Posts Tagged ‘Sales’
Modern Warfare 2 sells close to 9.4 million copies in first week
It’s no surprise that Modern Warfare 2’s launch was anything less than a huge success considering the game was pre-ordered over 4.5 million times but VGCHartz has rounded up some preliminary week one data and the results are quite outstanding.
It seems that all together, the game has sold close to 9.4 million copies across the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC raking in an astounding $600 million for Activision. Now let’s just wait until the holiday season comes and goes and we’re sure to be seeing some ridiculous numbers.
I think it’s safe to say we will be seeing Modern Warfare 3, 4, 5 etc because I mean, it is Activision, after all.
Average World at War owner has spent $9 on DLC
Have you spent money on Call of Duty: World at War DLC? According to recent reports, chances are you have — It seems that the average World at War owner has spent $9 on DLC.
Gamasutra reached this conclusion by saying the 3 DLC maps for WaW currently on the market have sold nearly 7 million copies netting Activision close to $45 million in revenue. Do the math and that apparently comes out to U.S. WaW owners spending on average $9 on DLC.
So folks, need more proof that both World at War and Modern Warfare 2 are sure to see a very DLC packed future?
More UFC games announced, coming to Wii and handhelds
The recent record June quarter results announced today by THQ have lead the publishers to expand their UFC franchise to other consoles. The financial success of last month was primarily driven by UFC: Undisputed, so it’s no question that it would be in the best interest to release the game for the Wii and handheld systems, which have been dominating the market lately.
No word on a date for the Wii version, or specifics on which handheld platforms will be developed for.
Along with the port, THQ also announced that the series will become an annual franchise, meaning a new game for the series will be released every year, with new gameplay features and modes. Hopefully the game will not turn into another Madden.
Ubisoft to go head-to-head with piracy this year
Piracy has been an issue for a long time. Even before Napster was made mainstream people were recording songs off the radio and selling bootleg copies. Well, the game industry is no different and one company in particular has been hurtin’ especially bad; Ubisoft.
It seems that the publisher is so fed up with piracy that they have plans to combat the issue with their own firepower. Yves Guillemot, head of Ubisoft, speaks of the piracy problem:
“Altogether on console, the piracy is low. On the PC the piracy is quite a lot. We are working on a tool that would allow us to decrease that on the PC starting next year and probably one game this year.”
So what do they have cookin’ over at Ubisoft? Let’s hope they aren’t getting ideas from EA as we saw how well that was recieved with Spore.
The Sims 3 sells 820,000 US copies in 1 month
Ever since the first Sims title hit the market it’s been generally accepted that every game then after would be a huge success and The Sims 3 is no different.’
According to recent reports, in the US The Sims 3 sold a full 820,000 copies in June alone. Added to that, Gamasutra strongly believes the game has sold over 2.5million copies globally.
Just to put that into perspective, the entire Sims franchise had sold over 100 million copies worldwide as of April 16th, 2008.
I think it’s safe to say that The Sims is definitely here to stay.
NPD Sales Results for June 2009, Prototype tops charts
The NPD Group have released the sales figures for the month of June today.
The DS is currently holding the top spot in hardware sales, with its home console counterpart trailing behind. Amazingly, the PlayStation 2 is still almost selling as much as the PlayStation Portable. The price is obviously a big factor in consumer decisions, with the failing economy and other circumstances.
As for software, Prototype debuted and sold over 400,000 copies, topping the charts. Many sports titles follow the sandbox action game, including Tiger Woods PGA Tour and Fight Night Round 4.
Hardware:
- Nintendo DS 766.5K
- Wii 361.7K
- Xbox 360 240.6K
- PlayStation 3 164.7K
- PSP 163.5K
- PlayStation 2 152.7K
Software:
- PROTOTYPE (360) 419.9K
- UFC 2009:UNDISPUTED (360) 338.3K
- EA SPORTS ACTIVE BUNDLE (Wii) 289.1K
- TIGER WOODS PGA TOUR 10* (Wii) 272.4K
- WII FIT (Wii) 271.6K
- FIGHT NIGHT ROUND 4 (360) 260.8K
- FIGHT NIGHT ROUND 4 (PS3) 210.3K
- MARIO KART W/WHEEL (WII) 202.1K
- RED FACTION:GUERRILLA (360) 199.4K
- INFAMOUS (PS3) 192.7K
via NeoGAF
Dragon Quest IX sells 2.3 million copies
Considering the hype surrounding the game, this should come as a surprise to no one — Dragon Quest IX has sold 2.3 million copies in its first 2 days on the Japanese market.
That means that in addition to its 2 million pre-orders, Dragon Quest IX was purchased an additional 300,000, for those of you not good with a calculator. Additionally, it was reported that 81.56% of the game’s inventory was sold out nation wide which means it was sure to have sold out at some retailers.
Now all we have to do is play the waiting game until Dragon Quest IX drops in the US. Only then will we know if American gamers have the same interest for the Dragon Quest franchise as the Japanese.
via Joystiq
Monster Hunter hits 3.5 million mark, breaks records
Monster Hunter is widely known to be a huge success, especially in Japan, but I doubt anyone could have predicted the exact scale of said success.
Capcom is excited to announce that Monster Hunter Freedom Unite has sold 3.5 million copies in Japan. Not only is that a huge feat, but it’s a record; the only PSP game ever to hit the 3.5 million copy mark.
With Monster Hunter Freedom Unite only recently hitting retail in the US it’s still to be decided if American gamers will take to it like the Japanese.
Read (Destructoid)
Disc Theft Deterrent Technology To Boost Sales Up To $6 Billion
While piracy, the illegal copying and distribution of media is a threat to the music, fim and gaming industries theft is a big issue. When retailers calculate their anticipated revenue and profits they factor in a certain amount of what is known as ’shrink’, retail jargon for theft. There have been many attempts to prevent this and various techniques and technologies have been used, but none are perfect.
The Entertainment Merchants Association has just released a study showing that a new ‘point of sale activation’ technology could increase media sales by as much as six billion and reduce costs by up to $800 million. If this technology is put into play, anyone who nabs a disc and sneaks out of a store will get home to find that their game, movie or cd isn’t anything other than a fancy coaster. In order to get a working product you’ll have to have the disc activated by the staff behind the counter. The EMA is now looking into the cost of deploying this technology which, if cost-effective could be in retailers by late 2010.
While many point out that for many retailers it’s more often the staff that are stealing games than anyone else, this technology would also discourage theft by shipping companies that transport the merchandise to the retailer. It’s unknown how this would work for online retailers like Amazon, but with most retailers using established shipping companies like UPS and FedEx one has to assume that with the level of information they record regarding their shipments it’ll be simpler to avoid thefts.
Activison Expressing Concerns Over PS3 Sales Momentum
I’m going to start this post of with a disclaimer: neither myself nor anyone associated with this website have any stake in Sony’s success/failure. I own every current gen console and handheld and play them all regularly. That being said, let’s get on to the news. While advances in technology often lower the price of operating in certain media, the video games industry is often on a upward slope.
Some are estimating that the next generation games will cost up to $60 million to develop and one publisher is already expresing concerns over current generation costs. Activision boss Bobby Kotick is suggesting that unless there’s a price cut for the PS3 the company might have to reconsider supporting the console: “I’m getting concerned about Sony; the PlayStation 3 is losing a bit of momentum and they don’t make it easy for me to support the platform.”
He suggests that if the price for the console doesn’t drop the attach rates will diminish, following that line of thought with: “if we are being realistic, we might have to stop supporting Sony. When we look at 2010 and 2011, we might want to consider if we support the console – and the PSP [portable] too.”
Considering the as-yet untapped potential of the console and Sony’s insistence that their strategy is long term, things could still be turned around, but if enough publishers and developers shift their efforts elsewhere the console could founder before it has the chance to take off, though I doubt this is actually going to happen. This could very well be nothing more than posturing to achieve some greater concessions from Sony in their business arrangements.
Gamestop No Longer Pushing Used Games
If you’ve ever shopped in Gamestop you’ve probably dealt with this before. You come in, asking for a game that isn’t you hadn’t gotten around to picking up yet. Then you spend the next ten minutes trying to convince the guy working the counter that no, saving five dollars isn’t worth getting a used copy of the game. It’s a similar shtick in many retail stores. The poor chumps who work there are instructed to push certain products, deals or unnecessary warranties on any and all who enter.
A company memo was circulated instructing managers that their policy regarding pushing used copies of games sixty days after their release is being rescinded. This was apparently done in favor of better vendor relations. Though some in the industry say used game sales aren’t as much of a threat as some think, many publishers and developers aren’t terribly happy that potential revenue is going into the pockets of those who simply run a chain of retail stores instead of those who actually create the games.
Newest COD Map Pack Sells One Million In First Week
I continue to be amazed at the sheer number of World War II based shooters that can be put onto the market and still perform well. There have been countless digital reenactments of almost every important battle in the entire conflict yet it seems that gamers aren’t sick of them yet. Despite being jaded about the genre, I admit to being somewhat interested in Call of Duty: World of War.
Everyone else is too it seems because Treyarch announced that in the first weekend the second map pack was downloaded over a million times. The $9.99 content pack contains four maps, including Shi No Numa. Yes, that’s right, it’s another zombie level. That’s got a lot to do with the appeal of this game for many I’m guessing. If you’re unfamiliar with the mode, it’s an online co-op mode similar to the Gears of War horde mode where players face wave after wave of enemies, only this time they’re a combination of two popular video game enemies: Nazis and zombies.
Natal Launch To Be As Big As 360 Launch
MIcrosoft is gearing up for a big push when they release Project Natal, their own motion-sensing offering. Minor peripherals or controller upgrades aren’t usually big affairs, but this is the Xbox’s foray into a new direction, what many say might be the next evolution of video games. Many alternate control peripherals fail due to inadequate support. You pick up the game that came with it, play it til you’re tired of it and then hunt through the shelves for something else to use with it, only to find there isn’t anything else. Sales of the peripheral slump and developers don’t even bother consider creating games for the device.
That’s why Microsoft isn’t planning on releasing the new controller until they think its ready and has a good lineup of launch titles to get people using it. They’ve got Rare working on games for the device, though fans are concerned given some of the unimpressive 360 launch titles the developer put out in the past.
Microsoft claims they’re not going after the casual gaming market or any other existing market segment with the Natal. They’re aiming to get people who still aren’t gaming into the mix, claiming that for many the controller is a barrier which they hope to eliminate by making all the controls dependent upon simple body motion. At this point it seems unlikely that they’ll get too many more people involved. There’s still a big portion of the populace who consider video games and anti-social waste of time.
The Sims 3 Proves Piracy Is No Threat To Sales
Before the era of P2P file sharing if you wanted to get a game for free you had a few options. First if you had a buddy with the right knowhow he could send a disc your way with the game and a crack program on it. If none of your friends were quite that delinquently minded you only had one choice: to hunt through ‘warez’ sites which were generally just spawning grounds for popups, viruses and porn advertisements.
Peer to peer downloading programs changed that and Bittorrent has been one of the most popular downloading programs in years. Though the first protests came from the music industry thanks to Napster, the video games industry has gotten in on the act, with many companies complaining that developing for PCs has become nearly impossible due to rampant piracy. Those who do often institute draconian DRM measures, frustrating players and anarchists everywhere.
The Sims 3 was leaked and downloaded over 180,000 times from May 18th to May 21st, yet the DRM-free game has sold over 1.4 million copies in its first week, making it one of the most successful launches in EA’s history. EA has been one of the main proponents of the argument that piracy is killing the PC gaming industry, but their arguments seem to have been invalidated by this.
My guess is that the theory behind piracy goes like this: you’ve got a small subsection of the market who will pirate a game no matter what. Then you’ve got people who are willing to pay full price for a robust, well-crafted experience, but don’t want to pay full price for something that they think might be cool yet is only netting five or six out of ten on the reviews. In the end even if the panic-mongers at EA are right and piracy is a huge problem, the industry will simply evolve into an online focus where verification is built into games and money will be made by subscription fees or optional VIP packages in free games.
Apple AppStore Games Not Selling As Claimed
Since the launch of the iPhone and iPod Touch Apple has pointed to the high volume of games and other applications being downloaded as a sign that the devices are the wave of the future. Many Apple spokesmen have come out and claimed that the iPhone is going to drive the DS and PSP off the market altogether.
There’s a wide range of pricing for applications on the digital distribution store; many apps are free while many others charge a mere few dollars. Some games charge more and there are some more functional apps that can cost as much as twenty to thirty dollars. The marketplace is incredibly hyped with stories of people making small fortunes on the sweat of their brow (or fingers) being talked about as if everyone’s doing it.
Unfortunately according to a successful appstore developer, it’s not exactly the gold mine everyone’s hoping for. Developer Rick Strom has several applications that are highly ranked, including one which is #34 on the social networking listing. He points out to the public that there was a general ‘race to the bottom’ as soon as the app store debuted. After all when you’re looking for a tower defense game or movie listing application, why pay five dollars when there’s one for less than a buck, or even better, completely free? Though Apple boasts incredible numbers of downloads, they haven’t said how many of those downloads are of free applications.
While there are some people making money from hard work and successful apps, Strom points out that it’s like winning the lottery: the potential is there for it to happen to anyone, but more likely you’re going to walk away disappointed.