On Tubes and Tallies

I’ve made no attempt to hide my contempt at the circular and superfluous discussion around the monthly NPD reports. I consider them materials used to fuel fanboy flames about apparent superiority of one console over another or one game’s worth compared to the rest of the content available to consumers. It’s a meaningless banter that will never end. While I do take notice of what games are selling well, I don’t wait with bated breath to hear how many copies of Halo 3: ODST sold in a 24 hour period. With all that being said, I am elated to hear that the NPD Group will start to chart digital sales in the coming months. Did I say elated? That isn’t a strong enough word for the purposes of illustrating how awesome this is. How about ecstatic, exuberant, overwhelmed with joy? I might be going overboard with the synonyms, but this is a big deal and we should all celebrate it as such.

In an interview with MCV, Director of Corporate Marketing David Riley said that “accurate tracking will provide a no-nonsense view of what’s happening on the publisher level, keeping away from the spin, and in some cases, misleading information that often appears on the [I]nternet.” Granted, Mr. Riley didn’t specifically say how they plan on gathering all of this data, but the prospect of some kind of legitimate information regarding digital download is very promising. Even if the sales charts only account for 25% of the possible outlets that gamers can use to purchase software, it’s better than nothing and it’s a great place to start. Something about learning to fly before you can walk right? Like I said, it’s all about starting somewhere. Having this knowledge will greatly benefit all facets of the industry from distribution to consumption.

In the past, the only news we have heard about digital download are the extreme success stories — Final Fantasy 7 on the PlayStation Network, Call of Duty: World at War Map Packs, Shadow Complex on XBLA. These are the successes that get promoted throughout news outlets and regurgitated on Twitter for all to repeatedly and endlessly consume. But what about the DLC that does just well enough? What about the content that barely breaks even? What about the releases that are commercial failures?

Have I mentioned enough how awesome this is? Finally some light will be shed on this trade secret. For too long we have been kept in the dark about what exactly goes on behind the scenes regarding digital distribution. I don’t know about you, but I’m sick and tired of hearing about the top XBLA games based on what Major Nelson reports. No offense to him, but I’d rather receive a report about products on a platform owned by Microsoft by someone who is not an employee of Microsoft. Conflict of interest reduces some credibility in my opinion. Additionally, publishers and developers will be able to develop business plans based on legitimate data and consumer trends instead of internal research. The NPD Group has earned the reputation of being a straightforward and independent research entity, so the numbers won’t be skewed or risk being influenced by some other force. While companies already know if their own games are selling, now add in the information about what the rest of the industry is doing and we are sure to see some kind of impact in what developers release. Hopefully a positive one.

Of course it’s not my style to promote rainbows and butterflies in these posts, so I’ll dump some water on your face to wake you up from your dreams of video game bliss. Once companies become more aware of public consumption trends and tendencies we are going to see more duplicates and knock offs. The market feels flooded with zombies thanks to Left 4 Dead and Call of Duty: World at War. Gears of War 2 introduced Horde Mode to the Xbox 360 and all of a sudden Bungie comes out with Firefight mode. Dante’s Inferno has no qualms about being labeled a move-for-move God of War clone. Imitation is obviously the sincerest form of flattery, and if you are going to blatantly duplicate a concept, why not duplicate the best? It’s a copy-cat industry. But don’t be lulled into thinking that this type of experience is only valid to video games. Surely you all are just as sick as I am of hearing about the ‘Wildcat Offense’ in the NFL now that every team is implementing a version of it after the Dolphins shocked the world last year.

Creativity and innovation can only take an industry so far before they resort back to copying what has already been previously successful. Now that developers will have a more universal idea of what works and what doesn’t on the digital distribution platform, be ready to experience even more rehashes and duplicates. Think I’m wrong? Just look at the number of Bejeweled clones that have been released. I’m sure that there will be a few gems in the lot, but we’ll have to sift through a lot more of the same before the quality downloads present themselves.

I’m willing to sift through more uninformed forum threads to find out what is and, more importantly, what is not working on the digital scene. I think this will ultimately lead to better downloadable games in the future as companies will able to gather more refined data on not only what consumers are gravitating to but what they are avoiding. I’m not asking for redundancy in the market, but a more informed developer regarding what types of games we are playing should hopefully lead to a more refined product through our Internet tubes and on to our proprietary Microsoft hard drives. Believe me, this is great news all around.

Rejoice and be merry.

That MCV interview I mentioned can be found here – http://www.mcvuk.com/news/35810/First-digital-chart-coming-to-US

If you haven’t, check out Talking About Games. This post has a home there too.