How well has Civ 3 been selling?

[Venger]

Originally posted by korn469
MarkG

maybe on chips and bits, but lets see how civ3 fares on the real real polls shall we...i mean how accurate is chips and bits? they don't even have Harry Sims Tycoon!

Korn, can you point me to the URL you are checking for sales figures?

I'm sensing a WHOLE LOTTA cheerleading in this topic...

Venger

[MarkG]

Originally posted by korn469
i mean how accurate is chips and bits?

their chart is about what's selling on their store. of course it's not covering the whole market. it's an indication though...

[Yoleus]

Anybody sense a subtle smell of pro CivIII propaganda?

[MarkG]

Originally posted by Yoleus
Anybody sense a subtle smell of pro CivIII propaganda?

yes Yoleus, sales charts are YAFP(Yet Another Firaxis Propaganda)

unless of course they show civ3 dropping at which point they are just presenting the real truth about how badly civ3 sucks

[Boracks]

Funny how when someone says this game is bad and people should return it or not buy it that someone says, "Yes, consumers should vote with their wallet!".

Reading this thread, it seems to me that's what has happenned with CTP2 and CIV3.

You may not like the results but there they are.

[CapTVK]

Hate to be the bearer of bad news but many of you probably would have guessed it seeing the discounts offered at various retailers:

source:

http://www.iemag.com/news/index.asp#CCDA4355

NPDTechworld Top-Selling PC Games (Weekly) [12/19/01 1:14:08 PM ET]
NPDTechworld has released a list of the top ten PC game titles sold for the week that ended December 8. Here are the top ten:
1. EverQuest: Shadows Of Luclin Expansion Pack
2. Harry Potter & The Sorcerer's Stone
3. The Sims: Hot Date Expansion Pack
4. Backyard Basketball
5. The Sims
6. Roller Coaster Tycoon
7. Survivor: The Interactive Game
8. Return To Castle Wolfenstein
9. Backyard Football 2002
10. Zoo Tycoon


NPDTechworld Top-Selling PC Software (Weekly) [12/19/01 1:12:27 PM ET]
NPDTechworld has released a list of the top ten PC software titles sold for the week that ended December 8. Here are the top ten:
1. EverQuest: Shadows Of Luclin Expansion Pack
2. Harry Potter & The Sorcerer's Stone
3. The Sims: Hot Date Expansion Pack
4. Norton Antivirus 2002 8.0
5. TurboTax 2001 Deluxe
6. Backyard Basketball
7. The Sims
8. Roller Coaster Tycoon
9. Survivor: The Interactive Game
10. Windows XP Home Edition Upgrade


NPD Techworld Top-Selling PC Games (Monthly) [12/19/01 1:10:43 PM ET]
NPDTechworld has released a list of the top twenty PC game titles sold for the month of November. Here is the top twenty:
1. The Sims: Hot Date Expansion Pack
2. Harry Potter & The Sorcerer's Stone
3. The Sims
4. Backyard Basketball
5. Roller Coaster Tycoon
6. Civilization 3
7. Zoo Tycoon
8. Backyard Football 2002
9. Bob the Builder: Can We Fix It
10. Survivor: The Interactive Game
11. Return To Castle Wolfenstein
12. The Sims: House Party Expansion Pack
13. The Sims: Livin Large Expansion Pack
14. Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon
15. Empire Earth
16. Roller Coaster Tycoon Loopy Landscapes Expansion Pack
17. Sim Theme Park
18. Backyard Baseball 2001
19. Diablo 2 Expansion Set: Lord of Destruction
20. Thomas Playset


NPD Techworld Top-Selling PC Software (Monthly) [12/19/01 1:08:09 PM ET]
NPDTechworld has released a list of the top twenty PC software titles sold for the month of November. Here is the top twenty:
1. The Sims: Hot Date Expansion Pack
2. Harry Potter & The Sorcerer's Stone
3. Norton Antivirus 2002 8.0
4. Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition Upgrade
5. The Sims
6. Backyard Basketball
7. Roller Coaster Tycoon
8. VirusScan 6.0
9. Civilization 3
10. Norton System Works 2002 5.0
11. Zoo Tycoon
12. Backyard Football 2002
13. Bob the Builder: Can We Fix It
14. Survivor: The Interactive Game
15. Return To Castle Wolfenstein
16. The Sims: House Party Expansion Pack
17. The Sims: Livin Large Expansion Pack
18. Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon
19. Lego Creator: Harry Potter
20. Empire Earth


Conclusion
What I feared from the outset when I saw Civ3 appear on No. 1 and 2 has happened. As you can see from the sales charts above Civ3 doesn't even appear on the top10. If you take a look at the monthly sales for november you'll see why: Civ3 ranks #6. A nice figure at first sight but we shouldn't forget the number of preorders included in that figure. That's how Civ3 managed to get to No.1 and 2 in the first place. Once the pre-order effect was over Civ3 had to sell on it's own and slowly started to drift downwards. There's one rule in the software retail business about the top10: "once you're out you'll never get back in". "Sadly, Civ3 is out of the top 10"

There's one last hope for Civ3 however. Just as civ2 proved to be a sleeper hit, Civ3 could also prove to be one. However seen the present response by Firaxis/Infogrames, towards public issues and problems with the game, the future looks grim for the Civ line.


Goodbye Civ3, we hardly knew ye

[Comrade Tribune]

Goodbye CivIII, and good riddance.

Maybe this will teach other companies not to release a Beta.

[Libertarian]

Or not to treat their beta tes... er, customers as though they were nuisances, their suggestions as though they were not worthy of acknowledgment, and their questions as though they were insults.

[korn469]

ok i found an article on the register today that might help us shed some numerical light on these sales figures

The bottom line of the NPD figures he has is that WinXP is by no means the incredible elixir of life that Microsoft's spinmeisters peddled it as being. It sold 400,000 copies in October, and then 250,000 in November

that article is found here

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/23463.html

(those sells figures apply only to XP sold in stores, not the ones sold on computers)

so if those figures are true for november...then that means that civ3 sold less than 250k copies for november since XP is fourth on the list and civ3 is number nine...if we could find the comprehensive chart for october then we would have a much better picture of how well civ3 was selling

[korn469]

no sight of Civ3, but Sims win again!

here's the latest charts as reported by adrenaline vault with more information coming from Voodoo Extreme

1) The Sims: Hot Date Expansion Pack; Electronic Arts - $30
2) The Sims; Electronic Arts - $40
3) Harry Potter & The Sorcerer's Stone; Electronic Arts - $25
4) Empire Earth; Vivendi Universal Publishing - $36
5) MP Roller Coaster Tycoon; Infogrames Entertainment - $21
6) MS Zoo Tycoon; Microsoft - $30
7) Return To Castle Wolfenstein; Activision - $55
8) The Sims: Livin Large Expansion Pack; Electronic Arts - $29
9) The Sims: House Party Expansion Pack; Electronic Arts - $30
10) Max Payne; Gathering of Developers - $43

[Darth Sidious]

don't these guys give out sales numbers?
You can't really tell how well it sells by looking at these lists IMO.
depends on competition to much.
(try releasing ANY game at the same day Warcraft3 will be released ^^)

[korn469]

NPD is the one who keeps track of the sells numbers and you can buy them, for like 5,000 dollars

but from what i heard the sims (including all the expansion packs) has sold around 11 million copies, but it has been on the top of the charts for nearly the past two years, so from there your guess on a weekly average is about as good as anyones

[Atahualpa]

civ3 is beta??????
are you crazy man???
Ctp2 was beta when it came out. No let me correct: it was Alpha when it came out. Then they decided to make it beta and released a patch.

ata

[Changmai Beagle]

42 was not the answer, sigh

Lorizael (sp?) - I agree, there should have been 42 games sold.

The bad news is that last year Hubble's constant was finally calculated (the one that is critical to the mathematics of understanding the universe). I believe initial estimates were between 30 and 60 (IIRC).


Despite a groundswell (or maybe an undergroundswell) among cosmologists for 42 it was nearer the higher end of estimates. I think, around 60. C'est dommage!!

(I'm absolutely certain one of the erudite folks who visit this site have it at their fingertips and can correct my other errors herein).

[DickK]

Not directly related to Civ3 but anyone else notice how Rollercoaster Tycoon continues to sell? That beast is well over two years old, gets no support from MPS, and just keeps selling copies! Now don't get me wrong, its a game I have and really enjoyed. But, still selling like this after this long? Simply amazing.