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NPD Sales Results for May 2010

kswiston

Member
perfectchaos007 said:
The gaming industry is not dying. The economy sucks and isn't improving so as disposable income becomes less and less, all items not related to food/water/shelter will see a decline in sales. Actually the gaming industry is doing very well compared to how other entertainment industries are doing during this recession.

You mean, compared to the movie industry who is pulling in record numbers this year, even after breaking $10 billion for the first time ever last year?

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/yearly/?view2=ytdcompare&view=releasedate&p=.htm

The entertainment industry is actually pretty resistant to recessions. People need distractions from their crappy lives.
 

Scotch

Member
I'm sad for Bizarre Creations, but I think most people saw this coming the moment Blur was announced. A car combat game that isn't a cutesy kart racer is just never going to do very well in this day and age, and I have no idea what Activision was thinking. I'm calling it now; Twisted Metal will bomb as well.

I just hope that somehow, some way, the people behind Bizarre can work on PGR5 some day.
 

AniHawk

Member
Scotch said:
Twisted Metal will bomb just as hard, by the way.

No fucking way. The PS3 fanbase bought 200k+ copies of Heavy Rain. There's no way they'd let a popular oldschool Sony franchise fail.
 

Scotch

Member
AniHawk said:
No fucking way. The PS3 fanbase bought 200k+ copies of Heavy Rain. There's no way they'd let a popular oldschool Sony franchise fail.
Yeah you're right, I edited my post. It will certainly do better than 31,000 on the name alone, but I still say it'll bomb.
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Scotch said:
Yeah you're right, I edited my post. It will certainly do better than 31,000 on the name alone, but I still say it'll bomb.
If I had to guess solely on what we saw at E3 and market trends, my guess would be a 150k-300k first month with a 40k-100k second month. It definitely seems like it would appeal to PlayStation 3 owners more than ModNation racers, which as a whole didn't do horribly, but not as much as something like Killzone 2.

My guess for worldwide LTD would be in the 800k-1.4 million range, which is where a large amount of the non-flagship Sony exclusives seem to end up.

Obviously it's very early to start guessing, but core targeted PlayStation 3 exclusives as a whole tend to sell in somewhat predictable sales tiers.
 

FoeHammer

Member
Sucks about Alan Wake, it's definitely one of the best games I've played this gen.

Hopefully the worldwide numbers will be enough to continue the franchise.
 

kswiston

Member
Nirolak said:
Mario Kart Wii has sold over 22 million copies.

I doubt all that many people sit there debating whether to get Mario Kart or whether to get Gran Turismo. Both are racers, but you know perfectly well that they are not playing to the same audiences. Do you lump Assassin's creed in the same genre as Legend of Zelda? Or Jak 3 with GTA?

People who hate cars and racing sports will play Mario Kart and other cart racers.
 

KingDizzi

Banned
kswiston said:
I doubt all that many people sit there debating whether to get Mario Kart or whether to get Gran Turismo. Both are racers, but you know perfectly well that they are not playing to the same audiences. Do you lump Assassin's creed in the same genre as Legend of Zelda? Or Jak 3 with GTA?

A racer is a racer, sure Mario is arcade and GT a sim however both are still racers.

1. Mario Kart
2. GT
3. Forza or NFS
 

kswiston

Member
KingDizzi said:
A racer is a racer, sure Mario is arcade and GT a sim however both are still racers.

1. Mario Kart
2. GT
3. Forza or NFS

Calling Mario Kart arcade is still downplaying the difference between the two games. Daytona USA is Arcade. Plenty of people who wouldn't play Daytona (or similar games) if you paid them love Mario Kart. Mario Kart is about as useful a measurement of the popularity and potential sales of a racer as Pokemon is a measurement of the popularity and sales of jrpgs.
 

Shamrock

Banned
Trurl said:
Blur will serve as an example of how not to make a television commercial.


What was wrong with the commercial? I thought it was funny as hell. Are you really trying to say Blur didn't sell well because you think the commercial pissed off a very relatively small group of Nintendo hardcore fanboy's?
 

DMeisterJ

Banned
I don't know if I'd lump Mario Kart with Gran Turismo in terms of them both being 'racers', but I've argued enough about GT.

I had no idea about how Blur bomba'd though. That's amazing. I liked the beta a bit, but it definitely wasn't for me. If I want fun kart racing, I'd go to MK Wii.

Pretty nice that GoW 3 charted again in May. It seems to be doing well for itself... Can't remember the last time a PS3 game charted for three months (I think it was GoW: Collection, but that's another story). so hats off to them. Seems like God of War resonates with American PS3 owners tons. I still have to buy it. But aside from those two, has any PS3 game charted for 3 months?
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
kswiston said:
I doubt all that many people sit there debating whether to get Mario Kart or whether to get Gran Turismo. Both are racers, but you know perfectly well that they are not playing to the same audiences. Do you lump Assassin's creed in the same genre as Legend of Zelda? Or Jak 3 with GTA?

People who hate cars and racing sports will play Mario Kart and other cart racers.
Mentioning Mario Kart Wii's sales makes perfect sense in the context of the conversation we were having.

FateBreaker said:
Blur sold poorly. Split/Second sold poorly. Mod Nation Racers sold eh. Forza 3 sold eh to decent. I know that Gran Turismo is the king of the racing genre, .
Jaded Alyx said:
Not anymore.
kswiston said:
What compares saleswise?
Nirolak said:
Mario Kart Wii has sold over 22 million copies.

---

KingDizzi said:
A racer is a racer, sure Mario is arcade and GT a sim however both are still racers.

1. Mario Kart
2. GT
3. Forza or NFS
As a side note, Need For Speed actually sell 4-5+ million (without bundling to boot) an entry while Forza only sells around 1-2+ million an entry.
 
KingDizzi said:
A racer is a racer, sure Mario is arcade and GT a sim however both are still racers.

1. Mario Kart
2. GT
3. Forza or NFS

While I'm not discounting Mario Kart or its selling power ... lumping it in to everything 'racer' is kind of asinine. Many, and I mean MANY people would never go to the store and say "Hrm ... got my G27 setup with a racing chair ... now, Mario Kart Wii or GT5 .... decisions, decisions ... "

EDIT: Nevermind, I didn't see he mentioned Modnation Racers in the original. I guess your analogy works perfect for this scenario. My bad!
 
The more I look at the numbers, the more I'm surprised that those games released so close to RDR. It's a Rockstar title ... heavily advertised (I have seen more RDR than ANY of those other games) ... I mean, haven't they learned this yet? It just seems odd. It's like buying time for a Superbowl commercial on a different channel.
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
flyinpiranha said:
The more I look at the numbers, the more I'm surprised that those games released so close to RDR. It's a Rockstar title ... heavily advertised (I have seen more RDR than ANY of those other games) ... I mean, haven't they learned this yet? It just seems odd. It's like buying time for a Superbowl commercial on a different channel.
I think by the time Rockstar announced RDR's release date and people started to realize just how big the game was going to be, it was far too late to change dates.
 

kswiston

Member
Aeana said:
You don't want to know Trauma Team's numbers. :( Very disappointing.

This was on my radar but then I completely forgot about it. Should pick up a copy before the game disappears from shelves...
 

Aeana

Member
kswiston said:
This was on my radar but then I completely forgot about it. Should pick up a copy before the game disappears from shelves...
I highly recommend it. It's still my favorite game I've played this year.
 

JJConrad

Sucks at viral marketing
Shamrock said:
What was wrong with the commercial? I thought it was funny as hell. Are you really trying to say Blur didn't sell well because you think the commercial pissed off a very relatively small group of Nintendo hardcore fanboy's?
Imagine Burger King running a commercial about how hamburgers suck so have a Whopper. It might be funny, but its stupid. The problem with their commercial is not that they piss off Nintendo fanboys, but that they ignore the 40 million userbase of Mario Kart this generation that actually likes the game. Instead, they target the very small group of fanboys that associate Mario Kart for babies and well...looking at sales... they got them.
 

KingDizzi

Banned
Nirolak said:
As a side note, Need For Speed actually sell 4-5+ million (without bundling to boot) an entry while Forza only sells around 1-2+ million an entry.

Any data on how much NFS: Shift sold? I would be very shocked if the Forza games only sold at around that region. The NFS speed this year is by Criterion so will be mint however not so sure abour it releasing 2 weeks after GT5. One could argue different audiences however I'm a huge racing fan however will buy GT5 but just rent NFS: Hot Pursuit due to being cheap. Should at least be a months gap between those games or sales will eat into each other and while NFS is multiplat the PS3 versions do make up a significant amount of the total sales.

The big question, will GT5 break 2 million in NA? I very much doubt it, the franchise has fallen like a brick in that region as well as Japan.
 

AniHawk

Member
I think Best Buy's having a Buy One Get One 50% off on all wii games and today's the last day. I picked up Sin & Punishment 2 with Trauma Team so I got TT for $20.
 

Draft

Member
145k is not decent for a game of Alan Wake's stature. That's 300k lifetime NPD. That's a bomb.

C4Lukins said:
Blur: 31,000 sales at $60 dollars. $1.86 million in revenue.
Geometry Wars: 1 million plus sales at $5 Dollars. $5 million in revenue.
It's almost like... every game being a $60 mega experience that costs tens of millions to produce... is a flawed business model...
 

Luckyman

Banned
VALIS said:
Not that bad, at least not the bomb it was looking like. Sequel hope rising. And if there is a sequel, maybe MS could actually, I dunno, advertise it this time?

:lol

145k is horrible for any AAA budget game..

Heavy Rain destroyed even releasing much later in February
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
KingDizzi said:
Any data on how much NFS: Shift sold? I would be very shocked if the Forza games only sold at around that region. The NFS speed this year is by Criterion so will be mint however not so sure abour it releasing 2 weeks after GT5. One could argue different audiences however I'm a huge racing fan however will buy GT5 but just rent NFS: Hot Pursuit due to being cheap. Should at least be a months gap between those games or sales will eat into each other and while NFS is multiplat the PS3 versions do make up a significant amount of the total sales.
EA's last financial report listed Need For Speed: Shift as over 4 million copies: http://files.shareholder.com/downlo..._10_final_with_financial_tables_-_REVISED.pdf

This was actually down from the previous Need For Speed, which sold 5 million. I imagine the drop this year was largely due to it being a simulation title trying to sell to an arcade racer fan base. The series used to do a lot more than that too, which is why they're having Criterion reboot the arcade series (alternating every other year with Black Box) while making Shift a separate simulation series that seems like it will release every year.

As for Forza 3's sales, the last statement Microsoft gave was 2 million copies sold (as of February 2010): http://kotaku.com/5468260/forza-3-sells-2-million-celebrates-with-new-track-dlc
 
Scotch said:
I'm sad for Bizarre Creations, but I think most people saw this coming the moment Blur was announced. A car combat game that isn't a cutesy kart racer is just never going to do very well in this day and age, and I have no idea what Activision was thinking. I'm calling it now; Twisted Metal will bomb as well.

I just hope that somehow, some way, the people behind Bizarre can work on PGR5 some day.

I don't think so, I think Twisted Metal is a little bit more known as a brand. More people remember it, you know?
 

X26

Banned
KingDizzi said:
The big question, will GT5 break 2 million in NA? I very much doubt it, the franchise has fallen like a brick in that region as well as Japan.

GT1 10mil
GT2 9mil
GT3 15mil
GT4 10mil

oh, but prolouge, essentially a demo that was released on the system when it had a miniscule userbase, not doing typical gt numbers now means the series is in freefall. got it
 

AniHawk

Member
X26 said:
GT1 10mil
GT2 9mil
GT3 15mil
GT4 10mil

oh, but prolouge, essentially a demo that was released on the system when it had a miniscule userbase, not doing typical gt numbers now means the series is in freefall. got it

what's Gran Turismo PSP's excuse?
 
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