To All You Gamers Blaming The Fans For Poor DmC: Devil May Cry Sales

[Zey]

Did anyone else forget Bayonetta's sales? It started off slow, eventually hit 1mil.
Eventually.
Time is important, and those who want to wait..then just wait.

And the sequel got cancelled. Even worst, 1 million copies aren't enough, we're talking about Capcom here.

But we're talking about Dante who was never that great character fans think he is. Be honest, you can't say Dante is some masterful trip into character exploration and depth where Dante is a VERY weak character. Which I think it's mostly the fans personal interpretation of him that makes him so special to them. The Joker is a character that throughout the years has established such an identity that straying away from the what is vital to Joker is absolutely out of the question and taboo. Dante doesn't have that kind of prowess. He's a very inconsistent character that overall is a ripoff of trite anime trends and is just a borderline cardboard cutout. Whether they are a massive fan of the character or not, Dante is not the golden boy they think he is. See where I'm coming from?

I think people love Dante because he is the perfect character for a hack n' slash game, he isn't supposed to be deep or something, he is just there to look cool and say bad jokes with crazy movements. They weren't pretentious with him, they didn't wanted to make a really complex character, so is a bad comparison.

 

[IncarnatedDemon]

I want to clarify this list is from whos fault it is most to least. So capcom is nr1 at why game sold little.

Let me list up whos fault it is for DmC not selling well:

1. Capcom - greedy arseholes that tells you "We will listen to fans and create DMC 5 IF FANS WANT", 5 years and counting + DmC has been out for more than a month: and no DMC 5 announcement.

2. Media: Taunting and antagonizing fans and gamers alike. Telling YOU what to like and not, and that you can screw yourself if you dont like the game.

3. Ninja Theory's Creative Producer: Tameem antoniades. Made statements that came off as arrogant or disrespectful.

4. DmC - the game itself.


So as you can see the same media that blames the fans for sales, is the NR 2 contributing factor in my list as to why DmC sold so little for a AAA game.

 

[Tody]

I definitely agree with your list of "who is to blame".

The thing that disappoints me most though, IncarnatedDemon, is the media, and that's because I'm a journalist and games reviewer myself (for eGamer, a South African site). Our priority is supposed to be to consumers/gamers first, and that's where it ends. Unless the consumer doesn't deserve it or is wrong, we should be looking out for them, taking their side and trying to give them the best, most honest information possible. That's not even idealistic to me. That's the core idea behind journalism. .

Yet some journalists attack the consumers or shove them off. Somehow, some journalists seem to have a loyalty to publishers first, and publishers certainly aren't looking out for consumer's best interests. So who is looking out for gamers/consumers then? Answer: no one. Who is on their side? Not a soul (excluding the truly great developers out there, I'm referring to the corporate world).

I wrote about this dynamic extensively in a piece on integrity, paid reviews and media: http://egamer.co.za/2013/02/take-it...ntial-for-reviewers-but-theyre-lacking-today/

I'm not particularly fond of Capcom right now given their recent history, and they're absolutely right up there. Ninja Theory could have handled the publicity better too.

 

[MegaMad9]

It was a good game, unfortunately, the bad reputation associated with it is more than enough to change someone's mind

 

[IncarnatedDemon]

I definitely agree with your list of "who is to blame".

The thing that disappoints me most though, IncarnatedDemon, is the media, and that's because I'm a journalist and games reviewer myself (for eGamer, a South African site). Our priority is supposed to be to consumers/gamers first, and that's where it ends. Unless the consumer doesn't deserve it or is wrong, we should be looking out for them, taking their side and trying to give them the best, most honest information possible. That's not even idealistic to me. That's the core idea behind journalism. .

Yet some journalists attack the consumers or shove them off. Somehow, some journalists seem to have a loyalty to publishers first, and publishers certainly aren't looking out for consumer's best interests. So who is looking out for gamers/consumers then? Answer: no one. Who is on their side? Not a soul (excluding the truly great developers out there, I'm referring to the corporate world).

I wrote about this dynamic extensively in a piece on integrity, paid reviews and media: http://egamer.co.za/2013/02/take-it...ntial-for-reviewers-but-theyre-lacking-today/

I'm not particularly fond of Capcom right now given their recent history, and they're absolutely right up there. Ninja Theory could have handled the publicity better too.

game journalism barely exists. Sites like ign,destructoid,gamesradar,gamespot etc.live off publishers. I dont associate them with journalism at all.
i get my news from youtube journalists (most of em not paid): gaminganarchist, eventstatus, alphaomegasin and other people.

i also noticed a guy working for.forbes.com: erik kain. He wrote a article adressing that guy u also adressed.who blamed sales on fans.

"journalist" is a shallow term with little meaning in gaming industry. The true.journalists are those who stand up for their fellow gamer.

im glad u posted, ill read rest.of ur articles. Btw create a youtube channel if u want more views

 

[SugarMoon]

game journalism barely exists. Sites like ign,destructoid,gamesradar,gamespot etc.live off publishers. I dont associate them with journalism at all.
i get my news from youtube journalists (most of em not paid): gaminganarchist, eventstatus, alphaomegasin and other people.

i also noticed a guy working for.forbes.com: erik kain. He wrote a article adressing that guy u also adressed.who blamed sales on fans.

"journalist" is a shallow term with little meaning in gaming industry. The true.journalists are those who stand up for their fellow gamer.

im glad u posted, ill read rest.of ur articles. Btw create a youtube channel if u want more views

Eventstatus is my man. I love listening to him talk. His arguments are well thought out, organized and he always has sources ready on the get go. He ain't half bad lookin either.

I stopped listening to IGN and Gamespot ages ago. Something about them always bugged me I just couldn't put my finger on it till recently.

As for the youtube account idea, do it Tody. I'll sub to ya in a milasecond.

 

[IncarnatedDemon]

IGN is owned by newscorp same company that owns Fox news. Im sure there may be a blacksheep among them but for most parts they are all publisher blowers.

 

[Domenic93]

game journalism barely exists. Sites like ign,destructoid,gamesradar,gamespot etc.live off publishers. I dont associate them with journalism at all.
i get my news from youtube journalists (most of em not paid): gaminganarchist, eventstatus, alphaomegasin and other people.

i also noticed a guy working for.forbes.com: erik kain. He wrote a article adressing that guy u also adressed.who blamed sales on fans.

"journalist" is a shallow term with little meaning in gaming industry. The true.journalists are those who stand up for their fellow gamer.

im glad u posted, ill read rest.of ur articles. Btw create a youtube channel if u want more views

I'm pretty sure that Erik wasn't saying it as an insult because just look at all his other articles about DmC, he's very pro fans

 

[XDmC12345X]

I blame the fans who didnt give it a chance at all, who say they would rather play dmc2 than to try DmC. Those fans who refuse to accept change and nitpick everything.
People demand innovation and change, but complain when given it.

 

[Railazel]

So... I'm guessing I jumped the gun when I made my early announcements of me not buying the game, huh?

 

[Onecrazymonkey1]

First, great job on the article! I enjoyed reading it.

Second, I'm sure there are a number of factors as to why DmC didn't sell well; from the bad economy (people now have to be more picky about what they spend their money on) to the January release date, to the Hack N' Slash genre not being all that popular to begin with etc. I certainly don't blame the bad sales on the fans although I'm sure some of the online hatred didn't help the game's cause either. Anyway, I had so much fun with this game and while I know it has it's flaws, I just hope Ninja theory is given a second chance to improve on their mistakes. That's why I love constructive criticism; everyone can benefit from it and it can really help to make a great DmC2 sequel if Ninja Theory is given the opportunity.

Off Topic: Tody is your Avatar Kirby dressed as Solid Snake? it's ridiculously cute ha.

 

[xMobilemux]

Yes the fans are not to blame, just because they didn't buy something they never wanted in the first place doesn't make them a**holes.
Also it's not just DmC that sold poorly, look at Dead Space 3 and RE6, those games are not what their fanbases wanted so they spoke with their money to get what they wanted, as far as I know it's working for RE, we have a possible reboot, a confirmed return to RE roots and we are getting a console port of (IMO) the best RE game since the REmake.
Dead Space 3 took the dumbass course by trying to please an audience that doesn't give a s**t, while getting it's fanbase unhappy.
Personally I didn't buy DS3 simply because I didn't like DS2 and I wanted to stick it to EA games. But other fans aren't buying DS3 because they are convinced that DS3 is going in the direction that'll make it suffer the same fate as RE, so since EA wants 5 million sales of DS3 or they will kill the franchise, the fanbase has just decided to let Dead Space be mercifully killed off before it ends up like RE did. DS3 hasn't even sold 1 million yet, while DS2 sold 2 million in it's first week. Dead Space is done for.

The point I'm trying to make is, we, the fanbase are in control here, we control the fate of the franchises with our money, the game companies and mainstream gaming journalists don't want that, they don't like it, they want to be in control, so they are going to blame us when things fail and try their hardest to make things go their way.

 

[Cabbage Detective]

Not to mention the childish anti-DmC "true" fans who act as if they directly caused a lack of sales and take credit for "choking it out before it could potentially succeed." There are immature "fans" on both ends of the spectrum who like to snipe each other, it's like this in the Sonic Fandom...

Sonic fandom is WAY worse than DMC Fandom lol

 

[Chancey289]

Sonic fandom is WAY worse than DMC Fandom lol

I don't know. Sonic fans didn't decide to try and ring the white house because Sonic eyes turned green.

 

[Cabbage Detective]

I don't know. Sonic fans didn't decide to try and ring the white house because Sonic eyes turned green.

Really? well that's surprising...

 

[IncarnatedDemon]

I blame the fans who didnt give it a chance at all, who say they would rather play dmc2 than to try DmC. Those fans who refuse to accept change and nitpick everything.
People demand innovation and change, but complain when given it.

you blame the fans? the fans that was ridiculed qnd ignored. In first place reboot happened because capcom wanted new audience, they catered to western causuals.
And why must fans of DMC be fans of DmC, because its name is Devil may cry.

no, i wont say i am fan of DmC just because of the name. Besides its a differenr charqcter with alternative story of DMC.
Fans of DMC story have not given a choice, been told " go play DMC3".

DmC isnt a good change. And it certainly is not innovation from DEVIL MAY CRY perspective:
DMC is about taunt, tight gameplay, challenging bosses, smoothness etc.

Just because NT added enviroments that look great oesnt make it innovation considering what kind of game DMC games are, and even more: considering what was cast aside for it.
or are you going to tell me that nice enviroment outweighs:
- lack of manual lock
- taunt
- 60 fps


Take vergil boss fight: if that is innpvation why was he a copy of dmc 3 vergil? it was more or less same attavks.

 

[Cabbage Detective]

Blaming the fans for not buying this game is just stupid why force people to buy a game they don't like?

 

[Marionette Cherry]

I blame the fans who didnt give it a chance at all, who say they would rather play dmc2 than to try DmC. Those fans who refuse to accept change and nitpick everything.
People demand innovation and change, but complain when given it.

Change is great when executed well Having enemies that don't attack you off screen because it demands the player to be 'aware' of his or her surroundings is not a good change. It's all justified complaining and I'm sure your opinions against these opinions are justified too because other wise why even bother arguing?

Blame me for not buying DmC2 because it wants the Bubble Bobble audience and it had to make CHANGES to cater to players who enjoy the bubble bobble series.

Bubble Bobble is an awesome game by the way.

Speaking of audiences I don't think DmC even had a target audience it certainly didn't want the old fans. Yet people here are totally okay with defending that.

 

[Tody]

@

First, great job on the article! I enjoyed reading it.

Second, I'm sure there are a number of factors as to why DmC didn't sell well; from the bad economy (people now have to be more picky about what they spend their money on) to the January release date, to the Hack N' Slash genre not being all that popular to begin with etc. I certainly don't blame the bad sales on the fans although I'm sure some of the online hatred didn't help the game's cause either. Anyway, I had so much fun with this game and while I know it has it's flaws, I just hope Ninja theory is given a second chance to improve on their mistakes. That's why I love constructive criticism; everyone can benefit from it and it can really help to make a great DmC2 sequel if Ninja Theory is given the opportunity.

Off Topic: Tody is your Avatar Kirby dressed as Solid Snake? it's ridiculously cute ha.

Yes!! It's Kirby dressed as Solid Snake <3

Thank you! Yes, absolutely, I mentioned a number of those in the article as well, you're spot on.

@IncarnatedDemon and @SugarMoon
I'm flattered, and I really appreciate that But I don't think a youtube channel is on the cards for me right now, even though it's something I always liked. Reason being is because it creates a sort of rift between my written content and youtube content. I might consider it, and end up doing both (as in making a video and posting the transcript for those who would rather read).

Right now I'm just focused on building eGamer. We're a South African site (which is still a small and growing market) and we've only been around 4 years now, so we're relatively young. But these kinds of articles are exactly what I want to and try to specialise in because I believe strongly in honesty and integrity and being impartial.

 

[Black Manic TH]

*See thread for the first time*