R&C Sales

[shams]

MontanaHatchet said:
Shams guessed 220k first week and then said he thought it would flop?

I said I thought it would struggle.

Sales of a lot of titles seem to be much worse than I expected. What I think is happening, is the "big brands" are becoming condensed to even less titles (partial result with SO MANY big games out this Xmas). R&C just isn't considered a big brand by the public. GH & Halo are.

I genuinely did think it would do 200k week#1 - and was shocked when it was reported to have done 110k in the first week (Oct 23rd-30th). Then came the reports that it wasn't advertised, yadda yadda. No worries.

...

Now we find it didn't do 110k in week#1 - but closer to 80k in the first 10 days. Ouch.

...

A simple (possible) answer for all of this:

 - retailers have finite shelf space

 - retailers have 2-3x as many games this year available, than ever before. They might also be trying to flog off old PS2 games, or 2nd-hand games

 - retailers end up ordering a lot less units / title (on average) 

 - games get close to selling out. Gamers can't find a game. Try and wait for it. Lose interest quickly, with so many MORE / new games also arriving

...

This could just be the beginning of the "downturn" I have been expecting/predicting for a while. First sign - big/middle level titles to significantly undersell.