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What's with the bullshit "as a consumer why should I care about sales" rhetoric recently?

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Deleted member 20297

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I hope OP is a big fan of gamepass because it actually boosted sales for smaller indie games already and devs were happy with it. I don't know whether they cared for how much money MS made for the console sales, though, they didn't go into detail on that.
 
zedox

zedox

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Oct 28, 2017
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It's actually been a thing before Phil Spencer said anything (which your quote is incorrect). I could understand if it was a sales thread...but other threads, you are going to get people to give their opinion just like you give yours. Just like in this thread, I don't care about how much money a company is going to make or not because it's out of my control. Sure, I like having sequels to things that I like but what happens when something doesn't sell? I get nothing. What happens if something does sell? I MAY get a sequel some years later. But either way, it won't matter because i don't control that outcome. So, AS A CONSUMER, I care about what I can actually consume not a possibility of what I could consume.

The problem is that people do concern trolling with sales a lot on this site so those people use that as a way to derail threads into obnoxious arguments or pettiness that truly does not matter. Let's say something like the Xbox did well during Black Friday thread or whatever right? Someone says something like "I wonder how much money they made/loss" on the console. We know as hobbyists on this site that Microsoft doesn't share those details and you will never get those details until they decide to change how they report. So why ask a question like that knowing you won't get the answer in a thread about MS doing well? (I'm only using MS as an example). So you get threads like that or comments like that I should say and derails threads for people who "care" about sales data. A good number of people use it as fanboy "points" to try to rile people up.

So, you have people who try to stop that derailment. So it's ok to care about sales for your own peace of mind for a sequel or future console (because that's really what you are looking for, peace of mind that some more of what you already like is going to happen again)...but it's the reality of this place and other places of the internet.
 

Deleted member 35204

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Consumers should only care about what they like, if caring about sales somehow hampers the product it's counterproductive.
Example:
PersonA: - I like game.
PersonB: - Yeah but it sold poorly.
PersonA: - So?
PersonB: - If it had microtransactions it would have sold better and maybe you have more chances of a sequel!
PersonA: - Yeah but if it had microtransactions i would have not liked it.
 
HBK

HBK

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Oct 30, 2017
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bane833 said:
Success shapes this industry.
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Success doesn't shape which game I enjoy. If the industry stops making games I enjoy (something I SERIOUSLY doubt, and I play games most of Era barely know about), then that's life. My little voice on the internet won't save Egosoft (one of many examples).

Edit: Two very good posts above this one.
 
bane833

bane833

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HBK said:
Success doesn't shape which game I enjoy. If the industry stops making games I enjoy (something I SERIOUSLY doubt, and I play games most of Era barely know about), then that's life. My little voice on the internet won't save Egosoft (one of many examples).
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Success decides if the types of games you enjoy get made in the first place.
 
RingRang

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This stuff is almost ways used as a defensive reflex from someone who is upset you're pointing out something they don't want pointed out.
 
panda-zebra

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Aaron D. said:
Prob because a lot of people who obsess over sales are insufferable fanboys.
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There's fanboys in practically every thread and topic. You shouldn't make these kinds of blanket statements, it's unfair. Sales discussion has a long and productive history on ERA and the forums that came before. Nobody should be made to feel they are unable to discuss any aspect of gaming here.
 
TheRuralJuror

TheRuralJuror

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Oct 25, 2017
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It's fine to be curious, it's another to argue over that shit. I hopped into one thread earlier and folks were arguing about whether or not Xbox is selling at a loss. I don't see why someone would care personally.
 
zedox

zedox

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LeleSocho said:
Consumers should only care about what they like, if caring about sales somehow hampers the product it's counterproductive.
Example:
PersonA: - I like game.
PersonB: - Yeah but it sold poorly.
PersonA: - So?
PersonB: - If it had microtransactions it would have sold better and maybe you have more chances of a sequel!
PersonA: - Yeah but if it had microtransactions i would have not liked it.
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Yep, you see this type of convo happen with people downplaying games because they sold "poorly"
-------------------------------------------------

Also you have people who think games aren't successful because they didn't sell how much THEY THINK what is successful or not. Same with consoles. The business is very complicated with multiiple revenue streams (some that gamers don't even know about). But people have in their mind what is successful and try to downplay something doing "well" and then conversations devolve into that.
 
Arion

Arion

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Oct 26, 2017
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I don't care about sales. I also don't care about endless sequels to a game I like. Make new things.
 

Nuclear Muffin

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Oct 29, 2017
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Probably a bit of astroturfing mixed with a bit of parroting/meming.

Of course publishers don't want you to think or care about business models and sales. They just want you to blindly consume and not think about the potential consequences of their business models.
 
NoblesseOblige

NoblesseOblige

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Oct 25, 2017
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corporate cheerleading is pathetic. that's just fact regardless of whether one attaches 'as a consumer' to it
 
Quantza

Quantza

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jcs said:
More sales -> more chance of a sequel or similar games made in the future. Simple as that.
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Begging is still begging.
Unless you have an objective way to predict the probability of a new game being developed based on sales, might as well not talk about it and treat it as an unwritten rule of demand and supply.
 

shark97

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Nov 7, 2017
5,327
to an extent i dont think (hardware, which is what I took the OP to mean) sales matter, between the xbox/ps ecosystem. i can be told online xbox is selling crap and ps like sliced hotcakes ad infinitum, at the end of the day this cant be true because third parties (mainly the core third parties, activision, EA, Ubisoft, Take Two) dont drop support for Xbox.

of course, i guess ps does get some more minor exclusives on the japanese side ( i cant think of any, but more towards jrpg's and the like, besides SFV which is the relevant one I can think of). if those matter to you. they dont to me.

basically if your ps/xbox system, assuming you own only one of them, sells enough to maintain mostly full third party support, then in a sense no it doesnt matter to you, tangibly.

i left nintendo out of the discussion entirely, as it's a entire other discussion for them.
 
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Deleted member 10737

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it's completely ok to care or be interested in sales and numbers, but bullshit concern trolling like what has been recently happening around game pass ("b-but all games will be gaas", "b-but MS is losing money", "b-but will someone think about the devs") is very transparent and easily detectable.
more generally, if you're trying to pass off concern trolling as a genuine interest in sales and the business side of things you should expect to get called out.
 
Starlatine

Starlatine

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Salty Rice said:
If you want to consume more of a product in a future as a consumer you should care about sales of said product.
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No, i should care about the things i enjoy. Fallout 4 selling well didnt stop bethesda from making Fallout 76. I wanted more Fallout, but i didnt want that.
 
Aaron D.

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Oct 25, 2017
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bane833 said:
Success decides if the types of games you enjoy get made in the first place.
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I've found that budgets often scale to the consumer base. So you'll always be seeing titles of interest regardless of sales numbers.

I'm pretty darn sure that Overcrowd will be my GOTY, but I suspect that it sold very low numbers (Steam DB has the highest concurrent player count at 339).

Low sales won't stop the game from being my GOTY and I've long since accepted that if those same low sales numbers mean no sequel I'll be just fine either way. We're already living in a world where there's more quality entertainment media of all kinds out there than any one person can reasonably experience in a lifetime.

I'd love to see Overcrowd sell like gangbusters. But it's not like I can carry that burden on my own shoulders. I did my part with a purchase. I enjoy the game. Any further hand-wringing is simply a waste of time.
 
Saint-14

Saint-14

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I mean we all know it comes from one group only, it's always used to shut discussion about any curiosity in how something is doing, this is a forum dedicated to a lot of things and sales is one of them otherwise we wouldn't be getting all these weekly and monthly threads about them.
 
Weiss

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I'm not a corporate bootlicker so of course I don't care.
 
Tuco Benedicto Pacifico

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Of course a game being successful enough in sales means there are more chances to see sequels/similar ones, but that's a bit of a disingenuous take to defend here, because, let's be honest for a minute, the retort "why are you even worrying about sales?" doesn't typically get thrown in the face of people crying about their favorite studio bankrupting.

It's usually used when someone turns it into a content between two different franchises, or uses the worse/better sales of another franchise as an argument about its quality as a game.
 
HellofaMouse

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Oct 27, 2017
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If a thing sells well it doesnt always mean you'll get more of it. Like playstation crushing its competition as hard as it did is not a good thing for example. if ms doesnt close the gap next gen, we are all gonna be worse for it
 
Yearsoflurking

Yearsoflurking

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I too care about if my favorite plastic box corporation is making money off every box. It benefits my soul by seeing them raise money to go to shareholders.
 
Mars

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FairyEmpire said:
I also am happy when a game I like is doing well, increases the chances of quality post-launch support and sequels. But turning into football hooligans over which plastic box is selling more on a month-by-month basis or whether the new Sony or the new Nintendo games sells more this week is just insanity masked as consumer interest. We don't have the budgets, the marketing spends, the investors' expectations. In the case of consoles, what's profitable and what isn't is made out of so many factors that console sales alone don't even paint a clear picture anymore between subscriptions, accessories, first party games and whatnot. I'm happy that you are happy about the success about the console of your choice, but there's a reason a lot of people don't obsess over decimals, and it's not because Phil Spencer told us.
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Rational post like this make my day. Well said and totally agree. It's something that never concerned me as threads focused on said subject come off as shill dick measuring contest.
 
HBK

HBK

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Teeth said:
Meat is a commodity.

People ABSOLUTELY keep tabs on the sales of shoes and cars.

Just go to shoe and car forums.
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And I'm sure I could make the exact same argument on those forums. People who argue about Nike sales probably won't go argue about Ford sales, and vice-versa.

In the end it's just basic hooligan behavior, "argument" battles which are not substantiated by legitimate concern.
 
AdrianG4

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OP like, "Why did all my friends grow up and quit fighting in the console wars? Cowards!"
 
BeaconofTruth

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It's more so the downplaying of a good game, because it doesn't have sales. Because at the end of the day "x game sold to millions of people" does nothing for me if I think the game is shit.

where as sure I'm not getting a sequel, but I'm not going to think less of a game because it sold to 5 people total.

Those sales threads definitely have their contingent of people who seem to look at poor sales as some weirdo validation of "yeah game must suck".

above all that the straight up shilling is eye roll inducing.
 
IHaveIce

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Pankratous said:
It is ABSOLUTELY FINE to care about sales. If I really enjoy a platform, game, series, or whatever, then obviously I am happy if if does well and sells a lot because it then means I'LL GET MORE OF IT.

It seems ever since Phil Spencer said "stop caring about sales", people on this website are going out of their way to peddle this "as a consumer why should I care" bullshit every time sales numbers are mentioned. Even in sales threads!

By caring about sales you are not automatically a corporate shill or trying to be friends with the corporation. You just want more good shit.

Of course, it can be taken too far (see: console wars) but there is absolutely no harm in being enthusiastic about sales.

Please stop the "as a consumer" posts regarding sales.
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Huh if anything this forum is the most sale focused platform I know in gaming.
 

Deleted member 426

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If anyone ever questions why I care about sales I feel fine saying 'I love this series and I want it to be successful so there are more of them'.

But let's be real, on this forum a major reason why people care about sales is not because they care about getting sequels. It's because they want their favourite company to 'win'.
 
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