1.3 Million Copies Shipped

Started by ikarop, May 10, 2013, 08:12:28 AM

Author
1.3 Million Copies Shipped (Read 4,339 times)


vonVince

vonVince

#2
And that doesn't include digital copies. Yeah; this shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone - with all the pre-release hype and whatnot. I'm not going to forget all the hype that was largely for naught, but I can move on.

PRI. HUDSON

PRI. HUDSON

#3
Still won't turn a profit. I doubt digital sales were more than 100,000.

Suck it, ACM.

vonVince

vonVince

#4
They did make profit, whether we like it or not. Do I like it? Not in particular, because I had high expectations for the game - but I can move along and it is better move along - there's little to be gained with "fück this sh1t" commenting.

Elicas

Elicas

#5
Quote from: vonVince on May 10, 2013, 05:41:48 PM
They did make profit, whether we like it or not. Do I like it? Not in particular, because I had high expectations for the game - but I can move along and it is better move along - there's little to be gained with "fück this sh1t" commenting.

It didn't make anywhere near a profit. $65mil budget (including marketing) means they needed to sell 1,083,333 copies at $60 to make back the initial investment. However, they don't get back the entirety of the sale due to retail/transportation/storage costs. General return is around 30% of a physical sale and 70% on a digital sale, meaning they needed to sell either 3,611,111 physical copies ($18 return per copy(RPC)) or 1,547,619 digital copies ($42 RPC). With consoles seeing the major part of the sale stats for this title, using the admittedly unreliable VGchartz, we can see ~750,000 physical copies of A:CM sold and ~650,000 of those were on console. This would mean another ~550,000 sales coming from online retailers and direct to drive services like Steam. I'd estimate the largest percentage of those being online orders, as we tracked A:CM at release on steam never going above 25,000 users.

750,000 physical copies sold at full price with an $18 RPC makes $13,500,000
Estimate 500,000 physical copies via online retailers with an $18 RPC makes $9,000,000
Estimate 50,000 digital copies with a $42 RPC makes $2,100,000

That makes an estimated current return of $24,600,000. Factor in exchange rates for the euro and the pound sterling, a few thousand extra dollars from collectors editions and a significant drop from their RPC from a game on sale and you see that number drop even further. A $10 game sold at retail will generally find a return of $3 to the publisher, ($7 digital download, which is why so many indie steam games are priced around the $10-$12 mark) and I feel I can say pretty emphatically they've made less than $20 mil back on A:CM so far.

These small RPC margins are why you see games selling in the multi-millions like Tomb Raider, Resi Evil 6, Hitman Absolution etc. reported as 'disappointing' and 'under-performing sales targets'.

vonVince

vonVince

#6
There are no reliable sources for the supposed budget. Not just any allegations will do.

Attack.no1

Attack.no1

#7
How many people got their money back?

Elicas

Elicas

#8
Quote from: vonVince on May 10, 2013, 07:19:39 PM
There are no reliable sources for the supposed budget. Not just any allegations will do.

All AAA development is reaching the 50mil to 100mil budgeting mark, 65mil is very middle of the road for a modern AAA release, especially one that has been in development for so many years.

Tomb Raider shipped 3.4 million copies and didn't make money.
Hitman Absolution shipped 3.6 million copies and didn't make money.
Sleeping Dogs shipped 1.75 million copies and didn't make money.

You really think a AAA title shipping 1.3 million units made a profit? That's delusional thinking, never in a million years.

http://uk.gamespot.com/news/square-enix-huge-slump-in-na-sales-hurt-tomb-raider-hitman-sleeping-dogs-6406625
http://www.vg247.com/2013/03/27/analyst-tomb-raider-cost-100-million-needs-10-million-sales-to-succeed/
http://www.gamechup.com/reason-for-tomb-raiders-inadequate-sales-performance-revealed/
http://www.lazygamer.net/xbox-360/tomb-raider-needs-to-sell-5-million-to-break-even/

A studio shipping nigh on 9 million copies of just three games posted a massive loss of over 10 BILLION yen;

http://www.vg247.com/2013/03/26/square-enix-expects-extraordinary-loss-in-next-financial-report/

had their President resign because of it;

http://www.vg247.com/2013/03/26/square-president-yoichi-wada-resigns-following-financial-revision/

and has also resulted in them laying off staff at the studios that made their three best critically received games;

http://www.vg247.com/2013/04/29/square-enix-confirm-lay-offs-at-european-and-uk-offices/

A:CM's paltry 1.3 mil sales are an absolute drip in the ocean when you think about the years of funding for Gearbox, the marketing, the funding for Timegate and the funding for the WiiU version which they will never recoup a penny on (as it's been cancelled when nearly finished).

They have not made a profit.

ShadowPred

ShadowPred

#9
A:CM wishes they made their money back, no way a AAA title, as this was hyped up to be, is gonna earn it's money back on these kind of numbers. These numbers worry me, especially since it was nearly two years ago when I read that a AAA title would have to sell 2 million copies just to break even. I have no idea how bad it's gotten since then, so there's no way these numbers are anything for Gearbox or Sega to cheer about.

WinterActual

WinterActual

#10
The only guys who think that ACM is AAA title are Ratty and his crew  ::)

Xenomrph

Xenomrph

#11
Quote from: Elicas on May 10, 2013, 08:01:17 PM
Tomb Raider shipped 3.4 million copies and didn't make money.
Hitman Absolution shipped 3.6 million copies and didn't make money.
Sleeping Dogs shipped 1.75 million copies and didn't make money.
That sounds an awful lot like "hollywood accounting" if they "didn't make money". If that's true, no video game companies would make games ever since it's obviously not profitable.
I'm entirely confident that A:CM (and the other games you mentioned) made plenty of money. Perhaps didn't meet their (unrealistic) sales expectations, but they definitely turned a profit.

Inverse Effect

Inverse Effect

#12
So where exactly are these millions of people?i find myself having to wait an hour to find anyone on bughunt on badass. And that is if im lucky. Which is BS Naruto Storm 3 sold 1M and you only have to wait less then a minute to get someone to play with you

Elicas

Elicas

#13
Quote from: Xenomrph on May 11, 2013, 10:03:11 AM
Quote from: Elicas on May 10, 2013, 08:01:17 PM
Tomb Raider shipped 3.4 million copies and didn't make money.
Hitman Absolution shipped 3.6 million copies and didn't make money.
Sleeping Dogs shipped 1.75 million copies and didn't make money.
That sounds an awful lot like "hollywood accounting" if they "didn't make money". If that's true, no video game companies would make games ever since it's obviously not profitable.
I'm entirely confident that A:CM (and the other games you mentioned) made plenty of money. Perhaps didn't meet their (unrealistic) sales expectations, but they definitely turned a profit.

That's what I though as well, until the studios who made these games had layoffs across the board. You don't gut studios who make you a profit on their releases (outside of the extra contract temps every studio hires). When your 'most successful' studios need major restructuring because they're not making enough money... yup, they spent far too much developing those games.

Even the LA division who handles their MMO's and marketing got slashed, with a 50% cut to some departments.

http://www.joystiq.com/2013/04/03/square-enix-los-angeles-layoff-details-ceo-rumored-to-be-out-by/

Massive budgets are hardly new nowadays, not that I'm saying A:CM was anywhere near this, but there we are.

http://www.gamechup.com/is-gta-5-the-most-expensive-single-player-game-ever-137-million-estimated/?utm_source=zergnet.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=zergnet_43636

A game whose sale targets to turn a profit is 18 million copies.

Xenomrph

Xenomrph

#14
I think you're not making the distinction between "meet (unrealistic) sales expectations" and "turn a profit".

All the game has to do is generate more revenue than it cost to make, and it turned a profit. It might not have met sales expectations, which led to layoffs, but that doesn't mean it didn't turn a profit.

Keep in mind that all of your examples (Tomb Raider, Hitman Absolution) have been Square Enix games, and Square is notoriously unrealistic about its projected sales expectations.

I don't disagree that game budgets are mega-bloated, mind you.

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