Meh, 7 million sounds low to me for an Elder Scrolls MMORPG that has been out for 2 years.
How so? The game was selling for $60 to $100 (It can be found much cheaper now) and the box is only one income vertical. There is also a sub option and a shop.Many players sub to it. I know many here have said they do. Do the math on just the box price and it is a good ROI. Add in the subs and the shop income and you have a very successful game. Plus the game keeps getting better and better.
I got it for $20 at some point. I think it was like 8 months ago.
Once again, an Elder Scolls MMORPG that was released cross platform has only sold 7 million copies over 2 years. That isn't very impressive in my opinion considering the IP, the amount of money spent on building it and the multiplatform release (along with the incredibly deep sales they've had).
I agree that the game is getting better though (that should be expected of an MMO of this scope). I personally think it has to do with them actually being somewhat respectful of the Elder Scrolls IP after the initial release.
And I'm not saying it wasn't "successful." I'm saying that considering all of the things that it should have had going for it, it should have probably been much MORE successful. 7 million over 2 years isn't that impressive to me for this title.
100% disagree. Not many Elder Scroll fans were looking forward to an MMO of the series. Most just wanted co-op play in a regular Elder Scrolls title. Yes ESO has a successful series of games before it to build the brand but look at how many MMOs with brand recognition did not perform up to par. Lord of the Rings is probably the biggest example. Solid sales but nothing off the charts. Look at what different Star Wars MMOs have done or not done. They all have under performed. Star Trek has way under performed. Conan has under performed. Matrix under performed. So considering the IP? Not so much. In fact, a popular IP seems to bear no weight at all on whether an MMO based on that IP will perform well or not. No other MMO released in the past few years has sold 7 million copies in a 2 year stretch. Outside of Blizzard. Factor in alongside that box the real value of the customer which is not in the sale of the box but the sale of DLC (which has been wildly successful) and the items in the shop and you have a very successful MMO on all fronts. Many many people thought they would never sell more than one million. Much less seven. Your idea is that it should have sold what, 10 million? 12 million? What MMO besides WOW sells that much? No, 7 million in 2 years is impressive. Plus it is not done. The sales continue. I think it could reach 10 million by the end of next year.
I think it would be fairer to say that not many Elder Scrolls fans were looking for a DAoC game, it was always going to be a square peg being forced through a round hole situation, that they are now 'fixing' this just means that they are finally realising that no matter how much they try, it was just never going to fit. As for LOTRO, it was a fairly solid game, but for me, it was a bit boring after a while, and going F2P didn't help, frankly i am surprised its still going, as for STO, Matrix, they were games that failed virtually out of the gate, so many problems, STO is better today than at launch, but it is still not a very good representation of a Star Trek game, Conan was a better game than both STO and Matrix Online, though for me the game suffered due to the problems with the PVP and the rampant ganking that went on, and thats without the whole sudden game change after the first 20 levels. But ESO is still not a very good representation of an Elder Scrolls game, the classes are a nonsense most of which don't fit within the Elder Scrolls theme in any way, and the skills still need a lot of work, it would have been better if they hadn't had any of the classes in the game at all, and just let players choose skills instead, that would have been more in keeping with Elder Scrolls, the classes if anything seem to be part of the 'failed' DAoC theme they tried to shoehorn the game into. It would not surprise me in the least, if the bulk of the sales figures for ESO were for the XB1 and PS4 versions of the game, frankly i think the consoles probably saved ESO, and it would not surprise me at all if the combined sales of the game on console were well over 5 million units sold. As for the 'units sold' being only a fraction of ESO's revenue generated, i think the reason why Zenimax are dumping the DAoC features in favour of more Elder Scrolls themed ones is because they weren't, and this is probably the driving force behind the changes, and that the income from the box sales on console is what is giving them the 'breathing space' to make the necessary changes.
If ZOS issued a press statement declaring that they consider ESO to have been a solid financial success, there'd be 100 posts on these forums saying that they are "wrong" and/or "lying".
The truth is what you choose to believe, it seems...
I wasn't one of them -yet. Got to admit that the game starts to look interesting to me. Guess i should be looking for some comprehensive info on the game and check out it current state, content, changes since release and such.
Well, it's pretty impressive to me considering I thought it would flop. I guess a lot of people don't agree with me that the combat sucks. 7 million people to be exact.
As for the argument that it had a lot of ESO fans waiting on it- this goes both ways. High hopes bring high expectations that are harder to meet.
That being said, it's hard to qualify it as a success, at least not yet. It cost, what, 200 million to make? The 7 million buyers covers that, barely, but that doesn't include the cost of upkeep for the game for 2 years.
So they're basically breaking even after 2 years.
Which is why it an almost meaningless marketing number. Too many variables to infer much from it. (which is intentional)
Heck, it counts me who quit in the 1st month and about 6 friends who quit in the first 6 months after launch.
Of much more interest would be concurrent users online at any given moment, number of customers who spend money after the initial purchase, number of people who currently pay a monthly sub or even total revenue vs profit each month and per annum.
We can probably safely assume these values are not shared because they aren't particularly impressive so can't be leveraged as a decent marketing aid.
Even in this thread the 7M isn't seen as particularly great when compared to other games from the same IP
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
7M copies probably makes ESO the second most popular ES title.
Sadly it was released to a deadline - announced many months earlier - and had far, far to many bugs and untested features. Even today I talk to people whose view of ESO is tied to that "legacy". Bad launches hurt.
Consoles saving the day. Hmm. It was always intended to release on console. Launch was due about 7 or 10 days after the PC launch. And if it had launched on console with a sub in the same type of state that it was in on PC I think it would have been lost at sea. Someone OK'd the decision to pull the console launch. And then allowed ZoS another 15 months. So I think that decision is what saved the day.
And the result is a very solid game. And you don't need to sub or buy any DLC to give it a try.
And I also suspect that many sales were on console - wouldn't surprise me if the figure was even higher than 5M.
The game isn't doing as well as they hoped, or they wouldn't be doing this. They'd tell you about all the people that are playing, not how many purchased over the course of two years after they changed their monetization model.
They're probably trying to drum up more sales so that they have better figures to present to their board.
Have you been playing?
In the starter zones alone there are tons of players. So many players in fact that it is almost a hassle. I have played many MMOs and I dare say that ESO is doing better than most.
"I don't give a sh*t what other people say. I play what I like and I'll pay to do it too!" - SerialMMOist
The game isn't doing as well as they hoped, or they wouldn't be doing this. They'd tell you about all the people that are playing, not how many purchased over the course of two years after they changed their monetization model.
They're probably trying to drum up more sales so that they have better figures to present to their board.
Have you been playing?
In the starter zones alone there are tons of players. So many players in fact that it is almost a hassle. I have played many MMOs and I dare say that ESO is doing better than most.
Welcome to ""megaservers." In the land of megaservers, 50k people can look exactly the same as 1 billion people.
Yeah, I don't understand companies that gloat about how many players have played instead of telling how many ACTIVE players there are. I can tell you being in-game feels like a whole another story in terms of player population and it's more so like a few hundred at a time. I think partially because of their mega server technology but anytime I log into ESO, the server feels a little "light" on the population. Definitely not how it was at launch. Not even close for that matter.
The ONLY mmo's that I have played that "feel" like it's player population holds strong is WoW and FFXIV. Even with WoW's decrease in subs, the server still feels insanely populated. Every other mmo that I have played , the servers die off rather quick in terms of population
It's the same as SWTOR really. IMO, both games had fundamentally decent designs to begin with. But they were both released incomplete or incorrectly. With both games having a little post release development, made a tremendous difference. Unlike games such as Wildstar which were fundamentally flawed and really wasn't a great game at it's core.
I'd be willing to bet ESO's biggest saving grace here was the cross platform release.
Because ESO is a B2P game and their success and income is purely based on Game sales and cash shop and number of sales show most adequate value of success . And again it's B2P and doesn't matter online I and my friends got Imperial version and from time to time we play together.
WOW subscription Eve sub show their success based on amount of people and how much these amount spend monthly to sustain sub. and the game . Mean while again ESO is not sub based that one online players don't show much important info
You couldn't be more wrong. ESO might be a B2P game, but it's DLC schedule basically "forces" players to Sub. It's basically a hybrid B2P/P2P game, which is leaning more towards P2P these days.
Or do you want me to link you all 11 straight months of ESO+ (optional subscription) dominating on PS4 top-seller articles?
RANT ABOUT NOTHING at this moment it's B2P with some differences asking from them sub numbers won't be fair as their promery income comes from sales . In case of WOW with subs + box sales yest but in ESO case isn't fair .....\ Some people just mock every thing they put their and on but they them self life in misery and complete waste of life .
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As for LOTRO, it was a fairly solid game, but for me, it was a bit boring after a while, and going F2P didn't help, frankly i am surprised its still going, as for STO, Matrix, they were games that failed virtually out of the gate, so many problems, STO is better today than at launch, but it is still not a very good representation of a Star Trek game, Conan was a better game than both STO and Matrix Online, though for me the game suffered due to the problems with the PVP and the rampant ganking that went on, and thats without the whole sudden game change after the first 20 levels.
But ESO is still not a very good representation of an Elder Scrolls game, the classes are a nonsense most of which don't fit within the Elder Scrolls theme in any way, and the skills still need a lot of work, it would have been better if they hadn't had any of the classes in the game at all, and just let players choose skills instead, that would have been more in keeping with Elder Scrolls, the classes if anything seem to be part of the 'failed' DAoC theme they tried to shoehorn the game into.
It would not surprise me in the least, if the bulk of the sales figures for ESO were for the XB1 and PS4 versions of the game, frankly i think the consoles probably saved ESO, and it would not surprise me at all if the combined sales of the game on console were well over 5 million units sold.
As for the 'units sold' being only a fraction of ESO's revenue generated, i think the reason why Zenimax are dumping the DAoC features in favour of more Elder Scrolls themed ones is because they weren't, and this is probably the driving force behind the changes, and that the income from the box sales on console is what is giving them the 'breathing space' to make the necessary changes.
The truth is what you choose to believe, it seems...
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Got to admit that the game starts to look interesting to me. Guess i should be looking for some comprehensive info on the game and check out it current state, content, changes since release and such.
All the recent news got me curious.
Heck, it counts me who quit in the 1st month and about 6 friends who quit in the first 6 months after launch.
Of much more interest would be concurrent users online at any given moment, number of customers who spend money after the initial purchase, number of people who currently pay a monthly sub or even total revenue vs profit each month and per annum.
We can probably safely assume these values are not shared because they aren't particularly impressive so can't be leveraged as a decent marketing aid.
Even in this thread the 7M isn't seen as particularly great when compared to other games from the same IP
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Sadly it was released to a deadline - announced many months earlier - and had far, far to many bugs and untested features. Even today I talk to people whose view of ESO is tied to that "legacy". Bad launches hurt.
Consoles saving the day. Hmm. It was always intended to release on console. Launch was due about 7 or 10 days after the PC launch. And if it had launched on console with a sub in the same type of state that it was in on PC I think it would have been lost at sea. Someone OK'd the decision to pull the console launch. And then allowed ZoS another 15 months. So I think that decision is what saved the day.
And the result is a very solid game. And you don't need to sub or buy any DLC to give it a try.
And I also suspect that many sales were on console - wouldn't surprise me if the figure was even higher than 5M.
In the starter zones alone there are tons of players. So many players in fact that it is almost a hassle. I have played many MMOs and I dare say that ESO is doing better than most.
"I don't give a sh*t what other people say. I play what I like and I'll pay to do it too!" - SerialMMOist
The ONLY mmo's that I have played that "feel" like it's player population holds strong is WoW and FFXIV. Even with WoW's decrease in subs, the server still feels insanely populated. Every other mmo that I have played , the servers die off rather quick in terms of population
I'd be willing to bet ESO's biggest saving grace here was the cross platform release.
In case of WOW with subs + box sales yest but in ESO case isn't fair .....\
Some people just mock every thing they put their and on but they them self life in misery and complete waste of life .