Games @sh.itjust.works nanoUFO @sh.itjust.works 11mo ago

Alan Wake 2's Seemingly Dire Sales Don't Paint the Full Picture

www.ign.com Alan Wake 2's Seemingly Dire Sales Don't Paint the Full Picture - IGN

Earlier today, we reported on Circana's monthly US game sales report, which has Hogwarts Legacy and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 in a neck-in-neck battle for annual best-seller. But a quick glance over the charts for November reveals a conspicuous missing entry. Where's Alan Wake 2?

42 comments

I really want to play it, but it's on epic. I'm waiting for steam version.
- Same here. I’ll either wait it out until it eventually comes to Steam or just watch an LP.
  
  PC gaming has taught me patience.
  
  Time = Bug fix + cost saving
  
  Yeah, I got control goty edition on steam with all the bells and whistles and thoroughly enjoyed it. I expect the same from Alan Wake.
- I agree. Also having some decent native optimization for the Deck wouldn't be too bad.
Only 850k copies? Jesus. Maybe release it on a bigger platform, lol. Like...not Epic?
- Ampere estimates that globally, just on console, Alan Wake 2 sold 850,000 copies as of the end of November.
  
  And,
  
  Epic Games does not provide digital sales data to Circana, so there's just no way for Circana to tell us how well it sold.
  
  So no one knows apart from Epic and Remedy
  
  If the number was high Sweeney wouldn't shut up about it, so we can guess it is low.
I would have picked it up but in waiting for it to come to Steam
- Epic published the game, gonna be a long wait. It will come to steam when epic gives up the storefront dream, which is to say never.
  
  I can wait. I got plenty to play. Even Xbox and Playstation are publishing their exclusives on good platforms now. Origin caved. I can wait a decade+ for Todd or Tim or whatever his name is to run out of fortnite money, lol.
  
  For the most gamers I know games are available on Steam or the high seas, especially for me that use Linux so Epic games are not officially available, every game that only releases on Epic for me it's a "too bad, I would have bought it"
- I'm still waiting for Kingdom Hearts... How long has it been now?
Can't wait to play once it's out on steam
- I wouldn't bet on it. It's published by epic, after all. The Alan Wake remaster still hasn't made it to steam, either.
It's Epic exclusive because they gave the devs big stack of money, so that probably offsets the low sales. It's like with Against the Storm, it was Epic exclusive for many years (in early access), then finally comes to Stream and everbody loves it. They kinda milked Epic for cash, then let the Stream rip the rewards with full release.

Wonder whether that's pretty good move financially?
- Tiny Tina's Wonderlands was Epic exclusive and it didn't seem to make a splash on either release. I wonder if it's because people didn't make the leap to Epic but lost interest by the time it was on Steam? Or maybe Borderlands 3 made people lose interest in the franchise.
  
  The game was not great, at least personally. It wasn't bad, but it was just BL3 in a different dress, with less interesting story, less interesting characters. Also the DLCs were insane cashgrabs, not even close to the value BL3 DLCs had.
- It's not a normal epic exclusive, like Hades, for example. Epic didn't just paid them to keep the game out of Steam (for a time), they financed the while game. Developers of "normal" exclusives get money to release their game, already under development, on EGS first. Alan Wake 2 is different, it wouldn't exists without Epic games.
  
  Look, I like my steam library as the next guy, and would be happy to have all my games there, but in this case there is literally nothing wrong with the game being only available on EGS. Would I prefer to have it on Steam? Yeah, of course. But I also very much happy to just be able to play it, and if I have to do it on Epic, well, that's really not a big deal.
- Its not just a limited Epic exclusive. Its not going to leave the EGS.
Not releasing on physical media was a huge mistake.
- Wait, no physical sales on console, no steam on PC?
  
  Correct. When I found out it wasn't going to be on steam, I figured I'd get a physical copy for the PS5 instead. Found out that wasn't all option either...
- Yeah, I would have bought if it was released on a physical disk.
They're just asking for it to be pirated by locking it to epic games launcher.

Good thing nobody on Lemmy believes in pirating media though
Probably a good game, not sure, but most of my gaming time is spent on Baldur's Gate 3, play-through after play-through.
- My problem exactly
  
  Between BG3 and the Cyberpunk 2.0 and DLC my Gametime is already running pretty thin
  
  Perhaps I'll manage to play it in february
I absolutely loved the game
- Is the original one worth playing first or is it fine to just watch a playthrough?
  
  I tried to but 2 episodes in I couldn't stand the combat and just watched a good supercut of all the cut scenes and dialog in the game. Gave me everything I wanted tbh
  
  I've tried the remastered version on PS5, and it's rough. The atmosphere is great, the combat not so much. Personally, I've just watched a plot summary on YouTube, there are many, but I prefer Lady of Lore's.
  
  Also, the game itself features a semi-conprehensive summary of the first game as well.
I would have played but my 5 year old system can barely run it…
- Yeah I really want to play it, but can't until I upgrade.

42 comments