Dragon Age: Inquisition was BioWare's best selling game, which means it shipped at least 6 million

[Nirolak]

So I just noticed we never had a thread for this.

1.) First up, Mass Effect 3 shipped about 6 million copies, according to EA:

Blake Jorgensen - Electronic Arts Inc. - CFO

And the last Mass Effect did close to 6 million units

http://files.shareholder.com/downlo...49A5-8D8D-87D0AFAE7A7E/EA_Transcript_Q317.pdf

Click to shrink...

2.) Mark Darrah, Executive Producer for Dragon Age and Anthem, noted that Dragon Age: Inquisition is their best selling game:



Mind, 6 million would not actually be that large for a major singleplayer AAA RPG these days, given Skyrim is at 30 million, Fallout 4 shipped 12 million on day one (compared to 7 million for Skyrim), The Witcher 3 is around 10-12+ million, and even games like Dark Souls are moving around 5-6 million on the best performing entries. That said, this is a minimum number for the game, since we only have Mass Effect 3's sales to go on.

 

[Cinemikel]

I foresee shame, disgrace, disgust in this thread

 

[Wolf]

Well deserved, it's one of my favorite Bioware games.

Bring on the hate!

 

[Truant]

Huh. You'd think ME3 would have sold better, but I guess not.

People keep saying there's a good game somewhere inside DA:I if you just focus on the main quest. I guess I have to get back to it some time.

 

[ChaosSmurf]

I would really like to know what number 2 is, and if it's Andromeda.

 

[Deleted member 41931]

I'm glad it did as well as it did. Hopefully that means if Anthem doesn't do well, EA can keep Bioware in some form to keep making Dragon Age. Though knowing EA, I doubt it.

Not to mention it's nice having a game in the AAA space that's willing to explore more complex and controversial subjects like Religon and Sexuality.

 

[Meows]

I thought it was a good game so I am glad it sold well.

I can't believe that their games have sold so little though compared to everyone else... that seems really weird.

 

[Reyes]

Not surprised, good for the game.

 

[Deleted member 15428]

Well, fuck.

 

[Garlador]

I bought it.

I just didn't really enjoy it.

 

[Strangelove_77]

Good. I really liked it.

 

[Nirolak]

I would really like to know what number 2 is, and if it's Andromeda.

Click to shrink...

While EA said that Andromeda did pretty well for them financially, it would be really surprising to me if it moved 6 million copies.

I could maybe see 3-4 based on what we were seeing with things like NPD including digital, but I think if it did 6+, we wouldn't have seen BioWare Montreal's staff all sent over to Motive.

 

[Mezoly]

Well deserved. Great game!

 

[Quintus]

I reckon Anthem will outsell it easily.

 

[funky]

It was a middling game but it released at THE PERFECT time.


I hope they realized its sales are not a reflection of its quality (well Andromeda was using the same blueprint so hopefully that showed them)

 

[Lunchbox]

I remember those dark, dark times. It was also cross gen so yeah, no surprise too.

 

[Darkstorne]

I'm sure I remember Bioware saying they wanted Mass 3 to sell 10 million plus leading up to its release, and that this would be their new sales target for games going forwards. I'll try and dig up the quote, but in the meantime, isn't it weird that their games don't sell more than this? Especially Mass Effect.

EDIT: https://www.kotaku.com.au/2010/07/mass-effect-designer-needs-to-sell-10-million-units/

"Well, we need to sell 10 million units," said BioWare co-founder Dr. Greg Zeschuk. "That's actually the new target, right? We do Top 10 games, our stuff is quite successful."

Click to shrink...

This was also during the buildup to DA2 =P

 

[Rei no Otaku]

Great game. Deserves to sell even more.

 

[Nirolak]

It was a middling game but it released at THE PERFECT time.


I hope they realized its sales are not a reflection of its quality (well Andromeda was using the same blueprint so hopefully that showed them)

Click to shrink...

After Andromeda struggled, they scrapped everything they had for Dragon Age 4 thus far, rebooted the project with a skeleton crew, and sent almost all of the staff to work on Anthem instead, so I think it's safe to say they're updating the game design there.

 

[AcidCat]

Still one of my favorite games of this gen, played through twice.

 

[Puffy]

For all the shit it got at least it had better combat than the witcher 3

 

[Gamer @ Heart]

Loved it.

Combat was fantastic. Crit Archer build was one of the most satisfying things to play as in any action RPG

 

[Interficium]

I had no idea Mass Effect topped out at 6 million copies.

That seems pretty low.

 

[Cybersai]

Mass Effect 3 really sold that poorly? Wow, I had no idea.

 

[Linus815]

definitely shocked me. I figured mass effect would be far more successful considering it has much more mainstream appeal.
and honestly, i enjoyed the game, but its easily one of the weakest offerings of bioware.

 

[edo_kid]

Im still waiting for the Tevinter sequel ...... any day now *sigh*

 

[Mozendo]

Probably my favorite Bioware game from what I've played when it comes to story. That plot twist at the and tresspasser are sooo good

 

[KillerMan91]

Nice to see. Great game. Hopefully it will not take forever to release next one.

 

[Phellps]

Deserves even more. Improved on a lot of things from the first two games and, honestly, is my favorite Dragon Age game, even over Origins. Put more than 250 hours into it. Trespasser is a masterpiece.

 

[Kill3r7]

That is damn impressive considering the online backlash. Beat the game and DLCs last summer. Enjoyed my time with it once I tried out some of the other builds.

 

[Saint-14]

That's pretty low for an AAA multi platform game, I even thought ME was much higher than that.

 

[SageShinigami]

Man, expecting every AAA RPG to do 8+ million is absurd. No wonder we get one a year (max) now.

 

[Zhukov]

Yeah, I am utterly mystified as to how that happened.

I remember a lot of people praising it on release.

Then I finally played it a couple of years later and found myself wishing I could have some of whatever those people were smoking. Because how else did anybody convince themselves to enjoy that soulless checklist-fest?

You have closed 3/7 rifts.
You have visited 9/12 star map shrine thingies.
You have completed 83% of this region.
You have 80/120 influence required to unlock the next mission.
You are having 9/100 fun.

Oh, and the combat can go suck on a sweaty ferret.

At least Solus and the Iron Bull were pretty cool guys.

 

[Mozendo]

Im still waiting for the Tevinter sequel ...... any day now *sigh*

Click to shrink...

IIRC it was being worked on they're starting over again. Think story is one of the things that's getting redone

 

[Tranqueris]

Well deserved, it's one of my favorite Bioware games.

Bring on the hate!

Click to shrink...

Same, a few things in that game were janky as fuck but the story was excellent and the characters were good.

 

[Nirolak]

I had no idea Mass Effect topped out at 6 million copies.

That seems pretty low.

Click to shrink...

Mass Effect 3 really sold that poorly? Wow, I had no idea.

Click to shrink...

definitely shocked me. I figured mass effect would be far more successful considering it has much more mainstream appeal.
and honestly, i enjoyed the game, but its easily one of the weakest offerings of bioware.

Click to shrink...

The first two Mass Effect games averaged out to a combined 7 million (so about 3.5 million for each) by the time Mass Effect 3 was announced, whereas Dragon Age: Origins got to around 4 million shipped in a few months, so it's technically almost always been the bigger series.

This is also part of why BioWare has been looking in new directions and trying things like more action combat and more open world approaches, since their game sales kind of stagnated. Once upon a time, they were a top selling RPG studio, but the genre just grew much bigger than their games ever did.

 

[fanboy]

is it worth to play it these days? I spent 350 hours in witcher 3, if that helps figuring out your answer.

 

[Knight in Shining Armani]

6 million people spent too much time in Hinterlands.

 

[Olengie]

I liked the game. Always love Dragon Age. But I love Dragon Age 2 slightly less compared to Origins and Inquisition.

 

[ChaosSmurf]

While EA said that Andromeda did pretty well for them financially, it would be really surprising to me if it moved 6 million copies.

I could maybe see 3-4 based on what we were seeing with things like NPD including digital, but I think if it did 6+, we wouldn't have seen BioWare Montreal's staff all sent over to Motive.

Click to shrink...

I agree in principle. I think no matter how many copies it sold some decisions had already been made, though, based on what EA said before and after release.

Maybe not, all too easy to believe there was some conspiracy that resulted in a game I was looking forward to so much having such a rocky launch.

Anyway, I think Anthem will outsell this, I hope it will also be good enough to '''deserve''' that, and that DA4 will go on to be something special as well.

 

[Protome]

Well deserved, it's a fantastic game. I'm hoping Anthem is good but also hope it doesn't consume the studio I'd love another DA game or a new ME game by the same team(s) as the trilogy.

 

[Apal_ytos]

Great game. Deserves to sell even more.

Click to shrink...

I agree 100%.
I played the previous DA games, and I feel that this was the first DA that was great without and "buts".
I even bought all of the dlc.
I really don't get the hate that this place has for this game , and bioware in general.

 

[Cap G]

What a depressing world where selling three million copies of a game isn't enough to continue and necessitates radical course correction.

That's what you get for having EA ride your ass though, I guess.

 

[Khrol]

It was a middling game but it released at THE PERFECT time)

Click to shrink...

This

 

[logash]

That should tell them they need to work on the sequel! They've left us hanging with that cliff hanger for way too long and the news about people being pulled off of DA for Anthem is kind of disappointing. Don't get me wrong, I think Anthem looks great but I want another DA!

 

[Vyrance]

Good, I loved the game

 

[HououinKyouma]

Good game.

Great lore and world-building, decent characters and story.

Gameplay was hit or miss.

 

[rras1994]

What a depressing world where selling three million copies of a game isn't enough to continue and necessitates radical course correction.

That's what you get for having EA ride your ass though, I guess.

Click to shrink...

Before EA bought BioWare, they were running out of money despite having launched many critically sucessful games - it really hasn't anything to do with EA and how the gaming industry is.

 

[enkaisu]

Well deserved, it's one of my favorite Bioware games.

Bring on the hate!

Click to shrink...

Yep. And you know what else? I loved Dragon Age 2 as well! It had some hefty flaws no doubt, but I thought the story and characters were great.

 

[Faces of Death]

Loved the game. Never understood all the hate it got.