ZymeAddict on 12/3/2007 at 01:28
Hey everyone,
I've been working on the Deus Ex page over at Wikipedia and I needed a couple of bits of info which I have had trouble getting a hold of.
The first is sales figures. How well did Deus Ex do in that aspect? Was it a best seller? Did it have mediocre or bad sales? I've had a pretty hard time finding any definitive info on the subject.
Also, I've been trying to find where Warren Spector said that the name "Deus Ex' is a partial dig at the usual poor story writing techniques used in video games. Though I know he said that somewhere, I've had a tough time finding a copy of the actual interview.
If anyone has any information on these aspects and can provide me a source I would really appreciate it.
Rogue Keeper on 13/3/2007 at 12:41
The first one is difficult. Some dude here mentioned "Deus Ex - 500 000 copies" in January 04, but only Helios knows what are his sources and if it also includes PS2 copies, I doubt it.
(
http://forum.pcvsconsole.com/viewthread.php?tid=8655)
Second point, Wiki refers Spector's comment in question to
"Deus Ex Interview. Rpgfan. Retrieved on December 20, 2006."
(
http://www.rpgfan.com/archive/1998/06.html)
Scroll down to find the interview.
ZymeAddict on 16/3/2007 at 17:19
Thanks, those sales figures help a lot.
I'm actually the one who put that citation in for the Warren Spector interview. :p It isn't a very good source though as it just refers to the original interview, and gives a dead link. It seems to be the only reference I can find on the net however.
Thanks for your help.
Jashin on 17/3/2007 at 16:18
Deus Ex sold around 100,000 copies.
Zygoptera on 17/3/2007 at 22:19
It sold nearly 100,000 copies, in big stores, in the US alone, in 2001. That's the PC Data (as was) sales tracking figure anyway. That figure can be roughly doubled to take into account small US stores and non-US releases.
100,000 copies would not see a sequel made.
Jashin on 18/3/2007 at 05:57
Haha you're dreaming. If Deus Ex had 100 grand sales in 1 year they'd have had a ball. DX got a sequel based on the strength of the ip, that it was critically acclaimed goty of over 20 publications.
According to Ken Levine, if we total the sales of all the nonlinear games (dx+thief+ss2) the number would be sub 500,000. Deus Ex probably has around 120,000 copies sold, but I'll stick to the neighborhood of 100 grand to be safe.
Jashin on 18/3/2007 at 17:25
I give up; 've done my best trying to find the lifetime sales of Deus Ex, and best I got from my most trusted source was that "worldwide sales were strong."
So who knows, take your pick.
Zygoptera on 19/3/2007 at 00:35
The page Matthew cited is the one I looked at. It's PC Data figures, so it's fairly solid info, and counts big US stores only, and in the the year after release. So that's looking at nearly 200k sales worldwide in 2001 alone. The 500,000 total sales estimate is probably conservative, so long as budget sales are counted. Short of buying the data from NPD (?, not sure if they're even still doing it) or finding it an Eidos financial report it seems as good a guess as any.
DX, SS2 and T1/G/2 would almost certainly have sold 2 million copies between them- even SS2 which supposedly sold poorly did 230,000 copies in little over six months from release.
Muzman on 21/3/2007 at 07:33
I've always had the impression that DX was a big hit. Not up to Half Life sort of numbers of course but bigger than Thief. I saw someone say that Thief 1 and Gold combined had moved around 800,000 copies in various forms (ie. including oem deals and bargain bins and things) worldwide, and this was just before Thief DS came out. There seems to a be a decent number of new comers thanks to Thief DS and the first two games have recently been repackaged and translated for sale in more countries so I've started daring to believe Thief 1/Gold sales are pushing a million copies sold. But, like I say, I've always had the impression that DX was far more successful than Thief 1 (and, of course, those Thief numbers might be a fantasy). It might be because of its 'geek fame'; every gamer on every casual PC message board who doesn't say their favourite game is Half Life generally says Deus Ex it seems. You have to go looking for Thief lovers.
Could I have it all backwards, I wonder. Impressions of sales are pretty silly though, I preemptively agree.
And why are game sales figures such a precious commodity while I can go to any number of web sites and read about the number of cinemas showing a certain film and the number of tickets sold therein in a given week.
