Ever since AAA game studios started promoting their games by boasting about the number of players instead of how many copies they sold, many in the gaming community began to view such announcements as major red flags, meant to mislead potential players into thinking the game is successful when, in fact, it's severely underperforming behind the scenes.
With that in mind, it's no surprise that when Bethesda "pulled an Assassin's Creed Shadows" and revealed that DOOM: The Dark Ages hit three million players, many eyebrows were raised about the game's actual performance, and according to analysts, the negative reactions to the reveal are justified, with the latest DOOM performing much worse than its publisher makes it out to be.
According to Alinea Analytics, by the time the announcement was made, The Dark Ages had actually sold less than a million copies – 800,000 to be exact – and while that's a commendable number, it's not that impressive considering that this is DOOM we're talking about – a AAA game backed by three industry giants and an installment in arguably the most iconic FPS series of all time.
Of those 800,000 sales, Alinea estimates 200,000 were on PlayStation 5, 200,000 on Xbox, and 400,000 on Steam. The remaining players are said to have accessed The Dark Ages through Xbox Game Pass, effectively paying $12 instead of the $70 US retail price to play the game.
While this is undoubtedly a major win for Game Pass – with the entire debacle opening the eyes of many players who want to try new games without paying $70 or more and without going the "yar-har route" to how they can do that – it also means it might take longer for the new DOOM to break even and start raking in profits, which is unlikely to sit well with the studio's investors.
Another analytics firm, Ampere, reports a slightly different sales distribution, noting that out of the announced 3 million players, 500K experienced the game on PlayStation 5, while over 2 million played on Xbox – both through sold copies and Game Pass.
No matter which firm you choose to believe – Alinea, Ampere, maybe neither – their findings, combined with the observable reality of DOOM: The Dark Ages' poor performance on Steam and the general sentiment around the game being less positive than that of DOOM (2016) and DOOM Eternal, make it evident that the game and its $70 price tag failed to excite many players. This once again calls into question the issue of video game pricing, what a justified price for a video game really is, and, with AAA titles now losing to AAs and indies both reputationally and, at times, financially, whether there should even be such a thing as an "industry-standard price."
And what do you think about AAA games having the same price across the board? Should this practice be abolished entirely? Let us know in the comments!
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