EU IV 13th best selling game on Steam

[Cynical Dreamer]

.. Yay ?

Europa Universalis IV is currently, on the 10.08.13, the 13th best selling game on the Steam digital distribution platform, 4 days before it's official release.

Do you think it is a good ranking, or is it below expectations, especially for a game that will be released exclusively (?) on digital platforms ?

As a comparison, Rome II : Total War is second, and still has over three weeks before it comes out, plus it should also been sold in physical shops. So yeah, it has always been game series (and an excellent one too) with a far larger audience, that a Paradox game will most likely never even come close to.

Will EU IV pick up steam after it's release ? Is this ranking typical for a Paradox game, inferior or superior ?

How much copies do you think the game will "ship" total ?

Questions questions questions. And I would really like to know what you guys think.

 

[Tempto]

For a niche title (à la all of Paradox's games), I think being the 13th best selling on Steam is a rather big accomplishment and not at all shabby, and is especially impressive considering the relative popularities and sales chart positions of EU and TW, as you pointed out. Games usually take off after release, so I expect it to be even higher up the list in the next few weeks.

 

[Junuxx]

IIRC, CK2 was on spot 5 for a while.

 

[hitchens]

It's a big accomplishment as tempto says. I suspect this mean *a lot* to Paradox wallet size. Not that it was small before but it seems its going to really increase. I would cut my finger off Yakuza style to see their sales numbers.
In any case this is good because then they could sell us even more crack of their games.

 

[Cynical Dreamer]

Hi,

Was that before, or after the game was released ?

I would say EU IV could probably sell between 500 000 and 1 million copies lifetime. I certainly hope they do better though. The dev team deserves it.

 

[Johan]

We are happy atm if this keeps up.

 

[pedroantonio]

Of course this is all relative to the budget of their game. Their revenue/budget ratio could be better being in the 13th position than that of a game with a bigger budget being in, let's say, the 5th position. In fact, the advantage of making a niche game is that you don't have much competition, your usual buyers are probably going to buy your new game just because there's not many new options available.

That said, I still would like to see the game in a higher place, I think they deserve it.

 

[Lord Finnish]

I think 13 is pretty good for a Paradox game, especially considering how many AAA titles are coming out this year.

 

[Cynical Dreamer]

Of course this is all relative to the budget of their game. Their revenue/budget ratio could be better being in the 13th position than that of a game with a bigger budget being in, let's say, the 5th position. In fact, the advantage of making a niche game is that you don't have much competition, your usual buyers are probably going to buy your new game just because there's not many new options available.

Hello,

If you take into account a team of around 20 people working for two years, plus paying for the infrastructure (water electricity ect) and the marketing, I guess the game would cost around 3.5/5.5 millions euros to make. So, they probably need at least 300/400 00 copies sold to start making money, but I suspect a growing part of their revenue comes from DLC. Which is fair enough : with CKII, I wasn't interested in the Old Gods and the Sunset Invasion packs, but bought the ruler designer one.

 

[Haggan]

Hello,

If you take into account a team of around 20 people working for two years, plus paying for the infrastructure (water electricity ect) and the marketing, I guess the game would cost around 3.5/5.5 millions euros to make. So, they probably need at least 300/400 00 copies sold to start making money, but I suspect a growing part of their revenue comes from DLC. Which is fair enough : with CKII, I wasn't interested in the Old Gods and the Sunset Invasion packs, but bought the ruler designer one.

I don't think 20 people are developing Eu4. Maybe around...7?

 

[unmerged(683295)]

First of all, it is currently 10-08-2013 17:37 CEST and EU4 is at number 11!

Secondly I think that this is a great accomplishment, due to the fact that it is not one of the most well known games out there, and neither is Paradox as a company (Atleast not among my friends). So the fact that it can do so well on Steam versus a lot of hyped and known games is really impressive, and without the huge Steam Summer sale it would probably be even higher on the list, as atleast Skyrim have on huge discount.

So GJ Paradox, keep up the good work and show the haters that there is a reason EU4 is so high on the list!

 

[hitchens]

We are happy atm if this keeps up.

Excellent and I'm sure it will and by feeding the industry more grand strategy games the genre will just grow. Please never change.

 

[Ograv]

We are happy atm if this keeps up.

Well congrats then You devs did a great job.

 

[pedroantonio]

So, they probably need at least 300/400 00 copies sold to start making money

Yeah, that's exactly what I meant. In contrast, blockbuster games with the biggest budgets of today (the typical EA or Ubisoft published games) have been considered failures by selling, let's say, between 1 and 2 million units, when they were expecting to sell no less than 4 million.

 

[coldsteel]

Where can I find the Steam best selling charts?

 

[Cynical Dreamer]

First of all, it is currently 10-08-2013 17:37 CEST and EU4 is at number 11!

Secondly I think that this is a great accomplishment, due to the fact that it is not one of the most well known games out there, and neither is Paradox as a company (Atleast not among my friends). So the fact that it can do so well on Steam versus a lot of hyped and known games is really impressive, and without the huge Steam Summer sale it would probably be even higher on the list, as atleast Skyrim have on huge discount.

So GJ Paradox, keep up the good work and show the haters that there is a reason EU4 is so high on the list!

Hi,

Well that's great ! Although I just looked back now (at 17h49) and it's 12. So maybe the numbers are changing ?

Anyway, I find it extremely positive that strategy games are selling so well : when you look at the charts, Rome II is second, and Civilisation is forth. I really find this trend encouraging for developers who makes historical strategy games, and even more so for us who play them.

 

[BoleslavLev]

Do we know real numbers too, or just the position on the Steam (don´t forget other shops, although I think they are in minority).

 

[Xyviel]

I do hope this keeps up, the game looks so good, I can't wait for Tuesday!

 

[unmerged(683295)]

Hi,

Well that's great ! Although I just looked back now (at 17h49) and it's 12. So maybe the numbers are changing ?

Anyway, I find it extremely positive that strategy games are selling so well : when you look at the charts, Rome II is second, and Civilisation is forth. I really find this trend encouraging for developers who makes historical strategy games, and even more so for us who play them.

Yeah it dropped back to 12th after, but that just shows that EU4 and Arma3 are neck and neck. And because of DayZ mod, Arma 3 has received a lot of hype, that no advertisements can ever keep up with(Even though DayZ will get a standalone). IMO it is pretty impressive that a niche game can do that.

 

[DanubianCossak]

Im not happy.

I wouldnt be happy if it was top 5.

I would only be happy if it was the first.

But who cares about what i think

@statement that Total War games are great (or whatever) all i can say is LOL

Total War games have that nice first impression that comes from nice graphics and stuff, but they are also games that get played for 2 or 3 days and then get shelved for months if not years.

Paradox games might not be impressive on graphics (although EU4 is basically AAA production class when it comes to gfx IMO) but they are the games youll be playing for years. That alone commands respect and worship.

Edit: and yes, on this topic you can freely accuse me of being a fanboy. I totally am. But not all the way, i do criticize them when its due.