Deutschland über alles. I'd say ELEX is a much more popular genre and should've sold even more, but eh, I don't care. The question of why PoE2 doesn't seem to be selling great is still relevant. Is it because the nostalgia wore off in PoE1? Is it because of marketing? Is it because PoE1 was a bit garbage-y and was only tolerable in specific circumstances? The general public thinking the gameplay is antiquated? Those are interesting questions to ask, too bad we have no-one to ask.
My list for the sales situation in no particular order would go like:
DIRECT SEQUEL.
People who played the first game at launch and didn't finish it, or who did finish it but now it's three years later and they've forgotten most of the story, probably don't much care for playing as the same character and having reactivity for their choices. New players don't want to start the story at chapter 2.
FIFTY DOLLARS.
In terms of production values it's a clear step up from the first game, but it's not AAA level, and that's what a $50 price tag is saying. I still wonder if it was strategically priced to take advantage of the steam summer sale.
IT'S OBSIDIAN.
You know what "Obsidian game" means: great writing, buggy pile of shit. Even among people who only know Obsidian casually and don't know the great writers are all gone, there's no reason to get the game at launch when they can get it a few months down the line. If word of mouth is positive after launch then the game could see a sales boost from these people deciding to buy it now after all, but...
CAME OUT TOO SOON.
Obsidian fans will tolerate bugs, glitches, the odd crash. But Obsidian fans are a rapidly dwindling demographic, and they need to be replaced by something. The whole tone of this game makes it clear they're trying to nab some casual gamers and the recently-betrayed Bioware romance market. Releasing a big RPG bug-free is probably impossible, but for these people it's got to be somewhat polished. Instead, this is the first Obsidian game I've seen where the
story is broken. Characters decide to have it out once and for all after one interaction, romance trigger during the introductory conversation, save importing is inside-out. Ironically they'd probably have been better off focusing on this and ignoring gameplay bugs.
BALANCE.
If you want to have positive word of mouth, one thing to 100% not do is give the impression your game is still in development. The huge balance changes after release must have put off any number of people who don't want to have the rug pulled out from under them 30 hours into a playthrough. Nerfing the Sword Of Instant Death is one thing, but cutting everything in half while people are playing? While more people are playing than will ever be playing in the future because it's four weeks after launch? I wonder how many people got pushed off about that and told their friends to hold off.
MEDIA SATURATION.
There's a million things to do. There's more video games than any one person can ever play, not to mention the myriad other avenues of entertainment available. Not buying the game now because you want to wait until the patches are done and the DLC is out can very easily turn I to not buying the game now and then not buying it ever because you have so much other stuff competing for your attention.
PoE lacks plot consistency and proper structure, so it makes sense people argue over what it was really about. They should have focused on the soul wheel and soulless baby thing, but they got muddled as the game went on.
It does not lack either of those things. There is too much prose and expository dialogue which is not interesting or entertaining enough in and of itself to command your attention, so people stop reading and then base their criticisms of the story on their memories of reading every third word or so three years ago.
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