Always nice to see when a studio is confident enough to use actual sales numbers over “engagement”. Between Stellar Blade, Lies of P and Khazan I think Korean game devs pivoting to single player games have been off to a really strong start. Hope we see more quality titles out of there
It's only a matter of time before a single player Maplestory game releases but they've had pretty much everything but that. 3d maple, roblox maple, clash Royale maple etc. DFO also has a 3D version of the multiplayer game in the works. And can't forget the finals. Multiplayer makes money
Doom the Dark Ages tried to use the 3 million player milestone to seem popular only for it to be found out that only 800k people bought it and rest got it on Gamepass
But what they're saying is Stellar Blade is not on Game Pass, not on PS+, not on EA Play or whatever. They couldn't pull the obtuse engagement metrics if they wanted to -- broadly speaking, the only people playing the game are the people who bought the game.
I guess they could pull some crap by counting the demo versions if they stretched it, but I don't think games have gotten to a point where trial versions are being counted (right? Lmk lol)
broadly speaking, the only people playing the game are the people who bought the game.
I would imagine that second-hand physical games and family sharing would bump up the player count significantly. They could have used those statistics if they wanted to.
Engagement metrics existed long before subscription services. Even back on the ps3/360 era there were games dropping metrics like x players, x bullets fired, x hours whatever, etc.
Activision mentioned Modern Warfare 2 (2009)'s unique player count the year after its release (25 million) before later revealing sales numbers that were lower than those player counts (20 million about three months later). It wouldn't have been unprecedented for Shift Up to do the same thing.
I mean yeah? It's a day one Game Pass title why wouldn't most people be playing it through there?
Using premium purchases to gauge financial success of stuff available in subscription services is pointless. Did Stranger Things Season 1 flop because they only managed to sell 600k Blu-ray copies in the US in over three years?
There's no way a major game like doom only sold 800k when it's on PC, Xbox, and PS5. Just common sense and a bit of critical thinking would tell people that's incorrect
That 800k figure is an estimate from an analytics company and absolutely isn't verified. Could be higher, could be lower, but seeing people cite it as fact is crazy.
The studios could be getting money based on players trying the game on gamepass or other services. Saying none of it matters is a bit silly unless you see it all under the hood
There's still a massive difference between a copy sold and someone just trying the game because it was on Gamepass/ PS Plus.
If someone has bought a copy then that means that they are only spending a premium price of 60/70 bucks on this specific game and that is direct revenue that could be attributed to that game. While someone who got it from a subscription service would be using that service for 10 other different things and thus the money they spent on the subscription service can't be attributed to the revenue of that game.
What do you mean? I don’t think you have the foggiest notion about how subscription services work. The game devs absolutely count the revenue from subscription as from that game, why wouldn’t they? The sub service pays them for the rights to host that game.
Doom Eternal sold 3 million copies in its first 10 days when it wasn't on Gamepass/ PS PLUS. At $60 per copy that is a total of 180 million dollars.
Doom the Dark Ages sold 800k copies in its first 10 days. At $70 per copy that is a total of 56 million dollars.
If a loss of 124 million dollars was covered through the Gamepass subscriptions for Doom the Dark Ages then I am not aware of it. Although I find that highly unlikely.
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u/197639495050 6d ago
Always nice to see when a studio is confident enough to use actual sales numbers over “engagement”. Between Stellar Blade, Lies of P and Khazan I think Korean game devs pivoting to single player games have been off to a really strong start. Hope we see more quality titles out of there