Game News Divinity: Original Sin has sold 160,000 copies, already approaching profitability

[Abelian]

I'm glad to hear it sold well. I haven't been following D:OS, but I might get it after I play DD (which has been sitting in my GOG collection for over six months...).

 

[Cowboy Moment]

You know bros, we're engaging in all this soothsaying of sales numbers, and obviously a lot of us are interested, so why not simply ask at the source. Swen was willing to share the numbers with Eurogamer, he should be thrilled to make further reveals to a much more prestigious magazine! Angthoron Crooked Bee, leverage your contacts pls.

I'm not sure this is a fair comparison. Skyrim's early sales were probably on consoles and the lowest numbers Skyrim has ever gotten (from what I can see) is within a few months of the game coming out at 31,000. Following that there were several spikes in popularity, each likely coinciding with big sales, which only existed on PC. New players trickled in, possibly even players that would've preferred to buy it on consoles but they didn't have such sales. I know Skyrim's been discounted 75% this past week and the numbers shot up again. RPGs have always had long sale lives and with Steam this has been even more amplified. DS2 hasn't had the sale numbers yet to see how it reacts compared to Skyrim and whether it will stay at 11,000 forever, the only way we can truly compare both games is at the beginning of their lives, both have has falling peak players, although Skyrim was more much stable.

Again, the main problem with this kind of comparison is that the number of active Steam users has nearly doubled since Skyrim's release. It's quite likely that these "new Skyrim players" weren't even on Steam at the time of its release.

Nice to see it's still the #1 seller on Steam even after all these days. Any mind-numbing AAA titles being released soon for the unwashed masses on Steam? If not Larian were geniuses to release it when they did.

Edit: just glancing through the Steam forums is encouraging as it appears most seem to really like the game. Positive word of mouth on Steam will certainly help their sales. Very pleased to see the positive reaction even in the bastion of AAA decadence.

Honestly, Steam is pretty far from being a "bastion of AAA decadence". Look at the most played games, and you'll see what I mean - multiplayer games, strategy, sandboxes of all kinds, is what you're going to find. Most "AAA" games there are Skyrim and Borderlands 2 - the former because it's a sandbox where you can fuck around with mods, and the latter probably because of coop. Highest game on the list that isn't strictly multiplayer is Civ5, also the highest non-Valve game.

Think what you will of the collective taste of Steam users, but enamored by huge AAA releases they are not.

 

[mindx2]

Honestly, Steam is pretty far from being a "bastion of AAA decadence". Look at the most played games, and you'll see what I mean - multiplayer games, strategy, sandboxes of all kinds, is what you're going to find. Most "AAA" games there are Skyrim and Borderlands 2 - the former because it's a sandbox where you can fuck around with mods, and the latter probably because of coop. Highest game on the list that isn't strictly multiplayer is Civ5, also the highest non-Valve game.

Think what you will of the collective taste of Steam users, but enamored by huge AAA releases they are not.

Hyperbole on my part but I honestly didn't expect the positive views in the Steam forums, which I rarely venture into and only usually see when linked here at the Codex. Just goes to show that "if you (developers/ publishers) actually make a good game, they (the unwashed masses of post-2000 gaming) will come." Time will tell if this leads other developers/ publishers to put the effort, and dare I say love, into their creations as Larian certainly did with D:OS?

 

[Major_Blackhart]

I'm playing the fuck outta this game right now. I want all you fucks to know that I am now thoroughly distracted from my CPA studies.
You fucking pricks.

 

[felipepepe]

You know bros, we're engaging in all this soothsaying of sales numbers, and obviously a lot of us are interested, so why not simply ask at the source. Swen was willing to share the numbers with Eurogamer, he should be thrilled to make further reveals to a much more prestigious magazine!

Swen is a bro, he'll probably keep everyone infromed about it via his blog. Wait for the 500k copies sold post. :3

 

[Eddas]

Swen is a bro, he'll probably keep everyone infromed about it via his blog. Wait for the 500k copies sold post. :3

Hopefully this happens before the end of this month. One can always dream...

 

[Metro]

Easily the best game Larian has made. And without a AAA budget. If only the funds they wasted on Dragon Commander could have been siphoned into this game... yikes!

 

[Internet]

The fastest selling Larian game is the one they made without a publisher's guiding hand? How is that conceivably possible?

 

[Zeriel]

It's truly a mystary. Experts have been telling us for years that companies like Obsidian and Troika were just incompetent--publishers could never had caused any harm to the titles they governed. Rushing shit out the door and micromanaging inane details only improved quality!

 

[Jaedar]

The fastest selling Larian game is the one they made without a publisher's guiding hand? How is that conceivably possible?

I am fairly sure dragon commander was made without publisher as well.

 

[Infinitron]

Easily the best game Larian has made. And without a AAA budget. If only the funds they wasted on Dragon Commander could have been siphoned into this game... yikes!

The funds they earned on it were. Yes, it was profitable.

Now, if you're talking time and manpower irrespective of budget, that's a different matter.

I do think DC had a positive effect in terms of promoting awareness of Larian as a company, so it may have helped DivOS's sales.

 

[Volrath]

From what I understand, the problem wasn't that Day/Night cycles were too much to implement in general, rather they were too much to implement into a game that was already mostly finished. That is, they would have had to redesign a lot of the content in the game which would have been far more time consuming and difficult than if they were to design a game with day/night cycles in mind from the start. The current engine supports everything they intended to do with that stretch goal so any "new" games they make with the engine should be ready for that feature without too much difficulty.

Would somebody be able to mod them in though?

 

[Zeriel]

Would somebody be able to mod them in though?

No one's going to redesign Larian's entire quest catalogue to add legitimate day/night cycles.

My guess is we'll eventually see some completely visual day/night cycle mod that changes no quests/npcs/routines that no one but LARPers use. Visual day/night cycles are relatively easy, if tedious.

 

[Excidium]

Maybe some nerd will make scripts that everyone can incorporate on their mod

 

[Metro]

Now, if you're talking time and manpower irrespective of budget, that's a different matter.

I am. Maybe DC helped with publicity but the game is bad. Well, the dialogue parts are funny but that's barely half the game... they basically just made an interactive comic.

 

[ZoddGuts]

Should have gotten rid of the RTS parts and made it a purely Waifu simulator.

 

[Infinitron]

- no reviews on day one because the game was only finished on release day basically
this also sounds insane compared to how you'd usually want your reviews yto come in on day one. but in this case, it's word of mouth which is carrying the game! and who knows if it's gonna get better or worse once the 'big' reviews start pouring in

It could be a good idea to do this when you have a game that you think players will love but Official Doritos & Mountain Dew Gaming Journalists(tm) might thumb their nose at.

Right now those journalists might be looking at the user Metacritic scores and thinking, "Whoa, this game isn't some Euro shovelware. We gotta pay attention to it. We can't give it an automatic 7/10 because it's not made by EActivision."

 

[Zeriel]

It could be a good idea to do this when you have a game that you think players will love but Official Doritos & Mountain Dew Gaming Journalists(tm) will thumb their nose at.

Right now they might be looking at those user Metacritic scores and thinking, "Whoa, this game isn't some Euro shovelware. We gotta pay attention to it. We can't give it an automatic 7/10 because it's not made by EActivision."

Gaming journalists are very bandwagony. This is why they rate Dark Souls highly--I guarantee half the reviewers who say they "love" the challenge in Dark Souls actually hate it, but they're afraid of losing street cred. Once the hivemind of gaming has rendered its judgement, you gotta be damn careful contradicting it.

 

[commie]

I just hope that Larian releases an expansion or two for it eventually to give the game longevity and exposure, giving a chance for a modding scene to take hold. It would be a damn shame for it to be abandoned and forgotten like NWN2 was.

 

[Infinitron]

I just hope that Larian releases an expansion or two for it eventually to give the game longevity and exposure, giving a chance for a modding scene to take hold. It would be a damn shame for it to be abandoned and forgotten like NWN2 was.

Well, NWN2 did also get an expansion or two...

 

[Elfberserker]

It could be quiet fun, if they tried to 4-four-man party like obsidian did with storm of zehir.
Speaking of storm of zehir I now feel compelled to finally finish the game after playing D:OS and Divinity Divine...

Is it just me or is there some sort intentional pun like meaning in Divinity Divine name? I giggle everytime when I see that title.

 

[Roguey]

Let me clarify. If there is a relationship between all-time peak players and number of copies sold, it is certainly non-linear. Skyrim sold a gazillion copies and the all-time peak is lower than Dark Souls at 78,420 (http://steamcharts.com/app/72850 ).

Only because Steamcharts starts at like 2012.

I remember Skyrim's concurrent players at release, it was over 200,000.

Ah here we go http://rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/skyrim-how-not-to-make-a-pc-game.66378/#post-1861135

It's truly a mystary. Experts have been telling us for years that companies like Obsidian and Troika were just incompetent--publishers could never had caused any harm to the titles they governed. Rushing shit out the door and micromanaging inane details only improved quality!

Reminder that Divinity 2 was made without a publisher until Swen's mismanagement resulted in their running out of money and needing one.

 

[Septaryeth]

I know this is probably unrelated to the thread.

Spoiler

But I wasn't aware signing up in the codex is to sell your eternal servitude to orgy-making demons!

 

[Darkzone]

Cowboy Moment
Normally i think of you as a good mathematician, but in this case i do struggle with this thought. I personally thought that you have studied physics or mathematics or computer science. With physics the most probable case, because of the knowledge in manifolds.

Again, the main problem with this kind of comparison is that the number of active Steam users has nearly doubled since Skyrim's release. It's quite likely that these "new Skyrim players" weren't even on Steam at the time of its release.

You know that we could apply (if that was, that simple calculation) the 'reverse steam growth' function on the 'played' function to derive a sales function? f(x)°g(x) = h(x)
There are other variables that would obscure our numbers and diminish the correctness our calculations, like the use of advertising, mods, special sales, competitors, etc.. etc. And it is to early to deduce how the sales will behave, also we have no other examples of a sales distribution function to use for our calculations. My estimations were guesses and wishful thinking, based on Interplay's cRPG general sales. But i also wanted to suggest as you did, to simply ask Swen about their sales numbers. I think Larian will be more than willing (if the numbers are good) to share their sales numbers, with us. Also if they would keep track of their sales numbers for each day and then share it with us (perhaps on their site), we could use their records for an estimation of other projects.

If only the funds they wasted on Dragon Commander could have been siphoned into this game... yikes!

That is not so easy. "2* the investment" does not necessary mean "2* the sales numbers", mostly it is very different. It's nearly always more complex. If you wish, we could discuss it here. But i think that Dragon Commander was not a bad decision, if it has caught the programming / scripting costs and has lowered this way a good percentage the cost for the Larian editor / engine. Then it has paid off. I don't have DC, but i think that it can be quite interesting. If played without the real time strategy thingy with some friends. Like Axis&Allies, over the internet.
If one can decide, to turn off the RTS for a game session and the entire story, and one can play it with 4-5 people, i will definitely buy it. But If you mean that Larian could have invested more time and money into D:OS to make it better, i would say then yes it would have been nice.
But if that would result in a better "Return on Investment (ROI)" is highly doubtful, because D:OS is a niche product.

Would somebody be able to mod them in though? (Day/Night cycles)

Now it is a lot of work, this load would be very high.
Back to Ultima (IV to VI) for a better overview:
Ultima was designed in the first place to have a Day/Night cycle. Garriott has made special cards for each NPC, with their place in time, before he implemented it.
Today i would use scripts / templates with parameters, that are given to the agents according to the day time. Like in agent oriented programming. So that a merchant would collect his goods before he goes to sleep, and etc. But there begins on other problem: how to react to changes made by the player. How should the mercant distribute his goods again? What if the player has layed something on the place of a good? Problems over problems. It is not so easy as in just addjust the lighting. If there is a game that handles this good, you can tell me and i will look then into this. I think that Larian editor has templates, but how mighty/potent they are? I don't know.

Infinitron
The term "euro shovelware" is a very USA narcissistic thing to say. Currently europa is gaining much ground (with Belgium and EE as leading goose), and in USA was produced also a lot of shit.
It was the lack of funds in europe that has lowered the quality of games, but now with better and cheeper productions methods and with higher ingenuity in europe, the positions of europe and USA can drastically change.
Postive cases for european game development:
Crytec, CDProject, Larian, Almost Human Ltd. with 'Legend of Grimrock' , Frontier Developments with 'ELITE Dangerous', 'Chech' games and Baremattle's 'Sui Generis'.
Especially in the RPG department we in europe have strong development and aspirants with CD Project, Larian, Almost Human Ltd., Warhorse and Baremattle.

 

[Metro]

I don't really care about their profit margin I just think DC was horrible and not worth developing. The fact that they even allow you to auto-resolve the combat without playing the RTS part only underscores the bad-osity. It's like Civilization if you got rid of unit movement and city management and just played the diplomatic vignettes.