Majority of Sales --- iPad?

theJoshFrost

So, Trent just said they expect the majority of sales to come from the iPad. I find this a little more than surprising, if this forum is any indication it seems like PC is in the overwhelming majority. I understand Overhaul is excited about bringing BG to a device like that, but who here is actually going to buy it for the iPad as opposed to it's originally intended medium, the PC?

ajwz

I dont find this especially surprising. He didn't say the vast majority.

I would honestly expect this game to be the biggest selling game on the iPad of all time. There is just no competition even close.

CaptRory

The change of format is the biggest thing they're bringing to the table. And Baldur's Gate is a game easily broken down into Bite Sized pieces. Clear one map while you're riding the train to work, do that quest while you're bored at lunch, play twenty minutes and clear the next level of the dungeon while you're relaxing in bed. Portable devices like tablets or the Nintendo DS are built for this kind of gameplay.

theJoshFrost

ajwz said:

I dont find this especially surprising. He didn't say the vast majority.

I would honestly expect this game to be the biggest selling game on the iPad of all time. There is just no competition even close.

I love Baldur's Gate but - I don't think it'll get near Angry Bird sales. I think that may be over estimating a bit.

Tanthalas

I honestly agree with Trent.

CaptRory

@theJoshFrost
I think it'll be more like a grinding glacier. I think it'll continue to sell for a looooong time. It will avoid fads and just keep plugging along.

jolly_bb

first: angry birds is. cheap. bgee won't be. that makes gross sales.
second: iPad version is the sole reason i'm even at this forum/being interested in bgee. other than that i don't care. honestly i would not buy the game again for PC. but i would glad to pay € for even unenhanced bg on ipad.

Icallhimlecobra

I think the games on will sell better on all platforms than people expect. the general consensus on the forums seems to be that this will be bought mostly by people who have already played it. I'm not so sure, I think a lot of people will be first time players interested in finding out what this legendary game is all about.

I personally never played Baldur's Gate when it came out (I dont think I even had a PC back in the 90's, my dad may have had one in his office thinking back), I got interested in the game after playing Dragon Age: Origins on my PS3 and wanted to play the game that inspired it, so I bought the in 4 in 1 boxset off amazon.

I think with all the coverage the game is getting in the gaming media, people will pick up on the growing buzz around the game, the fact it coming to iPad is awesome as it will be super accessible also.

Quartz

Heh. Baldur's Gate initially appealed to the PC gamers, which isn't a big crowd ... particularly, European PC gamers the most it seems.

But trust me when this game gets put on the iPad it will do great, and far better than it ever could do with just a bunch of PC gamers. Not to insult you guys or anything, but PC gamers are a relatively small crowd compared to the rest, and even with tons of PC gamers buying a game, it won't reap half the profit of a decently-selling console game, or a fourth of the profit of a decently-selling tablet or phone app.

So from a numbers stand point, yes, more copies will be sold on the iPad than on PC. From a percentage standpoint of some sort, well of course it will be less. But that doesn't really matter.

Cheesebelly

Look at how much appeal Duels of the Planeswalker had on the iPad... Baldur's Gate - both by past respect and today's current market is going to be a huge success on the Tablet Devices, I firmly believe that. I always thought that the biggest selling point for BGEE is holding it in your hands... I mean - commute nowadays is a bastard, and who doesn't enjoy a few minutes of recreation with their tablets or phones? Add that with one of the best stories ever written in history and very addictive gameplay and yeah... you get major sales, I am sure.

Let's just wait and see - but truth be told, I wouldn't be surprised if HALF the sales will come from the iPad *alone*.

agris

Cheesebelly said:

.. Let's just wait and see - but truth be told, I wouldn't be surprised if HALF the sales will come from the iPad *alone*.

Yea, I imagine that the majority of sales will be tablet. I can understand the OP's confusion as to why that is, based on all the PC-centric forum activity. Basically, we're just a tiny minority. What is it, ~2.5k accounts with the "first post" badge? I bet less than 25% of that would quality as an 'active' user.

Mornmagor

I have some doubts, it's true that Baldur's Gate looks good on an iPad.

However, Baldur's Gate requires some serious time to play, commitment, and you generally like to immerse yourself while sitting in a comfortable space to play it. RPGs tend to be like that for some people, they like to enjoy them privately.

And while this is possible with an iPad, aren't iPads sold for mobility, for using it on breaks, when you're away from the pc or home, or even on vacation?

In other words, the flaw of the iPad is that, it has more situational use for some people, which limits it to surf the net or play games that take little time, and BG takes a LOT of time, are they going to immerse themselves like that? They can certainly do that, but isn't it more practical to just do it on the PC?

I understand the trend of getting an iPad and having it at home because it looks cool and can play games and watch movies or whatever, but i think the majority of people take it for what it actually offers, and i don't know 100% if it is that practical for something like Baldur's Gate, no matter how cool it looks running it.

Saying that, i do think that BG:EE will sell well. I just think that the expectations of it selling well on the iPad, are based more the amount of iPads running around lately, rather than iPad being ideal for games like BG:EE.

ajwz

Mornmagor said:

I have some doubts, it's true that Baldur's Gate looks good on an iPad.

However, Baldur's Gate requires some serious time to play, commitment, and you generally like to immerse yourself while sitting in a comfortable space to play it. RPGs tend to be like that for some people, they like to enjoy them privately.

And while this is possible with an iPad, aren't iPads sold for mobility, for using it on breaks, when you're away from the pc or home, or even on vacation?

In other words, the flaw of the iPad is that, it has more situational use for some people, which limits it to surf the net or play games that take little time, and BG takes a LOT of time, are they going to immerse themselves like that? They can certainly do that, but isn't it more practical to just do it on the PC?

I understand the trend of getting an iPad and having it at home because it looks cool and can play games and watch movies or whatever, but i think the majority of people take it for what it actually offers, and i don't know 100% if it is that practical for something like Baldur's Gate, no matter how cool it looks running it.

Saying that, i do think that BG:EE will sell well. I just think that the expectations of it selling well on the iPad, are based more the amount of iPads running around lately, rather than iPad being ideal for games like BG:EE.

I actually agree to the extent that I don't think portable device are the best way to play a game as complex as bg. I'd much rather use a pc to get drawn into the experience.

However, if I had a tablet, I would still get this game for it. In this case whether or not the game is better quality on one platform or another would have very minimal impact on sales I'd have thought, unless the tablet version turns out to be unplayably bad

Space_hamster

This will be the first game purchase for my iPad 3 . I'm typing this on an iPad t3 right now;)
If BG sells 100,000 it will be a huge success...but I'm sure it may do even better.

ajwz

Like any other game - the really interesting statistic - sales numbers, is unlikely to ever be released. However, it will probably be possible to approximately gauge the success or failure by whether or not infinity games after bg2 get similar treatment.

Shin

I agree with @Mornmagor as well. Hardly a fluke that mega-popular pad games are quick and easy like Fruit Ninja rather than complex and requiring thorough understanding like Baldur's Gate.

To me it seems more like attempting to sell fine wine at a McDonald's birthday party. You'll have a large audience, but it's unlikely that they'll be able to appreciate your product. But if you advertise it just right, you might still be able to get some of them to buy it without really realizing what they're getting into.

Brude

theJoshFrost said:

So, Trent just said they expect the majority of sales to come from the iPad. I find this a little more than surprising, if this forum is any indication it seems like PC is in the overwhelming majority.

The RPG market is huge and wide open on tablets. Dungeon Hunter II sold extremely well on the iPad, and that had ~7 hours of gameplay and about 1/10th the depth of something like BG.

I'm surprised they didn't prioritize iOS and Android over Windows. Tablets seems like the best way to attract new players to the franchise.

mlnevese

I'd really like it if they were not contractually prohibited from revealing sales numbers. I think that the amount of sales in IPad would surprise many people here...

Quartz

@Mornmagor I agree with you, but I disagree that it "requires" immersion. You can play it unimmersed, and it's still fun, just not as engrossing or enchanting. So if you ask me, I think iPad users who have never played it before buying it for their iPad will enjoy it but a lot of them won't be as likely to be hardcore fans who go and post shenanigans on some sort of BG:EE forum or anything ... only freakin' nerds do that anyway, *gosh.*

So bottom line I think tablet users will enjoy the game a lot, just not get as into the universe and such. And as such they will see when the sequel comes out and buy that too, and enjoy it. I don't think we'll gain too many hardcore fans this way, but plenty of important sales.

mlnevese

I wouldn't be surprised if tablet sales also boosted desktop OSs sales as well... People buy it for the tablet, decide it would be better to play it in a computer and discover they can, so they buy the game for their computers. I've seen it happen on some games that were first released on iOs and later on OSX.

Mornmagor

Yeah, could happen. Although i guess on a lower scale.

@Quartz, indeed, in the end, we need to find out if tablets are able to receive games like BG well. If it sells well, it doesn't matter if iPads are optimal for it.

Kortok

Sounds like marketing talk to me. PC version should dominate sales.

Quartz

Kortok said:

Sounds like marketing talk to me. PC version should dominate sales.

Hahah, you folks are funny. "Should" ... True, but you're just gonna have to accept the fact that the PC playing community is small and don't give people much money. We're lucky we get any emphasis at all. It's especially lucky considering all the bickering I see around here, "wah wah I'm not gonna put $20 down for this," as if it's pricey or something. Can't exactly expect to give people barely any money all the time (I mean seriously $20??), and for them to get profit out of nowhere and support you first and foremost. It's just not how economy works, at all.

Kharador

It's a trap!!!!!!
Marketing approach!!!

Eudaemonium

The one thing that worries me about the iPad is the $10 initial price tag. I feel it might put off people who are used to playing cheaper games. I mean, I think it's an amazing price tag for *Baldur's Gate*, but for those who don't know the scope and depth of the game it might seem too high. I just hope there's a good marketting campaign to let iPad and Android users know what type of game it really is and that $10 is more than worth it.

Aristillius

@Eudaemonium, yeah you bring up a good point. However, I think BGEE will do quite well. Look at FF3 in googleplay (android app store for the uninitiated), it has somewhere between 100 000 - 500 000 buys and it costs more than 10 dollars. It is a big and old game, and hasnt been marketed very well as far as i know.. (though FF fans are fanatic, but hey - so are we(?)): https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.square_enix.android_googleplay.FFIII_GP&feature=search_result#?t=W10.

I am one of those who got a tablet (android) for the occasion - I mean if FF3, which sucks in comparison to BG, got past 100 000 on android *alone* it will go pretty well for BGEE

Eudaemonium

@Aristillius, Ah, well that sets my mind at ease somewhat. I guess we will see, but if FF3 can make those sales, BG should be able to easily =D.

At least I hope it can!

mlnevese

FF is agood example. We also have magic at tht price range and many other games on the slightly lower 6.99 range. Last time I checked Infinity Blade had sold over 1 million copies.

Space_hamster

Just because it starts at $10 doesn't mean it can't go on sale either

Tanthalas

Aristillius said:

Look at FF3 in googleplay (android app store for the uninitiated), it has somewhere between 100 000 - 500 000 buys and it costs more than 10 dollars.

Wtf? I like FFIII, but if that managed to sell over 100k on Android after recently being ported to almost every device in existence, BGEE should sell more than 100k easily.

bigdogchris

The App Store has huge exposure. People who have not yet even heard about BG:EE are going to be the majority of sales. People in this forum are mostly PC gamers that played the originals, thus the majority of the discussion is about the PC version.