Could HoI:IV become PDS's most successful game to date?

[Sanny]

How well do you think/speculate this game will perfom in terms of number of sales and review scores?

Will Hearts of Iron IV become more successful than Europa Universalis IV and Crusader Kings II? Does anyone have the latest sales figures including units shifted for both games above and for Hearts of Iron III?

Will this be the first PDS game to open up to new audiences who may have never touched Paradox's grand strategy before? (in b4 Stellaris)

Discuss.

 

[Cinigs]

EU4 about 850,000 on steam.
http://steamspy.com/app/236850
CK2 about 1,250,000 on steam
http://steamspy.com/app/203770
HoI3 about 450,000 on steam
http://steamspy.com/app/25890
Vicky2 about 350,000 on steam
http://steamspy.com/app/42960

Note the numbers are inflated by humble bundles and pre-order bonus, like I have 3 copies of CK2. I feel like it will be like EU4 was to EU3, so it might sell million copies after a few years. I don't think it will have the accessibility of CK2. The RPG elements really help that game appeal to a wider audience. It was my first grand strategy game (other than Civ 5 and total war games if you count those) back 2012.

 

[aruon]

HOI 3 was the PDS cash cow for more time than the other games of the 3rd generation. even though it didn't age well like V2, the closer a historical game is to present day, the better it'll do. with a x2 modifier for WWII.

without doubt it'll surpass CK2 and EU4 simply because of the virtue of being WWII, but it remains to be seen whether stellaris will be the giantkiller.

 

[Adonnus]

Yeah, it sure could. The popularity of WW2 alone will probably propel it to that level of sales... that and my trailer

 

[FOARP]

Yes.

Next question?

 

[Shavanna]

A WW2-theme is NOT a good reason for people to buy games. Think back: when hoi3 was released, there where many games with a ww2-story - it was fashionably. But at the moment, the popular themes are mostly space and sandbox. Thus, a game that is limited via its ww2 background like hoi4 may not be as popular as e.g. the new stellaris brand. Compared to hoi4, eu4 shows the potential for 'history building'. You have much more time to actually conquer the world, if you want, and you also have many ways to do so. If you try the same in hoi4, it will cause you quite a headache. The reason for this is, that its harder to break out of the historic setting, i assume (as i also haven't played it yet).
Nonetheless, there will be people who will buy the game - but it wont be more then e.g. ck2 and eu4. ww2 is a niche - genre at the moment and i dont think it will change fast enought to produce a huge change in sells like the time before ck2 compared to ck2.

 

[adam_grif]

EU4 about 850,000 on steam.
http://steamspy.com/app/236850
CK2 about 1,250,000 on steam
http://steamspy.com/app/203770
HoI3 about 450,000 on steam
http://steamspy.com/app/25890
Vicky2 about 350,000 on steam
http://steamspy.com/app/42960

Note the numbers are inflated by humble bundles and pre-order bonus, like I have 3 copies of CK2. I feel like it will be like EU4 was to EU3, so it might sell million copies after a few years. I don't think it will have the accessibility of CK2. The RPG elements really help that game appeal to a wider audience. It was my first grand strategy game (other than Civ 5 and total war games if you count those) back 2012.

Last time this came up, I pointed out that prior to CK2, the most successful Pdox game was HoI3 (or seemed to be). Every new game since has been massively more successful than its predecessor - CK2 achieved a lot of fame and has a huge amount of popular YTers playing it. EU4 carried some of this success forwards, and has sold comparably, although it's been out a shorter time so it's not sold as much in absolute terms. If Hearts of Iron 4 carries this combined momentum with it, it could definitely overtake CK2 and EU4, since World War II is a historical period that more people are interested in.

I would also contend that HoI4 looks like it's shaping up to be one of the most accessible entries, and games seem like they will take far shorter amounts of time to come to a conclusion. You could plausibly start and finish a game of HoI4 in one session (single player), they cut down on micro and the battle planner stuff means that you'll be spending less time pausing or running at slow speeds for average players. That is all to say, I think it could be easier for more people to get into it, with less of a steep learning curve. Thus more successful.

 

[Ivan_W_S]

You could plausibly start and finish a game of HoI4 in one session (single player

Now where's the fun in rushing a good HoI game HoI4 will be likely to break the million sales mark over the years and I'm likely to be first few thousands who get it on day 1.

 

[Axe99]

What everyone else said . Very likely HoI4 will do well - it's visually appealing (for a strategy game), has had pretty good marketing, looks like it will be a lot of fun to play, and they're polishing it up so it launches well. It's also got an established fan base, and covers a period in history that resonates with many people.

 

[Dromido]

EU4 about 850,000 on steam.
http://steamspy.com/app/236850
CK2 about 1,250,000 on steam
http://steamspy.com/app/203770
HoI3 about 450,000 on steam
http://steamspy.com/app/25890
Vicky2 about 350,000 on steam
http://steamspy.com/app/42960

Note the numbers are inflated by humble bundles and pre-order bonus, like I have 3 copies of CK2. I feel like it will be like EU4 was to EU3, so it might sell million copies after a few years. I don't think it will have the accessibility of CK2. The RPG elements really help that game appeal to a wider audience. It was my first grand strategy game (other than Civ 5 and total war games if you count those) back 2012.

Dude I used the Steamspy thing to look up HOI4 and apparently there are 1300 owners of it already...Have a look yourself http://steamspy.com/app/394360

 

[Razielus]

We'll see but I hope that HoI4 will be a success. As long as start won't be like HoI3 I think everything should be ok.
In fact EU4, CK2 made a good promotion

 

[Ivan_W_S]

Maybe they're beta testers, does steamspy track those?

 

[Red_warning]

The fact that HoI4 has a lot less abstraction in it will probably give it an edge over games like EU4, and the WWII theme gives the game a personal meaning to many people since that war was fought in living memory and many players have family that either fought or grew up during it.

What I find interesting about Paradox's games are that they still sell many years after their development, most game's tend to die down after their first year but not these.

 

[Will Steel]

It will be successful, but not the most successful one. WW2 isn't exactly the most attractive selling point in gaming industry.

I didn't even touch HoI3 until very later on, and I was not going to buy this game until I read a few dev diaries either, and that is after being a hardcore PDS games player who buys almost every game they have made.

 

[Paladino]

I think casual gamers expect a sandbox styled game that does not fit so well with the HoI series. Plus they might be overwhelmed by the options it has compared to say EU.
Still HoI has been the most successful game of every generation and it can surely capitalize on this recent growth of PDX popularity, although it saddens me that this hardcore HoI community will probably get diluted with less history-interested/educated players, but they have to start somewhere

 

[Caesar15]

It seems that they're making the game with the new Eu4 and Ck2 player base in mind, rather than the old generation of players. So we'll probably end up with higher sales than previous titles due to past hoi players coming in + WWII theme + more accessibility + the new playerbase.

 

[Sanny]

It will be successful, but not the most successful one. WW2 isn't exactly the most attractive selling point in gaming industry.

I didn't even touch HoI3 until very later on, and I was not going to buy this game until I read a few dev diaries either, and that is after being a hardcore PDS games player who buys almost every game they have made.

There's not been many WW2 games made in the last 5 years.

 

[MajorHeartfire]

HoI4 will (by the brief look we have received from WWW) be much more accessible of a game than even CK2 and EU4 were. Unlike CK and EU, HOI is going to be fairly singular in its mechanics: war. There will be no economics, or espionage, or really anything else. The first few years you will have some diplomacy to manage, but it will dissolve into just a giant war pretty fast. That all being said, war in HOI is going to be far more complex than it any of the other games.

Anyway, the point being, HOI4 will be more accessible, and simplified for the masses. Plus, Paradox has built up a much larger audience than they had when they produced HOI3 and Vicky 2.

 

[Red_warning]

There's not been many WW2 games made in the last 5 years.

Yeah, the trend is moving towards sci-fi as previously mentioned. And postapocalysm/zombies I'd say. When was the last time we had a good WWII shooter for instance?

 

[Had a dad]

EU4 about 850,000 on steam.
http://steamspy.com/app/236850
CK2 about 1,250,000 on steam
http://steamspy.com/app/203770
HoI3 about 450,000 on steam
http://steamspy.com/app/25890
Vicky2 about 350,000 on steam
http://steamspy.com/app/42960

Note the numbers are inflated by humble bundles and pre-order bonus, like I have 3 copies of CK2.

those numbers also don't take into consideration that HOI3 and V2 were predominantly sold via other means than Steam. At least that's the impression I've had from answering tech support questions.