Bioshock sales more than 400k in first week.

http://www.vgchartz.com/aweekly.php

This is good to hear. I am glad that a game that some thought might be a great game but may not reach a mass audience is going to be a success. I am officially waiting for Bioshock 2 now. Should be what, 2010?

Bioshock is a great game, and deserves the sales.

but.. oh god.. wait until jack thomspon finds it.

Irrational Games (now 2K Boston / 2K Australia) has among my favorite developers since System Shock 2, and Bioshock had been my most anticipated game since it's announcement in 2004.

It's good to see it do so well in reviews and for the old Irrational guys to finally have a hit on their hands.....I heard it was also doing really well in Europe.

I just hope that with their new success they don't snub the development of their niche games....after all, I would like to see a Freedom Force 3.

That's good sales, but it's only the 360 version, right? I think the PC vers. isn't selling so hot. I don't know the numbers for it but everytime I go to Best Buy or Frys, the 360 versions are sold out but the PC ones are still plenty on the shelves.

I guess accessibility is important and not many people have a state-of-the-art rig to play Bioshock full blast...and there are less PC gamers.

Holy crap at those Madden numbers! :shock: and Bioschock too (this one definitely deserves the sales). I'd like to see the numbers Halo 3 puts up in its first day alone; Crysis demo what?! :PD3s7rUc71oN

I haven't seen Bioshock advertised at all though.

That is great news !

Hopefully it shows that people still care about good games, instead of the trash that appears so often.

Does the chart take into account sales via Steam?DarKre

That's good sales, but it's only the 360 version, right? I think the PC vers. isn't selling so hot. I don't know the numbers for it but everytime I go to Best Buy or Frys, the 360 versions are sold out but the PC ones are still plenty on the shelves.

I guess accessibility is important and not many people have a state-of-the-art rig to play Bioshock full blast...and there are less PC gamers.

ASK_Story

And in the entire continent of Europe, the PC version is doing extremely well...in fact, across Europe, the retail PC version of Bioshock outsold both the regular and limited editions of the 360 version of Bioshock across the European continent:

Scroll down to where it says PC here...:

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=15234

While the Xbox 360 version is the more popular of the two in the U.S., BioShock on PC nevertheless manages to make a strong overall sales impression that few PC titles manage to achieve. Interestingly, though, the PC port outsells both the regular and limited Xbox 360 editions in Europe, where BioShock's PC version emerges as the week's biggest-selling software title on any platform.

...and that's not even counting all the Steam sales worldwide from the PC version, those are just the retail versions.

That's good sales, but it's only the 360 version, right? I think the PC vers. isn't selling so hot. I don't know the numbers for it but everytime I go to Best Buy or Frys, the 360 versions are sold out but the PC ones are still plenty on the shelves.

I guess accessibility is important and not many people have a state-of-the-art rig to play Bioshock full blast...and there are less PC gamers.ASK_Story

I haven't yet played the game myself, but looking at GameSpot's BioShock Hardware Guide, it's not as demanding as I thought - you don't need a state-of-the-art rig to play BioShock, and it looks wonderful even on low settings. Also, I hear Irrational will be updating the game to support Shader 2.0 cards. If anything hurt BioShock's sales, it's the whole SecuROM and crashed servers fiasco - a lot of people were pissed off by that. Even so, I think it's doing very well on PC and the 360.

By the way, there are far more PC gamers than all console gamers combined.

Anyway, congrats to Irrational (I hate how 2K decided to give them the bland, corporate name), it's been a long time coming.

I haven't yet played the game myself, but looking at GameSpot's BioShock Hardware Guide, it's not as demanding as I thought - you don't need a state-of-the-art rig to play BioShock, and it looks wonderful even on low settings. Also, I hear Irrational will be updating the game to support Shader 2.0 cards. If anything hurt BioShock's sales, it's the whole SecuROM and crashed servers fiasco - a lot of people were pissed off by that. Even so, I think it's doing very well on PC and the 360.

By the way, there are far more PC gamers than all console gamers combined.

Anyway, congrats to Irrational (I hate how 2K decided to give them the bland, corporate name), it's been a long time coming.

UpInFlames

I think one of the things is many people look at just the United States Retail sales charts....and think it represents the entire World, or even the entire industry....which is FAR from the truth. Europe and Asia represent markets just as big and just as important, in some cases more so.

People really don't understand just how big PC gaming is overseas, especially in places like Europe, Asia, etc.

Like I said and as I posted in the article above...across Europe the PC version of Bioshock outsold any other game on ANY other platform, it even outsold the regular and limited editions of the 360 version of Bioshock.

And even in the United States....Bioshock for PC dethroned WoW as the number 1 selling game in its first week.

....and again, all that isn't even counting the digital distribution versions of Bioshock for PC like those sold on Steam and D2D.

[QUOTE="ASK_Story"]That's good sales, but it's only the 360 version, right? I think the PC vers. isn't selling so hot. I don't know the numbers for it but everytime I go to Best Buy or Frys, the 360 versions are sold out but the PC ones are still plenty on the shelves.

I guess accessibility is important and not many people have a state-of-the-art rig to play Bioshock full blast...and there are less PC gamers.UpInFlames

I haven't yet played the game myself, but looking at GameSpot's BioShock Hardware Guide, it's not as demanding as I thought - you don't need a state-of-the-art rig to play BioShock, and it looks wonderful even on low settings. Also, I hear Irrational will be updating the game to support Shader 2.0 cards. If anything hurt BioShock's sales, it's the whole SecuROM and crashed servers fiasco - a lot of people were pissed off by that. Even so, I think it's doing very well on PC and the 360.

By the way, there are far more PC gamers than all console gamers combined.

Anyway, congrats to Irrational (I hate how 2K decided to give them the bland, corporate name), it's been a long time coming.

Yet they are so divided in terms of hardware, specs and ability, that that comment is rendered nearly meaningless.

Anyways, congrats to T2 and T2 Boston! Well deserved, though I don't really trust the website these numbers came from. :?

Where do they get these figures from? How accurate are they???

BTW, Wii sells big time, but the 360 software is just RIDICULOUS. Its obvious that the majority of gamers are with MS in NA right now because of the number of games that are sold on the system. Its not just because of the install base (see PS2 software sales). I can't believe GH3 sold that much lifetime on the 360 for $90 a pop. That's just MADNESS!!!

Bioshock is a great game, and deserves the sales.

but.. oh god.. wait until jack thomspon finds it.

z919

Actually he already did.

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2007/08/20/jack_thompson_hates_bioshock_adverts/1

If anything hurt BioShock's sales, it's the whole SecuROM and crashed servers fiasco - a lot of people were pissed off by that. Even so, I think it's doing very well on PC and the 360.

UpInFlames

I disagree. I think that the SecuROM has HELPED sales of the game. It may have pissed some folks off, but I don't think it stopped many (if any) from buying the game. However, someone in another thread mentioned that the game still hasn't been cracked, so I imagine a number of would-be pirates have just gone out and bought the game.

I disagree. I think that the SecuROM has HELPED sales of the game. It may have pissed some folks off, but I don't think it stopped many (if any) from buying the game. However, someone in another thread mentioned that the game still hasn't been cracked, so I imagine a number of would-be pirates have just gone out and bought the game.H3LLRaiseR

From my experience (and I'm from a country in which piracy is rampant), pirates don't go out and buy a game simply because they can't have it within a week of release - they wait. They know full well that it is going to be cracked sooner or later, so if you're the kind of person who can't or won't buy a game, you won't change your mind that easily. Personally, I feel that copy protection is useless 99% of the time and serves only as an annoyance (andoften-times more than that) for legitimate users.

From my experience (and I'm from a country in which piracy is rampant), pirates don't go out and buy a game simply because they can't have it within a week of release - they wait. They know full well that it is going to be cracked sooner or later, so if you're the kind of person who can't or won't buy a game, you won't change your mind that easily. Personally, I feel that copy protection is useless 99% of the time and serves only as an annoyance (andoften-times more than that) for legitimate users.UpInFlames

Actually, from what I've read, Piracy is it's most rampant either before or during the initial launch of a game, and this is what developers and publishers are most afraid of, since its the first couple of months after a games launch that are most important for sales impressions.

Now I agree that some pirates weren't going to buy the game regardless, and will be happy to simply wait down the line for a crack, but I've read a good portion of pirates steal a hot anticipated game cause they want it right away or even before it releases.

Now I can't say that the measures that 2K took is full proof that piracy was deterred nor am I a fan of excessive copy protection.....however, the fact that the PC version of Bioshock came in at number one in the US charts beating out even WoW, and the fact that the PC version of Bioshock did in Europe what few PC games have done, it outsold any other game on any other platform during it's first week, could be used to support the argument that the measures copy protection measures that 2K took did deter piracy to a good extent.

Actually, from what I've read, Piracy is it's most rampant either before or during the initial launch of a game, and this is what developers and publishers are most afraid of, since its the first couple of months after a games launch that are most important for sales impressions.

Now I agree that some pirates weren't going to buy the game regardless, and will be happy to simply wait down the line for a crack, but I've read a good portion of pirates steal a hot anticipated game cause they want it right away or even before it releases.

Now I can't say that the measures that 2K took is full proof that piracy was deterred nor am I a fan of excessive copy protection.....however, the fact that the PC version of Bioshock came in at number one in the US charts beating out even WoW, and the fact that the PC version of Bioshock did in Europe what few PC games have done, it outsold any other game on any other platform during it's first week, could be used to support the argument that the measures copy protection measures that 2K took did deter piracy to a good extent.Robnyc22

I agree that the launch period is the time when piracy most rampant, I'm just not convinced that those people will go out and buy a game if they can't pirate it right away. However, if it's cracked before release, a lot of people who would indeed buy the game might pirate it simply because they want to play it right away. At least that's how I look at it, I always felt that piracy was just a convenient reason for publishers to cite when their games underperform in the process avoiding more important issues - perhaps the game was crap, not marketed properly, faced tough competition, or simply didn't strike a chord with gamers.

Just because BioShock is a commercial success doesn't in any way support the notion that copy protection really works. The Sims 2 was cracked on day one, yet three years later it's still in the Top 10.

You guys do know that vgchartz numbers mean absoultly nothing. Here check this out, let me make up a number, um... Bishock sole 450k on its first week, see I can do it too.dvader654

I'm starting to post dvaderchartz figures next NPD thread. :P

[QUOTE="H3LLRaiseR"]I disagree. I think that the SecuROM has HELPED sales of the game. It may have pissed some folks off, but I don't think it stopped many (if any) from buying the game. However, someone in another thread mentioned that the game still hasn't been cracked, so I imagine a number of would-be pirates have just gone out and bought the game.UpInFlames

From my experience (and I'm from a country in which piracy is rampant), pirates don't go out and buy a game simply because they can't have it within a week of release - they wait. They know full well that it is going to be cracked sooner or later, so if you're the kind of person who can't or won't buy a game, you won't change your mind that easily. Personally, I feel that copy protection is useless 99% of the time and serves only as an annoyance (andoften-times more than that) for legitimate users.

I don't think that pirates are all just people who can't or won't buy games. I think that a number of them pirate out of convenience. They have the means to pay for it, they would pay for it, but they don't because they can simply hop on a torrent site and have the game for free in a matter of hours. I don't know of any game pirates, but I do know plenty who .pirate others things, and that is the case for all of them.

[QUOTE="UpInFlames"]

[QUOTE="H3LLRaiseR"]I disagree. I think that the SecuROM has HELPED sales of the game. It may have pissed some folks off, but I don't think it stopped many (if any) from buying the game. However, someone in another thread mentioned that the game still hasn't been cracked, so I imagine a number of would-be pirates have just gone out and bought the game.H3LLRaiseR

From my experience (and I'm from a country in which piracy is rampant), pirates don't go out and buy a game simply because they can't have it within a week of release - they wait. They know full well that it is going to be cracked sooner or later, so if you're the kind of person who can't or won't buy a game, you won't change your mind that easily. Personally, I feel that copy protection is useless 99% of the time and serves only as an annoyance (andoften-times more than that) for legitimate users.

I don't think that pirates are all just people who can't or won't buy games. I think that a number of them pirate out of convenience. They have the means to pay for it, they would pay for it, but they don't because they can simply hop on a torrent site and have the game for free in a matter of hours. I don't know of any game pirates, but I do know plenty who .pirate others things, and that is the case for all of them.

It's doesn't really matter if Bioshock succeeded because of a copy protection. Games should not secretly install device drivers when you install them. It's wrong. Period. In fact i'm not even sure it's legal (imo it should not)to install a device driver without warning the user. Specially since those device drivers are hidden by default by windows and you need to unhide them from the device manager to see them and uninstall them. Those device drivers installed for copy protection could have security holes and could even damage your system. I have no confidence in the companies who develop them.

Half Life 2 sold a lot of copies even if it was hacked really quickly. Same for The Sims. I hate to play games using the DVD. I like to start my games from the desktop without having to insert a DVD each time i want to play. And i'm not alone.

I don't think that pirates are all just people who can't or won't buy games. I think that a number of them pirate out of convenience. They have the means to pay for it, they would pay for it, but they don't because they can simply hop on a torrent site and have the game for free in a matter of hours. I don't know of any game pirates, but I do know plenty who .pirate others things, and that is the case for all of them.H3LLRaiseR

Each of us is talking from our own perspectives which are culturally and economically quite different. As with everything else, I suppose the overall truth is somewhere in the middle.

It's doesn't really matter if Bioshock succeeded because of a copy protection. Games should not secretly install device drivers when you install them. It's wrong. Period. In fact i'm not even sure it's legal (imo it should not)to install a device driver without warning the user. Specially since those device drivers are hidden by default by windows and you need to unhide them from the device manager to see them and uninstall them. Those device drivers installed for copy protection could have security holes and could even damage your system. I have no confidence in the companies who develop them.LaP

This is what it's all about - we should not try to justify copy protection malware because its use is simply unjustified. We need to send a loud and clear message to publishers - we don't want that crap on our computers.

Half Life 2 sold a lot of copies even if it was hacked really quickly. Same for The Sims. I hate to play games using the DVD. I like to start my games from the desktop without having to insert a DVD each time i want to play. And i'm not alone.LaP

Agreed. Company of Heroes is not only malware-free, but you don't need to insert a disc to play a game which basically means that an unlimited amount of people could be playing the game thanks to a single retail copy. Yet, lo and behold, the game sold splendidly. Stardock is using the same model - rewarding gamers instead of causing their PC's to malfunction and treating them like criminals. On the flipside, Dreamfall: The Longest Journey used StarForce and wasn't cracked for half a year and it sold terribly.

It's doesn't really matter if Bioshock succeeded because of a copy protection. Games should not secretly install device drivers when you install them. It's wrong. Period. In fact i'm not even sure it's legal (imo it should not)to install a device driver without warning the user. Specially since those device drivers are hidden by default by windows and you need to unhide them from the device manager to see them and uninstall them. Those device drivers installed for copy protection could have security holes and could even damage your system. I have no confidence in the companies who develop them.

Half Life 2 sold a lot of copies even if it was hacked really quickly. Same for The Sims. I hate to play games using the DVD. I like to start my games from the desktop without having to insert a DVD each time i want to play. And i'm not alone.

LaP

Thats an entirely different discussion. I agree that these companies should find ways to fight piracy that doesn't involve putting paying customers through any extra loops. Regardless of that, I think that shutting down piracy, even if its only for a few weeks, is going to help the game's sales.

Half Life and The Sims were huge sellers, and they would have been even bigger if they were more difficiult to pirate.

And I wouldn't call NoCD hacks piracy, even if they do originate from that community.

2K would be crazy to not bring this to the PS3...right? I mean think of how much more sales they could get.

[QUOTE="H3LLRaiseR"]I don't think that pirates are all just people who can't or won't buy games. I think that a number of them pirate out of convenience. They have the means to pay for it, they would pay for it, but they don't because they can simply hop on a torrent site and have the game for free in a matter of hours. I don't know of any game pirates, but I do know plenty who .pirate others things, and that is the case for all of them.UpInFlames

Each of us is talking from our own perspectives which are culturally and economically quite different. As with everything else, I suppose the overall truth is somewhere in the middle.

I'm only offering you a perspective you seemingly had dismissed. I fully understand that the bulk of pirates fall into that "can't or won't" category.

4Two WorldsSouthpeak1139,711139,711

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

That's good sales, but it's only the 360 version, right? I think the PC vers. isn't selling so hot. I don't know the numbers for it but everytime I go to Best Buy or Frys, the 360 versions are sold out but the PC ones are still plenty on the shelves.

I guess accessibility is important and not many people have a state-of-the-art rig to play Bioshock full blast...and there are less PC gamers.

ASK_Story

A fair share of PC gamers download their games online.

That's good sales, but it's only the 360 version, right? I think the PC vers. isn't selling so hot. I don't know the numbers for it but everytime I go to Best Buy or Frys, the 360 versions are sold out but the PC ones are still plenty on the shelves.

I guess accessibility is important and not many people have a state-of-the-art rig to play Bioshock full blast...and there are less PC gamers.

ASK_Story

I guess that most PC gamers have been buying it off Steam. Sales sites don't count Steam games (right?), so Bioshock sales are even better than the thread title suggests.