Payday 2 Sells 1.58 Million Copies, Most Are Digital Sales

[Steven Bogos]

Payday 2 Sells 1.58 Million Copies, Most Are Digital Sales

1.3 million of Payday 2's 1.58 million copies sold were from digital distribution channels such as Steam.

Payday 2's wildfire success was surprising to everyone, including the game's publisher: 505 games, which ran into some retail shortages of the game. Developer Starbreeze has now announced that the game has already sold almost 1.6 million copies, absolutely blazing past the 700,000 or so lifetime sales of the first Payday game.

Furthermore, some 80%, or around 1.3 million, of these sales have been from digital downloads via services such as Steam, Xbox Live Games on Demand, and the PlayStation network. Obviously, the retail shortage plays a part in this, but that is still a very impressive number. Perhaps the future Microsoft envisioned, where physical disk-based games are a thing of the past, isn't too far off after all?

It is worth noting that the first Payday, which received mixed reviews from critics, was available exclusively via download.

Payday 2 developer Starbreeze recently announced that a full year worth of DLC [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/126895-Payday-2-Devs-Hope-For-A-Year-Of-DLC-Female-Criminals] is being planned for the title.

Source: Neogaf [http://www.starbreeze.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Pressmeddelande_2013-09-12.pdf]

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[Bindal]

I was a bit surprised yesterday when I read that.
And still funny, how OTHER publishers call "3 millions" a complete failure in terms of sales...

On a sidenote: Most of those sales were made on PC.

 

[Vaccine]

Nah, PC gaming is dead*, preorder the Xbox One/PS4 TODAY!

*[citation required]

Spoiler

 

[Griffolion]

-snip-

It's to do with knowing your niche and going for that. Not hemorrhaging millions to homogenise your game in trying to give it "broader appeal".

All credit to Payday 2 and the development team. They have done it correctly with little effort, while the major publishers and studios flounder around expending all this time, money, and energy finding the most ridiculous and contemptuous methods of gouging more from the customer just so they can stay in the black.

 

[Andy Shandy]

Great for Starbreeze. They knew what they wanted to do with the game and pulled it off superbly. The fact that the pricing was competitive at no more than £30 must also have helped. As much as I have enjoyed my time with it thus far, I don't know if I would pay any more than that for what they give.

 

[EightGaugeHippo]

I was one of those sales and until GTAV hits, I can honestly say it was the best £30 odd I've spent this year.
With all the cookie cutter shooters around these days, its great to have something like payday to mix it up.

 

[sid]

Like Star Citizen's space genre and Inxile's exploration of isometrics, I feel like these guys hit one of those really wanted yet somewhat unexplored genres that so many AAA people shy away from for the sake of predictability. Thank god for B-listers, I couldn't handle something like this as a 2D platformer

 

[Nihlus2]

Meanwhile in the AAA industry, they are currently collapsing in on themselves, by the sheer perplexed state of mind, of how this thing can sell without twice the amount of development budget put into marketing it/advertising it.

Ridicule aside, really nice to see them do so well, a passion project that was not degraded to any extend and sells so well - as it should be. Here's to hoping that they'll continue to do well in the future.

 

[james.sponge]

Wow! who would have thought that making a game for a specific audience might pay off.... it's like in those mythical times before the dark ages brought by the current-gen marketing!

 

[qeinar]

Great for Starbreeze. They knew what they wanted to do with the game and pulled it off superbly. The fact that the pricing was competitive at no more than £30 must also have helped. As much as I have enjoyed my time with it thus far, I don't know if I would pay any more than that for what they give.

yeah i agree while it's fantastic it's still lacking. there's not really that many missions, and a lot of assets are borrowed across missions. Also there's tons of bugs in the game. playing it with friends is incredible fun though and for £30 it's definitely worth it. I really wish they would release mods for the game though, but i doubt that would happen.

 

[TwoSidesOneCoin]

Somewhere in the dark, dark recesses of Microsoft's dungeons, the people who dreamed up the xbone are causing flash floods of tears, all while silenty whimpering in between sobs, "Why wouldn't you let us do that?"

OT: Nice, I have the original Payday, but I'm going to wait for a sale or bit of a price drop before I look into getting this one.

 

[SoulChaserJ]

Somewhere in the dark, dark recesses of Microsoft's dungeons, the people who dreamed up the xbone are causing flash floods of tears, all while silenty whimpering in between sobs, "Why wouldn't you let us do that?"

OT: Nice, I have the original Payday, but I'm going to wait for a sale or bit of a price drop before I look into getting this one.

Payday 2 is completely worth it. We're supposed to get the PD1 maps as well as some more PD2 content before the end of the year. Payday 2 truly is the game that Payday 1 wanted to be.

 

[FoolKiller]

It has to also do with the fact that they vastly underestimated the demand and so there weren't enough copies going around. Even now, my local store only got 1 copy in the last two weeks.

 

[Glaice]

This shows you don't need AAA quality to sell a game well.

 

[Magikarp]

Eh, I'd be happy about this, but I'm firmly in the camp of 'the developers screwed us over'. The game still feels unfinished, & they're tweaking inconsequential things while there are major issues that need sorting out. So well done, but you let us down.

 

[Saelune]

I never hear of Payday outside of steam, so maybe thats why?

 

[Something Amyss]

Perhaps the future Microsoft envisioned, where physical disk-based games are a thing of the past, isn't too far off after all?

Weren't most of those supposedly Steam-based? If so, the future is here: Steam has been pulling this for ages. Is that what Microsoft envisions, though? People going to Steam?

Wow, I sure said Steam a lot. Steam steam steam steam eggs and steam.

 

[MCerberus]

Payday's been making the rounds on the xbox circle too. Always happy to hear of a "AA" developer finding success.
A little disappointed there was a payday 2 before a KF 2.

 

[Strazdas]

Payday sells a lot - awesome this game deserve it.
Payday sells msotly digital - awesome we are getting more digital now.

Escapist, this is good news, what happened to the regular doom and gloom?