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[SantaC]

Somebody tell them.

Elden Ring dev has "no idea why it's selling so well," but won't let sales change how it makes games

FromSoftware hasn't stopped to analyze Elden Ring's huge success

www.gamesradar.com

 

[Astral Dog]

Open world + GRRM

 

[MagnesD3]

Somebody tell them.

Elden Ring dev has "no idea why it's selling so well," but won't let sales change how it makes games

FromSoftware hasn't stopped to analyze Elden Ring's huge success

www.gamesradar.com

I can tell you why it was good but why it sold a bajillion copies is odd to me.

 

[Doom85]

Open world

Fixed it for you.

Game of Thrones: Season 8, Episode 6

Synopsis:After much turmoil and bloodshed across the Seven Kingdoms, the battle for the Iron Throne comes to an end, and the kingdom's true fate is revealed.

www.rottentomatoes.com

 

[March Climber]

I can tell you why it was good but why it sold a bajillion copies is odd to me.

This:

Open world + GRRM

+
Good timing. Incredible timing really. Barely any other AAA of it’s caliber in the year itself that was pretty dry already.

This was a lightning in a bottle situation that worked out amazingly for them.

 

[Mr Hyde]

Years of hard work perfecting a brilliant formula, that over time accumulated a great reception and a hardcore fanbase + George RR Martin hot off the heels from GoT, a cultural phenomenon + open world, which is the most successful genre right now in games + incredible world building and aesthetic

 

[nani17]

 

[Punished Miku]

Timing plus review scores plus open world.

 

[ungalo]

Mouth to ear, and the critical reception did its part, the game sits at 97 metacritic. Hard to say who is influencing who in that case but i think a 97 means you're going to sell a shit tons of games, everybody wants to play it and gets caught in the hype (it happened the exact same way for BG3).

Other Souls-game did have a good reception critically but not ahead of other good games.

And yeah the structure of the game also played a part in it.

 

[H From Steps]

Popped off on tik tok which gave it even more exposure which in turn leads to profit unfortunately whatever you think of the app it deff brings more profit in

 

[SantaC]

Dark souls formula in open world. What can go wrong?

 

[Fbh]

If I had to guess it was a mix of open world + GRRM + Incredibly positive reception by both media and most youtubers/influencers.

Either way it's good to hear it won't change the way they make games, I hope that's actually true and not something they are just saying.
While the game selling so well was great, it made me worry there would now be this expectation that every FROM game has to sell 15 million or be seen as a disappointment. You can already see some hint of this with Kadowaka being disappointed by the AC6 sales even though it reportedly sold more than every other entry in the franchise.....combined.

 

[Holammer]

Good developer with an excellent track-record made people excited about it, causing such a positive buzz even friends of mine that never touched a souls-like bought it.
Then there's the fact that they released it on all the systems and thus reducing the barrier to entry, unlike a certain PS4 exclusive which should have pulled in a lot of players with its Lovecraftian themes.

 

[simpatico]

I'm a bit more jaded about GRRM having any effect whatsoever on sales. I'd wager that well under 10%, probably even 5%, of GoT watchers even know it was a book at one point.

 

[lughnasadh123]

It'll be interesting to see what direction they go for their next games and how they sales of it follows up.

 

[Dr.D00p]

Dunno either but I suspect many of its fans are into S&M.

 

[Guilty_AI]

Strong user/fan base built over +10 years.
Wider appeal with open world, dark fantasy, great audio-visual style, etc.
Co-op play.

 

[Ansphn]

Original Souls-like formula + Open world + GRRM = Big hit

 

[Randall365]

Releasing in Feb was surely a big part of it - not competing with games before Christmas.

It was an incredible game and Souls meets open world RPG (which as Assassins Creed shows, has become the most popular single player type game), but I think if it was competing with FIFA, COD, Assassins Creed, etc etc then it would not have done as well.

 

[Buggy Loop]

One of the best realized open world, has the best systems from all their cumulative souls games, amazing bosses, incredible art style..

I still get chills thinking about it and even looking at some screenshots I took, there's no dark fantasy as better realized than this.

They're still puzzled?

 

[Magic Carpet]

Zeitgeist, I bought it mainly to keep up with the Jonses, because everyone everywhere was talking about it at the time.

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

Every Youtuber under the sun hyping it as God’s gift to the gaming humanity may have had an influence, I guess.

 

[Lokaum D+]

Open world + GRRM

GRRM means shit, the game is big cause it is a big open world Fromsoftware game, GRRM is a lazy fuck that dont have the balls to finish his books before selling the rights for money and then go out calling on Tolkien, fuck GRRM.

 

[Saber]

Maybe this is an effect that they still think their souls are kinda of niche and never sold that much.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Not just because it's open world

but because it's emergent open world, like BOTW. Tons of stuff to discover and explore all over the place, rather than checklist open world

 

[MagiusNecros]

Sandbox Souls game.

 

[Deerock71]

Fromsoft now realizing they've been making games too easy lately...

 

[sankt-Antonio]

I never understood it either, great to hear that the makes are equality surprised. XD

 

[Astral Dog]

Every Youtuber under the sun hyping it as God’s gift to the gaming humanity may have had an influence, I guess.

I was going to wait for a sale but a YouTuber i watch called it a gaming masterpiece,everybody was hyping it like it was the best videogame in the world so i bought it day one

I tried,but didn't like the open world design and deleted it it was my fault i wanted to be a part of the launch hype but i don't like fromsoft as much as those fans

 

[semiconscious]

This:

+
Good timing. Incredible timing really. Barely any other AAA of it’s caliber in the year itself that was pretty dry already.

This was a lightning in a bottle situation that worked out amazingly for them.

yep. elden ring is 'the souls game for people who, up till now, have been afraid of souls games'. the open world format made the game less enclosed/intimidating, more approachable, & convinced a number of people to give it a try...

but, yeah, the timing thing cannot be understated (&, to a degree, timing also benefited bloodborne, as well)...

 

[Closer]

Game is good plus social media hyping it up to 11. Guess this is a good formula.

 

[Azelover]

Halo effect. They built a reputation with the Dark Souls games.

Plus the game was fantastic and word spread quickly. Nowadays with Internet, happens fast.

 

[ungalo]

Not just because it's open world

but because it's emergent open world, like BOTW. Tons of stuff to discover and explore all over the place, rather than checklist open world

As i understand the word emergent, Elden Ring is not emergent at all, unlike BoTW.

There is discovery yes, it doesn't come through the mechanics.

 

[Deerock71]

Dunno either but I suspect many of its fans are into S&M.

 

[DenchDeckard]

The sense of surprise and discovery!

Mix that with social media and everything else and you have lightning in a bottle!

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

As i understand the word emergent, Elden Ring is not emergent at all, unlike BoTW.

There is discovery yes, it doesn't come through the mechanics.

Emergent doesnt have anything to do with mechanics. If that were the case, BOTW wouldn't be emergent either. A stamina bar isn't a huge mechanic

 

[Last Hearth]

Somebody tell them.

Elden Ring dev has "no idea why it's selling so well," but won't let sales change how it makes games

FromSoftware hasn't stopped to analyze Elden Ring's huge success

www.gamesradar.com

It shows they didn’t make a game designed around suggestions from the marketing department. They just made the game they wanted to make and hoped it would sell.

 

[Auto_aim1]

Goodwill built over the years by releasing exceptional games.

 

[Pedro Motta]

I love this innocent teenage virgin schoolgirl stepsis side of From Soft.

 

[Vblad88]

"always wanted to try souls, but I heard ER is the only accessible" did wonders.

Too bad game design strip the satisfaction from progress with its "finish dozens of same looking dungeons to level-up so high that you can kill a boss with range thunder magic alone". Got bored of this stuff after 120h of playthrough at Giant Mountaintops when it turned out I was 30 levels below recommended, but I guess it is still a good deal for a Dark Souls newbie...

 

[AngelMuffin]

FightinCowboy

 

[Deerock71]

I'm willing to bet you'll be able to buy a used near-mint condition copy of this game 25 years down the road for five bucks.

 

[F0rneus]

It's your best game, it's not complex

 

[Knightime_X]

I wonder what the ratio to sales and game completion is.

 

[ChoosableOne]

Improved magic and mimic system made it casual friendly.

 

[ikbalCO]

In addition to being one of the best games ever made, it was also the perfect podcast game. And there are just millions of podcasts to listen to these days

 

[FrankWza]

What are the latest sales breakdowns by platform?

 

[Deerock71]

I wonder what the ratio to sales and game completion is.

 

[Mister Wolf]

It was a culmination of all the hype they've been gradually building up each game since Demon Souls.

 

[Flutta]

They made it too easy.