The thing is they aren't even saying how their products are selling while every other platform holder reveals numbers, there are people here who care about sales numbers.
Xbox Wire: State of Decay 2 exceeds 2 million players in less than two weeks
- Thread starter Theorry
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Yes, a dev confirmed on here but I'm going to have to try and track down the post now! Although the fact that games are only on the service for a limited time points very clearly in that direction too.
So many things are subscriber based now, it's not that way nothing is it? I really don't understand why games would be different. What is so hard to grasp for people?
Also looking ahead, sales will eventually drop on gamepass games if it's really successful like I think it will be and that will be a good thing.
Also looking ahead, sales will eventually drop on gamepass games if it's really successful like I think it will be and that will be a good thing.
Game Pass is working its wonders and hopefully has lead to a good turnaround of people being able to try out the game and then perhaps getting it later on. Hopefully we can see just what success it has if Microsoft decides to talk about it during their conference next week.
I didn't realise they'd released actual sell-through numbers for Sea of Thieves?
Don't twist my words, I never said the devs are lazy. SoD2 was released with way too much jank and technical issues. It worries me that more than 2 million people find this acceptable.
Even *if* these all are GP players, 2 million GP owners would be pretty mindblowing.
I bought Skyrim at twice the price with equivalent technical issues (in my opinion), and I enjoyed it. I realize the two games are nowhere near comparable, Skyrim just popped into my mind.
I think technical issues can be overlooked if the game is fun enough, and judging by the 20 gig patch SoD2 just received I think they will be working hard to fix (some of) them.
I also played the original, so I was expecting issues with the game. I do understand what you are saying though, but I feel that nowadays if the developers hold a title back to fix all the issues, the game will just never release.
MS doesn't have to. People need to deal with it at this point. It's not like the users crying about sales figures would use those numbers for anything productive. This is how MS measures success and they are happy with it.. so it's really of no use to anyone who actually buys the game and is having fun with it.
They didn't.
And people will keep asking for it, there are people interested to know how the market is doing, what is selling and what isn't just like how others are interested in talking about games, obscuring numbers will get them nothing other than people being cautious with what to call a success or not.
Nice one Undead Labs! It's cool to see a fairly small shop with a big ideas able to grow and enhance their concept.
I'm so far enjoying SoD2 quite a lot and I look forward to seeing the game develop going forward.
I'm so far enjoying SoD2 quite a lot and I look forward to seeing the game develop going forward.
It's the same thing with the Internet Wrestling Community. They're the most hardcore portion of the overall fanbase, but they're also the smallest and most insignificant segment in the grand scheme of things.
Agree, basically all my friends are now GP subscribbers, i think it's pretty successful!
As someone who works in the music industry, let me tell you, we judge our bands in 2018 solely on their CD sales. We also recognise that the users on the bands forums need to know up-to-date CD sales numbers at all times so we always release those straight to the fans because it's very important they know exactly how many CD sales there have been.
If anyone tries to tell you that streaming stats, merch and live tickets matter these days then they're lying. It's all about physical sales.
/s
I mean I downloaded this purely because I got a free trial of game pass. I'd of probably erred on the side of caution if I was purchasing it outright. Game pass trial is actually a blessing because a few games on there honestly aren't worth purchasing so it's best to try them out and then you can breathe a sigh of relief when you've realised the massive bullet dodged. I think a more accurate measurement of success would be how many of those 2 million are actually still playing the game? Or of those 2 million what is average play time of the user per game. Same goes for Sea of Thieves
Sea of Thieves and SoD2 are great games. My 11 year old is addicted to SoT (her first MMO) and I put a few hours into SoD2 after the patch this weekend. It's one of very few "intense" games I really enjoy. It's also my favorite zombie game(s) in the entire genre.
I like the fact that Game Pass brings an instant online community to games. I'm not a multiplayer gamer much, but for those that love co-op, you get an instant Day 1 jump. Great for gaming/games in general.
I like the fact that Game Pass brings an instant online community to games. I'm not a multiplayer gamer much, but for those that love co-op, you get an instant Day 1 jump. Great for gaming/games in general.
The problem with these kind of stats, with multiple titles, is we don't know how many unique players there are, or how they split between different games.
How many of the 2m State of Decay 2 players where part of the 2m Sea of Thieves players? How many play both, how many dropped one for the other, how many new subscribers joined the service. Does the income stream from total subscribers cover what they'd expect from those titles at retail.......and so on.
The only way to discern how well GamePass (and individual titles) are performing is if we can track said stats. Microsoft could announce Sea of Thieves has topped 3m players. But the active player base could be under 200k.
If we're going to talk about numbers we have to dig into the detail. It's the detail that will determine how successful the service and titles are. I'd expect Microsoft to continue announcing launch week(s) GamePass numbers for their major releases. It just tells us very little in terms of active players and revenue streams.
But what's the point moaning about not getting numbers when you know you won't get numbers? I mean... Why? It won't change anytime soon.
I do think some forget the affect a $30 MSRP can have on a release though. The game simply has a lot going for it. On the one hand, it's more flattering to show the player base across more than one channel, but a paid game getting 2+ million players within a few weeks is an excellent result, full stop. Particularly a more fringe game like this. There's not a way this isn't impressive for SoD2's [individual game sales], [paid Game Pass subscriptions], or [both].
I think that hobbyist observers who are genuinely interested in analysing the market could profit from the realization that the market is changing, and so are the ways of measuring success in it. Also, the realization that companies don't have to publicly disclose any such numbers if they don't want to.
First of all, that patch wasn't 20GB because the devs fixed so many bugs. The patch was that big because the devs decided to replace the whole f*cking game instead of patching it. But that's another discussion...
Being a dev myself, I know that bug-free software doesn't exist. But you can't deny that SoD2 had lots of very obvious/visible bugs, comparable to some early access games I've played.
But I guess I'm more a "vote with your wallet" guy than most other people. The fact that there are more good games than I have time to play them may be a reason for this.
I doubt most people have issues with various opinions but I can only speak for myself which is I grow tired of seeing the same people acting negative in every Xbox/Windows related topic. Granted Microsoft has not done a very good job most of this generation with games but it's the same folks always quick to judge everything they do.
The thing is it's very hard now to release any game that doesn't need patching post launch, that includes hardware as well. Luckily we live in an era where it's quite easy to download and install patches on game consoles. Yes some games need more testing than others but it's probably cheaper and quicker to fix it after it's out in the public. How a developer supports a game post launch (and how fast they address them) to me is much more important than issues that arise early on.
Sales numbers are for console warriors looking to have a fight. If it's doing well who cares?
Did you play State of Decay 2? Based on your loud and frequent distaste for the Windows Store and Xbox I'm presuming not but had to ask. Because this idea that SOD2 is some bug filled, broken mess that should be boycotted is weird to me. Yeah it's buggy. But not a crazy amount more than loads of other games. There's nothing malicious or dangerous about the state it's in. I've personally only played for about 5 or 6 hours but I've not run into anything resembling game breaking or anything that has affected the game at all really... I'm trying to think of a bug I've had and I'm struggling. My car got stuck in a parking spot once I think? I just don't think it's worthy of this over dramatic and repeated vitriol. Unless you've played it and just think it's a bad game of course. Then fair enough.
Different people have different priorities. I can't fault you or anyone else for not wanting to touch a buggy game, especially one that has permadeath.
For me though, the sim layer and the diverse randomly generated characters are a major draw, so much so that I can overlook the jankiness. Few games, especially on consoles, do similar things as SoD2. I am also voting with my wallet, because I want to see more games like that.
I do have higher tolerance for bugs. Mass Effect 1 kept crashing on my PC, still a very memorable experience.
Sure, the sales threads we get weekly and monthly are for console warriors.
Did you forget you are on an enthusiasts message board? Sales numbers are not just for console warriors.
Revenue is good. Revenue helps companies make a sequel. If you have a lot of revenue generated by a title and you liked it, the odds are good that you will have a sequel. Which is a good thing.
That's why I care.
Right, which is why I think it's important Microsoft said players and not sales. Some seemed to be dismissing it outright and that just seems like archaic thinking. Game Pass just seems completely pro-consumer and the only reason I'd think to dismiss it or dislike is it platform tribalism (I don't think you're doing this at all, you know I like you).
Given their Microsoft Studio head's comments recently about the direction they are taking their studios, they clearly see GaaS and keeping people in their Game Pass and XBL Gold memberships as important if not more than raw sales.
The worst part is he probably thinks nobody notices it.
Bright red above his post, everyone sees it this time.
As long as the game is making revenue why do you need to know if God of War outsold Gears of War etc? Is there a value that's attributed to that?
Like review scores, sales figures add nothing to vibrant discussions. In my opinion ofc
I obviously didn't buy it in the WinStore, but yes, I've played SoD2 on my friends (original) X1 and I've watched several streams and reviews. Besides crashes and performance issues, I've witnessed hilarious bugs like moonwalking zombies in the air, upside-down doors, floating objects etc.
Except for some early access games I've played (or seen playing), I can't remember seeing so many obvious bugs in a game. That's the only reason why I find it strange to see so many people accept it.
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Granted, it's a large percentage (most) of the size of the original game, but 20GB is smaller than the total game....before the patch. I believer the original install was between 24-30GB.
There are few games as good as SoD2 is in the survival/zombie genre. I've been playing it instead of anything else across all my hardware.
The game runs just fine. I've yet to hit a single bug. The first game was janky too, and awesome despite it. I'll chime in when I have a glitch/problem with it though.
I like to personally put a lot of time into games before making comments like yours. People report all their problems, so you'll find plenty online. They don't do a write up or hit the forums to exclaim how "not buggy" a game is.
I'm playing it on X1X. I could play it on my PC, but have yet to download it there. No idea if it's better there.
I've only put in about 2 hours on my pc and have yet had a problem. They just updated the game too so I'm not sure if that fixed the major bugs or not. One issue I was having is trying to download and install the game, if you only download part of the game and decide to do it later there's an error. I did it twice because I turn my computer off at night and it wasn't finished downloading. The third time was the charm because I didn't pause or interrupt it and it installed just fine.
Someone is just highlighting your patterns so you either acknowledge it or you don't. This is what I was saying before but I guess you see things differently.
I've honestly only encountered 1 bug that was an issue and it wasn't game breaking. It was a multiplayer bug with driving, I would glitch all over when driving with my friends so I took my own vehicle and everything was fine. It only happened once, it might have just been a network issue at the time.
The other bugs are completely tolerable and some have already been fixed (the flashlight thing was annoying, but again tolerable).
I don't deny the bugs by any means, I think my reply actually acknowledged that there are issues with the game.
I purchased PUBG for my One X in December and I had a miserable time playing it. I got a refund for it after two matches, it was just awful. The gunplay was bad, the driving and general the movement was a mess. Trying to line up another player to kill them was so frustrating because of the shape the game was in. That game to me represents early access.
State of Decay 2 is very playable, even with bugs. I have been able to play the game the way it should be played thus far. It's clunky, it's janky and it's buggy, but I don't think its comparable to an early access game. It's also what I expected from the studio that brought me State of Decay 1.
Engagement is absolutely the most important factor right now. Whenever there is potential for titanic shifts in a fast growing market, engagement determines what piece of that future pie you'll keep.
The short term $30 individual sales are nothing compared to the importance of getting people to try out their service. Millions of dollars in short term revenue is piddly when compared to potentially a multi-billion dollar service with no boundaries in a few years.
The short term $30 individual sales are nothing compared to the importance of getting people to try out their service. Millions of dollars in short term revenue is piddly when compared to potentially a multi-billion dollar service with no boundaries in a few years.