So, Alan Wake Didn't Flop After All

Whereas it's sales might certainly be lower than what many lemmings on this board would have liked, I think it is overall safe to assume that a game that debuts at #8 in the monthly NPD did reasonably well. The fact that Alan Wake sold ~128,000 copies (rough approximation) might not sound terribly impressive to some- but then again, add the worldwide sales, and we get a neat half a million copies sold.
Again, this isn't nearly as much as Microsoft or Xbox fanboys would have hoped- but it still is impressive nevertheless.

On my part, I'm hoping that this game has legs, and that it sells steadily over a prolonged period of time. Kinda like GTA: Chinatown Wars, which debuted dismally, but ended up selling over a million copies. It's a great game, not without its flaws, but still a great game, and it experiments, defies the norm, and actually tres something new. As gamers, we really need to support games like this, because over and above our narrowly perceived fanboy loyalties, we are gamers, and we need to support good games.

Half a million? I doubt it sold a lot more in Europe. It came out at a bad time, and MS didn't even compete with Red Dead Redemption's marketing.SaltyMeatballs

Sorry my friend but those numbers are low.. UFC 2010 outsold it for petesake. I to hope this game has legs but I remain very doubtful in that regard. AW just came at a bad time (releasing the same month as RDR).

It came out at a bad time, but there's always hope that it'll continue to sell over periods of time. After finally beating it yesterday, I can say that this is one that that shouldn't be brushed aside from the limelight.

I've got it still not played it yet as been away and RDR took up a lot of my time. Hearing good things about it, maybe people will buy it over the summer when there is not much else being released.

dont think it sold average/bad cause it got released close to RDR... i dont think if Halo Reach, Forza4 or Geow3 were released in the same month with RDR they would have got bad sales.. (to be fair though AW is a new IP so its not like it was a sequel to a succesful running series like the others i mentioned as an example)

AW is really a good game, so probably gamers just werent interested in the game...

Honestly. The amount it sold is bad news for Remedy considering how much time was spent making the game.

Here on System Wars, flop refers to score. Doesn't matter how well it sold, if it scored below the hype level, it flopped. However, from what I read, you make a valid point if the term flop is removed. Regardless, it will be getting a purchase from me soon (probably after I finish FFXIII) and I hope it continues to sell.

Edit: I see you have many posts under your belt, so you probably already know this. Therefore, it is more for newish people who may not know.

I think the game would have done so much better as a October/November 2010 title. We would have waited longer but the holiday rush would have greatly helped them, seeing as the only games looking like big sellers are GT5, DKCR and COD 7 (maybe AssAss creed too).

Its like what happened with Project Gotham Racer 4 in 2007. MS released it a month and a half after Forza 2 and although the game sold decent, it didnt do as good as it should have done. If they were smart, they would have delayed it to 2008 (which saw no racers outside of mario kart and burnout) and hyped it as a big 360 exclusive. tis a shame.

Anyway AW hasnt done bad and i expect this time next year it will have hit 1 million.

I think the game would have done so much better as a October/November 2010 title. We would have waited longer but the holiday rush would have greatly helped them, seeing as the only games looking like big sellers are GT5, DKCR and COD 7 (maybe AssAss creed too).

Its like what happened with Project Gotham Racer 4 in 2007. MS released it a month and a half after Forza 2 and although the game sold decent, it didnt do as good as it should have done. If they were smart, they would have delayed it to 2008 (which saw no racers outside of mario kart and burnout) and hyped it as a big 360 exclusive. tis a shame.

Anyway AW hasnt done bad and i expect this time next year it will have hit 1 million.

Hmm, I suppose a PC version is still out of the question then? :P

:? I don't know, what did people expect this to sell?

No, unfortunately it was a flop in sales too. The game took 5 years to make and who knows how much.

It's a flop on both fronts.

:? I don't know, what did people expect this to sell?

hard_body79

[QUOTE="hard_body79"]

:? I don't know, what did people expect this to sell?

charizard1605

[QUOTE="hard_body79"]

:? I don't know, what did people expect this to sell?

charizard1605

[QUOTE="hard_body79"]

:? I don't know, what did people expect this to sell?

charizard1605

yup, Heavy Rain was the harder sell, Alan Wake had more appeal

should've released Alan Wake the same month as Heavy Rain

Considering the investment that was made into this game, it will be damn lucky to break even on the project. I mean, the development costs alone were what? Its going to need to break at least 1-1.5 million sold in order for it to have been worthwhile.

[QUOTE="charizard1605"][QUOTE="hard_body79"]

:? I don't know, what did people expect this to sell?

dont forget, remedy is a small developer, yes its been developed since the beginning of time. but only 45 people worked on it.sts106mat

It had gone through $7 million before ~2006.

The development costs in total excluding things like mo-cap, voice acting, are probably around $20-30 million.

Hmm, I suppose a PC version is still out of the question then? :P

psn8214

Why bother? It'll sell about 10 copies and then be pirated a million times :P. But seriously I wouldn't be surprised if a PC version is re-announced any time soon, so many years of development and so much money spent there is no way there gonna keep it exclusive to the 360 if it's sales were lackluster.

It didnt release alongside 2 of the biggest games of the year. Plus, Heavy Rain had a bigger marketing push behind it from Sony. Heavy Rain also reviewed a bit better and word of mouth carried it a bit due to it being a very original title (for the PS3 at least). Thats my 2 cents.h575309

Its still a flop. It didn't reach AAA here.

Its still a flop. It didn't reach AAA here.

Ragnarok1051

Hmm, I suppose a PC version is still out of the question then? :P

psn8214

aye

tho i'm probably just going to give in and buy it for 360 anyways

As great as the game was, Alan Wake practically had "rental" written on his forehead. All it had was a short singleplayer, no multiplayer, and the actual gameplay itself lacked depth and had a limited number of weapons, etc. Red Dead has so much more bang for your buck, the choice of which game to buy (and which one to rent) was extremely easy.

[QUOTE="Ragnarok1051"]

Its still a flop. It didn't reach AAA here.

Karnage108

[QUOTE="Ragnarok1051"]

Its still a flop. It didn't reach AAA here.

Karnage108

[QUOTE="Karnage108"][QUOTE="Ragnarok1051"]

Its still a flop. It didn't reach AAA here.

Javy03

[QUOTE="Karnage108"][QUOTE="Ragnarok1051"]

Its still a flop. It didn't reach AAA here.

Ragnarok1051

They do everywhere else in the world... SW's warped definition of the word is lame as ****.

[QUOTE="Ragnarok1051"][QUOTE="Karnage108"] Did you even read the OP?TheGrayEye

They do everywhere else in the world... SW's warped definition of the word is lame as ****.

The NPD numbers released yesterday are from May, not June. Something about howNPDis doing a big IT update, causing a delay in reporting. AW was released 5/18 (the NPD report says 5/10?). This means that this reports only accounts for 2 weeks of sales. I don't think anyone expected AW to outsell RDR, or even have first week sales on par with Halo/Uncharted 2, etc., but 128k doesn't seem to bad. I'll be curious to see how it performs in June.

[QUOTE="TheGrayEye"]

[QUOTE="Ragnarok1051"] Yeah talking about sales. Well sales don't determine whether a game flops around here. Ragnarok1051

They do everywhere else in the world... SW's warped definition of the word is lame as ****.

I'm in a place where some kids put an illogical "spin" to a word that has almost universal coherence. This is a flop.

They needed to advertise it more, I saw no commericals for it on television while I saw a Red Dead commerical every day.

It didnt release alongside 2 of the biggest games of the year. Plus, Heavy Rain had a bigger marketing push behind it from Sony. Heavy Rain also reviewed a bit better and word of mouth carried it a bit due to it being a very original title (for the PS3 at least). Thats my 2 cents.h575309

This. All of it. It wasn't just one thing that did Alan Wake in but a combination of factors. It really is a shame that it didn't sell better.

Personally, I was surprised. I thought after 100+ hours of Red Dead that this would be a throw-away title for me, but not a chance; it was awesome. There's no arguing that Red Dead carried a lot more value with it, though.

I loved Alan Wake, but I just couldn't put down Red Dead. Lots of people coul only get one game, and they got Red Dead... and rightly so. donalbane

[QUOTE="h575309"] It didnt release alongside 2 of the biggest games of the year. Plus, Heavy Rain had a bigger marketing push behind it from Sony. Heavy Rain also reviewed a bit better and word of mouth carried it a bit due to it being a very original title (for the PS3 at least). Thats my 2 cents.Javy03

notice #11

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=26079

Sorry my friend but those numbers are low.. UFC 2010 outsold it for petesake. I to hope this game has legs but I remain very doubtful in that regard. AW just came at a bad time (releasing the same month as RDR).

OhSnapitz

I'm not sure wat you're trying to say. Ufc 2009 sold around 3.5 million and the sport itself is quite popular so of course a new ip not marketed well wouldnt outsell it.:|

Its still a flop. It didn't reach AAA here.

Ragnarok1051

It came out at the worst possible time. All my friends bought RDR. I was the only one out of 38 to buy Alan wake.racing1750

This is true. Im glad it came one week before RDR here in europe. I got RDR (day one) right after beat AW for the first time!

[QUOTE="Ragnarok1051"]

Its still a flop. It didn't reach AAA here.

SpiritOfFire117

Flop =/= Bad Game

I don't believe Ragnarok1051 meant it in that way either, he understands the rules of System Wars which is if a game fails to obtain a scorecorresponding toit's HYPE then it's considered a flop.