I'm dumbstruck - Tomb Raider "below expectations" at 3.4 Million sales.

[babinro]

I'm curious what this really means when the figures don't include digital sales.

Aren't digital sales a huge part of the PC market these days?
Is it possible that Tomb Raider actually sold over 5 million copies when you factor them in?

If so, would that still be a disappointment?

 

[Mobius Evalon]

This is the sort of thing the industry will inevitably blame on piracy or used game sales. Clearly if everyone wasn't out to get them, their sales figures would have met expectations and they would have received ROI on their increasingly bloating budgets, right?

For some reason the amount of content is remaining static or (in most cases) has declined since days past, but the amount of dollars required to produce it keeps inflating. This is not a marketing or consumer purchasing failure, this is all on you game devs and publishers.

 

[Something Amyss]

Edit: I'm getting the impression that Steam sales are just "fluff" or bonus money that isn't counted on the books, as if retail is the end-all of a game's success.

Possibly because those companies which have spoken out about digital sales don't paint as rosey a picture as Valve and its fans would like to believe. It seems things aren't as good on the digital front when you're actually accountable by the law to give an honest disclosure.

The one major group that's publicly accountable and seems to be doing well?

EA. That durn ebul EA.

But I digress.

I never realized more than now just how bloated this industry has become.

You might want to keep in mind how screwed Squeeeeeeenix was before this.

Hell, your own article says this:

In large part this is due to a restructuring of its games business, a measure necessary due to lacklustre sales of its console game portfolio.

You might not want to call this an indictment of the gaming industry, but rather of bad policies leading to bad profits. Just like THQ.

This is, ostensibly, how business is supposed to work.

 

[Something Amyss]

This is the sort of thing the industry will inevitably blame on piracy or used game sales.

Of course, they're not. They already knew they had problems. I know this doesn't fit the gamer narrative, but maybe look at their own fiscal statements beforehand.

 

[IronMit]

the cost of making games seems to have inflated for minimal reasons and thus have the expectations of publishers.

dead space 3 was supposed to sell 5 million copies to be able to survive. thats pretty damn perverted.

As much as I dislike all things EA, I think this '5 million copies' comment has been taken out of context.

Did the guy say they needed 5 million copies to break even or to be profitable enough not to be deemed a failure?
Do we really want a Dead Space 4,5,6? Doesn't that defeat the entire point of a scary unknowing atmosphere. How many random ways can Isaac end up on an alien infested ship or planet and survive before it loses it's appeal.

The 5 million comment seems more in the line of 'well if the consumer's want it bad enough to purchases 5 mill collectively then sure EA will publish another one..even if we have to contrive another ridiculous story to do it'.

 

[Mobius Evalon]

This is the sort of thing the industry will inevitably blame on piracy or used game sales.

Of course, they're not. They already knew they had problems. I know this doesn't fit the gamer narrative, but maybe look at their own fiscal statements beforehand.

I did not say they have, I said they will. For some reason it's always one or the other when they have to blame someone for an "underperforming" game.

 

[The Artificially Prolonged]

Hmm lately it seems like the whole Dead Space 3 needs to sell 5 million copies to be a success thing was not just a one off and it is becoming apparant that development budgets are becoming a bit of an elephant in the room for the industry. I think publishers really need to reign in their budgets for games because considering that games now also have more varied avenues of making extra money through dlc and the like than in previous years. Yet publishers are apparently struggling to make back their investments, which really should not be the case.

Although since this is Square Enix we are talking about I have a feeling like the costly development limbo Versus XIII is in and the enormous financial black hole that is Final Fantasy XIV may play some role in why the sales of Tomb Raider and Hitman where not considered up to snuff.

 

[mitchell271]

They were expecting upwards of $14 million? BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
In your dreams Square! That's CoD kind of sales numbers! And ignoring digital sales, which most PC gamers get games from, is incredibly stupid. Even if you just ignored Steam, that's probably another 500,000 you ignored.

 

[Maximum Bert]

Seems like they are lumping all the games together in that prediction but expecting 5 million sales from each game if split evenly seems a bit high. I dont think they can be dissapointed in Tomb Raider though it has had a solid reception and has sold a fair amount especially considering that it hasnt been out that long. I am aware most games sell the most in the few weeks after their release but some do continue selling take UMVC3 for instance considered a big flop on release (Mainly because Capcom released it a mere 9 months after MVC3 and at the same price) but it continued to sell over time and is now considered satisfactory in its sales figures.

As mentioned above I think the main problem is FFXIV which was a huge mess from beginning to end I would wager the only reason it was released as it was is to appease shareholders who thought it would get some money in for them even though the devs knew it needed a lot of work and as such it actually cost them more in the long run. Now they are so desperate for massive profits they set unrealistic goals while I expect the predictions are mostly bullshit yeah we will sell loads dont worry were a good investment.

I would wager Tomb Raider has made a profit and succeeded in reinvigorating an ailing IP and is therefore a success in most people eyes, sure its not COD but COD is no Wii Sports or Mario Kart. Its not often a game sells even 3 million to be honest. Also according to some sources Hitman was the fifth best selling game of 2012 behind Halo 4 (4th) Assassins Creed 3 (3rd) Fifa 13 (2nd) and COD blops 2 (1st) still not sure how they cant be happy with their figures, well I can they are being greedily unrealistic.

With the money they lost on FFXIV they could have remade VII the fools.

 

[ScrabbitRabbit]

Either Steam doesn't release sales numbers to anyone (seems unlikely), or those numbers aren't anywhere near as important to them as console sales in boxes.

They don't release them publicly (some believe this is why PC game sales on VGChartz and such seem so unnaturally low) but they do release them to the publishers: http://www.hotbloodedgaming.com/2011/04/21/valve-explains-why-they-dont-release-sales-figures-of-steam-sales/

Steam's agreement probably doesn't permit them to release that information publicly. Dunno why PSN or XBL sales wouldn't be counted, though.

As an aside, it's always amusing to look at the sales figures of digital-only games. Braid for instance. [http://www.vgchartz.com/gamedb/?name=Braid&publisher=&platform=&genre=&minSales=0&results=200]

 

[Something Amyss]

I said they will.

But they won't. They've already set up an explanation. That's pretty much it.