Ben-DutkaFor some, it was a letdown. But the significant accomplishments of Quantic Dream's latest title shouldn't be ignored.
Thankfully, a lot of people tried the studio's PlayStation 3 exclusive, Beyond: Two Souls . According to a special website , we learn that the ambitious game has sold over 1 million copies to date.
It launched on October 8 and it crossed the million threshold just before Christmas, so that means it only took about two and a half months to reach the important milestone. The game boasted really strong performances by actors Willem Dafoe and Ellen Page, and the narrative was another big highlight. It just wasn't as refined or as impressive overall as Quantic's previous game, Heavy Rain , which, by the way, sold over 3 million units in its lifetime. Beyond may not sell that many but at least it received some recognition.
If you want to know our detailed thoughts on the title and why it fell a tad shy, check out our review .
Related Game(s): Beyond: Two Souls
I hope Cage and co learned some lessons from the missteps in this game for whatever is coming on PS4. I really enjoyed it in places but a few gameplay decisions really messed things up in places. It could have been pieced together better and they shouldn't have focused on making it a game for people who don't play games.
You said everything for me World, thank you.
Only thing I could really add is that if the story was from A to Z and not in a scattered mess, it would have been a bit better. I did like the story a whole lot. I guess there was a movie that was in the similar style of story telling by Christopher Nolan, and maybe David Cage wanted to replicate it. Anyway, good to know it sold over a million.
Ironically it was the bits that were too "gamey" that fell down in my opinion. The fighting and running bits were too erratic and imprecise.
@Knight, plenty of movie makers have tried to mix up their stories' plot points in order to attempt to make some bigger artistic point. In my opinion it's one of the hardest things to do. The only movie I think ever achieved it was Memento (that might be the one you are talking about). In Beyond whatever Cage was trying to say by mixing it up seemed to get lost along the way. To his credit I did think the childhood scenes were placed well in the mixed-up narrative.
@Gordo I know what you mean (trust me I do), but it's a little different from what I was trying to get at. I felt like infecting those parts with gameplay meant for non-gamers is what made them fall so flat ya know?
Unfortunately it's still likely far from recouping dev expenses.
I'd imagine something like this with professional actors and such would clock in around 15 million+ in development. When you consider the average dev draws in around $10-12, or so, per $60 game. Heh, well, 1 million just ain't gonna cut it. This is especially so when considering that Beyond was knocked down to $30 many times during holiday blow out sales.
Last edited by Temjin001 on 1/10/2014 11:07:33 PM
I could be wrong about the actor timing, but my understanding was it was a rigorous schedule for the actors. A lot of work was done in the short time they had them so the expense may not be as much as some might think.
Granted, I am curious as to the project costs and where. After all, its a studio with employees along with all the development time.
oh, have no doubt it was indeed an expensive game. not just development but in marketing as well. it's not uncommon for a game to cost nearly as much in marketing as it does in development. I'm sure the final bill after development, marketing, distribution and retail the total price tag on this title clocked in well over $20 million
and people can also recall Heavenly Sword with this. Even with 2 million + copies sold it still wasn't profitable. I suspect Beyond was at least as expensive.
Yeah I bet this one will be a loss, which sucks because there's a lot of greatness in it. The price fell really fast, which kinda irked me after they had already cancelled my low cost preorder and I had taken the plunge anyway.
Thankfully everyone still seems to believe in Quantic Dream's ambitions.
I would seem to be in the minority with this games. I enjoyed it fully and the story was interesting, more so than Heavy Rain. Although I will say Heavy Rain did demonstrate the consequence of choice more so, but that was the nature of the storyline.
Ben I noticed you say some thought or it as a letdown. Be more positive since it is a positive result for the game. Say…. "For some, it was an good game, but to critics a letdown." 🙂
I have seen many people say and some critics love the game. Whether they are some or many. But you focus on the negative first and then say oh, well, it did make a million sales, but not as good as Heavy Rain. Smile and be happy. lol
Keep playing!
Well it's good to be positive but in general the trend isn't looking good when you consider what we all expected out of this game.
I would say I did love it, but I can't say it lived up to the story construction or gameplay promises that Heavy Rain made to us. After Indigo Prophecy it all seemed like a major upward trajectory and then all of the sudden those kind of environmental interactions were dropped and it was impossible to even figure out which way to tap the stick.
Still an emotional ride for people who are in touch with that side of themselves.
Agreed, but for me, if gamers want to call games.. art, then they need to understand art is or was not about money, but about expression or whatever you get from it. B2S to me worked as art. Keeping in mind some of the art, paintings, were not major successes profitable or critically at the time of their creation. BUT appreciated today and sell for thousands or millions today.
Not saying that works with games, but with failure there can be success. I guess some would say yep, the failure here would be to not do another like it. Who knows.
May not have been worth to the hard core gamers, but worked for many others. Failure or not.
Keep playing!
Great to hear that it's being rewarded, however slowly that might be occurring. It was a great game. I felt that the actual moment to moment gameplay was better than what was found in Heavy Rain, but the nature of the story and weight of the narrative choices weren't as well implemented. Oh, but some of the individual scenes in that game were utterly incredible.
I was very pleased with my ending, it was exactly what I wanted. I think that's an achievement in and of itself because so many games make your choices unclear, some say they were too stark in Beyond but I know what I wanted to happen and my choices DID make it happen. That gave me some honest good fuzzy feels.
I loved the game but could see how it missed something from the highs of Heavy Rain. Graphically it was a lot better than heavy rain but some of the sections seemed a bit forced like the Navajo section. I liked the story telling not in chronoligcal order. It mixed things up. It did mean that you kind of knew that you would get to the end chapters regardless of your consequences. All in all I thought it a success and in my top three for the year.
for SOME!?
its scored FAR lower than heavy rain, and i havent met a single person who enjoyed it!
a let down for pretty much EVERYONE!
nice to see it selling well though, hopefully this will instill confidence in other publishers.
really cant wait to see their ps4 project, just hope its based off the kara tech demo.
come on there is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much potential in the AI story, and hollywood has explored it quite a bit, its about time video games did the same!
please just dont be any of that wizardry crap shown at E3, that was just weird and stupid!
Well now you have. I am loving it far more than just about any other new game I have bought this year.
wait till you finish it, that will change.
Super minor spoiler: The snowball fight might have been my favorite part cuz I just felt like a little kid in winter 🙂
SPOILER
yeah but it was predictable that it wasn't going to end well…..
Got this for Christmas, will definitely be giving it a go as soon as my backlog is chipped away. Cage is doing new and great things for this industry. Anything he makes, I'm getting, just to see the innovation he brings to the table.
Heavy Rain was excellent despite a couple of spotty vocal performances and a couple of plot holes. Overall, I loved that game for the emotional power of it, and its really great narrative.
Hoping Beyond delivers, although I know it has its detractors.
I really believe this is one of those games that would sell much better had it achieved better reviews. Hopefully they can correct those errors in the future and make something really fantastic all around.
hmm, I don't get why some don't like this. I couldn't get on with Heavy Rain so only bought this as a budget title however it is proving to be one of my favourite games of the year.
I hate qte's in most other games, (Esp HR), however to me these do work well. I really like the story and the way the game is constructed. Much better than if everything was in an A to Z sequence.
I think my only gripe would be that I wish there was a way to make her walk faster at times.
I also picked up TLOU and although I was really enjoying that too as soon as I got to my first clicker and pair of runners in the same room I died quickly and I just couldn't be bothered to play further.
In B:TS even failing doesn't put me off.
I played it over the weekend and it has stuck with me. I have only finished 3 games in my 20 years of playing so that might tell you how I liked it. I do think the epiloge could have been better with the choices, only three of the four choices seem to belong (if you choose life). The Navajo bit was cool but in hindsight doesnt seem like it belonged. But really good game, I thought.
Cant wait for the Dark Sorceror!!!