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NPD: Resident Evil 5 Leads March Software Sales
Capcom’s Resident Evil 5 was March’s bestselling game in the US, selling more than 1.5 million copies to top the monthly chart, with almost two thirds of sales generated by the Xbox 360 version.
Nintendo’s DS exclusive Pokemon Platinum took second place with 805,000 sales, while Microsoft’s Xbox 360-only Halo Wars placed third with 639,000 sales.
Software sales fell 17 percent to $792.83 million for the month, as three Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii titles made the top ten, along with one DS game.
"Core gamers had something to cheer about last month with the release of Resident Evil 5. The title sold over 1.5 million units across all SKU's which is a record-breaking launch for that property," said NPD analyst Anita Frazier.
"The top-ten software list includes three games for each of the new platforms as well as Pokemon Platinum for the DS. I think this shows that there doesn't have to be one winner of the console battle - in fact software for all the platforms can enjoy retail success," she added.
Here’s the full top ten:
Resident Evil 5 (Capcom, Xbox 360) - 938,000
Pokemon Platinum (Nintendo, DS) - 805,000
Halo War (Microsoft, Xbox 360) - 639,000
Resident Evil 5 (Capcom, PS3) - 585,000
Wii Fit (Nintendo, Wii) - 541,000
MLB ‘09: The Show (Sony, PS3) - 305,000
Killzone 2 (Sony, PS3) - 296,000
Wii Play (Nintendo, Wii) - 281,000
Mario Kart Wii (Nintendo, Wii) - 278,000
Major League Baseball 2K9 (Take-Two, Xbox 360) - 205,000
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MadWorld doesn't look like it made the chart, and it was released March 10th. If there was wasn't very many Wii games made from the ground up for the "hardcore" game players before, MadWorld's sales will probably help dissuade publishers from funding these sort of Wii games in the future.
Regardless of how good it is, I think the Conduit will have a similar fate. If the industry doesn't give up on "hardcore" games on the Wii, Sega certainly will.
Mad world is a sort of artistic-extreme product it is quite obvious will sell in that range.
As a movie you could compare it to A scanner darkly.
Conduit if it is a good game will be much more mainstream, really no sense putting these two titles in the same category.
If you want to compare movies, the game has the aesthetic of Sin City and a premise that is close to the Running Man, both blockbuster movies.
Let's put it this way, Too Human, which is a super niche game, that had quite a few scathing reviews, and was a 360 exclusive, sold way more copies in its first 3 weeks at retail. I highly doubt Sega looked at MadWorld as this low development cost game, that they'd put out and not care how much it sold.
Conduit is a Sci-FI FPS, I think it's not a stretch that it will sell more than MadWorld, but not by much.
Actually they are in the same category, their both games 3rd party publishers (coincidentally the same 3rd party publisher, Sega) have invested in, which have been built from the ground up for the Wii, and are the type and quality of games that appeal to "core" gamers.
The future of so-called "hardcore" games never hinged on MadWorld. The irony in all this is that a Clover game was expected to be blockbuster... lolz!
Well, in past conversations about the Wii, MadWorld was one of the titles that was brought up when the observation that 3rd party published games do not sell on the Wii. And the main response to this opinion: Third parties have to create good games from the ground up for the Wii to sell and be successful.
What is MadWorld if not a great looking game (thanks to great art direction they avoid the Wii's weaknesses in this area), that uses the Wii controls in a very well thought way, and to top it off it's a very solid game that appealed to more of a traditional gaming audience. And (according to 1up: http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3173792) it only sold 66,000 copies vs. the massive Wii install base.
Regardless of how good the Conduit will be, I think sales wise this is its fate. And if this prediction (which isn't really going out on a limb) is correct, then I reserve the right to call BS on any argument that third party games don't sell on the Wii because they're not good.
That's exactly my point though - why is MadWorld the litmus test? It doesn't make any sense, despite the fact that three (perhaps four) M-rated games have already sold a million copies on Wii. But all of a sudden that's forgotten and, in an attempt to move the goal posts yet again, the internet mantra was "let's see how a new, M-rated, IP fares on Wii" - enter MadWorld.
And one of those million selling titles was the RE4 port wasn't it? I'm guessing most of the others were ports too.
Anytime the topic of the Wii's lackluster software offerings (to enthusiasts, not soccer moms and kids) comes up, each time the blame is deferred to 3rd party publishers not putting in the effort. Well, MadWorld was clearly a product of much effort and resources.
It's naive to think that MadWorld's success/failure is not going to be noticed by other publishers, and have an effect on their future Wii project decisions. The audience for these sorts of games appears to have mostly left the Wii, and I believe that means 3rd party Publishers will stay the course on the porting, and party game formula.
Ken,
Peter has some very valid points. I think the (no point intended) edge goes to Peter on this one. It seems that non-Nintendo developerd games aimed less at the casual audience have a difficult time finding an audience. Other than a couple exceptions after over two years being on the market, core developed 3rd party games seem to fair rather poorly on the Wii. I won't be shocked when the Conduit: All Night Long suffers the same fate as MW.
It is a little odd how they only point the us MARKET, when in reality the game has actually sold more on PS3 world wide. Which IMO matters more, and on top of that the X360 has 9million more users.
1.69 sold on PS3 vs 1.53 on the X360
How many times do we have to go into this. NPD deals ONLY with US sales. They do not track worldwide sales.
I don't know why you'd discuss Killzone 2 as a failure... While it has been marketed more than halo wars, isn't the US installed 360 base at least twice that of the ps3? Over here in sunny europe, the 360 leads, but not by nearly the same margin, but I don't have kz2 or halo wars sales figures to make any kind of comparison. Anyway, 639k to 619k seems pretty good for killzone, with the much much lower installed user base?
Also, i'm pretty sure guerrila is a sony in-house company, so I doubt they're going to be doing non-exclusives any time soon....
I'm surprised chinatown wars didn't chart at all, was expecting at least top 10.
Yeah its funny really... KZ2 is far from failure. 1.4 million sold not a failure at all.
You're right, it's not a failure. But it's also not pumping out numbers that would lead you to believe it's a huge exclusive either. 1.4 million is great for a game like Tomb Raider or any other smaller title. But a title that was touted as the next best thing, a system seller, and a reason to own a PS3 !.4 million worlwide is a dissapointment.
I don't think that Killzone 2 is a failure myself. I think people have the perception that it is based on the amount of hype Sony was generating. Remember the articles about 1 million presales in Europe? And just yesterday we get a story where Sony reveals that Killzone 2 sold 1 million worldwide. That doesn't add up! So obviously, the 1 million pre sales were game store presales, not customer reservations. Sony does this to itself.
So after all the hype and bullying by the SDF it ends up the much lower profile Halo Wars sold just as many copies in a shorter amount of time. Funny how no one took issue with the scores of that game (averaged in the low 8 range) yet still picked it up in decent numbers. I wonder how many millions Sony lost getting the KZ2 exclusive they paid for - apparently before they decided to stop buying exclusives (development costs were rumored to be in the $40 million range - before marketing costs).
Decent showing for baseball games this year and impressive RE5 sales across both platforms.
I have to correct you grognard. Halo Wars sold MORE copies in less time.
Halo Wars: 639k (March)
Killzone 2: 619k (lifetime-to-date)
The two baseball games doing quite well was a bit of a surprise. And I was expecting to see the two RE5s closer together kinda like SF4, maybe the 360's terrible D-pad really was the culprit?
Can i respectfully ask, if you consider anything within the HALO universe low profile, and also if the Halo numbers surprise you.
We all know it is more likely that an AAA XBOX exclusive will outsell PS3 exclusives, its all in the install base. Still I don't care what SONY or Guerrilla say... those are disappointing numbers in their own right. Its LBP allover again which is not good news period.
Now another point is the multiplat, as you pointed out i thought RE5 had a wider gap than SF4
I think those questions were in part pointed at me so I'll answer.
I don't think any game Halo-related game can be considered low profile. Maybe an RTS or spin-off/expansion won't garner quite the sales or attention as a proper Halo title will though.
And I wouldn't say I'm surprised at the numbers either. I think they're great numbers for a well reviewed by-the-numbers RTS. I do think the Halo name was the reason it did so well though as console RTSs aren't the most popular games (just ask any PC enthusiast).
Of course the installed base has something to do with all of Sony's major console exclusives (LBP, KZ2, and to a lesser extent MGS4) not lighting the charts on fire but even when the 360 had a more comparable installed base to what the PS3 has now Halo 3 was able to sell a couple million in just 24 hours. You can either attribute that to the sheer power of Halo, or the relative low buyer interest in Sony's big guns (most likely a combination of both).
It's probably unfair to compare any console exclusive to Halo, but that doesn't mean KZ2's and LBP's numbers aren't dissapointing in their own right.
I wonder how much of a disappointment KZ2 was for Gurrilla and whether they will now reconsider exclusivity for future game. Most developers seems to be headed this way. Exclusives seem to be less financially viable these days and depend on selling extremely well - which is a risk, KZ2 case in point.
Doesn't Sony own Guerilla Games or own a percentage of the company?
They do own Guerilla Games.
Ah.
Chinatown Wars didn't chart then...
maybe they should have called it GTA: Pokemon Wars
that's cos it's a good game innit