PS3 Exclusives: Sales in the US
US sales figures for a number of Sony's PS3 exclusive titles.Published 29/06/2009 at 14:00 by Watchful
US Sales Show 360 On Top [21]
NPDs Hit: PS3 In Third Place [13]
Microsoft Respond To Sales Figures [50]
I like numbers. If I can combine them with gaming that even better. Whether it be hardware or software sales, I cannot resist a group of nice figures. It is a shame that without any UK or European figures being made available on a regular basis that we have to rely on Enterbrain and Media Create in Japan and NPD in the US for information.
It was a set of numbers from NPD that caught my eye in a Gamasutra article that I thought I would share. The article takes a critical look at whether Sony were right to focus largely on new IP at the PS3’s launch with titles like Resistance: Fall of Man and Motorstorm instead of feeding us a series of sequels to well known PlayStation titles.
The NPD numbers are for US retail sales up until the end of April and exclude copies of the games sold in bundles which likely hits the totals for R:FoM, Motorstorm and Uncharted pretty hard. For example, SCEA’s Jack Tretton has said previously that Uncharted has sold 2.6 million copies worldwide.
Over 1 million units: Resistance: Fall of Man (1.1 million)
750K – 1m: LittleBigPlanet
500k – 750K: Resistance 2, Killzone 2, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, Gran Turismo 5: Prologue
250K-500K: Motorstorm, Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction, Heavenly Sword
< 250K: Motorstorm: Pacific Rift, Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds
For me the surprise in those figures is Motorstorm: Pacific Rift. Six months of sale at retail in the US and it sold less than 250,000 copies. That’s selling into an installed base of 6 million PS3’s in the US at the time of Motorstorm:PR’s launch at the end of October 2008.
I think it reasonable to assume that the PS3 sold at least another million in the US in the six months from then until the end of April. Which means that only around one in every twenty eight US PS3 owners bought a copy of the game at retail. If it has been selling that poorly in general that would go some way towards explaining the disappointing turn out for today’s TSA Motorstorm:PR competition.
I really enjoy Motorstorm: Pacific Rift, though admittedly it did take a little while to grow on me. Do you think it is right that MS:PR has seen such poor sales? Any other surprises in those figures for you?
Comments
Please note that all comments are the opinion of the individual author and not TheSixthAxis.
w3r3w0lf | 29/06/2009 14:11
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489 TSA Points | Member since: Jan 2009
I would’ve thought that Uncharted would’ve been much higher, and it’s a shame that Hot Shots Golf hasn’t sold better; it’s a great game
DarthSharkey | 29/06/2009 14:12
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1041 TSA Points | Member since: Feb 2009
Some nice figures, I like MotorStorm but I get fed up with it rather quickly. Have not played PR too much, getting it back on wednesday though so I’m going to play through it.
Ryan1991 | 29/06/2009 14:12
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1981 TSA Points | Member since: May 2009
I can’t believe MS:PR is that low. It’s a really good game and I think it is better than the first one imo. I was gonna enter the PR competition but then i realised I suck at it.
berto54 | 29/06/2009 14:18
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420 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
Resistance:FoM sales are impressive, but it was te only FPS worth bothering with for quite a while… and the US do love their shooters.
Ross_K91 | 29/06/2009 14:19
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197 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2008
Yeah I can’t believe MS:PR sales are so low its a brilliant game, never realise LBP sold that well but it deserves it.
Ross_K91 | 29/06/2009 14:20
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197 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2008
Can anyone tell me how I can get my TSA points to appear? I have 157 at the time of writing.
colossalblue | 29/06/2009 15:00
Team TSA: Editor
1381 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
The display feature is being phased in at the moment I think, not everyone’s will appear until Nofi has finished tinkering. It’s kinda like a beta test.
Ross_K91 | 29/06/2009 15:05
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197 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2008
Ok cheers
commuterzombie | 29/06/2009 14:25
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468 TSA Points | Member since: Feb 2009
Good to see LBP doing well. It’s a shame that Motorstorm: PR did so poorly.
I guess that the first game didn’t have much competition, and then PR had games like Pure, Dirt, Burnout Paradise etc. all coming out at the same time. It’s a shame, it’s good fun with friends.
rht992 | 29/06/2009 14:45
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2833 TSA Points | Member since: Apr 2009
i thought killzone sold 750k in its first month or so and i’ve got the promo version of motorstorm from sony so i didn’t have to pay for it. the silly U.S.A need to buy some better games and show appreciation. Valkyrie chronicles anyone?
colmshan1990 | 29/06/2009 14:52
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1101 TSA Points | Member since: Apr 2009
Yeah, didn’t Killzone set some PS3 sales records? Resistance is better though (in my opinion)
TctclMvPhase | 29/06/2009 15:58
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818 TSA Points | Member since: Nov 2008
Were trying over here…I picked up Valkyria on day one (Im a sucker for an art book). I actually thought it wouldve sold better since the box showed off the “FPS” aspect of it…
YOURMUMANDME | 29/06/2009 14:58
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1147 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2008
I can believe the sales figures for MS:PR , it really wasn’t that improved from the original .
It’s the figures from the original MS that shock me , wasn’t it part of a bundle pack or aren’t those figures included ?
TctclMvPhase | 29/06/2009 17:47
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818 TSA Points | Member since: Nov 2008
Bundle pack sales aren’t included. Thats why previous sales figures from Sony have all shown Resistance, Uncharted andMotorstorm to be considerably higher. Its also the only thing that saves us from see Wii Sports at the top of the charts every single month…
BryOnRye | 29/06/2009 15:19
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813 TSA Points | Member since: Jan 2009
I rented MS:PR but wasn’t too impressed with it compared to the first one. Maybe I’ve become more choosy since the PS3 launch.
nofi test | 29/06/2009 15:39
Wants a custom tag.
4292 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
test 2
Timesh1993 | 29/06/2009 15:39
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1178 TSA Points | Member since: Apr 2009
I’m not surprised to see LBP selling well, I always thought it would be a childish game, but then when i bought it, I found it so amusing and hard to stop playing, shame that I can’t find it, have a feeling my sister could have hidden it
cleric20 | 29/06/2009 15:45
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78 TSA Points | Member since: Sep 2008
I founf MS:PR didn’t grab me like the original Motorstorm but I keep finding myself firing it up every now and then.
It is a damning blight on US gamers that Killzone 2 and both Resistance games and Uncharted all put together sold less than Halo 3… WTF?
Will be interesting to see if MAG can attract our gun happy US buddies to shoot more stuff on the PS3!?
TctclMvPhase | 29/06/2009 15:54
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818 TSA Points | Member since: Nov 2008
I really liked the Pacific Rift demo but I think a couple factors contributed to its shortfall:
It released back in the pre holiday flood and was accompanied at the time, by a terrible demo.
Unless you are a racing fan, it probably seemed to similar to the previous motorstorm.
It has held on to its higher price. I am hoping to pick this up at some point in the future but I am waiting for it to hit GH status.
AJ | 29/06/2009 17:10
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1484 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2008
Well the only advertising I’ve seen for any exclusives are Resistance 2, Killzone 2 and Infamous which isn’t included above. There may have been LBP advertising as well but I only remember seeing all over the internet.
I’m sure that if Sony actually ADVERTISED, like actually showed people [the average consumer] that these games even exist then they would probably sell better.
To me, looking at MotorStorm: PR on a shelf full of games, it looks just like a dirt racing game, nothing extraordinary and certainly nothing I’ve ever heard of.
Sony is horrible at advertising their games to the public and I find that 3rd party publishers do so well with their titles compared to 1st parties because they actually DO advertise.
AJ | 29/06/2009 17:13
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1484 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2008
I like the new comment boxes by the way. What’s this Trophies doohickey? Exciting.
Also, do the comment use HTML or BB Code? Or neither? I tried to strikeout in my above post but it obviously didn’t work…
Rob92 | 29/06/2009 19:20
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1446 TSA Points | Member since: Dec 2008
Agreed.
Worst advertiser by FAR. Shame us they’re ace games.