Crysis Comeback: Moves 1 Million Copies

[Zer0-Sum]

In the midst of the huge releases in the months that led up to Christmas, Crysis got off to a very slow start, selling a meager 86,000 copies in its first few weeks on shelves. But what looked like it could have been one of the greatest gaming flops in recent history has done a complete 180, grown legs and moved 1 Million copies according to a recent report by EA.

Now we wonder if UT3—another anticipated PC title which also flopped in November '07—has made the same sort of comeback.

http://kotaku.com/351661/crysis-comeback-moves-1-million-copies

Sweet sweet news for Crytek. It is a good game and deserves the attention. I just wish multilayer was more robust. :(

[<3frosty]

Very good news. Shocking to see it move less than 100k in its first week.

I dont really remember seeing all the many advertisements for it though, and advertisements really help push a product. Not to mention, the biggest holiday rush this year was for console gaming imo. So, its not all THAT surprising that it sold poorly its first week or so. Its just the amount of poor is shocking.


Also, i didnt even know UT3 released... thats not good news at all for that title.

[TheGreenElf]

I'm impressed...a pc title moving that many units so fast (that isn't made by Blizzard)...and not to mention the heavy computer requirements for the game.

[VG Aficionado]

I guess it isn't that popular in the US but managed to sell a lot of copies in Europe. I will be buying it as my PC unexpectedly died this week and I ordered some high end hardware to get over the loss :cowboy:

[Xer0]

Ive noticed that a lot of new graphics cards come with a version on Crysis packed in. I wonder if that has anything to do with it.

[belgarn]

Ive noticed that a lot of new graphics cards come with a version on Crysis packed in. I wonder if that has anything to do with it.

Really? I haven't seen any Crysis bundles, at least no official bundles. Mostly Neverwinter Nights 2 with 8800GT/GTS 512.

[Viper]

It launched to bad sales because people hadn't upgraded their systems yet/new cards were coming soon after release.

[VG Aficionado]

I think the 8800 GT was released before Crysis, and both the GTS and GTX had been released months ago. Also, anything above a 8500 runs it well at usual monitor resolutions with most effects on.

I'm getting a factory overclocked 512 MB 8800 GT and I think it has Colin McRae Dirt and other game bundled, but I never saw any Crysis bundle. There might be store bundles though.

[Viper]

VG, ATi had some big hyped cards drop after Crysis hit.

[VG Aficionado]

I doubt that had any major impact considering that Nvidia's 8 series had been out for months and can run Crysis more than fine.

[Ivory_Soul]

Holy shit 1 million people have a computer to run Crysis? I thought Crysis was gonna bomb because of that...this is good news then...time to make room for 400 more Crysis games and spin-offs knowing EA.

[VG Aficionado]

Count me in now :cowboy:

I can't believe I've bought an EA game last month (Burnout Paradise) and that I'm buying another EA game this month (Crysis). At least they're not games developed internally.

[masteratt]

...

Why the hell do people hate EA?
I forget.

As far as I'm aware they publish the best games in the industry and they do a great job of it.

[LaLiLuLeLo]

That might be, but they also publish the worst games and more of them. And that's what sticks with people. EA is like a beautiful woman.
She makes the highs higher and the lows more frequent.

[<3frosty]

EA is getting so big that people continue to hate on them without realizing they have bought out a ton of great developers over the years.

[TrueVCU]

EA is getting so big that people continue to hate on them without realizing they have bought out a ton of great developers over the years.

And sucked the life force from most of them (RE: Maxis)

[Zer0-Sum]

EA is getting so big that people continue to hate on them without realizing they have bought out a ton of great developers over the years.

And murder man. Westwood? DOA. BullFrog? Ditto. The list goes on for a while on that one.

I don't mind EA as long as they just publish games and do not develop them, except for EA Sports BIG. SSX is a diamond in the rough. Crysis is a prefect example of a EA published game that they really has nothing to do with except for publishing it. That is a good model for them to follow. Leave the creative stuff to others, EA should just feed the creative spirit of developers with lots of breathing room and cash then just stick to the business side of things. All will be well at EA if they do that.

[<3frosty]

I dont really recognize any of the developers yall mentioned. Though, maybe that is because of the fact that they are now sub-par/defunct studios...

[Fats]

I never actually thought about that. Maxis, Westwood Studios and Bullfrog were awesome.

[Zer0-Sum]

I dont really recognize any of the developers yall mentioned. Though, maybe that is because of the fact that they are now sub-par/defunct studios...

Westwood games:

* Battletech: The Crescent Hawk's Inception
* Blade Runner computer game movie adaptation.
* Circuit's Edge, a game adaptation of George Alec Effinger's novel When Gravity Fails
* Command & Conquer series (1995-2002, up to Command & Conquer: Yuri's Revenge)
* DragonStrike a 3D dragon flight combat simulator.
* Dune II (1992)
* Dune 2000 (1998)
* Emperor: Battle for Dune (2001)
* Earth & Beyond
* Eye of the Beholder series (minus Assault on Myth Drannor)
* Lands of Lore series
* The Legend of Kyrandia series
* Nox
* Pirates: The Legend of Black Kat
* Resident Evil (PC version only) (Westwood Uncredited)
* Young Merlin

Bullfrog games:

# Populous (1989)
# Flood (1990)
# Populous II (1991)
# Powermonger (1992)
# Syndicate (1993)
# Magic Carpet (1994)
# Theme Park (1994)
# Syndicate: American Revolt (1994)
# Tube (1994)
# Hi-Octane (1995)
# Magic Carpet 2 (1995)
# Gene wars (1996)
# Syndicate Wars (1996)
# Dungeon Keeper (1997)
# Theme Hospital (1997)
# Fusion (1998)
# Populous: The Beginning (1998)
# Theme Park World (SimTheme Park in the US) (1999)
# Dungeon Keeper 2 (1999)
# Aquarium (2001)
# Theme Park Inc (SimCoaster in the US) (200

That is a mass of classic PC titles that people devoured and grew up on. Those studios were both doing well when EA ate them. Now they are long gone.

And just to back up what I say check this out:

Riccitiello On How Not To Blow It, The EA Way

Bullfrog, Origin Systems, and Westwood Studios rank as some of the best development houses of all time. They also happen to represent three of EA's most spectacular failures. "We at EA blew it," said EA CEO John Riccitiello at the DICE Summit in Las Vegas this morning, "To a degree, I was involved in those things, so I blew it."

While Riccitiello was proud of his achievements at EA following his return to the company, he warned developers and publishers not to make some of the mistakes the company has made in the past. Those mistakes, he said, involved the creative stifling of talent and the ensuing departure of creative types.

Riccitiello took DICE attendees to school this morning with his talk on Game industry Economics 101. EA, like Activision, Sony, Microsoft, will continue to absorb developers, as it did with Bioware Pandemic last year. And that presents a danger.

"Organizations are not coming together in a good way," he said, resulting in less interesting products born of "creative failure."

In the cases of Bullfrog, OSI and Westwood, Ricitiello said that the belief that EA and its studios could be one big happy family, with a one-culture-fits-all mentality doesn't work. Those teams suffered, and eventually lost talent, because creative decisions were escalated to the top levels of the company and creative contributors were "buried in layers of bureaucracy and policy."

What does work, Riccitiello said, are what he called "city-state" teams, with strong leaders like the ones Bioware, Maxis, DICE and Distinctive. Outside of EA, he pointed to Rockstar Games, Valve and Blizzard as strong examples of the kind of creatively independent models to follow.

He had strong words for publishers who were looking to consolidate, saying "The command and conquer model doesn't work. If you think you want to buy a developer and take their name off the credits, taking away their autonomy, you're making a profound mistake."

The solution was to "Find the people you trust and give them the keys."

http://game.blogdig.net/archives/articles/February2008/08/Riccitiello_On_How_Not_To_Blow_It__The_EA_Way__Dic e08__.html

Sounds like EA just might be learning a very hard lesson. Lets hope so. Like I said, with their resources, they should be the shining example of what the industry could be.