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

[Cowboy Moment]

Just FYI, as an experienced diviner of the Steam top sellers list and Steamcharts, I think this is the first traditional game where the peak player number actually increases daily after launch. Normally you'd see a high number on day 1, and then significant dropoffs. For example, SRR debuted at ~24k, and two days later it was at ~18k, which is a 25% drop.

This is natural, as most people will want to at least try the game out at launch, and then fall into their own playing schedule. But the number has actually increased slightly for D:OS, which can mean one of two things: either the game is selling well enough that new players offset the drop off, or people like it so much that they just keep playing, ignoring all of their responsibilities. Darth Roxor, when have you last eaten?

 

[Darth Roxor]

Darth Roxor, when have you last eaten?

I, uh, well...

I'm on a diet!

Yes. That's that! Diet!

 

[Durante]

Just FYI, as an experienced diviner of the Steam top sellers list and Steamcharts, I think this is the first traditional game where the peak player number actually increases daily after launch. Normally you'd see a high number on day 1, and then significant dropoffs. For example, SRR debuted at ~24k, and two days later it was at ~18k, which is a 25% drop.

This is natural, as most people will want to at least try the game out at launch, and then fall into their own playing schedule. But the number has actually increased slightly for D:OS, which can mean one of two things: either the game is selling well enough that new players offset the drop off, or people like it so much that they just keep playing, ignoring all of their responsibilities. Darth Roxor, when have you last eaten?

Yeah, I've also noticed this. It's extremely unusual, probably mostly due to the total lack of advertising/mainstream awareness about the game prior to release, and the excellent word of mouth since then.

 

[RK47]

#eurotrash

 

[Zeriel]

Just FYI, as an experienced diviner of the Steam top sellers list and Steamcharts, I think this is the first traditional game where the peak player number actually increases daily after launch. Normally you'd see a high number on day 1, and then significant dropoffs. For example, SRR debuted at ~24k, and two days later it was at ~18k, which is a 25% drop.

This is natural, as most people will want to at least try the game out at launch, and then fall into their own playing schedule. But the number has actually increased slightly for D:OS, which can mean one of two things: either the game is selling well enough that new players offset the drop off, or people like it so much that they just keep playing, ignoring all of their responsibilities. Darth Roxor, when have you last eaten?

I think this can be blamed on the hilarious nature of modern gaming, and also D:OS's size. Most modern games can be completed in one sitting. D:OS has tons of people playing it because after 30 hours of play time, the average customer is just making their way past the first area. I imagine players will drop off quickly once everyone has 90-100~ hrs invested.

 

[Cowboy Moment]

Just FYI, as an experienced diviner of the Steam top sellers list and Steamcharts, I think this is the first traditional game where the peak player number actually increases daily after launch. Normally you'd see a high number on day 1, and then significant dropoffs. For example, SRR debuted at ~24k, and two days later it was at ~18k, which is a 25% drop.

This is natural, as most people will want to at least try the game out at launch, and then fall into their own playing schedule. But the number has actually increased slightly for D:OS, which can mean one of two things: either the game is selling well enough that new players offset the drop off, or people like it so much that they just keep playing, ignoring all of their responsibilities. Darth Roxor, when have you last eaten?

I think this can be blamed on the hilarious nature of modern gaming, and also D:OS's size. Most modern games can be completed in one sitting. D:OS has tons of people playing it because after 30 hours of play time, the average customer is just making their way past the first area. I imagine players will drop off quickly once everyone has 90-100~ hrs invested.

I doubt it. This effect is pretty consistent across all types of games. For instance, it was the case for Dark Souls 2 earlier this year, and that's a very long game with an average completion time upwards of 50 hours. Or a game like EU4, which doesn't even have a well-defined idea of "completion", still the same thing.

 

[Perkel]

Just FYI, as an experienced diviner of the Steam top sellers list and Steamcharts, I think this is the first traditional game where the peak player number actually increases daily after launch. Normally you'd see a high number on day 1, and then significant dropoffs. For example, SRR debuted at ~24k, and two days later it was at ~18k, which is a 25% drop.

This is natural, as most people will want to at least try the game out at launch, and then fall into their own playing schedule. But the number has actually increased slightly for D:OS, which can mean one of two things: either the game is selling well enough that new players offset the drop off, or people like it so much that they just keep playing, ignoring all of their responsibilities. Darth Roxor, when have you last eaten?

It's normal for RPGs.

You don't buy new RPG to play it for 3 hours and never play it again. Especially fun RPG. Hell you can't even tell if game is shit or not for few hours. Also reviews aren't out yet so that means soon there will be major impact of sales and numbers.

 

[Perkel]

BTW that is more interesting to see:

18.Left 4 Dead 27,76818,3926,781,161
19.Divinity: Original Sin6,30814,3001,089,589


in 4 days people clocked 1 milion hours compared to almost 7 milion hours of Left 4 Dead 2 which sold fuckton


Which means for past few days people were playing game hard.
Congrats Larian ! You just made people addicts !

 

[Roguey]

The amount of effort and detail that went into that quest

lol good-aligned systematic rapist.

Yeah, no.

It's also a shit quest by RPG standards because there's no player-choice involved anywhere. Linear crap.

Of course the quest had to end there, what he expected? The entire point of it is to be unsolveable.

He wants what, go to Bates, hear him say he can't do anything because the gnomes have X, so you go to gnomes, steal X and Bates help you stop them? Well, now you have a main quest of a RPG, and one that has a solution. You lost all the charm.

Arcanum is a game where one of the quests involves wiping out an entire town and you can become a god at the end. "Nope, can't do anything about this because I say so" is GM bullshit from a bullshit railroader (see above).

So you're only interested in slamming things you'll never play before they're released?

As well as things I've played.

 

[Morality Games]

The amount of effort and detail that went into that quest

lol good-aligned systematic rapist.

Yeah, no.

It's also a shit quest by RPG standards because there's no player-choice involved anywhere. Linear crap.

Arcanum is a game where one of the quests involves wiping out an entire town and you can become a god at the end. "Nope, can't do anything about this because I say so" is GM bullshit from a bullshit railroader (see above).

Different speeds for different people. "GM bullshit" adds a human element for me, which again, suggests a craftsmanship that keeps Arcanum from seeming plastic or like an assembly line production.

 

[Monkeyfinger]

BTW that is more interesting to see:

18.Left 4 Dead 27,76818,3926,781,161
19.Divinity: Original Sin6,30814,3001,089,589


in 4 days people clocked 1 milion hours compared to almost 7 milion hours of Left 4 Dead 2 which sold fuckton


Which means for past few days people were playing game hard.
Congrats Larian ! You just made people addicts !

Steamcharts dates back to july 2012, 3 years after L4D2's release. You can't read too much into that.

 

[Roguey]

"GM bullshit" adds a human element for me, which again, suggests a craftsmanship that keeps Arcanum from seeming plastic or like an assembly line production.

Might I recommend games from Bioware Corp, they are full of GM bullshit.

 

[Morality Games]

"GM bullshit" adds a human element for me, which again, suggests a craftsmanship that keeps Arcanum from seeming plastic or like an assembly line production.

Might I recommend games from Bioware Corp, they are full of GM bullshit.

"GM bullshit" is a flexible concept. In the case of the Arcanum, if you approached that quest having never played through the game before or without know anything about the narrative, you can't be sure what you are going to get because the amount and quality of the reactivity is always fluctuating, which makes it hard to know what is going to happen (at the expense of cohesiveness). In Dragon Age, the design is more cohesive, but you can usually follow the patterns of that cohesion to know exactly where the narrative is going to put you.

Example, fairly obvious how things are going to go down between the Elves and Were-Wolves in the Brecilian Forest.

 

[Grunker]

The amount of effort and detail that went into that quest

lol good-aligned systematic rapist.

Yeah, no.

It's also a shit quest by RPG standards because there's no player-choice involved anywhere. Linear crap.

Arcanum is a game where one of the quests involves wiping out an entire town and you can become a god at the end. "Nope, can't do anything about this because I say so" is GM bullshit from a bullshit railroader (see above).

Different speeds for different people. "GM bullshit" adds a human element for me, which again, suggests a craftsmanship that keeps Arcanum from seeming plastic or like an assembly line production.

I disagree with Roguey in this discussion mostly but "linearity and nonsensical lack of options show human element i.e. good craftsmanship" is the most apologetic line I think I've ever seen on the codex. It's like excusing the mason for doing shoddy work because the unaligned bricks in your house give it "an artistic touch."

 

[krathax]

It has been a while since I have enjoyed a game this much, horribly addicting...kudos

 

[Morality Games]

The amount of effort and detail that went into that quest

lol good-aligned systematic rapist.

Yeah, no.

It's also a shit quest by RPG standards because there's no player-choice involved anywhere. Linear crap.

Arcanum is a game where one of the quests involves wiping out an entire town and you can become a god at the end. "Nope, can't do anything about this because I say so" is GM bullshit from a bullshit railroader (see above).

Different speeds for different people. "GM bullshit" adds a human element for me, which again, suggests a craftsmanship that keeps Arcanum from seeming plastic or like an assembly line production.

I disagree with Roguey in this discussion mostly but "linearity and nonsensical lack of options show human element i.e. good craftsmanship" is the most apologetic line I think I've ever seen on the codex. It's like excusing the mason for doing shoddy work because the unaligned bricks in your house give it "an artistic touch."

Arcanum comes across as disjointed because its makers told the stories they wanted to tell and placed the emphasis on the things they wanted to emphasize. It's the sort of story you might listen to in a bar. Almost like it might change between different tellings.

Dragon Age II had to make every character bisexual so there would be an equal number of romance options for all sexual preferences. If robots could design games...

Furthermore, I didn't say "good" craftsmanship, I said craftsmanship, in the sense hand crafted. Like a Dungeon Master hand crafted an adventure himself rather than using a module that conforms to a very ritualized design as far back as the 70s.

Although rarely as technically correct as the modules in the official product line, bits of imagination that we might never have seen before manage to creep through.

 

[Mortmal]

Its back to top 1 today, could it be this game will end up selling like a blizzard game do ?
I could see that happen , user scores at metacritic is at 9.2 something rarely seen too. No doubt they will be able to afford any ip they want after that . Maybe even hire margaret weiss and tracy hickman for a dragonlance game . I can see it happen, mixing D:OS turn based and world epxloration and adding dragon jousting and siege with dragon commander engine .

 

[Crooked Bee]

Its back to top 1 today, could it be this game will end up selling like a blizzard game do ?
I could see that happen , user scores at metacritic is at 9.2 something rarely seen too. No doubt they will be able to afford any ip they want after that .

Yeah, no - I can see it selling well, but let's not get our hopes up too much. It isn't Diablo, and I doubt many companies, even fairly successful ones, could "afford any IP they want". It's just unrealistic.

If this game is successful, though, I don't see why they'd actually need to buy any existing IP at all. Like, what's the point? Unless it's something like Swen's childhood dream to make a game in the X franchise (in which case that's gotta be Ultima).

 

[MicoSelva]

If this game is successful, though, I don't see why they'd actually need to buy any existing IP at all. Like, what's the point? Unless it's something like Swen's childhood dream to make a game in the X franchise (in which case that's gotta be Ultima).

My thoughts exactly. There aren't many (any?) 'idle' IPs that would make business sense switching to from Divinity, unless it's not a business-driven decision. And we all know how Swen feels about Ultima.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

I'm glad the game is doing so well.

 

[Rake]

The amount of effort and detail that went into that quest

lol good-aligned systematic rapist.

Yeah, no.

It's also a shit quest by RPG standards because there's no player-choice involved anywhere. Linear crap.

Player choice isn't the only thing that matters. If the setting/World/situation demands the Player to be powerless, fuck his choice and entitlement. PC isn't the center of the universe, nor should he be. The Quest was perfectly designed, in a vacuum (see bellow)

Of course the quest had to end there, what he expected? The entire point of it is to be unsolveable.

He wants what, go to Bates, hear him say he can't do anything because the gnomes have X, so you go to gnomes, steal X and Bates help you stop them? Well, now you have a main quest of a RPG, and one that has a solution. You lost all the charm.

Damn right

Arcanum is a game where one of the quests involves wiping out an entire town and you can become a god at the end. "Nope, can't do anything about this because I say so" is GM bullshit from a bullshit railroader (see above).

In this you are right. This is were the Quest feels out of place in the game, since the Player is a creature of godlike strenght capable of destroying entire cities, without the game recogising it, and he is friend to some of the most powerfull personalities in the world. In that the complains are right.

That doesn't mean that the quest is bad, in fact we need way more of these type of quests in RPGs. The problem is with giving the PC godlike powers that break the setting, something we need way less in RPGs.

 

[mindx2]

Sorry, I'm late to this party but I've been on vacation to the Grand Canyon, just got back, and want to start playing... NOW! Question: If I use my Steam Key now will my boxed copy come with a GOG key?

 

[twincast]

Sorry, I'm late to this party but I've been on vacation to the Grand Canyon, just got back, and want to start playing... NOW! Question: If I use my Steam Key now will my boxed copy come with a GOG key?

Disks are Steam-only (and thus utterly useless pieces of plastic). Unless (after shitstorm) you replied within 6 days to the e-mail they sent 10 days before release.

I kept out of the loop the last couple of months, so it took my by surprise (and pissed me the hell off) when checking on release day.

I guess switching to a GOG key and using your boxed Steam key after your current one is deactivated is an option. At least I hope it is. Since Larian Vault version apparently got turned into Steam version as well, to boot, that's what I plan on. Should really write that e-mail already, now that my initial rage has somewhat subsided.

Anyway, game is great, so that aspect's fine.

 

[jdinatale]

For those who know about the game industry, how many units moved would be considered a success, a strong success, etc?

 

[Zeriel]

For those who know about the game industry, how many units moved would be considered a success, a strong success, etc?

Industry knowledge kind of irrelevant at this point, digital distribution and no publisher makes "expertise" of little use. All that really matters is what Swen said, they have neared profitability after a few days. It takes AAA titles months to do that at times, some struggle to ever do so. (Remember Tomb Raider being a "disappointment" for Square Enix at 4 million plus copies sold.)

Some numbers:

Baldur's Gate 2 is often quoted in the 250,000 range back in the day, Planescape Torment 80,000. That took a while, and it had an established audience. Naturally you'd expect the hardcore RPG audience to be a little bigger these days just due to how gaming has exploded in general, but still, 160,000 in a few days is respectable. It'll be interesting to see what numbers titles like Wasteland 2 hit in the same time period (assuming they ever release the figures).

Is D:OS selling well because it's a quality title, or because people are starved for games that look like Baldur's Gate and Fallout?

ETA: Worth mentioning that D:OS might benefit more from post-launch sales than the other Kickstarter darlings. Wasteland 2, Pillars of Eternity, and Torment: ToN all received a lot of press coverage, and all beat Divinity in money raised in Kickstarter. People were skeptical about Larian for various silly reasons, so it stands to reason if the product is good it should sell more boxes in the long-run. It used up less of its potential market as backers in the Kickstarter campaign.