Blog: "One Month after Amnesia's release"

[Thomas]

We summarize and discuss a month of sales for Amnesia.

http://frictionalgames.blogspot.com/2010...lease.html

[hollowleviathan]

You hope for 70/day, I'm spending my next shooting star on 150/day. I knew the Zero Punctuation was good for a sales spike, and a year down the line, HIB2. I saw Wolfire at PAX, they seemed quite optimistic about a second one.

There's not much to say to pirates at this point. It's good for word of mouth, but if they pirate Amnesia or Penumbra, they can't use the 'no replayability' card when they realize they want to try the your other title.

I mean, you could release a fun/challenging map-pack like Requiem basically was to boost post-sales value, but that's time almost definitely better spent on HPL3/next title.

I don't know how useful this idea is, but from the perspective of NIN's recent decision to go 'DRM-free', Trent boosted sales via collectibles and limited edition, non-digital items, things you can't pirate. Artbooks, Nicely done-up box for collectors, signatures, marked up for profit, with the understanding that it's a means for well-off/rabid fans to contribute more.

[Crypt]

good to hear that sales are going better then expected!

[Sexbad]

This is great news, and I think I can attest to Zero Punctuation and Gamespot reviews helping out your cause. Just on September 30th, the day Gamespot made their Amnesia review, the views on my YouTube review began to climb rapidly. Up until then, I gained 350 views slowly, but such a highly reputable site releasing a positive review and subsequently a lot of people checking out the opinions of others shows that publicity is growing.

That was not an ad for my reviews. The link in my signature is.

So how many hookers can you fellows afford now?

[superluser]

I mentioned this before, but have you considered doing some some sort of bonds for your next release? For example, if the release will be going for $20 again, instead of having (or another option in addition to) an $18 preorder, have a $20 bond that you can buy with a return of something like a penny for every 200 copies sold within the first month. You get more money up front that way, and (assuming similar sales to Amnesia and limiting bond sales to 15000), you'd get about two dollars back, which would be the same as the preorder price. Then, you could turn around and buy the release at full retail, and either take the two dollars, or use that as part of an investment in the next game.

[Bek]

(10-08-2010 09:59 AM)hollowleviathan Wrote:  boosted sales via collectibles and limited edition, non-digital items, things you can't pirate. Artbooks, Nicely done-up box for collectors, signatures, marked up for profit, with the understanding that it's a means for well-off/rabid fans to contribute more.

Depends if it's worth making artbooks / figures / posters etc. Not everyone would buy them. Collector edition for next game is a good idea, maybe a steam digital deluxe edition too?

I'd love to see penumbra/amnesia merchandise but I doubt it will happen.

[Doomshot]

"Frictional Games will live to create another game!"
I actually shouted "FUCK YES!" out loud.

[hollowleviathan]

(10-09-2010 05:46 AM)Bek Wrote:  Depends if it's worth making artbooks / figures / posters etc. Not everyone would buy them. Collector edition for next game is a good idea, maybe a steam digital deluxe edition too?

I'd love to see penumbra/amnesia merchandise but I doubt it will happen.

That's the point of those sorts of merch, to make it a pricepoint that ensures they're profitable, usually by making it a limited run. If you are only making 300 or so, than you can assume they'll all sell, and know how much profit you'll make.

[Tanshaydar]

A Steam "Weekend Deal" may boost up sales again.

[Adventurer4Life]

http://frictionalgames.blogspot.com/2010...lease.html

Very interesting....

I think one thing that wasn't mentioned in this post was that pre-orders "in a way" received 2 copies. We all got a direct download and a Steam key, and that isn't including the multi-platform download links from the shelf. I wouldn't be surprised if people got the game, used a steam key, then word of mouthed it to a mate.. BUT SENT THEM THE OTHER "OFFICIAL" DOWNLOAD LINK, AS IT "FELT" LIKE WE BOUGHT 2 COPIES, NOT ONE. This could also have effected world of mouth sales, witch I assume would account for a lot of sales.

Also the stuff about reviews not affecting... I find this very surprising... It might be worth looking at how the reviews were featured... places like gamespot, ign gametrailers and other big game commentary sites are so huge that, like many massive sites, only the stuff that gets a "feture" link on the homepage gets a lot of traffic from people that have never heard of it. Otherwise most people reading the reviews are people that have googled FOR the review. Maybe this could have something to do with it.

Quote:Having met and exceeded that goal already feels quite nice. Frictional Games will live to create another game!

This is what I wanted to read. I am also sure that almost everyone that is on this forum would pre-order in a nano-second for that influx of funds mid dev cycle.

<-- EDIT

Also... that stuff about re-playability.... I am not sure i agree with that for this type of game.. though in a way yes... Amnesia and other high story driven games (like say classic adventure games) have near zero reply value... BUT if teh game is good, then people will replay it ages latter. Like hardly anyone will play bioshock 1 again now, though just like adventuer games still selling on gog and steam from 20 years ago, Amnesia imo will have players still playing and buying years and years from now. While this might be 2 slow for sales for frictional to be thinking of there next tittle... I do think that they will see a continual leaking of funds for evermore.

Look at TellTale games.. you can argue even more about the lack of repaly value of sam and max... yet they are still selling those titles... thre more titels they get out the more these gradual sales add up... . . . if friction can still produce good games and ge ta decent catalogue out.. preferably with some variarty in game type.. I would like to belive that this prediction of "replayability" is a little underestimated.