Live data from Hacker News

Sega mistakenly reveals sales numbers of popular games

gematsu.com

41–50 of 231 posts

Re: Sega mistakenly reveals sales numbers of popular games

#41
post #9

Video game consumers have always baffled me and this data just adds to it. Who are the 7 million people going out to buy the 20th Persona game? What are you actually hoping to get from it that isn't just a slight variance on something you've already had multiple times before? I have friends genuinely excited to go buy Mario Cart for the 17th time this year... Once you've made two objects move along an enclosed route…

Sometimes, we just don’t “get” the appeal of something. For me, one of those things is fishing.

For someone else, it might be reading Hacker News.

For you, it’s video games.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with differences of opinion, even to the point of bewilderment, but it doesn’t feel productive to question people’s interests and reduce them to, frankly, disingenuous levels of oversimplification.

I think one of the more beautiful parts of the internet is how we can be connected and talk about our differences and understand each other better. But it does not seem like you are truly attempting to understand, instead your posts read more like “looking down one’s nose,” which isn’t fruitful or productive for anyone.

Maybe I am mistaken! If so, I’d like to encourage you to try to reach understanding of others without depicting them as “mad” or financially wasteful or simple-minded.

Re: Sega mistakenly reveals sales numbers of popular games

#43
post #9

Video game consumers have always baffled me and this data just adds to it. Who are the 7 million people going out to buy the 20th Persona game? What are you actually hoping to get from it that isn't just a slight variance on something you've already had multiple times before? I have friends genuinely excited to go buy Mario Cart for the 17th time this year... Once you've made two objects move along an enclosed route…

Because they're fun and slight variances can have huge impacts in terms of emergence, among other things.

Re: Sega mistakenly reveals sales numbers of popular games

#44
post #9

Video game consumers have always baffled me and this data just adds to it. Who are the 7 million people going out to buy the 20th Persona game? What are you actually hoping to get from it that isn't just a slight variance on something you've already had multiple times before? I have friends genuinely excited to go buy Mario Cart for the 17th time this year... Once you've made two objects move along an enclosed route…

Mario Kart World added some kind of extreme sports game style features which make it play quite a lot differently from older entries, and of course new content which takes advantage of that.

In some ways this is the optimal way for a video game company to innovate as they need ROI (people don't generally buy new IPs in high numbers even if they're really good and it often takes a couple of installments to build trust and sales!) so creating new gameplay out of trusted IPs is a good way of achieving that.

Re: Sega mistakenly reveals sales numbers of popular games

#46
post #9

Video game consumers have always baffled me and this data just adds to it. Who are the 7 million people going out to buy the 20th Persona game? What are you actually hoping to get from it that isn't just a slight variance on something you've already had multiple times before? I have friends genuinely excited to go buy Mario Cart for the 17th time this year... Once you've made two objects move along an enclosed route…

Wait till you hear how many chess games I've played!

That's fine, no one is stopping the development of new board games to re-releases chess every six months with maybe one new piece or higher definition.

Re: Sega mistakenly reveals sales numbers of popular games

#47
post #12
post #9

Video game consumers have always baffled me and this data just adds to it. Who are the 7 million people going out to buy the 20th Persona game? What are you actually hoping to get from it that isn't just a slight variance on something you've already had multiple times before? I have friends genuinely excited to go buy Mario Cart for the 17th time this year... Once you've made two objects move along an enclosed route…

For many people, the 17th Mario Kart is the first one they buy. New people are made every day, and they won’t pay today’s prices for the first SNES version of Mario Kart

Or we haven't played every game in the series. Like how most iPhone generations "are the same", but most people don't buy every year.

I last played Mario Kart on Nintendo Wii and enjoyed it. That's 17 years ago. I'll probably buy one of the newer versions at some point. And it will be very different from the game I played.

Re: Sega mistakenly reveals sales numbers of popular games

#48
post #9

Video game consumers have always baffled me and this data just adds to it. Who are the 7 million people going out to buy the 20th Persona game? What are you actually hoping to get from it that isn't just a slight variance on something you've already had multiple times before? I have friends genuinely excited to go buy Mario Cart for the 17th time this year... Once you've made two objects move along an enclosed route…

There a lots of gamers. Games like Baldur's Gate & Expedition 33, which satisfies your criteria, far surpassed those numbers already. I know people who rewatch the same TV series every year and go to the same vacation every year. Fear of change is deep.

Fear of change, or even just isles of stability, to help recuperate and reorient yourself whilst navigating the stormy seas of life.

Myself, I'm quite open to new forms of entertainment, as well as those previously unknown to me. Even within my favorite genres, I'm more than happy to explore - but I'm still gonna rewatch at least one Star Trek show each year.

It doesn't matter that I've seen most of those show 6-10 times each over the course of my life; it doesn't matter that I've watched some specific episodes 20+ times already. What matters to me is, each time I see those characters and those locations, it feels like coming home.

(And more so than actually coming home.)

People anchor to different things like this, not just TV shows. Sometimes it's a real place (or an event in that place - e.g. vacation), sometimes it's a club, sometimes it's a video game or an outdoor hobby.

Re: Sega mistakenly reveals sales numbers of popular games

#50
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Clothes wear out though. I buy the same two maroon and gray button up shirts once a year because usually the ones I bought a few years ago have holes in them by then. Video games don't wear out, you can still play the same software you bought in 2003 today.

> Video games don't wear out, you can still play the same software you bought in 2003 today. The way you perceive them does, at least did back in 2023 (or 2013) and earlier. You pick up, say, original Half Life or something from that time; story-wise it's the same game you remember, but in terms of experience, is nigh-unplayable in its original form now, because you already experienced how decades of progress in vide…

I often play games from the 90s from before I learned to read. IMO often they're better than modern games including their own remakes.

Every good game has odd control schemes, that doesn't mean it's worn out.

Post reply on HN