Analysis: GameSetWatch looks at the strength of SCEA IP

by Majed Athab on Jun 29th 2009 10:00PM

It's no surprise that the PS3 is seeing a great amount of support with a strong lineup of original first-party titles, but some see this strategy as a problem that might actually be hurting the PS3, not helping it. According to an in-depth piece over at GameSetWatch, Sony's strategy for the PS3 over-emphasizes new properties and its first-party titles as system sellers, but is ultimately not doing enough to pull in consumers when compared to the other consoles.

Look at the chart above and compare SCEA-published titles to the exclusives for other consoles like Halo 3 (which sold more than 4.8 million copies in its first year) and Mario Kart Wii (which has sold over 6 million units). Cleary, SCEA isn't anywhere near Nintendo's or Microsoft's numbers (all figures excluding bundle sales), but why can't SCEA games achieve that sort of level of sales? GSW points out it's mainly because of Sony's focus on risky new IP instead of safe bets (like sequels), noting third-party franchises like Call of Duty: World at War (1.1 million), Grand Theft Auto IV (1.7 million) and Metal Gear Solid 4 (1.1 million) have all sold better.

It's all a rather interesting interpretation of the NPD sales data, and there's even further analysis to be read over at GameSetWatch. Head over there for the full read.

Source

Tags: analysis, business, first-party, sales, scea

Reader Comments (42)

They make a good point, but it also comes down to marketing, which IMO Sony fails at big time.

Agreed. They need to show people who have never used a PS3 before what it can do. PSN, PlayStation Store, etc...

Yeah, its shocking just how people think "there isn't any games out for it" (STILL!) and how many are surprised when I show them what mine can do. Simply going on the web browser, has them wowed for one... They need to get their own IPs advertised more, and with the review scores they're given.
I want them to do well, for not just Sonys sake, but the game developers sake. They're great titles that aren't seeing the sales figures they deserve.

I don't see a problem with this. Why don't we compare Halo 1 sales with Resistance 1 sales. That seems like a more acceptable comparison.

I'd honestly rather have risky-but-great games than quick sequels. I still wish these games would sell better just for the sake of the system, though, as PS3 exclusives get reviews that on average outshine all other system's exclusives.

this is exactly why PS3 has my attention. the fact that sony continues to push innovative original titles even though they know they can sell more with quick and easy sequels....that says a lot to me as a gamer. LBP alone was one huge step for the industry regardless of what console it came out on it is good for everyone.

imagine this industry if sony dropped out.... mario kart 29084, smash brothers 97, zelda 3248....ughc enough is enough

heavenly sword, uncharted, resistance, lbp, motorstorm, and infamous are all great! then you got flower, the pixel junk games and some other psn titles...and later we get heavy rain, mod nation, the last guardian, the agency...

the same people that bash sony for this are the same people that buy nickelback albums and laugh at the "jokes" in movies like transformers or spider-man 3

This is exactly why I stuck with the PS3 as my only gaming system. It has the most interesting original content of any of the consoles.

Hope you purchased a Dreamcast, since it was chock-full of interesting, unique titles.

Interesting that you mentioned the Dreamcast because this reminded me the same. Sega invested in several original properties, that besides being great games like Shenmue, Skies of Arcadia and Jet Set Radio, had nearly zero marketing and disappointing sales and the system's following discontinuation.

The point is, the sequels to sony's big ones ARE coming, but they're taking a while. And Sony already sold way more units and software than the DC had, not mentioning it has a lot of third party support while the DC had capcom and not much else, to end the comparison Sega was struggling since the failure of Saturn while PS3 follows the incredibly sucessful PS2.

The average gamer, a vast majority that only buys 'trendy IPs' and tend to look suspiciously to unknown titles, i'm curious to watch the performance of Uncharted 2.

I see the problem is that its not because they are original ip but that Sony has no clue in how to market them. They have no idea of what a push is. When Killzone 2 released I should have seen a Super Bowl commercial, and then a commercial once every hour during primetime for at least a month after release, but they did none of that. Sony didn't even show a commercial until the week of, which is stupid.SONY IS RUN BY A BUNCH OF IDIOTS!!!

oh and another thing I love my ps3 and i have all of those games, but honestly the only reason i heard of some of those games like uncharted was because i frequent game blogs.

I seriously don't get why you americans are *always* complaining about marketing. In my country, I've never seen neither xbox or wii ads and yet I've seen lots of PS3 and PS3 games ads. Oh, and a DS ad in which Beyoncé is laughing while playing a turd version of Patapon.

But the thing is, people aren't that dumb to be convinced by ads (at least I'd like to think they're not). People who don't read games sites/magazines just go to a store and if they like a game's cover or premise then they buy it.

Just stop with the 'Oh Sony sucks, it doesn't advertises its products enough' because:
1. It's relative. You're not always watching TV and you can't possibly be watching every single channel at the same time so how can you tell?
2. It's not true (at least in my experience, but again, read 1., it's relative).
3. We're kind of tired of hearing/reading this (at least I am).

@Ashitaka

I've been working in advertising for the past five years and I can certainly tell you that yes the general public is stupid enough to be swayed by advertising. If you really push something it will sell. if you don't you severly cut it's chances.

you'd be amazed at how many people sit on their couches all day and DO watch every single channel. and anyway, you target certain shows to run ads you target certain magazines to run ads. If you just run a simple one page ad in maxim you know you will reach tons of young males who enjoy video games.

if you push it far enough down their throats they can't stop thinking about.

Problem here is, the system could be marketed like no tomorrow and people still wouldn't buy it.

It's perceived as being "too expensive" with "too many unnecessary features" (blu-ray being the constant source of blame for the console's high pricepoint). That's why Sony needs a price drop as soon as manufacturing will allow for the magic $300 price tag that many are holding out for.

Marketing needs to contend with these issues which they haven't done a great job at attacking:

"I might have these exclusives but why not just get the multi-platform titles on the cheaper console?"

"These exclusives aren't compelling enough...Uncharted looks like Tomb Raider"

"All my friends are on Xbox Live, and I can only choose one console"

People aren't willing to throw down $400 for these reasons and the titles, exclusive as they may be, are enough to convince them otherwise.

Comment 1

Just testing something

Sony, here's a tip: seeing how you're pushing brand-new, in-house IPs, remember that most of the time, they tend to fall rather niche. To play it safe, offer to co-publish such in-houses with niche publishers like Atlus USA.

I couldn't really care how well a game sells. I'd much rather have infamous, uncharted, and motorstorm than rehashes of Gamecube games (namely, mario kart and smash brothers.)

I also like the fact that the PS3's in house and second party development teams are allowed to experiment with new IPs and develop new games. I'm sure this makes them much happier than being pigeonholed and forced to make sequels and franchises that they know are no longer interesting and relevant.

I love it how they neglect a lot of different things. Killzone 2 in April had been released for 1 month, in America. That's 750,000 copies in one month. Those are DAMN good numbers.

Here is point #2 that is blatantly missing. This is only North America.

GT Prologue for instance has sold over 3 million copies world wide.
Uncharted at 2.45 million (Bundle, they are idiotic to not include bundled copies)
LBP has sold over 2 million
Ratchet and Clank is almost at 1.5 million.

MLB '09 the Show, a baseball game that is released EVERY YEAR has sold almost half a million copies.

Seriously, terrible post. Look into things before you start claiming doom & gloom please.

thank you that is something I wanted to point out that this is America only and when you add the other regions these games have done respectable with the smaller user base.

The problem with that is, if you count Sony's bundled games, you have to count Microsoft's. (Nintendo doesn't have any). You don't think Halo 3 was a big seller in bundles? Microsoft had a Halo 3 console for christ sake, and was one of the most marketed games of all time. Yes, M$ isn't a model company by any means, but you have to give them credit on the marketing aspect for the 360. Sony's first party games are awesome, but they need to learn how to market..and also how to give a meaningful price cut.

My ps3 came bundled with Uncharted. At the time I was a bit disappointed (yes... before playing it). Right now, I cant wait to play Uncharted 2.

I wanted a ps3 to play GTA, Tekken, Burnout, MGS, FF, GT, GOW and PES... still have to wait a bit, but meanwhile there have certainly showed up some great new IPs.

Well problem is Sony has the worst marketing it ever has had this generation. They only advertise a game a week before it is released if any.

Also they have less consoles out in the public due to it's price. They are way behind 360 and Wii in hardware. So actually I am impressed at those figures knowing they have a smaller install base.

Why the new IPs didn't sell well:
1. Sony didn't market the games well enough.
2. Sony was marketing the PS3 primarily as a blu-ray player in the beginning
3. The install base was low
4. The price of the PS3 was/is still high in most consumers' eyes
5. The price of those past titles weren't drop in retail until recently.

Why these games are beneficial to Sony:
1. Sony's previous 1st party games weren't numerous and wide across genres until now.
2. These games had to be made first to become sequels, so why not them let be establish early?
3. The new IPs were testing grounds for PS3 development, it would've fucked up Sony establish brand were released with next gen iterations that were sub-par compared to their previous quality PS2 games.

I'm with Paul way up there... when you look at that list, over half the titles listed are new IPs this generation AND have done quite well in sales and reviews. Sure, Sony keeps up, through its partners and in-house studios, with its already established series like God of War, Ratchet & Clank, Metal Gear Solid and a few others. But they still push new IPs that have been both exclusive AND great.

When you look at those other exclusives, that Joystiq mentioned, they're already established series that have been around for many, many years. And, Nintendo, along with Microsoft, continue to milk sequel after sequel.

This is why I've stuck with Sony, though. They have enough new to go with their old. When you look at Nintendo and Microsoft, how many exclusive IPs have they come out with this gen that have also been successful and/or good? Not many from Nintendo... and I can really only name Gears of War, off the top of my head, for Microsoft (Kameo, Blue Dragon, Too Human... fail, fail, fail).

"I love it how they neglect a lot of different things. Killzone 2 in April had been released for 1 month, in America. That's 750,000 copies in one month. Those are DAMN good numbers"

Did you read the article? 750,00 copies in one monthe in the USA is not DAMN good numbers.

"We could, for example, compare to Gears of War on the Xbox 360. The original Gears of War, exclusive to the Xbox 360, racked up a cool million units in its first month on a userbase of only 2.9 million users."

This is DAMn good numbers when you include that the PS3 have userbase of 6 to 7 million owners.

BTW I do not own a Xbox 360. I own a PS3 so you can drop the xbot fanboy angle.

Sorry, but you're wrong. 750,00 copies in one month IS damn good. 1,000,00 is just better...

Are you out of your mind? How are we suppose to know that you're not a Xbot fanboy, when you yourself just said that the PS3 user base is 6 to 7 million? I mean bro where have you been?

The Wii has sold an estimate of over 50 million world wide.

The Xbox 360 has sold an estimate of over 30 million world wide.

The Playstation 3 has sold an estimate of over 22 million world wide.

Are Americans really going to forget what happened last year. This is why I think their is some kind of conspiracy and I know it's lame but just hear me out.

The PS2 in the last generation has sales of over 110 million consoles sold world wide, and I'm pretty sure PS2's are STILL selling all over the world, which is amazing how much Sony supports their console, the same could be said when they supported the original Playstation till 2005/2006.

Now this is going to be the point that will make people think about what's happening in the gaming world...

Last generation, like I said before the PS2 sold over 110 million consoles, the Gamecube about 21 million, and the original Xbox sold about 25 million consoles.

Now, during this time, people rarely spoke about "doom and gloom" with the Xbox or Gamecube. I'm sure people talked about it in boards, but for the most part, the gaming community didn't really see it as a big deal that the PS2 had a lead of well over 50 million.

Now, someone will bring the whole "PS2 was out before Gamecube and Xbox" argument. But people can't do that, because the Wii came out after the 360 and it's "leading" in terms of sales. The PS3 is only less then 10 million consoles shy of the Xbox 360. It's really not that huge of a lead when you compare it to the last two generation.

The way I see it...Fact is, is that the PS3 still keeps coming out with new proven I.P that are exclusives, new game series that get great reviews. Fact is, is that PS3 has an overall better library of exclusives to Sony product, then any of the competition.

Don't believe me? Metacritic all the PS3 exclusives you can think off, and then average all the scores, then do the same with 360 and Wii exclusives.

Anyways, back to my point, a lead of 10 million over a console in sales, doesn't mean doom and gloom for that specific console. If it's like that, then the 360 would not exist. Then again, it is Microsoft so even if they sold 5 million consoles, they still would've come out with the 360. The only reason I made this as a reply, is so people can read it on the first page of the comment section.

well as many of you already pointed out, they didn't count budel sells and only US sales. it's almost like they want to make sony look bad. but i really don't care about sales, i just enjoy the AWESOME games sony has to offer and i'm really not worried about sony because a price drop is coming not to mantion uncharted2 and god of war 3 which are both sequels to great IP and are going to sell millions.

oo BTW Paul "the same people that bash sony for this are the same people that buy nickelback albums and laugh at the "jokes" in movies like transformers or spider-man 3"
LOL, dude that made me laugh so hard, i couldn't agree more. i went to see transformers 2 adn some friend and the only thing that made me lauhg was the bullshit of the story.

Who the f cares about NPD numbers? Really? They are totally misleading in only covering US numbers (and being very conservative at that) and not covering bundles. It's like citing a political poll in the US having only actually polled people living in eg the deep south - or NYC for the opposite result.

This list is rubbish. Most of these games ended up selling much better with the other territories. Why would they single out the US's sales, where the PS3 is not doing as well? What are they trying to tell Sony and publishers in general, keep making sequels ever year and don't try anything new?

I do think they have a point. While it is a common complaint, I do think that the first party exclusives took largely too long to reach the console, in terms of competing with X360. If the hardware were a little easier to work with, we would already have GoW3 and GT5. Those are console sellers. MGS4 was a console seller, the numbers are clear.

That said, if you aren't interested in spending your life online shooting other people, I really don't see the point of the XBox exclusives and much prefer the Sony ones. The only one I really pine for is Mass Effect.

Matthews suggestion that the problem stems from Insomniac and Naughty Dog being "forced" to do new IPs when customers want sequels of existing games is completely shot down when you look at the sales of Ratchet and Clank Future compared to Resistance.

I think the situation here is the current big numbers game fad is online multiplayer. Most of Sony's best new IPs (i.e. InFamous and Uncharted) are single player epics. The online shooters like Killzone and Resistance sell more than those single player IPs and are tremendous games in their own right, but their experience and the PSN infrastructure isn't compelling enough for new customers to pay the premium console price and pull users from MS's superior Live experience.

What the hell is so "superior" about live again?

Didn't mean to invoke the downvoters, sorry guys.

Don't get me wrong, I love PSN and think it has a far superior community. It really reminds me of the old PC gamer groups I was in back in the Diablo days. A bit more tight knit and generally more friendly.

I just get a bit jealous when as a PS3 owner I see some of the matchmaking and voice chat options that we don't have yet, and I think that's what attracts so many others to the service. Then I remember that PSN doesn't cost me a dime and it has Super Stardust HD, and I get over it :)

You talk about marketing and look at what Bungie/ Msoft did with Halo 3. Gear 2 I don't think they really did anything with because they didn't need to. Then you look at R2's marketing and it was there there but never really promoted the game for example the one were everyonew was saying resist. OK whatever. The only commercial for K2 was the bullet one and the in and out in month one right. The Halo ones had the old guy and the kick a$$ battlefield model.

Look no further than the marketing genius of Sony when you see the PS3 commercial with the crying plastic doll. WTF are they selling. Look back at the PS2 commercial that hinted at PS9. That was smooth. Where was that for the PS3 launch.

If you are going to analyze a global organization show me world wide numbers. Last I knew Xbox could not sell itself out of a box in the rest of the world. Besides that take Mario and Zelda from Nintendo and what do you have? Does Zelda even have a "timeline" like MGS, Halo, GOW & GOW? Doubt it. As for some sequals you get too far out and they are crap see Syphon Filter 3 and Omega Strain WTF on those.

Sony's marketing is terrible this gen. It's an amazing machine, but where is the commericals? The website ads? etc. When Sony does do something to market the system and the games, it doesn't last long. I think that's why Sony did so well at this years E3. All eyes were on them and they showed alot of stuff. 3 weeks after E3 and we're back to nothing. I know it costed alot to advertise, but if you aren't advertising, then you aren't telling or showing people your products. You rely on word of mouth and with this current trend of people speaking poorly of things without actually trying them (i.e. fanboys) it's hard to not talk about your own stuff and still have it sell.

To be truthful, I rather have a Uncharted than a Halo. Halo is brilliant for online, other than that, nothing else.

Sony are really hitting heavy on the 'Shooters' and 'Story' this gen, I can't wait for the platformers to come out later.

Whats funny is that the article says sony should focus more on sequels to have better sales, but yet R; FoM wasn't a sequel and yet it has the highest amount sales. Then look at Hot Shots Golf which is a sequel and it only has around 250,000 sales. Then theres Ratchet and Clank which is a sequel and it has sold less than Uncharted which wasn't a sequel. I don't think sony not making enough sequels is the problem. I do think it's the advertising. Someone could argue sony does "ok" on advertisisng, but imo sony has more trouble selling a very good game than microsoft or nintendo would have selling a below average game.

For those saying Sony doesn't know how to advertise their games...I can assure you they do. They can't however because they are bleeding money. Sony HQ will not pump ad dollars into SECA anytime soon.

But the thing is that these new IP's will all have sequels in the future that will sell better because of the brand recognition of the Ip itself. I would say that an established IP like God Of War 3 is going to sell similar numbers to games like Halo 3 and Mario Kart because it's established. Sony is building up it's coffers with games that it owns for the future instead of 3rd party titles that are going to be out of their control.

Sony had delivered the best and most original lineup of exclusive games this generation. This is going to benefit them well into the future. You have to establish something as being quality before people will jump all over it.

Think about it!

Infamous
Heavenly Sword
Little Big Planet
Resistance
Motorstorm
Uncharted
MAG
Warhawk
Killzone ... these are all games we will be seeing exclusively on the Playstation for years to come. Then there are the chart toppers like Gran Turismo 5 & God Of War 3 that are going to break sales records because they are established brands.

"Why can't SCEA games achieve that sort of level [1 million+] of sales?"

It's Sony's marketing - Stupid!

Sony has the best new I.P. games but the WORST marketing. if they marketed their games on the same scale that Microsoft's marketing does for any of its big titles (Halo 3, Gears of War 2, Mass Effect, Left 4 Dead) then half of those titles (if not all) would be 1 million+ category. Sony CLEARLY has the goods in the content of their games but the marketing team kills them every time.

Example - Halo 3:
You would see commercials for Halo two to three months or more before the game hit shelves.you wold see it in magazines (and not just game magazines either). A press kit or web site content kit would be made avialable to fans to get them hyped up. Bunjie would hype it up as well with production videos and etc. that were posted all over the gaming web sites. it all combines to stir up a frenzy of activity and huge press when the game launches.

Compared that with the next to nothing Sony's marketing team did for Killzone 2. I saw a commercial one month to two weeks before it launched (from what i recall). Did they post any press or web site kit to help people write, blog, twitter, facebook, myspace, wikipedia, or the like about the game? - No! Did they even organize midnight launch events with Best Buy? - i do not recall. How about huge press coverage for the official launch party in New York's Times Square, and/or other major cities across the U.S. and the World? -No!

Face it Sony's marketing team is single-handedly keeping Sony from profitability which is in turn keeping the price from being dropped down. Resistance 2, Killzone 2, Uncharted, and Gran Turismo 5 should have all been 1 million+ selling games. They just had lazy, incompetent, lackluster marketing behind them that wound up being too little and too late to make the difference that it could have.

The fact is that our moms have heard of Halo but will never hear about Killzone or any of the other great Sony games until they get better marketing and spend more on marketing. Sony has a bad habit of being too arrogant to listen to pleads of change from the outside world. Microsoft is smart and listens (eventually). Sony is just smart.

I can say with absolute certainty that if Sony had Microsoft's or Apple's marketing team then the games would be 1 million+ sellers and the consoles price would be $250 by now.

Poor marketing hurts everyone!

Analysis: GameSetWatch looks at the strength of SCEA IP

Reader Comments (42)

Posted: Jun 29th 2009 10:22PM DWilson8504 said

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