Why people didn't buy it

**Zanderat** · 09-21-2010, 12:56 PM

Do we actually have any sales figures yet? Or is all this conjecture?

**CHANCEPHOENIX** · 09-21-2010, 01:03 PM

Some people don"t like to buy anything digital.

I also prefer a boxed version.

**Deu sex** · 09-21-2010, 01:14 PM

I prefer to buy on steam ^^ steam rocks !!

**DieBrotmafia** · 09-21-2010, 05:21 PM

I think one of the main problems is not enough advertising and the missing methods to pay. Also the way the game is presented is not that awesome. They could've made it somewhat more of a challenge and present some of the press voices more obvious that state how scary that game is and how its a challenge to play through it, if you're a real man you need to play it. Something in that direction, not presenting it as just a normal game.

Also the way you can pay kinda sucks. LOTS of people, especially gamers which are often young don't have a credit card nor do they have paypal. A lot of them also don't pay via steam, they just have steam registered to their boxed cs source version. I mean, if you were number 1 on steams seller list (or sth like that) for a short time and in that time you didn't even sell THAT much this tells you that steam is actually not selling that much in general. If you look at it, some games are sold millions of times within a week and if you can reach steams #1 list with lets say 2000 copies it means that >99% of the people don't buy games via steam even though they have steam.

In steam you can also only buy with credit card, paypal or clickandbuy. The vast majority of normal gamers and friends that I know don't have any of these.

So i'm sure that 90% of people simply can't pay for your game. Here in germany its just normal bank transfer that everyone would be able to do. As soon as you need a credit card or paypal or clickandbuy and nothing else is provided you'll loose A LOT of your customers.

Also if steam isn't selling that much copies (just figure, starcraft 2 had sth like 2,5 million games sold and in steam 5000 at most is probably enough (look at amnesia) to make #1 seller for a specific day) this is your problem.

Second thing is, I don't see any advertising anymore on steam. Lots of casual gamers don't look around in message boards and review pages, they just see something on steam and maybe find it interesting. So wheres your ad there? Is it too expensive? Then your ad is simply not making enough people interested.

All you would need to do is make it availible for the broad majority of people (maybe find a publisher to get some copies in stores since now you have great reviews) and make the ad somewhat more appealing. Just gameplay trailer is nice but its not enough to convince the casual gamer who wants to be like "WOW I need THAT!!!" like for example the starcraft 2 trailer conveyed. I know with your budget its hard but its definitly possible to do it better.

I'm sure with your great reviews, with a publisher and good marketing and the right idea behind it (the most scary game EVER) this game could become really huge. But as longs as its just 2 days of steam ads, 12 reviews on some random game pages and some people who talk to their friends about it (where 90% can't even buy it) this game won't sell that well.

**Jinix** · 09-21-2010, 06:07 PM

(09-21-2010, 01:03 PM)CHANCEPHOENIX Wrote: Some people don"t like to buy anything digital.

I also prefer a boxed version.

That's because some people have not realized the impact that packaging materials and gasoline for trucking does to our fragile planet.
Eventually people will come around to being more earth-friendly by making ALL software a digital download as well as ALL music and movies and whats on paper.

1 ream (50 sheets) uses 1% of a tree cut down for paper.

**graykin** · 09-21-2010, 06:20 PM

(09-21-2010, 06:07 PM)Jinix Wrote:
(09-21-2010, 01:03 PM)CHANCEPHOENIX Wrote: Some people don"t like to buy anything digital.

I also prefer a boxed version.

That's because some people have not realized the impact that packaging materials and gasoline for trucking does to our fragile planet.
Eventually people will come around to being more earth-friendly by making ALL software a digital download as well as ALL music and movies and whats on paper.

1 ream (50 sheets) uses 1% of a tree cut down for paper.

I'll start feeling guilty about owning physical copies when they invent teleporters.

**Deu sex** · 09-21-2010, 06:42 PM

I agree with you Diebrotmafia, but...

The future of PC gaming is steam.

boxed vertions are for consoles.

And I think personnaly than people who plays amnesia have a credit card !! because this game is not for kids !!!

**tomrhod** · 09-22-2010, 12:03 AM

Hmm, I wonder if my thread had some kind of positive effect on sales. Wouldn't that be interesting. Wink

**mikesnype** · 09-22-2010, 12:23 AM

(09-21-2010, 01:03 PM)CHANCEPHOENIX Wrote: Some people don"t like to buy anything digital.

I also prefer a boxed version.

Same here, having a boxed version tells me that I actually got what I payed for.
It seems like I don't get my money's worth if i do it off steam.

I would want to be able to pull out the box from my desk and open up a CD case with Amesia in it, it just feels so right.

**DieBrotmafia** · 09-22-2010, 12:32 PM

(09-21-2010, 06:42 PM)Deu sex Wrote: The future of PC gaming is steam.

The future, but probably not now. I myself have a lot of steam games, i love steam but that doesn't tell a lot.

I don't know a lot about the pc market but as mentioned above, steam doesn't seem to have THAT big of a market share. Correct me if i'm wrong but just looking at how few copies are enough to make it to the top-sellers-list should "prove" the point. If someone got better numbers on how big steams market share is at the moment tell me.

Quote:And I think personnaly than people who plays amnesia have a credit card !! because this game is not for kids !!!

Yeah, like call of duty isn't for kids but what are all of these 13-20 year old people playing on their xboxes? Angel

Most of the people I know (im 22) don't have a credit card nor paypal so they in fact can't buy the game. And since they don't watch reviews and the internet on a regular basis they won't even see the game until its on a shelf in some store or announced via tv and LOTS of people are rumouring about it.

If someone could find some statistics on the number of people that use the internet and have either a credit card or paypal in percent (the closer to the group of 15-40 year old males that buy the game the better) and the percentage of people that buy with steam we would know the reason why it isn't selling that great.

Also maybe how many people can be potentialle reached with just some reviews and forum posts, as I believe the biggest number of people that pay aren't the few well-informed internet nerds but the casuals that see something, don't know how to pirate it and simply buy it when they see a game in the shelf that they like.