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December NPD's - The sheep have spoken (1 Viewer)

Damien

Supporting Actor
Joined
Mar 29, 2002
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508
Titl Title Publisher Projected $'s Projected Units
PS2 1 NEED SPEED: UNDERGRND Electronic Arts $54,549,890 1,120,576
PS2 2 MADDEN NFL 2004 Electronic Arts $38,025,800 784,347
PS2 3 TONY HAWK UNDERGROUND Activision $32,297,470 707,522
PS2 4 DRAGONBALL Z:BUDOKAI2 Atari $32,296,350 649,708
PS2 5 TRUE CRIME:STREETS LA Activision $29,271,920 607,315
PS2 6 MEDAL HONOR RISING Electronic Arts $28,616,420 587,360
PS2 7 FINAL FANTASY X-2 Square Enix $27,405,140 554,300
PS2 8 SOCOM II: NAVY SEALS Sony $23,556,760 477,257
PS2 9 LORD RING:RETURN KING Electronic Arts $22,096,420 446,490
PS2 10 NBA LIVE 2004 Electronic Arts $19,005,970 390,144
Titl Title Publisher Projected $'s Projected Units
XBX 1 GRAND THEFT AUTO PACK Take-Two Interactive $19,872,880 402,201
XBX 2 NEED SPEED: UNDERGRND Electronic Arts $15,299,260 308,989
XBX 3 T. CLANCY'S RAINBOW 3 Ubi Soft $11,294,200 232,232
XBX 4 HALO Microsoft $9,876,348 338,712
XBX 5 TRUE CRIME:STREETS LA Activision $9,742,603 206,906
XBX 6 MADDEN NFL 2004 Electronic Arts $8,981,349 182,148
XBX 7 MEDAL HONOR RISING Electronic Arts $8,627,625 178,516
XBX 8 LORD RING:RETURN KING Electronic Arts $8,587,972 176,762
XBX 9 TONY HAWK UNDERGROUND Activision $8,015,302 173,119
XBX 10 PROJECT GOTHAM 2 Microsoft $7,659,285 158,151
GCN 1 MARIO KART: DOUBLE Nintendo $36,232,280 729,797
GCN 2 MARIO PARTY 5 Nintendo $16,029,730 329,331
GCN 3 LORD RING:RETURN KING Electronic Arts $7,103,540 143,397
GCN 4 NEED SPEED: UNDERGRND Electronic Arts $6,586,333 133,134
GCN 5 TONY HAWK UNDERGROUND Activision $6,539,699 142,434
GCN 6 SUPER SMASH BRO MELEE Nintendo $6,350,120 215,340
GCN 7 YU-GI-OH! FALSEBOUND Konami $5,281,479 133,553
GCN 8 KIRBY AIR RIDE Nintendo $4,871,833 98,983
GCN 9 MADDEN NFL 2004 Electronic Arts $4,699,136 95,532
GCN 10 SIMPSONS: HIT & RUN Vivendi Universal $4,664,722 93,886

Here are my thoughts:frowning:this is copied from the gamespot forum's):

Nintendo:

- Nintendo finds themself in the same boat they were in during the N64 era, nobody is buying 3rd party games(Even Viewtiful Joe is MIA)

Xbox:

- Project Gotham 2, Rainbow 6 3, Crimson Skies, and Top Spin.....aren't selling like most people anticipated. Maybe XBL is losing some steam? And Halo looks like the Goldeneye of this generation

PS2/EA/The Casual Gamer:

- Wow that PS2 list demonstrates how commercialized this industry has gotten. EA almost has a monopoly to the point where they are scaring some companies off. How so much crap can sell that much makes me hope somebody can take down Sony next-gen.
 

JoshF

Supporting Actor
Joined
Aug 21, 2000
Messages
884
I'm confused. Are you saying all PS2 games are crap, and all the Gamecube and Xbox games are great but aren't getting the attention they deserve? That's a pretty silly generalization. Were it not for the big-sellers, you wouldn't have the choices you have as a hardcore gamer today.
 

Romier S

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Joined
Sep 2, 1999
Messages
3,525
The only "crap" that I agree with is Medal of Honor Rising Sun which is an absolutely atrocious game. Let me also add True Crime to that list as I found it to be garbage in a box (my not so humble opinion of course;)). It makes me ill to see these games selling by the truckload while games like Metal Arms, Beyond Good and Evil and Prince of Persia are struggling on store shelves.

The rest of the sales landscape is not at all suprising. Return of the King is an excellent game that puts a good license to stellar use (having the blockbuster movie in theaters isn't exactly a bad thing either). Madden will sell no matter what. Final Fantasy X-2 could have sold itself with an empty box and the Final Fantasy name. Hell FFXI has even been a grand success on the PC pulling a healthy 250k+ subscribers. Just wait until its PS2 release. Need for Speed Underground has The Fast and Furious like marketing and appeal written all over it. An easy sell for EA.

Top Spin, Crimson Skies, the afformentioned BG&E and PoP all titles lost in the christmas shopping season shuffle. Its unfortunate but when you have this level of software saturation over a 2-3 month buying period there always something that will be forgotten or overlooked.
 

JamesH

Supporting Actor
Joined
Nov 28, 2000
Messages
662
I never expected games like Top-Spin and Crimson Skies to rack up killer sales and I don't think Microsoft did either. It looks like 3rd party stuff is selling well across the board on the Xbox. It has a userbase nearly identical to the GC's, and yet the #10 Xbox game is selling better than the #1 third party GC game. With so many users, I'd imagine even a top 50 PS2 game is doing OK.

I am disheartened to see a godawful game like NFS at the top, but I suppose stickers and spoilers are what sells a racing game now, and are certainly dominant over "minor" features such as a good driving model.

BUT, at least half the top 10 games for each system are at a minimum what I would call "pretty good", so the situation isn't too bad. I would have liked to see Deus Ex, BG&E, Metal Arms, Project Gotham, etc. do a bit better, but many of the games outselling them are also quality games.

It's not as if niche games are dying, things are actually look really good right now. Warship Gunner 2 and Romance of the Three Kingdoms 9 are getting bumped up US releases, Metal Slug is coming to the PS2, and we're also getting R-Type and Gradius. They won't make the top 10 or even 20, but at least they're coming out for those of us who want them.

Edit: And with a full fledged pump action sniper rifle peripheral coming out, I think it's difficult to say companies don't at least SOMETIMES listen to the hardcore, even if the hardcore isn't responsible for a large volume of sales.
 

Alanna

Second Unit
Joined
Dec 8, 2003
Messages
487
Casual gamers go for what's "hot" and that's basically what the list is made up of. Gaming is a much bigger thing than it used to be so the list surprises me none the least (except I would have though FFX-2 would be higher on it- oh well). Is Culdcept and other lil titles going to sell like hotcakes? No of course not, but with a bigger installed user base that means more niche games for those that want them. And THAT is a GOOD thing! More games like Disgaea and Guitaroo-Man!!
 

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