Gaming Devolved?

Go look at vgchartz. On all the big games, the PC sales figures are pathetic, but that's because Steam/Origin/Uplay figures aren't counted, hell I don't even think that boxed digital copies you can get from GAME etc. (like Skyrim for Steam or Battlefield 3 for Origin) count. It's very weird why they are not disclosed but digital figures never have been iirc.
 
They talk about consoles sales in their official documents as the main problem due to weak US demand.

I highly doubt that in an announcement aimed at investors that they would make the distinction between platforms. It's very likely that they bundled it all into one category for sake of simplicity to a non-technical audience.
 
I highly doubt that in an announcement aimed at investors that they would make the distinction between platforms. It's very likely that they bundled it all into one category for sake of simplicity to a non-technical audience.

I don't think that it really matters to the main point, even if the PC version meets expectations or not it would make no difference as its the expectations of the Consoles they were counting on.
 
Last edited:
Exactly,Final8y.The lead platforms for these games appears to be consoles,not PCs. Moreover,it if was one category,it would say "across all platforms" not consoles only. On top of this digital sales are excluded which is a huge percentage of PC sales.

If anything,that indicates PC sales,are really not as important to the success of many of these games as people on computer forums thing they are.Most of the TR games for examples had consoles as lead platforms,the same as Mass Effect,etc. Many games,have consoles as lead platforms now and this is where the bulk of the sales are for such titles.

Moreover,this Square Enix,whose main focus is the Final Fantasy series.

The same Final Fantasy series,which is mostly a console focused franchise.

Look at this list of Square Enix games:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Square_Enix_video_games

Most of their games are console exclusives or more console focused multiplatform titles. Look at the number of Nintendo exclusive games they have made alone. You only also need to compare Supcom 2 against the original Supcom,to see where the focus shifted.

They are not a PC focused company like Blizzard or a company like Crytek. Even both of those companies are now starting to make games for consoles too. The last time Blizzard made a console game was 17 years ago.

So,maybe PC gamers,should ask the question - what if AMD and Nvidia stopped sponsoring PC games?? Yes,it is not always ideal as it leads to both playing optimisation games with each other,but it would be still interesting to see how much they contribute,in terms of finances,personal and technology to development of PC games.

Square Enix has said in black and white that the console sales,are the reason they are having problems. People are trying to read into this as meaning weak PC sales too by association. What were their sales targets for the PCs versions of the three games??

This is the same as when a whole lot of people on PC forums,where complaining when a developer said the PS4 would be more powerful than most PCs. They instantly associated his comment with gaming PCs,and started complaining. They put words into the mouth of the dev who never said most gaming PCs.

Even,with the free codes from AMD, which some are indicating might have massively affected PC sales,how many of them were distributed?? The thing is AIB(Add-In Board sales),are not only all for DIY PCs. You need to consider ALL the prebuilt PCs,which ship with discrete cards,including those from companies like Dell,Lenovo and HP.

Only sales from shops were elligible for the promotion.

Of the current AMD graphics card range,it is only the HD7800 series and above which were part of the promotion,and a few HD7770 cards. Not the other cards in the AMD range. Moreover,worldwide not all retailers were elligible for the promotion. AMD published a list of elligible retailers.So,not even all HD7800 and HD7900 series cards sold from shops came with the code. So,what percentage of AMD graphics cards sold worldwide came with the codes,and that includes those in prebuilt PCs??

Moreover,what are the arrangements with AMD and Nvidia when games are bundled free with graphics cards?? They get a certain fixed number of free codes for advertising the game?? They pay a discount price for each code?? They pay part of the development costs of the PC version in lieu of these codes?? Anyone know??
 
Last edited:
Since Tomb Raider has beaten the sales set by all previous TR games (looking at copies solder over the number of months its been out), and Crystal Dynamics are saying they are pleased with sales, you have to wonder why Square Enix are saying these games have not met expected sales.

Here's an insightful comment from one of the news threads posted earlier:
Final Fantasy XIII took 3 years to sell 6.7 million copies worldwide and Square Enix calls it a success.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 took a year to ship 3.1 million copies worldwide. Successful enough for them to warrant another sequel.

Tomb Raider sold 3.4 million copies in 3 weeks worldwide and Square Enix calls it a failure...

Square Enix blames their failure on games made by others and not their own games they had to start over completely still not out of Beta nor on PS3 like Final Fantasy XIV nor spending lots of money and still not released game for a whole console generation like Final Fantasy Versus XIII.

They raised expectations on games made by others to hide that their own projects are the cause of their own failure.
 
Since Tomb Raider has beaten the sales set by all previous TR games (looking at copies solder over the number of months its been out), and Crystal Dynamics are saying they are pleased with sales, you have to wonder why Square Enix are saying these games have not met expected sales.

Here's an insightful comment from one of the news threads posted earlier:
They raised expectations on games made by others to hide that their own projects are the cause of their own failure.

I think there may be some truth to that and maybe they are relying on these games to get them out of the red.
 
Moreover,what are the arrangements with AMD and Nvidia when games are bundled free with graphics cards?? They get a certain fixed number of free codes for advertising the game?? They pay a discount price for each code?? They pay part of the development costs of the PC version in lieu of these codes?? Anyone know??

I don't know exactly how it works but it was reported in AMD's last financial report that the first never settle bundle cost them $4m to put together. So they obviously pay for the games but exactly how much will probably never be made public.
 
Back
Top Bottom