• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Returnal Is A “Mega-Hit” In Sony’s Eyes

Aenima

Member
nukeXKH.png


Ooff Ouffff GIF by memecandy
Lol, the global phenomenon is related to the Destruction AllStars event inside the game. That is just game lore as the events happen in arenas from various parts of the world. Has nothing to do with the game success, or lack of it.
 
If you read the game description you would see that was part of it. The game literally takes place in a world where the event is a “global phenomenon.” It’s not describing the games sales performance at all. They gave it away for free at launch!

trolls making fools of themselves again. whats new? just the mere mention of sony has them twitching with anxiety.
 
Last edited:

dcmk7

Banned
Some numbers would be nice :messenger_beaming: Because sales charts don't show Returnal being even close to a megahit. If Sony PR is enough for you, fine. I'ma stay doubting.
You freely admit you have no idea what their sales expectations were, so consequently you don't know what is or isn't a good sales number, do you? So your argument is dead on arrival.

But to me, the most obvious sign it exceeded expectations was before it had even released. Returnal sold out of physical copies in quite a few regions. Which suggests they were blind-sided by the demand. That's a pretty good indication that, if anything, it exceeded Day 1 sales forecasts, no?

And when boxed copies are difficult to get a hold of, it inevitably pushes people to go digital.

Post release it was one of the best selling games in all the key markets. Despite the high pricing and being on a single platform.

And now the studio has been purchased, and it's sales are always mentioned in glowing terms. It's difficult to doubt.
 
Last edited:

Allforce

Member
I really want to play this but I don't like paying 50 bucks for games and Megan Rapinoe does nothing for me.

I can see paying 20 bucks for this down the road and loving it just like I did with Days Gone.
 

Three

Member
Some numbers would be nice :messenger_beaming: Because sales charts don't show Returnal being even close to a megahit. If Sony PR is enough for you, fine. I'ma stay doubting.
You are a funny little guy. In the UK charts you talk about physical sales being limited. You at the same time praise Outriders as a "success" yet if you look at the PSN charts it fell off completely. Much faster than Returnal. It doesn't take a genius to understand why you take this "doubting" stance for returnal and somehow praise other MS marketed games.
 
You are a funny little guy. In the UK charts you talk about physical sales being limited. You at the same time praise Outriders as a "success" yet if you look at the PSN charts it fell off completely. Much faster than Returnal. It doesn't take a genius to understand why you take this "doubting" stance for returnal and somehow praise other MS marketed games.
Outriders is still in the top 10 of 2021 on NPD. Try again.
 

BlvckFox

Gold Member
I know that price is hard to swallow but If anyone is on the fence about the price, just buy it. I bought it not expecting much and was floored, definitely a mega hit. I was surprised by how fucking tight the gameplay is and even more surprised by the amount of time I put in so far. If I could complain a bit, after biome 3 the games difficulty takes a nose dive, not sure what happened there.
 

Three

Member
Outriders is still in the top 10 of 2021 on NPD. Try again.
On the all platforms chart sure. You've got to be doing some kind of stupid mental gymnastics to be using the all platforms chart for Outriders (PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox one, Xbox Series S/X) to try and paint Returnal (PS5) a flop and going as far as saying it is selling below expectations when it is outselling Outriders considerably on the platform.
 
Wasn’t it in the top sales charts for a few months in a row?
Yes it was, it debuted strong in both US and Europe and charted amazingly for a couple months. These haters/fanboys around here get dumb/amnesia when it's related to the success of a game/company they can't stand see succeeding.

For Returnal to chart like it did, it must have sold over 2 million in the first 2 months. I wouldn't be surprised if the game passed 3 million already.
 

Kenpachii

Member
Nobody knows since outside of Japan, we don't have any real numbers. In Japan it has roughly a 3% attach rate (generous estimate). Worldwide this would mean around 300k copies sold. I think that's a decent estimate but who knows.

Well i wanna see the EU numbers with its 80 euro price tag. honestly feel like this game barely sold. But then again not sure if the game costed them much to make either. So could be a big win for them.
 
Last edited:

jroc74

Phone reception is more important to me than human rights
You are a funny little guy. In the UK charts you talk about physical sales being limited. You at the same time praise Outriders as a "success" yet if you look at the PSN charts it fell off completely. Much faster than Returnal. It doesn't take a genius to understand why you take this "doubting" stance for returnal and somehow praise other MS marketed games.

On the all platforms chart sure. You've got to be doing some kind of stupid mental gymnastics to be using the all platforms chart for Outriders (PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox one, Xbox Series S/X) to try and paint Returnal (PS5) a flop and going as far as saying it is selling below expectations when it is outselling Outriders considerably on the platform.
Yes it was, it debuted strong in both US and Europe and charted amazingly for a couple months. These haters/fanboys around here get dumb/amnesia when it's related to the success of a game/company they can't stand see succeeding.

For Returnal to chart like it did, it must have sold over 2 million in the first 2 months. I wouldn't be surprised if the game passed 3 million already.
All this.

The wild part is? Some of these same ppl like to cite Outriders as being a Game Pass success story....but it disappeared from the most played and top paid games after a week. I have no ideas how far it dropped. But Returnal being on charts for ...2 months.....is a bomba.

Some amazing logic on display here.
 

kingfey

Banned
I'd assume that the acquisition was in the works prior to the game releasing, no?
Acquisition talk happened before the release of the game. At that time, they were getting offering to get acquired, so Sony had to acquire them.

If Sony own funded game devs, got acquired by someone else, that would have left a heavy blow to them.


"Interestingly, Hulst revealed that Sony and Housemarque were discussing an acquisition “for quite a while” and before Returnal was even released. Only Housemarque founders Ilari Kuittinen and Harri Tikkanen were aware, something Hulst said was necessary in order to not “distract the core group at Housemarque” from finishing the game." From the article.


Them getting offers


"Speaking to Finnish publication Yle in a new interview (and translated by VGC), Housemarque CEO Ilari Kuittinen revealed the developer also received buyout offers from other companies aside from Sony. "Big players in the sector from China, Sweden, and the US," Kuittinen said when asked about who attempted to acquire Housemarque."
 

kingfey

Banned
I'm not estimating anything since i'm shit at it. You just made me remember the concern for GoW sales when we saw Japan numbers
"Returnal, which launched for PlayStation 5 on April 30, did not chart in the top 10, meaning it opened at somewhere less than 29,549 copies"


That was japan numbers, on the opening week. This was just physical sales though. Expect the digital sales to be high on japan.

The one notable thing about returnal, is the high rise after the launch week. The game performed strong after its weeks debuts. At that time, the ps5 was selling more. More ps5 hardware let the game to have a rising sales.

The low ps5 hardware, was the reason why the game didnt sell high. That is what happens to next games, when they are released for next gen hardware's. You need around 20m to hit 1m-5m copies.

Best example is spiderman 2018.

2018's Marvel's Spider-Man was the fastest-selling superhero game in US history, the biggest PlayStation exclusive launch ever, and it drove a 65% increase in games profits for Sony back then. As of November 2020, it had sold 20 million units worldwide.Feb 3, 2021


That was on a 116m ps4 hardware's. or 1/6th of the console population. With ps5 being 9m-10m as of now, returnal estimate would be 1m-2m copies sold, Unless most of ps5 owners are fan of the game.
 
I think it's closer to 500k, slightly less maybe.

Okay lets look at this using the US NPD. I'll use It Takes Two as an example

Charted at number 22 in March, then at number 9 in April

Returnal charted at number 8 in April, then number 7 in May

Even with that meh ranking, It Takes Two still managed to sell 1 million in less than a month, but Returnal, which ranked better couldn't even manage half of that in 3?

Don't be a looney Bernd
 

dcmk7

Banned
That was japan numbers, on the opening week. This was just physical sales though.
Returnal sold out of all physical copies on Amazon Japan, likely to be a similar story for any other Japanese game sites/stores.

Digital sales will certainly be a lot higher than norm as a result.
 

nerdface

Banned
They should! It’s the only PS5 title besides DS that I want so far. Sony is smart.

I’ve almost pulled the trigger on a PS5 a few times… sitting in queues and refreshing pages, and this game is the only reason.

I’m a little cash strapped right now, but it’s gonna happen.
 

kingfey

Banned
They should! It’s the only PS5 title besides DS that I want so far. Sony is smart.

I’ve almost pulled the trigger on a PS5 a few times… sitting in queues and refreshing pages, and this game is the only reason.

I’m a little cash strapped right now, but it’s gonna happen.
I am waiting for the bots to die. I need a 2nd one. Its impossible to get one now though. So I will have to see it next year.


That is the high robbery I have to face here.
 
I think it's closer to 500k, slightly less maybe.

Okay lets look at this using the US NPD. I'll use It Takes Two as an example

Charted at number 22 in March, then at number 9 in April

Returnal charted at number 8 in April, then number 7 in May

Even with that meh ranking, It Takes Two still managed to sell 1 million in less than a month, but Returnal, which ranked better couldn't even manage half of that in 3?
Also :



sXPaRop.jpg
 
Last edited:
While I admit it’s not my type of game, reviews prove that it is a mega-hit. I mean there is no game out there which appeals to everyone, tastes are different, but that doesn’t mean we have the right to talk bad about a game just because it is not our type of game. I mean I really hate animal crossing as it looks so boring, but because many people really enjoy it, I must accept that it is also a mega-hit.

That being said Sony made the right call to buy the studio, I mean looking what kind of jump they made from their last game ti Returnal, I can’t wait to see what is coming next from them.
 

Mossybrew

Member
While I admit it’s not my type of game, reviews prove that it is a mega-hit. I mean there is no game out there which appeals to everyone, tastes are different, but that doesn’t mean we have the right to talk bad about a game just because it is not our type of game. I mean I really hate animal crossing as it looks so boring, but because many people really enjoy it, I must accept that it is also a mega-hit.

That being said Sony made the right call to buy the studio, I mean looking what kind of jump they made from their last game ti Returnal, I can’t wait to see what is coming next from them.

Yeah I'm glad it delivers on a genre I don't really like, but others do, that's fine. PS5 has this and Demon's Souls for a particular kind of player, and stuff like Godfall and Ratchet & Clank which are more on point with what I want. It's all good.
 
Last edited:
Okay lets look at this using the US NPD. I'll use It Takes Two as an example

Charted at number 22 in March, then at number 9 in April

Returnal charted at number 8 in April, then number 7 in May

Even with that meh ranking, It Takes Two still managed to sell 1 million in less than a month, but Returnal, which ranked better couldn't even manage half of that in 3?

Don't be a looney Bernd
It Takes Two is a multiplatform game. It sold a shitload of copies on Steam alone.
 
Returnal sold out of all physical copies on Amazon Japan, likely to be a similar story for any other Japanese game sites/stores.

Digital sales will certainly be a lot higher than norm as a result.
Returnal sold only half of the physical copies available on release week in Japan. Sony actually overestimated the demand for it.
 

SLB1904

Banned
No. It only did well for two months on the Playstation Store, but we don't know how many games are sold there. It was #1 on the Japan Playstation Store, but only sold around 2000 copies. So the #1 doesn't mean much tbh.
You know when someone 8s desperate when they use sales of a western game in Japan as a evidence of anything
If tgat was the case 100% of the Microsoft games bombed. I guess you didn't thought that through right?
Returnal sold only half of the physical copies available on release week in Japan. Sony actually overestimated the demand for it.

And he keeps digging lol
 
Last edited:
Top Bottom