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Deus Ex: Mankind Divided's UK sales are [UPDATE: worse than expected]

Mideon

Member
I bought it and sold it back within a day, it just didn't click with me I found controlling the game very clunky, anyone with any sense would wait as this has price drop to £18 written all over it, I might give it another shot at that price.
Pretty much sums up the UK the price drop culture is strong here. Past few years at Xmas especially supermarkets have been dropping new games to silly prices to compete and when they don't drop they don't sell. Unless your Fifa or Call of Duty.
 

madmackem

Member
Pretty much sums up the UK the price drop culture is strong here. Past few years at Xmas especially supermarkets have been dropping new games to silly prices to compete and when they don't drop they don't sell. Unless your Fifa or Call of Duty.
It hasn't been happening so quickly of late with games but it will with this as square do it a lot, tomb raider the two newer games were slashed in price pretty quickly.
 

Nessus

Member
They really needed to push this harder, and not with the social issues stuff. The gameplay advances in hub and level design, quest complexity, environmental storytelling, etc. are an absolutely massive leap over Human Revolution in a way that isn't apparent at first glance, and they only kept showing off that one mid game mission in a very "here's new abilities" demo-y way.

Absolutely agree. And for the broader gaming audience they should have put together a slick trailer that focuses on how the Deus Ex series' gameplay is different from a regular shooter.

Show someone using a grenade launcher to blow open a door, then have a rewind effect and show them knocking out a weak section of wall around the corner with their augmented arms, rewind and show them picking the lock with a multitool, rewind again and show them using a password they got from reading an email on a PDA, hacking a computer and releasing a lock, and so on. Explain how you can go in guns blazing or beat the game without killing a single person.

Almost like the trailer for Detroit: Become Human.
 

Mideon

Member
It hasn't been happening so quickly of late with games but it will with this as square do it a lot, tomb raider the two newer games were slashed in price pretty quickly.
Yeah I agree. I'm a big fan so bought this day one. I know people who buy Call of Duty and Fifa day one but never play them it's just an automatic thing for them to pick up the new ones every year. Sad really how the masses can sway your opinion and you don't rely upon your individual thoughts to make an educated choice.
 
There was goodwill from the die-hards, but it felt like the game sort of disappeared after the delay to August. When H.R. was pushed back by half a year, there was sustained buzz afterwards, especially after the beta leaked. I guess it suffered from a pretentious, drawn-out marketing campaign that failed to resonate with people, the pre-order fiasco, etc...

I loved H.R. but I was less excited for Mankind Divided following the studios clumsy attempt at rebooting Thief. A different internal team, sure, but there are traces of that game in the Deus Ex sequel (it's especially noticeable in the storytelling). Shame, because the rest of the game is very enjoyable.
I really think that the augment your preorder bullcrap is responsible for a lot of the apathy. At least among usual day one customers.

The shoehirned DLC farce will however really sour its prospects long term.

Shame really, as I like the game, and I know that the blame internally will be put on the devs, instead of the publisher.
 
I got human revolution for like 6 dollars and was surprised at how good it was. So I already knew that I was going to get this one right away to support the developers. pre ordered from amazon.co.uk and I still haven't recieved my preorder copy. According to amazon it's "on it's way" and has an expected delivery of 29.08 which is about a week ago :p
 

Upinsmoke

Member
I've seen hardly no advertisement in the UK for it. Most had been gaf and twitter.

I enjoyed HR but I didn't long for another.
 
That's disappointing, it's a great game from what I've played.

Wonder what now. Maybe a quick and dirty port of HR to recoup the losses? But then, that might over saturate the market, unless they bundle it with MD.
 

jettpack

Member
Incredibly disheartening if this is the case. Especially given the rumours that Mankind Divided is just part one in the DXNG (Deus Ex Next Gen) story they've been working on for the past few years.
The marketing was nearly nonexistent for the game, the announcement trailer was great and appeared to generate some buzz but most in my group of friends didn't realize the game was even launching this calendar year after the delay.

Yeah, same with me. I've been evangelizing it to my friends. definitely heard a couple "what, that's out?"
 
The 'ending' and its complete lack of any resolution really soured me on the game (most abrupt, unsatisfying ending I can remember since Assassin's Creed 1), but I absolutely adored the first two thirds of the game. It's immersive sim heaven while it lasts (and it lasts quite a while; I'd far surpassed my Human Revolution playtime before things started going downhill in Mankind Divided). It feels like they either spent all their time on excellent side missions and then slapped together a main story at the last minute or, in line with those rumours, Square did in fact make them chop one big game into three so they could milk it for all it was worth.
 

Gen X

Trust no one. Eat steaks.
I predict this will be one of those games that drops in price fast due to poor sales and then picks up a bit more momentum. I was very close to picking up DE:MD over the weekend but decided to pick up Witcher 3 Wild Hunt since it was half the price of DE and probably 10 times longer.

Although in hindsight if I had picked up DE I could've smashed it out in a week, traded it back in and bought Witcher 3 with the trade in money. I really need to rethink my strategies. lol.
 

roytheone

Member
I really hope this doesn't impact the release of the second part of the game (if Jim sterling is right)

Would really suck (and be a fucked up move) if square Enix first forces the game to be split in two, and then cancels the second part......
 

red731

Member
And back to Jim. Fuckin upper heads causing stress and wanting to add microtrans, tv like series bullshit, mobile games, games in game n stuff.
 
I don't think people realize this is a new game. The name/cover art/style/graphics/character all make it seem like an HD rerelease.

It should have been one of the biggest hits of the year.
 
The game is a near masterpiece and gets ignored: what an industry and what an audience.

The next time some culture critic goes on a tirade about how AAA games aren't intelligent, or diverse, or serious, please tell them that a game called Deus Ex Mankind Divided came out and it was all those things and it cratered.

The gameplay is boring and the guy who plays Adam Jensen is a stunningly bad actor.
 
I'm not surprised.

Marketing repeatedly shat the bed, from the 'augment your preorder' bollocks through cack handed racism analogs and fizzling out to all the pizzazz of a damp fart in the last couple of months, the entire marketing department for this has done nothing but damage the product they're trying to sell.

Worse, it's not the first time this has happened. Whoever is calling the shots in SE's PR department really needs to be fired.

The game itself also screwed up mind. It's too similar to the last game, the entire concept of a 'mechanical apartide' is both highly distasteful and a poor fit for the games internal logic, and shoving micro transactions and shitty mobile like minigames into full priced titles all drive away potential sales and prevent an engrossing enough experience to prevent a fast turn over to the second hand market.

Basically, it's yet another example of the biggest barrier to SE's games success being SE.
 
Well, I'm actually playing it and absorbing all the details. I'm more engaged in this game's story, mechanics, and atmosphere than anything else I've played this year and that includes Inside. I'm enamored with the fact that the game gives you so many combat options and always gives you a way to never raise a single weapon to solve a problem. I've played nearly twenty hours and haven't shot a single guy or lobbed a grenade. For most quests, I've straight up talked people out of it.

That's pretty fucking special. Rare as hell in a AAA game.

Does the game have problems? Probably but I don't give a shit since I'm engrossed in everything else. The level design is god tier with options all over the place and yet never feeling overwhelming. Once you figure out the controls and powers, you literally feel like you can ghost just about anything.

But whatever. I'm not some expert on stealth games and I don't play a ton of RPGs. I just play games and Deus Ex is going to stick with me long after I finish it. I'll be sad when it's over.

GOTY? Fuck yes.

This is so true.

It's a pretty rare gem in AAA gaming, yet people avoid it. How depressing.
 

kpaadet

Member
That's sad as I really like the game and would love for Square to continue making them. Hopefully it will have long legs, but probably not.
 

basefree

Member
Its almost as if this game was sent out to die. Like others have said, I've hardly seen any marketing for this game at all, and if I wasn't actively a fan of DX and browsed the internet, I probably wouldn't have known it existed. Couple this with the troubled development and issues with the publisher, it's not looking good. I hope they can turn it all around for the sequel, because underneath the hood, mankind divided is absolutely worth anyone's time, slight disappointments aside.
 
Looks so similar to HR which left me a bit cold.
According to a lot of people I trust the main plot feels like a boring rethread that doesn't end particularly well and feels like it's just setting up a sequel.

Both of these things have kept me away, even if there are much better side missions.
 
S

Steve.1981

Unconfirmed Member
Did my bit and bought it at the weekend. Enjoying it so far, just ghosting through the world, exploring every corner and using the speech skill Aug when necessary.

Hopefully it sells enough in the long run and the franchise can continue, because there's not many other games like it these days and Eidos Montreal clearly put a lot of hard work and love into it.

To anyone maybe having second thoughts because of the micro-transactions, they are practically non-existent. There's a "Shop" option on the main menu, don't click on it and you'll forget they exist. I'm levelling Jensen up just fine, the game was clearly designed and built before they were included.
 

Pixieking

Banned
Tomb Raider was in a similar situation. It eventually limped to its goal.

And this is exactly the thing.

When does MD need to hit its sales goal? Obviously, sooner is better, because the sooner a game becomes profitable, the better. Presumably it needs to hit its goal during this financial year, but we are still 7 months (?) away from the end of Squenix's FY, and Christmas and Thanksgiving have yet to hit. So there's time yet... And this assumes they don't care about long-tail revenue particularly, which is silly.

"Ah!" I hear you cry "But poor early sales will mean no future installments of the franchise!"

Sure. Maybe. It all depends really.

Look at Hitman. Blood Money was released in 2006. Astounding early sales of 1.6m in about 2 months, according to the Wiki. By 2011, it had sold more than 2.1m lifetime. But by then, Absolution was well into development (released 2012). By March 2013 (again according to the Wiki), Absolution had sold 3.6m copies at retail, failing to hit predicted sales targets. But this poor showing did not prevent the development and release of a further Hitman game.

So, even a critical and commercial failure like Absolution didn't kill the franchise, and with good word-of-mouth from the new Hitman game, people new to the franchise who enjoy it will be going back to purchase the older games that they missed out on. Yes, early sales (especially from Squenix, who are famous for racing-to-zero on their non-FF franchises) are important. But the industry is now healthy enough that the less stock we put into first-month sales, the more we can intelligently look at the industry and its consumer-base. The industry is moving more towards long-tail revenue (on the whole), so why shouldn't we examine the industry with that in mind?
 
Its almost as if this game was sent out to die. Like others have said, I've hardly seen any marketing for this game at all, and if I wasn't actively a fan of DX and browsed the internet, I probably wouldn't have known it existed. Couple this with the troubled development and issues with the publisher, it's not looking good. I hope they can turn it all around for the sequel, because underneath the hood, mankind divided is absolutely worth anyone's time, slight disappointments aside.

Yep, ever since their Augmented Preorder Campaign was shot down by fans, the marketing seemed spiteful and vindictive, more than enthusiastic.
 
Hopefully it will find legs as the good feedback spreads.

I bought it brand new on CDKeys for £22 though because why wouldn't you?

It's a great game but I don't understand why it took 5 years to make and $70m. Seems like bad project management somewhere.
 
Loved HR, I just don't know what it is about MD that I didn't like and couldn't get into. Something felt off about it. Was so disappointing to play.
 

Glass

Member
This hurts my heart to see. Deus Ex is my favourite game of all time and I feel lucky everytime we get a new one come along. They're the least mainstream tripple A games ever.

The development team at Eidos Montreal is great, though I have issues with the writing team and it's high barrier to entry for new players. But Square is definitely the worst thing to happen to this franchise. I'd love from someone better suited to pick it up.
 

Kathian

Banned
Strikes me that there are 3 possibilities;

1 - HR was just not enjoyed by a majority of its audience.

2 - Most who liked HR did not realise it was out or were just not excited enough from what they saw to pay attention.

3 - The HR audience are not the current console console and simply never upgraded this gen.

I suspect a mix of the three due to the size of the drop but ultimately I have to feel number 1 but be a sizable force.
 

Coxy100

Banned
Strikes me that there are 3 possibilities;

1 - HR was just not enjoyed by a majority of its audience.

2 - Most who liked HR did not realise it was out or were just not excited enough from what they saw to pay attention.

3 - The HR audience are not the current console console and simply never upgraded this gen.

I suspect a mix of the three due to the size of the drop but ultimately I have to feel number 1 but be a sizable force.
There is a 4th option which applies to me

4 - waiting for it to go under £30
 

TNH853

Member
are this sales that bad?

lets try to find out. how many ps4/xbone´s are there in the uk? 5-7 million?
thats about 10% of consoles worldwide?

uk:200k x 10 = 2m +300k pc = 2,3m

even if the uk market is 20% of the worldwide that means the game sold about 1 million +300k on pc.

i still have hope :)

edit: i forgot digital. so it´s maybe even more
 

Z..

Member
Somehow I find that incredibly hard to believe. I'm not doubting it, but it seems very strange that people aren't adopting a much more convenient method of content delivery at a faster rate.

Think for a second. Games launch full price digitally while retailers keep slashing prices to compete. Buying digital at launch means you've either got too much money or are ingorant of how the system works. Launch window digital sales at 25/30% actually seems high!
 

danowat

Banned
Over saturated games market, post brexit money wobbles, lack of advertising, bit of warm weather, 'wait for sale' culture, not completely surprising.
 

Kuraudo

Banned
Strikes me that there are 3 possibilities;

1 - HR was just not enjoyed by a majority of its audience.

2 - Most who liked HR did not realise it was out or were just not excited enough from what they saw to pay attention.

3 - The HR audience are not the current console console and simply never upgraded this gen.

I suspect a mix of the three due to the size of the drop but ultimately I have to feel number 1 but be a sizable force.

I think it's actually that most people did enjoy HR but forgot about it over the last half decade. As good as it is, MD feels like a sequel that should have taken two or three years to come out. It just doesn't feel like the "event" that you need revive interest in your franchise after that length of time (SE's own marketing for FFXV would have been an apt model for them to follow). Most people probably saw the game on shelves and thought "oh they're still making these", being completely unaware that it's the first one since 2011.
 
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