You bring up a good point. I’d forgotten about people boycotting Capcom over the lack of Megaman. You reckon they actually managed to make a dent in the sales? :o
http://www.capcom-unity.com/ask_capcom/go/thread/view/7371/28728501/According_to_VGchartz,_UMvC3_has_sold_less_than_30,000k_in_US_in_its_1st_week._Is_this_true,_Capcom?pg=2&pageSystem=full
Guess we’ll see soon enough.
I don’t think it’s got anything to do with a boycott, but rather just that Megaman is something that could catch people’s eyes and make them take a second look at the game over, say, Firebrand.Same thing goes for some of the classic X-men people know from the 90s cartoons and the movies.
Honestly, I think the Marvel side dropped the ball in terms of recognizable characters much more than the Capcom side did; the Capcom selection was pretty good in terms of balance between more well-known and more obscure characters.
Still, if the poor sales are true I don’t think they can be attributed primarily to character selection; that was a contributing factor for sure, but the main reasons are likely still the close proximity to vanilla’s release and the *extremely *stiff competition around the release date.
Walmart stocks for their video games are extremely low. A buddy of mine works at a Wal-Mart and they get like 10 copies in reserve max per system(copies that don’t have a pre-order attached to them.)
I went and searched for the game on vgcharts and it said it sold 0 copies. I don’t think they had any sales figures for it yet because if you check their total for skyrim on the chart and in the search, it was .58m.
edit: Looking at skyrim numbers its actually a bit different. The ps3 numbers when you search it are way above whats on the chart. So it’s most likely that they didn’t have UMVC3 figures of time of release, since it might be too old.
I think people are jumping the gun on this.
hopefully this means that Capcom will quit messing around and actually make a good game next time out. I doubt they will though.
Capcom’s apparently only understands two relationships with their fanbase - either ignore them, or exploit them ruthlessly. They don’t seem to recognize it should be (or even could be) a mutually beneficial relationship. look at what Valve and Bungie do for their fans…
Capcom was running ads for the game I know on G4TV regularly before the game came out and still run them regularly there. Which means someone has had to have seen them but, I don’t watch TV enough to know if the ads are regularly being broadcast outside of G4TV.
[media=youtube]QYyBTAI0rKw[/media]
[media=youtube]KZRfNM_ys8M[/media]
Capcom: Well shit… UMvC3 is not looking hot.
Ryota Niitsuma: READY THE UMVC3:AE SAILORS!
Capcom: Aye!
Shaking my head at how little people truly know about retail.
Devil Jin (you should really play SFEX+@ or SFEX3…great old-school games) already made the important points, except I think you guys greatly overestimate the casual market interest in this game.
Casuals don’t give a shit about the tournament scene, the only thing even close they ever get into is playing online.
EVERY review of vanilla MvC3 bitched non-stop about the lack of single player, bad online, and cheap characters. Yes, game reviews are meaningless to us, tournament players who know about fighters, but game reviewers are very accurate representations of the casual market (since 90% of game reviewers are actually casual scrubs, especially when it comes to fighters).
All the ones bitching about Sent in the first month weren’t tournament players. They were a SIGNIFICANT portion of online players (i.e. scrubs). For those of you who still think the Sent nerf wasn’t necessary, I doubt you would have seen 80% of the people you played online during the summer if not for that nerf.
In the long run though, Capcom fucked itself in the ass by not ever expanding single player, patching the online or nerfing Phoenix. Casual interest was completely destroyed by the end of EVO.
That’s fine from a gameplay perspective if you’re catering to the tournament scene who wants to get excited about how the game will develop.
That’s horrible if you’re a BUSINESS TRYING TO SELL A $40 UPGRADE TO A $60 GAME IN THE SAME YEAR.
From a gameplay perspective, having characters like Firebrand, Nova, and Rocket Raccoon is a great idea for expanding the roster and introducing new playstyles and mechanics.
From a business perspective, IF YOU’RE TRYING TO SELL A $40 UPGRADE, YOU GIVE THE SCRUBS THE CHARACTERS THEY ACTUALLY WANT.
If something like Heroes and Heralds was introduced in vanilla after the first month, then the casual market would still probably be playing it today. By now, it’s too little, too late.
Megaman is a popular character, but he isn’t the most popular character in Capcom right now. You can’t tell me that Megaman is more popular than Resident Evil, Street Figther, Ace Attonery, DMC,etc.
No it wouldn’t. Especially when popular character that have made in MVC3 and UMVC3 didn’t make MVC3 sale more copies than SF4.
What? They had Strider, one of the most requested marvel vs capcom characters. They had Phoenix FUCKING Wright. Vergil who is one of the most popular characters in Capcom. In Marvel you had Ghost Rider, Hawkeye and Strange.
People are so obsessed with Megaman being in MVC3, they forget other popular characters got in the game.
the more they stick to the cod formula at capcom with the sf2 formula with there fighting games the more they will sell. the more they stray for abcd button games and way to many modes,it took along time for people that grew up as kids playing sf2 that are now in there 30 that buy a copy of cod every year to deal wth sf4 ultras, but finally they swallowed it,every casual gamer i know has SF4 and ssf4 ,alot dont have ae, Its about keeping to what the majority want and has been the standard. they all have ssf4 and have it on there shelf and will throw it in every couple of months between 3 months of madden or or cod benders,
the first one alot of casuals saw mvc3 and were like wow street fighter with marvel chars,took it home and where what the hell is this thing,its not street fighter…and they stopped playinga week in…those people did not and will not buy another VS game for a long time and sure as hell did not look 2x walking past it for there copy of uncharted and skyrim or cod…but even if its was a lazy season. the casuals that bought mvc3 would not buy another version
I think this is exactly what should have happened - they should have just provided a free patch to MvC3 bringing all the vanilla characters in line with their UMvC3 selves. Then, when UMvC3 comes out, they could fix all the things that were proven blatantly wrong with the patch (Wesker, Spencer, Zero, Doom, TACs still being uncounterable on reaction…) and have new characters (maybe even more than 12 due to the extra time) and other things to bring casuals back in.
I work at ‘a very major retailer’. We got literally 2 copies of the game in. Yes, the game sold out first day, you better believe it. Hell, Target didn’t even get the game.
Honestly, we had a few people ask for the game, so I feel like we could have sold more if we had shipped more… but which bet would you go with if you are trying to make money through sales: UMvC3, or Skyrim? This is more than just consumer choice, here - retailers have very limited inventory, and they have to stock what they believe will sell.
UMvC3, KOFXIII, and Tekken Hybrid, all releasing in a time frame that has them competing with MW3, Skyrim, Saints Row 3, Batman: Arkham City, Assassin’s Creed 3, Zelda: Skyward Sword, Battlefield 3, Uncharted 3, and God knows how many other blockbuster titles. Considering these are companies that make fighting games, you’d think they’d know a thing or two about avoiding bad match-ups.
Those were all problems from Vanilla and are things that would have helped Vanilla sell better from the get go also. Some of the issues were fixed in Ultimate but yeah…between questionable character choices and lack of interesting single player choices that would deter casuals from the game a bit. Biggest thing to me is still the mass of other games that were being released on the same day on top of it all. In general I’m sure a lot of casual players feel like they’ve already bought the game they feel like they need with Vanilla MVC3 and may gravitate to Ultimate later after the holidays. Ultimate is definitely not something casual players are going to be clamoring for right now with all the shit coming out at full price points that they’ll also want.
Anywho since we are linking at Gamefaq.
There is some good argument that TC’s link is full of crap.
http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/637240-ultimate-marvel-vs-capcom-3/61183555
VGChartz isn’t a good source for first week sales data. They don’t get the data from all their sources at once, so expect a lot of numbers revision on the next few weeks.
That being said, I still don’t think this will sell more than vanilla MvC3 in its first 9 months from release.
I would only add that from the point of view of the retailers, it’s bad business to push this $40 re-release into consumers instead of the $60 AAA titles released this season. And this season is full of killers.
I doubt characters, or even KOF XIII - in the sense of being from the same genre could hurt sales -, have anything to do with poor sales.
Are baby mode OTG combos still in the game? That’s probably one reason this for the slow sales.
He is. All those franchises are relatively niche besides RE and SF, and RE doesn’t even have an iconic emblematic hero. Ryu is the spearhead guy for SF and he’s bland as fuck. Don’t forget that Megaman was Capcom’s face for a long ass time. EVERYONE knows megaman. Go talk to people about Phoenix Wright, or Chris, or Wesker, or Vergil and they look at you funny.
I agree that adding some notable fan favorites would have done a good deal for the sales.
Pretty much this. When talking to a couple of my friends about the new characters that were in the game, most of them were pretty much unrecognizable to them, even Phoenix Wright. They knew who Strider was, but only because he was in the prequel. On the other hand, they did ask me if Megaman, Venom, & Gambit were in the game. It really surprises me that they didn’t go for Megaman/other faves in the roster. Believe me, had MM been in the game the game would’ve sold better. Bonus points if he’s somewhere on the cover.
It’s funny how people accuse Capcom of being money-hungry, because these decisions they’re making are doing the exact opposite of generating revenue. As Shiki said, they’re pretty much shooting themselves in the foot here.
DevilJin, the7k, and ReturnOfShinki already made the most valid points, so this is mostly just going to be echoing sentiment.
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Ultimate came out at the worst possible time, competing with some major heavy hitters. Skyrim, Saints Row 3, Assassins Creed 3, Modern Warfare 3; these all dominated the sales market. When I went to Gamestop and took my place in line, as soon as I got to the door the sales rep asked me for my pre-order slip before I could even tell him what I was there for. When I told him I didn’t have one, he tried to send me away, saying they were all out of copies. It was only when I told him I was there for Ultimate when he said, ‘Oh, we have plenty of those!’ In a midnight release that had easily over 100 people present when I was there, only about 5 I saw purchased copies of Ultimate, including myself.
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Advertising for Ultimate was virtually non-existent. Compared to Modern Warfare 3, which has an awesome commercial starring Sam Worthington and Jonah Hill which airs all the friggin time, Capcom instead opted to film about 4 short, forgettable commercials which seem to only air rarely at midnight on Cartoon Network, G4 and Comedy Central. Hell, Desk puts out more entertaining exhibition videos.
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The game itself is incredibly frustrating for new players, considering that probably half of the people playing online are returning players from Marvel 3 who are beating the shit out of them. Meaning they aren’t getting a chance to really learn how to play. Ultimate’s training mode is a complete farce when you compare it to the university-grade system that Skullgirls is developing; one that actually teaches you the core mechanics of fighting games and not just how to do special moves and combos against an opponent who doesn’t fight back.
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Ultimate’s Story mode is just as bland and forgettable as Marvel 3’s was. Yes, we’ve all heard the argument that when it comes to fighters, story doesn’t matter all that matters is mechanics blah blah blah. That’s complete bullshit. MK9 already proved that a fighting game can have an entertaining and somewhat engaging story mode that not only introduces you to the cast, but the world in which the game takes place. Something like that may not be as important to a hardcore player, but it certainly helps engage and maintain the interest of a casual player. Last but not least, the endings are still incredibly laughable. Dr. Strange’s ending is literally two images and two lines. Pathetic.
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Speaking of modes, not launching the game with Heroes and Heralds included was completely retarded. Heroes and Heralds would have been a great marketing tool; something they could have helped advertise to push sales, even if the mode itself doesn’t necessarily appeal to me. Delaying the launch a couple of weeks so that the game could ship with it included would have only improved sales in my opinion.
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Finally, not including Jill and Shuma on the disk was another boneheaded move. They could have easily done this and compensated people who already purchased the DLC with an exclusive costume pack or something.
Capcom just completely dropped the ball with this game.
I didn’t play MvC2, so my knowledge of it is limited, but my understanding is that Strider was heavily requested due to his popularity in MvC2. That’s all well and good, and it’s great that he got in, but note that I was talking about most well-known to *casual *players (who make up the bulk of sales); they are not serious members of the fighting game community. Most people don’t know who Strider is; I sure as hell didn’t.
As for PW, again, he’s very popular within the niche of gamers that know about him, but Ace Attorney is not a major hit series and he doesn’t have the same kind of star power that, say, Leon S. Kennedy or Megaman would have.
Hawkeye and Strange are not that well-known at all. If you don’t follow comics (i.e., casual gamers) you’re not going to know who they are at all. Hawkeye will be a bit more well-known after *Avengers *next year, but your average gamer who doesn’t read or follow comics is not going to have any idea at all, really, who Nova, Strange, Rocket Raccoon, or Iron Fist are. Ghost Rider has a better chance at actually being known due to his movie, but that wasn’t a huge success.
By contrast, many of the X-Men (Rogue, Cyclops, etc) and other villains like Venom, Green Goblin, etc. are far more high-profile due to either heavy involvement in cartoons or recently released movies.
Again, I’m not hating on the UMvC3 cast, I like them a lot and I think it’s interesting that they chose to give some different characters a chance in the spotlight. Just pointing out that if sales are bad, character selection may well be something to point to as a contributing factor.