Vitality
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The Elder Scrolls Online
- Thread starter Anomander Rake
- Start date
I haven't seen anyone predict TESO console sales even coming close to the 20+ million Skyrim had. What percentage of that 20+ million fanbase do they need to sell in order to start raking in the cash? If they only sell to 10% of that fanbase that would be 2 million units and enough to cause the haters to have a massive conniption fit.
Xaxius
Lord Nagafen Raider
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Nothing screams success like selling a lot of copies of a really crappy game under a world-class IP. Too bad the long-term success of any MMO is tied to your players continuing to play said crappy game. Of course if they were doing that on the PC side they wouldn't be dropping that sub, would they?
Utnayan
F16 patrolling Rajaah until he plays DS3
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Obviously they are not going to sell 20+ million because Skyrim had a massive install market to sell too with the 360 and PS3. Those install numbers are no where near that with the current PS4/Xbox One market base. The point is, people know the Elder Scrolls name and will buy it off that alone. People that research games before they purchase are in the strong minority. It's why shitty games sell so well based off marketing and IP strength. And that is exactly what ZO is counting on here, and Bethesda as well.
EA did this with the Medal of Honor series and drove it into the ground after Allied Assault. Sales numbers were still strong for the next 2 incarnations on consoles due to the name. When 2015 left EA and formed IW to make Call of Duty, Medal of honor still had a strong IP and had a very successful launch of Rising Sun even though the game itself was horrible. The next iteration Pacific Assault, was horrible on PC, and by the time European Assault came back to the console, it floundered because CoD had taken over due to IP. Elder Scrolls Online will sell a lot on console because no one is going to think it's any different than the concepts of Oblivion and Skyrim. Similar to how well Rising sun performed based on the success of Frontline and Allied Assault. It's a recoup strategy as old as the hills.
I am guessing ZO is banking on this for box sell before Bethesda probably just disbands ZO entirely and cuts losses. Which is why all resources remaining have been poured into the console version to get both launched. Their goal isn't ongoing playability. You can put a B2P game on life support easily.
EA did this with the Medal of Honor series and drove it into the ground after Allied Assault. Sales numbers were still strong for the next 2 incarnations on consoles due to the name. When 2015 left EA and formed IW to make Call of Duty, Medal of honor still had a strong IP and had a very successful launch of Rising Sun even though the game itself was horrible. The next iteration Pacific Assault, was horrible on PC, and by the time European Assault came back to the console, it floundered because CoD had taken over due to IP. Elder Scrolls Online will sell a lot on console because no one is going to think it's any different than the concepts of Oblivion and Skyrim. Similar to how well Rising sun performed based on the success of Frontline and Allied Assault. It's a recoup strategy as old as the hills.
I am guessing ZO is banking on this for box sell before Bethesda probably just disbands ZO entirely and cuts losses. Which is why all resources remaining have been poured into the console version to get both launched. Their goal isn't ongoing playability. You can put a B2P game on life support easily.
If you are willing to put aside the snark and stop considering your opinion as fact, you might be capable of considering another alternative (one that will still allow you to engage in snark and pat yourself on the back for thinking yourself clever).Nothing screams success like selling a lot of copies of a really crappy game under a world-class IP. Too bad the long-term success of any MMO is tied to your players continuing to play said crappy game. Of course if they were doing that on the PC side they wouldn't be dropping that sub, would they?
If you believe the people who are saying that the PC release was just a glorified beta test to get the real game ready for the console release are correct in their assessment, then you should also be smart enough to believe that the PC game was always going to go B2P in conjunction with the console release irregardless of how good or bad PC sales were.
Utnayan
F16 patrolling Rajaah until he plays DS3
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It was. B2P was in development before official launch. They only went subscription because they knew they would get more early revenue from overzealous fans paying for 3-6 months up front. That doesn't make his statement invalid.
Vitality
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Xaxius
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B2P is only delaying the inevitable. The console launch I'm sure will be moderately successful based on the name alone. We'll all see a nice little blurb claiming strong sales and how B2P was such a grand success. Maybe we'll even see that elusive 1 million unit sold press release or something regarding 500k concurrent users? Matt and Paul will chime in with claims of a strong future of support and on-going development. They'll all pat themselves on the back, double down on how they made a brilliant game, and all will be well in Zenimax-land.
After that, we'll hear nothing. Sure, we might hear the occasional rumor of layoffs, but the there will be no more grand-standing, high-fives and sales announcements. The game will meander on, with a DLC release here and there, and flounder in a sea of "me-too" MMOs just like the majority of MMO releases in the last decade. It will be considered a waste of a brilliant IP and people will ponder what "could have been", as Mark and Paul shuffle quietly out the door to start their Kickstarter.
I'm sure this is exactly what Bethesda was counting on when they hired good ol' Firor and Sage back in 2007.
Bondurant
Ahn'Qiraj Raider
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I already know a lot of people at work anticipating "Skyrim online" as their next console game. Most of them don't know / don't care about ESO PC release bad rep, they just want the next Skyrim. To them ESO is like Skyrim with PvP mode. Most of them don't really play on PC, they're just console players. They'll buy the next Skyrim (ESO) like they'll buy the next Battlefield (Hardline) because they're brand consumers. They're the same people buying EA's "this year" sports game just because it's "fresh and new".
Isn't this true about anything, and more a result of marketing? The bigger problem is the game is boring compared to Skyrim, in my opinion and didn't have the staying power a group game should.
I haven't played this in quite some time, but is it even as good as DA:I?
Tuco
I got Tuco'd!
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spronk
FPS noob
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TESO will sell really well on consoles and make the game profitable no matter what its current P/L state is, it was just never going to be able to do a sub fee on consoles, but $60 B2P is an easy sell. Probably 5-10% of the console players will pony up a sub fee, but I'd still expect around 1.5m ps4/xbone sales in the first 6 months, double that if its also releasing on 360/ps3. Next gen consoles will only have two RPGs, DA:I and Witcher 3 so another one is easy money. We'll probably see Fallout 4 buzz around the same time too to generate more interest in TESO.
My prophetic skills pan out once again, my post back from march 2014 (duh this was an easy one to see):
My prophetic skills pan out once again, my post back from march 2014 (duh this was an easy one to see):
Byr
Ahn'Qiraj Raider
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Hate to burst your bubble but I said a few hundred pages back, perhaps even before the game was released, that the console version would likely be B2P. It only makes sense that all the kinks would get worked out first on the PC version before the console version would be deemed ready for release.
This is why people say you're out of touch with what's going on with the game because you don't have a critical eye. Even when you know "what someone says", you still bring in several strawmen.
Almost every time someone brings up any point, you're the first (and oft the only) person who chooses to consistently give them quarter even when it's straight from the horse's mouth.
Unless Firor himself says "Yeah I misspoke about the delay" or "I got caught up in a semantical discussion" in some redacted/updated version, you're simply going to have to trust his actual words. That's usually how it's done.
It's posts like this one that leads me to conclude this forum has a lot of dumbasses with poor reading comprehension skills. Here are his exact words.
ZOS_MattF comments on Welcome to the ESO: Tamriel Unlimited AUA
When you read the quote below, tell me you now understand the point I was making in response to Blackwulf's concern.
"While we do these things, we have other teams already working on DLC and expect to see that start rolling out at some point after the console launch settles down".
Vitality
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Let me go ahead and full quote your excerpt there Rescorla in no means of disrespect:
""1) We are not going to keep up our 2014 pace of updates in 2015 - and our future update pace will focus more on new adventures and game experiences than system changes. It's time to let the game breathe a little - we've done so many new features so quickly that we want to make sure everyone is on the same page with us. 1.6 alone has a complete rebalancing of most player abilities - we don't want to do that again, for example. Our #1 priority right now is getting Tamriel Unlimited launched on PC, and then focusing on a successful console launch. While we do those things, we have other teams already working on DLC and expect to see that start rolling out at some point after console launch settles down.""
This whole point reads "NO FUCKING THANKS" to me. I'm probably bad at reading comprehension though.
""1) We are not going to keep up our 2014 pace of updates in 2015 - and our future update pace will focus more on new adventures and game experiences than system changes. It's time to let the game breathe a little - we've done so many new features so quickly that we want to make sure everyone is on the same page with us. 1.6 alone has a complete rebalancing of most player abilities - we don't want to do that again, for example. Our #1 priority right now is getting Tamriel Unlimited launched on PC, and then focusing on a successful console launch. While we do those things, we have other teams already working on DLC and expect to see that start rolling out at some point after console launch settles down.""
This whole point reads "NO FUCKING THANKS" to me. I'm probably bad at reading comprehension though.