NS2 sales plummet during Autumn sale

Guspaz

<div class="IPBDescription">No discount seems to equal no sales</div>Steam is having their Autumn sale, where most games are on sale... and NS2 isn't. NS2 was the 10th best selling game on Steam this morning, and it's currently #46...

Seriously guys, should have at least knocked five or ten bucks off during the sale to avoid getting lost behind all the stuff that is on sale.

Zek

Going down the list is not the same as sales plummeting. The sales on everything else are skyrocketing. Maybe it's the right time for NS2 to go on sale, maybe it isn't. I personally think the Christmas sale is a better target, might be nice to get a few more patches before aiming for another population explosion.

Fappuchino

It hasn't been out for <!--coloro:#FF0000--><span style="color:#FF0000"><!--/coloro-->a month<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->. Devaluing games early on is never a good sign of anything. Natural Selection 2 came out in a busy, horrible time of the year. It's what happens.

Guspaz

I think Valve has disproved the "lower cost = less value" myth over and over again for years now. They've said on many occasions that whenever a game is discounted for a sale, no matter how much the discount, the overall revenue is increased the bigger the discount.

I'm sure there's a point of diminishing returns if you start getting silly-low (a $50 game at $5 might produce more revenue, but it probably wouldn't at $0.05), but the point is that they've got mountains of empirical evidence showing sales don't devalue games.

Lots of other games that have been out for similar periods of time as NS2 are on sale. Torchlight 2 and Borderlands 2 came out two months ago and are both on modest discount.

HeatSurge

You'd have to sell NS2 at 75% off or more to keep it on the top 10. That's just stupid a month after release. That's what failed games do.

ScardyBob

<!--quoteo(post=2031530:date=Nov 21 2012, 01:21 PM:name=Zek)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Zek @ Nov 21 2012, 01:21 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2031530"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Going down the list is not the same as sales plummeting. The sales on everything else are skyrocketing. Maybe it's the right time for NS2 to go on sale, maybe it isn't. I personally think the Christmas sale is a better target, might be nice to get a few more patches before aiming for another population explosion.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
This.

Lots of people wait till the Steam sales season before they purchase their games. That doesn't mean NS2 sales are dropping.

Fappuchino

<!--quoteo(post=2031538:date=Nov 21 2012, 02:30 PM:name=Guspaz)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Guspaz @ Nov 21 2012, 02:30 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2031538"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->-Snip-<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Except those 2 games did amazingly. Torchlight 2 having well over 50-70k+ concurrent players and Borderlands 2 being in the six digits.

Imbalanxd

Hey OP, would you rather sell 10 copies at full price or 20 at half?

OH NO PLUMMETING SALES

Swiftspear

NS2 came out at the same price as TorchLight2, but arguably there's less game to NS2 than there was to TorchLight2 (which was a legitimate competitor to Diablo 3)

Torchlight2 is on sale, and honestly, there were a couple complaints on release about NS2 being priced too high for the class it was in. I think it was the right move at the time to price it what it was, there was a lot of hype for the game at the time as well, so the price figure met demand... However, I think in general the consensus is "I'm not sure this game was worth the money I paid for it, it was good, but it didn't live up to the hype". Personally I don't regret my purchase at all, but I was also in the minority as a GIANT fan of NS1 for YEARS before NS2 came out.

Without being able to see current sales statistics, and not looking at the potential battering the game servers may take, I would have advised UWE to put the price of the game at $15.00 for the duration of the autumn sale. It's not too soon to trial a modest price drop during a major sale.

Imbalanxd

Torchlight 2 was also only indie by definition of not having an independent publisher, the same way Valve can be considered "indie". In actual fact, nothing could be further from the truth.

XtremeLoki

<!--quoteo(post=2031575:date=Nov 21 2012, 05:25 PM:name=Imbalanxd)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Imbalanxd @ Nov 21 2012, 05:25 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2031575"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Torchlight 2 was also only indie by definition of not having an independent publisher, the same way Valve can be considered "indie". In actual fact, nothing could be further from the truth.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

What is that even supposed to mean


I think they're still hope for a flash deal/daily deal of NS2, I hope it doesn't kill too much the community to not have a sales.

TimMc

<!--quoteo(post=2031533:date=Nov 21 2012, 04:22 PM:name=Fappuchino)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Fappuchino @ Nov 21 2012, 04:22 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2031533"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->It hasn't been out for <!--coloro:#FF0000--><span style="color:#FF0000"><!--/coloro-->a month<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->. Devaluing games early on is never a good sign of anything. Natural Selection 2 came out in a busy, horrible time of the year. It's what happens.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Exactly.

Imbalanxd

<!--quoteo(post=2031577:date=Nov 22 2012, 12:27 AM:name=XtremeLoki)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (XtremeLoki @ Nov 22 2012, 12:27 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2031577"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->What is that even supposed to mean<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

An "indie" developer is simply a development house that has no external publishers, and a limited number of shareholders. However this can lead to certain (rather large) development studios being classified as indie. Out of respect, Valve doesn't play that card. Considering the money that torchlight 2 was backed by, and the amount of marketing they had, they really had no right to be called indie.

tarquinbb

i think NS2 will gain more sales etc from twitch/tournament coverage... because it's bloody awesome to watch.

most of those steam top sellers list are singleplayer or not competitive and therefore boring to watch... if they don't go on sale then they get ignored.

lego

All the steam sales in the world wouldn't matter. Word of mouth has spoken and the final released product of ns2 is very sub par. I don't have my rose tinted nostalgia glasses on anymore. The game still runs very poorly 21 days into release. Maybe a year from now performance might finally be at the level it should have been when it was released. Hopefully by then new players are still willing to shill out money for a year old game.