SEGA today announced that Alien: Isolation has sold through in excess of one million units worldwide. That’s definitely good news for both Creative Assembly and SEGA, though we do have to note that Aliens: Colonial Marines – a game that was not as good as Isolation – was able to sell more copies in the same amount of time, thus proving that marketing and over-hyping a game is essential for publishers.
Creative Lead, Alistair Hope, said:
“It has been fantastic to watch the reviews come in and read of the reactions of players, hidden in the bowels of Sevastopol Station, terrified to make the next move. We set out to make the Alien game we had always wanted to play and from these figures it seems we also succeeded in making the Alien game another million wanted to play. We hope many more gamers enjoy Alien: Isolation in 2015.”
Michael Doyle, vice president of interactive games for Twentieth Century Fox Consumer Products, added:
“Fox is enormously pleased with how both SEGA and Creative Assembly have realized their homage to Ridley Scott’s iconic film Alien. The project represents a paradigm shift in what is possible in the arena of licensed games.”
UPDATE:
SEGA got in touch with us in order to clarify the difference between Alien: Isolation’s sales and those of Aliens: Colonial Marines.
As SEGA noted:
“Note that the Aliens: Colonial Marines numbers you’re referring to from the SEGA Sammy FY14 financial report are sell-in numbers, while the Alien: Isolation numbers published this morning are sell-through numbers.”
But what’s the difference between these two terms?
Sell-through refers to sales which reached the end consumer, while sell-in refers to sales into the retail channel (sales which just put product in the shelves, which the consumer might – or might not – buy).
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“though we do have to note that Aliens: Colonial Marines – a game that
was not as good as Isolation – was able to sell more copies in the same
amount of time, thus proving that marketing and over-hyping a game is
essential for publishers.”
evil within is over 3 milion copies and wolfenstein is close to 3.
SOOOOOO what does that prove?
The question is simple will all those games get sequels? I enjoyed them all. I think Warren spector said that games cost so much to make that you need 2-3 million copies to break even. Obviously the 3 is for ubisoft budget titles, most games will be fine at 2 milion or so.
So i wonder how much alien isolation cost to be ok with 1 million something sales.
Where did you get the sales figures for EW and Wolfenstein? I don’t see any official numbers anywhere and VGChartz pulls numbers out of their a*s.
Considering how quickly EW went on sale and the size of the discount (I was able to get a legit copy for $15 within a month of release), I doubt it sold very well. If it has sold over 3 million, Bethesda would have surely made a press release by now to announce its success.
For me (personal opinion) the best game of 2014 hands down, also with Elite Dangerous. I like horror, I really like Alien as a movie and this game made that feeling with perfection, and of course I love SciFi and space.
From graphics and atmosphere to optimization and gameplay, the game was perfect.
Never bought Aliens: Colonial Marines though…for much that I like something I always wait for reviews.
Glad to see that Alien Isolation made it well.
Yep same here, best game of 2014. I voted for it on the last poll.
Haven’t played Dragon Age Inquisition or Shadow of Mordor yet as the prices are still ridiculously high in my country, So I couldn’t have voted for them.
These one millions sales include the steam sales right? How much do you think it sold on pc/steam?
1 million across 5 platforms…Its simple reading comprehension…ONE million on FIVE platforms which includes PC/Steam
How much more did it sell and did those sales make up for the marketing costs?
Just because Colonial Marines sold more copies doesn’t necessarily mean they made more net profit.
For the future of this title they should drop alien name from it cause ppls when they see alien name on it they directly think its a bad game that what happens to my friends
Hope we see sequel for this game but the major problem was after 12 hours it became boring
Released on 5 platforms and only 1mil sales. Is this called a success?
NOPE…..Its far from a success 5 platforms and barely months later breaking 1mil is not a successful title…Colonial Marines a mediocre game sole 3 million in 2 weeks on 3 platforms…And NOPE dont buy the stupid people claiming they didnt know that it was going to be bad because CM had at least 3 trailers 2 months before the game that showed the quality of it and those same ignorant people purchased it anyway…I know that is a FACT because I cancelled my pre-order the moment they released the first trailer showing what the game actually looked like