Pillars of Eternity Beta Discussion [GAME RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

[Athelas]

The problem with that is that RPG's are always slow to start.

 

[agris]

Hmmm...

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/64447-inspiration-for-the-orlan-detective-concept-art/?p=1375742

 

[Bubbles]

PoE doesn't really look great in streams either.

 

[Shevek]

e: obviously not an RPG, but best "indie" performance recently was cities: skylines. 250k units in 24hrs. fair odds it's gonna rejuvenate the city-builder genre all on its own

The 250k figure was actually pre-order + first day sales which of course is still extremely impressive.

One thing PoE could learn from Cities is the impact youtubers can have these days. Cities jumped to #1 on Steam almost immediately after the embargo on streaming the game was lifted about week before the release date. Of course with story heavy game like PoE you can't really allow streaming of the whole game before release, but they could allow streaming first couple hours of the game or something similar.

I think they know this which is why they reached out to AngryJoe.

 

[J_C]

Let me ask you guys who play the BB, are there lore books in the game, like in Baldur's Gate?

 

[Infinitron]

Let me ask you guys who play the BB, are there lore books in the game, like in Baldur's Gate?

No, because Josh Sawyer thinks books are a degenerate, unfun way of transmitting lore information to the player.

Spoiler

Of course there are books, duh: http://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Book#List_of_Lore_Books

 

[J_C]

Let me ask you guys who play the BB, are there lore books in the game, like in Baldur's Gate?

No, because Josh Sawyer thinks books are a degenerate, unfun way of transmitting lore information to the player.

Spoiler

Of course there are books, duh: http://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Book#List_of_Lore_Books

Hey, you can never know with Josh.

 

[Jaedar]

I think if we can hit 200k in sales, within a few months, it will be considered successful.

These kind of RPGs really became such a niche that 200K in the first months would be a success? Did it really come to this? I'm not expecting millions of sales, but for a great looking RPG with lots of contents deserves at least 500 K in the first month. Or am I just daydreaming?

Remember that the 200k copies are pure profit since the game was funded by kickstarter. That's still millions in pure profit with presumably little investment.

Does anyone have sales figures on stuff like torment? I don't think quality rpgs were ever a big seller.

 

[Athelas]

Mage duels confirmed:

Spoiler

 

[Blackguard]

I think if we can hit 200k in sales, within a few months, it will be considered successful.

These kind of RPGs really became such a niche that 200K in the first months would be a success? Did it really come to this? I'm not expecting millions of sales, but for a great looking RPG with lots of contents deserves at least 500 K in the first month. Or am I just daydreaming?

Remember that the 200k copies are pure profit since the game was funded by kickstarter. That's still millions in pure profit with presumably little investment.

Does anyone have sales figures on stuff like torment? I don't think quality rpgs were ever a big seller.

No it's not pure profit. Obsidian has said that they've had to fund the development of PoE from their own pockets too.

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

Let me ask you guys who play the BB, are there lore books in the game, like in Baldur's Gate?

No, because Josh Sawyer thinks books are a degenerate, unfun way of transmitting lore information to the player.

Spoiler

Of course there are books, duh: http://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Book#List_of_Lore_Books

Fuck you! Almost got me! With Sawyer everything seems believable.

To all counting sales figures: good RPGs can sell well for years. Bards Tale from 00s has brought Fargo million dollars last years. It was obviously influenced by W2 hype and tablet version, but it is still quite old, not famous game. I think after having 2-4 successful ks projects medium size studios like InXile or Obsidian could manage on their own

 

[Grotesque]

They've done a much better job at reaching out to the gaming community and press than D:OS did.

Why?! Because Swen Vincke said that some reviewers are too dumb to play this genre and there is a waste of time and even counterproductive to show your game to them?
Imagine how many sales more they achieved only with that controversy alone.
The hype train that D:OS had is times higher than PoE.

Sven is also a charismatic speaker. He also had tons of sessions of gameplay (with that other weird guy and internet stars) before the official launch and the communication was way better via videos.
Also D:OS looks more cartoony a la World of Warcraft and the unwashed masses love that style.

If 75% of the people that bought D:OS will also buy PoE, than all will be swell but I doubt that.

 

[tuluse]

Remember that the 200k copies are pure profit since the game was funded by kickstarter. That's still millions in pure profit with presumably little investment.

Does anyone have sales figures on stuff like torment? I don't think quality rpgs were ever a big seller.

Depending on what you mean by RPG, there are a few examples of 1 million+ sellers, and dozens in the 100s of thousands.

I would be shocked if PoE sold less than 250k in the first year.

(made a prediction a long time ago it would be between 250k to 1 million copies sold in the first 12 months, I think I would revise that lower bound up now that I know how WL2 and D:OS sold).

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

Let me ask you guys who play the BB, are there lore books in the game, like in Baldur's Gate?

There are, and they're extremely boring and naive history-wise. I wasn't surprised to find out that they were written by none other than Josh himself.

 

[coffeetable]

There are, and they're extremely boring and naive history-wise

how are fictional history books managing to be naive

 

[Grunker]

There are, and they're extremely boring.

so much like the original ie-books then huh

 

[Infinitron]

The hype train that D:OS had is times higher than PoE.

Not really. I don't recall D:OS appearing at multiple major gaming conferences in the months leading up to its release. According to Swen himself they spent next to nothing on traditional publicity.

PoE has promoted itself in a much more traditional AAA-esque fashion than both D:OS and WL2. Advantages of having a closer working relationship with a publisher, I suppose.

Sven is also a charismatic speaker.

He's a lanky old Belgian guy with an accent. Codexers tend to find the whole "Cousin Balki from Perfect Strangers" thing endearing and more trustworthy than the typical American slick salesman act, but I'm not sure the mass market agrees.

how are fictional history books managing to be naive

Something something Hegelian dialectic Marxist historiography something something

 

[Mazisky]

If the game is good i really hope they'll sell million copies, so we can have expansions\sequels, actually there is no other Rtwp isometric rpg. I didn't wait 15 years just to see this genre going into the void again

 

[Shevek]

They've done a much better job at reaching out to the gaming community and press than D:OS did.

Why?! Because Swen Vincke said that some reviewers are too dumb to play this genre and there is a waste of time and even counterproductive to show your game to them?
Imagine how many sales more they achieved only with that controversy alone.
The hype train that D:OS had is times higher than PoE.

Sven is also a charismatic speaker. He also had tons of sessions of gameplay (with that other weird guy and internet stars) before the official launch and the communication was way better via videos.
Also D:OS looks more cartoony a la World of Warcraft and the unwashed masses love that style.

If 75% of the people that bought D:OS will also buy PoE, than all will be swell but I doubt that.

I am not saying that D:OS did a shit job. I am saying PoE has done a much better job. Like DOS, PoE had video and extended gameplay sessions. More importantly, OE made better use of big ticket events like PAX. Also, Josh was very clever in getting the word out himself on various websites like badgame and SA while occasionally dropping by the official forums or even having other OE folks drop by here. This is smart since folks like us are very likely to get the word out to others. While making even more funny videos may have helped, I do think OE's strategy created much more exposure for the game than D:OS had prelauch.

While I agree that WoW graphics helped D:OS, I still say that PE being RTwP as opposed to TB will very likely draw in more CRPG newbs. I really think reaching out to AngryJoe early was fairly brilliant since alot of his viewers will dive right in when they see the real time play and crisp visuals. They should make sure to reach out to more Youtube reviewers. I think TotalBiscuit would give them a very positive review; this game is up his alley.

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

There are, and they're extremely boring.

so much like the original ie-books then huh

Curiously enough, Josh managed to surpass that... not by a factor, but let's say twice as boring is pretty accurate.

 

[Starwars]

There are, and they're extremely boring and naive history-wise. I wasn't surprised to find out that they were written by none other than Josh himself.

I wasn't surprised to find out that this post was written by none other than Bester himself.

 

[Anthony Davis]

Neat, you can recover disarmed traps now.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

I think if we can hit 200k in sales, within a few months, it will be considered successful.

I'm hoping that PoE 2 or the next Kickstarter (Avellone? Tim Cain?) can get a bigger team and, if not a AAA budget, at least a 'AA' one. For that I'm guessing Obsidian need around 10 million in the bank. Will 200k do that?

 

[coffeetable]

Will 200k do that?

not unless they're earning $50/game

(it'd take ~350k sales at $45 & a 70% cut)

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

70% cut is what they would've had if they didn't have to share with Paradox.