Ninja Theory’s Enslaved: Odyssey to the West is a good game. Nick liked it a lot, and the Xbox 360 version has a Metacritic score of 82%. It seems, however, that positive press reviews do not always equate into sales targets.
The game’s publisher, Namco Bandai, had hoped to shift 1 million units during the first month of release. The game released on 05 October 2010, which is just over a month ago. The title missed its 1 million target, and as a result Namco Bandai has had to re-evaluate its projected sales for other titles.
According to Japanese website Andriasang, Enslaved has only managed to sell 800 000 units. What’s more, the rest of Namco Bandai’s stable of titles isn’t looking too good either. Dead to Rights: Retribution has only shifted 350 000 units since April 2010, which is half of what was expected. Clash of the Titans is much the same with only 250 000 units being sold out of the projected 700 000 – but we totally could have called that anyway.
This has forced the publisher to take another look at future sales for games like Splatterhouse, which they originally expected would sell 1 million units. Now they’re anticipating around 350 000 units – way less than initially anticipated.
All is not lost for Namco Bandai however, as their Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 and Ben 10 Ultimate Alien Cosmic Destruction (best title ever!) did way better than they expected, shifting hundreds of thousands more than they thought they would.
Source: Andriasang [via Eurogamer]
Last Updated: November 9, 2010
riezo
November 9, 2010 at 15:23
To be honest I was looking forward to playing Enslaved until Tameem Antionades stepped up to the podium and took it upon himself to slate my console of choice.
Not that my purchase woulda made a huge impact on unit sales.
Also, 800 000 is by no means a bad number, they really were being gready…
Razer0
November 9, 2010 at 17:47
Enslaved was one of the best games this year
Tiny Tim
November 9, 2010 at 19:36
Short games never sell well.
Nick de Bruyne
November 9, 2010 at 21:38
Hoping for 1,000,000 units in the first month is a little ambitious, although reasonable enough with a title like Enslaved and 800 000 really isn’t bad by any means.
As for the rest of their games… the line up and franchises are a little weak
AC!D
November 9, 2010 at 22:16
Thats funny VG Chartz has the game at about 200 000 sold worldwide. They arent very reliable but surely not that unreliable right? I have a feeling maybe Andriasang are talking 800 000 shipped and not sold units.
The games being discounted all over the net over poor sales apparently.
Nick de Bruyne
November 9, 2010 at 22:49
Yeah I must say, I seemed to think that I read somewhere that it sold A LOT worse than 800 000 units, so it must be units shipped.
Wally-G.
November 10, 2010 at 00:07
Lets see: short game with a bad ending and little to no game play, a jackass (Tameem) who can’t help but piss people off to the point where they’ll boycott the game to spite him, and gamers boycotting the game so that NT will lose the right to make the monstrosity they call DmC with meth head Donte…hmmmm….
Yeah, I guess I can’t figure out either why Enslaved did so badly.
Cloud Strife
November 10, 2010 at 00:09
@ACID i can’t wait till sony releases Heavenly Sword and that goes on to sell 3 million!!
Cloud Strife
November 10, 2010 at 00:10
Heavenly Sword 2
AC!D
November 10, 2010 at 01:03
Thats my hope. Let GOW rest a bit as a franchise and let Sony Santa Monica do Heavenly Sword 2. They must experiment and go big though and if it doesnt work out and flops then at least the GOW franchise isnt hurt. Despite being too short, the screen tearing and no jump button i found Heavenly sword enjoyable and the world was fantastically realized so i hope to see a sequel. Heres hoping!!!!