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The first sales figures are in!

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The first sales figures are in!

The power of word of mouth

from GalCiv2 Forums

We just got our report on the first week of sales of Galactic Civilizations II.  Despite some availability problems, we're told that we're presently the best selling software title at Walmart.  Let me be clear: Not just #1 PC game, but overall software.

Best Buy, EB, and Gamestop have put in additional orders that actually exceed their initial sell-in orders (which you may recall were 3X what GalCiv I's initial retail presence was).

How is this possible?  No one is ever going to accuse us of being a marketing juggernaut.  It's not like there was a 6 month build up of "hype" or whatever. Few reviews are up yet.

It's word of mouth. You guys.  Individual people from around the world simply getting the game and telling their friends that they liked it.

And here's another thing to consider -- Galactic Civilizations II has no copy protection whatsoever.  Not even a CD check.  Heck, you can install the game and toss out the CD and use the included serial # (which you don't even have to use to install) to redownload the entire game from us even years in the future.

So what about piracy? Remember? That's the argument why games need all kinds of DRM and CD protection -- piracy.  Yet retail sales are very high.  Very high despite the fact that any one of the 50,000+ people who have already purchased could zip up the CDs and put them on-line because there's no copy protection.

One might argue that not having copy protection decreases the piracy on the game because there's no copy protection to crack and distribute.  And perhpas some people who might have been on the fence decided to buy the game because they didn't have to worry about losing their CD or worrying that some copy protection scheme was going to create headaches.

It will be interesting to see what the overall monthly sales stats will be when they're published next month (i.e. the ones publicly available). 

Thanks to the Internet and the ease of communication, it is looking very possible that the balance of power in PC entertainment software has shifted decidedly to the players and away from the traditional avenues.

As soon as the generally available sales stats are out, we'll link to them.

87,018 views 102 replies
Reply #51 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
It's always great to see the converted pirates posting in here. Stardock's strategy of making it easy to be their customer really works.

Heck, it got me to buy games and the Object Desktop suite from them.
Reply #52 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Congradulations you certainly deserve it! You are by far the best gaming company in exsistence. I have gotten two people
to purchase the game so far!

ap
Ashes of the Singularity II
Reply #53 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I think what those figures prove is that games are not pirated any less if copy protection exists. What that means is that copy protection which stops pirated game copying as long as possible is sadly very effective at preventing lost sales.


The only effect copy protection has ever had on game sales in my experience has been when I DO NOT buy a game because of its draconian copy protection. I just cant see Johnny Pirate Boy saying :"wow I cant find this game on torrent or usenet or warex-o-matic....Id better go purchase it." I can understand why some companies feel the need for reasonable protection from casual pirates, but when your copy protection impacts the legitamite user in any way more significant than taking 30 seconds one time, your heading down a dangerous road.

Lets take a perfect example of protection schemes gone crazy. The new Blueray and HDdvd systems are going to alienate millions of loyal customers. The very customers they should be courting, the early adopters. They are making it so that litterally MILLIONS of HDTV sets will not be able to play true HD content. So those who purchsed their HD sets 1st (the people MOST LIKELY to consider buying an HD Player in the next 12 months), and also those that purchased them more receintly, but are less adept at marketing double speak will be forced with a decision....do I accept that I got screwed by these companies and purchase another HDTV, and an HD Player.....or do I find another way to get my HD movies.

That is not a question I want my most loyal customers having to ask themselves.
Reply #54 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I just bought my copy online, downloading it now via Stardock

Very happy to hear this news, good work to your entire team

Also, a huge thanks for not putting in intrusive copy protection, ALL of the PC titles I bought over the last year have problems with my computer, my cdrom, whatever. They're all irritating. I'm happy to hear I won't have to deal with that issue with GC2

Now I just wait impatiently while it downloads...
Reply #55 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
In my opinion, you know why GalCiv2 has done so well? YOU GUYS LISTENED TO WHAT PEOPLE WANTED. Instead of ignoring the customer base, you involved them and asked questions. You saw what they wanted, and delivered. There has been a lack of 4x games lately, especially in the "space" arena. And instead of Just copying the old template, you took into consideration the new things people wanted, and you made a game that people couldn't resist.

I remember surfing through gamespot.com last year sometime, looking at what games were coming out. I ran across GalCiv II and immeadiately thought, OH NO, please don't wreck another 4x game. Then i read the article, saw the features of GalCiv II and i was LITERALLY beaming from ear to ear. I thought "OMG, could it really be? Have they finally made THAT 4x game we've been waiting for?" And you did. And i love it. I haven't even played a game all the way thru the tech tree yet and i can't wait for an expansion pack! I think you have now, many many customers than you could have imagined! Hats off to you guys. Keep it coming at this level and you bet we'll keep buying!
Reply #56 from GalCiv2 Forums Top


All the best for a damn good company. Glad to hear it! Maybe some of the 'BIG' players may see how you do this the 'RIGHT' way!

Keep'em coming! (I purchased a 2nd copy as a gift for one of my friends.
Reply #57 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
That is fantastic. Always a good feeling when something you've worked long and hard on turns out to be just as popular with the fans. Everyone that worked on the game deserves a round of whatever their pleasure.
Reply #59 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Congratz guys! Like many other said the fact that you guys don't have any CP on the game actually made the game much much more appealing to me.

I like to support developers, but recently I just have gotten way too many games that I cannot even play w/o getting a NOCD patch of some sort. Mind you these are all games that I purchased.

In my opinion, CP only serve to piss off the loyal customers, and hinder sells. Starforce protection for example has messed up my PC before. And now I don't even think about buying a game with that protection on it. In fact, the first thing I do before I get a game now is to find out beforehand what Copy protection it uses.

Again thank you guys so much for treating us gamers like people not thieves. Now if you guys get more games on Totalgaming.net i will really just stop buying games from anywhere else...
Reply #60 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
The game wont be released in Australia until the 13th of March and already it is the 3rd most anticipated release (closely following behind the WoW expansion and Elder Scrolls 4).

I simply have to say... guys, the way in which you approach software development (and I am a commercial developer myself for 15+ years) is absolutely commendable. Your attitude and openness is an absolute breath of fresh air!!!

For that alone you have automatically won me over in checking out any and ALL titles that you guys release because I know the professionalism and dedication behind it and I personally think that those qualities should be rewarded in this day and age where developers believe they are godlike and should be worshiped simply because they are doing a job they are paid for.

Kudos! (And I have already gotten another person interested... and I know a lot of people!)
Reply #61 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Good Job! You deserve all the praise this thread has generated.

Re: copy protection... it is an interesting argument that lack of copy protection helps to promote sales. I've been lucky enough not to run into the common problems caused by protection schemes. I feel for the rest of you all. I am (as a loptop user) VERY much interested in games that don't require the game CD to be in the tray at all times. I'd like to think that the theory is correct. But never draw any conclusions from a single data point.

Are any of the Stardock team in communication with other indies? Is there a chance that some other devs might go the same route and distribute w/o copy protection? If there were three or four examples of it, maybe the biggies might take notice. Hell, I'd love to have CIV 4 and Dungeon Seige harddrive resident, and not have to swap CDs all the time.

But anyway, the subject at hand is the success of Froggy et al. I hoist a virtual mug of Drengin Ale to you! Great work. Now, get to work on Gal Civ Three, ok?

Jon
Reply #62 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
When GalCiv1 was commign out it was same time that moo3 was comming out. I didn't know which to buy, and being poor at that time I wasn't about to buy both. So I decided to d/l both, play them, and buy the better one. I bought GalCiv of course.... followed by rapid deleation of moo3 and buring of the disk. I wanted to make sure it wouldn't fall into hands of my younger brother and taint him forever.
Reply #63 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Yes i agree 100%. It is one of the best games Ive ever played. It has almost every thing i want in it. The copy protection "non-worries " I like. Thanks for the info. Great job guys. It's trully a 5 star game and ive been gaming for years.
Reply #64 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Congratulations! Glad to see all your hard work is paying off.

Your right about the word of mouth appeal, I stumbled onto this game when reading a post on Penny Arcade last year. The game looked amazing even with the little bits of information on the site.

I live in Australia so it’s always a long wait for any game to get here, and if you want to get anything from the rest of the world the P&H is ridicules. Being able to pay and download online while the game ships is a refreshing change from the norm. I don't usually order stuff online since stores generally don't give refunds to some one half way across the globe. However GalCiv2 looked promising enough to take that risk.

When it was finally released GC2 was worth it, I can barely stop playing it’s the best game I've played in a long time. I'll see if I can get anyone I know interested in the game before it reaches retail here, although I don't think it will be hard to get people to like the game.

Anyway great game and I hope your next one does as well as this.

PS: Thanks for not charging P&H during the beta that was really what sold me about get a physical copy and not just downloading online.
Reply #65 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
We just got our report on the first week of sales of Galactic Civilizations II.

Have you also data about European sales and electronic downloads?
Reply #66 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
There is this wacky idea that it seems a lot of developers are missing these days...

... make a good game and it will sell.

No need for a five million dollar ad blitz and ingame product placement every fifteen seconds. No need for draconian DRM that manages to stop pirates for all of forty to fifty seconds before they evade it yet punishes paying customers like they were criminals. Hell, no need for ultra super duper hyper high tech graphics that require you go out and buy a brand new five hundred dollar video card to play at medium settings.

Nope, just a good game with pretty good graphics and phenomonal gameplay. Oddly enough that seems to do it everytime.
Reply #67 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
There's 3 main reasons why I'm impressed!

1. Pricepoint - There is absolutely no reason why a video game (regardless of platform) should cost more than $50 IMO. Of course with every statement there's the VERY RARE exception (like the very long awaited Elder Scrolls: Oblivion). I've played games like Battlefield 2 where there's fun and addictive gameplay... but it's not worth the $60 for the main game and then an additional $40 per expansion (typically expansions only add content to the game and do not require near the same effort to develop). The game is just not worth a $100+ investment. I will not purchase (and therefore not play) a game who's cost is bigger than it's value to me.

Your Pricepoint for Galactic Civ 2 rocks! It's the main reason why I bought the game... although $50 is my max for a game... $40 made it a no brainer to head to my local computer games shop and pick it up without Try-Before-Buy.

2. Copy Protection Schemes - They just don't work. If I wanted to get past copy Protection, there are very many avenues available to do so quite easlily. At most it's an inconvenience to someone like me. Does the copy protection scheme stop me from purchasing a movie or game that I want... in many cases yes! I'm a person that will try before I buy... simply said. The annoyance and inconvenience of having to put a CD (original game CD at that!) in my CD Drive just to load up a game that I've legitimately purchased... That's not right! If you think this is bad... wait till you find out more about what's in store with HD-DVD and Blu-Ray on your PC... get ready to buy a new video card and Monitor for your computer or Media PC when you decide to play that deal. Simply put... Copy Protection and DRM do not stop... do not even hinder those that it's supposedly intended for. It affects the person who legitimately wants to support the industry most by buying what they believe is of value to them. Worse yet... it's a way to force you, the consumer, to be corralled into what you can and cannot do with your PC. Don't think so? Just ask my brother-in-law who had a Sony Rootkit issue... Or me for having to clean it up afterwards.

Old story for anyone that's been ranting about the whole Protection deal... So I'll end it here.

Thank you for making the game *NOT REQUIRE* the game CD to play... and for not including on CD protection... as I've stated... bypassing is not so much an impossibility as it is an inconvenience. Since there's no protection, I don't even need to back up the CD's... so the originals are stored away never to be needed again until the next reimage of my machine... YAY!

3. Value! - Yes... that's right... value. Big publishing companies stick to developing the same old same old. A major publishing company (I will not mention their name for the sake of Free Advertising) had communicated that they plan to release over 120 new releases this year. Of those 120+ releases, only one game was new IP. That's right! only *1* new IP!!! The idea here is not to develop new and exciting games for people to play... but to develop the same stuff that succeeded and just make the graphics better and in some cases improve interface or add new content. For those Sim game fans and those Sports game fans... You'll know exactly what I'm talking about. Incidentally that particular company came under a great deal of negative press for releasing the 2006 editions of their games and in some cases the only enhancements were roster updates and minor fixes to controls... $60 for that??? Since the bad press they've reduced their game prices for the sports games who's YOY enhancements were minimal.

Thank you for developing a new game (I consider GalCiv2 a new game over GalCiv1 because of all the radical changes... built from the ground up!). Also, thank you for listening to your customers... that's what truly makes a game good!

Daniel
Reply #69 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
gogogogogogoogogogogogogoo stardock!

Seriously, congratulations. You guys are model indie developers.
Reply #71 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Hi, just thought you should know....

I like 4x games. I'm not a huge, mega fan or anything, but they are indeed enjoyable.

But mostly, I bought this game simply because it didn't have copy protection....not in the traditional sense.
That's it. Voting with my wallet.

The fact that I got an excellent, though buggy (stacked units can't 'do' things like construct? upgrade? fleets don't 'make' all the time. invisible mouse problem until i went windowed mode with hardware mouse) game is just icing on the cake.
Reply #72 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
This is great news indeed, congrats to Stardock et al.

As to the piracy issue... well, I love video/computer games and my stance on it is I'll pay people to make games for me and keep my entertainment flowing. Yes there will be jerky products and there will be companies who don't care for my input, but more often than not I get a game I truly like. To each his own.

I agree with previous posters though; I think it's not so much that GCII is pirated less, it's more that copyright measures more often than not hurt sales.

In any case, always willing to support indies and small devs especially with as much dedication and quality as Stardock.
Reply #73 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Hopefully you are being rewarded for creating a great game as well as the fact that you have taken the stance vs. DRM/Copyrestriction that you have. You can still see the old blog postings from Brad regarding copy restriction being linked in "pirate" forums and hopefully those with some sense left have managed to cough up the necessary $ to reward you for your stance.

If Stardock was to go under, or turn to DRM/copy restriction it would be the biggest loss to Computer Gaming since the Death of Commodore (But the AMIGA lives forever..).

Good work everyone at Stardock, and hope you have a prosperous future.. paid for by us, your customers


Regarding Torrents and downloads. Many people download everything. A leech/Seed does'nt mean the person actually installed and played the game. Maybe it was just played for 15 minutes. And if the person liked it, perhaps he bought the game. I'd even suggest that distributing the game through warez groups such as Reloaded etc is beneficial to the game publisher assuming the game title is a) good and b) not containing any copy restriction crap. What could be better than a full demo for a game that you did not even have to distribute or pay for the bandwidth..
Stroke of genious.
Reply #74 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
ermm... does that mean Engineers & IT ppl sell better games than the Marketing folks?

/runs back to cave and hides
Reply #75 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Another reason I would think that people are buying instead of pirating is because with Stardock Central, it is EASIER to buy the game than pirate it.

Think about it, I can try to download off a torrrent, or off StartDock... Only difference with stardock is you get updates, support, easy access to the game... The only difficulty is you need a credit card, but most of us do, the rest can buy at stores.

And none of the Steam-like nonsense of authenication every time you want to play the game, which ends up meaning if you don't have an internet connection for a period of time you can't even run the damn thing!! nope, just easy simple and runs off the bat.