PlayStation All-Stars: Did Sony doom it to failure?
- Posted November 30th, 2012 at 00:52 EDT by Mike Harradence
- 15 Comments
PlayStation 3’s next lot of heavy hitters may not be arriving until 2013, but that doesn’t mean this holiday season is entirely devoid of big exclusives. Aside from the ambitious Wonderbook, platform holder Sony’s big gun this year is the Santa Monica-developed beat-‘em-up PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale. Unlike Wonderbook – which is predominantly aimed at kids and goes down the augmented reality route – PlayStation All-Stars caters more to your hardcore gamer, and is exactly the type of game you’d expect to be sold on the back of a massive marketing push. Why is it, then, that Sony’s flagship fighter seems to be taking such a battering at retail for in the U.K.?
We won’t sugar coat this; early signs for Battle Royale are not pretty in the slightest. For such a significant release, Battle Royale limped into the charts at 38 -- a disappointing showcase no matter how you slice it. To be more specific, a trusted PSU.com source puts first week retail sales of the game at just 6,121 in the U.K. And, while you could attribute the poor performance to competitive marketing conditions (after all, with Call of Duty gobbling up the market share, even the likes of Hitman can’t get a look-in), you have to wonder whether or not Sony has put enough marketing muscle behind the game.
Wonderbook has benefited from an extensive marketing campaign, with frequent TV spots doing the rounds, which managed to push it up five places since launch. However, Battle Royale has seen little to no push whatsoever. Reading around online forums it is obvious consumer awareness for the game is at a low – even some of my mates don’t even know the game is coming out this year. The lack of marketing is incomprehensible. PlayStation All-Stars is a major release; it’s a celebration of 15 years of PlayStation icons, and a love letter to the fans who have been investing in the franchises that make up the game’s roster over the years. True, a console exclusive isn’t going to pull in as many punters as a multiplatform juggernaut like CoD or Assassin’s Creed III, but that didn’t stop Uncharted 3 from topping the charts last November.
In the case of Battle Royale, it seems that Sony may have also shot itself in the foot by pricing the game too high. Various U.K. outlets have the game priced at around £45-50, whereas if you pop down to your local supermarket, you’ll find the likes of Hitman and LEGO: Lord of the Rings for at least ten quid cheaper. Really, you have to wonder why Sony is selling such a major exclusive short, especially during such a competitive time of year – which is a crying shame, as it’s actually a bloody good game.
Has Sony tripped itself up with PS All-Stars? Do you think the game never stood a chance due to the proximity of its release to triple-A sequels? Let us know in the comments section below.
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Alpha2
- 2:45am EST - November 30th, 2012
- 3
People keep complaining that Sony didn't get enough generation 1 characters, but the fact is not all those characters belong to them and they were likely turned down for inclusion but the people who hold the rights. Some of those characters havent been seen in 15 years and havent had a memorable game, which would have lead to even more comments of "sony scraping the barrel" for characters. As for marketing, maybe they've been weak about it in the UK but in the US I think they've done fine between blogging, news articles, and press releases anyone that wanted to know about it would have known. If anything I think the comparisons to Smash bros. is what hurt it, too much mocking about the similarities and not enough visual difference being displayed is leading to a lot of "Sony's copied again" remarks which hurts sales and impressions of the game regardless of it actually being a fairly good brawler.
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Kevin Michael Schimes
- 2:45am EST - November 30th, 2012
- 4
You DO know that it started selling on Friday, and they stopped counting sales on Saturday, right? AND that more users in the UK buy digital nowadays for day one titles?
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Gameoholic007 |
Demented007- 5:52am EST - November 30th, 2012
- 7
The game should have never been made in the first place. I played the beta, and its nothing to spill my cash over. I rather get Hitman 10x over than this title. There's something about assassinating people that gives me a thrill in games. =)
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Abdul-Majeed Al-malki
- 7:25am EST - November 30th, 2012
- 8
Sony already said that PlayStation All-Stars sales are right on target, you know the sales accumulated across the globe? People have got to let go of it's debuting UK sales, really
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Ocelot1987
- 1:32pm EST - November 30th, 2012
- 10
The game is actually really good. I think they made a small roster so the series could grow in the future. It has almost as much as melee did from the start. The game play gets more addicting as you play more and it is a lot of fun to play online. The characters move set is well thought out too. I also feel that the level creation is superior to the smash series. Loco roco is the best level.
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Kaymon |
Kaymonmandella- 6:33pm EST - November 30th, 2012
- 11
Hate to say this but even though I'm not typically into these kinds of games, I was gonna buy it day 1 until I found out it didn't have Crash. I think they underestimated the draw of Crash, Snake, Cloud, Lara and Spyro. The lack of those "all-stars" undermines the games legitimacy. Doesn't matter how good your game is. If you're gonna market it as the All Stars, they had better be in there.
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Avery Rotelli
- 9:53pm EST - December 3rd, 2012
- 13
The game came out on Nov. 23 in the UK the sales chart was published on the 24, not to mention the game was also released digitally which isn't tracked. Journalist's need to do more research instead of just looking at the surface and drawing conclusions. It causes more people to have a warped view on these types of things and exposes how unprofessional in general game journalism can really be.
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Gebhart AE
- 11:37pm EST - December 3rd, 2012
- 14
The game was just released... And if u think they need more characters take a look at the potential chars they will probably put in http://www.ign.com/wikis/playstation-all-stars-battle-royale/Unconfirmed_Characters including Ghost from MW2 Ezio and Conner from the AC series and Agent 47 from Hitman... Lots of them u see in the trailer. Im going to get it for sure it looks awesome!
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Avery Rotelli
- 1:22am EST - December 4th, 2012
- 15
The game came out on Nov. 23 in the UK the sales chart was published on Nov. 24, not to mention the game was also released digitally which isn't tracked. Journalist's need to do more research instead of just looking at the surface and drawing conclusions. It causes more people to have a warped view on these types of things and exposes how unprofessional in general game journalism can really be.
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