The Orange Box - The Flop

[Mossman227]

I think we all can agree on that The Orange Box was indeed a flop. It sold 3 million in a year and it included like 5 games for the price of one?? While Left 4 Dead 2 sold 2 million in 2 weeks!!

*To name a package with 5 games 'The Orange Box', well it's like a nail in the coffin.
*To make the cover orange and to take use of black boring E-mail letters, well it's death to your product.
*To release multiple games in the first place together is not good marketing, it's a doomed risk.

I think Valve learned a lesson there. When they saw how much Left 4 Dead 2 sold, completely alone.

 

[ríomhaire]

• We have no Steam sales figures for either product. As far as we know the OB sales figures on Steam were ten times higher than the L4D2 ones.
• Valve are more know now than they were when the OB launched
• Left 4 Dead 2 had a much larger advertising campaign

 

[Vegeta897]

*To release multiple games in the first place together is not good marketing,

Yeah, Portal and TF2 didn't become some of the most popular things on the internet for a while there.

 

[Tony]

It included one 3 year-old game, three really short games, and a multiplayer-only game. So I'd say it was fairly priced. The Orange Box also (properly) introduced console gamers to Valve which is where most of those sale figures from.

 

[Mossman227]

The Orange Box also (properly) introduced console gamers to Valve which is where most of those sale figures from.

Those are the retail sales. PC, Xbox and PS3.

 

[ríomhaire]

Those are the retail sales. PC, Xbox and PS3.

And retail sales don't mean shit for Valve games because most of their sales come through Steam now.

 

[Hectic Glenn]

Yeah the two main points is that most of the OB sales were through Steam - Everyone had played Portal not long after and Valve never offered the game as individual titles until a while after.

The second point is the advertising campaign. I believe it was $20 million for L4D1 and $60 million or something ridiculous for L4D2. The versions for the 360 were produced in parallel with the PC version, rather than the not-so-great-job Valve did with the OB ports (PS3 version especially!).

The strides Valve have made in the console market with the L4D games have helped them alot of the past 2 years. I will agree they could have done a lot more with the OB on 360 / PS3...although it's difficult to say how much they were limited by Microsoft adding a fee to the DLC or the PS3 being in its infancy at the time. I think Portal 2 will really show the progress Valve have made across the board with all 4 platforms being supported on launch & their blanket of advertising they've done up till now.

 

[Mossman227]

The Orange Box is such a childish moronic name. It's like asking for 'Gabe's home made cookies' in a store. It's like a WTF is that moment. When looking at the OB, what the **** is that, E-mail software??

 

[Pi Mu Rho]

I'm not sure who you think you're going to convince here, or why you're even trying.

 

[Shakermaker]

Obvious troll is obvious.

 

[Pi Mu Rho]

Obvious troll is banned.