Does anyone knows how can I contact trjp, the creator of this database?
I wonder if he'd be ok with me scraping his table for userscore results instead of going through games on Steam one by one.
SteamSpy - Approximate LTD sales for every game on Steam (Updated Daily)
- Thread starter MUnited83
- Start date
I wonder if he'd be ok with me scraping his table for userscore results instead of going through games on Steam one by one.
Robert at Zeboyd Games
Banned
It's a multiplayer-focused game with only local multiplayer. Doesn't exactly fit the general PC demographic.
Even unmodded, Dark Souls on the PC was a better game than Dark Souls on consoles & Dark Souls on consoles was arguably the best game of last generation. It was only a "terrible port" in that it wasn't a huge improvement over the console version. It still would have sold. Let's save "terrible port" for games where the port was actually worse than the original version.
Abilidebob
Member
Was there even an "improvement" with unmodded Dark Souls?
Hell, wouldn't it be considered worse with how terrible GFWL was and how it was simply impossible for a lot of people to play online because of ports fuckery?
I remember I had to help 4 friends to configure their modems just so that they could see my summon signs.
It ran better than the console versions, that's probably the only improvement in the unmodded DkS. Never had an issue with g4wl ports myself.
alexandros
Banned
Well said Robert. It's always been a pet peeve of mine that people don't distinguish between a barebones port and a genuinely bad one. I even made a thread about it.
Final Fantasy XIII: 318,961 ± 25,416
FINAL FANTASY XIII-2: 140,173 ± 16,855
Remember Me: 279,289 ± 23,785
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light: 768,044 ± 39,401
Tomb Raider ( NEW) : 2,994,421 ± 77,416
Tomb Raider: Underworld: 583,439 ± 34,355
Life Is Strange: 226,393 ± 21,417
Dreamfall: The Longest Journey: 106,849 ± 14,717
Mirror's Edge: 2,351,210 ± 68,697
Alien: Isolation: 431,099 ± 29,541
Transistor: 565,983 ± 33,838
The Walking Dead: Season Two: 771,218 ± 39,482
Contrast: 112,668 ± 15,112
Gone Home: 509,914 ± 32,122
To me, it seems it's entirely dependent on the type of game and not the gender of the protag.
Sad to see Never Alone not getting a lot of love, both in players and median playtime. Such a beautiful game. I'm currently enjoying my first playthrough with my daughter in co-op. I know it's free on PS+ this month, but it's an amazing experience that should be had by more players.
Many were burned by the state it was on PC. First patch broke the game. Then unless you had a monster PC it ran like ass until they finally patched it 3 weeks later. Pretty bad port job.
Reception to the first game was kind of tepid, so it's understandable that a sequel didn't garner much notice.
Crimsonclaw111
Member
I bought REmake instead, Capcom fucked up badly with Revelations 2.
Also I'm not buying it until it's 100% finished, if it isn't already.
Robert at Zeboyd Games
Banned
Unlike most episodic games, the game was already done when they started releasing it so they just popped out a new episode each week. It finished up a couple weeks ago.
Yup and there have been various patches to the PC version to make it better than it was at launch at least.
larsiusprime
Member
Does anyone knows how can I contact trjp, the creator of this database?
I wonder if he'd be ok with me scraping his table for userscore results instead of going through games on Steam one by one.
Yeah, I'm in touch with him. Email me at lars dot doucet at gmail dot com and I'll see if I can introduce you two.
Crimsonclaw111
Member
Interesting. Well I may pick it up eventually then.
ScepticMatt
Member
Is there are reason that the errors are symmetrical? Do you assume a normal distribution, or rather a Poisson model and the errors are just for visual simplicity?
(For example, the - error is limited by 0 sales, and the + error could be high on free weekends)
(For example, the - error is limited by 0 sales, and the + error could be high on free weekends)
I know what you're getting at but I still consider the lack of arbitrary resolution options in a modern 3D game the sign of a bad port even if it's no worse than the console version. "Broken port" is reserved for some Saints Row 2 bullshit where it's actually worse on PC. Those are really uncommon though.
edit: Eh, it's all semantics.
Yo, Dark Souls was a bad port. It had almost 0 of the advantages that the platform is expected to offer. The mouse and keyboard controls were wonky as hell. A 1:1 port isn't really a good port.
And yes it would have sold, but it would have gotten nowhere near that ~2million it's sitting at without the help of modders and I'm absolutely certain of that.
Pretty biased since I know the devs, but I've really enjoyed Interplanetary, especially for small tournaments between friends.
Whilst I do think that user reviews would be great way to pick out quality titles, I really like the idea of comparing median time against average time and I hope you include that somehow in SteamSpy.
Yeah it's semantics really. I was discussing this in the DoA5 thread, how do you rate a game that plays perfectly fine (with a controller, at least) but is missing a ton of features? Features which are essential, important and enthusiast?
No one can really agree, but that's for another thread.
In the meanwhile, the fallout from knowing the Steam sale numbers of games is not that high. Looks like all the paranoia over things like NPD and knowing how much a game sold was way overblown? The secrecy in the video game industry has always been mindblowing to me.
Yeah that is pretty cool.
Imagine the number of player there would be if PC gaming wasn't dying?
God damn it I want that fucking game sooo bad on PC.
Looking at these games and the amount they sold bring joy to my heart!
FTL
Dark Souls
I'm assuming normal distribution as it's often done in surveys.
And yes, there is a lot of room for improvement here, thanks for the suggestion
It's easy to start over-extrapolating this data. For a lot of games, the number of owners on Steam says absolutely nothing. Many of the most owned games have been on a bundle (some on several), been on a dollar sale for more than once, or even had the devs giving out thousands of free keys. Some games get lower sales on Steam because they also need Uplay to run, and there's no sense in double DRM if you can just buy straight from Uplay. Some have been heavily discounted/been bundled for Origin or another online store and it's bound to lower Steam sales. And so on. The number of owners on Steam doesn't tell you anything about people's tastes, how popular a game is or well a game has sold, and certainly not how profitable it has been or will be.
If Grimrock 2 has not been as popular as the first, there are many possible reasons for it and we are just making guesses. My guess is that it's because the retro RPG market is in a whole different place now than what it was when Grimrock 1 came out. Grim1 got a lot of press for being a unique throwback. There just wasn't a lot of hype in the media for the sequel, even though the press received the first game well. Retro RPGs just aren't news anymore. Even the players have a lot of choice now if they're hankering for a nostalgia trip.
Has there been rumblings about MMX bombing? I hope it didn't, but I don't think Ubi is overly interested in the IP even if it did make a profit. They have bigger fry to worry about.
MMX is just such a sorry victim of false expectations. They probably still get complaints that they modeled the game after
World of Xeen instead of
Mandate of Heaven. A misunderstood gem to be sure.
If Grimrock 2 has not been as popular as the first, there are many possible reasons for it and we are just making guesses. My guess is that it's because the retro RPG market is in a whole different place now than what it was when Grimrock 1 came out. Grim1 got a lot of press for being a unique throwback. There just wasn't a lot of hype in the media for the sequel, even though the press received the first game well. Retro RPGs just aren't news anymore. Even the players have a lot of choice now if they're hankering for a nostalgia trip.
Has there been rumblings about MMX bombing? I hope it didn't, but I don't think Ubi is overly interested in the IP even if it did make a profit. They have bigger fry to worry about.
MMX is just such a sorry victim of false expectations. They probably still get complaints that they modeled the game after
the superior and fantastic
the inferior sequel
This was mentioned many times in the thread.
The solution is simple; factor in sales and bundles and free key giveaways/weekends whenever you judge sales and realize that the number you are viewing may not be correct in terms of mass dollar gained to the company in question.
There are many, many games on this service which have not been given away freely or sold at miniscule prices yet. Dark Souls 2 dropped to $14.79 USD on Steam, I believe (and I don't think the DLC has ever gone on sale). Trails in the Sky has only had one 50% off sale in the 9 months it has been on Steam, for instance.
Number of owners doesn't really tell us anything, but we can make estimations. You have to pick the right game and research the data on your own end to come to a conclusion about the data for it to be useful.
Well they're pretty much taking the content of Dragon's Dogma and turning it into an f2p online game that's also on PC so they presumably felt just jumping to this step made more sense.
charlequin
Banned
It's certainly a mistake to over-extrapolate, but looking at complications to the data set and drawing the conclusion that the numbers say "absolutely nothing" is similarly incorrect. We have fairly extensive external knowledge we can use to supplement this data: historical price data on almost every Steam game, bundles-sold counts from most major bundle sites, Kickstarter backer figures, etc. If our goal is to answer "how many people bought this game directly on the Steam site and at what price" or "how many people own this game on PC period" then we don't have the information necessary to answer, but if our goal is to draw conclusions about trends, tempered by our knowledge of context, there's a wealth of possibility here.
Great post. I can certainly understand why someone operating a small business would feel conflicted about this kind of data, but I'm not sure there's a better response to that than charging ahead and contextualizing as much as you feel comfortable doing.
Heh, I bought the first 4 Blackwell episodes for $3 and Resonance for $2 on GOG, then I bought a bundle on Groupees comprising pretty much all WJE games at the time for $5, then I went on to buy Epiphany on release day on the dev's site, same with Golden Wake. So yeah, not every sale is equal. Happy to see that the small-ish group of dedicated fans is enough to keep them afloat. I'll definitely buy Shardlight and Technobabylon when they come out.
grandwizard
Member
It's nice to have data but between this and the Arstechnica articles I feel like it's only a matter of time before Valve gets pressured by developers and publishers to stop exposing this data in some way. I know it would be hard since you have to be able to see what people own on their profiles, but it's just so much data out there that companies are usually tight lipped about. I also think we will see devs starting to 'opt out' of the number of current playing statistics that is exposed on the community hubs and then parsed elsewhere. Mainly because it can be used as bad PR for a game, just look at Evolve. A game has a smaller amount of players than people expected and it creates a bad PR news story of it's own, which just perpetuates the cycle as people don't want to buy in to a game that they feel is already dead/dying.
charlequin
Banned
Valve has basically no incentive to give into such pressure, though. The value of providing such an API is significant, and the case to be made for hiding this data is basically illusory.
They said they couldn't port Dragon's Dogma over because the pawn system wouldn't work. Now we are getting the online game with what must be an "improved" pawn system, otherwise there is no way it would come out on pc this time. I mean they wouldn't just lie to us, right?
edit:
I wonder if there is a way for them to track the growth of their series from bundles/sales. Like seeing how many people who bought previous games in a bundle/sale ended up just straight up buying the latest game instead of waiting.
They said they couldn't port Dragon's Dogma over because the pawn system wouldn't work. Now we are getting the online game with what must be an "improved" pawn system, otherwise there is no way it would come out on pc this time. I mean they wouldn't just lie to us, right?
Well, it wouldn't be the first or last time a gaming company just straight up lied.
LurkerPrime
Member
Epiphany being the best-selling release is testament enough; people played the earlier releases at a discount and then bought Ep5 on day one. Y'know... People like me.
I'm really glad that Epiphany was a success for Wadjet Eye. I got all sad when I Steam Spied the stats a couple days ago, completely forgetting their announcement that Epiphany was a big success.
Five Nights at Freddy's: 553,865 ± 31,344
Five Nights at Freddy's 2: 265,336 ± 21,708
Five Nights at Freddy's 3: 144,265 ± 16,011
Kinda surprised that the series hasn't sold that much considering how popular it is. I guess kids would rather watch Youtube videos than actually play the games.
Five Nights at Freddy's 2: 265,336 ± 21,708
Five Nights at Freddy's 3: 144,265 ± 16,011
Kinda surprised that the series hasn't sold that much considering how popular it is. I guess kids would rather watch Youtube videos than actually play the games.
inanutshell
Member
All three games are on the top 10 grossing list for paid apps on the ios app store. Wouldn't surprise me if most kids are playing it on a phone or tablet.
What couldn't you find? The criterion is that its a Steam game that is tracked by steam, as far as I understand
My brain, my brain is what I couldn't find. It was a greenlight game and I didn't even notice. Time to go to bed.
Oh yeah, I forgot they were also on iOS and Android. Yeah, that's probably where most of the money is being made.
For every game that tanks and gets "bad publicity" because it tanked, there is another game that does great and gets more Players because they see it has so many owners.
So only Publishers that expect to always sell badly would really want to bury this data in this Argument.
Of course, there are other Arguments why Pubs wouldnt want this data out in the Open.
Prototype Viktor
Member
the sequel then?¿ maybe
Kids often aren't allowed to buy these games. My kids are big fans of FNAF series despite never playing it. Just because everyone talks about it.
Plus, they can watch Youtube videos of FNAF on their iPads without me knowing but can't install it.
Just checked FNAF sales on iOS. God, you're right.
FNAF
1,5M iOS + 500K Android
FNAF2
1.3M iOS + 400K Android
FNAF3
250K iOS + 80K Android
Looks like kids are getting tired of it though. Gonna go the way Slenderman went.
Unknown Soldier
Member
This site is pretty neat.
NEKOPARA Vol.1 - 45k
WORLD END ECONOMiCA episode.01 - 45k
If you ask me, there's a pretty vast untapped market for VNs outside of Japan. They're probably going to make a (relative) killing on Clannad and Higurashi and then the floodgates will open as everyone tries to cash in on old VNs which have been untranslated forever.
NEKOPARA Vol.1 - 45k
WORLD END ECONOMiCA episode.01 - 45k
If you ask me, there's a pretty vast untapped market for VNs outside of Japan. They're probably going to make a (relative) killing on Clannad and Higurashi and then the floodgates will open as everyone tries to cash in on old VNs which have been untranslated forever.
we need Steins Gate, trust me on this, Steins Gate alone can convert millions!
Higurashi will do fine, there are many people awaiting release and I'm not so sure about Clannad or even if we'll get it.
Basileus777
Member
Why wouldn't we get Clannad? Its localization is ongoing with a release planned for this year.
I became very sceptical after Steins Gate not releasing on steam, which I thought we are getting 100%.
I can't say I understand how Japanese devs and publishers think.