TAG | GTA IV heading for the bargain bin? |
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| by Mike Bantick | |
| Thursday, 01 May 2008 | |
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Page 2 of 3 Owen Hughes from Ubisoft (publishers of Assassin's Creed ) reflects;”The Platinum/Classics range does carry some weight. These titles are the ones that tend to be good additions to any gamer's library and have a proven sales record. There are other titles that end up discounted into oblivion though, no doubt causing some distress to the developers who worked hard on the project. We are keen to maintain sales of a title throughout the current generation and are having more success now than in the past through repromotion campaigns. Programs such as Xbox Live Arcade and Wii's Virtual Console, where the consumer can download direct to their console, also create a more efficient method keeping an older title alive beyond it's original generation and into the next” Hughes said. Another unnamed publisher believes that the gaming demographic has changed, altering the market in parallel: “I think the situation is changing greatly of late. I think the move to more casual/broader-audience users, means that consumers aren't necessarily buying on 'day-one' and then demanding sequels or new versions so soon. A good example is Mario & Sonic at the Olympic games. The game is still consistently in the top lists. And sales actually rose after week one." "An even better example is Nintendo's product like Brain Training, nintendogs and the like” he said. “With more hardcore games, yes it will always be the case that the audience craves more and demands more as soon as a product is released - so I assume pricing strategy helps maintain a longer life cycle.” And then there are the big boys, those that manage development, publishing and also put out the hardware to play it all on. Given the opportunity to discuss the topic, I would have been disappointed if Australian Xbox 360 product manager Andrew Jenkins had not put a positive spin on the current state market flux: "Franchises such as Halo and Grand Theft Auto, and each instalment of these franchises, have typically had extremely strong and healthy lifecycles. The Xbox LIVE service extends the gaming experience through multiplayer and downloadable content - a Halo 3 downloadable pack has just been released and exclusive episodes for “Grand Theft Auto IV” will be available only on Xbox 360, starting [southern]Spring 2008. Also, as new consumers purchase consoles, they are likely to purchase these 'must-have' titles as well," said Jenkins. |
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