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Guild Wars 2: ArenaNet Amasses 3.8M Sales in China [Updated]

SBFordSBFord Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129

According to a report at GamesIndustry.biz, ArenaNet has sold 3.8 million copies of Guild Wars 2 in China, surpassing the total sales for the rest of the world. Guild Wars 2 has amassed these sales in just over two months since the game's release in China.

The success of Guild Wars 2 is a vindication on two fronts. First, it is a compelling example of a game finding a significant audience with a pay-to-play model in a country where the market is dominated by free-to-play. Second, it is further evidence that the Chinese market is a lucrative untapped resource for developers in North America, Europe and elsewhere.

UPDATE: Shortly after these reports from 17173 started coming in, ArenaNet took to Twitter to announce that these numbers are not official, and that assumptions could have been made. See Twitter for details. Apologies!






¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 


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Comments

  • flizzerflizzer Member RarePosts: 2,454
    Here we go again...... grab the popcorn.
  • AeonbladesAeonblades Member Posts: 2,083

    I figured this game would be a big hit in China, I mentioned it a few month's ago here. The game is definitely more designed for their monetization platform with the extreme focus on the cash shop and paying for every convenience.

     

    Also, the massive grind associated with the legendary weapons, ascended gear, etc. Appeals to a more grindy player base imo.

    Currently Playing: ESO and FFXIV
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  • CouganCougan Member UncommonPosts: 422

    Cant really fault GW2 overall. A cheap buy to play MMO with a decent cash shop model. Lot of content and fun PVP with some new convenience features. Hell they even made the start experience and leveling fun which is something some MMOs cant seem to grasp.

    I stopped playing because of the lack of permanent content though as it was mostly Living Story.

    Definitely deserves the sales in China though.

  • DoogiehowserDoogiehowser Member Posts: 1,873
    Originally posted by Aeonblades

    I figured this game would be a big hit in China, I mentioned it a few month's ago here. The game is definitely more designed for their monetization platform with the extreme focus on the cash shop and paying for every convenience.

     

    Also, the massive grind associated with the legendary weapons, ascended gear, etc. Appeals to a more grindy player base imo.

    Yep..this game is perfect for chinese players.

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  • FoobarxFoobarx Member Posts: 451

    I think at this juncture, we can definitively say that most gamers buy or try every game out there on the market, thus we've all been counted in the sales of just about every game.  I don't think sales numbers or sub numbers for that matter mean all that much anymore, I think they need a better way of tracking actual gameplay that actually keeps track of real game play and not merely some time card prepaid in advance.

     

    The game companies themselves have this data... they don't share it with us, nor is required to be filed as a public record.

     

    On a side note, shouldn't we consider also the fact that this is a western game marketed in the east...  they don't see our games marketed over there any more than we see theirs.  It truly is two entirely separate markets.

  • NadiaNadia Member UncommonPosts: 11,798
    Originally posted by Foobarx

     I don't think sales numbers or sub numbers for that matter mean all that much anymore, I think they need a better way of tracking actual gameplay that actually keeps track of real game play and not merely some time card prepaid in advance.

    companies have the data like concurrent users

    but because they are businesses - sales / sub#s / microtransactions are the bottom line

  • FoobarxFoobarx Member Posts: 451
    Originally posted by Nadia
    Originally posted by Foobarx

     I don't think sales numbers or sub numbers for that matter mean all that much anymore, I think they need a better way of tracking actual gameplay that actually keeps track of real game play and not merely some time card prepaid in advance.

    companies have the data like concurrent users

    but because they are businesses - sales / sub#s / microtransactions are the bottom line

    True, that's their bottom line... but we aren't their accountants nor should we be.  

     

    I'm just saying as gamers, this information really doesn't tell us much in the grand scheme of things.  We're not trying to figure out which game company is more solvent, we're trying to figure out which games have a healthy population of actual playing gamers.  We want to know this when we seek out servers... when we choose factions... when we choose games to play.  They'd rather you not know those specifics because if it's not in their favor, you may just pass on them entirely.

  • DamonVileDamonVile Member UncommonPosts: 4,818
    Originally posted by Foobarx

    I think at this juncture, we can definitively say that most gamers buy or try every game out there on the market, thus we've all been counted in the sales of just about every game.  I don't think sales numbers or sub numbers for that matter mean all that much anymore, I think they need a better way of tracking actual gameplay that actually keeps track of real game play and not merely some time card prepaid in advance.

     

     

    gw2 has sold 7 million copies ( so they say ) I don't think that means most gamers bought it......or even close. Those numbers, any number will always be meaningless outside a forum debate. If you find a game fun and you're enjoying the people you play with subs, boxes sold or unique log ins are just numbers. If you hate the game those numbers wont make the game any better.

  • kresa3333kresa3333 Member UncommonPosts: 64
    Originally posted by Cougan

    Cant really fault GW2 overall. A cheap buy to play MMO with a decent cash shop model. Lot of content and fun PVP with some new convenience features. Hell they even made the start experience and leveling fun which is something some MMOs cant seem to grasp.

    I stopped playing because of the lack of permanent content though as it was mostly Living Story.

    Definitely deserves the sales in China though.

    Totaly agree probebly the best 60 bucks i spend on a game in my life 

    Now days with cheap boring mmo's comming out every day u swap btw them all the time  and with gw2 i kept playing for a year , great game with many nice features that could be taken to the new mmo's to come 

    but yeah they made a horrible mistake with the living story such a shame....

  • WarlyxWarlyx Member EpicPosts: 3,361
    its buy to play so yeah
  • RaapnaapRaapnaap Member UncommonPosts: 455

    GW2 is easily worth the money for the initial content. Unfortunately they made many mistakes post-launch with the temporarily (and highly lore-disconnected) content and the Ascended gear grind. Development resources that could have been better used for a continuation of the game we all bought at launch.

     

    ArenaNet has to make some fancy moves to correct all these mistakes in their 'season two' PvE updates. But as WvW player, the biggest harm in my opinion came from Ascended gear and no WvW updates of any significance since launch besides WvW progression. Unfortunately I see them neither remove the gear grind or provide it available in WvW, and I also do not see them updating WvW anymore, a result of spreading their limited development team over three entirely different play styles (PvE, sPvP, WvW) and only having the time to develop for the most resource-hungry (PvE).

     
  • nastyjmannastyjman Member Posts: 161
    Originally posted by raapnaap

    GW2 is easily worth the money for the initial content. Unfortunately they made many mistakes post-launch with the temporarily (and highly lore-disconnected) content and the Ascended gear grind. Development resources that could have been better used for a continuation of the game we all bought at launch.

     

    ArenaNet has to make some fancy moves to correct all these mistakes in their 'season two' PvE updates. But as WvW player, the biggest harm in my opinion came from Ascended gear and no WvW updates of any significance since launch besides WvW progression. Unfortunately I see them neither remove the gear grind or provide it available in WvW, and I also do not see them updating WvW anymore, a result of spreading their limited development team over three entirely different play styles (PvE, sPvP, WvW) and only having the time to develop for the most resource-hungry (PvE).

     

    I agree with WvW--even updating the Commander party would benefit players both in PvE and WvW. If they want to break up the zerg properly and make it easier for players, a Commander UI (something similar to the Grid addon in WoW) would be amazing. They can make it minimalist all they want, but at least the commander and the party members know who is on which column and how many there are in the raid party. Want to do a coordinated attack? Column 1 goes to the camp, Column 2 distracts the enemy, while column 3 and 4 would do a sneaky cap on the opponent's tower.

    Right now, I'm playing the LS, and it is fun. But WvW is bleh for me until the next WvW Season happens.

  • doodphacedoodphace Member UncommonPosts: 1,858
    I cant believe that Reddit page made news on mmorpg.com....all the talk about sales was added to the reddit page, it wasn't transleated from the chineese page. All the chineese page is, is a list of toon populations per server, it never mentions sales or actual players. I am not doubting the success of GW2 at all, but I am absolutly flabbergasted that a reddit poster transelating toon populations, and adding sales talk to it, is getting picked up by "mainstream" sites. This is like when news orgs run with onion.com stories lol.
  • nastyjmannastyjman Member Posts: 161
    Originally posted by doodphace
    I cant believe that Reddit page made news on mmorpg.com....all the talk about sales was added to the reddit page, it wasn't transleated from the chineese page. All the chineese page is, is a list of toon populations per server, it never mentions sales or actual players. I am not doubting the success of GW2 at all, but I am absolutly flabbergasted that a reddit poster transelating toon populations, and adding sales talk to it, is getting picked up by "mainstream" sites. This is like when news orgs run with onion.com stories lol.

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  • parpinparpin Member UncommonPosts: 220

    it also sold 3.5 million copies in NA and EU and hold the title for fastest selling mmo in history.

    ANET YOU MAKE A LOT OF MONEY TIME TO IMPROVE THE GAME.

  • caetftlcaetftl Member Posts: 358

    Jeez, 1 source misinterprets ambiguous data and every MMO news site runs with it. 

     

    The source for all these claims is a census they took that measures characters per server (not accounts).  Obviously chinese players don't all just use 1 character on their server so the number is not accurate. 

    Also let's add some context to GW2 in china, the game sells for less than a movie ticket there. 

  • doodphacedoodphace Member UncommonPosts: 1,858
    Originally posted by caetftl

    Jeez, 1 source misinterprets ambiguous data and every MMO news site runs with it. 

     

    The source for all these claims is a census they took that measures characters per server (not accounts).  Obviously chinese players don't all just use 1 character on their server so the number is not accurate. 

    Also let's add some context to GW2 in china, the game sells for less than a movie ticket there. 

    The most interesting thing (if I may put my tin foil hat on for a sec) is that their first census of toons on launch day had 760,000. The max amount of toons you can create per account is 5. Whats 3.8 mil divided by 5? You guessed it, 760,000 :-)

  • FoomerangFoomerang Member UncommonPosts: 5,628

    I will admit the numbers after a second look seem odd. It took na/eu almost two years to still fall short of two months in china? And they counted characters on servers? I don't know. I guess we will see when the official reports come down from ncsoft.

  • TheocritusTheocritus Member LegendaryPosts: 9,739
    I dont know why every game maker doesnt start their game in Asia first...The Koreans and Chinese just seem more rabid about their gaming and are willing to spend whatever it takes.
  • NadiaNadia Member UncommonPosts: 11,798
  • NadiaNadia Member UncommonPosts: 11,798
    Originally posted by Theocritus
    I dont know why every game maker doesnt start their game in Asia first...The Koreans and Chinese just seem more rabid about their gaming and are willing to spend whatever it takes.

    doesnt always work

    both EQ and EQ2 were available in Asia and did not do well

     

     

  • AeonbladesAeonblades Member Posts: 2,083
    Originally posted by Nadia
    Originally posted by Theocritus
    I dont know why every game maker doesnt start their game in Asia first...The Koreans and Chinese just seem more rabid about their gaming and are willing to spend whatever it takes.

    doesnt always work

    both EQ and EQ2 were available in Asia and did not do well

     

     

    Not enough cash shop and grinding would be my guess. Both of those games are rather tame compared to most grinds in games that are successful in Asia. Original EQ with hell levels and all actually had a fairly decent Asia population, at least on Emarr back in the Kunark-PoP era, there were 3 separate raiding guilds from Asia.

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  • doodphacedoodphace Member UncommonPosts: 1,858
    Originally posted by Nadia

    mmochampion has links to both the 1st and 2nd census breakdowns

    http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/1517288-Guild-Wars-2-Launches-in-China!?p=28076642&viewfull=1#post28076642

    And both are a census of charecters on each server, not one of them mentions accounts or sales. Nowhere does it even mention where the toon numbers came from (NCsoft nor KongZhong).

    I am utterly amaized how a site like 17173.com in china compiles a list of charecters per server, someone on reddit takes it, doesnt even translate it propely, misinterprates what the data reprisents, adds a whole bunch of verbiage about sales etc, and the MMO media picks up his reddit post and runs with his description and passes off the added in sales info descriptors as coming from NCsoft.

    GW2 is a beast and doing admirably, but this is getting a little crazy, no?

  • doodphacedoodphace Member UncommonPosts: 1,858
    Originally posted by Theocritus
    I dont know why every game maker doesnt start their game in Asia first...The Koreans and Chinese just seem more rabid about their gaming and are willing to spend whatever it takes.

    You realise China has 1.4 billion people right? 3.8 million sales (if thats that the origional chinese site claimed, which its not) would be equivalent to a couple hundred thousand sales in the US. Koreans rabid about thier games, yes. China on the other hand is just plain numbers. The same thing obviously applies to WoW.

  • doodphacedoodphace Member UncommonPosts: 1,858
    Originally posted by Torvaldr
    Originally posted by doodphace
    Originally posted by Nadia

    mmochampion has links to both the 1st and 2nd census breakdowns

    http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/1517288-Guild-Wars-2-Launches-in-China!?p=28076642&viewfull=1#post28076642

    And both are a census of charecters on each server, not one of them mentions accounts or sales. Nowhere does it even mention where the toon numbers came from (NCsoft nor KongZhong).

    I am utterly amaized how a site like 17173.com in china compiles a list of charecters per server, someone on reddit takes it, doesnt even translate it propely, misinterprates what the data reprisents, adds a whole bunch of verbiage about sales etc, and the MMO media picks up his reddit post and runs with his description and passes off the added in sales info descriptors as coming from NCsoft.

    GW2 is a beast and doing admirably, but this is getting a little crazy, no?

    Not really crazy no. The analysis is a reasonable ballpark especially when you consider games like WoW touting 7M+ subscribers when a majority are in China and don't pay a monthly fee like the NA subbers do. We don't honestly believe WoW has that many active subscriptions but we do know it's doing incredibly well. The same goes for these numbers. Detailed accuracy isn't really the point. It doesn't change the point of the message.

    Its not the accuracy that im tlaking about, its what the number represents. I am sure the 3.8 million is accurate, its just that the number is charecters, not accounts/sales. The thing I'm calling crazy is that a reddit poster took charecter numbers, added a whole bunch on spin about sales in X amount of time etc etc (even though the origional chinese post doesnt), and every MMO media outlet picked up on his reddit post and ran with it.

    TLDR: Chinese site claims 3.8 mill charecters, reddit poster claims 3.8 million sales/accounts, MMO media picks up on the reddit post and reports on 3.8 million sales...THAT is whats crazy.

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