DA2 Dragon Age 2 - now officially a success

[Gaxkang]

The EA Q4 report is out with the only reliable sales numbers for Dragon Age 2 (forget VGChartz). It's reliable because it will be subject to external audit, and SEC filing (eventually). According to this, since March, DA2 has sold over 2 million copies.

So this means that the Doctors were right - the future lies in action adventure games with dialog. You can alienate the hardcore RPG crowd and still make very good sales as an RPG developer. You can have a group of vocal critics all over the interwebz, and it won't make any difference to your bottom line.

Auto loot segregation: PASSED. Two stats per class: PASSED. No crafting: PASSED. No non-combat skills: PASSED. Follower equipment lockdown: PASSED. More action-oriented combat: PASSED. Less dialog: PASSED.

Also it shows that the average gamer may be 30, but the most games are bought by those below 20. So the tone change towards zombie mothers, STD's, exploding chantries, slightly emo NPCs, etc etc was also what the IP needed.

To everyone who criticized DA2 - please post your apologies in this thread. To those that loved it, please feel free to gloat - you have just been vindicated by market forces (sorry— had to add that troll line - for old times' sake. No DA2 post would be worth anything without it).

http://investor.ea.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=574530

 

[JDR13]

I thought their goal was 4 Million iirc.

Anyways.. who cares? DA2 was terrible imo.

 

[Roi Danton]

I thought their goal was 4 Million iirc.

Anyways.. who cares? DA2 was terrible imo.

Yeah, but those are still pretty decent numbers.

Anyways…who cares? DA2 was quite good imo. (sorry, I just couldn't resist - it's a DA2/Bioware thread after all).

 

[pibbur]

DA2 is great game. I know this, because I haven't played it yet.

Another piece of useless information from Pibbur

 

[booboo]

The question, though, is whether people will buy the *next* Bioware title? Many wanted DA:O2 and bought the game expecting to get this or something similar. That would have bloated their sales, imo. I certainly won't be getting their next DA game, based on my DA2 experience and I know I'm not alone. It will also be interesting to see what the longer term sales trends are for this title.

 

[szokol]

DA:O is one of my favourite games. Bought DA2 and uninstalled it after 4 hours.
Now, Bioware, guess. Will I buy your next game?

 

[Roi Danton]

The question, though, is whether people will buy the *next* Bioware title? Many wanted DA:O2 and bought the game expecting to get this or something similar. That would have bloated their sales, imo. I certainly won't be getting their next DA game, based on my DA2 experience and I know I'm not alone. It will also be interesting to see what the longer term sales trends are for this title.

That is actually the real question. I'd like to know to what extend the big publisher use their market research tools in that direction because it would honestly be a good idea to take the long term impact into account. If only to prevent a negative reputation and hence less sales.

 

[DoctorNarrative]

Since they said they wanted to sell more than DA:O, and then sold less, I am pretty sure that is the opposite of success.

 

[ChienAboyeur]

Still going on the same meme but to declare success/failure, it is checked against objectives.

I dont know the sales objectives but if they are met, then, yes, it is a success.

I dont think they care that much about the number of copies they sold but more about the money they collected.

I think a fairly large share of the sales came from pre-ordering plus first week sales. So full price here, no issue.

But after that, DA2 price fell quickly and is now available for 15€ (was three weeks or so after release) Not forgetting the special offer ME2 for a copy of DA2.

Whatever, it shows that RPG is a dying genre.

 

[Roi Danton]

Whatever, it shows that RPG is a dying genre.

Yes, what shame. I guess I'll zombie rpgs this year then. With them being dead and stuff.

 

[Couchpotato]

I dont call that a success they wanted to sell 4 million and didn't reach the goal. I wonder how much of those sales was just to get ME2 for free. Remember there goal is 10 million with there precious MMO.

They will have to kiss my ass to get an apology for my wasted money.

 

[sakichop]

I too believe da2 was a success solely because of dao. I pre ordered it based on my enjoyment of dao and no among of negative feedback would make me cancel. I played dao for over 400 he's with doc and multiple play throughs. I quit da2 after the first act.

My fear is that da3 will also be a success. Bioware will come out and say they have listened to their fans and implemented many changes to cater to the hardcore audience. People will believe them and flock to buy the game. Mainly because their will be no competition in the party based rpg genre. Hope im wrong but I really believe that will be the case.

 

[DeepO]

According to this, since March, DA2 has sold over 2 million copies.
http://investor.ea.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=574530

No, according to this^ DA2 has sold in over 2 millions copies.

A lot of the "success" it had came from DA:O, no doubt.
Anyway, it´s a shitty game which I bet will win a lot of "worst RPG of the year" trophies, including the most prestigious one here at RPGWatch (without winning any GoTY at the same time) .

The game definitely did not help BioWare´s reputation.

 

[Alrik Fassbauer]

The question, though, is whether people will buy the *next* Bioware title? Many wanted DA:O2 and bought the game expecting to get this or something similar. That would have bloated their sales, imo. I certainly won't be getting their next DA game, based on my DA2 experience and I know I'm not alone. It will also be interesting to see what the longer term sales trends are for this title.

Maybe then Bioware/EA will be surprised if the sales of Dragon Age 3 drop ?

Are maybe … They'll even increase further, because more and more people like this sort of game ?

This would be a totally terrible future for the RPG genre …

My fear is that da3 will also be a success. Bioware will come out and say they have listened to their fans and implemented many changes to cater to the hardcore audience. People will believe them and flock to buy the game. Mainly because their will be no competition in the party based rpg genre. Hope im wrong but I really believe that will be the case.

Possible, yes.

But even worse, I fear that the Dragon Age franchise will attract more and more players from the Action-RPG side - and those from the shooter/war-games side.

The result could become kind of a warfare-shooter/Action-RPG hybrid.

 

[azarhal]

The 2 millions copies is for March only (the financial quarter ended March 31st for EA) and it is an earning report.

DA:O had 2.8 millions copies sold in by the end of Xmas season of 2009: November-December. The game released November 4th. Which mean that DA2 seems to be selling faster to retailers, we will know by July if it kept it up or not...

 

[Motoki]

Bioware will come out and say they have listened to their fans and implemented many changes to cater to the hardcore audience.

 

[Gaxkang]

I thought their goal was 4 Million iirc.

Anyways.. who cares? DA2 was terrible imo.

Their goal was 10 million

But the minimum was to match Origins 4 million. So they may not have reached internal goals (and probably won't), but DA2 is no flop.

 

[JDR13]

but DA2 is no flop.

Well there's no way it was going to be a total flop. The fact that it was a sequel to DA:O pretty much guaranteed that. Bioware could have just shit in a box and labeled it DA2, and it would have still sold a million pre-orders on name alone.

Which is basically what happened.

 

[Gaxkang]

No, according to this^ DA2 has sold in over 2 millions copies.

A lot of the "success" it had came from DA:O, no doubt.
Anyway, it´s a shitty game which I bet will win a lot of "worst RPG of the year" trophies, including the most prestigious one here at RPGWatch (without winning any GoTY at the same time) .

The game definitely did not help BioWare´s reputation.

OH BALLS!! I just re-read the statement and you're right. It is SOLD IN. Which is basically the copies they offloaded onto retailers in March, but which may still be on the shelves for all we know, and later come back to EA if unsold to real people. I fell into EA's trap and read 'sold in' too quickly. Damn. Thanks for that.

So in short, we're back to square one in terms of how well this game did. But judging by what they said in that call about ME3 (delaying it to add more mass market appeal) I think it's safe to say that they don't have many regrets about the general direction taken.

 

[Roi Danton]

OH BALLS!! I just re-read the statement and you're right. It is SOLD IN. Which is basically the copies they offloaded onto retailers in March, but which may still be on the shelves for all we know, and later come back to EA if unsold to real people. I fell into EA's trap and read 'sold in' too quickly. Damn. Thanks for that.

So in short, we're back to square one in terms of how well this game did. But judging by what they said in that call about ME3 (delaying it to add more mass market appeal) I think it's safe to say that they don't have many regrets about the general direction taken.

To be fair: The direction itself wasn't the main problem of DA2 (for me, at least). The problem was that they didn't have enough time to work on them and overcome some of the flaws (like the cave thing).