Killzone 2 would have sold 4 million on Xbox 360
Sony recently announced that Killzone 2 sold over a million units. A million during the middle of the year is great by any measure, but it does seem a bit low for the title. The game is without a doubt a AAA title with excellent reviews, so what went wrong? If the title was on the Xbox 360 undoubtedly it would have sold at least 4 million units.
Killzone 2 is probably the biggest title to hit 2009 thus far, yet its sales were not as high as expected. Don’t get me wrong a million units is a great achievement, but it doesn’t really match the reviews given by the vast majority of the gaming community. With over 21 million PS3s in the wild there is something fishy going on here.
According to the Nielsen study, PS3 owners play on their consoles just as long as Xbox 360 owners. Also, according to Gamasutra, the PS3 has a higher attach ratio for high profile multiplatform titles than the Xbox 360. Comparison aside, it seems like that there is very little doubt that PS3 owners buy and play a lot of games. Hence the big question – why did Killzone 2 only sell a million units?
I suspect that the main culprit is Sony’s glaringly weak marketing campaign. I really have to question what the marketing department was thinking after releasing the one commercial that showed absolutely nothing about the deep gameplay and engrossing story. The commercial was beautiful, showing off the graphics engine, but most non-hardcore gamers will never know that it was all in-game.
It seems like Sony will never learn from its past marketing mistakes with games like Resistance 2 and Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune. Both games did eventually end up selling well, but I can’t help feel that some gamers may have missed out on the game due to poor marketing.
Killzone 2 definitely falls into the same category with games such as Gears of War 2 and Call of Duty 4. If Killzone 2 were a Microsoft title there is very little doubt in my mind that the game would have sold over 4 million units. Microsoft would have had Killzone 2 fries, ISA slurpees and Helghast condoms. Sony needs to wake up and spend some money on marketing.
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43 Responses to “Killzone 2 would have sold 4 million on Xbox 360”
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April 17th, 2009
Sony refuse to aggressively advertise and promote. Bring down the consumer cost of the ps3. Problem solved.
April 17th, 2009
I think it is entirely possible that sony doesn’t want to sell too many PS3s yet. Proper marketing of AAA titles like KZ2 will move consoles (much like R2 and Uncharted). This would also explain statements like “we’ll release GT5 when the time is right”. Since standalone BD players have become cheap enough to be a decent alternative to the ps3 (decent, not equivalent) Sony no longer needs the PS3 as a BD trojan horse: that job is done, and its time to focus on the gaming. The problem is that while they roll in royalties on every BD sold, the gaming tie in as a justification for operating loss is weak. BD is painlessly scalable in its function as a revenue generator, but each and every game requires effort and man hours on some level to bring to market.
If they are truly planning on supporting a 10 year product cycle, then selling more units at a loss than what is needed to keep confidence up, is long term pain. I am betting that as soon as Sony can at least break even on the PS3, we will see much bigger and effective ad campaigns and push for console sales. They can afford to be the turtle in the race against their own manufacturing costs, since the PS3 has been doing well enough not to become the next DreamCast.
April 17th, 2009
lol Helghast condoms. Do they have a bright red tip?
April 17th, 2009
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!
Helghast Condoms! Good one Mike.
April 17th, 2009
No, but they only have one Red Eye
April 17th, 2009
Guerrilla don’t do condoms, but if they did, they’d probably be the best looking condoms in the world.
April 17th, 2009
“I think it is entirely possible that sony doesn’t want to sell too many PS3s yet.”
That strategy seems to be working out well for them…
I think it is entirely possible that Sony does not have as big of a budget for marketing as Microsoft at this time.
April 17th, 2009
Mike Ferro:
You so right if it was a Xbox 360 exclusive it would have outsold Halo and Gears of War 2 combine in one day.
The thing is Microsoft does awesome ads and game sell very good on Xbox 360 especially exclusives. But they lose lots of money on ads while Sony doesn’t. I know in the end Microsoft wins with the ads.
Imagine if Microsoft decided to release Gears of War or Halo on PLAYSTATION 3 for Killzone on Xbox 360.
Sony is saving the advertising money for new IPs and to buy new studios but we consumers don’t think like that which you all should. Imagine all the money Microsoft has invest in Halo ads they could had bought a new studio or made new IPs. Sony knows business Microsoft too but who you think is smarter at making long term profitable decision?
April 17th, 2009
In the business climate of that last 15 years, Long-Term-Investment is a dirty word used to short sell your stock.
Profits for today are far more important. I am not saying I like it, just saying it like it is.
April 17th, 2009
“if it was a Xbox 360 exclusive it would have outsold Halo and Gears of War 2 combine in one day”
15 million in a day… that’s 14 more million on 360 in a day than the PS3 could manage in over a year… brilliant Ivan, make it happen.
“Sony is saving the advertising money for new IPs and to buy new studios”
Sony has spent the advertising money on new IPs and to buy new studios and it hasn’t paid off with it’s exclusive games. Maybe in another few years it might be different.
April 17th, 2009
CarlB:
The reason i said it would had outsold the two games is because every Xbox 360 wants to play KILLZONE 2. I think most Xbox 360 owner want FPS. PLAYSTATION 3 has all genres so they (owner) cannot afford every PS3 exclusive they will end bankrupt to many hot exclsuives.
Why pay for timed exclusive when you can just make your own exclusives and get all the money. Well that’s Sony’s philosophy.
Watch this video everyone.
Laptop Hunters $1500 Lisa and Jackson get a Sony VAIO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qui43P1kztw
April 17th, 2009
Last time I checked VGchartz, KZ2 was on 1.39million as of 23rd march, so it should be well over 1.5million by now. – and this is coming from a 360 owner!
as for this nonsense about sony deliberately holding back on marketing their games to reduce sales of consoles – this is the most laughable theory I have ever heard of. Selling shed loads of software is the ONLY way that sony will become profitable in the short and medium term with the PS3.
April 17th, 2009
Mike, I definately agree with you on this one.
April 17th, 2009
Mike – Didn’t they report over a million pre-orders in the EU alone? I think your numbers might be off. Are you only counting US or something?
.edge-online.com/news/report-killzone-2-pre-orders-hit-11m-europe
April 17th, 2009
The game has been out for a fucking Month and it sold a million copies.
WTF is your problem really?
Of course it would has sold more on 360 (not 4 million is one month..) because there is nothing else to fucking play on a console that is 3+ years old other then shooters..
Idiotic to the fullest..
All this N4G morons posting their blogs are poison to gaming news community.
Stir up unnecessary wars and spread moronic articles like this one.
Grow up and get of your fanboy ass Ferro, maybe then you will see outside of your paid box..
Moron..
April 17th, 2009
First off, 1 million is an awesome number, no matter how you slice it.
BUT, i do agree with this: Sony, who at one point were the KINGS of marketing ( why else are Sony’s TV Brand associated with being a “high roller) so why have they taken such a back seat this generation…This does irk me quite a bit, as MS does absolutely wonderful in their marketing push.
Another key thing to remember, is Killzone 2 did not release at a “prime” time. Halo and Gears ALWAYS release in november, right on time for the holidays. Killzone came in 2 months post-holiday, and with an even weaker economy…
On top of that, It dropped the same month as Street Fighter 4. Now, i make pretty decent money ( im on par with our fellow sheriffs
) but even i found it VERY hard to budget for not only Killzone 2 but SF4…so i could imagine other less fortunate gamers…on top of that RE5 was on its way a couple weeks later..
And as “icing on the cake” Killzone 2 had to fight a somewhat tarnished reputation..
Now, i’m not giving Sony any excuses..I’m merely pointing out DESPITE all these factors, Killzone 2 still managed to hit 1 million…that and, where i work, the above is exactly whats going on, theres about 4-6 people saying ” can’t wait to get that kill game, just i HAD to get SF4 “or whatever game they mention, its mostly late comers to the PS3, so they are either purchasing CoD4 or 5, BF:BC, or SF4 are the ones that get mentioned the most
April 17th, 2009
Would KZ2 have sold more on Xbox.
Probably.
There are afterall far more Xboxes and Microsoft know how to advertise properly.
Game Co.s will (again) be noting the relatively poor performance of what was supposed to be the messiah of PS3 gaming.
Once the dust clear = always a let down and never anything even close to the overblown expectations.
Ivan_PSP:
“Sony knows business Microsoft too but who you think is smarter at making long term profitable decision?”
Sony’s long term planning was so smart that they pi$$ed away their incredible console lead and now sit promising ‘good times just around the corner’ every year for the dwindling band of the faithful.
Of course they still number many millions but every year the ‘wait until the PS2 owners migrate’ mantra gets ever more hollow and desperate.
By the time the next gen Xbox 720 (or whatever) arrives they’ll still be claiming their ‘any moment…..now….er…..I mean…..any time around……..NOW!……..um…..er……coming god……..just about…… now….ah…..
etc etc etc.
What are they going to do when it dawns on them that the economic slump means they are forced into releasing a PS3.5 and that even the Wii2 matches it for tech spec & ability nevermind the next Xbox?
April 17th, 2009
The 720 will be out soon. M$ would love to cut and run from RROD and E74 as soon as they possibly can. That’s why M$ is so great, right?
April 17th, 2009
Harry you were asking if I had Left 4 Dead. Yeah I do.
Hey I just wanted to let you guys know that in Canada, 360’s sent in for repair are being sent back in 3 day. I know 2 people that got them back that fast. I got mine in a week but 3 days is impressive.
April 17th, 2009
Happyhockum:
Wow you never finish any school i guess it shows. Sony is making so much money right now from PS2 and PSP and even PS3. Microsoft is losing by paying to fix fucking crappy piece junk they tried to make. I have high doubts Microsoft will make a next gen console that can be stronger or better than PlayStation is impossible.
Sony can school Microsoft on technology any day.
America sucks in technology Japan is god of electronics #1. Only good company here is IBM.
April 17th, 2009
@ Barnabe Jones
That’s all you have left really now, isn’t it?
Lurid (and laughable) scare stories.
I guess it must amuse you if no-one else.
@ Ivan
Jebus H.
Seriously Ivan, when you say something intelligible and worth answering then maybe I’ll bother.
For now enjoy your starring role as the ’special one’ around these parts.
April 17th, 2009
@Jafamang
“I think it is entirely possible that sony doesn’t want to sell too many PS3s yet”
This is truely a ps3rd fanboy classic! LOL
April 17th, 2009
“that even the Wii2 matches it for tech spec & ability”
There’ll be no speculation here!!!!!oneone
I’d love it to be true tho, a high(er) powered Nintendo machine would be so damn good(providing there was support for making decent titles).
Anyways, on wish the bashing!
April 17th, 2009
Barnabe,
Pre-orders do not equate to sales, and didn’t the SDF send you the memo on their KZ2 pre-order call campaign? I think the bottom line said something like “it’s FREE and FUN and it furthers our CAUSE! JOIN US! JOIN US! JOIN US! The PS3 has great POTENTIAL and will be much more amazing than 360 very SOON, just WAIT! * (small print on back: *another few years)”
April 17th, 2009
2009 year of the PS3
LOL
April 17th, 2009
Yeah, the PS3 good news just keeps coming. Not.
“According to the latest figures from the NPD Group, U.S. video game sales fell in March.
Hardware sales dropped 18 percent and software sales fell 17 percent.
Nintendo Wii – 601,000 units for the month, down 20 percent from Feb.
The Microsoft Xbox 360 – 330,000 units, sales down 15 percent from Feb.
The Sony PlayStation – 218,000 units, sales down 7 percent from Feb”.
April 17th, 2009
Come on Happy, you can’t attribute Ivan to Jose Mourinho….
April 17th, 2009
lock_down
I was thinking more ’special needs’ than José.
BTW my Xbox stats were wrong……
“Xbox 360 system sales hit 330,000 units, up 25 percent from a year earlier, making it the only console experiencing growth in March”
http://kotaku.com/tag/npd-group/
April 17th, 2009
Ivan
You do realise that IBM help build the technology in both consoles and the first xbox was solid with no problems.
April 17th, 2009
I’m not so sure about the marketing because although GTA Episodes has been heavily marketed by MS, Gears 2 wasn’t
April 17th, 2009
“With more than 1 million copies sold worldwide and a truly only on PlayStation experience, the hit game has garnered the biggest initial success at retail of any first-party PS3 title to date, and will continue to drive incentive for hardware sales throughout the year,” the company crowed in a statement.
Killzone 2 is most expensive entertainment project in the Netherlands’ history, with a budget of around€16 million–approximately $21 million at today’s exchange rates.”
gamespot.com/news/6208137.html?tag=latestheadlines;title;2
1 million or so more copies to go and they will be netting a profit ($10 Sony royalty fee) per game sold?
April 17th, 2009
“The reason i said it would had outsold the two games is because every Xbox 360 wants to play KILLZONE 2″
Ivan, sorry, but not every 360 owner wants to play KZ2. Some might, but not near the numbers you are talking. We have enough FPS action to keep the majority busy.
“Why pay for timed exclusive when you can just make your own exclusives and get all the money. Well that’s Sony’s philosophy.”
Because many want to play new games now, not a year later, and Sony’s philosophy hasn’t panned out yet. Like I said, maybe in a few years, maybe not.
Yep, linked to it also on another article… the video has a Sony blu-ray machine running Microsoft software being given away for free… brilliant philosophy. There would definitely be a larger user base for Sony if this was put into full effect.
April 17th, 2009
I found kev on youtube…
http://tinyurl.com/c4fu79
April 17th, 2009
I dont know why you bother with them Carl…
do you play any shooters like Left 4 Dead or Halo?
April 17th, 2009
Not really… I will probably play Left 4 Dead and Halo eventually, but I’m placing a priority on Fallout 3 (+DLC), Fable 2 (+DLC), RE5, Lost and the Damned, then Halo Wars, Red Alert and Tiberium Wars, then finally Gears of War 2 if I get around to it before all the new multiplats coming out.
April 18th, 2009
yea 4 million keep dreaming.
what you have some spechial glasses that lets you see into the feature?
god i wish i had some of those.
your news day is so slow that you have to write up some of this flamebait shit to get some attention and hitts.
how sad
April 18th, 2009
Yams,
I could be wrong, but I believe Mike was purposely exaggerating on that point (4 million). Call of Duty was a good example, but if you wanted to make a direct comparison at this point in the title’s life to that game, it would be closer to 2.3 million sold on 360 by this time (VGC… sorry, if anybody has anything else to use please bring it up). The only thing wrong with this comparison is it is very limited in it’s scope, and I think jojo29 brought up the best points, the most important factor being it came on the market in late February, not November, which usually makes a HUGE difference in how much a top tier title will sell early in it’s lifetime (a month and a half).
I don’t know how accurate this is, if at all, but I did think it worth mentioning that VGChartz is listing both Street Fighter IV and RE5 are selling better than 360, which means Sony may not be totally inept in it’s marketing, at least for these titles.
April 18th, 2009
Sorry… capcom marketed both RE5 and SFIV. And NPD (according to 1UP) says both are selling better on 360.
April 18th, 2009
I think you’d be hard pressed to find a multiplatform title that IS’NT selling better on the 360. There are more of them out there and the 1 year headstart did more than give it a ‘1 year boost in unit sales’. They gave people the ‘hook’ that is xbl and achievements. If you’ve got 25 friends on xbl and none on psn and theres a game coming out, especially one with online functionality or leaderboards then you’re probably going to get it on 360.
Oh, I should add that this is NOt a knock at ms, before someone jumps down my throat. Simply saying well played by MS.
April 19th, 2009
Yet another bitter ps3rd fanboy comment from SW…
April 19th, 2009
Well said SW. Personally I believe another factor that is just as relevant, if not larger than XBL friends (I have plenty I personally know, but I am a bigger single player fan) is simply owning a 360 first. At this point there is more quality titles out for it (or PS3) than the majority can play through (Multiplayer + exclusive, does a real gamer *non-fanboy* differentiate?).
Having one console first usually means you do not need the other console (at least after a decent amount of time has passed and games have been released, like now), especially if you have handhelds or older consoles (DS/PSP/PS2) in addition to that first next gen console, and full-time (or greater) job (or two jobs and/or a social life outside of videogames).
The exception (for the adult, if they are male and do not have children) to this may be Wii, as I believe a clear reason for it’s major success is being so family (children) oriented, regardless of a very few adult-oriented games.
April 19th, 2009
@Carlb
I agree. I only own all of them for certain games.
The wii for example, how on earth could I call myself a gamer and let a mario or especially a zelda pass me by?! *grin*
Same with the ps3, really needed to get MGS4 and I really wanted GTA on the PS instead of the 360 (I really do prefer the ps3 controller).
If I was restricted to a single machine this generation I would’ve probably gone with the 360, the whole RRoD issue (overblown or not) made me buy it 3rd. If not for that I would’ve gone Wii (because its cheap), 360, and then PS3.
April 20th, 2009
I let the Wii go by because they were not easy to get at first unless you wanted to pay some ridiculously marked up price… now I just have so much to play.
In retrospect, I would have gotten a PS3 if it had launched a year earlier ahead of 360 with achievements as well. Eventually I will most likely get both of the other consoles, but the price isn’t right quite yet, and still waiting for bc to go back in PS3… someday.