Low player counts?

It's all relative:

http://steamcharts.com/cmp/228880,281610,290790

Broadly speaking, Ashes will need to probably lower its price to attract more players.  That said, Steam Charts only counts Steam units.  It doesn't count the OEM or direct sales which represent the majority of our players who are out there too playing.

You could get more mates to get the game.

Many people play ranked games rather than custom. You may have better luck posting here or on the Steam forums a "looking for game" message to arrange some 2v2 games.

There is a group on steam that has chat online, you could meet some ppl their to play with you. And I just play ranked, like the majority of the MP players, because it is faster and more competitive than customs.

Ok what about these comparisons:

http://steamcharts.com/cmp/228880,251060,363680,318020#1m

BFGA only got released yesterday.

Act of Aggression is relatively new RTs but sold poorly.

Kind regards

Malkeri

Ok. Then why don't you go play that instead?

Is it true the community has been split between Good Old Games and Steam?

Kind Regards

Malkeri

Not really.  Most people are using the Steam version.  OEM versions (the game comes bundled with most AMD cards) and Direct versions use Steam but don't count on SteamSpy/SteamCharts.

I'm just not sure what the purpose of your post is.  If you think the game is "dying" then it seems you have two options. Either one, go find another game or two, find other people to get the game to keep it from "dying". 

Quoting Frogboy, reply 1

It's all relative:

http://steamcharts.com/cmp/228880,281610,290790

Broadly speaking, Ashes will need to probably lower its price to attract more players.  That said, Steam Charts only counts Steam units.  It doesn't count the OEM or direct sales which represent the majority of our players who are out there too playing.

You could get more mates to get the game.

End of Frogboy's quote

Out of curiosity, any idea why those units don't show up in the numbers? Steam still tracks those people running the game, right?

Time for some vacation Brad? He has a legitimate concern.

Quoting vyshka, reply 8

Quoting Frogboy,

reply 1

It's all relative:

http://steamcharts.com/cmp/228880,281610,290790

Broadly speaking, Ashes will need to probably lower its price to attract more players.  That said, Steam Charts only counts Steam units.  It doesn't count the OEM or direct sales which represent the majority of our players who are out there too playing.

You could get more mates to get the game.

 

Out of curiosity, any idea why those units don't show up in the numbers? Steam still tracks those people running the game, right?

 

Time for some vacation Brad? He has a legitimate concern.

End of vyshka's quote

I have no idea how Steam charts or Steam Spy works.  I just noticed awhile ago that the games that we sold mostly on Steam were fairly accurate and the ones where we sold a lot of copies direct or through bundled were under counted by a lot.  I've already seen this with SteamSpy where there's already like 40,000+ OEM copies that have been registered but don't show up on Steam Spy.  Similarly, none of our Founders copies seem to count on there either.

As for his legitimate concern. It certainly is.  I'm not sure what you would have us do.  As long as Ashes is profitable to work on, which it currently is, we'll work on it.  If it becomes unprofitable to work on, we won't work on it.  That's how the market works. 

I love Ashes.  But I love all my babies.  I've had 5 this past year.  I'll do everything I can but only the market decides winners and losers. 

I show a chart of new IP games and how they do.  Someone else comes on and shows me how much better sequels and Warhammer licenses do.  He's right.  Sequels and licensed IP sell a lot better.

We have Ashes fully staffed until September 30th (i.e. full team dev on it).  After that, we'll see where we are and what the community wants.

We did the same for GalCiv III and Sorcerer King.  With GalCiv III, the community was there, buying DLC, getting friends to buy the game and it is still a great seller.  Sorcerer King, not so much.  So GalCiv III has a full on team on it and Sorcerer King is basically something I play around with on rainy days.  That's the nature of things.

The player base is relative. I played a 3x3, and the game filled in no time. 

Quoting Frogboy, reply 9

Quoting vyshka,

reply 8

Quoting Frogboy,

reply 1

It's all relative:

http://steamcharts.com/cmp/228880,281610,290790

Broadly speaking, Ashes will need to probably lower its price to attract more players.  That said, Steam Charts only counts Steam units.  It doesn't count the OEM or direct sales which represent the majority of our players who are out there too playing.

You could get more mates to get the game.

 

Out of curiosity, any idea why those units don't show up in the numbers? Steam still tracks those people running the game, right?

 

Time for some vacation Brad? He has a legitimate concern.

 

I have no idea how Steam charts or Steam Spy works.  I just noticed awhile ago that the games that we sold mostly on Steam were fairly accurate and the ones where we sold a lot of copies direct or through bundled were under counted by a lot.  I've already seen this with SteamSpy where there's already like 40,000+ OEM copies that have been registered but don't show up on Steam Spy.  Similarly, none of our Founders copies seem to count on there either.

End of Frogboy's quote

Strange. Hopefully you guys are getting accurate analytics at least.

Quoting Frogboy,

As for his legitimate concern. It certainly is.  I'm not sure what you would have us do.  As long as Ashes is profitable to work on, which it currently is, we'll work on it.  If it becomes unprofitable to work on, we won't work on it.  That's how the market works. 

I love Ashes.  But I love all my babies.  I've had 5 this past year.  I'll do everything I can but only the market decides winners and losers. 

I show a chart of new IP games and how they do.  Someone else comes on and shows me how much better sequels and Warhammer licenses do.  He's right.  Sequels and licensed IP sell a lot better.

 

End of Frogboy's quote

Understood.

I'm enjoying the game, and I'm sure I'll enjoy it even more once the next-gen of gpus drop and I build my next system. It is way past time to put this old Dell out to pasture (5 years old with a 7870 and 16GB ram thrown in). Good thing work gives me nice toys, but those only run Linux.

I wouldn't judge a game just by online player count, however, this site tracks things better IMO.

https://steamdb.info/app/228880/graphs/ 158 on right now seems to be pretty good chance of finding someone.

Which is saying that MP is just a small community compared to the number of people that have the game.

sins of a solar empire has always had a small community for mp...and check up on its sales numbers...not too bad.

Sins is a good example of where Steam charts and Steam Spy are very off given that it has sold millions of copies over the years. Civilization V is another example where it's way off.  Civ V is nearing 10 million sales from what I've heard.

I have a feeling that those charts only use the Steam sales data (as in, the customer is a Steam customer) as opposed to what Steam classifies as a retail activation.  It's still a useful tool.  

Why not let players try ashes for free in one weekend, once the balances between phc and subs, becomes a steady line.

Also make a different tutorial (mechcanic guide,) and i mean one that adresse the units-role counter information that is needed to play ashes in a multiplayer game, (most new player isnt used to heavy counter roles due to other rts such as StarCraft, due to the fact most units pretty much counters each other a bit weakly, in comparison to ashes.

 Basicly send a clear message to new players, (units you build plays the greatest role in the game and can decide the outcome depending on how you build it.)

Well, RTS games are not the rage anymore like they were before. Also, this game is more a niche game as it's focused a lot on strategy compared to a twitch RTS like Starcraft. That is, at least, my theory as to why it hasn't taken off.

That being said, I'd suggest getting to know the community and finding people in your timezone to play with and add them as friends. As I've played this over the last couple of weeks, I've started meeting the community and adding friends on Steam. It makes it much easier to organize and play custom games. Most players seem to play ranked 1v1 simply due to how easy it is to get a match going. This seems to be changing somewhat in the US time period, as more players are interested in playing larger games. However, I'm not sure about other timezones.