E3 Halo game announce won't include Master Chief
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Firmware 2.40 still down, wait goes on for news
May 16th, 2008 @ 10:57
Aaron Greenberg, Microsoft’s Product manager chief and the greenest man in games, told Gamasutra yesterday that April’s NPD data - which showed 360 beat PS3 in the States by the slimmest of margins last month - isn’t truly representative of the current picture of the market in the US. For that you’re going to have to wait until next month.
“We think that May will be a better barometer for hardware sales,” he said.
“We’re sort of happy to be the new home for GTA, much like we’ve seen with Madden and Guitar Hero, other franchises traditionally associated with the PlayStation. There’s a long list of franchises that used to be exclusive to PlayStation or traditionally sold better on that platform. PS3 isn’t performing anywhere near PS2. We’re the system with the most games, and the biggest online community. We know that people buy consoles for games.”
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May 16th, 2008 at 11:19 am
They’re only ’sort of’ happy? Hard to please.
May 16th, 2008 at 11:21 am
He doesn’t sound as happy as I’m sure Rockstar are
May 16th, 2008 at 11:24 am
I think they’d have been a lot happier had there been some sort of hardware bump.
May 16th, 2008 at 11:27 am
The lack of a hardware bump is a real shocker. Looks like pretty much everyone who wanted GTA had already bought a machine. :-/
I know it’s only five days worth of sales, but with the GTA hype machine as it was I’d have expected most of the new consoles to go on day one or over the first weekend.
May 16th, 2008 at 11:53 am
GTA IV did pretty well all things considered though… San Andreas did 2.05m opening week to a userbase of 28m PS2 owners. GTA IV managed 2.85m on a combined PS3 / 360 userbase of roughly 14m.
Plus if the last one is anything to go by… it’s got really long legs. San Andreas went on to sell 21.5m units.
May 16th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
Oh, Gods yes. Rockstar have loads to be grinning about, it’s Sony and Microsoft who need to go back to the thinking board.
May 16th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
Sony broke their thinking board working out how much they could rip out of the PS3 to drop the price.
Microsoft broke theirs trying to make a console that doesn’t explode.
May 16th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
I wonder how things would’ve played out if it really had been exclusive to one format or the other? It’s difficult to imagine a scenario where Rockstar would’ve made as much money, tbh. The sales seem to cement the ‘multi-platform is best’ approach for my money.
May 16th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
I think it’s only best if you can ensure the game’s technically successful on both platforms and you can get both SKUs out in the right timeframe. Quick-porting means muchos lost money, I reckon.
On the timeframe issue, a good example is UTIII on 360. I’ll be interested to see how it does now it’s been round for so long on PS3 and PC.
May 16th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
It’ll tank… just like it did on the other two platforms (outside of Germany anyway!)
May 16th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
Yup, if it was PS3 only I would have only bought it when I felt that a PS3 was a viable purchase for me. By which time I’d probably be picking up the game for less than £20 and second hand with no benefit to R*.
May 16th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
If it had been PS3-only I would have bought a PS3. No question. And I think a huge amount of other people would have done the same. Remember the hype in the last two weeks? In ten years working in games I’ve never seen anything like that. PlayStation GTA exclusivity shouldn’t be ignored as one of the critical factors in the way the last gen played out. Cast your minds back, seriously.
May 16th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
GTA does indeed have VERY long legs. The contest has, in a very real sense, only just begun…
May 16th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
patlike: Yeah… exclusivity may have helped hardware sales, but it wouldn’t have helped the game sales. Plus it would have cost too much to buy the exclusivity, compared to the bump it would have likely given.
May 16th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
So what % increase did both consoles get in April vs March?
I’m thinking that Mr Microsoft may be right here. If the game came out on April 29, the window for a boom in hardware sales is rather limited.
May 16th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
OrphanageExplosion: No increase, they went down by about 10% based on weekly sales.
May 16th, 2008 at 1:28 pm
PT: Sure, that’s true. And that’s why it would never have happened this time round. There’s no clear winner in the console “war” at the moment and cutting out 360 would have been ridiculous. Last time it was PS2 versus Dreamcast, and there was only one way that was going.
May 16th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
I dont think you can call the 360 the new home for GTA. It sold more because there are more 360s sold already in america. The PS3 had a high attach rate.
May 16th, 2008 at 2:31 pm
whoelse: It’s not really a valid argument though. The smaller the userbase, the higher the percentage of hardcore gamers that makes up that userbase (See only 7% of PS2 owners buying San Andreas at launch).
Publishers don’t look at what percentage of a console’s owners bought the game… they look at what made them more money.