SH III sales figures
 

This may be old news. In this post, it was mentioned that SH III sold 26,500 copies.

http://www.battlefront.com/discuss/u...222;p=2#000028

Scroll up the page and read the post byMOON. He works for Battlefront.

Other sources say that more than 80000 copies were sold world-wide.

If this is so i dont understand why there will be no expansion pack

...because for most published games today the magical borderline for the breakeven is at 100.000 - 120.000 sold copies.

So, is it 26,500 or 80,000? Battlefront is a serious company. I don't think they would just pull a number out of thin air.

And if it is just 26,500, what does that mean for SH 4?

I know Need For Speed Underground sold 7million copies or so. You decide if a 30000 figure is any good, my guess is - not. But than again, I don't know the average for this niche (no clue). However I can be pretty sure that sims in general still sell more, like 10tacle 'GTR'. Subsims - well, I'm sure it sold more than Sub Command or DW, but probably not as many as SH2. Would be interesting to hear someone comment who's actually more knowledgeable in the industry.

Moon is an employee of Battlefront, that alone doesn´t make him an expert.

I´ve bought the first two copies of SH3 in a local store the day it came out (they had 15 on display), 24 hours later they were sold out. I´ve read a few reports were it was the same. Walmart and many other big shops sold SH3. So what do you think is a more reasonable number: 26500 or 80000 copies sold in 6 months?

Actually MOON, aka Martin Van Balkorn, is the head of the marketing department at Battlefront, which is both a developper and publisher of wargames(it also publishes Dangerous Waters), so he knows the industry. I did him a disservice by referring to him as a mere employee.

I am just wondering where the 80,000 figure comes from since I have not seen it before.

80.000 wouldn't be a great number for them, I guess.
Even in the old days, best sellers got to sell a million copies or even more (see Command & Conquer or Doom, for example). Now that the computer stuff has evolved very fast in the last 10 years, with millions of freaks :-j playing computer games, those numbers can be even bigger than "a simple million". So for the present day, 80.000 is a small number. :roll:

Either way you look at it 30,000 or 80,000 just is not a very large number in sales.Actually is quite low if you compare it to other game sales from other companies.And Ubi must not make that much after the middle man takes out his share of the profits.The sales really dont warrent putting any money into the game any longer.Some companies would see 30,000-80,000 copies sold as good..other will see it as a failure.

Submarine simulations are a very small minority niche group in the large sheme of PC gaming..hence not a large profit return to the developers.Where FPS games like Half-Life 2 and Doom 3 etc tend to sell in the million+ category of sales along with the RTS games genere.

I would better say "not a large profit return to the distributors". The developers already got their profit: we love the game and supported them. :up:

The 80.000 was such a side note in a game-news about SH3 published by german gaming magazine some weeks ago.

You can't buy food with " :up: "

:-j

Certainly not... :lol: :lol: :lol:

Thanks, duly noted.

This amount was sold only in Germany (perhaps are the best sales that Ubi ever had in Germany with one of its titles on a single platform). The sales are a little bit better at a worldwide scale.

The major flaw in sales of Silent Hunter III was in US. I think Ubi didn’t expect such poor sales in US (approx 24.000 copies)

The advantage of a game as Silent Hunter III is that the amounts of sales are constant even if are low and this could mean that SHIII could become profitable if will keep its price unaltered.

Both these are true…

Rock will never die… so will happen with SH Franchise if Ubi will know how to manage this brand. And if they will give to it more support. Is very hard to find dedicated Dev Teams and you could risk losing them.

I fully agree with you. :D

I don't believe to 26500 copies sold stories ! I remember that SHIII actuallly entered the top 10 of German game sales a couple of months ago.....

Below you can find the recent software top 20 from Dynabyte, a chain that sells software all over the Netherlands.......

Look what game is at number 7! It is situated right among socalled 'top' games..........albeit at a reduced price.
I have no doubts that SHII is a good seller, maybe not a -best-seller


1 De Sims 2 Nachtleven

2 World of Warcraft 2mnd Timecard

3 Dungeon Siege 2

4 World of Warcraft Euro Versie 44,95

5 Battlefield 2 DVD 51,95

6 Guild Wars 42,50

7 Silent Hunter 3 DVD 19,95

8 Call of Duty Dlx 24,95

9 Settlers Heritage of Kings 19,95

10 De Sims 2 Special Edition DVD Actie 59,95

11 GTR FIA GT Racing 29,95

12 Grand Theft Auto San Andreas 49,95

13 Brothers in Arms DVD 29,95

14 Burnout Legends PSP 54,95

15 Guild Wars Collectors Edition 59,95

16 Sacred Gold 29,95

17 Battlefield 2 Commanders Edit DVD 64,95

18 Coded Arms PSP 49,95

19 Stronghold 2 29,95

20 Flightsimulator 2004 Century Flight 47,50

Ubisoft shouldn't be surprised. They dropped the ball when it came to US marketing pre-release, and they never even got any meaningful coverage in the US gaming press post-release. If they don't market the product it won't sell. It's as simple as that. Given the fact that it never got any real marketing, I'm surprised the game did as well as it did here in the US.