Used sales double Dead Space userbase Comments by Tom Bramwell

I only just bought it, but it is the kind of game most people would play to completion then just trade on sell. I won't, since my days of just trading stuff in is over, but it is one story that most will just play through once.

1.5 m on just PS3 is a pretty good number considering its multiplatform. In the end probably 4-5 million will be sold overall, which is an amazing number for any new IP.

Has there been a better selling original title than this? The Sims, Wii Fit (and if you count bundles) Tetris and Wii Sports spring to my mind.

Edit: I sold Dead Space after finishing it recently (on 360). 7/10 didn't do it justice.

I thought 1.5 million copies was pretty good sales wise for a new IP. And thats excluding PC sales.

Sequel please.

That 7/10 score was probably the most wrong score of last year. It's awesome.

Dead Space only managed a 7/10 with us but received heftier acclaim elsewhere, and you voted it your 10th favourite of 2008. EA has said to expect a sequel.

and from the ashes of one terrible review was born 'Dead Space Dan'...

also this is just more fuel on the fire for the distributors to push downloaded games, they must really hate the pre owned market.

"Schofield was speaking as part of the apparently never-ending inquisition into why Dead Space (and Mirror's Edge) received good review scores and sold less than expected. "

I don't know, it sold 1,5 million in a couple of months. For a non exclusive, non brand game in the busiest time of the year, that's nothing to be sneered at. Exactly how well where people expecting it to sell? :/

I wonder what this figure is for other games (it's hard to see if dead space is an unusual case or are most single player games like this)

I was a fantastic game, although I could see why it would have been traded in, especially near that time of year, I wonder if they will shoehorn some kind of multiplayer into the sequel in an attempt to add longevity to the game? (optional co-op might be nice, i.e.: no AI partner)

siro i think it was 1.5mil on both platforms.anyway great game just a shame they released it near xmas as it would have sold a lot more in the summer.i was glad to get a game which focused on SP instead of tacking on an unnessary MP not too many games like that about nowadays.good ps3 port as well.

Agreed, for what it is Dead Space is one of the best ever. As a single-player survival horror game, its easily the best this generation.

I will never get rid of my copy. I love it to space death. Oh, and why is every game played afterwards used? How about cheap sales (I bought mine in februari for 20 euro's) and borrowing from friends.

He fact he said it sold 1.5 million or whatever males me think it could possibly sold less than that....

Either way releasing this and mirrors edge at such a busy time next to the likes of FIFA, Call of Duty and Need For Speed, surely they can't be suprised at the numbers it did?

I don't know if it would work, but why don't some publishers try the Nintendo route and actually market there game beyond the initial 1-2 week period of it's initial release?

Well, I actually borrowed my brother's copy for a few nights (which I bought for him incidentally). The reason I didn’t buy it myself was mostly thanks to EG’s 7/10 actually. But I really enjoyed it and I would buy a sequel without hesitation.

It’s an interesting point actually. I know that sales is what everyone gauges the success of a game, but I wonder if looking at the number of players who have played the game on various online networks is also a valid source to deem how successful a game is?

If you could also tap into achievements, then that would give you a better outcome in determining success (for example, every game gives an achievement or trophy for finishing it) as most people who finish a game must have enjoyed it in order to do so.

You could even set a cutoff point to determine ‘success’ – like, to use Dead Space as an example, if a player gets the chapter 8 achievement then that player would count towards the success of the game. Anything less and it wouldn’t…

Now I know this doesn't really help a company make money (which is ultimately the reason people make games), but there must be lots of people out there like me that were perhaps on the fence and dissuaded thanks to 'external sources'. And these figures could perhaps warrant a sequel, If the projected retention figures were high enough.

I think I might have discovered a new analyst position.

7/10 felt bang on the money to me. I rented it, finished it in a week, and had no cause to ever go back to it, much as I quite enjoyed the experience and the Solaris-inspired storyline.

I sold mine after finishing it and got a very decent price (75% of retail) so there was certainly a good deal of people who wanted to play it. It is the kind of game that you do not keep. Extra DLC levels would have done the trick probably. Great game with some flawed gameplay moments (invincible monster for example).

Dead Space had everything that ResiEvil5 didn't: usable, playable controls

1.5 million sold, 3 million played... what, everyone traded it in?

That 7/10 score was probably the most wrong score of last year. It's awesome.

Oh right, the invincible monster sucked (especially in the appearances before you got the means to take care of it). I also didn't particularly enjoy the cannon sequences. Still, an outstanding game.

Edit: Someone deleted the comment I'm referring, too. :)

Surely that's only counting the used sales that appeared on Live, and not everyone's on Live (yet).

I only bought Dead Space recently (thanks WHSmiths - £9!) and have yet to play it. My personal take is that there's something distinctive missing in the branding and marketing of the game. With so many games on the market it has to jump out at you, and a game called "Dead Space" with a severed arm on the front is almost void of a psychological hook point. It's only people that pay attention to reviews (ie. us - shh - hardcore) who've really given it a chance.

Oh, and the absolute toilet demo didn't help either. The fact that I've still bought it after how bad that demo was says something about the persistent reputation of this game.

I'm interested to see how the full game actually plays (after I've finished Broken Steel).

" Great game with some flawed gameplay moments (invincible monster for example). "

The invincible monster parts where EPIC! It was nervewrecking and an awesome design decision for a game like this.

I thouth the constant need to open boxes to get health and ammo and the very similar fetch quests was the flawed moments.
Great game no doubdt 9/10.

"1.5 million sold, 3 million played... what, everyone traded it in? "

I did. No need to keep it after getting the full 1000/1000. Still i feel i cant do the same with the fantastic RE5 metal box even though i have 1200/1200 on the game. It might get more DLC though - Hopefully.

My issue with the invincible monster was that it wasn';t clear initially that it WAS invincible. So I wasted a fair bit of ammo titting about with it. Once it became clear it was holding out for a special scripted death type sequence, it was quite tense I guess.


Anyway, on subject. I can see this making a case for chargeable DLC in the future. We all complain about how stopping sales of used games would be a bad thing (I like pre-owned too), but we also accept that a pre-owned sale gives nothing back to the publisher. If a game has a reasonable amount of chargable DLC, even resales will accrue some income for the publisher.

@Berelain

I don't see why re playability is such a huge factor. Myabe it used to be when I bought 1 game every 4 moths, but it's more 3 a month at the moment with all these bargains. I'd raher have 15 hours of pure awesome for my money. I haven't got time to play all the games on my pile as it is. let alone every game taking me 60 hours.

Oh and the lack of multiplayer doesn't mean jack shit. Bioshock didn't flop now did it. Just sell it better, there's loads of people who don't give a fuck about mp. Most mp is crap tacked on and get's ditched for Halo 3 or COD after 2 weeks anyway.

I don't think that this supports the idea of second-hand game sales as much as it does support the idea that games should be cheaper.

Imagine how many copies would sell if it originally retailed at £20 rather than £40.

Games are far too expensive on release £22.99 is a great price point that will end this pre owned madness.

Then the shops will not bother with the hassle & everone will be able to buy a nice fresh unscratched disc. The game companys will reap more of the cash. Or just tie 1 copy to 1 console which is what downloading will do.

@Bitkari

I don't see that making a difference to the market. If the rrp on games was cheaper, the resale value of pre-owned would be cheaper as a consequence. It would change the figures a bit, but not as much as you suggest.

And also, its not like publishers just throw dice in the air and price games at whatever number comes back. If halving the price of games meant their profits would soar, you can bet that is exactly what they would be doing.

Edit:

"Games are far too expensive on release £22.99 is a great price point that will end this pre owned madness"

Same response as above. A price cut wouldn't end anything.

Loads of people must have rented this, surely? It's the sort of game you'd rent and blitz through in a short time. It would be very unwise for anyone to infer that there were 1.5m preowned sales of this game imo. 'OMG TEH EVILZ SECOND HAND MARKET' etc etc....

Good game. Very clever level design to minimise backtracking, good combat and probably the best audio I've heard this generation. Pretty pant-wetting at times if you're alone in the house playing at night and have a sub woofer. I let out many a little squeaker.

Not perfect of course, but a good solo romp. Not much point in keeping it once it's been completed a couple of times so of course it will sell on. Nothing wrong with that. The trouble with making it cheaper is that it will then look like a cheap game, when it fact it is well polished. I guess if it were released for £25 that would be about right, which is what I got it for. £35 is ridiculous (I like to make at most £1 per hour).

People are stupid. This was £15 about 3 days after release, and cost more used than new for the first 6 months it was out.

Games are way too cheap these days. The NES games had the same prices back in the 80s. With the inflation and all games should cost at least twice the amount of what they did back then. Their actually cheaper for some weird reason.

I don't need to say it...

/ Glares at Dan

"My issue with the invincible monster was that it wasn';t clear initially that it WAS invincible."

True, but after destroying it the first time you where told that it was regenerating and that you should run. So i did and the damn thing was right behind my back for quite some time. I loved it. Real andrenaline kick.

No, you don't bad09.

/ Growls at Dan

PLEASE GOD, DO NOT PUT MULTIPLAYER IN DEAD SPACE 2!

This game scared the shit out of me. Was having nightmares of those freaky bastards shuffling from side to side coming to get me. Sequel please

Gosh, could it really be that if games were cheaper, they'd sell more than enough extra copies to offset the loss of profit?

@metalangel
Fine in theory, but what happens when your modestly priced title still doesn't sell? You end up losing so much money that your studio goes under.

Retail wants their chunk of the profits regardless of the price point, and a £50 quid game takes up as much inventory space as as a £20 one.

For me personally it's a solid 9/10 - it's been a while since I've played a survival horror game so tense and it shits all over the last few Resident Evil offerings. I bought it last year when it was released and still haven't quite finished it, it's felt like real value for money.... and that's something else that isn't that common these days.

Good job EA, hope the sequel is just as innovative.

@kangarootoo

The proliferation of the second-hand market is largely due to the high retail price of games.

Having a high-price means that for many there is more value in a game's resale price than there is in holding on to the game.

However, if you're only going to get £2 for trading in a game, many gamers are not going to bother. Likewise, the current margins for retailers on second-hand games are massive; when these drop, it becomes less worth their time and money.

While still good value, games really need to show much more flexibility in price if they're to get a true mass-market adoption. To say that publishers have arrived at the perfect price point is a tad naive as the reality of pricing is dictated more by a combination of niche marketing, retail overheads, and the risk-averse nature of the industry that dare not leave the incumbent pricing system.

Only when downloads really start to dominate will retail pricing be forced into change.

You really have to take EG reviews with a pinch of salt cos unless its halo or something it will probably get marked lower. im just saying that on a few big titles it seems to be the trend.

It is the kind of game that you do not keep.
I keep all my games. I don't have Dead Space though.

Yeah I sold mine, but I did it on Amazon Marketplace rather than trading in at the parasitic High Street stores.

I didn't finish actually finish it, because by Chapter 7 it was freaking me out way too much. I just had to stop. It's the game that made me realise it's Nice Games Only for me from now on.

It was good though.

Dfawkes wrote: I only just bought it, but it is the kind of game most people would play to completion then just trade on sell. I won't, since my days of just trading stuff in is over, but it is one story that most will just play through once.

Why are your days of trading stuff in over? Are you saying you buy games, play them to completion then let them gather dust while you spend more money on new games?

Sad is the day when 1.5 million sales is considered poor for a new IP, still though definitely lookibf forward to Dead Space 2

I dont think the issue is that it sold 1.5 million, but more so the fact that it sold 1.5 million and many of those were heavily discounted.. in fact I had wish I had purchased it when it was cheap (as its much more expensive now I think - tried to pick it up the weekend new but they had no stock left).

They reduced the price drastrically in a few days to hold up the sales figures. So i would suspect that was more of a problem. Though I think a sequel would do a lot better because many people seemed to have enjoyed it.

The only issue now is many people (including myself) will be thinking with all the glut of games coming out at Xmas, dont buy straight away as one of the games you might want might buckle under the sales pressure... unfortunately this is not good for games companies, but they brought it on themselves.

Why are your days of trading stuff in over? Are you saying you buy games, play them to completion then let them gather dust while you spend more money on new games?
In my case, yes. Well, they don't "gather dust" has dust gets cleaned arround here, though, games, as movies and books, and pictures, and... memories are indeed collected and nursed in my kingdom.

Bought for £20 new from HMV a month or two ago, it's good but still in my to "complete when I get around to it" pile.

Exactly. In this case it was felt right to start discounting right away, so that's probably the right move for lots of other games too.

The trouble is we have this weird system where every game costs exactly the same, no matter how much it cost to make or market, and no matter what its expected sales.

To say they have come up with the perfect price to maximise profits is just not true, because there's no way that price would just happen to be exactly the same for every game released.

If customers had expected that lower price for Dead Space and it was advertised as such, it probably would have sold a lot more. Instead they had to rely on people looking at the price sticker on the game before they realise it's a lot cheaper than other similar titles.

@ kangarootoo

Actually, I have to agree with bitkari on this one and say that the fact that it sold pretty poorly yet had a large number of players, which the devs themselves are putting down to re-sales, definitely leads towards proving that a lower price point for Dead Space would have resulted in higher sales.

I doubt many people bought a second hand copy of Dead Space for more than 75% of retail - probably somewhere between 50 and 75% based on how shops price second hand copies of new-ish games - so it stands to reason that if Dead Space had been priced between £20-30 at launch, the devs may have enjoyed nearly 3 million of genuine sales, rather than 1.5 million plus 1.5 million second-hand sales.

And industries do not have a good track record of listening to people tell them 'lower prices = higher sales = higher revenue = higher profits'. Look at the music industry - it far prefers to stick its fingers in its collective ears and bawl out 'La-la-la', resolutely staying with the demonstrably false theory that lowering the price of albums somehow lowers the 'perception of value' and that piracy is crippling their business model.

Whereas if they reduced albums to no more than a fiver for brand new at retail, I'd bet they see all their sales sky rocket. Hell, I know I'd buy more than the one abum a year I do presently.

But the problem is that its managers, accountants and lawyers who make that kind of decision - and they won't ever make that choice.

@ makeamazing

£14.99 for either PS3 or 360 versions from Play

Dead Space

/yes, should have put this on the Bargains thread :-P

It's the age old idiocy, where the developer looses site of the positives i.e. twice the number of potential customers next time around. Instead they focus on the negatives and end up killing themselves in the process. These high figures would tell any savvy business person that they should be getting a sequel out there asap. Instead I'm willing to bet they spend a rediculous amount of time pissing off their potential customers by trying to stop trade-ins or something silly like that.