How will Sony attract/gain new buyers interested in HD?

[Frances_Penfold]

I actually saw a fair bit of Pulse advertisement but it was online only-- various wallpapers at IGN and stuff.

Pulse certainly deserved more help out of the gate but at the same time, I would guess that it was destined to fail because (1) Wipeout has a relatively small established fan base; (2) Wipeout Pure had released just two years prior, had excellent sales, saturated the market and was available for cheap at the time that Pulse released; and (3) the PSP user base is not that hardcore (and prone to pirating what they want anyway).

I think that Wipeout HD has the potential to do substantially better than Pulse because it's the first home console version of the franchise in a long while, and because it's digitally distributed and therefore should "have legs" and maintain sales into the coming years (as others have said). As happy as I am that Pulse was released, from a sales perspective, it is perhaps unfortunate that Studio Liverpool didn't focus on Wipeout HD as a launch title for PS3, or at least, a very early release on the PSN. No doubt early release helped Pure achieve the sales it did on the PSP.

Edit-- another STUPID thing that hurt Pulse was that it was essentially a stealth release. This is not how you build hype for a product!

[RJ O'Connell]

Like I said, it can sell itself.

[rdmx]

For anyone remotely interested, here is the 1080p - 60fps version of the ad. Quality isn't as great as I would hope but it's fine.
http://files.filefront.com/wipeout+h.../fileinfo.html
EDIT:
Heh supersocks - I also thought the intro needed a little bit of trimming since the ad goes 5 seconds over. Also, the 'adrenaline-filled bla-de-bla needed another card to go with it so it didn't feel so lonely.

[Wip3ou7]

Oh my god today is my birthday and still no WipEout HD. At least the custom WOHD t shirts I ordered will arrive tomorrow I hope (for the sake of all the people who arent wipeout fans...yet) that wipeout hd's price will be $19.99. Just so more people will buy it. Although I would spend just about any amount of money to have it. ****, I spent $60 on just the 3 wipeout hd SHIRTS, so obviously the price of the game is irrelivant for a die-hard fan like myself. You know why I want WipEout HD so bad? Because I know that this will be one of those games that I will play for the rest of my life.

[mdhay]

I think Sony's relying on us to advertise it.

[flashbax]

insertcoin, try putting a track like CYGNUS-X.. HYPERMETRICAL over that, but you gotta wait until around the 2.20 mark b4 it kicks in. Man i could make a thread on the selection of tracks to play the game with when it comes out...
In fact the first 3 tracks from that album would be great...

[Lance]

.
We already have threads for talking about music for racing in WipEout. I'm sure you'll find interesting selections and discussions of music on those threads.
.

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mdhay: If Sony is relying on us, I'm thinking those shirts that "Wip3ou7" is talking about would be at least a bit of help in promoting the game, but nearly enough, no matter how many of us did such things. Sony themselves should be doing a lot more IMO. Why let a franchise flounder about in unknown lonely splendour when you could spend money to make money so that all the money invested didn't go to waste? Look at movies; often the advertising budget is 20 to 50 percent of the amount spent to make the movie, but they would not ever get that investment back if they spent too little on promotion.

[cybrpnk]

4 words to promote this baby...collector's edition model toys...hell...if Studio Liverpool can trust me, send down the 3D data of the crafts over and I can get them printed on the 3D printers we have at uni...might take a few days though...seeing how intricately designed these craft are...

[Lance]

Hmm.. I like that idea. mm... how about also collector's edition paper ship models by our very own Jan Rükr [sp?]?

[JABBERJAW]

Lance wrote "@Norfolk'n'Clue, Axel, and Flashback Jack: But what do you think Sony should do to advertise the game?"

I'll field this one. Actually do it! just like they advertised pure. Hell, they even had wipeout 3 ads on tv in the US, why not HD, especially how good it looks.

[Darkdrium777]

Distribute fliers and hang posters around the town we live in?
Then we get a discount associated with out PSN ID when we buy HD xD

[Wip3ou7]

The WipEout HD trailer is playing at the Theatre in PS HOME today. That's at least a little bit of focus advertising for the game happening.

[KIGO1987]

Just wondering did SL hit there sales target they where aiming for?

[TheFrostE]

i think they exceeded their initial sales expectancy

[eLhabib]

I don't think they did, honestly. While ~230,000 (I think that's the current state) is quite a bit for a downloadable game, I think they were secretly hoping for a million, and aiming for half a million, at least. Let's just hope the sales are enough to justify DLC. Lots.

[darkfaerytales]

are you sure are 230,000 elhabib? i remenber somewhere i've read sales were a lot much of 230,000 but maybe it's a mistake...

however the only person can state this corectly is someone who works at sony,i think

[Axel]

Well Street Fighter 2 HD hit 250k and is reported to be the fastest DLC so far. So i think El numbers are correct. I think they were hoping for a million, but I guess Sony still needs to work on their marketing for starters.

The advertising for this game wasn't spectacular and games selling in the stores aren't really selling that well. This period is gaming has been the hardest ever with so many good games coming out. There are loads of people out there who are looking to purchase the game later after they have finished the others.

SL going the correct way by bringing out the demo. But I felt the demo should have come out ages ago TBH. There are a lot of people who will only buy a game after they have tried it. Also continued DLC content for HD will bring in more sales as people will see the game is supported.

[crawdad62]

I think there should always be a demo. That's sold a few games from PSN to me that I would've never considered otherwise. Of course there are games that I don't even look at that do have demos but if it's marginally interesting I'll download it and give it a shot.

Of course Wipeout HD was something I've been waiting for since I got my PS3 a year ago so that doesn't count. But I'm sure they would have sold more if there would've been one right from the start.

Weird thing though. I spend some time on the Playstation forums and there's been quite a bit of discussion on just how hard WOHD is and many people are frustrated playing it and give up (even after the update). I'm not sure how to take that. I can't understand why people want something they zoom right through. I suppose it's instant gratification that people want now.

[KGB]

I don't think they did, honestly. While ~230,000 (I think that's the current state) is quite a bit for a downloadable game, I think they were secretly hoping for a million, and aiming for half a million, at least. Let's just hope the sales are enough to justify DLC. Lots.

If you check the record tables they don't go up to the figures your talking about. Ive mentioned this in another post and 55,000 was quoted. I haven't checked this but if you went to the slowest class and first race in the campaign record tables, then that would give you the amount of people that have downloaded it i think.

Ive read elsewhere that SL/Sony pulled the plug on Pulse DLC in North America because of poor sale hope the same doesn't happen with HD.

[eLhabib]

Actually, that's exactly how I got to the estimated number of 230,000. Last time I checked (which was about a month ago), the record tables for a Single Race on Vineta K Venom held around 220,000 entries. Just check it out right now if you wanna see the current numbers. Of course, that doesn't necessarily represent the exact number of 'units' sold, as people could potentially create multiple accounts on one PS3 and play with several of them, creating records. Still, I think it's safe to assume that wipEout HD has sold somewhere around 200,000, which is already good for a downloadable game, but nowhere near great. SSFIIHDR sold 250,000 in the first two weeks, wipEout HD has been out for almost 2 months now...