HL2.. A commercial failure?

J

JudgeWorm

Guest
Agree or disagree?

Lets just say, for the production costs for $40 million +++, the sales figures Valve is looking at arn't too tempting.
 
I've heard they weren't excellent. But I don't see how such a multi-award winning game could be too much of a failure. If you ask me Steam doesn't help its sales.
 
Because of the people who cant tolerate Steam and the expensive nature of PC Games compared to their Xbox cousin, possibly?
 
I don't think its anything to worry about. Valve would have had a break-even with HL2 for sure.
 
Hasn't HL2 sold about 2 million copies in stores alone? Plus the Steam sales?

Sure they spent $40 mil on the game, but they have already doubled their money. While that isn't HALO2 money, it isn't terrible either. I don't think you can be a commercial failure when you are still at the worst doubling your money on a product. They just aren't at the same level of sucess as HALO2 or GTA:SA.
 
Yeah, Last I heard I think it was something like 2.7 million retail copies. Which roughly goes to about $200 mil with the SE. Since Valve doesn't get all that money, lets equate Steam: Lets say they only sold 100,000 copies. Just on the Silver edition it'd be about $55 Mil. I think they've done fine for the last couple of months.
 
I think alot of people dont buy it because they dont have a good enough computer. :(
:cheers:
 
40 million is more than is spent on the typical film. Constantine cost 40 million.

I doubt Valve is in any trouble. 2.7 million isnt a commercial failure - it just means its not a break out hit. Still doing fine, though.

Your typical game sells within the margin of a couple hundred thousand to a million anyway. HL2 is high production.. But trust me, its not -that- high.
 
If as many people had good gaming PCs as PS2s or X-boxes, there would be riots over getting HL2.
 
CREMATOR666 said:
and the expensive nature of PC Games compared to their Xbox cousin, possibly?
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Can't speak for where you're from, but the UK the opposite is true, even before you shop around (the difference between spending £30/£18 for a PC game or £40/£30 for a Console game).

In fact, it's the basic buisness model in the games market that Console software is more expensive than PC software, because developers have to pay license fees to sell the game for a console. The Console hardware is made at a loss so the Software is more expensive - with the PC, no one has to cover hardware losses so the RRPs can be lower.

Of course, the Hardware for a PC costs more in the long run, and that may have been what you meant...

HL2 = a commercial success. I'm pretty sure they've already more than tripled their development costs (until that's knocked down and the publisher takes their share), and Half-Life 2 is a game that'll sell - just like its prequel - for another five years. All those people who can't run HL2 because of old Hardware? A lot of them will be able to play one day. Those who simply aren't tempted? Mods will eventually draw many in. Those who simply don't know what Half-Life or HL2 is? Many of them will catch on eventually, from hearsay and what have you.

And as a final testament to HL2's success - a friend was telling me that my old Physics teacher has a copy. Hoorah!
 
Like cremator said, unlike the bigger sellers of this year, HL2 will continue to make money for the next 5-6 years thanks to CS, DOD:S and hopefully TF2; as well as the continued support for mods and expansion pack (hopefully free for the most part).

Also dont forget that Valve will now make alot more money from internet Cafes, Lan party events and the like.

For those who dont like steam, you are going to have a hard time in the future as it seems many, many more developers will be following Valve's example and delivering more content via online sources.
 
Not to mention licencing the source engine to folks like the Vamp: Mask: Blood crew.
 
Mechagodzilla said:
Not to mention licencing the source engine to folks like the Vamp: Mask: Blood crew.
Click to expand...

I doubt that will make much money. Lets say the licensing price is around that of the Unreal engine, so about $300.000. That's almost nothing compared to gamesales. Unless they are getting royalties from licensed games it isn't big business.

OT: Doug said the sales were excellent and exceeded expectations, and without shareholders they have no reason to lie about that.
Two million for a PC game is a LOT, it's nothing compared to console games, but for PC standards it's high. Certainly if you consider the amount of marketing it's getting. Not to mention this probably doesn't incorporate Steam sales.

A lot of people I know bought it, even the ones that normally warez everything.
 
Vivendi announced a month or two ago that HL2 sold 1.7 million copies worldwide since it was released in November, which is an amazing achievement for any PC game. HL2 is far from a commercial failure.
 
some guy wanted hl2 to be a failure.

he was afraid that people would start playing cs:s and he would be left alone at cs
 
Yeah, Last I heard I think it was something like 2.7 million retail copies.
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That is massive, massive sales for a PC game. Harldy any PS2 games sell that much even

HL2 is one of the most succesful selling PC games of all time.

Thread irrelevant.
 
As someone said, I think it'll just do what HL1 did and sell through out the years..
 
when will people understand this. seems like only yesterday i was explaining it....

console games = high initial sales, low sales thereafter
pc games like hl2 = high continuous sales for many years as people upgrade etc.
 
The game has already taken about $100,000,000 in revenue. They'll already be close to getting their money back. If you're wondering how I got that figure then take ~2,000,000 copies sold and multiply it by $50.

Not to mention they're now gonna get more people interested in Half-Life 2 via DOD:Source, they've got TF2 coming up which is based on the same engine, they now have an engine that they can continually update for future sequels, they have expansion packs planned, an engine they can and already have licenced to other developers and also their own Steam system which generates revenue too.

They're nicely on their way to being a big commercial success. Again :E
 
Chris_D said:
If you're wondering how I got that figure then take ~2,000,000 copies sold and multiply it by $50.
Click to expand...
Remember that Retail and Publishing take a sizeable cut of that $50. In reality, a lot less than that has been recuperated by Valve themselves. I still suspect they've broken even though.
 
Uhm, proof? I read that Valve released a figure of 1.7 million, NOT 2.7 million. They did not state whether this was with Steam sales or not, and when asked about it they would not comment. Um hello: This pretty much 99% means that this is WITH Steam sales and that they are NOT happy on the sales.

It was in the top selling pc game only twice: The month when it came out (November.) Then it was second to World of Warcraft, then it sold more than WoW, and finally it was defeated by KoToR II, to take 3rd place behind WoW again. Soon when this WoW business dies down, HL2 will probably fall behind Sims 2.

I went into Best Buy the other day and they have probably 100 or so coppies neatly stacked on once shelf because they thought it would be big, but only a few of them have spaces in between them.

HL2 selling over the years like HL1 = not going to happen. HL1 came out with just the single player and then people bought it. Then mods started coming out but no one really cared until Team Fortress. Then after CS came out the sales jumped by alot, until so many people liked it Valve was forced to fix up the netcode, and they released CS as a retail product.

HL2 on the other hand was released with everything. I don't think anyone who doesn't have HL2 will be thinking "Hey look at this 3rd party mod that HL2 came out with, I guess it's time to go get it now even though I didn't want it when it came out!"

Look at the Steam stats. There are roughly 5 times more CS 1.6 players than CS most of the times of the day.

The main problem is, HL1 was something that no one knew about and then eventually it gained alot of popularity. HL2, EVERYONE knew about, and frankly, alot of people didn't care.
 
1.7 million within what, 4 months? I wouldn't call that failure when HL2 is going to remain marketable for at least another 2 years. And we're not even taking into account sales through Steam here.
 
JudgeWorm said:
Uhm, proof? I read that Valve released a figure of 1.7 million, NOT 2.7 million. They did not state whether this was with Steam sales or not, and when asked about it they would not comment. Um hello: This pretty much 99% means that this is WITH Steam sales and that they are NOT happy on the sales.

It was in the top selling pc game only twice: The month when it came out (November.) Then it was second to World of Warcraft, then it sold more than WoW, and finally it was defeated by KoToR II, to take 3rd place behind WoW again. Soon when this WoW business dies down, HL2 will probably fall behind Sims 2.

I went into Best Buy the other day and they have probably 100 or so coppies neatly stacked on once shelf because they thought it would be big, but only a few of them have spaces in between them.

HL2 selling over the years like HL1 = not going to happen. HL1 came out with just the single player and then people bought it. Then mods started coming out but no one really cared until Team Fortress. Then after CS came out the sales jumped by alot, until so many people liked it Valve was forced to fix up the netcode, and they released CS as a retail product.

HL2 on the other hand was released with everything. I don't think anyone who doesn't have HL2 will be thinking "Hey look at this 3rd party mod that HL2 came out with, I guess it's time to go get it now even though I didn't want it when it came out!"

Look at the Steam stats. There are roughly 5 times more CS 1.6 players than CS most of the times of the day.

The main problem is, HL1 was something that no one knew about and then eventually it gained alot of popularity. HL2, EVERYONE knew about, and frankly, alot of people didn't care.
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No.

1.7 million did not include Steam sales.
My Best Buy is continually sold out.
You don't know a CS caliber mod isn't going to come out - no one expected it for HL1, either.
Everyone that cared about PC Games cared about HL2. There are many people at my school that want it badly, but don't have enough money.
 
JudgeWorm said:
HL2 on the other hand was released with everything. I don't think anyone who doesn't have HL2 will be thinking "Hey look at this 3rd party mod that HL2 came out with, I guess it's time to go get it now even though I didn't want it when it came out!"
Click to expand...
HL2 released with the Single Player and CS: Source. By no stretch of the imagination is this "everything". As for the last statement in there - you know fully well that is exactly the reason why people got the original HL - to play CS. Why are you so sure that this could never happen again? All it takes is another CS...
 
CS was a one in a million chance. There are hundreds of games out there. Why didn't Quake 3 get a killer mod that made people want to buy it? CS was lucky. Another killer mod for HL2 ain't going to happen.

HL2 released everything to try to make the game sell. To appeal to the Single Player players and the CS players. They should have just released it with HL DM and said that CS:S will be released a year later and it would have sold later on. Release a "HL2 Game of the Year" edition that comes with CS:S and you could double your sales. You could also release CS:S as a standalone product.

And alot of people here are talking out of their ass. Until I see some proof on HL2 selling 3 million I'm going to disregard that statement as malarchy.

Oh and, Gabe predicted in an interview that they would sell 7 million in the first year.
 
JudgeWorm said:
CS was a one in a million chance. There are hundreds of games out there. Why didn't Quake 3 get a killer mod that made people want to buy it? CS was lucky. Another killer mod for HL2 ain't going to happen.

HL2 released everything to try to make the game sell. To appeal to the Single Player players and the CS players. They should have just released it with HL DM and said that CS:S will be released a year later and it would have sold later on. Release a "HL2 Game of the Year" edition that comes with CS:S and you could double your sales. You could also release CS:S as a standalone product.

And alot of people here are talking out of their ass. Until I see some proof on HL2 selling 3 million I'm going to disregard that statement as malarchy.

Oh and, Gabe predicted in an interview that they would sell 7 million in the first year.
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Wow, you're incredibly negative! We're hardly 6 months since release and you're already saying this stuff? How do you know what's gonna happen in the future? You cannot damn something for no apparent reason. CS took years to get to the level of players it has got now, CS:S has had about 6 months ....

I'd also like to point out the sales figure came out a few months ago, and did not include Steam sales, something which you are intent on ignoring.

Saying "And alot of people here are talking out of their ass" really helps your arguement too ...

Actually, I find your arguement that they should have released CS:S later rather humourous. It's the sign of someone who really doesn't know the halflife2.net community ...
 
Another killer mod for HL2 ain't going to happen.
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You'll be eating your words in a month or two when (hopefully) the Dystopia dev team releases the demo. That mod is going to r0x0rz my s0x0rz.

Heck, even Valve recognized how much potential this mod has. They flew them up from Australia to the Valve headquarters! It's not even released yet, and there are already a few people who have bought HL2 just so they can play this mod.
 
Forgive my rudeness, but you still forget to include proof of your sales figures. You see, when people just blurt out random numbers and say they are real, they are indeed "talking out of their ass".

And I'm sorry that I am negative, but I'm sad that this game is overlooked and sells so poorly when I thought it was going to save PC gaming.
 
Well let's see shall we:

Sales figures from about 1 1/2 months ago: 1.7 million. Retail only. This is a HUGE number for a game to sell in just over 2 months. Just search "half life 2 sales figures" in google.
[Who cares what Halo 2 sold, we are not comparing the two, nor should we]

Secondly, this does not include the Steam sales, sales which were CERTAINLY a few hundred thousand at least (you can tell this by the bandwidth used up by pre-downloaders). All the money from steam sales went straight to VALVe, so they only had to sell few thousand to break even on these alone.

Basically, it is DEFINATELY a commercial success. It is not something you can disagree on ... if you do, u should read up more about the PC games business. A huge proportion of games do not even break even, for example.
 
JudgeWorm said:
CS was a one in a million chance. There are hundreds of games out there. Why didn't Quake 3 get a killer mod that made people want to buy it? CS was lucky. Another killer mod for HL2 ain't going to happen.
Click to expand...
Oh, there are some very nice mods in development right now. But what differentiates HL2 from Quake 3 or UT2004 is that the modding community is larger than those two titles combined. Out of all the millions of ideas being put on the table you just need one to stick.

HL2 released everything to try to make the game sell. To appeal to the Single Player players and the CS players. They should have just released it with HL DM and said that CS:S will be released a year later and it would have sold later on. Release a "HL2 Game of the Year" edition that comes with CS:S and you could double your sales. You could also release CS:S as a standalone product.
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If they did that they would have just shot themselves in the foot. Yeah, lets stop our entire multiplayer fanbase from migrating to the new engine :rolleyes: I'm sure that would have done wonders for the mod community.

You're of course forgetting that there is masses of content Valve have yet to put out. Dod:Source, TFC:Source, CS:CZ : Source, Ricochet: Source, DM Classic: Source. And that's not including the single player expansions, or any mods.
 
kupoartist said:
Remember that Retail and Publishing take a sizeable cut of that $50. In reality, a lot less than that has been recuperated by Valve themselves. I still suspect they've broken even though.
Click to expand...
I never stated how much Valve or Vivendi got out of that $100,000,000. I was just stating that that's how much revenue the game has generated.
 
JudgeWorm said:
Uhm, proof? I read that Valve released a figure of 1.7 million, NOT 2.7 million. They did not state whether this was with Steam sales or not, and when asked about it they would not comment. Um hello: This pretty much 99% means that this is WITH Steam sales and that they are NOT happy on the sales.
Click to expand...

how about you get your facts right mr <20 posts, 4 wl troll. Valve have not released any sales figures at all. Vivendi are the ones who released the 1.7 million figure. consider that vivendi only deals with the retail sales of hl2, might give you a much needed clue that they do not include steam sales.
 
First of all, the 1.7 million does NOT incorporate Steam sales. It's a number released by VUG, they don't have the Steam figures.
Second, the 1.7 million was only released 2 months after release, we're now +6 months.

Third, there are not 5 times more CS players than CSS. Only about two times more, which is a great achievement if you consider that CZ sold about 1 million times and has only 1/4 of the players of CSS (of which 50% through Steam I believe).
 
maybe if valve would bother making a huge action figure (like the master chief one at EB) of gordon with a gravity gun holding a toy headcrab using the same technology as these little earth globes that spin in the air with a magnet, sales would do better. but no.
 
All sales through steam go directly to valve... They have my 90 bucks :D
 
And I hope you have taken into account the range of Lambda totebags and coffee mugs in your calculations.....
 
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