Sales numbers for North America jan/feb 2004

[forero99]

Usual disclaimers and bla, bla...still pretty scary for the genre folks! :sad:

http://www.justadventure.com/articles/State_of_Adventure_Gaming/Feb04/SalesFiguresFeb04.shtm

[Cellardoor]

Pretty scary? How does the genre score compared with other types of games?

[kingBLAOW]

I don't think that there is anything scary about it at all, since the adventure game "hotbed" is in europe. I always have a problem with JA posting these numbers, not because I don't want to know how well games are selling in context to their given sample, but people look at them and freak the hell out :)

[Marek]

Sales numbers are extremely hard to get right. Which territories? Which release(s)? At what price were they sold? Are the sales numbers annual, quarterly or monthly? Are online sales included? Are independent game stores included?

You can't be careful enough with sales numbers. Last week someone told me that a big chunk of a game's sales numbers were actually copies sold in Asia at 2 dollars per game. (That's right, 2 dollars for a full commercial title.) Things are often complicated.

[RemiO]

Yeah, the PC Data figures merely give you an idea of how well a game sells compared to another, seeing that EB and online sales aren't included.

It's interesting to note that adventure games traditionally sell well online. Games like Escape from Monkey Island, The Longest Journey and even the budget release of Curse of Monkey Island sat on top of the PC games sales chart at Amazon.com for a long time.

[kingBLAOW]

Ya that is what was running through my head as well. After an initial realease of an adventure game, a lot of stores only have the title availiable online or on order, but don't have any titles in the actual store. It is interesting how many times I have had to order a game from electronics boutique's website, that I could not buy or order in from their physical store location.

This may have to do with the fact that I live in Canada, seeing as there is no ebgames.ca, just an american based page, but I am not sure.

[nordic_guy]

I'm a bit bummed to see that Broken Sword 3 sold less than both Runaway and Syberia last year. :frown:
Also, I'm a bit surprised to see URU on top, but I don't know why I should.

[doppelganger rex]

Are these good numbres? :confused: :confused:

[Mattsius]

Are these good numbres? :confused: :confused:
No, it's crappy sales numbers, but, as mentioned above, sales numbers are hard to get right, so it's a fact that these numbers doesn't represent the whole truth.

[Martin Gantefoehr]

Greetings to the fourteen individuals who bought Mystery of the Druids, making it the 149th best selling adventure game of Jan/Feb in North America (not including online shops and brick-and-mortar outlets like Electronics Boutique)!!!1

*g*

Martin/HoT

[Bastich]

I'm a bit bummed to see that Broken Sword 3 sold less than both Runaway and Syberia last year. :frown:
Also, I'm a bit surprised to see URU on top, but I don't know why I should.

Well, that would be because Runaway and Syberia were better games than BS3. :P

Don't believe me? Check the review section on this site. LOL!

[Bastich]

Greetings to the fourteen individuals who bought Mystery of the Druids, making it the 149th best selling adventure game of Jan/Feb in North America (not including online shops and brick-and-mortar outlets like Electronics Boutique)!!!1

*g*

Martin/HoT

Now THAT was funny! I bought this game for like $5 from a bargain bin not too long ago. Considering all the comments I hear about it, it is slowly becoming a "must-play" title for me. It can't possibly be THAT bad, can it? Curiosity is going to get the better of me soon...

[forero99]

Pretty scary? How does the genre score compared with other types of games?

I said “pretty scary” thinking in the point of view of the developers, here there is a long but interesting article about the sales in UK during the year 2003, http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=54846 which takes the data from ChartTrack.
obviously I’m not going to make the mistake to compare this figures with the others, but the fact is that publishers do so…and in the mean time, when meanly most of the developers depend on publisher’s funding for their games, it’s getting harder every year to bring adventure games to the market, especially if it is the PC market, as a result the genre is being banned by the big publishers who consider it not profitable enough and only think in AAA games with a high ROI (an expression I heard several times and really get on my nerves)…I just want to give a big applause for all the developers who are taking the risk… the only publisher is not following the trend is TAC, but with a serious “not_taking_risk_policy” if not…how many games are they funding?? The future brings new possibilities with other distribution channels and different sources of funding, but unfortunately is not a near future.

[nordic_guy]

Well, that would be because Runaway and Syberia were better games than BS3. :P

Don't believe me? Check the review section on this site. LOL!
I'm not going into the rating system discussion again, but each to his own I guess. ;)