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Divinity: Original Sin News: Game has now sold 250k units; broke even
- Thread starter fluffydelusions
- Start date
Outtrigger888
Member
Nice to see a developer break even with only 250,000 copies sold. Other developers and publishers should take notes.
I'd pay 60 quid for Van Buren
Yoda
Member
I kept it on normal and regretted it later on. Game had decent difficulty starting out but by the time I was level 13+ I never got close to dying in a fight.
What can they take note of?
Should Witcher 3, Xenoblade X and DA:I be made with 3m budget?
LurkerPrime
Member
Ah, I see. I'll have to look more closely at AoD, since I'm clearly ignorant to what it is attempting.
Now that I think of it, hopefully they're all great! I should really be rooting for them instead of fighting against my own interests. After all, there can never be too many good games, least of all RPGs.
Should top-tier developers take note? No.
Should smaller developers and publishers take note? Absolutely.
Chairman Yang
if he talks about books, you better damn well listen
Yeah, it might still be a while, although the team seems to be adding stuff a lot faster than before now that all of the basic systems have been nailed down.
Ya I don't think I'd of had much fun as I'm having now. Both of you trying to solve something, or blowing each other up, or having dialogues between each other.
Or trying to one up each other with Rube Goldeberg strategems to handle a difficult encounter. Or showing off your loot/new spells to each other.
This
I had my first co-op session tonight and even though it was all content I'd already done before it was still a blast the second time around
Great to hear and well deserved! A little surprised it cost them that much to make it, even though I think it feel very well made. Glad to see there are still gamers who are willing to support a good product with stuff like turn based gameplay that really demonstrates the variety and breadth of types of games that have been written off by most publishers and seem less likely to be given a chance by the more mainstream tastes that seem to appeal almost exclusively.
That is happily changing now that indies feel more at home on console after Sony and MS finally opened things up enough to make porting from PC feasible and profitable without much risk.
That is happily changing now that indies feel more at home on console after Sony and MS finally opened things up enough to make porting from PC feasible and profitable without much risk.
VindictiveGnome
Member
Appreciate that. I thought I was in the OT when I asked this. Thanks!
CrunchyFrog
Member
Well since they've had to shoulder a lot of the publishing costs plus backer rewards I think it's pretty reasonable. Plus, since they 100% own the ip and distribution (minus a relatively small cut from valve in the case of steam sales and server backend for their own site) the profit rate post break even point will be many times greater than with a traditional publishing deal. They can generate much more profit with much less sales than via a traditional royalty publishing model which typically saw developers getting maybe $0.30 to the dollar as opposed to here where it's probably closer to $0.65, such that they could probably fund the majority of their next game on just another 250-400k sales, which shouldn't be too difficult over the lifetime of this title given the extremely positive buzz.
I think it's good both ways for diffeent reasons.
Alone, I absorbed the world around me. I role played both chracters and developed a relationship between them, and even between the two companions. The party felt like my own, the world felt like a place I was a part of.
With a partner all of that vanished, instead of being immersed in the world, we were immersed in the mechanics specifically, it was much harder to be drawn into the story and setting because we were discussing the systems and our strategies constantly.
I don't think it's "meant" to be played either way, I think they did an amazing job of blending the co-op parts. Not tried it with AI because I like roleplaying both characters, so I don't know how well that works. I'll try it out on my second SP playthrough.
It's just the problem with professional media gaming people in general.
They are dabblers. A game like Divinity takes too much commitment. It's also the reason Dark Souls was generally disparaged (until it got enough word of mouth a year or two later that some of the media people who didn't review it decided to actually give it a fair shake).
Maybe a year or two from now they'll realize what they missed but I doubt it. The reason DS took off was largely do to Let's Plays and while Divinity: OS is easily as good of a game in my opinion, it's isn't as "watchable."
I wish we had more media personalities that had the time/enthusiasm to deep dive. Because THAT is the kind of content I want from them. I often wonder if most of Giant Bomb guys finish more than a few games a year. They seem to just demo everything and comitt to nothing, which makes their commentary about any given subject or game often seem very shallow. Pattrick is the one exception. He is sometimes willing to dive in and his commentary is much more interesting as a result.
I really think that AoD "putting D:OS' openness to shame" is completely untrue, or at least hugely a matter of perspective. It may have more narrative openness, but in terms of the openness afforded by its gameplay systems, it doesn't remotely touch D:OS (and neither will PoE for that matter).
And as for Wasteland 2, it's decent, but not at all on the level we're talking about here. Unless it improves massively in its final release, I'd put M&M X above it. RPG of the year will be between Divinity and PoE (if the latter makes it).
And as for Wasteland 2, it's decent, but not at all on the level we're talking about here. Unless it improves massively in its final release, I'd put M&M X above it. RPG of the year will be between Divinity and PoE (if the latter makes it).
I don't think being on top of the top sellers list for 2 weeks in July outside of sales means as much as it does during in most other periods. Also, it's 40€, and the list is by revenue.
Krauser Kat
Member
So is this the best CRPG since Temple of Elemental Evil?
In terms of battle system? Yes. And thus also either the best or second best CRPG battle system of all time.
In terms of everything else there have been many CRPGs better than ToEE since it, and this is one of them
I mean really, I can't imagine another game in 2014 being better than Divinity. This game is so good I actually want Wasteland 2 and Pillars to be delayed a bit more. Don't want a bunch of great cprg's releasing all at once. I mean, you make us wait 15 years then release 3 within a few months? Come on man.
Divinity has so much content it's unreal.
Divinity has so much content it's unreal.
Krauser Kat
Member
In terms of battle system? Yes. And thus also either the best or second best CRPG battle system of all time.
In terms of everything else there have been many CRPGs better than ToEE since it, and this is one of them
damn and i just reinstalled ToEE... do i play the new game or replay my old favorite.
New game man! Seriously this site is guilty of overblown hype for average games, but this game is one of the few that actually lives up to the hype.
Jawmuncher
Member
Looks like we'll be getting a 2nd game then.
Breaking even on steam this early on is the best thing you can do. Can't wait to see the sales after th next major discount during winter or summer.
Breaking even on steam this early on is the best thing you can do. Can't wait to see the sales after th next major discount during winter or summer.
Yea this is one of those games that is going to sell well for years. Going to be a nice little cash cow for Larian.
I believe I read somewhere that it includes backer copies. Think of it in accounting terms I guess; something is not considered sold until the product is delivered.
It's good news but I was kinda hoping for even better news. I mean thay had already sold 160k before the 5th of July so after three times that (all the while continuously holding Steam's top spot) ..
Do we know when was the interview conducted? I can see it was published 2 days ago but how 'fresh' was it back then?
Do we know when was the interview conducted? I can see it was published 2 days ago but how 'fresh' was it back then?
human onion
Banned
Best game to come out in a long time, also the first game I bought at launch in a long time. Finally a game that actually requires a brain to play. I'm only at the forest but already I'm gushing praise for it.
PandaPedinte
Member
From what I've read it's totally deserved, going to buy it once I get a new computer.
Chairman Yang
if he talks about books, you better damn well listen
It depends on where you draw the line between narrative and gameplay, but I'd argue that Age of Decadence offers more openness with its gameplay systems as well.
DOS is good at letting the player go crazy without breaking the game. You can kill everyone, steal everything, and still finish. It's decent at physical simulation and making its game objects very interactive--teleporting and moving stuff provides some cool possibilities. The combat is undoubtedly very open.
Aside from that, though, AoD offers options that DOS can't match (at least not in the time I've played it). AoD has a ridiculously in-depth conversation system that allows constant lying, double-dealing, persuasion, and bargaining. It tracks many different reputations, all of which allow profoundly different approaches to situations and open up gameplay options. It allows the player to bypass situations with many different character builds--by disguise, etiquette, thievery, lore, and more. And these aren't just minor, cosmetic differences like with DOS's exceedingly weak rock-paper-scissors dialogue system. They're often radically different in their gameplay style and flavour. Combat isn't up to the level of DOS (which I agree has an amazing system), but it has merits of its own. It's well-balanced and each patch increases the number of useful, viable options.
All of these things come at a cost. AoD has graphics that are downright bad in comparison to anything after 2004. Many encounters in the game are represented by little more than text with some rudimentary static camera views. But when it comes to providing gameplay "openness"--which I consider to be the ability for the player to tackle the game in many varied, viable, and interesting ways--I really don't see how DOS does it any better.
I haven't played Wasteland 2, so you might be right. I will say that RPGs benefit more from careful tuning, balancing, small content additions, and polishing than most types of games, so Wasteland 2 could very well have a huge upswing in quality. Actually, from what I can tell, DOS followed that same trajectory.
-tetsuo-
Unlimited Capacity
Quite simply it just isn't the type of game that the enthusiast press will latch onto. No matter how good it is.
I've never played a single game In the genre and I love it.
In fact I was waiting for my coop partner and decided to try Baldur's Gate 2 EE and Blackguard this afternoon to scratch the itch and I couldn't stand either.