Rumor: Bethesda has been in turmoil since the death of their CEO

[dreughjiggers]

The data doesn't tell us anything but what sold more, not that Morrowind wasn't popular. BGS were nobodies with an ip barely anybody remembered, but they still won mainstream success. Bioware had Star Wars and DnD, and their games were synonymous with computer rpg.

 

[Roguey]

The data doesn't tell us anything but what sold more, not that Morrowind wasn't popular. BGS were nobodies with an ip barely anybody remembered, but they still won mainstream success. Bioware had Star Wars and DnD, and their games were synonymous with computer rpg.

Arcanum sold 234,000 copies in US retail after four years. If not for the xbox crowd, it would have only been slightly more successful than Arcanum (which certainly wasn't a mainstream hit).

 

[Justicar]

When nigerfield hits the shelfs you will pray for another cyberpunk codextards.

Mark my words subhumans.

 

[Parsifarka]

Morrowind sales are meaningless unless taking the GOTY re-release the next year into account. In Spain I recall the original having few ads in specialized magazines citing the high scores but it was a rather obscure release, while when Ubisoft took over the publishing duties of the package with the expansion packs marketing efforts increased notably, and every store had copies of the game for sale prominently displayed. It got so big in spite of that release having only English text that fan translations soon were made for it and it was a huge topic of discussion in every online forum dedicated to videogames; I'm pretty sure it was a product whose sales increased significantly through its life-time thanks to word of mouth. No doubt it was nothing compared to the release of Oblivion by Take2, let alone that of Skyrim, but Morrowind laid the groundwork in terms of brand recognition as it was certainly very popular among the back then relatively small market (even people who weren't into RPGs were attracted by the first person perspective, the promise of a huge world with total freedom to interact with and the possibility of becoming either a vampire or a werewolf announced in the back of the box) and it put the series into the map in places where Arena and Daggerfall had been unknown.

 

[Justicar]

This is your future codextards.

 

[laclongquan]

At that time range official sale data is meaningless because rampant piracy, mang~ When we judge a game's popularity we dont do it based on sale data.

 

[ds]

This is your future codextards.

Arkane did it better.

Edit: Rehosted image for those that don't know to configure their browser to not send the Referer header.

 

[Hag]

Looking at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_in_video_games#Best-selling_video_games Morrowind doesn't make any list. Those were the games normies/casuals knew and were talking about back then. No one talked about Morrowind in my online circles either.

Morrowind had no copy protection. I got the game and both expansion from a friend who shared it with at least three other people who all played it a lot. Only needed a no-cd crack (possibly from a floppy, what a time) and that was it.
But here in France even before playing it I distinctly remember it was praised for its visuals at the time (water shaders !), and then from an unsollicited two pages article from a wargame magazine saying in short "this is the best thing awesome go play it ggllglglghrlh".

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

There's no point in quoting best selling figures. Console games will always top them.

 

[oblivionenjoyer]

There's no point in quoting best selling figures. Console games will always top them.

You mean like Morrowind?

 

[Sordid MCA/Prosper Hybryd]

Add one more to the pile of posters skeptical of Roguey's thesis here. I remember multiple friends that I had no idea were into gaming coming up to me in the year following Morrowind's release and telling me how awesome it was... and then finding out they had played it on XBox and didn't even really know that computer gaming was a thing (also they all uniformly played straight fighters and found the magic and stealth systems unintelligible). If I had to guess, I would posit that Roguey is suffering from some regional bias, and lived in an area that, for whatever reason, Morrowind flew under the radar while Oblivion's release caught fire. This sort of phenomenon was not all that uncommon in the pre-extremely-online-era, especially in more rural communities; I never played a Wizardy title prior to high-school, despite growing up playing Might and Magic, Bard's Tale, and Dungeon Master.

But overall I really don't think the XBox has any peer when it comes to the effect it had on expanding the gaming population of America (and obviously this was not a positive thing for anyone who enjoyed games prior to its release). There are edge cases like the separate advents of mice and 3D chips, or isolated incidences like Myst and The Sims, but none of them had nearly as long-standing an impact. The XBox really fucked things up for everyone who had been in on the ground floor.

Looking at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_in_video_games#Best-selling_video_games Morrowind doesn't make any list. Those were the games normies/casuals knew and were talking about back then. No one talked about Morrowind in my online circles either.

Warcraft 3 also doesn't. Was it also a game that no one knew or talked about?

 

[Roguey]

Warcraft 3 also doesn't. Was it also a game that no one knew or talked about?

I already posted NPD numbers, Morrowind wasn't doing Blizzard numbers.

 

[Sordid MCA/Prosper Hybryd]

1-2 million after four years was pretty good

http://web.archive.org/web/20100710090443/http:/www.elderscrolls.com/news/press_081705.htm
4 million by 2005

 

[Harthwain]

There's no point in quoting best selling figures. Console games will always top them.

You mean like Morrowind?

You got to try harder than that.

Morrowind was designed as a PC game first. Erik Parker, the programmer, said pretty it much: "Originally, we were going to be a PC-only title, but Todd wanted really, really badly to get Morrowind on the Xbox". You can compare PC version to Xbox and the number of shortcomings that appears on the console should be proof enough to show which version was the original one. Below I provided a timestamped video that lists the advantages of PC versus console version of the game:



It's Oblivion that became a true console game first and a PC game second.

 

[Ryzer]

Morrowind is actually not very good with its god-awful static game world and fetch quests.
All they needed to do was going full Gothic and let the Daggerfall / Morrowind magic/armor system untouched.

 

[Roguey]

1-2 million after four years was pretty good

http://web.archive.org/web/20100710090443/http:/www.elderscrolls.com/news/press_081705.htm
4 million by 2005

Ah, I see. I guess it somehow was a bigger hit on xbox than PC.

 

[DJOGamer PT]

The only clown here is you, for having god awful taste in RPGs.

Says the Disco Elysium fanboy...

 

[Skorpion]

This is your future codextards.

A baby yoda-thing toy and a fidget spinner...
The future is bleak bros

 

[Lyric Suite]

This is your future codextards.

So this is the kind of porn zoomers consume? Kinda fitting.

 

[oblivionenjoyer]

The only clown here is you, for having god awful taste in RPGs.

Says the Disco Elysium fanboy...

Disco Elysium has the best setting and worldbuilding out of any RPG released in the last 10 years.

 

[Skorpion]

The only clown here is you, for having god awful taste in RPGs.

Says the Disco Elysium fanboy...

Disco Elysium has the best setting and worldbuilding out of any RPG released in the last 10 years.

So does any number of books, even some choose your own adventure style books!
Doesnt make them an RPG though

 

[Butter]

The only clown here is you, for having god awful taste in RPGs.

Says the Disco Elysium fanboy...

Disco Elysium has the best setting and worldbuilding out of any RPG released in the last 10 years.

 

[oblivionenjoyer]

The only clown here is you, for having god awful taste in RPGs.

Says the Disco Elysium fanboy...

Disco Elysium has the best setting and worldbuilding out of any RPG released in the last 10 years.

So does any number of books, even some choose your own adventure style books!
Doesnt make them an RPG though

Interesting levelling system, engaging dialogue where choices and checks actually matter, p good story.

Other than the side quests being hilariously awful I don't see what makes it a bad RPG at all.

 

[oblivionenjoyer]

The only clown here is you, for having god awful taste in RPGs.

Says the Disco Elysium fanboy...

Disco Elysium has the best setting and worldbuilding out of any RPG released in the last 10 years.

Dunno what that is but the guy's armour looks like Wolfenstein so I'm gonna have to give it a pre-emptive 0.

 

[Ryzer]

The only clown here is you, for having god awful taste in RPGs.

Says the Disco Elysium fanboy...

Disco Elysium has the best setting and worldbuilding out of any RPG released in the last 10 years.

Lol, not even close, Underrail has like the same two-three maps repeated a hundred times with different layouts.
If that's good worldbuilding, then you are ultimately clueless.
I may even add that Skyrim has better worldbuilding than Underrail.