Super Mario Wii for the Win

WTF!

““Absolutely. I say that unequivocally,” Reggie said in response to host Geoff Keighley’s question of whether New Super Mario Bros. Wii could outsell Modern Warfare 2 even on a single platform. “On one particular platform? I do believe so.”“

We are still in December and Reggie already won?

“Keighley clarified that he meant it would sell more than on 360, and Fils-Aime agreed.“

So he still has not… It seems outselling Modern Warfare 2 on PS3 would be (and was) to easy.

““Now, you’ve got to give me the entire holiday selling season,” he continued. “So let’s take it all the way through the January NPD data. I’ll take that bet.” He did agree, though, that it will be a close fight.“

NPD? So, is the bet only about American sales? If that’s the case, that will be tough. Again, the PS3 already lost that also.

Haven’t see “console hardcore” answers on these numbers yet, so instead, lets remember some previous delusions:

“It’s not like these “hardcore” games just have a big launch and then fizzle out.” – Link (and irony)

“But for players who do value cutting-edge graphics and audio — there are millions of us, by the way; we’re not a niche, as six million copies sold of Modern Warfare 2 in November show — it’s a slap in the face and a clear case of the bottom line taking precedence.” – Link

Used Games = Pirate Games?

Quem o diz é o Rich Hilleman da EA, quem o repete é o Matt Martin do GameIndustry.biz:

“According to the report, EA makes USD 35 on a USD 60 title, which means the game has to sell 1.1 million units just to break even. Due to piracy and second hand sales, the sales window for a new game is at most six weeks, with long-tail sales lost to a publisher.”

Estupida Nintendo, que faz jogos que vendem durante meses e meses. Não é assim que se faz, o que é preciso fazer é promover distribuição digital, para não se poder vender os jogos que se compra. Assim fica um problema resolvido, falta a pirataria.

“Burnout Paradise has twice as many users as it has units sold, due to piracy and second hand sales.”

Ora aqui está algo de que nunca me tinha apercebido. Coitados, andam a pagar servidores para que pessoas que compram jogos em segunda mão possam jogar neles. Se não se pudesse vender o jogo, a pessoa fartava-se e era menos um utilizador a gastar bandwidth. Assim lá têm que continuar a suportar servidores para se poderem jogar cópias originais.

Quem o diz é o Rich Hilleman da EA, quem o repete é o Matt Martin do GameIndustry.biz:

It’s what Rich Hilleman, from EA, seems to suggest, and what Matt Martin from GameIndustry.biz repeats:

“According to the report, EA makes USD 35 on a USD 60 title, which means the game has to sell 1.1 million units just to break even. Due to piracy and second hand sales, the sales window for a new game is at most six weeks, with long-tail sales lost to a publisher.”

Stupid Nintendo, whose games sell for months and months, that’s not how you  do it. What you need to do is to promote digital distribution, so the end user is unable to sell what he buys. See, one problem solved.

“Burnout Paradise has twice as many users as it has units sold, due to piracy and second hand sales.”

This is something I hadn’t realized before. Poor companies, they pay servers which end up used by people who buy used games. If games couldn’t be sold, after the person who bought is fed up with the game, it would be one less user on the server. With used games, they have to support servers so people can play original copies. How unfair.

Three things a hardcore-between-quotes would say

Isto começa com o seguinto top:

11 signs you’re no longer a hard-core gamer

O top até não é assim tão interessante quanto isso. Mas vale a pena mencionar por três quotes que possivelmente revelam que o autor do top é um hardcore-estreaspas:

“You fondly remember a ‘golden age’ of gaming […] But when modernised versions of these gaming classics turn up on Xbox Live, your excitement quickly evaporates. You quickly realise that, by today’s standards, those cherished oldies are now shallow, repetitive and not much fun.”

Este argumento ultimamente tem aparecido bastantes vezes: que os jogos antigos só podem ser considerados bons hoje em dia quando há nostalgia à mistura. Isto é um mito. Graças a emuladores e a serviços estilo “virtual console”, há miúdos que hoje em dia podem experimentar jogos que sairam quando ainda nem eram nascidos, e chegam a gostar tanto deles como de jogos actuais!

“You avoid playing on the Wii because it’s too much effort”

Coitados, mesmo quando já deixaram de ser “hardcores” continuam sem poder tocar numa Wii.

“You like your Xbox 360 and your PS3 equally”

Mas… hardcore que é hardcore joga PC! A 360 e a PS3 não são mais que PCs “casualizados”.

Não há mal nenhum que o autor do top tenha valores “hardcore”, se for esse o caso. É só que às vezes… nota-se um bocado.

Came across the following top:

11 signs you’re no longer a hard-core gamer

Actually, the top isn’t that interesting. But it is worth mentioning because at least three of its quotes indicate that the author is possibly, a hardcore-between-quotes:

“You fondly remember a ‘golden age’ of gaming […] But when modernised versions of these gaming classics turn up on Xbox Live, your excitement quickly evaporates. You quickly realise that, by today’s standards, those cherished oldies are now shallow, repetitive and not much fun.”

I’ve seen this argument thrown around a lot, lately: that old games can only be seen as good games when there is nostalgia in-between. This is a myth.

First of all, many people can see around the populary denominated “rose-tinted glasses” and still perceive a fun game.  Second, thanks to emulators and virtual-console-like services, many kids can play today games which where made well before they were born, and they still enjoy some of them as much as we did! Even while  aware of the “next-gen”.

“You avoid playing on the Wii because it’s too much effort”

Poor them, even when they are no longuer “hardcore”, they still can’t play the Wii.

“You like your Xbox 360 and your PS3 equally”

A real harcode doesn’t play 360 or PS3, he plays PC! Those consoles are “casualized” PCs for “hardcores”.

There is no problem in the author of the top having “hardcore” values, if that’s the case. Is that sometimes… it shows.

NPD July 2009

About to squish Modern Warfare 2?

July console and videogame sales for America are out, as well as the analyses.

In a few words: for the last months, the revenue from gaming consoles and games have been going down steadly.

To calm investors, game industry analyst Anita Fraizer says that there are still sales “heavy-weighters” to be released before the end of the year, and refers to The Beatles: Rock Band, Halo 3: ODST and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. There is another “heavy-weight” to be released this year that was not reffered by her, and that is likely to outsold any of the given games: New Super Mario Bros Wii.

Unthinkable? Check out who’s ninth, THREE years later.

Dragon Quest vs Final Fantasy

I still remember, many years ago, how surprised I was to know that the Final Fantasy games had a “rival”: the Dragon Quest games. I was even more surprised when I discovered that in Japan, Dragon Quest was way more popular than Final Fantasy!

At the time, I tried to investigate about the series, tried to understand why hadn’t I heard about this Dragon Quest thing before, if Final Fantasy games were so popular in the West. I didn’t get to any conclusion. But today, after playing Dragon Quest VIII in the Playstation 2 and the remake of Dragon Quest IV on the DS, at least I understand how different the two games are.

Overall, it seems that Final Fantasy is more of a serious-business kind of RPG: it has some humor, but the tone of the story is serious; the visuals are more realistic-looking than cartoony, in both the pre-Playstation era when Yoshitaka Amano did the character designs, as well as after, with the CG characters; I would say that the Final Fantasy games try to capture the “epic feel”.

The last Final Fantasy game, in 2009 (XIII)

Dragon Quest seems to have other values: it is light-hearted, cartoony and feel-good. But it tells a story too. And then I got it: Dragon Quest IS the RPG’s Dragon Ball – Dragon Quest not only looks like Dragon Ball (character design is done by Akira Toriyama), it feels like Dragon Ball. The humor is similar; the plots are straighforward, with plesurable twists; it doesn’t take itself too seriously, but it still tells a story; And both have mainstream appeal.

The last Dragon Quest game, in 2009 (IX)

So, one wonders… if Dragon Quest is the RPGs’ Dragon Ball; and Final Fantasy is the epic feel game; does this makes Dragon Quest the RPG for the mainstream gamer, and Final Fantasy the RPG for the core gamer?

It is telling that the last game in the Dragon Quest main series, which came out just weeks ago, is a DS game. When announced, it was a surprise. The following game in the main series has been already announced too, and not surprisingly, it will be comming out on the Wii. The next main Final Fantasy game will be out in Japan this year, and will be a game for the HD Consoles.

Both series are made by the same company, Square-Enix, and to put the main line of Dragon Quest on the DS was a bold option. They could as well made the game to any of the HD consoles, but looking at how Dragon Quest IX is fairing, it seems they knew what they were doing (and this is another nail for the “only Nintendo games succeed in Nintendo consoles” argument).

In the end, being the Dragon Quest games not as popular in the West as Final Fantasy games, might that be a sign of western RPG gamers being more core than mainstream? Maybe not, I would say there are as many, if not more, mainstream RPG gamers in the West. The difference is that, instead of playing Dragon Quest, they are currently leveling up on World of Warcraft.

Casual is the new Average

While reading a top about games which promised more than they could deliver, I found the following quote about Super Mario Sunshine:

“SMS doesn’t ease you in, either — it lacks a smooth difficulty curve, instead throwing the player to the wolves straight away. Fine for me, as I’ve been around the Mario 64 block a few times, but not so good for the average player.”

I read this, and it sounded weird. Only after a while I understood why: it has been a long time since I’ve heard about “average gamers”. Checked the date, the article was written in the end of 2003. Yep, at this time the Wii hadn’t launched yet and the term “casual” was rare in videogame writting.

*edit1*: Being “User-Generated Content” a popular ideia among the “game industry”, if fits that the same people have become attached to a word which definition is very much “User-Generated”.

What is Suikatime?

Suikatime is a blog which is almost making an year old. It is written in portuguese, and it will still be. But everytime a post with “enough content”, or with “general appeal” is produced, it will be translated and posted here.

Something like the international, best-of version of Suika Time! XO

Suikatime is a blog which is almost making an year old. It is written in portuguese, and it will still be. But everytime a post with “enough content”, or with “general appeal” is produced, it will be translated and posted here.

Something like the international, best-of version of Suika Time! XO