Weekly Video Game Post – Sept. 21, 2009
September 21, 2009 Leave a Comment
Well, the numbers are in for the week ending September 12th and the only positive thing to say is at least Sony is doing well. The first major release of the 2009 holiday season has hit the shelves and The Beatles: Rock Band performed not as strong compared to last year’s Rock Band 2, according to industry sales tabulator VGChartz.com. This is especially bad for Microsoft as they made it a highlight of their E3 presentation this past June. For them to do a bulk of the advertising for the product and see either better sales on another platform (it sold best on the Wii) or better growth on another platform (the only system to see growth was the PS3, mostly due to system price drop). If there is any good news for Microsoft, apparently the exclusive download track ‘All You Need Is Love’ is selling well.
The Wii version of The Beatles: Rock Band sold over 250k units during the first week of release, making it the top selling title of the week. However, that’s down 12% from Rock Band 2, although that figure might be misleading because many people did not know that Rock Band 2 had been released for the Wii. EA sort of slid it into retailers hands a week before Christmas (in some cases, retailers did not receive the game until after Christmas; in Canada at least). Although comparing sales against Guitar Hero 5, The Beatles: Rock Band sold 79% better. On the Xbox 360, it sold 241k units (2nd place overall) for the first week which compared to last year’s release, it’s down 24%. However, against Guitar Hero 5, it’s up 68%. The system with the smallest sales might have the best outlook. On the PS3, it sold almost 132k units (3rd spot overall) which is 29% better than last year’s release. Although, comparing it to Guitar Hero 5, it had the smallest bump with 30% more sales. The biggest reason for this though is that many people are still buying the PS3 Slim at the reduced price and getting a music game for the first time.
This biggest reason to the Wii’s success compared to the other two systems is the Wii’s audience versus the other two systems. The Wii is the family console whereas the other two systems cater towards the 18-39 male demographic. Parents are picking up The Beatles: Rock Band because they know its music they like and they know it is something they could probably play with their kids. That’s not to say older people don’t own the other consoles but it’s a harder sell on the other systems due to the narrow selection of music on the game (it’s only Beatles songs).
MTV Games, the publisher of the game says they’re happy with sales of the game, although they are overall weaker than Rock Band 2. They might not even care as it’s rumoured that Microsoft paid a premium to get exclusive content for the system. Not only that but Microsoft gave the game a huge spotlight at E3 which freed up valuable space for EA to show off their other upcoming games during their own press conference. Microsoft is in a no-win situation at this point as it is looking like the best selling version of the game might be on the Wii (since Wii titles generally sell consistently even months after release, even with a large drop-off after the first week, it should still be on the charts longer than the other two versions). Even if the idea was to ignore the Wii and attempt to take sales away from the PS3, that strategy failed. It’ll be interesting to see how The Beatles: Rock Band performs in its second week.
Aside from Beatles: Rock Band, there were other several major releases for the week. Dirt 2 by Codemasters was released and did fairly well against the Apple Corp. juggernaut. It sold the most copies on the Xbox 360 with 66k units sold; which is enough for the 8th position overall for the week. The PS3 did fairly well with the 11th spot overall with over 51k units sold. Once again, the sequels are doing far better on the PS3. The Xbox version only saw a jump of 18.8% over the original title while the PS3 version tripled its sales over the original. The PSP version of the game landed in 47th spot and had 10k units sold which is pretty much average for a new PSP game outside of Sony or Square developed game. The Wii version did pretty badly with the 92nd spot because of only 6k units sold but this can be largely attributed to the fact there has never been a Colin McRae/Dirt game on a Nintendo console even going back to last generation and that Dirt 2 not only had to play second fiddle to Beatles: Rock Band but also had to contend with a critically acclaimed Wii exclusive releasing the same week.
Muramasa: The Demon Blade, published by Ignition Entertainment, released exclusively for the Wii with decent sales of 53k units sold; good enough for 10th spot overall. There are some good things and bad things about this number. It’s pretty good for an original IP not made by Nintendo do sell north of 50k units it’s opening week against The Beatles: Rock Band. The bad though is it is unknown whether the game will be able to build upon it’s opening sales as there is little to advertising being made towards the Wii’s “expanded” audience. The only people that are buying this game are the hardcore gamers who own the console. Most of the other Wii owners haven’t even heard of the title or are hardcore gamers who complain about the lack of the games on the system only because they like to hear themselves complain. For a title that has been universally praised, the sales are pretty low because there is no way there could only be fifty thousand hardcore Wii owners out there.
There were a couple of other niche titles that were released to moderate sales although the latest installment of the Activision’s Cabela hunting series fell short of 15k units sold across the Xbox 360, Wii, and Playstation 2. Eidos’s Mini Ninjas did even worse selling less than 5k units on the Wii and 4k units on the DS. Again, an example of a well-reviewed title underperforming on the Wii…although the PS3 and Xbox 360 sales were not all that great also (12k and 10k respectively). If third-parties want to do well on the Wii, they need to advertise their wares in areas that are not video game related. If the Wii is the mass market system, advertise to the mass market audience; not the reclusives that spend half a day on IGN or GameFAQs.
Upcoming Video Game Reviews
- Shockman (TurboGrafx 16)
- BioShock (PC)
- Advance Wars: Days of Ruin (Nintendo DS)
- Wacko (Arcade)
This Week’s Video Game Releases
Monday, September 21, 2009
Just in Time Translations (Nintendo DS)
Clubhouse Games Express: Strategy Pack (DSiWare)
MySims Camera (DSiWare)
Family Tennis (WiiWare)
You, Me, and the Cubes (WiiWare)
The Last Ninja 2: Back With a Vengeance (Wii-Virtual Console)
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Animal Kingdom: Wildlife Expedition (Wii)
Animal Planet: Vet Life (Wii, Nintendo DS)
Halo 3: ODST (Xbox 360)
Heroes Over Europe (PC)
James Patterson Women’s Murder Club: Games of Passion (Nintendo DS)
Katamari Forever (Playstation 3)
Order of War (PC)
Our House (Nintendo DS)
Our House Party (Wii)
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona (Playstation Network, Playstation Portable)
Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection (Xbox 360, Playstation 3)
Rapala: We Fish (Wii)
Scooby-Doo: First Frights (Wii, Playstation 2, Nintendo DS)
Spyborgs (Wii)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Smash-Up (Wii)
The Price is Right 2010 (Wii, Nintendo DS)
Wacky World of Sports (Wii)
Where’s Waldo? The Fantastic Journey (Wii, PC, Nintendo DS)
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Ion Assault (Xbox Live)
The Warriors: Street Brawl (Xbox Live)
Zombie Apocalypse (Xbox Live)
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Fallout 3: Broken Steel (Playstation Network)
Zombie Apocalypse (Playstation Network)
