Microsoft 1st Party US Software Sales

[Johnny Awesome]

From launch through November 2002: (adjusted by 1.5x NPD)

HALO / NOV'01 / 2,433,687
PROJECT GOTHAM RACER / NOV'01 / 1,024,176
NFL FEVER 2002 / OCT'01 / 808,626
AMPED: SNOWBOARDING / NOV'01 / 475,135
ODDWORLD: MUNCH NOV'01 / 467,837
BLOOD WAKE / DEC'01 / 340,110
NBA INSIDE DRIVE 2002 / 293,314
FUZION FRENZY / OCT'01 / 258,474
NFL FEVER 2003 / AUG'02 / 229,899
RALLISPORT CHALLENGE / 216,885
AZURIK: RISE PERATHIA / NOV'01 / 183,876
MECH ASSAULT / NOV'02 / 177,712
NIGHTCASTER / JAN'02 / 79,417
SHENMUE 2 / OCT'02 / 76,264
BLINX: TIME SWEEPER / OCT'02 / 69,381
EXHIBITION DEMO DISK / NOV'02 / 39,567
NBA INSIDE DRIVE 2003 / OCT'02 / 35,260
SNEAKERS / OCT'02 / 19,840
QUANTUM REDSHIFT / SEP'02 / 18,045
WHACKED / OCT'02 / 12,328
KAKUTO CHOJIN / NOV'02 / 11,118

You can see that the launch titles did pretty well. MechAssault is definitely on pace for 500k units world-wide over the next year or so. Even Blinx looks like it might make it to 150k in the US.

Quantum Redshift and Kakuto Chojin were utter failures though. I can't believe how bad the cover art is for Quantum Redshift. If you take out the cutscenes and give it a better cover, this game probably would be up around 100k by now. Oh well, live and learn Microsoft.

 

[marconelly!]

It is such a shame when a game like Azurik sells so much better than Shenmue 2...

 

[Glonk]

AMPED: SNOWBOARDING / NOV'01 / 475,135

This is encouraging, I always found that game totally underrated.

Fantastic.

 

[clem64]

SHENMUE 2 / OCT'02 / 76,264

I don't get this. IIRC, the original Shenmue for DC sold over a million copies in North America. I know it's been 2 months but still, I hope sales pick up. I want Shenmue3. Shenmue2 was one of my best game this year.

 

[Glonk]

I don't see what anyone can see in Shenmue that would make it remotely interesting.

I figure more people share my opinion than not, which explains piss-poor sales...

Shenmue just appears to be one of the most boring "games" you can play.

 

[V3]

BLINX: TIME SWEEPER / OCT'02 / 69,381

What went wrong here ? The first game to used the hard disk marketing campaign not working ?

Sega should have released Shenmue 2 for DC and do Shenmue 3 for Xbox. Things would have work out better for everyone. Its just Microsoft have to step in to screw it up for everyone.

 

[DeathKnight]

It is such a shame when a game like Azurik sells so much better than Shenmue 2...

Azurik is actually quite a good game when you play through it. People instantly wrote it off after having played only an hour or two into it (the first few hours are kind of slow, but it gets interesting afterward). It easily took me about 100 hours to complete the game (that was with a walkthrough at the end, but I also spent a handful of hours exploring). On average it's probably a 60-80 hour game.

 

[iscariot]

"IIRC, the original Shenmue for DC sold over a million copies in North America"

the recent NPD chart says under 500,000. Ashame a good game like Rallisport sold less then trash like Wreckless :?

 

[Qroach]

I heard the same things about Azurik. many people think it's the best game ever since they decided to keep playing it. I always wondered what MS saw in the group that made the game, and I think it was the fact they created such a large title with only 4 programmers (a very small team at the time).

From what I understand, they re working on another MS game possibly, but who knows what...

 

[clem64]

The thing about Shenmue is that it's a very unique game which means that some will like it and others simply won't get into it. I think most people like something they can just pick up and play, which is understandable, but Shenmue is anything but that. One thing about the game is that the pace is kinda slow so if somebody can't get into what Shenmue has to offer, they will of course find the game slow and boring.

Personally what I liked about it was the sheer size of it. It's a living, breathing world that you get to interact with. The QTEs were the best part IMO (who knew carrying a pile of books could be so much fun ). The story and characters are also great. One thing's for sure, a lot of work went into it. It's too bad it didn't sell better.

 

[bukima]

From launch through November 2002: (adjusted by 1.5x NPD)

Why the adjustment?

 

[Gollum]

From launch through November 2002: (adjusted by 1.5x NPD)

Why the adjustment?

I think it has been discussed at least 100 times in the past, please search the forums for it and lets not turn this into another sales adjustment thread, thanks.

 

[Magnum PI]

are these worldwide sales ?

if it's only US sales it should be said in the topic..

do you think that NPD number only amounts for two thirds of US sales ?

so wallmart sales would equal to one third of total software sales in the US ?

and do you think that the same proportion of each game was sold in wallmart and in the average store. i'm unsure at best..

i'd rather prefer we stay with incompletes figure than to extrapolation of these figures that would give false results.

 

[BenSkywalker]

if it's only US sales it should be said in the topic..

It's NPD, it's only the US.

do you think that NPD number only amounts for two thirds of US sales ?

Johnny does, I have always figured for 60% instead of 65%.

so wallmart sales would equal to one third of total software sales in the US ?

Add Wal-Mart, K-Mart and nearly every Mom&Pop shop in the country and yes.

and do you think that the same proportion of each game was sold in wallmart and in the average store. i'm unsure at best..

Polling a sample group of 1000 people will normally give you a rather accurate sample of what the broader populace thinks. Boll 160Million people in the US and, well, you get the idea

Obviously it's not an exacting Science in terms of extrapolating the numbers, titles like BMX XXX aren't on sale at either WM or KM so it will have a far greater percentage of its sales reported then a title like Shrek or Harry Potter which are games that likely sold better at WM then a typical title in relative terms.

i'd rather prefer we stay with incompletes figure than to extrapolation of these figures that would give false results.

If you think that is the case because WM/KM/M&P's won't sell the same relative amount of titles that stores that report to NPD do then you are saying we should use a set of grossly underreported inaccurate numbers instead of relatively close proximity inaccurate numbers.

All the console sales numbers, software and hardware, are given the same treatment here as they always have been. There is no slant to favor one platform over the other in the way numbers are adjusted. The only big difference is that I tend to adjust numbers by 1.6 while Johnny uses 1.5, and this is how we have been doing it all along.

 

[MrSingh]

Qroach, are you sure that the developers of azurik are still working on another game for MS? a friend of mine (who knows one of the developers on the team that made azurik, but he might've been talking about another team) said that the team decided to focus on a PS2 project instead due to the dismal failure of their game on the Xbox platform (and blames MS/Xbox for it).

 

[Glonk]

183K copies is 182K more than it deserves, IMHO.

Perhaps if they concentrated on adding gameplay to the game it would have sold even better.

 

[Guest]

Qroach, are you sure that the developers of azurik are still working on another game for MS? a friend of mine (who knows one of the developers on the team that made azurik, but he might've been talking about another team) said that the team decided to focus on a PS2 project instead due to the dismal failure of their game on the Xbox platform (and blames MS/Xbox for it).

Must be Hunter: The Reckoning team.
A full blooded sequel on PS2 when the first did not even make the port.

 

[aneep]

is that really a sequel?

coz i get the impression that it was more like Silent Hill 2/Silent Hill 2 Xb here, meaning original game + extra levels

-aneep-

 

[Mod]

It is such a shame when a game like Azurik sells so much better than Shenmue 2...

You can't compare a game that is 14 months old with other that is 3 months old . My guess is Shenmue 2x will sell something like 300k-600k in the same period. ( for me ) .

 

[Mod]

I don't see what anyone can see in Shenmue that would make it remotely interesting.

I figure more people share my opinion than not, which explains piss-poor sales...

Shenmue just appears to be one of the most boring "games" you can play.

What boring games ? Well, Shenmue is low paced in the sense of myst monkey island, because Shenmue is also adventure oriented. But these games sold very well. So no, it doesn't explain why it sold bad (in relation to what was expected to cover its development costs).