Most popular game?

[Solver]

Someone agrees with me, woohooo! OTOH, I'm eager to play Candle'Bre .

Must admit, though, Maxis is very lucky... the succesfull SimCity series, with next version out soon, now the Sims and it's hecky XPs... yeah, the boys there make some cash.

[FrustratedPoet]

Whoever thought of The Sims is a genius.

I hate him, but he is still a genius!

That franchise is like a license to print money at the moment.

Remember that fact that 10% of the games make 90% of the money in the gaming industry? ... I think they meant that The Sims makes 90% of the money.

[Apocalypse]

Will Wright made the Sim series.

If he ever screws up, I'd suspect something worse than what happened to John Romero.

[General Ludd]

I believe that the most popular...

Game is the Sims.

Strategy game is WarCraft 3.

Sports game is Tony Hawk.

First person shooter is Counter-Strike

Roleplaying game is EverQuest.

[Victor Galis]

Starcraft more popular than AoK, you think?

-Absolutely. What's AoK compared to Starcraft? Nothing.

[Solver]

I hate him, but he is still a genius!

Well said!

Osweld - I do not think CS is a first-person shooter. FPS games are Doom, Quake, Unreal, but not CS... it's more about teamwork.

And, I somehow tend to divide strategy games in TBS and RTS - all in all, the two genres are pretty different.

[Solver]

Originally posted by Victor Galis


-Absolutely. What's AoK compared to Starcraft? Nothing.

Hmm, I love AoK, but Starcraft is pretty much just another game to me.

[Traianvs]

no man, the most successful RPG series is the Baldur's Gate saga... an immense success, and quite obviously they're great games, even the expansion (especially Lord of Bhaal, even though most hardcore RPG'ers say items such as +3 swords etc were too frequently worn by grunts... and some other minor stuff)

CS is one crappy game, even though the success, just like the Sims...

And still, civ2 is one great motherf game!!! I find it better than the new civs cos it was simpler, more based on combat, and ya had a good view on what ya were doing, the newer civs are too chaotic...

[Traianvs]

oh and about sports...tony hawk? noway man!!
the grand prix series by geoff crammond are by far the most successful sports games!

and i love AoK too, actually i only want to play the conquerers, cos of the annoying farm rebuilding and some other things

sadly i can't find a crack anymore for the conquerers so i can't play it anymore...

[Solver]

Civ 2 being more focused on combat and simpler is exactly why I prefer newer civs .

[Solver]

Trajanus - acutally if you emailed me at solver@apolyton.net I'd help you with whatever AoK stuff you need...

[dunk]

Originally posted by Solver
Sid surely is the record... there's no game series running for 12 years, with success. Moreover, some Apolytoners have been playing Civ for 12 years. I haven't, but certainly am a diehard.

Ultima. Over 20 years. I would say it's got more fanatics than Civ does. Coracle is a lightweight compared to the people who complain about Ultima IX.

How long has Final Fantasy been around? I know there are 10 of them.

Wizardy. I know at least 8 games have been made with some success.

Any series that has been around for more than 2 games, I would say is successful.

[Solver]

Ohh, are those really PC games? I'm so happy that, by the time Civ 4 is released, we're probably going to have a second generation of civ players.

[SnowFire]

I have to admit I was surprsied to find this out too, but folks... console games sell far better than any of us expects. I always though PC games sold more myself, or were at least around equal. You know the Sims? Best-selling PC game ever? It sold around 7 million copies (prolly 8 million by now). Probably another 6 million copies of the various expansions sold. But Final Fantasy VII sold 7 million copies way back in 1998. It's probably sold a good 10 million by now, and that's not even including the million it sold on the PC version. And you know what... Final Fantasy VIII sold even more copies than FF7. Total sales for the FF series are probably more than 30 million (with most of them coming from FF7 & FF8, the real break-out hits in the States: FF9 was more of a niche FF and undermarketed, plus it went head to head with Dragon Warrior 7 in Japan; and only so many people have PS2's to buy FF10 with).

But these were quality games. Before you think there was a sudden outbreak of taste on the consoles, take a guess at how many copies of, say, Gran Turismo or Tony Hawk's Pro Skater sold. And then consider that each of them had 2 sequels that were all mega-hits as well. We're talking a good 10 million + for each.

And remember, the Sims is the EXCEPTION, not the rule in PC Gaming. Blizzard titles, the other super-strong seller in PC Gaming, can garner 1-5 million generally (depends how old the game is- Blizzard games keep on selling and topping the charts years after they're released. Starcraft & WC2, because they've been out forever, probably are in the 3-5 million range. Diablo II & WC3 are probably still in the 1-3 million range). Microsoft backed titles, like say Age of Empires, can garner a million, along with good Tycoon titles (Railroad Tycoon II). And then there's everything else, where often times 200,000 copies is considered a pretty strong success. With the average quality game selling, unfortunately, 50,000 - 100,000 copies.

Meanwhile, the consoles have far more games that easily top the million mark. Just stop by any store and check out the "greatest hits" line for Playstation: most of those titles have sold more than 500,000, and there are a looooooot of titles that have the greatest hits designation, even mediocre games like Legend of Dragoon.

So regardless of any snootyism we might feel like having, consoles are in fact real games and outsell PC games by more than 2:1, easily.

That said, my impressions about most popular PC games:
RTS: Blizzard & Microsoft, meaning Starcraft/Warcraft as well as, to a lesser degree, AOE & AOK.
FPS: Half-Life (with Counterstike, Day of Defeat, etc.) & Unreal Tournament.
TBS: Heroes series (HOMM3 was seriously milked by 3D0 with lots of pointless expansions, but Heroes II & Heroes III were both excellent, and got sales in line with that), Civilization series (it's the title, not Sid's name. CTP outsold Alpha Centauri).
RPG: Diablo II (if you consider it an RPG at least), Bioware games (most notably Baldur's Gate). Dungeon Siege may be up there too, don't know too well how it sold.

[TechWins]

Halo has got to be one of the most popular FPS for console or PC right now. Halo rules.