IPLY Quarterly Report

"Didn't Fallout 1 or 2 sell something like 3 million copies?"

Ha. I see you use the same number counters as Interplay does. FO series has supposedly sold around 1 mil total and many of those in the bargain bin...

As for Interplay, they have employees... I wonder what game they are developing.. I know.. it's either none or FOOL. <>

:twisted:
 
Odin said:
We have a core group of approximately 20 employees on payroll, of which approximately 8 are actively working from the new company location in Irvine, California. Substantially all employees have not been paid for the period July 1 through September 30, 2004.
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This part really jumped out at me. Why in the HELL would anyone continue to work for this "company?!" These people haven't been paid for the last quarter (THREE MONTHS!), and they're still reporting to work? Gah!
Incidentally, I wonder how Hervie's making out... I wouldn't think he could be giving himself a paycheck (that would look a little suspicious in the payroll records). I'd like to think that his personal finances are starting to resemble his corporate finances -- i.e. he's hemhorraging money...
 
Actually "new company location" is the most optimistic description of a dumpster I've ever heard.
 
sunny jim said:
well, they did pay over 3 million, and that's a whole lot of money,
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Who paid what?

So far as I can tell, the only money on the table is $1.175 million, which doesn't even begin to cover IPLY's current liabilities. Then there are the TERMS of that $1.175 million - there is a good chance they didn't just cut a check; if I were Bethesda I would have made all sorts of conditions about payment...

The additional hypothetical FO4 and FO5 payments are years out and actually benefit Bethesda, not IPLY. They have the right of first refusal, so if FO3 is a commercial success they can do the deal on F04 and FO5 for cheap, (which won't help IPLY) and if FO3 is a dud, then the right of future development won't be worth dung regardless....
 
Edge386 said:
Didn't Fallout 1 or 2 sell something like 3 million copies?
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Whoa there, Mr. Buffett :)

Two years after release, Fallout 1 had sold 130,000 copies in the U.S. TOTAL. Fallout 2 sold less (I seem to recall 80,000 units in the first year). Neither game was released on a second platform. Neither game had substantial international distribution - anyone who played it overseas was very fortunate and/or highly motivated :)

I would guess a total of 250 K for Fallout1 and 200 K for Fallout2 after all these years of heavy discounting and selling 40 units per week out of bargain bins (being EXTREMELY generous). I would love to see if they were even claiming 1 M units sold for both games combined, because I will guarantee they won't provide detailed sales figures (especially not revenue per unit). Don't forget - wholesale on these games STARTED at $38 per unit and dropped quickly post-launch. In the bargain bin days I doubt they were getting $1 per unit (no way were they getting $2 for the double CD without the manual, for example).
 
My copy of Fo1 has a Swedish box and manual, which hints at some dedication to a comparatively insignificant market at least. Of course, initial sales here wouldn't have contributed noticeably to those totals, but it was there for those who wanted it. It may have been around that time that computer games truly became a mass-market thing.

The games were also available for a while in the Best Buy bargain edition as a double pack for about $16 retail (sold in the Nordic countries and Germany, I think). I already had the Fallouts at that time, but got Tales of the Sword Coast, reflecting on the laughable fact that the same amount of cash would land you either a few somewhat inferior - and unpatched - extra levels to Baldur's Gate, or the incomparable glory that is both Fallouts.
 
Chromosome 25 said:
Two years after release, Fallout 1 had sold 130,000 copies in the U.S. TOTAL. Fallout 2 sold less (I seem to recall 80,000 units in the first year). Neither game was released on a second platform.
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Yeah that seems more reasonable :)

Neither game had substantial international distribution - anyone who played it overseas was very fortunate and/or highly motivated :)
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Hmmmm if you are talking about the low marketing budget i agree, of course. It wasn`t as publicized as BG 1 and 2 or IWD1, IWD2 suffered from the same problem. But if you`re talking about avaibility i have to disagree. It was made widely avaiable, with good sales and chart positions at germany and France, for an RPG. It was coldly received in Italy, and it totally bombed, in the case of FO2, in the UK, with just 29000 copies sold in the first six months.

I would guess a total of 250 K for Fallout1 and 200 K for Fallout2 after all these years of heavy discounting and selling 40 units per week out of bargain bins (being EXTREMELY generous). I would love to see if they were even claiming 1 M units sold for both games combined, because I will guarantee they won't provide detailed sales figures (especially not revenue per unit). Don't forget - wholesale on these games STARTED at $38 per unit and dropped quickly post-launch. In the bargain bin days I doubt they were getting $1 per unit (no way were they getting $2 for the double CD without the manual, for example).
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Yep that seems close to the truth, giving the success of the white label budget release in several countries (it outsold Fallout2 in the UK, it was in the budget charts for at least a year in the top 20) and the success of the localized OEM budget releases, the apocalipse one in Germany, the Norway release, the Polish ones etc. This makes sense if we remember that in the late 2002 all time RPG franchises sales chart that was made public the Fallout one, without Tactics, was number nine, in a chart that had the major console and PC licenses. (i believe BG was number 5, not sure). For that position close to 400000 seems like a reasonable guess.

Now if we counted the Interplay store sales and the important OEM cover disk list sales then the game would have slightly better numbers of course. But to get the 500000 to 750000 sales figure Fergus talks about one would have to add the fallout:Tactics sales too.

Why the Bethesda press release of the Fallout deal mentioned millions of game sold is a mistery to me...
 
You know what I find interesting, is that even in "their day", FO1 and 2 weren't regarded as mainstream, wide-selling games.

Yet here we are, years later, and look at the buzz that's been generated when it first went into dev at BIS, then when Beth picked it up.

Wonder how well it will sell *** IF *** Beth can put a decent game together.
 
Pope_Viper said:
You know what I find interesting, is that even in "their day", FO1 and 2 weren't regarded as mainstream, wide-selling games.
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You have a very good point. These games were released during the days of (1) RPGs are dead and (2) M-rated games have no audience.

Baldur's Gate changed the first (which has also been reinforced by other successful RPG's including online ones), and GTA3 clearly changed the second (just to use the most blatant example, though there are others).

The challenge for the future will be how they can bring the maturity of content and the coolness of the concept to a game format that will be appealing to the millions of new gamers who weren't fans of the original product. I think they COULD come out with a mature, post-apoc PRG that would sell millions across multiple platforms. Unfortunately I do not think that game would bear much resemblance to the original FO1. However this is beating around an old bush before it has hatched, if you know what I mean :)
 
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