PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale Slips At Retail, So What Went Wrong? | TheSixthAxis

TSA: "First things first – this game was advertised. I’ve seen a few PlayStation games come and go with little advertising but Battle Royale isn’t one of them – adverts and banners on websites everywhere, and there’s even a TV commercial, which – if you’ve not seen it – is below. It’s hardly perfect, but it’s definitely out there, and that’s more than the likes of Starhawk got."

[newmonday]

Hope word of mouth helps, this game is total fun and deserves better

[Zuperman]

i'll tell you what happen!

1. No sales for black friday
2. $60 is expensive for any game, especially if it's a game that's not repayable after you finish it and collect all trophies.

@kang
im speaking about a general game bro.
I love ps all stars!

[hkgamer]

Fighting games are definitely replayable.

[Kalowest]

The game was on sale for $40 on Black Friday

[DOMination-]

It joins a growing list of games that were noverhyped on N4G since way before launch, but it turns out that outside of N4G, nobody really cares for it.

Resistance 3, Twisted Metal, Starhawk, Haze, Motorstorm Apocalypse, MAG, LBP Karting, Modnation Racers, Warhawk, Socom 4, White Knight Chronicles, Lair, Quantum Theory (when exclusive), Sorcery etc. These are all games that have suffered this fate over the years.

When will these supposed 70 million ps3 users go out and support their console of choice? Apart from a few, most of the games I listed are actually very good.

[Dmarc]

yea because we all know n4g has the entire ps3 community on here./s
But yea ofcourse once again if you dont sell 2 million on first week your game bombed.Typical N4G nonsense.
I mean you really expect an exclusive to place high on a chart filled with multiplats ?
I give up trying to make sense out of stuff here.

Well either way im not a fan of fighting games like this so im gonna pass on this one.

[thezeldadoth]

because outside of N4G, very few people actually care about TEH SONY EXCLUSIVEZ.

This game, sadly, is just a boring knock off of smash bros. It doesnt understand what makes smash bros. fun. It keeps the quirkiness, without the deep gameplay and features less compelling characters. I dont think many people are excited to play a fighting game with fat princess.

[pixelsword]

@ thezeldadoth:

Yeah, Fat Princess isn't exciting, but Princess peach, now that's compelling and exciting.

Riiiiiight.

At any rate, it's a little too early to say anything about it. Saving $300 on HDTV's going on sale on black Friday will have a higher priority than a game with a $20 markdown.

[Welshy]

I wish people wouldn't write off games that don't have hundreds queueing and sell multi-millions on opening day.

This isn't like a shooter where, if it isn't COD, you get maybe a few weeks to enjoy the full community, but a game like PS All-stars is in a genre of its own for the PS platform so there is no real rush to get the best from it before the next title steals the thunder.

This is one of those games you can play even in years to come with mates and just have a good laugh.

No wonder so many studios have closed down this gen with massive media pressure on week 1 sales (Only 3 days in the UK may i add).

Give the damn game a chance, let those who are probably getting it for xmas try it, let word of mouth spread then judge it at it's peak.

This doesn't just apply to All-Stars, i wish people would just lay off and let games do their thing then be judged, with all these stupid doom articles putting negative pictures in peoples heads before they even get round to buying it or look into it, it doing the game absolutely no favours at all.

F**k this gens community/media -_-

[sdozzo]

Generally, sales don't go back up after the initial week. But, I hear ya... It's early to call this thing dead.

[Welshy]

@sdozzo

I agree, sales don't incline upwards again, but a game like this is a long burner you can pick up at any point over the months to come well into next year.

As my example above, it's not as though there's a sequel or rival title within the same genre rolling out anytime soon, so if people want a 4 player all out scrapper? They're gonna turn to All-Stars and that's that.

[Outside_ofthe_Box]

Exactly. I don't understand it. Why are people so quick to judge things especially when it comes to sales. People act like a game selling millions within days is a common feat.

This gen... smh

[aquamala]

console games have to sell well on the initial weeks because after that people just buy them used.

[Gamer1982]

The thing is about those games where millions buy day 1. The sales die after day 1. Because everybody has bought. Look at 360 exclusives for the main proof of this. They drop price so fast its unreal yet they outsell most ps3 exclusives day 1. When a game drops price it means sales have died down. When they die some more they drop even lower and so on. Until sales are so low its not plausible to continue to make it anymore.

[soljah]

i'll tell you what happenned game was bought mostly thru didital downloaad which, is not a part of the retail sales numbers.

edit so gamefly has it in the top 3 on both the ps3 and vita for popular games not bad

[cgoodno]

Depending on how well the $180 PSVita bundle sale went, Sure to be more than a few thousand new vita owners who will own the PS Vita digital download version of it. That bundle was ridiculous when added on top of last week's PSVita PS+ free games.

[DOMination-]

The vita version you get free shouldn't really count...

[Joegrine20]

Well so far i love them game. i play with drake and has a black with him already. one thing that needs fixing in the game is that. Kratos and sackboy has too much recovery on their moves and is almost impossible to punish them. Hence the reason the reason why ppl is complaining about kratos is too damn good. SackBoy aka spam boy is possible one of the best characters in the game probably the same level as kratos. Give those characters recovery on their moves. plz

[showtimefolks]

ok now stop this crap first the talk about forza horizon not selling and now this. how long has this game been out?

everything isn't gonna sell 10 million at launch. within first 2-4 months i believe this will do 1-2 million which is pretty good for a new IP

[DeforMAKulizer]

It is 3 days of sales with the added venue of being on PSN day 1. Not very telling of overall sales. The game will have its crowd and same as SSB, the sequel will surely hit the stride more than this when they perfect everything that was flawed in the first.

Also, i would give this game its time to shine during the christmas period more.

[jujubee88]

Agreed.
The PSN sales alone probably made this thing break even and the overall balance of the fact this is hitting in the holiday season will see the product overall be very profitable.

Also, it is a damn shame it did not sell 1 million in UK. Of course those damn brits with their horrible teeth are going to have a field day.

[Calm Down Sunshine]

Stereotypes

Related image(s)

[jujubee88]

Sarcasm.

Related image(s)

[darkride66]

And so it begins. Remember how the media flocked to declare LittleBigPlanet a "flop" within days of it's release. Do you think any of those sites ever retracted their statements or updated those articles when LBP hit 2 million, or 3 million? Or when it hit 5 million?

[Arius Dion]

We can agree
For once Darkride. Sign od the end times? lol. But it is too early to declare this game a flop, however gaming media loves to sensationalize things, which is unfortunate.

[sjaakiejj]

Actually, it's just about a full day of sales. The game went on sale on Friday the 23th here in the UK.

[AnotherProGamer]

those are only UK sales why don't we wait for worldwide sales first.

[League_of_Draven]

Why? So you can be even more disappointed? The game was a flop. Superbot is a terrible studio and shouldn't have worked on a game like this to begin with. No point in comparing the game to SSB because it's not even close. This type of game is more like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Smash-Up (which was another mediocre game).

[Godchild1020]

This game is far from mediocre. Have you even played this game?

The problem with people like you ( That haven't played this game and compare it to SSB) is that you guys don't know how enjoyable this game is and can get when playing online. Put your Fanboy thoughts to the side and give it a try. There is a demo in PS3s at Gamestop locations, give it a try and then tell us how good/bad the game is or you just can't get into it.

How many games are out there that you can play a match or 2 and go about your way, win or lose and walk away happy. If you are a fan of Sony and played with any of the characters in this game, you will go back and try that character and then try another, because the game gets addicting.

This also comes down to Sony, but can you blame them with the situation they are in. Word of mouth goes a long way, so those that enjoy the game, speak it up.

[Skate-AK]

Hope you don't like bubbles.

[Nitrowolf2]

"Superbot is a terrible studio"
I like the fact that this is their only title developed, since they were formed in 2009. Honestly your gonna make an opinion like that with one title that isn't even bad?

[trouble_bubble]

The game's good. If you don't like it that's your problem.

Game journalism = "what went wrong". Game's out for like 2 days, articles are already being written and cached to drop based on little to no information.

"Game sold X in one country in its first 5 min"...what's your point sixaxis? It won't even be out in Japan until next year. You just know someone's gonna see the zero in that column on vgchartz in a few weeks and go " HA HA troll troll, nobody bought it in Japan either *token SSB fanboy comment*"

[FunAndGun]

oh please, no matter how this game released you were always going to hate on it.

The game is mad fun, deal with it.

[Rainstorm81]

PS All stars is a very fun game, i wasnt going to give it a second thought but playing the beta got me hooked, and that took me by surprise

The problem is reviewers and people like yourself rather write it off as a SSB clone instead of judging the game on its own merit.

But thats what people have been doing with Sony this entire gen, remember when Uncharted was just a Tomb Raider clone? Now Tomb Raider is inspired by Uncharted

[smashcrashbash]

How is the game a flop when the lowest score was a 6. Since when is that a flop? In what universe is that a flop? How are they a terrible studio when they went all out to adjust and fix and make every character unique and listen to everything we said? Please it would be better if you don't say anything at all or else you will be out of bubbles in no time.

Besides I am a little tired of people trying say every PlayStation game was a flop the first week or month it comes out. UC2 was a flop, GOW3 was a flop, LBP, even GT5 was a flop until we found out sales were not that bad. Also stop acting as if Sony is the first system that ever had a good game that didn't sell as well as it should have.I can get the list of Microsoft and Nintendo games that barely broke a million or didn't at all.It gets irritating and boring listening to people constantly riding a PS3 game every time it doesn't break past a million while all games on other systems get ignored when they don't.I mean how many people are just lurking in the shadows so they can call PASBR a failure? I saw someone actually attacking the guy from Destrutoid because he didn't simply call it a rip off and said it was actually good. Just imagine people are rooting for games to fail and are angry when they don't. This is how gamers behave now?

[ndl1531]

your comment reeks of nintendo fangeek lol. what an idiot

[DarkHeroZX]

@League of Draven

We are taking your bubbles for trolling. This game beats SSB in fun factor hands down.

[Ultr]

...man get help

[scissor_runner]

I want to see a tournament! I didn't take smash seriously until I saw a tournament. I got to see the skill envolved in the game play.

I'm over the smash look alike thing and this game just has a pr problem. A tournament and a emphases on what is different would do this game wonders.

The tweaks need to happen. Games die completely when the players are not listen to.

Hey I'm glad a some fans like it though. Try not focusing on attacking people though you will just make more enemies. Ok?!

[izumo_lee]

Most PS3 games are more about the long haul rather than the opening weekend burst. There are a few games that can garner huge numbers day 1 on the PS3 like Uncharted or Gran Turismo.

All other 1st party games tend to have an even keel when it comes to sales, so judging it after 3 days is kinda pointless. Lets see it after a month or 2 before people can call it a 'bomb'.

[HebrewHammer]

What went wrong? Well nothing - I love the game. It's all Marketing.

But good lord Sackboy needs a nerf ASAP.

[AusRogo]

I haven't had any problems with Sackboy tbh. We should be able to report spammers or something though, because Radec and that sniper is a real pain when someone spams it.

The game is great fun though, the thing I like about it more then SSB (Which I absolutely love) is that the online actually works perfect!

[PirateThom]

There's other issues besides Sackboy, but they'll all hopefully be addressed in time...

I'd like them to change Drake's Level 1, for example, the delay between the throw and the shot is too long.

[Godchild1020]

You know you have to pull the R2/R trigger button after you start your level one super to blow the gas can up. It's like that with other supers with the other characters.

[PirateThom]

Wait...

Are you serious?

Why did I not know this?!

I think it's because I mostly play as PaRappa...

[HebrewHammer]

Drake's drum can spam is a problem

Sackboys cake tossing spam is a problem

Radec sitting in a corner sniping is a problem

All the problems with the games are leaning toward projectiles. So damn annoying.

[DarkHeroZX]

I main Sly, top-tier for sure.

[VitaOwner]

I main sly too, Im ranked 315 currently on leaderboards

[capnjoe217]

Sly is freakin S Tier. He's a serious problem when it comes to tracking him down when he's invisible, and his lvl1 and 3 are both deadly. If you have a screenwipe lvl3, that may be your best bet against him.

[f789790]

Then there's Kratos. He has probably one of the most powerful lvl 3 supers that you can get 6 kills with and he's an easy character to use. One of those facts needs to change.

I love the game though. Having to worry about imminent death at any moment from a super is great compared to SSB where you get to a high % and everyone chases your ass down.

[chewmandinga]

I don't think the sites working right now but you should check out the forums on Shoryuken.com for character strategies.

I think there's a fair bit of discussion going on about how to deal with certain characters.

[ABizzel1]

We should wait for PSN numbers as well. I bought the game on PSN, since it just seemed more convient to keep everything digital for this game, and it was promoted all over PSN, not to mention there were practically no deals for it on Black Friday or Cyber Monday.

It's a really solid game.

[Donnieboi]

Great game. Since it came with vita version free, it's fair to say that the game deserves it's $60 price, even if some were sad to see that there was no Black Friday deal going on for it.

[Ben_Grimm]

C, O, D

That's what went wrong, way too close of a release next to that hype machine. Probably would have been better to release in December or maybe even next year.

[admiralvic]

Nah, the issue is the fact that awareness was rather low and there wasn't much up selling. Like the commercials for TV were interesting, but they didn't tell you a WHOLE LOT about the actual game in question. Additionally, preorder numbers were always pretty low and the beta got HEAVILY mixed opinions, Lets also not forget that the Wii U came out a few days earlier and before that CoD, so people were low on funds (though I don't think CoD really affected it since they're different demographics).

[Donnieboi]

What? The beta got great reactions. However, not many ppl played it.

[admiralvic]

@Donnieboi

Clearly you need to read comments... I saw a lot of...

This game is amazing.
This game is broken.
I hope Superbot fixes it.
and even a few, it's okay.

While you probably read a lot of glowing comments on N4G or whatever, you need to remember that several users would constantly defend the game and or discredit those who didn't like it for whatever reason...

[scissor_runner]

@admiralvic

You are right. If the fans that actually bought this game are not listen to they will stop playing, thus word of mouth will stop. So superbot is going to have to tweak this game until every one is happy or teach these people how to survive the attacks that seem cheap.

Feed back is very important and growing an ip is hard work but you can not turn away customers or opinions too easily until you have the numbers to back up claims that this game is great for the majority.

I said a long time ago sonys rise and fall is based on their fans first and then on how well they react to those fans.

I've given up on complaining about Sony because their hardcore fans are who they are listening to. Which they should but some of you have cuased them to make dire decisions. I like the Sony brand and I like the progress they have made in software but I've been around for a long time and I'm ready to see them pump out better games so I can enjoy Sony also.

In a studio you fight for your vision but when it needs to be fixed you fix it or die. So direct people complaining to the right channels so superbot can fix their game and make the Sony brand stronger.

[Skate-AK]

Or the original release date of October.

[sdozzo]

Have to agree with this guy. You release your game along side the worlds largest hyped shooter. It's career suicide.

[Outside_ofthe_Box]

No, the pre-order numbers indicated this beforehand./s

[snake-OO]

Every year you hear how gaming retail revenues are down, but of course they would be because more and more people are buying the game off the respective console stores. Same applies to PS All stars.

[OmniSlashPT]

I'm waiting for Christmas to get it. After such releases as BLOPS2 and such, you cant really expect this to sell amazingly. Besides, it's a fighting game, since when fighting games have phenomenal day 1 sells? Just stop the hate once and for all, everyone loves the game, that's what matters.

[CRASHBASHUK]

hmm wasn't it meant to be out in oct?

[Skate-AK]

Yeah but it got held back a month.

[zgoldenlionz]

I think This game is going to do fine, if I wasn't still buying Christmas presents for the family I'd have already picked it up.

The one bad move I see was releasing it the week of black Friday. Sony relies on word of mouth a lot and that works for them but having a game release last week when nothing new gets advertised just Friday sales couldn't have helped them at all. Not to mention a lot of people tend to save their money for black Friday deals. I think if they just released the game 1 week earlier a lot more consumers would know this game is out and it be on more peoples radar.

[Jazz4108]

Its a niche genere game thats exclusive to one system. I did not expect big numbers from this game. Its mainly a fan service product that sony answered.

[P_Bomb]

Interesting how videogame journalists who probably make minimum wage or less themselves (sixthaxis staff generally write there for free), expect everyone to buy everything full price day 1 these days, and make week 1 the barometer for success even if it's between paycheques.

Recent games I haven't bought yet that i will someday:
Forza Horizons
Hitman Absolution
Assassins Creed 3
Halo 4
Okami HD

Won't get Far Cry 3 day 1 either. But I did buy BlackOps 2 for the wife day one and PS All Stars for myself day one to get the pre-order bonus costumes.

Is that okay? Are all those other games that i didn't buy bombs, because I can wait til they're $39.99 (which Forza is now)? I haven't even had time to play the final Walking Dead episode yet, and I paid for the series in full back in May. C'mon Alex. You're generally above this kinda heat for hits stuff.

[BigBoss1964]

Wait this game only came out here in the UK a couple of days ago

[black911]

I haven't seen any tv ads.

[twdll]

Should have released it on PSN at 19.99 - 25.00 bucks. It more than likely would have sold more. Sometimes 59.00 is just too much. People are looking for good deals. In my opinion anyway.

[GraveLord]

UK only. I'm sure it sold much better in the US.
Besides the game was available for on PSN as well....of course the majority of sales are done at retail

[yesmynameissumo]

If there's one thing I've learned this gen...is not to expect PS3 exclusives to fly off the shelves (Uncharted, Gran Turismo and God of War as exceptions). They sell for years, fast or slow, but still sell. This will be no different.

[dafegamer]

uhnnnnn dont want to spoil the hopes of the trolls but the chart only goes till november 24th and pasbr debuted on the 23rd in UK. It means that these numbers only include 1 1/2 day sales of the game. Which should wait till next week to make some conclusions

[dafegamer]

some desperate trolls sharing disagrees here huh????

[zeon0079]

Whatever helps you sleep at night.

[LKHGFDSA]

They f***ed up the marketing.
Seriously when I went to buy the game there was no posters or any visible notice that the game was out. and I didn't see any ads or TV or elsewhere in the couple weeks leading up to the release.

[darx]

Ahh maybe the game is lame.

[sdplisken]

its an exclusive fighting game in a sea of shooters that dominate the sales charts

what did they expect?

hopefully it will come to ps plus for free now

[Soldierone]

I'll be buying it when either Crash Bandicoot or Snake are added to the game.

Must admit the game could have used more advertising....I've seen more LBP Karting ads than I do anything for this. To be honest I've seen COD Vita, Assassins Creed Vita AND Vita, and LBP Karting ads a lot and they are doing a great job with it. I've yet to see a single advertisement for All Stars beyond gaming sites reporting the live action trailers. No commercials or anything....

Also have to admit right now, 60 dollars is a lot. Especially when you see how many people are buying COD, you are hoping those same people spend ANOTHER 60 dollars on your game.

[ritsuka666]

No suprise..

Sony deserved a better smash brosesque game, but their heavy reliance on third party characters made it impossible to accomplish. What can i say.

[black911]

I haven't seen any ads.

[BuckyBarnes]

Well, if you look back at my previous posts...I did call this one. Its an uninteresting game that was done better on an older console. Not really much to ponder.

[Oh_Yeah]

.

[soniqstylz]

Here's what went wrong

* Black Ops II
* Halo 4
* Hitman: Absolution
* Assassin's Creed 3

* The entire gaming media beating the drumbeat of "It's just an SSB clone except that it SUCKS 'cuz it's not SSB".

* And a Metacritic of 76.

[totallysane]

I would have no problem buying it. I'm just normally broke this time of year. I can't afford yet another $60 game right now. Can't wait to play this just broke. sorry sony :(

[tndtloveu]

I was hoping for this game to be on sale on Black Friday or Cyber Monday, but no... so sad!

[Conzul]

What went wrong is I have absolutely no money. FML