PoE Sales Analysis Thread

[Kz3r0]

I hope you like your popamole shit, because if this game flops, you will only see that from Obsidian.

Yeah, instead of more Sawyerism, actually Obsidian 'popamole' games are their best.
Let's hope they continue to work wiyh Bethesda.

New Vegas is Sawyerist too, though.

Considering the results that's proves my point even further.

 

[Volrath]

I hope you like your popamole shit, because if this game flops, you will only see that from Obsidian.

Yeah, instead of more Sawyerism, actually Obsidian 'popamole' games are their best.
Let's hope they continue to work wiyh Bethesda.

FNV was even worse/Sawyerist

Not according to the Codex.

 

[J_C]

So Sawyer managed to disappoint me completely, first with the game then with the sales, I was conviced that they would have easily sold a million copies.

How would you know it didn't sell a million?

 

[Kz3r0]

So Sawyer managed to disappoint me completely, first with the game then with the sales, I was conviced that they would have easily sold a million copies.

How would you know it didn't sell a million?

Not on Steam, so I guess that retailer sales must be madly good.

 

[Roguey]

Retail sales are Steam. It's either that or GOG.

 

[Kz3r0]

Retail sales are Steam. It's either that or GOG.

That was the joke.

 

[Infinitron]

BTW, PoE Hero Edition is currently the 363rd best selling game ever on GOG (out of ~1000)

 

[agris]

BTW, PoE Hero Edition is currently the 363rd best selling game ever on GOG (out of ~1000)

What can we make of that, without some sales numbers (i.e. context)? I guess it's good to be in the top 1/3rd after only being out for a month, but it doesn't really matter if the trend to #1 is exponential.

 

[Infinitron]

BTW, PoE Hero Edition is currently the 363rd best selling game ever on GOG (out of ~1000)

What can we make of that, without some sales numbers (i.e. context)? I guess it's good to be in the top 1/3rd after only being out for a month, but it doesn't really matter if the trend to #1 is exponential.

Not much! Seems to me there's a good chance that "full-priced" games sell like complete shit on GOG because everybody just goes there for the $5-$10 oldies and indies.

 

[agris]

BTW, PoE Hero Edition is currently the 363rd best selling game ever on GOG (out of ~1000)

What can we make of that, without some sales numbers (i.e. context)? I guess it's good to be in the top 1/3rd after only being out for a month, but it doesn't really matter if the trend to #1 is exponential.

Not much! Seems to me there's a good chance that "full-priced" games sell like complete shit on GOG because everybody just goes there for the $5-$10 oldies and indies.

Amen, I know that's how I do it.

 

[LESS T_T]

http://retrocityrampage.com/casestudy2014.php

If we believe this pie chart, Retro City Rampage had sold almost 13K copies on GOG as of December 2014. (Dev said they sold over 400K copies on all platforms and GOG is 6.7% of all PC sales.)

Retro City Rampage is 439th bestseller on GOG now, so we could assume that PoE has sold over AT LEAST 13K on GOG.

 

[Hatred]

I got PoE from GoG. I decided to give Steam the flick before this paid mod fiasco.

 

[Roguey]

Huh, so it turns out that Pillars of Eternity is more of a flash in the pan than D:OS.

http://steamcharts.com/app/291650

Even though it had a higher peak, the concurrent player average of the first month ended up lower (9,903.4 vs 10,671.1).

It seems likely Pillars won't be exceeding D:OS's record of 500,000 in two months, though they have "GTA5 stole our players and potential sales" as an excuse. Or maybe they made a bad game, the numbers don't lie, they're coming back down and they really don't mind.

 

[Sensuki]

You sound surprised Roguey, I thought you knew that Josh Sawyer doesn't want to make addictive games

The only people who'll play this game more than once are LARPers and people who are going for achievements.

 

[imweasel]

PoE has dropped out of the top 35 on Steam. Better start thinking about discounts soon, Feargus.

Edit: Typos and stuff.

 

[Sensuki]

They can't discount their game, only Paradox can.

Since Paradox aren't getting much if anything per digital sale of Pillars of Eternity they'd be more inclined to focus on their own in-house stuff. Probably more important to get a sale of City Skylines than Pillars of Eternity.

I don't think they've sold 300K copies as of yet because of KS numbers. ~50K KS backers on steam takes it down to about 275 estimated and the GOG sales are possibly over 13K but a lot of those would be KS redemptions as well.

 

[hemtae]

http://retrocityrampage.com/casestudy2014.php

If we believe this pie chart, Retro City Rampage had sold almost 13K copies on GOG as of December 2014. (Dev said they sold over 400K copies on all platforms and GOG is 6.7% of all PC sales.)

Retro City Rampage is 439th bestseller on GOG now, so we could assume that PoE has sold over AT LEAST 13K on GOG.

Does the GOG list go by units sold or revenue? I know Steam goes by revenue.

 

[J_C]

Even though it had a higher peak, the concurrent player average of the first month ended up lower (9,903.4 vs 10,671.1)..

Yeah, that 700 people make a world of difference. Sigh...

 

[AwesomeButton]

It seems likely Pillars won't be exceeding D:OS's record of 500,000 in two months, though they have "GTA5 stole our players and potential sales" as an excuse. Or maybe they made a bad game, the numbers don't lie, they're coming back down and they really don't mind.

I know I've left Act 3 for later right now and have been playing GTA 5 in all the free time I have. That's how playing a properly "shandified" game feels, with actual exploration, actual rewards for playing, actual emergent gameplay.

 

[Infinitron]

That's not what "shandified" means. Also, you shouldn't take MrBtongue so seriously

 

[AwesomeButton]

That's not what "shandified" means. Also, you shouldn't take MrBtongue so seriously

I'm not some kind of devoted MrBtongue scholar by any means. Just using the word because it's shorter than explaining the concept. I'm taking him more seriously than I'm taking you, that's for certain

What he means by shandified is "non-linear", "not requiring a strict sequence of actions on the player's part to go through the game". Which PoE does. I haven't felt this pigeonholed in any IE game.

 

[Sensuki]

dem plot gated area chunks

 

[Infinitron]

What he means by shandified is "non-linear"

It's been a while since I watched the video, but I'm pretty sure the term was a reference to a certain kind of setting design - full of extraneous detail that doesn't necessarily serve any purpose, but which coalesces to together to support the setting and provide a sense of immersion etc. Game mechanics or "being rewarded for exploration" don't really have anything to do with it. You get rewarded for exploration in FO3 too, a quite non-linear game which MrBtongue explicitly contrasts with FO:NV as a game that isn't shandified.

Considering PoE has gotten complaints for being overly verbose ("Why are you telling me so many things about this generic high fantasy setting?", etc), I don't think it has a problem with that.

I haven't felt this pigeonholed in any IE game.

 

[AwesomeButton]

It's been a while since I watched the video, but I'm pretty sure the term was a reference to a certain kind of setting design - full of extraneous detail that doesn't necessarily serve any purpose, but which coalesces to together to support the setting and provide a sense of immersion etc.

Exactly. And exactly the opposite of PoE. Also, please quote correctly

I can tell you with a very hight degree of certainty which area you visited after which in PoE.

dem plot gated area chunks

This.

 

[Infinitron]

Exactly. And exactly the opposite of PoE.

No, not really. For example, at the beginning of the game the writers made sure you'd learn exactly how the village of Gilded Vale was dealing with its shortage of grain, satisfying MrBtongue's original litmus test for shandification - answering the question of "How do they eat?". Few fantasy games go down to that level of detail.

Heck, Sawyer was incessantly mocked for inventing things like adra, xaurip snouts, etc, to explain every bit of the setting instead of just relying on high fantasy tropes that "require no explanation".

dem plot gated area chunks

This.

All of the IE games were plot gated.