The year is almost over, and with the biggest day in sales over (well at least in the US) is time to go back and check the games that for some reason or other didn’t meet the expectations from their Publisher or developers. For this list every game should have at least 8 weeks of sales and yes, no super niche titles or games bad games that nobody cares (like Saw II) and remember this doesn't mean that the games are bad, it's just that didn't sell as expected; so let’s see 2010 biggest busts:
10.- Alan Wake: Few companies would consider 820k units sold a disappointment, but we’re talking about a game that took 5 years in development and a budget of ..... a lot I guess; the game fell short but the developers still have hope to increase the sales.
What happened?: Even with the marketing and the bundles the overall Xbox360 audience wasn’t impressed by this game.
9.- Modnation Racers: The spiritual successor to Little Big Planet didn’t reach the same level of success, 620k isn’t a bad number but it’s far away from Media Molecule’s title.
What happened?: The game was released the same month as Blur, Split/Second and Red Dead Redemption, plus a lot of complains about loading screens.
8.- Split/Second: After the success of Pure Blackstone Studio created this racing game published by Disney Interactive Studio, but after 7 months the sales are at 620k with little hope to recover.
What happened?: The game was released the same month as Blur, Modnation Racers and Red Dead Redemption. The “over the top” thematic of the game turned down some audience. A PSP version was released later (wich BTW is doing worse than the HD versions) and finally it was released as an iPhone game.
7.- Metroid Other M: One of the highlights of E3 2009, the collaboration between Nintendo and Team Ninja was one of the biggest surprises of the event, but 3 months after its release the game has sold 590k, far from the goal of of 1.5-2 million copies..
What happened: Mixed reviews, some people complained about the gameplay, other about how one of the strongest female characters in videogame history was reduced to ... a femaleMost of the audience that love the first person gameplay in the Prime series didn’t like the 2D gameplay of this game.
6.- Rock Band Green Day: Yes we saw this one from far away. The idea of mixing the Punk Rock of Green Day with the Rock Band franchise was a perfect recipe for a disaster, or in this case a 590k units sold.
5.- Blur: With a little over 500k in sales Blur was a major disappointment for Activision, Bobby “The Devil” Kottick was expecting a “Call of Duty type of sucess” for this franchise but that simply didn’t happen.
What happened?: The game was released the same month than Split/Second, Modnation Racers and Red Dead Redemption, a really bad ad campaign (that actually made people play Mario Kart) and a general poor reception of the market, The aftermath? Activision is considering selling or closing Bizarre Creations the developers of this game.
4.- Dark Void: One of the “big new franchises” that Capcom tried this generation. Bad gameplay and a general bland experience gave this game only 420k in sales, far from the 600k expected by the company.
3.- Red Steel 2: A good game with the Red Steel attached to it? Yes, it happened, wit a new style, new story, new character and new system. Red Steel 2 was one of the finest games on the Wii this years, unfortunately it’s at 360k in sales.
What happened?: Being the sequel of one of the most disappointing games didn’t help this title, plus a really bad marketing campaign.
2.- Enslaved: For almost a year this was one of the biggest games for Namco-Bandai. A high profile adventure title with the talent of Andy Serkins, but after a couple of weeks the game was tossed to the bargain bin with a disappointed 320k in sales.
What happened? Lack of advertising for this game, plus a under whelming demo.
1.- No More Heroes 2: The sequel of one of the most original and fun games didn’t set any good number. With only 240k in sales it’s one of the most depressing cases of a good game selling really bad.
What happened: Ubisoft drop all marketing support for this title, that and the fact that this title is quite niche.
