NPD

[Crushed]

One positive thing that can come from MadWorld and Chinatown Wars bombing is that maybe now Nintards will remember the mantra they clung to during the N64 and GameCube days: that sales =/= fun, and that good games bomb all the time.

[archie4208]

One positive thing that can come from MadWorld and Chinatown Wars bombing is that maybe now Nintards will remember the mantra they clung to during the N64 and GameCube days: that sales =/= fun, and that good games bomb all the time.

I doubt it.  They will still point to Wii Fit, Mario Kart, Wii Play etc as reasons why third parties should make games for the Wii or DIE AND GO BANKRUPT.

[Eel O'Brian]

Did House of the Dead: Overkill end up doing okay?  That's the last game I played before I sold the Wii, and I enjoyed it.

[EmCeeGrammar]

Did House of the Dead: Overkill end up doing okay?  That's the last game I played before I sold the Wii, and I enjoyed it.

It was kinda low, but still within SEGA's expectations, or at least that's what they said.  If it behaves like other light-gun games on Wii, it'll probably LTD at around 250k in the US, which is not great, but not awful either.

And Kosma, publishers don't expect sales to scale in proportion to the size of the userbase.  If that was the case, PS2 games should have sold ridiculously higher than games this gen, and that's just not the case with all the immediately comparable franchises.  Install base may bring third parties to the yard, but the actual absolute sales are what feeds their mouths at the end of the day.  500k worth of sales for a game, unless it's particularly pricey to develop for some reason, is worth a publisher's time and investment.  It is indeed a good example of a game selling decently on the Wii when others expected it to sell poorly. 

The problem here is that some of the N-Fans are trying to use it prove that there's a particular kind of audience on the Wii.  What they are failing to realize is that WWII shooter games are kind of like Madden and Halo in that while they certainly overlap with the hardcore gamers, the overwhelming majority of the people that buy games of that sort are just typical Americans with highly casual gaming habits. 

Call of Duty doesn't prove there's a large 18-35 male with disposable income audience on the system that are willing to buy a ton of "core" games, it just proves that there are Americans that own Wiis who like to relive their country's "three touchdowns in a single game" high school football moment over and over again.  These people will never, fucking EVER buy a port of something like Bioshock even if hell froze over and it was possible.  They certainly won't touch unappealing shit like Madworld and the Conduit.

I love this whole post.

[Oblivion]

At this point, I don't see Uncharted 2 selling well. The original still isn't all that popular outside of the hardcore market and its not an easy game to market. God of War 3 might be Sony's first million in a month seller, but at this point, I'm not sure.

The other 2 God of War games didn't even reach a million in a month. But GoW3 will be more successful than Uncharted 1 and 2, that's for damn sure.

One positive thing that can come from MadWorld and Chinatown Wars bombing is that maybe now Nintards will remember the mantra they clung to during the N64 and GameCube days: that sales =/= fun, and that good games bomb all the time.

Actually, many games did really well on the N64. Problem was there were far too few of them.

[demi]

NPD Top 20


1. RESIDENT EVIL 5* 360 CAPCOM USA
2. POKEMON PLATINUM VERSION NDS NINTENDO OF AMERICA
3. HALO WARS* 360 MICROSOFT
4. RESIDENT EVIL 5* PS3 CAPCOM USA
5. WII FIT WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA
6. MLB '09: THE SHOW PS3 SONY
7. KILLZONE 2 PS3 SONY
8. WII PLAY W/ REMOTE WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA
9. MARIO KART W/WHEEL WII NINTENDO OF AMERICA
10. MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL 2K9 360 TAKE 2 INTERACTIVE
11. GUITAR HERO METALLICA 360 ACTIVISION BLIZZARD
12. CALL OF DUTY: WORLD AT WAR* 360 ACTIVISION BLIZZARD
13. STREET FIGHTER IV* 360 CAPCOM USA
14. MARIO KART DS NDS NINTENDO OF AMERICA
15. STREET FIGHTER IV* PS3 CAPCOM USA
16. NEW SUPER MARIO BROS NDS NINTENDO OF AMERICA
17. PROFESSOR LAYTON AND THE CURIOUS VILLAGE NDS NINTENDO OF AMERICA
18. MLB '09: THE SHOW PS2 SONY
19. HALO 3* 360 MICROSOFT
20. LEGO STAR WARS: COMPLETE SAGA WII LUCASARTS

Top 10 Wii:

1. WII FIT NINTENDO OF AMERICA
2. WII PLAY W/ REMOTE NINTENDO OF AMERICA
3. MARIO KART W/WHEEL NINTENDO OF AMERICA
4. LEGO STAR WARS: COMPLETE SAGA LUCASARTS
5. LINK'S CROSSBOW TRAINING NINTENDO OF AMERICA
6. GUITAR HERO WORLD TOUR* ACTIVISION BLIZZARD
7. GUITAR HERO METALLICA ACTIVISION BLIZZARD
8. NEW PLAY CONTROL! MARIO POWER TENNIS NINTENDO OF AMERICA
9. MADWORLD SEGA OF AMERICA
10. SONIC AND THE BLACK KNIGHT SEGA OF AMERICA

Top 10 Xbox 360:

1. RESIDENT EVIL 5* CAPCOM USA
2. HALO WARS* MICROSOFT
3. MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL 2K9 TAKE 2 INTERACTIVE
4. GUITAR HERO METALLICA ACTIVISION BLIZZARD
5. CALL OF DUTY: WORLD AT WAR* ACTIVISION BLIZZARD
6. STREET FIGHTER IV* CAPCOM USA
7. HALO 3* MICROSOFT
8. TOM CLANCY'S H.A.W.X. UBISOFT
9. NBA 2K9 TAKE 2 INTERACTIVE
10. WWE LEGENDS OF WRESTLEMANIA THQ

Top 10 PlayStation 2:

1. MLB '09: THE SHOW SONY
2. NARUTO: ULTIMATE NINJA 4 NAMCO BANDAI GAMES OF AMERICA
3. GRAND THEFT AUTO: SAN ANDREAS TAKE 2 INTERACTIVE
4. NBA 2K9 TAKE 2 INTERACTIVE
5. MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL 2K9 TAKE 2 INTERACTIVE
6. RESIDENT EVIL 4* CAPCOM USA
7. TOMB RAIDER: UNDERWORLD EIDOS INTERACTIVE
8. GOD OF WAR II SONY
9. CALL OF DUTY: WORLD AT WAR ACTIVISION BLIZZARD
10. GUITAR HERO WORLD TOUR* ACTIVISION BLIZZARD

Top 10 PlayStation 3:

1. RESIDENT EVIL 5* CAPCOM USA
2. MLB '09: THE SHOW SONY
3. KILLZONE 2 SONY
4. STREET FIGHTER IV* CAPCOM USA
5. GUITAR HERO METALLICA ACTIVISION BLIZZARD
6. TOM CLANCY'S H.A.W.X. UBISOFT
7. CALL OF DUTY: WORLD AT WAR ACTIVISION BLIZZARD
8. WWE LEGENDS OF WRESTLEMANIA THQ
9. SONIC'S ULTIMATE GENESIS COLLECTION SEGA OF AMERICA
10. NBA 2K9 TAKE 2 INTERACTIVE

Top 10 Game Boy Advance:

1. ASTEROIDS/PONG/YARS DESTINATION SOFTWARE INC.
2. UNO 52 DESTINATION SOFTWARE INC.
3. PUPPY LUV: SPA & RESORT ACTIVISION BLIZZARD
4. BIG MUTHA TRUCKERS DESTINATION SOFTWARE INC.
5. VALUE GAME BUNDLE 14.99 MULTIPLE VIDEO GAME MANUFACTURER
6. GBA SPYHUNTER/SUPERSPRINT DESTINATION SOFTWARE INC.
7. VAN HELSING ACTIVISION BLIZZARD
8. PRINCESS NATASHA: STUDENT SECRET AGENT DESTINATION SOFTWARE INC.
9. UNO/FREEFALL DESTINATION SOFTWARE INC.
10. GAUNTLET/RAMPART DESTINATION SOFTWARE INC.

Top 10 Nintendo DS:

1. POKEMON PLATINUM VERSION NINTENDO OF AMERICA
2. MARIO KART DS NINTENDO OF AMERICA
3. NEW SUPER MARIO BROS NINTENDO OF AMERICA
4. PROFESSOR LAYTON AND THE CURIOUS VILLAGE NINTENDO OF AMERICA
5. GRAND THEFT AUTO: CHINATOWN WARS TAKE 2 INTERACTIVE
6. LEGO STAR WARS: COMPLETE SAGA LUCASARTS
7. PHINEAS AND FERB DISNEY INTERACTIVE STUDIOS
8. MARIO PARTY NINTENDO OF AMERICA
9. SUPER MARIO 64 DS NINTENDO OF AMERICA
10. CLUB PENGUIN: ELITE PENGUIN FORCE DISNEY INTERACTIVE STUDIOS

Top 10 PSP:

1. MLB '09: THE SHOW SONY
2. RESISTANCE: RETRIBUTION SONY
3. PHANTASY STAR PORTABLE SEGA OF AMERICA
4. GRAND THEFT AUTO: LIBERTY CITY STORIES TAKE 2 INTERACTIVE
5. GRAND THEFT AUTO: VICE CITY STORIES TAKE 2 INTERACTIVE
6. IRON MAN SEGA OF AMERICA
7. MEDAL OF HONOR: HEROES 2 ELECTRONIC ARTS
8. MIDNIGHT CLUB: LA REMIX TAKE 2 INTERACTIVE
9. WWE SMACKDOWN VS RAW 2008 THQ
10. MX VS ATV UNLEASHED: ON THE EDGE THQ

Top 10 Portable Games (All):

1. NDS POKEMON PLATINUM VERSION NDS NINTENDO OF AMERICA
2. NDS MARIO KART DS NDS NINTENDO OF AMERICA
3. NDS NEW SUPER MARIO BROS NDS NINTENDO OF AMERICA
4. NDS PROFESSOR LAYTON AND THE CURIOUS VILLAGE NDS NINTENDO OF AMERICA
5. NDS GRAND THEFT AUTO: CHINATOWN WARS NDS TAKE 2 INTERACTIVE
6. NDS LEGO STAR WARS: COMPLETE SAGA NDS LUCASARTS
7. NDS PHINEAS AND FERB NDS DISNEY INTERACTIVE STUDIOS
8. PSP MLB '09: THE SHOW NDS SONY
9. NDS MARIO PARTY NDS NINTENDO OF AMERICA
10. NDS SUPER MARIO 64 DS NDS NINTENDO OF AMERICA

Top 10 Accessories

1. WII NUNCHUK CONTROLLER NINTENDO OF AMERICA
2. 360 LIVE 1600 POINT GAME CARD MICROSOFT
3. WII REMOTE CONTROLLER W/ JACKET NINTENDO OF AMERICA
4. PS3 DUALSHOCK 3 WIRELESS CONTROLLER SONY
5. 360 LIVE 1 MONTH GOLD CARD MICROSOFT
6. WII REMOTE CONTROLLER NINTENDO OF AMERICA
7. 360 HEADSET MICROSOFT
8. 360 LIVE 12 MONTH GOLD CARD MICROSOFT
9. 360 LIVE 3 MONTH GOLD CARD MICROSOFT
10. WII WHEEL GRIP NINTENDO OF AMERICA

[The Sceneman]

BUT NOBODY WILL BUY HALO WARS!

Hell, even I wanted to buy Halo Wars and I don't like rts games.  The Halo universe is very compelling for a lot of people, myself included.

lmao, give this loser a demeaning tag

edit: whoa 6969 posts! Im never posting again

[The Sceneman]

generic and shit, yeah

[AdmiralViscen]

The real news of yesterday is that Zombie Mythic is now available in matchmaking

I'm only missing a handful of the available achievements

[Joe Molotov]

Remember when people thought Guitar Hero: Metallica was going to be big? 

BUBUBU 2 DAYS OF SALES!!!

[HyperZoneWasAwesome]

man, H.A.W.X. bit the big one.

so much for that would-be franchise.

[duckman2000]

Isn't that basically Blazing Angels: Modern Warfare, as in the latest game from Ubi's Romanian flight game flopfactory?

[EmCeeGrammar]

Level 5 must be the happiest fuckers in the world right now. Layton is BANK.

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

Quick thoughts:

1) PS3's shit performance this year.  This is five months in a row where the PS3 is down from last year.  Granted last year was the Year of the PS3.  360 remained up over the past year, which should be how things should be.

2) Wii systems are everywhere these days.  It is crazy to see a stack of them sitting at Best Buy and Target areas crammed with them behind a glass case.  I still remember how you had to wait in line.

3) Halo Wars > Killzone 2 makes me lol.  I don't ever intend to own Halo Wars but Killzone 2's performance can be described as lackluster at best.  It'll cross a million and maybe at the end of the generation, 2 million in the US but it will never recuperate its budget.  Killzone 2's tank like performance pretty much ends the optimistic era of Sfags, much like Mario Kart Double Dash ended the optimism of Nintards hoping the Game Cube would take off.

4) Madworld was a niche game.  Time and time again, hype on the internet =! real life sales.

[AdmiralViscen]

I haven't played KZ2 in two weeks :/

They really need to patch in a party system so I can play it.

[Eel O'Brian]

I've noticed the Wii slowdown as well.  Besides obviously starting to hit a price/saturation point, I think another big reason the Wii is starting to slow down is that its broader (or base) appeal targets a group of people who are in a spending lockdown right now.  Nintendo seems to respond pretty quickly to any sort of momentum slowing nowadays, so I expect to see a slight price drop by the end of Summer.  Either that, or a new bundle which includes Wii Sports Resort and a Motion Plus attachment for the same $250 (this may be more likely).

[Phoenix Dark]

KZ2 is going continue to sell over time like Resistance did, but clearly it was not the blockbuster title expected. Time to hype God of War 3

$40 million+ budget right?

[duckman2000]

KZ2 is going continue to sell over time like Resistance did, but clearly it was not the blockbuster title expected. Time to hype God of War 3

$40 million+ budget right?

God of War III? I doubt the budget for that game is anywhere near that. If KZ2 development was a bit over 20 million, then a game from a much more stable studio and with much less to fix should reasonably be much less expensive. Hopefully (for Sony itself) they set aside some money for advertising, although at least that one doesn't have to fight against its own reputation.

[Kestastrophe]

God of War III? I doubt the budget for that game is anywhere near that. If KZ2 development was a bit over 20 million, then a game from a much more stable studio and with much less to fix should reasonably be much less expensive. Hopefully (for Sony itself) they set aside some money for advertising, although at least that one doesn't have to fight against its own reputation.

I seem to remember many of GoW cutscenes taking place in realtime, as opposed to CG, even though they did have some CG scenes. That by itself is probably a big difference in the budget.

[duckman2000]

I haven't played KZ2 in two weeks :/

They really need to patch in a party system so I can play it.

4 out of 5 people I know who bought the game have dropped online play, in part because of that issue, but also because of problems like murder-suicide lag which is still in the game despite Guerrilla claiming that it would be fixed for release, and other issues that were already present in the beta version (and for me personally, balance issues). They have been fairly good with supporting the game post release, but it does feel like there are some pretty fundamental problems that shouldn't be in a retail version.

Oh, and apparently those two new maps are, in fact, going to cost money. For two fucking maps. 

[WrikaWrek]

The reason why many Wii games, and many games in general happen to have big legs, despite having bomb launches, is because they drop in price like mad.

If a wii game ends up selling 500k in the long run because it went from 59$ to 19$, that shit doesn't mean it was successful.

And i still can't believe Insomniac is gonna put out yet another goddamn Ratchet, take a hint man.

[WrikaWrek]

KZ2 is going continue to sell over time like Resistance did, but clearly it was not the blockbuster title expected. Time to hype God of War 3

$40 million+ budget right?

God of War III? I doubt the budget for that game is anywhere near that. If KZ2 development was a bit over 20 million, then a game from a much more stable studio and with much less to fix should reasonably be much less expensive. Hopefully (for Sony itself) they set aside some money for advertising, although at least that one doesn't have to fight against its own reputation.

Ok let's get real here.

Gears of War 1, was made by a 30 man team, and it cost 10 million $ to make. This is without factoring in the cost of the development of U3....

God Of war 1, was made for like 20 million dollars, if i remember a Jaffe comment back then. Shenmue had a 70 million dollar budget (1 + 2), GTAIV is reported to be around 100 million, Assassins Creed was like 50 million, MGs4 like 50 million, Final Fantasy XII was almost 50 million, Half Life 2 cost 40 million it was said by Gabe Newell, etc etc

So, anyway, a 130 man team, a 4 year plan, built from scratch state of the art engine, etc etc, and somebody is gonna try to convince me that, Killzone 2 was a just a bit over 20 million, and God Of war 3 is gonna be made for even less?

What, does Sony have the patents to cheap labor or some shit? Is Kaz Hirai like some alternate version of Willy Wanka, and they have all these humpla ooplas midgets wearing spandex, writing code and shit!?

I don't think so

[duckman2000]

A budget of more than 20 million is the only number we have, I think. But that's based on a comparison to another Dutch project, and it was never said if it was a lot or just a little more than that. 20 million is probably not correct. Still, I doubt God of War 3 is going to need anywhere near the budget of KZ2, for the reasons stated.

[WrikaWrek]

I agree

[duckman2000]

I wonder about that Gears of War budget, though. Does that include marketing?

[WrikaWrek]

Never includes marketing. They are production budgets.

For example, Halo 3 only cost 30 million to develop, "only", as if, with that shitty engine and art assets of theirs, and 6 hour campaign, yeah...Bungie must be one of the highest paid devs out there, jesus christ.

But anyway, you add Marketing to that Halo 3 budget, and it probably went like 80 or 90 million, shit maybe more, considering how crazy it was.

It's the Quantum of Solace of games, 230 million budget? Like what the fuck, where did the moneyz go!?

[EmCeeGrammar]

The reason why many Wii games, and many games in general happen to have big legs, despite having bomb launches, is because they drop in price like mad.

If a wii game ends up selling 500k in the long run because it went from 59$ to 19$, that shit doesn't mean it was successful.

And i still can't believe Insomniac is gonna put out yet another goddamn Ratchet, take a hint man.

Although true for some games, others like De Blob, WaWWii, and Boom Blox have demonstrated strong legs within a price range of 40-50 dollars.

In other news, COD4 ds is at 500k after 13 months. Opened at 30k. Holy shit.

edit: Wii games hardly ever cost more than 50 dude

[WrikaWrek]

I wouldn't know.

[Purple Filth]

There was a rumored interview with Yoshida (the new Sony software head dude after phil split) saying that killzones budget is 2nd highest and GOW 3 is the highst with supposedly 45-50 million.

but their was never any article found about this interview.

[duckman2000]

I don't buy it. There's too much in place already for this game to cost that much. I know the first one was expensive, but that was an original idea that had to be developed and directed from the ground up.

[Bocsius]

I've noticed the Wii slowdown as well.  Besides obviously starting to hit a price/saturation point, I think another big reason the Wii is starting to slow down is that its broader (or base) appeal targets a group of people who are in a spending lockdown right now.  Nintendo seems to respond pretty quickly to any sort of momentum slowing nowadays, so I expect to see a slight price drop by the end of Summer.  Either that, or a new bundle which includes Wii Sports Resort and a Motion Plus attachment for the same $250 (this may be more likely).

Incredible slowdown. Highest Q1 sales ever. Second highest March ever (1st: last year's Wii coming out of January/February shortages). Just because you can actually find these things on shelves doesn't mean the emperor is dying. Shipments are up. And I wouldn't read anything into lower weekly sales for March. Fun fact: PS2 March sales were always lower than February despite having an additional week. April sales were even lower. Meanwhile, only once did PS2 crack 600K outside of the holiday season, and that was in June of 2002 following the $100 drop to $199 at E3 in May.

This "fad" still has some life in it, folks.

Nintendo

[Eel O'Brian]

on the other hand, i don't really give a shit, so i don't know why i even posted that

all i know is they aren't really moving on ebay anymore

[duckman2000]

That's good news, though. I've been waiting for the Ebay market to crash, and it will be nice when the prices are down to around 360 level (100-150 for a premium package).

[Kestastrophe]

Damn, that's crazy. I sold my Wii in November for $350 and only included a few extras (xtra controller and nunchuk, charger, few games). Good timing me 

[Phoenix Dark]

KZ2 is going continue to sell over time like Resistance did, but clearly it was not the blockbuster title expected. Time to hype God of War 3

$40 million+ budget right?

God of War III? I doubt the budget for that game is anywhere near that. If KZ2 development was a bit over 20 million, then a game from a much more stable studio and with much less to fix should reasonably be much less expensive. Hopefully (for Sony itself) they set aside some money for advertising, although at least that one doesn't have to fight against its own reputation.

Whoops, I was referring to KZ2's budget not GOWIII.

[duckman2000]

Yeah, I did pretty well with my Wii too. Not a big profit, but a profit nonetheless, and I used it for a good 3 months.

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

I too made a profit when I sold my Wii.

At this point, the only thing that is worth owning on the thing is Mario Galaxy and as good as that game is, it isn't worth $300 to get a Wii and a copy of it.  Previously, the upside is that you could buy them, play them, and then sell it off for a profit or at the very worst, a slight loss.  With the lower prices on Ebay and more seen in stores, this incentive is now gone.