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Christopher Dring: Astro Bot's UK opening week sales are 1/3rd lower than Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman



It looks like Jason Schreiers "Is this the model going forward?" tweet sounds pretty darn stupid right now. Always thought the parade everyone was trying to give Astrobot before sales numbers was a really bad look.

Request: Can a mod change "About 1/3rd of..." to "About 1/3rd less than..." in thread title?

Request II: Can a mod change "Astrobot's" to "Astro Bot's" in thread title?
 
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Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
Doesn't UK have an Amazon? 🫢

But I digress, as always, physical only sales in an increasingly digital world are not an accurate metric.
Can you list any examples of a games physical sales and digital sales doing wildly differently? I feel like it's pretty safe to say we can use physical sales as a kind of borometer for overall sales.
 
Cope, Seethe, mald

lBgASzD.png
 

XXL

Member
I'm not seeing an issue here.

The physical sales are 1/3 lower than Ratchet and digital sales have kept growing since then.

It probably outsold Ratchet.

Also how many days of tracking are counted? It launched a few days ago.
 
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Mibu no ookami

Demoted Member® Pro™
It's currently #4 on the PlayStation Store in the UK, behind only Warhammer, NBA 2K25, and Fortnite (which is free to play). It's consistently increased its position every day.

Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart had an almost year long promotion campaign for it, tied in large part to the PS5's ad campaign, while Astro Bot was announced just 4 months ago.

Once again, Chris Dring is making some peculiar comparisons that are entirely out of pocket.
 
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Mibu no ookami

Demoted Member® Pro™
Can you list any examples of a games physical sales and digital sales doing wildly differently? I feel like it's pretty safe to say we can use physical sales as a kind of borometer for overall sales.

We know that digital has increased as a percentage of sales since this generation started, so if that is the case yes, we know physical sales are down, so yes, we know that comparing a title's physical sales in 2021 and a title's physical sales in 2024 is not in good faith.
 

The Cockatrice

Gold Member
We had like a thread a few weeks ago that critic scores dont boost game sales anymore. A platformer was never going to sell blockbusters amounts no matter what the old minority echochamber gaf members say. I certainly aint day one on it. Will get it on more than 30% sale at best. Sony changing their profile picture wont change their gaas focused strategy either.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Can you list any examples of a games physical sales and digital sales doing wildly differently?


Sure.

Elden Ring's Xbox European sales were 85% digital.

Almost 85% of Elden Ring sales on Xbox were downloaded






I feel like it's pretty safe to say we can use physical sales as a kind of borometer for overall sales.

In the previous generation maybe, but last 4, 5 years especially, digital adoption has skyrocketed.
 
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It looks like Jason Schreiers "Is this the model going forward?" tweet sounds pretty darn stupid right now. Always thought the parade everyone was trying to give Astrobot before sales numbers was a really bad look.

It's not a bad look because sales doesn't equal quality. It's a lesser known IP released only on one console. Hopefully it recoups it's cost and puts it in the view of more peopel.
 
Think about difference of marketing too and brand recognition. Astro Bot will have much longer legs. Besides with digital how it is now they could have sell better than Ratchet back then.
 

//DEVIL//

Member
did he just compare astro to concord sales?

As if that game sold anything.


Also 2/3 of the Ratchet sales.... how much did that game sell in UK in its first week?
 

Elios83

Member
Damn, I didn't even catch that. If a mod can change thread title to "about 1/3rd lower..." not "about 1/3rd of..."

Also no one stated that sales are lower than expected otherwise an expectation should be stated. And to have an expectation you need to factor budget and popularity. So the whole take of the thread title is just misinformation.

UK is a digital market at this point with physical sales declining every year, while there is certainly correlation between physical and digital sales, comparisons and ratios with games released years ago have no sense. Everyone has declining physical sales at this point.
 
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DarkstarRising13

Neo Member
It's not a bad look because sales doesn't equal quality. It's a lesser known IP released only on one console. Hopefully it recoups it's cost and puts it in the view of more peopel.
The budget was said to be around $60 million with a three-year development time. Given the huge amount of praise this game is getting and the amount of stores are selling out of them, I can see this game hitting close to 4 million by year's end, enough for Team Asobi to break even and make a profit.
 

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
It's not a bad look because sales doesn't equal quality. It's a lesser known IP released only on one console. Hopefully it recoups it's cost and puts it in the view of more peopel.
It is a bad look because the conversation was about strategy/investment, not quality. People desperately wanted their 94 metascore darling to be a commercial hit. So much so that people were estimating projections of 10+ million copies sold.

If you want to obsess over GAAS failure, fine, but you should also understand the shortcomings of the other models as well. People must go back to rational thought and logic, and away from payment model fantaticism zombies.
 
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tommib

Gold Member
It is a bad look because the conversation was about strategy/investment, not quality. People desperately wanted their 94 metascore darling to be a commercial darling that we were estimating projections of 10+ million copies sold.

If you want to obssess over GAAS failure, fine, but you should also understand the shortcomings of the other models as well. People must go back to rational thought and logic, and away from payment model fantaticism zombies.
Stop it. It’s at the very top of PSN most sold games. Just drop the trolling.
 

Generic

Member
It is a bad look because the conversation was about strategy/investment, not quality. People desperately wanted their 94 metascore darling to be a commercial hit. So much so that people were estimating projections of 10+ million copies sold.

If you want to obsess over GAAS failure, fine, but you should also understand the shortcomings of the other models as well. People must go back to rational thought and logic, and away from payment model fantaticism zombies.
I remember people also thought Stellar Blade would be a massive hit because "fuck wokeness" and then the game only sold 1 million in 3 months.
 

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
Stop it. It’s at the very top of PSN most sold games. Just drop the trolling.
Chart position doesn't give a great picture of overall performance. It changes daily and we don't know any actual numbers.

It's looking like this game will sell a little bit less than Ratchet and Clank, still be a success for Team Asobi, but it will also make the delusional people who thought this was the way forward for Sony PlayStation look pretty darn foolish.
 

XXL

Member
People desperately wanted their 94 metascore darling to be a commercial darling that we were estimating projections of 10+ million copies sold.
People were saying LTD sales would be 10M.....and you coming to the conclusion this is impossible based on 2-3 days of tracking from only physical sales and only from the UK.
Boombox Shut Up GIF

You should have your thread creation privileges revoked.

You are either unintelligent and/or disingenuous. Pick one.
 
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