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The double dose of awesome that was the Natural Selection 2 and Overgrowth two-pack has proven to be quite the success for the two Indie development studios. Both Unknown Worlds and Wolfire Games are extending their appreciation to the fans and community that made it all possible.
Sales of the games during the one week that this offer was going on surpassed all of the sales of the entire year previous. What makes this sale remarkable is the fact that all of the money goes directly to the two development studios. It is also notable in the fact that this sale was fueled solely by word of mouth and the efforts of gaming websites from all over. Neither studio has a budget or team set up for promotions or press, which makes the sales figures all that more incredible.
The Wolfire team breaks down some of the raw data for us and details the effect the sale had on Overgrowth.
There were over 1,600 sales of the two-pack during the week. In addition, regular pre-orders of Natural Selection 2 were also up during the week. This means that there was an increase in sales for the packs that only came with one game at regular price. Despite a few people who ordered these packs by mistake (and were thusly refunded), the overall pre-orders on the non-sale packs remained above the norm for Natural Selection 2.
Finally, a bet was made that if 1,000 pre-orders were made on the special then John from Wolfire would dye his beard pink. He delivered. Check out the video after the break! Also, be sure to check out more details on Overgrowth and Natural Selection 2.<!--more-->
Sales of the games during the one week that this offer was going on surpassed all of the sales of the entire year previous. What makes this sale remarkable is the fact that all of the money goes directly to the two development studios. It is also notable in the fact that this sale was fueled solely by word of mouth and the efforts of gaming websites from all over. Neither studio has a budget or team set up for promotions or press, which makes the sales figures all that more incredible.
The Wolfire team breaks down some of the raw data for us and details the effect the sale had on Overgrowth.
Originally, we had 1100 preorders of Overgrowth, since announcing preorders a little over a year ago. In one week, we sold 1658 packs. That represents almost exactly one year's worth of preorder revenue, in a single week.
We expected the promotion would probably have an explosion when it was first announced but would then quickly taper off. On the contrary, sales were surprisingly steady throughout the entire week. The largest sales burst was, predictably, in the last hours of the promotion (we had a neat countdown timer). In future promotions, it might be a good idea to somehow extend the promotion by an hour or so, because in the last hour, we were doing about one sale per minute. We had 3 sales in the last 30 seconds alone. There clearly were many people who were enticed by last minute chatter (literally). Since our data shows almost no deceleration, I have to wonder what would have happened if we extended it for a week.
We expected the promotion would probably have an explosion when it was first announced but would then quickly taper off. On the contrary, sales were surprisingly steady throughout the entire week. The largest sales burst was, predictably, in the last hours of the promotion (we had a neat countdown timer). In future promotions, it might be a good idea to somehow extend the promotion by an hour or so, because in the last hour, we were doing about one sale per minute. We had 3 sales in the last 30 seconds alone. There clearly were many people who were enticed by last minute chatter (literally). Since our data shows almost no deceleration, I have to wonder what would have happened if we extended it for a week.
There were over 1,600 sales of the two-pack during the week. In addition, regular pre-orders of Natural Selection 2 were also up during the week. This means that there was an increase in sales for the packs that only came with one game at regular price. Despite a few people who ordered these packs by mistake (and were thusly refunded), the overall pre-orders on the non-sale packs remained above the norm for Natural Selection 2.
Finally, a bet was made that if 1,000 pre-orders were made on the special then John from Wolfire would dye his beard pink. He delivered. Check out the video after the break! Also, be sure to check out more details on Overgrowth and Natural Selection 2.<!--more-->
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