Has BS sold well?

[EtherealN]

I do realize that there can be several reasons why TFC/ED might not want to release such numbers, but I am curious to know how well BS has sold so far. Since it is very much a niche product it would be very interesting to know how big that niche is.

[Boberro]

I guess even if product sell is not well, developers will say it is ok, but I am curious about this too :)

[goon3r]

I'm curious about this as well. The GAME mode will help push up the sales figures a bit more I think. At the same time it will be impossible to judge how many flight simmers buy as opposed to casual players. Hopefully the casual players end up on this forum and we convert them all. :thumbup:

[Cyb0rg]

I hope so. :thumbup:

But IMO, too soon to tell.

[rapid]

I would say yes it has.

[Ramstein]

There is probably some formula the developer use when they plan ahead, and also have a past reord of sales of previous products. I doubt they wil tel us, unless they decide to give us some 'Celebration* notice they reached some goal.. And the sales information will probably not be available until after the 2nd quarter..

 

which is not far away..

 

I suppose we can judge the sales by looking at forums and multiplayer servers... in this case the forums would be of heavy use because this sim has such a high learning curve..

 

IL-2 can have up to 1,100 pilots on an online server on a busy day/night.. and that was weh it was new, so imagine that figure plaus offliners has got to be huge. (not near as big as Microsoft's boring Flight Sim products.. no guns or bombs..heh..)

 

:smilewink:

[Pilotasso]

Lets remind that several countries are putting the game on the shelves just now. its too soon to judge.

[LastRifleRound]

I would say it has where it has been released so far. What other high-fidelity flight sim has come out in the past year? Black Shark is literally the only game in town, and a damn fine one at that.

 

I think more important about it is the fact that it runs on a range of platforms, so even an old PC like mine can run it at perfectly playable levels.

[DaWu]

I hope so cos I want all the future modules :)

[EtherealN]

Well, the point I was making is that this is all mainly speculations, and the fact that it's the only game in town (within the niche) makes the question all the more interesting.

 

All of this is from my own perspective as a former shareholder of DICE (before bloody EA bought them, though I have to say I did make an awesome amount of profit for my investment :P ), and it was very very interesting to see the presentations given of how various products was successful. For example, how many of you international guys know of the racing game STCC made by DICE? It "only" sold some 32000ish** copies, which is absolute crap by international standards, but it was a financial success* because they were able to use existing technology that they already had in a finished state (from the Motorhead racing game and rally games they made) and thereby get real low development costs. And within the niche of people who like the STCC racing series, selling 32000ish copies is very very well done. Another sample would be the Volvo 850 racing game they made based on the Motorhead engine - it was not even released commercialy but was a commisioned job by the Volvo marketing department.

 

But DCS:BS is a bit of a wildcard since it really is pretty much the only thing in town (that is anything near recent) for the people who like the kind of product it is, which makes knowing the sales volumes very very interesting. I mean, you can't judge how cool arcade racing is through looking at STCC, Volvo racing or even the rally games they made because there were so many products out there catering to those niches. But with DCS it's so alone that we can get a passable appreciation for how big the niche is (compared to other genres of gaming) through just knowing how well DCS:BS has been selling.

 

*In that year, if one had removed the profit they made from that game from the financial statement, they'd have made a loss. But they always had a business model that allowed them to grow rapidly at the expense of profit margins.

 

**This is a number from memory, so it might be off.

Edited April 30, 2009 by EtherealN

[Feuerfalke]

Considering the copies sold, I guess there were many.

 

Just think about how many people bought the Russian version first, then the US download and some even bought a DVD-Version for the shelf or to give them to friends to infect them with the FlightSim-Virus.

 

Nevertheless, the numbers on the different versions would be nice to know, even some rough number, but maybe it's also a little to early to get a clear overview, as the DVD-versions are not out long enough.

[SuperKungFu]

yea I hope its high so it would motivate them to continue producing for the commercial market.

 

In this day in age, a company has to think twice about their marketing strategy to get the most out of their work. Personally I say ED should do this, we know the next module is the A-10C so I'm speaking after that module: I say they should create an F-16 sim with all the works and a dynamic campaign. Beat the crap out of the old Falcon 4.0 series, you would win over a large Falcon 4.0 community. Next make the Ah-64 module and win over the Longbow community. With these two huge community under your belt, hell you can create a flying brick module and people will still buy it because you will have more followers.

[GGTharos]

That's nice, but ED has decided they'll go with whatever the military customers pay them for.

[Boberro]

yea I hope its high so it would motivate them to continue producing for the commercial market.

 

In this day in age, a company has to think twice about their marketing strategy to get the most out of their work. Personally I say ED should do this, we know the next module is the A-10C so I'm speaking after that module: I say they should create an F-16 sim with all the works and a dynamic campaign. Beat the crap out of the old Falcon 4.0 series, you would win over a large Falcon 4.0 community. Next make the Ah-64 module and win over the Longbow community. With these two huge community under your belt, hell you can create a flying brick module and people will still buy it because you will have more followers.

 

Agreed, good idea ^^

 

Especially with this

flying brick module

 

:megalol:Hahaha

 

I'd like to see it ASAP in DCS world again. Great plane.

Edited April 30, 2009 by Boberro

[Zakk]

Hey, whatever works; if a big military contract keeps them paid, it might give us, the prosumer, more advances in future home pc flight sims. I'll fly any damn thing they produce whether I like the A/C or not. I didn't even know the Ka-50 existed, nor did I care; I am just stoked to have such a great sim that WORKS.

[airea]

I also agree that a f-16 sim after a-10 would really rock the scene... Virtually everything is available about f-16, so it would be great strategy to convert falcon fans to DCS:f-16 fans...

[Dusty Rhodes]

To convert Falcon 4.0/Allied Force fans, something would have to be done to the campaign. It would have to come with many more campaigns as they are built now or a dynamic campaign like is in Allied Force. That is the only way they would convert.

[4c Hajduk Veljko]

The fact is, here in the USA, Black Shark DVD is on shelves of Best Buy, Fry's, GameStop and Amazon.com. And of course can be purchased on line through download. Customers on the entire planet of earth has access to buy it, as long as they have internet access.

 

That is telling me that Black Shark is selling well and will sell well for some time to come.

[Sulman]

People would complain about the Brick's turn radius, and the fact it's undermodelled. Evidence would be provided, including theoretical papers from MIT proving that bricks have a superior climb rate to the KA50, especially at low altitude.

 

ED would inevitably be forced to produce a brick modelled on popular American types. GGTharos will write 5000 words on why it is too fast.

[159th_Viper]

People would complain about the Brick's turn radius, and the fact it's undermodelled. Evidence would be provided, including theoretical papers from MIT proving that bricks have a superior climb rate to the KA50, especially at low altitude.

 

ED would inevitably be forced to produce a brick modelled on popular American types. GGTharos will write 5000 words on why it is too fast.

 

:megalol: :megalol:

 

That's me done for - Just Crack'd a Rib...............:megalol:

[VIKBELL]

I don't think you can have good idea of the figure until christmas 09.. There are alot of folks may by after they increase power of there hardware. It is a very good start to this series and hope to see much more out of DCS.:smilewink:

[Distiler]

90% of overall selling is through retail, so I think there is a long run still to know if it's going good (many places still without retail box). But, in any way, DCS series are just a plus to TFC/ED's pocket, military contracts are where the big bucks are. Face it, we are second class customers.

Edited April 30, 2009 by Distiler

[EtherealN]

The fact is, here in the USA, Black Shark DVD is on shelves of Best Buy, Fry's, GameStop and Amazon.com. And of course can be purchased on line through download. Customers on the entire planet of earth has access to buy it, as long as they have internet access.

 

That is telling me that Black Shark is selling well and will sell well for some time to come.

 

I have spoken to many developers* of some of the more "successful" games and been stunned to hear the response "well... we broke even". (Case in point a talk I had over a cigarette with one of the devs of No One Lives Forever in Seattle during a Sierra event.) Availability, review scores and sales volume doesn't tell the whole picture - to sell "well" you have to also make a profit. See the example I gave of the STCC game - 32000 copies sold is shit but they made a profit. Their previous game to that, Motorhead, sold some 600 000+ copies and only barely made a profit. (Though some of the development costs were recouped through STCC, Volvo 850 Racing and expanding the existing engine for their later rally games released by Microsoft.)

 

*Note - that goes back quite a few years to a previous job I had as a reviewer, so there's nothing recent about it.

 

But in the end, the very fact that Black Shark seems to be able to get some good market penetration is yet another reason to be interested in more exact figures, since it could indicate that our little niche is bigger than we might have thought.

[EtherealN]

90% of overall selling is through retail, so I think there is a long run still to know if it's going good (many places still without retail box). But, in any way, DCS series are just a plus to TFC/ED's pocket, military contracts are where the big bucks are. Face it, we are second class customers.

 

I would refer you to some interviews out there with Wags, but can't find the links right now since I'm a bit busy.

 

But paraphracing him from memory, military contracts are not a goldmine. They're usually done on a "cost plus" basis, wherein the profit they can make is fixed. They are also a very uncertain business, since there are no guarantees of you getting the contract. In contrast, Wags stated in a review that it is much easier to build a multiple-year business plan on commercial products.

 

That military contracts would be a goldmine is a myth. It's just that in the case of ED the two complement each other, since technology developed for one is very likely to be useable for the other.

[spyda]

i think its important if you like the game to recommend it to friends and family. this will create the following for years to come the more people with interest the more DCS products we will see on the shelf.