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It looks like The Witness was priced correctly: week 1 sales tracking > Braid year 1

I

INTERNET

SERIOUS BUSINESS
Via Twitter:
Jonathan Blow said:
It's hard to talk about numbers without breaking NDAs, but The Witness is on track to sell more in a week than Braid sold in its first year, and Braid was a hit indie game! (I'll let you know if this officially happens!) Which is not to be too money-oriented, it's just great that we'll be able to make the next game at a comparable budget level (maybe bigger, we'll see!)
Click to expand...

https://twitter.com/Jonathan_Blow/status/693670992489517058

Well that settles that.

Edit 2:
Blizniak said:
I feel this is important to include here:

‏@Jonathan_Blow
More by revenue. Number of copies will beat Braid's first week but not year, I don't think (maybe!)
https://twitter.com/Jonathan_Blow/status/693670500862550016
Click to expand...
Braid's first week sales were ~55000.
Kolx said:
38000 +- 4000 copies were sold on steam so far.
Click to expand...

Edit 3: Regarding that 38000 number:
Jonathan Blow said:
"It's kinda far off, on the low side."
https://mobile.twitter.com/Jonathan_Blow/status/693668903969370113
Click to expand...
 
L

Lingitiz

Member
He also says that sales on SteamSpy are estimated fairly lower than the actual amount. As it's been said before, SteamSpy is usually inaccurate for the first few days of sale.
 
D

Dremark

Banned
DrBo42 said:
Looks like the pirated numbers didn't really effect sales. You know, like always.
Click to expand...

You really don't have anyway of knowing or proving that.

Also I find it really difficult to believe that literally no one who pirated it would have purchased it if a cracked version hadn't been made available.
 
C

cirrhosis

Member
Glad it's doing well. It's at the top of my wishlist and hope to get around to picking it up.

like others mentioned, that piracy comment had me concerned
 
T

Two Words

Member
I was playing The Witness at my university today and somebody saw it and was really interested in it. When he asked me how much it cost and I told him it was $40, he had a "that's too high" reaction. Kinda strange considering the length and production values of the game.
 
B

bomma_man

Member
Haven't played it yet but this is really good to hear. A difficult, auteur driven, line puzzle game selling? Bodes well for the future of the industry in general.
 
E

Edzi

Member
Good.

The price arguments are starting to get a little absurd now. I understood it when it was Ground Zeroes, but now it's starting to sound like people just don't want to pay money for their hobby anymore.
 
S

Steel

Banned
Joyful said:
didnt he just say piracy was ruining his sales
Click to expand...

That wasn't what he said, he was more just disappointed that some people were pirating the game and not helping to make another game like it by joining paying customers, not that another game like it couldn't be made. The article that ran that tweet just went for maximum clickbait.

Additionally, he also clarified later that the sales were fine.
 
D

Dremark

Banned
Two Words said:
I was playing The Witness at my university today and somebody saw it and was really interested in it. When he asked me how much it cost and I told him it was $40, he had a "that's too high" reaction. Kinda strange considering the length and production values of the game.
Click to expand...

I'm thinking he only watched you play it briefly, so he likely didn't really see how long the game is.

I don't think the price point is a huge issue. Even if people think it's too high of a price it won't stay at that price point forever.
 
A

AJ_Wings

Member
Good on Blow and eveybody at Thekla.

Although, I do wonder how much was Braid's total budget relative to the witness. Correct me if Im wrong but the witness total budget is around 8 million dollars, isn't it?
 
D

DrBo42

Member
Two Words said:
I was playing The Witness at my university today and somebody saw it and was really interested in it. When he asked me how much it cost and I told him it was $40, he had a "that's too high" reaction. Kinda strange considering the length and production values of the game.
Click to expand...

That's because in most people's minds only AAA huge games are the ones "worthy" of a full price release upwards of $60. Witness is an indie puzzle game. That's an expected $20 price tag, regardless of length or content variety.

HomerSimpson-Man said:
Yeah, and pirates can still go screw themselves on this one.
Click to expand...

Well, of course. As usual.
 
H

HyperZone<3

Member
I'm glad this game didn't ruin him financially. He put all his Braid earnings into this.

It will be great to see what him and his team come up with next, presuming of course they don't need another 8 years to do it.
 
EventHorizon

EventHorizon

Member
INTERNET said:
Via Twitter:
Well that settles that.
Click to expand...

Actually it doesn't. You have to factor in the cost of both games and how long they took to make. The higher the costs and the longer the development time the more a game needs to sell to make it worthwhile. It'd also be a good idea to wait before making any judgement because sales are likely more front loaded with The Witness due to higher visibility.
 
G

Gnilres

Member
I'm sure it's worth it, but I can't bring myself to pay that much for any downloadable title, I don't know why.

Will definitely pick it up as soon as a flash sale or something hits it, though.
 
H

harSon

Banned
It selling more than Braid is both deserved and not at all surprising. Braid released during the infancy of Indie gaming. If a game that were similarly groundbreaking and good as Braid were to release in today's market, it'd sell a lot more than Braid did in 2008.
 
S

Steel

Banned
EventHorizon said:
Actually it doesn't. You have to factor in the cost of both games and how long they took to make. The higher the costs and the longer the development time the more a game needs to sell to make it worthwhile. It'd also be a good idea to wait before making any judgement because sales are likely more front loaded with The Witness due to higher visibility.
Click to expand...

Well, in 6 years braid is at 747k sold according to steamspy(not accounting for other platforms, either), not sure how its legs have been but I don't think it'd be too huge a stretch to say it was about 200k in the first year? If that's the case, then 200k up front for The Witness would mean about $5.47 mill after PSN/steam's 30% cut into the studio's profits. IRRC the game's budget is about 8 mill? So even if it's half that, that's not a bad opening, especially considering the game will probably have legs longer than Braid(especially with its $40 launch point).
 
B

baconcow

Member
Was looking back at what Kotaku had to say about Braid:

"Despite the budget busting price of 1200 Microsoft Points"

"the segment of the population who has parked their Learjets long enough to complete the download"

"Let's hope the rest of the Xbox Live community, the type who don't sport platinum cards and massive trust funds, will be able to dig deep and snatch up [Braid]"

Not sure if they were being sarcastic.
 
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