Eternity PoE II: Deadfire Sales Analysis Thread

[Sentinel]

I'm glad it was a massive flop. Fuck Sawyer and his idiotic sleep inducing MMO system design.
Hopefully that retard goes back to designing quest structures because it's the only thing he's good at.

 

[fantadomat]

Wasteland 3 will sell line shit on biscuit. Who the fuck will be exited about an inxile game? All of their games were boring mediocre flops. Nobody cares about them at this point.

well there's a chance it can sell if the devs scream at the tops of their lungs "ITS A STANDALONE GAME!!! YOU DON'T NEED TO PLAY PREVIOUS GAMES FOR IT!!!" or something.

Also apparently it has coop multiplayer and that was a feature a lot of players liked in D:OS 2, so who knows really?

It is a sequel to a disappointing kickstarter game from a studio with a history of bad games. It will do the same as deadfire at best.

 

[frajaq]

It is a sequel to a disappointing kickstarter game from a studio with a history of bad games. It will do the same as deadfire at best.

Kinda agree with you, but I wouldn't underestimate the effect of coop multiplayer can have on total numbers (an example: Player 1 goes "hey we should play this together" to Player 2, where Player 2 normally wouldn't have bought the game because it looked too hard to figure it out alone, but now he has help from Player 1)

 

[fantadomat]

It is a sequel to a disappointing kickstarter game from a studio with a history of bad games. It will do the same as deadfire at best.

Kinda agree with you, but I wouldn't underestimate the effect of coop multiplayer can have on total numbers (an example: Player 1 goes "hey we should play this together" to Player 2, where Player 2 normally wouldn't have bought the game because it looked too hard to figure it out alone, but now he has help from Player 1)

I would agree for the most games,but i doubt that this game will have that effect. For it to be true there have to be player1,95% of CRPG fans do play this games for the singleplayer experience. Would you invite your CoD friend to come and play with you in Arcanum?

 

[nikolokolus]

Its flawed logic to extrapolate my reasons for not buying Deadfire to all of the other shlubs that backed the first PoE, but not the sequel, but I don't think I'm alone in my reasons. The first game was like offering a man dying of thirst a glass of ice water, except that when you finally took a drink you realized it was more like boiled piss; better than dying of thirst, but you don't exactly go back for a second serving.

I just get the impression from PoE that Sawyer et al's perception of what made the Infinity engine games tick for most people was a total misread, (or was it a bait and switch?). They seemed to get the impression that what the first games were missing was an overly dry, turgid philosophical theme, with kludgy, nearly incomprehensible combat (visuals and kinesthetics), and post-modern sensibilities about culture shoe-horned into a psuedo-renaissance setting. Blech.

Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice . . . Yadda, yadda, yadda.

 

[KyivAfter12am]

Mined SA's Deadfire thread for salt concerning Deadfire's confirmation as a financial failure, and Sawyer's finally spoken. tl;dr he's genuinely baffled https://forums.somethingawful.com/s...56099&perpage=40&pagenumber=387#post489657293

I would say that the original Pillars review numbers were higher than the game merited, but it's true that it's the highest-rated (on Metacritic) Obsidian game. The user reviews on MC aren't far behind. It was for that reason that much of my focus on Deadfire was on refining (or so I thought) things that were heavily criticized on the original game.

Sounds like a textbook example of survivorship bias. The first game was criticized for its story, exposition dumps and backer NPCs, but it was a (mild) success DESPITE these missteps. So the correct course of action would have been to spend even less budget on the story and writing and double down on the game's strengths that people praised most: nostalgic appeal, combat system and production values (compared to IE games). Out of these three the nostalgia was the biggest factor by far.

So what Obsidian should have done was try their best to acquire the rights for Baldur's Gate brand, or, if that was impossible, to make a game as close to being Baldur's Gate 3 as they could get away with, and marketing it as such.

 

[santino27]

It is a sequel to a disappointing kickstarter game from a studio with a history of bad games. It will do the same as deadfire at best.

Kinda agree with you, but I wouldn't underestimate the effect of coop multiplayer can have on total numbers (an example: Player 1 goes "hey we should play this together" to Player 2, where Player 2 normally wouldn't have bought the game because it looked too hard to figure it out alone, but now he has help from Player 1)

I would agree for the most games,but i doubt that this game will have that effect. For it to be true there have to be player1,95% of CRPG fans do play this games for the singleplayer experience. Would you invite your CoD friend to come and play with you in Arcanum?

I'm not sure that's true anymore. D:OS showed a lot of people seemed to be interested in coop. It's (as far as I could tell) a big part of why the game got more article time on some of the major sites (and why the game stayed fresher in the public consciousness)... and presumably is at least part of what then helped the sequel go nuts, sales-wise.

Maybe that other group of people aren't what we call CRPG fans, but they did buy D:OS/D:OS2, which is a CRPG, and co-op was part of that. That's what WL3 is trying to capitalize on. I don't think they'll succeed, but I can see why they'd try.

Its flawed logic to extrapolate my reasons for not buying Deadfire to all of the other shlubs that backed the first PoE, but not the sequel, but I don't think I'm alone in my reasons.

The first game was like offering a man dying of thirst a glass of ice water, except that when you finally took a drink you realized it was more like boiled piss; better than dying of thirst, but you don't exactly go back for a second serving.

I just get the impression from PoE that Sawyer et al's perception of what made the Infinity engine games tick for most people was a total misread, or it was a bait and switch? They seemed to get the impression that what the first games were missing was an overly dry, turgid philosophical game with kludgy, nearly incomprehensible combat (visuals and kinesthetics), and post-modern sensibilities about culture shoe-horned into a psuedo-renaissance setting. Blech.

Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice . . . Yadda, yadda, yadda.

Whereas I bought into the idea that Obsidian recognized the sequel needed more 'fun' (they specifically said they were trying to make it less dry than POE1) and assumed it would be a cool, fun, enjoyable gaming experience, and not millennial-companions and a threadbare main plot.

 

[fantadomat]

I'm not sure that's true anymore. D:OS showed a lot of people seemed to be interested in coop. It's (as far as I could tell) a big part of why the game got more article time on some of the major sites (and why the game stayed fresher in the public consciousness)... and presumably is at least part of what then helped the sequel go nuts, sales-wise.

Maybe that other group of people aren't what we call CRPG fans, but they did buy D:OS/D:OS2, which is a CRPG, and co-op was part of that. That's what WL3 is trying to capitalize on. I don't think they'll succeed, but I can see why they'd try.

I have no idea how many people played the co-op in that game. People always try to find what made X game a success,then they try to replicate it and fail. Nothing good comes from following fads. Such games are just one off because it is something new that addicts haven't seen. There is place only for a original and the second game that followed the fad fast and improved.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

The ship has sailed, D:OS1&2 will become a de facto standard to which other titles are compared, and anybody who wants to have any hope to compete with that standard will probably aim for feature parity.

 

[Elex]

The ship has sailed, D:OS1&2 will become a de facto standard to which other titles are compared, and anybody who wants to have any hope to compete with that standard will probably aim for feature parity.

at least we will get a D&D turn based game.

 

[Safav Hamon]

I'm not sure that's true anymore. D:OS showed a lot of people seemed to be interested in coop. It's (as far as I could tell) a big part of why the game got more article time on some of the major sites (and why the game stayed fresher in the public consciousness)... and presumably is at least part of what then helped the sequel go nuts, sales-wise.

It also leads to people convincing their friends to buy, or buying copies for their friends.

 

[AwesomeButton]

I just get the impression from PoE that Sawyer et al's perception of what made the Infinity engine games tick for most people was a total misread

While I don't know what this perception was, I am sure his perception of what needed improvement was a total misread - the combat system was already fine in the IE games to which PoE wanted to compare in that department. I didn't need the complete reinvention which Obsidian designed.

 

[fantadomat]

Who's the bigger commercial failure, inXile or Obsidian?

inXile, given that Deadfire is a Tides of Numenera-esque bomb and they haven't had a Bard's Tale IV-level bomb yet.

yeah exactly

Round 1
Obsidian - Pillars of Eternity: Mega Success
inXile - Wasteland 2: Mega Success

Round 2
Obsidian - Tyranny: Below expectations but still profitable
inXile - Numenera: Mega Failure

Round 3
Obsidian - Deadfire: Mega Failure
inXile - Bard's Tale IV: Mega Failure

Is this picture wrong somehow?

Tranny was also a fail but not mega because people didn't expect much of it.

 

[Safav Hamon]

Tyranny was a huge success. Paradox paid for everything, and if Chris was telling the truth Feargus stole their money to fund Outer Worlds.

 

[Urthor]

Before you all sing too much of Kingmaker's praises I should note that the concurrent player retention they've had so far is only slightly better than Deadfire's. It's a financial success by having a far more reasonable budget (and Obsidian certainly wouldn't want its metacritic scores or its Steam user scores)

I mean I would not be too optimistic about Kingmaker's sequel given that the launch was built on the sales of the game by unwavering Paizo fanatics, but Owlcat have certainly already made a huge pile of Russia bux off their initial sales rankings which were almost as high as PoE.

Enjoy Kingmaker while it lasts because the studio is unlikely to repeat the success

 

[Safav Hamon]

There's zero chance Paizo gives them the rights to a sequel. You heard it here first.

 

[Deleted Member 22431]

The first game was criticized for the lack of LGBT characters, romances, ethnic accents and ship mechanics.

Fixed according to the perspective of Obsidian developers.

 

[fantadomat]

I hate repeating my self,but for you Silver Coin.......




KILL YOURSELF RETARD!!!

 

[Roguey]

it was a (mild) success DESPITE these missteps.

So the correct course of action would have been to spend even less budget on the story and writing

The Codex I knew thought that the Bioware approach of "We didn't do this right so we should just cut it entirely" was lazy.

 

[fantadomat]

Speaking of tranny
https://af.gog.com/game/tyranny_gold_edition?as=1649904300

It got a nu release with 50% off

 

[2house2fly]

I wonder if they updated it so players who started the game before yesterday can load their saves again

 

[DeepOcean]

I think the problem is that PoE 1 and 2 felt like a game made by SJW accountants and I hate SJW and, at best, tolerate accountants as a necessary evil, guess most people felt the same.

I didn't feel the Whoa! *Keanu Reaves impression* moment, they felt like games made by computers with SJW and vaguely similar IE rules parameters inserted.

Everything was supposedly functional and that is the main problem.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Another thing that comes to mind is that these games require a huge time commitment. Nobody wants to spend a month playing one and come out of it with "it was okay".

 

[2house2fly]

I don't get SJW vibes from POE1. But then I'm not hypersensitive to that kind of thing

 

[Sensuki]

it was a (mild) success DESPITE these missteps.

So the correct course of action would have been to spend even less budget on the story and writing

The Codex I knew thought that the Bioware approach of "We didn't do this right so we should just cut it entirely" was lazy.

Maybe, but focusing on strengths is good practice in general. Obsidian seem to have focused on the flaws instead. Looks like it worked out in some areas, and backfired in most others.