The Dragon Age: Inquisition Thread

[Franny Frogpill]

Five platforms, tons of marketing, shiny graphics... this will be Bioware's best selling game of all time. Expect many more sequels just like it.

I'm afraid you're right.
I still hope that EA expected more than 3-5mil and that some tears are shed. But that's probably just wishful thinking.

If that reduces your faith in humanity, trust me - you aren't alone.

Good to hear. My faith reached its all-time low with DA2. Since then I've known that the end is nigh!

 

[Shannow]

One million or bust?

Nah. That's for games with a budget ~5-6 mio $. For DAeeh you got to scale accordingly

 

[Infinitron]

A reliable NeoGaf insider reported DAI sold less than 600K across all platforms

That seems hard to believe, unless he's talking about the first day or two, or something.

Got a link?

 

[msxyz]

A reliable NeoGaf insider reported DAI sold less than 600K across all platforms

That seems hard to believe, unless he's talking about the first day or two, or something.

Got a link?

It's in the NeoGAF November 2014 NPD results discussion. The poster was Cream Sugar who has access to actual NPD data. The thread is already 100 pages long. I think it was halfway through the thread. Maybe Google can help.

EDIT: Got it -> http://67.227.255.239/forum/showthread.php?p=142925827#post142925827

 

[Infinitron]

A reliable NeoGaf insider reported DAI sold less than 600K across all platforms

That seems hard to believe, unless he's talking about the first day or two, or something.

Got a link?

It's in the NeoGAF November 2014 NPD results discussion. The poster was Cream Sugar who has access to actual NPD data. The thread is already 100 pages long. I think it was halfway through the thread. Maybe Google can help.

EDIT: Got it -> http://67.227.255.239/forum/showthread.php?p=142925827#post142925827

Well, the game was released in the second half of November. Should probably wait for December numbers before eulogizing Bioware Edmonton. Christmas sales and all that.

 

[abnaxus]

 

[Franny Frogpill]

Yep, no pleasant surprises in sight, sadly.

http://67.227.255.239/forum/showpost.php?p=142963723&postcount=5622

Again, DAI is doing fine: best debut for the franchise to date. Also, digital is way more a factor now than ever so if you add 20% on top, you're looking at a very comfortable margin over the first two games: being 11th for the month where you've been dormant for years and everything else is either an annual sequel or remake all while increasing your sales, hard to see anything bad there

 

[Multiple Sarcasm]

Good luck with that looming job hunt, Jarrett.

 

[Turjan]

Well, the game was released in the second half of November. Should probably wait for December numbers before eulogizing Bioware Edmonton. Christmas sales and all that.

Yup. The late release and not counting digital sales makes the numbers look not that relevant. For example, DA:I was the lead item of Amazon's Black Friday sale at 25% off, which included the digital game download for $45. The GOTY sticker may also sway enough impulse buyers in the Christmas shopping season. However, I can imagine that the numbers of pre-purchases was lower than with previous titles.

 

[Abu Antar]

I've been playing this to and from the last weeks. I still stand by my comments that this basically is an offline MMO. I usually do a few tasks and then go on to play something else. I guess that for someone that has been interested in playing an MMO for years but not had the time, this game fills that gap. But as a single player story driven rpg with good combat, the game falls flat. I don't have anything against BioWare but I can't understand all the GOTY mentions this game is getting on a lot of places. I don't hate the game, that might be because I wasn't expecting the next Baldur's Gate 2, but it isn't even in my top 10 GOTY list, or maybe it'll make the 10th spot if I have only played 9 other games released in 2014.

 

[msxyz]

I'm not surprised about what that Bioware employee wrote. He couldn't have written otherwise!

People should also remember that Origins had a very long tail and continued to sell well for a few months (while DA2 sold very well the first week, then word of mouth killed its sales).

Bioware is now under EA and DA:I was four years in the making. Being profitable is the primary goal for an independent developer paid by project, but large corporations like EA pursue the return of investment and use it as a performance indicator. The fate of the DA franchise will be decided by this: if the board of directors thinks that the same budget used for DA:I could have been spent on a project with a higher ROI, then we can be pretty sure DA4 will never see the light of day.

 

[Prime Junta]

The fate of the DA franchise will be decided by this: if the board of directors thinks that the same budget used for DA:I could have been spent on a project with a higher ROI, then we can be pretty sure DA4 will never see the light of day.

That would be tragic.

 

[Shannow]

Tragic like Ebola or tragic like "My ice cone fell to the floor. Now I have to buy a new one"?

 

[Rake]

The fate of the DA franchise will be decided by this: if the board of directors thinks that the same budget used for DA:I could have been spent on a project with a higher ROI, then we can be pretty sure DA4 will never see the light of day.

That would be tragic.

 

[Prime Junta]

Tragic like Ebola or tragic like "My ice cone fell to the floor. Now I have to buy a new one"?

Explaining it would ruin it.

 

[msxyz]

Tragic like Ebola or tragic like "My ice cone fell to the floor. Now I have to buy a new one"?

More like tragicomic

 

[Malpercio]

"Games like this DO fail. Dragon Age 2 sold pretty poorly for that kind of game."

No, it didn't. It also wans't super hyped. It was pushed out for a quick cash grab which worked. It sold more than the BGs FFS.


Anyone who thinks Viconia wa s a'normal' romance is so lolligagz.

It's not the first time I see BG comparisons, can we stop them? They don't make any sense.

The market is not the same as it was 15 years ago and BG wasn't released on console.

 

[set]

Dragon Age: Inquisition did not make it into the top 10 of best selling games for November in the US.

1.) Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (360, XBO, PS4, PS3, PC)
2.) Grand Theft Auto V (PS4, XBO, 360, PS3)
3.) Super Smash Bros. (NWU, 3DS)
4.) Madden NFL 15 (360, XBO, PS4, PS3)
5.) Pokemon Alpha Sapphire (3DS)
6.) Far Cry 4 (PS4, XBO, 360, PS3, PC)
7.) Pokemon Omega Ruby (3DS)
8.) NBA 2K15 (PS4, 360, XBO, PS3, PC)
9.) Assassin's Creed: Unity (PS4, XBO, PC)
10.) Halo: The Master Chief Collection (XBO)

It shouldn't make me happy that DA:I isn't selling as well as BioWare and EA probably hoped, but it does.

CoD sells as usual, at the very least this CoD game tried to be less shit than the previous ones. So not too bothered by it.
I wonder why Pokemon: AS and OR are counted seperately though. In any case, having your big budget action game outsold by a turn based game now, BioWare?
2 Ubisoft games on there. I guess Ubisoft has 2 cash cows to milk now. This buggy open world game with terrible content trend seems to be going well for them.

How the fuck is AC: Unity still selling when nobody can actually play it?

It is there for the same reason Halo: MCC is there. Hype can carry through a million bugs.

It is no surprise Pokemon outsells Dragon Age. You might be tempted to say, "Isn't this evidence that Turn Based games with RPG elements can still make lots of money?" But no, most business analysts will say, "No, no, it's just Nintendo. People just buy Nintendo products because they are brainwashed to, not because they are fun."

Besides, they see CoD at the #1 spot and continue to champion the cause of making all RPGs emulate FPSes with perks.

 

[Bubbles]

Bioware should have sold themselves to Nintendo then.

 

[BlackAdderBG]

Ride the pokeballs!!!

 

[Rake]

I want to be a pikatsu

 

[PhantasmaNL]

RPGs, even in the action flash bang style of DAI remain niche products so absence in this list is no surprise. Skyrim was probably a fluke. It was silly for EA to aim for Skyrims monumental sales figures with DA. For profit maximizing EA better focus on cookie cutter boring sports sims or even more boring fps, both of which they can squeeze out with little to no effort.

 

[Bliblablubb]

He's super lame, not only in look but also in the entire plot. And the way he zooms around like superman but with awkward animation. And the fact you defeat him like halfway through the story and the rest of the plot is him bitching about it and desperately trying to slap something else together (SPOILERZ!).

Random Bioware employee: "Far Cry 3 killed off his main villain halfway through the game and it sold millions of copies. This could be the key to success so we have to include it in our guaranteed GOTY masterplan (TM)!"

 

[Avellion]

Dragon Age: Inquisition did not make it into the top 10 of best selling games for November in the US.

1.) Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (360, XBO, PS4, PS3, PC)
2.) Grand Theft Auto V (PS4, XBO, 360, PS3)
3.) Super Smash Bros. (NWU, 3DS)
4.) Madden NFL 15 (360, XBO, PS4, PS3)
5.) Pokemon Alpha Sapphire (3DS)
6.) Far Cry 4 (PS4, XBO, 360, PS3, PC)
7.) Pokemon Omega Ruby (3DS)
8.) NBA 2K15 (PS4, 360, XBO, PS3, PC)
9.) Assassin's Creed: Unity (PS4, XBO, PC)
10.) Halo: The Master Chief Collection (XBO)

It shouldn't make me happy that DA:I isn't selling as well as BioWare and EA probably hoped, but it does.

CoD sells as usual, at the very least this CoD game tried to be less shit than the previous ones. So not too bothered by it.
I wonder why Pokemon: AS and OR are counted seperately though. In any case, having your big budget action game outsold by a turn based game now, BioWare?
2 Ubisoft games on there. I guess Ubisoft has 2 cash cows to milk now. This buggy open world game with terrible content trend seems to be going well for them.

How the fuck is AC: Unity still selling when nobody can actually play it?

It is there for the same reason Halo: MCC is there. Hype can carry through a million bugs.

It is no surprise Pokemon outsells Dragon Age. You might be tempted to say, "Isn't this evidence that Turn Based games with RPG elements can still make lots of money?" But no, most business analysts will say, "No, no, it's just Nintendo. People just buy Nintendo products because they are brainwashed to, not because they are fun."

Besides, they see CoD at the #1 spot and continue to champion the cause of making all RPGs emulate FPSes with perks.

Of course it is not surprising. But I still find it silly when AAA publishers claim that turn based games can not sell anymore when Pokemon pulls off 10+ million copies sold, with nearly every mainline game. Of course like you said, people will pull off the "its just Nintendo" excuse.

Making shooters with perks rather than shitstains like this wouldnt be too bad though. I would rather play mass effect 3 than play this abortion.

 

[Malpercio]

Pokemon is kinda of an odd duck, it's a social phenomenon and doesn't really make much sense to compare it to other turn-based RPG.

A lot of people who play Pokemon don't play other RPG and play it because it's Pokemon.