Deus Ex: Human Revolution - 2M Shipped

Dhruin

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Sqaure Enix announces 2 million copies of Deus Ex: Human Revolution have shipped. The pertinent part of the press release:
SQUARE ENIX ANNOUNCES DEUS EX: HUMAN REVOLUTION SHIPS TWO MILLION UNITS

London (September 09, 2011) – Square Enix Ltd., the publisher of SQUARE ENIX® interactive entertainment products, today announces the acclaimed DEUS EX: HUMAN REVOLUTION™ has shipped two million units in North America, Europe and PAL territories since launching in late August. DEUS EX: HUMAN REVOLUTION , which marks the first video game to be developed and released by Eidos-Montreal, a Square Enix studio, is available now for the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system, Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, Windows PC platforms, Steam®, and OnLive®. The game will launch in Japan this October.
More information.
 
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Ship != Sale. How many sold? Far too many companies inflate their numbers using this technique. If they sell all of those then it would probably be considered the kind of success Square Enix needs these days.
 
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Not sure why numbers of copies sold is that interesting? Shipped = the publisher got the cash. From what i've read no one is tracking digital copies sold either, so these numbers doesnt really say much except that the publisher is doing quite well.
 
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Usually the ones sold are the ones they are making money on. True no download numbers here which is nearly pure profit. Recently both Motorola and HP had large number of shipments on their tablet hardware but only sold a small fraction of inventory. The shipping numbers are usually used more as publicity to create a impression of a healthy business and don't necessarily reflect the state of the business.

If those are not sold it means losses that have to be absorbed and Square Enix has not been known to be very healthy recently as FFXIII and FFXIV were huge disappointments and deeply cut into their reserves and expected continuing revenue in case of FFXIV.
 
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From what i've read about games the most common is that shipped = publisher got the payment. I guess this is why we see games in the bargain bin in the stores often, so it's not like they can send them back to the publisher because they did a bad investment.
 
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I agree that this shipped vs sold thing is silly, as is the not tracking the digital downloads. For a game that included a coupon for a free Onlive version you would think they'd be a bit more progressive than that.

Also, not tracking the digital downloads hurts the PC gaming industry. It makes it look like no one is buying PC games when they are buying them, just not in the stores.
 
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I agree that this shipped vs sold thing is silly, as is the not tracking the digital downloads. For a game that included a coupon for a free Onlive version you would think they'd be a bit more progressive than that.

Also, not tracking the digital downloads hurts the PC gaming industry. It makes it look like no one is buying PC games when they are buying them, just not in the stores.
Not tracking digital downloads is not gonna hurt PC gaming. Developers know exactly how many copies they have sold digitally. If the numbers are high enough, they'll continue. It only fans the flames of PC vs. consoles debates. Not that important, really.
But I agree that it's quite silly.
 
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I agree that this shipped vs sold thing is silly, as is the not tracking the digital downloads. For a game that included a coupon for a free Onlive version you would think they'd be a bit more progressive than that.

Also, not tracking the digital downloads hurts the PC gaming industry. It makes it look like no one is buying PC games when they are buying them, just not in the stores.

DLs are tracked. Everybody who has the possibilty tracks the numbers. The question is only who gets access to the numbers. Publishers certainly get access to the numbers concerning their portfolio.

From what i've read about games the most common is that shipped = publisher got the payment. I guess this is why we see games in the bargain bin in the stores often, so it's not like they can send them back to the publisher because they did a bad investment.
Technically "shipped" means "sold in" the channel. So one can say that shipped = sold, under the assumption that the copies weren't moved to their own warehouse. But in reality big retailers have long payment targets, usually 90 days or longer. And more often than not they also have the right to return unsold boxes for full refund or credit against new product. Those retailers who don't have return rights, Walmart is said the most important, negotiated lower prices.
So the aggressive bargains usually happen in more or less friendly cooperation between retailers and publishers. Retailers measure earnings per m³, and if a game blocks space without moving fast enough, the publisher is well advised to do something to boost sales if he wants shelf space for his next game. Not even mentioning returned unsold stock, which is the worst case because it costs money instead of making money.
 
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Books shipped can be returned for instance. For paperbacks all they have to do is return the cover.

We don't have this policy here. Not that I know of.

What can be done is : Unopened, still sealed wares can still be given back.
Apart from that : Nothing. And especially not in the software industry.
 
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