Why Halo: Reach's success could be bad news for business

.Chris · Sep 19, 2010

QUOTE said:
So now it’s official: Microsoft's first-person behemoth Halo: Reach is the year’s biggest entertainment event, generating $200 million in sales in just 24 hours in the United States alone.
Halo Reach

That’s two-thirds of what Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 took in from the North American and U.K. markets in its first day last year, but it’s still a number that’s nothing to sneeze at. The one-day take already eclipses the three-day opening weekends of “Iron Man 2,” “Toy Story 3” and “Alice in Wonderland.”

While Microsoft is doing cartwheels, though, the rest of the gaming industry is nervously shuffling its feet. Despite a number of high profile releases, it hasn’t exactly been a banner year for game sales -- and the success of Reach might not help things.

The slump is due, in part, to the ongoing recession. But also deserving some of the credit is the lingering effect of Modern Warfare 2 – a game whose multiplayer component was so deep and so rich that it kept players hooked, reducing their need and desire to buy other titles.

Fatigue is finally starting to gradually set in for that game, but Halo: Reach may well pick up that mantle.

As much praise as the game’s single-player campaign is getting, it’s the rich multi-player mode that really has players excited. New armor abilities, new game modes and an impressive suite of creation tools have overwhelmed the Xbox Live user base with joy. And the game’s matchmaking service is working like a charm so far.

That’s a lot of reasons to play -- and could give buyers plenty of excuses to put off other purchases in the coming months.

“There’s always a worry that a game like that can take share and cannibalize other games,” says Colin Sebastian, an analyst with Lazard Capital Markets.

To add to worries, Call of Duty: Black Ops will be hitting shelves in less than two months – a one-two punch to other game developers. That could put a number of seemingly big titles on the bubble, their sales in jeopardy.

None seems in a more perilous position than EA’s Medal of Honor. The battle that was shaping up between the rebooted military shooter and Call of Duty was already a tough one, but with Halo: Reach potentially impacting people’s buying decisions, the game could face an even tougher challenge. (The game's controversial decision to allow players to fight as Taliban forces in multiplayer might not help, either.)

Medal of Honor is actually scheduled to hit shelves well before Black Ops, but it has been three years since the last version – and Call of Duty has become the industry’s biggest seller in that time. The hope, in part, was that the Call of Duty fan base would buy Medal of Honor as a placeholder while waiting for the release of Black Ops – but they could be too busy with Reach to do so.

Meanwhile other titles like Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit and Tron: Evolution, which all would normally appeal to the same general demographic, might be overlooked entirely.

“I see Halo: Reach creating a vacuum in multiplayer,” says Billy Pigeon of M2 Research. “I expect it will have an effect similar to ‘Modern Warfare 2’. People will be playing online and may not buy other games.”

Source

emigre · Sep 19, 2010

Damn Microsoft for potentially slowing down economic growth.

gamefreak94 · Sep 19, 2010

Once nintendo releases the 3DS it will be the biggest entertainment event of all time!

Sterling · Sep 19, 2010

Shortest campaign in my experience ever... Also one of the most epic ones as well.

I have to say, it is a big improvement over Halo 3 and it's well deserved hype as well. I don't see myself being totally occupied with it however. I also see myself renting it to my various friends and such very soon. I also play COD more than it because it's multi player is better than Halo's in my opinion. FireFight is the only gem I see myself playing actively in Reach. I also have several other single player games reserved as well; Two Worlds II and Dark Dawn are my most anticipated ones.

purechaos996 · Sep 19, 2010

So basically if we were to actually do the math Halo outsold MW2 for the xbox..cool. also I don't know how anyone can actually play MW2's multiplayer its complete rubbish. halos multiplayer is at least somewhat more balanced which make for a more enjoyable time at least in my experiences. but besides the point the reason why other companies are having a hard time selling their games is because they are all JUNK! make better games that should fix your problem.

/rant.

Delta517 · Sep 19, 2010

So making good games hurt other bad games? Lol

jgu1994 · Sep 19, 2010

The fact that the source is Yahoo means that it doesn't mean jack shit.

Slyakin · Sep 19, 2010

Yeah, and Pokemon Black and White are generating millions of dollars.

Oh well, it seems that these tactless games are just what stupid Americans need. :/

Sterling · Sep 19, 2010

Slyakin said:
Yeah, and Pokemon Black and White are generating millions of dollars.

Oh well, it seems that these tactless games are just what stupid Americans need. :/

Games = Stupid 'Mericans? I am confused, as Americans don't need games at all.

Or fast food for that matter.

.Chris · Sep 20, 2010

jgu1994 said:
The fact that the source is Yahoo means that it doesn't mean jack shit.

then thats too bad for you.

concealed identi · Sep 20, 2010

Delta517 said:
So making good games hurt other bad games? Lol

I know, right? As an industry, the video games have become a total joke in the past 5 years especially when it comes to ensuring diminishing returns for the consumer. I mean, that's capitalism, it's to be expected, but it still doesn't make me feel any better about companies removing content from games so that they can sell it as downloadable content, milking franchises, and deliberately planning games so that they are finished quickly. It's unfortunate, but you can't really do much other than support the games that are worth supporting (which most people on here don't do, but that's another discussion altogether).

DSGamer64 · Sep 20, 2010

And like all the other past Halo games, the fad will wear off very quickly and by the end of October there will be thousands of used copies on store shelves across North America. Halo 3 had an abysmal trade in rate that it diminished the value of the game at a faster pace then any other game, Reach will be much of the same within a month or so when people are sick of it.

dmonkey21 · Sep 20, 2010

DSGamer64 said:
And like all the other past Halo games, the fad will wear off very quickly and by the end of October there will be thousands of used copies on store shelves across North America. Halo 3 had an abysmal trade in rate that it diminished the value of the game at a faster pace then any other game, Reach will be much of the same within a month or so when people are sick of it.

What? I personally never liked halo 3, but I wouldn't say it was a 2 month fad lol. Many people still play halo 3 online, and when I traded it in to gamestop less than 6 months ago I received ~$30, which is much more than any other game I traded, including COD4 which I got ~$15 for.

ZeroTm · Sep 20, 2010

Gosh, so many ninty fanboys here.

Fellow · Sep 20, 2010

I don't really have anything to say but, damn that was an interesting read.

Joe88 · Sep 20, 2010

imagine babiez sales plummeted after the release of halo reach

Scott-105 · Sep 20, 2010

That's quite interesting. But I have to say Halo Reach is quite fun.

Canonbeat234 · Sep 20, 2010

Halo...I never got into it. An elitest of all shooting games, people who get the munchies can't go without one day playing a multiplayer mode unless they have something better else to do. Personally, I perfer the air.

Sterling · Sep 20, 2010

Canonbeat234 said:
Halo...I never got into it. An elitest of all shooting games, people who get the munchies can't go without one day playing a multiplayer mode unless they have something better else to do. Personally, I perfer the air.

If you want customization of your multi player gaemz then reach no further than... Reach. xD

I however like the Call of Duty franchise much better than the Halo franchise. People will actually die with a 1 on 1 confrontation, and usually a person will die before their team mates notice. I have gotten ganked so many times on Halo by someone who would run me into the midst of his team... Then I jump on to then next level, only to have 2 plasma grenades plastered on my ass... The kicker was that they were arguing over who got that kill.

.Chris · Sep 20, 2010

Scott-105 said:
That's quite interesting. But I have to say Halo Reach is quite fun.

It is.

Why Halo: Reach's success could be bad news for business

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