Change in Sales Game of the Day

Need for Speed

Note: * signifies not having data for the Others/Europe region for that version. DS sales are not included as we do not have sales of last generation’s Gameboy Advance games so I'm reasoning they probably approximately cancel out and the DS versions of the game are so different than the other consoles it is almost like a separate game.

Description: Today's Change in Sales Game of the Day is actually a lot of games on a ton of platforms, because we are looking at the Need for Speed series. Last generation Need for Speed had established itself as one of the biggest franchises in gaming, especially with the Underground games. This generation while the sales for the games are still strong, they have had a noticeable decline, despite being released on more platforms with a greater number of owners. So why has one of last generation’s biggest franchises experienced a relatively steep decline this generation?  Is there more competition in the racing genre or is a decrease in quality to blame? Or is it something else? That is what I will attempt to answer now.

The Need for Speed franchise has dipped by an average of ~22% compared to last generation, but the cumulative sales for the games are still very impressive. While the drop from last generation is large Need for Speed is not the only racing franchise to see such drops. Other racing franchises like Project Gotham Racing, Midnight Club and Burnout are all also down similar or even greater amounts than the Need for Speed franchise.  The racing franchises that are actually up this generation such as Forza and Mario Kart, are in different subgenres of racing, so perhaps just the arcade style racer that Need for Speed falls into is down.

In addition to the decrease in popularity of the racing genre, I believe a shift in cultural trends helps explain the decrease in Need for Speed’s popularity. The two Need for Speed Underground games were able to capitalize on the popularity (especially in America) of the first two “Fast and Furious” movies (released in 2001 and 2003) which both made over 100 million dollars at the American box office (box office mojo).  Even before the movies came out, a growing trend of people customizing their cars was spreading, The Fast and the Furious helped expand the popularity of this hobby and the Underground games were able to capitalize on it.

The final factor I think has played a significant role in deflation of the franchise is the dip in the quality of the games. While critic reviews are not always indicative of how gamers perceive the quality of a game, critic review scores are highly correlated with game sales.  If you compare the average metacritic rating for the 4 Need for Speed games last generation on the PS2 (84.5 average rating) to the 3 Need for Speed games this generation on the 360 (71 average rating), the 13.5 point discrepancy is significant.  It also explains why EA worked hard to make the recently released Need for Speed Shift a high quality title.

Those are the key reasons I think the Need for Speed franchise has seen a decline this generation, here is what the VGChartz community thinks.

jackkl – “ Need for Speed: Undercover was launched in November 2008, and by January 2009, EA was already talking about the next one! Then Shift is released in September 2009...less than a year between titles. Enough! Maybe the number of people wanting to buy the game decreases because they're sick of buying them.”

Pineapple – “Racers in general seem to be receiving less attention. Burnout: Paradise is down 50% from Burnout 3. Burnout: Revenge actually sold even less than that. Project Gotham Racing 3 & 4 are down from 1 & 2, despite having a larger userbase. Furthermore, there are few new racer games with the same sales as Crazy Taxi and the Simpsons racers had.”

darthdevidem01 – “Quality -- The need for speed game released in 2007 & 2008 has really sub-par quality, Need for Speed was respected as a great racing franchise, the 2007 version ruined its reputation, this is why Need For Speed : Undercover did so bad in comparison, the franchise lost fans.”

Thanks for reading today’s Change in Sales Game of the Day, look for another edition next week, until then check out the new Sales Battle of the Day thread looking at LittleBigPlanet vs. Wii Music.

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