I thought this was an interesting comment given they have all the data to do this analysis, along with the trends we see among major publishers.
Edit:
To note, NPD looked at the data for the entire market before making this statement, not just Agents of Mayhem:
And on singleplayer successes:
Source: https://venturebeat.com/2017/09/27/agents-of-mayhems-dismal-august-sales-precede-reported-layoffs/VentureBeat said:I asked NPD analyst Mat Piscatella how something like Agents of Mayhem could have such a rough launch, and he said that most consumers are looking for something else in their games.
”The top-selling games in the console market at the moment are primarily service based games that promise significant, or even unlimited, hours of gameplay," Piscatella explained in a note to GamesBeat. ”Single-player, non-service based games have to be nearly perfect in execution not only with the game itself, but also in the marketing and promotion around the game, to get to the top of the charts. It is a very difficult market for the $60 single-player game to hit the volumes in a launch month that service based games can reach, even if they have been in the market for some time."
Edit:
To note, NPD looked at the data for the entire market before making this statement, not just Agents of Mayhem:
Presumed correct. And I even made that statement intentionally general to cover the market as a whole and didn't even mention the game itself...It's NPD though. Presumably he made this statement after checking all their data, not just looking at Agents of Mayhem.
And on singleplayer successes:
You're emphasizing the point I was making in the statement. For a SP non service based game to reach the top of the charts, execution on both the title as well as the marketing and promotion has to be near perfect. The games you mention as successes? They did everything just about perfectly.There is definitely a trend towards MP /Microtransactions but we have to stop using Agents of Mayhem as a shining example because as you stated, it didnt look great from the start, the marketing was meh and its $80 (Canadian). Look at GTAV (I think there is multiplayer now but it has been a top seller for years) , Zelda, The Witcher, ect. Hell every Bethesda game sells tens of millions and they are all single player. If a single player game is great, I think it will sell more than a multiplayer game. I am sure Mario and the new AC will sell great as well.
On the other hand Prey was amazing and it didnt sell well so I dont know.
This is absolutely the correct takeaway.The real take aways from this are that to be a really successful SP game you need a top shelf product with top level messaging and marketing.