In my current game, I’ve been developing for the Mbox, and have had back-to-back hits on the platform with lots of sales.
I go to make my next game for the Mbox and notice that it is slightly ahead of the Playsystem 2. Normally, the Playsystem 2 stays on top of the market for quite a long time, and normally tops the Mbox by a few % points. Not so in my current game where the Mbox is beating it and leading the market (though just barely, by about .3 % points)
Is this just random, or does making lots of hit games for a platform increase that platform’s market share?
Its been mentioned before how good it would be if that was the case, as then you could set yourself challenges, like how long could you keep a console on the market for etc, adding loads more replayability.
The other two have it right, I always thought it made a difference as PC was always lower than the new gen consoles but then all of a sudden, it got first place and I was thinking it was due to my games?
It would also give players another reason to use publishers even after they’ve moved onto the large/AAA title era and have plenty of fans.
If sales and exposure of good games would drive the market share, a Publisher-backed high rated Large/AAA game would sell millions upon millions of units and thus seriously drive up the market share for that platform. You would then have a larger market share to work with for your non-publisher titles later.
Yes that could work, but that would have to be balanced, such as, what if PS4 for example gets to 60% marketshare and the rest are on 4% or more? It would make no sense and exceptionally easy…
Probably would have to put in a law of diminishing returns. Rocketing a platform to the top of the market would be doable with a few hit publisher-promoted Large/AAA games…but once on top… further hits would have a MUCH smaller impact on increasing its market share. Hit games would only serve to maintain the platform’s position as #1, rather than make it take off and eat up 60% of the market share.
You could also have a mechanic that says that a platform that is due to be retired by event won’t fire if that platform currently holds the #1 position. One could be the Dreamcast’s savior if you produce exclusively for it AND manage to keep a steady string of hits. (The moment you release a bomb, its market share will tank and it’ll quickly get pulled off if it has survived past its normal lifespan)
Impacting market share would be awesome. I’d pump the Vena Oasis. Pure nostalgia factor (I had and enjoyed a Genesis) leads me to take some risks to develop games for it on every run through the game. It’d be neat if my devotion was rewarded with bolstered sales figures for my system of choice.
If you’re doing well as a company, perhaps a random event could involve a corporation paying you a hefty sum of money to develop an exclusive for their console next. This should only happen with newish systems, it should include a gratis license (or a much heftier payout if you already have one), and it
A neat story event would be for a nervous Vega to approach you asking them to pump the Dreamvast in response to slowing sales prior to the PS2. Another thing that would be neat is if you could branch the story at a few key points. You wouldn’t (without cheating) have the kind of firepower that would change the PC/G64 storyline, but if you’re running hot and fast, you might be able to push the Genesis/SNES war one way or the other. Perhaps the Sony/Nintendo agreement wouldn’t have crashed if Nintendo had been in hot water…
Upholding the Dreamcast really is the most interesting possibility, though. If the Dreamcast had beat out the PS2, the PS3 might have never happened… and Sega would have stayed in the console-making business for another generation.