Hellbent wrote on 02/07/13 at 20:57:48:
Console sales are not a solid indicator of profit. They lose money on each one sold. The real money is in third party and first party games like Halo, Uncharted, and Call of Duty.
Yup, per disc licensing fees. But attach rates have been atrocious this generation for the vast majority of publishers. Something like 70% of games sold this gen were done by 3 publishers, and in specific IP's.
Quote:I'm also calling it how I see on Sony as a publisher. Nobody ever seems to trash them. Their reputation is solid. ESP never trashed them, and they never pointed the finger at Sony (and lots of game companies do if their publisher sucks, so it's far from unheard of).
I think the evidence against ESP is pretty powerful. Ignore it if you want, it doesn't matter.
I have no problems with Sony as a publisher, ESPECIALLY SCEA. I also don't have much of a problem with them as a hardware developer (the tech we get in our consoles). It's everything else they seem to have a problem with, and it's all wrapped up in their very Eastern view on business and customers.
I only blame ESP for biting off more than they could chew. I'm still surprised that we got what we did out of a slim 40 person development studio. People seem to underestimate just how exponentially man hour requirements have increased as people demand more from their games, running on more complicated hardware.
Still, it needed more and Sony decided they couldn't or didn't want to spend further resources on shoring it up.
Either a analyst did a cost benefits analysis that didn't work out in TM's favor, or some suit made a horrible gut call. Still, ESP had 6 whole months to fix the issues, and stand behind their work. Dave sold his share in the company, Scott completely restructured it, laying off 1/3 the workforce, and not much was done to fix TM.
RoaDiE wrote on 02/07/13 at 23:49:10:
Off topic but I wouldnt put much stock in that particular company you are referencing said (not Sony) regarding how many PS3s are sold.
They were the infamous creators of this lovely chart. Yea... theyre experts alright.
Well, measuring the snow after the storm is always easier than predicting the weather.
The +1 mill is strictly going by numbers both MS and Sony claim themselves.
As far as servers go, I'm actually grateful that the online iterations of TM have seen the foresight to include a LAN option. Online MP will never be dead, as long as developers include it. No many console developers bother. Yeah using a VPN is a little slower, and a PITA, but it's the probably a best case option in a industry (right or wrong) that doesn't want anyone to have their hands on their matchmaking, or dedicated server code.