Portal 2 sells over 2 million units, Crysis 2 and Dead Space 2 follow suit
The video game industry is proving itself to be huge, both in terms of the population it affects, as well in terms of the amount of revenue it generates and the level of investment within it.
EA recently acquired a developer, PopCap games, for $750-million, a figure any multinational company would raise their eyebrows at. The revenues come from many sources; hardware sales, in the form of videogame consoles, accessories and the like, but while
they form the skeleton, the real money flows in from the software, such as video games and apps.
It only seems fitting that three games which were released over the past 12 months have demonstrated just what kind of revenue a successful game is able to generate.
Crysis 2, developed by CryTek, has reached three million units in sales, while Valve’s Portal 2 managed to amass two million units as well.
It is important to note that each game retails for around $60, though price cuts and promotions come into play later on as well, and with three million units sold at an average of $45 to $50 per game, it all adds up to... well a lot of money.
Other games have done just as well, with EA’s survival horror mega-hit Dead Space 2 raking in a solid two million units sold and the RPG phenomenon, Dragon Age 2 maintaining similar figures as well.
Another huge hit is EA and DICE’s stellar first person shooter, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, which sold more than nine million units, making it quite a success story.
While the games mentioned are all multiplatform, with units being sold on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PCs, there are other titles which have a number of ports and are distributed on even more platforms.
Games such as FIFA 11, which are not only sold on the current ‘next-generation’ consoles, are also available on mobile phones, PlayStation 2s and as apps, and can earn much, much more. Just to put things in perspective as to how much such titles can earn;
the aforementioned FIFA 11 is nearing the 15-million units’ milestone across all platforms.
The figures show that the video game industry is serious business, which deals not in the millions but the multimillions. Many reasons have been put forward ranging from the increase in the number of people who have access to the technology, to the average
age of gamers around the 35-year-old mark.
In the end, however, one can draw two conclusions: that games with the number '2' (second installment in a series) at the end sell very, very well and that EA is very, very rich right now.
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