US Sales - March 2009 NPD

Garth wrote:MadWorld is under 70K for the month apparently.

Epic Fail for Sega, they must have expected much much better.

Killzone is a million seller worldwide but looks like it did very little for hardware sales, got to be all over for Sony in the US now. Welcome To The Third Place.

Hero of Canton wrote:I wonder if the GTA figures show just how rife piracy is among core gamers who own DSes. Loads of people seemed to be playing it and while forums are never representative of the general populace, it wouldn't surprise me if half the people talking about it had it on an R4.

I wouldnt say it was half, but i dont doubt its a large figure. My argument would be just because people download doesnt mean they would go out to buy it in the first place.

Two words for you Sony.....................



































Price cut!

Rik wrote:

Garth wrote:MadWorld is under 70K for the month apparently.

Epic Fail for Sega, they must have expected much much better.

Killzone is a million seller worldwide but looks like it did very little for hardware sales, got to be all over for Sony in the US now. Welcome To The Third Place.

They've started to come top in Japan now though so that probably helps balance things out for them a bit.

Something Fishy wrote:

Rik wrote:

Garth wrote:MadWorld is under 70K for the month apparently.

Epic Fail for Sega, they must have expected much much better.

Killzone is a million seller worldwide but looks like it did very little for hardware sales, got to be all over for Sony in the US now. Welcome To The Third Place.

They've started to come top in Japan now though so that probably helps balance things out for them a bit.

Yeah Worldwide they might get to sales equality but will always trail in overall userbase as they are making no inroads into the 360 lead. I can't see this lasting 1-0 years.

Rik wrote:
Yeah Worldwide they might get to sales equality but will always trail in overall userbase as they are making no inroads into the 360 lead. I can't see this lasting 1-0 years.

I think so.

They always have the price cut up their sleeves, no doubt that will change things in the US. Seems that software isn't improving things so that's the card they need to play i think.

Perhaps the launch of the DSi will boost sales of GTA. I certainly have more confidence in its ability to sustain sales than I do with Madworld.

Rik wrote:

Garth wrote:MadWorld is under 70K for the month apparently.

Epic Fail for Sega, they must have expected much much better.

Proof that hardcore games don't sell on Wii.

It would be interesting to compare Madworld's first month to Clover's games.

Stupid NPD and their stranglehold on sales numbers.

Edit: Looking at various sources, most Clover/Capcom games seem to be in the 200k - 300k neighbourhood.

Hypothetical question, If Madworld had been launched on 360/PS3 or if LBP had been launched on Wii, do you think there would have been a drastic change in overall sales?

As much as Nintendo want Developers and Publishers to see the Wii as a great console for Mature games, the sales figures for the majority of games aimed at the mature market have been pretty poor. Poor compared to Nintendo's best sellers mind.

plaido wrote:

Rik wrote:

Garth wrote:MadWorld is under 70K for the month apparently.

Epic Fail for Sega, they must have expected much much better.

Proof that hardcore games don't sell on Wii.

It's not, really. One swallow doesn't make a summer. It's an 18-rated black and white hardcore brawler which wasn't really marketed that well. I don't think it would have sold that much better on 360 or PS3. You could look at the sales of God Hand and say hardcore games don't sell on PS2. Until the Wii's had what should be a bona-fide hardcore mega-seller fail spectacularly, it's too early to say that third-parties shouldn't bother with anything other than party games, minigame compendiums or tween-targeted candy-coloured pap.

I might be wrong, but didn't Uncharted and Motorstorm 2 post much worse opening months than 70k? Is that proof that hardcore games don't sell on PS3? It's not looking particularly good for third-parties on Wii I'll admit, but until it has a reasonable portfolio of well-made core-focused titles, it's a little soon to be 'proving' that devs should abandon the console. Particularly when a lot of them have only just started thinking about making half-decent Wii games.

This wouldn't be the first time Mature games have flopped on a Nintendo platform - just look at Resident Evil.

Oxx wrote:It would be interesting to compare Madworld's first month to Clover's games.

Stupid NPD and their stranglehold on sales numbers.

Edit: Looking at various sources, most Clover/Capcom games seem to be in the 200k - 300k neighbourhood.

Really? I'm sure Okami/God Hand did much worse than that. Are we talking LTD?

Also: HOTD did reasonable numbers. And there are far too few mature-targeted titles on Wii to really judge that they're automatically failures.

It's a weird one - had Wii had decent mature-focused third-party support from the outset, I think things would be different. As it stands, these games are coming out in dribs and drabs - not enough to force the hand of those who either don't own a Wii or don't play on it enough to want to go out and get a new game on it when they're busy with their 360s/PS3s. If the console had a burst of real blockbuster titles and they all sold poorly, then we could definitely surmise that hardcore games absolutely are not worth bothering making for the console.

Hero of Canton wrote:hardcore games absolutely are not worth bothering making for the console.

Something Fishy wrote:

Hero of Canton wrote:hardcore games absolutely are not worth bothering making for the console.

I'm fully expecting someone to sig that (especially as it's grammatically pretty clunky, too).

But yeah, from a developer/publisher point of view, if these games are going to consistently struggle, why WOULD you bother?

Hero of Canton wrote:

Something Fishy wrote:

Hero of Canton wrote:hardcore games absolutely are not worth bothering making for the console.

I'm fully expecting someone to sig that (especially as it's grammatically pretty clunky, too).

But yeah, from a developer/publisher point of view, if these games are going to consistently struggle, why WOULD you bother?

I nearly did.

Fair point. I do think it's too early tell yet as you say. If we had a good consistent run ofthese titles then it might well bring more attention back to the Wiiand boost sales of them. The recent run has got me back on my Wii again.

Hero of Canton wrote:

Oxx wrote:It would be interesting to compare Madworld's first month to Clover's games.

Stupid NPD and their stranglehold on sales numbers.

Edit: Looking at various sources, most Clover/Capcom games seem to be in the 200k - 300k neighbourhood.

Really? I'm sure Okami/God Hand did much worse than that. Are we talking LTD?

Okami NA LTD = 270k (March 2008): http://uk.wii.ign.com/articles/861/861215p1.html
Viewtiful Joe 2 NA LTD = 270k (2005): http://ir.capcom.co.jp/english/data/pdf ... l2005e.pdf
Viewtiful Joe WW LTD = 275k (GC) 46k (PS2): http://www.escapistmagazine.com/article ... l-Copies.2

Viewtiful Joe 2 North America figure looks high, but I can't be arsed looking through more Capcom financial data. I've already done more research than the majority of people writing NPD stories.

Wouldn't life be easier if VGChartzzzzz was actually a reliable source?

Hero of Canton wrote:It's a weird one - had Wii had decent mature-focused third-party support from the outset, I think things would be different. As it stands, these games are coming out in dribs and drabs - not enough to force the hand of those who either don't own a Wii or don't play on it enough to want to go out and get a new game on it when they're busy with their 360s/PS3s. If the console had a burst of real blockbuster titles and they all sold poorly, then we could definitely surmise that hardcore games absolutely are not worth bothering making for the console.

It's Microsoft's "family games" problem in reverse. None of those sell any copies either, because they're not part of a coherent strategy. Until there's a concerted effort to piledrive shedloads of such games into the market - and make a lot of them good - there's zero incentive for the market as a whole to pick up on them as a bullet point for console ownership or a software buying strategy.

With the Wii it is somewhat more curious because there are so many 360/PS3 owners who also have Wiis, so it must also have something to do with the tech difference.

Hero of Canton wrote:I wonder if the GTA figures show just how rife piracy is among core gamers who own DSes. Loads of people seemed to be playing it and while forums are never representative of the general populace, it wouldn't surprise me if half the people talking about it had it on an R4.

Well, the very demographic that GTA would hit is the same one that's far more likely to own an R4.

I would encourage anyone who has played but hasn't paid for this game yet to go out and buy it. Yes, I know DS games are overpriced to the point of ludicrousness in the main, but Chinatown Wars is well worth it.

Oxx wrote:Okami NA LTD = 270k (March 2008): http://uk.wii.ign.com/articles/861/861215p1.html
Viewtiful Joe 2 NA LTD = 270k (2005): http://ir.capcom.co.jp/english/data/pdf ... l2005e.pdf
Viewtiful Joe WW LTD = 275k (GC) 46k (PS2): http://www.escapistmagazine.com/article ... l-Copies.2

Those figures are over their lifetime, though. Having said that, a game obviously most often sells the vast majority of copies in its first couple of months, so unless some people were waiting on a price drop, I can't see it getting near those figures (well, it'll do better than VJ on PS2). I'm quite surprised by the sales of VJ on GC. They're not amazing figures, but 275k isn't too shabby. I think it did quite well in Japan, too (well enough to get its own manga series, anyway).

Capcom says VJ at around 450k worldwide in 2004: http://ir.capcom.co.jp/english/news/html/e040903b.html

Can't see Madworld coming close.

But this one made me laugh: http://ir.capcom.co.jp/english/news/html/e060509.html