Ah ok that might help a little in this instance. Still, I hate to think devs feel like Vita ports are a waste of time since it's hard to pin down buyer intent on cross-buy games. The Vita is definitely my hardware of choice for indies and smaller games. Thanks for keeping the Vita candle lit!
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Shovel Knight has sold 1.5 million copies
- Thread starter Nirolak
- Start date
Ah ok that might help a little in this instance. Still, I hate to think devs feel like Vita ports are a waste of time since it's hard to pin down buyer intent on cross-buy games. The Vita is definitely my hardware of choice for indies and smaller games. Thanks for keeping the Vita candle lit!
ElectricBlanketFire
Member
Top 5 favorite game of this gen.
DeuceGamer
Member
Glad it's been a success. It deserves all of the sales it's had, plus many more. I own copies on 3DS, Wii U, Vita, and PS4. If it's ported to Switch I will also buy it on Switch to support them and the DLC they provide.
Buy the Azure Striker Gunvolt: Striker Pack now!
They've already pledged themselves to one more DLC expansion starring King Knight after Spectre Knight is out.
OrbitalBeard
Member
Awesome. Congrats to the team.
Insane how all of those dlc are gonna be free i already bought the game some time ago and can't wait for spectre knight his gameplay looks awesome.
More than deserved, what a fantastic games, one of my favorites ever!
It's almost painful to see them keep making these free DLCs, but their commitment to their KS stretch goals is definitely admirable. Plus it's ridiculous how surprisingly solid Plague of Shadows was, it's almost a complete new game despite most of its assets being from the original, so I can't wait for Specter's.
I already triple dipped digitally on 3DS, Wii U, and Playstation. Even got that sweet amiibo, but I'm still contemplating getting it physical for PS4 or 3DS... Or both.
Yacht Club are just too good. They gained my unconditional support for whatever they make in the future.
It's almost painful to see them keep making these free DLCs, but their commitment to their KS stretch goals is definitely admirable. Plus it's ridiculous how surprisingly solid Plague of Shadows was, it's almost a complete new game despite most of its assets being from the original, so I can't wait for Specter's.
I already triple dipped digitally on 3DS, Wii U, and Playstation. Even got that sweet amiibo, but I'm still contemplating getting it physical for PS4 or 3DS... Or both.
Yacht Club are just too good. They gained my unconditional support for whatever they make in the future.
YCG published the Striker Pack (ASG 1+2) in NA. Still no word of it for EU though.
As much as I'm looking forward to Shovel Knight's next big outing, I'm glad that they're sticking to their guns and actually releasing all the stretch goals. With all the disappointments coming out of Kickstarter, it's nice to have some shining example of the good it can do.
KratosEnergyDrink
Member
Is there any reason why this game has higher sales on WiiU than on PS4+XOne?
Crimson_Echidna
Banned
Started out only on the Wii U and Steam.
'All the disappointments'? lol.. I've backed 52 game Kickstarters since Wasteland 2, I can count my disappointments with one hand. And most of those I was in the minority being disappointed..
Obviously mileage will vary and I'm mostly talking about the larger name projects, but of the six video games I've Kickstarted, two have been complete disappointments for me, one of them doesn't look to be shaping up that great, and the remaining three still have plenty of development to go.
Glad you've been satisfied, but Shovel Knight's continued success and quality are what I keep in mind when I look at new projects on Kickstarter, rather than my sour memory of Broken Age and MN9.
With the big amounts of praise this game's been getting continiously, its continued free DLC that serves as renewed marketing effectively, the large amount of platforms it released on, the amiibo being released, Shovel Knight getting cameos in other indie games, the amount fo Mega Man / Ducktales / *insert other classic 2D action platformer* fans craving a game similar to those, and it's low price, I'm honestly a little bit amazed the game hasn't sold even more. I mean, it does have pretty much everything going for it, no?
With the amount of Steam users and PS4 owners alone combined, you'd almost think that a game like this would at some point manage to clear 5 or even 10 million sales or something but apparently there are still many, many people left that are not buying it for some reason. I can't help but wonder why. Maybe the retro art style is putting some people off, or the precision platforming?
To be clear: I'm not dissing this fantastic accomplishment, more wondering aloud why it didn't sell even more after all that continued positive buzz it's got.
With the amount of Steam users and PS4 owners alone combined, you'd almost think that a game like this would at some point manage to clear 5 or even 10 million sales or something but apparently there are still many, many people left that are not buying it for some reason. I can't help but wonder why. Maybe the retro art style is putting some people off, or the precision platforming?
To be clear: I'm not dissing this fantastic accomplishment, more wondering aloud why it didn't sell even more after all that continued positive buzz it's got.
Parakeetman
No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
Well deserved and solid proof that you dont need fancy bullshit to be successful as long as you make a good game and market it right.
Colonel Mustard
Banned
Shouldn't really be an issue for the userbase difference to compensate. Platformers are just more popular on Nintendo consoles.
superNESjoe
Member
The AAA game's industry has really ruined people's perspective of what is a slam-dunk success. It wasn't *that* long ago that hitting a million copies sold was the end-all milestone of the outrageously successful.
1.5 million of an indie title with this niche of an appeal is an astronomical success. It's basically unheard of in the indie space. Hell, Shovel Knight has outsold some Nintendo games, a company that has a several decade legacy of fans and marketing power.
I don't think there really is ground to wonder why it hasn't sold more, I think we should continue being flabbergasted it sold as much as it did. 5-10 million is such an absurd number, that's not a number many highly marketed AAA vast-appeal games reach, a game like Shovel Knight is successful at 100,000 copies. 1.5 million is just unbelievable.
Like...not to rain on your comment either, just more of a riff of your comment that I just don't get the mindspace or swayed perspective that this isn't an unbelievable success and you don't get why it didn't sell more. Lots of AAA games market hard, hit the door, and fall flat on their face below a million. The overwhelming majority of indie games try their hardest and sell 10,000 or way less. This is an insane success!
JonnyDBrit
Member
For reference, the 1.2 million figure came from April, so they've sold an additional 300,000-ish copies over eight months.
The game has some good legs.
The game has some good legs.
Robert at Zeboyd Games
Banned
1.5 million for an indie game that's never been bargain-basement discounted is a blockbuster success. Even moreso when you keep in mind that NES-style graphic games usually bomb.
foxuzamaki
Doesn't read OPs, especially not his own
I do wonder how this retro game that takes its inspirations from mario, mega man, and castlevania among other NES and SNES games sold so well on the nintendo Wii U
I don't think you can take a personal example and say that, though. It's a fact that most projects (high profile or otherwise) from KS have been successful. Broken Age is an example of that, you may not like it, but it's a good game and they delivered on every promise.
It's not really insane to me, it justifies keeping the game at its launch price because the content adds value that would normally diminish over time if they just sold the DLC seperately.
I'd have to disagree on the final product of Broken Age being a good game but you're right - most of my disappointments with projects are personal. Most of the Kickstarter successes I enjoy like FTL or Chivalry I no longer associate with the service, since they've moved onto being featured on more prominent storefronts. Shovel Knight just sticks with me for continuing to make good on their promises so long after the fact.
I guess it's just harder for me to forget the fantastic crash and burn of Mighty Number 9.
poodaddy
Member
Ill bet they've at least put a small team of guys to work on the concepts and planning phase.
I guess that I just think that console / Steam games should sell more, both in general to people at large (outside of mobile stuff, which does manage to reach millions of people) and specifically within the console / Steam bubble that we mostly still occupy together, especially when it comes to well loved titles like Shovel Knight that are like a perfect storm of praise and attention.
Heck, even the biggest AAA games are still relatively niche in terms of sales compared to number of movie tickets sold for a blockbuster movie for instance, which as someone who truly believes that there is a gaming experience for everyone - but who frequently speaks with people who've never tried any game ever (or even heard about someone like Mario...), this sometimes frustrates me. It also makes me wonder why this remains the case when it feels like gaming in general has become more accepted and talked about than ever before.
I guess what I'm getting at is that sales numbers for games always feel kind of low for me compared to the fervor with which games get talked about, the size of the games industry and growing games coverage industry, and the amount of attention and coverage some titles get.
So yes, within our usual confines Shovel Knight is indeed a great succes that I applaud. But within the larger world of entertainment its sales for me reaffirm (A) that most console / Steam games, even universally praised ones that are priced relatively low, are not really picked up by the large majority of players for some reason (i.e. None of them become games that over half of a console's owners own, which is something that in the NES days could still happen) and also (B) that the larger public is still not really interested in games in general or in console / PC games specifically even when they play on their smartphones or go watch similarly themed movies etc. I don't really have a better reply than that, sorry.
Edit: the Mega Man 2 example mentioned below is a similar case where its one of those games that pretty much everyone talks about with some reverence to this day, while it is being re-released frequently as well, but where the total sales are "only" 1.5+ million in total. It feels as if a larger perecentage of gamers would have bought it on some console by now, but apparently not, which again makes me wonder why (except perhaps for most of the current sales coming from second hand copies that don't count towards that total).
Mega Man 2 is the highest selling version of any Mega Man game with 1.51 million copies sold. No other Mega Man game has sold as much as Mega Man 2 according to Capcom.
With both Christmas coming up, and the Spectre Knight DLC. Shovel Knight will almost certainly outsell Mega Man 2, if it hasn't already outsold 1.51 million already.
We are in a new era now. Shovel Knight will have more sales than any single Mega Man game.
http://www.capcom.co.jp/ir/english/finance/million.html
Mega Man 2, currently number 42 on Capcom's best selling list
With both Christmas coming up, and the Spectre Knight DLC. Shovel Knight will almost certainly outsell Mega Man 2, if it hasn't already outsold 1.51 million already.
We are in a new era now. Shovel Knight will have more sales than any single Mega Man game.
http://www.capcom.co.jp/ir/english/finance/million.html
Mega Man 2, currently number 42 on Capcom's best selling list
Here's something that hasn't been mentioned in this discussion: the 3DS & Wii U versions were finally released in Japan at the end of June, published by Nintendo. I wonder how many copies it sold over there?
Nintendo took a deliberate grass-roots approach with the marketing and did some interesting things that they haven't done with their own games, like a launch-night stream with popular let's-players and so on, but it didn't have the huge groundswell it had elsewhere so the hype seemed to die down pretty quickly.
Given the game's success on Nintendo platforms and the much larger market share of 3DS in Japan, I expected it to sell far more copies than it did. Maybe they simply took too long bringing it over, who knows.
Nintendo took a deliberate grass-roots approach with the marketing and did some interesting things that they haven't done with their own games, like a launch-night stream with popular let's-players and so on, but it didn't have the huge groundswell it had elsewhere so the hype seemed to die down pretty quickly.
Given the game's success on Nintendo platforms and the much larger market share of 3DS in Japan, I expected it to sell far more copies than it did. Maybe they simply took too long bringing it over, who knows.
Throwaway123456789
Member
Mega Man 2 is the highest selling version of any Mega Man game with 1.51 million copies sold. No other Mega Man game has sold as much as Mega Man 2 according to Capcom.
With both Christmas coming up, and the Spectre Knight DLC. Shovel Knight will almost certainly outsell Mega Man 2, if it hasn't already outsold 1.51 million already.
We are in a new era now. Shovel Knight will have more sales than any single Mega Man game.
http://www.capcom.co.jp/ir/english/finance/million.html
Mega Man 2, currently number 42 on Capcom's best selling list
I've always found the Mega Man sales numbers on their IR site shockingly low. Did it really only sell 1.5 million?
To be fair, I don't think that includes VC sales across 3DS, Wii and WiiU, plus various collections, but even then it's not going to add a huge amount more.
poodaddy
Member
I would imagine that number almost certainly does not include the several compilations that included the game. I'm unsure, but I also wouldn't be surprised if the number didn't include digital sales of the game.
EDIT: redcrayon you're a damn gaf ninja.
JonnyDBrit
Member
Yep. Mega Man was never really a major sales powerhouse, it was just that it tended to do at least decent business while Capcom spat them out at breakneck speed. This is actually why the timeline shenanigans came about - the original platformer based style of play was losing sales strength, and they wanted to get themselves a new audience with the IP.
It's actually kinda stunning to put Shovel Knight's success in that perspective.
sixteen-bit
Member
Congrats to YC on this milestone.Mega Man 2 is the highest selling version of any Mega Man game with 1.51 million copies sold. No other Mega Man game has sold as much as Mega Man 2 according to Capcom.
With both Christmas coming up, and the Spectre Knight DLC. Shovel Knight will almost certainly outsell Mega Man 2, if it hasn't already outsold 1.51 million already.
We are in a new era now. Shovel Knight will have more sales than any single Mega Man game.
http://www.capcom.co.jp/ir/english/finance/million.html
Mega Man 2, currently number 42 on Capcom's best selling list
Android18a
Member
I bought the PS4 physical release. Well worth it, one of the best experiences of the generation.
Jaded Alyx
Member
The vast majority of people are casual and only care about the biggest mainstream releases. They more than likely have never even heard of Shovel Knight, and if they have, they likely wouldn't be interested.
Even on an enthusiast forum such as GAF, we have people who have zero interest in 'indie games' whatsoever.
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