Hard Light Productions Forums
General FreeSpace => FreeSpace Discussion => Topic started by: Alcom Isst on September 22, 2014, 05:54:31 am
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I'm writing a college paper on FreeSpace and how it inspired my entrance into game design. So far I have gathered all of the sources and information I need, except for one thing. I do not have a source on how well Descent: FreeSpace sold. I have a source (http://hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/Freespace_2_Sales_Numbers) on FreeSpace 2 sales, but I have nothing I can cite on FreeSpace sales.
So, what information currently exists regarding how well or how many copies Descent: FreeSpace sold? I need something that I can cite.
Edit: Ahh, nevermind. Silly detail was hiding in the Wiki Interplay page (http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/Interplay).
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It makes me wondering how many people would be around here today if both parts of Freespace were marketed properly. More interesting for me is how many people around here, who bought one of this boxed editions are still active veteran players/modders.
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It makes me wondering how many people would be around here today if both parts of Freespace were marketed properly. More interesting for me is how many people around here, who bought one of this boxed editions are still active veteran players/modders.
I still have my original disks that I bought in 1999, and used them to install recently. I have the printed FS2 manual, too, but unfortunately I trashed the box 15 years ago.
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I've still got all three boxes. (Silent threat) it's running alright.
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I have a source (http://hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/Freespace_2_Sales_Numbers) on FreeSpace 2 sales, but I have nothing I can cite on FreeSpace sales.
Nice article, this is the first time I read it. In my opinion, though, it makes a a number of wrong assumptions.
I was looking through my latest issue of PC Gamer and I noticed that they had the sales numbers from all of the games that won editors choice in 1999. Now here is some data that I gathered: Freespace 2 has sold 26,983 copies earning Volition and Interplay $1,349,150 (box price estimated at $50), Descent 3 did about double that with 52,294 making Outrage and Interplay about $2,614,700 (also at a $50 estimated box price). I think these sales numbers could have been much better for FS2 if Interplay would have actually marketed the game which they OBVIOUSLY didn't.
Now here's the thing that bugs me the most, games that were marketed very well, but aren't that good. Two games that I own myself (due to free copies, trust me, I wouldn't buy them myself) are: Who Wants to be a Millionare and C&C2: Tiberian Sun! Both those games were marketed awesome, but were really poor games. I mean, C&C2 was nothing new from Red Alert and Who Wants to be a Millionare could not have had anything over 100 questions in the game. I remember playing through it three times and on the fourth game I had the same loop of questions again.
Now, I would like to put in comparison of what Freespace 2 could have done with satisfactory marketing and hype. I am going to compare it to Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings. In PC Gamer the game was reviewed in the same month as FS2 was, beating FS2 by 1% (FS2 got a 93%, Age got 94%). If you take Age of Kings' sales numbers (469,376 copies sold, earning: $23,468,800) and account that 1% of game differential in there, FS2 could have earned about $23,234,112. Yeah.. that's what I thought too. I mean, look at those numbers.. it's a twenty two million dollar price differential due to bad marketing. All I have to say now is: thanks for your time.
As far as I know, the space sim genre was already dying back in 1999-2000, so even with a good ads campaign I hard believe the sales numbers would have been that high. Who Wants to be a Millionaire was aimed at a much bigger audience, and Command and Conquer had (and probably still has) a strong fanbase which would buy any additional game of the series even if it was 100% crap. The comparison with AoE is out of place, too, as it's entirely based on game ranking.
No doubt, however, that bad advertising is the primary reason why we don't have a FS3.