I need help on HL2 Sales Figures

[Garric2]

I'm doing a project for school and I would love it if someone could help me out here. It's an open ended project for AP Economics and the subject is to compare market trends and how society catches on. For example, why the iPod was so successful versus regular MP3 players, or why Windows beat out Mac. My topic is PC gaming versus console gaming. As many of you all know, PC gaming sells quite a lot less than console gaming. I was going to start out by saying something like "Half Life 2, one of PC gaming's highest awaited games, only sold x coppies, compared to Halo 2 which sold x coppies or GTA:San Anreas which sold even more coppies."

The only problem is that I can't find any Valve sales figures, the only thing I've found was that a few months after the release of Half Life 2 Gamespot posted a news article that claims that Half Life 2 sold 1.7 million units to this day (Retail? Steam and retail combined?).

So if anyone could help me out, that would be great!

 

[Davo]

Lots and lots.

 

[Chris D]

They haven't released any figures for Steam sales, or any updated figures since when that article was written.

 

[Hectic Glenn]

I heard that figure was reference to retail copies only. So the number i think was much higher, but you are right Halo 2 and SA did outsell it considerably.

And heres my devoted fan comment on the end. HL2 will sell copies over the years as the mods carry it on, just as HL1 is still trickling off shelves. Probably matching Halo 2 eventually, who knows!?

off topic: Chrissy btw you see my other post on 'wanted news?' in OT? Have you two set a date yet?

 

[Garric2]

I heard that figure was reference to retail copies only. So the number i think was much higher, but you are right Halo 2 and SA did outsell it considerably.

And heres my devoted fan comment on the end. HL2 will sell copies over the years as the mods carry it on, just as HL1 is still trickling off shelves. Probably matching Halo 2 eventually, who knows!?

off topic: Chrissy btw you see my other post on 'wanted news?' in OT? Have you two set a date yet?

There's no way it will ever outsell Halo 2 and SA. IMO Halo 2 sucks, SA is decent, and Hl2 is godly, but there are so little PC gamers in the world and their numbers are shrinking, I don't believe it will ever reach their sales.

 

[panda_rage]

I disagree, halo 2 was a great game but to short, to dependant on people having xbox live and ****ing glitchy as hell.

 

[destrukt]

but there are so little PC gamers in the world and their numbers are shrinking

wow, just wow.

 

[Elendil_]

well, we just know that HL2 has sold 1.7million retail copies 1.5 montsh after his launch. We also know that HL2 is still in the top ten of PC games sales almost everywhere (#7 on july in U.S., #4 last week in UK), so it's still selling very well.
We don't know how much but I noticed that in the "About us" page at valve's site it says that Valve has sold 18 millions retail copies of its games. One year ago it was "12 millions" if I remember well, so...

 

[Black Mesa corp]

If word gets around that HL2 is the best game of all time, which it is, and people actually talk to each other about the subject, then hopefully it should plummet up in sales over long term. However, if no one does nothing about it, doesnt talk... then ya know what i mean :|

 

[Cole]

I disagree, halo 2 was a great game but to short, to dependant on people having xbox live and ****ing glitchy as hell.

Halo 2 was a good game, but one of the main reasons it's so popular because it has no competition on the Xbox thus all the Xbox Gamers loved it.

Since it's Almost All(As not everyone) Xbox Gamers love Halo cuz they dont have anymore games splitting them up, they will all buy the game.

If there was another really sweet game on par with Halo, then boom the community may infact split. If it splits, then less sales for Halo.

(By Halo that can mean Halo or Halo 2 btw..I don't feel like typin to much)

With the PC you have the community split to unimaginable ends.
EE2 to AOE3 to CoH to RoL, to Farcry Vs Doom 3 vs HL2 vs fear, to RPG gamers, etc.

 

[ríomhaire]

LOL, I read the title as I need help on HL2 Scale Figures

 

[ja_moro]

Why dont you email steam? maybe the'll be nice and give you some info for your project

 

[CyberPitz]

Why dont you email steam? maybe the'll be nice and give you some info for your project

Something tells me they are keeping it secret for a reason

 

[SFLUFAN]

Something tells me they are keeping it secret for a reason

They're keeping it a secret because they're a private company and are under no obligation to reveal that information to anyone. There is little doubt that Steam has been a resounding success otherwise you wouldn't see Ritual jumping on the Steam bandwagon with SiN Episodes or Valve really pushing Steam as their main content delivery method.

The last thing Valve would want is to reveal just how successful Steam was and have every other developer coming up with their own Steam-like content delivery system.

 

[Shakermaker]

They're keeping it a secret because they're a private company and are under no obligation to reveal that information to anyone. There is little doubt that Steam has been a resounding success otherwise you wouldn't see Ritual jumping on the Steam bandwagon with SiN Episodes or Valve really pushing Steam as their main content delivery method.

The last thing Valve would want is to reveal just how successful Steam was and have every other developer coming up with their own Steam-like content delivery system.

Good point. Valve is never going to release their sales figures period. And it is very smart of them. Why give the competition a quick view of your operations when you're not obliged to do so?

Off topic: I am still a bit puzzled about the team-up with EA tho. They're just distributing, right? No news about EA taking a share in Valve or something like that? The deal with DICE went bust so they still must have some money in their pockets to take-over another (PC) games studio.

 

[Garric2]

I disagree, halo 2 was a great game but to short, to dependant on people having xbox live and ****ing glitchy as hell.

Disagree with what? I never said Halo 2 was good.

 

[Garric2]

wow, just wow.

Many people switch to consoles from PC Gaming. Hype put out by console developers and companies like Sony and Microsoft "convert" many gamers from PC Gaming. They make it sound like the system is stronger than a high end PC and much cheaper. That may be the case for about half a year, but it does convert some people. A lot of people are mad at PC gaming because they are expensive and in their opinion not user friendly. All of my 4 friends besides me "switched" to consoles. First the first 3 switched to the PS2, and the other friend stuck to PC gaming until the XBOX came out. He figured "The XBOX is just like the PC except much cheaper, you would be an idiot to keep playing PC games, upgrading your video card will cost more than buying one XBOX, and an XBOX is a complete system." Unfortunately many people "switch" to the PC. PC Game sales in USA for example, have been down since 1998, and are still going down now.