The sales thread

[PIP-Clownboy]

While most people agree that ME3 had a disastrous ending I don't think people understand what a disaster it was for the community. The Bioware Forums got so bad that the moderation team simply stopped visiting for over a week. People were posting pictures of filled diapers (To describe the ending in their minds) and hardcore pornography (To simply troll.). The ending of Mass Effect 3 wasn't just a bad thing people agreed upon outside the community. From within it was one of the worst things I've ever seen in a community period.

 

Andromeda would have struggled regardless (I was entirely lukewarm myself.) as so much good will had been burned away. Thinking back on it now I'm amazed Bioware's staff didn't physically die from stress (They lost at least two community managers.).

 

Obsidian doesn't have anything approaching that madness here. Good lord was the ME3 debacle bad.

 

I love posts like these since it validates my decision of skipping ME3 entirely

[Merle_POE]

 

Why and how exactly would that make Steamspy inaccurate or unreliable? If anything, that would make it more accurate and reliable...

 

If you're talking about it mistaking family sharers and leech/idling accounts as actual owners, it doesn't. Otherwise I'd like to see appropriative proof of this "Steampy being inaccurate or unreliable".

 

 

 

https://www.techspot.com/news/74110-steam-spy-shutting-down-due-valve-privacy-update.html

[Katarack21]

I feel like I should stress that ME3 was quite fun to play, just that it's story, narrative pacing, and ending were all a festering cluster****.

[Tagaziel]

 

I think you can quite easily play any TW game without playing the previous ones, and if anyone asked me that's what I'd tell them. Each entry selling about twice as many copies as the previous one supports the idea that this is generally accepted. A comfortable majority of people who played TW3 have never played TW1.

I just don't see too many people playing Deadfire without playing PoE 1. I certainly wouldn't recommend it. The story in Deadfire is pretty convoluted even when you have played PoE 1.

 

You make an assertion without actually backing it up with anything. You can, obviously, install TW2/3 and consciously ignore previous games in the series, but since they are direct sequels to each other, you are missing on huge chunks of the story. Entire stretches of TW3 will be incomprehensible without playing TW2 (journal entries only go so far in establishing characters), primarily due to missing character development and bonding. 

 

To use your own example, it's like playing Pillars II without Pillars I. You can do it, but you're missing out at least on Caed Nua and the development of the castle/Endless Paths instrumental to giving a **** about Eothas and the adra titan.

[Sanjid099]

If you guys hadn't noticed, steam has become quite bullsh*tty since the platform has become quite saturated. Only games with high marketing can thrive in that platform. So the fact that Deadfire's in the top sellers list in steam despite its poor marketing is quite an achievement. Also, many rpg fans (myself included) have switched over to gog due to their drm-free policy. Just like the Witcher 3, I have a feeling that Deadfire will receive more sales on gog than steam. It is quite evident since both Pillars 1 & 2 are on top of the list in the gog bestsellers. Plus, games like Pillars 2 are going to keep selling for years to come and eventually ship a million copies in steam alone. They tend to be timeless classics unlike most of the multiplayer bullcrap that keeps getting spewed out during this generation of games.

[Boeroer]

Hm - I think the marketing was pretty extensive for a game with only ~4 million dollers of a budget. The ads were like everywhere for a short time before release (if you didn't use an ad blocker of course). 

[rheingold]

Hm - I think the marketing was pretty extensive for a game with only ~4 million dollers of a budget. The ads were like everywhere for a short time before release (if you didn't use an ad blocker of course). 

Ok maybe, for me I didn't see much or more probably didn't notice it.... My feeling though, is that Larian are better at marketing. OS 2 seemed to be everywhere.

Could be wrong though.

[Boeroer]

Funny - I backed D:OS 2and then missed the release because I saw nothing about it anywhere.

[flamesium]

 

I think you can quite easily play any TW game without playing the previous ones, and if anyone asked me that's what I'd tell them. Each entry selling about twice as many copies as the previous one supports the idea that this is generally accepted. A comfortable majority of people who played TW3 have never played TW1.

 

I just don't see too many people playing Deadfire without playing PoE 1. I certainly wouldn't recommend it. The story in Deadfire is pretty convoluted even when you have played PoE 1.

 

You make an assertion without actually backing it up with anything. You can, obviously, install TW2/3 and consciously ignore previous games in the series, but since they are direct sequels to each other, you are missing on huge chunks of the story. Entire stretches of TW3 will be incomprehensible without playing TW2 (journal entries only go so far in establishing characters), primarily due to missing character development and bonding. 

 

To use your own example, it's like playing Pillars II without Pillars I. You can do it, but you're missing out at least on Caed Nua and the development of the castle/Endless Paths instrumental to giving a **** about Eothas and the adra titan.

More important than your own character’s motivation, you are likely missing out on having a clue how the world works (convoluted), the unique nature of your character within it (convoluted), who the hell these various Gods are that keep talking to you (also convoluted) etc.

 

My assertion about The Witcher is backed up by millions of new people joining the franchise with each successive game and apparently getting along fine with it. Geralt’s established character is easy to understand and stays within relatively fixed boundaries across the games. People evidently feel comfortable jumping into The Witcher at any stage. That isn’t the impression I get with Pillars at all but ymmv.

 

More than happy for Deadfire to massively outsell Pillars 1 and be proven wrong.

[Tagaziel]

You still haven't actually proven your original point that you can jump into the Witcher games at any point and that it's partly responsible for their success. You're assuming a priori that this is the case and repeating the point ad nauseam without actually establishing any sort of evidence beyond "they sell well", which is more a function of effective marketing than some presumed "ease of access".

[wih]

More than happy for Deadfire to massively outsell Pillars 1 and be proven wrong.

 

 

Meanwhile Pillars of Eternity: Definitive Edition and Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire are fighting for the top place in the GOG popularity list.

 

Deadfire takes the lead.

Stay tuned.

[Ashen Rohk]

It'll certainly do better than Torment, which got absolutely crushed between Horizon: Zero Dawn and ME: Andromeda. Regardless of quality of the latter still both AAA titles that sold insanely well and Torment got lost in it. Relatively clear release slate for Deadfire to take the limelight too.

 

Edit: ME3 was great, stop focusing on the last 5 minutes.

Edited May 23, 2018 by Ashen Rohk

[morhilane]

It'll certainly do better than Torment, which got absolutely crushed between Horizon: Zero Dawn and ME: Andromeda. Regardless of quality of the latter still both AAA titles that sold insanely well and Torment got lost in it. Relatively clear release slate for Deadfire to take the limelight too.

 

Torment sold poorly because it was super niche from the start. Even the original was a poor seller (I know its vocal supporters would have you think otherwise though). It's performance has nothing to do with 2 action titles releasing near it.

[Mikeymoonshine]

Torment took too long for them to make and a lot of people just stopped caring, they also cut quite a bit of content. 3 companions, a major city, italian localization (that one seemed reasonable tbh) some of the cut stuff were stretch goals too. It also wasn't all well recieved, critics rated it decently but users did not.

Edited May 23, 2018 by Mikeymoonshine

[Ashen Rohk]

Torment took too long for them to make and a lot of people just stopped caring, they also cut quite a bit of content. 3 companions, a major city, italian localization (that one seemed reasonable tbh) some of the cut stuff were stretch goals too. It also wasn't all well recieved, critics rated it decently but users did not.

 

Oh man, I forgot about all that! Despite it's flaws I still think getting a crap release window played a party, you only have to look at other publishers eyeing up the CoD/Battlefield window or the inevitable WoW expansion, although the latter might not be as prevalent these days?

 

Edit: FWIW, I too thought TToN was a colossal let down.

Edited May 23, 2018 by Ashen Rohk

[Mikeymoonshine]

I kinda lost track of my playthrough. I should go back to it but I haven't yet. It kind of had the issue POE had but worse, so much complex wordy writing that can be at times hard to keep track of especially when most of it isn't voiced.

[flamesium]

You still haven't actually proven your original point that you can jump into the Witcher games at any point and that it's partly responsible for their success.

It’s self-evident. Millions of new people can and have jumped into the franchise at each successive installment. If they hadn’t felt able to do so they wouldn’t have and it would have sold less.

 

If you want to think it’s a coincidence that all of the most successful studios and franchises deliberately make each new game welcoming to new players and don’t require the player to have intimate knowledge of the preceding installments I’m ok with it. I can’t prove that it isn’t.

 

Likewise I can’t prove that having Deadfire revolve around the continuation of an on-going philosophical discussion about the nature of faith in a world with a convoluted quasi-sci-fi reincarnation system will put off new players, but I’m pretty comfortable saying that it will.

[morhilane]

 

You still haven't actually proven your original point that you can jump into the Witcher games at any point and that it's partly responsible for their success.

It’s self-evident. Millions of new people can and have jumped into the franchise at each successive installment. If they hadn’t felt able to do so they wouldn’t have and it would have sold less.

 

If you want to think it’s a coincidence that all of the most successful studios and franchises deliberately make each new game welcoming to new players and don’t require the player to have intimate knowledge of the preceding installments I’m ok with it. I can’t prove that it isn’t.

 

Likewise I can’t prove that having Deadfire revolve around the continuation of an on-going philosophical discussion about the nature of faith in a world with a convoluted quasi-sci-fi reincarnation system will put off new players, but I’m pretty comfortable saying that it will.

 

He asking you to explain how having no idea who Triss, Yen, Vernon Roche, Ves, Zoltan, Dandelion, Philippa, all the other Witchers and more are and being totally ignorant of The Witcher 1 plot (TW3 plot is a direct continuation of it) means that TW3 is accessible while not knowing who Edér, Aloth, Pallegina and Caed Nua are is a real accessibility problem for POE2.

Edited May 23, 2018 by morhilane

[yoyolll]

Witcher 3 sold far more than 1 and 2 put together and also got much better ratings. How is that not proof that people were able to jump in and enjoy the game starting at the 3rd installment?

[rheingold]

Obs have done a decent job making Deadfire newbie friendly. There is not much more they could do. W3 isn't any better from that perspective, so I doubt that has much influence on sales.

Something I don't quite get though... POE appears to be selling really well, on steam and gog. Not entirely sure what the heck is up with that. I'm happy that's its selling but.... why???

[JerekKruger]

Witcher 3 sold far more than 1 and 2 put together and also got much better ratings. How is that not proof that people were able to jump in and enjoy the game starting at the 3rd installment?

The original argument was that continuing the Watcher's story was an obstacle to new players who hadn't played PoE but, for some reason, the same doesn't apply to the Witcher 3. No one (as far as I understand it) is saying one can't enjoy the Witcher 3 without having played the previous two; they're trying to find out why flamesium thinks it's different for Deadfire.

[yoyolll]

Obs have done a decent job making Deadfire newbie friendly. There is not much more they could do. W3 isn't any better from that perspective, so I doubt that has much influence on sales.

Something I don't quite get though... POE appears to be selling really well, on steam and gog. Not entirely sure what the heck is up with that. I'm happy that's its selling but.... why???

1. It's got all the DLC. Many gamers, including myself usually, will wait for the "complete" version before purchasing a game.

2. It's been bugfixed and balanced.

3. It's longer, has more content, and (extremely subjective) is a better game overall than Deadfire in it's current state.

[Tagaziel]

Obs have done a decent job making Deadfire newbie friendly. There is not much more they could do. W3 isn't any better from that perspective, so I doubt that has much influence on sales.

Something I don't quite get though... POE appears to be selling really well, on steam and gog. Not entirely sure what the heck is up with that. I'm happy that's its selling but.... why???

People have waited for PoE2 reviews, it's a stunning game, so they're buying them both together for on giant playthrough?

 

It’s self-evident. Millions of new people can and have jumped into the franchise at each successive installment. If they hadn’t felt able to do so they wouldn’t have and it would have sold less.

It isn't self-evident, because you're asserting something based on your own personal interpretation, without actually proving the point.

 

The original argument was that continuing the Watcher's story was an obstacle to new players who hadn't played PoE but, for some reason, the same doesn't apply to the Witcher 3. No one (as far as I understand it) is saying one can't enjoy the Witcher 3 without having played the previous two; they're trying to find out why flamesium thinks it's different for Deadfire.

^ he gets it.

Edited May 23, 2018 by Tagaziel

[JerekKruger]

Something I don't quite get though... POE appears to be selling really well, on steam and gog. Not entirely sure what the heck is up with that. I'm happy that's its selling but.... why???

On Steam at least it, and the two White March DLCs, at 40% at the moment. If you want to play Deadfire but have heard it's currently buggy and untuned and you haven't yet played PoE why not take advantage of this deal? That might explain the upturn in sales.

[rheingold]

 

Obs have done a decent job making Deadfire newbie friendly. There is not much more they could do. W3 isn't any better from that perspective, so I doubt that has much influence on sales.

Something I don't quite get though... POE appears to be selling really well, on steam and gog. Not entirely sure what the heck is up with that. I'm happy that's its selling but.... why???

People have waited for PoE2 reviews, it's a stunning game, so they're buying them both together for on giant playthrough?

 

It’s self-evident. Millions of new people can and have jumped into the franchise at each successive installment. If they hadn’t felt able to do so they wouldn’t have and it would have sold less.

It isn't self-evident, because you're asserting something based on your own personal interpretation, without actually proving the point.

 

The original argument was that continuing the Watcher's story was an obstacle to new players who hadn't played PoE but, for some reason, the same doesn't apply to the Witcher 3. No one (as far as I understand it) is saying one can't enjoy the Witcher 3 without having played the previous two; they're trying to find out why flamesium thinks it's different for Deadfire.

^ he gets it.

 

Yeah, they are probably buying the first to play through - and maybe waiting for a sale for Deadfire. I dunno, just having seen this interest level before with people buying the original but not the sequel. Strange.