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Trouble is then you run the risk of flooding betas with people who are less interested in testing and more interesting in freebies.

It's not about the betas per se - rather providing you the customer with added value in different forms - betas being one.

/s
 
Trouble is then you run the risk of flooding betas with people who are less interested in testing and more interesting in freebies.

in my experince beta's seem to depend on getting enoguh people in that any bugs cause bitching, which leads the people running the beta to draw blood about what caused the bug (specs, actions before etc) out of the tester thats bitching.

i would think you would have a good idea of the flaws before beta, its now about mass testing on as many combos of hardware as possible to crush the unique bugs. that and things people find annoying that you overlook after a year of working on your baby.

for those things concise reports from everyone are far less important. thats teh main reason i see for ARMA 3 having a community beta and not releasing in august, instead they tag on abeta slogan, cover there asses and produce a half decent release for once.
 
Trouble is then you run the risk of flooding betas with people who are less interested in testing and more interesting in freebies.

I am actually working a lot right now on improving the beta tester signups. Honestly I don't know if flooding wouldn't in the end lead to more and better bug reports... I mean, I don't think so, but I will try to evaluate several different models just to see what works best. In the end everybody wants a better quality of the games at release. Right?

It may show that this trouble isn't really a trouble.
 
From all the Paradox games which was the most profitable and made the most sales?

Why do you think it sold the most?
 
From all the Paradox games which was the most profitable and made the most sales?

Why do you think it sold the most?

Magicka.

Great game design, ok execution, great marketing, good timing, smart pricing, fantastic post release followup and a fair bit of luck.

/s
 
I am actually working a lot right now on improving the beta tester signups. Honestly I don't know if flooding wouldn't in the end lead to more and better bug reports... I mean, I don't think so, but I will try to evaluate several different models just to see what works best. In the end everybody wants a better quality of the games at release. Right?

It may show that this trouble isn't really a trouble.

There really should be differnt stages or types of beta testing though, bug hunting is one thing but my impression is that PDS is interested in ideas, suggestions and feedback from players as well, and that might be more difficult to do if you're flooded with "casual" testers? Maybe it ought to be either two separate groups of betas or the "flooding" should only occur in the later stages? I guess that's what most companies do though, like I preordered StarCraft II and got to play the "closed" beta but that sure as hell had nothing to do with influencing the game making.

Magicka.

Great game design, ok execution, great marketing, good timing, smart pricing, fantastic post release followup and a fair bit of luck.

/s

What about PDS games?
 
From all the Paradox games which was the most profitable and made the most sales?

Why do you think it sold the most?

Magicka.

Great game design, ok execution, great marketing, good timing, smart pricing, fantastic post release followup and a fair bit of luck.

/s

What about PDS games?
Question possibly better asked in the PDS subforum? PI seem to have been forced by natural business pressures to grow beyond their original core, and Shams' answer was for the company as a whole?
 
Some numbers I know:
IIRC Magicka sold over 1.4mio times main game and over 800k of additional DLC's last year.(Speech of Fredrick Wester before gamescon last year iirc..)
And for the PDS, iirc Johan posted lately that HOI3 is still the untouched champion.. (Didn't gave any numbers..)
IIRC it was stated that for VickyII it was anticpated to be a success with 50k sold ones. Wich happend rather quick..
:)

Cheers!
Chromos
 
Question possibly better asked in the PDS subforum? PI seem to have been forced by natural business pressures to grow beyond their original core, and Shams' answer was for the company as a whole?

I'm pretty sure that the people in PI have numbers for all their separate developers as well...
 
Some numbers I know:
IIRC Magicka sold over 1.4mio times main game and over 800k of additional DLC's last year.(Speech of Fredrick Wester before gamescon last year iirc..)
And for the PDS, iirc Johan posted lately that HOI3 is still the untouched champion.. (Didn't gave any numbers..)
IIRC it was stated that for VickyII it was anticpated to be a success with 50k sold ones. Wich happend rather quick..
:)

Cheers!
Chromos

IIRC, V2 had to sell 70k copies to break even, and while we have no numbers I think the base game and AHD more than broke even.
 
IIRC, V2 had to sell 70k copies to break even, and while we have no numbers I think the base game and AHD more than broke even.
The higher number is maybe right. I was uncertain if it was 50k or 80k, so I went for the lower value as I remebered at least right that breck even was reached rather quick.
I read much official notes from around PI but didn't take exact notes from everything. :laugh:
IIRC it was again F.W. who was interviewed about his bet and the need to shave his hair off. He then said aboout how high the numbers had to be to be a success and how fast they reached that goal. VickyII was sure a success or AHD would have not been around. :)


Question for Paradox:
As you don't give us numbers on your PDS games, but a list with a ranking of the most successful games and add-ons could be given?

Cheers!
Chromos
 
Would you ever consider making games on the paradox EU3/CK2 foundation with no military element? [i.e. political, corporate, etc strategy games]. Or do you see the military and war side of things as essential to the format?
 
I went for a walk with podcat today.

zNn9s.jpg


I still couldn't convince him of more Ulm focus in Paradox games.
 
Chromos is right - for PDS HOI3 is in the lead.



/s
 
By a wide margin? How did V2 fare?

Yes. CK2 is on a great start tho - V2 fared well as well but it doesn't have the same pull or wide net as the other franchises.

Jesus, I can't believe I described HOI as having a broad audience. I guess it's all relative :)

/s
 
Yes. CK2 is on a great start tho - V2 fared well as well but it doesn't have the same pull or wide net as the other franchises.

Jesus, I can't believe I described HOI as having a broad audience. I guess it's all relative :)

/s

Okay, thanks for the replies! CK2 is the first PDS game that random people I know have been playing (without me advertising it), I think you've really hit a bigger audience with it.
 
Did you get any nice comments on the Crusader Kings 2 Seven Sins videos beside from "customers"?
 
If i recall correctly, hoi3 was not that far behind magicka in revenue.. Eu3 is 3rd.

I'm glad to see it. HoI3 is terrific after patches and expansions (For The Motherland was IMHO the 'breaking point' from correctness to sort-of-masterpiece).

I just hope you'll be giving it the development it deserves... yes, I know a new expansion is in the oven ;)

So I guess the order in Clausewitz games would be something like the following (being '...' a leap). I suppose that CKII could come into the first group with following releases.

1. HoI3
2. EUIII
...
3. CKII
4. Vicky2
...
5. Rome
...
6. Sengoku