Crysis 2 Retail Benchmarked

[RussianSensation]

Aye,its not looking healthy

BF3 - DICE is developing the game in its new Frostbite 2.0 engine and has promised that the PC version is receiving the most attention. :thumbsup:

 

[Skurge]

I was strictly speaking about the development of graphics. My point was that if you look at say EMAEE sales, you can see that Crysis 2 sales on the 360 + PS3 = 236,000 vs. 57,000 on the PC. So we can't really expect any developer to sit there and spend millions of dollars on top artists and programmers when they are making ~ 20% of their sales from the PC market. From a business sense, you'd cater towards 80% of your client base - which is console gamers. This is probably a large reason why they didn't go all out on this game in terms of graphics budget.

The other thing about PC games is that their prices drop like a rock. So there is almost never any incentive to buy a new $59.99 game. On consoles a game will be priced at $59.99 for 2-3+ months after release. In fact one of my friends just picked up COD:BO for his Xbox360 for $59.99 this week! Look at Medal of Honor for example. The game is barely 6 months old vs. 5 months old for BlackOps. Yet, Direct2Drive had it for $7.50 last week for the PC (obviously Black Ops is a more popular game though leading to its ability to maintain higher pricing for a longer time period). I have yet to see Medal of Honor for $7.50 for a console....

But even Crysis 2 has already seen a 20% discount as well. The only logical explanation as to why PC game prices drop so much quicker is because so few PC gamers are willing to pay $60 for a game in spite of often having expensive PC hardware. At first I thought PC gaming was going to be more expensive, but in the last 5 years I have completely changed my tune. PC gaming is far cheaper than console gaming after you add the cost of software. For developers, the higher sale prices of console games only increase their profits further and discourage them from developing games on the PC since most of those PC games will sell for $20-30 (if that) only 6 months from release (unless you are talking Blizzard games which tend to maintain their prices due to their popularity).

Devs have to pay console tax, so you could say that they are making more money on a per game sold basis on the PC. Just sayin'

 

[Skurge]

BF3 - DICE is developing the game in its new Frostbite 2.0 engine and has promised that the PC version is receiving the most attention. :thumbsup:

They are doing what CryTEK promised. I can bet you I'll be getting that game on release. Unless its $60. But if MP is good enough, I might just pay that $60.

 

[Zanovar]

BF3 - DICE is developing the game in its new Frostbite 2.0 engine and has promised that the PC version is receiving the most attention. :thumbsup:

impressive

 

[DeathReborn]

For what purpose would they do that?

Maybe to live up to their own claims that it would be great on the PC. Maybe to clearly show what the engine is really capable of.

They already have higher resolution textures than what they used in the game, it wouldn't cost much or take much time to create a Patch/DLC to add them to the PC install.

 

[Skurge]

Maybe to live up to their own claims that it would be great on the PC. Maybe to clearly show what the engine is really capable of.

They already have higher resolution textures than what they used in the game, it wouldn't cost much or take much time to create a Patch/DLC to add them to the PC install.

Also, they can't sell the engine if they don't show what its capable of.

 

[Grooveriding]

http://www.mycrysis.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=22276

Crytek has confirmed a DX11 patch at last.

Bad move to wait till whenever this comes out rather than have it there at release. But better late than never. Hard to say how much polish you can put on a turd.

The game was greatly looked forward to on PC but the release was botched and it's already lost the momentum it had due to negative reaction to the state the game released in. Generally if you don't execute well with the initial arrival to market of your product you dig a hole you won't pull out of.

I look forward to seeing if there is any clear graphic improvement or just a frame rate hit. Crysis 2 definitely could use some improved graphics. Hopefully this patch can bring the sequel at least up to the level of quality seen in its predecessor.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

I was strictly speaking about the development of graphics. My point was that if you look at say EMAEE sales, you can see that Crysis 2 sales on the 360 + PS3 = 236,000 vs. 57,000 on the PC. So we can't really expect any developer to sit there and spend millions of dollars on top artists and programmers when they are making ~ 20% of their sales from the PC market. From a business sense, you'd cater towards 80% of your client base - which is console gamers. This is probably a large reason why they didn't go all out on this game in terms of graphics budget.

The other thing about PC games is that their prices drop like a rock. So there is almost never any incentive to buy a new $59.99 game. On consoles a game will be priced at $59.99 for 2-3+ months after release. In fact one of my friends just picked up COD:BO for his Xbox360 for $59.99 this week! Look at Medal of Honor for example. The game is barely 6 months old vs. 5 months old for BlackOps. Yet, Direct2Drive had it for $7.50 last week for the PC (obviously Black Ops is a more popular game though leading to its ability to maintain higher pricing for a longer time period). I have yet to see Medal of Honor for $7.50 for a console....

But even Crysis 2 has already seen a 20% discount as well. The only logical explanation as to why PC game prices drop so much quicker is because so few PC gamers are willing to pay $60 for a game in spite of often having expensive PC hardware. At first I thought PC gaming was going to be more expensive, but in the last 5 years I have completely changed my tune. PC gaming is far cheaper than console gaming after you add the cost of software. For developers, the higher sale prices of console games only increase their profits further and discourage them from developing games on the PC since most of those PC games will sell for $20-30 (if that) only 6 months from release (unless you are talking Blizzard games which tend to maintain their prices due to their popularity).

I'd love to see the pc sales currently Crysis 2 vs what the pc sales were with the first crysis given the same amount of time. I personally bought both Crysis 1 and Warhead on release. I have already blown off crysis 2 and crytek completely and I'm sure I'm not the only one. I'd bet that Crysis 2 pc sales are way down compared to what the other two were.

 

[RussianSensation]

I'd love to see the pc sales currently Crysis 2 vs what the pc sales were with the first crysis given the same amount of time. I personally bought both Crysis 1 and Warhead on release. I have already blown off crysis 2 and crytek completely and I'm sure I'm not the only one. I'd bet that Crysis 2 pc sales are way down compared to what the other two were.

I haven't tried looking for Crysis 1 / Warhead vs. Crysis 2 sales #s, but take a look at this instead:

PC Sales of Crysis 2 - Week 1
Americas = 46,057
EMEAA = 57,316
Worldwide Total = 103,373

PC Sales of Crysis 2 - Week 2
Americas = 12,131
EMEAA = 18,556
Worldwide Total = 30,687

Now after 2 weeks of Sales, Crysis 2 has only sold 134,060 units on the PC.

Let's look at all platforms after 2 weeks.

PC = 134,060 (13.3% of Total)
Xbox360 = 537,066
PS3 = 339,600
Total = 1,010,726

Ya, that's even worse than my rough 20% estimate. Clearly, this only highlights why most developers could care less about the PC. If the Wii was a more powerful system, they'd net more sales on the Wii than the PC. From a business point of view, it just doesn't make any sense to put extra effort into a PC game (unless it has a massive online following such as Battlefield, WOW, Starcraft series, or has a mass appeal factor such as the Sims, etc.).

Crytek could have invested $10 million into making the game better looking, but look at the amount of risk vs. reward given the unpredictable nature of PC gamers' purchasing decisions. Crysis 2 may not be as good as the first game, but looking at the sales #s, it looks like a game that got a review of 5/10.

There are only 3 PC games in the top 50 best selling videogames. These are The Sims (#22), World of Warcraft (#30) and Starcraft 1 (#35). We should be happy as it is that Microsoft or Sony didn't make Crysis a console exclusive, yet. It is no surprise then that developers spend less and less time on catering specifically to PC hardware.

 

[railven]

I haven't tried looking for Crysis 1 / Warhead vs. Crysis 2 sales, but take a look at this instead:

PC Sales of Crysis 2 - Week 1
Americas = 46,057
EMEAA = 57,316
Worldwide Total = 103,373

PC Sales of Crysis 2 - Week 2
Americas = 12,131
EMEAA = 18,556
Worldwide Total = 30,687

Now after 2 weeks of Sales, Crysis 2 has only sold 134,060 units on the PC.

Let's look at all platforms after 2 weeks.

PC = 134,060 (13.3% of Total)
Xbox360 = 537,066
PS3 = 339,600
Total = 1,010,726

Ya, that's even worse than my rough 20% estimate. Clearly, this only highlights why most developers could care less about the PC. If the Wii was a more powerful system, they'd net more sales on the Wii than the PC. From a business point of view, it just doesn't make any sense to put extra effort into a PC game (unless it has a massive online following such as Battlefield, WOW, Starcraft series, etc.).

Crytek could have invested $10 million into making the game better looking, but look at the amount of risk vs. reward given the unpredictable nature of PC gamers' purchasing decisions. Crysis 2 may not be as good as the first game, but looking at the sales #s, it looks like a game that got a review of 5/10.

Not sure how valid this is since I don't know the source of your numbers and I highly doubt they include Digital Transactions. I know for a fact they don't include Steam Numbers since, well, Steam still isn't releasing that info.

Quick show of hands how many people in this thread THAT DID BUY Crysis 2 get it retail? I got mine off Amazon Digital Download (gift ) and all the owners I know (from my other forum) got it through Steam.

 

[RussianSensation]

Not sure how valid this is since I don't know the source of your numbers and I highly doubt they include Digital Transactions. I know for a fact they don't include Steam Numbers since, well, Steam still isn't releasing that info.

That's a valid point. I used VGChartz. But this also supports my data.

Even then, I doubt there are an extra 1 million PC gamers out there who bought digital copies of the game. What about Black Ops? That game outsold the PC version on consoles almost 20:1.

 

[Dribble]

Not sure how valid this is since I don't know the source of your numbers and I highly doubt they include Digital Transactions. I know for a fact they don't include Steam Numbers since, well, Steam still isn't releasing that info.

Quick show of hands how many people in this thread THAT DID BUY Crysis 2 get it retail? I got mine off Amazon Digital Download (gift ) and all the owners I know (from my other forum) got it through Steam.

+1

Everyone tends to quote NPD sales figures, but they are miles off for PC games as they don't include the main method of purchasing them (digital). Most people I know haven't bought a hard copy of a game in years, they all just use steam. The real sales figures are probably very different.

 

[railven]

That's a valid point. I used VGChartz. But this also supports my data.

Even then, I doubt there are an extra 1 million PC gamers out there who bought digital copies of the game. What about Black Ops? That game outsold the PC version on consoles almost 20:1.

Oh, no, I completely agree, I'm sure consoles in terms of overall probably still outsell PC, but I'd argue the margin of difference isn't as skewed as people think.

Black OPs lost it's PC following due to the whole IW fiasco from MW2. There were a lot of vocal boycotts for MW2 and I believe gamers moved on. I'd have to find you the article, but IW themselves were suprised that MW1 had more active users than MW2 on the PC side.

Using this old article:
http://www.gamepolitics.com/2010/07/21/digital-pc-game-sales-nearly-even-retail-game-sales

And their estimated numbers, in 07/2010 Digital Downloads accounted for ~48% of PC sales. Just to be generous let's bump that to 50%, and using the 134k number above suddenly its 134k x 3 == 402k.

402k vs 1million isn't as dramatic as before. Factor in digital downloads don't pay for: packaging, retail overhead, console licensing fees, and shipping costs (if I could find the article to link) I'd argue they make more per unit sale through Digital Distro than retail.

 

[RussianSensation]

And their estimated numbers, in 07/2010 Digital Downloads accounted for ~48% of PC sales. Just to be generous let's bump that to 50%, and using the 134k number above suddenly its 134k x 3 == 402k.

If 50% of PC sales are digital, that means the other 50% are retail. Therefore, the total would be 268,000 units using your estimate not 402k. 268k is only 26.5% of the market sales so far. But forget about the 27% figure for a second. <300k units is still such a small amount of PC games sold 2 weeks after a launch for such a high profile game, that it still supports the view that you'd never be able to justify spending millions of dollars on making the game the best looking. The only reason Crytek did so for the first game is because they had to make a name for themselves. So consider the first game more of a "marketing/branding" expense. After that, it's all about making the most profits (which means curbing your development budget).

 

[railven]

If 50% of PC sales are digital, that means the other 50% are retail. Therefore, the total would be 268,000 units using your estimate not 402k. 268k is less than 30% of the market. But forget about 30% figure for a second. <300k units is still such a small amount of PC games sold 2 weeks after a launch of such a high profile game, that it still supports the view that you'd never be able to justify spending millions of dollars on making the game the best looking game. The only reason Crytek did so for the first game is because they had to make a name for themselves. So consider the first game more of a "marketing/branding" expense.

Good catch on my math fail.

But Crysis 2 wasn't received well by the community it was a "high profile" game for. Just look around and read the reviews by PC enthusiasts. When a high profile site like HardOCP calls the game a sell out, do you think the PC community will run out and buy it day one? There are still posts here that are saying they won't buy the game. I chose not to buy the game, someone gifted it to me.

Crysis 2 might not be the game to use for these kind of measurements due to its controversy. MW1 sold well on all the platforms, consoles outsold PC, but I'm sure it wasn't even close to 20:1.

I wonder how week 2 sales for Crysis would have been at retail had they gone the extra mile? You think they'd be higher or lower for the PC segment? And do you think they would have affected console sales?

I do hope Valve puts out Portal 2 sales numbers, I get a hankering they'd dwarf Crysis 2 numbers.

 

[Idontcare]

http://www.mycrysis.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=22276

Crytek has confirmed a DX11 patch at last.

Bad move to wait till whenever this comes out rather than have it there at release. But better late than never. Hard to say how much polish you can put on a turd.

The game was greatly looked forward to on PC but the release was botched and it's already lost the momentum it had due to negative reaction to the state the game released in. Generally if you don't execute well with the initial arrival to market of your product you dig a hole you won't pull out of.

I look forward to seeing if there is any clear graphic improvement or just a frame rate hit. Crysis 2 definitely could use some improved graphics. Hopefully this patch can bring the sequel at least up to the level of quality seen in its predecessor.

Who was it that first broke the story that Crysis 2 was going to not be DX11 at time of release and that it would be patched to DX11 later on?

Whoever that was just got a huge shot of credibility in my book.

 

[Grooveriding]

Who was it that first broke the story that Crysis 2 was going to not be DX11 at time of release and that it would be patched to DX11 later on?

Whoever that was just got a huge shot of credibility in my book.

http://translate.google.com/transla.../13594-crysis-2-endast-dx9-dx11-kommer-senare

It was Sweclockers. The same chaps with the infamous gtx 590 burning up youtube video. :ninja:

 

[Idontcare]

http://translate.google.com/transla.../13594-crysis-2-endast-dx9-dx11-kommer-senare

It was Sweclockers. The same chaps with the infamous gtx 590 burning up youtube video. :ninja:

Sweclockers got them some insider access :thumbsup: Good to know, I hope they keep giving us the goods

 

[railven]

http://translate.google.com/transla.../13594-crysis-2-endast-dx9-dx11-kommer-senare

It was Sweclockers. The same chaps with the infamous gtx 590 burning up youtube video. :ninja:

This back and forth is really pissing me off and makes me look at the top execs with more disdain.

Didn't someone at Crytek go ahead and post something along the lines of:
"We never said there would be a DX11 patch and anyone who claimed we were doing it are a bunch of liars."

Now they confirm it is coming out and WTF I hate people! Haha. Maybe I should hold off on finishing the game for the patch - ETA?

 

[railven]

http://www.mycrysis.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=15872&start=0

Rumor of DX11 patch confirmed as fud and unconfirmed by Crytek.

A DX11 patch on this game is like a silk hat on a pig. Gameplay is great imo, but the graphics are lackluster. It's a console port.

What I was referring to in my other short-rant.

 

[Grooveriding]

This back and forth is really pissing me off and makes me look at the top execs with more disdain.

Didn't someone at Crytek go ahead and post something along the lines of:
"We never said there would be a DX11 patch and anyone who claimed we were doing it are a bunch of liars."

Now they confirm it is coming out and WTF I hate people! Haha. Maybe I should hold off on finishing the game for the patch - ETA?

I wish I knew as well. I got so far as first meeting Gould in his apartment and stopped in hopes there would be a graphics patch. Now that it is announced it's good to hear, hopefully it comes out soon.

 

[tviceman]

Why don't you just play through it like you did with Dragon Age II before the in-game driver performance fix was released?

 

[nemesismk2]

I wish I knew as well. I got so far as first meeting Gould in his apartment and stopped in hopes there would be a graphics patch. Now that it is announced it's good to hear, hopefully it comes out soon.

What if when you use this DX11 Patch Crysis 2 runs at 30fps or less. I bet you would be kicking yourself for waiting lol especially if the visual quality doesn't improve much.

What kind of performance are you expecting to see with DX11 with Extreme Quality?

 

[nemesismk2]

I haven't tried looking for Crysis 1 / Warhead vs. Crysis 2 sales #s, but take a look at this instead:

PC Sales of Crysis 2 - Week 1
Americas = 46,057
EMEAA = 57,316
Worldwide Total = 103,373

PC Sales of Crysis 2 - Week 2
Americas = 12,131
EMEAA = 18,556
Worldwide Total = 30,687

Now after 2 weeks of Sales, Crysis 2 has only sold 134,060 units on the PC.

Let's look at all platforms after 2 weeks.

PC = 134,060 (13.3&#37; of Total)
Xbox360 = 537,066
PS3 = 339,600
Total = 1,010,726

Ya, that's even worse than my rough 20% estimate. Clearly, this only highlights why most developers could care less about the PC. If the Wii was a more powerful system, they'd net more sales on the Wii than the PC. From a business point of view, it just doesn't make any sense to put extra effort into a PC game (unless it has a massive online following such as Battlefield, WOW, Starcraft series, or has a mass appeal factor such as the Sims, etc.).

Crytek could have invested $10 million into making the game better looking, but look at the amount of risk vs. reward given the unpredictable nature of PC gamers' purchasing decisions. Crysis 2 may not be as good as the first game, but looking at the sales #s, it looks like a game that got a review of 5/10.

There are only 3 PC games in the top 50 best selling videogames. These are The Sims (#22), World of Warcraft (#30) and Starcraft 1 (#35). We should be happy as it is that Microsoft or Sony didn't make Crysis a console exclusive, yet. It is no surprise then that developers spend less and less time on catering specifically to PC hardware.

Sorry I just can't understand why games companies still release games for the PC because the sales are so poor compared to consoles?

Yes I mostly use my xbox 360 for gaming and only sometimes buy games for the PC like I did with Crysis 2

 

[zebrax2]

Why don't you just play through it like you did with Dragon Age II before the in-game driver performance fix was released?

Some games are boring once you've finish it and replaying becomes a chore. I guess this could be one such game for him and it would be such a shame to play the game and not have a chance to marvel at the added beauty the dx11 patch might add during that 1 run