There's no denying that Nintendo sits atop videogame system sales with the Wii, however an article in today's New York Times notes it's the Wii game (software) sales that are lacking. The article notes a sharp drop in Super Smash Bros. Brawl sales, with retailers such as Toys R Us bundling the game with the Wii system and a GameStop store reporting sales dropping from "a couple thousand" in the first week to "maybe 100" in the weeks following. No doubt, hardcore fans swooped it up in the first week, as March 2008 NPD numbers show. But are Wii owners supporting the system's library enough?
"The sudden closure of several video-game studios at Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox division was the result of a widespread cost-cutting initiative that still isn’t finished.
This week, Xbox began offering voluntary severance agreements to producers, quality assurance testers and other staff at ZeniMax, which it purchased in 2020 for $7.5 billion, according to people familiar with the company’s plans. Others across the Xbox organization have been told that more cuts are on the way.
Speaking about the closures more broadly, Booty said that the company’s studios had been spread too thin — like “peanut butter on bread” — and that leaders across the division had felt understaffed. They decided to close these studios to free up resources elsewhere, he said.
Game Pass has not seen the massive growth that Xbox boss Phil Spencer may have been hoping for."
"Speaking about the closures more broadly, Booty said that the company’s studios had been spread too thin — like “peanut butter on bread” — and that leaders across the division had felt understaffed. They decided to close these studios to free up resources elsewhere, he said"
So what you're saying is...you bought all these studios and you guys can't run them.
Jesus.
Reports are suggesting that Game Pass will be getting a price hike soon and that Call of Duty may not be added to the day one offering. I honestly have a hard time believing this but it does beg the question why exactly did GP fail? I think the answer is that it just didn't get the growth that it anticipated. Jim was right but I wish he wasn't because at the end of the day, its gamers, devs and other front-line workers who have to absorb the blow for Spencer and team's miscalculations.
For all the armchair executives who were calling for Sony to release its big-budget AAA games on PS+, the same exact thing would have happened at PlayStation. Game Pass has killed Xbox. Congrats.
"While the 20 year anniversary edition of Nordic Game, NG24 Spring's homepage on 21-24 May in Malmö, Sweden, is getting closer, the organizers announced that more than 150 speakers are now lined up for the show." - Nordic Game.
The gaming industry has drifted away from offering full-fledged games to putting unfinished titles that are jam-packed with microtransactions on the market.
It's not the fault of the gaming industry. Gamers were told what was happening, were warned about where this would lead, did nothing, and now are acting like it's the fault of publishers that they kept buying these games and investing in MTX. If only those gamers at that time felt as strongly about these things as they do Helldivers 2.
This is what amazed me the most when playing hours upon hours of stellar Blade version 1.00.00 no bugs, no crashes, no sudden drops in frames, no screen tear, no falling from the world, just a complete package on a game under 50GB.
I think Korea will play a major role in gaming in the long run , because they're releasing banger after banger.
Still pretty common to find if you stay away from the AAA publishers, in the last 10yrs ive probably only bought like 3 games combined from EA/ACTIVISION/UBISOFT. Even now i still buy games that work right out the box perfectly fine. Just recently got like 6hrs into Alone in the Dark, and not a single sign of any of that bs, really enjoying my time with it.
And we as gamers have to accept our role in that. Constantly never being satisfied. Constantly demanding more while paying less. Constantly demanding better frame rates, better graphics, more modes and faster faster faster…. Then review bombing the product when a demand isn’t met. Meanwhile those same demands are making games more difficult, complex and more expensive to create than ever before, on shrinking timelines that burn out employees and make their lives miserable.
You wanna know why so many games get delayed? Cuz the original release dates weren’t realistic to begin with, but you can’t tell a gamer their game is further away than they want to hear. Some dev or game designer will be threatened physically. That builds even more pressure and rushing. We are officially squeezing water out of rocks and still complaining about that how hard you have to squeeze the rock be just waiting for rain. Most of the time we take it out on the developing studio, when it’s the publisher making the calls.
All you need to do is read the comments on most websites and social media to see how toxic, entitled and petty the gaming community at large is, and realize how that transforms into impossible expectations on the parts of game makers.
This is one battle that gamers have never won, hahaha. They were parading recently for their "win" against Sony. Where's the energy for this one, guys? LMAO!
meh. Wii sales are much better than GC sales so far so not to weak.
This is normal. It has been stated many times by many different sources, the most recent being the Epic president that the Wii is selling because of curiosity. Once a person buys it, they usually find that it gets boring after a little while. I know that I haven't touched my Wii since Brawl came out. Most gamers will go to the 360/PS3 to get their gaming fix. Its the casual market who is buying the Wii, and they really aren't big game buyers.
I could have told you this. The Wii doesn't have very many good games and they don't really appeal to the hardcore gamer. As a result there target market consists of people who do not buy lots of games (recreational users) and little kids (who rely on their parents to buy the games). I like Metriod, Zelda, Mario Kart and Mario Galaxy, they are all great games but that equals 4 games in the year and a half the system has been out.
Super Smash Bros Brawl sold 2.7 million copies in March. No PS3 game has ever sold that many in America and only three Xbox 360 games have (Halo 3, Call of Duty 4 and Gears of War).
To say that Wii sales are "weak" after a game becomes the fourth best-selling game of this generation is moronic.
Lot of incorrect stuff in that article, or just outright spin. Just pulled up VGchatz and noticed that SSBB was number 1...yeah being the number 1 selling game is really something to be worried about.Also the last official thing I read had GH3 on Wii outselling all other versions of the game and thats will a recall. I guess he missed the part where they lost 6 weeks of sales for shipping with mono sound.Hell just looking at th NPD for game sales shows he is completely wrong "Over the first three months of the year, only three other Wii titles broke the list of top 10 best-selling games compiled by the NPD Group, a market research firm: Super Mario Galaxy, Guitar Hero III and Wii Play," I think he needs to actually read the NPD data. Jan has 5 Wii games in the top 10. Feb has 4 and MArch as 5 again.. When you consider the 360,PS3,DS, and PSP are all trying to have games there getting 5 of them isnt a bad thing at all.