Some games seem to come out at the right/wrong time
PostPosted:Thu Sep 13, 2012 10:47 pm
I was looking at some of the older games on Youtube and I think a lot of time whether something is successful is mostly a timing issue. Sure if you're Nintendo or Blizzard anytime is a good time and whether you succeed is all up to you, but this isn't true for everyone else. Guild Wars 2 sold 2 million copies and honestly it's only an above average MMORPG at best. Of course not having a subscription fee might have helped but really it came out at a good time because people are looking for something to dethrone WoW. On the other hand RIFT came out at a bad time because it was the first game that actually made a dent in WoW's inviniciblity but for all its hard work, most people end up flocking to the next WoW killer (though RIFT still seems quite profitable given its aggressive content schedule, unless the developer is just crazy). SWTOR also benefitted from this. Guild Wars 2 even benefitted from Diablo 3 totally flopping, since ultimately they're pretty similar game (medicore single player game with dubious multiplayer and replay value) and while nobody thought Diablo 3 would've been terrible on replay value, this inexplicably happened.
On the other hand Sega has a history of having its game in the wrong time. In general I'd say SNES and PSX are probably the most dominant systems in the history of gaming (NES might be dominant too but there weren't any big budget titles back then to look forward to so it's not like you have to avoid when the next Zelda game is going to be released for your action game). A decent RPG on the PSX might be Wild ARMS or Suikoden, even though it's more than a match for the best RPG on the Sega Saturn (Lunar, Grandia, whatever). In fact, Lunar Silver Star Story on the PSX would be Wild ARMS, maybe even better. It won't be crazily popular but you can probably sell half a million for just being a decent RPG on the PSX. Skies of Arcadia and Grandia 2 might lose to FFX and Kingdom Hearts on voice acting and graphics, but both also came out quite a bit earlier and could've been say an early PSX2 launch title. I never quite understood why Skies of Arcadia never showed up on the PSX2 since it'd have been quite solid as an early PSX2 RPG title, and even in the later eras it sure isn't worse than say Wild Arms Altered Code F (not that it did well, but it's a reasonable comparison point). And let's not forget Phantasy Star 4, which is a pretty solid above average RPG that had the misfortune of coming out on the same year as Chrono Trigger.
On the other hand Sega has a history of having its game in the wrong time. In general I'd say SNES and PSX are probably the most dominant systems in the history of gaming (NES might be dominant too but there weren't any big budget titles back then to look forward to so it's not like you have to avoid when the next Zelda game is going to be released for your action game). A decent RPG on the PSX might be Wild ARMS or Suikoden, even though it's more than a match for the best RPG on the Sega Saturn (Lunar, Grandia, whatever). In fact, Lunar Silver Star Story on the PSX would be Wild ARMS, maybe even better. It won't be crazily popular but you can probably sell half a million for just being a decent RPG on the PSX. Skies of Arcadia and Grandia 2 might lose to FFX and Kingdom Hearts on voice acting and graphics, but both also came out quite a bit earlier and could've been say an early PSX2 launch title. I never quite understood why Skies of Arcadia never showed up on the PSX2 since it'd have been quite solid as an early PSX2 RPG title, and even in the later eras it sure isn't worse than say Wild Arms Altered Code F (not that it did well, but it's a reasonable comparison point). And let's not forget Phantasy Star 4, which is a pretty solid above average RPG that had the misfortune of coming out on the same year as Chrono Trigger.