I overlooked that, and just Poland+Russia is in deed a sizeable market. But isnt piracy a relatively large issue in those countries?
Isn't your comparison very off?
Your comparing games with various time since they were first on sale. Oblivion has been on sale since march 2006. Diablo has been on sale since 2000.
CD Projekt is not an indie. It's a major game publisher in Central Europe.
The point of the anouncement was that 600.000 copies for sold for in the first quarter is very good. Especially considering Atari is the publisher.
In comparison Overlord (2007) was released 4 months prior to The Witcher and has generated sales of 800.000. Those numbers are considered good enough for a sequel. And by the way, Overlord was multiplatform (PC/Xbox360), but The Witcher seems to have outsold them (600.000 for 4 months vs 800.000 for 8 months of sales).
Also, Ausir: I get the feeling you never sleep. Is that correct?
All Bioware, NWN 2 maybe, Sacred, many Bethesda games.My point is that according to the source diablo seems to be the only rpg (if you can call it at that) on PC that has *ever* sold millions. You might include som mmorpgs into that too but I dont know any other PC rpg that sold that much (ultima?).
And how big was its budget? Can we agree on 5 times what The Witcher cost, including marketing? Assassin´s Creed was Ubi´s biggest game this year. That´s a completely different league. The only RPG you can compare this to is Oblivion.As said Assasins Creed - a mediocre game with flashy graphics - sold 1.870.000 copies in just few months (3-4) and thats US sales ONLY.
From the perspective of companies who sell the games 600k is propably a suprise coming from an indie but still its nothing more than average sales at best when compared to normal console games.
No, I was genetically engineered not to require sleep. Ever read "Beggars in Spain" by Nancy Kress?
Your guess that 600k are "nothing more than average sales at best" doesn´t sound convincing.
All Bioware, NWN 2 maybe, Sacred, many Bethesda games.
And how big was its budget? Can we agree on 5 times what The Witcher cost, including marketing? Assassin´s Creed was Ubi´s biggest game this year. That´s a completely different league. The only RPG you can compare this to is Oblivion.
I guess bioware is one of the rare exceptions. I didnt find any oblivion numbers but its possible it sold millions too.
Thats true but if big developers start to pump out new rpgs they need to sell atleast 2-3 times the amount witcher did.
As you allready said - to break even.
I also said "North American AAA console title"
I don't know if you noticed, but not every game has to be a North American AAA console title.
You said cross-platform. I doubt any mainstream publisher would start to develop PC only games nowadays.
Thats true but if big developers start to pump out new rpgs they need to sell atleast 2-3 times the amount witcher did. So the sale of 600k doesnt automatically mean that making rpgs is profitable again.
Most mainstream games don't have long shelf-lives, though.