Jhwisner sent news about two new articles were ArsTechnica has data on Steam sales. I will post what he sent to save me time. Allow me to say thanks Jhwisner.
More information.
ArsTechnica - Steam Sales Figures
- Thread starter Couchpotato
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Yeah; given that TW2's figures are only for the steam version, that ends up being a very succesful PC title in its own right. Also, the Skyrim PC sales figures go a long way to explain statements Bethesda has recently made regarding the primacy of PC. Remember that they get a much larger cut of a PC copy sale than they do for a copy sold for a console - so even after discounts it can represent a very significant profit source.
And yeah I was suprised to see how well FTL sold too. I mean I knew it was succesful, but that's just plain good sales totals for a PC game in general and doesn't include direct download sales from their website and other non-steam distributions too.
With something like 200 games at 1 million+ owners on Steam alone, it does seem that PC gaming is going pretty strong. And yeah I was also pleased to see how well Fallout: New Vegas did. With that information out there, if Obsidian ever does do another side-sequel game with Bethesda they will be in a much much better position to argue for a straight-forward revenue sharing deal than some shitty metacritic bonus. To give context for just how good its numbers are, it's within farting distance of GTA IV ownership figures on Steam.
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25 million copies of dota2 in 6 months???
ChaosTheory
Virtual Reality Hero
Fallout NV was a failure on Metacritic. By 1 point. That's all that counts. Doesn't matter if it sold a gazillion copies and was one of the best gaming experiences ever.
(said Bethesda)
(said Bethesda)
vurt
serial 𝓶𝓸𝓭𝓭⻤
No. It said in the contract that they would get a bonus if they reached 85%. Business is business, Obsidian could have said no to the whole thing.
Yeah, and the way they got the data for this F2P games are counted as owned by the same criteria for them to show up in your profile (not your library) - which is installing and running them at least once. So that's what the number gives you for the free games, the number of accounts that have downloaded and run the game at least once.
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ChienAboyeur
SasqWatch
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For PC gaming to go strong, that would mean that games designed for PCs prevail.
Games designed with PC in mind are old in that list. And apart from crowdfunded projects which deliver massively failed games or even non games, PC games design for PCs are low in number.
When the developpment is performed cross platform, the console side prevails, Skyrim included.
These days, when put on the same line as mobile, IOS etc, PCs more and more fail to prevail, the games being designed with other platforms in mind.
The list can not even allow to conclude that the PC games market is nothing more than a third world market equivalent, a market used to generate extra sales at a low cost, dumping surplus that dont even serve the local populations at the production was designed to fit the requirements of others.
Last thing: this site reported some months ago that Skyrim sold over 20 millions. The reported Steam figure is something like 6 millions, 30% of the total. Which mathematically means that at least one other platform weighed more than the PC in terms of number of sales.
Hard to see PC as dominant here.
Games designed with PC in mind are old in that list. And apart from crowdfunded projects which deliver massively failed games or even non games, PC games design for PCs are low in number.
When the developpment is performed cross platform, the console side prevails, Skyrim included.
These days, when put on the same line as mobile, IOS etc, PCs more and more fail to prevail, the games being designed with other platforms in mind.
The list can not even allow to conclude that the PC games market is nothing more than a third world market equivalent, a market used to generate extra sales at a low cost, dumping surplus that dont even serve the local populations at the production was designed to fit the requirements of others.
Last thing: this site reported some months ago that Skyrim sold over 20 millions. The reported Steam figure is something like 6 millions, 30% of the total. Which mathematically means that at least one other platform weighed more than the PC in terms of number of sales.
Hard to see PC as dominant here.
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ChienAboyeur
SasqWatch
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A forgotten point: even though, hopefully, the figures on play time are told to be taken with a pinch of salt, they still lead to consider that sales on PC are based on the discounted prices operation rather than a desire to play a game.
The PC crowd looks like full of good deal seekers, hoarding video games as if the games world ends tomorrow, buying a game at half or 25 % of the price being more important than the game itself.
The PC crowd looks like full of good deal seekers, hoarding video games as if the games world ends tomorrow, buying a game at half or 25 % of the price being more important than the game itself.
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No wonder about Skyrim - because Steam monopolized the Skyrim sales. Players simply have no other way of playing that game without Steam, as far as I've understood this.
So, in case of Skyrim, no sale comparisons are possible, because of the Steam Monopoly regarding Skyrim.
Which means that the Steam sales number of Skyrim is irrelevant - because people have to activate it there anyway, no matter whether they actually played it or not (see : "Backlog").
It's like Microsoft saying : "Look at our activation numbers ! See ? How many copies of Windows 7 we've sold ?" - Because you've got no real choice for PC OSses, except for Linux-based systems, and minor numbers (like the eComStation, successor of OS/2).
And you've got to activate Windows XP - 8.1 anyway. Especially after changing hardware.
So, in case of Skyrim, no sale comparisons are possible, because of the Steam Monopoly regarding Skyrim.
Which means that the Steam sales number of Skyrim is irrelevant - because people have to activate it there anyway, no matter whether they actually played it or not (see : "Backlog").
It's like Microsoft saying : "Look at our activation numbers ! See ? How many copies of Windows 7 we've sold ?" - Because you've got no real choice for PC OSses, except for Linux-based systems, and minor numbers (like the eComStation, successor of OS/2).
And you've got to activate Windows XP - 8.1 anyway. Especially after changing hardware.
It is free to play as in no monthly subscription but the game itself still cost money (at least to many folks; though I hear there are ways to obtain free keys); also there are apparently some things you can purchase. I have to beileve that with 25 million people playing value made over 250 miillion off of DOTA (the current base price is $14.95 but the initial price was higher). Still the number of players and hours played for such a short period is incredible.
Actually that means they give you a better idea of the total sales figures for the game on PC as opposed to the figures for some games like The Witcher 2 where it only indicates a portion of total sales. A single player AAA game selling 6 million copies on PC is also not meaningless, regardless of how you feel about steam or Skyrim.
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