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

[krist2]

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.

Well, other games in the same genre also has auto-resolve, all Total War games for one..

 

[Haba]

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!

Have a look at X-Com development history, esp. publisher involvement. Then have a look at X-Com Apocalypse.

 

[Eddas]

One of the big problems with games sales is that is almost impossible to create a profile for this type of consumer. Our behavior is not constant and Steam (especially during sales) boosts our "instability" as consumers. We could try to use microeconomics here, but that would require a tremendous amount of effort.
I mean, to compare sales with a good chance of success, we need to build a profile of the average consumer, and then see (using numbers from sales) how he interacts with (in this case) fresh released cRPGs. And here we need to make exceptions, that for the fans of the series, because microeconomics tools would not work with them. We would need to assume how many are out there and what percentage of those bought the game and what percentage are waiting for a discount.

Another problem with steam is the player (and they are a big number today) that behaves like this: "Oh, it's cheap, I will buy this game". This is outside of a economic reality, and this is one of the many exceptions that help to ruin our calculus.

(Yeah my english sucks).

 

[Metro]

Well, other games in the same genre also has auto-resolve, all Total War games for one..

Speaking of bad games...

 

[tuluse]

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.

The problem is that the strategic part lacks depth. If it played like imperialism plus the events/dialog. It would be amazing, even with auto resolving battles.

 

[Mirage]

It will be great if Larian did a blog post next week or so, just to keep us updated.

 

[Jaesun]

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.

Same here. I would totally support new expansions for this. With hopefully more editor functions, and new art assets.

Like say, oh.... a GIANT SNAKE SO I CAN FINALLY HAVE A DAMN SERPENT AVATAR AGAIN.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

One thing I need to figure out is to how to get the frame rate up.

 

[Darkzone]

Thank you Roguey.
Skyrim has sold in the first 48 hours 3.5 Million copies, in November 2011 it was 7 Million, December 2011 it reached 10 Milion and till June 2013 it was 20 Million.
With the peak of 274.000 gamers and only half of the current Steam users. We can make a 'milkmaiden' (german: 'Milchmädchenrechnung') calcualtion (naive fallacy):
7000 / 548 = 12,77
18.000 * 12,77 = 230k Units sold/Kickstarter of D:OS?
If the sales development would then mirror the skyrim sales, then we could say that in August the numbers will be around 460k. And in one year they will reach the 920k. With 460k for an average of 18 euros per copy they will have 8.3 Million revenues and have to pay around 1.5 Million taxes. Generating around 2.8 Million for further investment. Then in one year they will make 9 euro per copy and sell additional 460k units. This will generate another 4.140 Million, and after taxation this will be around 2.7 Million Euro. Later this year Larian will launch another Kickstarter, with an backer generated value of $1.8 Million. So the next game will be made with 6.8 Million Euro or 9.3 Million Dollar investment on their own. Or they could take 1 Million € for development of an extension for D:OS. And due to lower Larian editor/engine development cost investment, much more money will flow into the direct development (scripting / assets and etc) of the game.
Do not take this calculation for serious, it was just for fun.

Edit to Explorerbc:
Nice trend.

 

[Explorerbc]

All time peak keeps rising every day

http://steamcharts.com/app/230230#All

 

[t]

Meanwhile, at steam-fucking-powered...

 

[Sunsetspawn]

Thank you Roguey.
Skyrim has sold in the first 48 hours 3.5 Million copies, in November 2011 it was 7 Million, December 2011 it reached 10 Milion and till June 2013 it was 20 Million.
With the peak of 274.000 gamers and only half of the current Steam users. We can make a 'milkmaiden' (german: 'Milchmädchenrechnung') calcualtion (naive fallacy):

We have a word for that in the states: Sandwich

 

[Darkzone]

So a idle and futile calculation is called Sandwich in USA?
Under a Sandwich i understand two different things, one requires a toast/white bread and the other one three humans, from which one is a female.

 

[Kirkpatrick]

One thing I need to figure out is to how to get the frame rate up.

Got from 15-ish to around 20 fps by disabling anti-aliasing and light shadows, and having regular shadows on very low. Game still looks beautiful on my poor machine and is quite playable even with such fps count.

Btw, it seems that people really like the game. 9.3 on Metacritic out of 480 ratings, 140-2-9 in reviews. Still no new critic reviews though.

 

[commie]

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

But Atari was in turmoil, NWN2 had barely any exposure at all except where all the problems with bugs, camera etc. were concerned. The wasteland that was the era for RPG's at the time should have made it a success by default, but by the time MoTB came out it was already largely passed by and unsupported. SoZ was barely known and the chaos of the time meant that MoW ended up being thrown out the door two years after having been finished. In such a situation, with bare support for the base game; never mind the editor; it's no wonder that there wasn't a modding community like NWN1 had.

Larian on the other hand is making all the right moves so far, and their engine is even more ideal for the kinds of TB type of tactical combat that we as a community enjoy. Support for the editor will be paramount though and making expansions which add features are also a relatively low risk strategy, giving the game new life and maintaining interest in it. In turn, this would sell even more copies and create the base that modding community needs.

 

[Grunker]

Guys, halp pls.

I'm playing co op with a mate, we're at Ragequin in the tutorial. When we get to him, he initiates conversation with one of us, and the other doesn't get to join. Are conversations supposed to work like that? What decides who he initiates convo with, and how can the other join?

Crooked Bee, Zeriel?

 

[krist2]

New all time peak
http://steamcharts.com/app/230230#7d

21.590, it keeps rising :D

 

[Bladderfish]

Guys, halp pls.

I'm playing co op with a mate, we're at Ragequin in the tutorial. When we get to him, he initiates conversation with one of us, and the other doesn't get to join. Are conversations supposed to work like that? What decides who he initiates convo with, and how can the other join?

Crooked Bee, Zeriel?

Conversation is initiated with whomever gets closest first or clicks on the NPC. Only certain conversations have dual-dialogue options where both people are involved, but it also does require that both people are relatively close by the NPC when dialogue is initiated.

 

[Delterius]

Guys, halp pls.

I'm playing co op with a mate, we're at Ragequin in the tutorial. When we get to him, he initiates conversation with one of us, and the other doesn't get to join. Are conversations supposed to work like that? What decides who he initiates convo with, and how can the other join?

Crooked Bee, Zeriel?

To add to what Bladderfish said: I played at launch with a friend and both of us had to speak to oyster at the beginning before the decision making could be done.

 

[Abelian]

So a idle and futile calculation is called Sandwich in USA?

It's called a "back of the envelope calculation" or "napkin calculation".

 

[Grunker]

Thanks guys. That is preeeeetty dumb if you ask me. I like everything about the game so far, but standing around waiting for my partner or him waiting for me to finish conversations is pretty stupid. They might as well just bring up the dialogue window whenever you're within reach.

I also think we missed a couple of dual dialogues already from being too far from each other

 

[Delterius]

Grunker Good to know, though I'm a bit disappointed. Given what the exploration focus, the idea that I might lose out on content from being too far from the partner wasn't expected.

 

[Arkeus]

Grunker Good to know, though I'm a bit disappointed. Given what the exploration focus, the idea that I might lose out on content from being too far from the partner wasn't expected.

Yeah, they are saying they are going to fix this, and i really hope it's on their priority list and not down the line, as it's a major hassle for co-op.

 

[Grunker]

Yeah, they are saying they are going to fix this, and i really hope it's on their priority list and not down the line, as it's a major hassle for co-op.

Where did you see this? Both me and Juul are seriously considering dropping the game until it's done. Co-op is pretty annoying atm.

EDIT: Arkeus, Delterius: http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/inde...cline-is-happening.92612/page-73#post-3370052

 

[Arkeus]

Where did you see this? Both me and Juul are seriously considering dropping the game until it's done. Co-op is pretty annoying atm.

http://www.larian.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=507396#Post507396