How well did the Civs sell?

[Joey_Ramone]

Does anyone know how well Civ III sold, and also to compare that to Civ I and II? I tried looking online, and while it's easy to see how much money movies and cd's made, I can't find such lists for PC games.

One of the reasons that I'm asking is I'm wondering how much money they'd be willing to invest into Civ IV.

 

[Garbarsardar.jr]

pcdata.com seems to hold the answer to that but then you need a password to enter their site...

 

[phil87]

"On June 10th (2002), an article entitled "Having fun winning" on TechNews.com, Firaxis Games CEO Jeff Briggs said Civilization III has now sold more than 1 million copies since its release last October."

I couldnt find anything more up to date than that cos yahoo kept trying to tell me how the Civ series has sold 4 million copies (prior to Civ III)

 

[HamaticBabylon]

6 million if you include Conquest!

 

[Padma]

Joey, If you look around the forums, you will see that they have started work on Civ4 (CIV). They know they have a hit franchise, and are hoping to do even better with the next installment.

 

[Joey_Ramone]

Joey, If you look around the forums, you will see that they have started work on Civ4 (CIV). They know they have a hit franchise, and are hoping to do even better with the next installment.

I know and I'm glad about that. I'm just curious as to how much exactly they made, how much it cost, and how they compare to other games. Does 1 million games put it in the top ten for the year? That info is very easy to find for music and movies, but seems to be difficult for PC games.

When I was in middle school, I used to love those "quest" games from Sierra ("King's Quest, Hero's Quest, Leisure Suit Larry"). They were successful for the time but eventually the later versions were not as successful and because of the high costs of making a game no quests are made anymore.

 

[Turner]

Joey, If you look around the forums, you will see that they have started work on Civ4 (CIV). They know they have a hit franchise, and are hoping to do even better with the next installment.

It's also the most popular game at Yahoo!GamesOnDemand...

Edit: Err, my point being that Civ3 is very popular, and that while it may have sold more than Six million, it's not accurate considering that sites such as Yahoo have it as their most popular. Francise indeed!

 

[binyo66]

Unfortunately, there is no way I could get those firaxis games and atari in indonesia. Any clue would be appreciated (I like to get CivIV by the time its available)

 

[Dell19]

Try and find someone who is going to a country that sells Civ and ask them to get it for you? Or if you happen to know someone abroad then you could ask them to post it to you.

 

[binyo66]

Well, my only resources is my brother who is studying in CA, USA. Unfortunately, he came to visit indonesia just once a year (Christmas). It would be risky to sent software overseas to Indonesia n I think Its difficult to find "someone" here. But if for any case u could find someone, it would be great helpful. I even will pay double of the retail price!!

 

[Dell19]

How about on Ebay? Not sure whether anyone would be willing to send it, but if theyare selling it anyway and you are willing to pay more... The problem is that they might just pretend that it got lost in the post...

 

[binyo66]

Thats true. Most company doesnt want to send to Indonesia for unknow reason. In fact before C3C I had to call Atari (Australia and Singapore), and after been ping-pong-ed with them with no Result. Luckily my mother went to visit my brother, so I got it in 2 months. The only possible things are (except from my brother) , for Civ IV
- got from a software store which can be trusted. He should except CC. So far, I found no software store would send to indonesia.
- got from someone in this forum who might go to Indonesia .

 

[gozpel]

Or why don't you go visit your brother in California and bring the game home with you.

A bit expensive for a copy, but I think it's worth it

 

[binyo66]

No. Its more impossible. For muslim country getting visa is quite impossible. My brother could get visa because He got it b4r 911 and for 5 years. So with my parents.

Edit : But u give a nice idea. Going to Singapore

 

[Paasky]

No. Its more impossible. For muslim country getting visa is quite impossible. My brother could get visa because He got it b4r 911 and for 5 years. So with my parents.

Edit : But u give a nice idea. Going to Singapore

That's just ... America to you...

There are a lot of trustable companies around elsewhere than america too. Just buy it from some Big companies website, they won't "lose" the package... Unless they won't sell it to Indonesia (which I find strange).

 

[collin_stp]

just to see if I got it right.

6 million civ3 games sold, including vanilla, gold, PTW, and conquests.

4 million Civ1 and civ2 combined titles (including expansions).

Is this correct?

 

[Dell19]

Probably not as there are only estimates and like music sales, they are only estimates as not every store sends back the data on how many copies were sold. Finally these estimates ignore games that obtained via other means...

 

[warpstorm]

just to see if I got it right.

6 million civ3 games sold, including vanilla, gold, PTW, and conquests.

4 million Civ1 and civ2 combined titles (including expansions).

Is this correct?

No, I think he was saying 6 Million Civ games total (civ 1, 2, 3, SMAC, and all expansions and all console ports (and versions for defunct systems like the Amiga)).

Unfortunately, these days having only a million copy seller is barely enough to get a big name publisher interested in your title.

Lots of copies obtained by other means won't make a publisher likely to fund a sequel to a game.

 

[Heffalump]

It's perhaps not so useful to compare today's sales with games from 10 years ago. Back then the industry was a fraction of the size it is now. Just a few geeks playing here and there These days however it's on level, or beyond, the movie industry in terms of revenue....

 

[Dell19]

I still think that the films industry is far larger considering the amounts of money they are willing to invest in just one film...