Tomb Raider Launch Best in Franchise's History

[Bara_no_Hime]

Square Enix feeling burned by only having the biggest launch of the year a quarter of the way in?

This.

Biggest launch of the year, insanely good sales, and it's being labeled as a failure?

To the Video Games industry: You say that games with female protagonists don't sell. You can't make that lie true by claiming that 3.4 million sales in one month is bad. Tomb Raider just proved you wrong - just fucking deal with it.

 

[HanFyren]

I hope the new guy remembers that the western games made a profit.
Just not enough to fill their giant money-holes at home.

 

[rofltehcat]

It is really strange when a massive 3.4 million sold within such a short time aren't enough... a few years ago, CoD's 1 million was a great success.
Really shows that something is really messed up with production costs and/or expectations.

 

[ksn0va]

Best launch in frnachise history.

Best launch of the year so far.

Below expectations.

What was the bloody budget of this game?! Still, glad to hear the devs are happy.

Doing some simple math, each copy retailing at USD$60 and about 3.4 m copies sold...

Means the budget has to be higher than $200m. I wouldnt expect it to be higher than $300m.

It doesn't exactly mean TR cost that much to make. They only expected it to sell more.

 

[Eruanno]

I wonder, how much did Square Enix expect to sell? Five million? Ten? And do they realize Tomb Raider has been released for barely a month and that it will probably continue selling quite well for at least a few more months?

*Facedesks and grumbles to himself*

 

[RicoADF]

Best launch in frnachise history.

Best launch of the year so far.

Below expectations.

What was the bloody budget of this game?! Still, glad to hear the devs are happy.

It's not the budget thats the issue, it's that their assuming and expecting too high in numbers of sales that their being disapointed. Honestly I don't get how any company can expect such high numbers of sales, even for such a great game.

 

[MrBaskerville]

This was also going up against God Of War Ascension and I think Gears of War Judgement as well wasn't it?

Then again this also by the same company that says that they won't do an HD re-release of their highest rated FF game (7, while I still prefer 6) until another FF game sells as well...

Lightning doesn't strike twice, Square... She didn't even strike once...

Wasn´t Final Fantasy XIII one of the best selling games in the entire franchise?

http://www.1up.com/news/final-fantasy-xiii-breaks-franchise

That´s why they keep making sequels to it, i saw on wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Fantasy_XIII#Reception, that FFXIII and FFXIII-2 combined sold around 9 million copies so far, that´s not so bad.

 

[Abomination]

This game sold more than there are views for the kickstarted feminist frequency... and they're still upset? Not that the views were the be-all-and-end-all of measurements but were a good indicator as to the potential market for such a game - and it trebled it.

I bought it and I'm happy with the purchase. I hope they turn this into a proper franchise. I hope Sam dies. I hope Jonah is in every single installment. I will purchase Tomb Raider II (2014-2015) or whatever they're going to call it.

They can even re-use the engine, it's a pretty fun thing which should cut down on development costs. This is an INVESTMENT, Squeenix.

 

[Khanht Cope]

Provided they didn't lose money (and it's almost unthinkable that they did) Crystal Dynamics have nothing to be ashamed of at all. They haven't factored in digital sales yet to my knowledge, and Tomb Raider was popular in the PC market aswell, and will probably continue to perform quite well there for a while by being one of the most demanding benchmarks for high-end PC performance.

 

[DementedSheep]

...and yet it was bellow expectations? I think they might be setting the expectations just a touch too high there.

this sort of thing seems to be getting really common. Games sell millions of copies yet are still deemed disappointing or failures. So are publisher and developers are just expecting to much, the production costs are getting out of control or are they just wanting sales like CoD?

 

[Ishigami]

I enjoyed Tomb Raider and therefore I'm glad that Crystal Dynamics seems to be content with the sales.

Though I have to say the budgets mentioned here seem really exaggerated. According to Evan Wells the budget of the first two Uncharted games were around 20 Million dollar each. I think its fair to assume that Tomb Raider was somewhere around the same mark so probably between 20 and 30 Million dollars.
This does of course not cover marketing and all other expenses.
Considering the initial goal of 5 million sales I dare to say that Square-Enix did not lose money on this one.

Seems like the western studios of Square-Enix are doing great considering the quality of the latest Hitman, Deus-Ex and Tomb Raider.
Lets hope this continues with Thief.

 

[Something Amyss]

What was the bloody budget of this game?!

Almost certainly irrelevant. It's far more likely this is driven solely by their other problems. Squeeeeeeenix is in a fiscal slump they saw coming but could do nothing about, and now they seem to be banking on any given game as a magic bullet to put down their problems.

 

[Blood Brain Barrier]

I still find it incredibly depressing that Tomb Raider: Anniversary is the worst selling game in the Tomb Raider franchise. That game was amazing, easily some of the franchise's best work to date.

But whatever. Good for Crystal Dynamic, guess we can look forward to more 3rd person shooters featuring Lara Croft in the future.

God help us. After some time to reflect, Tomb Raider is for me by far the worst game in the series, besides Guardian of Light. With "game" in bold, underlined and italics. The brilliant story doesn't matter to me. Lara's improved boobs and existential anxieties don't matter to me. What does matter is that stripping away the exploration and puzzling my way through a large ancient tomb took away all the satisfaction, something that a series of linear gunplay encounters does not fill.

 

[m19]

SE expected 5 million in three weeks? Are they insane?

 

[go-10]

SE over forecast the sales to unrealistic amounts, most people would like to see the budget, I wanna see the whole thing
what exactly was the game development life cycle budget per month, monthly actual spending vs forecast, and the performance at the end of every month?

these are basic business management tools that EVERY company uses, SE is no different, I'm sure a quick analysis of those numbers can get you the full picture of why this was a terrible loss. Somehow I still think that they're just trying to cover their asses for FF XIII & FF XIII-2 not to mention all those horrible and terrible ios/android games losses

 

[Trishbot]

SE over forecast the sales to unrealistic amounts, most people would like to see the budget, I wanna see the whole thing
what exactly was the game development life cycle budget per month, monthly actual spending vs forecast, and the performance at the end of every month?

these are basic business management tools that EVERY company uses, SE is no different, I'm sure a quick analysis of those numbers can get you the full picture of why this was a terrible loss. Somehow I still think that they're just trying to cover their asses for FF XIII & FF XIII-2 not to mention all those horrible and terrible ios/android games losses

Uncharted had a bigger budget, sold less, and was considered a major success by Naughty Dog.

Hell, Tomb Raider has sold, in less than ONE MONTH, more than Final Fantasy 13 sold globally in ONE YEAR (and they didn't bother to include any digital sales of Tomb Raider either).

 

[ScrabbitRabbit]

What was the bloody budget of this game?!

Almost certainly irrelevant. It's far more likely this is driven solely by their other problems. Squeeeeeeenix is in a fiscal slump they saw coming but could do nothing about, and now they seem to be banking on any given game as a magic bullet to put down their problems.

Yeah, that makes sense. I do kinda hope they sort their problems out. I like a lot of the stuff they publish.

This was also going up against God Of War Ascension and I think Gears of War Judgement as well wasn't it?

Then again this also by the same company that says that they won't do an HD re-release of their highest rated FF game (7, while I still prefer 6) until another FF game sells as well...

Lightning doesn't strike twice, Square... She didn't even strike once...

I'm not sure an FF7 remake would be as profitable as they'd like. The original "only" sold about 10mil over it's lifetime. A remake would be very costly and might not even hit the 10mil mark. It'd probably profit, but wouldn't save them.

 

[itsthesheppy]

This is how you know the industry is primed for a crash. the most successful sellers can't meet publisher expectations. It'll get worse before it gets better.

 

[weirdee]

Square Enix feeling burned by only having the biggest launch of the year a quarter of the way in?

No offence, but I think it's a good thing the CEO stepped down...

It's because SE still has the old school biased thinking of 1997 when they were at their peak (Japanese companies could do no wrong and western developers were shit). It is a good thing that their CEO stepped down but not if they hire a like minded predecessor.

I wish they had the talent they did from 1997...