http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/08/28/the-secret-world-sales-at-200-000-funcom-focused-on-the-future/#comments

Sorry to hear this from Funcom. While i sucks, it's honestly not that suprising, IMO. I think the game honestly had little to no advertising. Yes, it's a niche game, but even among the mmo community, it seems to have been lost in the middle of the SWTOR, TERA, GW2 hype. While i knew it was less than 500k, i was assuming at least more than 300000.

While there are many things i don't like about the game in beta and was not fully impressed, i do give give congratulations to FC for the game's innovation and cool ideas, specially those Investigation missions.

But this is quite bad. If the production cost of the game is 50 million (if i remember correctly from a translate site, but not 100% sure), they'd have to sell a LTS to all those 200k to match the numbe rin the first month.

And for a AAA big budget mmo to have less than 200k is probably not good. I've always expect F2P in 1 year, not because the game is bad, but because that's when the LTS runs out. At this point, it might be alot sooner. On the other hand, if they do this, they can't make money from teh boxes, which is quite alot. Not good at all.

Originally posted by Vened
200k of good pepole are much better than 1milion of subjects.

Yea but 1million "subjects" (Assuming you mean trolls and etc) bring in more cash for them to survive

Originally posted by jpnole
That sucks. GW2 had twice as many people playing concurrently in head start than TSW sold in boxes. Sad indeed.

Disgusted by: Diablo 3

LOL awesome sig

I'm not convinced more advertising would help.

Gamers generally knew about The Secret World for awhile .. but youtube videos were critisizing it pretty good (like the outdated combat system).  Some big news sites were reviewing it saying pretty much the same thing, but promoting it's story and sense of depth via something other than fantasy or sci-fi.

This game is also affiliated with Electronic Arts, which received 2 million middle fingers when people quit SWTOR just months before this games released.  And they gobbled up Bioware and ruined yet another once-great company.

These factors affected me, but I'll also throw in that I think the MMO industry is just vomitting out too many low quality games and expecting full price.  The game might have been really good, but I didn't want to waste 60 bucks + sub fee to find out if I will like it or not..... (free trial?).

Originally posted by jpnole
That sucks. GW2 had twice as many people playing concurrently in head start than TSW sold in boxes. Sad indeed.

just curious..why do you feel the need to bring gw2 into TSW post...i find this rather sad..each game is different and each game has its own admirers  /sigh.

Originally posted by Zeus.CM
I blame the business model. 2012 is not a year for P2P games.

This really does have alot to do with it.

So many AAA titles went free, paying a sub is for old school MMO players and those are all spoken for.

Man that is lower than I expected. 

IMO, this is a better game than Age of Conan at release I hope it sells more than AOC.

Originally posted by MMOwanderer

, IMO. I think the game honestly had little to no advertising. Yes, it's a niche game, but even among the mmo community, it seems to have been lost in the middle of the SWTOR, TERA, GW2 hype. While i knew it was less than 500k, i was assuming at least more than 300000.

 

They're trying at least,...

they had three model reps decked out in pretty nice Faction Uniforms at PAx PRime last weekend, but no booth sadly,..

GameSpot interviews TSW models.....

Gamespot oggling over the Female Templar Model :p

not to mention nice swag

It's got a nice modest following right now,..and hopefully it grows,...

What AAA MMOs do we still have that Sub?  

WoW, Rift?  EveOnline?   There is room for TSW,...

Originally posted by Zeus.CM
I blame the business model. 2012 is not a year for P2P games.

 This.

I really wanted to try out TSW, but with GW2 in the upcomming months back then, I really saw no reason to buy a subscription based game.

Thats the only reason I havent bought TSW.

Originally posted by MikeJezZ

Originally posted by Zeus.CM
I blame the business model. 2012 is not a year for P2P games.

 This.

 

I really wanted to try out TSW, but with GW2 in the upcomming months back then, I really saw no reason to buy a subscription based game.

Thats the only reason I havent bought TSW.

Did you enjoy GW2 enough that your pretty much going to play only it?  If you don't I strongly suggest you atleast try TSW's trial you may like it and I think we can all agree that paying a sub is worth it if the game is worth it.  So who knows you may find you like the game!

Originally posted by UNH0LYEV1L

Originally posted by MikeJezZ

Originally posted by Zeus.CM
I blame the business model. 2012 is not a year for P2P games.

 This.

 

I really wanted to try out TSW, but with GW2 in the upcomming months back then, I really saw no reason to buy a subscription based game.

Thats the only reason I havent bought TSW.

Did you enjoy GW2 enough that your pretty much going to play only it?  If you don't I strongly suggest you atleast try TSW's trial you may like it and I think we can all agree that paying a sub is worth it if the game is worth it.  So who knows you may find you like the game!

 The thing is I also use my time on much else than just gaming. my GF, I do music, and I also play Warhammer 40.000 tabletop game. So I can see myself playing GW2 for quite some time now. I dont waste endless manhours per day playing it. I play between 0-5 hours a day. So I dont want to sub into a game that I allmost do not play. That whats make GW2 so great for me. I dont have to grind endlessly to progress.

Originally posted by Uccisore
I don't know anybody that's even HEARD of TSW unless I personally told them about it.   What the hell did they expect?

Same here. The only reason I knew of this title is because of this site. Whoever was in charge of marketing for this game should be fired, if there ever really was one in the first place. This game was never going to have much appeal to the usual MMO market due to its setting and complexity and would have benefited from a campaign that marketed to its real audience of horror and conspiracy enthusiasts. 

Originally posted by ktanner3

Originally posted by Uccisore
I don't know anybody that's even HEARD of TSW unless I personally told them about it.   What the hell did they expect?

Same here. The only reason I knew of this title is because of this site. Whoever was in charge of marketing for this game should be fired, if there ever really was one in the first place. This game was never going to have much appeal to the usual MMO market due to its setting and complexity and would have benefited from a campaign that marketed to its real audience of horror and conspiracy enthusiasts. 

I think Funcom saw the writing on the wall long before launch.   If they had spent a ton of money on marketing like they did for AOC, most followers would just have demanded an open beta and more videos of actual gameplay to prove their weren´t just scamming again like they did with AOC.

Hyping TSW  with paid ads would have been pointless because so many people out there remember AOC.

What they SHOULD have done was have a much more open and longer beta, because then all the failcom doubters could have seen it with their own eyes and been satisfied enough to buy at launch.

Originally posted by Azrile

Originally posted by ktanner3

Originally posted by Uccisore
I don't know anybody that's even HEARD of TSW unless I personally told them about it.   What the hell did they expect?

Same here. The only reason I knew of this title is because of this site. Whoever was in charge of marketing for this game should be fired, if there ever really was one in the first place. This game was never going to have much appeal to the usual MMO market due to its setting and complexity and would have benefited from a campaign that marketed to its real audience of horror and conspiracy enthusiasts. 

I think Funcom saw the writing on the wall long before launch.   If they had spent a ton of money on marketing like they did for AOC, most followers would just have demanded an open beta and more videos of actual gameplay to prove their weren´t just scamming again like they did with AOC.

Hyping TSW  with paid ads would have been pointless because so many people out there remember AOC.

What they SHOULD have done was have a much more open and longer beta, because then all the failcom doubters could have seen it with their own eyes and been satisfied enough to buy at launch.

You make a fair point. AOC did leave a bad taste in a lot of people's mouths and it's going to take a  lot of effort on Funcom's part to change that negative perception. I never played that game so I don't have the same hate for the company that other gamers do, but I do understand it. I have the same feelings for SOE  and wouldn't touch a game of theirs if you paid me. 

Originally posted by free2play

Originally posted by Zeus.CM
I blame the business model. 2012 is not a year for P2P games.

This really does have alot to do with it.

So many AAA titles went free, paying a sub is for old school MMO players and those are all spoken for.

Don't forget the costume cash shop. Funcom was very greedy when it came to the business model for tsw.

Originally posted by Azrile

Originally posted by ktanner3

Originally posted by Uccisore
I don't know anybody that's even HEARD of TSW unless I personally told them about it.   What the hell did they expect?

Same here. The only reason I knew of this title is because of this site. Whoever was in charge of marketing for this game should be fired, if there ever really was one in the first place. This game was never going to have much appeal to the usual MMO market due to its setting and complexity and would have benefited from a campaign that marketed to its real audience of horror and conspiracy enthusiasts. 

I think Funcom saw the writing on the wall long before launch.   If they had spent a ton of money on marketing like they did for AOC, most followers would just have demanded an open beta and more videos of actual gameplay to prove their weren´t just scamming again like they did with AOC.

Hyping TSW  with paid ads would have been pointless because so many people out there remember AOC.

What they SHOULD have done was have a much more open and longer beta, because then all the failcom doubters could have seen it with their own eyes and been satisfied enough to buy at launch.

 I think both of you are right. The marketing for this game was awful as ktanner said and they also should have had a longer and more open beta process. If they drove the marketing towards a viral end in conjunction with an extended and more robust beta testing stage I really think this game would have sold much better.

Still, the numbers I saw they were shooting for were simply unrealistic, but they could have done a lot better than 200k.

Man, really is a shame.