One wonders if those lost sales are the most casual players who are not purchasing next generation consoles and are getting their gaming fix with smart phones and tablets?
Oh, definitely. Mobile gaming has blown up since the last generation launched. It's hard to believe, but the first iPhone didn't even launch until the PS3 was a year old. That said, this generation is selling incredibly well in terms of hardware.
The demographic has changed too: recent numbers suggest just as many women play video games as men do (admittedly, with casual mobile gaming rolled into the mix). Guess which genre is amongst the lowest in terms of female participation?
Yep, racing games.
In the same study, there's a link that talks about how female gamers primarily have different motivators for playing games (completion and fantasy versus the competition and destruction men place as their top priorities). So a racing game that puts
extra emphasis on competition? Good luck!
My girlfriend doesn't consider herself a gamer, and would never purchase a console for herself. But she probably puts nearly as many hours into games on a weekly basis as I do, just on her phone instead.
In terms of sales. Like I said above, Forza in on a different platform and PCARS won't eat much into GTSport's consumer base in my opinion.
A game doesn't have to be on the same platform to be competition. PS4 hasn't offered much for the racing genre this generation: there are folks out there that may have jumped ship to the XB1 or PC (where FM7 will also be available) and won't be coming back.
I don't see how one can deny PCARS2 could
possibly eat into GT Sport's sales figures. They're both sim-oriented games with a heavy focus on eSports. PCARS2 offers the dynamic time and weather GT6 players won't be getting from GT Sport, and a car list that isn't limited to things from the last eight years (nor largely made-up for the game).
You could make the argument that the shadow of PCARS1's less-than-ideal launch could loom over the sequel, and that's fair — but then, you'd have to make the same argument for GT Sport and the nearly two-year wait for the track editor in GT6, or the still-incomplete Vision GT program.
I meant the other games this gen that didn't reach 7 million+ sales.
Okay. Those big sellers have mainstream appeal. Does a hyper-focused GT game have more of that than Uncharted 4, or Overwatch, or Battlefront? It might! IMO, those games benefit from a faultless developer reputation, an air of accessibility in a popular genre, and arguably the biggest entertainment brand name of all time, respectively. GT Sport might also get a heavy marketing push to help, of course.
Famine makes a valid argument but I have reservations. GT6 sold less for obvious reasons (and even then it sold a huge amount). FH3 is on track to be the best selling Forza IIRC so sales seem to be picking up. DC had a disastrous launch, PCARS and AC are a new ip (one was crowdfunded).
It's simply impossible to pinpoint the reasons GT6 sold less than its predecessors. It
could be a variety of things. It also might've been right in line with what Polyphony and Sony were expecting — although I'd guess that the long wait before any official figures were released would imply that wasn't quite the case.
Is there a genre fatigue? I think there is, but just how big?
big enough for GTS to have less sales than GT6?, not in my opinion.
Which sort of brings me back to the earlier high-seller point: what makes you think GTS will have substantially more mainstream appeal than GT6 did when it's a more narrow-focus game? Genuinely curious, because currently I'm just not seeing it. As I mentioned before, I've no idea where the game will land in term of franchise sales, because it's so completely different than anything that's come before, that there are no reference points. The most similar game in the genre is a PC title with a vastly smaller audience and a much different payment scheme. We're heading into uncharted waters (pun fully intended).
