2008 has been one of the better years for gaming, I wouldn’t go as far as to say it’s been one of the best but the last 3 months have been very kind to us.
When we look back and see Fallout 3, Fable 2, Gears 2 and COD5 we see that we have been spoilt, but with games reaching R1000 a title we need to be a little scrooge like with our money and the same goes for everyone worldwide.
So CVG has put together a list of games that were expected to do really well and that just haven’t… This isn’t about the quality of the game but more the retail success that they did not achieve, yet.
First the titles that were absolutely guaranteed to do well and yet still failed.
Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts was meant to be one of the 360’s stellar Christmas titles which had been pumped up for years, however the game released to mixed reviews and is now floundering in the teenage section of the charts.
Next up we get LittleBigPlanet, the new face of the PS3 and a game with so much character and money that you could have bet your house on it breaking the million mark in it’s first weekend. However over in the UK it entered the chart at number 4 and has since been going backwards, it is now at 32 and in real danger of disappearing forever.
Both Resistance 2 and Endwar were hugely anticipated and while one was building on the solid success of it’s predecessor the other was a brand new title that was going to change the way we viewed strategy games forever. Both arrived to good reviews and both are doing terribly in the charts.
Another sequel we expected to do well was Motorstorm Pacific Rift, the arcade racer that we recently reviewed quite highly just hasn’t worked it’s magic in the charts and is in effect no longer in the charts.
But these big hitters are not the only ones who failed, the rest of the list is made up of technically great games that are a whole pile of fun but which haven’t set the charts alight just yet.
Lips, the SingStar clone for the 360 has floundered in the shops.
Left 4 Dead, the awesome zombie orgie that is being touted as a possible game of the year title is also doing badly.
Bioshock on the PS3 isn’t even close to emulating the 360 versions sales.
Mirror’s Edge has split the reviewers and is yet to jump into the minds of the buyers.
Mortal Kombat vs DC, a game that was given the Lazygamer kiss of death. I really thought it was going to be good and when it was released it was seen to be good but the bad press around the game (no blood) has stopped it from taking off.
We can’t finish a list like this without mentioning Wii Music which for some reason is still being touted by certain media as being a decent game. The game has no point and thankfully isn’t receiving any sales either. However it is actually climbing the charts at the moment so it may still make it.
So which title do you think CVG missed out on? Possibly Shaun White Snowboarding and I see Guitar Hero World Tour is struggling a bit with it’s price point.
Source: CVG
Last Updated: December 8, 2008
Milesh Bhana ZA
December 8, 2008 at 10:10
I think the flood of good games over the silly season + economic recession has really forced people to be more careful with their buying. So only a few of the big titles could have done well … and some really good titles (like L4D) couldn’t do well because there were other big titles out at the same time.
End War and GoW2 came out on the same day too.
Charl Du Plessis
December 8, 2008 at 10:45
Think I read somewhere that known franchises, did overall better than the slew of new IPs that featured this year.
I find that a big disconcerting, mostly due to my avid love for something new.
Now on to the list:
– Personally I really wanted LBP to do good, but I knew that the building aspect, would not appeal to the Sims generation. LBP still has the holiday season ahead, which might turn to its favor, if Sony markets it well enough. Sadly the hardcore fanbase is also getting shunned, as Levels are removed without any given reason, so most LBPlaneters who really set out to make the most of the game, had their labor removed without even a hint of why, they really need to create some sort of system to deal with creators. Not to mention the obscenity that they call a sorting system on LBP. I really wanted this game to work, but sadly these shortcomings is hindering the process.
– Resistance 2 is rushed, it was the game Sony used to battle GOW2. Another 6 months, and a different design goal, would have changed this game completely. It’s sad really, as this was also a game I was really looking forward to, the first game really worked well for me and I was really craving some Co-Op. Sadly I was treated to having a broken local co-op system. If Why couldn’t they add bots to the empty seats on a local offline game? I can’t imagine it being so hard, considering they have a form of ‘allies’ in the SP campaign? The Co-op campaign is a cool idea, although sad that you need about 3 people min, to actually enjoy it. :sadface:
OK this is getting long, I’ll shorten it up.
-Lips, no surprise really, didn’t expect it to steal the world, considering you get about the same thing on PS2. Then again, it’s getting a boost soon, as a patch is on the way to make it work with Rockband.
– Left4dead, didn’t valve go around pelvic thrusting the pre-order stats of this game? Wasn’t it like 60% more than the Orange Box? Either way, This is by far on the best releases this year for me, LANs have never been funner.
– MK vs DC. Horrible game. Truly horrible. If you bought this for R20, you’ve been ripped off! Really, the only thing I can almost see as being an equal waste of money, is buying a fleshlight. Atleast the one gives some form of pleasure.
– Bioshock, Port that doesn’t achieve the numbers one promised, shock gasp! I really do believe that everyone who wanted to play this, either got it on PC or X360 already.
– Mirror’s edge, awesome game, nice to see dice move out of the conventional. Too bad sales will now force them back to making Battle Lulz 20XX. Oh well
Hmm sorry about that, started out good, but kinda got busy on something else at the end.
Anyway, flame on!
ferver
December 8, 2008 at 11:11
economic crisis…
Wolfy
December 8, 2008 at 12:31
why is fable 2 and GOW2 on the picture aswel? i thought they were console movers aswel then?
LazySAGamer
December 8, 2008 at 12:33
I suck at graphics so I just steal Nick’s artwork for my stories…. it seemed apt at the time 😉
PillsburyDeeBoy
December 8, 2008 at 12:39
I read an article on Kotaku about how many units of each game Valve has released has sold. Suffice to say, they’ve sold a ton. My point, however, is this – Left 4 Dead is projected to move around 3.7 million copies. I hardly think that’s a failure. In terms of a console success, yeah, maybe it did so so, but projected at 3.7 million sales a year from now is hardly worth sniffing at…
ewie
December 8, 2008 at 14:42
Well take lips, banjo and viva pinata. Those will be bundled next year Christmas with the xbox and will have
sales ltp of about 2 mil. Microsoft is slowly building the casual library and in long run they will sell a lot of games.
Wolfy
December 8, 2008 at 15:49
respect lol try to get one of too human next time lol
RivaZA
December 8, 2008 at 16:18
I think it is just the economic crisis catching up to the video gaming industry.
TurboZA
December 9, 2008 at 10:19
I have to disagree about MK vs DC. The gameplay is the best since Mortal Kombat 3. The lack of blood however does seem to leave one with a feeling of being cheated!