Dragon's Dogma and Rise of Ronin releasing on same day. Do you think it was smart financially for both to release on same day?

[Gods&Monsters]

No. Lost Soul Aside is supposed to be "early 2024" unless delayed. They have new first party games for the rest of the months, so it's fair to assume it's going to assume it would be their May game.

Rebirth isn't their March game, Ronin isn't their April game and Stellar isn't their May game. All these games were released a month before, and Rebirth is 3rd party like Dragon's Dogma, not 1st.

Destiny 2 is a super successful Sony game which gets yearly expansions (this one may be the last one, at least the last big one, because it's very old) that are almost brand new games.

And yes, they knew the release dates of the 3rd party games of the year: Dragon Dogma 2 and the many other important ones they get every year and month.

You just said a bunch of nothing. Rebirth came out on a Thursday, the next day was Friday March 1st. A Friday, the usual release date for new releases. They deleted all the marketing from Rebirth on PSN and they replaced it that friday with a game that came out last year.

Plan ahead on your own storefront. They had 3 weeks empty after that (besides The Show but it doesn't really overlap with regular games). Ronin and DD2 are basically the same people buying these games. They are so similar you have to pay attention. The hype for DD2 was getting higher every week.

The result? Rebirth didn't get much limelight at all and Ronin will be forgotten tomorrow.

 

[Danja]

Said it many months ago. The date should have been moved for Ronin. The marketing alone isn't even good, the game looks like a Mid gen PS4 game and it's selling for $70 going up against Dragons Dogma 2 a highly anticipated cult classic, that Sony themselves have been actively pushing as well.

It's like they get a kink in setting up some of their partner's / studios for failure, so they can have a reason to cut ties.

 

[Say1nMan]

I think still Rise of the Ronin will find its audience and might surprise folks once they play it and get their head out of their asses with jumping on the astroturfing of the graphics but yes Sony should not have released the game the same day as DD2. If they would have chosen a month earlier to release the game lets say then we might not have to be subjected to the idiotic astroturfing.

 

[mibu no ookami]

Sometimes its good that people are overly critical.

Sony has nothing to release from April onwards. They are releasing 4 games in 4 months. They could of easily just left this for summer or 2nd half of the year.

I would say this. Dragon's Dogma isn't a game that you would normally run away from. It's been massively hyped up in the last couple of months and it's very difficult to delay a game at this point, you have ad buys and marketing campaigns locked in already.

I think Sony does their best to spread games out, but it isn't as easy as people would make it out to be. That's ignoring that games often get delayed and miss their release window for technical reasons.

Sony still has more games coming out this year that people are largely ignoring.

Concord, Until Dawn, Destiny 2 Final Shape, and potentially Fairgame$.

The reality is that there really is never a great time to release games on the calendar anymore. Q4 is always really packed, so unless you have a blockbuster, you generally want to avoid it.

So in Q2 and Q3 Sony probably still has at least 3-4 games they'll be releasing, in addition to PC releases for Ghost of Tsushima and potentially Last of Us Part 2.

That's more than some companies release in a year...

Then you have to consider that Sony wants as many games during this dry period of the Ps5 sales because they know the PS5 hardware will sell faster with the release of the PS5 Pro and potential price cuts later in the year and they won't be as reliant on software to push the hardware.

 

[Yurinka]

You just said a bunch of nothing.

I just stated facts to correct your wrong statements by correctly listing their first party releases announced for the first half of a year, when you were saying things like "Sony has nothing to release from April onwards" or listing games with wrong release months or including a 3rd party game mixing it with firrst party titles.

Rebirth came out on a Thursday, the next day was Friday March 1st. A Friday, the usual release date for new releases. They deleted all the marketing from Rebirth on PSN and they replaced it that friday with a game that came out last year.

Plan ahead on your own storefront. They had 3 weeks empty after that (besides The Show but it doesn't really overlap with regular games). Ronin and DD2 are basically the same people buying these games. They are so similar you have to pay attention. The hype for DD2 was getting higher every week.

The result? Rebirth didn't get much limelight at all and Ronin will be forgotten tomorrow.

So according to you their marketing of shit. So why are Rebirth and Helldivers 2 topping the charts? Just because of being lucky, or magic fairies?

Do you seriously think a multinational corporation with revenues of two dozen billion per year they don't plan ahead their storefront, which is the most successful one in console gaming history? Again, just for being lucky during decades, and magic fairies?

If they know the dates in advance, why they aren't planning better?

They have one or two first party releasaes per month (some of them being refurbished stuff like ports or remasters). They also have important 3rd party releases and cool indies every month.

There wouldn't be a special difference moving a game release a week or two, and moving it to another month tthere would be other big releases nearby too.

They didn't gave a fuck about releasing Horizon at the same time than Zelda or Elden Ring, they sold great anyways. So a game like Dragon's Dogma 2 that sells several times less will affect them even less.

How do you think they should plan it better? Specially considering they are selling more software and game subs for their console than any console ever did, and more first party games than ever?

 

[Gediminas]

I just stated facts to correct your wrong statements by correctly listing their first party releases announced for the first half of a year, when you were saying things like "Sony has nothing to release from April onwards" or listing games with wrong release months or including a 3rd party game mixing it with firrst party titles.


So according to you their marketing of shit. So why are Rebirth and Helldivers 2 topping the charts? Just because of being lucky, or magic fairies?

Do you seriously think a multinational corporation with revenues of two dozen billion per year they don't plan ahead their storefront, which is the most successful one in console gaming history? Again, just for being lucky during decades, and magic fairies?


They have one or two first party releasaes per month (some of them being refurbished stuff like ports or remasters). They also have important 3rd party releases and cool indies every month.

There wouldn't be a special difference moving a game release a week or two, and moving it to another month tthere would be other big releases nearby too.

They didn't gave a fuck about releasing Horizon at the same time than Zelda or Elden Ring, they sold great anyways. So a game like Dragon's Dogma 2 that sells several times less will affect them even less.

How do you think they should plan it better? Specially considering they are selling more software and game subs for their console than any console ever did, and more first party games than ever?

for starting. spend a little bit pre and post FF7RR on ads, don't release Ronin so close to DD2, like at least two weeks, 3 weeks, the same as FF7RR would be till DD2, then Stellar Blade in May. it would be better spacing to breath those games. remember, they also released GranBlue Fantasy Relink, which sold over 1M first week and Helldivers 2 which sold probably near 10M.

plus Ronin clearly asking for 1-2 patches anyways.

at least that looks logical going into the summer break. but how you said, they done worst, so no surprise.

 

[FatKaz]

Should have moved it.

Considering how much of a monster helldivers 2 is and FF7R being a huge hit, could have just rode those waves throughout march.

Q1 is quite barron, would have help pad out that quaarter.

 

[Yurinka]

for starting. spend a little bit pre and post FF7RR on ads, don't release Ronin so close to DD2, like at least two weeks, 3 weeks, the same as FF7RR would be till DD2, then Stellar Blade in May. it would be better spacing to breath those games. remember, they also released GranBlue Fantasy Relink, which sold over 1M first week and Helldivers 2 which sold probably near 10M.

plus Ronin clearly asking for 1-2 patches anyways.

at least that looks logical going into the summer break. but how you said, they done worst, so no surprise.

The thing is, it's too early for us to know all the game releases of May. As an example, that month they could release their "eaarly 2024" game Lost Soul Aside and could also have there their yearly showcase with some important shadow drop. Plus there could be some important 3rd party game with marketing deal there, which right now we still don't know its specific release date (I don't know, like Little Devil Inside or some AAA).

In addition to this, needing to improve their profitability and maybe not reaching their hardware units estimate they could have wanted to release Ronin in March to show better numbers for tthe fiscal year. On top of this, the game has been under development during 9 years. Which I highly doubt were the original plans for Team Ninja. Pretty likely it had minimum two big delays, maybe three. Resulting on a budget maybe too big for what Sony and Team Ninja estimated that they were going to generate with the game. In that case they wouldn't want to delay it even more.

 

[mibu no ookami]

The thing is, it's too early for us to know all the game releases of May. As an example, that month they could release their "eaarly 2024" game Lost Soul Aside and could also have there their yearly showcase with some important shadow drop. Plus there could be some important 3rd party game with marketing deal there, which right now we still don't know its specific release date (I don't know, like Little Devil Inside or some AAA).

In addition to this, needing to improve their profitability and maybe not reaching their hardware units estimate they could have wanted to release Ronin in March to show better numbers for tthe fiscal year. On top of this, the game has been under development during 9 years. Which I highly doubt were the original plans for Team Ninja. Pretty likely it had minimum two big delays, maybe three. Resulting on a budget maybe too big for what Sony and Team Ninja estimated that they were going to generate with the game. In that case they wouldn't want to delay it even more.

I think the game was probably a PS4 game, that got pushed to be crossgen, that was ultimately decided as a Ps5 exclusive.

It definitely predates their PC strategy.

People think you can just delay games willy nilly, but no one knew that date for Dragon's Dogma until November '23 and I don't think anyone could really assume Dragon's Dogma 2 was going to score 12 points higher than the original game.

The idea that they should have or could have moved it just seems really naive.

Releasing the game in a month or two after 9 years, it still was going to be a game in the 70s on MC and there is no guarantee that a game in April or May won't score just as high if not higher.

No one was calling Dragon's Dogma a potential GOTY game in January or even February.

 

[Gods&Monsters]

Do you seriously think a multinational corporation with revenues of two dozen billion per year they don't plan ahead their storefront, which is the most successful one in console gaming history?

Why did they give a full marketing spread to NBA2k24 on the first weekend of release of Rebirth?

Very smart of them to reserve that spot for a bargain bin game that was coming to PS+ Extra

No console bundles, no dualsense like they did with FF16 too.

No one was calling Dragon's Dogma a potential GOTY game in January or even February.

Why take the risk? Sony knows they are the biggest platform for Capcom games and they have a great relationship with them. The date was taken. Take another one.

Ronin was like 7 years in the making. It didn't have to come out today.

Quick check on Era:

DD2 OT - 2097 replies
Ronin OT - 190 replies

DD2 Review Thread - 1363 replies
Ronin Review Thread - 418 replies

 

[mibu no ookami]

Why take the risk? Sony knows they are the biggest platform for Capcom games and they have a great relationship with them. The date was taken. Take another one.

Ronin was like 7 years in the making. It didn't have to come out today.

Quick check on Era:

DD2 OT - 2097 replies
Ronin OT - 190 replies

DD2 Review Thread - 1363 replies
Ronin Review Thread - 418 replies

What risk are you referring to though?

Do you think the discourse online for a multiplatform game vs a single platform game is reflective of sales or the sales potential that could have been had if a game released a month or two later.

Rise of the Ronin was always going to be a mid 70s game whether it released in March, April, or May.

People playing Dragon's Dogma 2 on PC has no impact on the PS5 sales of Rise of the Ronin.

The reality is that Stellar Blade comes out in April. Dragon Ball: Xenoverse 2 and MultiVersus come out in May. Monster Hunter Stories and Elden Ring DLC, and Final Shape comes out in June, as well as SMT5V. Black Myth: Wukong comes out in August.

Sony still has Concord and Until Dawn coming out and maybe Fairgame$.

There isn't really this magical time to release a 76 game.

 

[Gods&Monsters]

The reality is that Stellar Blade comes out in April. Dragon Ball: Xenoverse 2 and MultiVersus come out in May. Monster Hunter Stories and Elden Ring DLC, and Final Shape comes out in June, as well as SMT5V. Black Myth: Wukong comes out in August.

Obviously, 2 big AAAs from well-known japanese publishers coming out the same day is different than whatever games you listed.

SMT5V actually changed the release date because of the Elden Ring DLC and that's just an old port. Sega had enough sense to do that.

And yes Ronin could come out the same day as Monster Hunter Stories or Multiversus whatever

 

[Danja]

What risk are you referring to though?

Do you think the discourse online for a multiplatform game vs a single platform game is reflective of sales or the sales potential that could have been had if a game released a month or two later.

Rise of the Ronin was always going to be a mid 70s game whether it released in March, April, or May.

People playing Dragon's Dogma 2 on PC has no impact on the PS5 sales of Rise of the Ronin.

The reality is that Stellar Blade comes out in April. Dragon Ball: Xenoverse 2 and MultiVersus come out in May. Monster Hunter Stories and Elden Ring DLC, and Final Shape comes out in June, as well as SMT5V. Black Myth: Wukong comes out in August.

Sony still has Concord and Until Dawn coming out and maybe Fairgame$.

There isn't really this magical time to release a 76 game.

Yes there is! You release 2 weeks out or after the biggest 3rd party game of March. They literally would have had the first week of April to themselves

 

[mibu no ookami]

Yes there is! You release 2 weeks out or after the biggest 3rd party game of March. They literally would have had the first week of April to themselves

That's just silly. You think that actually makes a difference in life time sales for the game?

 

[mibu no ookami]

Obviously, 2 big AAAs from well-known japanese publishers coming out the same day is different than whatever games you listed.

SMT5V actually changed the release date because of the Elden Ring DLC and that's just an old port. Sega had enough sense to do that.

And yes Ronin could come out the same day as Monster Hunter Stories or Multiversus whatever

Dragon's Dogma 1 and the other Dragon's Dogma game were both pretty mid tier games. These are not at all the same game, so whether or not they're both form Japanese studios is pretty irrelevant.

 

[Danja]

That's just silly. You think that actually makes a difference in life time sales for the game?

It's makes a difference with mindshare, gamers pockets and marketing

 

[mibu no ookami]

It's makes a difference with mindshare, gamers pockets and marketing

Most gamers aren't buying two games within a couple of weeks. So no, it wouldn't have made a difference.

 

[Yurinka]

Why did they give a full marketing spread to NBA2k24 on the first weekend of release of Rebirth?

Very smart of them to reserve that spot for a bargain bin game that was coming to PS+ Extra

Because they have marketing deals and market with many games that give them a lot of money like NBA2K, not only the games you like

No console bundles, no dualsense like they did with FF16 too.

Yes, it would have been a good opportunity. Maybe Sony or Square wanted to make more money not bundling the game. Regarding DualSense, I'd make at least plates for all major games.

Ronin was like 7 years in the making. It didn't have to come out today.

9, in fact. Started in 2015. Make sure they went way off their budget and had minimum a couple big delays. Meaning, pretty likely wanted/needed to release it asap.

 

[Kokoloko]

I think it will take some more cancelations and studios shut downs for people to realise Sony isnt the master mind some of you make out to be..... They are riding of previous glory and making alot of mistakes, simple

 

[Kokoloko]

No. Lost Soul Aside is supposed to be "early 2024" unless delayed. They have new first party games for the rest of the months, so it's fair to assume it's going to assume it would be their May game.

Rebirth isn't their March game, Ronin isn't their April game and Stellar isn't their May game. All these games were released a month before, and Rebirth is 3rd party like Dragon's Dogma, not 1st.

Destiny 2 is a super successful Sony game which gets yearly expansions (this one may be the last one, at least the last big one, because it's very old) that are almost brand new games.

And yes, they knew the release dates of the 3rd party games of the year: Dragon Dogma 2 and the many other important ones they get every year and month.

I think he just means they should of spread it out by an extra month. Or they shouldnt have released so close to DD2 as there probably isnt anything planned for May, June, July atm. An earlu summer release would of been good.

Theres a reason why some game studios delay there games when another big game is coming out. Happens all the time and Sega did it recently. Smart move by them.
Maybe Sony wasnt anticipating DD2 to big a big game as the first was sort of “niche”