On the other hand, I saw the largest shareholder of EA was PIF, the same Saudis fund owning LIV, and Vanguard. The Saudis love golf, maybe there's a chance for one more golf game with some good old sport-washing. Maybe we will have music blaring in the background when we're on the course.
@Katybee_1313 wrote:On the other hand, I saw the largest shareholder of EA was PIF, the same Saudis fund owning LIV, and Vanguard. The Saudis love golf, maybe there's a chance for one more golf game with some good old sport-washing. Maybe we will have music blaring in the background when we're on the course.
Even though golf games don’t have the high demand and revenue as EA FC or any other sports game, the key attribute to a successful golf game is a good first impression. As @ELF014 pointed out, PGA Tour 2K21 had that first impression and sold 3 million copies. 2K21 was one of my favorite golf games; TW08 to TW14 are the ones that top that game.
If next iteration can do what 2K21 did, there is a chance of the series surviving. Golf games failing to make a good first impression is doomed to fail because it does not have the market or wiggle room like an EA FC game. If next PGA Tour iteration is the same as the current game except for the music blaring in the background, the series would be a one and done like Rory.
Dunno, golf was a dying game in my area, courses were closing all over the places. Owners of courses were complaining business was dying. Then Covid came, and golf was just about the only sport open for customers, no problem with distance restrictions. Suddenly golf was booming again in summer 2020, and it was very hard to book a tee time. And it was the same for video games, there was not much else to do when everybody were restricted to their homes. PGA 2K21 went on sale at the perfect time. And EA were boasting some record sales for their games too. We will probably never see those numbers again.
@Katybee_1313 wrote:Dunno, golf was a dying game in my area, courses were closing all over the places. Owners of courses were complaining business was dying. Then Covid came, and golf was just about the only sport open for customers, no problem with distance restrictions. Suddenly golf was booming again in summer 2020, and it was very hard to book a tee time. And it was the same for video games, there was not much else to do when everybody were restricted to their homes. PGA 2K21 went on sale at the perfect time. And EA were boasting some record sales for their games too. We will probably never see those numbers again.
This response makes total sense. I just forgot how the restrictions made golf boom again. PGA Tour 2K23 has sold 20K copies in its first month, but there is no new sales data on it. It is safe to assume that it was not close to the sales for PGA Tour 2K21. 2K21 came at the right place at the right time. The market does not favor a golf game until a new Tiger Woods comes along. The market favors Football/Soccer and Basketball since those are the top two international sports. American Football, Hockey, and UFC would be in the next tier for international sales. Boxing and Tennis are other sports that don’t have a large market share like golf. The weird thing is there is a larger market for Wrasslin than golf; there are 2 wrasslin games available.
@Katybee_1313 wrote:Dunno, golf was a dying game in my area, courses were closing all over the places. Owners of courses were complaining business was dying. Then Covid came, and golf was just about the only sport open for customers, no problem with distance restrictions. Suddenly golf was booming again in summer 2020, and it was very hard to book a tee time. And it was the same for video games, there was not much else to do when everybody were restricted to their homes. PGA 2K21 went on sale at the perfect time. And EA were boasting some record sales for their games too. We will probably never see those numbers again.
I think you make a valid argument about COVID adding to the sales numbers of 2K21, however I remember reading somewhere 2K2019 sold 880,000 units for PS4 alone. Though I can't confirm it... I'm not sure why it is so hard to find sales numbers.
It was probably a lot easier to get sales numbers when it was physical copies instead of almost all digital copies these days. Just a guess.
@Katybee_1313 wrote:It was probably a lot easier to get sales numbers when it was physical copies instead of almost all digital copies these days. Just a guess.
I would actually think it would be the other way around. That you can easily track digital copies sold, where physical copies are distributed to the marketplace. You never know what is actually sold, stolen or just sitting on the shelf.
@ELF014 wrote:
@Katybee_1313 wrote:It was probably a lot easier to get sales numbers when it was physical copies instead of almost all digital copies these days. Just a guess.
I would actually think it would be the other way around. That you can easily track digital copies sold, where physical copies are distributed to the marketplace. You never know what is actually sold, stolen or just sitting on the shelf.
I'm sure it's very easy for companies, but we used to get all the info thru vgchartz as copy shipped. As you mentioned, it seemed very hard to get sales numbers these days. We're getting infos when companies are giving them publicly or in their Quarterly report.
