Personally, I choose to believe that what we are seeing here is primarily the impact of people realizing that Might & Magic X: Legacy was the GotY of 2014 and buying it in droves.
Very true.
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Ubisoft Q1 2015 financials; 56% revenue from digital sales
- Thread starter MauroNL
- Start date
Interfectum
Member
Yeah Witcher 3 sales split will be quite interesting two years from now.
I meant what's the percentage a publisher takes from a digital console game. 50% or so?
For retail AAA titles everything I've seen points it to within 10% to 30%. Significant numbers but overshadowed by retail still. No idea about long-tail sales, also things like PS+ and G4G would muddy those figures a bit. PC is around 70-90% digital at this point.
You'd think they would do a better job porting. >:\
I'm pretty sure it's the same as Steam, 70%. That said, not sure if the platform royalty fee is counted in that.
Obliterator
Member
You know thats a very good question, and I'm not sure we've ever gotten the percentage breakdown of what pubs see on Xbone or PSN sales. I'm assuming at least a 50% revenue return. Its entirely possible they get similar to the Steam 70% as well, but I don't think we know for certain the breakdown.
From first hand experiences and trying to find solutions: Watch_Dogs was terrible, Both Far Cry 3 and 4 have seemingly unresolved stuttering issues, The Crew's in game cutscenes are all fucked up (and also runs way poorer than it looks), Assassin's Creed 4 was unoptimized.
also Batman Arkham Knight has PC exclusive effects too, it means nothing
Digital revenue accounts for 90%+ of PC sales, while console the vast majority is still physical.
MrNyarlathotep
Banned
I believe platform royalties are contractually seperate from retailer cuts, even on platform owners digital stores.
Console digital sales has the retail outlet split (industry standard 30%) and a console royalty fee (same as with physical products) but that should be it.
Physical is generally the most common for console sales but it definitely isn't the only method. Digital is growing on consoles for sure, but now where near as wide spread as it is on PC. For Ubisoft in particular though, they will get 100% of the sale if done through Uplay on PC. Also Valve allows for key generation at no cost to the publisher - so other retailers stores such as GMG, Amazon etc can take 30% but Ubi will still get 70%
This goes without saying. It's pretty unbelievable that they are doing so well on PC as it is. If they were actually reliable, did good PC versions and had appropriate pricing per country, they would be more successful
Grimgrillz
Banned
The breakdown between platforms is very telling.
Delusibeta
Banned
They're selling better on PC than the Xbox Family. Admittedly, that's largely due to the regionality of Xbox's popularity versus PC gaming being popular everywhere, including in parts that consoles don't/haven't reached yet, but still.
I don't know how you can say that when games like Crash Bandicoot & FFVII are still selling on PS3 20 years after release, you are aware that PS3 has a vast library from PS1 & sometimes even PS2, or that VC exists on Nintendo, right?
1st Course
Member
Europe is now their biggest region with ROTW share growing from 12% to 20%. Doesn't bode well for Xbox.
Melchiah
Member
Nice to see Europe and consoles leading in sales.
You ignored his aside though: "For the most part". This is true, for the most part.
Just last summer sale alone, Bioshock 1, an almost decade old game brought in over half a million dollars revenue for that publisher. That agme has probably been doing that on every Steam sale for years. I doubt the console version is bringing much if any money these days.
I share this sentiment.
Yeah, but if you buy a game for PC, you don't need to buy it again because the system is not retrocompatible. I can play The Witcher on my PC even if I've bought it 8 years ago. Opposite of console, when you need to buy it again if you want to re-playing it on the new system.
Rockstar Beaver
Banned
I think a lot of the hardcore Xbox users are going to PC now. To be honest, I used to be a Xbox fanboy but since I built my PC, I am buying and playing my games on PC using my Xbox One controller.
According to the stats, I am not the only one.
Welfare
Member
Yup, math is great.
Q1 2014/2015: PS4 - 36% / XB1 - 17% = 2.12
Q1 2015/2016: PS4 - 27% / XB1 - 11% = 2.45
Barack Lesnar
Banned
When is the last time people who crap on PC Uplay have used it? It works fine. Haven't had an issue in years. It's improved a lot.
Don't worry, you can't argue with numbers of course but stats are cherry picked to enhance the corporate agenda. Take my pet peeve of forced multiplayer (4 player co-op) for example. Guillemot praises their strategy and advances in the area but in reality the next AC game will be single player only. Last year companion apps were all the rage - now the Division, that technology's proudest example, dropped it completely.
Compared to Steam and Origin the Uplay client is pretty bad. For me at least it can take 20 seconds for the client to go through the checking for updates/logging in segment.
Also OP should now be quoted whenever someone brings up the "PC users only pirate games" arguments.
Which was ironically largely popularized by Ubisoft.
Interrobang
Member
Glad some people support where I was going with that. Seemed like everyone wasn't really getting what I was saying.
SEGAvangelist
Member
I wonder how much better XB1 would be without the Unity/Black Flag bundle. That had to cut into sales numbers as a large portion of XB1 owners have both games. I'm curious what the numbers would be including bundles.
You're correct, my bad.
I'd think bundles are included.
CosmicQueso
Member
I am also aware that the sales of such titles, outside of promotional periods, are practically nil.
SEGAvangelist
Member
As digital copies sold? I don't know. Has it been confirmed?
The table is revenue based. Microsoft pays for the bundled software so it has to be accounted as revenue.
SEGAvangelist
Member
I guess the question is if they are counting the codes as digital since they are bundled with retail units.
If nobody bought The Crew, I guess people were making copies of Driveclub themselves and then sold them back to Sony.
The table includes everything. It's not just digital but physical and bundled (in any form) too.
I should buy some Ubisoft shares at some point. I think they're very good at reading the mainstream market and they have a very strong marketing department. I can see them becoming as big as EA in the future.
Also, I have a lot of faith in the Assassin's Creed film.
They shipped 2 million copies after 3 months or something.
Needless to say, anecdotal evidence is often misleading..
Also, I have a lot of faith in the Assassin's Creed film.
They shipped 2 million copies after 3 months or something.
Needless to say, anecdotal evidence is often misleading..
alexandros
Banned
Excellent PC numbers.
ScepticMatt
Member
This quarter is dominated by backlog sales, where PC sales are typically high.
Anno and Might & Magic Series are the big ones.
CosmicQueso
Member
Oh come on now. Not you too.
PC sales were down -56% at Ubi on a YoY basis, only slightly better than the overall decline of -73%.
A 9 point higher share of a -73% declining category are not "excellent PC numbers". They are fairly terrible numbers all around.
alexandros
Banned
Oh come on now. Not you too.
PC sales were down -56% at Ubi on a YoY basis, only slightly better than the overall decline of -73%.
A 9 point higher share of a -73% declining category are not "excellent PC numbers". They are fairly terrible numbers all around.
Eh, so it was a slow quarter. Nothing out of the ordinary for a Q1. The percentage still seems great to me.
CosmicQueso
Member
Last year had Watch_Dogs which pushed Console share. There's absolutely nothing in this data that should seem anything to you.
All that's clear is that Ubisoft revenues declined by a higher percentage on Console than the high decline it showed on PC.