8 réponses à ce sujet

[Rixxencaxx]

Well..in the end...
when dao came out lovers/haters ratio was 10-1
since awakening came out lovers/haters ratio was 2-10
this ratio is similar in all gamers forums (not only bioware's)
I think that bioware lost a lot of customers.
Since bioware became another cheap developer we can look only to blizzard and to the really promising witcher 2
eastern european companies are developing really great original games nowadays...
a lot of western companies are into the cut cost just go china syndrome...
just my opinion...

[David Gaider]

WilliamShatner wrote...
DA:O:A sold 130,000 copies across both 360 and PS3 in its first week.

Comparatively DA:O sold 320,000 on 360 alone in its first week.

Hopefully all sales are as poor as the consoles suggest and will force BioWare not to be so half-assed when it comes to future follow-ups.

Err... not to burst your bubble or anything, but if those sales figures are true (I haven't seen any, myself) then they are excellent. The sales for expansions are traditionally much, much lower than the sales of the original game... hence why expansions have smaller teams working on them and are done in less time. If the sales bar you're holding it to is the original game, it's not the same bar we're using. Sorry.

[David Gaider]

worksa8 wrote...
True, but I bet you would gain a lot of sales- and less people trading/returning/whatever if they patched the MASSIVE glitchfest going on. I can understand a few things escaping development, but how do you miss these kind?

I'm not going to comment on bugs, as they're not my department, but they do happen no matter what game we put out. Information on any potential patch will be forthcoming -- they take time -- and bugs can be reported on the tech forums. That's where people will be looking for them.

[David Gaider]

Crrash wrote...
i really didn't know expansions usually did that much worse.

On the order of 10-20% of the sales of the original game, if I'm not mistaken -- though normally they come out much later than Awakenings did, compared to the release of the original. It will be interesting to see how that affects sales, if it does. But, yes, expansions only sell a small percentage of the original sales. Most people never pick them up, no matter how much they enjoyed the original. The opinions of our most ardent fans that you find here on the forums (as much as we love you guys) don't really reflect the opinions of the average user -- but I'm sure that's self-evident.

[David Gaider]

worksa8 wrote...
Edit: Really I am just frustrated and impatient. After going out and spending what I have left on a game so buggy that I could not stand to play it, it just seems...."Erk" xP

Understood. I'm sure we're just as frustrated as you are -- the trouble with such bugs is that they are rarely consistent across all platforms and PC set-ups, and thus are difficult to pinpoint, and with a smaller team that means less eyes on the potential convolutions. But there are people working on it, and I'm certain you'll hear more soon.

worksa8 wrote...
That makes sense really. Still, you gotta
wonder if some things were done differently- could the sales have been
even better?

Maybe? It's hard to say. Do bugs affect sales? It's more of a philosophical question, as I suppose we'll never really know now.

Modifié par David Gaider, 27 mars 2010 - 04:46 .

[David Gaider]

worksa8 wrote...
I appreciate your responses btw Gaider, it's been too long without even so much as a peep from any of the Bioware staff- It feels like they were ignoring the community entirely- if you lose the major fans, then you pretty much lose a great advertising system as well.

Many of us are just really busy -- I'm eyeballs-deep in my next project, which means I just don't have much time to come here, period. As for the people whose job it is to come here, many of them are collecting info rather than posting. So it doesn't mean threads aren't being looked at, if you're wondering -- though clearly we can't look at everything.

TheMadCat wrote...
Wow only 10-20? I've chatted with a few
developers and it usually is somewhere around 50% when requiring an
original title with them, higher if it's a stand alone. I suppose genre
might make a difference, these are all small time strategy game
developers, but 10-20 seems like an awful low goal.

That may just be our expansions, I don't know, but 50% seems very high.

Modifié par David Gaider, 27 mars 2010 - 04:53 .

[David Gaider]

bluewolv1970 wrote...
Doesn't change the fact that the mind numbing inconsistancies and contiunuity turned off many players myself included...not caring about a players relationships with other characters did not help either(as is evidenced by not including the zev/le letters)...do some people like awakenings...sure . Was it well received by the community as a whole and critically by reviewers no...and  this crappy expansion make not affect sales for awakening but it will affect sales of the next expansion  when many fans (myself included) are wary...

I wasn't attempting to change that fact. My point was only addressing the perception of sales when it comes to expansions. By all means, be wary if you prefer. I don't think anyone should buy any game that they don't think will be fun for them.

Modifié par David Gaider, 27 mars 2010 - 09:29 .

[David Gaider]

Dallo wrote...
What about the Nwn expansions?  I feel certain they would've sold quite well.

They sold as well as we expected them to, which is why there was a much smaller team working on the NWN expansions than on NWN itself. The main team which worked on NWN was on another full project.

There are more than 4000 playable, community made modules, many with DL counts > 100k.  This doesn't include the many PWs and other products made exclusively for DMed sessions.

As someone who made one of those modules I know that modders are usually keen to incorporate any new material included in expansions, thus necessitating any would-be players to also purchase them.  Seems to me, then, that SoU and HotU would've performed quite well, certainly better than the 10-20% that you quote.

Modders are great for building a community and giving a game longevity, but the number of people who modded for NWN or who ever played those mods was only ever a small portion compared to the total that bought NWN (or its expansions). I know it can seem like everyone is involved when you're part of the online community, because that's all you're seeing, but the numbers just don't bear out, sorry.

[David Gaider]

sami jo wrote...
And really, it isn't all that clear that the opinions of the vocal few who frequent this site aren't the opinions of the silent masses who do not.  They are, after all, apathetic enough to remain silent.

Well, first off: whoa.

I'm not suggesting that there are no problems, or that the opinions of the fans here on these forums are to be discounted. The response you quoted was directed at the idea that the sales of an expansion should rival the sales of the original game or be counted as a failure -- and, yes, the opinions of the fans here on the forums can run into the extreme. I sympathize with the people  who didn't like the expansion as much as they thought they would (or should), but I think some of the emotional reaction found here is evidence of what I'm talking about (complimentary as it may be). While there's no evidence to suggest that the silent masses don't feel the same as the people on these forums, as you suggest, there's no evidence that they do either ... there's only evidence that they're likely to be far less emotionally invested than the people here.

That said, I'm well aware of the reaction of the people on these forums, as is BioWare in general. I only came here to respond to the notion that the sales figures quoted should "teach us a lesson" -- we have yet to see what the sales figures will teach us. ("Us" in this case being the company in general, as opposed to me personally -- I don't decide what resources are or are not offered to any project I'm working on.)

Insofar as your reaction otherwise, feel free to offer feedback, as always. For those people who are talking about bugs, I suggest reporting them on the tech support forums along with pertinent details -- that's where info on bugs is going to be collected. I'm not involved in the bug-fixing process myself, but I imagine details on what's going to happen with any potential patch are going to be forthcoming.

Modifié par David Gaider, 29 mars 2010 - 07:49 .