NPD May 2010

ModNation Racers (Sony), Split/Second (Disney), and Blur (Activision) failed to light up U.S. sales charts. ModNation Racers, a PlayStation 3 exclusive, was the only new racing title to crack the top 15, while debuts from Blur and Split/Second - both multiplatform titles - were out of the top 30.

http://uk.xbox360.ign.com/articles/110/1103488p1.html

Ouch, and Blur was a AAA funded game wasn't it? Not sure about the other two, although I know many here on the forums were looking forward to ModNation Racers. At least debuting in the top 15 gives it some chance that over time it could still end up doing well. Especially if it inspires a cult following and gets good word of mouth.

The others not even cracking the top 30 though. Ouch.

Regards,
SB
 
Ouch, and Blur was a AAA funded game wasn't it?

Regards,
SB

Its probably even more painful considering they gave up making a game like Project Gotham 5 where they would have been assured of close to if not more than 1M sales and instant name recognition. I wonder if now is the time for them to lick their wounds and come back to Microsoft and ask nicely if they could please continue to make PGR games!

If Microsoft were interested, they may even get a chance to pick these up quite cheaply as it could be the only way these guys actually stay in business if Activision drops them from their publishing roster. I don't see Kotick taking too kindly to failure. It'd be an opportunity to CODerise their racing franchises and make sure Turn 10 gets a longer 3-4 year cycle if these guys can fill in the alternate time slots.

Edit: My bad, they are owned by Activision. Well aint they are pretty awesome purchase. Hence the reason why Microsoft doesn't buy at all that many studios anymore, its because of risks like this where the new companies next game flops completely!
 
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Its probably even more painful considering they gave up making a game like Project Gotham 5 where they would have been assured of close to if not more than 1M sales and instant name recognition. I wonder if now is the time for them to lick their wounds and come back to Microsoft and ask nicely if they could please continue to make PGR games!

If Microsoft were interested, they may even get a chance to pick these up quite cheaply as it could be the only way these guys actually stay in business if Activision drops them from their publishing roster. I don't see Kotick taking too kindly to failure. It'd be an opportunity to CODerise their racing franchises and make sure Turn 10 gets a longer 3-4 year cycle if these guys can fill in the alternate time slots.

Edit: My bad, they are owned by Activision. Well aint they are pretty awesome purchase. Hence the reason why Microsoft doesn't buy at all that many studios anymore, its because of risks like this where the new companies next game flops completely!

It make sense for MS to beef up turn 10 and have the bigger studio work on pgr and forza anyway. They can share engines and assets
 
you do realize (obviously not) that its tracking orders thus sold out products or products not yet available are still counted if someone orders it
eg ATM the top 3 are those
Final Fantasy XIV Collector's Edition, Metroid: Other M, Crackdown 2
you cant physically get those ATM but ppl are ordering them, thus its quite a good indicattion of what will likely sell well) btw ATM after that most titles are available now eg "Super Mario Galaxy 2" nr 4 on list, this is not only software but also hardware eg kinect + move are there on the list (but u cant get one now)
ATM theyre in stock (my post was from 1.5 months ago when they were soldout) though I agree sony has been terrible about keeping up with demand, perhaps theyve been shipping ps3 over to europe instead of the US where they gain more money?

Yes I know all that. Doesn't change that going by Amazon, PS3 would have been defeating 360 in hardware sales handily for the past 1-2 years, where NPD told a different story.

I'm just saying, if you think Amazon is going to reflect NPD, you're in for a rude awaking.

It's not just the hardware, software also seems somewhat erroneous there.

You dont have to look far, right now 360 slim is #13, PS3 120GB is #15. By that they're selling similarly. Yet according to, that one controversial site, 360 has outsold PS3 some ~150k-50k the last couple weeks in the USA. Next NPD (in two weeks) you should be looking at 400-500k 360 easy.

I def think Amazon has some value, it's a lot of fun to look at and to gauge trends, but it shouldn't be taken too seriously.
 
Its probably even more painful considering they gave up making a game like Project Gotham 5 where they would have been assured of close to if not more than 1M sales and instant name recognition. I wonder if now is the time for them to lick their wounds and come back to Microsoft and ask nicely if they could please continue to make PGR games!

If Microsoft were interested, they may even get a chance to pick these up quite cheaply as it could be the only way these guys actually stay in business if Activision drops them from their publishing roster. I don't see Kotick taking too kindly to failure. It'd be an opportunity to CODerise their racing franchises and make sure Turn 10 gets a longer 3-4 year cycle if these guys can fill in the alternate time slots.

Edit: My bad, they are owned by Activision. Well aint they are pretty awesome purchase. Hence the reason why Microsoft doesn't buy at all that many studios anymore, its because of risks like this where the new companies next game flops completely!


I imagine Microsoft got rid of them for a reason. I dont think PGR games were burning up the sales charts either.
 
I imagine Microsoft got rid of them for a reason. I dont think PGR games were burning up the sales charts either.

I'm not sure it was MS that got rid of them, or at least that the decision was so one-sided. Bizarre leapt at the chance to be owned by Activision, since they'd be the only dedicated racing house there. They also had problems with how Microsoft would favor Forza over PGR.

PGR not selling so great probably meant MS wasn't that broken up about them leaving, though. There were rumblings that MS was working on PGR5, though, and that maybe Turn 10 would do it, but I think that's all they were.
 
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ModNation Racers (Sony), Split/Second (Disney), and Blur (Activision) failed to light up U.S. sales charts. ModNation Racers, a PlayStation 3 exclusive, was the only new racing title to crack the top 15, while debuts from Blur and Split/Second - both multiplatform titles - were out of the top 30.

http://uk.xbox360.ign.com/articles/110/1103488p1.html

That'll teach them to not make fun of Mario Kart, which no doubt outsold both titles this month :grin

I hope this will teach them not to make sub-60 fps driving games!
 
Good thing ModNation has user generated content. Should help it stand out. Not sure how well they will fare if it's "only" a solid kart racer. They should fix the long load time. It is the only flaw in the game. They are bearable to me and my kid, but my wife noted the delay (We race together every few days). More people will join in the fun, especially if it's part of the PSN+ promo.

EDIT: It looks like I should subscribe to PSN+ to keep Sony rolling out creative titles despite times like this.
 
The racing title Blur, created by Bizarre Creations and published by Activision Blizzard, sold only 31,000 units during the May period measured by the NPD Group.

This includes only five days of sales, only for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, but the figure still falls well short of expectations. Last year Activision had said that it expected Blur to do “for racing what Call of Duty did for shooters”
:)

-20% $ hardware year on year (ignoring handheld) is mainly do to the average price being lower than a year ago, since wii/xbox/ps3 all sold better than the last year
 
You don't think MS managed to pile up some Slims before that month? I'd have thought this figure is conservative enough for a Slim launch?
 
If that ends up even remotely similar to the released numbers, that'll be an impressive uptick for basically no killer software release for the month.

But again, similar to PS3 Slim launch month probably a lot of current owners swapping for something a little sexier.

Regards,
SB
 
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