Regardless of good review or bad reviews, DA:I has about run it's course. Unless a Ultimate Edition or expansion is released (or there is a fire sale where the game costs a fraction of the original price) the odds of it seeing even more than 50K more units sold after we enter February is scant.
Oh, c'mon, now you are just being over-pessimistic. A game that sold more than 2.5 millions in 6 weeks WILL sell more than 50K before February.
Wonder what future PC sales for the DA series will look like, seeing how there's mixed reviews and divided opinions in the PC community towards DA:I. Will be interesting to see if BIoWare decides to meet in the middle and cater designs to both console and PC, or if they do what most mainstream devs do and revolve everything around console mechanics.
Separate PC and console Dev teams, at least for UI, controls and testing. In my mind, that would have fixed large swaths of the problems seen for the PC version. Certainly not some of the general complaints, such as a feeling of too much filler and a disconnect between the main plot and lack of expected features, such as the keep system or party tactics... but hey, can't win them all.There was a fantastic marketing campaign done by EA leading up to the release of DA:I and much anticipation it was going to totally redeem the faults of DA2, which likely helped boost sales over DA:O and DA2.
Wonder what future PC sales for the DA series will look like, seeing how there's mixed reviews and divided opinions in the PC community towards DA:I. Will be interesting to see if BIoWare decides to meet in the middle and cater designs to both console and PC, or if they do what most mainstream devs do and revolve everything around console mechanics.
Oh, c'mon, now you are just being over-pessimistic. A game that sold more than 2.5 millions in 6 weeks WILL sell more than 50K before February.
Not like DA2 really set the bar high. Just don't use the same maps. Better combat. More options and choices. DA2 was alright. It was just really short. Act..1...2..3 went by so quickly. This time around it seems like its taking its time. Letting you explore other missions too at your own pace.
Oh, c'mon, now you are just being over-pessimistic. A game that sold more than 2.5 millions in 6 weeks WILL sell more than 50K before February.
That's actually usually how it goes with big AAA titles in sales. The biggest chunk usually happens in 1-2 months just after release and then only spike when there is a sale going on.
Of course, developing for five platforms while also implementing a new engine AND changing the game design focus to be open world, which the team had negligible experience with... DA:I was just a massive, massive technical project, even with the extra development time.
I apologize, I must not have communicated clearly - once we hit February, DA:I will not sell more than 50K more units ever, unless there is an expansion or an Ultimate Edition that includes a LOT of DLC. If you look at sales by the end of January, those are basically "it." And, as with most games, there is an exponential drop in each week after release. We're already pretty close to "it" right now.
Ok. But even there I think you are being too pessimistic. Check the numbers for the best selling platform on games with good reviews like DA:O or Skyrim:
http://www.vgchartz....origins/Global/
http://www.vgchartz....-skyrim/Global/
By the end of week 10 (mid-January for both) they were at more or less only 65% of the total sales they would eventually get.
And by the way, at week 10 the best selling platform of DA:O had 1.37 millions. DA:I for PS4 is almost there at week 6.
Given all the other issues they were contending with, they never should have attempted five platforms. The PS3 and 360 hardware are quite clearly not up to running DAI properly, as can be seen from the massive graphics downgrades. Players on those platforms have good cause to feel slighted, they got sold a dummy.
It's funny... I know a number of people who are playing on a PS3 who seem to be perfectly content with their experience. And they both have PC and console experience with the previous DA games.
Ok. But even there I think you are being too pessimistic. Check the numbers for the best selling platform on games with good reviews like DA:O or Skyrim:
http://www.vgchartz....origins/Global/
http://www.vgchartz....-skyrim/Global/
By the end of week 10 (mid-January for both) they were at more or less only 65% of the total sales they would eventually get.
And by the way, at week 10 the best selling platform of DA:O had 1.37 millions. DA:I for PS4 is almost there at week 6.
It's funny... I know a number of people who are playing on a PS3 who seem to be perfectly content with their experience. And they both have PC and console experience with the previous DA games.
You chose very anomalous examples.
First off, modding toolkits were released with both games, which GREATLY extends the lifespan of the game. In addition, spikes were seen around both games' expansions, something Bioware has not pursued in over six years, as well as DA:O's Ultimate Edition.
To put it simply, you chose two of the most aberrant games in RPG history to make your case. I can pull literally any other game released in the past decade to support mine.
O rly? Then why are there entire threads dedicates to complaints specific to old gen consoles?
You chose very anomalous examples.
First off, modding toolkits were released with both games, which GREATLY extends the lifespan of the game. In addition, spikes were seen around both games' expansions, something Bioware has not pursued in over six years, as well as DA:O's Ultimate Edition.
To put it simply, you chose two of the most aberrant games in RPG history to make your case. I can pull literally any other game released in the past decade to support mine.
I pulled games that I consider have a similar profile to DA:I. Take a look at another recent Bioware series:
Mass effect 2 for XB360: http://www.vgchartz....ffect-2/Global/(less than 50% at week 10, but the game launched at a bad selling month in general for video games, so the difference makes sense).
Mass effect 3 for XB360: http://www.vgchartz....ffect-3/Global/(around 67% at week 10 similar to DA:O and Skyrim).
I think it makes sense to try to look for patterns in similar games with a fan base that might have a similar behavior.
DA:I won't get something like Awakening, but it has a multiplayer that can extend the life of the game, and it will get a GOTY edition at some point, after all the DLCs are launched, just like every GOTY got in the past 5 years at least.
Of course we will be able to make a better judgement once we get the full numbers for the first 10 weeks, and I'm not a business analyst for a video game company so of course I could be completely wrong about this stuff, but overall I'd say it doesn't look bad. The game already outsold DA2, has a very good chance of outselling DA:O, and definitely brought the DA series back to being relevant. It seems pretty clear that we'll get DA for a while now.
I always find such threads funny. Because, let's be frank here, what any of us think about sales numbers means jack squat.
The only people who have to be happy with the sales are the wall street warriors (the investors/shareholders). And believe me when I say: They will get accurate data.
What the peons think is completely irrelevant. Because the big companies know that while there ae many who moan, they will buy nonetheless. 
I never get sales...
In music forums do people try to prove One Direction or Justin Bierber are good because they sell much?
No, because it doesn't mean a thing.
Now among musicians they could compare sale numbers, then it could make sense.
Same here. If we had a population of D&D players, of BG, NWN, KOTOR and DAO lovers. Perhaps that would make sense.
Justin Bieber can be fun and enjoyable, as Inquisition can. But music complexity is minimal. So I doubt people into Mozart or Dream Theater would gain anything from Justin Bieber, same with Inquisition. I love listening to pop music, but if I bought a Mumford and Sons album and it sounded like Britney Spears I would be really pissed off. It doesn't matter if it is Cradle of Filth or Taylor swift, I want it sounding like it was supposed to. Same goes with Dragon Age. You can't even control Darkspawns if your song sounds different each day.
I kind of feel the same way I've felt since the beginning which is that DA:I has marginally more interesting characters and stories than a typical AAA game and moderately worse gameplay. It falls in the unfortunate category of being less appealing story wise than most Japanese games and less appealing game wise than most western games.
Even though WoW has frequently had less interesting characters in many respects, I still frequently play it over recent Bioware games because the game itself is usually much more interesting.
People strike me as evaluating Bioware mostly for past performance in that story category, I mean about 33% of DA:I was just recycled from DA:O in one capacity or another.
I don't really mean this just to be negative, but wherever the sales end up I think there are clear reasons a random objective buyer could have for staying away, and perhaps, for not staying away. I think they would of had to press down harder on story to make it really different and crazy to position themselves because of the gameplay advantage held by most FPS companies, etc.
That's actually usually how it goes with big AAA titles in sales. The biggest chunk usually happens in 1-2 months just after release and then only spike when there is a sale going on.
Yep. DAO was a interesting and telling exception to the rule in that regard.
Lies. Show me one example where VGChartz has proven to be off by more than 15% total units.
While that's not dead point accurate, the fact that it is the only public metric out there makes it relevant. Being off by 500K units when total sales are over 5M is sample variance, not inaccuracy.
You have to consider the changing industry and the way DA:I sold.VGC counts only physical units but in the case of DA:I, most sales happened online.Why?Because of the following reasons.
1.)Overall, as time moves on more and more people buy games online, and less in stores.The people who buy games in stores, are generally(not all) those who don't spend that much time online and base their buying decisions on the basis of popular title names such as CoD or AC which they hear of via local word of mouth.
2.)Dragon Age Inquisition is highly advertised on Origin and other online platforms and is flooding people with advertisments that say "Buy DA:I on Origin, it is GOTY".People who look at these advertisments and decide to buy the game, generally buy the game on the platform it is advertised on.
3.)Digital download bonuses and online preorders.
4.)Online features such as the keep, encourage the "do and buy **** on the internet" mentallity.It might sound far fetched, but it is proven that games which incorporate online features get substantialy more digital sales .
Overwall, it is pretty safe to asume that DA:I has a HUGE sale number that is ignored by VGCcharts due to many reasons.It is safe to assume that with the digital sales DA:I outsold it's predecessors by a mile!
Keep on rockin' GOTY!
EDIT:
Also to your arguments that games usually sell less after the first few months.That is true most of the time.But NOT with GOTYs.Statistically, GOTYs get TONS of sales long after the game releases since people want to experience these "games that define a year" that are presumably, extremely good.
If I recall correctly, DA:O was a slow burner. It never sold particularly fast, but it sold decently and consistently for a matter of years.
DA:I won't get something like Awakening, but it has a multiplayer that can extend the life of the game, and it will get a GOTY edition at some point, after all the DLCs are launched, just like every GOTY got in the past 5 years at least.
Considering BioWare didn't release a GOTY for Mass Effect 1, Mass Effect 2, or Mass Effect 3 I am not sure how accurate that statement is when it comes to BioWare games for yes Mass Effect 3 did win some GOTY awards and some RPG of the year as well.
Given all the other issues they were contending with, they never should have attempted five platforms. The PS3 and 360 hardware are quite clearly not up to running DAI properly, as can be seen from the massive graphics downgrades. Players on those platforms have good cause to feel slighted, they got sold a dummy.
Any PS3 or 360 user that was expecting the game to look close to what it does on the PC and PS4/XB1 were really kidding themselves. As it is, the game still looks better than Origins and DA2 on the old-gen platforms, even if not worlds over like it does on next-gen, but as of the patch, it does at least function as intended. I fully expected a downgrade in graphics on my PS3, but was glad to have it anyway so that I don't have to buy a whole new console just yet just to get this one game.
Guest_MauveTick_*
Not surprised. This game is getting better reviews and better word of mouth than the last one.
It also probably helped that EA released Dragon Age Origins for free for awhile and it sparked more interest for this game.
Better professional reviews yes.
Better word of mouth? Depends on who you are and who you talk to.
Dude, that source is 100% unreliable.
Better professional reviews yes.
Better word of mouth? Depends on who you are and who you talk to.
I think it's worth noting that DA2 got stellar professional reviews (at least at first). I think that tells us everything we need to know about the credibility of so-called professional reviews at least in computer gaming.
As for DAI, I think it's almost undeniable that DAI has gotten a better public reception/reviews than DA2. I would also say that this is a fairly low bar (yes I know a lot of people left on BSN like DA2, but overall, it wasn't a good game and the public reception of it was telling in that regard).
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