Update: Rumor: Poor Sales May Have Killed Dead Space

[Your Gaffer]

I think EA pushed the in-game microtransactions, less horror and more action, and I think it backfired and put a lot of people off the game, and now they are just burying their mistake.

The Dead Space IP will probably resurface somewhere down the line.

 

[bafrali]

Broadening the audience, franchise DNA, low sales. Why does that remind me of DmC?

Anyway, It was good while It lasted I guess. We all knew this was gonna happen one day. Hope the fired people get on their feet fast and work their magic elsewhere.

 

[Erttheking]

Does anyone actually know how many copies DS3 sold?

Well, for the 360 it sold...half a million copies...wow.

http://www.vgchartz.com/game/50254/dead-space-3/

Someone really dropped the ball here.

Adding to that the PC and PS3 figures from that site comes to about 900,000.

That probably doesn't account for digital sale, but I'm guessing they weren't spectacular, especially with the game not being on Steam.

Yeah, that is...severely unimpressive. I may have to double check the figures, but I think this may be the worst selling Dead Space game...wow. EA really doesn't know what they're doing.

I disagree with this notion. Strongly, actually. There was rampant misinformation about Dead Space 3, despite Visceral and EA's best efforts to clear it up (Like the prevalent belief that co-op was mandatory, and you'd get an AI partner without a friend). I'm blaming the gaming community on this one.

No no....nonononononono, we are not going down the path of everything that is wrong with the gaming industry is the fault of gamers just...don't go there. I blame microtransactions, changing the formula in the middle of the series, extremely poor PR and EA's poor reputation. Not gamers.

 

[Lightknight]

I disagree with this notion. Strongly, actually. There was rampant misinformation about Dead Space 3, despite Visceral and EA's best efforts to clear it up (Like the prevalent belief that co-op was mandatory, and you'd get an AI partner without a friend). I'm blaming the gaming community on this one.

Imagine this:

You're a fan of the Nightmare on Elm Street horror flicks. Hypothetical Dave is not.

Next, imagine that someone takes the Nightmare on Elm Street and decides to make a movie on the IP that is not horror but is action adventure.

Now, you follow news on the topic because you like it and you hear this. So you're hesitant to buy it and already feel sold out by the company before it ever hits theaters. Other people like you do the same and not only does it have poor initial sales but upon waiting it really isn't horror so you decide not to view it at all or you forget about it.

Hypothetical Dave doesn't even follow news about the series and so his eyes gloss over every time some commercial comes up claiming it's action, not horror. He's already not going to see it because the IP has a long history of being something he does not like. People like him either don't go for the same reason or hold off because they haven't been watching the series and assume there's too much they'd have to know going in.

This is what EA did with Dead Space. They alienated their niche customers by making a grab for a larger market that is not interested in the series. The microtransactions and the misinformation were bad, but nothing close to that. I will admit that microtransactions are an automatic no for me where pre-ordering or day-one purchases are concerned. But EA has every bit of blame here. If there's a lot of mininformation flying around, then their marketing/PR teams are at fault. You cannot get around blaming EA.

 

[fix-the-spade]

Well Dead Space 3 is just short of 900k

http://www.vgchartz.com/gamedb/?name=dead+space+3

And Crysis 3 is around 560k

http://www.vgchartz.com/gamedb/?name=crysis+3

Not exactly living up to the standards set by previous installments in the series.

That's not nearly as bad as I was expecting actually. Although that doesn't yet show how either's sales will be long term, I can't see them selling solidly for a couple of years Battlefield 3 style.

Five million or bust, got to love hubris.

 

[Legion]

EA's problem is that they constantly try to change series to appeal to the shooter crowd. Not make them, but change established series into something that will draw those people in.

It is the same mistake MMO developers keep making. People who want to play WOW are already playing it, they don't want a clone of it because they already have it. The same goes for EA games. Why is a COD player going to pick up Mass Effect 3 just because it has more explosions in it? They already have their action packed shooter, they aren't going to want to switch to something else just because it has vague similarities.

They are trying to appeal to everybody at once, and it is failing, but they don't learn from it.

That's not to say that all the games are failures critically, but from a sales perspective, they are spending an awful lot of money trying to impress people who don't give a damn, and it isn't working.

 

[Akisa]

Oh geez take out any originality, add co-op to a horror game and add micro transaction to a full price game, how would it ever fail?

Did you even play the game? Based on your statement I'm assuming you didn't.
Just an FYI you aren't forced to play the game co-op, there is a single player where you are alone. Also micro transactions aren't needed at all; most people who play the game will be absolutely flooded with resources by the end of the game.

Nope, but it doesn't change the fact the changes has turned me away

 

[kajinking]

If anyone needs another reason to hate EA just follow this link for their latest disaster!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUl_Cj2_KWU

 

[Church185]

BECAUSE SHES A GURRRLLL!

Oh, you asked for a good reason... BECAUSE DUDE BROS DONT LIKE PLAYIN' GURRRLLLS, THEY HAVE TO PLAY AS BROS!

Im assuming thats how the EA marketing department works and I also assume that was the reason, because how are they meant to connect and empathise with her, I mean she has a vagina and everything.

But I'm not sure your average Dudebro would be able to tell that it was a girl under all that armor, unless they decided to give her a space-kini...

 

[purifico]

Gamers actually voting with their wallets? Has hell frozen over or something? I am very proud of your guys.

 

[That PC Guy]

Good riddance, i say.

 

[dragongit]

Call me ignorant, but I must not have been paying attention earlier last year when they said something like this before that they needed " 5 million copies" in order to break even. I mean yes I've heard of it, but I still don't get it. What on Gods Green earth makes Dead Space 3 so costly that it requires 5 million copies sold? not including tax or the amount stores get for sales, that's roughly 300 million dollars.Not including DLC either I might add.

It's news like this, of a game that isn't even in the next generation yet, needing RIDICULOUS numbers in order to "survive". How many copies of Killzone or Infamous Second Son will need to be sold in order to justify their sale? Will the price of games go up? Sadly the economy isn't helping people out with fewer people being able to afford games or the new consoles. This could really suck for the community as a whole.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Where was the need for it to sell insanely high? I can understand that EA WANTED it to sell 5 million copies, but it certainly did not NEED to.

I believed them when they said that they needed to sell 5 million units.
It falls right into place with the extreme emphasis game publishers have been putting on graphics and marketing.

If they really must go penta-platinum just to make their investment back...they need to change their business model.
Badly.

 

[Callate]

Are there really people out there for whom lack of multiplayer is a no-sale? I mean, maybe if it's a tennis game, or a racer, but... Was anyone desperate for Bioshock 2 to have multiplayer? Or Spec Ops: The Line? Or is there just some widely-held marketing misconception that the absence of multiplayer is all that stands between your first or third person shooter being the next Call of Duty?

Ah, well, maybe EA will learn from its mistakes and take more interest in what players are actually looking for from their games, rather than trying to dictate what they want to them. Now if you'll excuse me, this purple unicorn isn't going to fly itself back to Jupiter.

UPDATE: According to Gamasutra, EA has described the Dead Space rumors as "patently false."

So, whaddya think? 50-50 odds?

 

[Trishbot]

Where was the need for it to sell insanely high? I can understand that EA WANTED it to sell 5 million copies, but it certainly did not NEED to.

I believed them when they said that they needed to sell 5 million units.
It falls right into place with the extreme emphasis game publishers have been putting on graphics and marketing.

If they really must go penta-platinum just to make their investment back...they need to change their business model.
Badly.

Exactly.

I find it tragically hilarious that game budgets are getting out of control and becoming so expensive... and yet they aren't becoming more FUN to play. Seriously, the games I played a decade ago didn't look as good but they were just as fun, if not more so, than the games being released today.

I mean, the games from 10 years ago also didn't have online passes, forced Origin integrated, unnecessary online multiplayer, day-1 DLC, retailer-exclusive DLC, pre-order content withheld, always-on online connections, or the success of Call of Duty to chase after in a pathetic race from everyone to be "second place".

I played a massive game like Xenoblade on the Wii, and Nintendo revealed it sold about 100,000 copies in the US (not the 5 million EA expected from Dead Space)... and Nintendo said that the game had been a financial success for them and nearly sold through their entire US stock of the game.

When a bigger, better game on the Wii can sell literally 1/50th of what EA expected from Dead Space 3 and still be considered a sound investment and financial success, then it certainly looks like EA's entire business approach is hilariously out of touch with reality.

 

[punipunipyo]

EA...

Your problem... Oregon.
Your solution... Steam

Put that game on steam, you'll have my/my brother's money, and probably a million others...

 

[Baron von Blitztank]

"Better to die with some semblance of dignity than to live on as a dehydrated zombie cow", I always say.

 

[dagens24]

It's unfortunate that a series I enjoy had to die in order to teach EA a lesson about greed, but I guess it is for the best.

 

[Zom-B]

Do you think any studio heads or publishers will learn the lesson? As we watched Dead Space become a legitimate hit, the watched Dead Space 2 follow on it's heels with some changes and stray a bit from what made Dead Space such a good game but still perform well and be considered a good game. Then Dead Space three came along and tried to be Space Marines, by all accounts (haven't played, myself) and sales are not what's expected, or even close, and we have to wonder why studios think that monetization, mainstreaming or pandering to the FPS crowd is what gamers want.

Yeah, it's obvious that the hardcore shooter crowd is pretty huge and a lot of people play those games. That doesn't mean every game can expand to fill that niche, becuase then obviously the genre becomes saturated and all but the preferred franchise(s) suffer low sales.

We can only imagine what sort of games we might have gotten if Dead Space 2 and 3 had adhered more closely to the formula laid down by the original game. Maybe the series would have died early or maybe DS4 would be a guarantee... Oh well, c'est la vie.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

If this isn't true, then it isn't true and that's that.
If it is true, then "haha", "fu***ng EA again" and cue the rest.

Perhaps if they hadn't made such a bland, uninspired, poorly written and boring, linear game with unnecessary features, controversial (ie. deplorable) microtransactions built in to it and the rest, when they had the opportunity to actually make something decent, then who knows.

Liked one, enjoyed two, loathed three. Couldn't care less if this series lives or dies hereafter quite frankly.