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Star Wars Battlefront: PS4 is outdoing Xbox and PC combined [in concurrency numbers]

Pretty bad PC numbers. Battlefield 4 was averaging over 100,000 peak users at launch, with a broken game. There is no shortage of shooter content on PC, if EA wants to half ass at it in quality like Hardline or quanity like Battlefront , PC shooter fans will ignore it. Battlefield 5 will be make or break for EA shooters on PC, maybe they don't really care about the space anymore.
 

Three

Member
makes sense, Microsoft has several AAA games this fall and "most of the previous games had multiplayer. Gears/MCC/Halo5/forza 5/H2/6, ect. where Sony games focus more on single player. I'm actually shocked it not much higher with the 2x difference and lack of multiplayer from 1st party.

Haha, what? Are we really going back to "Battlefront sold badly on XB1 because xb1 players already have forza" again?
 

Stiler

Member
Maybe it's because people realized how shallow the game was?

I mean the game is fun, in short bursts, but it just felt a lot like Titanfall to me.

All style, no substance or depth.

Game has phenomenal graphics and sound, but the actual gameplay is extremely shallow and lacking any depth.

They don't even give people the full control over x-wings and flight mechanics for crying out loud.
 

HowZatOZ

Banned
I don't blame the low count on PC, no one should support a multiplayer game that refuses to use a server browser, especially after their previous title did have that exact feature. Hell it shouldn't even be considered a feature with how shitty match making can be.
 

DryvBy

Member
It's a fun quick-play game. I love shooters and some of my friends aren't that good at them but love Star Wars. This is a perfect game for them to pick up and play without learning deep mechanics. I don't know a single person (rl friends/fam) outside of my Destiny-addicted dad who is not playing this.
 
It definitely has something to do with Origin since I would own it if it were on Steam. I do like those free Origin games though :)

Yup another Starwars fan here and I am not getting Battlefront. Not bought an EA game since Mass Effect 3 (3 years ago). I know if I buy a game on Origin I will end up never playing it, so I keep the money in my wallet. Hell I haven't had Origin on my PC in nearly a year, I just love the service that much.

So yes being Origin only is having an impact, the question is how much of an impact.
 

freefornow

Gold Member
Many things:

EA Access a huge success on the Xbox One All-in-One Entertainment System
PC players like cheese and wine and CSGO
PS4 made the right move by not having any game to play except Battlefront
EA stock is up 80% YTD
Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker's father

While I find your analysis to be solid, the last point is straight up bullshit!!!!!!
 

Lingitiz

Member
PC gamers are more demanding and need their games to have a lot more content than Battlefront offers.

There's too many cheap or free alternatives on PC to settle for a pretty looking game with little content. And at $60 dollars and staring down the barrel of an expensive season pass no less.
 

Three

Member
*shrug* other people in the thread seem to think otherwise. I dunno.

I think they are somewhat low but we will have to see how it turns out a little after Christmas. See if it has any staying power in player numbers. I think in terms of sales it will do really well. XB1 likely being higher in NPD because of the PS4 bundle and the "choose a game on XB1" counting.
 
I wonder how much of EA's sales are cannibalized by the rise of CS GO.

Quite a bit. Much how Halo defined the console shooter and made everything else irrelevant until Modern Warefare came along.

FPS PC gamers are playing their go to shooter the same way Xbox owners gravitated to Halo with everything else being a distant second.

Also, as a side note. Fuck the holiday release game schedule. I'm still knee deep in fallout 4, bloodborne DLC is three days sway, still haven't finished Syndicate...Fuck Tomb Raider that's not happening.
 

GHG

Member
I've had no issues getting games on the PC version so far but the moment I do I'm buying the PS4 version.
 

SparkTR

Member
Ya, at this rate probably not much opportunity cost for EA if BF5 or BC3 is console-only.

EA typically makes bank on PC due to them getting 100% of the revenue from a game bought from Origin as opposed to 45% at retail, their financials indicate they make roughly the same off PC as they do from either the XBO or PS4 due to this I imagine (332m for PS4/XBO combined, 184m for PC). Especially in this market, that would be a pretty big financial black hole for EA to dig if they did that.

So people should keep that in mind especially when they say they want EA stuff on Steam, being a platform holder is among the most lucrative position a publisher can have in this industry.
 
If I keep getting auto matched with 170ms ping servers I'll be pulling the plug, and I'm sure much of the PC community will burn out from that bullshit too.

Australian right? Yep my friend has been complaining non stop,out of 6 or so matches 1 was a local, that is pretty bad.(PC)

I was already put off by the lack of content(In my eyes, I would only play Supremecy/Walker Assault) however being Australian and fellow Australians complaining about high ping, Instant avoidance for me.

I'm happy for EA/DICE I guess, however I'm definitely waiting for a massive sale when the Game+Season pass is $40 or so. I'm saddened by matchmaking in the PC version, this game might not have long legs like Battlefield does on PC.
 

Bastables

Member
PC gamers are more demanding and need their games to have a lot more content than Battlefront offers.
You never played CS in the 90s then.
4 maps, two char skins one gameplay mode.
Enough knowledge to manually mod the full price disk game Half life before the existanc of steam.

No veh's, no aircraft, no ability to really spec you charecter to sniping, bomb throwing, sniping etc. fixed recoils patterns ak47 in beta 5 was literally a 7 pattern.

http://counterstrike.wikia.com/wiki/Counter-Strike_Beta

I did and like battlefront I enjoyed it.
 
I find that most of the PC gamers I know through Steam generally talk about "the game is the same thing over and over" or "too little content."

But then again PC-only gamers seem really upset and complain about most things in general, so yea.

I don't really see it, for the package, and the sales that were going on, it's delivered for me. 25% off for me and happy with the purchase.
 

krang

Member
Are those X1 numbers counting the EA Access players? I don't really know how it works, but aren't they able to basically play the game for "free" at first?

I think that's irrelevant because these numbers are apparently the total people playing online, regardless of where they got the game.

But it does raise an interesting point, I wonder how many sales on XB1 are cannibalised by the EA Access trial? On the PS4 you've got no choice but to buy the game if you want to play it, really, but there's a few people round here, myself included, that bought (or already had) EA Access to get the 10 hours instead of buying the game.

Completely annecdotal, and I don't think EAA is particularly massive, but it might be something EA reconsiders for the future if it has hurt sales on XB1.
 

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
I think that's irrelevant because these numbers are apparently the total people playing online, regardless of where they got the game.

But it does raise an interesting point, I wonder how many sales on XB1 are cannibalised by the EA Access trial? On the PS4 you've got no choice but to buy the game if you want to play it, really, but there's a few people round here, myself included, that bought (or already had) EA Access to get the 10 hours instead of buying the game.

Completely annecdotal, and I don't think EAA is particularly massive, but it might be something EA reconsiders for the future if it has hurt sales on XB1.

And in the same note you could have said it helped with some sales, because there were those who said they enjoyed it enough to buy it.

It goes both ways, really.
 

HowZatOZ

Banned
I find that most of the PC gamers I know through Steam generally talk about "the game is the same thing over and over" or "too little content."

But then again PC-only gamers seem really upset and complain about most things in general, so yea.

I don't really see it, for the package, and the sales that were going on, it's delivered for me. 25% off for me and happy with the purchase.
Nice generalising there. My complaints seem to be shared across many others I've talked to, in that what is on offer is just not worth the $60+ (in my case $100AUD). How is that complaining?
 

krang

Member
And in the same note you could have said it helped with some sales, because there were those who said they enjoyed it enough to buy it.

It goes both ways, really.

Yeah true. But I reckon games with slightly underwhelming reviews, like this has had, might suffer a bit more.

This is off-topic, though. Might open a new thread about it.
 

btrboyev

Member
EA access allowed Xbox players to see how shitty the game was? Haha. Jk, it's not bad, but I feel like I wasted money on it. Let's not forget Xbox players have COD and Halo 5 eating up that multiplayer space
 

-MD-

Member
Not surprised by the PC numbers, there are much better options for FPS out there.

This is selling on accessibility and brand, the core game isn't up to snuff.
 
It's not a lol comment at all. It may sound a little elitist but there are certain features missing from Battlefront that are pretty much expected to be standard on PC.
He got butt hurt because he was basically told that there are masses of people who buy this basically for the name and image, in other words sheep. He got butt hurt but he ignored the validity of the point, the more complex games are the best selling games on pc. As a non pc gamer, I can appreciate the fact that most pc games rise and fall on the validity of their content and the quality they present, at least when it comes to standard $60 games. In general, pc is less about what's commercially viable. Whereas console gamers are more about what's in with the crowd, which explains cod, and also explains the higher entry to loading up a pc game in general. Pc gamers are just more engaged, in general, and console gamers seem to be more about following the crowd, IN GENERAL. Of course, as with any broad sweeping generalizations, there are exceptions to the rule.
 
makes sense, Microsoft has several AAA games this fall and most of the previous games had multiplayer. Gears/MCC/Halo5/forza 5/H2/6, ect. where Sony games focus more on single player. I'm actually shocked it not much higher with the 2x difference and lack of multiplayer from 1st party.


There he is.
 

Momentary

Banned
I don't even know why publishers/developers even bother with porting their games to PC with numbers like these. I don't know of any games on PC that even come close 170K concurrent players. I feel bad for that think that platform is on the rise. You'd figure PC gamers would have a higher concurrent player base for this game since they don't really have anything worthwhile to play on their machines.
 

Maximo

Member
And people were saying Sony would get thrashed this holiday season because they didn't have exclusives, hahahahaha.
 

JeffZero

Purple Drazi
I don't even know why publishers/developers even bother with porting their games to PC with numbers like these. I don't know of any games on PC that even come close 170K concurrent players. I feel bad for that think that platform is on the rise.

You haven't been researching this at all, then.
 
I don't even know why publishers/developers even bother with porting their games to PC with numbers like these. I don't know of any games on PC that even come close 170K concurrent players. I feel bad for that think that platform is on the rise.

I'll answer this with a quote from another user. Also there's many games on PC that go far above 170k concurrent users on a daily basis.

EA typically makes bank on PC due to them getting 100% of the revenue from a game bought from Origin as opposed to 45% at retail, their financials indicate they make roughly the same off PC as they do from either the XBO or PS4 due to this I imagine (332m for PS4/XBO combined, 184m for PC). Especially in this market, that would be a pretty big financial black hole for EA to dig if they did that.

So people should keep that in mind especially when they say they want EA stuff on Steam, being a platform holder is among the most lucrative position a publisher can have in this industry.
 

JoseLopez

Member
let's see

ps4 is the most popular current gen platform, and all the advertising was done for ps4

the pc version is missing things like mod support, a server browser, etc

makes a lot of sense as to why the ps4 version is dominating
why would a online shooter have mod support? I think the more logical answer console version tend to sell better.
 
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