PoE Sales Analysis Thread

[Art Vandelay]

Plus crpgs have usually been slow burners, rather than quick sellers, I'd imagine it selling well in the long run.

Wouldn't count on it...

 

[ArchAngel]

Take into count that shady places like G2A are getting more and more popular with people and that games cost half the price there. So you cannot count all sales as 30$ going to Obsidian. Also people buy the game from different regions that have lower price.

 

[Jools]

Seems like they've sold at least 200,000 units. That's more than D:OS had in the same amount of time: http://www.rpgcodex.net/article.php?id=9519

It might be interesting to put things into perspective: we should consider that D:OS had 19k backers (VS 73k for PoE), and the funding was 1M VS 4M, and that's without counting the money and resources the respective companies (Larian VS Obsidian) had put into the respective projects. Not to mention the background and accrued fame of the companies (Obsidian had always been widely known even to non-RPG fans, because Kotor and FNV, while Larian, well, not so much), and the marketing investments.

All numbers considered, I'd say the sales started a bit slow for PoE, or extremely fast for D:OS (200k VS 160k, a figure which is not really coherent with the numbers behind each project and seem to be overly in favour of D:OS). In fact, I'm not too surprised: one reason could be that, despite the notoriety of Obsidian, the game is a bit "niche", and the more so if we consider the greater public (most people think of it as a bit "too old school": people who identify the RPG genre with ME/DA, or FNV and Diablo3 at best), while D:OS appears more "easily approachable" (more "visually" similar to Diablo/Torchlight).

Anyway, let's just sit and wait what happens.

 

[Infinitron]

Divinity almost certainly had a larger development budget than Pillars, though it's true that they did not do nearly as much traditional marketing.

 

[Jools]

Divinity almost certainly had a larger development budget than Pillars, though it's true that they did not do nearly as much traditional marketing.

You mean, from the company itself?

 

[Infinitron]

Divinity almost certainly had a larger development budget than Pillars, though it's true that they did not do nearly as much traditional marketing.

You mean, from the company itself?

The budget? Yes.

I mean, use common sense. Larian developed their own engine from scratch. They began work on the game all the way back in late 2010, or early 2011 at the latest (source). It has multiplayer support. It has an editor. It has a seamless 3D world with all sorts of simulated interactions and physics effects. And they're in Belgium, not a cheap country by any means. Of course it cost more to make than PoE did.

 

[Delterius]

Until PoE goes on the console....

That sounds ... difficult.

Not necessarily. If there's one thing Dragon Age: Origins proves is that issues with the UI are a matter of comfort, the game can always be made piss easy on top of any other adjustments.

 

[Jools]

Divinity almost certainly had a larger development budget than Pillars, though it's true that they did not do nearly as much traditional marketing.

You mean, from the company itself?

The budget? Yes.

I mean, use common sense. Larian developed their own engine from scratch. They began work on the game all the way back in late 2010, or early 2011 at the latest (source). It has multiplayer support. It has an editor. It has a seamless 3D world with all sorts of simulated interactions and physics effects. And they're in Belgium, not a cheap country by any means. Of course it cost more to make than PoE did.

You're right, I just didn't expect Larian to have put that much of their own into the game (3M€).

And it's already approaching profitability, Larian boss Swen Vincke told Eurogamer. Divinity: Original Sin cost around €4m to make, following a successful Kickstarter that raised just under $1m. [source]

Now, I wonder how much Obsidian has put into PoE out of their own pockets. I guess the figure will pop up, at some point, unless it is known already.

 

[Infinitron]

Not known already, no. The true D:OS budget turned out to be 4.5 million euros btw: http://www.pcgamer.com/how-divinity-original-sin-almost-bankrupted-larian-studios/

 

[BlackAdderBG]

Not known already, no. The true D:OS budget turned out to be 4.5 million euros btw: http://www.pcgamer.com/how-divinity-original-sin-almost-bankrupted-larian-studios/

But that budget overlaps with Dragon Commander as well,so they made 2 games with it.

 

[Infinitron]

But that budget overlaps with Dragon Commander as well

Source? The article says:

Larian initially had 1.5 million Euros to spend on Divinity: Original Sin and hoped to build it on a budget of 3 million. In the end, the studio spent 4.5 million Euros.

No mention of Dragon Commander.

If anything, I suspect the Dragon Commander budget might be masking additional investment that was made into D:OS, since they both use the same engine and much of the same staff

 

[GloomFrost]

As long as they sell enough copies to make a sequel, I couldnt care less about sales tbh.

 

[TheGreatOne]

I am of course super-pleased that the max concurrent users is more than twice as Wasteland 2's max and almost twice as much as Original Sin. Urquhart showing Fargo and Vincke how it's done.

This cuck thinks that beating a mobile game company and Literally Whu of WRPG developers (I had never even heard of Larian before D:OS) is some kind of achievement from the third biggest WRPG developer of the 2000s These are people who made the sequel to Fallout 3 and worked with the South Park and Star Wars lisences, they try to compete in sales with the peoplle who made Skyrim and Mass Effect. Selling a few thousand copies more than the company who was previously known for such hits as "Super Stacker" and "Shape Shape" is not a victory, it's an embarrasment.

 

[Whiran]

To put some perspective on things I think the initial kickstarter number of backers should be taken into consideration to see how the game is doing.

Divinity: Original Sin had 19,541 backers.

When the game was released according to Steam Charts the high of the number of concurrent players in the first month was 12,345.

The game peaked at 21,953 the next month.

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

Wasteland 2 had 61,290 backers.

Wasteland 2's peak was in the first month of release coming in at 18,576 concurrent players on Steam.

http://steamcharts.com/app/240760#All

Pillars of Eternity had 73,986 backers.

So far Pillars of Eternity's peak is 41,787.

I would suspect that a large number of those initial concurrent players come from backers so it's hard, in my opinion, to judge just how well the game is selling. Compounding that difficulty is how Valve tracks the top sellers - it is based off of revenue and not number sold. With Grand Theft Auto at the top of the sales chart that could mean that Pillars of Eternity is doing very well or it could be way behind in terms of revenue. Pillars of Eternity is also priced $10 USD higher than Divinity: Original Sin was so that will probably impact the number of sales.

Seems like they've sold at least 200,000 units.

Where did you get that number from?

 

[Athelas]

To put some perspective on things I think the initial kickstarter number of backers should be taken into consideration to see how the game is doing.

That's true, but PoE also didn't have 'Early Access backers' like WL2 and D:OS.

You also shouldn't use the number of backers listed on Kickstarter because Obsidian had their own backer portal through which you could back the game.

 

[TheGreatOne]

Divinity: Original Sin had 19,541 backers.

Pillars of Eternity had 73,986 backers.

And it got 3,98 million on Kickstarer (+their own backer thing), while Original Sin got 0,94. And PoE got more advertisement and press visibility. Even people like Angry Joe covered Pillars of Eternity


So before PoE outsells DoS by 4:1 margin, it hasn't even broken even. The ratio would need to be even higher for it to be considered a bigger success than Divinity.

 

[vorvek]

 

[Jools]

Divinity: Original Sin had 19,541 backers.

Pillars of Eternity had 73,986 backers.

And it got 3,98 million on Kickstarer (+their own backer thing), while Original Sin got 0,94. And PoE got more advertisement and press visibility. Even people like Angry Joe covered Pillars of Eternity


So before PoE outsells DoS by 4:1 margin, it hasn't even broken even. The ratio would need to be even higher for it to be considered a bigger success than Divinity.

Have you guys read the thread at all? Because you're just repeating exactly what's been said not 10 posts ago, between Infinitron and yours truly... Threadception...

 

[BlackAdderBG]

But that budget overlaps with Dragon Commander as well

Source?

Logic.The same people made both games.I don't see why and where different budgets will be spent.They don't have other studios,developed the games simultaneously and no different personal ,as I see in credits all the same names to the corresponding roles

 

[Infinitron]

Logic.The same people made both games.I don't see why and where different budgets will be spent.They don't have other studios,developed the games simultaneously and no different personal ,as I see in credits all the same names to the corresponding roles

Doesn't sound very logical to me. They've spoken several times of D:OS having a particular budget. They've never said "We spent 4.5 million Euros between 2011 and 2014".

And besides, it's obviously not enough money to make two games of that caliber.

I would suspect that a large number of those initial concurrent players come from backers so it's hard, in my opinion, to judge just how well the game is selling.

See the Kickstarter backer achievement stats: http://steamcommunity.com/stats/291650/achievements

 

[Anthedon]

Paradox made huge bank recently due to Pillars and Cities: Skylines (article in Swedish): http://www.idg.se/2.1085/1.619261/paradox-galna-mars---tjanat-160-miljoner-efter-dubbla-spelsuccér

Probably to a large extent due to the city builder, but it's still nice to hear.

 

[Volourn]

"So before PoE outsells DoS by 4:1 margin, it hasn't even broken even. The ratio would need to be even higher for it to be considered a bigger success than Divinity."

If it sells mroe it sells more and is therefor more successful. If it sells less it sells less and is therefore less success. Also, this bullshit talk that Larian is some rinky dinky fly by night developer is retartet. They've been around for a long time, they've had games sell over million copies before. They are not some grarage group throwing a game together at last second. FFS

 

[WalkinDude]

Yeah wtf are people doing not being at least aware of Larian games prior to D:OS. Divine Divinity I could see missing given it came out during a semi-ok time but you must've just completely given up on RPGs if you didn't at least notice when Divinity II was fresh.

 

[Nebuchadnezzar]

The hate for POE is real.

 

[Tjaron]

http://gamingbolt.com/pillars-of-eternity-cities-skylines-earn-18-5-million-in-three-weeks

Paradox Interactive has announced that Obsidian’s Pillars of Eternity and Colossal Order’s Cities: Skylines have collectively generated $18.5 million in revenue within the past three weeks. Earlier, it was Cities: Skylines that held the honour of being Paradox’s fastest selling game but Pillars of Eternity very nearly topped it.

Most of that probably coming from cities. Still, the game seem to be selling well. Pillars boxed copys were sold out at several german online retailers including amazon (at least for a while).