When you brag about sales, you have to take into account marketing budget

I made this thread, and it got locked for the fanboyish way I formatted it, so I will recreate it with less bias. this is an important discussion for system wars.

When you compare the sales of two titles, you MUST take into account how much money was allocated for the games advertising budget. Two of the most common games that fanboys like to compare every game's sales up to, are Halo 3, and Modern Warfare 2. Games like Killzone 2 are constantly belittled by fanboys of the 2 former franchises as being "crap" because their game "sold" more. What these fanboys fail to take into account is the fact that not only did Microsoft spend $200 Million dollars marketing Halo 3:

While the $55 million spent on making Halo 3 pales into insignificance compared to the$200 million Microsoft reportedly spent on marketing the game.

But that Activision gave Modern Warfare 2 a $200 LAUNCH advertisment campaign (that and the stimulus and resurgance map packs had their own seperate marketing campaigns).

Call of Duty [Modern Warfare 2] cost $40 million to $50 million to produce, people close to the project said, about as much as a mid-size film.Including marketing expenses and the cost of producing and distributing discs, the launch budget was $200 million, on par with a summer popcorn movie -- and extremely high for a video game.

All compared to Sony's measly£2 million advertisment campaign (Im from the US, but think thats about $4 Million USD).

Now, it is foolish and silly to compare a game like Killzone 2 to Halo 3 or Modern Warfare 2 in terms of sales considering this. Now, this has NOTHING to do with the quality of the titles here, but to sit here and say that Halo 3 sells so well because its just that damn good, is just rediculous. Especially since games like Uncharted 2 scored higher than both of them on almost every site, yet sold less, should be enough to show you that sales are indicative of NOTHING more than the size of a games marketing budget.

Discuss.

Sony's fault.

I made this thread, and it got locked for the fanboyish way I formatted it, so I will recreate it with less bias. this is an important discussion for system wars.

When you compare the sales of two titles, you MUST take into account how much money was allocated for the games advertising budget. Two of the most common games that fanboys like to compare every game's sales up to, are Halo 3, and Modern Warfare 2. Games like Killzone 2 are constantly belittled by fanboys of the 2 former franchises as being "crap" because their game "sold" more. What these fanboys fail to take into account is the fact that not only did Microsoft spend $200 Million dollars marketing Halo 3:

[quote=""]While the $55 million spent on making Halo 3 pales into insignificance compared to the$200 million Microsoft reportedly spent on marketing the game.TheMISCMan48

But that Activision gave Modern Warfare 2 a $200 LAUNCH advertisment campaign (that and the stimulus and resurgance map packs had their own seperate marketing campaigns).

Call of Duty [Modern Warfare 2] cost $40 million to $50 million to produce, people close to the project said, about as much as a mid-size film.Including marketing expenses and the cost of producing and distributing discs, the launch budget was $200 million, on par with a summer popcorn movie -- and extremely high for a video game.

All compared to Sony's measly£2 million advertisment campaign (Im from the US, but think thats about $4 Million USD).

Now, it is foolish and silly to compare a game like Killzone 2 to Halo 3 or Modern Warfare 2 in terms of sales considering this. Now, this has NOTHING to do with the quality of the titles here, but to sit here and say that Halo 3 sells so well because its just that damn good, is just rediculous. Especially since games like Uncharted 2 scored higher than both of them on almost every site, yet sold less, should be enough to show you that sales are indicative of NOTHING more than the size of a games marketing budget.

Discuss.

well, it works doesnt it? mw2 was hyped like crazy and sold like crazy, so did left 4 dead 2, so did uncharted 2. i think if they are spending alot on advertising for a game chances are the game is really good.

At the end of the day, you still can't play sales. So I'll take the 5 games that sold 2 mil each instead of the 1 game that cashed in 10 mil.

People seem to enjoy it here though.

At the end of the day, you still can't play sales. So I'll take the 5 games that sold 2 mil each instead of the 1 game that cashed in 10 mil.

People seem to enjoy it here though.

Gxgear

[QUOTE="Gxgear"]

At the end of the day, you still can't play sales. So I'll take the 5 games that sold 2 mil each instead of the 1 game that cashed in 10 mil.

People seem to enjoy it here though.

Fightingfan

There's examples of games on both sides of that argument, not to mention VC's still getting a sequel.

For Sony, you forgot to add Kevin Butler's salary. DarkStraberry

I hear he works for hot pockets and soda.

[QUOTE="Gxgear"]

At the end of the day, you still can't play sales. So I'll take the 5 games that sold 2 mil each instead of the 1 game that cashed in 10 mil.

People seem to enjoy it here though.

Fightingfan

yes you name one bad example. the same could be said for alan wake. lost oddyssey.et.c. these games might never see a sequel

[QUOTE="Fightingfan"][QUOTE="Gxgear"]

At the end of the day, you still can't play sales. So I'll take the 5 games that sold 2 mil each instead of the 1 game that cashed in 10 mil.

People seem to enjoy it here though.

Blaze-Agent

yes you name one bad example. the same could be said for alan wake. lost oddyssey.et.c. these games might never see a sequel

[QUOTE="Blaze-Agent"]

[QUOTE="Fightingfan"] Yes, yes you can. If a game sells well you're likly to get a sequel. Look at Valkyria Chronicles PS3 gamers can't see a good RPG when they get one so it went to the Psp.TheShadowLord07

yes you name one bad example. the same could be said for alan wake. lost oddyssey.et.c. these games might never see a sequel

was it confirmed? No i dont think so. until its formally announced then anything is possible.

So umm who's fault is it that companies don't like spending money on games they need people to buy? Everyone has the capability to spend money on marketing a game. Sony/Nintendo/MS all have the option. Its not MS's or Activisions fault that Sony is too cheap to properly market their games.

[QUOTE="Blaze-Agent"][QUOTE="Fightingfan"] Yes, yes you can. If a game sells well you're likly to get a sequel. Look at Valkyria Chronicles PS3 gamers can't see a good RPG when they get one so it went to the Psp.TheShadowLord07

So umm who's fault is it that companies don't like spending money on games they need people to buy? Everyone has the capability to spend money on marketing a game. Sony/Nintendo/MS all have the option. Its not MS's or Activisions fault that Sony is too cheap to properly market their games.LucLongleyMVP

was it confirmed? No i dont think so. until its formally announced then anything is possible.

Blaze-Agent

it was confirm that story is being written for alan wake 2

Advertising cannot move a lousy product beyond mediocre sales. Word of Mouth.

A great product can benefit from advertising, but it may not even be necessary. Word of Mouth.

A good product can benefit greatly from advertising, or it can languish without advertising, or somewhere in the middle. Word of Mouth.

Notice the common denominator. This is because consumer goods follow some form of the Bass Model.

If all that mattered was advertising, every product would have massive advertising and would succeed. We have known this for 41 years.

/thread

Microsoft and Activision have enough faith in their developers to spend that much money on marketing. Sony, it seems, doesn't. That's the truth. Or they lack the resources, which is even worse.

Sony's fault.

GreenGoblin2099

Yes, yes you can. If a game sells well you're likly to get a sequel. Look at Valkyria Chronicles PS3 gamers can't see a good RPG when they get one so it went to the Psp.Fightingfan

1) They wanted to get a game out quickly to capitalize on the VC anime and manga.

2) They wanted to expand the userbase (in Japan) and thought the PSP was a good vehicle to do so.

And the producer would like to continue making Valkyria Chronicles on both the PS3 and PSP.

I may have misunderstood your whole rant, but let me take a jab at it. When talking about how popular a game is, you just look at the number of copies sold, not the amount of money the companies make. Modern Warfare sold "more than 20 million units". That is ridiculously good. Even if you take marketing into account, you say the total budget was about $200 million, they made way more than the cost of the game. However, since you are talking money, you have to remember the royalty fees the company need to pay to have their games on consoles, plus whatever manufacturing costs their were. Marketing plays a VITAL role in the success or failure of a game, so that should be taken into account like you said. Although, you seem to want to show that CoD's publishers lost money because of how much they spent, when they did the exact opposite in fact. With great marketing, you can sell people rocks and make millions, which unfortunately has happened before.

[QUOTE="Fightingfan"] Yes, yes you can. If a game sells well you're likly to get a sequel. Look at Valkyria Chronicles PS3 gamers can't see a good RPG when they get one so it went to the Psp.shinrabanshou

1) They wanted to get a game out quickly to capitalize on the VC anime and manga.

2) They wanted to expand the userbase (in Japan) and thought the PSP was a good vehicle to do so.

And the producer would like to continue making Valkyria Chronicles on both the PS3 and PSP.

No. When I brag about sales, all I have to do is brag about sales.