Numbers are not there for the change the endings side

#1
plaguecaller

Posté 16 mars 2012 - 03:51

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189 messages

First week numbers for Mass Effect 3 are in. The game sold 1.85 million units, which is up from 890,000 in its first day in North America. The Xbox 360 version sold 1.28 million units (69%), while the PlayStation 3 version sold 370,000 units (20%). The PC version sold 200,000 units (11%) at retail.

This is an increase over the previous game in the franchise, Mass Effect 2, which sold one million units in its opening week at retail across the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC. The Xbox 360 version increased by 410,000, the PlayStation 3 version by 280,000 and the PC version by 163,000. The original version of the game sold just 384,121 units in its opening week in May, 2008. This shows that the franchise has increased in popularity dramatically.

So reflecting on this and watching the board I started to play with some numbers. Knowing I don’t have all the facts but looking at some amounts. They show a pretty bleak picture for the people complaining about wanting a different ending.

1.8 million x’s $45.00 = $81,000,000 – 30,000 (people who are whining or have chosen not to play because of reading the boards) @ $1,350,000

Means about $78,000,000 in sales after the complainer loss of 1.3 million is factored into play. This does not include the fact that people complaining actually bought the game played it then complained about it. So the real sales total makes it around $80 million.

And conservatively look at your potential negative influence; you may have managed to get maybe 30,000 people to choose not paying to play. It’s not in the hundred thousand ranges of no sales because we would have heard that by now.

You are not that significant. At the most there maybe what 1500 posters on this board that are actually complaining. Taking into account the biggest complaints threads here are around 3-4k posts and allow for each poster a minimum of two posts.

Bioware probably does care about you returning to buy more product most corporations do, but your sense of exceptionalism and entitlement to a product you do not own is not mirrored by the sales numbers.
In a risk analysis it turns into a $78 million gained even after your $1.3 million, loss affecting sales. Not taking into account you did pay for the games and they really did make 80 million in the first week.

Take a step back and think.

As of March 9th 3.5 million copies shipped.
http://videogames.co...s-north-america

The rest of the ME3 buying world is against you no matter what you may want to believe. You are not as supported as you want to think you are. You are not the majority of players. You may want to get used to it. You are certainly the loudest of the groups so Kudus’ to you, but not the biggest.

Thanks for your passion it does not amount to a hill of beans in the big picture.

Modifié par plaguecaller, 16 mars 2012 - 03:55 .

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#2
Guest_Iveforgotmypassword_*

Posté 16 mars 2012 - 04:40

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I think you've missed the point.. Don't forget the delivery charges, how much the retailers pay for the games, how much to make them, staff salaries, voice actors, advertising etc it all depends on profit margins and how big they are. Will the lost sales affect quality of future products only time will tell.

Anybody has a right as a consumer to complain when they buy something and are not satisfied with it, people are complaining because what they bought didn't add up to the sales pitch that they were given that choices matter and influence the ending dramatically when in fact all they got were the same 3 endings with slight variations be they renegade or paragon or having saved whoever.

You cannot say that the rest of the ME3 buying world is against them as there will always be people that are silent or even people like myself that can't say anything because I haven't bought it ( due to a last minute ban on people posting on the ME3 forum without buying the game ) and wont unless the endings are changed.

The real test will be on sales of Bioware's next product as they have now lost a lot of trust. Do not forget this was the final part of a trilogy and that will always get a lot of sales anyway especially when the other two parts were so well done. Saying that they've shipped x ammount means nothing if very quickly the game goes straight out the charts and secondhand copies are going for pennies this means that no more will be made and hence no steady little income trickling in.

It is too early to say anything, the fact that only half have been sold shows something too if the rest don't sell that's the real problem. Come back and say something when they're printing more that will be of far greater significance.

Not everybody spends all their time reading the internet or obsesssing about games so lots of people don't have a clue about what is going on and will buy the game. Who knows what their reaction will be and you cannot say that the "rest of the ME3 buying world is against them" because unless you ask this silent majority what they really think you will never know the truth and the fact that they are silent means that's impossible.

Future sales of Bioware products will be the only true test of what has happened and nothing else and for all the people out there campaigning for a better ending I salute you because as far as I can see this product ( and that's what it is ) was sold under false pretences it's as simple as that. People were lead up the garden path just to discover there was a big monster waiting at the end to eat them. So let Bioware have their money now but how long will it last ?

Statistics can always be moved around to support arguments politicians do it all the time to support their causes. The fact that Amazon are dropping the price of Mass Effect 3 just over a week after it released is something that I'd be a bit more interested in if I was an executive of EA/Bioware and I certainly wouldn't be patting myself on the back about how many were shipped.

Modifié par Iveforgotmypassword, 16 mars 2012 - 04:42 .