European Console Sales 2010

[corduroygt]

Kinect gave MS a nice boost in the 5 main EU countries that are tracked:

 

[tuna]

This is an irrelevant anecdote. Do you have any proof or sales numbers?

Also consoles are illegal in China. Though there is some gray market N64 type pirate stuff, there isn't PS360 stuff. So there goes the largest market in asia by far...

Have you been in China?

 

[NavNucST3]

You are the one asking why they didn't just put 360s on the same trucks the PS3s were on. The answer is because no one ordered them. It's your hypothetical, not mine.

My "hypothetical"? Where did I ask "why don't they put them on the same trucks"? Take off your blue shaded glasses and follow the conversation better; AlphaWolf's post sums it up perfectly: "Can't isn't the right word."

THAT is what the conversation is about but since you want to take the conversation to a different place, business dealings and relationships, well with that I would be highly interested in the source of your "business dealings" conclusion what I'm really looking for is the contrasting statements made by MSFT and SNE regarding their international distribution. Anyway this is an EU or EMEA or PAL thread so I'm done differentiating between logistics and distribution. Maybe I'm way off but I know that even here in the states small/tiny shops almost always have to go through an in-country distributor because the DON'T have some special relationship with manufacturers. An anecdote that I am becoming frustratingly familiar with is as I await my projector a JVC DLA-RS40 it turns out that the entire first and seemingly second shipments of that projector went to AVAD. AVAD is the company that is the distributor to "most" of the smaller/independent dealers of home theatre equipment. As far as JVC is concerned their logistics and distribution stop once items gets to AVAD the same way that MSFT and SNE stops once it hits BBY or GME. If these other countries don't have anything like that in place please let me know as I am dying for another emerging market investment.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

And what about capcom + square etc, you know those companies that actually know how to make a profit

Sure Square Enix is easy. (http://www.square-enix.com/eng/news/pdf/11q3earnings.pdf)

They don't provide a break down by region for 2010, but I don't think it'll be significantly different from 2009. As well before you start throwing accusations about companies that know how to make money, Square Enix is down 27.5% YoY for net sales and down 58% YoY for operating income. Unfortunately they've mixed up and consolidated their business divisions so it's impossible to say how gaming did YoY. If we assume their new Digital Entertainment Division is basically the old Games division it has seen a rather massive drop in net sales. The other divisions had relatively minor drops in operating income except merchandising which is tiny compared to the other divisions.

Anyway their breakdown of sales by region for 9 months ending Dec. 2009 has Asia (Mostly China + Korea) at 0.1% of net sales.

It's interesting to note that for those 9 months ending Dec. 2009, losses in Europe (-888 million Yen) almost completely wiped out their profits from North America (+954 million Yen) but were both completely dwarfed by profits inside of Japan (21.29 Billion Yen).

Square Enix aren't exactly someone you want to look at for global performance. They are actually one of the smaller players in Japan and almost insignificant WW compared to other Japanese players much less the far larger Western publishers.

Capcom is doing far better but is also a small player compared to the Western Devs in terms of revenue. (http://www.capcom.co.jp/ir/english/data/pdf/result/2010/3rd/result_2010_3rd_01.pdf )

But at least they are making a profit and increased both Net Sales and Net Income quite significantly YoY. So while they generate a fraction of the revenue of EA (9 months for Capcom was a little more than 3 months for EA), they are at least making a profit. And both of them are less than Activision Blizzard. [Edit] Whoops my bad, I was looking at wrong data. 9 months of Capcom (866 million USD) for equivalent time period is less than 3 months of EA (1 billion USD). 9 months EA for same time period comes to 2.5 billion USD. But that's countered by the fact that EA lost 457 million USD for those 9 months while Capcom made 156 million USD

Anyway, for Capcom the rest of the world other than Japan, NA, and Europe comes to 1.69% of net sales. Still looking pretty grim there.

NA is second to Japan in net sales while Europe is just more than half of NA in net sales while being less than 1/3 of NA in operating income.

Activision Blizzard should do the best out of all publishers in the rest of the world due to their hold on Korea. (http://investor.activision.com/secfiling.cfm?filingID=1104659-10-56564) Unfortunately 9 months ending Sept, 2010 as there isn't a new report yet as it encompasses January.

And unfortunately they don't seperate Japan, it's included in the whole Asia Pacific region. But that also tends to drive home the point even more. Asia Pacific comes to a total of 7.17% of net revenue.

Hmm, and the trend continues with Europe behind NA. in terns of revenue generation.

How about Sega? They are certainly the largest Japanese publisher although it has to be taken into account that they have pachislot and amusement operations. Unfortunately they either don't sell to countries outside of the traditional markets, or its so insignificant that they don't break it out from Japan. But at least here Europe for 2009 (FY 2010) was just slightly ahead of the United States.

Anyway, you'll find that the more financial reports you look through, the more the point is driven through that outside of the traditional markets (Japan, NA, and Europe) sales are fairly insignificant.

I'd be surprised that even if you included Korean PC MMO developers, that the percentage of total WW spending on video games software would even approach 5%. I wouldn't be surprised if it is at most 1%.

Regards,
SB

 

[Brad Grenz]

My "hypothetical"? Where did I ask "why don't they put them on the same trucks"? Take off your blue shaded glasses and follow the conversation better; AlphaWolf's post sums it up perfectly: "Can't isn't the right word."

Where? In your post I quoted in my initial response. I'll quote it again and bold the part you apparently forgot:

This is still...I mean...are you under the impression that Microsoft would not be able to put their merchandise on the same truck? You are making it seem as if there is some magical way of moving hundreds to thousands of products in a country. Its like people don't believe that the PS3 line is near the 360 line at foxconn or that these items aren't on the exact same freighters and half the time the same trucking companies. There isn't really a difference between moving hardware and moving software they are all on a pallet on a truck sure you can get more copies of windows on a pallet than you can some PCs but those items are making the same trip (generally). Warehouse, truck, freighter, truck, warehouse, and then some deviance but getting into the country there is no magic fairy that gets one companies products into the country that the other companies can't and don't use. I think some are confusing strategic planning with logistical capabilities.

What you seem to be confused about is the "business dealings" ARE the distribution network, in a very real sense. That's all I was saying in my initial post. Having a great global distribution network is more about sales reps and business relationships with retailers than it is about pallets and trucks and container ships. It's not a separate topic. It is THE topic.

 

[zed]

How about Sega? They are certainly the largest Japanese publisher

Konami is more than twice the size of sega, its about the same size as EA, though unlike them, they make profits

Also you might wanna check Rangers post again, he said

Revenue for everything besides Europe/North America (NA was larger than Europe as usual) was 5%. North America was 50% and Europe was 45%.

i.e. Japan wasnt being counted, Im sure they account for more than 5% of all software worldwide.
Yes perhaps they sont for a single company but if you look at the whole picture this wont be the case

 

[dobwal]

Konami is more than twice the size of sega, its about the same size as EA, though unlike them, they make profits.

Konami is more than a video game developer and publisher, its business spans from realestate to health and fitness to slot machines. Those businesses aren't small. Konami owns 200 health and fitness clubs and 150 sport facilities.

Konami only releases like 8 games a year with only half being worldwide releases. We are talking Metal Gear Peace Walker, Winning 11, PE and Castlevania as there only worldwide release in their fiscal year 2011. The publishing business is a fraction of EA.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Konami is more than twice the size of sega, its about the same size as EA, though unlike them, they make profits

Konami is interesting. But still smaller than Sega (http://www.konami.co.jp/zaimu/1012/1012_english.pdf ).

Sega just released their financial data for 3Q FY 2011 today, so I can finally include that (http://www.segasammy.co.jp/english/pdf/release/2011033q_tanshin_e.pdf )

Net Revenue
Konami through 9 months - 2.29 billion USD.
Sega through 9 months - 3.77 billion USD.

From here on for the rest of this post, assume any currency values is in USD.

Operating Income/Net Income
Konami through 9 months - 201 million/117 million
Sega through 9 months - 766 million/488 million.

Capcom is extremely impressive considering their level of sales is absolutely dwarfed by both Konami and Sega.

Capcom Net Revenue/Operating Income/Net Income

Capcome through 9 months - 861 million/155 million/83 million.

The Capcom net revenue expressed in USD is slightly different from yesterday due to changing exchange rates. Anyway, I got sidetracked a bit here on the Capcom numbers just because of how much profit they make on relatively low levels of revenue (when compared to other publishers). Although take into account that Capcom has far less arcade operations and retail merchandising than either Konami or Sega.

Now back on track. So if we focus only on the home gaming segments, Konami does come out ahead, so you're correct on that front. Here things get a little muddy however.

Konami Digital Entertainment consists of PC and console games, "Amusement" (unsure what this may be), Card games, and all Online things (probably includes cell phone).

Sega Consumer Business consists of home games sales, toys, cell phone related items, and anime movies.

So while they are somewhat comparable to each other, they aren't comparable to Western publishers or even other Japanese publishers. And it's impossible to know how much of the follow values are due to consoles games.

Konami through 9 months - 1,185 million
Sega through 9 months - 814 million

Konami has some signficant Social networking games in there (like Facebook except Japanese). Sega has significant toy sales (Bakugan, Zoobles, etc.). So yeah, Konami is most likely the largest software publishers in Japan.

Other regions ends up at 2.88% for Konami for the 9 months. While it was only 0.9% for Sega for FY 2010 (current FY is 2011). But these numbers aren't very useful as the majority of revenue for each company is unrelated to console or PC gaming. Less than 25% for Konami and far less than 20% for Sega.

Even if we assumed that all the revenue for Konami's Digital Entertainment division was for console and PC, that still puts them far behind the larger western publishers.

And actually when looking back on all this. Capcom may actually be larger than Konami and certainly larger than Sega for Video game (console + PC) revenue.

BTW - thanks for making me look through all this stuff. Digging through fiancial reports is fun stuff.

Also you might wanna check Rangers post again, he said

i.e. Japan wasnt being counted, Im sure they account for more than 5% of all software worldwide.
Yes perhaps they sont for a single company but if you look at the whole picture this wont be the case

Ah yes, if you included Japan + rest of world is likely to be ~10-15% of WW console spending if you take into account all publishers. This is due to the fact that while NA and Europe remain significant markets for Japanese publishers, the Japanese market is relatively insignificant for Western Developers. Combine that with the fact that with regards to console + PC revenue, the largest Japanese publisher is, IIRC, 7th or 8th on the list of highest revenue console + PC publishers.

For example, Sega's home video game software division sold the following number of copies in the 3rd quarter of FY 2011.

5.77 million copies in the US
5.95 million copies in Europe
1.9 million copies in Japan.

And this is a quarter in which their overseas sales "remained slow as affected by adverse market conditions." If not for those conditions they would have sold even more copies in the US and Europe.

But Sega is prehaps the most Western centric of the Japanese publishers with far more titles targetted at the western markets. Konami should show a greater proportion of sales in Japan with titles that only sell in Japan (LovePlusPlus for example ). But even they rely heavily on US and European sales of their international titles. Konami, I think has perhaps the largest library of Japanese only game titles.

Regards,
SB

 

[zed]

sorry I didnt know that konami also done other stuff than games looks like ~55% games + ~45% other stuff, though it looks the same with sega

Sega Sammy operations take place in four distinctive segments

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_Sammy_Holdings
Pachinko / Pachislot (Sammy)
Amusement Machines (Sega)
Amusement Facilities (Sega)
Consumer Business (Sega)


about the revenue sizes I got the info from here, if you disagree then update the page (you will have to use the last full financial year results though + not 9 months)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konami
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega

 

[Silent_Buddha]

sorry I didnt know that konami also done other stuff than games looks like ~55% games + ~45% other stuff, though it looks the same with sega

Sega Sammy operations take place in four distinctive segments

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_Sammy_Holdings
Pachinko / Pachislot (Sammy)
Amusement Machines (Sega)
Amusement Facilities (Sega)
Consumer Business (Sega)


about the revenue sizes I got the info from here, if you disagree then update the page (you will have to use the last full financial year results though + not 9 months)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konami
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega

Nope, after getting a chance to dig through both companies Q3 reports, Sega as a company pulls in more revenue, however Konami has a far larger console + PC gaming revenue income than Sega. Sega has far more revenue generated in their pachislot machines, Amusement arcades, Movies, TV Shows, Toys, etc...

So you were correct in the spirit of your statement that Konami is twice the size, since I'm assuming you mean their console + PC gaming revenue. But incorrect technically if you mean the revenue generated by the company.

What is interesting however, is that Sega pulls in more revenue outside of Japan than Konami does. I believe it was in one of the Yearly financial reports for Capcom that had Sega as the highest revenue generator of the Japanese companies (8th out of all publishers) in Europe for example. But that makes sense as Konami released a LOT of Japanese only games. Although Capcom in the report didn't provide data for the US market, so that could skew things back to another company, as Sega is one of the few Japanese companies that does better in Europe than it does in the US.

Regards,
SB

 

[Rangers]

Some France sales, from google translate of this page, interview with Microsoft

http://www.gamekult.com/actu/microsoft-le-pari-est-reussi-A0000090335.html?p=2

But the French installed base, it is located in what order?

The year 2010 is greater than 2009 in terms of volumes. Globally, it's the biggest year for the Xbox 360 with 50 million consoles. We experienced two phases: a difficult first half, resulting from the Christmas complicated, and a very strong second half in terms of growth, buoyed by the launch of the new model Xbox 360. But Fable and KINECTS. We're talking about a growth of 36% over the second half of 2010 compared to 2009, when our two competitors are falling.

French and this installed base, then?

We're over in December, the 2.2 million consoles sold in France. We are in third position, certainly, but we must look at the dynamics compared to the previous generation of consoles: the original Xbox was a little less than a million machines sold in France. We are in the middle of the cycle, we can greatly exceed that figure. For us to tickle the Wii, with KINECTS, for the PlayStation 3 ... as the PS2 was hegemonic, with 5.5 million installed base, as it is here at 2.8 million. We, we are increasing compared to the previous generation - not them. Globally, for cons, the Xbox 360 is in front of the PlayStation 3.

For France, you claim therefore growth compared to 2009?

It is 13%, yes. But with a much higher end of the year, so.

Side games finally, what are the success to remember for this year 2010?

I can not connect to the volumes, some belong to third party publishers, but the biggest seller is obviously Call of Duty: Black Ops . Follows then FIFA 11 and Halo: Reach and Assassin's Creed , Dead Red Redemption , Fable and not very far. And what is interesting is that we also found KINECTS Sports - more than 100,000 rooms in France - and Dance Central has surpassed the 70,000 pieces. A great success. It was over 300,000 pieces of KINECTS sold in France (note: the interview was conducted Jan. 21).
So

I have not heard Alan Wake, in all this ... it is a disappointment?

A disappointment ... (He thinks). In terms of product quality, no. It is a game gun which will be discussed for a long time, and who may have been underestimated. Much has been made a game out from the competitor ( Heavy Rain , ed), but a perspective gameplay is a success. Commercially now, Alan Wake has sold more than 50,000 pieces, so it is not a disappointment, I would have liked more ...

Summary:

-Xbox in third
-2.2m LTD, vs 2.8m PS3 LTD
-But claim growth in 2nd half of 2k10, vs falling competitors
-300,000 Kinect, 50,000 Alan Wake

He also says in there in regards to hardware SKU's, that the 250GB models are strong in the first 9 months of the year where hardcore gamers predominate, but the 4GB picks up in the last three months when more families buy. Interesting but makes sense.

 

[whome0]

As always, all that matters is how games sell in Finland. After reading numbers its no doubt this is a strong PS3 arena. Statistics can only show games sold in finnish shops, but consumers are well educated to use VAT free netshops in Jersey Islands (englands canal) and Åland (finlands island, not part of EU VAT).

source: FIGMA

Physical games sales
2010  108,6M euros, 3.045.000 units
2009  101,1M euros, 2.783.000 units

Online sales (PC, consoles, cell phones, other devices)
2010  18M euros
2009  15M euros

Games sales ratios, euros
PC              13,8%
Consoles        86,2%
  PS3     36,1%
  X360    19,9%
  Wii     16,1% 
  PS2      7,3%
  NDS      5,8%
  PSP      1,0%

Games sales ratios, units
PC             20,2% 
Consoles       79,8%
  PS3    27,9%
  X360   15,5%
  Wii    13,0%
  PS2    15,0%
  NDS     5,9%
  PSP     2,5%

First time in history total sales of finnish game companies was over 100M euros. To name few 
Remedy (Alan Wake), Bugbear (Flatout), Housemarque (SuperstardustHD, Dead Nation), 
Futuremark (Shattered Horizon, 3DMark), Frozenbyte (Trine), Redlynx (Trials HD), 
Rovio (Angry Birds), Ludocraft, Sulake (Habbo hotel), Recoil (cancelled Earth No More, Rochard), 
Nitro Games (East India Company)

[B]Sales units, games released 2010[/B]
Gran Turismo 5        PS3       47 571
NHL 11                PS3       41 149
Singstar finnish hits PS3       25 329
Singstar finnish hits PS2       25 133
WoW: Cataclysm        PC        24 760
Kinect Adventures     X360      23 025
NHL 11                X360      21 727
NHL Slapshot          Wii       20 949
Call of Duty: Black Ops PS3     20 420
Red Dead Redemption   PS3       20 390
Halo Reach            X360      20 022
Super Mario Galaxy 2  Wii       17 750
Battlefield:Bad Company 2 PC    14 479
Sports Champions      PS3       14 090
Red Dead Redemption   X360      14 030
Mass Effect 2         X360      13 289
Call Of Duty: Black Ops X360    13 210
Call Of Duty: Black Ops PC      12 380
Battlefield:Bad Company 2 PS3   12 248
The Sims 3 Dream Job  PC        12 023
Sly Trilogy           PS3       11 911
FIFA 11               PS3       11 874
The Sims 3 Iltahuvit  PC        11 525
Starcraft 2:Wings Of Liberty PC 11 320
Heavy Rain            PS3       11 274
Alan Wake             X360      10 149
Wii Party             Wii       10 061

[B]Sales units, since release year[/B]
The Sims 2            PC       121 223   2004
World Of Warcraft     PC       101 580   2005
Counter-Strike 1: Anthology PC  60 499   2005
Wii Sports Resort     Wii       60 301   2009
Wii Fit               Wii       60 172   2008
Gran Turismo 5        PS3       47 571   2010
NHL 11                PS3       41 149   2010
SingStar finnish pop  PS3       40 101   2009 (not finnish hits -edition)
The Sims 3            PC        40 045   2009

 

[zed]

switzerland 2010

Nintendo Wii 93'217 36%
Sony PS3 112'362 43%
Xbox 360 50'762 19%

top30
1 CALL OF DUTY 7: BLACK OPS ACTIVISION BLIZZARD SONY PS3 18
2 FIFA 11 ELECTRONIC ARTS SONY PS3 3
3 GRAN TURISMO 5 SONY SONY PS3 3
4 NEW SUPER MARIO BROS NINTENDO NINTENDO WII 3
5 SUPER MARIO GALAXY 2 NINTENDO NINTENDO WII 3
6 WII-FIT PLUS NINTENDO NINTENDO WII 3
7 WII SPORTS RESORT - INCL. MOTION PLUS NINTENDO NINTENDO WII 3
8 MARIO KART - INCL. WHEEL NINTENDO NINTENDO WII 3
9 RED DEAD REDEMPTION TAKE 2 SONY PS3 18
10 ASSASSIN'S CREED - BROTHERHOOD UBISOFT SONY PS3 18
11 NEW SUPER MARIO BROS NINTENDO NINTENDO DS 3
12 CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE 2 ACTIVISION BLIZZARD SONY PS3 18
13 CALL OF DUTY 7: BLACK OPS ACTIVISION BLIZZARD MICROSOFT XBOX 360 18
14 WII PARTY - INCL. WIIMOTE NINTENDO NINTENDO WII 3
15 POKEMON SOULSILVER - NINTENDO NINTENDO DS 3
16 STARCRAFT 2: WINGS OF LIBERTY ACTIVISION BLIZZARD PC 16
17 NEED FOR SPEED HOT PURSUIT (LTD ED.) ELECTRONIC ARTS SONY PS3 12
18 FIFA FUSSBALL WELTMEISTERSCHAFT 2010 ELECTRONIC ARTS SONY PS3 3
19 WORLD OF WARCRAFT: CATACLYSM - ADD- ACTIVISION BLIZZARD PC 12
20 GOD OF WAR 3 SONY SONY PS3 18
21 POKEMON HEARTGOLD NINTENDO NINTENDO DS 3
22 CALL OF DUTY 7: BLACK OPS ACTIVISION BLIZZARD PC 18
23 DONKEY KONG COUNTRY RETURNS NINTENDO NINTENDO WII 3
24 F1 2010 CODEMASTER SONY PS3 3
25 MARIO & SONIC BEI DEN OLYMPISCHEN WINTERSPIELEN SEGA NINTENDO DS 3
26 MARIO KART NINTENDO NINTENDO DS 3
27 HEAVY RAIN SONY SONY PS3 18
28 BATTLEFIELD BAD COMPANY 2 (LTD. ED.) ELECTRONIC ARTS SONY PS3 16
29 HALO REACH MICROSOFT MICROSOFT XBOX 360 16
30 FIFA 11 ELECTRONIC ARTS MICROSOFT XBOX 360 3

ps3 - 12
wii - 7
xbox360 -3

Units sold compared to US (per head of population)
ps3 +36% // i.e. a 1/3 more of the pop are buying ps's compared to the US pop
wii -31%
xbox360 -61% // i.e. less than half the pop are buying xb's compared to the US pop

 

[Rangers]

A ton of Europe 2010 data from Chart Track/GFK via MCV. http://www.mcvuk.com/digital-edition/download/244


Ordered by revenue but the number is units:

Top 20 Games by Revenue* Across Europe** in 2010:

1 Call of Duty: Black Ops (Activision Blizzard) - 6,277,172
2 FIFA 11 (Electronic Arts) - 5,451,456
3 Wii Fit Plus + Board (Nintendo) - 2,151,697
4 Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar) - 2,436,098
5 Gran Turismo 5 (Sony) - 2,007,907
6 Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood (Ubisoft) - 1,904,946
7 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Activision Blizzard) - 1,999,337
8 New Super Mario Bros Wii (Nintendo) - 2,158,993
9 Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (Electronic Arts) - 1,757,628
10 Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 (Konami) - 1,607,839
11 Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (Electronic Arts) - 1,452,738
12 Wii Party (Nintendo) - 1,612,228
13 Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Nintendo) - 1,481,350
14 FIFA 10 (Electronic Arts) - 1,985,798
15 Final Fantasy XIII (Square Enix) - 1,116,361
16 Halo: Reach (Microsoft) - 1,176,531
17 Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo) - 1,442,392
18 The Sims 3 (Electronic Arts) - 1,325,483
19 F1 2010 (Codemasters) - 1,111,331
20 Medal of Honor (Electronic Arts) - 1,206,900

Kind of a who's who of big franchises there at the top. The Hd consoles dominating Nintendo now pretty well too.

**Europe being the 17 states below.

Ordered by Physical Software Units:

United Kingdom: 63 million
Germany: 51 million
France: 37 million
Italy: 17 million
Spain: 17 million
Russia: 12 million
The Netherlands: 10 million
Belgium: 7 million
Poland: 7 million
Austria: 5 million
Sweden: 5 million
Denmark: 2 million
Hungary: 2 million
Ireland: 2 million
Portugal: 2 million
Czech Republic: <2 million
Slovakia: <2 million

 

[rekator]

I got the feeling that Reach don't sell lot in EU, but not in this range, more 2M for me… Not good.
EU is the COD Land? How Black Ops and MW2 sell in US on 2010?

 

[menmau]

I believe that the reason why UK is in the top is due to cost of games.
Since in my country new games can cost more than twice, compared to what they cost in certain online shops on UK.

 

[Rangers]

I got the feeling that Reach don't sell lot in EU, but not in this range, more 2M for me… Not good.
EU is the COD Land? How Black Ops and MW2 sell in US on 2010?

Well, it sold almost 1.2m versus Euro fave GT5 doing 2m, so to me that's pretty good.

But yes, compared to America big difference. Halo brand is definitely weakening, though it's still pretty powerful.

I think it could be that first party altogether is weakening, compared to multiplatform. Multiplatform devs have way bigger budgets to sink into their products and it begins to show. You wouldn't see a Red Dead or even LA Noire as an exclusive, too ambitious. Similarly multiplat COD has stolen Halo's spotlight. I cant think of a "huge" first party exclusive anymore, Gears, Halo and Uncharted would probably be the biggest candidates, but they're still notably smaller than the multi stuff.

EU is the COD Land? How Black Ops and MW2 sell in US on 2010?

Very well, COD is king worldwide, except Japan.

Black Ops seems like it could hit 30 million one day. Has to be at 20-25 million easily already, especially shipped.

 

[AlphaWolf]

Black Ops seems like it could hit 30 million one day. Has to be at 20-25 million easily already, especially shipped.

They announced 13.7 million in the US alone in March. If you add the Europe number for 2010 that's 20 million already (europe 2010 + march US numbers). 6 more months in europe and 3 more months of US and it might be near 25 million in just those 2 regions. Another million or so for Canada plus whatever it does in Asia/Aus and South America it might be near that 30 million already.

 

[zed]

Overall a very boring top 20 list of games IMO apart from maybe the sims 3 (and thats a sequel) and possibly read dead reception

Well, it sold almost 1.2m versus Euro fave GT5 doing 2m, so to me that's pretty good.

GT5 was available for 5 weeks vs reach 14 weeks

One thing thats changed is Fifa in europe is now quite a lot bigger than madden is in the US, I believe the opposite used to be the case

Will MW3 keep the COD trend with the subscription model, I hope not, but its not looking good

 

[Laa-Yosh]

Halo brand is definitely weakening, though it's still pretty powerful.

Or maybe it was just that the game had no Master Chief in it, being more of a spin-off than a "full" Halo game. H4 is going to show us how much interest is left there for the brand.

I think it could be that first party altogether is weakening, compared to multiplatform. Multiplatform devs have way bigger budgets to sink into their products and it begins to show. You wouldn't see a Red Dead or even LA Noire as an exclusive, too ambitious.

Halo Reach seemed like it had a very big budget, both for development and for marketing. Then again it's also true that there aren't many other big exclusive games left on the X360.

Similarly multiplat COD has stolen Halo's spotlight. I cant think of a "huge" first party exclusive anymore, Gears, Halo and Uncharted would probably be the biggest candidates, but they're still notably smaller than the multi stuff.

COD is a quite unique phenomenon which no-one really, fully understands, IMHO.
Still, there is a lot of criticism around the net and mostly in the hc gamer community already, but so far sales are obviously getting stronger. There's no sign of weakening yet, but I wouldn't expect it to remain as dominant as it is for much longer.