Video Game Market Analysis Thread

[Vonterribad (Matt)]

@EPC

You can not judge GAAS games success on 1st week.

I understand that for sure, but PS PC releases have been abysmal. Curious if this will change their minds on day and date.

[Resist]

@Anecronomicon

The problem is budget & cost of development in the west.

Take Capcom for example: RE4 Remake has insane AAA production values with top of the class gameplay, anmations, cinematics & graphics. It sold 6.5 million copies since its release… & Capcom is happy with that number. They’ve got a Resident Evil conveyor belt of releases with attainable sales within functional budgets.

Meanwhile if the game was made in California, it would probably barely break even & there would be layoffs.

That’s just one example.

It’s also important to keep in mind what regions these games are produced in. Japan has lower salaries.

[binarymelon]

@Jorge_Alexander_Acos

…Was this shared? image1920×1476 205 KB (keep in mind this does not include battlenet sales)

Are you sure? It looks like only Nintendo digital sales aren’t included.

[Cpt_Haddock (Peeeter)]

@EPC

You can not judge GAAS games success on 1st week.

A F2P GaaS, sure, but that’s not Helldivers’ case, so it already is a success imo.

[Jorge_Alexander_Acos (Jorge Alexander Acosta Duarte)]

@binarymelon

Are you sure? It looks like only Nintendo digital sales aren’t included.

Yes because it uses the same data as NPD and they dont have battlenet sales

[Jorge_Alexander_Acos (Jorge Alexander Acosta Duarte)]

@Cpt_Haddock

A F2P GaaS, sure, but that’s not Helldivers’ case, so it already is a success imo.

This is part of SONYs multiple GAAS. If after some time the playerbade starts declining at extreme rates then that would be a failure. Too early to say its a success.

[Cpt_Haddock (Peeeter)]

@Jorge_Alexander_Acos

This is part of SONYs multiple GAAS. If after some time the playerbade starts declining at extreme rates then that would be a failure. Too early to say its a success.

I don’t know, there are different kind of GaaS games, a game like Path of Exile really needs playerbase not to leave for it to keep getting money from microtransactions, since that’s the only way the developers have to make money.

But a game like Helldivers selling so well means it’s profitable since the first days-weeks, that’s a success already.

Of course if the developers keep updating it and the game maintains a good playerbase over the years, much better, it can be a huge hit.

But as soon as the game, which is buy to play, manages to almost double the number of concurrent players of any previous Sony game on PC, that can’t be called a failure anymore, if it was F2P it would be a very different story tho.

[KakkaKarrotKake]

Depends entirely on their expectations, profitable for them wont mean anything if they had long term expectations and it doesn’t hit those

and doubling Day 1 concurrent doesn’t mean much when it’s their first Day 1 PC game afaik and it’s also multiplayer which help can increase fomo

[Jorge_Alexander_Acos (Jorge Alexander Acosta Duarte)]

@Cpt_Haddock

… I don’t know, there are different kind of GaaS games, a game like Path of Exile really needs playerbase not to leave for it to keep getting money from microtransactions, since that’s the only way the developers have to make money. But a game like Helldivers selling so well means it’s profitable since the first days-weeks, that’s a success already. Of course if the developers keep updating it and the game maintains a good playerbase over the years, much better, it can be a huge hit. But as soon as the game, which is buy to play, manages to almost double the number of concurrent players of any previous Sony game on PC, that can’t be called a failure anymore, if it was F2P it would be a very different story tho.

Its up to a great start thats for sure but SONY expect these games constant monetisation (dont know how it works in HD2) to help funding future games over the years. If it acts like any “normal” game: huge sales in first days and then dramatically drop, that there could be considered a failure in their GAAS initiative.

saying a GAAS is a success in the first weeks is too premature.

[Jorge_Alexander_Acos (Jorge Alexander Acosta Duarte)]

@KakkaKarrotKake

Depends entirely on their expectations, profitable for them wont mean anything if they had long term expectations and it doesn’t hit those

and doubling Day 1 concurrent doesn’t mean much when it’s their first Day 1 PC game afaik and it’s also multiplayer which help can increase fomo

Yeah, just like what happened with Destiny 2 last year.

[BRiT]

@Sparda3g

Jokingly or maybe not, but who should be blamed for live service ruling the world?

The consumers?

[Sparda3g]

@BRiT

The consumers?

Damn me!!!

Yeah, that’s the bottom line. It is what it is.

[BRiT]

@Sparda3g

Damn me!!!

Yeah, that’s the bottom line. It is what it is.

[saintsflow20]

https://twitter.com/Pilestedt/status/1756503870576918552

Helldivers 2 sold “around a million”

Hopefully speeds up Sony’s move to day 1 PC.

[EPC]

1M is good but nothing ground breaking. If you listen to people, it has sold record numbers.

[FacelessSamurai]

@EPC

1M is good but nothing ground breaking. If you listen to people, it has sold record numbers.

It’s doing all right in terms of concurrent users on steam right now. If Sony can keep it going for a while and then next year add it into PS+ and do deep discounts, it could keep the game alive for a while if the user base is buying enough battlepasses or whatever it is this game has as a GAAS feature.

Long term is really how we know if those games are successful or not.

[Resist]

"Regarding first-party software, we aim to continue to focus on producing high-quality works and developing live service game. But while major projects are currently under development, we do not plan to release any new major existing franchise titles next fiscal year (ends March 31, 2025) like God of War Ragnarok and Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. Although the burden of acquisition related costs will ease next fiscal year, we expect profit from first-party software to decrease slightly from this fiscal year due to the impact of the decrease in sales. Due to this, operating income for the next fiscal year is currently expected to increase slightly from this fiscal year. However, while this our baseline, we are reviewing measures for further improvement in profitability in advance of the annual forecast results announcement this May.

[pip-boy3000]

https://twitter.com/6d6f636869/status/1757679083469889796?ref_src=twsrc^tfw|twcamp^tweetembed|twterm^1757679083469889796|twgr^|twcon^s1_&ref_url=

[pip-boy3000]

Curious what this means for next gen…are we going back to the PS4 era where we got very underpowered hardware?

https://twitter.com/6d6f636869/status/1757672881004408981

[CallMeCraig]

So 5 percent profit margin with Spider-Man 2. Its even more dire than i thought.

How will their profits look next year when they dont plan to release any big game till 2025?

@pip-boy3000

Curious what this means for next gen…are we going back to the PS4 era where we got very underpowered hardware?

https://twitter.com/6d6f636869/status/1757672881004408981

don’t think so, just prices will not decrease like we are used to in previous gens. They will more stay the same for all of the 5-6 years of a hardware generation. Moore’s ‘law’ isnt dead but price for silicon is another matter.