18 news?

[countryboy]

Re: 18 news?

Yet almost all OS'ers are franchise players and thats usually there 3rd to last stream or so? Maybe 20 days before the game comes out? How is that good business? I know sports games are a different beast then other AAA games, but what other games come out with HUGE feature info 2 weeks before release?

I dont see why they cant release the spreadsheet of the entire feature set like they did in the old days. Let us soak in that info and see it all in use on the streams.

OS'ers make up only a small percentage of their overall sales. The streams and blogs are for all the of the Show's users, not just OS.

[MLB14]

Re: 18 news?

OS'ers make up only a small percentage of their overall sales. The streams and blogs are for all the of the Show's users, not just OS.

This is why, unfortunately, I think the devs have changed their priorities in the past 2 years.. I could be wrong, but I think the team have shifted gears and the offline players looking for pure simulation are not as high on the list anymore.

People may dislike what I said, but it is what is. Last year was the first time I've ever seen tons of HRs hit over 500 feet and some over 600 feet. Also, it's plain to see their main focus is Diamond Dynasty mode.

I understand why they chose to go this route, but damn..

[countryboy]

Re: 18 news?

This is why, unfortunately, I think the devs have changed their priorities in the past 2 years.. I could be wrong, but I think the team have shifted gears and the offline players looking for pure simulation are not as high on the list anymore.

People may dislike what I said, but it is what is. Last year was the first time I've ever seen tons of HRs hit over 500 feet and some over 600 feet. Also, it's plain to see their main focus is Diamond Dynasty mode.

I understand why they chose to go this route, but damn..

I don't know that they have given up on offline players, or more so, striving for pure simulation. Last year they introduced new ball physics to make the game more sim. I think the long homeruns you saw, and the community saw, when the game first launched (I think power was decreased through patches, but could be wrong) was just a result of the new ball physics needing to be more finely tuned. They also introduced player quirks to try and differentiate players and have them play more like themselves. And they introduced new Human A.I. or whatever it was called to try and simulate what you see in real life into the game.

Now whether these new additions worked as intended or not is a different discussion that we don't need to have here.

I'm right there with you and the community in that I hope they don't "give up" or stray away from the offline franchise player. While I ended up shelving '17 for '16, I didn't feel as though they weren't catering to offline players such as myself, but rather the game had some issues/hiccups that caused me not to have as much fun/enjoyment with '17 as I did '16.

[eric7064]

Re: 18 news?

OS'ers make up only a small percentage of their overall sales. The streams and blogs are for all the of the Show's users, not just OS.

I am very well aware that OS'ers are a small percentage of show players. I think you are missing my point. Releasing any new info that a large percentage of players play 2ish weeks from release is not a good business move.

[kehlis]

Re: 18 news?

I am very well aware that OS'ers are a small percentage of show players. I think you are missing my point. Releasing any new info that a large percentage of players play 2ish weeks from release is not a good business move.

A vast majority of the buyers don't care about videos. Won't affect their sales at all.

[eric7064]

Re: 18 news?

A vast majority of the buyers don't care about videos. Won't affect their sales at all.

I am not just talking about streams and videos. They dont even release the info on the features until the day before the stream when they do the dev diary thing.

[kehlis]

Re: 18 news?

I am not just talking about streams and videos. They dont even release the info on the features until the day before the stream when they do the dev diary thing.

Still doesn't matter.

Won't affect sales at all. Most don't care and will buy anyway. We're being overdramatic about lack of information.

It is what it is at this point. Even most in this thread complaining about it will go on to buy the game anyway.

[countryboy]

Re: 18 news?

I am very well aware that OS'ers are a small percentage of show players. I think you are missing my point. Releasing any new info that a large percentage of players play 2ish weeks from release is not a good business move.

They did this last year and they sold 612,000 units in the first week. MLB '16 sold 315,000 units in the first week.


In June of 2017, it was the 10th best selling video game for 2017 up until that point, across all consoles.

MLB '14 sold 730,000 units (game released in May after it had already released on the PS3)
MLB '15 sold 1.01M units
MLB '16 sold 930,000 units
MLB '17 sold 1.05M units

You may not like their marketing strategy/plan, but it seems to be working.

[WaitTilNextYear]

Re: 18 news?

They did this last year and they sold 612,000 units in the first week. MLB '16 sold 315,000 units in the first week.


In June of 2017, it was the 10th best selling video game for 2017 up until that point, across all consoles.

MLB '14 sold 730,000 units (game released in May after it had already released on the PS3)
MLB '15 sold 1.01M units
MLB '16 sold 930,000 units
MLB '17 sold 1.05M units

You may not like their marketing strategy/plan, but it seems to be working.

What I get from these data is they seem to be plateauing at about 1 million units. So "working" in a sense.

EDIT 1: I wonder what the actual market size is...baseball fans who are also gamers who also have a PS4.

EDIT 2: They are probably banking on a good portion of their growth as post-release purchases (i.e. microtransactions) and jazzed-up special orders (i.e. special edition pre-orders with add-ons) rather than increasing their revenue in terms of actual units sold. Not shocking, but that can explain increased profitability in the face of static unit sales.

[countryboy]

Re: 18 news?

What I get from these data is they seem to be plateauing at about 1 million units. So "working" in a sense.

My point was to show eric7064 that despite his thought that how SDS is marketing and releasing information is bad business, it doesn't appear to be because they continue to sell the same number of units, if not a little bit more, doing what they are doing.

In regards to your first edit, I don't know the market size, but MLB 08, the first on the PS3, sold 730,000 units. Today they are around the one million units sold per year.

[cubbies1744]

Re: 18 news?

Does anyone think with the revamping and beefing up of R.B.I baseball series, that we will see a little competition and see SDS work more on all modes in the future rather then just DD? I personally think the competition with be great if done right and could open alot of eyes to a powerhouse that has ruled for over a decade. Only time will tell though and this is considering that R.B.I. baseball takes a first step in that right direction. What are some of everyone else thoughts

[breakfastcat]

Re: 18 news?

Does anyone think with the revamping and beefing up of R.B.I baseball series, that we will see a little competition and see SDS work more on all modes in the future rather then just DD? I personally think the competition with be great if done right and could open alot of eyes to a powerhouse that has ruled for over a decade. Only time will tell though and this is considering that R.B.I. baseball takes a first step in that right direction. What are some of everyone else thoughts

It definitely would be nice to get some competition for The Show, but I doubt it. MLBAM is going for more of an arcade style game with RBI and not even trying for true sim the way The Show does it. Plus they're a very small studio, much smaller than SDS which is already pretty small compared to other AAA sports titles. RBI has a lot of catching up to do to be able to compete with The Show on any tangible level, and I doubt they'll be able to in the next year or two. Who knows though, they could at least reach competence this year and with being available on all consoles, they could see some serious growth over the next few years if it sells enough.

[cubbies1744]

Re: 18 news?

It definitely would be nice to get some competition for The Show, but I doubt it. MLBAM is going for more of an arcade style game with RBI and not even trying for true sim the way The Show does it. Plus they're a very small studio, much smaller than SDS which is already pretty small compared to other AAA sports titles. RBI has a lot of catching up to do to be able to compete with The Show on any tangible level, and I doubt they'll be able to in the next year or two. Who knows though, they could at least reach competence this year and with being available on all consoles, they could see some serious growth over the next few years if it sells enough.

They are heading in the right direction with adding homerun derby and also a franchise mode and they have over hauled the graphics and now have more real life batting stance and pitching motions. And R.B.I baseball has thrown a game changer and allowing you to upload new rosters to a franchise you have already started........if they continue to grow from all this then i say at the very least in two years we have a competition on our hands that could open to use as gamers options we have begged to see in video games but only time will tell

[The Kid 24]

Re: 18 news?

Guesses on when the Twitch streams start, since we dont have the schedule yet?

[breakfastcat]

Re: 18 news?

Guesses on when the Twitch streams start, since we dont have the schedule yet?

My guess would be next Thursday, Feb 8th.