261 réponses à ce sujet

[Aznable Char]

source: 
http://www.vgchartz.com/weekly/ 

USA retail figures
Does not include returns
Does not include online sales

week 1
xbox 1066947
ps3 289941
pc 114492
--
1471380

week 2
xbox 200521
ps3 57596
pc 24580
--
282697
80.8% drop

week 3
xbox 94675
ps3 28249
pc (ranked 33rd no figure given)
--
122924
56.5% drop

week 4
xbox 57894
ps3 15671
pc ranked 696 no data
--
73565

helpful to compare with: 
http://www.escapistm...gon-Age-2-Sales 


Other relevant information:

Amazon hard copy prices
of ME3 seem to be sinking faster than a lead weight in water. Atm, on 
Amazon ME3 PC is at 31.75, XB is at 40.75, and PS3 is at 39.75. Those 
are huge dives for their respective $59.99 price tags 4 weeks ago. Price
drops like this are usually viewed as significant given they indicate 
retail sales are slowing significantly and that distributors are more 
interested in dumping inventory than weathering the storm. I’m guessing 
that retailers at this point are figuring that new customers at best 
won’t be rushing out to purchase the game until the fix in June so until
then ME3 is just a downgraded/incomplete product. 

^ from 
http://social.biowar.../index/11121763 


WEEK 4 OBSERVATIONS: Trend is downward as predicted . Week 3 observations still hold for now . Agree with quoted section above .

WEEK 3 OBSERVATIONS observations on my part:

the decrease in initial sales was staggering , but not unexpected considering the huge amount of pre-order .
The numbers do show a dip in percentage larger than even DA2
week 3 was when the dip for DA:O occurred as well before word of mouth brought it to the rise

ME3 still has a large total number sold , however , the dent is still evident .
This means , at least in my interpretation , that BioWare has the money since most people pre-ordered and have more than likely recooperated , with profit , their particular sale .

I personally am offended if they run with the money and not address the dislike for the ending . Pro-enders will point to this as "who cares if the percentage is dropping , it's still selling more than DA2" . Whether or not it will sell as many as DA:O which did not benefit from the hype of being the end of a series , is yet to be seen .

Let's not also forget the massive ad campaign that cost them a lot of money .

This also doesn't include return sales which would be interesting to see and only counts units bought so many could have also been bought second hand .

The true economic impact of this can only be seen by BioWare as they are receiving the money being put in . As much as any side may wish to spin the following data , BioWare will know the truth including what percentage they expect to lose in DLC and new game money (imagine , are you really sure that SO many people will pre-order from BioWare again ?) . This is why I personally suspect they'll address the ending in order to attempt to recover consumer confidence . We'll have to see whether or not they're successful .

As much as pro-enders might say that they're winning a victory despite cataclysmic drop in percentage value , their victory is at the cost of future BioWare capital . Their schadenfreude is misplaced considering a better ending will not affect them at all . They can simply refuse to download the DLC if they like the ending so much . Which is exactly why I find their opposition to helping the Retake individuals have a better resolution to be misguided and unfortunate . We are not enemies , but it will hurt BioWare if this initiative does not convince them that they cannot afford to lose a "minority" of avid fans who also referred them to others .

If pro-enders are claiming a victory right now , it will further alienate the Retakers who are already betrayed by this horror of an ending , won't be buying DLCs , won't be pre-ordering , and will be forever suspicious of BioWare's tactics . Help us ensure a quality product from release by banding together on this issue .

Modifié par Aznable Char, 07 avril 2012 - 10:06 .

[corkey sweet]

word of mouth has a lot of power. Look how word of mouth ultimately destroyed DA2. it will eventually kill ME3 as well. word of mouth can drastically decrease a games sales

[AntonioA9011]

Interesting. Thanks for posting this. I was wondering about the sales data.

[xMellowhype]

Wouldn't this be common? Millions people bought MW3 in the first week but since everyone has it the number is bound to go down in week 3.

If you can show this is truly unprecedented in the industry then it means a lot.

[Panicomatic]

That's kind of to be expected in general, first week sales are your main fanbase, then you get the people on the fence in the next month. This game has gotten a lot of negative press though. If they had fleshed out the ending better to a point where it at least made sense then I'm sure the sales would have been significantly higher, though.

[mrderp27]

[Violation of rule #6 removed]

Modifié par Stanley Woo, 29 mars 2012 - 01:00 .

[Panicomatic]

As an afterthought, I'm sure that a lot of websites had increase add revenue based on coverage of the ending. So I guess there's the give and take. I can honestly say that the ending has spawned some amazingly funny and thought provoking media. Perhaps even more entertainment then the ending would have given if it was well written.

Modifié par Panicomatic, 29 mars 2012 - 12:51 .

[deimosmasque]

source for the ME3 sales data?

[ahandsomeshark]

How do these compare to other recent EA AAA titles? It's hard to really say anything with out context.

[Tony208]

It's tanking harder than DA2 at this rate.

People underestimating word of mouth should take a look at Titanic and Avatar. Hype alone doesn't get you those billions.

[Aznable Char]

xMellowhype wrote...

Wouldn't this be common? Millions people bought MW3 in the first week but since everyone has it the number is bound to go down in week 3.

If you can show this is truly unprecedented in the industry then it means a lot.

No no , I agree . It's not unexpected . I listed that in my notes . My main point was that this is week 3 , and from previous exampls it's usually the turning point on where word of mouth starts to impact sales . If a game is good , it'll go up as it did with DAO and the link showed that a good game like DAO reached 2 million units sold . Considering the gigantic nature of ME3 , I would say it would reflect poorly on it if it could not reach that figure . We'll see if it continues to rise or fall . 

[ahandsomeshark]

xMellowhype wrote...

Wouldn't this be common? Millions people bought MW3 in the first week but since everyone has it the number is bound to go down in week 3.

If you can show this is truly unprecedented in the industry then it means a lot.

yeah that's what I would think. All media sales drop majorly in the first 2-3 weeks after release.

[blackangel209]

xMellowhype wrote...

Wouldn't this be common? Millions people bought MW3 in the first week but since everyone has it the number is bound to go down in week 3.

If you can show this is truly unprecedented in the industry then it means a lot.

I doubt MW3's sales went down 90% in 2 weeks.

[Dendio1]

Bioware has something special cooking. Companies never take risks because people over react.

[warrior256]

I don't know how to feel about this. On the one hand, I feel happy to see that the pressure is being put on Bioware as a member of the Retake movement. With such a devestating drop in sales, they can't afford to ignore us for long. At the same time, the part of me that still likes Bioware feels bad that what used to be a great company is getting hit so hard because of five minutes of cliffs. In the end though, Bioware still deserves this.

[ahandsomeshark]

Aznable Char wrote...

xMellowhype wrote...

Wouldn't this be common? Millions people bought MW3 in the first week but since everyone has it the number is bound to go down in week 3.

If you can show this is truly unprecedented in the industry then it means a lot.

No no , I agree . It's not unexpected . I listed that in my notes . My main point was that this is week 3 , and from previous exampls it's usually the turning point on where word of mouth starts to impact sales . If a game is good , it'll go up as it did with DAO and the link showed that a good game like DAO reached 2 million units sold . Considering the gigantic nature of ME3 , I would say it would reflect poorly on it if it could not reach that figure . We'll see if it continues to rise or fall . 

But wouldn't a game like DA:O probably have fewer upfront sales because it's an unknown quantity and then make it up on the back end? Where as Mass Effect at this point is a very known quantity so it's not likely to pick up new fans through word of mouth if those fans weren't picked up by ME1 or ME2.

[Aznable Char]

warrior256 wrote...

I don't know how to feel about this. On the one hand, I feel happy to see that the pressure is being put on Bioware as a member of the Retake movement. With such a devestating drop in sales, they can't afford to ignore us for long. At the same time, the part of me that still likes Bioware feels bad that what used to be a great company is getting hit so hard because of five minutes of cliffs. In the end though, Bioware still deserves this.

At the same time that's the best thing about this .

Because all they need to do is fix five minutes of content and you'll see sales like you have never seen before . 

The fact that it's only the ending that has generated so much controversy is a BLESSING for BioWare because it's relatively short amount of content to be fixed as opposed to people who disliked DA2 for a whole PLETHORA of things .

[ahandsomeshark]

Dendio1 wrote...

Bioware has something special cooking. Companies never take risks because people over react.

I think you're underestimating the craziness of EA. They've been losing value for years and never seem to learn from their mistakes.

[Tovanus]

I can't imagine word of mouth having that much impact on ME 3. If people liked the first two, they'll probably get the third anyway because it's hard to believe the negative hype of how bad the ending is until you've seen it. The negative hype is all true, but still, not easy to believe. Plus, most fans would have bought the game almost immediately at release. It was a big deal, huge marketing everywhere. People who aren't fans aren't that likely to jump into the third game of a trilogy in the first place.

I think the real sales numbers that will tell you what damage has been done won't be seen until Bioware develops a new intellectual property. People will be wary of trusting any IP from Bioware after this. It'd be like the Lost guys starting a new series full of mystery, and saying, "Don't worry guys, we know what we're doing, all your questions will be answered!"

[streamlock]

It would be better if you created a bar chart comparing it with the other ME releases (as % and raw numbers) and compare it to other AAA releases. Shooters, and RPG's.

Just focusing on a couple data points makes you look like a climate researcher commissioned for a senate hearing.

[Lmaoboat]

What is it compared to ME2? Because I would imagine most games drop off after the initial purchases.

[xMellowhype]

blackangel209 wrote...

xMellowhype wrote...

Wouldn't this be common? Millions people bought MW3 in the first week but since everyone has it the number is bound to go down in week 3.

If you can show this is truly unprecedented in the industry then it means a lot.

I doubt MW3's sales went down 90% in 2 weeks.

MW3 sold 17 million console units in its first week. Black Ops sold 25 million units to date. Since MW3's data isn't released yet let's assume its roughly 25 million despite being younger than Black Ops. It's a pretty steep decline after week one sicne that's when the fanpeople all buy it. 

[The_Crazy_Hand]

xMellowhype wrote...

Wouldn't this be common? Millions people bought MW3 in the first week but since everyone has it the number is bound to go down in week 3.

If you can show this is truly unprecedented in the industry then it means a lot.

True, sales are often frontloaded and don't stablilize until like the 5th week, when they've dropped about 90%+ anyway.

Although it is unusual for the drop to be quite this drastic, for what that is worth.

[Aznable Char]

ahandsomeshark wrote...

Aznable Char wrote...

xMellowhype wrote...

Wouldn't this be common? Millions people bought MW3 in the first week but since everyone has it the number is bound to go down in week 3.

If you can show this is truly unprecedented in the industry then it means a lot.

No no , I agree . It's not unexpected . I listed that in my notes . My main point was that this is week 3 , and from previous exampls it's usually the turning point on where word of mouth starts to impact sales . If a game is good , it'll go up as it did with DAO and the link showed that a good game like DAO reached 2 million units sold . Considering the gigantic nature of ME3 , I would say it would reflect poorly on it if it could not reach that figure . We'll see if it continues to rise or fall . 

But wouldn't a game like DA:O probably have fewer upfront sales because it's an unknown quantity and then make it up on the back end? Where as Mass Effect at this point is a very known quantity so it's not likely to pick up new fans through word of mouth if those fans weren't picked up by ME1 or ME2.

Absolutely . This is not something I disagree with . the sheer amount of pre-orders secured BioWare's ability to claim this title to be a financial success , however the data is interesting for me because it also doesn't list returns (especially if we don't see anything mentioned in april) and the trends will also help to indicate whether or not future BioWare titles will receive similarly warm embraces though that is definitely yet to be seen .

The major interesting thing for me is that the pre-sales are what make this game a success and so the spin is easy to make that the hooplah about the ending is irrelevant because look at how much money it's made , but the problem is that literally over 70% of this money was made before anyone knew how the game ended .

Following this is an interesting exercise to see trends in word of mouth which will affect future DLC sales , demonstrate the scope of how badly this game is being received , and predict future viability of pre-sales and other titles .

Other economic indicators of note include the decrease of price on Amazon .

The other interesting thing to think about is that returned games will be counted as sold games even though they net 0 to BioWare (if not a loss in profit) because when retailers report that they sold the title , they don't tell whether it was new or pre-owned . That's one interesting thing to me since we simply have no data to tell how many of these units were actually re-sells

even though amazon itself is a good economic indicator that a title loses so much of its value in just 2 weeks or even in the first week .

[Paparob]

Yes can I have a source please? Also context. How does this compare to other big budget releases from last year, say The Elder Scrolls IV: Skyrim, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Battlefield 3?