Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 sales on PC Disappointing sold only 170K

[Reasonable]

Scoobes said:

Reasonable said:

Scoobes said:

FaRmLaNd said:
Didn't we have the same conversation about crysis?

It sold little in the first NPD report and overall did very well. Its doubtless that this will be any different. However it certainly is a lower then expected numbers. But that hardly is surprising considering the negative campaigns against it.

If I remember rightly, it sold very little at first because it only had 1 week of data at retail.

The issue with Crysis as well was people simply didn't understand the sales pattern for a title like that.  It was marketed and known as a high end PC show off title.  Initial sales are low and to that crowd, then over time, as the general tech level increases with upgrades, more and more then get the game over time, giving it a much less front loaded profile.

Part of the problem is so many people look at the high profile front loaded console titles and simply assume that defines the only successful profile, and therefore anything that doesn't fit is judged a failure one or two weeks in.  Daft, but there you go.

Very true, it's still the benchmark game to have in terms of graphics. Anyone who upgrades or buys a new PC will want to test out Crysis, especially with all the vids on youtube of it being run @ high res with all effects on V.high. I get the feeling a lot of PC titles are like that, but sales data for PC games is pretty scarce, especially factoring in digital downloads.

I mean, Counterstrike source, Half-Life and Starcraft are all still selling.

Yup.  PC games that push graphics always sell well over a long period (if the game's pretty good too that is).  Consoles are different.  The tech is fixed and you see sales for big titles more in line with big movie releases - huge front loading, particularly in US and parts of Europe.  Day 1 few PC gamers (percentage wise) had PCs worth buying Crysis for and they knew it.  When something like MW2 releases, every PS3/360 owner knows it will run the same.

I'd love to see Steam numbers, as I suspect they are higher than many would suspect.  I'm not claiming there's some huge hidden PC market, there isn't, but Valve have got themselves a hugely profitable market dominance with Steam on PC I think, and with their clever use of sales, etc. lot's of games many wouldn't even have on their radar will still be selling well through the service.