Topic: Activision and EA see poor orders including "real" next gen

Two articles from Activision and EA's latest reports. EA remain confident that this is just a stump and that people will still quickly pick up the new consoles, but Activision remain unconvinced. Both sides have conducted the same research and Acti claim that the mass market does not know what console to buy the games.

http://www.joystiq.com/2013/08/02/cod-ghosts-pre-orders-negat...

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/ea-current-gen-sports-games-pr...

EA were quick to slam Nintendo, the Wii U and the few fans who still supported their games (like me) despite the fact EA clearly didn't care about Wii U. EA, many websites, analysts and forum posters have long deemed Wii U as a last gen console behind the times and will become irrelevant when the others come. I believe EA have ran before they could walk here and it serves them right. I take this news as many multiplats on both systems being sent to die as the systems don't live up to the expectations the majority were boasting. Despite internet assumptions it seems the mass market doesn't know where games will truly end up next gen.

As catch 22 rears its ugly head next gen doesn't look to be as set in stone as many Wii U bashers thought. Sony and Microsoft may have more people interested in these games, but the overblown development costs means that PS4 and XBO games can't afford to screw up in order to be profitable. Power pushing compares to a side where the fanbase may not be there.

I think people are forgetting that the 360 got off to a fairly poor start when it kicked off the last gen as well. It wasn't as bad as Wii U is doing but it was still getting outsold consistently by PS2 because despite having good games, many were cross-gen. 360 took a year to start taking off, PS3 took the same time, the only consoles in recent memory that were really big sellers right out of the gate were PS2 and Wii and both had unique hooks that pushed sales, PS2 doubling as a DVD player and the Wii providing games such as Wii Sports and Play on top of the traditional stuff like Zelda: Twilight Princess. Wii U is struggling now but will pick up later this year when Mario hits. I think PS4 and Xbox One will both start fairly strong then sales will slow down after the rush of early adopters (of which I'll be one for the PS4, can't wait) as stuff like Assassin's Creed, GTA, Call of Duty, Watch_Dogs, Madden, Battlefield haven't made the jump exclusively to next-gen yet. When those franchises stop releasing on 360 and PS3, that's when PS4, X1 and Wii U will start to benefit with better sales.

I genuinely find it amusing that apparently this surprises them. Yes, the transitional period for gaming isn't as strong for your game sales, what a brilliant revelation guys. Too bad this wasn't apparent to even internet nobodies for the past year or 2 or else you'd look kinda stupid, large gaming companies.

Hirshberg noted that pre-orders for Ghosts are "well below the record-setting pace set by Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 last year," and that the impending arrival of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One are to blame.

" he said. Despite the lower pre-order numbers,

This has nothing to do with how well the PS4/Xbox One will sell, thay are talking about COD Ghost, people are slowly getting sick of COD. Just because it doesn't sell like Black Ops2 that doesn't mean the PS4/Xbox One will sell badly lol. And who in the right mind would buy a PS4 for COD Ghosts, i know i'm not.

Well, I was going to buy a PS4 and I haven't changed my mind yet. Who's with me?

lol using COD preorders to judge a systems success.

Nintendo fans be reachin again..

The article is suggesting that COD Ghost pre-order numbers aren't as much for Xbox One/PS4 in comparison to Xbox 360/PS3 pre-orders.
This isn't "Nintendo fans be reachin" @AlexSays. This is probability and statistics. Obviously, it won't determine the actual sales 1:1, but this sort of data is what they look at to scope how many systems will be out there that support their game in relation to how many games they plan to sell.
Even if the game sells well on Xbox 360 and PS3, that extra effort put towards 8th gen versions of the game may not pay off as well at first. That's all it is.

No matter how small the number, the pre-orders are in last gens favor for games in the 7th to 8th generation transition.

If they need to sell at least 2-3 million copies, they aren't going to make any immediate profit, so it's an investment that wouldn't be that wise to back out of financially.

That's why Wii U is important. They can count Wii U sales towards their sale goal, but no one's going to buy cheap ports and other BS on Wii U, so they got to step up and make it important to get games onto Wii U

It isn't just COD preorders though. In Joystiq is a link to EA saying their entire sports lineup isn't meeting their expectations either. And that whole article also says the same thing. Hold it down to "tired franchises" all you want but I believe the answer will be that more realistic graphics don't justify inflated prices of ports.

If Activision's research is right and people don't know where they are upgrading then EA have jumped the gun far too soon.

Everyone already knows that EA is good at either jumping the gun or jumping ship

Especially their CEO!! Oh, too soon? :3

This generation transition is going to be a rough one for all consoles. Everyone smirked at the Wii U, but the Xbone/PS4 transition isn't going to be as smooth and blockbuster as everyone assumes, either. They'll sell out of pre-order and intial stock, yup. But then sales will be slow when everyone realizes the new boxes are pretty much playing the same games with more light shading. And this comes before consumers eventually realize they are paying premium prices for console boxes that are essentially gated PCs with added internet fees, and then everyone's minds will simultaneously explode from the enlightenment.

This post was mostly not serious. Mostly.

I read both articles, but I don't see the correlation between the low pre-order sales and next gen consoles, and neither article explains this as well. With Call of Duty: Ghosts it could be chocked down to quite a few things.

-Franchise Fatigue may be finally setting in.
-Treyarch who is considered the good COD developer isn't working on the game. I remember WAW had worse pre-orders than COD4.
-Overall they haven't shown anything that impressive and it looks so much worse than Killzone and Battlefield.

Sports games are always having soft pre-orders. Its just multiplied since people are waiting to get the next gen games anyway. I buy madden and Fifa every year and don't pre-order. The only reason why I preordered madden this year was to get the free year of sunday ticket

And this comes before consumers eventually realize they are paying premium prices for console boxes that are essentially gated PCs with added internet fees, and then everyone's minds will simultaneously explode from the enlightenment.

You’ll be hard-pressed to find any PC with GDDR5 plugged directly into the motherboard rather than sitting on the graphics card. lol, never mind CPU/GPU configuration, what Sony has done with the PS4 is something that PC builders simply cannot do. And this is before you go into depth, with what the PS4 does, which a PC simply cannot do. So yes people brains can explode from enlightenment, knowing a PC simply cannot do what a PS4 does.

Overall they haven't shown anything that impressive and it looks so much worse than Killzone and Battlefield.

The new COD Ghosts still uses a very old engine, over ten years old to be precise with a few updates, far from next-gen.

This statement confuses me. WAW was made by Treyarch and COD4 was made by Infinity Ward, I don't see how this supports your point.

That was before Treyarch became known as the good call of duty developer. Before the fallout with EA the Infinty Ward games made a ton of money and were the ones to be most excited about. Ever since most of Infinty Ward left to make Titanfall its become the reverse with the Balck ops series becoming the main draw comapred to the modern warfare one.

360's and PS3's were slow out the gate. Transition is obvious. It's record lows and time, to watch out for.

I guess that's just the beginning. Us Wii U owners are gonna enjoy a funny post-holiday season.

No it is reaching. This is almost as ridiculous as people using Amazon preorder charts to determine how the consoles will do.

I'm okay with this though, all the more to talk about when those consoles don't fail this holiday and people here have to backtrack.

Low preorder sales = multiplats being sent to die. That isn't reaching Scar? lol. C'mon now, I know you like outrageous claims as much as the next person, but that is typical pro-Nintendo, anti-everything else propaganda. People that believe the Wii U is some great savior and devs are going to start worshipping it are going to be very disappointed..

@AlexSays
I never said next-gen consoles or multiplats are going to die. I'm supporting the Wii U that everyone is giving s*** to, so you seriously got to be kidding, thinking I'm trying to talk down other things people supposedly care about.

The data points towards the 8th gen consoles not doing so good at first. That doesn't mean their going to die. How did you even interpret any of this as an insult?
It's probability and statistics. How the hell is that reachin'? They did this data themselves and interpreted it, and you're giving me crap about it. Give me a break.