Unhealthy interest in sales figures

[Vault Dweller]

Personally I thought that a game like this would be a total flop, bought only by most loyal AoD fans. 25k doesn't seem bad IMO.

It's not, considering that many indie RPGs struggle to hit even 10k copies sold.

I wonder though if it wouldn't be more beneficial if you would wait a bit longer before you've dropped the price to 1/4th of the initial AoD value. To me it seemed like 50% and 75% sales were too early but maybe you needed the money.

Didn't. It just made sense back then but it's all trial and error anyway.

The average price in just half a year has dropped by over 2.5 $, that's significant.

Bur we sold 27k copies and $15 avg isn't bad either. Keep in mind that the avg price reflects not only the discounts but also the regional prices.

Are you happy with AoD and DR copies sold during the Summer Sale?

We've done better in the past (with the same discount). Overall, I think that weekend sales are better for small studios than grand sale events when literally everything is on sale.

 

[Fenix]

regional prices

Yeah, feel sorry for Russia, but we are in deep ass, right on the way to feodalism and it's economics, so it's like Great Depression now in Russia...

 

[MRY]

Overall, I think that weekend sales are better for small studios than grand sale events when literally everything is on sale.

By far the best are the thematic sales where a small group of tangentially related games are put on sale at once and featured on Steam's front page. After that, it does seem like just random sales outperform big sales events once your game has been out for a while and is somewhat less on the radar.

 

[t]

At least the average price of DR didn't drop lately.

Anyway, numbers look good, both games should sell a bunch over the next three years, and then TNW comes out.

 

[Whisper]

regional prices

Yeah, feel sorry for Russia, but we are in deep ass, right on the way to feodalism and it's economics, so it's like Great Depression now in Russia...

Because of USA sanctions.

And sactions are made by bullshit excuse of "Crimea". Why should USA care about whose Crimea is - they shouldnt give a fuck, its just a pretext.

 

[Fenix]

Sanctions not even near to actual reasons, but they widely used as an excuse by government, yeah.

 

[HoboForEternity]

So aod is almost 2 years old and dungeon rats is alnost 1 year old.

How have they fare in the age of steam direct and greenlight flood?

 

[Vault Dweller]

On Dec 7:

AoD: 66,228
DR: 8,924

On Jan 4:

AoD: 82,529, $1,412,614, avg.price $17.12
DR: 14,998, $94,981, avg.price $6.33

On Mar 6:

AoD: 97,612, avg. price $15.29
DR: 19,148, avg. price $6.07

On July 5:

AoD: 109,149, avg. price $14.48
DR: 24,068, avg. price $6.07

On Oct 4:

AoD: 116,193, avg. price $14.15
DR: 28,523, avg. price $5.87

 

[Goral]

That's 77 copies per day since July 5th for AoD and 49 for DR while between March 6th and July 5th it was 95 and 41 (40,7). A significant drop for AoD considering the average price dropped again (i.e. most people who bought it, bought it on sale again).

 

[skycycle]

Those numbers look good, AoD has sold 50,000 from December to October - an average of 5,000 per month, while DR has moved almost 19,000 in the same period.

 

[Eyestabber]

Progress on TNW has been going strong and steady so I assume DR and AoD sold enough to keep ITS in business, but not enough to send them all to the land of cocaine and hookers. From what I've seen so far, TNW looks like a sure bet. But then again, I thought DR would sell like hotcakes so...

 

[Fenix]

You see, it was too hard for mainstream crowd, and had less in grafixxx than mainstream fellow can bear...
Look at DOS2 - tacticool - not that deep as in AoD\DR but not restrictive - with tons of exploits, grafixx, sex with lizards and skellingtons - that's all the crowd wants.
Sad but true.

 

[CRD]

I remember the times when I was worried because you were saying that to break even still needed to sell thousands more. And then here we are, waiting impatiently to "The new world" knowing that you will not die of starvation in the meanwhile.

 

[Vault Dweller]

AoD: 120,253, avg.price $13.92
DR: 31,082, avg.price $5.70

 

[Zeriel]

So much for the "JUST DROP THE PRICE, YOU'LL SELL MORE" meme.

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

you need to monetize the game more, where's the DLC and microtransactions?
- female animations DLC (models that don't look like trannies, female combat animations etc) $10
- power armor pack, start the game with power armor (reduced stats so actual power armor is still an upgrade) $5
- new game plus patch, start game with an imported endgame character, keep all skillpoints and equipment $5
etc

the possibilities are endless

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

the pillars on which every RPG rests are babes, gore and combat XP, AoD only has gore (not enough tho) and combat XP but no babes, you'll never break a million copies with no babes, you should work on that female DLC pack I've mentioned earlier

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

DLC is a bit difficult for me to imagine on a game like AoD. You play it through once or twice to see the endings. It's all about choices and consequences. Also, the challenge of various fights/char builds.

So only DLC you can really add is either cosmetic things, potentially unbalancing new items or an entire new quest branch that would force people into playing the whole thing again - not something most players will do to begin with. The story ends pretty finally, so it's not like you can pull a Witcher 3 and add a new world to the end.

I guess you could do another non-sequel expansion to cover the Aztec world though, but it's probably going to sell differently again.

So really, Dungeon Rats is how I would imagine new DLC that is quality. And really, those numbers aren't too bad considering Dungeon Rats isn't a continuation and is pretty linear.

Bethesda are the ones that are far too lazy with DLC. It's easy to slap in a new horse or whatever because the game is a giant sandbox. More content is more content. Anything they add can be played at any time. A new house, horse armor, whatever. The next time they pick up the game they can play it. Same with Witcher 3's open world.

 

[huckc]

Hopefully the AoD price doesn't drop, if anything it should increase as there is nothing like it on the market and probably not any time soon.

 

[HeatEXTEND]

you need to monetize the game more, where's the DLC and microtransactions?
- female animations DLC (models that don't look like trannies, female combat animations etc) $10
- power armor pack, start the game with power armor (reduced stats so actual power armor is still an upgrade) $5
- new game plus patch, start game with an imported endgame character, keep all skillpoints and equipment $5
etc

the possibilities are endless

Games that I would never spend a dollar on have all the options to throw money at them you could ever imagine
Games that I'd gladly shower with money every couple of months don't even have the option

 

[laclongquan]

Vault Dweller How about you commission for some art good enough at wallpaper-level then do a few eye-candy babes for AoD, Dungeon Rat, and TNW all at once? Kinda a PR offensive but at graphic aspect.

I suppose it would help marketing more.

 

[Goral]

Why was Age of Decadence discounted on Steam (and 80% at that, WTF?) but not on GOG? No wonder that it sells much better on Steam when GOG customers are considered as second category (same goes for achievements for example).

 

[Vault Dweller]

Why was Age of Decadence discounted on Steam (and 80% at that, WTF?) but not on GOG? No wonder that it sells much better on Steam when GOG customers are considered as second category (same goes for achievements for example).

Steam is fully automated now. You get a notification that sales are coming, enter the discounts and it's done. GOG isn't and I was too busy to realize that it's a sale season. For the record I set up Steam sales' discounts back in Sep.

As for the new discount, AoD is selling less and less so we need deeper discounts. Had it been selling better we'd still be at 40% off.

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

Sad it's selling less and less. How many units do you sell daily? In a non sale time.

 

[Fenix]

Why do you think, that setting price lower will help to sell it?
I think, at this stage those who buy it, doesn't matter the price, they seek PRG.
Or I am mistaken?