Aliens: Colonial Marines Sales Prove Bafflingly Massive

[thewatergamer]

Pfft they just made a mint on the preorders...

 

[Caiphus]

I just checked on Steam. Aliens Colonial Marines is still 100 USD in this country (and probably Australia).

That is just plain silly.

 

[freaper]

It's called "branding". It sold based on its name, most likely, as well as advertising. Marketing can get a lot of sells if it has a strong name attached to it. For example, see every licensed game ever.

Also, for future reference, you should at least try to keep your biases out of articles. It's a bit obnoxious to see an article writer basically insult people for not following their standards. I'm not saying don't have an opinion. Just try to keep biases out of journalistic writing.

Aye (on both accounts).

Sadly, this is what will most likely happen with future Star Wars titles under EA's supervision.

 

[thehorror2]

My theory is that a sizable fraction of those purchases are due to people hearing how bad it is and then buying the game for "so bad it's good" potential.

 

[Ickorus]

I actually kind of liked A:CM... I suppose that makes me a bad person.

Yeah, contrary to popular belief it isn't a bad game.

Falsely advertised to a huge and totally unacceptable degree, sure, but not a bad game.

 

[Vivi22]

Um, pre-orders, mostly. It isn't that complicated. 1.31 million isn't really all that high for a AAA-game (or at least, a game that was expected to be a AAA-game, as it had a AAA-license and AAA-development time.) Remember the weeping and gnashing of teeth that came with the news the new Tomb Raider "only" sold 3.4 mil?

Betwixt three companies, at least five years in development, and at least one lawsuit, 1.31 million sales isn't exactly looking like a jackpot pay-out.

Indeed. The only really surprising thing here is that the articles author seems perplexed by the sales and felt the need to insult any readers who dared get suckered by Gearbox's false advertising. Highly unprofessional on his part I might add.

 

[Olas]

This may be an example of how any press is good press, I probably wouldn't have even heard of this game had it not stirred up so much controversy.

Though preorders are definitely not helping, why the hell do people preorder? I usually wait years after a game has come out to buy it.

 

[shrekfan246]

So thanks to pre-orders and reviewer complicity, The Publisher Got Away With It. Do you see now why I was such a hostile little bastard when Bioshock Infinite got perfect tens all around? We have no reason to trust the press! Even when you know something's up, you're not allowed to say anything until it's too late!

Except that once the review embargo lifted, Aliens got rightfully massacred... and it's not really the press' fault when the publisher threatens to blacklist them. Businesses gotta business, you know.

And Infinite's Metacritic score is a few points lower than the first Bioshock's right now all across the board, even though I personally would say it's a far better game.

 

[Kashim117]

"Proving conclusively that no one listens to videogame critics".

Right back at you Cavalli. What. The. Eff.

One of the reasons this game created so much anger was the fact that noone knew what state it was in on release because the 'critics' couldn't publish their reviews BEFORE release. With the assumption that it would be of previous Gearbox quality (e.g. Borderlands) and that it's based on a popular franchise sales where undoubtedly going to be high.

This is actually making me angrier than it should so I'll try to tone my response down;

Do some fucking thought into your articles please.

Regards.

 

[idarkphoenixi]

Goes to show how much people can make off pre-orders.

People just too much money on them if they're willing to throw out full retail price on something they have NO idea if they're going to enjoy or not.

 

[Weatherking]

Calling Aliens: CM objectively terrible, whatever, someone can enjoy that game on some level. I enjoyed the first half or so of it, before I started to think about what was wrong with it. Then again, maybe I just have a knack for seeing everything I play in the best light, I love the Kane and Lynch games for example. An enviable trait I think, who wouldn't want to enjoy everything?

People who think everyone should strive for greatness and work to better themselves rather than going through life crapping out mediocrity would probably disagree with you.

I didn't say people shouldn't care about their craft so stop putting words in my mouth. That would be cool with me.

Edit: fuck I hate being a snarky douche like this, I just think everyone should do their best and not hate on eachother for making subpar stuff, we're all people for goddness sake!

 

[Ymbirtt]

"Hey, guys, I heard that this game is pretty crappy. Want to pitch in £7.50 each and play it for a night and laugh at how crap it is?"

"Yeah, alright"

Rinse and repeat.

 

[Right Hook]

Anybody who preorder this was mildly stupid and very naive (myself included, I vow to not preorder again unless I feel it is an absolute necessity and quality is more assured. Way to go Gearbox, your disregard and ineptitude will cost better companies money they actually deserve).

Anybody who bought this after the release and the reviews started dropping is completely stupid and pays attention to nothing. (Seriously there is almost no excuse for any purchase after the reviews dropped, why would you buy this?!?)

Maybe they liked it or something, i don't know.

I suppose, maybe this game is very popular with cutters or other various groups who enjoy pain.

 

[OldFogeyGamer]

I learned my lesson from Duke Nukem Forever and decided to wait until the reviews before looking at AC:M. I can only hope people learned from AC:M as well, but I doubt that'll stop the next con from being a giant financial success.

Also goddammit, why is the "Report" flag next to the "Post" button? One accidental bump and I randomly reported someone's post. My apologies, randomly reported person!

 

[RedDeadFred]

Why is this weird? It's not the first time a million people have bought something bad. I can think of tons of examples. I'm sure everyone else here can too.

 

[sleeky01]

Anybody who preorder this was mildly stupid and very naive (myself included, I vow to not preorder again unless I feel it is an absolute necessity and quality is more assured.

Question: What criteria would make pre-ordering a game an absolute necessity?

 

[Right Hook]

Anybody who preorder this was mildly stupid and very naive (myself included, I vow to not preorder again unless I feel it is an absolute necessity and quality is more assured.

Question: What criteria would make pre-ordering a game an absolute necessity?

Personally, if it was a game series I was heavily invested in and I felt that the edition I wanted would sell out through pre-orders. That's about it though.

 

[RicoADF]

Anybody who preorder this was mildly stupid and very naive (myself included, I vow to not preorder again unless I feel it is an absolute necessity and quality is more assured. Way to go Gearbox, your disregard and ineptitude will cost better companies money they actually deserve).

Anybody who bought this after the release and the reviews started dropping is completely stupid and pays attention to nothing. (Seriously there is almost no excuse for any purchase after the reviews dropped, why would you buy this?!?)

I pre-ordered and am happy with the purchase, why? Because I played it before it was released at the EB expo, so I knew what I was getting. Not everyone has a problem with the end result and the article is unprofessional in implying that those such as myself whom enjoy a game we didn't over hype ourselves for are somehow stupid for approaching the game resonably and thinking rather than sucuming to the hype train.