was bundled by summer, meaning a good chunk of the sales since then don't count towards this chart.

[soniqstylz]

I could totally see that. Sure, PS3 has a decent install rate, but how many of those were bought as Blu-Ray players? It kind of shows that those people who bought it for Blu-Ray might pick up something like CoD, but it's really a fairly small, hardcore crowd that are really into their PS3's and care about these exclusives.

Actually, wouldn't you think those who bought it for Blu-ray would play CoD on a 360, or don't even play many games at all?

[Akaruz]

well the problem is that several ps3 owners like myself look to that list and laugh since except 2 games that list sucks ( GT5 Prologue and Heavenly Sword )

since ps1 i use it mainly for J-RPG , and like someone above said thats the USA List , which in my opinion sucks

[PiracyX]

The majority of PS3 Exclusive games such as Killzone 2, LittleBigPlanet, Resistance 1 & 2, Motorstorm 1 & 2 and MGS4 have been an utter disappointment. They are just not great games at all, just average. I look to Killzone 2, MGS4 and LBP as the biggest disappointments for the PS3 this generation without question. Massively overhyped and overrated (Just like the PS3 itself was) but the final product falls way short.