Sales figures - Where?

[onelifecrisis]

Originally Posted by Sonarman

Ubisoft did state publically a while back in a press release that the series as a whole had sold over 1.5 million units. Traditionally a simulation game was considered successful in the industry with sales of over 300,000 units. The figures Neal quotes may be full price retail ie. before releasing on budget figures? Reading between the lines on various articles it appears that the series is selling more copies in Europe than the US. Indeed SHIII reached number 3 in the UK PC charts on release and stayed in the charts for some time after, unheard of for a subsim.

Fascinating stuff. I wonder what that says about the UK? Maybe just that the U-boats had a lasting effect on us?

I've also seen that number (1.5 million) somewhere, but there's a big gap between that and Neal's figures. Too big, I think, to be explained by budget sales.

[THE_MASK]

Now that SH5 is online there is no excuse for Ubi to not continue ongoing support , paid or otherwise . You can download the silent hunter 5 soundtrack on itunes .

[Hitman]

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

Interesting how the buggy and unfinished SH2 sold more than SH3 ... doubtlessly because of the multiplayer sub vs. destroyer. Also may be the bad reputation of SH2 damaged SH3 later? Had more widespreaded piracy a direct impact in SH3/4 sales?

Even if unfinished, I bet that the reason that SH4 sold less was also because of it being about US subs. The myth of the grey wolves in popular culture is still much spreaded than the US boats campaign, and that shows here.

Also, Neal, do those figures for SH4 include Uboat missions??

One final consideration: If the amount of recent Sh games sold goes up to

nearly 240.000, then 1.260.000 sales in the franchise go to the good original SH 1

[martes86]

Originally Posted by Hitman

Interesting how the buggy and unfinished SH2 sold more than SH3 ... doubtlessly because of the multiplayer sub vs. destroyer.

Yeah... it still had some predicament in the community, it took SH3 some time to overcome the gameplay of SH2/DC, specially in MP (SP was actually much better equipped).

[Sonarman]

Here is an interesting quote I found a whille back on the original SSI Silent Hunter by Joel Billings in the book "Interactivity in action"...

The product with the most potential for SSI is "Silent Hunter" , it's a world war ii submarine simulation, and submarine simulations sell really well. - Aces of the Deep sold a ton. Silent Hunter is an outstanding product in every way and we are thinking it may well become our all-time biggest seller.

That's quite a compliment and an eye-opener considering SSI's output at the time.

[Heretic]

Originally Posted by Sonarman

Here is an interesting quote I found a whille back on the original SSI Silent Hunter by Joel Billings in the book "Interactivity in action"...

The product with the most potential for SSI is "Silent Hunter" , it's a world war ii submarine simulation, and submarine simulations sell really well. - Aces of the Deep sold a ton. Silent Hunter is an outstanding product in every way and we are thinking it may well become our all-time biggest seller.

That's quite a compliment and an eye-opener considering SSI's output at the time.

Back then , that was the case. PC games were made by enthusiasts for enthusiasts. Back in the day, wargames were a good size chunk of the market. I bought almost every Gary Grigsby game SSI produced. It was a niche market.

Ironicly, technology played a big role in killing that. Better hardware allowed better graphics and sound, etc. Development costs shot up, so they had to cater to a wider audience to stay in business. It became a mass medium with all the pros and cons that goes with it.

Joel and Gary are still around. Still making great games. Still a niche market.

[Sonarman]

I wonder if those figures are US sales only, I remember EAST posting a while back that he had heard on the industry grapevine that the budget for SHIII was around 3 million dollars.

Based on the above 90K copies for SH3 x a full retail price of of $40 gives 3.6 million but only about a third of that or less would be Ubisoft's when you factor in distribution & retail. I doubt there would be a SH4 and SH5 based on those figures. And SH3 was considered a success by Ubi.

[bishop]

Originally Posted by onelifecrisis

I've also seen that number (1.5 million) somewhere, but there's a big gap between that and Neal's figures. Too big, I think, to be explained by budget sales.

The press release said the series 'as a whole' which I would suspect would (should) include SH1. Neal's figures don't include SH1, possibly because it was SSI and not Ubisoft's title originally. But I think if you include those sales, the 1.5 mil # might be accurate. I think the original SH as a whole (including the expansion packs and Commanders Edition) may actually have been the biggest seller of the entire series...