Far Cry is a bad choice... Its a game with a strong history in PC circles rather than consoles and if history has shown us anything, its that PC and console ports never really do exceptionally well on the other platform; well except for Morrowind and Oblivion.Originally Posted by Bolivar
Both you and zerokku are diluting and generalizing a plethora of economic concepts into "bigger install base = more potential sales". One such concept your mitigating is brand name building. More PS3 owners bought MGS4 than the total PC, 360, and PS3 users who bought Far Cry 2, despite both being extraordinary games in their respective genres (if you could even say MGS has a genre). That's accountable to a number of reasons - it shows off what the PS3 is capable of, its a continuing partnership, etc.
It's not unreasonable to believe that many PS3 users who are new to Final Fantasy will opt to buy another game like God of War III (probably going to release around the same time) because they'd rather see what their purchase can do.
The question is, can the 360 base offset those lost sales? Considering the Halo/Madden frat boy crowd that makes up most of its user base, it's hard to say.
To be honest GTA IV would be a better comparison, seeing as it has two best selling records. GTA IV has sold over twice as many units as MGS4 (MGS has sold close to 5 million units while GTAIV has sold 13 million) GTA IV is a sequel in a series that owes its success to Sony, was an exclusive til this console generation. Thus it should have had a massive fanbase on the PS3 cause its always been on Sony systems. Yet the 360 version outsold the PS3 version, 2 to 1 according to GameStop...MGS4 might be able to double its numbers if it ported the game to the 360.
There are two major flaws with your overall argument. First, you assume FF fans = Sony fans and that is really not the case here. SE is still being loyal to its fans and that's what they should be doing right now. The fact is, its bad business to play favorites, and releasing it on either platform first may affect sales on the other platform. Its more fair to play it safe and do simultaneous release.
The other problem is that you ignore the fact that Sony is not doing well on the market. Its more sound to go multi-platform than risking your best franchise on a struggling platform in the middle of a global depression. In this case, I feel SE is doing the right thing by keeping themselves afloat rather than sticking to a corporate friends who have been kinda unreliable to them in the last few years. We really don't know how much SE lost when Sony chose to not support online for the PS2; especially when it was SE and FFXI that was at the forefront of promoting that feature.
There were also several grumblings from EA, SE, and Konami about the PS3 and its prices. Hell, Konami is announcing MGS: Rising (the supposed MGS5) as being for the 360 as well. Continued partnership is not looking good...
Besides, SE has been courting Microsoft for a few years now. I mean in all of the PS3's life span its gotten four titles from SE and two of them are exclusives for now (Versus and XIV). SE has been more buddy buddy with Microsoft every year, I wouldn't be surprised if SE gave Microsoft another Sony exclusive.
Now where I do agree with you is that I don't necessarily feel XIII will do well on the 360. I don't think it will do well on the PS3 either due to the PS3's standing on the market and I don't think the 360 has a core market place for the title as it seems RPGs do very modestly at best on the 360. Together, I feel SE has a chance to make the same numbers they had in the past with the franchise but neither market is strong enough for the series to do well on its own. Besides, the 360 has a large install base in the U.S. and PAL regions which is where the FF series has always thrived. Why should a business throw away money for the sake of only some of the fans?
Now where I do give Microsoft credit is this. Be getting the right to have XIII, they have effectively harmed Sony's chance to make a comeback with the series. Even if XIII did have major console selling power, gamers on the fence of the console race may opt for the cheaper 360 to play the game. Even if XIII isn't a success on the 360, it will still hurt Sony to some degree by taking away part of the sales XIII from them and allow Microsoft to maintain their sales superiority. We'll have to wait and see if Sony has learned their lesson and does everything in their power to keep Versus and FFXIV exclusive. Of anything, Sony needs to get their act together.
Reply With Quote