SCEA Top Ten PlayStation Home Items (By Units Sold) For May, With Consumer Trend Analysis
Information provided by GlassWalls, Digital Platforms Community Manager; commentary by NorseGamer, HSM Editor-in-Chief
As I write this, it’s an ungodly hour in California. But I’m so wired that I can’t sleep.
Yup, California. Because I’m in town for E3. The next week is going to be a blizzard of awesome. And I am going to gain so much weight.
You don’t understand. I’m from California. I know exactly what I like to eat. And when you live on an outer island in Polynesia that has little more than a lovely bunch of coconuts, you don’t care about dining at a fancy establishment where the menu is written in another language and you get to chat about roses with Eduard Shevardnadze. You want your comfort food.
I know this sounds strange. I should be looking forward to dining at Mastro’s. Instead, I want Olive Garden. And Round Table. Don’t look at me like that. I can hear you judging me.
Why am I writing about my tastes in food? Because it helps to illustrate consumer spending habits in Home: while certain things are generally predictable, you’re always going to have statistical anomalies that are difficult to explain. And thus it is with the May list of Home’s virtual commodities from SCEA:
All right, you know the drill. Let’s dive in!
1. Mass Media beat Digital Leisure — or is it the other way around?
Ever since Digital Leisure unleashed the Casino upon PlayStation Home, their poker chips have more or less had a lock on the top sales spot. May, however, saw the release of Midway 3 — and we were wondering if it would be enough to push Mass Media back to the top of the list. As it turns out, it was. That’s not much of a surprise. What I find interesting, though, is that Digital Leisure may have actually had the last laugh. They have two spots on this list — and remember, the list is compiled by number of units sold, not by sales volume. It’s reasonable to guess that Digital Leisure may have actually walked away with more sales volume than Mass Media last month.
Either way, Mass Media and Digital Leisure use very similar freemium business models, built around clusters of simple games. While I personally prefer the more complex games Home has to offer, it’s hard to argue with the consistent numbers these two developers appear to be generating.
2. Lockwood is making money.
Good god, the Lockwood gift machine is a beast! Every month I have to write about how they keep raking in money with their ingenious concept, and lamenting that no one else has really picked up this concept and adapted it. A friend of mine pointed out that Lockwood does have something of an advantage in this regard, as they have a (comparatively) larger team for a third-party development house, and that’s certainly a valid point; what surprises me, then, is why we haven’t seen other large players in Home — including SCEA itself — jump on the bandwagon. You would think, after more than twelve months of consistent domination from Lockwood, that other parties with the resources to duplicate that formula would try it…
You win, Magnus.
3. x7 isn’t a flash in the pan.
Right or wrong, people are paying for the privilege to see stuff before anyone else does. Or is it the ego boost of being in a restricted area? Or is it that the economic barrier to entry lowers the number of trolls and harassment issues? Whatever the case may be, x7 has some staying power. Here’s the real question, though: has x7 succeeded in bolstering sales numbers for the Exclusives store? Has Sony realized an uptick in Mansion sales or gemstone outfits, for instance, as a result of x7?
The reason why I ask is that the 7-day pass is the single worst way, economically, to access x7. Since the only people purchasing that pass are those who have no access to x7 via ownership criteria, it has to be asked if the 7-day pass is having a trickle-down effect for related virtual commodities.
x7 is also one marketing initiative where I’d be very, very curious to see the customer psychographic. What’s the mix of people there, in terms of age range, education level, consumer spending habits and so forth? Is it a mishmash of the Home community, or is its appeal much narrower? Since the entry criteria is so narrow, I’m wondering if that’s having a funneling effect on who goes there.
4. Women and cross-dressers rejoice!
Konami has scored big with their latest Gothic clothing. The skirt and corset top mark the first time in a long time that we’ve had female clothing items on this list. Given just how long it’s been, we have to ask why the Goth theme struck a chord with so many consumers. Aren’t we past the point where women and cross-dressers want to look like undead cheerleaders in Home? That’s so 2010.
But, hey, my finger isn’t always on the pulse of consumer trends. I thought Twilight was a bad joke. But, to borrow from the immortal Bill Hicks, it just goes to reinforce the golden rule of American consumerism: never underestimate how much babysitting money is floating around out there.
5. High tops?
Speaking of not having my finger on the pulse of things…I don’t get this. Who would choose to walk around in Graffiti Neon Green High Tops? The black shirt and tattoo is somewhat understandable — men like to wear black shirts and draw on themselves to feel rugged — but the shoes mystify me. I don’t have anything against them, but I’m surprised they were that popular. If anyone reading this owns a pair and would like to explain their purchase decision, I’d be legitimately curious to read it.
Like I said at the beginning, there are always statistical anomalies. Like my constant craving for salad and breadsticks, some people just want high tops. I get it.
6. Conspicuous by its absence…
Personal estates and clubhouses. I was personally hoping to see the Island Bungalow crack the top ten, but that was wishful thinking and I knew it. There is a saturation level with personal estates and clubhouses, and it’s raising the bar for any new entry to make any sort of mark. My hope is that this will further spur innovation and new ways of marketing and selling them.
The other conspicuous absence which can be easily explained is Bigyama. Their Forthstar clothing is quite lovely — sort of a Firefly motif going on — but it was launched in the last week of the month, and that just wasn’t enough time to compete against items which had been released earlier in May and had more time to rack up sales. The catch is that now Bigyama is at a disadvantage with the June list, because the initial marketing push is gone. I don’t expect them to be on the June list, but I do wish them well. They’re good people, and it’s always exciting to see a new developer on the Home scene.
7. Predictions.
HSM special guest contributor deuce_for2 observed, correctly, that half of this list is basically a lock. Every month, you’ve got poker chips, tokens and green tickets. Gaming and gifting microtransactions rule the sales world for SCEA Home.
That said, there’s still some room for play with the other half of this list. While I’d like to see a top-fifteen (or even a top-twenty) list to get a broader picture of consumer trends, I’m very curious as to what’s going to crack into the June list. If No Man’s Land comes out of beta this month, and it has a reasonably sound freemium pricing structure, I think it’s a fairly safe bet that we’re going to see VEEMEE on the list.
(VEEMEE, by the way, are the awesome people behind the AlphaZone4 hoodies, which you can — and should — redeem. Male: GRR4-8EN4-GRPE. Female: CGAK-P8NF-GHKR. I mean, if you’re going to wear a media logo in Home, why not wear the logo of the most-visited Home fansite in the world?)
What personally has me excited is what the latter half of 2012 might hold. There are some legitimately exciting projects coming up — one of which, Lockwood’s Mercia, having already been disclosed — that are going to have a huge impact on the Home community. Trust me on this: Home 2012 will be remembered as the Year of the Game.
June 2nd, 2012 by NorseGamer | 4 comments
NorseGamer is the product manager for LOOT Entertainment at Sony Pictures, as well as the founder and publisher of HomeStation Magazine. Born and raised in Silicon Valley, he holds a B.A. in English/Creative Writing from San Francisco State University and presently lives in Los Angeles. All opinions expressed in HSM are solely his and do not necessarily reflect the views of Sony DADC.
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I am not surprised at all that the Midway is tops this month, it is as it should be. I totally agree with you on the gifting being for all stores, not just Lockwood. Someday someone will wake up and smell the coffee on that one.
The market is extremely saturated with new personal spaces. I think they may want to back off on new ones every week and consider one or two a month instead, unless it is something truly awesome and different, they won’t sell too many. Absence makes the heart grow fonder they say, perhaps the lack of any new ones coming out for awhile will do the same.
The high-tops thing Norse, comes down to mass movement of the sheep. I agree that the Island Bungalow is an attractive place, but more often than not you’ll find the majority of people either have no taste, or buy ugly, god-awful looking stuff to simply fit in or be “fashionable”. It’s really that simple.
As for that 7 day pass being in that list, I can only assume there’s either a LOT of people who can’t count or don’t read. Whatever the reason, it’s very odd.
I do not get the x7 thing at all, it boggles the mind. Even if you get access a week early you still have to pay for full price for the stuff, and seriously who cares everyone is over it after a couple of hours anyway the novelty wears off in less time than it takes water to evaporate in a Texan summer. Is anyone’s ego so fragile they need the 5 second of attention it would garner to have something first. I don’t get it, but it’s not my 5 bucks so enjoy!
I cannot resist saying “I told you so!”. In Home, this consumer trend shows that the “pay for play” and “freemium” ideas are paying off. The nay-sayers are extremely vocal and would have every developer believe that NO one in Home will ever pay for anything. But, the bottom line is, there is a silent group of consumers in Home who don’t mind spending a few dollars to get what they want. Even if it is only a one week sample of that club to see if it is worth purchasing the Mansion for.
Most of my friends (both male and female) own numerous personal spaces and have extensive wardrobes. To them, a ‘virtual’ item is an intangible experience -- just like a movie is an intangible experience. And some intangibles are worth the money.