World War Z sells over one million copies in first week

[midian182]

What just happened? Around six years after the Brad Pitt-starring movie (itself based on a book) was released, the World War Z video game finally launched last week. Since its arrival on April 16, it has sold more than one million copies across the PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4, and that’s despite some mixed reviews and not being available on Steam.

Matthew Karch, CEO of developer Saber Interactive, said the game had done especially well on the PC, where it joined the list of Epic Games Store exclusives. The store's twitter account yesterday tweeted that World War Z had already sold over 250,000 units.

Congratulations to Saber Interactive on selling over 250,000 units of World War Z so far on the Epic Games store!

WWZ, Satisfactory, Anno 1800, Metro Exodus, Tom Clancy's The Division 2 and so many more games made this a record weekend for Epic Games store. https://t.co/ZDo7wjmB5W

— Epic Games (@EpicGames) April 23, 2019

“We are humbled and thrilled by the immense success so far of World War Z, especially on PC thanks to the tremendous support of the Epic Games Store,” said Karch. “Moving forward, we’ll continue to expand the game and its community with new improvements, stability updates and bonus gameplay content, beginning very soon with a special new mission for the Tokyo episode.”

Karch added that at its peak, World War Z had 70,000 people playing concurrently across all platforms during its launch week. He said that PC sales outside of the US had been particularly strong, with the US making up just one-quarter of sales.

World War Z is a co-op shooter in which up to four players can take on hordes of zombies. It’s been likened to Left 4 Dead, albeit in a third-person rather than first-person view. Thanks to the game’s Swarm Engine, hundreds of zombies can be rendered on screen at the same time.

According to Metacritic, World War Z has mostly mixed or average reviews, but it seems that isn’t affecting its sales performance.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/79780-world-war-z-sells-over-one-million-copies.html

 

[stewi0001]

Not having first person view would bug me a bit.

 

[kira setsu]

Makes sense, looks like a fun game and thats what counts

also shows that as usual gamer anger is about as dangerous as a gentle breeze, just like dlc and microtransactions alot of whining and moping while reaching for a wallet at the same time, epic may play a dirty game to get its store into the conversation but at this point gaming overall is so janky and messed up this is pretty much normal behavior at this point....for all parties involved.

 

[fadingfool]

70,000? L4D2 was released in 2009 and in December 2013 had 161,590 concurrent players (on Steam so PC only) . I wonder how many players they could have had?

 

[Morris Minor]

Makes sense, looks like a fun game and thats what counts

also shows that as usual gamer anger is about as dangerous as a gentle breeze, just like dlc and microtransactions alot of whining and moping while reaching for a wallet at the same time, epic may play a dirty game to get its store into the conversation but at this point gaming overall is so janky and messed up this is pretty much normal behavior at this point....for all parties involved.

and if people actually had some principles and spoke with their wallets we wouldn't be in this sorry state. the downside of the mainstream, to many normie sheep.

 

[syrious01]

Another Epic exclusive game I'll gladly pass on.

 

[Trillionsin]

Competition is never bad.

I picked this game up, not terrible for $35, but not really great either.

As someone else commented, the camera view is bothersome. Seems like my character just blocks half the screen most of the time. Need to search the options to find out if there's a way to zoom out, or back the camera off a little.

 

[Evernessince]

Makes sense, looks like a fun game and thats what counts

also shows that as usual gamer anger is about as dangerous as a gentle breeze, just like dlc and microtransactions alot of whining and moping while reaching for a wallet at the same time, epic may play a dirty game to get its store into the conversation but at this point gaming overall is so janky and messed up this is pretty much normal behavior at this point....for all parties involved.

It also treats it's employees like crap. Ever since Fortnite became a success, they've forced developers to work a minimum of 72 hour work weeks and many have and continue to pull 100 hours per week.

EPIC may preach they are good for the gaming community but they treat their employees like trash and gamers themselves aren't seeing a cent of savings. Competition is good but I worry what EPIC will do if they do get control of the market. I can bet you right now, it won't be anything good.

 

[Adhmuz]

It also treats it's employees like crap. Ever since Fortnite became a success, they've forced developers to work a minimum of 72 hour work weeks and many have and continue to pull 100 hours per week.

EPIC may preach they are good for the gaming community but they treat their employees like trash and gamers themselves aren't seeing a cent of savings.

Please link your sources to this, I'd be interested in the article for a read.

 

[Evernessince]

Please link your sources to this, I'd be interested in the article for a read.

https://www.polygon.com/2019/4/23/18507750/fortnite-work-crunch-epic-games

The rigors of a crunch that never ends thanks to bad management, not enough devs, execs who don't care, and the continuous stream of content a game like fortnite needs.

 

[elementalSG]

Please link your sources to this, I'd be interested in the article for a read.

https://www.polygon.com/2019/4/23/18507750/fortnite-work-crunch-epic-games

The rigors of a crunch that never ends thanks to bad management, not enough devs, execs who don't care, and the continuous stream of content a game like fortnite needs.

Good article.

Epic sounds like every startup I've worked at, though. (Granted at 28 years old, Epic isn't really a startup) Epic, though, is experiencing growth just like a startup. For better or worse, most of us that join such organizations, go in knowing it is going to be this completely insane. It isn't sustainable (I'm no longer at startups after about a decade spent in startups), but I can't tell you that it wasn't rewarding to push oneself to the limits, learn like crazy, output results and finish projects at light speed, and ride the extreme thrills of the wave as the company grows. It definitely was fun and I miss the thrill sometimes, but I know for the sake of my health and sanity this phase is now in my past.

 

[texasrattler]

WWZ is a good game. It's not perfect but it fills a void for those who like or play Zombie games. Since Steam don't want to give us any L4D so Saber did.
Also the team behind L4D will be making their own Zombie game, likely due out next year but WWZ success may make them push it out sooner, we will see.

WWZ has it's limits/shortcomings but overall its fun. More fixes and story will come.

 

[Krackan]

Nice clickbait sub-header. Surely it's overall sales had nothing to do with the low price point, being released simultaneously on 3 platforms, and lack of this style of game since Left 4 Dead 2. Epic is still a terrible place no matter how you slice it, but hey you keep trying to stick up for them, Kotaku.

 

[PEnnn]

Not sure what's difference between this game and Left 4 Dead. Except maybe Left 4 Dead seems to have better graphics and is not a pathetic 4th person shooter.

 

[Branch]

Not having first person view would bug me a bit.

This is a huge disappointment and a no-purchase from me. Voting with wallet.
Bring on L4D 3!

 

[Steveb8189]

Not sure what's difference between this game and Left 4 Dead. Except maybe Left 4 Dead seems to have better graphics and is not a pathetic 4th person shooter.

What happened to the 3rd person??

 

[Markoni35]

World of Tanks peaks over 150,000 every day, even more during weekends, but they don't feel like bragging about it.

 

[Evernessince]

Good article.

Epic sounds like every startup I've worked at, though. (Granted at 28 years old, Epic isn't really a startup) Epic, though, is experiencing growth just like a startup. For better or worse, most of us that join such organizations, go in knowing it is going to be this completely insane. It isn't sustainable (I'm no longer at startups after about a decade spent in startups), but I can't tell you that it wasn't rewarding to push oneself to the limits, learn like crazy, output results and finish projects at light speed, and ride the extreme thrills of the wave as the company grows. It definitely was fun and I miss the thrill sometimes, but I know for the sake of my health and sanity this phase is now in my past.

EPIC Games was founded in 1991. There are far from being a startup. Calling EPIC a startup would be like calling AMD a startup, who is going through the exact same growth cycle right now. Both are experienced companies who should know how to deal with it by now.

 

[Morris Minor]

Good article.

Epic sounds like every startup I've worked at, though. (Granted at 28 years old, Epic isn't really a startup) Epic, though, is experiencing growth just like a startup. For better or worse, most of us that join such organizations, go in knowing it is going to be this completely insane. It isn't sustainable (I'm no longer at startups after about a decade spent in startups), but I can't tell you that it wasn't rewarding to push oneself to the limits, learn like crazy, output results and finish projects at light speed, and ride the extreme thrills of the wave as the company grows. It definitely was fun and I miss the thrill sometimes, but I know for the sake of my health and sanity this phase is now in my past.

EPIC Games was founded in 1991. There are far from being a startup. Calling EPIC a startup would be like calling AMD a startup, who is going through the exact same growth cycle right now. Both are experienced companies who should know how to deal with it by now.

I think "sounds like" is the key words in his post

 

[elementalSG]

I think "sounds like" is the key words in his post

Glad someone actually read my post

 

[Evernessince]

I think "sounds like" is the key words in his post

Glad someone actually read my post

And I pointed out that clearly it is not a startup. Growth "like" a startup does not excuse incompetence in management when they've been around for more then two decades.

Stop comparing them to startups, they are nothing close to such and a single factor does not suddenly turn back the clock.

Gross oversimplification and making snarky comments, you are not adding much here.

 

[elementalSG]

And I pointed out that clearly it is not a startup. Growth "like" a startup does not excuse incompetence in management when they've been around for more then two decades.

Stop comparing them to startups, they are nothing to close to such a single factor does not suddenly turn back the clock.

Gross oversimplification and making snarky comments, you are not adding much here.

So...do you work at Epic...? Are you extremely angry at your current bosses...? Are you looking to fight for equality for mismanaged employees or something...?

I'm just sharing my own experience. The environment SOUNDS LIKE every startup I've been at. If you believe it is mismanaged when a company is experiencing exponential growth, I can understand that. Exponential growth can do that to just about any management team since everything is changing so quickly. Usually 28 year old companies don't experience exponential growth, but for whatever reason Epic is experiencing this and thus making it run ANALOGOUS to a company in startup-mode. I'm just telling you that when experiencing exponential growth everything just becomes very difficult. But then to attack me personally after I shared my personal experience is just bizarre. Why are you so angry?

 

[Evernessince]

So...do you work at Epic...? Are you extremely angry at your current bosses...? Are you looking to fight for equality for mismanaged employees or something...?

I'm just sharing my own experience. The environment SOUNDS LIKE every startup I've been at. If you believe it is mismanaged when a company is experiencing exponential growth, I can understand that. Exponential growth can do that to just about any management team since everything is changing so quickly. Usually 28 year old companies don't experience exponential growth, but for whatever reason Epic is experiencing this and thus making it run ANALOGOUS to a company in startup-mode. I'm just telling you that when experiencing exponential growth everything just becomes very difficult. But then to attack me personally after I shared my personal experience is just bizarre. Why are you so angry?

Did you not read the article I linked that had accounts of many employees who work at EPIC?

Oh stop playing the victim card. What I said

"Gross oversimplification and making snarky comments, you are not adding much here."

is most certainly not a personal attack and you can take that to the mods. I'm not going to apologize for calling out BS when I see it. If you are going to add something, then do it. Otherwise insinuating that other's are commenting without reading is hypocritical at best given you've just done the same.

 

[elementalSG]

Did you not read the article I linked that had accounts of many employees who work at EPIC?

Oh stop playing the victim card. What I said

"Gross oversimplification and making snarky comments, you are not adding much here."

is most certainly not a personal attack and you can take that to the mods. I'm not going to apologize for calling out BS when I see it. If you are going to add something, then do it. Otherwise insinuating that other's are commenting without reading is hypocritical at best given you've just done the same.

I did read the article. I even wrote “GOOD ARTICLE”, if you would ever read what I write before exploding. It is the reason I responded with “SOUNDS LIKE every startup I’ve worked at before” because that article literally read like my experiences at startups.

I notice you always take a very negative tone in your comments and look to always just attack and belittle whoever even slightly expresses anything different from you. No one else can write about an EXPERIENCE different from your opinion? I can only imagine how your relationships are in real life being as overly sensitive to other people's comments as you are that aren’t even directed to you. I’m not your enemy. I still don’t get why you get so angry and explode so easily, You will express what you want to express, I will express what I want to express. There isn’t a requirement we agree on anything, but the attacks are unnecessary.