Dead Space Extractions sells 9k in September
EA's on-rails shooter Dead Space Extraction sold 9,000 copies in the US between its release on September 29 and the end of the NPD’s monthly reporting period on October 3, the market research firm has told us.
Developed by Visceral Games, the Wii exclusive title is a prequel to survival horror Dead Space, which launched in October 2008 for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC to critical acclaim and had sold around 1.4 million units as of May this year.
While Extraction hasn’t enjoyed a strong start, EEDAR analyst Jesse Divnich told us that the title’s early sell through wouldn't come as a surprise to publisher EA.
“Electronic Arts didn’t market Dead Space Extraction as much as it does with other titles. And the success or failure of a Wii title usually correlates directly to marketing spend. If Electronic Arts spent little on marketing, I am sure the sell through was no surprise to them. So I do not believe sell through was a disappointment to EA.”
We contacted EA to for comment on the game’s opening week performance, and to find out how the game has been performing at retail during October, but received no response.
We contacted EA to for comment on the game’s opening week performance, and to find out how the game has been performing at retail during October, but received no response. “Given Wii games tend to have a flatter sales curve, I don’t think 20,000 plus units is out of the question for October and maybe we get a holiday bump in November and December,” Divnich suggested. EA said previously that the performance of Extraction would influence the company's decision to create mature-content games for Wii in the future, and Divnich implied that the publisher’s decision not to heavily market the title may have been based on the poor performance of other mature-rated Wii games released while Extraction was still in development. “Most games have a 12 to 24 month development schedule and over a year ago the industry was under the assumption that mature-rated games could succeed on the Wii. Unfortunately, as we progressed and witnessed the sales results from games such as MadWorld, it became pretty clear the market size for games with mature-content was extremely small, much smaller than any other home platform. The truth is most core gamers who gravitate towards mature content likely own more than just a Wii.” http://www.edge-online.com/news/npd-dead-space-extraction-sells-9000-in-september ---------------------------- So EA decided not to market it because MadWorld didn't do "well"? That makes no sense.
