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Returnal has sold around 560,000 copies

coffinbirth

Member
A month or so after Driveclub was released, PS4 achieved 14.4M (non BC) consoles sold. PS5 only had around 8M (BC) consoles when Returnal was released. So Driveclub was released with around 2X the amount of consoles and players were forced to play there games of that generation, while with Returnal they can also play crossgen or BC games.

Returnal also is the first AAA game from its team who previously did small games and it's a weird, unique, risky, more niche game. While Driveclub was a AAA game from a proven genre and from a studio who already made several of them so already had a bigger fanbase.

I think it's difficult but possible, it will depend on the amount of consoles they are able to manufacture.




The press release says MLB 21 had the best launch sales in the series.
And? Doesn't change what I said. It's an easy yearly money scoop from Sony.
 

coffinbirth

Member
Ah my mistake. Its sold over 3.1million overall.

Still you can’t compare the sales of a Miyazaki game and Returnal lol. Including the cost of development
I didn't. I was just pointing out the numbers. That being said, Returnal DID sell better than Demons Souls on PS3, but that was prior to the series taking off.
 

yurinka

Member
Shame how low it seems ratchet,demon souls and this game sold.
In a very short time Rachet sold a third of what the best selling ratchet sold in all its lifetime, pretty sure Rift Apart had the best launch month of the series. We don't know the Demon's Souls remake sales.

5.6% of PS5 owners bought Returnal.

That it not a lot, given the hype about it everywhere during launch I would expect lot more than that.
I hope down the road when I get a ps5 to play them myself,But I wonder if the 70.00 price tag put alot of people off these games.

It's a new IP (so no existing fanbase), it mixes 2 or 3 very niche hardcore genfes, and the first AAA from a previous small team without a huge fanbase, sold at an expensive price, released for a new console when it still had a tiny installbase. Returnal sales are good for its launch. Once they solve the chips issue and drop the game price it will sell a ton more. Obviously nowadays games only sell a portion of their sales during the first couple of months or so (which is what covers the "more than 560K units"), specially launch window games.

In this case, it also has been released at full price, when the games of these genres typically are cheaper, and many other great titles have been released until now, plus PS5 has the crossgen, multis and BC games. So probably many people who has a PS5 are busy with other games and will buy this one but when cheaper.

Yeah, but how many people worked at the studio to make it? Probably a good profit. I don’t think they completed it though.
Housemarque had 80 people last year. But in there is over 1300 people in the game credits, many of them Sony or external / outsourcing studio staff, it's an average/'small' AAA game. Pretty likely will end selling over 3 or 4 million copies after all its lifetime once the console gets a huge userbase, once they drop the price, make discounts, etc. because it had great reviews even if it's a somewhat niche game.

So as of now it may not be profitable, but over time pretty likely it will be profitable. In any case, for many launch window exclusive games typically their goal isn't too make profit, but to offer quality content to make the new machine more appealing to certain niche demographics. It's pretty clear that Sony wasn't aiming for top sales with this game: it's a new IP that mixes bullet hell with roguelike, space horror and AAA cinematic third person shooters with a middle age let's say not attractive woman as main character developed by some guys who didn't make a AAA game before, released for a console with around 7M+ units sold when the game shipped.

This isn't a formula for stunning sales: it's more an experiment to try a risky idea, to give an opportunity to some very talented small devs to see if can make something bigger, to cover 2 or 3 of specific hardcore niches and to offer a quality exclusive for the launch window of a console.
 
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EDMIX

Member
simply that they have bigger ambitions for Housemarque

Ok, but those ambitions are based on liking what they see from the developer in the first place.

You can't separate the team from their work as if it has zero relevance to the choice of Sony to buy them.

who are going on to create a bigger project, which is evidence of this.

Ok, but Returnal itself BIGGER then their last project Matterfall, which is bigger then their other Project Resogun, as in...Sony had ambitions for them to fucking do Returnal after they did those titles, they progressively allowed for bigger and bigger titles.

So yes bud, it is relevant to all this. If they kept failing, Sony would not clearly continue to fund those projects and even increase their budgets.

However, I take their praises of Returnal with a grain of salt because in the same pr, which read like advertising

Nah, if they didn't like what they saw, they would have no bought House Marq, we literally have many examples of games doing poorly and Sony either closing the team or no longer giving them contracts etc, i don't see any evidence that the comment was made JUST because, when they've sited games that under performed. When you add in that they BOUGHT THE TEAM, clearly they made their money, they are happy with what they see and the comment can be taken seriously.

if they tell you they LOVE the sales and its a HIT and they no longer do business with the team, then we can argue that yes, it was just PR and internally they dropped the team cause of that flop. When you add in that they buy this team, its clear their comment is linked to that sale and supports they trust the team, like its sales and feel ok going forward with theses kind of games and continuing to increase their budget and trust of the team.


So I don't know any fucking company that is looking to buy teams that JUST flopped a game lol Massively unlikely, especially since its YOU who is even fucking telling us Sony doesn't like teams like that and closes them down etc, shit yet they bought this team? As in...that doesn't apply to this team seeing how SONY BOUGHT THEM? =) Soooo you can't just say Sony will close a team if they hate the game sales and then pretend the sales of the game have nothing to do with a team being bought, it directly contradicts.

Sony is not the kind of company who would ever say anything bad about the performance of their products

I mean...you are also telling me Sony is not the kind of company that is ok with keeping a team if the game sales are bad, yet they will buy a team if the sales are bad? =) Do you not see how weird that sounds Keep that same fucking energy.

If Sony ONLY wants things that perform well in sales, wil drop a team if the sales are not what they want, it simply means they will clearly BUY a team that DOES MEET those sales expectations, so this purchase shows indeed they are fine with those sales, I don't see how the fuck they'd buy a team with sales they hate and are unhappy with, that is just unlikely and makes no sense. Its not even like this is their FIRST fucking game, they've done games for years for Sony, if Sony kept giving them more money, its cause they are doing something Sony likes.

So I simply don't see any evidence that Sony hates this games sales. Sony is very conservative when it comes to shit like this, they will support new IP, but to an extent, it still must hold its own for Sony to keep the team open, make sequels, fund a new IP or yes...buy a team. I see no reason to even open up such a concept and the dismiss it entirely in a massive purchase like this.

Even PSVR was touted as a success

To them it likely is, as to why its getting another one.


Lower then expected doesn't always mean a failure.

It can have lower sales then the thought and still do well enough for them to continue those efforts. So no man, you can't bring up that they killed off this or that based on sales, then ignore PSVR2, ignore the purchase of this team literally based on this games performance (or continued performance of House Marq's games in general) etc

If they are just telling you this for PR, why the fuck would the do a PSVR2?

IF they are telling you this JUST for PR, why then buy the team?

I understand that Sony will move on from a team if they don't like the sales or not make a sequel or close down a team, but keep that same fucking energy when regarding actual purchases as it goes hand in hand. Those are the same reasons they'd buy a team or make a sequel, you can't just suddenly ONLY try to apply that ot something negative man

GuinGuin GuinGuin Agreed, thats actually what I think it is, they simply had a modest budget and the game has made them a great deal of money in a short amount of months. So I don't think Sony is seeking 10 million or something, they likely already had a number in mind that fit its marketing, development etc. So I believe all that went into some clause in buying the team or not.

Days Gone probably had a much larger budget than Returnal

This. The game was also delayed several times and released with many bugs. I like the game and can give many issues a pass based on being a new IP, but LOTS of the game is samey in terms of loads of borrowed features, having the game not really feel all that different from other titles.

The hordes make that game have the "it factor" that really set it apart. So I feel with the team not doing a big AAA in generations and being able to patch the game to work very well, they were given the chance and its not completely the fault of the team entirely, I feel maybe it was too much for them. The fact that the team is hiring to expand and making a new IP shows this is one of those situations where the game itself just couldn't set itself apart that much, BUT Sony still likes and trust the team. THAT is a fucking situtaion that makes more sense.

I think Bend showed Sony 2 or even 3 ideas and Sony picked Days Gone. The game not doing well could be cause they were understaffed at the time or such a long time not doing such a massive AAA title etc, for Sony to have them do another new IP, shows they likely have no issue with the team itself, but want to see what that new IP does for them before revisiting Days Gone.

For all we know they just want them to get the tech up and running, get their feet wet with PS5 and late gen we might see Days Gone 2. Off of an existing engine and with the concept already layed out, they can make a Days Gone 2 with less delays and issues with other big AAA IP under their belt.
 

8BiTw0LF

Banned
I can see some need a refund for their school tuition.

November 2020: 114 million sold PS4s

Ghost of Tsushima: 5 million sold in 5 months

Ghost Of Tsushima’ is the “fastest-selling” first-party original PS4 game

November 2020 - July 2021: 10 million sold PS5s

Returnal: 500.000 sold in 3 months

MEGA HIT!

Michael Scott Reaction GIF
 

JumpMan1981

Banned
It's pretty interesting to see these sales numbers.

PS5 has 3 exclusives? Ratchet & Clank, Demons Souls and Returnal.

They've sold 10 million consoles but it seems like a large majority of the next-gen console owners are just using them to play last gen games.
 

anthony2690

Banned
Plus how many of those 10m console are actually in the hands of people using them? Serious question. Any idea how many consoles are sitting in scalpers "Warehouses"?
99%+ would be with consumers.
I read online that scalpers are grabbing less than 2% of units, and even then I can imagine they want to shift them asap to consumers, as the resell value has massively decrease since launch, most I see now are only shifting £50 above rrp now.
 

ZywyPL

Banned
They've sold 10 million consoles but it seems like a large majority of the next-gen console owners are just using them to play last gen games.

It it really a surprise tho? Aside of a bunch of blind fanboys who cannot see past 1st party next-gen-only exclusives, most people simply want to play games, no matter indie, AA, AAA, 1st or 3rd party, new or old, cross-gen or not, people just want to have fun. Most people who jumped onto new console still play their usual CoD, Fifa, Fortnite, GTA etc. on a daily basis like they have been for years, they just have a much better experience with those games now.
 
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THE DUCK

voted poster of the decade by bots
I can see some need a refund for their school tuition.

November 2020: 114 million sold PS4s

Ghost of Tsushima: 5 million sold in 5 months

Ghost Of Tsushima’ is the “fastest-selling” first-party original PS4 game

November 2020 - July 2021: 10 million sold PS5s

Returnal: 500.000 sold in 3 months

MEGA HIT!

Michael Scott Reaction GIF

You can't compare these two figures directly at all, you have a hardcore game buying user base of 10 million early adopters vs 114 million many of which are casual buyers. This group buys way less games per machine overall. If anything this proves it didn't sell well, a group of 10 million die hard gamers, not many exclusives, and it still didn't sell well.....
 

Hestar69

Member
In a very short time Rachet sold a third of what the best selling ratchet sold in all its lifetime, pretty sure Rift Apart had the best launch month of the series. We don't know the Demon's Souls remake sales.




It's a new IP (so no existing fanbase), it mixes 2 or 3 very niche hardcore genfes, and the first AAA from a previous small team without a huge fanbase, sold at an expensive price, released for a new console when it still had a tiny installbase. Returnal sales are good for its launch. Once they solve the chips issue and drop the game price it will sell a ton more. Obviously nowadays games only sell a portion of their sales during the first couple of months or so (which is what covers the "more than 560K units"), specially launch window games.

In this case, it also has been released at full price, when the games of these genres typically are cheaper, and many other great titles have been released until now, plus PS5 has the crossgen, multis and BC games. So probably many people who has a PS5 are busy with other games and will buy this one but when cheaper.


Housemarque had 80 people last year. But in there is over 1300 people in the game credits, many of them Sony or external / outsourcing studio staff, it's an average/'small' AAA game. Pretty likely will end selling over 3 or 4 million copies after all its lifetime once the console gets a huge userbase, once they drop the price, make discounts, etc. because it had great reviews even if it's a somewhat niche game.

So as of now it may not be profitable, but over time pretty likely it will be profitable. In any case, for many launch window exclusive games typically their goal isn't too make profit, but to offer quality content to make the new machine more appealing to certain niche demographics. It's pretty clear that Sony wasn't aiming for top sales with this game: it's a new IP that mixes bullet hell with roguelike, space horror and AAA cinematic third person shooters with a middle age let's say not attractive woman as main character developed by some guys who didn't make a AAA game before, released for a console with around 7M+ units sold when the game shipped.

This isn't a formula for stunning sales: it's more an experiment to try a risky idea, to give an opportunity to some very talented small devs to see if can make something bigger, to cover 2 or 3 of specific hardcore niches and to offer a quality exclusive for the launch window of a console.
True,It's just when I saw sony say the game was a mega hit for them it sold 2-3 million.But I do agree the 70 price tag is hurting some of these games.
 

mckmas8808

Banned
It's pretty interesting to see these sales numbers.

PS5 has 3 exclusives? Ratchet & Clank, Demons Souls and Returnal.

They've sold 10 million consoles but it seems like a large majority of the next-gen console owners are just using them to play last gen games.

You only buy Nintendo hardware don't you?
 

Keihart

Member
GG Strive numbers...interesting, if Sony considered the game a success already that at least shows that they didn't had unreal expectations.

Good to know that the studio wasn't set for failure as i first feared when the price tag was announced.
 

engstra

Member
You can't compare these two figures directly at all, you have a hardcore game buying user base of 10 million early adopters vs 114 million many of which are casual buyers. This group buys way less games per machine overall. If anything this proves it didn't sell well, a group of 10 million die hard gamers, not many exclusives, and it still didn't sell well.....
What is there to say that the people who own a ps5 are "hardcore gamers" and therefore are interested in buying exclusives? Most people buy a new console to play only a few big hitters each year like CoD and FIFA
 

kyoji

Member
Its mad funny how many people in this thread dont even know what the phrase 'mega hit' or 'hit' means as it relates to a product.

I cant wait to see how many awards this game will rack up at years end, and its good Sony acknowledged its critical reception of it generally being a great game especially with the amount of risk involved in publishing something like this, where they could have done better as a publisher however is running a few TV spots, there was literally 0 on cable tv for advertising.
 
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SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
You only buy Nintendo hardware don't you?
It's a good point. The attach rate is only 5 and 10%. Demon Souls sales havent even been revealed so its probably even lower.

Much is made on this board about exclusives. Launch exclusives. If all they are good for are 5% attach rates then maybe they are as big of a deal.
 

THE DUCK

voted poster of the decade by bots
What is there to say that the people who own a ps5 are "hardcore gamers" and therefore are interested in buying exclusives? Most people buy a new console to play only a few big hitters each year like CoD and FIFA

Since it's been difficult to get, and is relatively expensive, and history, you can bet that a very large percentage of ps5 owners (and series x) are hardcore gamers. Most casual gamers don't spend extra money to get things early, no do they constantly scour websites to buy one.....it's just not important enough to them.
 

JumpMan1981

Banned
It it really a surprise tho? Aside of a bunch of blind fanboys who cannot see past 1st party next-gen-only exclusives, most people simply want to play games, no matter indie, AA, AAA, 1st or 3rd party, new or old, cross-gen or not, people just want to have fun. Most people who jumped onto new console still play their usual CoD, Fifa, Fortnite, GTA etc. on a daily basis like they have been for years, they just have a much better experience with those games now.
Its not a surprise.
Its just an observation on how things seem to go with consoles.

People always state the importance of exclusives but the attach rate seems to be quite small.

It seems like actually the majority of PS5 owners don't own a single PS5 exclusive. Except Astrobot. In fact, I wonder how many even played that.
 

8BiTw0LF

Banned
You can't compare these two figures directly at all, you have a hardcore game buying user base of 10 million early adopters vs 114 million many of which are casual buyers. This group buys way less games per machine overall. If anything this proves it didn't sell well, a group of 10 million die hard gamers, not many exclusives, and it still didn't sell well.....
What are you even talking about? It sold almost twice as fast as Ghost of Tsushima in 3 months, given the userbase. Returnal is a niche game, made by a much smaller team than SuckerPunch. I can see why Sony says it's a mega hit - cause it truly is.
 

engstra

Member
Since it's been difficult to get, and is relatively expensive, and history, you can bet that a very large percentage of ps5 owners (and series x) are hardcore gamers. Most casual gamers don't spend extra money to get things early, no do they constantly scour websites to buy one.....it's just not important enough to them.
I just don't think that's taking things such as hype into account. I'm pretty sure I read things around launch about how a large percentage of buyers where first time console owners. We've been in the middle of a pandemic, people are bored and buying things to entertain themselves. I mean just look at how crazy well the Switch was selling last year.
 
Still waiting on a mid run save system that Rogue-likes have had since the 1980s and a price for a physical copy that isn’t $103 with tax in Canada.

Sony has purposely put the game on sale digitally but hasn’t allowed any retailers to put physical copies on sale yet. Brutal. They want to entice digital sales as much as possible and all for them. They are the only company that doesn’t allow their digital games to be sold on Amazon and the like.
 
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mckmas8808

Banned
It's a good point. The attach rate is only 5 and 10%. Demon Souls sales havent even been revealed so its probably even lower.

Much is made on this board about exclusives. Launch exclusives. If all they are good for are 5% attach rates then maybe they are as big of a deal.

Everyone knows going by attach rate to determine if a game sold well is the dumbest way to go about that. Ratchet selling to 10% of the PS5 hardware base over a 2 month time is GREAT! There's no two ways around that. Plus not all games are created equally.

Nope. Switch, PS5 and One X here.

So then you should know better than to believe the only thing people buy consoles for is for exclusives only. Exclusives aren't the "ONLY" reason most buy a console.
 

kyoji

Member
It's a good point. The attach rate is only 5 and 10%. Demon Souls sales havent even been revealed so its probably even lower.

Much is made on this board about exclusives. Launch exclusives. If all they are good for are 5% attach rates then maybe they are as big of a deal.
is it still not obvious to people that demon souls #'s are probably not being released yet because sony is waiting to announce them along with the acquisition of bluepoint? 🤷‍♂️
 

THE DUCK

voted poster of the decade by bots
What are you even talking about? It sold almost twice as fast as Ghost of Tsushima in 3 months, given the userbase. Returnal is a niche game, made by a much smaller team than SuckerPunch. I can see why Sony says it's a mega hit - cause it truly is.

Again, it's a completely different market.
Hardcore gamers make up a much larger portion of game buyers than the general user base of a console that's been out for 7 years.
So, no, it's not a mega hit whatsoever.
 

THE DUCK

voted poster of the decade by bots
I just don't think that's taking things such as hype into account. I'm pretty sure I read things around launch about how a large percentage of buyers where first time console owners. We've been in the middle of a pandemic, people are bored and buying things to entertain themselves. I mean just look at how crazy well the Switch was selling last year.

Hype is great, but its people like us on these boards who had reminders set months ahead time, were watching for info on pre-orders, etc. It'd highly unlikely that a large percentage of ps5 owners were first time console owners. The switch is not comparable, it was out for years and was more readily available.
 

8BiTw0LF

Banned
Again, it's a completely different market.
Hardcore gamers make up a much larger portion of game buyers than the general user base of a console that's been out for 7 years.
So, no, it's not a mega hit whatsoever.
And Returnal is a niche game for hardcore gamers, which is why 5% of PS5 owners bought it - compared to R&C:RA which 10% of PS5 owners has bought. Your analogy is way off. Returnal (for what it is) is a mega hit - not even debatable.
 

THE DUCK

voted poster of the decade by bots
And Returnal is a niche game for hardcore gamers, which is why 5% of PS5 owners bought it - compared to R&C:RA which 10% of PS5 owners has bought. Your analogy is way off. Returnal (for what it is) is a mega hit - not even debatable.

I guess it depends on your idea of "mega hit"
In the past typically this term was reserved for multiple million sellers like gow, gt, Zelda that have sold mutiple millions of copies. So very debatable.
 

iHaunter

Member
TBH I expected Returnal to sell more as it's an incredible game. But giving how niche it is and the limited consoles available, it's not too surprising. A lot of people don't want to drop $70 on a new game. With with the new wave of PS5s + Price Cut of the game, I'm sure the number will go up.
 

yurinka

Member
True,It's just when I saw sony say the game was a mega hit for them it sold 2-3 million.But I do agree the 70 price tag is hurting some of these games.
They must know the numbers of all the games, the budget of the game, and with the metacritic and early sales combined with the data from thousands of PS5, PS4, PS3 games, estimations of future PS5 production and sales, plus knowing their future plans for discounts, price drops, PS Plus/Now plans they must have a very accurate estimation of the amount of copies that Returnal will sell/revenue that will generate after all its lifetime.

These over 560K copies are just the first couple of months with only 7-8 million consoles sold. I'd say they estimate to sell 3--4 million copies of that game, enough to have a nice profit that they maybe weren't expecting due to being a quality very niche launch window game to appeal mostly certain specific group of hardcore early adopters.

It also means over 5.6% PS5 customers bought it, something very good for a Sony exclusive.
 
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Great game, I really enjoyed it. I think it has to be said Days Gone sold way more than that, and didn't get a sequel green-lit. Sounds like Sony does have favorites amongst its kids.
Wasn’t the user base significantly bigger for Days Gone though? Also, considering how niche and difficult the game is I think that’s pretty good.
 
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-hadouken

Member
It was priced at $125 AUD ($92 USD here) - at that price, people are voting with their wallets, and it's killing hype. Even when the price comes down, the damage is done.
 

engstra

Member
Hype is great, but its people like us on these boards who had reminders set months ahead time, were watching for info on pre-orders, etc. It'd highly unlikely that a large percentage of ps5 owners were first time console owners. The switch is not comparable, it was out for years and was more readily available.
I dunno, it's not like it was a big secret when the console was dropping. Anyone seeing a post or ad on any social media platform about a new console could just then and there decide to try their luck. Similarly all kids and teenagers who play games would've been aware when the console would've been releasing and either tried or asked parents to try. Just have to be realistic about fact that most people who buy a console are not super informed about every release and stick to a few big yearly releases like CoD and FIFA and wanted the new and shiny console for the best experience of said games. Plus it wasn't a launch game so didn't have that advantage where people pick up a few new games to test on their new console.
No matter how brilliant this game is it's very niche that isn't gonna gel with everyone. Just looking at this forum of enthusiasts, there still probably a majority of people who either haven't played it for a number of reasons.
 

THE DUCK

voted poster of the decade by bots
I'm not saying the game is bad, I haven't played it yet, I may even love it. I just don't think those amount of sales justify it as a hit on a machine with very few exclusives and likely has a skewed user base vs a console at end of life.
 

NikuNashi

Member
Its a fantastic core gameplay loop however the save system and progression system sucks ass for most people. I gave up after biome 2, dont have hours at a time to play unfortunately with a family.
 
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