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Demon's Souls (PS5) Sold Over 1.4 Million Units

Launch games are risky, it’s why you don’t see very many true PS5 exclusives. There’s just not a high enough user base

Demons Souls made roughly 70M in revenue for Sony, to cover a smaller budget (50M or less I would think)
 

Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism
It was console launch title and it's logical to have a good attach rate early on especially with limited number of first party games on the first year of the console. The attach rate will become much lower as the console sales increase over the time.
Yes, it will. And even if it settles at 5-6%, it will still be better than big established franchises of similar games such as Dark Souls 3 (4% attach rate), and it's a remake. By that time, it'd have sold > 3 million copies. A HUGE commercial success.

It already is a massive commercial success at this stage.
 

Lognor

Banned
That's fantastic for Demon's Souls. So the remake on PS5 has already surpassed the original's sales? Fantastic work BluePoint.
That was always going to happen. The PS3 version did not do well. It got a cult following, but the Souls series didn't really take off until Dark Souls. If it didn't pass the original that would have been a huge failure.

The numbers as they stand seem decent. And I'm not surprised that Sony did not announce the numbers sooner. They're not mind boggling or anything.
 

Bodomism

Banned
Yes, it will. And even if it settles at 5-6%, it will still be better than big established franchises of similar games such as Dark Souls 3 (4% attach rate), and it's a remake. By that time, it'd have sold > 3 million copies. A HUGE commercial success.

It already is a massive commercial success at this stage.
Miles Morales is the only PS5 launch title that I considered as a massive commercial success.

Also, regarding the attach rate you mentioned above, 14% is true for 10M consoles sold at the end of Q1 FY2021 but the PR stated since launch, indicating it wasn't from the Q1 report for DeS remake sales, which means the current attach rate is lower than 14% since PS5 has sold more units after Q1 report numbers (10M). We don't have the latest figure of 3 months data after Q1 PS5 sales to measure the attach rate of DeS.
 

JaksGhost

Member
Miles Morales is the only PS5 launch title that I considered as a massive commercial success.

Also, regarding the attach rate you mentioned above, 14% is true for 10M consoles sold at the end of Q1 FY2021 but the PR stated since launch, indicating it wasn't from the Q1 report for DeS remake sales, which means the current attach rate is lower than 14% since PS5 has sold more units after Q1 report numbers (10M). We don't have the latest figure of 3 months data after Q1 PS5 sales to measure the attach rate of DeS.
Put a number to your expectation otherwise the narrative you're trying to create is bullshit. Give us some stats to work off of instead of "it's lower than I thought". Tell us so we can smoke some of that peyote with you.
 

Topher

Gold Member
Miles Morales is the only PS5 launch title that I considered as a massive commercial success.

Well then skewed expectations is the problem. You are comparing a game with massive broad popular appeal to one that has historically been limited in reach. For example, Insomniac's Spider-Man in 2019 reached 13 million sold on PS4 alone. Dark Souls 3 needed 4 years on PS4, Xbox One, and PC to reach 10 million. So yeah, Miles Morales was always going to be a huge hit. Demon Souls Remake is doing better than other Souls games before it. So saying DSR did less than you expected simply means you didn't have appropriate information about what to expect in the first place. As a Souls game, Demon Souls Remake is a success.
 

Klayzer

Member
Put a number to your expectation otherwise the narrative you're trying to create is bullshit. Give us some stats to work off of instead of "it's lower than I thought". Tell us so we can smoke some of that peyote with you.
Bodo, and the other Nintendo press secretary, would be spinning this as a major victory for jrpgs, if this was on the Switch or a Nintendo exclusive.

Its always amusing to see the dedicated anti-Sony brigade scramble for troll bullet points at positive Playstation news. Anyway, ive yet to finish my playthrough of it.
 

ethomaz

Banned
I'm going to say that Sony expected to knock it out of the park with Demon's which is why it was positioned as their launch killer app.

Dark Souls 3 did over 10 million, and while that was multiplat to a much larger userbase, it also had a lot more competition than Demon's did at launch.

If we look at launch killer apps, in 2017 BOTW opened up selling more copies than Switch did. It had over 100% attach rate selling 1.3 million copies on Switch with 102% attach rate during its launch. Yes, the Switch version alone sold more copies of software than Switch did hardware.

My point is simply that when people buy new consoles it is often paired with an "it" game and becomes a killer app.

Respectfully, Dark Souls obviously doesn't have the same recognition, so I would agree Sony wasn't expecting that kind of reception, but I think after 10 million console sales, they would have been impressed with anything in the range of 2.5 million units in sales. I don't think 1.4 million is a failure but it's not the killer app they probably hoped for either.

Let's not forget, that Demons Souls is the OG of the entire Souls movement that has spawned an entire genre and the games graphics are truly next gen. With Mo-Cap and a live orchestra I'm sure it wasn't cheap.
Please share to use what are you smoking...

Just look at original Demon's Souls and Bloodborne sales to understand Sony's expectations.
 

ethomaz

Banned
Demon's Souls (PS5) turned out to be massively successful. For reference:
  • Demon's Souls (PS5) has an attach rate of 14%.
  • Dark Souls 3 had an attach rate of 4%.
  • Bloodborne had an attach rate of 3% on PS4.
The game still hasn't sold below $50 yet. I suspect it will sell at least more than 3 million copies by the time Bluepoint's next project releases. Considering it's a remake, it would have cost Sony no more than $20 million. 1.4 million copies at $60 (not $70) means $84 million.

That's a 4x ROI already. Fantastic!
☝️
Reality.
 

ethomaz

Banned
A 14% attach rate isn't great considering there were only a handful of PS5 exclusive games to pick from. And DS was probably the second biggest hyped game too after Spiderman MM. After DS, the games drop to Returnal, Godfall, Sackboy and Bugsnax.

I'm sure Thunder Force II and Tommy Lasroda Baseball at Genesis launch had high attach rates too. I did my part. Got Super Thunderblade, TF2, TL Baseball and Arnold Palmer Golf. It was such slim pickings I think the only launch games we didnt get were Space Harrier II and Super Hang On. And when the new year rolled around, we got Revenge of Shinobi and that shitty Last Battle game.
Man for you Bloodborne was a utter failure lol
C'mon.

And exclusives is not something lacking in PS5... I'm still to buy my second non-exclusive game for the machine (I only have Mortal Shell).
 
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ethomaz

Banned
Seems a little low but we all know souls game have passionate fanbase but sells ok-ish.
If this was named DarkSouls4 then that would be underwhelming.
?

1.4m sold in 10 months is in line with what Dark Souls games sold.... in fact it is even a bit better than most of it.
Just check how much that series sells on PlayStation.

The series started gaining traction with Dark Souls. Demons Souls is still Asian import copies with ENG language. From Software also massively improved with Dark Souls.
The series never spiked in sales... it was always niche.
It sold more because it was in multiples platform but the overall sales per platform is still similar to the exclusives games.
Bloodborne was a big success in sales for the series in a single platform and due that Dark Souls 3 saw a increase in sales in PS platform too (it is the best selling Dark Souls game in PS).

BTW IMO Demon's Souls original is better than Dark Souls.
 
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ethomaz

Banned
It was console launch title and it's logical to have a good attach rate early on especially with limited number of first party games on the first year of the console. The attach rate will become much lower as the console sales increase over the time.
With that initial sales on a hard to buy platform I will say Demon's Souls (PS5) has big changes to be the best selling Souls games ever in PlayStation.

If that game was launched in March 2022 like Bloodborne did in the past with bigger userbase it should have crossed 2 million already.
 
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RyRy93

Member
It's a shame these games are so underappreciated by the masses, if you have a PS5 wouldn't this be a must play with so few "true next-gen" titles and the great reviews?
 
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DForce

NaughtyDog Defense Force
I'm going to say that Sony expected to knock it out of the park with Demon's which is why it was positioned as their launch killer app.

Dark Souls 3 did over 10 million, and while that was multiplat to a much larger userbase, it also had a lot more competition than Demon's did at launch.

If we look at launch killer apps, in 2017 BOTW opened up selling more copies than Switch did. It had over 100% attach rate selling 1.3 million copies on Switch with 102% attach rate during its launch. Yes, the Switch version alone sold more copies of software than Switch did hardware.

My point is simply that when people buy new consoles it is often paired with an "it" game and becomes a killer app.

Respectfully, Dark Souls obviously doesn't have the same recognition, so I would agree Sony wasn't expecting that kind of reception, but I think after 10 million console sales, they would have been impressed with anything in the range of 2.5 million units in sales. I don't think 1.4 million is a failure but it's not the killer app they probably hoped for either.

Let's not forget, that Demons Souls is the OG of the entire Souls movement that has spawned an entire genre and the games graphics are truly next gen. With Mo-Cap and a live orchestra I'm sure it wasn't cheap.


If Sony wanted big sales numbers, they would've made sure BluePoint made a cross-platform title. Comparing it to BotW is nothing more than a desperate attempt to prove a point that you don't have.
 

DForce

NaughtyDog Defense Force
A 14% attach rate isn't great considering there were only a handful of PS5 exclusive games to pick from. And DS was probably the second biggest hyped game too after Spiderman MM. After DS, the games drop to Returnal, Godfall, Sackboy and Bugsnax.

I'm sure Thunder Force II and Tommy Lasroda Baseball at Genesis launch had high attach rates too. I did my part. Got Super Thunderblade, TF2, TL Baseball and Arnold Palmer Golf. It was such slim pickings I think the only launch games we didnt get were Space Harrier II and Super Hang On. And when the new year rolled around, we got Revenge of Shinobi and that shitty Last Battle game.
You don't gauge a game's success based on attach rate.
 

Topher

Gold Member
My point is simply that when people buy new consoles it is often paired with an "it" game and becomes a killer app.

Oh.....you didn't know?

maxresdefault.jpg
 

JaksGhost

Member
It's a shame these games are so underappreciated by the masses, if you have a PS5 wouldn't this be a must play with so few "true next-gen" titles and the great reviews?
Not if Souls games aren't your thing. Why force yourself to pay for something you just know you won't like either due to the mechanics, overall pace, learning curve, or any other reason? Just because it's there and is a "true next-gen" title doesn't make it an automatic get. Unlike the PS4 the PS5 has BC to fallback on so it gives their consumer the choice of just waiting it out until something comes along that they like while still enjoying PS4 games (and boosted at that for some). Switch doesn't give you that option so you're stuck either with a paperweight or impulsively buying a game because you want something to play.
 

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
It's funny.

Epic deliberately left the Gears of War franchise because each game seemingly had a sales ceiling and the cost to make each game kept rising.

Demons Souls sells half of the worst selling Gears of War game (3.2 million vs 1.4 million), and it's probably more expensive to make considering it's a PS5 exclusive.

But let's throw a parade for Bluepoint? Fandom is so bizarre.
 

tommib

Member
It's funny.

Epic deliberately left the Gears of War franchise because each game seemingly had a sales ceiling and the cost to make each game kept rising.

Demons Souls sells half of the worst selling Gears of War game (3.2 million vs 1.4 million), and it's probably more expensive to make considering it's a PS5 exclusive.

But let's throw a parade for Bluepoint? Fandom is so bizarre.
Indeed, fandom is bizarre. You’re comparing an esoteric horror RPG famous for its difficulty level with an American dude bro boneheaded action co-op shooter. They’re worlds apart. This is a massive win for gamers who are not into the typical mainstream title.
 
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Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
Indeed, fandom is bizarre. You’re comparing an esoteric horror RPG famous for its difficulty level with an American dude bro boneheaded action co-op shooter. They’re worlds apart. This is a massive win for gamers who are not into the typical mainstream title.

I'm actually not.

I'm comparing level of investment to level of result.

In no way did I try to compare game genre's. Not interested in that.
 

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
You are indirectly comparing completely different genres and types of games.

That same logic can be applied to something like car sales by simply naming the car and not directly calling out the type of car.

Again no, I'm not.

I'm comparing the cost to produce each vs the net sales of each game.

I'm looking at this strictly from a financial viewpoint. You think Jim Ryan is laying shirtless on a couch eating grapes opining about the artistic validity of game genres while a harp player regales him?

No, he's looking at spreadsheets.

Granted, I'm making some estimations (we all are) but fanboys are flocking to this thread because it comes with the territory.
 
Again no, I'm not.

I'm comparing the cost to produce each vs the net sales of each game.

I'm looking at this strictly from a financial viewpoint. You think Jim Ryan is laying shirtless on a couch eating grapes opining about the artistic validity of game genres while a harp player regales him?

No, he's looking at spreadsheets.

Granted, I'm making some estimations (we all are) but fanboys are flocking to this thread because it comes with the territory.

So we should all movie over to freemium mobile games then should we?
 

Belthazar

Member
It's more than I expected, it has a better attach ratio than Bloodborne had when it launched if I'm remembering correctly. Hopefully it has good legs (launch titles often do) and it will definitely sell fine with sales and whatnot.

I'm very curious about Sackboy tho, it seems to have done fairly well according to data from sites like exophase and psnprofiles... But it's very hard to have an idea on commercial performance from that, especially since it's a game that is supposed to appeal to the casual audience and not to the core gamers that sign in to this sites.
 
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Airbus Jr

Banned
It's funny.

Epic deliberately left the Gears of War franchise because each game seemingly had a sales ceiling and the cost to make each game kept rising.

Demons Souls sells half of the worst selling Gears of War game (3.2 million vs 1.4 million), and it's probably more expensive to make considering it's a PS5 exclusive.

But let's throw a parade for Bluepoint? Fandom is so bizarre.
Demon Souls came out on PS5 releases on late 2020 dude when barely anyone can have the system

Also demon souls isnt like spiderman miles morales that also available on ps4

1,4 m is great numbers esp for niche game like this and in such condition

I dont understand why are you people are being harsh on this news

Also why are you comparing this to gears thats a weird comparison
 
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Social media rewards extreme opinions. Parade for Sony vs Bluepoint firings incoming. It's probably most appropriate to view Demons Souls numbers as...

just-ok-meh.gif

No one in this thread is claiming it's a sales phenomenon or something daft like that

It did good for what it is.

Stay in your own lane. Your constant downplaying for anything that isn't trendy multiplayer gaming is getting tiresome.
 

Topher

Gold Member
Social media rewards extreme opinions. Parade for Sony vs Bluepoint firings incoming. It's probably most appropriate to view Demons Souls numbers as...

just-ok-meh.gif

Before you were claiming this number was due to the price dropping which was false. Now you are throwing water on the news because the game isn't selling Gears of War numbers and pretending to know costs when you don't? Most of us who you claim are "throwing a parade" are comparing Demon Souls Remake to past Souls games. While you compare it to Gears? If you want to talk about "extreme opinions" then start there.
 
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Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
Before you were claiming this number was due to the price dropping which was false. Now you are throwing water on the news because the game isn't selling Gears of War numbers and pretending to know costs when you don't? Most of us who you claim are "throwing a parade" are comparing Demon Souls Remake to past Souls games. While you compare it to Gears? If you want to talk about "extreme opinions" then start there.

These games are getting more and more expensive to make. If sales aren't going up to counter that fact, they're pretty clearly going to have a choice to make on future installments.
 

tommib

Member
These games are getting more and more expensive to make. If sales aren't going up to counter that fact, they're pretty clearly going to have a choice to make on future installments.
How about we cherish what we have for now and stop being concerned about the future.

AAA remake of a leftflied Japanese medieval horror RPG gets critical acclaim with 92 MC and sells more than a million and a half copies on new console for the joy of core gamers.
 
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Topher

Gold Member
These games are getting more and more expensive to make. If sales aren't going up to counter that fact, they're pretty clearly going to have a choice to make on future installments.

Going into deciding to remake Demon Souls, do you really think Sony was ignorant to what the game would cost to make or how many copies it was expected to sell? Come on. This is the third time Sony has put money behind a Souls game. Sony has plenty of historical data in these games. Sony has explicitly said in the past that their expectations are NOT for every game to make money so no, you don't have to worry about "future installments". Demon Souls Remake did well enough that Sony bought Bluepoint. I can't think of a better way of expressing their satisfaction with the results.
 
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Klayzer

Member
Going into deciding to remake Demon Souls, do you really think Sony was ignorant to what the game would cost to make or how many copies it was expected to sell? Come on. This is the third time Sony has put money behind a Souls game. Sony has plenty of historical data in these games. Sony has explicitly said in the past that their expectations are NOT for every game to make money so no, you don't have to worry about "future installments". Demon Souls Remake did well enough that Sony bought Bluepoint. I can't think of a better way of expressing their satisfaction with the results.
Lets see, Men or Sony's expectations on Demon's Souls. Hymm, tough decesion.
 
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