XBLA Sales Figures?

Does anyone know what sales figures Farsight need to make XBLA DLC commercially viable? From what I can glean from the leaderboards, it doesn't look like TPA has even broken the 10K mark yet, which is worrying for a game that is not only so good, but has garnered largely positive reviews as well...

It's been out for less than a month on the 360. There was an initial rush of downloads from all us pinball-crazy people, then there will probably be a more low-key yet sustained stream of downloads for a while. Some people may be waiting until more bugs are ironed out, some may be waiting for their favorite table to become available as DLC before buying, some others may not be looking for a pinball game right now and will discover TPA later. (I didn't find out about the Williams Collection until three years after its release.)

The other thing is FarSight knows how many copies of their previous pinball games have sold, and how those sales were distributed over time. It's not quite the same - retail discs obviously follow a different sales channel than digital distribution - but they have at least an idea of what demand is likely to be.

I'm pretty certain FarSight would not have committed to all these different platforms (and years of DLC) right off the bat if they didn't expect to get return on their investment. If they were uncertain, they would have floated a "test" TPA on (probably) iOS devices and if demand was good, then they'd start up on the other platforms.

What I find odd is that have several dozen "friends" on the 360 for the Pinball FX2 "Wizard Score", and only a few of these folks seem to have played TPA so far.

FurVid said:

What I find odd is that have several dozen "friends" on the 360 for the Pinball FX2 "Wizard Score", and only a few of these folks seem to have played TPA so far.

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It's going to take a while for the Zen Studio fan boys/girls to come around. I own Pinball FX2 and The Pinball Arcade and like them both, each for their unique style and presentation. I just wish everyone would quit making this a war and just support both companies for their efforts. After all, we're all here to play pinball, right?

That's unfair. Nobody is making a "war" here.

I'm a big fan of Zen's work (but think they need to do better for the committed pinball geeks in terms of difficulty), but I will also be buying most every TPA table pack. (Harley Davidson? I think not!)

FurVid's point is quite valid. I too have dozens of Pinball FX 2 Friends (FurVid being one of them), and most of them are pretty serious about their pinball. Yet few of them have bought TPA so far.

Hopefully this will change.

Butterkins said:

That's unfair. Nobody is making a "war" here.

I'm a big fan of Zen's work (but think they need to do better for the committed pinball geeks in terms of difficulty), but I will also be buying most every TPA table pack. (Harley Davidson? I think not!)

FurVid's point is quite valid. I too have dozens of Pinball FX 2 Friends (FurVid being one of them), and most of them are pretty serious about their pinball. Yet few of them have bought TPA so far.

Hopefully this will change.

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Sorry Butterkins, I wasn't referring to anyone in this thread, I was referring to those who own Zen Studios' pinball games, but refuse to give TPA a shot mainly because they are Zen Studios fan boys/girls. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

By the way, anyone who would pass up a chance to play real world pinball tables on their respective devices or consoles don't seem like they're serious about their pinball to me. My opinion of course.

Well, it is curious, because I see many of my XBLA Friends buying the latest tables for Pinball FX 2. So the demand is certainly there.

I believe there is an issue of quality at this stage. Say what you will about Zen's gameplay choices, but they certainly polish their products. Their tables (and core platform) ooze attention-to-detail and care. Whereas, right now, TPA feels very much like a beta, and is quite rough around the edges.

Perhaps (perhaps!) some of these Zen players are waiting for TPA updates, particularly in terms of graphics and UI.

Having said that, I do agree that $10 is a very small amount of money for 4 emulated tables, for any pinball fan.

It's also a matter of return of investment: compare it to Guitar hero vs Rock Band. Both equally good games imo, but if I have invested into buying songs for one, it's more logical to keep buying for that one (assuming I'm not willing to support or invest in both).

but rock band and gh were selling the same product, their library of songs was overlapping...

tpa and zen are selling a totally different product. one is emulating real pinball and the other is making their own tables. so its no issue to have both...

Some of us pin nuts will also be buying at least some of the Same Tables on multiple devices. At the moment im planning on buying all the TPA tables(and zens) for my xbox then my favorite tables buy them again for Android tablet, my idea being that the Tablet will be my portable arcade of favorite pins.

Tan Coul said:

Does anyone know what sales figures Farsight need to make XBLA DLC commercially viable? From what I can glean from the leaderboards, it doesn't look like TPA has even broken the 10K mark yet, which is worrying for a game that is not only so good, but has garnered largely positive reviews as well...

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Trying to get back to the original topic at hand...anyone have any idea about this? It is rather intriguing. I'm sure Farsight can't comment for the fact that it is proprietary.

I'm not sure about XBLA, but I know the iOS app was in the Top 100 grossing apps for awhile (I think it got up near 50), so that's pretty good considering how much money iOS apps pull in these days.

To put things into perspective, Pinball FX sold approx. 365,000 units in a 40 month period (approx. 9,125 units a month) and was considered a commercial success. The Pinball Arcade is on pace to have sold approx. 12,000 units by the end of it's first month which will put it on pace to sell approx. 480,000 units in the same 40 month time frame and that's not counting the number of units that will be sold on other platforms and devices. In my eyes, The Pinball Arcade is off to a great start on XBLA and overall in general.

Jeff Strong said:

I'm not sure about XBLA, but I know the iOS app was in the Top 100 grossing apps for awhile (I think it got up near 50), so that's pretty good considering how much money iOS apps pull in these days.

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I wonder though if they're trying to keep cash flow separate between platforms (to an extent). iOS will likely be their best cash cow and hopefully fund DLC for platforms that don't do so well, but I doubt they'd do that to excess ie. use the money to pay for developing DLC on the 3DS where they've only sold a few thousand (extreme example) of the base game.

infernogott said:

but rock band and gh were selling the same product, their library of songs was overlapping...

tpa and zen are selling a totally different product. one is emulating real pinball and the other is making their own tables. so its no issue to have both...

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I agree that FarSight and Zen are selling a totally different product, but I just have to point out that Rock Band was far superior to GH in terms of both gameplay and song availability. At the moment, I feel that FarSight is already ahead in gameplay (at least on 360) but Zen obviously has a big head start in table availability. But if they actually stick to this 2 tables a month plan, it won't take long before TPA reaches something close to parity on that score as well, with the added benefit of having real tables to emulate.

I agree with PinWiz...I don't see how anyone serious about pinball could pass on TPA and play Pinball FX2 exclusively. I think a lot of people will start coming around. I know I kind of stopped playing Pinball FX2 for quite a while (ironically, TPA has gotten me playing PFX2 again) and I can see how someone who just hasn't been thinking about pinball much lately may not really take notice until more tables are out and word of mouth starts to ramp up.

Doing my part, they have me in for 10 total tables so far and will be 12 as soon as the drop some DLC for the 360 (or as soon as i get my PSU back).

I bought MM and BoP on iOS and I can't wait until they come out on 360 so I can buy them again. I love the iOS versions, though. I definiltely want to pick up CV and Funhouse when they come out, as well.

FurVid said:

What I find odd is that have several dozen "friends" on the 360 for the Pinball FX2 "Wizard Score", and only a few of these folks seem to have played TPA so far.

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Same here. A bunch of them bought it when it came out. Now people rarely play it. As much as a lot of you don't want to admit, Zen is far superior in every way.

Epsilon said:

I agree that FarSight and Zen are selling a totally different product, but I just have to point out that Rock Band was far superior to GH in terms of both gameplay and song availability. At the moment, I feel that FarSight is already ahead in gameplay (at least on 360) but Zen obviously has a big head start in table availability. But if they actually stick to this 2 tables a month plan, it won't take long before TPA reaches something close to parity on that score as well, with the added benefit of having real tables to emulate.

I agree with PinWiz...I don't see how anyone serious about pinball could pass on TPA and play Pinball FX2 exclusively. I think a lot of people will start coming around. I know I kind of stopped playing Pinball FX2 for quite a while (ironically, TPA has gotten me playing PFX2 again) and I can see how someone who just hasn't been thinking about pinball much lately may not really take notice until more tables are out and word of mouth starts to ramp up.

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Zen has the much greater benefit of making new tables on things that are current and relevant to everyone.

Jimmy Gambrill said:

Same here. A bunch of them bought it when it came out. Now people rarely play it. As much as a lot of you don't want to admit, Zen is far superior in every way.

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I own Pinball FX2 plus every single table Zen Studios has released for it so far, but even I don't think it's fair to compare it to The Pinball Arcade. Pinball FX came out five years ago and The Pinball Arcade has only been released for a total of three months, so of course Pinball FX is more polished and has a plethora of features, but it didn't start out that way. Pinball FX was just as bare bones (if not more with only three original table) as TPA currently is when it first came out, but comparing both of these games in their current states is just ridiculous.