Ben-DutkaWith another jam-packed holiday lineup, there are guaranteed to be several overlooked games.
Titles like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 , Battlefield 3 , Batman: Arkham City , Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception , The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim , and Assassin's Creed: Revelations have little to fear. They'll get their sales. They'll get their headlines. But what games are destined to reside in the shadows of these behemoths?
Need for Speed: The Run
The only good news for EA's racer is that there isn't much in the way of competition. Forza 4 is already out and it's an entirely different racing experience, and if someone is looking for a fast-paced, arcade-style racer, they probably have no choice. However, by the time The Run arrives in November 15, all the heavy hitters will be out; Revelations also launches that same day. Racing and sports games don't have as much overall oomph as they had back in the day; the new Need for Speed might feel the strain.
Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One
While there are plenty of die-hard R&C fans out there, this one has several strikes against it. As good as it might be, it has the same release date as Arkham City . That's a huge strike right there. Secondly, as the game is more of a co-op-based adventure and most everyone knows it, some long-time fans are a tad skeptical. Thirdly and lastly, this industry seems to be shifting away from the fun and cartoon-y and embracing the gritty and realistic. Exhibits A and B would be MW3 and BF3 respectively.
The Cursed Crusade
Now, maybe this one will deserve to be overlooked if it turns out like crap. But either way, it has no chance against Battlefield 3 on October 25. Also, the game has received little in the way of promotion; most gamers really don't even know what it is. It's an action/RPG – or so it seems – but it may lack polish and high production values, and the bottom line is that against the ridiculous autumn lineup of titles gamers have been anticipating all year… Yeah, don't expect super high sales.
GoldenEye 007: Reloaded
True, it's a reimagining of a timeless classic, which might be enough to entice a few veteran gamers. But November 1 is a wicked tough day; it's smack dab in the midst of all the biggest releases between mid-October and mid-November and oh yes, Uncharted 3 hits store shelves that day. Besides, as a shooter, it has no hope of standing up to MW3 or BF3; it isn't a fair comparison at all, of course, but the fans really might not care. Only the nostalgic will care and that's not enough.
Saints Row: The Third
This is the only one on the list that might break through and be considered a sales success. It has received some solid marketing and there is no Grand Theft Auto for competition. It also offers a ton of gameplay – or so we assume – and those looking for a sandbox game that doesn't involve stealth of any kind ( Revelations also releases on the 15th), the third Saints Row should fit the bill. But it just feels like the odd man out in this holiday scenario; too many gamers view this as the "poor man's GTA," after all.
Only one I'll be getting is All 4 One, 4 player co-op is HUGE for me.
Gonna invite my friends over to play, and I'll definitely not forget my Carlsberg!!
The ratchet games have really grown stale for me. It'll get descent sales though from it's hardcore fanbase
Me too, Jdog. But 4 player coop may be the factor that sway me into getting just one more R&C.
Except that All 4 One doesn't play like the old R&C.
The game does look fun in it's own way.
Sure I can tell that the developers are trying to mix it up but I still don't see this as a triple A title. Maybe when they release it as a greatest hits game I might get it for my little bro
Only 'All 4 One' for me as well. As a longtime Batman fan, I'm definitely more immediately interested in 'Arkham City', but I'm also a loyal 'Ratchet' fan, so I won't miss out on that.
Nothing against the rest of the games(except 'Saints Row', which started out poor and only seems to devolve), they just don't appeal to me.
Not really holidays, but I think WKC2 will be overlooked by many gamers.
I think you are right sir, another overlooked gem of a game.
Especially from those 'reviews'… lol
Xenosaga Epiode 3 was a epic game, and easily rates in my top 10 (the entire series does), and very much overlooked. Do you mean WKC2 sold more copies than Xenosaga 3 globally, in Japan or in it's western release? I find it hard to believe that WKC2 has outsold Xenosaga 3 lifetime sales globally.
I think I had an issue with posting comments which, i guess, in a way unknown to me, translated to a website issue and the solution was my user account being deleted with everything related to it. Maybe it was an issue with my browser. I'm very sorry for this unintended trouble if my guess was correct. But I actually came back to correct my previous, now nonexisting, statement about the sales. It's a minor correction though.
According to 2006 financial results announced by Namco Bandai, Xenosaga Ep.III sold 343,000 units worldwide during the April to December period. Release dates for this game are July 6 and August 29 for Japan and North America respectively. My fault lies is assuming this was a lifetime sales number. But that doesn't change much. Xenosaga Ep.III was not a new IP, so the possibility of it getting a sales boost due to late exposure is negligible. A lifetime sales number of 500,000 would be very optimistic.
On the other hand WKC1 sold 484,514 for the first four weeks (805,253 lifetime) and WK3 sold 325,762 for the first 4 weeks (371,994 lifetime due to early releases in Japan and EMEAA). VGChartz has the Japan sales numbers for Xenosaga Ep.III and week by week comparison with WKC2 is consistently in favor of the latter. There's no question that WKC2 sells better than Xenosaga Ep.III.
Thanks, that's a lot of good information. I am surprised, I had thought that Xenosaga III had better sales than that, it surely deserved them.
I wonder how the non Japan sales of WKC2 will eventually stack up? I really hope that WKC2 can pick up some sales on the basis of "word of mouth" marketing by happy gamers. Some 'professional' reviews are killing it with a lot of buyers, but that's happened before to good games. Eventually word of mouth generates a longer slow burn of sales when a game is good enough to develop a following.
Valkyria Chronicles is a very special case of word of mouth boost with only 108,821 first week sales and more than 1m lifetime. But I wouldn't expect the same for WKC2 because it's not a new IP and the sales numbers are typical of a game with a prequel that got mixed receptions. WKC2 got its share of mixed receptions too. First impressions hurt this series because it couldn't live up to the hype set by the concept trailer and first impressions matter because these games are slow burners. Prejudices are hard to break in this case. It wasn't easy for me either.
Last edited by luisliu on 10/13/2011 4:54:37 PM
I actually won't be picking any of these up unless I find a really good sale on them. I will pick them up eventually but my money is going towards BF3, Batman: AC, and Uncharted 3 right now. That might end up being all I buy for the rest of the year.
Well The Cursed Crusade will be day viewing with a really nice price tag of $39.99 and it's going to be a co op game so keep that in mind. Could find many more details though
Ya I played the demo on it already and knew that it would only be $40 but will still be picking it up later. It's not to bad of a game. The controls are a little stiff but the story was a little interesting.
Last edited by DazeOfWar on 10/13/2011 2:07:34 PM
Gamespot gave it a 3/10 o_o yikes… I'm still gonna rent it, I need to try it myself.
Last edited by GuyverLT on 10/13/2011 2:47:43 PM
Ya I don't think it'll score high but that doesn't bother me.
I liked saints row 2, so i'm getting saints row the third. I'll be waiting for a price drop on revelation since all AC games seem to lose their full price tag within a month or so. I loved all the AC games but i like my wallet more ^_^
Last edited by Mr Bubbles IGR on 10/12/2011 11:13:19 PM
The only one on that list for me is NSF The Run… I have to put it on my christmas list since I'll be be buying Arkham City,Revelations,Rayman Origins,MGS Collection and Skyrim.
Need for Speed and the new Ratchet I plan on getting… They both started as classics and I want to support them 🙂
I would get the GoldenEye… but it looks too much like another generic FPS 😛
I'm looking forward to giving Goldeneye a shot, but it's unlikely that I'll get it for a while at least. Too many other good titles and not enough money for all of them. I'll be renting it though, that's for sure.
For me Batman:AC and Saints Row the Third, and NFS:The Run, and maybe I'll pick-up Skyrim too, I'll wait for a price drop on AC:Revelation.
I'll likely wait for a price drop on any games I get in the next 3 months.
I have enough unfinished titles to keep me going and saving an extra £5-£10 on each game might allow me to stretch to an extra purchase.
I disagree with SR3
Last edited by Killa Tequilla on 10/13/2011 1:20:27 AM
Totally agree Ben, only Batman:AC, U3, AC:R and BF3 are getting my money, might get R&C but later.
I even got Saints Row 3 on pre-order.
To me the deal with SR3 is something neither Assassins Creed or GTA can offer: The unique coop play. SR simply is the king of Coop Hill.
The amount of content is almost at RPG level with all the mini games and side quests. Hours upon hours of fun.
Everything else will be put on hold when this game arrives. My coop buddy and I will probably spend the entire first evening in SR3 just to create our characters… 😀
To quote Shogo Akuji from SR2:
"Nobility is sadly overrated".
Last edited by Beamboom on 10/13/2011 3:55:22 AM
Coop isn't everything buddy. Just sayin.
I don't know why they keep cramming all the top big titles in basically one month, or maybe slightly more. That's just bound to fail…
Even worse for those less than top 5 something titles like these ones, why try to compete with the big boys when you can't possibly win? Titles like NFS & R&C could probably have done a lot better if they were released early '12 instead…
Oh, and The Cursed Crusade?? I've never even heard of the TITLE of that game?!
… But early '12 we already got titles like Syndicate, Darkness 2, Borderlands 2, Far Cry 3 (I think?), not to mention that little something BioWare got scheduled for march… 😉
Not to say all those titles are guaranteed to be giants, but at least they have the potential of stealing the limelight the first quarter next year.
Regarding Cursed Crusade Ben did a preview article of it a while ago. Looked like a fantasy setting action rpg with coop (that's why I remember this one). He could have been kind enough to link to that article. But he isn't. 😉
Last edited by Beamboom on 10/13/2011 6:40:00 AM
Next year is looking just as good as this one… It's insane!
Well, except for ME3 and Borderlands 2 that list doesn't look as huge as what's around the corner now, and don't even get me started on Syndicate @#$%!
I guess what I'm trying to say is there's a whole calendar year out there, but they only use like two months of it for the biggest releases. Maybe if they didn't look blindly at those holiday sales potentials and take competition into consideration they'd still sell more copies if they spread things out a bit into other parts of the year…
Oh, and I stumbled upon a review of that Cursed Crusade game right after reading this article… got a 4/10 :-/
Regarding the months: I believe there is a reason for this. They must have some statistics that show that for instance january and july is dead, and that it after all is better to release a underdog in stiff competition with flagships. I just don't think this is a coincidence. And from a consumer point of view this is pure luxury of course. 🙂
I actually think Syndicate looks cool. It just isn't Syndicate the way we know it. Think of it as a new game with the same name – that's what I do. 🙂
Regarding the other titles, we also got BioShock Infinite but I'm not sure when it is due for release? And Twisted Metal, is Dust514 also due to early next year? There really is an insane lineup already for 2012. Totally insane.
Reagrding Cursed Crusade: Yeah I found those bad reviews late last night too. Actually I'm not surprised after I saw the game website. Too bad – there's always room for another good rpg!
Last edited by Beamboom on 10/14/2011 2:38:33 AM
"Too bad – there's always room for another good rpg!" Ah man, you could say that again!!
I'm sure they have research about that, I'm just not so sure it's correct, since this is pretty much untested territory AFAIK, I mean this has been the way they do it for as long as I can remember, with a lot of good titles being completely unseen & forgotten because of a couple of big titles released at the same time stealing all the attention.
That just can't be good business for those smaller titles, that could've gotten good sales and reviews, had they been released sometime during 'slow season'…
I'm sure you're right though that there are plenty of big titles coming early next year too, but there's always a month or two after that.. There are always a number of very slow months every year…
The Cursed Crusade will be no loss. I predict that it will be terrible.
NFS has its following, but it won't attain any real sales success and the same goes for All 4 One, though I imagine that both will sell steadily.
Goldeneye is a HD version of a Wii remake of a hallowed and much respected game. IIRC, it reviewed well as a Wii game, but it hasn't impressed me based on what I've seen of it.
Saints Row 3 is very deserving of that though. It's looking like a loony's wet dream. Should be a good game, if not to my taste thanks to the crassness of it.
My list would include the LotR game, War in the North. I doubt it'll be much good, but it's LotR damn it! Rayman would be another one. It'd be much better to release it later on down the track a bit, away from the slate of massive games, given what the title is. The same goes for Sonic, though to a lesser extent because Sonic somehow still has brand value. Wait… Postal is out this year? Bonkers, but that will probably deserve to be overlooked anyway :/
Yeah, Saints Row is definitely a "guilty pleasure" for most of us. 😉
I hope you are wrong about Cursed Crusade – though I suspect you will be very right. I was just over at the game website and it looks deserted. Even the "developer diary" were empty.
I'll be getting all over those except for The Cursed Crusade. I hadn't heard about it since I read this article.
I've bought every R&C game without thinking twice, but A4O just doesn't look interesting to me. Its like Insomniac jumped on the 4-player Co-op bandwagon instead of doing something fresh and original like they are known for.
All 4 One is probably a spin-off, besides, Resistance 3 came out recently ya?
Gotta pass on a few titles for now..my sons need Christmas gifts and one has a birthday 5 days before. I'll have to stick with Uncharted 3 and MGS collection..will be bringing in the new year with Silent Hill HD…wish money grew on trees..
yeah i'm going to have to pass on all of these. They all sound great but i'm limited on funds.
On a side note… Has anyone seen that new playstation commercial with all the ps3 characters? It mostly has all live characters in it. It starts off with nathan drake and pans to cole from infamous and so on… It's really cool. Check it out if you get a chance. Have a great day!!!
Yea we've seen it bro. Ben did a article on it when it came out. Nice huh
Ill be getting The Run but it wont be until 2012
Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One – Day 1 purchase
Saints Row: The Third – Day 1 purchase
I already reserved both!
Saints Row: The Third is my GotY. Even Uncharted 3 can't take that spot for me. Nor Dark Souls. Saints Row 2 was one of the pleasant surprises in which I didn't think much of the game and literally couldn't put it down once I started. It was just too good.
SR2 took me totally by surprise too. All hail the Saints! 🙂
Last edited by Beamboom on 10/13/2011 1:48:52 PM
<<<<<All hail the Saints!>>>>>
Beamboom, Thank you, thank you!
OH wait, you meant the other Saint's….
……Damn, never mind
Last edited by BikerSaint on 10/13/2011 7:27:01 PM
Oh by all means, all Hail the BikerSaints too! 😉
Definitely getting All4One as soon as I can afford it, but I have no idea when that will be. I hope Cursed Crusade is good, but worry that it will be a bust. Will probably get it eventually (like next year) if it has halfway decent reviews. Not mentioned, but I also want to get Rocksmith when I have the means.