Crackdown only sells 1.5 million, partly GameStop’s fault |
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| BY Chad George Jul. 16th, 2009 | More on: |
When an album sells one million copies it is considered to have gone platinum and the artist gets a nice shiny award, everyone attached celebrates. This jubilation is apparently not applicable to other retail sales figures, as Crackdown sold 1.5 million copies and Realtime Worlds CEO David Jones is not thrilled. Despite the fact that most people bought the game for the Halo 3 multiplayer beta and not for its innovative open-world gameplay or its RPG-like customizations, Jones is laying part of the blame on used game retailers.
Jones says that even though 1.5 million copies were sold, the company only managed to break even due to factors beyond their control, like GameStop’s “amazing used-game sales.” Realtime Worlds knows that they sold 1.5 million new copies of Crackdown but when you factor in the used game sales, “it’s likely there were 2.5, three million sold.”
It could have been GameStop’s fault or it could have been the fact that most people who weren’t interested in Halo 3 did not pay attention to the game. How about we see how Crackdown 2 fares without an attached beta and then judge? Deal.
July 17th, 2009
at 2:14 am
A lot of people seem to be under the impression that once you cross the 1 million mark your making money which is absurd as Jones pointed out a whole variety of factors from deals with publishers to development costs can impact that.
A lot of sites seemed to focus just on the gamestop bit he sited that as an annoyance as they could see 2.5-3 million people actually played it on the Xbox 360.
July 17th, 2009
at 4:02 am
I admit I got my copy used, but I was late to the 360 party. It was a great game, especially when playing coop with friends, and I’ll likely get the sequel when the time comes, but not making money on a game that sells 1.5 million copies just seems a bit… off to me. You’d think that with the Halo 3 beta attached that they would have a little scratch from MS to balance things out. I imagine that it didn’t cost nearly as much to make the sequel since much of the artwork and underlying engine could be reused. If as many people buy the sequel perhaps they’ll break even or better.
Either that or the CEOs need to take a pay cut.
July 17th, 2009
at 5:00 am
@Sheep - It amazes me that, no matter what the product, no one makes any money off these things. Blaming the used game market is becoming the cop-out du jour in this industry. The pre played game that bhive bought was purchase by someone first, who finished it or didn’t like it and traded it in. And, like our story here (http://www.thatvideogameblog.com/2009/06/30/michael-pachter-says-100-million-games-traded-in-not-hurting-new-game-sales/) says, most pre-played purchases come well after the window of the normal “new game sale.”
I think developers need to face the facts that maybe people just weren’t into their game at the time.
July 17th, 2009
at 6:19 am
I think its time for some of those who know best to give a real breakdown of where the money goes over the time and life of a typical video game from launch to the discount bin.
July 17th, 2009
at 10:08 am
boohoo.
July 17th, 2009
at 12:53 pm
Yeah seriously, cry me a fucking river. Games are expensive, and the not everyone has the kind of money to shell out for a lot of games. And what if you’re done with the game and you don’t want it anymore? Should we just throw it away? The used game market is a fantastic idea, If developers really have a problem, then they need to structure a plan where they make some profit even from used games.
July 17th, 2009
at 2:44 pm
basically there is not reason to hold on to a game after you finish it. And further more no reason to buy it new. If you want to kill the used game industry, then sell your game as DLC only. Then we’ll see how many units you sell.
July 17th, 2009
at 8:26 pm
There is a game out there that is using DLC to combat the used game issue. Criterion, with Burnout Paradise, has made their game THE one with a reason to hold on to it. Even a self confessed trade-in-aholic hasn’t sacrificed that one… yet.
July 17th, 2009
at 9:25 pm
Oh please.
Make a game worth the 60 bucks and then complain that used games suck.
I paid 10 bucks. What I thought the game is worth.
July 18th, 2009
at 12:08 am
I would agree with Burnout. I didn’t pay full price for Burnout, but picked it up for 20$ well after release. Since then, I’ve gone a bit nuts with the DLC and spent well over 20$ for new content. I admittedly won’t spend that much in the future just for cars again, but the new Island was well worth the money. New jumps, new events, new cars, new gates… toadally worth it. Whereas, a bunch of little cars… I think I’ve used them maybe 4 times and paid like 8$. Not worth it.
In fact, I sold my Burnout Disc and rebought Burnout as DLC early on because I was moving overseas and figured the fewer things to bring the better. I ended up replaying the whole game because the save file wasn’t compatible between the disc and DLC versions. I had to replay all the events and get all the cars and everything all over again. Burnout is toadally worth the money.