Bad Crysis & UT3 Sales: Why?

http://www.joystiq.com/2007/12/14/crysis-sales-in-crisis-ut3-gets-fragged-too/

What's your opinion on this?

Maybe for crysis the high requirements or the large amount of fps in a few months(COD 4,Orange Box,Crysis,Ut3) ? Could it be a saturation in fps market ?

Why a pc must be only a fps/rts machine?

 

simple answer: COD4!

Perhaps people are just getting tired of new FPS titles that seem to only offer a graphical upgrade. I didnt think Crysis and UT3 offered anything new. Both titles were just graphical upgrades. IMHO

 

Because those can last forever.
A usual fps can be completed in a few hours,whereas a rts or rpg can take more than that. But there`s multiplayer which expands the lifespan of that game exponentially.
I don`t think it`s just a rts/fps market though. It`s just that there`s a lot of release in these domains.
I personally LOVE adventure and action games, Max Payne,Prince of Persia,Legacy of kain and some other series ar just a few names along the lines.I`m sure I`m not alone in this.

Crysis was a poor game, besides the graphics , which is unbelieveble,had nothing to appeal, is short and takes a lot of disk space for nothing.But it has the sandbox,which is sort of fun...
UT3 is not as popular as I would`ve expected,the UT series are one of the best fps series I`ve played.

 

Well last year really was the year of the fps. So many titles came to the market in a short period of time.

And while games like UT3 and Crysis are quality I think most people can't afford to buy all at the same time. And while I'm completely guessing at all of this, I think most people who know about crysis know of it high pc requirements. Which is kind of a turn off because the graphics are the biggest draw to it. And since there were many more original titles I wonder if thats what most people went to buy first.

 

i'm not sure about ut3... but Crysis is not that great of game. pretty much agree with zerenix

 

Those are very disappointing sales in contrast to other games, but that can't be the total amount they sold . . .

 

PIRACY! Crysis didn't have online play. So if you pirate it, you can get all the features as if you bought it.

 

I think it's because, and this is just a personal opinion, that while Crysis was a good game, it's not a great game, and its graphics were the only thing that held it up. But you need a beast of a machine to get all those beautiful effects, which most people don't have.
UT3 is just UT. Again.

I mean, I'm still playing BF2. A great game is one you carry on playing.

 

When you have a machine that can run it pretty well (which isn't many people) Crysis is a thing of beauty in my opinion. Yeah, the story wasn't that great, but I did enjoy it quite alot. Problem is, after experiencing Crysis, other games just don't feel upto par (talking about graphics/physics here!). The story and gameplay don't compare to HL2/COD4 though.

After playing Crysis, COD4 felt "fake". It looks really good, but the graphics are sort of painted on along with all the effects and its physics engine is nearly not existant. But the beauty of its engine is, old computers can still run it fairly well. So that, along with its brilliant single player campaign and fun mutliplayer, made heaps of people buy/play it.

It annoys me because I wish someone could grab the crysis engine and run with it. It has soooo much potential. I love the way the environment reacts, foliage moves when people move through it, it gets torn up when hit. Completely changes the way you play. It completely immerses you. The Crysis experience is the future of gaming, at least I hope it is.

Just my 2 cents!

 

Btw, Macks, im still playing BF2, love it. Still a great game. Perfect mix of realism/fun.

 

im playing through crysis right now and i dont think its bad, im having a good time, but its defeniintely not a show stopper like COD4, once im done wih it why would I want to play again.

 

That's a pretty old sales chart. If I'm not mistaken, I think Crysis sold over a million copies worldwide (don't remember where I read this, but I'll look for a source if necessary). UT3 on the other hand, is just a terrible game. It's essentially a pretty version of UT2K4 with less gametypes, consolized gameplay and a piss-poor UI. It didn't sell too well across any of the consoles either.

 

"EA also reported Crysis reaching the platinum mark meaning over 1 million copies of the game have been sold worldwide"

Deify88 what do you should say of your game if you publish it?

EA is not a valid source cause it's only purpose is to promote its games...

 

EA is a reliable source man. They are the ones selling it, so anything any other source has originally comes from EA.

 

There have been a lot of games coming out when Crysis appeared. It had to share the limelight with CoD4 and the Orange Box. All of these were considered AAA titles. Not to mention the whole boatload of other games coming out.

Maybe the high system requirments put people off.

I own Crysis and it was nice, but not mindblowing. The graphics were nice, but the story was flimpsy. Didn't like either that you never really could go in guns blazing. I just like it when shooters also offer me the chance to do that and get away with it. Whats the point of all those cool guns if you can't use 'em?

 

Games like Crysis have more boring gameplay than COD4.
I'd rather play Abe's Oddessy over Crysis.
For most buyers:
1. Gameplay
2. Graphics

 

I haven't bothered with either of them. I'll tell you my reasons:

* Crysis has insane requirements. No casual FPS gamer has the necessary hardware, and so anyone who hasn't kept up with hardware upgrades within about a year or so will not be up to it (eg. me). It simply doesn't scale well. I hear it CAN be made to run at a moderately acceptable rate on lower-end hardware, but then it looks uglier than Far Cry so what's the point?

* UT3 - we've seen it all before in the UT series. UT99 was perfect, UT2003 was dull but UT2K4 made up for it and it still played a fair bit. UT3 just doesn't have anything unique about it to justify playing it instead of, say, TF2.

 

Here's my reasons why Crysis's sale "Sucked"

1. A game with no distinctive elements, story, and game play, try Bioshock on for size (Game release this year).
2. Piracy (As mentioned before, Crysis doesn't have much protection mech, and is a pure single player game, multiplier component is plain, see below).
3.Multiplier component has new mode but not attractive enough, better multiplier games out at the same time are COD4, TF2
4.System requirement, Not everyone can afford an $1000 upgrade for one game
5. Too much hype but doesn't deliver, making the game feel like a Tech Demo more than a game, such as realistic lightings, and destructible environments. Basically showing off their engine.
6. The resemblance to it's supposed predecessor, Far Cry. Seriously, Crysis is nothing more than a graphical upgrade for Far Cry.
7. Bad timing for the game release time.

 

Piracy! Piracy! Piracy! Arrr! Why pay for something you could get for free over the internet? Crysis was leaked onto the internet weeks before it came out, piracy is stronger than ever these days. I actually bought Crysis, though, so when I get my new gaming rig (in my sig) I can play it as soon as I get it.

 

With all the hype over Crysis, I almost missed a few AAA games coming out. Well, not literally, but for example I consider World in Conflict a much better game than Crysis, yet it hasn't been marketing to anywhere near the extent Crysis has.
Crysis sales vs. Crysis marketing... Surely a poor Return On Investment there...

 

Ut3 is repetitive(too similar to uk2004) but has great graphics and scales very well

For crysis I agree with the theory of insane graphics requirements and also with the fact that crysis on low is worse than far cry on highest settings...maybe we can play crysis at high settings in 3-4 years...
Why crytek don't expect some months to test the engine and scale it?
And if someone says they can't i told that is unacceptable that a quad core 6600 with 8800gts desktop cant run a game at high settings!!!

With a commodore 64 we were going on the moon and in 2008 with quad-core and sli videocards we can't run decently A VIDEOGAME???something was going wrong...

 

Some people would argue that the CryEngine in Crysis is geared for future hardware, so that it'll look and function well into the future. Well that just reinforces my opinion of it being a glorified tech engine - why do I care about its future capability? I want to play a game using it NOW, with current hardware, otherwise it's not a GAME.

 

that article is from dec 17 07, i would say crysis has sold some copies since then...

 

Like a million of them.
I got to admit,played the damn game 3 times just to test performance on more drivers.I despise the fact that I have become a gamer who tests drivers for games instead of games for fun...

 

Fat lot of good "future hardware" does us today. Why not release the damn game when the hardware can push it properly?

Crysis just isn't a very good game, and I'd blame high hardware requirements before piracy for its failure. There have been other good games with minimal copy protection that have done well (Oblivion).

Unreal Tournament 3 is a rip off. It has less content than UT2004 and plays almost exactly the same. There's just no compelling reason to buy it, especially when you can pick up Unreal Anthology for less.

 

I agree it really has to be the engine, not only that but its a game thats supposed to scale for the next few years...yet doesn't even fully utilize current technology aka quad cores.

 

Its called CryEgine 2 and many games are being developed with it...

And Crysis was just a demo to the CryEngine 2 imo

 

Its not a tech demo, i can play it on all medium at like 60+ fps 1440x900, but if i want all the eye candy with the shaders and shadows it does cost some fps, about 30 to be exact, but still the game is great looking but not so much a revolution in gaming but a great steady step in the right direction for pc games. I mean what crysis has done for the PC-gaming scene is actually pretty damn good, anandtech has stated that 10-15% of 8800 sells were because of crysis requirements. Call me crazy but i see this as a good problem considering the decline in quality pc games.

 

Casual gamer picks up Crysis game box, looks at hardware requirements, eyes pop out for 5-10 seconds, box gets returned to shelf in favour of COD4 or other game with similar advertising and more reasonable hardware requirements.

I think the above scenario would have been quite common in stores worldwide, as a comparison the Witcher has sold just over 600,000 copies over a span of 5 months with far less advertising and with more reasonable hardware requirements (plus an age restriction to boot).

 

First of all if you made an engine for few it's not an engine but a tech demo.
For example Source is an engine or Unreal Engine 3...

No one will use a bad scaling engine to produce games...so crysis will be a stand alone game supported by his producer

Sure UT3 is boring but his engine has potential that we will see in next months implemented in next gen games that overcome Crysis (es.Elveon http://www.the-elveon.com/?go=screenshots)
I prefer Gears of War graphics than Crysis...and i am not alone...

I don't see decline in pc games,i loved Gears of War and COD4...
Maybe i'm tired of lots of shoot-em-up so i liked Portal and i'm waiting for Spore as a new revolutionary game...

Quote From Gamespot
"Far Cry 2 will not use CryENGINE2 (which is used in Crysis). Instead, Ubisoft has developed a new engine called Dunia, meaning "world" or "earth". The engine will take advantage of multi-core processors and support DirectX 9 as well as DirectX 10. Only 2 or 3 percent of the original CryENGINE code is being re-used, according to Michiel Verheijdt, Senior Product Manager for Ubisoft Netherlands"

= Crytek comments "Excuse us first engine sucks but thanks for buying our beta "
Only 2- 3% !!!

 

I agree i like gears of war as well, great game, looks better on pc buy a mile or two, but all high crysis looks better at 1440. Now most people cant play it that way, and most again cant play gears of war the way it it supposed to be played. All in all most gamers (those that will purchase these games) will have a system capable of medium to high in both of these games (regardles of laptop or desktop hrdware). IMO cod4 is by-far the best Grafx/gameplay ratio i have ever seen in a pc game. COD4 is at the least one of the best fps in 5 years.

 

UT3's engine isn't about potential; Unreal Engine 3 is probably the most licensed engine running around right now, and has been since well before UT3 actually came out. Off the top of my head I can think of four games that run on it: Rainbow Six: Vegas, Gears of War, BioShock, and Unreal Tournament 3. It's been licensed out like crazy.

I'm a bit disappointed people haven't been picking up Source as aggressively, that one scales insanely well between hardware configs.

CryEngine 2, of course, I don't expect to see a lot of adoption.

As a sidenote, the minimal adoption of the Doom 3 engine was disappointing to me. That engine scaled surprisingly well.

 

UT3 still has a very loyal fanbase though, people who have been with em since

UT>UT3>UT2K4>UT3

More and more people are playing UT3 and they have been making new maps like crazy. I think UT3 will eventually be as big as the original.

 

I play a lot of BF2142 and CoD4 on-line. BF2142 has a lot of replay value even almost two years after release. I didn't really bother with the single player campaign with CoD4. I played it once and wasn't too impressed. It had its moments, but I had better.

 

while both games UT3 and Crysis are by no means bad games, the improvements over their predecessors are minimal and in many cases even worse...take crysis for exampel, i played game the game on two systems, my laptop and my friends high-end desktop, and i had two totally different experiences, on my laptop i was totally disappointed with the game and far cry looks and plays much better than crysis, but when i played it on my friend's 8800GTX equipped desktop the game looks stunning and graphics, impressive physics and gameplay mechanics all come together to create a fantastic and unforgettable experience, so a maxed-out crysis is a terrific game and defenitely is worth the wait, but for anyone with less than 8800GT/8800GTX i say stick with far cry and forget about crysis, because unless you play crysis on high settings far cry is a much better game...

as for UT3 it's a different story, the scales very well on most pc's even though i can't shake that console feeling to the game, anyway i was disappointed by UT3, and after few weeks i went back to UT2004(the best game in the series IMO), a sequel is supposed to bring everything that was great about the original and improves on it, not take it away!!!. Don't get me wrong the graphics are great and the new vehicles are amazing, but that's about it, the campaign mode is a joke, and many of the levels seem to have a fantasy feel to them rather than sci-fi(the trademark of the series), even worse the story/characters seem to be heavily influenced by Gears of War( a game supposed to take place in a different world and different time), now combine all of that and then it'd be easy to understand why the game is not doing well on the market...

and yeah almost forget: Call of duty 4

 

UT3 is more closer to the gameplay of ut99, which probably means that the "old" people will be enjoying this game more than ut2k4 fans, where the gameplay is faster than ut99. Maybe that explains lack of...copies sold?

 

Personally I find myself buying less games as time progresses. (No I don't pirate). It's just that I'm limiting myself more to series i like, e.g. Half-Life, Battlefield. I do buy some new games when they're really great. Years ago I bought everything there was.

 

I'm similar to you Punisher.
When I was a kid, I had a job that got me money, and I splashed all that money on games because I didn't have anything else to buy.
Now I have responsibilities, and bills... ghei.
So I only buy games I truly feel are worth it and that will give me replay value. So I stick with the Orange Box, Battlefield, World in Conflict, etc.
I bought Crysis. It sucked. No replay value at all.