Guild Wars 2

Haven’t seen this posted here yet. Picked this up from Reddit, looks like 3.7 million copies sold in China, bringing up the total sales to over 7 million. Here’s the link to the post.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/2a5x4x/guild_wars_2_sells_38_million_in_china_in_2/

Then that should be 3.7 million people who get to experience GW2 for the first time. GJ on Anet’s part.

Those who think no one likes this game because they don’t, and feel the need to post negative stuff that doesn’t further the conversation at all, are being inconsiderate.

Surely you realize there are people who do enjoy playing this game. So why enter a thread just to get a rise out of people?

Vayne.8563:

Those who think no one likes this game because they don’t, and feel the need to post negative stuff that doesn’t further the conversation at all, are being inconsiderate.

Surely you realize there are people who do enjoy playing this game. So why enter a thread just to get a rise out of people?

Who are you posting this to?

I’m hoping some posts got deleted, because if he’s replying to me then he’s making no sense _

Smith.1826:

I’m hoping some posts got deleted, because if he’s replying to me then he’s making no sense _

Yes they were

EDIT: I almost forgot to congratulate Anet! That is a nice number!

Yargesh.4965:

Vayne.8563:

Those who think no one likes this game because they don’t, and feel the need to post negative stuff that doesn’t further the conversation at all, are being inconsiderate.

Surely you realize there are people who do enjoy playing this game. So why enter a thread just to get a rise out of people?

Who are you posting this to?

Some people said some stuff that was demonstrably wrong, and just here to antagonize people. The posts were removed.

awesome!
well done anet!

now, with china’s big success, i suppose we can expect lots of new content in the future for gw2 !

and i think canthan is even possible now!

rejoice!

Here’s a question. When can we expect a WvW update?

Please do not get too hyped. It is not clear what 17173 really counted: accounts or characters. Three are some points that let me doubt that these are accounts. Therefore I did only use the term census in my articles.

• KongZhong stated they will not publish sales without coordination with Arenanet. I can’t imagine that 17173 has such an easy access to sales numbers.

• The first census gave us approx. 760k on May 4th. At this time the pre-purchases were stopped. Only pre-purchases gave the right to start GW2 before May 15th. At April 30th 23:15 local time we crossed the 500k milestone in sales. KongZhong prolonged the pre-purchases for 24h. I doubt they sold around 260k keys within 24h.

• Four days after headstart I assume that not many players had more than 1 or 2 characters. Therefore the number of accounts and characters would be quite similar. Two months after headstart most people would have 3 or more characters I assume. This would cause an explosion of character numbers if the census deals with characters.

There are good reason why I used the term census in my articles instead of sales or number of characters. There could still be between 1 and 2 million sales. But we have to wait for a more official announcement.

Currently 7 Million global sales are still possible. KongZhong confirmed 4 million sales in Feb 2014. The missing 3 million could be collected during this time and today.

How many copies did GW2 sell in west? 3 million?
I’m more than willing to bet that 3/4 of those people who bought the game are no longer playing.

Nick.6972:

How many copies did GW2 sell in west? 3 million?
I’m more than willing to bet that 3/4 of those people who bought the game are no longer playing.

Always funny with speculations aye?

And even if it was true, how is it different from any other MMO ever released?

Nick.6972:

How many copies did GW2 sell in west? 3 million?

Global sales were 4 million last February as KongZhong confirmed.

Nick.6972:

How many copies did GW2 sell in west? 3 million?
I’m more than willing to bet that 3/4 of those people who bought the game are no longer playing.

Proof? Evidence?

I’m sure that lots and lots of people have left the game. Some come back though. With some of the games that have come out being less than stellar, there are people returning to this game in droves. Every day reddit gets multiple requests from people returning and we all know most people don’t post to reddit when they return.

I’m seeing people in my guild back after a year away. So even if you’re right, it doesn’t mean that 3/4 of the people who left are still not playing.

It’s all just guesswork anyway.

It’s a speculation of course. Neither can you prove that 3 millions of people who bought GW2 quit to play World Of Warcraft, Everquest, Wildstar and other games.

It’s pretty naive to assume that most of the people who originally bought the game ae still playing it, but, hey, if that’s what you believe.
It happens to all games.
Some people play actively every day, some only during the weekends, some log in only for the living story, some every month or so to see if there’s anything new, in any case, not everyone is an active player.

Nick.6972:

Here’s a question. When can we expect a WvW update?

When someone gets the yakslapper title.

Nick.6972:

It’s a speculation of course. Neither can you prove that 3 millions of people who bought GW2 quit to play World Of Warcraft, Everquest, Wildstar and other games.

It’s pretty naive to assume that most of the people who originally bought the game ae still playing it, but, hey, if that’s what you believe.
It happens to all games.
Some people play actively every day, some only during the weekends, some log in only for the living story, some every month or so to see if there’s anything new, in any case, not everyone is an active player.

Well you can’t really have it both ways. Saying it happens in all games, means it’s nothing to comment on. It’s normal. The way you post it you make it look like they left the game because the game is bad. But now you’re saying it happens in all games. You can’t really have it both ways.

However, in this particularly MMO genre, there are enough bad games, games with fees, games that are old, games that are too buggy to play at launch, that it wouldn’t surprise me if a bigger percentage of people who play the game haven’t come back, because there’s not much else to play.

Now, beyond that you put in a number. You said 75%. But based on what?

I never made the claim that most people starting this game are still playing. That’s not my claim. It has never been my claim. However, between new players buying the game on sale, and people coming back, it’s entirely possible that the number isn’t the number you posted.

But again, what’s even to post if it happens to every game? Either the game is experiencing above “normal” retention or it’s experience “below” normal retention. I know that Anet didn’t have to sack a percentage of it’s staff like TSW and SWToR did. So I don’t really see why you’d think the game was doing less well than expected.

In fact, I think the game is doing as well as expected and perhaps better than expected. Which means commenting on people leaving is at the very least misleading.

Colin announced that, to the company’s surprise, the game was doing much better than expected. That’s always a pleasant surprise for any company, or any endeavor, really. ArenaNet seems to still be going strong, and still hiring. It can’t be all doom and gloom as (darn filter) so many claim. Lol. =)

I realise it’s not an official or accurate statistic but I still think it’s worth noting that the Players Helping Players section of this forum always seems to have a steady stream of “I’m new” and “I’ve come back after X time away” posts.

With returning players especially I think it helps a lot that the game doesn’t have a subscription fee. Which means if they think about returning all they have to do is update the client and they can jump straight in for however long they have to play without worrying about wasting money.

Definitely many congratulations to Anet for the success in China. Always happy to hear things are going well for them (which in turn tends to mean more cool things for me as a player )

I believe between the initial NA/EU sales and now the sales in China, GW2 has officially sold more copies of the game (in its first two years) than GW1 did in it’s 9? (Or was it 7 that they announced 5mi?) Meh, I don’t remember anymore. I call that pretty kitten good though.

BUT THE GAME IS DYING. PEOPLE ARE LEAVING IN DROVES. (sarc)

Give me a break.

I honestly think for most people, this news doesn’t affect them. Either they are pleased that the game is doing well, or they are impressed with the sales figures while saying, “Not the game for me, I found out, but good for them.”

For me, the news that 7+ million people bought the game is good, but really impacts my feelings on the game less than kitten all. I’ve bought plenty of games that the masses didn’t like. Hell, I happily toil away on a “failure” of a console (the Wii U).

The only people that this news would genuinely upset is a small cadre of “players” who had a vested emotional investment to see the game fail and die because of a misplaced feeling of betrayal that the game wasn’t GW1 with graphical updates.

chemiclord.3978:

I honestly think for most people, this news doesn’t affect them. Either they are pleased that the game is doing well, or they are impressed with the sales figures while saying, “Not the game for me, I found out, but good for them.”

For me, the news that 7+ million people bought the game is good, but really impacts my feelings on the game less than kitten all. I’ve bought plenty of games that the masses didn’t like. Hell, I happily toil away on a “failure” of a console (the Wii U).

The only people that this news would genuinely upset is a small cadre of “players” who had a vested emotional investment to see the game fail and die because of a misplaced feeling of betrayal that the game wasn’t GW1 with graphical updates.

Nought wrong with the Wii U, still better than the other consoles, sales or no.

As for 7 million worldwide, if factual then the devs rightfully can feel pretty good these days, seeing all the hard work paying off financially. I suspect gem sales to be pretty hot too regardless of retention figures.

If they can nail season 2 and not make it feel like new players have missed out from not playing season1 from a continuity perspective, then the future should continue to be bright.

And some people are so blindly in-love with a game that they get scared/angry when others look at their game objectively

Stark.1350:

BUT THE GAME IS DYING. PEOPLE ARE LEAVING IN DROVES. (sarc)

Give me a break.

RIGHT!?

This actually kinda makes me happy. Grats Anet!! But I can see it as a slap in the face to all the haters who say the game is dying and people are leaving. Thats one major reason they have for the implementation of megaservers, because the game doesn’t have the population to support seperate servers. Oh yeah, also that Anet is losing money because Q3-4 2013 showed total sales were down. Still high in the black, and certainly not up to the level of launch. But 7 million dollars kinda puts that theory out to rest. :P

pdavis.8031:

RIGHT!?

This actually kinda makes me happy. Grats Anet!! But I can see it as a slap in the face to all the haters who say the game is dying and people are leaving. Thats one major reason they have for the implementation of megaservers, because the game doesn’t have the population to support seperate servers. Oh yeah, also that Anet is losing money because Q3-4 2013 showed total sales were down. Still high in the black, and certainly not up to the level of launch. But 7 million dollars kinda puts that theory out to rest. :P

A lot of the doomsayers really haven’t EVER had a leg to stand on, and I think deep down everyone knew that, even the doomsayers. The financial aspect of the game has always been pretty strong right from release (the game has never at any point been in the red, though there was a moment of concern early on).

But let’s also acknowledge the flipside; just because GW2 has been a success financially doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the greatest game or greatest MMO or even the greatest GW game ever. There’s definitely a lot of people for whom the game just isn’t what they are looking for. And that’s fine. There’s a lot of games out there that are. You don’t have to like GW2 to tip your cap and say, “Hey, not my cup of tea, but congratulations.”

But what it DOES mean is that GW2 clearly appeals to enough people that it has turned a nice profit for the people who make and publish the game. The only people who would earnestly HATE that news are people who wanted to see the game fail for selfish reasons.

chemiclord.3978:

pdavis.8031:

RIGHT!?

This actually kinda makes me happy. Grats Anet!! But I can see it as a slap in the face to all the haters who say the game is dying and people are leaving. Thats one major reason they have for the implementation of megaservers, because the game doesn’t have the population to support seperate servers. Oh yeah, also that Anet is losing money because Q3-4 2013 showed total sales were down. Still high in the black, and certainly not up to the level of launch. But 7 million dollars kinda puts that theory out to rest. :P

A lot of the doomsayers really haven’t EVER had a leg to stand on, and I think deep down everyone knew that, even the doomsayers. The financial aspect of the game has always been pretty strong right from release (the game has never at any point been in the red, though there was a moment of concern early on).

But let’s also acknowledge the flipside; just because GW2 has been a success financially doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the greatest game or greatest MMO or even the greatest GW game ever. There’s definitely a lot of people for whom the game just isn’t what they are looking for. And that’s fine. There’s a lot of games out there that are. You don’t have to like GW2 to tip your cap and say, “Hey, not my cup of tea, but congratulations.”

But what it DOES mean is that GW2 clearly appeals to enough people that it has turned a nice profit for the people who make and publish the game. The only people who would earnestly HATE that news are people who wanted to see the game fail for selfish reasons.

Pretty much

Although I found this is one of the best MMOs I’ve played. However I get that it may not be for everybody and thats ok

Deimos Tel Arin.7391:

and i think canthan is even possible now!

rejoice!

Actually, from what I understand it makes Cantha LESS possible now.

I recall reading (on these boards, I think) that the problem with Cantha was that it drew from several Asian cultures, with a conflict between them in-game. Not bad for most of us, but actually very unwelcome in the halls of NCSoft. If it was to return, they’d want the Korean influences to be the ones winning out. But, if it’s to sell in China, they’d need the China influences to come out on top. So, they simply axed the idea entirely, to the point that the Canthan district of Divinity’s Reach was replaced with a giant hole.

There was a time that there was hope that ANet might just break free from NCSoft at some point and then we’d get Cantha anyway, but that’s not going to happen now. Now, they have TWO publishers to deal with, and I don’t think they can do it any more. The best they could do is leave ANet and form their own company, but they would no longer have the Guild Wars IP to work with.

i see some comments here that seem to be misunderstanding a couple things.

China servers are seperate, whether it lives or dies there, isnt excatly that direct a correlation to us.
I see people mentioning megaservers and empty servers, they arent on our servers.

As far as the sales, yeah its nice, but dont assume they made as much money there as here, far as i have seen they get royalties, not direct sales profits. It should be sizable, but the 3.8 mil in china isnt gonna give the same money as 3.8 here.

Regardless, its totally possible they could be a hit in china, and suffering here.

that said, i doubt they are doing that bad, but i do think, purely based on my own guess, that they are at a low in the NA/EU market right now, hopefully they can bring somethings to revitalize those markets.
regardless the q2 reports will show the full picture of whats going on now/recently.

No matter how many copies they sell or how many players the game retains there will be haters using this information to their own advantage.

For example: If the game didn’t do well in China, then it was because the game sucked.
But if the game succeeded in China, then it is because it’s just another Korean grinder.

Regardless, big congratulations to ArenaNet. You guys have truely created a fantastic MMO, and hopefully it will be here for many years to come.

chemiclord.3978:

I honestly think for most people, this news doesn’t affect them. Either they are pleased that the game is doing well, or they are impressed with the sales figures while saying, “Not the game for me, I found out, but good for them.”

For me, the news that 7+ million people bought the game is good, but really impacts my feelings on the game less than kitten all. I’ve bought plenty of games that the masses didn’t like. Hell, I happily toil away on a “failure” of a console (the Wii U).

The only people that this news would genuinely upset is a small cadre of “players” who had a vested emotional investment to see the game fail and die because of a misplaced feeling of betrayal that the game wasn’t GW1 with graphical updates.

You know, this is true in almost all single player games, but I’m not sure I find it true for MMOs.

I’m sure many of us have had an MMO that stopped making money and stopped getting updates. When that happens and the population leaves the MMOs become a whole lot less fun. Anyone who liked Warhammer for example or AoC or Vanguard can tell you that as the population of those games shrunk as the amount of money coming in went away, those games got worse and worse.

MMOs are not the same without a thriving community.

phys.7689:

that said, i doubt they are doing that bad, but i do think, purely based on my own guess, that they are at a low in the NA/EU market right now, hopefully they can bring somethings to revitalize those markets.
regardless the q2 reports will show the full picture of whats going on now/recently.

I don’t think the game is anywhere near “dying”, but I also don’t think I’d say there are more “active” players than “inactive” players. For me personally, I’d imagine an “active” player who logs in weekly to daily and who occasionally may take a couple week break. “Inactive” players may have a current GW2 schedule opposite of that, logging in maybe weekly to monthly.

Those are very subjective terms and I’m just merely saying how I view the situation. I also don’t think this discrepancy is a bad or unnatural thing. I think any worthwhile, well made, and frequently supported game can maintain a nice little playerbase. But I don’t think any game, regardless of quality or genre, can maintain anywhere near half of the total amount of “possible” players after the content gets initially exhausted.

But like I said, that’s all fine. I don’t view my favorite games any different, either. I may invest a lot of time into them but I can see how others couldn’t, same goes for GW2. This also isn’t ignoring or possibly berating anyone who does thoroughly enjoy, support, and still play the game; honestly, more power to you if you love the game. I just don’t think expecting an overwhelming size of active players is all that realistic.

So, am I ‘active’ or ‘inactive’? Well, I suppose I’d lean more towards inactive, certainly more active now than LS Season 1, but not by a bit. While I could part blame on the devs for not “grabbing my attention”, it’s mainly that I’m just bored of the game right now. It’s not really their fault. I have spent a load of time in the game and certainly feel like the $50 was well worth it, hence my first post: It might not hold a long term interest, exploring the game for the first time is an awesome experience, and I really am glad 3.7 million get to do that.

If it seems like I repeat myself in this post, my bad. Been a long night..!

So overall, worldwide GW2 has sold about 8 million, pretty good!

Imma go make a website and say GW2 sold 30 million copies there’s a huge expansion coming up and people would prolly believe it lol.

Btw Expansion confirmed 2015. http://www.kdbdw.com/bbs/download/182450.pdf?attachmentId=182450

pdemo.8312:

Imma go make a website and say GW2 sold 30 million copies there’s a huge expansion coming up and people would prolly believe it lol.

Btw Expansion confirmed 2015. http://www.kdbdw.com/bbs/download/182450.pdf?attachmentId=182450

Latest one no longer mentions expansion.

http://www.kdbdw.com/bbs/download/184788.pdf?attachmentId=184788

So what? Will they remove megaservers with the money from China market?

Didn’t they put Megaservers in for a good thing. Kinda nice seeing other people in an MMO right?

Phoenixlin.8624:

So what? Will they remove megaservers with the money from China market?

I hope not. I might leave the game if they did.

I could derail this topic with joy, but I will just say you know nothing pdemo.8312 and ask you to check related “Megaserver” topic which has 44 pages.

You leave, and the already left ones return =)

Phoenixlin.8624:

I could derail this topic with joy, but I will just say you know nothing pdemo.8312 and ask you to check related “Megaserver” topic which have 44 pages.

You leave, and the already left ones return =)

It wouldn’t be just me. You seriously underestimate the number of people who leave because the open world is dead. They’re not always the kind of people that post on forums, but they’re very likely the majority of the playerbase of any MMO. It’s the guys Anet has to keep.

And you are also underestimating the number of people who left because their servers/communities/guilds dead thanks to megaservers. Can you please stop being “I can pee further than you” type white knighting?

And please stop writing “majority” and “minority”. Everytime I read your posts with these words, an elder dragon eats an asuran baby.

Prove it? Why do you think I’m underestimating that. We know from experience that there’s a huge number of people who solo MMOs. They didn’t leave, because they’re soloing. I’m in a guild full of people who didn’t leave.

I’m sure a lot of RPers left, however. But I don’t think server communities in PvE is a big thing and it’s still there in WvW. I think you’ll find the amount of people who care about that are in a vast minority.

My opinion against yours.

You killed an asuran baby again shiny white knight.
With what REAL data do you want me to prove? You are just making a huge fallacy in your post by using your environment only and I am redirecting your fallacy with your own arguments:

I know from experience that there’s a huge number of people who like to be in a community while playing MMOs. They left, because their communities killed to make some kind of poor, cant use guesting/transferring systems players happy. Because they are in a community, they couldn’t do bosses and events together which they had been doing for a long time without a problem. I was in a guild full of people and I can find only 6-7 active players now.

Can you see? I can revert your every argument for my case and both of us can’t prove who is right as long as we don’t have the real data. And obviously real data is not the “map you are in with full of players”. Since even if this game has only 300 players at total and all of them go to kill a boss, they can create 2 full maps without a problem.

Phoenixlin.8624:

You killed an asuran baby again shiny white knight.
With what REAL data do you want me to prove? You are just making a huge fallacy in your post by using your environment only and I am redirecting your fallacy with your own arguments:

I know from experience that there’s a huge number of people who like to be in a community while playing MMOs. They left, because their communities killed to make some kind of poor, cant use guesting/transferring systems players happy. Because they are in a community, they couldn’t do bosses and events together which they had been doing for a long time without a problem. I was in a guild full of people and I can find only 6-7 active players now.

Can you see? I can revert your every argument for my case and both of us can’t prove who is right as long as we don’t have the real data. And obviously real data is not the “map you are in with full of players”. Since even if this game has only 300 players at total and all of them go to kill a boss, they can create 2 full maps without a problem.

Fact: The number of soloers is so large, that the Guild Wars FAQ has had a page about being able to solo almost from its inception. They didn’t do it for 2 people. Scott Hartman of Rift fame said that any MMO today that ignores soloers is basically cutting their own throat. It’s a much larger number that people assume.

We also know from previous polls that a relatively small percentage raid and do dungeons. And even a relatively small percentage PvP.

What do you really think the bulk of the playerbase are doing? They’re roaming around the open world, randomly killing stuff, doing their dailies. It’s not exciting or thrilling, but you know, there’s some evidence that it’s true.

Put simply, if you were running a big company, and you were programming a game, and you saw the bulk of your playerbase leave because you made a change…wouldn’t you revert the change? Is there any reason not to revert it if anyone is leaving.

Anet isn’t reverting it because the number of people who left aren’t as high as you’re saying it is. Or they believe they number of people staying outweighs those leaving.

Sure it’s just circumstantial evidence. But I’m telling you that if as many people were leaving as you said, Anet would have to do something about it. That they’re not speaks volumes.

This guy lol. Are you a Role player?

pdemo.8312:

This guy lol. Are you a Role player?

Nope. I’m a realist.

People are generally lazy and generally not that vested in games. Most people tend to play games casually. I used to moderate a forum and less than 15% of the people who visited the forum ever posted on it. And I know not everyone interested in a game visits forums.

The people that post here, we’re relatively hard core, as evidence by the fact that we spend time outside of the game on a forum. It’s not common. We’re the exception to the rule.

Most people, they just log in, kill some stuff, maybe do their dailies, and some events. Most people don’t really have a clue how to play the games they’re playing. Most people don’t think deeply about their gaming experience.

DOA was the hardest content in Guild Wars 1 and from what devs have said in the past, we know only a small percentage of players ever even attempted it. It looked like a lot when you were waiting in the Realm of Torment for a group, but it really wasn’t.

You can’t see that other group because they’re spread all over the world in ones and twos, doing nothing exciting. Shrugs. Way of the world.

Vayne.8563:

Sure it’s just circumstantial evidence. But I’m telling you that if as many people were leaving as you said, Anet would have to do something about it. That they’re not speaks volumes.

I really don’t wanna hijack your thread further. But the topic we are in is the reason why Anet haven’t done something about it.

They have China. Even if NA/EU population decreases %30-%40 (and let’s be honest since there are no subscription pays, any player can return to the game any time s/he wants), they will still have China.

And please don’t post me a wall of Anet excuse from a player.

Phoenixlin.8624:

Vayne.8563:

Sure it’s just circumstantial evidence. But I’m telling you that if as many people were leaving as you said, Anet would have to do something about it. That they’re not speaks volumes.

I really don’t wanna hijack your thread further. But the topic we are in is the reason why Anet haven’t done something about it.

They have China. Even if NA/EU population decreases %30-%40 (and let’s be honest since there are no subscription pays, any player can return to the game any time s/he wants), they will still have China.

Logically speaking, that makes no sense. Anet employs 300 people here. Even with China sales, if people don’t like what’s going on, they’re not going to hold people. They’re not going to assume that they can hold people with something that didnt’ work. People say we’re the test market for China. I don’t agree with that, but even if we are, it’s all the more reason to revert the change.

But I still don’t think that that’s the reason. Are you really saying all the money made so far and the money they make from the gem store now is something they don’t need, just because they have people in China?

From a business position that makes no sense. Even if only half a million people are playing now (and I’m not sure that’s the case), that’s a half a million more people playing. Obviously if it was a million it would be better. If people are leaving you revert the change, no matter what China is doing.

Counting the people in my guild, the majority of them are still active (about 60-70%) going by the ‘last login’ dates. It’s really easy to come back to the game every now and then, although there are also alot of people on my friendslist that I haven’t seen in a year (but may have logged in when I was not). I think the game is still doing fine, the new content is really nice and what I was hoping they’d do from the start so I will stick around for a while at least. And when I do take a break, like I’ve done multiple times.. it’s likely I will come back anyway.

Wow if this is true then great job Anet! much better than I expected.

The only thing I am concerned about is that the booming sales in China will negatively impact the game here if they try and cater to the chinese players who have a different outlook on the game.