State of Decay 2 reaches 1 million players in 2 days

Deleted member 2254 · May 25, 2018

Siresly said:
Yeah I meant to say it's not actual sales, which one might be inclined to interpret it as.
It's a good number though, I suppose? More than Sea of Thieves managed in two days apparently, with Greenberg saying it's a record. Will hopefully result in solid support.

Let's exaggerate and think that half of the players used Game Pass. It's probably far less than that, but for speculation's sake. It means they sold half a million copies or so in 2 days between a 30 and 50 dollars pricepoint (two different editions), a launch price that is significantly higher than what the first one launched back on XBLA. This sequel must have had a bigger budget, but they cashed in far more than the first game did, considering the first title took 2 weeks to sell half a million copies, and as I said that was at a lower price point. I'm pretty sure these numbers are fine by them, but of course we don't know the game's budget or their internal expectations.

DarthWalden · May 25, 2018

Even with gamepass that seems really.... Great?

I played a few hours thanks to my discounted gamepass trial and it's surprisingly fun. I might just end up buying it when my trial is up.

nib95 · May 25, 2018

Complicated said:
We already know that gamepass drove retail sales above expectations for Sea of Thieves. Was reported by industry analysts around launch.

It was theorised by Matt (NPD analyst), but it's not conclusive at all, just his personal take based on the sales results of a single title. It's especially inconclusive when Game Pass is still new and adoption rates are still at the early stages, and given Sea of Thieves was a new IP.

In truth, we don't actually know if Sea of Thieves would have sold better at retail with or without Game Pass. It's all just theorising and predictions at present, but as more and more sales results of newer titles come in, especially of sequels, we'll have a better barometer to go by.

BillyMays · May 25, 2018

What about engagements tho ?

MrTired · May 25, 2018

Complicated said:
We already know that gamepass drove retail sales above expectations for Sea of Thieves. Was reported by industry analysts around launch.

You missed what he said this month.

BillyMays said:
What about engagements tho ?

I know you're being sarcastic but those are engagement stats.

Deleted member 2254 · May 25, 2018

nib95 said:
It was theorised by Matt (NPD analyst), but it's not conclusive at all, just his personal take based on the sales results of a single title. It's especially inconclusive when Game Pass is still new and adoption rates are still at the early stages, and given Sea of Thieves was a new IP.

In truth, we don't actually know if Sea of Thieves would have sold better at retail with or without Game Pass. It's all just theorising and predictions at present, but as more and more sales results of newer titles come in, especially of sequels, we'll have a better barometer to go by.

This is true. Probably a good indicator of where Game Pass is at will come with Forza Horizon 4, which had a very highly rated previous installment fairly recently (2016), likewise both on PC and Xbox One, and that game launched before Game Pass, while 4 will launch on Game Pass along with the standard retail and digital editions. I think that will be a very interesting comparison to make.

nib95 · May 25, 2018

Theorry said:
More in line of people giving it a change to play it.

But that's not helpful to Insomniac, Microsoft or Remedy. They need greater revenue to push profit and thus have more leeway and funds for future projects. From a business perspective, there's little point having more people playing single player games if they're spending far less money doing so, unless of course they compensated with a greater emphasis (thus revenue) on microtransactions, which would be horrible.

FairyEmpire said:
This is true. Probably a good indicator of where Game Pass is at will come with Forza Horizon 4, which had a very highly rated previous installment fairly recently (2016), likewise both on PC and Xbox One, and that game launched before Game Pass, while 4 will launch on Game Pass along with the standard retail and digital editions. I think that will be a very interesting comparison to make.

Yeap, FH4 should be very interesting in terms of gauging the impact of Game Pass and traditional sales comparative to past trends. That is if Microsoft even put FH4 on GP.

Khrol · May 25, 2018

BillyMays said:
What about engagements tho ?

That's what this thread is about, slick

Lupercal · May 25, 2018

FairyEmpire said:
It was a calculation based on someone buying 3 months a year to get 3 interesting first parties by MS for a month each. Obviously a full year would cost more.

Aha thanks, I was afraid my math was way off.

Klobrille · May 25, 2018

John Bender said:
Oh man, the PR is so good again =D

Okay Phil.

"Okay Phil"? Have you anything substantial to add?

Theorry · May 25, 2018

nib95 said:
But that's not helpful to Insomniac, Microsoft or Remedy. They need greater revenue to push profit and thus have more leeway and funds for future projects. From a business perspective, there's little point having more people playing single player games if they're spending far less money doing so, unless of course they compensated with a greater emphasis (thus revenue) on microtransactions, which would be horrible.

But this is a SP game also. They can get extra revenue with DLC like State of Decay.
With this day and age all about players etc. I wish Gamepass would have been there for QB and SO would have put the games in a better spotlight and have been more "healthy"

Deleted member 39329 · May 25, 2018

Great news for them so far. Hope to see that number grow, as 1 million players isn't THAT big in regards to actual sales. i.e. that doesn't translate into 1 million copies sold.

Deleted member 2254 · May 25, 2018

nib95 said:
Yeap, FH4 should be very telling and interesting in terms of gauging the impact of Game Pass and traditional sales comparative to past trends. That is if Microsoft even put FH4 on GP.

Microsoft said all their upcoming first party games will launch on Game Pass. It'd be surprising to say the least if they didn't include what is easily their heaviest hitter right now, given Horizon 3's impressive sales and incredible ratings on Metacritic. If anything, I'm curious whether they want to keep this up come next-gen. Let's assume Xbox Next launches with 3 first party Microsoft titles - will they be available on the console's day one on Game Pass along with all the other Xbox One and Xbox 360 games they have on? 'cause that would be huge. But I'm digressing. It's practically a certainly Forza Horizon 4 will launch day one on Game Pass. They are clearly invested in this service and it would be stupid to leave out their best games from it, it's as if Netflix bought that Cloverfield movie and decided to sell it to cable TV instead.

Trago · May 25, 2018

That's great for the game. Congrats to the developers! Moving forward, they'll need to iron out the bugs and hopefully have a decent content roadmap.

Gestault · May 25, 2018

I remember how unexpectedly big the first SoD was, so I'm glad to see this one live up to the name. I really like what I've played, and it's been improved from the first one in every way I can see. Even though I doubt they'd have just dropped support for it regardless, I'm glad to know the player response is there to motivate continued support.

(I'd love to see options for a 30 fps cap and motion blur slider sooner than later)

cakely · May 25, 2018

So at this point, any big new release on Game Pass should gain a certain number of players based on the number of Game Pass subscriptions. We don't know what that number is, but it seems to be at least a million. Game Pass is definitely working as intended,

Aaron Greenberg said:
State of Decay 2 Breaks Record with Over 1 Million Players in First Two Days of Global Release

I know this has been covered, but what record are we talking about, Aaron?

Deleted member 2254 · May 25, 2018

RuleNumber6 said:
Great news for them so far. Hope to see that number grow, as 1 million players isn't THAT big in regards to actual sales. i.e. that doesn't translate into 1 million copies sold.

For two days it's not too shabby either way, considering Undead Labs has less than a hundred developers (as opposed to giant teams like Bungie or Rockstar working with 1000+ people).

Goodacre0081 · May 25, 2018

nib95 said:
But that's not helpful to Insomniac, Microsoft or Remedy. They need greater revenue to push profit and thus have more leeway and funds for future projects. From a business perspective, there's little point having more people playing single player games if they're spending far less money doing so, unless of course they compensated with a greater emphasis (thus revenue) on microtransactions, which would be horrible.

this is where i always thought GP was going. lower standards for games and increased MTX to compensate for this "amazing value" their giving us. Im expecting Crackdown3 to continue this trend that SoT and SoD started.

xabbott · May 25, 2018

I've had few bugs but pretty much play solo. This game is so stressful but addictive. I think even without bugs this type of game wouldn't be reviewed well. The base management stuff and randomness probably makes playing this for review annoying.

Dog of Bork · May 25, 2018

Good for the devs! Hopefully they maintain that player base and continue supporting the game.

TechnicPuppet · May 25, 2018

Great news.

It's hilarious how upset people get that things have changed now. A lot of concern about this costing MS money as well.

When Horizon 4 launches on gamepass it's going to be massive.

Benji · May 25, 2018

Its selling surprisingly ok. Better than I expected at least

Theorry · May 25, 2018

Goodacre0081 said:
this is where i always thought GP was going. lower standards for games and increased MTX to compensate for this "amazing value" their giving us. Im expecting Crackdown3 to continue this trend that SoT and SoD started.

But SoD2 doesnt have MTX. And SoT doesnt also. So far as they come later down the line.

Deleted member 2254 · May 25, 2018

Goodacre0081 said:
this is where i always thought GP was going. lower standards for games and increased MTX to compensate for this "amazing value" their giving us. Im expecting Crackdown3 to continue this trend that SoT and SoD started.

But Sea Of Thieves is a relatively niche kind of game, and State Of Decay 2 is a relatively small production. Come Halo 6, Forza Horizon 4, Gears Of War 5, Ori 2, etc. this definitely won't be true. This Game Pass initiative is relatively recent, it's not like these games have been developed for years with the intention of being launched on this service as "low effort" games.

Kilgore · May 25, 2018

nekkid said:
Zombie fans and pirate fans are different people. Or something.

Microsoft needs to create a pirate zombies MMO and 30 days game pass trials. Come on uncle Phil, give me double!

Ps: for the record I was being s/

nib95 · May 25, 2018

Theorry said:
But this is a SP game also. They can get extra revenue with DLC like State of Decay.
With this day and age all about players etc. I wish Gamepass would have been there for QB and SO would have put the games in a better spotlight and have been more "healthy"

I really do not understand this logic, at least with Quantum Break, since QB didn't even have any DLC. What would it have gained by having more Game Pass players, especially if that eroded in to actual retail sales? In that sense, the added exposure isn't really to their benefit.

In any case, it will be interesting going forward to see how Game Pass affects retail sales, eg if it adds to revenue and retail sales, or detracts from them, and whether DLC and microtransactions from a larger pool of players can compomsate for any potential loss in retail sales, if more and more people choose Game Pass over buying individual games.

Bosh · May 25, 2018

So probably somewhere between 400k-800k sold , which is better than the first in the same timeframe. Gamepass had that wild deal for a $1 for the month of may which brought some people along (me being one of them).

John Bender · May 25, 2018

Klobrille said:
"Okay Phil"? Have you anything substantial to add?

Well yeah. Too bad we don't get any sales numbers anymore. 1 million players isn't really that good for one of the few MS 1st party games this year, which launched on two platforms and has gamepass to boost the 'player' count.
I guess the technical issues and the bad/below average reviews scared a lot of gamers off. Let's hope the 'player' count won't drop too much after the gamepass free trials and Undead Labs is save.
edit. This game needs more patches asap to fix the performance issues.

Kenjovani · May 25, 2018

JaggedSac said:
This is actually the opposite of what we know to be happening. They have increased budgets lately.

I am aware of the Microsoft financial report breakdowns and am not talking about budgeting for gaming as a whole division wise, i am talking about individual games. They can say they increased their budget for software development but that means nothing in regards to the quality or budget of individual games. Just means their pumping more money into software developing aspect of it but if we dont know how many games they are talking about its just talk. Say 400 million (just picking random number) was budgeted for software development and 4 games are being developed thats a big difference compared to the spending going up to 500 million and 15 small or AA type games being developed.

I mean im not Microsoft so idk the specific funding for their individual games but games like Recore, SOT, State of Decay, Ori (Oris great by the way) dont scream big budget to me. Even Crackdown tht seems like a big money drain seems to have gotten a big downgrade in last showing and that might be due to railing in the budget and time it has taken in development.

Idk i just worry that because these games will be on gamepass they wont go all out development/moneywise. Maybe my worries are baseless but what thy have been putting out isnt changing my perception. Hopefully thy prove me wrong.

pswii60 · May 25, 2018

Game Pass user here, I tried it but it's just far too janky and the input lag just kills the fun for me (on X). Impressive stats given the reviews though, Game Pass can really help games like this.

Somnia · May 25, 2018

I hope in the next couple years people just accept that were going to get # of players going forward due to the nature of gamepass. The industry is going to go through a change in the next 2-5 years to a lot more subscription based offerings, I know MatPiscatella has mentioned this a lot on twitter in the past. We're going to have to accept (well should, some won't) that Microsoft will be reporting games being played the same way Netflix reports movies/shows being watched. We'll just have to work it out through their Quarterly earnings how they are doing.

I am curious when Microsoft will start pumping more money into marketing Gamepass though. Just like Netflix it's going to take time to grow, but eventually it will take off.

One Eyed Willy · May 25, 2018

I want to buy in now, I loved the first. I don't have a lot of time to play though and I kind of want to see how the community sustains and wait for a patch to sort out some jank. Overall I remember the first game being really like a zombie sim, where a lot of games just put zombies in a game.

ghostcrew · May 25, 2018

BillyMays said:
What about engagements tho ?

Engagement stats are in the OP. That's what the article is about. Did you read it? Or was that just a shit post?

Kilgore · May 25, 2018

John Bender said:
Well yeah. Too bad we don't get any sales numbers anymore. 1 million players isn't really that good for one of the few MS 1st party games this year, which launched on two platforms and has gamepass to boost the 'player' count.
I guess the technical issues and the bad/below average reviews scared a lot of gamers off. Let's hope the 'player' count won't drop too much after the gamepass free trials and Undead Labs is save.
edit. This game needs more patches asap to fix the performance issues.

A lot of free games would love to have 1 million players in 2 days between all platforms in the universe. SoD2 is not even really free.

Deleted member 9100 · May 25, 2018

Game is decent, but it's by far the buggiest major release I've ever seen.

TheZynster · May 25, 2018

I was one of those.....and then I quit and uninstalled in 30 minutes......will wait for patches before touching again

Gamer17 · May 25, 2018

pswii60 said:
Game Pass user here, I tried it but it's just far too janky and the input lag just kills the fun for me (on X). Impressive stats given the reviews though, Game Pass can really help games like this.

Game pass can help them boost the first two weeks number .after that if the game can't keep up with content players will drop the game and move on .

nekkid · May 25, 2018

Somnia said:
I hope in the next couple years people just accept that were going to get # of players going forward due to the nature of gamepass. The industry is going to go through a change in the next 2-5 years to a lot more subscription based offerings, I know MatPiscatella has mentioned this a lot on twitter in the past. We're going to have to accept (well should, some won't) that Microsoft will be reporting games being played the same way Netflix reports movies/shows being watched. We'll just have to work it out through their Quarterly earnings how they are doing.

I am curious when Microsoft will start pumping more money into marketing Gamepass though. Just like Netflix it's going to take time to grow, but eventually it will take off.

The risk of mass marketing too soon is that if the mass market isn't impressed with the selection then there is permanent negativity around the service.

I'm expecting a (relative) dropped bomb when it comes to a third party game/games on GP at E3, for that reason.

Klobrille · May 25, 2018

John Bender said:
Well yeah. Too bad we don't get any sales numbers anymore. 1 million players isn't really that good for one of the few MS 1st party games this year, which launched on two platforms and has gamepass to boost the 'player' count.
I guess the technical issues and the bad/below average reviews scared a lot of gamers off. Let's hope the 'player' count won't drop too much after the gamepass free trials and Undead Labs is save.
edit. This game needs more patches asap to fix the performance issues.

Okay, so your statement is: you think 1 million players two days after global release is not a good thing. Interesting to say the least. Obviously both me and - more importantly - Microsoft disagrees with your view, as they seem to be happy with the numbers. So happy in fact that they decided to push out a press release for that. Objectively speaking 1 million players after that short time period can't be a bad thing.

The next time you should maybe directly try to express your opinion - which is your right to have - without detailing a thread with personal and baseless comments.

Razgriz417 · May 25, 2018

tempted to try it with game pass. You don't need an xbox to do so right? Just a windows 10 pc?

John Bender · May 25, 2018

Kilgore said:
A lot of free games would love to have 1 million players in 2 days between all platforms in the universe. SoD2 is not even really free.

I'm sure there are some small indie devs out there who would be happy. Still, let's see how it does in 2 or 3 months. Best of luck to Undead Labs.

Somnia · May 25, 2018

nekkid said:
The risk of mass marketing too soon is that if the mass market isn't impressed with the selection then there is permanent negativity around the service.

I'm expecting a (relative) dropped bomb when it comes to a third party game/games on GP at E3, for that reason.

That makes sense, Netflix advertised, but didn't go nuts until they started releasing a ton of in house made content.

xabbott · May 25, 2018

John Bender said:
Well yeah. Too bad we don't get any sales numbers anymore. 1 million players isn't really that good for one of the few MS 1st party games this year, which launched on two platforms and has gamepass to boost the 'player' count.
I guess the technical issues and the bad/below average reviews scared a lot of gamers off. Let's hope the 'player' count won't drop too much after the gamepass free trials and Undead Labs is save.
edit. This game needs more patches asap to fix the performance issues.

One million players is good. Even though MS published this it was a budget title. Cuphead took 2 weeks to sell a million copies at $20 across two platforms, with good reviews and good word of mouth.

Somnia · May 25, 2018

Razgriz417 said:
tempted to try it with game pass. You don't need an xbox to do so right? Just a windows 10 pc?

Yep! Since it's a MS game with play anywhere, you can get game pass and play it on Win10.

Windu · May 25, 2018

Razgriz417 said:
tempted to try it with game pass. You don't need an xbox to do so right? Just a windows 10 pc?

Correct.

Kilgore · May 25, 2018

John Bender said:
I'm sure there are some small indie devs out there who would be happy. Still, let's see how it does in 2 or 3 months. Best of luck to Undead Labs.

Yeah, 1 million unique players in 2 days is a goal for small indie devs only. Lol

MrTired · May 25, 2018

xabbott said:
One million players is good. Even though MS published this it was a budget title. Cuphead took 2 weeks to sell a million copies at $20 across two platforms, with good reviews and good word of mouth.

You comparing sales with player numbers though. They aren't the same, one it definitely more impressive than the other.

Braaier · May 25, 2018

John Bender said:
I'm sure there are some small indie devs out there who would be happy. Still, let's see how it does in 2 or 3 months. Best of luck to Undead Labs.

LOL. First, this is not a AAA release. Of course they're happy with this. Second, except for the largest releases, ANY publisher would be happy with a million players in two days. What are you on about?

Razgriz417 · May 25, 2018

Somnia said:
Yep! Since it's a MS game with play anywhere, you can get game pass and play it on Win10.

Windu said:
Correct.

Thanks, might give it a try this weekend then

Braaier · May 25, 2018

MrTired said:
You comparing sales with player numbers though. They aren't the same, one it definitely more impressive than the other.

How much did SOT2 sell?

State of Decay 2 reaches 1 million players in 2 days

user requested account closure

Prophet of Truth

Contains No Misinformation on Philly Cheesesteaks

user requested account closure

Contains No Misinformation on Philly Cheesesteaks

user requested account closure

user requested account closure

Self Requested Ban

user requested account closure

Contains No Misinformation on Philly Cheesesteaks

Chicken Chaser

The Shrouded Ghost

User requested account closure

Chicken Chaser

Chicken Chaser