Expert Level 7 = 50%
Playing the DS version has made me realise just how fucking AWESOME Super Monkey Ball was on the Game Cube. Then it made me remember what they did to Super Monkey Ball 2. Then it made me think about sequels and how so many of them totally fuck up what was brilliant about the first game. THEN I thought about something a friend said to me about the 50% rule, which I’ve not seen anywhere else so I’m going to steal it and take full credit for it by being the first to publish it. Even if you’ve seen it somewhere else first it doesn’t mean I can’t take the credit for it, because I’m going to write the header in ALL CAPS.
THE 50 PER CENT RULE
Obviously 50% is a totally made up number. Like all marketing numbers bar the actual sales figure. The rule can be best illustrated with Prince of Persia. The first PoP was awesome and had the second best ending ever. It didn’t sell very well. Then, Ubisoft darked up the sequel (that is, made it more gothic, not made the prince African or some other ethnicity with dark skin) and it sold bucketloads. Their maths was simple -
First game = some sales
Second game = first game + changes = good sales
Therefore, changes = more sales
IDIOTS. Dont’ they know about MY 50% rule that I definitely didn’t steal from someone else?
So, it goes like this -
First game = some sales + loads of good rep
Second game = good rep + changes = good sales and less rep
Therefore, more sales = rep from previous game
I checked with Oxford about my algebraic notation and they said “it’s fucking ACE.”
The reason it’s called the 50% rule is because, despite it not appearing in the equations anywhere, approximately 50% of the sequel’s sales can be attributed to the rep of the first game. This is a made up figure, like Famitsu scores.
I can’t think of a solution because it might change the way marketing works, which is basically to make up numbers and as far as I can tell, that’s a pretty sweet job. I don’t want to be responsible for depriving people of that.
Card Fighters Clash DS will be brilliant, by the way.