Crysis and UT3 flopping?

[VG Aficionado]

Crysis, UT3 Sales Fall Flat (http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8352&Itemid=2)
By Kris Graft

Two key FPS titles failed to make waves in their opening month of sales in the US.

Research firm NPD Group said that EA and Crytek's critically lauded FPS Crysis sold just 86,633 units last month, following its release on November 13.

A Metacritic average review score of 91 wasn’t enough to overcome the apparent apprehension regarding the game's relatively steep hardware requirements. A PC with a dual core processor, 2GB of RAM and a mid-level DX10 card runs the game at around 30 framers per second average at midrange resolution. [Judging by my own rig.--Ed.]

Midway and Epic Games’ Unreal Tournament 3 for PC fared even worse, selling just 33,995. However, sales will be supplemented by PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions. The game launched for PC on November 19, also receiving strong reviews.

The FPS market is crowded to say the least. Crysis and Unreal Tournament 3 launched during a time when BioShock, Halo 3, Call of Duty 4 and The Orange Box have been occupying shelf space.

(Thanks to virtual stock market The simExchange for the additional NPD data.)Poor marketing, excessive hardware requirements, piracy, console games awareness market takeover, other factors, combination of these?

[Viper]

Agreed with those.

I saw the problem as requirements and timing. It's a bad idea to drop these games when the cheaper PS3 and X360 are offering similar experiences.

Now in a year or two when the PC starts to pull away again technically, THAT's when you drop these kinds of PC...uh, bombs?

[masteratt]

lol......You basically said everything in the first post VG.
But I think it's slightly more on the hardware required than other factors.

Since Orange Box sold great on PC because it didn't need a god-damn talking chip from the future to run.

[D3adcell]

I have never once seen a commercial or advertisement for Crysis or UT3. I am kind of tempted to pick up UT3, since Cyrsis has such high requirements. But then again I think "i can just wait until I get a ps3 and get UT then".

While the whole mods thing is cool, I don't like trying to join a game on PC and then being told I have to download a different mod/map for each and every game. It gets tiring, especially when my internet kind of sucks.

[curryking1]

Wounding said it good in the Crysis thread.

They released the 8800 series so early and then every PC gamer who really wanted to upgrade got that already, and it was far before Crysis and it basically fudged the game over.

But it kind of fudged both of them over too. Together they would've both been stronger.

Needed the game/gfx card bundle going on.