I have been watching the Steam #s and they have fallen but seem to have stabilized for the last week.
I think they will stay fairly strong but indicate the niche that the game fills.
When you compare what Homefront and Brink accomplished with a bigger budget and bigger studios then I guess you would call this quite a success.

John Gibson said early on that he was expecting the same level of success that BFBC2 had for PC.

BFBC2 has been out much longer yet TWI has a reputation for loyalty and support


Current Peak
3,028 6,146 Red Orchestra 2

4,427 6,852 Battlefield: Bad Company 2

Well, the success of BC2 on the PC platform can be highly attributed to Steam and the massive reductions in price for the game over the past year and a half during their fire sales. I know at least 6 people who picked it up in the past year just because the game looked cool and the price was great. People are still buying the game and I think that is the key here. They play it because it is a pretty decent game and the next biggest AAA shooter to CoD. The gameplay isn't as tactical as previous BF games which helps more people getting into it. A lot of games don't have that exciting vehicular combat that Battlefield games have. Coupled with the heavy emphasis on infantry play as a group, I think people are finding it a bit more refreshing than the rinse, repeat gameplay of CoD. Something else that I think helped BC2 stay afloat with PC players is that we were generally well treated as a community. We asked for added features to the game and they were sometimes granted without a lot of begging on our part. Optics on the M14 and G3 were updated back into the game by popular demand. Of course we did get shafted with the Onslaught co-op mode that made it to consoles, but not to PC. I'd imagine that they didn't have time to do it for both consoles and PC so EA stepped in and told them to do it for the platforms that brought in more cash and that would be the consoles.

Now in relation to RO2, BFBC2 is quite the different type of game. I can't see RO2 bringing in as many people in the first month that Bad Company 2 did, but what seems important is that people keep playing the game. The game is fun and interesting and deep. Once most of the bugs are sorted out and mods start coming out, I think more people will purchase the game and play it. I doubt we can't expect the number of sales that BFBC2 has so far by the end of next year. Think about it, though. Red Orchestra has never appealed to the masses and that is why it became a niche game. It's a wonderful game, but the learning curve and patience require to master it is just too high and too much for most people. They want to play a game that is sizzling with action like Call of Duty or Battlefield or Fallout 3/New Vegas. RO2 requires more thinking and strategy as a collective with your team and that's where others become interested in the game. People who are willing to learn the game are usually the ones who find the most joy in it. I've tried to get a few guys to try it out on my steam account, but for some it just doesn't appeal to them. The age group doesn't seem to be the problem either since I got a teenager hooked on the game and a 23 year-old can't grasp the nature of the game.

BC2 can be fun because it's really easy and fast to get into the action and make a difference without thinking about it too much. Basically, the game is too forgiving. RO2 requires for your to adapt to situations and make decisions, use your brain. That usually takes up more time and doesn't always end well if the enemy is using their brain as well. What I'm trying to say is that it takes longer to have a lot of fun in RO2 because of how realistic it is. If people aren't already in the mind set of playing the game strategically, they are going to get shot down over and over again. That's not the game's fault, but it still causes gamers to lose interest fast. They think: "Well, if I'm not having fun one hour into the game, what is the point of playing this?"

I think it just comes down to how fun the game is versus how much time you put into it. Once the deals start going on Steam for RO2, the player base will pick up a bit more. I think the interest is there, but people are just afraid to drop $40 on something that they might not like a whole lot. The availability of the open beta was pretty bad for the general public, so people who weren't already interested in the RO series were pretty much left with nothing to help familiarize them with what RO2 is supposed to be.

Well first of all, BFBC2 is not a steam game. So you can not look at steam for numbers on that game.

BFBC2
Right now Steam shows 6,852.
The actual number for right now is 10,153.

If you want stats on BFBC2, check here.
http://bfbcs.com/

As for RO2 Steam numbers, they are down another 1,000 today going by their peak numbers. Was over 7,000 a day the last few days.

So no, it's not close to BFBC2 success. RO2 topped out at less than 10,000 and BFBC2 was over 30,000.

Not sure at what point you started playing BC2, but last summer it had well over 30,000 people playing it. Sure the steam sale may have sold more copies, but in the big picture, it didn't make that big of a difference of actual numbers of people playing.

The reason BFBC2 is still going...

1. Gameplay. With destruction and some vehicles, it gives gamers something that COD doesn't have. I am not saying it's better than COD, just different.

2. New content and FREE content from the developer. At first we only had 6 maps out of the box. Then they started opening up the maps for all gametypes which I think made it about 9-10. Then in another patch they gave us at least 3 NEW maps for FREE. Also had a small total conversion game called vietnam that was 15.00.

3. Devs supporting the game. Even though its a year and a half old and BF3 about ready to release, they are getting ready to release another patch.

Yes this game has/had issues, and not as good as COD in some aspects. But they have given us a lot of content for our money, and with destruction it's made for some fresh gameplay. Besides the awesome graphics from the Frostbite engine.

I pretty much agree with everything thing that TRTL just posted. We did get a lot more value for our money with BC2 especially considering the base game was $49.99 to begin with. I also forgot to add destruction to the list of stuff that keeps BC2 matches moving and not a static camp fest. Btw, I pre-ordered BC2 Limited Edition on Steam in February last year after playing the beta. BC2 still released as a Steam game, but not exclusively on the PC, but you're pretty much right. Stats websites will get us the numbers we need.

Still, it doesn't feel right to compare BC2 to RO2. I guess John Gibson saw what DICE was doing to try to appease the PC community and how it turned out not half bad. I feel like TWI is trying so hard to give us what we want, but they haven't delivered...yet. I'm willing to wait however long it takes them to fix the major bugs, probably because I haven't run into any of them

In all fairness, going by player numbers, RO2 is more in the Homefront/Brink/MOH category. Actually, I think MOH had about 12-15,000, the first few months.

RO2 supports a small niche community, just like the first one. Nothing wrong with that. And I would say they have even grown that community some too, which is a good thing for them.

my .02..
I think JG dreams a little big at times. He feeds off of the gamers that are mad at AAA for whatever reason, and buys into their dreams of taking them down. Just like the guy that wrote the article "Why RO2 will beat CODBO". These are huge things to do and will not be done by a small developer in 2 releases. TWI will need a larger community and obviously a game that appeals to more people. Not saying TWI can or can't do it, but it's way to early to try and make those kind of predictions.

Heh, funny enough the article isn't available on PC Gamer's website.

I would say they lost some creditability with that article..

Whatever you do, don't accidentally mis-type your password on this site! That is the worst captcha I've ever seen!

Anyway, RO2 does beat COD, just not in sales, lol. It's like comparing Lady Gaga to Led Zeppelin. (RO2 is Led Zeppelin) The ignorant masses know nothing about quality, and never do in any form of entertainment.

I can find RO2 servers to play on any time of the day or night with tons of people on them. And anyway, nobody tries harder to please than TWI. Good bunch of guys there. I don't laugh at their misfortunes, I feel bad for them that it didn't come off like they wanted it to. I've been there myself in various situations in life. There is nothing funny about a smaller business pouring heart and soul into a venture and having it go off badly. But, they'll bounce back I'm sure. Because they pwn. And their games are great.

lol tell me about it. I don't even think the Rain Man could work that code code out!



It doesn't beat CoDUO, CoD2 and CoD4 to be honest, well in my opinion. Those were good games and a lot more fun than RO2.