Sony, your killer game for the PlayStation 3 isn't selling as well as
it should. The game should have a higher attach rate and should be in
many more households with PlayStation 3s. It's not and that's
unfortunate. It's not selling systems and it's not getting into the
hands of as many people as it deserves to. So, I propose a bold new
option for you. Port the game to a system with a crowd that loves first
person shooters. Port it to a system where it can look even better than
on the PlayStation 3. How about you guys port the game to the PC?
The
March NPD numbers just came out and you sold 296,000 units in the US
last month. Combined with 323,000 in February you have in the US
619,000 units. You've said you've sold a little over 1 million world
wide and while it may be the fastest SCEA title to reach 500,000 that
really doesn't mean much in the grand scheme of things. It should be
doing gangbusters in the likes of Halo or Gears of War because of the
effort put in as well as the hype you tried to generate before the
release of the game. It's not and it probably won't be getting any
better when the game is released in Japan as well. You have over 21
million consoles in the hands of consumers and only 5% of those that
own it own the game. Don't you think that the game you advertised as
the premier title of your console and one you say can only be
experienced on the PlayStation 3 because of the power of the console
should be in a lot more hands? This is where the PC side comes into
things.
The PC gaming crowed absolutely love first person
shooters. And, the genre succeeds immensely when a good quality product
is produced. Valve Software has a FPS lineup that kills on the PC. iD
Software's bread and butter is still the PC shooter crowd. The folks at
Crytek are selling better with Crysis Warhead and plenty of people talk
about the visuals of Crysis. Since Killzone 2 is not doing as well as
you thought on the PlayStation 3, there's a nice market to tap where I
think gamers would eat it up.
You brag about the visuals of
Killzone 2 and how it's just a step ahead of every game out there. The
PC can do it as well and in some aspects even better since the system
can be expanded with more powerful hardware. The multi-core
architecture is there as well so you can do some parallel processing
that the Cell CPU handles with your game. With the ability to SLI some
very powerful video cards, imagine Killzone 2 running at resolutions up
to 2560x1600. You could even market it as a competitor to the visuals
of Crysis, arguably the graphical standard for the PC. Physics is
starting to be pushed by companies such as NVIDIA but you already have
a great physics engine with Killzone 2. The way the enemies fall in
different ways is such a beautiful sight and you could market that as
well for the PC gaming crowd.
There's also a huge group of
online gamers on the PC that would love to take your shooter for a spin
against others. Games such as Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike, Quake
Live, and Battlefield 2 have a huge following still and Killzone 2 has
the potential be one of those games that get played for a long time
with a large group of online people.
While Killzone 2 might
have sold OK at over a million units worldwide , you need some more
revenue. Porting Killzone 2 will need some work but it can open up a
whole new revenue stream for you. It's your killer game and not only
can you garner some income by selling it on the PC but you could also
take an approach to license the engine to others as well. Yes, your
game might be pirated and heavily at that since it's such a high
profile game but set it at a reasonable price ad I think consumers
would flock to it. Take some of the profits you have earned by selling
the PS3 version and use it to produce a good quality PC version and
reap the benefits.
In the end, you'd generate a bigger
audience that can experience the game as well as produce some more
revenue with PC sales. With that, you can start hyping up Killzone 3
and expect a lot more people interested in the game. You can see what a
good name brand can do with sales like Halo Wars selling 693,000 units
in a few weeks just because of how popular the name is. The first
Killzone wasn't a killer title but the second one is and to help
further that you can draw in more of a following with a PC port. Take
it to the computer crowd, advertise it a lot better than what you do
now with the PlayStation 3 version and I think you'd have a huge hit on
your hands in that arena.
Let's face it, Killzone 2 is too good
of a game to not sell better and be in the hands of more gamers.
There's no way you'd let the game be on a competing console and you
have a division that does produce PC games, albeit MMORPGs. But,
there's nothing to preclude you from offering one of the best games you
have on the table on a platform that is exponentially in more
households than your console. Sure, there's some pride you have to
swallow and some PlayStation 3 owners might be upset that their baby's
going to be on another platform but we're talking about business here
and business I think you would do well to see Killzone 2 on the PC.