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World War Z: >2 mln copies sold, 700k on PC, EGS is the top digital platform, performing way above expectations
- Thread starter benzopil
- Start date
Well deserved. Game is a blast and me and my friends are still playing it. Good post-launch support too.
Need more levels and MP maps now but.
Need more levels and MP maps now but.
Think it's more people are still hungry for Left 4 Dead. Really surprising we've had a whole gen and the closest titles to it are this and vermintide.
Wasn't the game something like 10€ in the Epic Sale? Anyway seems like good numbers for them.
lmao
lmao
Yeah this is super accurate in my experience. I know tons of people who have been excited for this (and Vermintide) and it's always essentially because 'it's like Left 4 Dead!'. People love this style of game and there aren't a ton of them.
Nah, 20€. That's still nearly 50% off one month after release.
So... yeah.
To be fair, a near 30% discount all paid by the store for a whole month is a big support lol.
In fairness, Vermintide 2 is a fantastic game in it's own right, it does enough things differently to separate itself from the crowd. Disclaimer: I'm a huge fan.
Also, fuck Epic.
"Here's why they're wrong about their own experience"
EDIT: Spelling. Also can we call this "gamersplaining"?
This is why I don't have much concern for developers when it comes down to the EGS situation because it seems even they don't have an understanding of things from a customer perspective.
Sony makes game only for Sony hardware =/= third party developer makes game for consoles and PC but only allows it to be bought from a DIFFERENT third party's digital storefront.
Oh I'm fatigued alright, fatigued from killing all these zombies.
While I'm happy for the devs since their game has been doing relatively well, I'd say that using this game as an example of "see, games sell well on EGS!" is a bit disingenuous.
Vermintide 2, a game in the same genre, sold 1 million in a shorter period, all at full price, unlike WWZ, which had the $10 off Epic promo (that might not seem so big in the USA for instance, but was pretty big here in Argentina, considering the base game costs 19 dollars).
Vermintide 2, a game in the same genre, sold 1 million in a shorter period, all at full price, unlike WWZ, which had the $10 off Epic promo (that might not seem so big in the USA for instance, but was pretty big here in Argentina, considering the base game costs 19 dollars).
Well that is also ignoring the history of such things on PC, which is rather non-existent.
It was 20 dollars with the epic sale (with the publisher getting their cut off of 30) so that helped bump up sales for sure. Its not rocket science egs is the top performer. Epic is subsidizing the game and giving the profit to the publisher. Good deal for the publisher.
The game was discounted on top of the 10 dollars off. It basically has gone from 35 bucks to 20 bucks.
So yeah, that was 40% off a month after release.
Despite the lack of "competition" on the store, the game couldn't realize its full sales potential. When I say games like Vermintide selling more and faster in a more competitive landscape, when I see Mordhau selling over a million in a month or Risk of Rain 2 selling over a million. I definitely feel like they dropped the ball here with World War Z. While those are good numbers in absolute, it also paint a reality where one of the biggest seller on that store couldn't break a million after 2 months and a 40% off discount a month after release. With "no competition".
For the record, the previously reported figure was 320k EGS copies sold, on the second week after release.
That means there were 380k EGS copies sold since. Assuming AMD promo copies are excluded, and given that the last figures as of a month ago was "nearly two million players", I think it would be reasonable to assume that the bulk of these EGS copies was purchased during the MegaSale.
Napkin maths time:
1) Assuming that World War Z has exceeded the sales guarantee/repaid the advance, and is getting charged the 12% store fee,
2) assuming that 75% of the 380k sales were made during the Megasale (so, 285k), and
3) assuming all of these 285k sales were US sales (again, napkin maths!)
Epic was losing $10 - $3.60 = $6.4 for each copy sold during the Mega Sale
Which means that we can estimate that Epic lost $1.824 million dollars on World War Z alone during the Mega Sale.
This is not sustainable in the slightest.
The punchline: this is probably an underestimate. Since the Mega Sale was a fixed $10 discount on any game priced $15 or higher, Epic's losses would have been greater the cheaper the Mega Sale price was.
That means there were 380k EGS copies sold since. Assuming AMD promo copies are excluded, and given that the last figures as of a month ago was "nearly two million players", I think it would be reasonable to assume that the bulk of these EGS copies was purchased during the MegaSale.
Napkin maths time:
1) Assuming that World War Z has exceeded the sales guarantee/repaid the advance, and is getting charged the 12% store fee,
2) assuming that 75% of the 380k sales were made during the Megasale (so, 285k), and
3) assuming all of these 285k sales were US sales (again, napkin maths!)
Epic was losing $10 - $3.60 = $6.4 for each copy sold during the Mega Sale
Which means that we can estimate that Epic lost $1.824 million dollars on World War Z alone during the Mega Sale.
This is not sustainable in the slightest.
The punchline: this is probably an underestimate. Since the Mega Sale was a fixed $10 discount on any game priced $15 or higher, Epic's losses would have been greater the cheaper the Mega Sale price was.
Maybe they don't want to add a shopping cart because they don't want people to buy more games. 🤔
Or any other PC gaming community. Even checking out a store like Fanatical on Facebook when they asked about if anyone had bought something from Epic, people write they hate the store.
a staggering percentage of Steam games are heavily discounted after launch. Most don't hit 700k in sales.
This happens when there's a good game, on a platform it seems many aren't averse to using.
I've got buddies who are super serious about having me try this game. I won't play it on EGS but I ain't gonna sleep on it like I did with DBD either. Thinking about grabbing it on Xbox
They gained customers and users. That's what they've wanted all along. Weird flex to say they've 'lost' when this probably plays out as a success story for them.
It depends on whether or not most of these new users buy (multiple) games outside of Mega Sales in order to recoup the loss. Given the dearth of sales figures for EGS exclusives, it's not a prediction I would be willing to make.
thats great and all for the dev. but lets be honest, it oculd have sold way more. fact is they are happy cause they got money upfront plus the sales. it could have gone 1 million easily on steam.
They haven't necessarily got money upfront + sales. EGS deals tend to be pre-purchase of copies. So Epic will pay for x number of copies before the game even releases, but then you don't get any money from sales until you hit that number. So depending on how many copies were pre-bought by Epic, WWZ devs (more accurately publisher), might not have seen a cent yet.