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[cartographer]

That Quantum Break number is really bad considering the time and money sunk into it. I'm not all surprised considering the game effectively doesn't exist in conversation outside of enthusiast circles, but I didn't think it would be that low.

 

[Psycho_Mantis]

Lol no.

Didn't the series' future depend on BD2's sales. 50% decline WW certainly seems to spell cancelation especially when the heights reached by the first game were not so high.

In the West probably.

First game had a good run up. Art style was impressive. Unique battle system take. First new RPG in a while from SE that played more like their traditional RPGs.

The game was semi niche though. So sales went down for the sequel as it wasn't the type of game series to get bigger and bigger with each entry. Some people felt burned by the final part of the first game (I know that's s hot debate). Some people just felt like the game didn't need a sequal.

Plus the original released during the heyday of the 3ds. This one finally comes West during the 3ds Twilight years.

I'm not surprised at all really.

Seems like the game was too similar to the first one? Lot of resused assets?

 

[dancrane212]

Official numbers are out.

Dark Souls 3 - 504,000
Quantum Break < 150,000 (including bundle)
Bravely Second < 100,000

Others sales from this month

MLB 16 the Show < 185,000
The Division - 175,000 (including bundle)
Call of Duty: Black Ops III - 262,000 (including bundle)

Call of Duty: Black Ops III bundle sold 157,000 unit this month, 90% of total PS4 sales.

Ouch, hopefully Quantum did decently well digitally. Can't imagine it did gang-busters on PC but perhaps the addition of that and digital sales on the XB1 marketplace will help the game be a more successful than Alan Wake in the short term.

If Alan Wake was teetering on getting approval for a sequel on 145k in it's first month and Quantum hit 150k without factoring in digital/PC the series may still have some hope of continuing. There are some differences though; must have been cheaper to market Alan Wake than Quantum though the former did have things like the Bright Falls series so there was still some money in that as well. Wonder how much bigger QB's budget was over Alan Wake...

On a lighter note it's great to see Ratchet do so well. Congrats to Insomniac!

 

[Rymuth]

Quantum Bomba. It's hard to criticize fellow countrymen, but damn! I think Remedy needs to rethink their future with MS. Maybe contact Sony or something?

I think I've read they're working on their next game.

I have a feeling it'll be self-published and they'll put it on Steam, not Windows 10 store.

 

[Chobel]

Well, it's your fault, kinda.

But I didn't say the word "bet"

 

[Wace]

Nice one James, congrats to the whole team. Glad we charted too!

Can't help but ask: do you, guys, consider your product a success? Internally, I mean, from the standpoint of technical achievement etc. Or would you like to go back in time (no pun intended) and change something, seeing how it turned out.

 

[Chris1]

Where does MS go from here? They have Gears 4 coming but it truly just feels like the same game that came before it. Crackdown could be great but I'm not sure it will be a massive IP. Even if they come out with a new system what games are they going to push it with. I feel like the well that is their IP is just getting drier and drier

I think they messed up by not building new IP's when they were in the driving seat last gen and instead drifted into the Gears/Forza/Halo.

If they released all these new IP's last gen when they had a bigger install base and they might actually of been a little succesful. Not to say their new IP's won't be hits, but bigger install base = more sales & more hype which leads to even more sales.

At this point I feel like they should just focus on multiplayer games, that's usually where they find their big hitters and it means they can have open betas and stuff to build hype aswell.

Sea of thieves! With the sucess story of Destiny and Division, MMO lite is the new hotness, plus cross play with PC, it will do wonder, I think.

Depends if Rare can do the gameplay justice.. which I'm not sure about. I hope so, but don't know. It definitely has potential though.

The art style is an issue but I think they can overcome that if the gameplay is good and they actually put the game into peoples hands (through a beta, game preview program or something else of that sort)

 

[BruceLeeRoy]

Gears 4. They need Gears to be a massive success this year and Crackdown and Sea of Thieves next year. I know it feels same old, same old but Gears has a solid fanbase.

It definitely has a solid fanbase but the beta really just felt like you were playing Gears 3. I think a big portion of that fanbase is going to feel like they have played this game already. It should sell decently but again it and Halo are now games that only appeal to a ecosystem that continues to shrink. Seems like the console will just continue to slow down until it becomes pretty stagnant.

I think they messed up by not building new IP's when they were in the driving seat last gen and instead drifted into the Gears/Forza/Halo.

If they released all these new IP's last gen when they had a bigger install base and they might actually of been a little succesful. Not to say their new IP's won't be hits, but bigger install base = more sales & more hype which leads to even more sales.

At this point I feel like they should just focus on multiplayer games, that's usually where they find their big hitters and it means they can have open betas and stuff to build hype aswell.



Depends if Rare can do the gameplay justice.. which I'm not sure about. I hope so, but don't know. It definitely has potential though.

The art style is an issue but I think they can overcome that if the gameplay is good and they actually put the game into peoples hands (through a beta, game preview program or something else of that sort)

Yeah thats a good point. They really squandered those years when they could have been solidifying their position with new output instead of relying on the same pillars over and over and over.

I mean MS really is a bit of dumb behemoth when it comes to company decisions. Why in the world wouldn't they have let Bungie just make Destiny for them. They are one of the best devs houses in the world. Why not build a spin off studio like 343 that took over the reigns of Halo and let Destiny create the next big thing. Instead they continue to pull from a creative well that is starting to get tapped out and never did the work to build other successful studios within the company framework.

 

[QaaQer]

I think I've ready they're working on their next game.

I have a feeling it'll be self-published and they'll put it on Steam, not Windows 10 store.

Which Russian oligarch is funding it?

 

[KingJ2002]

Congrats on the launch Insomniac! Ratchet & Clank is a great title to rejuvenate the franchise and so far one of my favorite titles this gen. I'm glad I played it

Where does MS go from here? They have Gears 4 coming but it truly just feels like the same game that came before it. Crackdown could be great but I'm not sure it will be a massive IP. Even if they come out with a new system what games are they going to push it with. I feel like the well that is their IP is just getting drier and drier

Well... they are in desperate need of new IP... Halo, Gears & Forza are going through franchise fatigue and their new IP like Quantum Break, Sunset Overdrive, etc are great games but they are not moving the needle at retail.

Then there's Titanfall... which is now multiplatform.

and other upcoming titles like ReCore, Scalebound, Crackdown 3, Halo Wars 2 & Cuphead seem as if they will fall into the same category as Quantum Break & Sunset Overdrive (great titles that won't move units)

I think Microsoft should think about playing the "slow game" and focus on more MMO, F2P or SaaS based titles to have their franchises last longer and really take advantage of their user base.

Killer Instincts "Seasons" have kept that series going from launch... even after the original developers left.

Sea of Thieves and Gigantic are also good places to start on the MOBA / MMO side.

They still have great third party support but here's hoping this e3 sheds more light on the exclusive side of things.

 

[Ryng_tolu]

Thanks for the correction, I had 250K for March, I guess it was higher ?

It was 275,000 in March.

 

[ViewtifulJC]

Scalebound will do sub-100K when it releases next April, bet money

Kamiya pls

MS bout to get out of this whole Xbox business in a minute

 

[Markoman]

Where does MS go from here? They have Gears 4 coming but it truly just feels like the same game that came before it. Crackdown could be great but I'm not sure it will be a massive IP. Even if they come out with a new system what games are they going to push it with. I feel like the well that is their IP is just getting drier and drier

Good question, indeed. Halo's tits are drying up, Fable's gone and Forza was never that hot sales-wise, I think their only viable option is to make Xbox THE 3rd party box again or slowly leaving the "traditional" console market.

It's easier to come up with a new box than getting a new hit-IP it seems and since we haven't been hearing about MS opening new studios and I don't think they'll ever expand in that direction.

To be honest, I don't get why people are surprised that QB bombed. Pls kill me, but
right from the beginning it was generic protagonist (now douchy protagonist) + not so hot trailers. Action games now all try to be "mature" and clever, but end up in the B-Tier TV show category when it comes to storytelling. Give me a stupid 80s kind of Action game with high production values for a change!

 

[BruceLeeRoy]

Scalebound will do sub-100K when it releases next April, bet money

Kamiya pls

MS bout to get out of this whole Xbox business in a minute

I would seriously not be surprised. I don't think they have the resources to pull out of this quickly enough. I certainly believe they could but I don't know if MS would ever allow them to.

 

[Conduit]

QB sold less than The Order even with bundles.

I'm not surprised when Matt said that Xbone is catastrophe at MS.

 

[StrongBlackVine]

Sea of thieves! With the sucess story of Destiny and Division, MMO lite is the new hotness, plus cross play with PC, it will do wonder, I think.
Don't forget that number 6, Mincraft. They could make Minecraft 2.

Colorful cartoon pirates...I highly doubt this will be a hit.

 

[Sydle]

Awesome for ratchet. Love the series. I hope this means there's another sequel already greenlit.

2K should buy Remedy/fund Remedy's next project if MS doesn't want to continue working with them. With their experience in making single-player (driven) games commercially successful, they'd be a great fit for the type of games Remedy wants to make.

Given Microsoft's first-party studio situation, though, they'd be stupid not to at least fund Alan Wake 2 and see where that goes.

I don't want MS to touch another Remedy game unless they're going to market it properly. Out of around a dozen friends I regularly talk games with only one of them knew about QB. It's very similar to Alan Wake where hardly any of them knew what it was until long after release.

I prefer Alan Wake 2 goes to a new publisher.

 

[OrbitalBeard]

Do we know Halo 5's current sales? I'm guessing Splatoon has outsold it, which is madness to me.

Yeah, I really don't know what MS is going to do moving forward.

 

[Rymuth]

Which Russian oligarch is funding it?

We won't know for five or six years, given Remedy's average dev time.

 

[Kill3r7]

It definitely has a solid fanbase but the beta really just felt like you were playing Gears 3. I think a big portion of that fanbase is going to feel like they have played this game already. It should sell decently but again it and Halo are now games that only appeal to a ecosystem that continues to shrink. Seems like the console will just continue to slow down until it becomes pretty stagnant.

On the contrary, I think keeping the gameplay similar to Gears 3 assures that folks won't be turned off by too many changes. The best thing I can say about the beta is that it felt like Gears. That said, I have no idea how big Gears is anymore but it will be up to MS and their ad team to create more hype around it.

Awesome for ratchet. Love the series. I hope this means there's another sequel already greenlit.



I don't want MS to touch another Remedy game unless they're going to market it properly. Out of around a dozen friends I regularly talk games with only one of them knew about QB. It's very similar to Alan Wake where hardly any of them knew what it was until long after release.

I prefer Alan Wake 2 goes to a new publisher.

Your friends either don't watch TV, surf the web or turn on their X1. Heck even as someone who doesn't have cable I saw tons of ads for QB just by watching sports at the bar.

 

[DannyDanger]

Official numbers are out.

Dark Souls 3 - 504,000
Quantum Break < 150,000 (including bundle)
Bravely Second < 100,000

Others sales from this month

MLB 16 the Show < 185,000
The Division - 175,000 (including bundle)
Call of Duty: Black Ops III - 262,000 (including bundle)

Call of Duty: Black Ops III bundle sold 157,000 unit this month, 90% of total PS4 sales.

All this and no ratchet and clank numbers??????

 

[Ryng_tolu]

Didn't the series' future depend on BD2's sales. 50% decline WW certainly seems to spell cancelation especially when the heights reached by the first game were not so high.

First, is not 50% drop at retail, is way lower than that.

Second, you must considering digital sales, and no, i'm not that guy of the "90% digital ratio", but trusth me. They are very important for a game like this.

Do we know Halo 5's current sales? I'm guessing Splatoon has outsold it, which is madness to me.

Yeah, I really don't know what MS is going to do moving forward.

Not in the US.

 

[BruceLeeRoy]

On the contrary, I think keeping the gameplay similar to Gears 3 assures that folks won't be turned off by too many changes. The best thing I can say about the beta is that it felt like Gears. That said, I have no idea how big Gears is anymore but it will be up to MS and their ad team to create more hype around it.

Still though its going to be selling to a shrinking fanbase don't you think?
I got to jump into the beta for only a couple days because lord there is too many games right now but I came away with a "been there done that" feeling. I got a lot of time with the UE earlier in the year and burned out on that and even though all the refinements in 4 are great it doesn't feel new enough for me to jump into. Its similiar actually for me to what happened with the remastered version of TLOU. I platinum'ed that game again and the MP was some of my favorite from last gen. I played the MP for about a week then got burned out. I know G4 has changes but it seems like the same thing will happen.

 

[OrbitalBeard]

Not in the US.

Oh yeah, I would assume that's true.

 

[Nirolak]

Official numbers are out.

Dark Souls 3 - 504,000
Quantum Break < 150,000 (including bundle)
Bravely Second < 100,000

Others sales from this month

MLB 16 the Show < 185,000
The Division - 175,000 (including bundle)
Call of Duty: Black Ops III - 262,000 (including bundle)

Call of Duty: Black Ops III bundle sold 157,000 unit this month, 90% of total PS4 sales.

Looks like it landed in the middle of my range from February's thread.

So looking back, both Wolfenstein and The Order did around 180-200K.

Quantum Break is also a linear singleplayer shooter, and it's about 7-10 hours judging by reviews, so I'd probably expect maybe around 120-180K given it's on a less popular platform and coming out at a more competitive time in the generation?

I guess it could super tank below 100K, but it seems to have at least something of a following and it's not *that* crowded.

I maintain this is a very harsh genre for almost anyone to operate in given the way taste has went.

Bravely Default did over 160K and over 200K with digital, so that's a pretty large dive as well barring a huge uptake on digital, which I think Nintendo would have bragged about.

Given the Japanese results, I wouldn't hold my breath for a sequel.

 

[Kill3r7]

Still though its going to be selling to a shrinking fanbase don't you think?

Agreed. The shooter market (FPS/TPS/MMO Lite) is the most competitive it has ever been. Gears only chance of success is positive word of mouth post launch. There are 4 major AAA shooters coming out this holiday season (COD IW, BF1, TF2 and Gears 4) and that doesn't even include games which might not have been announced yet. Plus, who knows what impact Overwatch and The Division will have on these games in the fall.

 

[Dash_Riprock]

I feel that Gears 4's sales are going to be incredibly surprising...in a bad way. Maybe I'm completely wrong, but I'm not feeling good about that game's chances. It feels like a franchise lost in time.

The Halo series also saw a massive decline this gen, I see no reasons to think the same won't happen to Gears.

 

[Chris1]

Scalebound will do sub-100K when it releases next April, bet money

Kamiya pls

MS bout to get out of this whole Xbox business in a minute

Scalebound should have been a holiday 2016 title and mass bundled the shit out of. It was it's only chance becoming a hit IMO. Putting it into at least 2-3million peoples hands & hopefully it has good word of mouth around it equalling sales and hopefully becoming a franchise

Doesn't really matter if releasing it in the holiday will make it not sell well because of the competition, there's a slim chance of it selling well no matter when it releases. At least if it comes out during the holiday they can bundle it like crazy and force it onto peoples xbox. In the spring it doesn't have that opportunity.

I think in Quantum Breaks defense, it might have a very high digital attach rate due to the cross buy promotion for the digital copy.
I wouldn't be surprised if it's around 50%.

225k still isn't very good though, but yeah it probably does have a high digital split.

 

[pharmboy044]

I think in Quantum Breaks defense, it might have a very high digital attach rate due to the cross buy promotion for the digital copy.
I wouldn't be surprised if it's around 50%.

 

[Psycho_Mantis]

First, is not 50% drop at retail, is way lower than that.

Second, you must considering digital sales, and no, i'm not that guy of the "90% digital ratio", but trusth me. They are very important for a game like this.



Not in the US.

Its still a significant drop and considering how SE had to release a add on called For the Sequel, such a decline is surely severe. Its also not going to have the legs as the original.

 

[Ryng_tolu]

Maybe Silicon Studios move on and create another IP like they did when they went from 4 Heroes of Light to Bravely Default but there is also the fact that Bravely Second looks like it costed much less than Second to make with all the reused content so...

Any data about how the game performed in Europe?

UK first week

Bravely Default - 5,400
Bravely Second - 4,500

It also sold about 4/5K in Spain in 3 weeks, don't remember the correct numbers.

 

[harSon]

It definitely has a solid fanbase but the beta really just felt like you were playing Gears 3. I think a big portion of that fanbase is going to feel like they have played this game already. It should sell decently but again it and Halo are now games that only appeal to a ecosystem that continues to shrink. Seems like the console will just continue to slow down until it becomes pretty stagnant.



Yeah thats a good point. They really squandered those years when they could have been solidifying their position with new output instead of relying on the same pillars over and over and over.

I mean MS really is a bit of dumb behemoth when it comes to company decisions. Why in the world wouldn't they have let Bungie just make Destiny for them. They are one of the best devs houses in the world. Why not build a spin off studio like 343 that took over the reigns of Halo and let Destiny create the next big thing. Instead they continue to pull from a creative well that is starting to get tapped out and never did the work to build other successful studios within the company framework.

Why do people keep saying that Microsoft not bankrolling Destiny was a misstep? The game had a ridiculously swollen budget, and a lot of its success had to do with the fact that it was releasing on four platforms - including the leader in the current console generation. You can't look at Destiny's success right now, and assume that it would have been anywhere near the success had it been Xbox exclusive.

 

[cilonen]

QB sold less than The Order even with bundles.

I'm not surprised when Matt said that Xbone is catastrophe at MS.

To re-purpose an old meme.... Xbone means death.

 

[BruceLeeRoy]

Why do people keep saying that Microsoft not bankrolling Destiny was a misstep? The game had a ridiculously swollen budget, and a lot of its success had to do with the fact that it was releasing on four platforms - including the leader in the current console generation. You can't look at Destiny's success right now, and assume that it would have been anywhere near the success had it been Xbox exclusive.

Its success is based on its content and addictive gameplay.
How could one of the most popular mp games on any system have faired badly on a console with the best online infrastructure and demographic.

I don't think you can make an argument where MS didn't royaly screw themselves by not seeing the writing on the wall.

 

[Draft]

Quantum Break has looked missable from the very first preview.

Console industry is in tatters. There is only PlayStation.

 

[Kill3r7]

Why do people keep saying that Microsoft not bankrolling Destiny was a misstep? The game had a ridiculously swollen budget, and a lot of its success had to do with the fact that it was releasing on four platforms - including the leader in the current console generation. You can't look at Destiny's success right now, and assume that it would have been anywhere near the success had it been Xbox exclusive.

Correct. The same reason why MS or Sony buying Zenimax would make little sense.

Its success is based on its content and addictive gameplay.
How could one of the most popular mp games on any system have faired badly on a console with the best online infrastructure and demographic.

I don't think you can make an argument where MS didn't royaly screw themselves by not seeing the writing on the wall.

More that half the users are playing on consoles not owned by MS. If you think Destiny would have been anywhere as successful as an exclusive you are kidding yourself.

 

[SpotAnime]

Just so that we can see the scale:

1. Dark Souls III (PS4, Xbox One) 504,000
2. Ratchet & Clank (PS4)
3. MLB 16: The Show (PS4, PS3) < 185,000
4. Tom Clancy&#8217;s The Division (PS4, Xbox One, PC) 175,000 (including bundle)
5. Grand Theft Auto V (PS4, Xbox One, 360, PS3, PC)
6. Minecraft (Xbox One, 360, PS4, PS3)
7. Quantum Break (Xbox One) < 150,000 (including bundle)
8. Call of Duty: Black Ops III (Xbox One, PS4, 360, PS3, PC) 105,000 (262,000 including bundle)
9. NBA 2K16 (PS4, Xbox One, 360, PS3)
10. Star Fox: Zero (Wii U)

So, does the software charts include the bundle numbers? I'm thinking not, because CoD would be way higher with them included.

What this tells us:

R&C > 185k and <504k
QB > 105k and <175k, but since that 175k includes bundle, it's probably lower than that, perhaps between 105k and 150k.

 

[chadskin]

Agreed. The shooter market (FPS/TPS/MMO Lite) is the most competitive it has ever been. Gears only chance of success is positive word of mouth post launch. There are 4 major AAA shooters coming out this holiday season (COD IW, BF1, TF2 and Gears 4) and that doesn't even include games which might not have been announced yet. Plus, who knows what impact Overwatch and The Division will have on these games in the fall.

Another TPS - Mafia III - launches four days earlier, as well.

 

[AmaterasuOni]

Quantum Break has looked missable from the very first preview.

Console industry is in tatters. There is only PlayStation.

PlayStation is the Chosen One. Others are mere false Gods. Bow down to the masters at Sony.

Next few years will get interesting. There's so much speculation if MS will even make a new Xbox anymore.

 

[Kill3r7]

Another TPS - Mafia III - launches four days earlier, as well.

Totally forgot about Mafia III. Does Mafia III have a MP component?

 

[BlackBuzzard]

Just so that we can see the scale:



So, does the software charts include the bundle numbers? I'm thinking not, because CoD would be way higher with them included.

What this tells us:

R&C > 185k and <504k
QB > 105k and <175k

R&C is 207K atleast.

 

[Ryng_tolu]

Bravely Default developers said they have some plans for a home console game.

Even if Bravely Second won't do much good ( like sub 1 million WW), i don't think they will leave this series so fast, imo.

 

[chadskin]

Totally forgot about Mafia III. Does Mafia III have a MP component?

Nope.

 

[SnowFlakeCake]

From 360 onward, particularly the second half MS handled their first parties poorly to say the least and they are now paying for it. The 3rd party titles were selling much better on 360 than PS3 and for some reason MS had it in their head that come rain or shine, that would remain the case going forwards. That did not happen, most 3rd party games sell better on PS4 than XB1 so that's already a huge reliance they had gone.

Then their treatment of first party franchises was beyond fucking stupid, I mean damn what were they thinking? Halo, Gears, Forza, Fable and that's about it, sooner rather than later those franchises were not going to stay on top of the game. Halo has gone downhill to the point that it's at the level of say the Uncharted franchise (which is good but not outstanding), Gears I can't say yet, Forza always relied on bundles and Fable is dead.

Sony have not been great this generation first party wise but many of the studio remain, which adds diversity to the line up. Uncharted 4 looks to be doing well, GT Sport will do well, I'd think God of war should do well and Horizon could end up being big. All those titles I mentioned should do 4 million WW with ease.

The fuck MS got?

 

[BruceLeeRoy]

Correct. The same reason why MS or Sony buying Zenimax would make little sense.



More that half the users are playing on consoles not owned by MS. If you think Destiny would have been anywhere as successful as an exclusive you are kidding yourself.

I don't think it would be as big as it is now but would have been MS's next massive franchise and been bigger than Halo.

I think so.

 

[Psycho_Mantis]

Bravely Default developers said they have some plans for a home console game.

Even if Bravely Second won't do much good ( like sub 1 million WW), i don't think they will leave this series so fast, imo.

But will it be part of the Bravely series?

 

[jacobeid]

Congrats to Insomniac. Well deserved.

 

[Vena]

So is that the end of the Bravely Default series?

Bravely ended before it released in the west. It would have taken some exemplary sales in the west to resuscitate what SE had already killed with a bad/uninspired/cheap sequel.

 

[Ryng_tolu]

But will it be part of the Bravely series?

Yes they literally said they could be interesting to port the series on home console.

 

[sense]

I think in Quantum Breaks defense, it might have a very high digital attach rate due to the cross buy promotion for the digital copy.
I wouldn't be surprised if it's around 50%.

I am sorry, I don't think there are a lot of people out there wanting two versions of a game which only has sp and is like 7-10 hours long and willing to give up on resale value