Wow I did not expect that. I would note that the unspoken factor there is Metro Exodus is great game, a far better game than Last Light (according to my son anyway).
But still an impressive sales multiple, or would be if we knew the baseline.
2.5x sales buys a lot of community managers and burner accounts to sympathize with their decision!
Another missing factor: we don’t know how many sales Epic guaranteed. There’s a possibility that those 2.5x are the Epic minima kicking in.
But is it really that impressive? Last Light in 2013 sold 3x as many copies on Steam as Metro 2033 did when it released on Steam.
Seems like natural player growth for a great franchise. Also take into account the Redux versions that were released and grew the brand.
Yeah we just dont know really. I mean if the base line is a million copies then yeah thats amazing. If the baseline is 10,000 copies then less so.
Are they comparing launch month to launch month? or Exodus launch month to Metro’s lifetime?
I am naturally suspicious of data free multiples tbh I also cant help but think if Exodus had sold over a million copies in its launch month then they and Epic would be (rightly) telling the world about it.
But they havent and Epic is smart enough to make darn sure the first thing they cut off was any kind of steamspy like service stealing their sales data. So I suspect the number is lower and that slide is some sales jazz hands. But I could be wrong of course and they could be selling millions of copies. Its fun to guess :)
FWIW Ars Technica’s article said:
In launching the Epic Games Store, Sweeney said the company talked with each participating developer to set a benchmark for the kinds of sales they might expect if they launched on Steam. “We felt we would be lucky if games were selling at 40 to 50 percent of the rate of Steam, just because of the small size of the [Epic] user base,” he told Ars. “[But] in most cases we are on track to match or exceed the Steam revenue… it’s all proceeding faster than expected.”
Sweeney wouldn’t share too many specifics but did throw out a few numbers to highlight that faster-than-expected growth: 85 million total players with Epic Games Store installed and 4.5 million downloads for a free game like Subnautica , including one million downloads from newcomers to the store.
As far as specific games, Sweeney said that Deep Silver’s Metro Exodus is selling 2.5 times better in its first weeks as an Epic Games Store exclusive than its predecessor Metro: Last Light did on Steam. For context, Sweeney added, a similar comparison for the console versions only showed 1.5 times as many sales for the latest game in the series.
That really helps. So its launch month to launch month. Not bad at all.
Ummm , my maths work that out to 5.3% of the EPIC store install base bothering to download a free game. Thats not exactly great…
He’s just throwing big numbers… everyone knows the 85 million users are Fortnite users.
What is typical for a free game on humble bundle or steam? I download just about any free game in case I want to check it out, but I know most of my friends won’t download a game unless they are interested in it even if it’s free.
Yeah,which has nothing to do with excitement for their new store. I’m sure they have some though I mean so does Origin.
I assume the EGS long term strategy is that eventually : 12% of full price exclusives > 30% of discounted titles
They have to rely on no discounting, restricted supply/competition, which helps keeps prices higher for longer.
I heard that Metro Exodus sold 4.5 times Don Bradman’s Cricket 17 in the same release window.
Also User Engagement with Metro Exodus is 6.3 times greater than Conker’s Bad Fur Day in the same period adjusted for inflation.
rotflmao!! :)
If I have I’m not putting any games to the names.
I still want to know if they count retail activation (which require activation on epic store) as sales.
I would guess yes, sale is sale.
That’s my guess too. Of course lot of people (and even stores) assumed they were getting steam keys in retail, as promised for months beforehand.
Interesting…
Update, March 21, 2019:Epic will allow keys for exclusive games to be sold on the Humble Store, the company said at GDC yesterday.
Epic has signaled a change in its policy around keys for exclusive games, which it had previously restricted to sale on the Epic Games Store alone. The Humble Store will now be able to sell those keys, in addition to keys for all games sold on the Epic Store.
“Epic will receive no revenue share from the sale of those games purchased through the Humble Store,” the company said in a statement. “The partnership will launch with keys redeemable on the Epic Games store, and soon Epic will enable players to link their Epic and Humble accounts for direct purchasing.”
Humble was a particular point of debate in the issue around key sales, due to the fact that it directly links sales to charitable donations. As such, Epic allowing exclusive games to be sold on the Humble Store is not necessarily indicative of a more open policy around third-party key sales in general.
Add another exclusive (previously on Steam) to the pile. It’s almost as if Epic grabbed every f*cking game at GDC