Sales figures - Where?

[Nisgeis]

There have been a few posts of late talking about the 'success' or 'failure' of SH3 and SH4 based on the sales figures. Some have said that SH3 sold well because... and others have said that SH4 didn't sell well because... Others have compared sales figures from other titles.

I've never seen any sales figures released from Ubisoft. Could someone who has seen them tell me where the sales figures are listed please? I'd really be interested to see how well each title sells compared to others in its genre category.

Thanks!

[Ragtag]

As far as i know Ubisoft do not give out their salefigures to the public. Most statistics are usually based on sales from shops and are quite inacurate due to alot of shops not giving out salesfigures to.

[Onkel Neal]

I get my info from several distinct sources, some from some inside Ubisoft (not the devs), some independent of Ubi (marketing research groups), but I cannot say who. These are sources I have built over nearly ten years and I don't want to lose them. And I cannot say I know they are 100% accurate. But the different sources do have similar numbers.

SH2: ~95K
SH3: ~90K
SH4: ~50K

Those are US numbers, worldwide is something like 2X those figures.

[Bilge_Rat]

For SH1, I had read a long time ago, I believe in a Ubisoft press release announcing SH2, that SH1 had sold 300,000 units. Of course, that was a different time when the Sim market was stronger and there was no competition from consoles.

Originally Posted by Neal Stevens

SH2: ~95K
SH3: ~90K
SH4: ~50K

On SH3, mr. Stevens may have forgotten his little sit-down with the SH4 Dev Team:

Subsim: Back in June 2005 CNN quoted the NPD Group’s April sales numbers at 26,600 units. Is that accurate? What does Ubisoft claim for sales numbers for SH3 to date?
SH4 Dev Team: The best thing about a simulation title is that the amount of sales tends to remain constant each month. SHIII sells well even one year after its release. We estimate Silent Hunter 3 sold over 300,000 copies worldwide.

http://www.subsim.com/ssr/sh4/sh4_interview1.php

Regarding SH4, I would also think the figures were influenced more by the theater, since in terms of game mechanics and features, SH3 and SH4 were the same. From what I have read previously, the two strongest markets for subsims are U.S.A. and Germany. I presume there is less interest in Germany for the Pacific theater.

The 1,500,000 total figure seems suspect, since after we remove the 600,000 for SH1 and SH3, that leaves 900,000 for SH2 and SH4.

However, even if the 1.5 milion sales figure for sh1 to 4 since 1996 is true, it is still only a blip on Ubisoft's balance sheet. Assassin's Creed 2 alone has sold 6,000,000 copies since november and Ubisoft is predicting total sales of Euros 860,000,000 (i.e. about U.S. $1.2 billion) this year.


http://www.ubisoftgroup.com/index.ph...TTBRJTI1M0Q%3D

[oscar19681]

A thread about sales figures? Man i feel like i,m watching wall street reports here!

[Sonarman]

At least it gets our minds off the dreaded DRM topic for a while!

[Hitman]

However, even if the 1.5 milion sales figure for sh1 to 4 since 1996 is true, it is still only a blip on Ubisoft's balance sheet. Assassin's Creed 2 alone has sold 6,000,000 copies since november and Ubisoft is predicting total sales of Euros 860,000,000 (i.e. about U.S. $1.2 billion) this year.

Yeah, I see how rightfully they are bothered about some people pirating their new SH5 ... would ruin them to care about the loyal customers of their niche market, would it?

[tater]

According to their annual reports, total sales have ~45% US, 49% Europe, and 6% the rest of the world.

Even doubled, those numbers are quite low. Low enough, in fact, that instead of us being beholden to them ("oh, please, oh please, sell use broken products that WE will finish for you—oh, and add ), invasive DRM schemes!"—they should be beholden to us.

[Onkel Neal]

Originally Posted by Bilge_Rat

For SH1, I had read a long time ago, I believe in a Ubisoft press release announcing SH2, that SH1 had sold 300,000 units. Of course, that was a different time when the Sim market was stronger and there was no competition from consoles.

On SH3, mr. Stevens may have forgotten his little sit-down with the SH4 Dev Team:

Subsim: Back in June 2005 CNN quoted the NPD Group’s April sales numbers at 26,600 units. Is that accurate? What does Ubisoft claim for sales numbers for SH3 to date?
SH4 Dev Team: The best thing about a simulation title is that the amount of sales tends to remain constant each month. SHIII sells well even one year after its release. We estimate Silent Hunter 3 sold over 300,000 copies worldwide.

See the part where I said sources "inside Ubisoft (not the devs)"?

[Bilge_Rat]

Originally Posted by Neal Stevens

See the part where I said sources "inside Ubisoft (not the devs)"?

oh, so it's even more of a niche product than I thought with around 90,000 sales for SH3.

[rascal101]

Jesus no wonder the games scene is dying in the arse - your average sales rep earns 90k in a year

How you get a developer team working for two or three years on a title and only make 90k for your efforts thats serious loss, either that or the developers are paid peanuts

How the hell did SH2 make more than three!

R

Originally Posted by Neal Stevens

I get my info from several distinct sources, some from some inside Ubisoft (not the devs), some independent of Ubi (marketing research groups), but I cannot say who. These are sources I have built over nearly ten years and I don't want to lose them. And I cannot say I know they are 100% accurate. But the different sources do have similar numbers.

SH2: ~95K
SH3: ~90K
SH4: ~50K

Those are US numbers, worldwide is something like 2X those figures.

[Nisgeis]

Thinking back, SH4 was in the Top 10 (or perhaps 20) best selling PC games in the local games shops where I worked and when the expansion pack came out, that was up there too, always a few places behind the main game, so it can't have sold that badly in the UK.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Nisgeis

Thinking back, SH4 was in the Top 10 (or perhaps 20) best selling PC games in the local games shops where I worked and when the expansion pack came out, that was up there too, always a few places behind the main game, so it can't have sold that badly in the UK.

Yeah but for what time period did it stay in the charts? I saw scant evidence of it in the northern region.

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by rascal101

How you get a developer team working for two or three years on a title and only make 90k for your efforts thats serious loss, either that or the developers are paid peanuts

I think that's copies sold, not amount paid (or brought in).

90k copies x $50 US would be $4.5 million. Still a pittance compared to a mainstream game, but more than ninety thousand.

[Heretic]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

I think that's copies sold, not amount paid (or brought in).

90k copies x $50 US would be $4.5 million. Still a pittance compared to a mainstream game, but more than ninety thousand.

You need a breakout of how many sold at full price versus various levels of discount to calculate the total revenue generated. I doubt such figures are available. I'd be surprised if the 95k figure refers to full price sales.