YeulEmeralda
Linux User
In the entertainment business there's just no way to predict success- you are always rolling the dice.
Which is why you need a hit to pay for all the flops.
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Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!
The Saros Numbers are in!!
- Thread starter havoc00
- Start date
Which is why you need a hit to pay for all the flops.
Bernardougf
Member
I agree...but the guy painted sony as not stupid and in control of their investments .. and Im sorry, Concord is peak stupidity for whatever angle you look at it, and lets no even begin to involve Bungie in this, because it becomes really ugly
Outside a very competent and very lucky Ps5 launch, I dont think anyone can paint a realistic picture af a "smart" sony in their decisions regarding their first party studios this gen.
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Angry_Megalodon
Member
Failure is very predictable, though.
The biggest flops of this gen have all been preceded by major backlash from fans. Maybe it's about time execs came down from their ivory towers and mingle with the commoners in order to learn what people really like.
{insert code here}
Member
Not really a dice roll IMHO, good quality games almost always earn money it's just publishers in the west have gotten greedy. If I'm an indie developer then success to me means earning enough money to keep the lights on and my crew paid up. But to these publishers if you're not earning hundreds of millions then you're a failure.
Donald mac Ronald
Member
I would buy it but haven't finished returnal yet. Regardless of it's sales sonys at least delivered a decent single player exclusive.
kiphalfton
Member
They're so far removed from reality, that's not gonna happen.
That and I'm sure they blame everybody else for their failures and shortcomings.
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
Hades 1 and 2 launch prices were $20 and $30 US.
And pretty sure any bullet hell shooter games out there are budget priced. But games like Returnal and Saros launched at full price $70. How many other bullet hell games are full price? Cant be too many unless someone wants to put in Doom games as a similar kind of game.
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{insert code here}
Member
The marketing for this game was awful. Coming from the perspective of someone who doesn't follow Sony games, all I know about the game is it's about an old, brown guy in a sci-fi type world. If the main character isn't appealing or relatable I just immediately lose interest.
Aressa
You can't die before your death
Yeah. 350k - 400k max.
Hyper_hyper
Member
How do you know the average number of hours for the playthrough?
playbignbox
Member
genesisblock
Member
I roll my eyes whenever a company uses stats of player "achievements" like they can sway interest towards their side. By avoiding sales numbers, you are just encouraging the worst expectations on them that there aren't a lot of buyers of the game.
It's a rougelike bullet hell. It absolutely is a niche genre/game.
Returnal wasn't a big seller either and did <2M in years on multiple platforms:
As for it being easy. Look at the stats for Returnal. There were less deaths in Returnal. So either more people are playing it than Returnal or it is more difficult. I would lean on it is doing better than Returnal in the same timespan.
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geary
Member
Hyper_hyper
Member
Yes I know about that, but here is a completionist a less then a 30 hrs. Not every player will complete a game 100%. That's why I've asked.
Bojji
Member
Sony is more likely to kill the developer than port the game to pc at this point (and it would be super easy with UE5).
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Chukhopops
Member
It kinda shows they learned nothing from Returnal in the end, keeping the same price and hybrid structure.
I thought I would love Returnal because I love games like Risk of Rain 2 and other roguelite shooters. In the end the lack of run variety and game-changing unlockables made a very dull, repetitive experience despite the excellent core mechanics of movement and shooting. A total waste.
Fess
Member
Housemarque's legacy is longer than Sony's in gaming, goes back to Vic 20 days. Sony need to back the f out from any such ideas.
yogaflame
Member
Team members might be redistributed to other teams.
DForce
NaughtyDog Defense Force
Are you the sane guy who responds with laugh reacts and then says absolutely nothing when faced with facts? I would sit this one out
NeverYouMind
Member
Corporations go through legacy studios like toilet paper.
Last Hearth
Member
So basically similar numbers to Returnal, and probably similar sales numbers.
DForce
NaughtyDog Defense Force
You guys said the same thing about Ghost of Yotei.
"If it sold more than 1 million, then we would've heard about it by now
"If it sold more than 2 million, then we would've heard about it by now."
We haven't heard a sales update from Astro Bot, and according to your argument, Astro Bot still hasn't surpassed 2 million because we haven't heard about it.
Astro Bot exceeded expectations, and we only received ONE sales update.
Moriarty1889
Member
All those numbers…..everything under the sun except actual sales figures. Reminds me of the Xbox One era when MS stopped reporting sales numbers of games and would post TOTAL BULLETS FIRED, TOTAL HEADSHOTS, MILES DRIVEN, etc. All meaningless shite to cover up and try to save face for the pitiful sales numbers. Sony now doing the exact same thing for their shite games. Utterly hilarious and I hope they catch the same amount of grief Xbox got for doing the same thing.Maybe not the ones you were hoping for, but numbers nonetheless
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Fess
Member
But sold to a 90 million bigger userbase. What's happening, why aren't people buying their games?
I didn't buy it because it's not on PC but I can't see everybody waiting for that.
Emmy Ator Best
Member
Yeah man we TOTALLY exceeded expectations. Of course we never told you what the expectations were before launch so you have no way to know if we're lying.
![L*][*N*K](/data/avatars/m/842/842515.jpg?1780503950){kind=avatar}
L*][*N*K
Member
Astro Bot exceeded expectations give me a fucking break, their flag ship game of the year winning title's expectations was under 3 million? Their top title of 2025's expectations was 3.3 million? If that is the case don't even bother arguing cuz if you set your sights so damn fucking low anything will look like a win
DForce
NaughtyDog Defense Force
He gets sales data.
He has interviewed the developers multiple times since Astro Bot's release. I would believe him over you guys.
L*][*N*K
Member
The thing is:
They gave that game Game of the year, in comparison to every single one on that list it is a flop, not just that my early statement that Sony numbers stop once the sales dry up stands God of War numbers kept coming until 2023 seven years after launch but Astrobot? Less than six months, cuz the game flopped it is a snake…..cuz it didn't have any legs.
kevboard
Member
Maybe not the ones you were hoping for, but numbers nonetheless
oh... that's one of those charts they also made for the open beta of Concord...
honestly, brave of them to do, because you can extrapolate that it probably didn't sell all that well from this.
6.6 million hours played means 6.6 million sales if every user only played 1 hour and quit.
3.3 million sales if every player played 2 hours and quit.
if every player played 7h... well... sub 1 million units...
basically the longer you think the average buyer has played the game, the lower the units sold number goes.
He's Sony fanboy.
Chris Dring on Mario Wonder
"Made by the C team and doesn't have the potential to sell like Nintendo A team titles"
Mario Wonder sales = 18 million units
Chris Dring on Astro bot since launch in europe
"Best-selling 3D platformer since the Mario 3D game, blah blah blah ... exceeded expectations."
Astro Bot sales = 2.3 million units
havoc00
Member
DForce
NaughtyDog Defense Force
Dude, just stay out of sales discussions. This is getting embarrassing.
Developers don't expect their games to sell 10 million copies just because they won GOTY.
MOST developers don't even know their game is going to win GOTY before it's released.
And you're lying.
Sales actually INCREASED after it won Game of the Year.
ASTRO BOT
Release Date: September 6th, 2024
CIRCANA
Sep - 2nd
Oct - 15th
Nov - 13th
Dec - 8th < Game of the Year
Jan - 12th
Feb - 20th
PLAYSTATION STORE
November 2024
US/Canada - 16th
Europe - 15th
December 2024
US/Canada - 10th
Europe - 13th
January 2024
US/Canada - 13th
Europe - 14th
Ghost of Tsushima, God of War (2018), and The Last of Us Part II were out of the top 20 after 5 months.
Spider-Man 2018 was 20th in its 6th month
RESIDENT EVIL 4 REMAKE
March - 1st
April - 4th
May - 9th
June - 19th
July - OUT OF THE TOP 20
So you want to sit here and lie and say the sales have dried up when Astro Bot's legs were better than several Triple A titles.
And no, I'm not saying Astro Bot sold better, but it's obvious that you lied about the sales drying up.
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embarrassing, lol.
DForce
NaughtyDog Defense Force
You guys:
"It's a flop. Sony can call their game a success, but they're all liars."
"No sales announcement? It's a flop."
"They announce sales figures? It's still a flop."
Bojji
Member
That was Chris Dring, and he's not working with Sony.
L*][*N*K
Member
None of that means fuck all when their total sales is 2.3 million, if the race is just a bunch of turtles the fastest one is still the slowest fucking animal, you cannot bend reality to serve Sony the numbers don't match man.
DForce
NaughtyDog Defense Force
Yeah, Saros looks like a massive success
I never called Saros a success. Try again.
DForce
NaughtyDog Defense Force
You said sales dried up.
Prove it.
Also, Alinea Analytics isn't a reliable source, and even if it were, it still wouldn't prove your point.
2.3M (allegedly) was back in March 2025, and it's now May 2026.
DForce
NaughtyDog Defense Force
He's had many discussions with the devs since Astro Bot launched. I'm pretty sure he knows more than the people in this thread who think the game flopped simply because we haven't gotten a sales update since 2024.
Should I trust your word over his?
L*][*N*K
Member
That is literally my fucking point, their last reported figures was March 2025 because it dried up afterwards, that is literally all I said from the get go.
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
This is a Saros thread guys, not an Astro Bot thread. Although Astro Bot sold like crap, but that's another story.
Evanft posted a good chart in post #30 where you can do your own guess how many people bought it pending the avg hours played per gamer you think is true.
Not looking good. And let's face it, Saros isnt the kind of game someone is going to play for 1 or 2 hours and quit for good. Rogue-ish games are meant to be played over and over again.
$76M budget for a rogue shooter s nuts. You could had made two Clair 33's with that money. Or three Returnals. Any budget rogue shooter selling let's say 300-500k units would already be like hitting the lottery.
Game started dev in 2022 too. 4 years of lost opportunities cost. Shove that budget into an S&P 500 index fund and that $76M would had grown to well over $100M and Sony wouldnt even have to do anything but let it sit there and grow naturally.
Evanft posted a good chart in post #30 where you can do your own guess how many people bought it pending the avg hours played per gamer you think is true.
Not looking good. And let's face it, Saros isnt the kind of game someone is going to play for 1 or 2 hours and quit for good. Rogue-ish games are meant to be played over and over again.
$76M budget for a rogue shooter s nuts. You could had made two Clair 33's with that money. Or three Returnals. Any budget rogue shooter selling let's say 300-500k units would already be like hitting the lottery.
Game started dev in 2022 too. 4 years of lost opportunities cost. Shove that budget into an S&P 500 index fund and that $76M would had grown to well over $100M and Sony wouldnt even have to do anything but let it sit there and grow naturally.
Despite having sales data, he's just a clueless office nerd.
Your average gamers on the internet knew better than him about video game sales trajectory and expectations.
He claimed Mario Wonders was created by a Nintendo C-Team, and many folks were calling him out in comments below his tweet, and he doubled down on his statement by blaming Twitter's text limit and what he wanted
to say is the sales potential of Mario Wonders is nowhere near AAA titles.
DForce
NaughtyDog Defense Force
Lying as always. You claimed the numbers dried up after Sony's statement, but even using Alinea Analytics completely destroys your entire argument
That would mean the game sold 800k in just 3 months. This is what happens when you make things up and then scramble for damage control. lol
Nothing you have shown thus far proves Astro Bot flopped. You cannot show ANYTHING from Sony, stating they're expected Astro Bot sales to increase by MILLIONS after winning GOTY.