Arcadia December - Top 10 Rankings

I think these rankings are derived more from distribution than popularity per se. If a game has a lot of machines in arcades -- even if no one is playing them -- they are likely to do better than a competing game with the reverse.

In the past, Sega's strong distribution channels have pushed their games to the top (VF, VOOT, Daytona, etc.) but with their financial troubles in the decade plus, they've had to rationalize a lot of that strength. Result: Namco now has a stronger presence.

That said I do think the popularity of the game is on the wane. There simply isn't enough new blood going into the game that is replacing the old guard that can no longer be bothered to play.

Sega's philosophy for VF has been to serve the hardcore market while paying lip service to the casual market. Tekken does the reverse. However, as results show, it's better to take Namco's approach; the reason is that the market is like a funnel where you have a few hardcore gamers and many casual gamers.

To be a hardcore gamer you must first be a casual player; if you have few casual players entering that funnel, your group of hardcore players will slowly die out. But if you take Namco's approach -- bringing enough casual gamers into the funnel will ensure that a percentage will convert into hardcore gamers. Even if that percentage is smaller than VF's, the absolute numbers are significant because there are so many casual fans.

We've all seen this at play in the U.S. gaming market.

 

I understand what you're saying, but I cannot agree with it at all.

It's like saying that people who go to the movies will be first attracted by romantic comedies or a particular genre so the movie industry should start making loads and loads of romantic comedies, in the hope that one day those people will get tired of shit movies and go watch something more involving.

That might happen, but it's more likely that people who like shallow romantic comedies will only ever watch those, and people who like more serius stuff will stick with their independent/art house stuff.

All if this is IMO of course.

 

I understand -- we are merely trading opinions here so everyone is right. /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif

That said my definition of a "casual" player is probably different to what you're thinking. The casual player is the guy who will buy the console version, play with it for maybe an hour or so a week, invite his buddies to play, and probably knows basic combos and strats...BUT doesn't really attend tournaments, seek out top competition, etc. When VF5 sells 500k on the Xbox (I'm making up numbers here), maybe only 20k can be considered hardcore.

To me, I think it's a strategic mistake to focus too much on the 20k. You need to cater to both groups because what hardcore VF fans want is for the remaining 480k to like the game enough to achieve a high level of competitiveness so the 20k of good competition can grow to 40k. But that won't happen unless you give the 480k a reason to keep playing. Not everyone will convert, of course, but some will.

Super Smash Brothers is another excellent example of why the "casual market focus while providing depth for players who decide to become hardcore" is the right formula for market success. That is a fighting game that is definitely intended for a mainstream audience but which turned out to be a good game for hardcore players as well.

 

For me there is one clear way to show who is a hardcore and who is casual:

Hardcore will buy a decent stick to play their fighting game, or at least mod one with professional parts (unless they are awesome pad players!)

I bet that if we knew the number of sticks around the country we would also know the number of hardcore fighing gamers.

This is just to illustrate my point, that is:

We dont need to make VF easy to play on a pad, we need to make more people to buy fighting sticks!

 

Not necessarily true. I met a couple of players who bought the VSHG and VF5 when it first came out. They came to our casual meetups and they never went back. They said there's no way they can compete with us.

They were casual fans who thought they were hardcore, and they happen to have money to spend on the game. I never saw them again. They stopped posting here too.

 

Hey maybe the sold it to somebody who needed it more!

 

Qdogg from TZ had a chance to speak with Namco's people once, and they said that one of the most important questions was how to please both the casuals and the hardcore players. Their solution was to create two versions of the game - one that was scrub-friendly (for lack of a better term), and one that wasn't.

Hence: T5, then T5DR, and T6, then T6BR. The first one is always slightly broken, and attracts casuals and bandwagon jumpers, and lets Namco test what the hardcore players feel. The second one fixes the broken stuff, and the complaints from the hardcore players (hence the toning down of combo damage, rage, and adjusting the bound and wall properties in BR from T6).

 

Is that why they never made a console version of T6 but kept their fans waiting for BR? To ATTRACT customers? I bet the Tekken fans are still playing T5DR furiosly lol.

 

No, that's because the game is coming out for 360 too. I think there was an interview posted on sdtekken, which touched this.

I agree with ice-9's posts btw.

 

I though they said it wasn't delayed because of the 360 port.

I heard that it was delayed because they porting T6BR, a brand new game, instead of vanilla T6.

If so, it would not make sense because what they said about appealing to the casual first and the hardcore later...

 

Anyway, the point I am trying to make is:

Console only release like DOA4 and SC4 are pretty much dead by now, even if they sold a shitload more than VF5. On the other hand, VF5 is still on at the WGC, so IMO we are better off with it.

 

The latest interview I saw on sdtekken had one of the namco guys saying that vanilla T6 is also included in BR.

 

Crazy! A bit like capcom used to do I guess.

So there is going to be a broken version and a balanced version of T6...I can't wait to see which one is going to be the most played online! (Hint: rhetoric question)

 

Visit 8wayrun.com and then you can eat your words. They have several offline and online tourneys every week listed for SC4.

Plus SC4 will be featured at Evo this year.

 

I do visit 8wayrun and play online, but the casuals have left the game, now it's like playing 3rd strike online lol, defeat is guaranteed.

 

I'm 99% sure that's not true. Vanilla T6 means that Lars and Alisa can't be played (because they only appeared in BR).

@Matteo: Re: attract players - yes, that's what most of us thought as well. It's actually a *face palm* idea in the sense that it was such a simple plan, I'm actually surprised Capcom, Sega, et al aren't doing the same thing. Attract scrubs, get them hooked, then fix the game, plus throw in 2 extra characters to make sure the casuals come back out of curiosity.

 

I used to play SC back when Guardimpact.com was the go-to site. SC's community and player base is a far cry from the days of GI.

SC has become something like... well... if we can compare FG's to TV shows, SC is like heroes: Great first go, 2nd season rocked, 3rd didn't make any sense, and now nobody really watches...

 

http://sdtekken.com/2009/05/08/g4-tekken-6-gamers-day-interview/

^I think that's the interview where the guy said it, I'm not sure. It could just be something you select like how with T5 ps2, you could play Tekken 1-3. That's some heavy nostalgia right there.

Personally, I don't care if vanilla 6 is included or not, because I'm very interested in just playing the more complete BR.

Also, wouldn't it be funny if Sega followed Namco with this marketing technique with vanilla 5?

Just sayin'

 

Sega should hurry up and release all the VF in one collection thats for sure...one can only dream.

 

Ah, I know that interview. AFAIK, and IIRC, there's a lot of focus on the online mode, and the bonus game is going to be a beat-em up starring Lars. My bet is that it's going to be Tekken Force 2.0