77 réponses à ce sujet

[xSTONEYx187x]

I'm always curious about how many units my favourite games shift, and seeing as Mass Effect is one of my favourite franchises ever, it's nice to see the X360 version sold 2.5m which means Bioware/EA made their profit and then some. How did I figure this out?

Let's say Mass effect 2 cost $30-40 million to develope, market, hire VA's etc etc. And now let's say each copy sold for $60, multiply that by 2.5 million and you get a return of $180 million, give or take a few million.

Anyway, back to my question, how many units did the PC version ship? My guess would be around1.5- 2 million, but VGChartz* doesn't list PC games for some reason.

* denotes my source has not the best. lol

[MajesticJazz]

Not as many as the 360 version.

[padaE]

I have no idea. I think at least 500k.

[Michel1986]

MajesticJazz wrote...

Not as many as the 360 version.

Any proof for that ? <_<

[Slayer299]

As far as I know there are no records kept for PC digital sales and I've yet to hear of someone who tracks PC sales. I know VGCHartz is supposed to do X360/PS3 but there are some issues regarding how VGC acquires those numbers.

[nutshell43]

"some issues" is a nice euphemism for "they're pulling them out of their asses"

[apotheosic]

somewhere around 6 or 7.

[DTKT]

I dont know.

At least 1, that's for sure.

[Phaedon]

Any site that claims to know how many were sold on retail, is a fraud, at least partially.
And there is always, Steam, ME2 was always 'hot' on Steam from what I can tell.

[Phaedon]

Slayer299 wrote...know VGCHartz is supposed to do X360/PS3 but there are some issues regarding how VGC acquires those numbers.

VGCHartz

And this is the site that Bioware accused of displaying incorrect numbers when ME1 was released. Not the best source of information.

[charmingcharlie]

xSTONEYx187x wrote...

Let's say Mass effect 2 cost $30-40 million to develope, market, hire VA's etc etc. And now let's say each copy sold for $60, multiply that by 2.5 million and you get a return of $180 million, give or take a few million.

Well for a starters your figures are way off, when you plonk your 60 bucks down on the gamestop counter you will find most of that $60 never actually makes it to the publisher/developer.  I saw a recent breakdown of where your money goes, it is in UK pounds but the percentages will apply in the US as well :-

Game costs = £39.99

Minus VAT = £7 (17.5%)
Shop takes = £10.50 (27%)
Distribution = £0.65 (2%)
Marketing = £1.75 (4-5%)
Console Royalty fee = £8 (20%)
Publisher gets = £12 (30%)

Source

So when you buy a game for $60 you will find EA see about $18 of it after everyone has taken their slice of the pie.  So 2.5 million copies at $18 means EA see just $45,000,000 to cover the costs of Mass Effect 2.  It doesn't take a mathamatician to figure out that if ME 2 cost around $35 million to make then EA only saw $10 million profit.

As for PC sales figures these are never made public (I don't know why) it is foolish to assume that it sold better on the Xbox 360 because that is not always the case with games.  Suffice to say we are getting Mass Effect 3 on the PC so obviously it was profitable enough for them to make the final game on the PC and that should be enough for us.

[halO bendeR]

You're also assuming everyone who bought it, payed $60. The game currently retails for $20 and has done so for quite awhile.

[james1976]

PC retail is still $50 if there isn't a sale going.

[xSTONEYx187x]

charmingcharlie wrote...

xSTONEYx187x wrote...

Let's say Mass effect 2 cost $30-40 million to develope, market, hire VA's etc etc. And now let's say each copy sold for $60, multiply that by 2.5 million and you get a return of $180 million, give or take a few million.

Well for a starters your figures are way off, when you plonk your 60 bucks down on the gamestop counter you will find most of that $60 never actually makes it to the publisher/developer.  I saw a recent breakdown of where your money goes, it is in UK pounds but the percentages will apply in the US as well :-

Game costs = £39.99

Minus VAT = £7 (17.5%)
Shop takes = £10.50 (27%)
Distribution = £0.65 (2%)
Marketing = £1.75 (4-5%)
Console Royalty fee = £8 (20%)
Publisher gets = £12 (30%)

Source

So when you buy a game for $60 you will find EA see about $18 of it after everyone has taken their slice of the pie.  So 2.5 million copies at $18 means EA see just $45,000,000 to cover the costs of Mass Effect 2.  It doesn't take a mathamatician to figure out that if ME 2 cost around $35 million to make then EA only saw $10 million profit.

As for PC sales figures these are never made public (I don't know why) it is foolish to assume that it sold better on the Xbox 360 because that is not always the case with games.  Suffice to say we are getting Mass Effect 3 on the PC so obviously it was profitable enough for them to make the final game on the PC and that should be enough for us.

You obviously took some sort of offense to what I posted, why, I don't know. It was a simple question. And how is it foolish to assume the the PC version sold less? . . . . . . .

Modifié par xSTONEYx187x, 01 mars 2011 - 10:51 .

[xSTONEYx187x]

halO bendeR wrote...

You're also assuming everyone who bought it, payed $60. The game currently retails for $20 and has done so for quite awhile.

Exactly, an assumption.

[halO bendeR]

xSTONEYx187x wrote...

halO bendeR wrote...

You're also assuming everyone who bought it, payed $60. The game currently retails for $20 and has done so for quite awhile.

Exactly, an assumption.

Yes, but one that doesn't hold up.

[charmingcharlie]

xSTONEYx187x wrote...

You obviously took some sort of offense to what I posted, why, I don't know. It was a simple question. And how is it foolish to assume the the PC version sold less? . . . . . . .

How did I take offense ?  I merely corrected your maths which were way off the mark.  It is foolish to assume that ME 2 sold better on the Xbox 360 because there is NO evidence to suggest that.  There have been plenty of examples where the PC version of a game outsold the Xbox 360 version of the same game.  To just go "oh well it is obvious ME 2 sold better on the 360 than the PC" when there is no evidence to support that is a bit short sighted.

I don't know if ME 2 sold better on the 360 than it did on the PC, you don't know if it did either.  The only people that will be aware of how well ME 2 did on the PC is EA.  At the end of the day though it is irrelevant the fact is ME 2 obviously did well enough on the PC to ensure we get ME 3 which is what matters not the NUMBERS.

[Jaron Oberyn]

DTKT wrote...

I dont know.

At least 1, that's for sure.

Haha don't need proof for that. 

-Polite

[xSTONEYx187x]

charmingcharlie wrote...

xSTONEYx187x wrote...

You obviously took some sort of offense to what I posted, why, I don't know. It was a simple question. And how is it foolish to assume the the PC version sold less? . . . . . . .

How did I take offense ?  I merely corrected your maths which were way off the mark.  It is foolish to assume that ME 2 sold better on the Xbox 360 because there is NO evidence to suggest that.  There have been plenty of examples where the PC version of a game outsold the Xbox 360 version of the same game.  To just go "oh well it is obvious ME 2 sold better on the 360 than the PC" when there is no evidence to support that is a bit short sighted.

I don't know if ME 2 sold better on the 360 than it did on the PC, you don't know if it did either.  The only people that will be aware of how well ME 2 did on the PC is EA.  At the end of the day though it is irrelevant the fact is ME 2 obviously did well enough on the PC to ensure we get ME 3 which is what matters not the NUMBERS.

VGChartz have it listed as 2.5 million for X360, yes? Whether they are reliable is another thing. That is why I was asking how many units were sold on PC, I was hoping it was around the same or more.

[marshalleck]

It sold so awesomely that neither Bioware nor EA can talk about it publicly to anyone for any reason. Just like all the other developers and publishers who experience huge sales and don't take the opportunity to advertise their success.

Modifié par marshalleck, 01 mars 2011 - 11:36 .

[Demigod]

As an aside to the retail sales you cant forget digital. This includes Steam et al but also the dlc. On x360 MS and on ps3 (I think) sony will take a cut. But on PC bioware/ea keep the whole thing - any sales tax.

So the initial sales numbers, retail or otherwise, are no longer wholly indicative of how well a product has in fact done.

[shep82]

In the end does it matter? It sold enough for them to officially announce ME 3 on the PC. Had the game done poorly on PC they could have yanked ME 3 from us PC users entirely.

[GreenSoda]

charmingcharlie wrote...

xSTONEYx187x wrote...

You obviously took some sort of offense to what I posted, why, I don't know. It was a simple question. And how is it foolish to assume the the PC version sold less? . . . . . . .

How did I take offense ?  I merely corrected your maths which were way off the mark.  It is foolish to assume that ME 2 sold better on the Xbox 360 because there is NO evidence to suggest that.  There have been plenty of examples where the PC version of a game outsold the Xbox 360 version of the same game.  To just go "oh well it is obvious ME 2 sold better on the 360 than the PC" when there is no evidence to support that is a bit short sighted.

I don't know if ME 2 sold better on the 360 than it did on the PC, you don't know if it did either.  The only people that will be aware of how well ME 2 did on the PC is EA.  At the end of the day though it is irrelevant the fact is ME 2 obviously did well enough on the PC to ensure we get ME 3 which is what matters not the NUMBERS.

Wasn't there a time -some months after the release of ME2- when we a) knew (roughly) how many units were moved on the 360 and how many units were moved of ME2 in total ?...from that one can easily extrapolite the amount of units sold on the PC.
I think it was something like 80 / 20 (80% being 360 versions)...anyhow it was enough for ME3PC so I guess that's all that matters.

[charmingcharlie]

xSTONEYx187x wrote...

VGChartz have it listed as 2.5 million for X360, yes? Whether they are reliable is another thing. That is why I was asking how many units were sold on PC, I was hoping it was around the same or more.

VGChartz information isn't worth the pixels on the screen, they have no idea how many copies were sold on the Xbox 360.  They have a "guesstimate" but that is it and their previous guesstimates have been wide of the mark plenty of times.  The only people that know how well ME 2 sold is EA and they have never divulged the split in terms of sales.

We simply do not know how many copies were sold on the PC it is that simple.  The only thing we can say with absolute certainty is that the game sold 2 million copies in it's first week. 

However we can assume from Bioware/EA's actions that they consider the PC version a success sales wise because they continue to support the PC version via DLC and they are releasing Mass Effect 3 on the PC.  If ME 2 hadn't been a success for EA we would not be seeing the DLC or ME 3 on the PC.

[MajesticJazz]

Michel1986 wrote...

MajesticJazz wrote...

Not as many as the 360 version.

Any proof for that ? <_<

Common sense? Games on consoles have always sold more than their PC counterpart.