Sony has been on a roll with their PS4 exclusives of late- Horizon: Zero Dawn sold 7.6 million units in a year, and God of War appears to have been tremendous success already. With the next major PS4 exclusive already on the way- David Cage’s Detroit: Become Human is due out next month- the question obviously arises, how well do we expect that trend to continue?
Speaking to GamingBolt, Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter noted that while he expects the game to do well, it notably has more limited appeal compared to even other PS4 exclusives, and so its ultimate success will be a bit more limited as a result.
“You know, I really like Quantic Dream,” Pachter said. “Their games are, they appeal to a certain type of gamer, they are very much a more niche style of gameplay, they’re single player only, and we’re in this era now where the single player gamer is on one side, and the multiplayer gamer is on the other. And I personally prefer single player games, but… I think we need more people making single player games.
“I’m actually looking forward to Detroit, it looks like it will be a different kind of game. I think Quantic Dream makes very dark, very thoughtful stories, but if you just want escapism, their games won’t be the best ones to play. So I’m a huge fan, and I think it will do super well, but I don’t think it’s doing 15 million units, or outselling God of War. 3-4 million units sold, which is good for a PS4 exclusive.”
I think the prediction is a more or less reasonable one- it puts it over Beyond: Two Souls on the PS3, albeit still under Heavy Rain, which ended up selling over 5 million copies across the PS3 and PS4 versions. Who knows, it Detroit: Become Human strikes a chord, maybe it can end up selling that well too.