Originally posted by Slythe

Originally posted by CharlieP

What is more disturbing is the Sims2 Ikea furniture popularity.

 

What is even more disturbing than that is, I have more fun modding for the Sims2 than I do modding for Oblivion.

BTW Hoobley I've always wondered  - who is that in your avatar? Looks so familiar but I cant place it.

It used to be the test signal for BBC1 & 2 back in the 1960/70's. When TV wasn't 24/7, they used to broadcast it when there was no programs so the folks new they were still receiving a signal... when I saw it, brought a smile to my face.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Test_Card_F

When I got my copy like 2-3 weeks ago down at 34th street Manhattan New York. There were TONS of boxes left unsold. Anyone familiar with that area I mentioned would probably know how many ppl pass by this place, not exactly a deserted area where no one will go to buy games from >.>

Originally posted by Jackdog

Originally posted by sepher

AoCs been topping the NPD PC charts, and making news akin to beating out GTAIV over in Europe.  So, for whatever that's worth. (i.e. Yes it's selling, spectacularly.)

  for what it is worth I was cruised into Best Buy the other day to buy some blank DvD's and found about the same situation as the OP. Still the game is staying right up there on the Amazon list staying in the top 20. Also retail space is too valuable to waste on products that are not selling. If the game was not moving they would just keep 3 or 4 boxes on the shelf and replace them as they are sold.

What is disturbing though is the game keeps dropping on Xfire which really tells me that although they are selling a lot of copies, people are becoming bored and quitting faster than FC an replace them with new customers. In MMORPGs box sales will never recoup the production costs, it is the long term subscribers where the developers make their money and it does not look like AoCis exactly rolling in those. Still the stock seems to have leveled off at around 38 dollars a share, at least for the moment. In late May it was 55 a share for whatever that  is worth.

The end of 90 days will be when to really judge the overall success or failure. If I want to be a  optimist that  gives FC  time to overcome the launch issues, from a pessimists view that will give the die hard fanbois a slap in the face with the cold wet trout of reality if FC can't breathe some long term content into the game.

Any way it goes whatever shape the games subscription base is in by September will probably be it's fate forever be it a success, mediocre, or down right failure.

Sorry for the rambling post.

Or it could be that demand was initially high, so they got a bunch of boxes, but as word got out they stopped selling and now they are piling up.

You raise a good point though, Jackdog, and I hope your analysis is correct because AOC is gonna need the money it makes to continue fixing the game.

Originally posted by Terranah

Originally posted by Jackdog

Originally posted by sepher

AoCs been topping the NPD PC charts, and making news akin to beating out GTAIV over in Europe.  So, for whatever that's worth. (i.e. Yes it's selling, spectacularly.)

  for what it is worth I was cruised into Best Buy the other day to buy some blank DvD's and found about the same situation as the OP. Still the game is staying right up there on the Amazon list staying in the top 20. Also retail space is too valuable to waste on products that are not selling. If the game was not moving they would just keep 3 or 4 boxes on the shelf and replace them as they are sold.

What is disturbing though is the game keeps dropping on Xfire which really tells me that although they are selling a lot of copies, people are becoming bored and quitting faster than FC an replace them with new customers. In MMORPGs box sales will never recoup the production costs, it is the long term subscribers where the developers make their money and it does not look like AoCis exactly rolling in those. Still the stock seems to have leveled off at around 38 dollars a share, at least for the moment. In late May it was 55 a share for whatever that  is worth.

The end of 90 days will be when to really judge the overall success or failure. If I want to be a  optimist that  gives FC  time to overcome the launch issues, from a pessimists view that will give the die hard fanbois a slap in the face with the cold wet trout of reality if FC can't breathe some long term content into the game.

Any way it goes whatever shape the games subscription base is in by September will probably be it's fate forever be it a success, mediocre, or down right failure.

Sorry for the rambling post.

 

Or it could be that demand was initially high, so they got a bunch of boxes, but as word got out they stopped selling and now they are piling up.

 

You raise a good point though, Jackdog, and I hope your analysis is correct because AOC is gonna need the money it makes to continue fixing the game.

Actually retail space in most stores will be reserved for a set amount of time for a product such as a new game. They will usually keep the same space for 1-2 months before they start sending the merch back and begin reclaiming the space if the product doesnt sell as expected.

Right now at the Best Buys in my area they have already started to place the game on endcaps with other titles such as Shadowrun, Hellgate and various other titles that are not moving as fast.

Usually in NH, specifically southern NH we have to fight to get popular items due to all the shoppers who cross over from Mass to avoid paying sales taxes.

Originally posted by quaiky

allready tested the 4850? how does it do in aoc?

might get myself a 4800 series card too, but not decided yet if ithe 4850 is enough or if i should get a 4870.

 

back to topic aoc sold very good in the first week,  2nd week was high too, but after that it dropped down on nearly all sales charts so while its currently still one of the best selling pc games atm (probably cause there were no big releases in the last weeks) its probably down to less than 100k weekly sales worldwide(maybe even less than 50k).

 

If you can wait and you have a little extra cash I would wait for the 4870.  The ati 4850 is $199 and the 4870 is  gonna be in the $300 to $400 range from what I've read.  My wife and I just bought some beautiful leather couches, so I'm sort of feeling the pinch a little bit.  The $199 pricetag just seemed like a really good value.

I should also add that I did try to go with the Nvidia 8800 gt but they are not compatible with pcie 1.0, where as the 4850 is.  Hopefully the 4870 will also be backward compatible as well. 

The 4850 looks like the equivalent of the 8800 gt, from benchmarks I have seen.  Sadly, my AOC subscription ran out before I could get my new card.  On LOTRO though I was gettng 40 to 50 fps on Ultrahigh settings at 1200 somthing by 1000 something and it was snowing in the zone I was in.  I forget the exact rez.  Every thing was turned to max though, so that was pretty cool.  It's a significant leap above my old 1950 pro card.
 

Deadliest Catch : Alaskan Storm is out selling AoC on EBgames.com.

Not sure what that says about anything..

Originally posted by fyerwall

Originally posted by Terranah

Originally posted by CharlieP

There are always going to be empty shelves some places, there are always going to be full shelves some places.

What is more disturbing is the Sims2 Ikea furniture popularity.

 

My wife has to have every Sims2 expansion.  She really, really loves that game.  And I love that she loves it, because she has a stressful job.  It givers her something to do to relax and unwind from a tough day at work.

 

Does she make Sim versions of her boss/co workers and drop them in a pool without ladders? Or get them in rooms without doors?

I found that to be a good way to relax and unwind after work

LOL.  No, my wife is a very sensitive person.  She could never do anything cruel, even to a video game character.  Mostly what I see her doing is creating houses and decorating them.  She has made some really cool looking houses.

When the game first came out, I made a 'clinic' modelled after an actual place I worked.  I was the doctor and the nurses I made to look like various girlfriends I had before meeting my wife.  Shhhhhhh.  Anyway, my office had a bed and jacuzi ofcourse......OFCOURSE.  LOL.  I was having a lot of fun till one of the patients accidentally caused a fire.  There were some deaths.  It was very tragic.

I made another one where my wife and I had this awesome house I built with a kick azz backyard and pool.  We had kids and it was fun to watch them run around and play in the pool.  Sometimes they would bring their little friends home from school. 

For some reason I got bored with Sims2 though.  Maybe lack of multiplayer.  I always get bored after awhile, no matter how awesome the game.

Originally posted by Gameloading

The game is out for over a month, do you really expect it to remain sold out forever?

The game has shipped 1 million copies and last I hear 400k accounts activated, so it's clearly doing quite well in terms of box sales.

I agree.  The game has sold very well this month.

On that 4850 'conversation' the 4870 will cost $270. And will be a bit weaker than that new nvidia card (270GTX or something like that), but for about 1/3 of the price. And about the 4850 itself, it beats any normal 8800 GT, could easily compare to an overclocked 8800 GT. And beats the 9800 GTX in a lot of ways, and vice versa though. It's a very good card, finally... after ATI has been creating junk for a year.

Originally posted by CujoSWAoA

Just find any old reason to "Hate this game"

Christ, move on, find something more interesting to occupy your mind with! Its just, sad........ really really sad.

I don't hate the game.  I think it has tremendous potential.  Sadly, I think that potential is being lost in the rush to bring untested patches to live so quickly.  I can understand why they are doing this though.  It's a lose lose proposition for them and I am sympathetic to their predicament. 

And you are right, I really need to find something else to occupy my mind.  I was over at Gamespot the other day and out of the 38 game reviews for pc games, 4 were 9/10 or higher.  I own Mass Effect already so that leaves three.  Two were real time strategy which I don't like the genre.  The other one was Portal, which is fps, and playing fps makes my hands hurt. 

I think not just the mmo genre but pc gaming in general right now is kind of sucking, atleast for me and the type of games I like.  There are some awesome games coming out 4th quarter though, so hopefully things start looking up for me gaming wise.  In the meantime, here I am talking to you.  LOL.

Originally posted by erandur

On that 4850 'conversation' the 4870 will cost $270. And will be a bit weaker than that new nvidia card (270GTX or something like that), but for about 1/3 of the price. And about the 4850 itself, it beats any normal 8800 GT, could easily compare to an overclocked 8800 GT. And beats the 9800 GTX in a lot of ways, and vice versa though. It's a very good card, finally... after ATI has been creating junk for a year.

Thanks, that is good to hear.  The 4870 would also be a good value at $270 I think.  Maybe sometime in the future I will build my first comptuer and crossfire my new card with a 4870.  I read somewhere that is possible.

Originally posted by Terranah

Originally posted by Jackdog

Originally posted by sepher

AoCs been topping the NPD PC charts, and making news akin to beating out GTAIV over in Europe.  So, for whatever that's worth. (i.e. Yes it's selling, spectacularly.)

  for what it is worth I was cruised into Best Buy the other day to buy some blank DvD's and found about the same situation as the OP. Still the game is staying right up there on the Amazon list staying in the top 20. Also retail space is too valuable to waste on products that are not selling. If the game was not moving they would just keep 3 or 4 boxes on the shelf and replace them as they are sold.

What is disturbing though is the game keeps dropping on Xfire which really tells me that although they are selling a lot of copies, people are becoming bored and quitting faster than FC an replace them with new customers. In MMORPGs box sales will never recoup the production costs, it is the long term subscribers where the developers make their money and it does not look like AoCis exactly rolling in those. Still the stock seems to have leveled off at around 38 dollars a share, at least for the moment. In late May it was 55 a share for whatever that  is worth.

The end of 90 days will be when to really judge the overall success or failure. If I want to be a  optimist that  gives FC  time to overcome the launch issues, from a pessimists view that will give the die hard fanbois a slap in the face with the cold wet trout of reality if FC can't breathe some long term content into the game.

Any way it goes whatever shape the games subscription base is in by September will probably be it's fate forever be it a success, mediocre, or down right failure.

Sorry for the rambling post.

 

Or it could be that demand was initially high, so they got a bunch of boxes, but as word got out they stopped selling and now they are piling up.

 

You raise a good point though, Jackdog, and I hope your analysis is correct because AOC is gonna need the money it makes to continue fixing the game.

That crossed my mind also. I have never worked in any type of retail so I wouldn't even hazard a guess there. My In laws were in the grocery business though before they retired and I heard them talk about not wasting shelf space, which is why I made that comment.

I really think the game is still selling well, just people are quitting faster than FC foresaw and that has them worried.

Originally posted by Jackdog

What is disturbing though is the game keeps dropping on Xfire which really tells me that although they are selling a lot of copies, people are becoming bored and quitting faster than FC an replace them with new customers.

I wouldn't assume that because Xfire numbers are dropping that their subs are dropping.  The average person will play a game more after it's first released and then settle into X number of hours per week.  Now, having said that, I would say that if the posts on this forum are any indication, then it's a combination of players leaving AND players just reducing the number of hours they play per day.

Originally posted by mbd1968

Originally posted by Slythe

Originally posted by CharlieP

What is more disturbing is the Sims2 Ikea furniture popularity.

 

What is even more disturbing than that is, I have more fun modding for the Sims2 than I do modding for Oblivion.

BTW Hoobley I've always wondered  - who is that in your avatar? Looks so familiar but I cant place it.

 

It used to be the test signal for BBC1 & 2 back in the 1960/70's. When TV wasn't 24/7, they used to broadcast it when there was no programs so the folks new they were still receiving a signal... when I saw it, brought a smile to my face.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Test_Card_F

Oh yea that's right, I have seen that somewhere before. Thanks for the info!

Originally posted by Jackdog

Originally posted by sepher

AoCs been topping the NPD PC charts, and making news akin to beating out GTAIV over in Europe.  So, for whatever that's worth. (i.e. Yes it's selling, spectacularly.)

  What is disturbing though is the game keeps dropping on Xfire which really tells me that although they are selling a lot of copies, people are becoming bored and quitting faster than FC an replace them with new customers. In MMORPGs box sales will never recoup the production costs, it is the long term subscribers where the developers make their money and it does not look like AoCis exactly rolling in those.

The end of 90 days will be when to really judge the overall success or failure.

Sorry for the rambling post.

Seriously, does anyone use xFire?  I thought it was more of a "fps" kinda of thing or for "kids". 

Claiming a game does not have long term subscribers barely after a month makes absolutely no sense. 

The only valid statement in the quote is the "what if" after 90 days.  That, I absolutely agree with, but everything else is bad speculation. 

Originally posted by Terranah

Maybe there are so many boxes because there has been high demand, and then the demand waned a bit and now you have a lot of boxes laying around.  I don't know.  I didn't think it was a good sign.

I went to the super market today  and the bread aisle was full of bread.  Maybe there are so many loaves of bread because there has been a high demand, and then the demand waned a bit and now you have an aisle full of bread.  I don't know.  I didn't think it was a good sign.

Seriously, AoC is the top selling PC game in the United States and is also the top over all selling software in the United States and has been since the US launch. 

The NPD Weekly report is a far more accurate indicator on how a game is selling in the United States than looking at what products are or aren't on the shelves of Best Buy.

-Fuhyo

Originally posted by Fuhyo

Originally posted by Terranah

Maybe there are so many boxes because there has been high demand, and then the demand waned a bit and now you have a lot of boxes laying around.  I don't know.  I didn't think it was a good sign.

 

I went to the super market today  and the bread aisle was full of bread.  Maybe there are so many loaves of bread because there has been a high demand, and then the demand waned a bit and now you have an aisle full of bread.  I don't know.  I didn't think it was a good sign.

Seriously, AoC is the top selling PC game in the United States and is also the top over all selling software in the United States and has been since the US launch. 

The NPD Weekly report is a far more accurate indicator on how a game is selling in the United States than looking at what products are or aren't on the shelves of Best Buy.

-Fuhyo

Its not hard at all to be the top selling piece of software in the US at the moment seeing as there really is nothing new on that list that is a PC exclusive item.
 

They could be selling 3 copies a week and still be #1 on that list seeing as everything else on the list is either old or already sold on another system several months ago.

Originally posted by TookyG

Originally posted by Jackdog

What is disturbing though is the game keeps dropping on Xfire which really tells me that although they are selling a lot of copies, people are becoming bored and quitting faster than FC an replace them with new customers.

 

I wouldn't assume that because Xfire numbers are dropping that their subs are dropping.  The average person will play a game more after it's first released and then settle into X number of hours per week.  Now, having said that, I would say that if the posts on this forum are any indication, then it's a combination of players leaving AND players just reducing the number of hours they play per day.

check out the curves and where the drops are at. You can spot the release frenzy and it's drop. Since then each week compared to a week prior it drops. Considering the game is still in the top 10 or 20 at Amazon each day I know darn well it is selling and the people who bought today will be in newbie mode just as much as the people who bought it release week. They are just losing players faster than they are selling new boxes.  Wait till this time next month, it will be less than half what it is today , want to make a bet?

The game itself is selling. It is the subscription renewals that are not happening.

What I'm interested in seeing is data on preorders for WAR or any other upcoming MMO, a comparison of forum activity (number of unique users per game site vs. number of posts vs. number of topics in the forums), and possibly, though later, a graph showing number of unique subscribers (ignoring multiple accounts in a person's name) over time.

Such data would give you a much better idea of both the hype factor surrounding a game, the actual player base a game is drawing in, and how long that game is going to last. However, this particular game (AOC) has been out for just over a month as of now, so its hard to tell.

What I CAN say, and its not a quantitative piece of data at all, is that my experience with FunCom's customer service and their numerous patches since launch has led me to conclude that if they continue with their current trend, this game will effectively die after 6 months. Its too buggy, the moderators on their forums are hostile at times and very defensive (not at all like other games <cough>WOW<cough>), the combat system, while different and engaging, is not "revolutionary," and there are just too many other mainstream online games out there right now, competing for the same market. Which means that unless FunCom ups its game, dusts off some shiny new content and polishes the shite out of its existing product (fixes lag, siege bugs, clipping issues, etc.), then the market they are trying to woo are going to just play F2P MMOs like Rappelz (shudder) until they can get their hands on WAR or Aion.

Maybe this has been said, maybe not, but its what I see from the catbird's seat. And frankly, its just too early to tell what FunCom has up its corporate sleeve.