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Mafia 3 is the Fastest Selling Title in 2K History, 4.5M shipped in one week

L

Lord of Ostia

Member
AHK_Hero said:
Can someone clarify for this sold through vs shipped question for a layman?

Does the publisher receive money from the retailer for supplying stock?

Seems retailers expected significant demand they were willing to stock 4.5 million copies. Obviously selling through to the customer is better for the future of the franchise and partnerships with retailers, but if the above is true haven't they still made quite a bit of money regardless?
Click to expand...
Yes, in this case 2K has already been paid for the 4.5 million copies by retailers. That's why they are touting these numbers, the game has 'sold' 4.5 million as far as they are concerned. They do care about the number actually sold to customers as well, since that dictates when they can ship more copies to get over that 4.5 million number. That said, they have made their money already on these 4.5 million copies. Expect retailers to heavily discount Mafia 3 in the coming months in order to move stock, unless the game becomes a really in demand item this holiday season. I don't see that happening.
 
R

Ray Down

Banned
Apathy said:
can we take these sales to the marketing and execs who say a minority lead would hurt sales and staple it to their faces?
Click to expand...

It hard for these numbers to do much, if they aren't sell though.

We have a better idea how they did on the 9th.
 
E

Evil Monkey DTT

Banned
Hope this means more representation of people other then white male hero! Games not even very good but it has ideas that I'm glad we're done. I hope to see this kind of thing done again and better.
 
T

tareqsalah1

Member
The changes they implemented in the game made it closer to a GTA than a mafia game which appealed more to black audience. I hang out at gamestop were my friends work and i have noticed so many black people walk in ask if the game is like gta and then buy it.
 
D

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
I like but don't love the game. There's a lot of good stuff in there and I'd like to see it continue but, really, they need to trim the fat. Padding out the game was a bad idea and it becomes monotonous in a way that the previous two games did not.

sanstesy said:
If they really shipped 4,5 million copies, no wonder I see this thing in the bomba bin in very game store I go to here in Germany. What were they thinking?
Click to expand...
Heh, I saw the same thing at Media Markt on the day it came out.

They had three shelves lined with Mafia III and then two full bins. There had to be hundreds of copies there. It also launched at 44 Euro here, which is lower than usual.

Interesting situation.
 
K

keidashxd

Member
The more they lie, the more they win... what a shame, I won's say the game is bad but a month or two more for debugging could have been great (and more variety in secondary missions).
 
O

Obliterator

Member
That is a really fucking impressive performance wow. Not entirely shocked though as there has been a good chunk of people on my friends list playing it, and its been legging well in the PAL charts
 
N

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Evil Monkey DTT said:
Hope this means more representation of people other then white male hero! Games not even very good but it has ideas that I'm glad we're done. I hope to see this kind of thing done again and better.
Click to expand...

I think that hesitation has long since ended at this point.

Watch Dogs 2 has a black lead, Mafia 3 had a black lead, Destiny: Rise of Iron's main character was a black man, FIFA's singleplayer starred a black man, Battlefield 1's box art was a black man. This is basically a collection of the biggest games of the year.
 
moojito

moojito

Member
One of those sales is from me, and I haven't played a minute of it. Damn sse 4.1 support. Feelsbadman :<

Still holding out hope for a patch!
 
Vigilant Walrus

Vigilant Walrus

Member
I wouldn't have bought this had I seen the reviews before. I bought this game off another site and so when I agreed to see the cd key there was no refunds. Okay, I paid more like 40-45 bucks for it, but still.

I've not played the game yet. I expected the game to kill, so hearing its a chore.. I don't think I have the stamina to go through it.



What publishers will learn: to get more sales, don't lift embargo before release. suckers like me fall into the hype. And I was such a good boy avoiding No Mans Sky and all of that other shit. It's been a real while since I was suckered into buying something hyped.
 
J

James Scott

Banned
Rewarding publishers for hiding reviews for a buggy/mediocre game sure will help send the right message
(Unless they overshipped which seems like a pretty crazy amount)
 
L

leaf_

Member
chillybright said:
I guess no review copy did the trick.

Expecting more publishers to follow.
Click to expand...

I guess this practice will be leaving a sour taste on consumers' mouths.

Hopefully the sales and confidence in the publishers will reflect the quality of their products quickly.
 
I

icespide

Banned
NeoRaider said:
I only have one qestion tho. Why is having a black protagonist called taking a risks today? I don't get it.
Click to expand...

the risks don't really have much to do with the the protagonist being black, and more about some of the subject matter and issues the game covers
 
V

Vandole

Member
Be very curious to hear the sell-through numbers. Certainly sticks a knife in the ole "metacritic scores are hurting sales" argument.
 
A

Alienfan

Member
Vandole said:
Be very curious to hear the sell-through numbers. Certainly sticks a knife in the ole "metacritic scores are hurting sales" argument.
Click to expand...

Not necessarily, reviews didn't come out until well after launch. If anything it makes a case for a publisher not to send out review copies
 
A

AHK_Hero

Member
Lord of Ostia said:
Yes, in this case 2K has already been paid for the 4.5 million copies by retailers. That's why they are touting these numbers, the game has 'sold' 4.5 million as far as they are concerned. They do care about the number actually sold to customers as well, since that dictates when they can ship more copies to get over that 4.5 million number. That said, they have made their money already on these 4.5 million copies. Expect retailers to heavily discount Mafia 3 in the coming months in order to move stock, unless the game becomes a really in demand item this holiday season. I don't see that happening.
Click to expand...

Really appreciate the response, thanks!
 
G

Gator86

Member
NeoRaider said:
I only have one qestion tho. Why is having a black protagonist called taking a risks today? I don't get it.
Click to expand...

It's taking a risk in that proposing the idea of a minority protagonist could lead to you being beaten to death by the rest of the suits which consist entirely of old white guys. In terms of actual game performance on the market, there's no actual downside.
 
S

Sojgat

Member
That's nice.

Have they fixed the ridiculous open world lighting yet?

How it's acceptable for a AAA game to ship in that state I will never understand.
 
styl3s

styl3s

Member
If this means more Mafia fantastic.

Going forward i do hope they cut out the mind-numbingly boring repetitive side stuff because i really struggled to push through that game even though i loved the characters and setting/stone and even the main story stuff.. It was just a really boring reptitive process once you got a few hours in.
 
B

BronsonLee

Member
Nirolak said:
I think that hesitation has long since ended at this point.

Watch Dogs 2 has a black lead, Mafia 3 had a black lead, Destiny: Rise of Iron's main character was a black man, FIFA's singleplayer starred a black man, Battlefield 1's box art was a black man. This is basically a collection of the biggest games of the year.
Click to expand...

But what about the azns

(I still need to play FIFA's singleplayer, I love sports stories)
 
C

chillybright

Banned
tdwig said:
Congrats to 2k, but wow what I don't understand, the game was definitely not received well.


I don't like this trend at all.

Edit: Sold-in makes more sense, curious how many were actually sold to consumers.
Click to expand...

Just like most monetary trends in gaming nowadays, consumers may not like them, publishers make banks on them, then other publishers follow them.
 
M

Moze

Banned
Probably the most overshipped title in their history too. Good news for those waiting for it to go cheap.
 
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