Despite hype, Crysis, UT3 sales slump

[Babrbarossa]

"According to industry Bible NPD, neither game managed to even get past 100,000 units, with Crysis selling 86,633 copies since November 13 and Unreal Tournament doing a pathetic 33,995 - despite the hype around its much-delayed release." l'inq

I must admit, I'm surprised- when you're surrounded by people with 12K+ 3dmark 06 scores, you tend to forget that most people can't even dream about running Crysis on their machines. UT3 not as surprising- just nothing really new here, I guess- (unless you have a physx card maybe)

[enaberif]

Originally Posted by Babrbarossa

"According to industry Bible NPD, neither game managed to even get past 100,000 units, with Crysis selling 86,633 copies since November 13 and Unreal Tournament doing a pathetic 33,995 - despite the hype around its much-delayed release." l'inq

I must admit, I'm surprised- when you're surrounded by people with 12K+ 3dmark 06 scores, you tend to forget that most people can't even dream about running Crysis on their machines. UT3 not as surprising- just nothing really new here, I guess- (unless you have a physx card maybe)

Hype is created by people to help with sales and promotion but when your product lacks nobody will want to buy it and hype dies.

Myself personally I've played both UT3 and Crysis and UT3 just seems unfinished or something I'm not 100% as I can't place my finger on it and Crysis? Well the game was short and the only thing it had personally going for it was the graphics which in my mind weren't all that great.

With games like Orange Box and COD4 out games like UT3 and Crysis get left in the dirt, I mean come on look at how much people were excited about Crysis and what a month after its release theres not as much as talk about it as there was a year before it.

Basically too much hype can be just as bad of a thing as much as it can be a good thing.

[llama_egg]

While I'll pretend UT3 exists, as it wasn't surprising that it got the shaft. Crysis on the other hand was actually a pretty decent game, and runs surprisingly well on an 8600GT overclocked. Mind you, the game is being whored out on Medium, but that's not the point! All in all I'm actually surprised it didn't get higher sales.

[enaberif]

Originally Posted by llama_egg

While I'll pretend UT3 exists, as it wasn't surprising that it got the shaft. Crysis on the other hand was actually a pretty decent game, and runs surprisingly well on an 8600GT overclocked. Mind you, the game is being whored out on Medium, but that's not the point! All in all I'm actually surprised it didn't get higher sales.

People don't want to buy a game that won't run on their hardware and you can go out and play 20 other FPS games that will be the same as Crysis; there was nothing in the single player mode of Crysis that utterly stands out as "wow"

[Babrbarossa]

I finished it when I got it and haven't touched it since- Not a big fan of games that lag, particularly if the graphics aren't great- COD4 is 1better in terms of graphics- and deserves kudos for performing well on the average system. It's definately my vote for GOTY

[enaberif]

Originally Posted by Babrbarossa

I finished it when I got it and haven't touched it since- Not a big fan of games that lag, particularly if the graphics aren't great- COD4 is 1better in terms of graphics- and deserves kudos for performing well on the average system. It's definately my vote for GOTY

I throughly enjoyed the graphics of COD4 more than Crysis

[Supergrover]

I liked the SP of Crysis the MP blows, COD4 is good but I would have liked to have seen larger maps with more team work as opposed to die, spawn, get shot instantly, re-spawn.
Still shooting through walls is great. ;)

[belgolas]

though shooting through walls isn't new either. Even CS:S which is old you can shoot through walls. Graphics wise Crysis has way better then COD4 on max. Both are good games but I hate the endless waves of retarded nade spamming flaming A.I. in COD4. Why does it have to have unlimited respawn of A.I.? That blows. Crysis I found has a better single player but only by a bit.

[kingnubian]

IMHO the problem with Crysis was the overdone hype combined with the too high system requirements. I know that the argument will be made that Crysis scales well from older hardware, not too old mind you, to newer hardware but when the hype pimps keep pushing it's graphics a lot of people with good hardware were set up for disappointment when they tried to see "what it really looks like".

IMHO COD4 looks pretty much as good as Crysis & is an amazing game that can be more easily enjoyed in all of it's graphic goodness by more people with "lesser" systems. The same can also be said of Bioshock. Why did Crysis have to be such a system hog? Maybe to sell more high end & newer graphic cards?? Poorly optimized code?? Probably a mix of these and other elements.

I really hope that this wakes up a few game developers. All the hype in the world can mean very little if everything isn't just right. There has got to be a balance of Gameplay/Performance/Game length that has to be mixed just right. Too much hype polarizes peoples' expectations and more often then not sets them up for a letdown.

[AERo]

IMO

Console games lose appeal after a while due to slower updates
and variations to the games.

On the other hand, for PC games, new variables are created and
inject new life/interest to buying the game (such as mods for pre-existing
games), maps etc.

It generally takes longer to let go of a PC game then a console game;
that is my opinion, of course; one can argue otherwise.


Thus, it takes longer for PC game sales to build up.
The constantcy of PC game sales probably will probably overtake the
high arse sales figures of just released console games in the long run.