More sales figures are trickling out of the North American June NPD, and they aren’t particularly encouraging.
Child of Eden, which we claimed was a “triumph” in our review, managed to sell a meagre 34,000 copies on the Xbox 360. Shadows of the Damned, which scored a healthy 8/10 in our review, did even worse selling 24,000 copies on the Xbox 360 and PS3 combined.
To put that into perspective, Zelda on the 3DS sold over 283,000 copies. Then again, Zelda was backed by a robust marketing campaign both in-store and on the TV. In contrast some people didn’t even know SotD and CoE had been released.
Source: Joystiq
yogh_wayne
I’ve read that SotD didn’t sell well, but I’m surprised the numbers are this low. I plan to pick it up when it gets a bit cheaper (which is probably rather soon after those sale numbers).
TheMekon
Re:Eden-Not personally that surprised, Rez was more of a cult game than mainstream block buster, so did ‘we’ really expect a follow up, no matter how gorgeous to fare any better?
The ‘better with Kinect’ tag, was somewhat miss-leading as well, more truthful to say different with..for a score based game, pad offered better chance of beating scores. Eden did’nt convince me it alone was worth buying Kinect (still waiting for THE Killer-App on kinect) but enjoyed playing it around friends house via the system, nor will it be the game to convince i need Move for PS3.
eden will just join ever growing list of games that scored well, sold badly.
As for Shadows…seemed very much a marmite game at review..some loved…some loathed.
damoxuk
None of the supermaseemed to stock SotD not round here anyway. It’ll probably drop to under £20 in no time however due to the no sales fa
Kaminari
About Child of Eden selling poorly on X360 in the US:
This is Rez all over again. Wrong console, wrong country.
MornelitheVT
Agreed. Just doesn’t seem to be as much demand for the odd artsy games on 360, as the other consoles.
Crocadillian
I disagree, and I think something like Portal proves this. Valve encouraged people by including it in The Orange Box with other popular games and sold it really well as a result. Such an abstract game could easily have been overlooked, but it didn’t. Any concept can sell when communicated correctly, Ubisoft just poorly sold it with a crummy advertising campaign and a high price point.
MornelitheVT
@ Crocadillian: Alan Wake’s performance might disagree with you. But, to be fair, neither Alan Wake or Portal are ‘artsy’ games, like Child of Eden.
TSBonyman
Perhaps Child of Eden would have fared better if it was marketed as a core game rather than a Kinect game?
Tuffcub
Children Of Eden PS3 has a RRP of £19.99 – thats why it’s cheaper, Ubisoft have cut the price.
Sympozium
So… EA partners? have they ever marketed stuff?
Low sales of Child of Eden is surprising though? who published that if I may ask.
Tuffcub
Ubisoft
Enzo DeGregorio
You think this is bad? I have yet to meet a person face to face that has played Okami other than friends I invited to my house to play it! No one will every appreciate 12 different brush techniques!
fz6
SotD is a fantastic game and it came as a surprise to me that ea was publishing such a niche game (well done ea!). The poor sales though maybe will deprive us from games like this in the future.
Which is pity.