Are game sales down?

Current Fighting Games Fighting Game Discussion
1

I read today on an IGN article that Tekken Tag 2 didn’t meet expectations. Soul Calibur V sold just over a million.
m.ign.com/articles/2013/05/10/namco-bandai-yearly-revenue-up

I remember a couple years ago fighting games in general were selling better. MVC3, Soul Calibur 4 and even MK vs DC sold at least 2 million units. Now with these namco games and stuff like street fighter x tekken(for whatever reason) can’t break 2 million. Why do you guys think that is?

And with games like marvel 3 and MK vs DC selling the same despite being on opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of popularity in the FGC, how much influence does the FGC have on game sales anyway? Thanks.

2

Game sales in general are supposedly down due to the fact that it’s the end of an extended console generation.

3

"ARE GAME SALES DOWN?"
Yes, they’ve been “down”, and will continue to go down. Even the 2 million sales of MVC3 are, surely, NOT good in the long run. A game with FAR more casual appeal and FAR more popular cast (MVC3) sales a bit over HALF of what SFIV sold, That’s not good…

4

That actually makes sense. End of a console cycle, games sales are down year over year, FG sales are affected. But that implies that as this new gen comes in, their install base grows, that FG sales will pick up. That may be the reality but do game companies see it that way? Will Namco make SC6 assuming sales will improve or will they be scared off by SC5’s sales figures?

5

A) It’s still a *pretty *niche market
B) Nearing the end of consoles life cycles
C) Competitors in mobile devices have risen
It’s really tough to draw a crowd in with fighting games. Video games overall are slumping. You kinda have to look at the alternatives and substitutes for digital entertainment and where disposable income is actually going.

6

Add to the fact that developers and publishers have unrealistic expectations. It’s why Tomb Raider, a game that sold over 3 million in it’s first month is considered a failure.

7

That article really glosses over SC5’s sales figures, which must actually be quite positive for Namco.

I’m not sure what the actual sales target is, but SC5’s HAD to have been lower than TTT2’s, and it’s currently sold more total. Also was only developed in a year, so they most likely didn’t have as much money into the development costs as TTT2.

8

Same reason why Vampire Resurrection underperformed despite being one of the top ten games on the PS3 that month.

9

IGN is reporting those numbers very poorly. Namco’s documents say Soul Calibur 5 sold 1.05 million units from April 2012 until March 2013. It was released in February 2012. IGN neglected to clarify that.

You can read here that from Feb 2012 to June 2012 the game had sold 1.38 copies total, that’s already more than 1.05 million.
http://www.bandainamco.co.jp/files/2012201Q20E8A39CE8B6B3E8B387E69699EFBC88EnglishEFB.pdf#page=3

That would seem to indicate total sales of 1.75 million.

10

Obviously sales expectations are different for different publishers, and are closely tied to marketing budgets.

But only a few games (~30 or 40) sell a million copies each year. Selling a million copies or more is VERY GOOD. If anyone can’t make bank with those sort of sales figures, I call shenanigans! Small titles break even at 100,000 copies, and even mid-tier should be solvent by 500,000 copies.

(I’ve been a console game developer since 1998 - these numbers reflect my direct experiences.)

11

I thought it had more to do with everyone being broke these days, lol.

12

Well, of course they’re down. Have you looked at the state of the economy lately?

13

Exact figures on the financial worth of the video game industry vary wildly, but they all agree that through the great recession, the video game industry grew. The economy is not holding gaming back economically.

I mean, I could go buy VF5:FS for like $30 right now and go get 300 hours of entertainment out of it, it’s obvious why people keep spending craploads of money on video games.