The Outer Worlds has sold over two million copies

[Infinitron]

Excerpts from the transcript of the latest Take-Two Interactive quarterly earnings call: https://www.fool.com/earnings/call-transcripts/2020/02/07/take-two-interactive-software-inc-ttwo-q3-2020-ear.aspx

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Highlights are the performance of Grand Theft Auto Online and Grand Theft Auto V, NBA 2K20, Red Dead Redemption 2 and Red Dead Online, The Outer Worlds and Borderlands 3, reflecting our ability to deliver some of the most captivating experiences in the entertainment industry.

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On October 25, Private Division launched The Outer Worlds for Xbox One, Playstation 4 in PC. Developed by Obsidian Entertainment, The Outer Worlds has significantly exceeded our expectations and has sold in more than 2 million units to date. Critical response to the game has been outstanding, and The Outer Worlds has won more than 75 awards, including Game of the Year from the New York Video Game critic circle and Destructoid and Best RPG of the Year from IGN, Shakenews, Gamerex and others.

The title is also a finalist for the DICE awards outstanding achievement and story and the RPG of the year. We're confident that The Outer Worlds will continue to expand its audience, including through its release on the Nintendo Switch, which is now planned for fiscal 2021.

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In fiscal 2021, Private Division will expand our offerings for the Nintendo Switch with the release of the outer worlds. As Strauss noted earlier, the title is incredibly well received by critics and consumers alike on its original launch platforms. And we are confident that we'll continue to thrill audiences as they immerse themselves in this player of choice-driven RPG on the switch.

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Private Divisions is another example of our growing investment in new intellectual property. This year, we benefited from the exceptional performance of The Outer Worlds.

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The increase is driven by higher expectations for Grand Theft Auto Online, including record recurrent consumer spending on the title, Grand Theft Auto V and The Outer Worlds, partially offset by reduced expectations for Borderlands 3 and recurrent consumer spending on NBA 2K.

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The largest contributor to net bookings are expected to be NBA 2K20 and NBA 2K19, Grand Theft Online and Grand Theft Auto V, Borderlands 3, Red Dead Redemption 2 and Red Dead Online, The Outer Worlds and Sid Meier's Civilization VI.

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Andrew Uerkwitz -- Analyst

Got it. And then just -- just a kind of higher level question. I think Outer Worlds was on Microsoft Xbox game pass. Do you think that helped or hurt the success of that franchise?

Strauss H. Zelnick -- Executive Chairman And Chief Executive Officer

It's hard to say. I think what we've said all along is that, generally speaking, we want to be where the consumer is. Generally speaking, we think subscription offerings to the extent they exist, are probably better suited to catalog, but we're willing to take experimental chances when it makes sense for a particular title and when the deal underlying that option also makes sense for us. And we're pleased that we have a great partnership with Microsoft, and we're mostly pleased that the title is such a big hit, it's sold in more than 2 million units and it's won 75 game awards. So it's early days for all of these platforms. It's obviously early days for many technologies, including streaming technology. Our goal is to be where the consumer is. We're ecumenical and we're open minded.

 

Edited February 7, 2020 by Infinitron

[algroth]

This is very good considering a lot of people also ended up playing the game via GamePass instead, which wouldn't be factored into this number. Congrats Obsidian!

[uuuhhii]

really hope microsoft doesn't get misguided by this success and force obsidian to make some bland aaa sandbox

[daven]

Mobile card games are probably the future of Obsidian. 

[Albrecht Myers]

okay persuaded. I will buy this game
I like the genre, but I'm not sure about acid colors 

[ToddHowardsSpiritAnimal]

I wasn't sure about the artstyle at first either.  Once I dove in, not only did it grow on me, but I ended up loving it.

[Clawdius_Talonious]

On 2/19/2020 at 1:05 AM, Albrecht Myers said:

okay persuaded. I will buy this game
I like the genre, but I'm not sure about acid colors 

If you end up really disliking the art style, there are mods that tone the colors down.

[waltc]

Can only think that had it launched on the usual variety of platforms it probably would have sold 3-4M copies in the same time frame.  The "significantly exceeded our expectations" remarks tells me that the people making the initial sales estimates know little about what constitutes a good selling game--probably why they restricted the sale to essentially one outlet--EPIC games.  To make ~$10 bucks from Epic's giveaway, they sacrificed ~$30 bucks in sales and never even knew it, etc.  Microsoft Store game version was horrible--so much copy protection--couldn't mod the game even if you bought it.  There's no excuse for that, imo.  Great game--less than shining management of the property so far...I'll put it this way--had PoE 2 been released complete (no waiting around for the DLC expansions to complete the game) in the relative shape that Outer Words was released, it would have sold a multiple of what it did, easily.  Again, with PoE 2, the management of the IP was far less than optimal.  Difference between these two games at release in terms of quality was night and day.

Edited March 17, 2020 by waltc

[waltc]

On 2/21/2020 at 3:24 AM, ToddHowardsSpiritAnimal said:

I wasn't sure about the artstyle at first either.  Once I dove in, not only did it grow on me, but I ended up loving it.

I loved it immediately--it looked utterly alien--not like Earth at all--really helped the immersion factor, imo.

[Wormerine]

On 3/17/2020 at 2:56 PM, waltc said:

Can only think that had it launched on the usual variety of platforms it probably would have sold 3-4M copies in the same time frame.

Any data on that number, or are you just pulling it out of your ass? There are likely some lost, or delayed sales, but I find it unlikely that 50% of potential purchasers would refrain from buying it, even if a big chunk might be complaining about the platform. Even so, people who played the game on Game Pass (like myself) aren't lost sales, especially if they release an expansion with the steam release. All data I have seen suggests that Epic release doesn't affect sales - major releases seem to sell as well, if not better then it's precedessors - and in big volumes extra 18% makes a difference. Also: 2K's Private Division signed the deal with Epic. 

As to expected sales: no one could predict in what fortunate time Outer Worlds would release. Replace Fallout76, with traditional Bethesda release, and demand for off brand, small scale, modest budget, not moddable Fallout-like might have been far smaller. Unintentionally, OW cashed in on bad will that Bethesda has gathered in the last year. Any shortcoming OW has, was completely overlooked. It is possible, that in this setting OW could benefit from unhindered release, but the question is: would it be beneficial for Private Division? OW is not the only game they sold to Epic. I have heards Ancestors, wasn't good. Did money they got from Epic compared to sales, balance whatever extra profit they could make off OW?

[Ommamar]

"I have heards Ancestors, wasn't good."-Wormerine  The problem with that game is it takes a ton of time to see it develop, in a way it is similar to an RTS as you need to develop all assets of your tribe.  What this means is you have to develop each individual through play so they pass their abilities on generationally, it takes some time to figure that out so it kills a lot of people motivation when they have a really strong individual but it doesn't do them any good later on in the game.  Or they realize it then switch to build up another individual of the opposite sex is best and find the new avatar to be very weak compared to what they had been playing.

Regarding the original post you replied to, I wouldn't use the word refrain as that indicates a totalitarian action that might not be the case. I know several people who won't buy it until it releases on steam or GOG, so it might get to the 3-4 million point especially with a DLC being on the horizon.  I was annoyed that I had to utilize the Epic launcher to use the code from Gamespot mostly because it seemed needlessly complicated.  But while I grumbled about exclusivity of a platform I do use it and I understand why a developer would be motivated to sell through that platform.