There's absolutely no chance of this happening. Sony will make sure they get pretty much all the high profile indies for the first couple of years just like they did with the ps4.
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Nowhere Prophet dev: "Our opening weekend sales on PS4 were 5% of our Switch opening weekend sales"
- Thread starter Lant_War
- Start date
Yeah, given that three separate people have misunderstood what I am saying, the problem is definitely with how I have worded things.
My basic point is that for the markets we do have data for, Paper Mario charted higher than TLOU2 routinely (Japan, PAL)
GOT consistently beat Paper Mario and TLOU2
Animal Crossing outsold TLOU2 in July (it's charted higher through July for the markets we have data for); in at least one market (Japan), it eventually managed to topple GOT as well.
The overall point I am making, the context of which is important, is that the notion that PS4 had a lot of games vying for attention, but that the Switch or PC didn't, is false.
I don't see Sony heavily investing in indies right out the gate. Buy they don't need to...
Gamepass has shown indies with high quality product they can get money and strong exposure from MS. Seemingly while still doing good numbers on Switch.
Nintendo has accidentally built the best indie machine of all time and developers reap the benefits of massively inflated sales on Switch.
Sony, might have fallen behind here in the last few years but it doesn't matter. There are a lot of good indies great for knowledgeable players on forums like Era. But the mass market appeal of Sony's first party will be more valuable out of the gate.
1. I don't know.
2. I don't have a vested interest in what Sony or any other digital storefront sees as important when it comes to games that float to the top in their ecosystem. I'm sure if they felt like they needed to address it, they would. They came out indie strong with the PS4, and maybe that didn't pay off for them across the board would be my guess.
I see games rise to the top on Steam almost constantly that Valve made zero effort to promote just because of word of mouth. If enough people that played this game felt the need to promote it on social media, Twitch, etc, that would be the best thing for it. Indie or AAA, consumer reaction is the best barometer when it comes to new releases, and will make or break any game.
5% of 2000 would only be 100 copies, but 2000 would still not be great. We don't have numbers for context, so it's hard to really know the significance of the PS4 falling short while the Switch and XB1 paid off for the developer.
The Origami King has only been out for just over 2 weeks. The Last of Us 2 had been out for a full month longer. As a single player game with a gigantic launch it's a little disingenuous to claim Paper Mario is out legging it just based off what we know now. Animal Crossing is a better comparison though there was never any doubt in anyone's mind Animal Crossing would sell better after seeing the insane launch numbers it posted.
If your point was just that it wasn't only PS4 players that had a lot of games pulling attention sure, I agree. Only people deep in the console warrior none sense are pointing to 2 games swallowing up the entire markets attention. We are in a period where game sales across the board are higher than ever lol, these people don't know what they are talking about.
That was basically the broader point I was going for, I had meant for Paper Mario (and AC) to be illustrative examples, but I do admit the conversation got away from me lol.
Isn't that the guy who was mocking and fighting Nintendo fans (Era members actually) on Twitter about the Switch icon?
I'm not agreeing with that post nor I'm agreeing with you. that user is being hyperbolic but it's easy to understand what's he's trying to say. To say everyone on ps4 is playing TLOU or GoT is stupid, but so is your comment saying that there 100m users.
You know what never mind. I should have stopped trying to get my point across and establishing a conversation as soon as you said "- 5% means that for every 5 copies sold on the PS4, there were 100 copies sold on the Switch." Or perhaps even earlier
I wasn't really aware of this game until reading this thread. I took a cursory look at it, and...no, thanks, this isn't my type of game.
It's not that PS4 owners don't buy indie games. I just bought Demon's Tilt and Cuphead on Tuesday (the day both of them released), so it's not like I'm stingy. But to be honest, even if I was aware of Nowhere Prophet, I wouldn't have bought, just simply because it doesn't appeal to me.
If I were to buy a game like this, I'd be more inclined to do so on PC...but (for my gaming tastes) I would not have bought it there, either. No offense to the publisher or developer, but this just isn't my cup of tea.
I'm not going to attempt to explain why it sold poorly on PS4, or why it sold better on other platforms. I'm just explaining why I didn't and wouldn't buy it.
No, this is a key point, and something that the publisher should certainly confront Sony about.
No, I don't think so. But I think Hippopuncher12 explained it well.
I agree.
If the publisher asked for a launch discount and Sony failed to give it to them, then that's one of the problems that needs to be addressed. In the case of this game, I don't think it would've altered their fortunes considerably, but it would've probably helped out a little bit at least.
It's not that PS4 owners don't buy indie games. I just bought Demon's Tilt and Cuphead on Tuesday (the day both of them released), so it's not like I'm stingy. But to be honest, even if I was aware of Nowhere Prophet, I wouldn't have bought, just simply because it doesn't appeal to me.
If I were to buy a game like this, I'd be more inclined to do so on PC...but (for my gaming tastes) I would not have bought it there, either. No offense to the publisher or developer, but this just isn't my cup of tea.
I'm not going to attempt to explain why it sold poorly on PS4, or why it sold better on other platforms. I'm just explaining why I didn't and wouldn't buy it.
No, this is a key point, and something that the publisher should certainly confront Sony about.
No, I don't think so. But I think Hippopuncher12 explained it well.
I agree.
If the publisher asked for a launch discount and Sony failed to give it to them, then that's one of the problems that needs to be addressed. In the case of this game, I don't think it would've altered their fortunes considerably, but it would've probably helped out a little bit at least.
I knew PS4 was generally 3rd place for non-AAA stuff but these figures are eye-openingly bad. The other big surprise is the Gamepass bump pushing Xbox so far ahead of PS4 for curated devs. No wonder MS is getting JP stuff like Yakuza and Dragon Quest now after missing out all gen.
Shu's got his work cut out for him.
Shu's got his work cut out for him.
Buying timed exclusivity isn't the same as devs going to xbox and saying "please take us!"
None of the Yakuza or DQ games are timed exclusives? And they're on Xbox thanks to GP deals.
Switch release schedule is dry as fuck. Anything new that isnt shovelware is going to stand out
There's been a 1st party Switch release every month this year except Feb.
I'm really not sure why PS4 owners tend to buy less indies, it doesn't seem to be an isolated incident though and I can definitely see some smaller indies skipping the platform in the future because of it.
OP
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Probably because of the audience Sony's been cultivating. Players who want AAA games may be more willing to overlook indies until they explode in popularity, like Cuphead.
Gamepass probably allowed people who weren't convinced on the game since they gave it a spin and decided to buy it to support the dev, and in the case of Nintendo, indies are an important part of the console, acting as main pillar of the third party between first party releases. Since both MS and Nintendo have been pushing indies heavily in the last time, the console user base may be more willing to get them.
New consoles and platforms are always a prime opportunity for indies. It's a neophile market, a prime time for people to try new games.
It'll be interesting to see the impact of BC and 'service' games, but the earlier years of a console cycle are usually the best time for indies to make a mark. That opportunity does wane over the cycle as bigger games become entrenched.
I expect they'll be all over PS5 for that reason, especially if Sony is out scouting for games as they appear to be again.
Yakuza 7 is timed exclusive though? The xbox SX version is launch exclusive while PS5 will have to wait until next year.
I am talking about the next gen versions.
If you want to play the PS5 version you will have to wait.
If the game doesn't look appealing being the reason, then the game should have sold similarly on Switch, no ?
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I wonder if visibility being the reason why indie struggle in PS4.
I recently got into PC gaming and it opened up my eyes on indie/smaller game scene with how often Steam plaster them on store front page. Compare to PSN where I feel like they only promote big games on store front page.
Well, there's a lot more options on PS4. Last of Us 2 and Ghost of Tsushima, two major games with huge advertising campaigns came out exclusively. Can't think of anything even close to equivalent on Switch or Xbox.
Yeah...nothing to play or spend money on Xbox and Switch.
Read the whole thread and caught up, hope it gets back on the eshop soon!
Seeing sales figures for my own indie horror game were 'interesting'. It's a humble pie every indie developer has to eat.
First of all, our game might never be as appealing to others as it ever was to us. Even if it does appeal to the right audience and is actually a good experience, finding the right audience might never happen.
Few handful indie games that make it big gives a false illusion to a lot of us that it is a likely outcome for us if we keep at it. The harsh reality is, that most creators will find very little to none audience for their games. Making it big and reaching wide audience is technically possible but There is a massive gulf of cold obscurity; that's where most of us will remain no matter how many things we create.
Once you come to terms with that, you can focus on finding the joy in creation. That's the only way for you to keep going if you want to be an indie game developer or a creator in general.
First of all, our game might never be as appealing to others as it ever was to us. Even if it does appeal to the right audience and is actually a good experience, finding the right audience might never happen.
Few handful indie games that make it big gives a false illusion to a lot of us that it is a likely outcome for us if we keep at it. The harsh reality is, that most creators will find very little to none audience for their games. Making it big and reaching wide audience is technically possible but There is a massive gulf of cold obscurity; that's where most of us will remain no matter how many things we create.
Once you come to terms with that, you can focus on finding the joy in creation. That's the only way for you to keep going if you want to be an indie game developer or a creator in general.
Again, 1st party games are games, all the rest are not games. They don't fit the criteria of bullshit.
Explains why Switch gamers spend so much time arguing over the game icons :p