The most interesting news coming out of May’s NPD figures is the amazingly low sales for some big name titles like Alan Wake, Blur and Prince of Persia.
Now we personally didn’t rate Prince of Persia to be an amazing game with a score of 8/10 but Blur received a 8.9 and Alan Wake was one of the better games we have played this year with a rating of 9.2
So how badly did they sell… well very actually.
Blur was only on sale for 5 days in this reporting session but sales of 30 000 units won’t be making Bobby Kotick very happy after he claimed it would do for racers what Call of Duty did for shooters.
It’s director competitor, Split/Second, was on sale for 12 days but didn’t sell much more with reported sales of 86 000.
Prince of Persia backed up with a huge movie tie in also failed to reach expectations with sales of less than 100 000 in it’s 12 days on the market but the biggest surprise of all would be Alan Wake.
Alan Wake was long heralded as the premier Xbox 360 title and when it finally was released it received great reviews across the world, but 5 years in development didn’t do much for sales with it only moving 145 000 titles during the May period.
The good news however is that all of these titles have the possibility of being around for a while and picking up some more sales during a future slow period.
Source: Gamasutra
Last Updated: July 6, 2010
koldFU5iON
July 6, 2010 at 09:11
I blame Red Dead Redemption
mitas
July 6, 2010 at 09:51
yes , very true
Fred
July 6, 2010 at 09:59
All the kids in America are still pawning each other in MW2 apparently. And the rest are playing Red Dead.
Uncle
July 6, 2010 at 10:28
Timing is everything with releases and I think these were timed wrong. Besides for the fact that not everyone is into the horror genre.
Macethy
July 6, 2010 at 10:52
Was about to say that. Come on people, show Alan Wake some love :heart:
Fox1
July 6, 2010 at 11:36
Games are too expensive and the back catalogue has gotten so huge that people are still catching up on older titles.
WitWolfyZA
July 6, 2010 at 11:47
Your all wrong, Piracy. I was at this one flea market in Boksburg, where pirated xbox 360 games were selling like hot cakes. So id say that the Xbox 360 piracy issues has a lot to do with the poor sales of these awesome games
Geoffrey Tim
July 6, 2010 at 11:55
Then how did RDR manage to sell millions of copies on 360? Also these are US figures, where console piracy is much lower than places like South Africa, Asia and the like.
WitWolfyZA
July 6, 2010 at 13:15
Whats your point, games are selling less because of piracy. Remember this isn’t counted till the last game its just an estimate. And to think 1 000 000 users got banned from Xbox live alone last year. Adds up doesnt it?
Bobby Kotick
July 6, 2010 at 13:30
I completely agree, although they probably didn’t want to compete with the Summer June-July releases (northern hemisphere).
Geoffrey Tim
July 6, 2010 at 13:32
@Witwofly : My point is that while piracy is indeed a factor, it can’t be the sole reason games are selling less – if it was, RDR wouldn’t have sold nearly as many copies on 360. There HAS to be other factors.
Bobby Kotick is not a pirate
July 6, 2010 at 14:11
I would venture a guess that games released in the “off-season” (i.e. May), and particularly new IPs (Blur) wouldn’t do as well as established IPs or those released over their major holiday seasons (Christmas or their summer June-July holidays).
The low numbers for Prince of Persia relates to general gamer fatigue in the franchise, rather than piracy. I wouldn’t discount piracy though, but it has become a convenient scapegoat for an industry that hates transparency. Let’s not forget we’re still in a recession, and although the South African middle class seems unperturbed by it because it’s business as usual (we’re so used to high game prices), those in the States are really feeling the pinch.
Nick de Bruyne
July 6, 2010 at 14:15
I really like Alan Wake, but it never had the mass appeal that would make every gamer and his dog run out to buy it. It just isn’t *that* appealing to a random gamer standing in a game store looking at the shelf, most people want something a little more action packed or adventurous rather than a thriller.
lans
July 6, 2010 at 19:40
there is a god!
that will teach u put a good game that is not aa shooter on the xbox 360!
you wanna be cheeky you better pay in dollars!
WitWolfyZA
July 7, 2010 at 10:39
I think people got tired of waiting for Alan Wake, and when they eventually showed it.. People felt that they were led down a BS road with the down scaled graphics. I mean Some PS3 games took just as long as this to develop. And blows this out of the water.
360 is starting to show its age badly now, 3 down scaled games in one year so far… not a good sign at all!