How much money did BI make out of Arma 2????

[itsme 10]

How much money did BI make out of Arma 2? am assuming not a lot, since it wasnt advertised and promoted properly, and the requirements were a bit high for a lot of people

So am just wondering how many copies of Arma 2 were sold?

[Zipper5 74]

I think they would have actually made quite a substantial amount. Of course, in comparison to the mainstream market, it's probably nowhere close. I bet they made more than ArmA did, but I'm not sure if they made more than OFP did.

Unlike other developers, however, they deserve every cent.

[An Fiach 10]

A lot and not enough.

[-DirTyDeeDs--Ziggy- 0]

I have to assume that offering the game via Steam multiplied their earnings 3-4x.

[itsme 10]

-Ziggy-;1482795']I have to assume that offering the game via Steam multiplied their earnings 3-4x.

Yep

The weekly top ten sellers for both distributors follow:

Direct2Drive's Top Ten (6/28 - 7/4)

1. ArmA 2

2. Aion: Tower of Eternity

3. The Sims 3

4. The Sims 3 (Mac)

5. Dawn of Discovery

6. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

7. Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood

8. Overlord 2

9. Civilization 4: Complete Edition

10. Fallout 3

Steam's Top Ten (6/28 - 7/4)

1. Fallout 3

2. ArmA 2

3. Dawn of Discovery

4. 2K Huge Games Pack

5. Street Fighter IV

6. Left 4 Dead

7. Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood

8. Overlord 2

9. Trine

10. Counter-Strike: Source

---------- Post added at 11:17 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:13 PM ----------

I think they would have actually made quite a substantial amount. Of course' date=' in comparison to the mainstream market, it's probably nowhere close. I bet they made more than ArmA did, but I'm not sure if they made more than OFP did.

Unlike other developers, however, they deserve every cent.[/quote']

Lets hope they stick with supporting dedicated servers, btw, I havent bought Arma 2 cause my rig wont run it (too old) but am waiting for OA to come out then will buy a new rig, hopefully

[stakex 0]

Well I don't think any figures were released, and probly won't be unless the game sells a million copies or some other milestone... which I personally find unlikely.

I also personally think Zippy is over estimateing the financial success of ArmA2. Theres a lot of factors to look at to determine the likelyhood of sales for ArmA2.

The good:

1.ArmA2 is pretty much the only mil-sim FPS released in the last couple years. Sure theres OFP: DR... but lets be fair, its more a CODish game.

2. ArmA2 has an amazing mod community. Thats a great selling point for a PC game.

3. Arma2 was better then ArmA1. ArmA1 is a great game now, perhaps even better then ArmA2 at this minut. But once ArmA2 is compleatly patched up, it will almost certainly be better then ArmA1.

The Bad:

1. ArmA2 wasn't an amazing game. It was a good game, but BIS's engine is really starting to show its age, and many new features felt poorly implimented.

2. ArmA1 left a lot of people sour with BIS, especially people new to their games. While it was eventually patched, and the latest version of ArmA is a good game... its initial few months did not make BIS many new customers and likely turned a lot away from ArmA2 (not helped by ArmA2 being itself released way to early). Tho that are already fans of BIS know that they will make the game good with patches... but new comers are just going to be turned off.

3. ArmA2 was too close to ArmA1 was too close to OFP. This is the MAIN complaint I have heard about ArmA2 personally. Other then a decent graphics update... theres not a tone of difference in any of the three games.

This isn't a big deal to most people on these board who are die hard OFP and BIS fans. But to the other 99.8% of the gaming market that actually is a big deal. Developers like Infinity Ward (COD), Bungie (Halo), and EA Sports can get away with repeatedly releasing the same basic game over and over again with minimal changes... but smaller, lesser known developers have always struggled doing so. Especially when there was 5-6 years between OFP and ArmA... and a couple more years for ArmA2.

4. Lot of competition. Theres a reason BIS is one of the few companies making die hard mil-sim games... true realisim is not as popular as run and gun COD style gameplay, RPGs, sports games, or even strat games. Its actually probly the least popular game style to be perfectly honest, which is why Codemasters balked with DR. I actually find this to be a sad thing... and wish there was more OFP style games. Unfortunatlly, thats just not what people want in general .

With that said, this hasn't been an amazing year for video game releases, but its seen a fair share of high profile games. I hate to say it, but people are more likely to buy high profile games in other genres then ArmA2.

5. Lack of console release. I hate to say this. As a hard core PC gamer it KILLS me to admit this... but its simply a fact. No game is going to make serious money without a console release. The PC community is still quite large... if it wasn't you wouldn't even seen ports anymore. However PC only games don't get nearly the press, are hidden on small racks in game stores, and simply do not have the player base that console games do. Without a console release... I fail to see how this game would have been a major financial success.

6. Length of game development. OFP came out in 2001. ArmA1 didn't come out till late 2006/early 2007 and ArmA2 in 2009. Technically ArmA2, whic hwas originally "game2" was in development for years before ArmA came out... and the development time wasn't free. Then there was 2 and a half years between ArmA and ArmA2... more development time that is costing BIS. At the end of the day, all that cost hurts the overall profit.

7. Economy. We hear about this every night on the news so Im not going to add another hour onto the length of my post, but with limited financial spending this year... people are far less likely to buy a game from a virtual unknown developer, especially since looking up ArmA1 reviews does not do BIS/ArmA2 any favors. They are going to be frugal and spend money on sure bets from mainstream developers... or on games that are going to bomb, like Modern Warefare 2.

8. Lack of serious advertiseing. With all the above, this was just a huge mistake. Perhaps it was advertised in other parts of the world... but here in the US Ive never seen an ad for it, and never hear anyone mention it when talking about games. Getting the word out is half the battle...

9. System requierments. Again the PC community is far smaller then the console community. And not all PC gamers had a PC that could fully run ArmA2. That makes the target market that much smaller.

Final Thoughts:

Its easy to see that BIS has some hurdles in turning a major profit with ArmA2, or any game in the series to be honest. Die hard fans will have a hard time ever admitting that, and its something I personally think really sucks since again, BIS is pretty much the only maker of realistic mil-sims games. If they are not turning a big enough profit its hard to justify making more games. Tho its been said its kinda unlikely there will be an ArmA3, and that BIS is going on to bigger and better things post ArmA2, if ArmA2 was a blockbuster success that could have changed in a very quick hurry.

Im sure much of what I said is open to dispute, but thats my two cents.

[Tankbuster 1733]

Lockity lockity lock lock.

[jw custom 56]

how much money did bi make out of arma 2?

11,75$ +-

[-RIP- Luhgnut 10]

Yep

The weekly top ten sellers for both distributors follow:

Direct2Drive's Top Ten (6/28 - 7/4)

1. ArmA 2

Those are good numbers, also considering how long and how huge Fallout3 is/was/willbe.

We shouldn't ask how much they made, that's really not our business and is boarderling thread locking. But seeing the numbers increase across all servers as well as forum viewers is a good sign. BIS deserves every recognition for staying true. They don't have a ton of coders etc.... They are consistent though. I can't wait for Carrier Command. One of my all time favorite Atari ST games, cept when I finally went to beat it, and the carrier could then warp all over. Hopefully that won't happen this time around. :-)

[M9ACE 0]

So am just wondering how many copies of Arma 2 were sold?

I can account for five copies (so far). :ok:

[jibemorel 10]

I've got all Arma serie, and i will be there for operation Arrowhead and Carrier Command.

Go up BIS

[^Th0mas^ 10]

They would make a lot more money if stores actully would sell the game. Here in Norway I have never seen ArmA or ArmA II in any store shelve, and I visit lots of game stores. I have seen Operation Flashpoint plenty of times tough.

[Nazul 10]

I remember reading that OFP sold 2million copies and Arma1 sold 200000-300000. So i think you can guesstimate from those figures. Somewhere above A1 but below OFP :)

[derk yall 0]

nazul: If i remember correctly the number OFP achieved was after several years oposed to ArmA I in that calculation.

[walker 0]

Hi all

ArmA II is still selling. It has been a slow burner just the same as OFP was. ArmA II been in the charts for a long time. It has not been television advertised at all. All its advertising to date is customer loyalty plus word of mouth and good reviews. That is very cheap advertising but not the most effective.

A television program with a review and a short sponsorship add on a top TV program to keep ArmA in the public eye are needed for the tens of millions market if ArmA was to break that market then it competes with the realy big sellers.

Kind Regards walker

[itsme 10]

Hi all

ArmA II is still selling. It has been a slow burner just the same as OFP was. ArmA II been in the charts for a long time. It has not been television advertised at all. All its advertising to date is customer loyalty plus word of mouth and good reviews. That is very cheap advertising but not the most effective.

A television program with a review and a short sponsorship add on a top TV program to keep ArmA in the public eye are needed for the tens of millions market if ArmA was to break that market then it competes with the realy big sellers.

Kind Regards walker

I agree, its not enough to just make a good game and think people will somehow hear about it and find it somewhere, you have to advertise it and promote it widely to get the maximum number of customers

The way I found out about Arma 1 was through some dodge website that I cant even remember, I was searching for war games and took me quite sometime to find it, how will they reach people like me who want game like Arma but never heard about it before??

I was looking at COD MW2 in Youtube, and the amount of times the community manager for Infinity ward I think his name is Robert, gave interviews to different TV stations is crazy, even the way he speaks makes the game sound WOW, and BI needs someone like him to speak to the world

If you look at Arma 2 Operation Arrowhead videos on Youtube, you will see BI team talking in Czech language, someone had to translate it for us, More needs to be done BI if you want to make more money, because if you dont, then you will stay the same

[Zipper5 74]

Yes, but as soon as BIS start spending more time and money on advertising, people will start to complain about less time spent developing and fixing the games. I'd rather BIS make a great game than have some great advertising. A recent game showed just how badly that can backfire on you... :rolleyes:

[itsme 10]

Yes, but as soon as BIS start spending more time and money on advertising, people will start to complain about less time spent developing and fixing the games. I'd rather BIS make a great game than have some great advertising. A recent game showed just how badly that can backfire on you... :rolleyes:

What has advertising got to do with programmers or designers? we are not asking them to advertise it are we? they will be getting on with their normal jobs, BI will need to recruit an advertising team that will do this job of advertising and promoting

People in here always mix between the two, if you want to grow bigger you have to spend more time and money, its common sense in business marketing

[EricM 0]

I remember reading that OFP sold 2 million copies and Arma1 sold 200000-300000.

According to Idea Games, OFP sold 2 million copies and Arma 400.000... (it's in BIS profile on their page).

I'm pretty sure Arma 2 sold much more than Arma 1 but still less than OFP, but I don't know how much they earn per copy sold after retailer/distributor/packaging/share is withdrawn.

When you see that major games now have budgets between 20 to 40 million euros (80 or so for GTA IV with all the marketing stuff added), the million units sold is bare minimum nowadays I believe to reach breakeven.

Let's just hope they covered their cost neatly and made enough profit to support if for a long time and develop more awsome free roaming games, but not too much so that they'll still have to work a bit longer and make more awsome free roaming games. ;)

Edited November 7, 2009 by EricM

[itsme 10]

According to Idea Games, OFP sold 2 million copies and Arma 400.000... (it's in BIS profile on their page).

I'm pretty sure Arma 2 sold much more than Arma 1 but still less than OFP, but I don't know how much they earn per copy sold after retailer/distributor/packaging/share is withdrawn.

When you see that major games now have budgets between 20 to 40 million euros (80 or so for GTA IV with all the marketing stuff added), the million units sold is bare minimum nowadays I believe to reach breakeven.

Let's just hope they covered their cost neatly and made enough profit to support if for a long time and develop more awsome free roaming games, but not too much so that they'll still have to work a bit longer and make more awsome free roaming games. ;)

I heard they only have around 20 people in BI, compared to 100 for Infinity ward,

lets say they sold 500,000 copies (looking at the forum I dont think so but anyway), and lets say they get €15 (its sold for €30) for each copy, thats €7,500,000, Not bad for 20 people, if thats the case anyway

[walker 0]

Hi all

In Reply to itsme BIS has a lot more than 20 employees, but they do have other products than ArmA.

Kind Regards walker

[EricM 0]

I think the 20 employee thing is just for R&D (the core developpers)...

From the credits, it's well over 100 people (I stopped counting) with external artists and designers hired on a per-job basis...

[sbsmac 0]

lets say they sold 500,000 copies (looking at the forum I dont think so but anyway), and lets say they get €15 (its sold for €30) for each copy, thats €7,500,000, Not bad for 20 people, if thats the case anyway

Please don't go into the game business quite yet ;-) Even if that number was real there's 3-4 years salaries, rent, taxes, publicity expenses (I know, I know) to pay off. What looks like a large lump sum easily disappears into an ongoing business - I can't imagine anyone at BIS is exactly getting rich from this.

[walker 0]

Hi all

If the Return On Investment ROI is more than ~5% to 10% it is a worth while venture as that is the best you can hope for from a bank.

The only question then is one of risk.

As sbsmac pointed out there are lots of investment and running costs in running a business, insurance, accounting, equipment etc. once you have paid all these you may then have a profit which is then taxed at anything up 50% depending on which country you are in and how they arrange their tax system.

One millionaire Buddy of mine pointed out that he made it a business strategy not to make a profit until he had to.

Also he loaned his company money and then took profits as interest on the loan as this was more tax efficient.

Kind Regards walker

Edited November 8, 2009 by walker

[Alex72 1]

You'll never find out.