Majority of 360 owners narrow-minded?

[Profit]

It's like the Harvest Moon games - less than a % of console owners have a copy, but doesn't mean there no money to be made.

[Concept]

I see what your saying but the thread's not really about Viva Pinata. I'm just worried there'll come a time when there'll be nothing different available on the 360 as they don't sell well enough.

But that's always been the case. Why do you think the likes of Ubisoft are creating their pet ranges? Shovelware has to pay for the long development time and high production value investment that a lot of next-generation experimental content requires.

Stuff like Viva Pinata kicks around for years before a lot of it comes out.

The reason why we're inevitably going to see less Okamis, ICOs and Killer7s this generation is because they require more time, people and money to make so the risk is higher.

[EvilBoris]

I see what your saying but the thread's not really about Viva Pinata. I'm just worried there'll come a time when there'll be nothing different available on the 360 as they don't sell well enough.

Well yes that is something we should all be worried about, especially when the only games that make a profit are EAs yearly pump.
This was such a concern within the industry that it was one of the main reasons behind the Wii being as simple (compared to 360 and ps3) so that devs could make relatively cheap games that don't need to sell 2 milion copies to break even.

Certainly with bigger publishers they are prepared to release something a little more obscure and take a hit because they will have other IPs that always rake in a massive profit.

[Profit]

Well yes that is something we should all be worried about, especially when the only games that make a profit are EAs yearly pump.
This was such a concern within the industry that it was one of the main reasons behind the Wii being as simple (compared to 360 and ps3) so that devs could make relatively cheap games that don't need to sell 2 milion copies to break even.

That's a different line of reasoning though - Viva Pinata would unlikely sell any better had it come out on any other format; and if it wasn't a relatively big budget 360 game, the reviews for it would be altogether different.

And even if there were no EA games, people wouldn't have bought VP instead.

[EvilBoris]

As I mentioned earlier, it is partly because as a general buying entity, mainstream gamers aren't aware of the specifics of games and more often than not rely on judging a game by its cover and purchasing games from tried and tested genres.
This combined with the obvious fact that not many 8 year olds (which is who the game is tailored for) will own a 360 at this point in time, as time goes by the age range for owners. So not only would a game like Vp have the benefit of having more people in general to purchase the game, a broader range of 360 owners will exist, creating a larger market for that that kind of game also.

I don't think it is as simple as it would sell better on another format, as it stands at this moment in time the Ps3 wouldn't be any better vessel for a game like VP and weren't games like Red Steel and Call of Duty 3 some the biggest selling Wii titles over christmas?

It makes sense in my head.

[andrewfee]

I was put off by Viva Pinata. Not by the designs. By the fact that nobody could actually explain to me what I do in the game. Does that make me narrow-minded?

1) Buy seed/ornament and place in garden to attract new type of Piñata (which will then annoy one kind in your garden, and get the interest of another)
2) Build relevant house.
3) Mate Piñatas until you hit the requirement.
4) Get spammed with mini-cutscenes throughout to keep the ADD kids happy.
5) Repeat until you've got them all.

Welcome to non-gaming.


It looked fantastic (when it wasn't night or raining all the time...) but Viva Piñata bored me to death, and the cutscenes popping up all the time drove me mad.


As for why the game failed... the mainstream doesn't really buy cutesy games, unless it's for their kids, and the 360 isn't really aimed at that market with the £300 price point. It won't have had much appeal with the "hardcore" (the average 360 owner right now, I imagine) due to it not being much of a game at all.

[JP]

Viva Pinata was a game that I was so looking forward to!!!

It did absolutely nothing for me either though, I found very little gameplay in it myself! I really loved the look of the game at times but it seemed so repetitive with no real reward for doing the tasks!

I think you have it just about right there andrew...

[Freddo]

I can't remember but I think it was the major who said MS always intended for this to be a bit of a long term sleeper hit, something to sell the console to mums and kids later on in its lifespan when it's much much cheaper.

I played the demo for like 4 hours and decided that was enough for me, man those cut-scenes are annoying.

[MattyD]

You have to understand, MS aimed for a certain demographic with the 360 and arguably did it so well that they isolated everyone else. You can't honestly expect someone into Tom Clancy games and Forza to also like Viva Piñata. Let's not forget that 360 games costs upwards of £40 a throw. It's not like you can gamble on an experiment with that sort of money, or at least I can't.

[anephric]

I like teh special ops and Viva Pinata. I am some kind of Johnny Alpha mutant freak, mind.

[kuro-tsuno]

New here, but my personal opinion on this is the game just didn't fit with the usual game type thats played over the 360. I think theres a few factors to why it didn't do so well. Rare haven't really done very well with microsofts consoles and that in turn with the fact its not the kind of game you usually find on the 360 caused it to fail in sales.

I think Viva would of sold better on nintendo's console because the type of game Viva is and the type of games you get with nintendo products are the same.

I don't think 360 owners are narrow minded I just think with each console theres a certain type of gamer. Each console offers a different experience that attracts certain gamers. Neither wii owners ps3 owners or 360 owners are narrow minded they were just attracted to that console for the type of experience it offers.

[themanwithapc]

I really enjoyed Viva Pinata, but at least 75% of the reason for that are the achievement points. As it's been discussed earlier, it's so open ended, you don't quite know what to do, especially as you have very little direct control over proceedings. The achievements gave a goal to the game which kept me playing it.

On a more general note, I think it's safe to assume that niche games will never die out, but instead just diminish in number as gaming progresses. Afterall, whilst the FIFAs and NFSs of the world sell by the bucketloads, a lot of gamers are still attracted to the Viva Pinatas. Eradicating them completely will wipe out a huge chunk of potential sales.

[Prophet Hero]

Does anyone remember when Peter Moore described his ideal Xbox owner?

"He is a male. He is connected. He is very, very used to going online for community. He's probably played PC games online. He's part of a Halo 2 clan and has been for two years. That comes from him playing Halo in college--so he's 23 or 24--with his buddies. He still loves to go out on a Wednesday night with them, even though they're spread all around the US. But they all come together Wednesday night to relive the days in the dorm room.

"He also expects instant gratification, the delivery of game demos to his hard drive via his broadband network. And he's popular enough to have his profile online and he's pretty competitive, so he loves (Xbox game) achievements. He'll stay up all night to get achievements in games that his buddies have because it just pisses him off that they've got them first. He also would rather starve to death than not have a high-definition TV. He'll go without food rather than have a standard-def 27-inch TV."

[anephric]

Way to broaden the market.

[iloveannie]

I thought the 360 was for shooters and racers? PS3 for, well, not sure yet as it hasn't had time to settle in. Wii for sitting so nicely next to the iMac and iPod and anything Nintendo.

Same story different generation really. Wish the Wii had been higher spec. May have been the next Dreamcast then.