Soul Calibur V Sales Discussion

#1 reason the game didn't sell well is very likely due to the poor early reviews and terrible word of mouth the game received.

SCV had a lot of hype and momentum going through December. Then when January came, the last 5 characters were revealed to be 3 mimics, Setsuka replaced as a re-skin of Patroklos, and yet another sword/shield clone in Omega Pyrrha, whose inclusion in the series is pretty damn pointless considering she's just a Sophitia/Cass mash-up in a game that already has a Sophie/Cass character in regular Pyrrha. The game screamed RUSHED before it was even released. Hype died immediately.

This probably would've been remedied if once the game was released, it scored very highly by reviewers and had robust single player content. Word of mouth would've spread as it did for MK9. People would've soon forgotten the missing characters and just waited for DLC. Instead, SCV had quite possibly the most barebones single player content in the series. Game receives a bunch of 6's and 7's, and casual fans of the series tell their friends to not even bother getting the game.

I kind of have to agree with this. The hype for the game actually started to die down the moment Algol and Edge Master were revealed. Kilik, Elyisum, Setsudude, and Phyrra O didn't make things better either. No one expected PS to reuse Algol again as a last boss or use a mimic character (let alone three of them). Using mimic characters contradicts the "no clones" statement that was made; a mimic is essentially a clone of other characters. After the game was launched, there's only about 40-60 comments on the Facebook page from the 150-200 comments when it was still in development. I could be wrong, but it seems like that "Likes" for Soul Calibur either stopped or decreased slightly...

We expected them to at least give some dlc that would make up for the shortcomings, but as of now, the dlc seem to be going in the same direction as SCIV's. I really hope I'm wrong about that...
 

I think that if Edge Master was announced at the same time as Zwei and Natsu that it would have taken the sting away a little bit.

But yeah, the hype train was DEFINITELY derailed when early copies of the game came out and people confirmed that Elysium and Kilik were mimics. I was so disappointed. If I wasn't as big a fan of SC as I am, it may have kept me from getting the game, to be honest. So I'm sure that there are a lot of people who ended up not buying it because of that. Word of mouth definitely killed sales of it.
 
#1 reason the game didn't sell well is very likely due to the poor early reviews and terrible word of mouth the game received.

SCV had a lot of hype and momentum going through December. Then when January came, the last 5 characters were revealed to be 3 mimics, Setsuka replaced as a re-skin of Patroklos, and yet another sword/shield clone in Omega Pyrrha, whose inclusion in the series is pretty damn pointless considering she's just a Sophitia/Cass mash-up in a game that already has a Sophie/Cass character in regular Pyrrha. The game screamed RUSHED before it was even released. Hype died immediately.

This probably would've been remedied if once the game was released, it scored very highly by reviewers and had robust single player content. Word of mouth would've spread as it did for MK9. People would've soon forgotten the missing characters and just waited for DLC. Instead, SCV had quite possibly the most barebones single player content in the series. Game receives a bunch of 6's and 7's, and casual fans of the series tell their friends to not even bother getting the game.

The sad part of this news though is that the gameplay and netcode haven't been this good since SC2. Possibly even better. But as with most fighting games, the competitive crowd aren't the ones who drive the sales, as the casuals who buy it for Star Wars characters or offline content. Hell, a bunch of people bought SC4 because of it's incredible CaS at the time. SC5 improved on it, but only slightly -- so those same casuals who bought SC4 to play dress-up barbie likely thought coughing up $60 to do it again (but with stickers!) wasn't worth their money.
Couldn't have said it better myself.

It's nice that they put in all the effort to make a deep, balanced, almost technically perfect fighter, but without the fluff to draw in the casual kiddies (OMG I can fight with Darth Vader! *pisses in his pull-ups*), the game won't sell enough copies. It's sad that it's come to that, but that's the way it is. And to tell the truth, I don't think those things should be overlooked (Aside from nonsensical guest characters). A story is important. If it were only about perfect technical execution and stuff that effects the core gameplay, why aren't there more fighters featuring a red rectangle versus a blue rectangle, running at 480 frames-per-second and featuring perfect balance?

I really hope this isn't the last soul game, but I'm afraid it will be. It looks like it's flopping pretty hard, and I don't think they're gonna give them another chance to screw up again.
 
Frankly the game doesn't scream rushed at all to me. It feels like the most complete game since back the series was released on arcade first. Sure the roster is smaller but they all feel like a good amount of time was put into all of them. Not the old "Lets give Mitsu a lot of tools he really doesn't need and to hell with Rock." The random characters were more like bonus nostalgia characters so I am not at all upset by them. Even Ezio who I expected to be stupid and gimmicky turned out okay. Back in SCIV it seems like they put no time at all into the guest characters (besides securing the rights) but this time it was admittedly a fun addition. I get the impression the team enjoyed working on SCV a lot more than the last game, whether it be deciding on move properties or deciding which silly 2p costume to give Pat, the game just feels more like a labor of love.

Why is the game tanking? As most people said the marketing was horrible. Then the change in direction from a more casual to hardcore game is obvious. People who were used to the mentally challenged AI will be shocked now that the AI mimics more competetive playstyles. Story is also another thing. Sure the Pat and Oprah story while cheesy was a lot of visual story for the series but every other character pretty much had no acknowledged relevance. Those pondering such questions as "What happened to Sophitia?" or "Why doesn't Ivy age?" or my personal "What compells Raph to grab strange men's balls?" aren't going to be satisfied. In terms of those above and beyond extras which SC used to have they are gone. Much of this is due to casual demand for quality online-play beating out the single player features, which upets casuals who don't get that they can't have it both ways. The game feels more like Virtua Fighter now, ergo no-nonsense but quality fighting game. I hope the series lives but anyway I think the game is solid enough to last a good while.
 
I hope there isn't a SCV super edition, and should there (god forbid) be I hope it would be available also as DLC and fully compatible with regular SCV. Anything else would be madness, fragmenting the playerbase into two groups, each playing a game that has half of the playerbase SCV has now. Should that happen the chances of ever getting SC6 would be slim.
 
The hype died quite a bit when the 3 last mimic chars were revealed, i think ppl decided something like 'forget it ill wait for one of the other fighting games coming soon'. If the last 3 revealed characters would be killer and have great cool original styles or cool returning ones it would receive alot better response.

The gameplay is great its just... it feels rushed and i think because of this it didnt do very well. Btw has anything be heard of project soul since the game came out?
 
WELL i wish i could have been part of PS.

Story should have been:

About how siegfried, Pat, Hilde, pyrrah join force to defeat Lord Dumas, an evil emperor or something then later on they discover that Dumas is the new host of nightmare. After a long quest, creating a rebellion against lord dumas, they start a rebellion and win. They arrive in the throne room, and Dumas is non-other than the new host for nightmare. Siegfried and Nightmare clash till both power are at max power. Suddenly a new character appears, he takes both swords and completly destroys the castle.

The new character is a powerful wizard called Rodis who fights with a magical staff. With the power of soul calibur and soul edge, he wants to revive the great Daemonru, an evil entity. The great wizard gets killed by Daemonru. Daemonru wants to destroy the world( typical bad guy) The energy created by Daemonru awakes Algol who gives imitation of soul calibur and soul edge to phyrra and pat. They defeat Daemonru but later realized that soul edge is missing. And the legend continues... they are still looking for their mother.


Arcade should have been a bunch of what if saga's for the other characters.

Exemple: Cervantes gains soul edge and fuses with it and becomes the new host. The reign of Cervantes, the destructor of the 7 seas begins.


EZIO FUCKIN SUCKS, MOST BORING GUEST EVER, at least the star wars character had an interesting movelist. Should have been Bayonetta.

Also i don't think they're bringing Zas, talim and the others. They picked the stupid troll dampierre over all the classics for a reason. This is probably going to be the last soul calibur.

Plus they should have made a wii version lmao, a wii edition with link would have boost the sells by a big 2 million.
 
I still think PS should have released this game on Arcade first. That way people can become more hyped up about the gameplay, while PS works on that, and then some (single-player content, and extras), later on for the console releases. Hopefully they take that approach for SCVI.

Look at games like Tekken Tag Tournament 2, and Street Fighter IV (before it's release). Soul Calibur II as well. Ever since it released to arcades, Tekken Tag Tournament 2 has been one of the most highly anticipated fighting games this year, following Street Fighter X Tekken (marketing obviously), and while it isn't "highly" anticipated, Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown.

As far as the 17 year gap, it was, personally, a refreshing direction. With the story in SCIV ruined, and a good amount of new characters, PS can further develop the new characters, and veterans, in different directions compared to the past characters, once the series progresses. Mitsurugi, for example. He went from one of the richest (as in strongest) Samurai in the land to being one of the poorest (as in wealth/income) during the 17 year gap.

I think one issue would have to be the many unanswered questions, which I hope they include in SCVI: "Is Viola "Amy"?" being the top of that list. Also "Is Raphael "Graf Dumas?", "Where are the removed characters and their current states/fates?"

As far as Ezio is concerned, he is actually a great guest character. Waaaaayyyyy better and suitable than the SW characters. I do see differences though. The guests in SCII and SCIV, were console-exclusive, even though DLC played a factor in SCIV. Not saying that there should have been another guest character (guest characters are useless to me), but it is pretty beneficial in promoting the game.

Sales-wise, I was not surprise that this game wouldn't turn out as well. Word of mouth definitely affected the sales of this game.
 
Couldn't have said it better myself.

It's nice that they put in all the effort to make a deep, balanced, almost technically perfect fighter, but without the fluff to draw in the casual kiddies (OMG I can fight with Darth Vader! *pisses in his pull-ups*), the game won't sell enough copies. It's sad that it's come to that, but that's the way it is. And to tell the truth, I don't think those things should be overlooked (Aside from nonsensical guest characters). A story is important. If it were only about perfect technical execution and stuff that effects the core gameplay, why aren't there more fighters featuring a red rectangle versus a blue rectangle, running at 480 frames-per-second and featuring perfect balance?

I really hope this isn't the last soul game, but I'm afraid it will be. It looks like it's flopping pretty hard, and I don't think they're gonna give them another chance to screw up again.

The game can do well without fluff. Story isn't important. The big fighting game series didn't get where they are today because of amazing story modes. It's the core gameplay and how it that transfers into the multiplayer experience that matters. It's more than just the balance and execution you mention in your post. There are other core elements and there are some that SC V doesn't do well. One in particular is training. You have to give players the information and tools they need to get better and SC V does a poor job of that. There's no tutorial on any of the new mechanics (they only get a small paragraph in the manual) and there's not even a tutorial on basic concepts like advantage and disadvantage. Imagine how many new players hopped online, got beat constantly because they didn't know the base mechanics, gave up, and then told their friends not to bother buying the game.
 
Dude, I used to think you were some Nightmare fanboy, but now that you just stated that Bayonetta should have been a guest character, you are officially pro.

lmao, i love nightmare but Tira is actually my main for SCV, i have few secondaries Sieg, Hidle, Cervantes and horrible Raphael.
 
1) I've been on forums and seen people say, "This Atlus title sold X copies in the FIRST WEEK ALONE. I'm not hurting anyone by pirating it, so STFU."

The number they were using was off by an order of magnitude, and after a year of sales, the title in question hadn't sold the amount they claimed we'd sold in the first week. Furthermore, the title hadn't broken even yet, and this tosser's convincing people to pirate our game because it's not hurting anyone.
Fake sales numbers are not allowed in discussions here. That includes that Too Human number, which was off by nearly 300%. The randomizer is the clear winner again. Well done.
...WHOA. o_o;

Until some reputable source corroborates these numbers, I am going to have to take these with a pinch of salt...
 
I still think PS should have released this game on Arcade first. That way people can become more hyped up about the gameplay, while PS works on that, and then some (single-player content, and extras), later on for the console releases. Hopefully they take that approach for SCVI.

Look at games like Tekken Tag Tournament 2, and Street Fighter IV (before it's release). Soul Calibur II as well. Ever since it released to arcades, Tekken Tag Tournament 2 has been one of the most highly anticipated fighting games this year, following Street Fighter X Tekken (marketing obviously), and while it isn't "highly" anticipated, Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown.

I don't think SC is popular enough in Japan to warrant an Arcade Edition. The sales numbers are significantly higher in the West, and arcades have pretty much died out here.
 
Couldn't have said it better myself.

It's nice that they put in all the effort to make a ...., balanced ...fighter
not at all...or at least even if they tried they failed miserably.

Aside that a huge factor is the time frame when it was released.
ScIV was almost the only fighting game suitable for casual play and onlineplay.
Also there were few interesting game released at that time

Now we have street fighter IV, Tekken 6, and soon SFXtekken, and tekken tag...
And mass effect 3, kingdom of amalur and lot of wonderful games have been/will be released soon.
 
Now we have street fighter IV, Tekken 6, and soon SFXtekken, and tekken tag...
And mass effect 3, kingdom of amalur and lot of wonderful games have been/will be released soon.
you forgot some more important titles. like Dead or alive 4 and 5(coming out this year). Virtua fighter 5 (and the new one coming out this yeah). the resident evil series, the last of us, Lollipop Chainsaw (lot of good names behind it). very good anticipated titles coming out this year that will have me push SC5 aside for a while.
 
Sadly the damage has been done, theres not much to do to get the sales of SCV to go any higher =/

Hope they learn from their mistake when they make SCVI
 
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