We get a glimpse of LTD NPD sales of random, non-charting games every once in a while when some "analyst" is trying to make a point.
This time its our buddy Pachter, trying to explain why GTA: Chinatown Wars will sell less than 500K units in America...
"I'll be shocked if GTA: Chinatown Wars sells more than 500,000 in the U.S.," , "The top third-party titles are Hannah Montana at no. 16 (1.3 million units), Cooking Mama at no. 17 (1.2 million), the Guitar Hero bundle at no. 19 (1.1 million) and My Sims at no. 23 (1 million). Everything else below a million."
http://www.edge-online.com/features/how-long-are-gtas-legs
VGC lists 1.25m for Cooking Mama, 1.14m for Guitar Hero, and 1.1m for MySims for the "Americas" region. The only one with anything resembling a significant difference is Hannah Montana at 1.05m. Given that VGC's numbers include more territories, and are complete through one more holiday week, it looks like Hannah Montana should be above 1.4m.
Furthermore, Pachter mentioned that everything else was below 1m. VGC lists only 1 other American third party million-seller on DS, LEGO Star Wars Complete Saga, but it is less than 10% above 1m, meaning the difference could potentially be attibuted to Canada and other territories.
Always good to check up on VGC when we get the chance... This time ioi's numbers pass with flying colors, even for titles which don't get much attention.
(The article doesn't specifically call these NPD numbers, but we can probably safely presume. Pachter has access to their numbers; they're the standard; he talks specifically about the US.)
"[Our former customers] are unable to find software which they WANT to play."
"The way to solve this problem lies in how to communicate what kind of games [they CAN play]."
Satoru Iwata, Nintendo President. Only slightly paraphrased.
