Sony responds to lacklustre LBP sales

If you've been following the LBP sales recently, you'll see that they're not like anyone expected.
~700 000 copies in 3 weeks according to vgchartz.
Some of you expected them to be in the millions right?
But we all know there are a couple of reasons for this, like the delay.

In any case, Sony responded to the results of the LBP sales, and said they are satisfied.

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Sony UK has told Eurogamer that the company is "pleased" with sales for LittleBigPlanet, and believes "Sackboy hasn't even hit his stride yet".

The comments came in response to a lacklustre UK all-formats chart performance for the game, which debuted at four then tumbled, this week, to 19.

"We're really pleased with the initial reaction to LittleBigPlanet, which has been our highest scoring game ever, I believe, with a Metacritic score of 95 per cent and a huge list of 10/10s or 100 per cent scores. We are also pleased with its commercial performance," a spokesperson for Sony UK said.

"In other times of the year [LBP] would be a clear number one, so you have to put the chart in context. This is an incredibly volatile time of year and the chart reflects that."

Sony has backed LittleBigPlanet as the Christmas "hardware seller" for PlayStation 3, and also adopted character Sackboy as "the next emblematic character for the PS3".

Sony said launching an original IP can also be a struggle, but feels LBP has coped better than most.

"Our industry is littered with examples of brand new innovative titles that have been lauded by the critics but have sold dismally. LittleBigPlanet has broken this stereotype by not only being brilliant and original, but also by selling really well on a global basis," said the spokesperson.

"LBP is breaking many preconceptions. There are some games that are hardcore experiences where the kudos lies in getting it first. LBP is excellent on day one but even better as time goes by."

Sony UK went on to highlight the user-created content side of LittleBigPlanet, which boasts over 80,000 community-made levels - a number that will continue to grow.

But despite the promises of an ever-evolving game, some users are finding their time-consuming creations deleted for too closely resembling other videogames or brands. Explanations for removal are not given, and some have seemingly disappeared for no apparent reason - leading to frustration across the community.

Media Molecule is addressing this, however, and Sony is confident that word of mouth and a rather meaty Christmas marketing campaign, which starts in December, will pay dividends.

"This game gets better and better as an experience and as a value proposition. It's also a game that will benefit enormously from word of mouth and from people trying it out with friends or in-store; it drips fun and charm in equal measure," said the spokesperson.

"Also, the bulk of our marketing including our six figure TV advertising campaign doesn't roll out until December, so we genuinely believe that Sackboy hasn't even hit his stride yet."

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Source:
http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=308728

nice little article. i it does pick up around christmas. i imagine it will. i doubt the delay or even these level deletions are really hurting the sales. people who were anticipating the game got it regardless of the delay (i know i saw several people on the MM board saying they were canceling their pre-order because of the delay but that's just play idiocy and i doubt it happened), and people who weren't following it that closely but would still like it certainly weren't effected by the delay.

i'll be curious to hear about it's ranking in sales a year from now. i would imagine too that, if one could track it, this game would be played for more total hours than any other game world wide... except for possibly the original mario brothers and Call of Duty 4

I think there are still quite a few people that have no idea what the game is about. Living in America, I'm almost positive I've never seen a television advertisement. I think that's really the missing piece here. Sony was really relying on word of mouth to get this thing going, but there has to be someone spreading the word to begin with.

All I know is that everyone that sits down with me to play LBP winds up seriously considering purchasing the game for themselves.

I'm among those that only decided to get it after playing it. It happened that I was going to a party at a friend's house and coincidentally he got into the beta that day. Our plan was to play Rock Band all evening, but once we fired up LBP we didn't ever turn it off. Not long after that evening, I had the release on pre-order.

I expect the game will sell considerably as more people learn about and play it. Like me, many people won't know enough to buy it until they've seen and/or played it. This is a game that people's moms can play and enjoy, and that gives it a much wider audience than your average FPS.

i doubt the delay or even these level deletions are really hurting the sales
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Connell, i disagree with you on this one... i do think the delay really hurt. I know a bunch of people that said they had to "choose" between Dead Space, LBP and Fallout3 for their "monthly" pickup, and were leaning toward LBP as their choice. But when it got delayed a lot of them went to the other two games... so that held off on the numbers for at least a whole month.

Sickie is right about one thing though.. Sony's marketing (especially in the US) is HORRIBLE when it comes to getting word out via advertising The only game that i know they actively advertised for on any of the cable channels here in St. Louis was Mercenaries 2.

Since when has 700,000 sold of anything been a bad thing?

I really doubt everyone that wants the game has it already. I'm pretty sure a lot of people either simply haven't gotten around to getting it yet, can't afford the game yet, or don't have a PS3. You people will get your "millions sold" soon enough.

There's probably going to be a huge surge in "Trophy Levels" once the holiday season is over with :p

But seriously, this game is still pretty much in development. There are still kinks to work out, features to add, and quality levels to be made. As long as developers, and users continue to invest time in this game, it'll only get better. LBP is like a fine wine. It gets better with age.

I think the problem is the incentive to buy a $380-$400 PS3 has never been very high before recently, so many people who are interested in buying LBP cannot afford it (Including myself). I'm sure with all the new and upcoming reasons to buy the PS3—LBP and Street Fighter 4 specifically—we'll see the number of copies sold rise quite a bit this Christmas.

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Originally Posted by Conall-Star

nice little article. i it does pick up around christmas. i imagine it will. i doubt the delay or even these level deletions are really hurting the sales. people who were anticipating the game got it regardless of the delay (i know i saw several people on the MM board saying they were canceling their pre-order because of the delay but that's just play idiocy and i doubt it happened), and people who weren't following it that closely but would still like it certainly weren't effected by the delay.

i'll be curious to hear about it's ranking in sales a year from now. i would imagine too that, if one could track it, this game would be played for more total hours than any other game world wide... except for possibly the original mario brothers and Call of Duty 4

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People who don't get a game because of a 1-week long delay, well, I'm glad they are not part of the community.

I think this is a different kind of game, honestly. Instead of selling tons at launch, followed by mediocre sales in comparison, I expect LittleBigPlanet to sell at a fairly steady rate as more and more people try it, like it, save up money for it(and the PS3 if they need it), and finally get their hands on it. I expect LittleBigPlanet to sell a very large number of copies, just drawn out over the course of a year or two.

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Originally Posted by ConfusedCartman

I think this is a different kind of game, honestly. Instead of selling tons at launch, followed by mediocre sales in comparison, I expect LittleBigPlanet to sell at a fairly steady rate as more and more people try it, like it, save up money for it(and the PS3 if they need it), and finally get their hands on it. I expect LittleBigPlanet to sell a very large number of copies, just drawn out over the course of a year or two.

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Which is good. It's always bad when something makes all its money in one day instead of over the years.

Sony will really try and sell this game during Christmas, which I think will really / hopefully get the attention of parents and that sort of thing. If they play up the cute factor alone during the Christmas shopping season, they should sell a lot of copies of LBP. Not that we want a bunch of younger kids making levels, but that's probably where they can sell more of this game to the general public. The rest will be more likely word of mouth and people playing it at other people's houses.

LBP

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Originally Posted by supersickie

I think there are still quite a few people that have no idea what the game is about. Living in America, I'm almost positive I've never seen a television advertisement. I think that's really the missing piece here. Sony was really relying on word of mouth to get this thing going, but there has to be someone spreading the word to begin with.

All I know is that everyone that sits down with me to play LBP winds up seriously considering purchasing the game for themselves.

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its one of those games you just have to play to see how great it is.

The great thing about LBP (or one of them) is that it can appeal to both the parents... if you will forgive the stereotypes... The mums will see the cute characters and want their kids to play this instead of the latest shooter, and the dads will see the construction/engineering side and want their kids to get interested in this kind of thing. I think Sony should play up both aspects of the game and it will have universal appeal.

I just hope they don't get dismayed by people not buying their rip-off $2+ PSN costumes and instead start to offer content at a decent price or something of actual substance.

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Originally Posted by Linque

I just hope they don't get dismayed by people not buying their rip-off $2+ PSN costumes and instead start to offer content at a decent price or something of actual substance.

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I agree, the costumes are nice but what fans are really after are content. Hopefully after they get a pretty nice-flowing game through a couple of patches they can start with actual new content.

sony is ******, and they don't wanna show it

sony is the one to be blame for the not so good sales because, they are not adversting that much, they are adversing mutiplatform game but notthe excluise, if this was M$ would would be **** off with them because they overadversie, no one care about WWF, not many people care about mirrors edge because the game play looks boring, eventhough the grafic are brill, there ment to be a europien adverts for lbp, i dont see it, they only adverise there big game like MGS4, to be honest it not the fact that the ps3 is rubbish and that it has hardly any games, its the fact that sony are not adversing, they have enough money to sponser F1 and other shows but not enough money to spend on some adversiments, MM should have some money now to spend

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If you've been following the LBP sales recently, you'll see that they're not like anyone expected.
~700 000 copies in 3 weeks according to vgchartz.

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Well, I don't see how level creating is anything but what the "hardcore" would be very interested in doing.

I didn't see the game selling this poorly, but I didn't think it'd set the planet on fire.

I have to agree with panzer, although there are a few ads on MTV and other channels here and there, there just not making a big deal out of it like MGS4 and such. If they just tried harder, it could've sold in at least the millions in those three weeks.

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Originally Posted by DaSaintFan

i doubt the delay or even these level deletions are really hurting the sales

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Level deletions...?
*confused*
Any sign of them coming out as DLC? (=