ChienAboyeur
SasqWatch
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I think I do. They said they wont buy a game ever game before playing it ... until next time.
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Diablo 3 - Sells 10 Million Copies
- Thread starter aries100
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I think I do. They said they wont buy a game ever game before playing it ... until next time.
Having Diablo 3 sell 10 million copies with always online DRM isn't reliable evidence that having always online DRM will get pirates to buy games. Companies shouldn't start adopting always online DRM because of other then this isolated game it has been a total failure when it has been used.
PS. Skyrim hit 10 million in less time then Diablo 3 with Diablo 3 having had more marketing and being more anticipated then Skyrim.
PS. Skyrim hit 10 million in less time then Diablo 3 with Diablo 3 having had more marketing and being more anticipated then Skyrim.
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Having played D1 and D2 (and all their expansions) I went ahead and bought D3. I'm not sure what it is - maybe I'm just tired of the genre or maybe D3 really is boring - perhaps a combination of both.
But I can say that item drops really are very ho-hum (not good for a game that is all about item drops) and despite the 'great' argument in favor of the auction house - to raise the buying and selling of virtual assets out of the dark cellars of online farmers - seems to have cheapened the entire experience all around.
But I can say that item drops really are very ho-hum (not good for a game that is all about item drops) and despite the 'great' argument in favor of the auction house - to raise the buying and selling of virtual assets out of the dark cellars of online farmers - seems to have cheapened the entire experience all around.
blatantninja
Resident Redneck Facist
That makes more sense. That link I posted was just the first thing that came up.
Either way, I still don't think D3 selling 10M can be called a DRM success necessarily. Given the marketing budgets these days and how highly anticipated it was, you just can't make an apples to apples comparison.
And no one expects 10 million copy’s from game like wasteland 2. 1-2 million is more than enough.
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The vast majority of Skyrim's sales were not for the PC though, so that's not a good comparison. Most estimates place Skyrim's PC sales at somewhere around the 2 million range.
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If Skyrim would have been just for the PC it likely would have sold a similar amount. Also the 2 million were just retail sales and don't count Steam sales.
PS. People buy the console versions more because they can sit on their couch with a controller and play the game. I wouldn't be surprised if pretty much everyone who bought Diablo 3 bought Skyrim.
PPS. I'm not counting myself since I bought Skyrim but wouldn't touch Diablo 3. Since both games have similar system requirements most people probably bought the console version of Skyrim for the convenience.
PS. People buy the console versions more because they can sit on their couch with a controller and play the game. I wouldn't be surprised if pretty much everyone who bought Diablo 3 bought Skyrim.
PPS. I'm not counting myself since I bought Skyrim but wouldn't touch Diablo 3. Since both games have similar system requirements most people probably bought the console version of Skyrim for the convenience.
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The estimated 2 million is actually based on Steam numbers so it counts Steam sales. Skyrim is a Steamworks game.
Other then that, I strongly disagree that it would have sold just as many if it had been PC only. Companies go to so much effort to make games available for the console because they know that doing so will dramatically increase their sales. A large number of console gamers do not, or cannot, play PC games at all.
Other then that, I strongly disagree that it would have sold just as many if it had been PC only. Companies go to so much effort to make games available for the console because they know that doing so will dramatically increase their sales. A large number of console gamers do not, or cannot, play PC games at all.
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CountChocula
Keeper of the Watch
The packaged retail sales for PC were 2.3 million, but Skyrim has sold a hell of a lot of digital downloads on top of that. It was described by Valve's head of business development as "the fastest selling game in Steam's history." And it has consistently remained in the top 5 or top 10 sellling games on Steam for the past nine months, which is quite remarkable.
The digital sales numbers have never been announced, but I would not be surprised if it sold at least as many downloads as packaged retail PC copies, if not more. That would put the total PC sales higher than the total PS3 sales, which were less than 4 million.
This is not true. Skyrim sold 2.3 million packaged retail PC copies. The total digital download sales have never been announced by Bethesda, and Valve does not release this data to market research firms like NPD, Nielsen, etc.
The original numbers I gave were a previously calculated estimate based on the number of players on Steam at any one time. However it looks like your 2.3 million number is more recent and accurate.
As for digital copies though, the current market percentage for computer games is about 75% retail, 25% digital. So based on 2.3 million retail copies, we can estimate that when you add digital copies, the total sales numbers will be 3 million.
From what I can tell, 3 million sales would make Skyrim the most popular game ever offered on Steam, so it's not surprising that it they would report record sales.
As for digital copies though, the current market percentage for computer games is about 75% retail, 25% digital. So based on 2.3 million retail copies, we can estimate that when you add digital copies, the total sales numbers will be 3 million.
From what I can tell, 3 million sales would make Skyrim the most popular game ever offered on Steam, so it's not surprising that it they would report record sales.
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That's not even close. It was estimated that 48% of PC game sales were digital in 2009, and that digital sales actually surpassed retail in the first 6 months of 2010. I don't know what the numbers were for 2011 or the first part of 2012, but it's highly unlikely that they swung that far back in favor of retail.
CountChocula
Keeper of the Watch
Do you have a source?
So far, I haven't seen any comprehensive market survey comparing digital downloads vs. retail for various PC games, other than Nvidia's presentation last year suggesting that digital had already begun to overtake packaged copies.
I don't quite follow your math here. 25% of 2.3 million is only 575,000 copies. Even just among those very few games that have publicly announced their Steam sales numbers, several report selling more than 575,000 copies.
An indie game like Magicka sold 1.3 million digital downloads on Steam, and another 500k copies of the Vietnam DLC. I don't recall ever seeing Magicka among the top 5 sellers on Steam, but Skyrim has been consistently among the top sellers list for almost a year. I'd be pretty surprised if the total PC digital download copies sold for Skyrim was not at least in the millions.
Do you have a source for your numbers? This is the most recent information I was able to locate.
http://gamasutra.com/view/news/171148/Digital_vs_Retail_Five_big_publishers.php
Edit: From doing more research, my guess is that we are both right in a way. For companies that sell their games both online and in stores, it appears that about 75% of their sales are digital. However when looking at the market as a whole, there are more digital sales then physical sales, because a great many of the PC games sold online are not also being sold at retail stores.
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Try a little harder. 
All I did was search "percentage of digital sales for pc games" on Yahoo, and 3 of the first 4 links provided the exact same numbers.
Your link is wrong, but what would you expect from a source that used information from only a few select publishers?
http://www.gameranx.com/updates/id/712/article/digital-pc-game-sales-closing-in-on-retail-sales/
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/...s_Reaching_Parity_With_Physical_Purchases.php
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2057...nloads_dramatically_outpace_retail_sales.html
All I did was search "percentage of digital sales for pc games" on Yahoo, and 3 of the first 4 links provided the exact same numbers.
Your link is wrong, but what would you expect from a source that used information from only a few select publishers?
http://www.gameranx.com/updates/id/712/article/digital-pc-game-sales-closing-in-on-retail-sales/
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/...s_Reaching_Parity_With_Physical_Purchases.php
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2057...nloads_dramatically_outpace_retail_sales.html
See my edit above for the difference between my data and yours. Your data represents the market as a whole, my data represents the sales breakdown of publishers who have both digital and retail games available at the same time (ie Skyrim).
Try a little harder.
All I did was search "percentage of digital sales for pc games" on Yahoo, and 3 of the first 4 links provided the exact same numbers.
Your link is wrong, but what would you expect from a source that used information from only a few select publishers?
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S
sakichop
Guest
I believe your data is also including those companies console sales. Also the article says it doesn't take steam (the largest digital distribution company of pc games in the world) in to account.
The most recent I found was NPD group in 2010 which already had pc downloads surpassing retail. I have heard that digital outpaces retail (pc sales) at a 4-1 pace, although I've never found any hard data to support that and probably won't until seem decides to start releasing sales figures.
Either way it would seem for pc sales your way off.
Well the question is about retail vs. digital sales for an AAA game with a heavy retail pressence, not for the market as a whole. The market as a whole includes many digital only games, and games which are no longer available in retail stores, which skew the numbers dramatically. However the Steam/console thing is a serious problem with the data I linked, if that is true (except for Blizzard, which has neither).
So overall I guess it's a little unclear on all sides. Probably safer to say that Skyrim PC sales are expected to be somewhere between 3 and 4 million.
So overall I guess it's a little unclear on all sides. Probably safer to say that Skyrim PC sales are expected to be somewhere between 3 and 4 million.
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So now it's suddenly not about the current market percentage? Interesting that the question seems to have changed after your original statement was found to be incorrect.
Now your just being argumentative. The discussion was clearly about Skyrim PC sales, even if I did incorrectly label my data as market percentage data.
So now it's suddenly not about the current market percentage? Interesting that the question seems to have changed after your original statement was found to be incorrect.
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No, not at all. I was just pointing out your obvious attempt to shift the focus there. The discussion has primarily been about the percentage of digital sales vs retail since when you stated "As for digital copies though, the current market percentage for computer games is about 75% retail, 25% digital".
You obviously don't want to admit that you were wrong, which is fine. There's no reason to drag out a redundant debate.
You obviously don't want to admit that you were wrong, which is fine. There's no reason to drag out a redundant debate.