Great marketing is great marketing, man. KI wasn’t even on my radar and i had owned the two previous renditions on snes and n64. I had the xb1 for over a year when season 1 was given in January 16 with games with gold. I was hooked and bought the season two combo breaker pack for $10. That also yielded season one retro outfits. I bought season 3 combo breaker, day of, and shago the next. I’m in for $40 on a two year old game. That’s wild stuff if you think about it. Solid marketing strategy, imo.
Good thing I paid for all the characters in March, and bought the Ultra Season 3 Pack. 
What’s worse - figures presented as “physical copies sold” are usually comprised of the # of units shipped to stores, and not the actual # of units sold - so this makes the numbers we do get somewhat inflated…
…but I will say that everyone I know personally that owns this game owns a digital copy. This is just an observation.
Hmm. I honestly think that PS4 has cornered the FG market console-wise, and I think MS is wise enough to see that (at least they have people paid well to make such observations that are way better at it than we are)… and FGs are a rather unpopular genre in general sales-wise, so I’m not sure why they’d see fit to amputate a hand to remove an offending finger, so to speak.
Of course why people would buy a Season 1 Disc to update like the whole game today? Its not even makes sense!
MicBlades, the sales figures you show us aren’t reliable.
Accept it and move on.
You do realize that VG Chartz ESTIMATES RETAIL SALES don’t you? KI is a downloadable game, sold / controlled only by MS (MS doesn’t release its digital sales figures). Trying to measure how much KI has sold / money it has generated since release in 2013 is nigh-impossible. Also, realize that KI didn’t get a physical release until October of 2014 when Season 2 released, thus why VG Chartz has N/A covering most of the time KI has been on the market.
As many have pointed out, your logic is flawed, and as I just pointed out, you clearly have no idea what you are talking about regarding KI sales figures. I get your sentiment about “widening the funnel” and all to maybe…probably…get more sales, but KI is SEEMINGLY is doing fine as is, and with the PC release it will only do better.
If you are interested, you should read this…
Here Phil Spencer talks about KI and its success…wait…what? Success? KI is failing right? Looking for the PC release (that the COMMUNITY clamored / pushed for mind you, not MS) to…save…it?
Uhh…right.
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This is only true when both the digital and physical versions are marketed to the same level. The vast majority of KI’s exposure is online/through the XBOX and Windows stores, and the marketing is for the digital version.
You couldn’t compare the number of physical to digital copies for KI the way you could compare the physical and digital copies of MKX or SF5.
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Either way all we can do is speculate but even if MS is eating a loss with this game they have done that before with other games and remember MS makes far more money than Sony since they are more than just a company who makes games and computers. So I feel the argument comes down to is MS interested in eating more of a loss with this game? And to you I say yes they are they have no other fighting game to fall back on (This is saying if they are losing money which we don’t know for sure). This is like saying is Microsoft willing to make another Xbox console even though they have lost so much money? The answer is yes they have no choice they are all in worst case scenario MS sells the KI franchise and someone else makes the game but I highly doubt they do that.
Sure, but they could change strategies slightly, become profitable or a lot more profitable and turn the tables on Sony. People will begin to think of MS as the console for fighting games.
You’re championing so many different causes in this thread, I’m confused as to exactly what your motivation is and what you want.
Are you looking for more gaming opportunities for Brazilian teenagers? More players in Ranked and Exhibition play? More seasons for KI? More DLC for KI? The Xbox to rise up in spite of oppression and strike down the PS4?
This thread has more confusing twists and turns than the hedge maze in The Shining.
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lol All he said is it’s the best fighting game ever in his opinion. What is he supposed to say? That has nothing to do with how successful the consider the game to be.
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A bigger player base to ensure the future of this game, to make searching for matches shorter, for the game to grow bigger than MS ever imagined, for new players to have access to all basic content like shadow mode, core cast’s story mode, etc… It’s not hard to follow really. Yes, there have been a ton of people trying to derail the main topic, I can’t control that.
Basically do you want faster searches and the game to continue being supported indefinitely? Then this is an idea you should get behind. If not, expect player numbers to dwindle eventually fizzling out, support stops, no more KI for 20 more years because it’s deemed unprofitable.
Everyone in North America gets matches in about 10 seconds or less.
I hear that it may be a pain to get matches outside North America, but the North American audience gets matches rather quickly. Way faster than MKX and way way faster that SFV.
I’m in Denmark, and I can wait a few minutes, but it’s not bad.
This would happen because people stop being interested in new content, not because people aren’t able to get free characters. More seasons or DLC packs will continue to sell, and will make money for MS over time, even if existing players are only buying in once in a while; as you have already agreed with. We also have new modes coming out in the next few months (which may entice people to buy more KI Gold, meaning more microtransactions) and increasing levels of tournament/prize support, with two guaranteed years of the KI World Cup and even a brand new KI convention starting next year…
Choosing not to give away even a single season’s worth of characters indefinitely will not negatively affect the series’ longevity and support in the way you keep insisting it will.
False, I and many others are from North America and searching can and does often take a lot longer than 10 seconds, closer to a minute than 10 seconds. Where are your facts to back that up anyway?
Finding a match in MKX is a nightmare I think people take little consideration that you don’t wait very long for matches with KI this whole finding matches quicker non sense holds no water but I guess that is now the argument lol
It watch streamers getting matches super fast. And I actually play the game.