Aren't there some big budget games that require even more than a million sales to break even? I personally think that if anything, it's up to the developer to decide whether a game has been a success or not. The gaming community, even if minority seem to judge the sales too harshly, branding games as a flop if they have not met expectations or are underperforming even in the slightest. I was shocked at the fact that EA was disappointed with the Mirror's Edge sales, I mean c'mon, it's a new IP, if they had expected large numbers off the bat, they were insane. It is however, a good news that EA has confirmed Mirror's Edge 2, those type of games that refresh the market and impact it directly, even if not significantly sales wise are the breath of fresh air that the somewhat stale industry that the video gaming is fast becoming.
I still find it amusing when people brand games as a flop just because it has failed to meet the hype/expectations set by the forum goers, such as the case of Halo Reach/GT5 and any other game, exclusives in particular are judged harshly and mud is thrown whenever an exclusive does not meet the expectations set by the community, either score wise or sales wise - example being Alan Wake in this case.
Overall I think that some members got to the point where they are disappointed when a game fails to outperform a previous iteration, just because a game is not doing as well as it's predecessor does not necesarrily brand it as a flop.
Disconnect and self destruct, one bullet a time.
