Posts Tagged ‘Sales’

Top title game releases are becoming a year round event. Gone are the days when a gamer could binge at Christmas and fast through the winter, surviving on the fat of Santa’s spoils. But while the release calendar has changed my buying habits have not, and that maybe about to become a problem.

It was no secret that the traditional lull really wasn’t coming in January this year. Initially my supposition was that the large number of delayed games had simply shifted the off-season to around March. With this in mind I kept buying games. I bought Heavy Rain, Mass Effect 2 and MAG to name but a few. I ground my way through all of these, leaving aside titles from Christmas that I planned to return to later when the slump finally arrived. But my belief that the flood of releases would slow was wrong, because as March came and went, and the games kept coming.

I don't want to sound like I am complaining, this is not a bad problem to have.

Now I find myself sat with a pile of fantastic games that I am still itching to finish. They sit on my metaphorical coffee table, begging for attention. Yet even with this heap of games I have discovered that I continue to check new releases, unwilling to miss out on the next significant title.

Late in March it became apparent that it was getting beyond a joke. With games to review, articles to write and a life to lead, it had to stop. I had more than enough unfinished and unplayed titles to keep me going until sometime in October. Even big releases like God Of War 3 I knew I would not have time for; I could easily save myself effort and expense of buying it. I realized that once the buzz died and the price dropped I could come back to it, if I was still interested, but right now I don’t need it in my life. So I made a simple vow; no more new games until I finish the games I already own.

Kratos is just going to have to wait his turn.

Even as I made this promise I add clauses. I reasoned that games applicable to my ‘Scared Gamer’ page on Game People, would have to be bought for coverage. Plus any title that may be hard to find at a later date would have to be snapped up. Sensible provisos I could argue, but the more astute reader can no doubt see them as pre-made excuses for my purchases of Metro 2033 and Deadly Premonition. Yet even with these loopholes I have already broken my promise.

In many respects my actions were almost innate, see wanted game, I buy it. As an adult there is always enough money in my wallet for any game I want (which is different statement from actually having enough money). By simply having the economic means, the chance of me weakening to an impulse purchase rise exponentially. I was coping though; since I made the oath no new games had entered my house. Technically in fact I still have not gone back on my vow, but in my heart I know the preorder for Super Street Fighter 4 sat in my wallet is not sanctioned.

To make matters worse its the collectors edition.

My problem was that Street Fighter is something very special to me. In my youth this was a series that saw me saving for months to enable me to buy it day of release. A franchise that saw me hauling my tubby thirteen-year-old ass through Birmingham (at speeds it had rarely seen) go to Game, just to grab the latest instalment.

I could make a good many justifications to myself (some may even be convincing) to explain breaking my oath for the latest Street Fighter. Deep down I know however that, like so many others, this games will sit unwrapped for some time. My life has changed, I can no longer sit and play for hours on a Saturday with friends, and online play simply does not scratch the same itch. My time for this kind of gaming has passed, so while I can hope to one day relive it, the fact is I will be lucky to ever recapture this part of my youth even for a day.

On the plus side the bonus rounds are back.

Super Street Fighter 4 was simply the game that highlighted this problem that I, and I am sure many other committed gamers have, habitually buying games. Now as an adult I struggle to break the habit of buying games when I can, a pattern established during a time in my life when I could finish every game I could afford. As much as I try to rationalise it and excuse my purchases (‘its for review’ or ‘I have to keep up with the discussion’), I have to accept that I am now an adult with limited time. I am sure that I am not alone in having to take a long hard look at my hobby, its costs and my consumption of it, before conceding that many of my purchases are at best frivolous, and at worst wasteful, especially as the industry now appears set to feed my addiction all year round.

I have to confess to being disappointed. Years of hearing about landmark game launches in Japan created in me a misconception. I erroneously believed that somehow games of note drew everyone from their homes in a frenzied fit to politely queue outside any and every game store in the land to get their mitts on the latest installment of their beloved franchise. I was wrong.

11pm, day 1, still plenty.

It isn’t that Final Fantasy XIII didn’t have a big turn out. I have seen images on blogs, hordes of people waiting anxiously in line outside the downtown stores of larger cities. But this doesn’t seem abnormal to me. These stores always draw crowds. Even in the UK, the release of a big title can draw fevered masses to the streets for a midnight launch.

No, I expected more. This game has been cited as one of the two most anticipated games in the Japanese Famitsu for nearly three years. Every thing blogs and magazine had lead me to believe about Japan’s love of Final Fantasy had me expecting every store was going to be rammed harder than a ewe in mating season. So I headed down to my local store for its early opening on the day of release to see the spectacle for myself.

The Lucky 7.

A pitiful line stood outside my local (but not insignificantly sized) game store. The cold winter morning hosted the bedraggled group of seven (six guys, one girl if you are interested). Each trudged slowly in as the door opened, they politely bought their game before scampering home. They all (perhaps rightly) looked at me like I was the weird one as I surreptitiously took photos on my iPhone, their confusion growing still greater as I didn’t even enter to buy the game. Slowly more arrived, one by one picking up their copies. The trickle of people continued on, but disappointingly it never grew in to the expected torrent.

Of course the reports are already coming in of successful the first day sales. Square-Enix talking of shipping two million copies of the game, with over one million sold on the first day alone. Obviously I am in no position to discount any of this, but I can say that claims of the game having sold out all over Japan are somewhat exaggerated. Perhaps there is a drought in Tokyo, but Osaka still has plenty to go around.

7pm, day 2, this store is about the size of two cars, still has lots to go around.

Anyone would be well within their rights to tell me I haven’t been to the otaku centres in my research. They could even tell me that this is the first Final Fantasy release I have witnessed since starting DoFuss; perhaps I mealy misinterpreted the western coverage of previous similar events. Too all of this I would have to hold my hands up and agree, that indeed I haven’t, but I did see the Dragon Quest 9 launch. I saw the state of every retailer in my area that day. Each and every one had been ransacked, and all of the staff looked exhausted. Shelves lay empty, with old Dragon Quest game the only thing left to fill the voids made by the day’s sales.

It’s to be expected. A large audience both due to complexity and platform penetration of course means Dragon Quest 9 was destined to sell better. But I visited a total of five game stores in my local area and all still had sizable stocks of Final Fantasy XIII still available. The game will be number one next week, of that there is no doubt. But unless you are unlucky enough to be looking to pick up a copy in one of the more famous gaming outlets you don’t have to worry about shortages just yet.

Now if youll excues me, I am off to reconstruct my shattered childhood beliefs.

Since the mid-nineties the worldwide console market has stabilised. Where there used to be numerous platforms vying for attention, with battle lines drawn between regions, resent years have seen the market consolidate with only three platforms fighting for our money each generation.

Japan’s market has been the most stagnant. In part this was due to their conquest of the western market in previous generations. Their dominance became assumed. They have continued to develop ethnocentric games solely for their home market. So now, although Japanese consoles are still popular worldwide, outside Japan they have become more dependent on Western developed games.

But what effects the console market within Japan it’s self? How has Wii sold more than the other two platforms combined? Why does Microsoft continue to struggle? And why are PS3 sales more than three times that of 360? Factors effecting of each console are discussed in the links below.