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SOE's John Smedley weighs in on Gods and Heroes, lessons from Vanguard
GamesIndustry.biz continues its week of MMO-related features, discussing the role of partnerships in the business. Sony Online Entertainment has obviously had a number of notable relationships, and company president John Smedley offered up some time to comment on their history with business partnerships. As has often been the trend in recent years, Mr. Smedley talked heavily about the lessons the company has learned through hard knocks and rough launches. One of the reoccuring themes in GI's discussion with the CEO is what can be taken away from Vanguard's horrible launch early last year.Smedley makes no bones about that situation, saying that the company was being "run into the ground", but also noting that the game is now doing very well. He also spends some time talking about their relationship with Perpetual Entertainment and their stillborn collaboration Gods and Heroes. "Behind the scenes ... they were putting on a brave face to customers, but we were giving them advice all the time - which was ignored. At some point you get to this point in development ... in fact with Perpetual that was a direct result of the learnings we got from Vanguard - at one point they wanted to try and put the thing out early, and we said 'Look, we're not interested - we don't care if we lose money, but if you put this thing out there, users are going to hate it, and it's going to be a bad release.'" Also check out the interview for more on the in-development Indian title Ramayan, the changing MMO marketplace, and SOE's role in the future of the genre.
Which publisher gets the best review scores?
Ah, review scores. Besides letting us skip all that long, boring text that actually describes a game's high and low points, it also allows for some excellent statistical analysis and fanboy-infuriating numerical rankings. To that end, and spurred on by an similar EA-produced chart, Next-Gen's Matt Matthews crunched the GameRankings data and ranked the best-reviewed publishers of 2007.Unsurprisingly, first parties Sony and Nintendo topped the list with averages above 75% -- not bad when you consider their production includes clunkers like Lair and Donkey Kong: Barrel Blast. Microsoft is slightly lower with a 69% average, behind top-ranked third-parties like Capcom, LucasArts, EA and, surprisingly enough, Atlus. Major publishers like Midway, Atari and Majesco stagnate near the bottom of the list -- none of the trio even breaks through the mediocre 60% average barrier.The full story also breaks down the data going back to 2005 and also looks at changes in the sheer number of games released by various publishers. Check it out.
SCEA is best reviewed publisher of 2007
SCEA has had a rather stellar lineup of games in 2007. On PS3, gamers were treated to titles, such as Uncharted and Ratchet & Clank. On PSP, gamers could enjoy Syphon Filter and Jeanne d'Arc. Even the PS2 got some love, with God of War II and some strong ports of PSP titles. Sure, it's had it's share of stinkers (what publisher doesn't?), but it managed to best the industry with the most critically acclaimed lineup of the year.Next-Gen's Matt Matthews sorted through GameRankings data in order to gather his findings. What was undoubtedly a tiresome process becomes a fascinating read. Notice the incredible absence of prolific publishers, such as Ubisoft and Midway on this chart? Why? They're pretty far down the list.Phil Harrison, who is moving from Sony Europe to Atari, will have quite a task at hand. Atari currently stands with a 55.5% average. We wonder if Harrison's Atari will be able to compete against the offerings of Sony and its various Computer Entertainment first-party divisions. We doubt it.[Via Joystiq]
Japanese Wii software sales for 2007: How did Wii publishers fare?
The year is almost over, and we could probably debate for hours about which games were the best, but in the end, money talks. So, how did Wii games actually sell in 2007? A kind NeoGAFfer compiled a list that shows how much each Wii game sold this year in Japan, based on Media Create figures up until December 2nd. It's also important, though, to consider how Wii game publishers did this year in Japan (check the stats in the image above). Nintendo certainly had a great year, with over 8 million sales for 17 games. Square Enix also did pretty well for itself with Dragon Quest Swords (the only game released by the company for the Wii before the December 2nd window). As for the other third parties, however, the median game sales seem somewhat poor. Yet, considering the amount of shovelware released this year, it's hard to say that some of them didn't deserve it. Check the list of game sales here to decide for yourselves. You may notice one major disappointment (yes, we're talking about Zack and Wiki) or two, but how many other third-party games, in your opinion, really deserved to sell better than they did?
Analysis determines publisher strengths in console war
While analyst predictions for the current round of the system wars vary greatly, most analysts agree that Sony will no longer enjoy the same level of market dominance it had in previous generations. If you'll grant that premise, what third party developers are in the best position to benefit from this shift in console fortunes?A pair of analysts at 2K Advisors (no relation to the developer) decided to try and figure out the answer to that question with a new metric called the Revenue Attach Rate (RAR). Basically, the RAR measures how much money a publisher makes on system software for each unit of that system currently in the marketplace. All other things being equal, publishers benefit most when systems that give them a high RAR do well, because those system sales translate to more revenue than other system sales.Based on previous generation RARs for the major publishers, the 2K analysts determined that EA and Take Two have the most to lose from increased market share for Nintendo in this generation. Both companies showed relatively weak RARs for the GameCube, which might explain why they have each been falling all over themselves to play nice with the big N in light of strong Wii sales. Activision would benefit most from a strong Microsoft performance, given their high Xbox RAR, while THQ's relatively balanced console portfolio makes them well suited to succeed no matter who wins the battle.The full report is a little technical, but it's full of lots of good data and analysis for anyone following the business side of the game industry.[Source: 2K Advisors]
Third-party publishers are wary of the Wii
So, like we predicted, many third-party publishers are rather anxious about jumping into the Wii scene. Many feel as though Nintendo's own games compete directly with their own. To an extent, they're correct: trying to compete against games like Super Mario Galaxy and Super Smash Bros Brawl is almost impossible, no matter how good a game is. But looking at the relative dearth of titles recently, it seems as though there's quite a bit of time to release a decent title.On the flip side, this is a conducive environment for smaller studios, such as Crossbeam Studios and NIBRIS. But can these games match the quality of the big boys? Only a magic 8-ball time will tell.
Which publisher is the PSP's biggest supporter? [Update 1]
The other day I got to thinking about how many antelope it would take to kill a professional wrestler. After I was done thinking about that, I wondered which publisher is the biggest supporter of the PSP. Then I remembered that I have no life and also blog on a PSP site, so I decided to get an answer to that question. Before I started looking into it, I assumed Capcom would be in first or second place for supporters just judging my library and what I typically see in stores.Surprisingly, they weren't even the third biggest supporter with only ten games on the system. My next hunch was that either EA or Ubisoft (being the giant companies they are) must have the most games on the PSP. They do have a lot of games out, but at eleven games each, they can't take the crown of biggest supporter. Activision did beat out many contenders with their number of games totaling fourteen, but they also were not the winner. So who is the PSP's biggest supporter? While this may or may not be surprising, it's Sony themselves. SCEA has at least twenty-six games on their own platform and easily bested all comers with their release library. While a first-party publisher winning may be obvious, to many PSP fans (including myself), I often think Sony isn't doing enough to support their portable. While that may or may not be true, they still have by far the most games out on the platform. Let's just hope that Sony as well as other publishers continue to be kind to our beloved portable in this new year. [Via Gamespot][Update 1: Fixed font error.]
It could have happened: Halo on DS
Matt Cassamassina over at IGN has updated his blog with a supremely interesting entry: apparently, a version of Halo was quite deep in development for the Nintendo DS. Though several publishing mishaps resulted in the eventual cancellation of the project, one must wonder what could have been.Indeed, Matt C. even got to play an early build of the project, impressed with the accurate recreation of perhaps the world's most popular console shooter. He compares the gameplay to that of Metroid Prime: Hunters, but, you know, Halo-fied. Certainly, when you walk past the pearly gates and into Gamestop's heaven branch, this game will be at the forefront. You know, right next to Chrono Break and NiGHTs 2.
Publishers are "getting it wrong"
Mark Cale from third party publisher Play It recently went on record with MCV, saying that publishers on the PSP are simply "getting it wrong.""The reason so many games have failed on PSP is that big publishers are prioritising lavish, full 3D productions ahead of gameplay," said Cale. "But this type of game will never be as big as it is on home console, because handheld users are seeking a more addictive, distracting experience."He calls Capcom's Ultimate Ghosts 'n Goblins to be one of the few games developed with the system in mind, by keeping classic gameplay and updating it with new, modern graphics. While I agree with Mr. Cale's opinions, I find it difficult to support him fully-- what games has his publisher made? I can't think of any off the top of my head.[Thanks, steve!]
Activision CEO plays down potential of online distribution [update 1]
Bobby Kotick, the chief executive officer of Activision, stated that he believes digital distribution of full games is "so far in the future that it's almost incomprehensible as an opportunity" in the New York Times article we reported on the other day. He cites the current limits of consumer internet bandwidth and the size of hard drives as the primary concern. However, Mr. Kotick believes that there is a great opportunity for purchasing and downloading smaller add-on content like "characters, new weapons, new missions or auctioning off places".We mainly agree with Mr. Kotick's thoughts regarding the adoption of mainstream digital distribution being a while off. Even though broadband adoption and availability numbers (soon, 99.6% of the UK will have access to 4-8Mbps DSL) are increasing, figures from December 2005 suggest that only 15-20% of Japanese, American and British people actually own a high speed internet line. Those numbers need to be closer to the level that television enjoys if mainstream on-demand digital distribution is to work.However, the market for smaller games and episodes of larger commercial games which can be distributed entirely over the internet is on the verge of exploding; Half-Life: Episodes and Geometry Wars being the early signs. Writing off the internet as a medium for distributing games would be a bad move for many publishers, after all, the early bird gets the loyal customer! Services like Steam, GameTap and Xbox Live Arcade are already beginning to capture the mindshare of savvy gamers (i.e. gamers that are too lazy to walk to the store, lol, jk!), so if publishers want to maintain control of what they do best (publishing games), then surely they should be doing everything they can to get in first before the bogeyman middleman does.[Image credit: Gamasutra]Update: clarified statement regarding adoption of broadband by consumers.
More on Majesco's fall from grace
CNN are featuring a look at publisher Majesco's problems, after the company's decision last week to withdraw from the premium console market. It's a sad tale of ambition backfiring and promising titles failing to live up to expectations, with a very real impact on the company's revenue and stock.The CNN article points out that Midway, Atari and Acclaim have all been to the brink of bankruptcy and back, Majesco may still make it through. The company's move towards budget and handheld titles, as well as emerging markets such as casual and downloadable games, seems a wise one--we may even see another Psychonauts in amongst the budget bin.[Thanks, Ashcrotch]
