from the Archive
sequels and licenses in the game industry
a little number crunching, courtesy of someone in the biz:
90 titles were released in November of 2003 (not including multi-SKUs). Of those, 36 (40%) were "original" (not an affiliated brand or sequel) titles. However, to date (as of Jan. '03), those titles account for just below 19% of total units sold (of those aforementioned 90 titles).publishers like sequels and licensed games because people actually buy them. obviously there are other factors, and i don't think you can just handwave the possibility that there are differences in marketing and distribution that contribute to the sales results. it is almost certainly a self-reinforcing situation. just like the other entertainment sub-industries.
here was my reaction to the greg costikyan rants:
i want to agree more with what he says, but there's too much of an undercurrent of "everyone else is an idiot and i'm an underfunded genius -- give me money".(there is undoubtedly a measure of projection in this response. i've found that many things that people say about other people are directed largely at themselves.)
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speaking of sequels, ubi soft just acquired the north american publishing rights to 'ape escape 2'. sony of america felt it was too derivative of the original and passed. that's fine with me. even if they released the original with updated graphics I'd buy it. it's all about the monkey radar.
depending on what they paid, it seem like a good deal for ubi. the original ape escape has sold 624,000 units in the us.