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Skyrim has sold over 20 million copies

E

EGM1966

Member
That's a lot of arrows to the knee.

Probably deserved although I'd like a better engine, better coding, less filler quests and a smaller number of deeper quests. Also the caves/dungeons, etc. where often too small.

But on PC - with mods - it was quite the experience.
 
D

Durante

Member
inky said:
I wonder if it will work for them tho. Skyrim is kinda having the GTA effect, in that it resonated extremely well with the mainstream and just exploded. It is more surprising if you think about the previous games. They were good sellers too, (Bethesda was very good at having the games ready near the launch of the consoles where there was not much else out, which made a lot of people give them a chance and find out they were good games) but not on this level I think, and they are not the kind of game I'd assume appeals to so many people. Now everyone is out there with their "me too" mentality. Insane.
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I wonder if the would-be Skyrims will also copy Bethesda's unusually long development cycles and their 5 year TES release cadence.

inky said:
The genre is doing great, and we all should be glad for that.
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Absolutely, better than ever I'd almost be tempted to say. Still, if it were up to me I'd be happy with Skyrim selling 10 million and those extra sales being spread over a bit more variety :p
 
O

Outright Villainy

Member
Dr. Kaos said:
How many copies did Demon/Dark Souls sell?

There is no justice in this world.
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I see what you're getting at, but come on that's like saying your favourite fusion jazz metal prog band doesn't sell as much as Justin Bieber. One is catered to a very specific taste, the other goes for the broadest appeal possible. Obviously Skyrim is going to sell better, and the Souls games are doing damn well for how unforgiving they are. It's kinda encouraging to see actually.
 
S

strafer

member
Guess my 300 hours spent in this game wasn't for nothing.

In other news, my Manor was attack by two angry giants..chased away my damn cow. :(
 
M

Mesoian

Member
Makes sense, Skyrim, for all it's flaws, is a pretty incredible experience, especially on PC. I can only hope they learn from other titles when it comes to things like inventory management, leveling and combat for TES6, but...skyrim was magical. My game of the year for 2011.
 
I

inky

Member
Durante said:
I wonder if the would-be Skyrims will also copy Bethesda's unusually long development cycles and their 5 year TES release cadence.
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Probably not. especially not EA and the like. That was a point I often brought up after discussing some of Bioware's faults with DA2. And it is not even that they take 5 years to make, but that they let it rest for that long while they do something else (dev time is actually closer to 3 years), probably named 'Fallout'. They are not in a rush to have a new installment out right away, even if the previous one was extremely successful. They also support it well with mostly worthwhile content.

One of the other things they usually stated was that people were much less engaged with the story and the game when it had a silent protagonist. I understand voice acting and relationships and stuff are kinda Bioware's stitch, but that is why I said earlier I found their "inspiration" dishonest. Many people agreed that race variety was a big loss coming from DAO, and Bioware often cited Skyrim as an inspiration, which has one, and they would never discuss it because they wanted to do a voiced protagonist. That's fine, but then, when you are unwilling to even discuss the possibility, citing "Skyrim" time and time again starts to feel like you only want to bandwagon the notoriety, instead of carefully looking at how and why it works. Allowing and encouraging mods is another thing. 0 focus on multiplayer, etc.

I guess we'll see how DA3 comes out.

Absolutely, better than ever I'd almost be tempted to say. Still, if it were up to me I'd be happy with Skyrim selling 10 million and those extra sales being spread over a bit more variety :p
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You and me both. Great thread btw (the RPG release chart). I'm keeping an eye out for plenty of stuff there I didn't even know about.
 
G

GhaleonEB

Member
Nirolak said:
The investment per RPG is also way up I feel. Judging by some DICE slides there are around 400+ people working away on Dragon Age 3.
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Makes Bethesda's studio all that more remarkable, considering they had less than 200 for Skyrim. I remember Edge noting it was a small miracle a team of their size created some so vast; seeing these teams get bloated with hundred of developers is worrying. Not all of them will succeed, and it will a rough landing.

Any rate, sales are well deserved. Comfortably my favorite game of last gen.
 
ElfArmy177

ElfArmy177

Member
Whats more insane is that its been over 2 years since it launched... my god how time flies.

By unpopular opinion, please release the next elder scrolls before the next fallout Bethesda.

Fallout fans dont know what they are talking about, and most likely on drugs. Please dont listen to them.
 
N

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Durante said:
I wonder if the would-be Skyrims will also copy Bethesda's unusually long development cycles and their 5 year TES release cadence.

Absolutely, better than ever I'd almost be tempted to say. Still, if it were up to me I'd be happy with Skyrim selling 10 million and those extra sales being spread over a bit more variety :p
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I think it's worth considering that Bethesda Game Studios only has one team, so their actual release rate has been:

2002: Morrowind
2006: Oblivion (4 years)
2008: Fallout 3 (2 years)
2011: Skyrim (3 years)

Morrowind and Skyrim also got what were essentially expansion packs from that same team.
 
C

CadetMahoney

Member
I wish Dragons Dogma sold as much.

P0HkZ9l.jpg
 
NJDEN

NJDEN

Member
Was a pretty good game... they needed more voice actors instead of the 5 they had, but I still bought two different copies for Xbox & PC.

On a positive note it will allow that modding community to make those remakes of Morrowind and Oblivion in the Skyrim engine which will be cool.
 
A

Alric

Member
20 million copies and just now profitable. The Cliffy B gods smile upon it. Joking aside, I still need to beat the game. I have the problem with installing too many mods, then never finishing anything.
 
M

Mr.Mike

Member
I've always thought that Skyrim was a much more popular and mainstream game than you might think given it's setting and style of game play.

Also, if Skyrim launched in 2011 (3 years ago, man time flies) then the next Fallout game should be really soon, with the next TES a few years after that (2016 might be too soon considering Fallout has yet to be announced). So that's exciting.
 
T

That1BlackGuy

Member
Not surprised, I remember the Skyrim buzz well and the game was all everyone was talking about leading up to its release that year. I can't imagine how big the marketing and hype for The Elder Scrolls VI will be this time around.
 
A

AlterOdin

Member
Although as massive game, and for some part a good/interesting and beautiful(mods) game, I feel the pc got somewhat "stiffed". (although mods made it better)

I don't like to throw this word around much and don't want to sound PC-elitist (maybe I am), but this game got "consolized" with it's horrible big text only UI to it's dated engine/gameplay to its simplistic plot. I do realize this is a business and money = mass appeal, and it that sense it delivered.

So these figures do not encourage me, as they seem to indicate they can release a mediocre game, then depending on the community to improve it, and make a shitload of money. It could have been so much better (see morrowind, yeah relative simple story here also, but still is better then this).
 
B

Batigol

Banned
All those sales from a broken, buggy game. Congrats

Negative press from this one will surely have an effect on their next game
 
I

Iztli

Member
Well no wonder since it was made for the casual fanbase.

Skyrim: The RPG for the Rest of Us IGN

Even if you think RPGs are dumb, this is a game that will demand your attention. - says IGN in their latest piece of 6 reasons why The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim will absolutely kick ass even if - or especially if - you think RPGs are dumb.
Like millions of others, the game I'll play more than any other this year is The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. The only reason this is worth mentioning is because I really, really don't like RPGs.

All that leveling up, those tiresome stats, all those dreary fantasy tropes, the endless tinkering with skills and items. Yawn!

Quasi-Medieval fantasy leaves me cold. When I trouble myself to read George R.R. Martin, my eyes roll at his absurd olde worlde lingo. I've never been tempted, not for one second, to actually play World of Warcraft. There are very few people in the world less qualified than me to write about RPGs.

But this Skyrim? This one is different. It's an RPG for the rest of us. It's a land made for you and me; we innocents who care little for warlocks and wizards, guilds and ghosts.

The guys at Bethesda are no mugs. Every single time you see Todd Howard or Pete Hines or Craig Lafferty talking to a journalist, the first thing out of their mouths is the line about Skyrim's accessibility, its universal appeal, its ability to be all things to all men, and women. And this isn't merely a marketing-made dogma shaped for the masses. It's the game's central design principle.

The reason why I can't wait for Skyrim is that it is not an RPG, it's an escape-hatch to another world. All games, especially RPGs, offer this possibility of escape, but Skyrim's detail, realism and the sense of wonder it exudes makes it more tempting for non-RPGers than stat-heavy, graphically-limited rivals.
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S

Sharp

Member
The best part of Skyrim's (unsurprising--people who don't think this game has hit the mainstream aren't paying attention) sales is that they come with a game that is unapologetically single player. AAA RPGs would be coming out anyway, obviously, but I think if it hadn't been so successful we'd be seeing more with shoehorned in multiplayer like ME3.

Actually I take that back, the best part is that open world games are awesome and now everyone wants their game to be open world :) Just like the GTA effect from last generation, as a number of people mentioned.
 
H

Helmholtz

Member
Really nice world and atmosphere. Not very interesting in the gameplay or story departments though. Cool to see that a game like this can be so popular.
 
A

Acosta

Member
Batigol said:
All those sales from a broken, buggy game. Congrats

Negative press from this one will surely have an effect on their next game
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What negative press?

p1mSUNX.jpg


The only think it gets it's (deserved) wrath from PS3 users, but that won't mean anything for the next Elder Scrolls. If Bethesda don't drop the ball in a epic way it will be another gigantic success. The series has growth in each sequel so far.
 
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