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Helldivers 2 Reaches #1 on Steam Most Played, Broke 430K+ CCU
- Thread starter DeepEnigma
- Start date
Men_in_Boxes
Snake Oil Salesman
Gamerguy84
Member
Dayum.
Mibu no ookami
Member
Will be really interesting to see how Helldivers impacts Sony's Q4 financial results given they absolutely didn't expect this game to be this big of a hit and subsequently how it impacts their fiscal year report.
Wouldn't be surprised if this one game saves a lot of jobs.
This is what people meant when they said Sony only needs to hit on a couple of these GaaS games.
MLB The Show is already a perennial hit for Sony. Next they need to look to bringing it to PC and Mobile to expand the margins on it. The same goes for Gran Turismo 7.
But this will also really impact how Sony looks at Fairgame$ and Concord, not necessarily expectations, but I'm sure they're looking at lessons they can learn from the rollout of Helldivers.
Wouldn't be surprised if this one game saves a lot of jobs.
This is what people meant when they said Sony only needs to hit on a couple of these GaaS games.
MLB The Show is already a perennial hit for Sony. Next they need to look to bringing it to PC and Mobile to expand the margins on it. The same goes for Gran Turismo 7.
But this will also really impact how Sony looks at Fairgame$ and Concord, not necessarily expectations, but I'm sure they're looking at lessons they can learn from the rollout of Helldivers.
Sushi_Combo
Member
Very impressive! Hope this game will have some long legs.
clarky
Gold Member
Lets fucking hope so. As good as the game is, its a fucking shit show right now.
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BiohazardX95
Member
Imagine if it no longer has server issues...
diffusionx
Gold Member
Palsisters.... we are forgotten...
poppabk
Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
A failure you mean. Every player is one PS5 sitting on a shelf, and one less 'magic' for PS5 players.Yet another success from PlayStation Studios
Raonak
Banned
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Vroadstar
Member
sachos
Member
I really like this dev being so open about what's happening. Good PR strategy too to stifle some fires.
PonyStation4
Member
They should be putting out fires over their rootkit in a co-op game, which is a significantly bigger deal than their servers.
James Sawyer Ford
Member
1. Unique, innovative, fun
2. Great presentation values
3. Awesome co-op mechanics
4. Reasonable price with good MTX execution
5. Not overly convoluted with tons of bloated weapons/stats that seem trivial (Destiny)
6. Not stale or unwelcoming to newcomers (Destiny)
Just pure, unadulterated, chaotic, sandbox fun
That’s it. That’s the formula
thicc_girls_are_teh_best
Gold Member
GT7 would be a bit hard because they're partnered with the F1 racing league IIRC, and PC is rampant with cheating and mods for unfair boosts. I mean it happens on console too, but since Sony have control of the console they can detect those mods and take appropriate action including firmware updates. That's not 100% possible on PC (not without the game being tied to their own launcher/storefront...which doesn't exist on PC ATM).
But yeah, they should have been gotten MLB The Show into more places. A F2P version for mobile with optional fantasy league features seems like a no-brainer.
Pretty sure M&A talks between SIE and Arrowhead are ongoing. Wouldn't worry about Microsoft in this; they have their own studios to get fixed up plus Arrowhead have no real history with Microsoft nor do Microsoft own the Helldivers IP (Sony/SIE do).
Also they already bought ABK for $75 billion to get COD (among other IP). Regulators already are looking at genre monopolies anyway, so that would massively complicate Microsoft going after a studio like Arrowhead for IP like Helldivers (which again, Sony/SIE own the rights to, but MS buying Arrowhead to try making a knockoff IP would still run into massive issues of genre monopoly through M&As).
MasterCornholio
Member
They could always run to Sony for protection if that happens. Some companies simply don't want to be bought by Microsoft. Microsoft should focus on the Palworld guys IMO.
MasterCornholio
Member
Didn't Sony fund this one though? I'm struggling to see how it's a failure for them. Especially since its doing great on both platforms which Sony are on.
Mibu no ookami
Member
I'm not going to say that you're wrong, but buying the studio doesn't resolve short term margin issues. The only reason for Sony to buy and for Arrowhead to sell is in order to ramp up on content. The reality is that it'll be years before Arrowhead makes another game. The return on investment of buying them likely won't come for some time. Most of the benefits Sony can get with them on Helldivers 2, comes from being the publisher of the game.
Long story short, there needs to be an appreciable market for Helldivers to make it worth Sony feeling like the studio needs to be brought in in-house and the CEO of the game doesn't seem totally interested in that.
I think you're thinking of FIA not F1.
And all PC games have to deal with cheating. Not sure that this would be an outlier.
I agree with you on MLB The Show being an obvious mobile version, the monetization of which, I'm not sure what they'd need to do.
I don't get the sense that there are any M&A talks between Sony and Arrowhead. The reality is timing is everything on this. Do they want to sell? Does selling now make more sense than selling in 4 years? Does selling to Sony make more sense than say EA or Microsoft if their games can launch across platforms? There are a lot of questions to answer before any buyout would happen.
I read his post like 10 times, it just doesn't make sense. Maybe he is saying if they're playing this they aren't playing other PlayStation games?
MasterCornholio
Member
Maybe he's saying the PS5 loses whenever someone buys the game on Steam?
Mibu no ookami
Member
Maybe, but the assumption and it is a really big assumption is that these people would have bought a PS5 for helldivers 2. It just doesn't really add up.
Part of a multiplatform strategy is recognizing who are and aren't your customers. The old lady who plays candy crush on her phone isn't going to buy a PS5 most likely.
I think Sony has to crunch the numbers on the financials of having their own PC Storefront selling their first party games for full value and getting a cut of 3rd party games. Games like Helldivers 2 should really put that into perspective for Sony. Pure speculation on my part because we don't have the agreement between Arrowhead and Sony, but if they have a 40-60 profit split and 20 percent off the top goes to valve, Sony is really only making 48% of the revenue on the game and still need to breakeven from the development costs.
If this game sells 8 million copies on Steam for 40 dollars (I know there is a 60 dollar version as well, but let's assume some level of future discounting as well, and refunds) that's "only" 153.6 million dollars. If the game costs and again I'm speculating 50 million dollars to develop, the operating profit for the game is only 100 million dollars. Of course it is on PS5 as well, but where Sony would generally make money off this game is on-going MTX opportunities.
And that's assuming they get a 60 percent cut, I'm leaning towards a heavier number since they own the IP.
SlimySnake
Flashless at the Golden Globes
It’s nuts that this game went viral. We were all convinced this was DoA.
Just goes to show you never know which games hit it big.
This is probably Sonys fastest selling game of all time if the ps5 numbers are the same as pc numbers. Spider-Man 2 is the fastest with 5 million in 11 days. I wonder if this game is well past that.
Just goes to show you never know which games hit it big.
This is probably Sonys fastest selling game of all time if the ps5 numbers are the same as pc numbers. Spider-Man 2 is the fastest with 5 million in 11 days. I wonder if this game is well past that.
Mibu no ookami
Member
First, based on everything we've heard it's not nearly as popular on PS5 as it is on Steam. It's not a 1:1 player ratio at least.
Second, it's top on the playstation store at the moment, but that's not really saying anything. We'll see if it stays at the top with FF7. Could go either way.
Third, it's important to remember that the game is nearly half the price of Spider-Man 2. It largely has a different mechanism for revenue than Spider-Man. Spider-Man is also a licensed game. It's really difficult to compare the two, is what I'm saying.
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
Yup.
I said it in a post days ago somewhere, but with the way gaming is now and budgets unless a company has a proven winner that will sells tons no matter what, a game company can probably release a modest budget game, skip costly traditional marketing costs and try to promote it the internet way. Look how many PC games become big sellers and you never hear about them on TV or anything, and given the production values half the time it's got that low budget look to it instead of AAA textures and actors.
I dont use Tik Tok, but if H2 went viral on it leading to big success it shows the industry can get by doing great sales with modest budgets. it's not like traditional companies where you need mass appeal and shit like billboards, taste test kiosks and TV ads during prime time drive sales. Or else it gets lost among the crowd of products on shelf. In fact, for you gaffers who never worked in the industry, any big company selling new shit in big stores will require marketing campaign details and discount commitments to retailer head office. If the head buyer isnt convinced the company is fully committed, they wont bother taking your product. Or they will wait till you prove to them the marketing campaign starts at a certain time and they they will coordinate putting it on shelf when the marketing starts. In gaming and digital mediums, you never know which game can take off even with zero paid marketing.
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Heisenberg007
Gold Journalism
I am confident that this game is well past 5 million copies.
It'd have sold around 4 million units just on Steam alone.
Killjoy-NL
Member
It's not the first time Gaf has been out of touch with reality.
HD2 being this successful is unexpected though.
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Mibu no ookami
Member
Just like the people who keep saying Sony doesn't have any first party games for 2024 because Totoki said they don't have any first party games from major franchises.
Not saying Fairgames or Concord are going to be hits the size of Helldivers, but you really don't know about any of these games their potential.
I remember what a mistake I thought Sony was making releasing Tsushima a few weeks after TLOU2, but Tsushima was a massive hit.
TheDarkPhantom
Member
PlayStation stay winning? PlayStation stay winning 
Sony should be doing everything in their power to support Arrowhead, they unexpectedly got a GaaS golden goose. I loved the first game but HD2 is on another level, devs deserve all the success in the world despite the issues.
Sony should be doing everything in their power to support Arrowhead, they unexpectedly got a GaaS golden goose. I loved the first game but HD2 is on another level, devs deserve all the success in the world despite the issues.
Varteras
Gold Member
I immediately disregarded Fairgames as DoA when I saw the trailer. But then I remembered how wrong I was thinking Fortnite wouldn't survive more than a year. I also wrote Helldivers off as maybe being fun for a week and having no shot at being a big deal. Pretty humbling reminder that I'm not as in tune with the market as I sometimes think.
James Sawyer Ford
Member
That’s not true. The devs have said it’s about 1:1, and may be 20% higher on ps5
Mibu no ookami
Member
They said they capped the server count to around 500K and at the time there was 400K logged in via Steam. Maybe not actively connected to the server, but combined with the information from NPD saying that 4:1 steam players were playing vs 20:1 PS5 users, tells us that it is certainly not 1:1.
James Sawyer Ford
Member
Source?
I haven’t heard any such claim
There is a market for HD, for one. And two, Sony wants to acquire GaaS talent, and Aarowhead fits that bill
James Sawyer Ford
Member
That limit is per platform, not total
Ill take the devs at their word, not some fake engagement metric
Mibu no ookami
Member
These games aren't built for us. Good to get reminded of that from time to time.
Good chance I'll never play Helldivers and that's okay. I won't play Fairgames or Concord either, but they definitely shouldn't be dismissed.
The Division sold more than 10 million units and Payday 2 sold over 40 million copies.
The opportunity for Fairgames is actually really high.
Everyone assumes a pretty light year for Sony, but if you look at certain years of PlayStation, it was pretty similar.
2015: Bloodborne, Helldivers 1, Order 1886, Until Dawn -- Now not necessarily a commercially successful year, but you never know what a franchise will turn into in regards to Helldivers. Until Dawn PS5/PC might be even bigger than it was on PS4 if the movie is successful. Bloodborne may yet get remade and remastered and again could have even more success now.
Sony generally can't win with fans who think they focus too much on existing IP but also criticize Sony for working on new IP. Same people too.
Sony is doing a pretty decent job in my estimation of focusing on remasters/remakes of key games, sequels, and new ip. Ideally you'd have a mix of all of these in the same year, but real life is more difficult than that. At the end of the day the overall portfolio is what matters.
Killjoy-NL
Member
Guess I'm not the only one failing at times.
Mibu no ookami
Member
Source? Common sense.
What does buying them make for you in terms of profit in the next 2-3 years that you aren't going to get as the publisher? That's not to say they won't buy them, but just because a game is successful doesn't mean the developer will get bought out right away.