The ugly truth about state of UK gaming

via gamesradar

This week's UK entertainment software chart (all formats, all prices) makes us sad. It makes us sad because no matter how hard we look at it we can't see Okami anywhere. One of the most utterly original and delightfully entertaining games to ever bound its way to PS2 has vanished just two weeks after its debut at number 12, before sliding to 30 and, now, it's plummeted with a forlorn howl into the abyss...

Little Britain: The Videogame, on the other hand, is still doing good business. It's enjoying its fourth week in the charts (it's currently at number 18) despite the fact that it's complete toss. Released a week earlier than Capcom's masterpiece, Little Britain defied - and defiled - belief by reaching the number two spot. Number two. That's very, very nearly number one.

We know it's ten quid cheaper and it's on PS2 and PC and yeah but no but yeah but no Vicky Pollard is like well hard, but Little Britain outselling Okami is a tragedy beyond words.... It's the ugly truth about the state of UK gaming.

Unfortunately HMV ran an offer where you could get £10 off of the Little Britain game when you spent £20 in store. I expect this has quite a lot to do with the game's high chart position. It's sad to see a beautiful and original title like Okami perform so badly - but it's the same for music and films as well. Dross sells and quality product languishes in lower chart positions or is ignored completely. Pan's Labyrinth has had undying critical praise heaped upon it and has won awards at the Oscars and Baftas - but it showed for a couple of days at my local Vue cinema on the smallest screen they had and then vanished.

youth these days wouldnt know a good game or in fact good music :), if it came up and bit them on their arse!!:)

Im not surprised by this. I think its safe to say that the majority of UK gamers are very casual gamers, and licenses speak volumes to many here. Also, if we look over at US, Gears of War sold a bucketload and remained the top selling xbox 360 game for weeks... meanwhile we were still buying Pro Evo and Fifa like it was going out of fashion.
Still, i couldnt care less about sales etc... i know i picked up okami, absolutly love it, and no one should let sales figures sway their taste in games.

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Originally Posted by Amiga

youth these days wouldnt know a good game or in fact good music :), if it came up and bit them on their arse!!:)

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i totally agree.okami is a stellar game and this is one of the best titles for ps2 ever.youngsters like grand theft auto ,racing games,football,fps...game like okami is pure art...shame not so many people appreciate it.

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Originally Posted by Vega

Still, i couldnt care less about sales etc... i know i picked up okami, absolutly love it, and no one should let sales figures sway their taste in games.

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A shortsighted view as low sales will not fuel a sequel nor inspire other developers to try something original.

I've never really liked or gave a damn about the most mainstream games like gta, gow etc

heh, I seem to go backward in time, my interest for the new generation consoles is slowly disappearing. Last year I've been buying lot's of ps1 games and saturn games, this year I've bought a sega genesis, some sega cd games and a superfamicom. Right now I'm making my own snes devcart....:rofl: hmm.. off topic.

I see the problem being that it is out in the US first, people in other countries just import, increasing the sales in the US and lowing the sales in the importers country.

If all games were just bought up to standards in all countries first, and then release everywhere at the same time, or at least close to each other, I could see sales figures being different.

Okami
NA September 19, 2006
EU February 7, 2007

5 months of people waiting in Europe, people who want the game would just buy from America.

Did you know that the game charts in a lot of shops are not really charts. For instance GAME's charts are paid for. Publisher pay for a spot on the chart. I think HMV and Woolworths are the same.


So dont belive what u see in the charts.

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Originally Posted by kaffie

A shortsighted view as low sales will not fuel a sequel nor inspire other developers to try something original.

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not at all. what is shortsighted is the fact the developers will only create sequels if sales go well for the first, meaning developers are purely creating a rehash simply for the money. and really, do we need more and more sequels these days anyway? thats all we seem to get. I want originals. Okami is original . . . a sequel shouldnt be made purely for the money.

All we hear about these days is how Games companies want to bring thier product to the mass market, well titles like "Little Britain" are for the mass market, the strategy is working, all this means is that good games that are bought by people who care what they play are either imported or sell very few through high street chains as enthusiasts would rather go to an independent ( if there are any left!) retailer, who is more likely to be able to offer an informed opinion on the games that are worth playing.
Just a though, charts mean nothing these days, they only cater for the major retail chains, who sell anything to make a profit, even sh*t like "little Britain".

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Originally Posted by sn8f1st

Did you know that the game charts in a lot of shops are not really charts. For instance GAME's charts are paid for. Publisher pay for a spot on the chart. I think HMV and Woolworths are the same.

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In HMV they have Games of the Week which are supplier funded - the rest of the charts reflect sales across the company for the previous week and projected sales for new releases that week.

Maybe it s marketing issue???any okami advertising on tv in the uk???

Remind me of beyond good an evil...the game was really good but got not a lot of publicity on tv or in magazin and sold badly....

Very entertaining Wraggs.

okay, these may be the factors:

1. UK gamers are bad at gaming(in its entirety)
2. Final Fantasy XII overkilled all other games to have competition
3. Okami's not as big as its hyped up to be

well after i complete FF12 i shall be looking into buying okami. My local game store worker imported it and so did all his mates so the fans already had it before it hit the uk.

Part of Okamis problem has been the marketing or lack of it. Gaming review sites such as GameSpot and IGN were bouncing off the walls when Okami was released in the States. Now 6 months later and there is not a peep out of anyone. I was excited about it 6 months ago but now I'm feeling apathetic. Such a wonderful game should have been put on the market with a fanfare rather than just plonking it on the shelf. Where as the tripe that is in the charts is there through either brand association or winter sales.

I saw it in some biased Playstation magazine, where it looked like badly translated Japanese weirdness. Is it actually any good? Can it tell a story or is it too caught up in the paint thing?