While Sony Celebrates 'Infamous' Sales, Microsoft/EA Still Quiet About 'Titanfall'

[GotBored]

i'd wager EA is at least partially funding this to prop up the numbers, to help restore faith in the company especially after the whole BF4 fiasco.

 

You think EA is subsidizing Xbox One bundles?

[neoadorable]

Total BS here, TF was made on the old Source engine by a small dev team, and has no single player campaign.  No way it cost $180 million to make and market. 

 

Everyone I play with bought their copy digitally, except the guys that bought the TF bundle, so I think VGChartz will be missing a large portion of sales in any case.

 

Precisely, digital version here is as well so basically only MS and EA even know I bought it. How would a third party website know? They get their figures from retail contacts, but retail is marginal in the case of this game. The majority got it downloaded from Xbox store or Origin.

[GotBored]

Total BS here, TF was made on the old Source engine by a small dev team, and has no single player campaign.  No way it cost $180 million to make and market. 

 

Everyone I play with bought their copy digitally, except the guys that bought the TF bundle, so I think VGChartz will be missing a large portion of sales in any case.

 

I've mentioned various times that Titanfall uses the old source engine, but according to many its a heavily modified source engine. (Apparently it takes time and money to heavily modify it according to those people)

No single player campaign would cut out a lot of the development costs, but Titanfall has storyline/campaign in the multiplayer or at least a story woven into the multiplayer so voice actors, writers, etc are being paid for these.

 

$100 million is quite a stretch for Titanfall development, but not so much if I incorporated the costs to fund Respawn as a company. Remember they were COD developers who created their own company to create Titanfall and needed capital to start up this company.

[+Asmodai MVC]

True, Titanfall was supposed to help sell consoles but it's not exactly the defining moment. I don't get the impression MS is in panic mode, they will be more than comfortable selling less than PS4 so long as X1 makes money and maintains a solid presence in the market. It's too early to tell anyway, 2016 will be the showdown/heyday year for these two.

 

There is no doubt in my mind that Titanfall has helped sell consoles.  It's just not going to be enough to catch the PS4, but again thinking it could do that is highly unreasonable.  It's a good game and it's selling well.  That said I TOTALLY get the impression MS is in panic mode.  You don't release a new console, then bundle one of your top games FOR FREE, then cut the price all within a few months of launch if you aren't in panic mode.  I highly doubt X1 is making money either with the price cuts and huge marketing push they are doing.  In some ways it's good they are in panic mode though because besides making it cheaper they are working hard to churn out the software updates to the system which is a great thing for gamers.

[vcfan]

You think EA is subsidizing Xbox One bundles?

I think the game is heavily discounted to Microsoft for including it in the bundle.

[neoadorable]

There is no doubt in my mind that Titanfall has helped sell consoles.  It's just not going to be enough to catch the PS4, but again thinking it could do that is highly unreasonable.  It's a good game and it's selling well.  That said I TOTALLY get the impression MS is in panic mode.  You don't release a new console, then bundle one of your top games FOR FREE, then cut the price all within a few months of launch if you aren't in panic mode.  I highly doubt X1 is making money either with the price cuts and huge marketing push they are doing.  In some ways it's good they are in panic mode though because besides making it cheaper they are working hard to churn out the software updates to the system which is a great thing for gamers.

 

It's possible, but to me it seems more like coming down to reality rather than freaking out. I don't think MS expected Titanfall on its own to dethrone PS4, probably just help a little. I don't sense desperation, but then again it's hard to gauge. The price cuts are adjustments. To me panic mode would be Sega circa early 2001, and that's just not going to happen with MS obviously.

[GotBored]

I think the game is heavily discounted to Microsoft for including it in the bundle.

 

If its heavily discounted to Microsoft it probably because they payed for its exclusivity.

[LaP]

Titanfall numbers will be high considering it is given for free to new XBox One owners

[vcfan]

If its heavily discounted to Microsoft it probably because they payed for its exclusivity, not because EA wants to sell more Xbox Ones.

its in EAs best interests that people buying xbox ones buy ones that include an EA title. Heavily discounting the title helps pricing the bundle.

[Lord Method Man]

Titanfall was just a blip on the radar that has came and went.

[GotBored]

its in EAs best interests that people buying xbox ones buy ones that include an EA title. Heavily discounting the title helps pricing the bundle.

 

Actually the original bundles also had a EA title; FIFA 14 in European countries. 

 

I remember reading news about EA predicting Xbox One would outsell the PS4 prior to their release so maybe they were backing the console they thought would outsell the other?

[dead.cell]

Its also available on PC and coming out on the X360.

 

PC sales are much worse, hopefully it does well on the X360 or it may actually cost EA and Microsoft rather than turn a profit.

The only reasoning I can think on PC sales being worse is that we have plenty of content to entertain us.

 

If I had an Xbox One, picking up Titanfall is quite simply a no brainer, given what games are available to actually play.

[Showan]

I'm not sure they even take reality in to consideration.

I literally laughed out loud on this one...

[Thief000]

I literally laughed out loud on this one...

Me too, because it's true.

[vcfan]

Actually the original bundles also had a EA title; FIFA 14 in European countries.

if the title wasn't heavily discounted,then Microsoft would have been better off slashing the price of the console. that's the only reason I can think of why they bundled it.

 

I remember reading news about EA predicting Xbox One would outsell the PS4 prior to their release so maybe they were backing the console they thought would outsell the other?

who knows how the exclusivity came to be, but the game is now on this platform,and ea will do what it can to make it a successful franchise,and Microsoft will do what it can to make their console a success as well.

[PGHammer]

Agreed, this wasn't a huge project, more like a tester for Respawn. And as that it's a marvelous success. You can tell that it's quite barebones, the campaigns are really a joke and people just bother with them for the achievements, at least on Xbox devices (not sure if Origin version has achievements for Titanfall).

 

EDIT: when saying barebones I mean very focused, not incomplete. It does one thing and does it spectacularly well.

It does - however, those achievements are actually identical, and for the same "rewards".  (The burn-card and ReGen system in-game is utterly identical across platforms - the difference in that aspect is platform-neutral - and should be with a multiplatform game - unless you are "playing favorites" with one platform over another.  While Microsoft COULD do so with unique achievements on XB1, they aren't the publisher - EA is; and nothing EA has said - or MajorNelson has said, for that matter - has hinted at any such skewage.)

[PGHammer]

if the title wasn't heavily discounted,then Microsoft would have been better off slashing the price of the console. that's the only reason I can think of why they bundled it.

 

who knows how the exclusivity came to be, but the game is now on this platform,and ea will do what it can to make it a successful franchise,and Microsoft will do what it can to make their console a success as well.

Maybe because FIFA is more popular in Europe (and in South America) than in North America?  (Despite MLS, how popular is is soccer in North America outside of Mexico?  Be realistic and honest.)

 

The FIFA/Forza/Titanfall promotions are each geared toward specific regions - the UK is, from what I have seen, the only place where multiple promotions crossed over.

[trooper11]

What a topic to start today.

First of all, shouldn't this thread be in the multiplatform section? Titanfall is clearly not an Xbox console exclusive and the sales numbers on the pc are interesting to follow as well.

Reading through the pages so far, it seems like the only real info we are talking about is the VGChart numbers and then a whole lot of conjecture. I don't know if a lack of announced sales means its a failure, but then again, you would think they would trumpet big numbers, so I'm not sure.

One thing that is for sure though, the lack of numbers means that the prevailing thought will be that it is a failure, right along with the X1. Since many people tried to connect the success of one affecting the other, the lack of success would then be taken to mean lack of success for both. Regardless of the fact that Titanfall is spread across three platforms and is just now launching on the 360, everyone was very focused on how it would do on the X1.

[spenser.d]

What a topic to start today.

First of all, shouldn't this thread be in the multiplatform section? Titanfall is clearly not an Xbox console exclusive and the sales numbers on the pc are interesting to follow as well.

Reading through the pages so far, it seems like the only real info we are talking about is the VGChart numbers and then a whole lot of conjecture. I don't know if a lack of announced sales means its a failure, but then again, you would think they would trumpet big numbers, so I'm not sure.

One thing that is for sure though, the lack of numbers means that the prevailing thought will be that it is a failure, right along with the X1. Since many people tried to connect the success of one affecting the other, the lack of success would then be taken to mean lack of success for both. Regardless of the fact that Titanfall is spread across three platforms and is just now launching on the 360, everyone was very focused on how it would do on the X1.

 

One guy on Forbes thinks its a failure because it'll get him page hits.  Not everyone. You'd have to be a complete idiot to think that. The only evidence out there points to it being a resounding success on Xbox One.  To say otherwise it to just plain ignore reality.  Neither Microsoft or Sony have a particularly consistent track record with releasing numbers, overwhelmingly positive or not, so to conjecture off of that is just dumb. And to be fair, I haven't heard anyone calling it a failure up until this article. It's click bait, plain and simple.

[GotBored]

One guy on Forbes thinks its a failure because it'll get him page hits.  Not everyone. You'd have to be a complete idiot to think that. The only evidence out there points to it being a resounding success on Xbox One.  To say otherwise it to just plain ignore reality.  Neither Microsoft or Sony have a particularly consistent track record with releasing numbers, overwhelmingly positive or not, so to conjecture off of that is just dumb. And to be fair, I haven't heard anyone calling it a failure up until this article. It's click bait, plain and simple.

 

Actually both Sony and Microsoft have a consistent track record of releasing numbers when one of their products is doing well. Both were releasing sales numbers when each console hit a milestone and Sony also released sales numbers of Infamous and congratulated Sucker Punch Productions on its success. Pretty much every company with an online presence likes to release sales data when their product does well its not just Sony, Microsoft or EA. I'm not sure what evidence of it being a resounding success your talking about as the whole speculation on it being a failure is due to the lack of evidence/information about it..

[trooper11]

You have to decide how much stock to put into the speculation, that is all.

Everyone is going to take the speculation and view it in a slightly different light, resulting in a different theory of what the result will be.

I kind of love it and hate it at the same time. Speculation can be an interesting discussion, but sometimes it feels like all we do is speculate over and over, constantly. Every once in a while its nice to just hold back until something is confirmed.

[Houtei]

I honestly do not know ANYONE who bought a physical disc of titanfall out of the 20 people I know I with an XO and everyone of them went digital.   I for some reason have went all digital with my XO but I have bought all 4 games I have on PS4 in disc form.

[123456789A]

I don't even buy physical copies of games anymore. Now that digital is available on release day, I no longer have to do business with Gamestop.

[neoadorable]

I honestly do not know ANYONE who bought a physical disc of titanfall out of the 20 people I know I with an XO and everyone of them went digital.   I for some reason have went all digital with my XO but I have bought all 4 games I have on PS4 in disc form.

 

Only physical title for me was Son of Rome, which i bought with the X1. Other than that all titles were digital. If that's the case, and it seems it is, for most of us, then X1 is becoming the all-download platform of this generation, which means people are going to have a hell of a hard time tracking sales for a while to come.

[Torolol]

as always, if big companies being shy to trumpeting the sales record,

the stock-market/public should interprets that as sign that the sales was bad or mediocre at best,

the past precedents that it was the cases are plenty.