Brief Analysis of Sales Data between Civ Rev and it possible impact on Civ V

[Sox]

Same thing in SimCity. It got more and more complicated to the point of overwhelming the user and drowning out the fun little things, to the point of collapse. They tried to save it with SimCity Societies, one of the most boring games I have ever played - it was far too simple. (You didn't zone anymore... you placed the exact buildings you wanted.) They never returned to the happy medium that was SimCity 2000. I'd say Master of Orion 3 did the same.

I thought Civ IV was pretty good. Maybe a tad bit overcomplicated but it was mostly in how the information was presented - maybe UI improvements would've been enough.
(On the other hand, I always got bored in the late game with all the units driving around... I really, really prefer the late game in Civ V.)

Just have to say I don´t agree.

Complicated is not the same as overwhelming and imho SimCity 4 is clearly the best of the lot. Hell, I am still waiting for a real sequal.

Civ IV being overcomplicated? Not for my taste. The problem is that the gamecompanies, well all companies, want it all. It´s not enough to make a great game that strategyfans will enjoy and buy, they want to eat the cake to! To me, it´s all about greed.

Good thing that there still are companies, like Paradox, that cater to "our" needs and realize that, "Hey, let´s not make FarmVille! Not eveyone on earth will buy it but let´s do what we know how to, be happy with that and make a buck in the process."

 

[Maniacal]

As mentioned, these numbers are likely to be highly inaccurate since they do not include the sales figures from Steam. This especially affects games like Civ5 and Empire: Total War which are Steamworks games and had a large number of sales digitally. Whereas CivRev is for consoles and handhelds hence not on Steam, and the other Civ games were released before Steam was around or, in Civ4's case, before it really became the popular digital retailer it is today.

 

[asix79]

Just have to say I don´t agree.

Complicated is not the same as overwhelming and imho SimCity 4 is clearly the best of the lot. Hell, I am still waiting for a real sequal.

Civ IV being overcomplicated? Not for my taste. The problem is that the gamecompanies, well all companies, want it all. It´s not enough to make a great game that strategyfans will enjoy and buy, they want to eat the cake to! To me, it´s all about greed.

Good thing that there still are companies, like Paradox, that cater to "our" needs and realize that, "Hey, let´s not make FarmVille! Not eveyone on earth will buy it but let´s do what we know how to, be happy with that and make a buck in the process."

I agree. Paradox caters to a specific niche in the market, and the games don't appeal to everyone; however, there are people, like me, that love the immersion and (micro)management. At the end of the day, we can hope for the best with ciV, but we will always have BtS, which I still have to master.

 

[Helmling]

This. Verra much.

It's also kind of amazing, considering it's very rare these days for PC games to outsell their console equivalents.

That's it exactly. They're not equivalent. Civ Rev was a niche game. Everyone knows there's not a huge market for strategy on consoles. I think the OP's supposition about its influence on Civ V is specious at best.

Civ Rev was good at what it set out to do: capture a hint of Civ on a console. Civ V is worlds' different.

 

[Thormodr]

Thanks for the information.


About the EU series, it seems to be getting better and better over time.

The fourth expansion pack for EU3 is going to be great.

 

[killmeplease]

Regarding the scarcity of data, apparently even Soren himself did not know exactly how well Civ4 sold

does this mean that civ5's budget was less than 20 million dollars? if so, its likely already paid for itself.

 

[anti_strunt]

About the EU series, it seems to be getting better and better over time.

The fourth expansion pack for EU3 is going to be great.

Considering they make a new engine and then remake every old game almost verbatim, some improvement is hopefully inevitable. They still can't code an AI to save their lives though, and their sense of UI design is woefully unpredictable for such management-intensive games.

(Oh, and EU2 got great with patches alone, no stinkin' expansion packs needed... Is EU3 really up to 4 packs now? They really know how to milk their captive audience, I'll give them that. EU3 at launch was a far greater mess than Civ 5.)