Probably my most-anticipated week with Blue Dragon, and all kinds of holdovers such as Bioshock, Two Worlds, and so on. Tons of new releases, and newer games...
Japanese charts will be up shortly. But lets discuss the current week sales and future outlooks.
| This Wk | Last Wk | Name | Wk Sales | Total Sales | % Drop | Wks in Release | Expected LTD |
| #1 | #1 | Bioshock | 154,269 | 562,388 | -62.3% | 2 | 1,500,000+ |
| #2 | ---- | Tiger Woods 2008 | 127,411 | 127,411 | --- | 1 | 425,000 |
| #3 | #2 | Madden NFL 2008 | 110,843 | 1,196,400 | -37.6% | 3 | 2,000,000 |
| #4 | ---- | Blue Dragon | 108,711 | 108,711 | --- | 1 | 550,000 |
| #5 | #2 | Two Worlds | 58,537 | 208,248 | -61.0% | 2 | 425,000 |
| #6 | --- | DW: Gundam | 41,088 | 41,088 | --- | 1 | 115,000 |
| #7 | #3 | Guitar Hero 2 | 37,365 | 1,223,612 | -2.4% | 22 | 1,500,000 |
| #8 | --- | Stuntman Ignition | 37,088 | 37,088 | --- | 1 | 125,000 |
| #9 | --- | Moto GP 08 | 35,077 | 35,077 | --- | 1 | 100,000 |
| #10 | #4 | Rainbow Six Vegas | 19,921 | 1,120,703 | +3.1% | 41 | 1,400,000 |
My take:
#1 Bioshock's drop was as-expected. I predicted it'd have a big drop (60%) from last week's thread which happened. Is this tell-tale of what will happen to Bioshock's legs? Doubtful. It had alot of hardcore hype for the first week. Expect smaller drops (sub 50%) from now on.
#2 Tiger Woods 2008 did remarkably well. EA Sports must be happy that the X360 is basically destroying the competition for sports games, both overall, and by each and every game. Even though TW 2008 for Wii might wind up beating it sometime in the future, 127k is still great.
#3 Madden 2008 had a great drop compared to last week's huge drop. At a *mere* sub-40% drop, it's well on it's way to hitting the 2m mark. Remember: last December, Madden 2007 sold almost 300,000 copies. This year, M08 should sell around 350,000 or more in December. 2m could even be possible before January.
#4 Blue Dragon had a good start, if you expected a meager start like I did. At 108k, this is about 20,000 units more than the Japanese debut. I expect good legs. Also, I attribute the great increase in hardware due to Blue Dragon primarily. I think those bodes well for the X360.
#5 Two Worlds had a pretty bad hold. TW was released on a Friday, and only had 2-3 days to garner sales via the charts. This is a rather large drop, and pretty telltale of the bad reviews the game has got. I think Two Worlds is at a crossroads: If it doesn't get the online multiplayer fixed perfectly (the game's major benefit), the game will plummet and die real quickly around 400k. However, if they fixed it, sales could end up pulling an RSV and do real well. Two Worlds is currently dominating the MGC RPG charts above Oblivion and Blue Dragon by a decent margin (despite not being out in Europe). Hopefully they patch the game, as a good patched Two Worlds would be a phenominal game.
Outside of the top 5, alot of notable newbies. Dynasty Warriors mimiced AC4s numbers (and probably will wind up @ 100k), MotoGP did last year's numbers, and Stuntman did a meager number. Hopefully Stuntman and MotoGP have good legs. GH2 continues to track good, and RSV gets a slight boost.
Overall, the numbers were very good. The X360 almost did another 1m+ week. Next week should be pretty good with Stranglehold. I'd expect good holds overall, and Software in the 800k area. Most interesting will be the drops of the top-5 games, and if Stronghold doesn't bomb.
Back from the dead, I'm afraid.
