How many copies did FC sell? or LO?

[Guest ThomasDWeiss]

I am asking because I read this:

 

Lead Pursuit officially announced Falcon 4 Allied Force. Here's the announcement.

 

ADDISON, TX, April 25, 2005 -- The flight simulation franchise that sold more than 900,000 units for the PC returns in an unprecedented fashion, as Graphsim Entertainment introduces Falcon 4.0: Allied Force™.

[Guest ThomasDWeiss]

I didn’t expect an answer.

 

Probably around 200000 LO and at least 150000 FC.

 

Anyhow, I wonder - out of those 900000 copies sold – how many mastered it? I doubt that more than 1 in 4, how many still are flying it today? Maybe one in 10.

 

I found the flight model of the F-16 not bad, but far from what it should be, LO has a much better one and the terrain, well … it is what it is, dated. The one thing it has which is a beauty is Aeyes cockpit, and there is one even better, but I don’t recall its name.

[britgliderpilot]

I didn’t expect an answer.

 

Probably around 200000 LO and at least 150000 FC.

 

Anyhow, I wonder - out of those 900000 copies sold – how many mastered it? I doubt that more than 1 in 4, how many still are flying it today? Maybe one in 10.

 

I found the flight model of the F-16 not bad, but far from what it should be, LO has a much better one and the terrain, well … it is what it is, dated. The one thing it has which is a beauty is Aeyes cockpit, and there is one even better, but I don’t recall its name.

 

Note the term "Franchise". Not game ;)

 

 

It sounds like you have a grudge against F4? :p

 

 

Did you just pick those numbers out of the air, btw?

[Guest ThomasDWeiss]

I have Falcon 4AF, and FF3 - never got into it. And every time I tried I ended up flying LO more :D

 

I used LOMAN as a benchmark to guess the numbers, Checksix has about 65000 LOMAN2 and 15000 LOMAN4-5 dl, lets say 50% of the total, you have then 135000 LOMAN2 and 30000 LOMAN4/5.

 

If 2 in every 3 user have LOMAN2 .... some 200.000 LO

 

I guessed FC a bit by presuming that half of FC sales were in CIS, 75000+ and that the West bought another 75000

[Guest EVIL-SCOTSMAN]

ya, i agree, they dont mean 900,000 AF sales, i think they mean 900,000 Falcon and AF sales over the years that Falcon and AF has been available, and thats a good few years for Falcon alone. going all the way back to 1999 if i recall correctly, i maybe wrong but Falcon has been around for a long long time.

 

If they were just meaning AF, then they should not of put franchise in there, and I really dont think 1 million AF sales has been done in the few short months that its been out.

 

As for LO/FC i aint got no idea how many they have sold in the few years LO and the less than 1 year for FC has been released.

[britgliderpilot]

ya, i agree, they dont mean 900,000 AF sales, i think they mean 900,000 Falcon and AF sales over the years that Falcon and AF has been available, and thats a good few years for Falcon alone. going all the way back to 1999 if i recall correctly, i maybe wrong but Falcon has been around for a long long time.

 

If they were just meaning AF, then they should not of put franchise in there, and I really dont think 1 million AF sales has been done in the few short months that its been out.

 

I was guessing they were including Falcons 3, 2, and 1 in there as well ;)

 

 

Interesting method of estimation you've got there - not sure how accurate it is, but it's certainly fun speculating :)

[Sleek]

The other cockpit is Dr.Stop's...i got it..look's good.

 

but ur right thomas it's so hard to get into,i got AF and have still got the original manual from F4..but if u just wanna get in the air and fly..lomacs the one for me,and the terrain..well theres no comparision..even with F4's "Tom's Hi-tiles" Terrain Addon ;) which again I have..make no mistake it certainly add's to the realism but just dosn't cut it with me.

 

Still I been a loyal supporter to both sim's :cool:

[Guest EVIL-SCOTSMAN]

I was guessing they were including Falcons 3, 2, and 1 in there as well ;)

 

 

Interesting method of estimation you've got there - not sure how accurate it is, but it's certainly fun speculating :)

 

you know the saying, great minds ;)

[Pilotasso]

I didn’t expect an answer.

 

Probably around 200000 LO and at least 150000 FC.

 

Anyhow, I wonder - out of those 900000 copies sold – how many mastered it? I doubt that more than 1 in 4, how many still are flying it today? Maybe one in 10.

 

I found the flight model of the F-16 not bad, but far from what it should be, LO has a much better one and the terrain, well … it is what it is, dated. The one thing it has which is a beauty is Aeyes cockpit, and there is one even better, but I don’t recall its name.

 

I dont believe that. A more realistic estimate would be in the area of a few tens of theousands. In my country there cant be more than 100 buyers. I know about 10 people who post on forums who own it.

 

LOMAC 1.0 probably was so heavily pirated that FC is in the same order, or even surpass it in sales. But then no one in the know will tell you.

[walternowi]

I was guessing they were including Falcons 3, 2, and 1 in there as well ;)

 

 

Interesting method of estimation you've got there - not sure how accurate it is, but it's certainly fun speculating :)

 

Most likely. I bought Falcon AT, Falcon 3 and Falcon 4. Falcon 3 was a resource hog. You have to free up every KB of RAM in DOS to run it. Although, I would say Falcon 3 was far ahead of its competition at that time (padlock, dynamic campaign, bubble, etc...). Those were the good old days.

 

Nowi

[Guest ThomasDWeiss]

Probably they have pirated it a lot - although I know that in Brazil FC has not been pirated.

 

But I am sure LO sold very well for a flight sim over a period of two years, if I am right ... LO is two years old! Happy birthday LO ! :D

 

So, continuing with my guesstimate

 

If ED sold 75000 copies of FC in the west ( FC CD, LO Gold and FC web dl) that means about 3000 downloads and 7000 CD sales a month, not too much IMO.

[Guest EVIL-SCOTSMAN]

I would also agree that there maybe is more FC sales than actual lockon sales due to piracy of the original lockon.

 

Maybe the intention of the patch where it stopped asking you for the cd to play was intentional, maybe they realised that people were not buying the game in sufficient numbers, and that if they allowed for it to be pirated by taking away the copy protection, then people may start to play it more, thus bringing more people into the lockon community, and when later works like flaming cliffs was released, they would have more people to offer it to and a greater chance of selling more copies, but it came at a cost of having starforce on your pc.

 

And those people who loved original lockon but were playing on the pirated version, were likely to buy flaming cliffs due to the fact that lockon is a great game and that they experienced it for free. maybe they thought that an addon must good for this game if the original was anything to go by.

 

I seriously think that after ED realised not many people were buying/playing lockon, they decided to change tactics and basically turn a blind eye to piracy for the sake of future releases, so that more people could get to experience what they had to offer and once they had, they were more likely to buy products from them in the future.

 

the end :D

[Shaman]

I can assure you thank 1 copy for sure. That should bring you closer to answer :)

[Woodstock]

I´d like to add a few hypothetical numbers to the speculations::rolleyes:

Let´s say the worldwide LockOn community has maybe 5000 diehard flightsim fans that would be willing to pay even $100.- or more for a good follow-up or serious addon.

What if each of them split those $100.- into a $50.- donation to ED right now and into a $50.- retail price upon release.

That would be a $250.000.- fund available for ED right now.

I wonder what they could make out of it in, let´s say, 8 months from now?

 

...dreaming of "LockOn1.5: How It Should Be" featuring AFM, 6DOF view, advanced damage model and clickable pit for all aircraft, working radio- and inertial-navigation and more detailed aircraft systems.

And if there´s money left I don´t object to a Hornet or an Apache...:D

[britgliderpilot]

I´d like to add a few hypothetical numbers to the speculations::rolleyes:

Let´s say the worldwide LockOn community has maybe 5000 diehard flightsim fans that would be willing to pay even $100.- or more for a good follow-up or serious addon.

What if each of them split those $100.- into a $50.- donation to ED right now and into a $50.- retail price upon release.

That would be a $250.000.- fund available for ED right now.

I wonder what they could make out of it in, let´s say, 8 months from now?

 

...dreaming of "LockOn1.5: How It Should Be" featuring AFM, 6DOF view, advanced damage model and clickable pit for all aircraft, working radio- and inertial-navigation and more detailed aircraft systems.

And if there´s money left I don´t object to a Hornet or an Apache...:D

 

Oooh!!

 

An opportunity to be cynical!!

 

 

Good luck finding that many people willing to contribute that much and actually follow it up ;)

 

8 months just isn't enough time - look at how long the Su25T took, and multiply it by number of flyables you want modelling to that level. The ED team is of limited and fixed manpower . . . about 30 people. Not nearly enough time.

 

They can't model the Hornet properly - the TAC manual is classified. Hypothetically though, add in the time factor for that as well.

 

6DOF cockpits need to be entirely new, fully 3D modelled cockpits with appropriate textures. Every cockpit needs to be re-done virtually from scratch for that route.

 

 

I would LOVE all that stuff, and maybe one day we'll get it (apart from the Hornet, TAC manual, bugger) . . . . but not a snowball's chance in Hades we're going to get it in 8 months, whatever happens ;)

[Woodstock]

Of course, the 8 months are as hypothetical as every other number in my post.

But follow-up-question: Wouldn´t $250.000.- be enough to hire some help to speed things up?

 

And furthermore: How many talented people are out there that would work for free in their spare time to make something like a LO addon happen?

What would be possible if ED found a way to successfully incorporate and manage some unused talent available in the community?

I´m not advertising myself here, I have nothing to offer except a private pilots license and in-depth ATC knowledge, both not fundamental to LockOn.:cool:

But I know programming-, scripting- and modelling-specialists that would not even ask for a free game copy in exchange for their work...