Dark Souls ships 1.5 million worldwide

For delivery to 1.5m masochists with lots of spare time…

That really isnt much, i mean its shipped, so sales will have to be even lower purely due to stock limitations. I could have imagined this game easily doing over 1.5 million sales across two platforms too, theres quite a lot of hype around it.

It’s really not that bad if you have common sense and a modicum of skill/patience. There are a few hair-pulling moments, sure, but it’s an amazing action RPG with tons of replayability. Well worth the day one purchase.

For delivery to 1.5 million people who want to be challenged and feel unbelievable achievement, and not have their hand held, and don’t want the word ‘FOLLOW’ on their screen. For 1.5 million people who know that this developer understands the difference between ‘Film’ and ‘Game’.

Edging forward with your heart pounding and your shield held up, not knowing what the hell is ahead in the darkness…

Incredible.

@2 Who are you to say it “isn’t much?” Because it’s not selling multi-millions of copies like Call of Duty? Not every game needs to sell that much in order to be successful; perhaps From Software was able to make a game that sells a million copies with 10x less money than a studio funded by the EA or Activision fat cats. I promise you the marketing budget for Dark Souls was a small fraction of what those guys spend on all their games. Most of that hype you speak of was the word-of-mouth following that the first game grew.

Big publishers’ failures have been games that ate up tons of development funding trying to be the new hot franchise, with the expectation that it sells millions of copies. That’s why the big publishers don’t take any chances anymore. They only want to gamble big, so after losing their shirts a few times, they only bet on the safe horse, instead of putting less money on each race. Smaller publishers and indie devs have proven time and again that you can make a pretty good living playing the nickel slots, even if it’s not as glamorous as hitting the billion-dollar jackpot.

^ You missed my point, the game couldnt sell millions because Namco Bandai havent shipped enough units to retailers. Like i said, i think this game could have sold that much.

@2: 1.5 Million is pretty good for a new game.

It’s not really new though, it’s undeniably Demon’s Souls 2 in all but name, and even that’s pretty close.

I’m glad it’s into the millions, hopeful next time they make a game like this, they’ll be able to afford a bit more polish and care, which Dark Souls is lacking in my opinion.

I was expecting a higher sales figure, judging by the percentage of my friends list owning it (or being owned by it). Still, not a bad showing at all for what is a very niche title.

GOTY contender for sure.