From the Embracer Groups latest financials. Last sales number we got was 2 million units in June 2019.
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World War Z has sold over 3 million units; Saber now houses over 600 employees across 6 countries
- Thread starter MauroNL
- Start date
From the Embracer Groups latest financials. Last sales number we got was 2 million units in June 2019.
That's good to hear. Wonder how many GamePass installs/plays count towards that 3 million?
WWZ is a great game, so I'm glad it's considered successful.
WWZ is a great game, so I'm glad it's considered successful.
The 3 million copies sold number was actually from October 2019, but nobody made a thread and it wasn't widely reported.
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2019-10-18-saber-interactive-acquires-bigmoon-entertainment
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2019-10-18-saber-interactive-acquires-bigmoon-entertainment
Only played the first mission with a friend. Bought it for like $4.99 on Epic. No wonder they've sold so many copies.
Yes, but GamePass must recompense the developers/publishers somehow in the form of counting installs or plays as 'sold copies'.
Wait, it's on GamePass?! Sweet, must get it downloaded!
Surprised at how well it'd done. For some reason I thought it had bombed.
Surprised at how well it'd done. For some reason I thought it had bombed.
GamePass does not compensate for "units sold". It only compensates in "players" and hard cash revenue.
Okay wait, how do you support a team of 600 employees with only 3 million sales? No insult to the game, those are good numbers for a video game.
Edit: nvm this studio has a bunch of releases every year including the Witcher 3 port for the Switch (which was a technical marvel). Makes sense now.
Edit: nvm this studio has a bunch of releases every year including the Witcher 3 port for the Switch (which was a technical marvel). Makes sense now.
They've made a lot of games though. It's not like they've just had 600 people to work purely on WWZ.
I mean, the obvious answer is they make more than World War Z. They do ports, work as a support studio, just released Snowrunner which sold a million in a couple weeks, etc.
They have multiple studios and multiple teams.
They work on World War Z, but they also develop SnowRunner, WWE 2K Battlegrounds, and a bunch of other projects. They did the Switch port of The Witcher 3, for example. So WWZ uses only a minority of the workforce. On top of that, there is a long-term DLC plan, so that will generate extra revenue for them.
I'd just like to say that I edited my post after I realized my mistake and THEN saw the three following posts correcting me.
I know you already edited your post but I just wanted to explain in more detail.
Many of the contracts they have would have been for cash upfront, covering the cost of development plus a profit margin, games like Halo Online (cancelled), Halo Anniversary, Witcher 3, Quake Champions, would have had their costs funded by the publisher / IP holder.
Heck even World War Z was developed with paramount. I don't know the ins and outs of their dealings but it's likely an upfront cash payment + a profit split on game sales.
It's also worth bearing in mind that the 3 million units number isn't static, it's increasing every day, and that they also sell DLC.
A company like Sabre interactive really thrives off of those external contracts. So long as they keep securing them, they'll keep growing. It's the same with companies like Sumo Digital in the UK (500+ employees).
Creative Assembly has 600 devs as well and they support themselves thanks to Total War a PC-only series.
I mean, it's a solid game (and some visual aspects look surprisingly good, the trailers did not do it any favours). Gameplay gets a bit repetitive after a while, but it's a great game to jump in after a the day is over and kill some zombies with friends.
World War Z seems to be a long-term license. While it's not actually set in stone in this interview with GameDaily.biz, there is an hypothetical situation of an IP lease of 99 years being mentioned in the article, and I wouldn't be surprised if >10 years is also what we should think about in the case of World War Z.
When Saber was acquired by Embracer Group in February, Matt Karch elaborated on this in the earnings call, at 1:10:00 in the webcast (his main segment explaining the Saber business is also very interesting, it starts at 39:35, and it has some very funny moments as well).
Guess I should buy this game someday.
They're working on Crysis remastered right? Any news on that?
They're working on Crysis remastered right? Any news on that?
I kinda bounced off this one, but the game had some awesome character models / design. And I appreciated that the primary weapons were on "slings". 99% of devs put weapons on the characters' back, and it's so stupid. No one uses a weapon from their back lol. Where did they get this idea? So dumb. Anyway, I digress. Game was pretty cool with some memorable elements.
L4D was my favorite game of the PS360 gen. And I've been dying for another game like it. Is this a good substitute?
It's pretty much the same thing with a different coat of paint. But also 3rd person, if you're ok with that.
No.
You can have 10 million players and not sold 10 million copies (free week-ends and F2P titles)
