Epic Claims Exclusives Strategy Success after Metro Exodus Outsells Last Light at Launch

Flogger23m said:
That is nice and expected but has nothing to do with what I said. Console copies always outsell PC copies. PC makes around 1/3 of total sales for AAA games.
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Are you sure about that? There is alot of missing data in the PC gaming world tanks to the private nature of valve, and thats a big problem for statistics because valve is the biggest player int he PC gaming market. On top of that most of the biggest titles are F2P and dont even have sales numbers that are comparable to associate with them.
 
rudy said:
Are you sure about that? There is alot of missing data in the PC gaming world tanks to the private nature of valve, and thats a big problem for statistics because valve is the biggest player int he PC gaming market. On top of that most of the biggest titles are F2P and dont even have sales numbers that are comparable to associate with them.
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Obviously you can't compare free to play games with traditional games. But for paid games this has been true since the 90s and hasn't changed. There are simply more console gamers who buy games like Metro. Lower barrier to entry is an obvious reason why.

Even accounting for digital sales, PC only took around 30% of the sales of Witcher 3 during the release weeks. As time went on, years later, the PC version started to outsell the console versions for that particular year. But as the launch is when most sales are made consoles will still have sold more. In six weeks they sold 6 million copies. In 2017 they likely sold less than 1 million. And as time goes on the price is discounted, so the revenue will be less. Meaning that while PC sales get closer to console sales long term the revenue per sale will be down. Though depending on the fee structure it may end up being a little closer than you'd think.

But keep in mind Witcher 3 was the first proper entry on console. Witcher 2 received a late port to consoles with little advertisement. CD Projekt also have abnormally strong support from the PC community. For most other games we'd see bigger gap between the PC and console versions.

TLDR: PC as a platform is big, but for AAA games consoles are bigger.
 
Flogger23m said:
Obviously you can't compare free to play games with traditional games. But for paid games this has been true since the 90s and hasn't changed. There are simply more console gamers who buy games like Metro. Lower barrier to entry is an obvious reason why.

Even accounting for digital sales, PC only took around 30% of the sales of Witcher 3 during the release weeks. As time went on, years later, the PC version started to outsell the console versions for that particular year. But as the launch is when most sales are made consoles will still have sold more. In six weeks they sold 6 million copies. In 2017 they likely sold less than 1 million. And as time goes on the price is discounted, so the revenue will be less. Meaning that while PC sales get closer to console sales long term the revenue per sale will be down. Though depending on the fee structure it may end up being a little closer than you'd think.

But keep in mind Witcher 3 was the first proper entry on console. Witcher 2 received a late port to consoles with little advertisement. CD Projekt also have abnormally strong support from the PC community. For most other games we'd see bigger gap between the PC and console versions.

TLDR: PC as a platform is big, but for AAA games consoles are bigger.
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The Witcher is a single player game for which consoles are bigger, it is also only one data point. I would bet that CSGO has sold way more on PC than consoles. Also, all the recent stats I have seen show that PC is neck in neck with console for total sales so it seems highly unlikely to me that 1 platform moving equivalent amounts of revenue or more doesn't have any titles that outsell consoles. Also you can't discount free 2 play games and micro transactions, the entire history of video gaming has been about innovation on the PC side followed by the console world coming into it later. PC gamers are just further into the future on just about every front. Look at steam most of the top games are all F2P and doing well enough that the developers are investing in them to keep them updated and bringing in plenty of money. Like I said the big problem with PC gaming is that no one knows what is really going on in the market. You can't go out and say look there are X number of PC gamers out there because unlike a console no one can track total PCs that are used to game. Look at how for half a decade or more the big box retailers were removing PC gaming shelf space, that entire time PC gaming was constantly growing but no one was measuring it correctly because it was just transitioning to the future, online hardware sales, custom-built PCs, online digital distribution. Then one day they are all like oh shit there is some serious shit going on here so they experiment with putting more PC hardware in their stores, and apparently it has sold well enough that the typical best buy now has an entire aisle dedicated just to PC gaming hardware, fans, upgrades, peripherals from 5 or more different companies. That is pretty amazing given that most PC gamers don't buy shit from best buy when they can go to amazon etc.. Now look at the examples of the few companies that have shown where microtransactions can go, games like GTA 5 have microtransactions passing up box sales. So now just think about that rationally, it means that microtransactions gotta be freaking huge for a F2P title. And of course, some numbers coming out of Epic support that.

https://www.pcgamesn.com/pc-gamers-vs-console-gamers-numbers

https://www.pcgamesn.com/pc-vs-console-sales

And remember that all these numbers have a grain of salt, they don't know what's going on inside of valve for microtransactions and valve is the biggest fish in the pond. When you don't have accurate data for a player that's ok, but when its the biggest player in the space, now you have serious problems with your data. But even with the entire lack of data they have, the data they do have suggests that PC gaming is at least as big as console gaming. Anyone reasonable would bet that PC gaming is actually just straight up bigger than console gaming with that information.
 
rudy said:
The Witcher is a single player game for which consoles are bigger, it is also only one data point. I would bet that CSGO has sold way more on PC than consoles. Also, all the recent stats I have seen show that PC is neck in neck with console for total sales so it seems highly unlikely to me that 1 platform moving equivalent amounts of revenue or more doesn't have any titles that outsell consoles. Also you can't discount free 2 play games and micro transactions, the entire history of video gaming has been about innovation on the PC side followed by the console world coming into it later. PC gamers are just further into the future on just about every front. Look at steam most of the top games are all F2P and doing well enough that the developers are investing in them to keep them updated and bringing in plenty of money. Like I said the big problem with PC gaming is that no one knows what is really going on in the market. You can't go out and say look there are X number of PC gamers out there because unlike a console no one can track total PCs that are used to game. Look at how for half a decade or more the big box retailers were removing PC gaming shelf space, that entire time PC gaming was constantly growing but no one was measuring it correctly because it was just transitioning to the future, online hardware sales, custom-built PCs, online digital distribution. Then one day they are all like oh shit there is some serious shit going on here so they experiment with putting more PC hardware in their stores, and apparently it has sold well enough that the typical best buy now has an entire aisle dedicated just to PC gaming hardware, fans, upgrades, peripherals from 5 or more different companies. That is pretty amazing given that most PC gamers don't buy shit from best buy when they can go to amazon etc.. Now look at the examples of the few companies that have shown where microtransactions can go, games like GTA 5 have microtransactions passing up box sales. So now just think about that rationally, it means that microtransactions gotta be freaking huge for a F2P title. And of course, some numbers coming out of Epic support that.

https://www.pcgamesn.com/pc-gamers-vs-console-gamers-numbers

https://www.pcgamesn.com/pc-vs-console-sales

And remember that all these numbers have a grain of salt, they don't know what's going on inside of valve for microtransactions and valve is the biggest fish in the pond. When you don't have accurate data for a player that's ok, but when its the biggest player in the space, now you have serious problems with your data. But even with the entire lack of data they have, the data they do have suggests that PC gaming is at least as big as console gaming. Anyone reasonable would bet that PC gaming is actually just straight up bigger than console gaming with that information.
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That is all great, but it has nothing to do with the fact that AAA games sell better on consoles and have for decades. There really isn't a point in denying this. PC gaming has higher entry burdens, both in complexity and price. You get what you pay for, PCs are the best platform but they're more niche. I'm not sure why PC gamers try to pretend otherwise. End of the day, if you are a AAA game developer you're getting most sales on consoles.

As for micro transactions, consoles have this feature to and if you have a bigger install base you'll likely get more sales from micro transactions as well. I'm going to assume GTA made more from console gamers unless the PSN/LIVE revenue cut is that much worse. The whole term "DLC" originates from consoles. Back in the day there were big expansion packs but small additions were released for free on PC and obviously had to be downloaded. This whole dynamic was new to consoles when the 360 came out, hence the term DLC. There simply was not way to download any content on the PS2/Xbox consoles. Or maybe there was, but practically zero games supported it.
 
Ya consoles have it the difference is they are publicly traded companies and that revenue is listed, that's how I know that microtransactions are more to gta 5 than the game sales. That's why I am pointing out the revenue for consoles is better known. The biggest players all have to talk about these things during earnings reports, valve on the other hand is largely a black box and it happens to be the biggest box in the PC gaming world.
 
Jim Kim said:
EGS is doing nothing illegal, it's just business.
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For it to not be illegal it must be an "out" clause agreed upon by the parties, possibly if certain benchmarks of units sold through the store isn't achieved they are allowed to try other stores, and the order of the other stores may have been agreed beforehand, but again if the contract says that you can sell everywhere except on XXX competitor's store that's what would be illegal as far as I know.
The outcome may be similar of selling last on that competitor but the wording and intent is considered different. I am not a lawyer, just had a few friends chiming in.
 
rudy said:
Ya consoles have it the difference is they are publicly traded companies and that revenue is listed, that's how I know that microtransactions are more to gta 5 than the game sales. That's why I am pointing out the revenue for consoles is better known. The biggest players all have to talk about these things during earnings reports, valve on the other hand is largely a black box and it happens to be the biggest box in the PC gaming world.
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Many publishers share their PC sales. Revenue is always hard because that depends on many factors such as how well it performed in certain regions.
 
rudy said:
The Witcher is a single player game for which consoles are bigger,
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Pretty sure consoles are bigger for multiplayer too (unless your just obtuse and looking at the surge of BR games, or singling out one hit wonders like CSGO)

Destiny 1&2 are both bigger on console, same with TD and TD2. Triple A titles.
 
Well I dont mind having Steam alternative on my desktop if devs and publisher getting paid more than from steam. I am gonna wait and watch how this goes in future.
 
I dont know who outsold what but I do think Exodus is a well made game. Has a few flaws but nothing that effects gameplay
 
Coming Out On Top, the "acclaimed gay-themed dating sim" is on sale on Steam for 50% off, and it is exclusive to Windows, Linux and MacOS. Take that, consoles! RELEVANCE, BITCHES! You need a mouse and keyboard for serious man games, your textured Bluetooth finger-gespoken controller won't cut it here.

Hmmm, 1Gb download. I expected it to be ... bigger.


P.S. Go on, click on it! CLICK THE LINK!

P.P.S. Console playahs talk big, but they don't have the diversity, the biome...

P.P.P.S. Word of the day: fruitlet
 
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Aireoth said:
Pretty sure consoles are bigger for multiplayer too (unless your just obtuse and looking at the surge of BR games, or singling out one hit wonders like CSGO)

Destiny 1&2 are both bigger on console, same with TD and TD2. Triple A titles.
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Once again it doesnt line up. So you are telling me that even though recent stats show the PC gaming is pulling in similar revenue to consoles (this is without even knowing how much more valve has hidden) that they simply have more players. If that is true then it means the average console user is actually spending way less on games than the average PC gamer. And note that the funny thing is the only company that seems to readily allow anyone to access total number of concurrent players playing is still just valve. And you know damn well if companies like microsoft and sony had more concurrent users they would be flaunting it all day and night.
 
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