Support NeoGAF

[Woopah]

Physical data from Switzerland is in, and Astrobot is number one there too (ahead of Space Marine 2 in second).

 

[Kikorin]

Sales seems decent for a 3D platform that is not called Mario. Obviously it'll not sell much because this is a niche genre for anyone except Nintendo these days. If it'll sell some millions will be a miracle yet.

 

[kazuyamishima]

No theyre not - I was just quoting installbase for the first week Ratchet numbers (27k)

The first data from Chris is always physical. But there are two trackers in UK, and both have Astrobot higher than R&C (digital + physical).

Also, Rift Apart was part of a PS5 bundle since launch week.

But most important, Astro will have great legs.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

He created an entire narrative by putting out misleading information on physical sales of two different games released at different times, knowing that the digital ratio has shifted significantly. He then put out the information he should have waited to put out and it showed Astro Bot significantly ahead of Ratchet, but described it as "solid." He's now giving more detail that it was more than solid and ahead of multiplatform games like Sonic Frontier and Crash 4.

Sonic Frontier sold 3.5 million units in 6 months, which made it the best selling 3D sonic game of all time.

Crash 4 sold over 5 million units.

And we know Ratchet sold about or around 4 million copies.

So it's outperforming all of those games... and we know it'll get a bump if it gets GOTY.

The high water mark for platformers that aren't Mario is really 7.5-8 million. There is a chance with advertising and word of mouth that Astro Bot could become the bigger platform character outside of Mario.

So yeah... "Solid"

 

[Mibu no ookami]

Astrobot was never going to do mario numbers. At least not yet. Sony used to know that games have to build an audience and not every game is going to be a massive 10 million success on the first try.

This is technically the first astrobot game on a non-VR system. It will have legs. This game has the potential to hit 3-5 million sales lifetime, but if they stick with the franchise, it could easily become 10-20 million in the next 5-10 years. Devs are clearly geniuses like those devs over at nintendo and they get what makes games fun, and once people find that joy they typically get from nintendo games, they will keep coming back.

Get a sequel out in the next 2-3 years and keep innovating. keep the price tag at $60 and allow the word of mouth to spread. I suspect this will be a big seller this holiday season.

People love to not give Sony credit when they're fairly well run.

• Helldivers 2
• Astro Bot

Two games which will go down as some of the most profitable games for Sony in their history, both sequels to games that weren't smash hits and both dropped in the same year.

They're remaking Until Dawn despite that having limited success. And getting a lot of hate for it. How many chances did they give inFamous and Sly Cooper. They stuck with Sucker Punch who delivered Ghost of Tsushima.

They're making a second Death Stranding.

Like, I don't know what to tell you.

 

[The artful mincer]

No theyre not - I was just quoting installbase for the first week Ratchet numbers (27k).

They are look at the date of quote. It's from Tuesday after Dring released the physical sales data.

 

[Team Andromeda]

Disappointing given the bigger user base compared to when R&C launched.

 

[Roufianos]

I'd sure as fuck hope it's outselling that piece of shit Sonic game. Second worst thing I've put inside my PS5.

 

[Orbital2060]

They are look at the date of quote. It's from Tuesday after Dring released the physical sales data.

As I tried to tell you, I only quoted the installbase poster for the first week numbers for Ratchet.

Physical Astro Bot sold 1/3 less than Ratchet fw (first Dring tweet), with digital it sold 21 % more than Ratchet fw (second Dring tweet)

Hence: Ratchet RA fw 27k + 21 % on top of that= 27k + 5670 = 32670 units digital and physical Astro Bot fw.

 

[demigod]

As I tried to tell you, I only quoted the installbase poster for the first week numbers for Ratchet.

Physical Astro Bot sold 1/3 less than Ratchet fw (first Dring tweet), with digital it sold 21 % more than Ratchet fw (second Dring tweet)

Hence: Ratchet RA fw 27k + 21 % on top of that= 27k + 5670 = 32670 units digital and physical Astro Bot fw.

This is incorrect because you did not add the digital numbers to Ratchet on top of the 21%.

 

[Ridicululzz]

Glad to see the game doing well. I'm sure this game will continue selling pretty decently throughout the PS5's life; just seems like it's that sort of game.

 

[fudgybrownie]

It will sell well, no question. But i think it's useless to compare it to a game that had a hardware base of ~15 million PS5 while Astro has a hardware base of~60 million Ps5.

But this is UK only so we gotta compare how many units were sold only in that country.

 

[gow3isben]

Astro Bot sales are so much lower than Astro Playroom which are probably around 50 mill plus now.


What a decline for a sequel

 

[Woopah]

The first data from Chris is always physical. But there are two trackers in UK, and both have Astrobot higher than R&C (digital + physical).

Also, Rift Apart was part of a PS5 bundle since launch week.

But most important, Astro will have great legs.

GfK have Astrobot under Ratchet right? Since they only look at physical.

Or do we have GfK digital data now too?

 

[Dafegamer]

Disappointing given the bigger user base compared to when R&C launched.

Bigger userbase =/= better sales. Knack outsold Mario when it got launched, Knack 2 sold less than 1% of its predecessor with a bigger userbase. Another example is BOTW and TOTK, bigger userbase doesn't necessarily determine more sales figures

 

[Shakka43]

It's hard to compare, Ratchet was released mid 2021 with millions less PS5 sold.

There are also a lot more games to buy in 2024. Early gen games benefit from lack of competition.

 

[Danjin44]

I hope sells well because knowing Sony they might do something stupid again if the game dont sale based on their stupid high expectations.

 

[HeWhoWalks]

I hope sells well because knowing Sony they might do something stupid again if the game dont sale based on their stupid high expectations.

You're talking about Days Gone (one example), which sold under expectations and was not as critically well received as they'd hoped. Neither will be the case here, so that's a pointless concern.

Besides, it's not a "stupid" business practice to set lofty goals for your big projects. Just because we like something doesn't mean it is free of expunging if it fails to meet expectations (particularly as it pertains to budget). Every company does it and has done it, so it's not simply a Sony thingr.

 

[Danjin44]

You're talking about Days Gone (one example), which sold under expectations and was not as critically well received as they'd hoped. Neither will be the case here, so that's a pointless concern.

I’m actually talking about Studio Japan, these games don’t need to be sell like Marvel games to be successful and devs like Team ASOBI would help to give Sony’s game selection MUCH needed variety.

 

[HeWhoWalks]

I’m actually talking about Studio Japan, these games don’t need to be sell like Marvel games to be successful and devs like Team ASOBI would help to give Sony’s game selection MUCH needed variety.

Sony has plenty of variety.

Also, Japan Studio hung themselves. Sony didn't just pick them out of line-up and cancel.

 

[Danjin44]

Sony has plenty of variety.

Also, Japan Studio hung themselves. Sony didn't just pick them out of line-up and cancel.

This gen they absolutely dont.....back in PS1, PS2 and PS3 they had good amount of both Japanese and western first party games, but this gen 90% of their first party are western games.

Honestly other than Astro Bot, I didn't enjoy any of first party games Sony give me this gen.

 

[Dafegamer]

This gen they absolutely dont.....back in PS1, PS2 and PS3 they good amount of both Japanese and western first party games, but this gen 90% of their first party are western games.

Honestly other than Astro Bot, I didn't enjoy any of first party games Sony give me this gen.

Yeah, I actually only enjoyed Returnal, the GOW's TLOU2, Bloodborne and ASTRO BOT/Ratchet & Clank games. I thought Horizon was decent but definitely not GOTY caliber like the majority say. I guess Uncharted 4 too, but that Game didn't grab as much for some reason (huge Uncharted fan btw) will start a second playthrough soon tho.

 

[Danjin44]

Yeah, I actually only enjoyed Returnal, the GOW's TLOU2, Bloodborne and ASTRO BOT/Ratchet & Clank games. I thought Horizon was decent but definitely not GOTY caliber like the majority say. I guess Uncharted 4 too, but that Game didn't grab as much for some reason (huge Uncharted fan btw) will start a second playthrough soon tho.

Bloodborne is from PS4 era, but for me in PS5 era I think only liked Astro Bot and if 2nd party game like Stellar Blade counts.

This gen mostly 3rd party game delivered the games I mostly care about and my only reason why I keep my PS5 around and reason why I have no interest getting PS5 Pro.

 

[HeWhoWalks]

This gen they absolutely dont.....back in PS1, PS2 and PS3 they had good amount of both Japanese and western first party games, but this gen 90% of their first party are western games.

Honestly other than Astro Bot, I didn't enjoy any of first party games Sony give me this gen.

They absolutely do. I have plenty of different types of games for PS5. They may have had more in previous gens, but there's still plenty of variety to go around.

"I didn't enjoy". There is the crux of this discussion. Our personal wants/likes =! the whole story.

 

[Danny22]

Tbh launch sales are dissapointing given the caliber of the game. And I think Sony not hyping up their products and their release date and only showcasing them a bit earlier is somewhat to blame.
That said, it's obvious that word of mouth is going to be pretty out there for this game particularly when it wins GOTY.

 

[Danjin44]

They absolutely do. I have plenty of different types of games for PS5. They may have had more in previous gens, but there's still plenty of variety to go around.

"I didn't enjoy". There is the crux of this discussion. Our personal wants/likes =! the whole story.

I can only speak from my opinion and for my taste Sony stopped give me the game I enjoy......So far Astro Bot is only one I really liked.

 

[HeWhoWalks]

I can only speak from my opinion and for my taste Sony stopped give me the game I enjoy......So far Astro Bot is only one I really liked.

Which is fine, but that's what I was saying from early on.

 

[Dafegamer]

Bloodborne is from PS4 era, but for me in PS5 era I think only liked Astro Bot and if 2nd party game like Stellar Blade counts.

This gen mostly 3rd party game delivered the games I mostly care about and my only reason why I keep my PS5 around and reason why I have no interest getting PS5 Pro.

I put Bloodborne there(and Uncharted 4) cause I actually played them 4 years ago for the first time on ps5

 

[nial]

I hope sells well because knowing Sony they might do something stupid again if the game dont sale based on their stupid high expectations.

I’m actually talking about Studio Japan, these games don’t need to be sell like Marvel games to be successful and devs like Team ASOBI would help to give Sony’s game selection MUCH needed variety.

Japan Studio didn't suffer from high expectations (even if stuff like Puppeteer and Knack 2 sold WAY less than they should have reasonably done), Sony is not Square Enix.
Once Toyama left for whatever reason (mind you that, by his own words, Sony was still willing to give him a big budget), Sony restructured the whole thing around the Astro Bot vision, and thus Team Asobi was born.

 

[Cakeboxer]

There are also a lot more games to buy in 2024. Early gen games benefit from lack of competition.

I think only the release window competition affects sales and i don't see much competition this month, but Ratchet also had none. There are many factors. Ratchet had the advantage of more marketing and bundles, Astro had GOTY worthy reviews. Overall it doesn't make much sense to me to compare the two games.

 

[Woopah]

I think only the release window competition affects sales and i don't see much competition this month, but Ratchet also had none. There are many factors. Ratchet had the advantage of more marketing and bundles, Astro had GOTY worthy reviews. Overall it doesn't make much sense to me to compare the two games.

Ultimately, both are family friendly, PS5 exclusive first party games. So I do see the logic.

What games would you compare it to?

 

[Cakeboxer]

Ultimately, both are family friendly, PS5 exclusive first party games. So I do see the logic.

What games would you compare it to?

None, why do you have to compare everything? Let the game and sales speak for itself.

 

[Woopah]

None, why do you have to compare everything? Let the game and sales speak for itself.

Because without comparisons we just know "Astrobot was first in the chart".

We get more insight on the performance when we have comparisons to other games, hence why Chris does them.

 

[Cakeboxer]

Because without comparisons we just know "Astrobot was first in the chart".

We get more insight on the performance when we have comparisons to other games, hence why Chris does them.

You can tell the performance by the profit it makes. Games with low development cost neet less sales to be a success.

 

[Woopah]

You can tell the performance by the profit it makes. Games with low development cost neet less sales to be a success.

But it's very unlikely that Sony will give us the profit number for Astro, nor would they give us sales numbers for a particular country or region.

We could (hopefully) get worldwide shipments from them.

But in general, I want us to get more games sales data and not less. Which is why I'm glad Chris shares UK and Europe sales information.

 

[Cakeboxer]

But it's very unlikely that Sony will give us the profit number for Astro, nor would they give us sales numbers for a particular country or region.

We could (hopefully) get worldwide shipments from them.

But in general, I want us to get more games sales data and not less. Which is why I'm glad Chris shares UK and Europe sales information.

Sales data is fine, but there are way too many factors to compare two games. The only thing i could imagine if if we have two consoles with the exact number of sold hardware, then they release two very similar and equally rated racing games at the same time. But even then it's not exact, because one console could have a subscription service that affects sales, one could have more racing fans, one game could be cheaper or have faster price adjustments or a great addon and 100 things more. It never makes sense to compare the sales of games.

 

[Orbital2060]

Ultimately, both are family friendly, PS5 exclusive first party games. So I do see the logic.

What games would you compare it to?

This was already pointed out in the famitsu thread by another user:

Astro Bot first week sales comparison with other 3d platformers in this generation

Mario Odyssey - 511k
Kirby and the forgotten land - 380k
Mario 3D world + bowser's fury - 250k

 

[Team Andromeda]

Bigger userbase =/= better sales. Knack outsold Mario when it got launched, Knack 2 sold less than 1% of its predecessor with a bigger userbase. Another example is BOTW and TOTK, bigger userbase doesn't necessarily determine more sales figures

You can dress it up all you want. The game hasn't sold in massive numbers despite the userbase of the PS5 more than doubling since 2021 it couldn't even top the charts
Given the small team mind the game no doubt will sell well enough to make a profit and hopefully stop SONY from closing down the studio

 

[Woopah]

Sales data is fine, but there are way too many factors to compare two games. The only thing i could imagine if if we have two consoles with the exact number of sold hardware, then they release two very similar and equally rated racing games at the same time. But even then it's not exact, because one console could have a subscription service that affects sales, one could have more racing fans, one game could be cheaper or have faster price adjustments or a great addon and 100 things more. It never makes sense to compare the sales of games.

You pretty much never get games in the exact same situation but why should that mean we don't get knowledge? The very nature of sales charts is comparing games in different situations.

For example, we know that Astrobot's UK launch was bigger than both Sonic Frontiers and Crash 4.

Now there are differences between those games in terms of IP, release date, install base etc. But isn't it better to know this fact than not know it?

 

[Woopah]

This was already pointed out in the famitsu thread by another user:

I wouldn't be opposed to knowing those comparisons as well, but I think Ratchett is still a good comparison to make.

At the very least we know that Astrobot's total launch sales are higher the physical launch of Kirby & The Forgotten Land, but lower than Odyssey and 3D World + Bowser's Fury.

 

[Orbital2060]

You pretty much never get games in the exact same situation but why should that mean we don't get knowledge? The very nature of sales charts is comparing games in different situations.

For example, we know that Astrobot's UK launch was bigger than both Sonic Frontiers and Crash 4.

Now there are differences between those games in terms of IP, release date, install base etc. But isn't it better to know this fact than not know it?

Its not a fair comparison at all, just a way to cope with the disappointing sales. A fair comparison would be the games that you ignored in the other thread, see post above.

The funny thing is that, after you posted about Crash 4 and Sonic Frontierd in the famitsu thread, Dring uses the exact same games and wording in their third damage control tweet.

So either you are Dring, you know the guy, or Dring is reading Gaf and cooy paste arguments from here.

 

[The artful mincer]

This gen they absolutely dont.....back in PS1, PS2 and PS3 they had good amount of both Japanese and western first party games, but this gen 90% of their first party are western games.

Honestly other than Astro Bot, I didn't enjoy any of first party games Sony give me this gen.

No love for Returnal?

 

[Woopah]

Its not a fair comparison at all, just a way to cope with the disappointing sales. A fair comparison would be the games that you ignored in the other thread, see post above.

What makes a comparison to Mario or Kirby more fair than a comparison to Ratchet, Sonic or Crash?

Mario is bigger than Astrobot, but potentially Astrobot launch was bigger than Kirby (depending on Kirby's digital ratio).

The funny thing is that, after you posted about Crash 4 and Sonic Frontierd in the famitsu thread, Dring uses the exact same games and wording in their third damage control tweet.

So either you are Dring, you know the guy, or Dring is reading Gaf and cooy paste arguments from here.

I can rule out reasons 1 and 2, but not reason 3. But I think the more realistic reason is that both Chris and I see the logic in comparing a platformer to other platformers.

Why would Dring need to cope or danage control for Astrobot? He's a Nintendo fan not a Sony fanboy.

 

[Cakeboxer]

You pretty much never get games in the exact same situation but why should that mean we don't get knowledge? The very nature of sales charts is comparing games in different situations.

For example, we know that Astrobot's UK launch was bigger than both Sonic Frontiers and Crash 4.

Now there are differences between those games in terms of IP, release date, install base etc. But isn't it better to know this fact than not know it?

People can compare whatever they want and i agree that it maybe fun and intereseting, but it only has very limited validity.
You could compare Astro sales to the 30 million Mario Galaxy sales, because the games are similar. But it doesn't make any sense.

 

[Orbital2060]

What makes a comparison to Mario or Kirby more fair than a comparison to Ratchet, Sonic or Crash?

Ratchet and Clank I agree with as a fair comparison, but Astro Bot is on another level from Crash 4 and Sonic.

 

[tanners]

Astro Bot sales are so much lower than Astro Playroom which are probably around 50 mill plus now.


What a decline for a sequel

60M in reality

 

[Danjin44]

No love for Returnal?

No, I’m not in to Roguelike games.

 

[Woopah]

People can compare whatever they want and i agree that it maybe fun and intereseting, but it only has very limited validity.
You could compare Astro sales to the 30 million Mario Galaxy sales, because the games are similar. But it doesn't make any sense.

If someone said "Astrobot sold less than Galaxy and that is bad", I'd agree that would be silly. But knowing the % difference between Astrobot and Mario Galaxy would be interesting.

Ratchet and Clank I agree with as a fair comparison, but Astro Bot is on another level from Crash 4 and Sonic.

I'd say its on another level quality wise, but also hampered by being on fewer platforms. Being above Ratchet, Sonic and Crash 4 (and possibly Kirby) is a good sign for Astrobot in my books.