Total War: Rome II sales reach 800,000 copies

[Riekopo]

Total War Rome 2 has sold over 800,000 copies since launch, Sega announced today as part of its latest earnings report for the six-month period ended September 30.

Creative Assembly's turn-based strategy game was released on September 3 and Sega's fiscal reporting period ended September 30, meaning the milestone was achieved in under a month.

Separately, Sega announced this week the Blood & Gore DLC for Total War: Rome II. It adds "hundreds" of animations for actions like decapitations, dismemberment, and "devastating impalements."

"Gore coats combatants, the ground will become soaked with blood, and you'll hear every stab, slash, and impact with bespoke new sound effects," Sega said. The Blood & Gore DLC is available today for $3.

Overall, Sega Sammy posted revenue of ¥162.21 billion ($1.62 billion) for the six-month period and a profit of ¥11.35 billion ($115.58 million). Sega's Consumer segment, which includes its games business, saw revenue reach ¥44.095 billion ($446.42 million) and a profit of ¥1.11 billion yen ($11.24 million)

The publisher described the packaged game software business as "generally solid" for the period. As a result, the company saw a year-on-year increase in total value of package software sales to 3.2 million copies (1.3 million in the US, 1.5 million in Europe, and 400,000 in Japan).

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/total-war-rome-ii-sales-reach-800-000-copies/1100-6415925/

[King Xiao]

CA apologists going berserk on the official forums when you criticise the game.

[Riekopo]

CA apologists going berserk on the official forums when you criticise the game.

I think the official forum is much more full of angry fans than apologists. The subreddit however is definitely full of apologists.

[Ritmas]

I think the official forum is much more full of angry fans than apologists. The subreddit however is definitely full of apologists.

yeah, because people who enjoy the game must visit forums and brag about how fun the game is. noone ever talks about anything good.

[karamazovmm]

So since pre order till sept 30 we had 800k PHYSICAL COPY sales, yes thats right, that "journalist" in gamespot doesn't know how to read an earnings call, thats why you have the exact number. they didn't break down the digital sales, that means 2mil? easy as pie, it should probably be in the region of 4mil or even more

http://www.segasammy.co.jp/english/p...q_hosoku_e.pdf

that means in VG charts numbers, 10 people bought the game

I just copy and pasted

[Huberto]

So since pre order till sept 30 we had 800k PHYSICAL COPY sales, yes thats right, that "journalist" in gamespot doesn't know how to read an earnings call, thats why you have the exact number. they didn't break down the digital sales, that means 2mil? easy as pie, it should probably be in the region of 4mil or even more

http://www.segasammy.co.jp/english/p...q_hosoku_e.pdf

that means in VG charts numbers, 10 people bought the game

I just copy and pasted

800,000 units total as of September 30 including digital copies. The poor state of the game will probably cost them 1/2 million sales over the next six months.

[karamazovmm]

800,000 units total as of September 30 including digital copies. The poor state of the game will probably cost them 1/2 million sales over the next six months.

that thing I linked is the actual earnings report

its 800k physical only, the digital they don't have it breakdown

Believe it or not, this is in a way good news. It means the game was profitable and guarantees a degree of post-release support. If it had of 'failed' or not met expectations it'd be very possible the company could move on to the next title rather than deal with a broken game from a money-losing franchise. So whilst many may be annoyed CA have made money from a sub-par game, it is more likely that it will be brought up to scratch now.

that is indeed true

[Huberto]

its 800k physical only, the digital they don't have it breakdown

I looked at the earnings report where are you seeing that digital isn't included?

[Rittsy]

Believe it or not, this is in a way good news. It means the game was profitable and guarantees a degree of post-release support. If it had of 'failed' or not met expectations it'd be very possible the company could move on to the next title rather than deal with a broken game from a money-losing franchise. So whilst many may be annoyed CA have made money from a sub-par game, it is more likely that it will be brought up to scratch now.

[Riekopo]

Believe it or not, this is in a way good news. It means the game was profitable and guarantees a degree of post-release support. If it had of 'failed' or not met expectations it'd be very possible the company could move on to the next title rather than deal with a broken game from a money-losing franchise. So whilst many may be annoyed CA have made money from a sub-par game, it is more likely that it will be brought up to scratch now.

That doesn't make sense. A terrible gaming selling well is not good for the series.

[krisslanza]

That doesn't make sense. A terrible gaming selling well is not good for the series.

A good game selling well is good for the series though. Which is what happened. We can expect more Total War in the future, so that's good. Warhammer should have some interesting sales figures once it comes out, those'll be some to watch...

[Rittsy]

That doesn't make sense. A terrible gaming selling well is not good for the series.

For the series longevity? No. For the person who purchased the game? Potentially. CA have acknowledged there are problems with the game, the question is would the get the funding from Sega to fix these problems. The game sold well, thus it is worth Sega to continue investing the money into the game since that may translate into further sales of DLC, expansion packs etc.

If it had done poorly, the outcomes for the Total War series would be more limited. Sega cease future development of Rome II give the series one more chance; smaller budget, smaller team, largest possible draw (probably Medieval 3); or they put the franchise aside move the team onto another IP.

[Radzeer]

Believe it or not, this is in a way good news. It means the game was profitable and guarantees a degree of post-release support. If it had of 'failed' or not met expectations it'd be very possible the company could move on to the next title rather than deal with a broken game from a money-losing franchise. So whilst many may be annoyed CA have made money from a sub-par game, it is more likely that it will be brought up to scratch now.

It depends. Financial success also means that they think that design decisions were great and all what's left is optimization. That would ensure similar design in the future. A financial failure would make them think much harder on what went wrong and this could result in more fundamental changes for future titles.

On the other hand, a financial success may help breeding some competition if other studios think the market is big enough. And CA could use some competition, because while being a monopoly they don't have to pay attention to the fans at all.

[krisslanza]

It depends. Financial success also means that they think that design decisions were great and all what's left is optimization. That would ensure similar design in the future. A financial failure would make them think much harder on what went wrong and this could result in more fundamental changes for future titles.

On the other hand, a financial success may help breeding some competition if other studios think the market is big enough. And CA could use some competition, because while being a monopoly they don't have to pay attention to the fans at all.

The only reason there probably isn't any competition is because everyone who tried, failed miserably. CA's monopoly is, more or less, because they're the only company who figured out how to make this entire "genre" work properly. I can't think of any company that came even close and succeeded.

[Radzeer]

The only reason there probably isn't any competition is because everyone who tried, failed miserably. CA's monopoly is, more or less, because they're the only company who figured out how to make this entire "genre" work properly. I can't think of any company that came even close and succeeded.

You're right, nobody has ever done even remotely similar things. But I think part of that is about the initial investment being too steep for an uncertain profit return (i.e. the customer base being too small). If Rome 2 is a couple of times more successful (financially) than its predecessors, another publisher may see the opportunity to throw some money at the genre. To be honest, I don't think it is rocket science programming-wise, and probably the only reason it did not happen is because CA had this huge advantage in the genre and other publishers did not think the TW fanbase would sustain another similar game from somebody else.

[krisslanza]

You're right, nobody has ever done even remotely similar things. But I think part of that is about the initial investment being too steep for an uncertain profit return (i.e. the customer base being too small). If Rome 2 is a couple of times more successful (financially) than its predecessors, another publisher may see the opportunity to throw some money at the genre. To be honest, I don't think it is rocket science programming-wise, and probably the only reason it did not happen is because CA had this huge advantage in the genre and other publishers did not think the TW fanbase would sustain another similar game from somebody else.

I can think of two games that are pretty similar to Total War in their execution. King Arthur and The Kings' Crusade. King Arthur did actually manage to get a sequel, so it had some success but from when I played it... it was well, Total War-ish with magic in the Dark Ages. But it was also extremely unforgiving in you were always helpelessly underpowered, your only strategy was to blitz everyone, suffer minimal casualties, and never lose a battle. If you did, you could expect to lose the entire thing.

As for Kings' Crusade, well, it played a lot like TW... but I could never finish the tutorial. The forced tutorial. Because the game would always crash during the victory screen.

Those are the only ones coming to mind.

But still, you do bring up a valid point. If Rome 2 enjoys even more success, it could entice other developers/publishers to see a market they can move into. The tricky part is, of course, they know they have to contend with CA's expertise and name in the field. It'd be a tricky field to work into. But not impossible, for certain.

[bangell99]

Good luck reaching those sales figures on the next title.

[karamazovmm]

Good luck reaching those sales figures on the next title.

given that every launch was like that... the real concern here is actually.... drum roll.... metacritic score!

I looked at the earnings report where are you seeing that digital isn't included?

《Major Titles / Packaged Games 》

that means physical copies

and you can't have a exact number like that for digital sales

[Dunadd]

and you can't have a exact number like that for digital sales

That sounds like nonsense. Almost every digital sale will have been bought from either the Total War website or through Steam , yet they can't give figures for the number of copies bought and downloaded from each? There's no reason they couldn't - if they haven't it must be because the figure is embarrassing to them.

[karamazovmm]

That sounds like nonsense. Almost every digital sale will have been bought from either the Total War website or through Steam , yet they can't give figures for the number of copies bought and downloaded from each? There's no reason they couldn't - if they haven't it must be because the figure is embarrassing to them.

it means they didn't break down or didn't have the numbers for it

digital sales isn't something that you for example

Steam: I want 1 million of keys for the game
Sega: kk, going to sell you 1mil keys

it doesn't work that way.

you have the license to sell and distribute the game, thats it