Fallout 4 Has Sold 12 Million Copies

[Yopaz]

Nothing is going to stop EA from saying "We shipped 15 million copies of SW:BF worldwide! Go us!"

... cuz that is what Bethesda just said...

Well. it would have to be true or they could be lying. You see shipping 15 million games does require them to actually sell 15 million games. Not to consumers, but to stores. You don't ship out more games to a store than they have ordered. If the stores receive few pre-orders they will order less, if they receive many pre-orders they will order a lot more. Whoever is in charge of making orders will also gauge popularity based on the hype for a game making sure they do not order too many (resulting in a loss) or too few which will make customers go to a competitor. There's a careful balance in this.

When Bethesda says they have shipped 12 million copies, they have in fact sold 12 million copies (not sure if digital is counted in this or not). How many consumers who actually bought it is something entirely different and they can't actually say anything about that since they don't know how many buy the game used after someone has played for a few hours and realized they didn't like it (or couldn't stand the bugs) and went to GameStop to get part of their money back.

Uhm, it didn't sell 12 million copies. They shipped 12 million copies.

Bethesda launched with approximately 12 million units worldwide to meet day one demand representing sales in excess of $750 million

This means they supplied a stock of 12 million to stores, not that 12 millions copies were sold to consumers. That's a huge difference.

Not really that big of a difference. Bethesda sold 12 million copies. Retailers probably sold less than this or we would be hearing about shortages, but form Bethesda's point of view 1 copy shipped = 1 copy sold.

Eat shit Battlefront! This is what a real release looks like!

Maybe we should wait for the release to see whether or not it's time to gloat? If the success of Call of Duty tells us anything it is that people do like their shooters. Combine that with Star Wars and it might perform quite well.

OT: Not really interested in the game, but I might pick it up on a sale in the future. It does sound like fun, but it's not quite my cup of tea.

 

[Gatlank]

It's funny, those of us on the PC who bought the physical copies, still had to end up downloading it digitally.

Like MGSV where there's only the downloader on the disk?
Because if before i was pondering if i should buy the game or not, now that throws a huge NOPE in it.

 

[HomuraDidNothinWrong]

Brand name sells more than actual quality, OR new ideas.
Disappointing, very, very, very disappointing.
Except the market to keep being saturated with sequels that look way too much like the previous instalments.

More like no one makes RPG shooters. so When ANY rpg shooter comes out its a big deal. I mean, we've got borderlands and fallout. Thats it. No one else wants to take the time to make one.

 

[ShakerSilver]

More like no one makes RPG shooters. so When ANY rpg shooter comes out its a big deal. I mean, we've got borderlands and fallout. Thats it. No one else wants to take the time to make one.

You could also include Far Cry as one of those types of games, all of which I wouldn't call "RPGs" per se. They're more along the lines of open-world shooters with some lite RPG elements tacked on. I think it has more to do with the creation of open-world games themselves which is a pretty large effort to take and most developers tend to shy away from this.

 

[Blachman201_v1legacy]

This is quite sloppy journalism. Bethesda's own article says they have shipped 12 million copies, not sold them. The distinction is important, because Atari shipped 5 million copies of the ET game back in the day, and I think we all know how that went.

 

[OldNewNewOld]

Uhm, it didn't sell 12 million copies. They shipped 12 million copies.

Bethesda launched with approximately 12 million units worldwide to meet day one demand representing sales in excess of $750 million

This means they supplied a stock of 12 million to stores, not that 12 millions copies were sold to consumers. That's a huge difference.

I don't understand how people always fail to notice that.
Almost always when a company talks numbers, it's shipping and not actual sales. It's used to inflate the number and create even more hype. And it always works. People always talk as if they sold so much. Happens with games and consoles.

 

[Tiamat666]

I don't understand why people are so impatient and have to get the game on release day.

Well, here's the thing. I put 27 hours into the thing, right? When I wrote that the game was released five days ago.

It's weird. Critically I won't give Bethesda a hair's breadth when it comes to sloppy releases. And even when I look at how entertained I am I'm rarely patient when it comes to bugs and rough-edged games. But then Bethesda comes along and manages to rope me in and keep me hooked despite releasing such flawed games. I'm so bloody compelled by it, despite all my genuine critique on it I can't stop playing it.

And I knew that would be the case, hence why I got it on release day and barely regret it. Despite every day googling whether a performance patch is on its way I keep booting it up.

Now that I'm a working man, I don't have as much time to put into gaming any more as I would like. So I have no time to waste and when I play a game I want to play it right. And there's no question about it, waiting 6 months or even longer, and you get the much better game experience, with patches, mods and maybe DLC. In the meantime, there is no shortage of other games on my "TODO list".
I only played New Vegas after all the DLC was released, with some mods (JSawyer), and it was awesome.

But if you have the time to spare... I do understand that it can be "thrilling" to play a new game on release, while everyone is talking about it and it is "fresh". But I personally much prefer to wait for the polished experience.

 

[Something Amyss]

They should definitely congratulate their PR manager the most.
That manager did some amazing work drumming up hype and fans.

Honestly, they didn't have to. The fans were pre-hyped before the game was even a thing.

Although the fact that they only state shipped copies and leave out how many were sold is rather dubious.

MC1980:
Uhm, it didn't sell 12 million copies. They shipped 12 million copies.

I don't understand how people always fail to notice that.

They don't fail to notice. They understand that the difference here is not an important one. Publishers don't ship games out and then get money back when the game passes through to a consumer. They sell the game to the retailer and then the retailer sells the game to you.

And similarly, since this is the same metric used for all games, it's largely irrelevant to make a distinction. All the numbers like this are going to be units shipped. So when you compare it to other games, you are comparing apples to apples.

This is quite sloppy journalism.

For the above reasons, it's really not.

Eat shit Battlefront! This is what a real release looks like!

I thought that's what EA was doing with Battlefront: releasing a buggy game based largely on nostalgia.

Or did you mean something else? Because this game could inject flesh-eating bacteria into consumers and still get an 8/10 and sell upwards of 10 million copies. That says nothing about the quality or legitimacy of the release. It says something about hype culture.

Nothing is going to stop EA from saying "We shipped 15 million copies of SW:BF worldwide! Go us!"

... cuz that is what Bethesda just said...

Well, they would actually have to ship them, and for some amount of money, to do what Bethesda just did. I mean, I'm sure they could technically buy them for themselves and then ship them to some warehouse, but when the numbers didn't add up a ton of people would be on it.

Do you have any reason to believe Bethesda did not sell 12 million copies to retailers/etailers/etc in anticipation of a huge launch for an anticipated game?

I don't. And I'm one of those people scratching my head at why people are lining up. But I understand they are, and I understand this creates demand, and I understand that means stores buy games.

"So, Leonardo, tell us about your latest painting."
"Si, I mean, yes. It is a masterpiece. 12 million tickets have been made. Have you seen the smile? It is quiet, enigmatic, even a little mischevious."
"Yes - it seems quite popular. But we wanted to ask you about her hands."
"What hands?"
"Well, quite. We couldn't help but notice that she seems to have seven fingers on one and the other... is that a hoof? It's a bit distracting."
"You know I cannot draw hands. I have not been able to in my past few paintings, but that should not detract from her smile. Her eyes. The mysterious stranger..."
"Leonardo - we are impressed - of course - and we are enjoying the painting in the same way we enjoyed the others you have done..."
"But..."
"But. Yes - the hands are an important part of the painting. Are you sure that you want to call it your masterpiece (singular)?"
"The hands..."
"Yes. It's a lovely painting and enojoyable - and we love your style, particularly the badly painted hands, but - could you not practice that some more and get it right before trying to sell your tickets?"
"... did you notice she is carrying an invisible gun?"

But if you can sell 12 million tickets on an unfinished product, why bother perfecting it? Especially when you sold it with a history of past products that also weren't finished?

This is the free market in action.

Edited to fix misquote

 

[Blachman201_v1legacy]

It is an important difference, because they are not definitely sold. Retailers often have a clause that allows them to return copies to the manufacturer for some form of compensation if they have too many in stock and they can't sell them, and they often use that clause. Again, look to ET for the historic example.

 

[Glaice]

Eat shit Battlefront! This is what a real release looks like!

The game has it's number of flaws, including classic Bethesda bugs on launch. They haven't changed since the Oblivion days.

 

[Cowabungaa]

But if you have the time to spare... I do understand that it can be "thrilling" to play a new game on release, while everyone is talking about it and it is "fresh". But I personally much prefer to wait for the polished experience.

Well, the thing is; I really don't have time to spare, not with all the academic work I have on my plate (I promise I'm still getting work done though, FA4 cuts into sleep more than work). And yet... It grips me. It shouldn't, but it does. It's not the simple fact that it's on release or not, I barely if ever get games on release, it's just that this particular game series despite all its genuine flaws manages to grip me so badly that I really, really need that shit ASAP.

 

[Programmed_For_Damage]

It's funny, I honestly think that all Fallout 4 is just Fallout 3 with a prettier coat of paint, but I'll be damned if I can't stop playing it! I go to sleep thinking of what perk I'll apply next.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

It's funny, those of us on the PC who bought the physical copies, still had to end up downloading it digitally.

Like MGSV where there's only the downloader on the disk?
Because if before i was pondering if i should buy the game or not, now that throws a huge NOPE in it.

MGS5 was just the Steam installer. Fallout 4 is 5gb on the physical disc, and a 19gb download. Warner Bros. did the same thing with Arkham Knight, but they were totally bigger dicks about it. 5 discs, 7.7gb install off those and you had to download the rest digitally.

 

[Nimcha]

It's funny, I honestly think that all Fallout 4 is just Fallout 3 with a prettier coat of paint, but I'll be damned if I can't stop playing it! I go to sleep thinking of what perk I'll apply next.

Pretty much! I don't want to toot my own horn but it seems to be pretty much what I expected. I'm having a lot of fun with it.

 

[9tailedflame]

Oh, cmon thread. Why all the hate for FO4? It's a fun game. Sure there's not that many differences from FO3, doesn't have the best graphics, and it's glitchy; But, it's fun, and in the end, isn't that what really matters?

 

[Gatlank]

Fallout 4 is 5gb on the physical disc, and a 19gb download.

Crap. Scratch this one from the list and hope that i wont need to sell my soul to the devil to make Bethesda give a damn and release the GOTY with everything and bugs fixed (who am i kidding) on disk.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

Bethesda give a damn and release the GOTY

The only way for them to fit the entire game on a disc is to use a Blu Ray. Which I don't believe they will. They (the industry as a whole) have been trying to force everyone to go digital, but they don't seem to know, or care, that a lot of people don't have the Internet capabilities to go digital.

 

[Strazdas]

I'm confused by the claim of a record-breaking concurrent player stat on Steam. Is that the most concurrent players in a game that isn't Dota 2? Because at the time of writing this comment, at about 10 in the evening on a Saturday, there are more than 500,000 players currently in-game, 30,000 more than the reported "record". At its daily peak, Dota 2 reports around 1,000,000 concurrent players. Daily.

Do Russians not count as players?

you are correct.

there are Currently more online DOTA 2 players [http://steamcharts.com/app/570] than an all time high for fallout 4 [http://steamcharts.com/app/377160].

Can someone tell me the last time a highly scored AAA game was released and commenters of Internet DIDN'T talk shit about cus... I'm struggling here.

Witcher 3

When Bethesda says they have shipped 12 million copies, they have in fact sold 12 million copies (not sure if digital is counted in this or not). How many consumers who actually bought it is something entirely different and they can't actually say anything about that since they don't know how many buy the game used after someone has played for a few hours and realized they didn't like it (or couldn't stand the bugs) and went to GameStop to get part of their money back.

No. shipping is not equal to sale. remmeber when Xbox One shipped and majority of the devices failed to sell and stolld in warehouses and Microsoft complained that the stores werent ordering more? When a game that was anticipated turns out to be shit a lot of it gets stuck in stores. this is why stores have the "50% off clearing" to at least get part of the costs back. Usually when you talk about shipping numbers only physical is counted unless they count keys sent to Steam as shipped, in which case its even less actually sold because steam gets A LOT of keys that it keeps selling for months since storing them does not cost them anything. Steam only pays for these keys when somone buys the game from steam so they dont have to throw money ahead. (and no steam does not have unlimited number of copies, that is regulated by publisher and there were cases where during a sale steam ran out of copies).

MGS5 was just the Steam installer. Fallout 4 is 5gb on the physical disc, and a 19gb download. Warner Bros. did the same thing with Arkham Knight, but they were totally bigger dicks about it. 5 discs, 7.7gb install off those and you had to download the rest digitally.

how do you put 7,7gb in 5 discs. if you use regular dual layer CDs thats 1,4GB per disck, 5 discs being 7GB and not possible to fit it in. If you use regualr DVDs that are 4,4 GB per disc you can fit that in 2 discs without a problem. how did they managed to split it into 5 discs?

Oh, cmon thread. Why all the hate for FO4? It's a fun game. Sure there's not that many differences from FO3, doesn't have the best graphics, and it's glitchy; But, it's fun, and in the end, isn't that what really matters?

if its so glitchy one cannot play it then where is the fun?

The only way for them to fit the entire game on a disc is to use a Blu Ray. Which I don't believe they will. They (the industry as a whole) have been trying to force everyone to go digital, but they don't seem to know, or care, that a lot of people don't have the Internet capabilities to go digital.

Steams download size is 23.8GB for Fallout 4. This fits in 3 dual-layer DVD discs, which is nothing new for large PC installs for physical copies. Using DVDs is far more preferable to BluRays for install files storage becuase its much cheaper and more universal.

This is 2015. There should be no people that do not have capabilities to go digital. Blame your ISP monopoly, not companies that dont want to be dragged back in time for 2 decades because someones ISP is shit.

 

[Yopaz]

When Bethesda says they have shipped 12 million copies, they have in fact sold 12 million copies (not sure if digital is counted in this or not). How many consumers who actually bought it is something entirely different and they can't actually say anything about that since they don't know how many buy the game used after someone has played for a few hours and realized they didn't like it (or couldn't stand the bugs) and went to GameStop to get part of their money back.

No. shipping is not equal to sale. remmeber when Xbox One shipped and majority of the devices failed to sell and stolld in warehouses and Microsoft complained that the stores werent ordering more? When a game that was anticipated turns out to be shit a lot of it gets stuck in stores. this is why stores have the "50% off clearing" to at least get part of the costs back. Usually when you talk about shipping numbers only physical is counted unless they count keys sent to Steam as shipped, in which case its even less actually sold because steam gets A LOT of keys that it keeps selling for months since storing them does not cost them anything. Steam only pays for these keys when somone buys the game from steam so they dont have to throw money ahead. (and no steam does not have unlimited number of copies, that is regulated by publisher and there were cases where during a sale steam ran out of copies).

Edit: I'll make this short.
Bethesda sells X number of copies to retailers = X number shipped.
Bethesda sells x numbers =/= number of copies bought by consumers.
Bethesda ships x numbers =/= number of copies bought by consumers.
You misunderstood me so profoundly that I realized I had to simplify it and put it on the top of my post as you clearly don't read more than fragments of what I say. Hope this helps you to understand at least something of what I said.

You misunderstand me. Microsoft sold as many consoles as they shipped, but consumers didn't buy as many as Microsoft sold. No company ships out goods without being paid for them. They are sold and Microsoft receives no money when consoles are bought by a consumer at a store. From Microsoft's point of view 1 console shipped is 1 console sold. I made this distincition in my first post and I even stated that the number of sales to the consumer were likely less than 12 millions or we would be hearing about shortages, but that for Bethesda that doesn't really matter. They already made the sale.

As for the part about digital, I knew that already. What I wasn't sure about is if number of codes sold to Steam, Sony or Microsoft are also part of the number shipped. The reason I am asking is because shipping generally refers to a physical process of packing and sending an item, but I don't know if that distinction is actually valid.

So thanks for replying to my post. It resulted in me repeating my first post and you did not provide me with any new information. Maybe you should actually read my post the next time? Or am I asking too much? Based on your spelling and grammar errors you didn't actually read your own post before replying, so why would you bother read mine?

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

how do you put 7,7gb in 5 discs. if you use regular dual layer CDs thats 1,4GB per disck, 5 discs being 7GB and not possible to fit it in. If you use regualr DVDs that are 4,4 GB per disc you can fit that in 2 discs without a problem. how did they managed to split it into 5 discs?

Think you meant DVDs there. 1gb per disk makes 5, 2.7 remaining. Easy enough to split.

Steams download size is 23.8GB for Fallout 4. This fits in 3 dual-layer DVD discs, which is nothing new for large PC installs for physical copies. Using DVDs is far more preferable to BluRays for install files storage becuase its much cheaper and more universal.

This is 2015. There should be no people that do not have capabilities to go digital. Blame your ISP monopoly, not companies that dont want to be dragged back in time for 2 decades because someones ISP is shit.

If game companies cared, they'd try to help alleviate the stress of dealing with crappy Internet services, not compounding it.