Miami Vice announced for PSP
by Alan Rose 
{ Apr 21st 2006 at 6:30PM }
This summer's Miami Vice flick will have at least one licensed game to its credit, and it doesn't look like it will challenge Liberty City Stories as the preeminent beat 'em up-shooter on the PSP. In VU's Miami Vice, you can play as Sonny Crockett (Colin f***ing Farrell) or Rico Tubbs (Jamie "Ray" Foxx), but with the co-op mode, you and a buddy can partner up to take down the Colombian drug lords infesting the streets of Dade county. There's no mention if the film's cast will partake in the game's voice acting, but if Gong Li's Isabella character is waiting back on Sonny's boat, I'd like to test that mature rating.
Given the poor reception of the 2004 console and PC flop, this updated version is likely to sell about as many copies as a UMD of the film on which it's based. Anyone up for a Nash Bridges game?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Amir @ Apr 21st 2006 6:40PM
Hey, this looks nowhere near as bad as the version that I saw reviewed in OXM UK (don't worry, I didn't actually buy the magazine, I know it's poorly-disguised propaganda). Still, can't help but think that they started off with a PS2 game, realised how poor the graphics were and ported it to the PSP.
Tom Cruise @ Apr 21st 2006 6:43PM
It's gonna suck... port this to the DS please!
jp007 @ Apr 21st 2006 6:43PM
Sweet, a finally a real reason to buy a PSP! A crappy game cashing in on the license from a crappy movie which is cashing in on the remake everything because Hollywood can't be original anymore. Take that DS!
Korey @ Apr 21st 2006 7:18PM
I dont know the show from the 80s was good i dont think the movie looks good the game is probably as bad as bullet proof i hate collen farrel hes gay And i Loved Nash Bridges that would be a good video game i juss wanna drive the cuda
EzPz @ Apr 21st 2006 7:23PM
Ah man. Nash Bridges. How awesome was that show? It started to get a bit crappy towards the end, but it still rocked.
tivo @ Apr 21st 2006 7:29PM
nash bridges, walker texas ranger, and marshall law. CBS use to be where it's at on Saturday night.
supermongoose @ Apr 21st 2006 7:34PM
This version has nothing to do with the recent PS2 or PC Miami Vice games. It's completely original. It's not just a shooter, apparently it's got drug wars style elements to it.
NZERO @ Apr 21st 2006 7:38PM
This game will fail like GTA:LibertyCity Stories did and they'll say lets port it to the PS2 like they did with GTA:LIbertyCity Stories.
JRM @ Apr 21st 2006 9:20PM
Only Jan Hamer's synthesizer music can save this POS. It better be included.
Fandel @ Apr 21st 2006 9:27PM
#8: "This game will fail like GTA:LibertyCity Stories did and they'll say lets port it to the PS2 like they did with GTA:LIbertyCity Stories."
Uh, you do know that GTA LCS is by far, the best selling PSP game of all time, don't you? I wish people would get their facts straight before trying to be a smart alek.
Oh, and the reason why they are porting GTA LCS to the PS2 is because Take Two needs money. NOT because LCS didn't sell well on the PSP because believe me, it did.
NZERO @ Apr 21st 2006 11:00PM
Fandel can you find out for me how many copies GTA:LCS sold up until now. Because I can't find anything on google or on any website of how much it sold all they tell me is "The best selling PSP game". Now this is bulls*** because LETS SAY this is just hypothetical okay that mostly all PSP games sold around 200,000 to 500,000. Then GTA:LCS (hypothetically okay) sold 700,000 copies then this means it is the best selling PSP game cause it sold the most on the copies on the PSP then any other game. Now supposadly there is suppose to be around 4.2 million PSP owners in North America according to NPD (And around 4.5 million DS owners also according to NPD in North America) Then that means it didn't sell well if my hypothetical numbers are correct which I do not know but if it is close to what I just said then GTA:LCS didn't sell that well. So it could have been the best selling game on PSP and still not sell well.
namelessloser @ Apr 21st 2006 11:13PM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Best_selling_game
PSP's only million sellers:
* Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (1.85 million) [281]
* Ridge Racer (1.04 million) [282]
just to throw it out DS's:
* Nintendogs (6 million) [217]
* Mario Kart DS (3.93 million) [218]
* Animal Crossing: Wild World (3.57 million) [219]
* Super Mario 64 DS (3.55 million) [220]
* Adult English Training (2.35 million) [221]
* Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day (2.18 million) [222]
* Brain Age 2 (2.13 million) [223]
* WarioWare: Touched! (1.88 million) [224]
* Big Brain Academy (1.20 million) [225]
* Tamagotchi Connection: Corner Shop (1.06 million) [226]
Jeff @ Apr 21st 2006 11:24PM
"Fandel can you find out for me how many copies GTA:LCS sold up until now."
The only number I've been able to find is 158,000 copies in its first month. Through March, it was then the #1 selling title on PSP each month.
You can probably safely assume its numbers dropped a bit each month, and given the installed base of PSP's, I would think 700,000-800,000 copies is probably about right. (Take 2 has also never called it a "million seller" as they have with other titles.)
That's good, but it's not great for a GTA title. The last three GTA's for PS2 all sold greater than 7 million copies. It also apparently has not moved PSP's as the GTA franchise has done for the PS2.
Rockstar had been planning LCS since even before the PSP's launch, and I'm sure they expected more systems out there before LCS hit store and I'm sure they also expected it to drive further sales of the system. Neither of those things happened. So I do think sales of LCS on PSP can be considered a disappointment.
NZERO @ Apr 21st 2006 11:43PM
Namelessloser I don't know why you call yourself that but you are really good at finding info. So I was wrong and the numbers of DS in North America are here in this link where you'll find the DS numbers in North America they aren't NPD numbers but close to them and here is the PSP link for those numbers.
The DS one is here for North America
http://www.gaming-age.com/news/2006/1/3-1
And the PSP one is here you'll find there close to NPD numbers for North America ( Its under sales and competition on the 3rd paragrapgh)
http://www.answers.com/topic/playstation-portable
Also here are worldwide figures the info is under the bold letters of Market Share
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_Portable#Sales_and_competition
epobirs @ Apr 22nd 2006 2:34AM
Actually, if there is a user base of roughly 4.5 million US PSPs, then a game that sells over 500,000 units is doing quite well. That means over 10% of the installed base bought the game. Most successful games don;t do much better than 5%. This is why installed base is so important to attracting publishers. The number a platform with high numbers allow to be easily achieved require a very popular title on a smaller platform.
http://the-magicbox.com/Chart-USPlatinum.shtml
GTA:Vice City has about 6.5 million units sold in North America but this is only about 20% of the supposed installed base of the PS2. (Depending on where you stand on the issue of PS2 defective unit numbers.) Think about it. The most popular PS2 game ever in the US has only reached about 20% of the potential audience. (Used game sales are difficult to factor but must account for at least a million additional purchases.) Such is the power of a massive installed base.
Selling a million on the PS2 is merely a success. Selling a million on the PSP, at least at this point in its existence, is a major achievement.
So, if GTA:LCS (part of my mind wanted to type LDS and imagine a game on the lawless streets of Salt Lake City) has sold over 1.85 million units on the PSP in the US and Europe, that is extremely good market penetration and consistent with the PS2 titles in the series. In fact, this is an attach rate matched by only a small number of titles throughout video game history. Many of the other titles with simlar percentages had the benefit of being bundled with the platform, like Sonic the Hedgehog, or being nearly the sole reason to own the platform, as with Mario 64 in the early months of the N64 when sales of that machine ran almost 1:1 with the game. In fact, on the list provided by this site, http://www.everythingandnothing.org.uk/vg/worldtotals.php , GTA:VC is only the second game that wasn't at least briefly part of a bundle package. (At least, I don't recall Super Mario Land being bundled on the original GameBoy as an alternative to Tetris.)
Two side notes. The exact installed base of the PSP vs. number of units shipped to retailers is unknown. So the precentages on game sales may be even higher. Also, some of the sales of GTA:LCS may be attributed to a certain feature desirable to those with no interest in the game itself.
Darrel @ Apr 22nd 2006 10:00AM
Those numbers are all well and good, but they are completely off topic and DOES NOT explain why they are making a PSP port of a PS2 game that sucked to begin with.
Jeff @ Apr 22nd 2006 12:31PM
I don't know where wikipedia is getting these numbers from. I mean that's the problem with wikipedia in general - anybody can write to it and it's supposed to be self-policing. The problem is, you have to pay thousands of dollars in yearly fees to access the real NPD TRST data, and republishing it violates their terms of service. So nobody will admit to using them as a source, and very few people will *actually* use them as a source (whether they admit it or not), because not many outside of the industry pay to subscribe.
Wikipedia cites a bunch of web sites as references at the bottom of that page, which themselves do not site references. So you're getting this metaverse of data that may or may not have come from anywhere reliable, with sites referencing other sites that themselves don't reference anybody. I can tell you for a fact (because I do have access to NPD data up through 2003) that some of Magic Box's numbers are way off. I think what a lot of these sites do is just cull numbers from wherever they can get them, and in some cases that probably even includes stuff like internet forum posts, as long as it *sounds* authoritative.
It seems pretty counterintuitive to me that GTA:LCS would have sold 1.85 million copies on a system with an installed base of 4.5 million units when first-month sales totaled 158,000 in October. Typically, games don't sell 158,000 units in their first month and then go on to *average* more than 300,000 units in subsequent months, including the lean months of February and March.
Maybe it's true - stranger things have happened - but I don't believe it just because wikipedia references a couple sites that themselves don't list references. You've gotta give me more than that.
NZERO @ Apr 22nd 2006 1:05PM
Well epobirs actually the PSP US install base is 4.2 milliojn and the DS is 4.5 million if you look at my post wgere I post my links its post number 14. But you got it close 300,000 units might be a lead in the U.S buit only a `small one compared to the sales in Europe and Japan where the DS is kicking the PSP ass. But here they are neck and neck. Also to Darrel to answer your question they are porting this game cause they want to make a quick buck and they think some people are stupid enough to buy this game because it looks good and it has guns even though the gameplay sucks.
epobirs @ Apr 22nd 2006 6:47PM
Jeff,
the 1.85 million is worldwide sales, not just for the US. (Japan sales are actually about nil.) The chart has GTA:LCS sales divided almost evenly between the US and UK/Europe markets. 1.85 million software between the installed bases of both markets is very good but not inconsistent with GTA sales on the PS2.
Those times in the past when Magic Box's number could be compared with commercial research sources the results have usually matched. Magic Box usually lags behind by several months to a year, so their numbers for GTA sales are on the low side.
epobirs @ Apr 22nd 2006 6:53PM
NZERO,
The numbers listed are several months out of date, as indicated by the pages themselves. Unless sales have come to a grinding halt the numbers have to be adjusted upward somewhat to compensate for the passage of time.
striderhayasa @ Apr 22nd 2006 10:05PM
back on topic, Miami Vice is trying to cash in on the GTA/violence gun play theme that seems to sell entirely too easily these days. If 50 Cent's trash of a game can sell then anything is possible with Miami Vice.
Now, as far as DS sales to PSP sales...who cares. Play the portable that has games worth playing to suit your taste. I'm not port-happy so it's DS for me.
Jamesology @ Apr 23rd 2006 4:43PM
I don't understand why PSP has the reputation of games ported from PS2 when DS also has games ported from Gamescube. OOooooh a touch screen, seriously does that really make a difference to the whole game; was Resident Evil really different when played between PS2 and Gamecube, how about NFS: Most Wanted, NO, it's still the same game. All those Metroid, and Mario games are pretty much the samething as the one from Gamecube but they also had games just for DS just like PSP. I mean, where is Lumines on PS2? Loco Roco? Ultimate Block Party? I dont't remember playing those games on PS2, but I do remember playing Animal crossing, Mario Kart, and other Mario games on Gamecube.
I don't think most of you know the meaning of portable. Sony was probably trying to make their Playstation games PORTABLE so you don't need to bring you TV and PS2 around with you. And if you keep asking why buy a PSP when you have a PS2, well why did you buy a Gameboy when you had a NES or SNES at home? DUhh a Gameboy is portable!
But anyways, I think this game will be just okay.
NZERO @ Apr 23rd 2006 4:48PM
Well epobirs that was the best I could find but yeah they are a little higher probably the Nintendo DS units total in America are 4.8 and the Sony PSP is probably 4.4 or 4.5 thats probably pretty close to the actual range of the units sold here.
Ameen @ Apr 24th 2006 3:35AM
Miami Vice looks like a promising game though its kind of a third person shooter. PSP kicks dirt on DS on the graphics department. PSP UMDs are about 1.8 GBs while DS has only about 1 Gigabit ~ 128 Mb. There's the equation DS and PSP are not in the same department. Let it be Miami Vice or Liberty City against the Mario 64 DS or the Brain Trainer. While the DS is for casual Gamers on the Go. The PSP is making its point clear tht it is for serious gamers.
The co-op mode in the PSP is innovative and makes use of its wi-fi functionality. The Miami Vice would be a decent Game. Even if it does not beat Liberty City in the addiction department.
JetJaguar @ Apr 24th 2006 7:05PM
The comments about sales figures are interesting, but perhaps miss the main point: (arguably) the best Miami Vice has already been done. It's called Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, and is by far the wittiest and most entertaining of the GTA franchise (and I speak as a lover of San Andreas, and an owner of Liberty City Stories).
I don't pretend to know the back story to the movie remake of what still stands up as a great 80s tv show (Granada Men & Motors has been repeating it, and I'm consistently floored by how good it is), but I suspect that - ironically - it was the GTA: VC's breakout success was a key factor in it getting greenlighted.
On a related point (and I'm thinking Silent Hill particularly here), how is it that - as games themselves become more cinematic and more emotionally involving - the movie remakes become increasingly less engaging? Tomb Raider. Silent Hill. Doom. The list is growing ever longer. What exactly is Hollywood thinking? Could it simply be that the powers-that-be just look at game sales and assume that they have a guaranteed 16-34 male audience that will lap up whatever they're given?
My two cents.