9 in 10 people who bought XR have stopped playing

ciphrix · Post by **ciphrix** » Thu, 5. Dec 13, 04:07

Looking at Steam Chart, there is a drop of 87% in peak number of players from release (~15k) to now (1.5k), in ~ 3 weeks.

Source: http://steamcharts.com/app/2870

Additionally, there are probably just as many people (if not more) playing X3, given it's peaking at about 900 on steam chart, however a lot (or most) of people who have X3 did not purchase it through Steam.

Will be interesting to see how XR trends once the game is "fixed".

Usenko · Post by **Usenko** » Thu, 5. Dec 13, 04:18

Speaking as a scientifically literate person, one would also have to see a "control" - that is, what are the figures on any other game?

By which I mean that even the best game in the world would probably have a fairly rapid drop-off (because most people have little patience, and it takes time to get to know a game to the point where you understand how to get the best out of it, especially for simulators).

pr0nflakes · Post by **pr0nflakes** » Thu, 5. Dec 13, 04:19

That makes pretty stark viewing when spread over 1m scale.

Post by **BlackRain** » Thu, 5. Dec 13, 04:38

Checking the steam charts is pointless at this time. The game is very buggy and I doubt people want to waste time playing it as is, which is understandable. I think those numbers will be on the rise once most functionality is working as intended.

yoyolll · Post by **yoyolll** » Thu, 5. Dec 13, 04:43

Usenko wrote:Speaking as a scientifically literate person, one would also have to see a "control" - that is, what are the figures on any other game?

By which I mean that even the best game in the world would probably have a fairly rapid drop-off (because most people have little patience, and it takes time to get to know a game to the point where you understand how to get the best out of it, especially for simulators).

While I agree with you, 87% seems a little too high to not be significant.

Since I am too lazy, it would be nice of someone to pull up stats on some other popular games to compare. But I don't think we'll see very many as high as 87% in the first three weeks.

dphantom · Post by **dphantom** » Thu, 5. Dec 13, 05:13

Completely different genre, but similar in the way that it is also an "open word game", The Elder Scrolls Skyrim was launched roughly by the time X Rebirth was announced, back in 2011, and the graph after these two long years seems more promising then X:R
http://steamcharts.com/app/72850#1y

It is a real shame that this game came out in the state it came, seems like there was no beta testing at all. It was easily the most anticipated game of the last 2 years for me, and it is a huge let down. I have played 28h of it according to Steam statistics, and kind of lost most of my appetite for it already.

werewolves? · Post by **werewolves?** » Thu, 5. Dec 13, 05:35

Skyrim is a AAA game by one of the biggest devs in the world, part of one of the biggest game franchises in the world, and until recently one of the far more fashionable genres.

Cougar81 · Post by **Cougar81** » Thu, 5. Dec 13, 05:43

BlackRain wrote:Checking the steam charts is pointless at this time. The game is very buggy and I doubt people want to waste time playing it as is, which is understandable. I think those numbers will be on the rise once most functionality is working as intended.

At this point, I think ES has got to be a little worried that players *dont* come back. I finally gave up today, I will be one of the ones that come back - but after getting 0 credits for selling 11k ecells .. I had had enough.

I can understand that there are circumstances that are beyond the "publics" knowledge and that what makes obvious sense to us - is often not remotely close to how things played out - but X:R was (and still is) not a game that should have been released. (and in my personal opinion, ES should have listened over the past 2 years to how the long time X players reacted to some of the "feature" changes that they intended to put into X:R - such as the "one ship fits all" approach..) I am unfortunately, incredibly dissapointed. I tried not to be. I tried to give X:R the chance to overcome X3:AP. The graphics are beautiful. The stations are amazing. Drones are awesome. The setting (PMC) is believable. After that... it gets rough and then it gets downright unbearable.

I will be wary before buying another ES product (if there even is another). I would not have even remotely said that after I was introduced to X3.

Edit: to compare X:R to Skyrim is very unfair. Skyrim is up there with sales/cult following with such games as Grand Theft Auto and Half life. ES had the opportunity to follow in the same footsteps as Bethesda. They had a product line that was increasingly more popular and had built a player base that was ready for adaptive changes - but imo instead of giving players *exactly* what they wanted (skyrim - which is a gazillion hours of playable -- im almost up to 1000 hrs played) --- ES has forced their own vision onto the players which hasnt so far worked out that well (highways, trading via one-on-one conversations, single ship, an incredibly reduced universe etc.) X:R (as noted by metacritic) isnt nearly in the same ball park as Skyrim. (and even Skyrim was plagued with bugs) The difference is what the players got for their money. (a world where you trip over quest after quest after quest or translated - in quality time played; or a world where you spend long tedious minutes waiting for something to happen ie exit from a highway, wait for a trade ship to dock, gather trade commissions)

-Voidhawk- · Post by **-Voidhawk-** » Thu, 5. Dec 13, 05:49

So would comparing the X:Rebirth numbers to Farm Simulator 2013 be more appropriate then?

http://steamcharts.com/app/220260#All

pr0nflakes · Post by **pr0nflakes** » Thu, 5. Dec 13, 05:54

-Voidhawk- wrote:So would comparing the X:Rebirth numbers to Farm Simulator 2013 be more appropriate then?

http://steamcharts.com/app/220260#All

TIL: more people are playing Farming Simulator that X Rebirth [mind=blown]

Captain Lemmiwinks · Post by **Captain Lemmiwinks** » Thu, 5. Dec 13, 05:55

ciphrix wrote:
Will be interesting to see how XR trends once the game is "fixed".

miserably

explaination :

will be years before this game comes close to getting a fanbase back that would support further development,if at all.

the attraction for the new users that was hoped for and the game is aimed at will have died out in months,as thats what todays mainstream gamers are like.

ES dumped on the old fanbase at the same time as the new folks which wont be forgotten quickly.

a few simple comments by Bernd have poisoned the well badly.

the future ?

its going to be a console game,thats the only reasonable way to further this company now,and thats what i think is going on in the ES offices right now.

after that when they find out console gamers like pew pew,and bigger companys can throw out games faster than ES it will all be over.

moral ?

you dont dump on your wage payers and then expect forgiveness.

you dont break promises and lie to people.

there are certainly a lot of stupid people out there,but are there enough to support ES ?

piling up the bodies of your real family to climb for that golden ring was a mistake.

dphantom · Post by **dphantom** » Thu, 5. Dec 13, 06:12

I think there was one(?) fundamental flaw in Egosoft's grand plan to make the game accessible to the masses.

If that was indeed the plan to attract new players and a younger crowd with instant gratification desires, short attention spans, and love for "simpler" console like games, then first impression are very very important.
And for these new players (and most of the old fan base for that matter) first impression of this game is given by the campaign, which has we have seen is completely bugged ridden, unplayable and for the most part impossible to finish.
Now how is that a good welcome for new players, if even the old ones (that know Egosoft and how they're game launch history is and long term support tradition goes) are complaining.

It is as if they did all (if any) of the play testing in the universe, for the free play, and long term sandbox exploration modes, and didn't bother to test the one thing everyone is going to see first and get they're first impressions from: the campaign.

Arraamis · Post by **Arraamis** » Thu, 5. Dec 13, 06:19

http://steamcharts.com/app/2870
Those numbers\stats are horrible and its not even a month post-release

Karmaticdamage · Post by **Karmaticdamage** » Thu, 5. Dec 13, 06:20

The damage is done. Even if this game magically became X4 it wouldn't matter. What gets me is egosoft seems oblivious to what they've done. They think they can fix the game and everything will be all better. They could make the next game like skyrim or half-life in terms of quality but sales will blow because of the taste x-rebirth left in everyone's mouth.

Lyth · Post by **Lyth** » Thu, 5. Dec 13, 06:23

There is no doubt that Egosoft had the right platform, distribution, advertising and timing to take the gaming world by storm with their release of X Rebirth. Pre-release sales prove this without a doubt.

Every single review has the same premise, "this was our most anticipated game of the year" and "we wanted to love it."

I'm not sure if I am being unfair to XR or farming simulators here, but far more niche than space simulator games and didn't even make a quarter of the sales that XR did.

http://steamcharts.com/app/220260#1y

Also the farming simulator has strategy elements to it which may discount it from the control group as XR does not but it is squarely in the simulator field.

Action games are designed to have a short lived life cycle, which it is safe to say XR is, 20-40 hours of game time then it gets shelved, that's all that XR has become, trade and empire management is too shallow to be worthwhile long term by design, I certainly hope as patches come out people play more to atleast complete the campaign out but would rather newcomers didn't because it will forever ruin their impression of the great work that egosoft can do and stop them from buying XR2. Comparing it to newish games like Europa, other strategy or X legacy games isn't fair for what it is. They simply shouldn't have added the X to Rebirth or advertised it as a strategy game.

For an action game, XR did ok, nothing to be worried about. For an X game though it has gone so very terribly wrong.

Sad truth is, looking at things like the bus simulator which has overtaken XR, XR might have done just aswell in sales and user stats if it had just advertised itself as a highway simulator with everything else as bonus content and been closer to the truth.

werewolves? · Post by **werewolves?** » Thu, 5. Dec 13, 06:32

Karmaticdamage wrote:The damage is done. Even if this game magically became X4 it wouldn't matter. What gets me is egosoft seems oblivious to what they've done. They think they can fix the game and everything will be all better. They could make the next game like skyrim or half-life in terms of quality but sales will blow because of the taste x-rebirth left in everyone's mouth.

Nah not at all, gamers have short memories.

Once they get stable and some new content they can just run a free weekend or something on steam. X: Rebirth The Directors Cut.

They could just replace the skunk with a Hype-V model as free DLC and most people would forgive them.

calvindude · Post by **calvindude** » Thu, 5. Dec 13, 06:38

Lyth wrote:Every single review has the same premise, "this was our most anticipated game of the year" and "we wanted to love it."

I think the review scores would have been higher if this wasn't the attitude the reviewers approached the game with. In other words, they had very high expectations and Rebirth didn't meet them, which was more damaging to the review. If you're not expecting a certain experience, then you're not going to be let down if you don't get that experience.

Personally, I'm having a lot of fun with the game myself. However, it's obvious that there are lots of things others don't like about it. Still, I honestly think that the preconceived notions of what Rebirth would be probably cost Rebirth about 10 points in the reviews, meaning it would have been around a 44 without those preconceived ideas. That still would be a horrible critic score, and one that I personally think is too low, but that's just my opinion.

Cougar81 · Post by **Cougar81** » Thu, 5. Dec 13, 06:38

Karmaticdamage wrote:The damage is done. Even if this game magically became X4 it wouldn't matter. What gets me is egosoft seems oblivious to what they've done. They think they can fix the game and everything will be all better. They could make the next game like skyrim or half-life in terms of quality but sales will blow because of the taste x-rebirth left in everyone's mouth.

This is really what gets me too. What was ES thinking?!! Nobody knowingly puts themselves in such a bad position so they can claw their way back to the top. I have to wonder if ES thought it would be roses and sunshine by now. Did they dupe us all? (I dont believe X:R will ever be X4 -- ES is (was) completely against releasing an "upgraded" X3:AP (( fair, since they really didnt have a whole lot to do with TC and by association AP --- they knew they had a different vision for their brand than where the X fans wanted to take the game))

DaMuncha · Post by **DaMuncha** » Thu, 5. Dec 13, 06:39

Well I waited 2 years for this.

I played other crappy games that came out, games that were hyped alot and turned out to be shit, but I allways said. Just wait untill X Rebirth comes out, it will all be ok, X Rebirth is going to solve all these let downs. Just 2 months to go and I can loose my self in space. Based on the previos X games I was really excited that I'd soon get to play my most anticipated game since Skyrim which was also a let down.

Well, you can see how dissapointed I was when X Rebirth actually came out.

Lyth · Post by **Lyth** » Thu, 5. Dec 13, 06:51

Expectations don't grow out of thin air, people were told this;

[ external image ]

In trying to go through the campaign, they ended up with this;

[ external image ]

So could only end by saying;

[ external image ]

[ external image ]

On the upside, I don't recall any previous X game ever having it's own meme pages before.

egosoft.com

egosoft.com

9 in 10 people who bought XR have stopped playing

9 in 10 people who bought XR have stopped playing

Re: 9 in 10 people who bought XR have stopped playing