Hey, Saints won a Super Bowl. Hell has already frozen over. And pigs have flown. All we need now is the Chicago Cubs to win a world series and we can officially declare the world to be doomed.
Aside from that humorous distraction, it's possible but not probable. Funny how I used to be able to use gore as a turnoff for a lot of buyers but doesn't seem to be that way anymore (well it kinda is but in another way but won't get into that). I bring that up because a lot of the main reasons the God of War games weren't able to hit full potential is because the level of stuff in them, mainly the gore, wasn't necessarily a big thing then. But I guess as the gaming industry has slowly desensitized in ratings, buying habits, and developing this kinda games is no longer as "shocking" as it used to be. Think that'll help it have better sales.
Also the brand name seems to be a lot bigger than it used to be. Mainly because in the time it came out for the PS2, it wasn't necessarily an important release for Sony's strategy. The magnitude of the success of the game really wasn't really going to hurt or help Sony all that much. Nor would it's relevance really have hurt or helped the PS2 users considering there were plenty of titles to choose from. For PS3, it is obviously a much difference scenario and Sony and the users know it (whether due to personal interest or level of marketing Sony has put into this game). I think that is the biggest factor for this game simply because it is just a bigger game all around. Was the same argument I used to justify better sales for that Uncharted 2 which turned out to be fairly accurate (alot better argument than the creator of the topic haha).
But once again, this doesn't guaranteed a 6 million seller. If there has been anything with the PS3 userbase that is easy to see, is they don't necessarily agree on one game all the time. The user base buys a lot of games which is why a lot of the titles get a lot of sales, but they don't generally go out and buy the same game. Only exceptions to that rule have really been the Call of Duty games, soccer games in Europe, and of course Grand Theft Auto. And this is easy to show as these were very explosive at launch, and continued to sell well over a long period of time as well. Very different from X360 and Wii who have a userbase that seem to agree a lot on what they buy (Wii on Nintendo games and 360 on a more diverse selection although Wii userbase when it comes to 3rd party can be similar to the PS3 userbase).
So I guess where I'm going with that, is we've had these big PS3 games before where we can easily see how it could garner huge sales, but just doesn't and user buying habits might help to explain that. Although no real way to explain it, but possibly because of the mix of "newer" gamers from this generation and PS2 generation tied with their "old school" fans from the PS1 era (exact same kinda split you have on Nintendo platforms for exact same reason and exact reason why you don't see that kind of split on 360 for the most part although arguable a "PC" userbase might cause a little bit of a split).
With that, God of War 3 is looking to be a 3.5-4.5 million seller which would be wonderful for Sony who has been struggling to get those big breakout hits. Only 2 of their games have done that (one GT: Prologue and the other Resistance 1 which got helped by bundling). However, I can also see this game getting as high as 5.5 million and that's really just going to depend on how able this game is to sell PS3's over the course of the year. It easily could become a "system seller" in the nature of some of the Nintendo games over the long run. With no sign of GT5 until the end of the year and PS3 more than likely staying at $300, this is the game that pushes expanded marketing to get more units sold with the title being bought. Moreso, it's also a big tie between PS2 and PS3 that could get more of those previous owners over. Although there have been those ties before, God of War seems to be the really first big one since the $300 price, along with FF13 that releases a week before it (before that of course there was GTA IV although didn't really push systems).
So no I don't see it surpassing Gears of War, but it does have the potential to give it a run for its money. But I think most is just going to depend on how explosive the title is rather than how well it does in the long run.
