How well did System Shock 2 sell?
Jacunta
good sign...
Tom Paris
says...
>
>Better than Shock 1? I hope so. I'm seeing it for $20 - that ain't a
>good sign...
System Shock 2 came out a long time ago.
$20 now means nothing.
Joel Mathis
What's with you kids today. It's only been ten months, why that's
practically yesterday! I'm hard pressed to say that System Shock 1
came out "a long time ago". You just have no sense of scale.
Joel Mathis
See the Hot Sheet at Gone Gold for my take on the day's news
http://www.gonegold.com/hot
Thomas j. Evans
>In article <bnkYOcVkXqfZ6J...@4ax.com>, jac...@jazzlover.com
>says...
>>
>>Better than Shock 1? I hope so. I'm seeing it for $20 - that ain't a
>>good sign...
>
>System Shock 2 came out a long time ago.
>$20 now means nothing.
It came out after Unreal Tournament & Quake 3, and they're still going
for $40 - $50.
-T
sgt_ba...@hotmail.com
Umm, No it didn't. It came out in late Summer 99, I think... August?
UT and Q3 in November/December.
I am willing to wager it sold OK, not well. Better than Heretic2,
Battlezone, etc., but not in the realm of bestseller status.
By the way, does anyone know what the sales figures are for rating how
well a PC game does? I.E. something akin to the platinum stuff for
music?
Craig
Istvan
Jacunta wrote:
>
> Better than Shock 1? I hope so. I'm seeing it for $20 - that ain't a
> good sign...
I remember a number (from a PC Gamer comparison list)
of 70.000 copies sold at full price. This number was an estimate
for the cumulative performance about 3 months ago.
Since then the game's price has been significantly reduced
but I don't think the overall sales cracked 100K.
So in terms of sales it was a little bit of disappointment.
I personally found it very annoying with alarms sending troops
at your location even if you hid in the most obscure room, they would
come right at you, I sold it off the very day I realized that I will
have to deal with this all the time.
Istvan.
Scharmers
Remember now, all you bad game makers -- any triviality is
enough for Istvan to think your game sucks. Never mind the fact
that SS2 has put up one of the most immersive, tense, and
satisfying worlds I've seen in years...
What a dumbass. I need to introduce Istvan to the Ordbot over
in flight-sim. They would get along famously. The Ordbot could
pick snap rolls apart in sims beloved by the f-s community, and
Istvan could tell us all why he though Ultima Underworld sucked.
--scharmers
* Sent from RemarQ http://www.remarq.com The Internet's Discussion Network *
The fastest and easiest way to search and participate in Usenet - Free!
Tim Overstreet
Reaching 500,000 is a stellar achievement, reached by only a few. I guess
Warcraft, Starcraft, and Westwood have got this, along with some others.
<sgt_ba...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:fpahhs43o1bp7p204...@4ax.com...
> On Tue, 09 May 2000 23:48:48 GMT, thom...@bellatlantic.net (Thomas j.
> Evans) wrote:
>
> >On 9 May 2000 21:48:22 GMT, tom....@voyager.ssh (Tom Paris) wrote:
> >
> >>In article <bnkYOcVkXqfZ6J...@4ax.com>, jac...@jazzlover.com
> >>says...
> >>>
> >>>Better than Shock 1? I hope so. I'm seeing it for $20 - that ain't a
> >>>good sign...
> >>
Chris B.
age.
Joel Mathis
>Doh, I don't remember for sure. But anything close to 150,000 is good.
>Reaching 500,000 is a stellar achievement, reached by only a few. I guess
>Warcraft, Starcraft, and Westwood have got this, along with some others.
As a rough rule of thumb (the exact numbers vary from title to title):
100,000 is a decent seller. Good enough to ponder a sequel if you can
crank one out fast that uses the same technology, at least. This is
roughly the break even point for minor titles that didn't cost much to
produce.
500,000 is profitable for just about any game, with the exception of
certain titles that have infamously high costs. A title that has
probably been in the top ten sellers for a couple of months will
probably be in this range of sales. This is usually the about what a
hot game sells in a year, though some titles can have a long shelf
life.
1,000,000 is an incredible seller. Only a handful of titles each year
surpass this mark. A REALLY hot game might sell this many copies in
it's life time.
Beyond that level are the extreme ranges that there just aren't enough
games that sell that many copies to talk about them as a group. Myst,
Deer Hunter, and Starcraft (thanks to ludicrously high Korean sales of
just a hair under a million last year) are all in this range.
Thomas j. Evans
>>>System Shock 2 came out a long time ago.
>>>$20 now means nothing.
>>
>>It came out after Unreal Tournament & Quake 3, and they're still going
>>for $40 - $50.
>>
>
>Umm, No it didn't. It came out in late Summer 99, I think... August?
Oh. Ehh... nevermind. :)
-T
klevi...@my-deja.com
Istvan, if you download the patch, you can lower re-spawn rates. That
doesn't exactly address your concern, but it might help. In terms of
sales, my understanding is approx. 200-220k worldwide as of today,
though I don't have up to date data (we developers have to wait!)
Ken Levine
General Manager, Irrational Games
Lead Designer, System Shock 2
In article <391895A5...@prodigy.net>,
Istvan <Xspamblock...@prodigy.net> wrote:
>
>
> Jacunta wrote:
> >
> > Better than Shock 1? I hope so. I'm seeing it for $20 - that ain't a
> > good sign...
>
> I remember a number (from a PC Gamer comparison list)
> of 70.000 copies sold at full price. This number was an estimate
> for the cumulative performance about 3 months ago.
>
> Since then the game's price has been significantly reduced
> but I don't think the overall sales cracked 100K.
> So in terms of sales it was a little bit of disappointment.
>
> I personally found it very annoying with alarms sending troops
> at your location even if you hid in the most obscure room, they would
> come right at you, I sold it off the very day I realized that I will
> have to deal with this all the time.
>
> Istvan.
>
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
Werner Spahl
> By the way, does anyone know what the sales figures are for rating how
> well a PC game does? I.E. something akin to the platinum stuff for
> music?
...or is there anywhere a web page with sales figures of popular games?
--
Werner Spahl (ui2...@mail.lrz-muenchen.de) Freedom for
"The meaning of my life is to make me crazy!" Vorlonships
Jacunta
> my understanding is approx. 200-220k worldwide as of today,
>though I don't have up to date data (we developers have to wait!)
>
>Ken Levine
>General Manager, Irrational Games
>Lead Designer, System Shock 2
Is this better than Shock 1?
Byron Walter
Congrats on the sales figures for SS2. Really, truly an immersive
experience. The game really created a sense of a "real" place where I had
many options for interactions with the environment. That Med Surg area was
great... although the patient care standards were only slightly better than
my current HMO...
Byron
(remove NOSPAM as needed0
Joe62
>In terms of
>sales, my understanding is approx. 200-220k worldwide as of today,
>though I don't have up to date data (we developers have to wait!)
Doesn't sound too bad at all ... is that kind of number enough to get
a sequel going? I sure hope so!
Joe
"Your opinion is unique and the opposite of the majority on this newsgroup."
Joe62
>Congrats on the sales figures for SS2. Really, truly an immersive
>experience.
Yeah, it is one of those rare games where the memory has really stuck
with me. Even though I only played through it one and a half times
(once single-player, once co-op).
Harvester
Mathis) wrote:
>500,000 is profitable for just about any game, with the exception of
>certain titles that have infamously high costs. A title that has
like....Daikatana?
>Deer Hunter, and Starcraft (thanks to ludicrously high Korean sales of
>just a hair under a million last year) are all in this range.
SC sold one million in *just* korea??
Joel Mathis
>On Wed, 10 May 2000 03:10:42 GMT, joelm...@gonegold.com (Joel
>Mathis) wrote:
>
>>500,000 is profitable for just about any game, with the exception of
>>certain titles that have infamously high costs. A title that has
>
>like....Daikatana?
Shh. No names ;)
>>Deer Hunter, and Starcraft (thanks to ludicrously high Korean sales of
>>just a hair under a million last year) are all in this range.
>
>SC sold one million in *just* korea??
It's insane. Roughly one out every fourty people in South Korea owns
a copy of the game. Blizzard has no clue why the game was such a
runaway success there where everyone else around the world it's been
doing the usual extremely good sales that are typical for a Blizzard
game. Even in 1998 they did a very respectable 150,000 in sales in
Korea and then something happened in 1999 to drive the sales through
the roof to 980,000. The next closest title barely cracked a hundred
thousand on the Korean charts. It's actually outsold Starcraft in the
US.
Christopher D. Johnson
Thanks for having the courage to post in USENET (grin). If SS2 sold 220,000
to date, that seems fairly respectable. Yet most gaming mags have been
offering comments that it was a disappointment and didn't meet expectations.
Are there any hopes for a SS3, or is 220,000 these days just not good
enough?
BTW - like most others here, I loved SS2. Great job!
Chris
<klevi...@my-deja.com> wrote in message
news:8fb02t$5ut$1...@nnrp1.deja.com...
> A couple of notes-
>
> Istvan, if you download the patch, you can lower re-spawn rates. That
> doesn't exactly address your concern, but it might help. In terms of
> sales, my understanding is approx. 200-220k worldwide as of today,
> though I don't have up to date data (we developers have to wait!)
>
Donovan Rebbechi
>I personally found it very annoying with alarms sending troops
>at your location even if you hid in the most obscure room, they would
>come right at you, I sold it off the very day I realized that I will
>have to deal with this all the time.
I think the idea is that you're supposed to avoid setting off the alarms
( duh! )
Seriously, the moment you here that beeping, run back in the direction you
came from and you can usually get away from the camera soon enough to avert
disaster. I think the point is that setting the alarm off is supposed to make
life difficult.
--
Donovan
Nos
thus spoke:
>I think the idea is that you're supposed to avoid setting off the alarms
>( duh! )
>
>Seriously, the moment you here that beeping, run back in the direction you
>came from and you can usually get away from the camera soon enough to avert
>disaster. I think the point is that setting the alarm off is supposed to make
>life difficult.
>
>--
>Donovan
Yea, alarms were not a major problem. Just shoot the camera or club
them before the alarm goes off.
--
Nos
Donovan Rebbechi
>Yea, alarms were not a major problem. Just shoot the camera or club
>them before the alarm goes off.
tip for "clubbing" cameras -- some are out of reach , and you have to jump,
but it's a bit tricky -- you need to swing *before* you jump
--
Donovan
Marshall hughes
Jacunta <jac...@jazzlover.com> wrote in message
news:bnkYOcVkXqfZ6J...@4ax.com...
Kevin Goodman
Cool - it's not often you get a chance to compliment the designers of a
game. You guys don't get enough credit for this game. I rank System Shock 2
as the _finest_ game I've ever played. I'm a software engineer myself and I
shudder to think how much effort must have gone into this game. (You guys
don't have kids do you? ;-)
I played it most of the way through _in_the_dark_ and I can still feel the
chills it gave me and all the times I actually hestitated to open a door for
fear of what might be on the other side. It blew away the
out-of-box-experience I had the first time I played Doom so many years ago.
I still recommend this game as a must play to my friends.
Well done
Nos
thus spoke:
>that's a great sign for those of us who haven't yet bought it tough :)
Yep, I got my copy for $25.00 CDN (16.60 U.S.).
--
Nos
Led Mirage
wrote:
>On Wed, 10 May 2000 06:37:17 GMT, klevi...@my-deja.com wrote:
>
>> my understanding is approx. 200-220k worldwide as of today,
>>though I don't have up to date data (we developers have to wait!)
>Is this better than Shock 1?
I'd definitely think so. I think SS1 would be lucky to make 100k.
Joel Mathis
Last time I heard it sold over 150k, though it may be higher thanks to
being included in the EA bargain line.
The Nurse
<8fb02t$5ut$1...@nnrp1.deja.com>...
>sales, my understanding is approx. 200-220k worldwide as of today,
>though I don't have up to date data (we developers have to wait!)
Is this too low for SS3?
I'll buy another three or four copy.
;)
An Italian Fan.
--
The Nurse
Ex redattore On line in pensione.
Adoratore dell' amore e dei suoi derivati.
Ascolto 24 ore al giorno: Magnolia Soundtrack.
Gioco di notte: Homeworld, Iss evolution, Freespace, Mechwarrior3,
Commandos, Gran Turismo 2
Sogno di giorno: Code Veronica Pal, Shogun
Date retta a me: leggetevi " Mostri " di Koontz.
Mark Henderson
<joelm...@gonegold.com> writes
>>SC sold one million in *just* korea??
>
>It's insane. Roughly one out every fourty people in South Korea owns
>a copy of the game. Blizzard has no clue why the game was such a
>runaway success there where everyone else around the world it's been
>doing the usual extremely good sales that are typical for a Blizzard
>game. Even in 1998 they did a very respectable 150,000 in sales in
>Korea and then something happened in 1999 to drive the sales through
>the roof to 980,000. The next closest title barely cracked a hundred
>thousand on the Korean charts. It's actually outsold Starcraft in the
>US.
>
>Joel Mathis
As it happens I was reading PC Gamer UK (June 2000 issue) while waiting
for my news to finish downloading when I saw the following in an article
on professional game players (page 91):
--BEGIN QUOTED MATERIAL--
Public perception is clearly going to be the key to pro gaming taking
off in a big way but again there's a precedent elsewhere. "Over in
Korea, they really love Starcraft", says Sujoy. "They've really gone
over the top on it; they have a professional league, it's on TV, they
have scores coming up on the news - it's taken seriously as a sport."
--END QUOTED MATERIAL--
I was going to post over in the CSIPG.strategic about whether this was
true, but the first thread I read was this one...
--
Mark Henderson
Wheathampstead, England
Input error. Replace user and press any key to continue.
Led Mirage
Mathis) wrote:
>Last time I heard it sold over 150k, though it may be higher thanks to
>being included in the EA bargain line.
I generally don't count bargain sales, as those are generally released
much later. While, the game is the same, profit per unit probably is
not.
Jon Saloga
<Ma...@butterfield.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> As it happens I was reading PC Gamer UK (June 2000 issue) while waiting
>for my news to finish downloading when I saw the following in an article
>on professional game players (page 91):
>
>--BEGIN QUOTED MATERIAL--
>Public perception is clearly going to be the key to pro gaming taking
>off in a big way but again there's a precedent elsewhere. "Over in
>Korea, they really love Starcraft", says Sujoy. "They've really gone
>over the top on it; they have a professional league, it's on TV, they
>have scores coming up on the news - it's taken seriously as a sport."
>--END QUOTED MATERIAL--
>
> I was going to post over in the CSIPG.strategic about whether this was
>true, but the first thread I read was this one...
There's a small article in the current CGW (June '00) about it as
well. They are apparently marketing it on everything over there, and
there's also a soundtrack album performed by popular S.Korean
musicians. Included in the article is a pretty funny picture of a
couple of bags of Starcraft Doritos. I say it's time we bomb the crap
out of 'em.. :)
Jon S
Kevin McGuire
: There's a small article in the current CGW (June '00) about it as
: well. They are apparently marketing it on everything over there, and
: there's also a soundtrack album performed by popular S.Korean
: musicians. Included in the article is a pretty funny picture of a
: couple of bags of Starcraft Doritos. I say it's time we bomb the crap
: out of 'em.. :)
Starcraft Doritos. Wow.
--
Kevin McGuire
University of Pennsylvania
http://www.theenergyco-op.com/ <-- 100% Green Electricity in PA!
Kevin Kramer
>
> Jon Saloga (jsa...@myndspring.com) wrote:
> : There's a small article in the current CGW (June '00) about it as
> : well. They are apparently marketing it on everything over there, and
> : there's also a soundtrack album performed by popular S.Korean
> : musicians. Included in the article is a pretty funny picture of a
> : couple of bags of Starcraft Doritos. I say it's time we bomb the crap
> : out of 'em.. :)
>
> Starcraft Doritos. Wow.
I think that is one of the seven signs of the apocalypse,
isn't it??
Kevin
Daniel A. Stephenson
--
Dan Stephenson
(Remove the nospam from my email address before replying with email.)
Shawn Swift
>Was there an answer?
Yes, there was. It was something like 220K units sold worldwide.
So it was a bit less than the 6.5 million FFVIII units sold.
:)
But PC games usually sell much less than console games. It was
actually a very good selling PC game, though I don't think it was near
Doom. :)
Kevin Burnett
Hash: SHA1
ssw...@NOearthinkSPAM.net (Shawn Swift) wrote in
<3921b2f8...@news.earthlink.net>:
>Daniel A. Stephenson <stephed...@airmail.net> wrote:
>>Was there an answer?
>
>Yes, there was. It was something like 220K units sold worldwide.
Really... that's pretty good for a sequel to a game that did squat.
I liked System Shock 2, the developers obviously put a lot of care
into its development, but I still like Half-Life more.
YMMV.
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--
k...@catnip.org http://www.catnip.org/
"DOS is Disk Operating System. It's needed by the disk, not by your operating
system." -- Richard the Stupid, demonstrating his amazing knowledge of
computers.
Jarno Kaarinen
>Daniel A. Stephenson <stephed...@airmail.net> wrote:
>>Was there an answer?
>
>Yes, there was. It was something like 220K units sold worldwide.
>
>So it was a bit less than the 6.5 million FFVIII units sold.
>
>:)
You should rather compare FF8 to Deer Hunter. After all, both have
about the same amount of gameplay in them. ;^)