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[Gamesindustry.biz] Lorne Lanning says launching on PS Plus was “devastating” for Oddworld: Soulstorm sales
- Thread starter dex3108
- Start date
There's no detail there as to that part of it. All it says is "Due to confidentiality agreements, developers are not allowed to discuss the exact details of their PS Plus game deals, but it's understood that Sony typically pays a one-off fee to secure a title for the service."
However, the most telling part is this: "During development, Lanning said that he felt that the PS Plus collaboration was needed in order for the studio to finish and release Soulstorm. " So without this money, he'd have no game to sell at all. So to subsequently complain seems odd to me.
He's not saying he thinks they would have sold 4 million if they weren't on plus.
Well that's certainly one way to justify sales to yourself. The whole "it got delayed a few months so more PS5s were out there so more people could get it free" is… really odd.
I liked old Oddworld games, but still haven't played this one and maybe won't until adding to Game Pass.
Its trailers weren't that interesting and hype of the game was near zero too and it was also 66 on Metacritic. So I don't think it had the potential to be a good seller without Plus too. I even think they got more money with Plus compared to a situation without Plus!
Its trailers weren't that interesting and hype of the game was near zero too and it was also 66 on Metacritic. So I don't think it had the potential to be a good seller without Plus too. I even think they got more money with Plus compared to a situation without Plus!
Was there that many more PS5's shipped during that period of time? I'm sure they could've calculated an increase in their deal, even if they didn't plan on delaying the game
Go read the other article that was posted. He negotiated a single lump sum payment for the PS+ inclusions. The problem was they estimated it to be January 2021 and they figured PS5s would be very limited so they only estimated the payment for maybe 50k-100k downloads. Because they delayed the game they had to release it for the April 2021 ps+ which blew their estimates out of the water but they didn't get any additional money. Basically they screwed themselves over because they had to delay.
I know, but he thinks they had a lot of potential sales lost due to their delay and that's not the case. The price they had set for non-PS+ people and after that was way too high for the game they made.
Could you elaborate on this?
The game released on PS4 day and date with the PS5 version, but only the PS5 version was offered on PS+.
How many people bought a PS5 post April 2021 vs post January 2021? I guess it's directly post-launch but I find this unconvincing that they lost so many sales to this.
Yep, I think your interpretation is right. The headline is more dramatic that what it actually is. And I'm sure the 4 millions are how many people redeemed the game on the store and not the ones who downloaded it and played it. Anyone with a PS+ subscription can redeem PS5 games without having a PS5 so it could have been redeemed by all subscribers on the service for all we know. Talking about the number of available PS5 at the time is misleading.
My big question is if there were legitimately 4 million downloads to PS5 only. That number sounds wrong. I could see 4 million subscribers *claimed* the game, but that could be anyone with a PS4 as well.
If the number is 4 million copies claimed instead of downloaded to a PS5, then Lanning's reasoning makes no sense. The numbers would have been the same in January as they were in April.
If the number is 4 million copies claimed instead of downloaded to a PS5, then Lanning's reasoning makes no sense. The numbers would have been the same in January as they were in April.
O well that's a lil understandable I suppose I'd kick myself alil over that. Why everybody attacking the dude than he a dick?
Hopefuly they won't do a retaliation move and remove it form the accounts who claimed it through PS+ cus they are so pissed.
They really need to chill, plan betetr deals in advance, or simply make betetr games in the future.
They really need to chill, plan betetr deals in advance, or simply make betetr games in the future.
Well based on trophy data those 4 million people didn't play it for very long.
I'm always shocked that Oddworld continues to be a thing. For such a long running series I don't think I've ever seen anyone actually bring it up it conversation. In my own limited exposure to it I found it pretty unappealing.
I'm always shocked that Oddworld continues to be a thing. For such a long running series I don't think I've ever seen anyone actually bring it up it conversation. In my own limited exposure to it I found it pretty unappealing.
This was the game that illustrated just how bad the coil whine on my PS5 is. When it hits the main menu, holy shit is it loud. That alone made me turn the game off and delete it.
Yes. That and he admits the game likely wouldn't have finished without the deal in the first place. Game got delayed, shit happens, but literally anyone with a PS+ sub can claim it so I don't really see much difference if it did launch in January as originally planned.
Cant even buy this game on Steam. Its been more than a year since this game launched. Guess they dont like money.
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I would've never tried the game if it wasn't on PS Plus. Heck, I tried it and uninstalled after 30 minutes since it's not really my cup of tea.
EDIT: You know what, I don't care at all about this game so they can remove my digital copy from my account cuz I can't stand this dude bitching about "lost sales".
EDIT: You know what, I don't care at all about this game so they can remove my digital copy from my account cuz I can't stand this dude bitching about "lost sales".
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Yeah I know, but seeing how much they are pissed for not delivering and instead of blaming it on themselves but blaming the PS+ users, I got a lil scared that they may do it. XD
I think people are missing the point that (from what I understand, correct me if I'm wrong)
1. Devs are paid based on the expected sales/downloads of their game on PS Plus
2. This number seems to be fixed even if it sells way more (so I guess they don't get paid anything for additional downloads?)
3. Because of other games delays, Oddworld ended up performing way better than anticipated, based on what they projected, so they lost out on a lot of money
Granted it wouldn't have sold that much standalone, but it seems the main issue is essentially that devs lose money if their games overperform?
1. Devs are paid based on the expected sales/downloads of their game on PS Plus
2. This number seems to be fixed even if it sells way more (so I guess they don't get paid anything for additional downloads?)
3. Because of other games delays, Oddworld ended up performing way better than anticipated, based on what they projected, so they lost out on a lot of money
Granted it wouldn't have sold that much standalone, but it seems the main issue is essentially that devs lose money if their games overperform?
The game itself at launch was devestating. I still have never gone back to finish the game after I dropped due to the many issues I had with it. I still stand by everything I said in this thread I made around the launch of the game;
https://www.resetera.com/threads/i-...s-solely-due-to-the-games-save-system.410358/
https://www.resetera.com/threads/i-...s-solely-due-to-the-games-save-system.410358/
It sucks for the rest of the dev team who must've put a lot into this game... Lorne Lanning can eat shit though.
Plus the game is like super mid and buggy as hell at launch.
Plus the game is like super mid and buggy as hell at launch.
Given that they must have gotten a decent amount of money from Sony and from Epic, I have to assume they still at least recuperated their development costs. Now if those moves actually lead to build a larger audience that is interested in buying a sequel, well, that's always the big question, isn't it.
I am kinda impressed how passionate Lorne is about this series, and has continued it for so long. Don't understand the appeal myself, New 'n Tasty really didn't feel very great to play and the controls felt very poorly thought out with the puzzles the game expected of you.
I am kinda impressed how passionate Lorne is about this series, and has continued it for so long. Don't understand the appeal myself, New 'n Tasty really didn't feel very great to play and the controls felt very poorly thought out with the puzzles the game expected of you.
Let's be real how many ps5s were moved from January to April. It was severely unavailable. The number was certainly higher then they expected but like let's say it was 2 million more units, how many of those 2 million did they expect would actually buy the game?
Game giveaway numbers are like piracy numbers in that they don't really relate to sales.
I download pretty much every PS+ game, but I only actually play a small fraction. It's even worse with EGS - I think I have a couple hundred games by this point & I think I've only actually turned on one or two.
With Soulstorm, I played the first level, didn't think it was worth my time to keep playing, and deleted the game.
I download pretty much every PS+ game, but I only actually play a small fraction. It's even worse with EGS - I think I have a couple hundred games by this point & I think I've only actually turned on one or two.
With Soulstorm, I played the first level, didn't think it was worth my time to keep playing, and deleted the game.
Honestly the arguments are weird. If the deal was based on the numbers that were approximated for January 2021, well by January 2021 PS5 already sold 4.5 million copies. By April it was 3 million more. Sure there is a difference, but not something that would drastically change the profitability of the deal had it been based on April numbers, considering that their expectations of 50-100k claims was too low to begin with.
I mean the game is ass in general so I don't think it would of sold that much but I think in terms of the deal they took less or something because they didn't expect that many downloads. They didn't work out the PS Plus deal in accordance to how much it was actually downloaded or something of that nature.
Either way I think the game would of been a flop so in the end it doesn't matter imo.
Either way I think the game would of been a flop so in the end it doesn't matter imo.
Yeah, it is extremely, extremely rare for me not to redeem a PS+ game.
I did download this game (mostly because I was interested to see how it looked graphically on PS5), played it to the second level, and dropped it soon after. He shouldn't consider me a lost sale though, I don't even like the GOOD Oddworld games.
It completely depends on the terms and what they were paid to be on there vs their projected sales with and without being on there + their probability of actually hitting the projections. I think they are oversimplifying, though I don't like doubting developers assessments of their business and it is totally possible they made a bad deal. But a bad deal in hindsight is different from a bad deal with the information you had available to you at the time you made a deal.
I have to admit I don't think the thread title helps knowing how many people don't read the OP very well.
Ok so if the money itself wasn't enough even if they did launch in January, I suppose they thought that in February and beyond, people who didn't have a PS5 when it was available would then buy it.
… why wouldn't this follow 3 months later? I understand that more people would have access to PS Plus in April but I don't believe this was "devastating".
Looking at the higher than expected downloads in April and thinking that's devastating is just… very weird to me if you were banking on getting paid downloads after the Ps Plus window anyway. Millions of people were still buying PS5s post-April.