PlayStation Plus Hurts Game Sales…

[karmakid]

…?

Lorne Lanning says launching on PS Plus was “devastating” for Soulstorm sales

Oddworld creator Lorne Lanning has said that launching on PS Plus was "devastating" for the sales of Oddworld: Soulstor…

www.gamesindustry.biz

"The most we could sell is less than the money we're getting... we might sell 50,000 units at launch, maybe 100,000 units. It was pretty small numbers because there wasn't going to be a lot of PS5s."

Soulstorm was initially slated to launch in January 2021, but ended up moving back to April. The delay meant that Soulstorm quickly became the most downloaded game on PS5.

"Because [Soulstorm] slipped to April, we had the highest downloaded game on PS5 and it was, I think, approaching... close to four million units or something like that for free because they were all subscriptions. So for us, it was devastating."

 

[yankeessuck]

Nothing about what he is saying makes any sense

 

[Kvally]

Nothing about what he is saying makes any sense

I don't really understand how PS Plus or Game Pass works (or PS Now) as far as revenue for developers. I would think that they would get 4 million x $x.xx for each download. I guess not?

 

[karmakid]

I don't really understand how PS Plus or Game Pass works (or PS Now) as far as revenue for developers. I would think that they would get 4 million x $x.xx for each download. I guess not?

From what I understand it’s a case by case thing…. Usually devs get a lump sum up front and then get an extra kickback with each download, sometimes it could just be the former or the latter, maybe?

 

[DriedMangoes]

Who knew launching day 1 with a subscription service would hurt sales

 

[yankeessuck]

I don't really understand how PS Plus or Game Pass works (or PS Now) as far as revenue for developers. I would think that they would get 4 million x $x.xx for each download. I guess not?

I think Plus used to be that way and there could be cases where that happens on Plus or GP but we know Square got a lump sum for Guardians of the Galaxy so I assume that is generally how it is.

In this games case he said he got more than they expected to make in sales. He talks about 4 million but I question if that is downloads. Its probably the number of people that claimed it. Which you wouldn't even need a PS5 to do.

 

[menace-uk-]

So they made a "pretty good deal' with Sony and put it on a service that has like 50 million subs at a quiet time of year and it was a new game and 4 million downloads was surprising? Lol.

Funny how they say all that but don't state what it sold.

 

[Kerosene31]

So if I even understand, their release date slipped and the game ended up launching on PS+?

Also obviously the number of people who downloaded is way more than actual lost sales. I'm sure I downloaded this and proceeded to never even launch it.