Obsidian's Pillars of Eternity 2 sold like shit. (~110,000 sales)

shiftplusone · Nov 7, 2018

Since i follow Chris Avellone on twitter, I saw that he retweeted this. It's a damn shame, game is so good

3 different tweets

We now have a sense of just how badly #deadfire sold. I invested $1000 in getting it made, and the first dividents from that are in. For all sales from launch through September - the period when any game makes the vast majority of its money - I got $192.67...

...the "breakeven" for investors was about 580,000 sales at $50. This tells us they sold about 110,000. RPGs of this sort do have long tails, but at this juncture there is no way investors are recouping the investment.

To be clear: I always thought the sales target was unrealistic, and my investment was more an act of charity than it was an actual attempt to make money. But I didn't expect it to do *this* badly.

Aokiji · Nov 7, 2018

y i k e s.

maybe this lends to the supposed buyout

Askherserenity · Nov 7, 2018

What. That's way worse than I ever imagined.

LegalEagleMike · Nov 7, 2018

Good thing Phil Spencer showed up with his checkbook then.

Sou Da · Nov 7, 2018

Of course Chris retweeted this

CloseTalker · Nov 7, 2018

That's a shame. I'm keeping an eye on console (especially Switch) versions, but I'll be surprised if they do the UI work to make it play well in handheld mode.

cw_sasuke · Nov 7, 2018

MS likely saved them if true, otherwise they would have had to let a bunch of people go after this kind of bomb.

Deleted member 42 · Nov 7, 2018

Doesn't Chris fuckin' hate them now

LordofPwn · Nov 7, 2018

there was like no marketing or PR for it, i first heard about it because amazon listed it and then it's been radio silence. none of the places i check out talked about it.

Deleted member 13798 · Nov 7, 2018

Aokiji said:
y i k e s.

maybe this lends to the supposed buyout

Almost certainly.

I recognize the first one was of high-quality but quickly determined that it wasn't for me, I'm wondering if this particular project is a bit too niche or something.

Salty Catfish · Nov 7, 2018

A shame but not surprising. That genre is really niche now.

Cap G · Nov 7, 2018

This isn't a surprise to anyone that's followed the game.

Great game though. The level of presentation quality, the combat changes, and the pirate themeing made for a great time.

shoptroll · Nov 7, 2018

LordofPwn said:
there was like no marketing or PR for it, i first heard about it because amazon listed it and then it's been radio silence. none of the places i check out talked about it.

PC Gamers have also been conditioned to wait for sales, which should take the edge off of any initial sales numbers.

shiftplusone · Nov 7, 2018

BronsonLee said:
Doesn't Chris fuckin' hate them now

He definitely hates the management 100% lol

Regardless, the fig data is starting to come out now and this is the results even with him having it out for them

He did tell Phil to hire the devs because they're great, but fire all the idiots who run it

if you ARE doing a deal with Obsidian Ent., I'd really, really look at Pillars of Eternity sales figures (which Fig has indirectly revealed this month, and tried to be cagey about it). Good devs there, terrible management – Hire the devs, fire the chaff at the top.

Spaltazar · Nov 7, 2018

meanwhile larian is selling gangbusters with divinity. fuck, i love larian so much

Khrol · Nov 7, 2018

After the first Pillars I can't blame people for skipping the second. Glad Obsidian will get a chance to do something ambitious and appealing with Microsoft.

Vault · Nov 7, 2018

Fergus is so incompetent the writing was on the wall when they announced they were using Fig.

Larian laughing all the way to the bank

Aokiji · Nov 7, 2018

well if the writing on the wall ends up as expected, MS will have at least 1 AAA WRPG studio in the first party belt.

johancruijff · Nov 7, 2018

meanwhile Kingmaker

StereoVSN · Nov 7, 2018

That's a shame since I enjoyed the game more then first PoE but I think mistakes were made.

- They shouldn't have made it a direct sequel as it really only appeals to those who finished PoE1. Instead look at how Divinity OS2 handles it.
- Main storyline was very weak and quite short. Excellent sidequests weren't really integrated in.
- Pirate theme didn't appeal to people I guess. Personally I liked it but it's not super popular with CRPG crowd.
- Ship Combat underwhelmed people. I thought it was alright but I guess a lot of gamers expected it to be more gameplay based.

ghibli99 · Nov 7, 2018

Damn. I don't remember this being promoted very much at all though. Not nearly to the extent of the first game (and basically to the point where it's easy for me to forget the sequel exists).

shinobi602 · Nov 7, 2018

Sad to see but the genre is shrinking, hence why it's niche now, no matter how great your game is. Couple that with poor marketing leading up to launch and, unfortunately, many PC gamers now used to waiting for sales, the end results won't be pretty.

DeepChord · Nov 7, 2018

Such a shame, it's a fucking great game and the post-launch support has been phenomenal.

decoyplatypus · Nov 7, 2018

I think we'd pretty much accepted the sales figures were bad. But man, it's still such a bummer. Deadfire is a great game, and I'd hoped Obsidian would be able to keep making games like it (if not in the precise subgenre, then at least in the niche-RPG mold).

shiftplusone · Nov 7, 2018

johancruijff said:
meanwhile Kingmaker

yeah i'm not sure what specifically it is about POE that isn't working. Divinity was a runaway success on its first game, Kingmaker is killing it from my understanding, but the PC market just doesn't give a shit about a well made series from the supposed best RPG studio in the industry

Tyranny bombed hard too and I LOVED that game

i doubt the digital version of the pathfinder card game made it big

NinjaScooter · Nov 7, 2018

Why are tweets looking all fucked up today?

MrConbon210 · Nov 7, 2018

The console versions aren't out yet right?

dancingphlower · Nov 7, 2018

Yeah I can definitely see Microsoft picking up Obsidian now.

decoyplatypus · Nov 7, 2018

MrConbon210 said:
The console versions aren't out yet right?

Right.

Deleted member 6235 · Nov 7, 2018

shinobi602 said:
Sad to see but the genre is shrinking, hence why it's niche now, no matter how great your game is. Couple that with poor marketing leading up to launch and, unfortunately, many PC gamers now used to waiting for sales, the end results won't be pretty.

is it though? Divinity is a huge success and Kingmaker is also doing quite well.

Vault · Nov 7, 2018

Divinity Original sin 2 peaked at 93,000 concurrent players

OMEGALUL · Nov 7, 2018

110.000 doesn't seem to bad, for a niche title that got it's budget via kickstarter. any sales seems like pure profit.

Thrill_house · Nov 7, 2018

I loved baldurs gate. I loved divinity OS. I got 3/4s of the way through the first poe got bored as fuck and moved on. Noticed the sequel was pirate themed and figured I'd pass. Sad to hear it did not sell so well. Guess they had no choice but to take ms's offer or fold up judging from sales

Hektor · Nov 7, 2018

shinobi602 said:
Sad to see but the genre is shrinking, hence why it's niche now, no matter how great your game is. Couple that with poor marketing leading up to launch and, unfortunately, many PC gamers now used to waiting for sales, the end results won't be pretty.

Does it really shrink tho?
The two Divinity Original Sin games are million seller with the recent, second game apparently selling even better than the first.

Maybe it's the co-op or the more modern lookin graphics, but there seems to be a successful ship that Obsidian (And Inxile) didn't manage to jump on.

MrConbon210 · Nov 7, 2018

decoyplatypus said:
Right.

Maybe that will help pick up some of the slack? I might be interested on it for Switch if it's fun in handheld mode.

SCB360 · Nov 7, 2018

CloseTalker said:
That's a shame. I'm keeping an eye on console (especially Switch) versions, but I'll be surprised if they do the UI work to make it play well in handheld mode.

Wait, switch version? That'll do very well.

Hmm I wonder if divinity would be suited for switch as well

Wandu · Nov 7, 2018

That sucks. I really hope its still coming to PS4 though. The first game was pretty good.

Ketch · Nov 7, 2018

Khrol said:
After the first Pillars I can't blame people for skipping the second. Glad Obsidian will get a chance to do something ambitious and appealing with Microsoft.

What do you mean?

Both of the pillars games are fantastic in my opinion

Kraken3dfx · Nov 7, 2018

As someone who backed this on Fig, I'm disappointed that it didn't do better, I had a great time with it.

shinobi602 · Nov 7, 2018

Granjinha said:
is it though? Divinity is a huge success and Kingmaker is also doing quite well.

I haven't heard of Kingmaker but I mean, it's definitely not what is used to be right? It's not easy to make headway gains into it. There's not too many studios dabbling in it anymore. Everything has to align perfectly to make dents, which I think Larian did with Divinity.

Hey Please · Nov 7, 2018

Well the author of the tweet does go on to say that these games have long tails. I do hope it sells more and that it shows up on all home consoles.

shinobi602 said:
Sad to see but the genre is shrinking, hence why it's niche now, no matter how great your game is. Couple that with poor marketing leading up to launch and, unfortunately, many PC gamers now used to waiting for sales, the end results won't be pretty.

Are they shrinking on consoles as well? PoE 1, DoS 1 and 2 and Torment are all home consoles now.

vkbest · Nov 7, 2018

I wonder if they has canceled consoles port.

Spaltazar · Nov 7, 2018

Thrill_house said:
Noticed the sequel was pirate themed and figured I'd pass. Sad to hear it sold so well.

savage

yeah yeah i know you meant you were sad to see it sell so bad ;)

ShinobiBk · Nov 7, 2018

OMEGALUL said:
110.000 doesn't seem to bad, for a niche title that got it's budget via kickstarter. any sales seems like pure profit.

I mean, if you read the op you would see that isn't true at all

Vulcano's Assistant · Nov 7, 2018

SCB360 said:
Wait, switch version? That'll do very well.

Hmm I wonder if divinity would be suited for switch as well

Divinity is turn based, it is the easiest to port to console in term of gameplay of the two. They just have to work around it being more graphically demanding.

Decado · Nov 7, 2018

shiftplusone said:
yeah i'm not sure what specifically it is about POE that isn't working. Divinity was a runaway success on its first game, Kingmaker is killing it from my understanding, but the PC market just doesn't give a shit about a well made series from the supposed best RPG studio in the industry

Didn't care much for PoE1, so I didn't pay attention to this one.

Enduin · Nov 7, 2018

Very disappointed this did so poorly. It's such a fantastic game and tremendous improvement over the first. I really do no not see how a game like DOS2 can sell so well while Deadfire can bomb so hard.

I guess people just didn't take to the franchise with the first game which is really unfortunate.

OMEGALUL said:
110.000 doesn't seem to bad, for a niche title that got it's budget via kickstarter. any sales seems like pure profit.

The crowdfunding was only a part of the overall budget, so sales were far from pure profit.

Ashgar · Nov 7, 2018

Pillars 2 is a direct sequel, which means you can't start with it and have a full understanding of what's going on. Even though I find it mechanically superior to Pillars 1, that has to hurt sales a ton. Neither Divinity 2 or Kingmaker has this problem.

OMEGALUL · Nov 7, 2018

ShinobiBk said:
I mean, if you read the op you would see that isn't true at all

They got their budget, and if they can't keep it within budget and avoid unnecessary shit like a physical releases and console releases. It seems like poor management. But we already know that.

Potterson · Nov 7, 2018

Yeah, but why? Is it because of bad managament? The game is perfect for what it is in my opinion, I really loved the sequel.

Obsidian's Pillars of Eternity 2 sold like shit. (~110,000 sales)

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