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When "Must-Have" Games do not sell, who is to blame?

December 31, 2007 in News comments 15

A deep look at why some of the highly praised games don't do so well. Their are plenty of games that have come out for the systems and many were claimed must haves, with having amazing reviews. Yet they fall flat in the sales department. And when something like this happens, who is really to blame?

I was looking at the weekly "US" sales charts over at www.VGChartz.com when something completely dawned on me. Where in the hell was Uncharted: Drakes Fortune on the top 50? After all, the game has been acclaimed by many in the gaming community and was also on many lists around the net for Playstation 3 Game of the Year 2007. Uncharted: Drakes Fortune was nowhere to be found.

So seeing that made me think about a question for all of you, one that needs to be asked to the average gamer out there? When a "Must-Have" game comes out for a videogame system and it does not sell well, who is to blame?

Before we talk more about games that are acclaimed yet do not sell good, I have a few game numbers below. I have taken data from www.vgchartz.com (for sales numbers) as well as www.gamerankings.com (for average review scores) and I will let come to your own conclusion with these stats.

Three games come to mind when I think of "Must-Have" games that have been horrible in sales. These three games are Uncharted: Drakes Fortune (PS3), Unreal Tournament III (PS3) and Zack & Wiki (Nintendo Wii). All three games have a average rating score of about 80%-90%. I also added a few games that have a below average score (in the 60% range) that have sold pretty good. Again, you be the judge...
Sayyed via gamingconsolenetwork.com »
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  • 0
    Akira_EX Dec 31, 07
    Fail for referencing VGChartz, but will let that slide.

    Many games sell lots of copies for different factors: brand name, advertisement, etc. The general mass wouldn't know the premise of Uncharted or Zack & Wiki if you don't tell them. Hell, if I didn't read the previews or fall into the internet hype of Zack & Wiki, I possibly could've dismissed it myself.
  • 0
    Sayyed Dec 31, 07
    Yeah I never trust vgchartz but its true that UT3 and Uncharted aren't selling that well compared to other games.
  • 0
    Red 9 Dec 31, 07
    Uncharted has barely sold any at the stores I go to. Figures, though, since it has nearly no advertising...

    Halo, Mass Effect and Bioshock, on the other hand, did a good job of plastering their names all over the place, hence good sales.
    • 0
      VeGiTAX2 Dec 31, 07
      Seems regional in that case, in my region I've actually seen the game promoted quite a few times on tv so far.
    • 0
      Tainted Dec 31, 07
      Yeah, same here. I see the commercial for it a lot here. It's too bad that no one owns a PS3 here though...
  • 0
    Red 9 Dec 31, 07
    True enough. In which case, another reason Uncharted hasn't sold as well is because it didn't get hype like other big titles did.
  • -2
    Final Blade Dec 31, 07
    Well Most likely Advertisements and prices of games these days are the key factors. I mean People only have so much to spend on games, everyone isn't rich or has enough money to buy. People have jobs, bills to pay, school stuff to buy, going to school, gas, buying Groceries. I mean its not hard to wonder why because of these reasons that games don't sell well. I don't even have money at the moment to buy UT3 and Uncharted, thanks to the holidays.

    So Game prices and Advertisements are what causes bad sales.
  • 0
    Storm Jan 1, 08
    Prices and ads? I doubt that's it. Does anyone know how dreadful close release dates can be? Let's face it, Drake's Fortune and UTIII came out at bad times. If they had come out in say...the Summer, that could have certainly saved that dry-spell of a season.

    I've seen the Uncharted ad many times, but Mass Effect was released on the same day as it if I'm not mistaken, so my money went to that.
    • -2
      Final Blade Jan 1, 08
      Saved PS3 drought yes. But still you think people have money to get Games these days. Only rich people like Chiro seem to have shit loads of games. And advertisements also causes bad sales. The PS3 it self is a prime example of that. And why they fired the ad agency cause they screwed up and couldn't get the job done.
  • 0
    Storm Jan 1, 08
    Honestly, I don't even remember the game being hyped up at E3 or anything like other titles were. That helps with anticipation, to show off your product at E3 and such. That can lead to where the money goes...hell I'm not rich but I select certain games that I look forward to beforhand, and ones that impressed me over it's months of development.
  • 0
    Remino52 Jan 1, 08
    Who knew this was doing to happen?
  • 0
    Tock Jan 1, 08
    they should get that K-Tel voice over guy from the seventies and eighties to promote the ps3 and its games.....it sure as hell worked for them...
  • 0
    Slumpy monkey Jan 1, 08
    The low console sales of the ps3 are to blame.
    • -1
      Final Blade Jan 2, 08
      Um no, actually. What causes low console sales. And in this case Ad Agency was very horrible for the PS3.
  • 0
    auctoria Jan 1, 08
    It's not, The can work out the ratio of Games per PS3 to see. CoD4 and AC are selling well for PS3.

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