These numbers back up - if we ever needed more proof - that the pre-order charts need more work doing to them (not that I don't love looking at charts, because I do, it's just whatever method they're using to track pre-orders currently needs revising).

For reference, here's the chart for the final day before all these games released.

Dead Space (360) -> 210k, opened with 247k (overtracked, but not horrifically)

Dead Space (PS3) -> 116k, opened with 137k (a fair bit overtracked in pre-orders)

Sly Cooper -> 110k, opened with 88k (this is the best example about dodgy tracking)

Fire Emblem -> 155k, opened with 169k (actually did better than I thought, but still quite heavily overtracked in pre-orders)

Anyway, onto the actual numbers themselves.  Horrible across the board - as other people are saying - except for 3DS in Japan.  And arguably 360 in NA and PS3 in Europe.  The 3DS numbers are way down on last week despite Fire Emblem releasing (NA = 38k -> 21k; Europe = 41k -> 24k).  So I'm guessing we've changed the way we're tracking it in those regions, since you'd have expected it to go UP with a game release & a bundle).

Vita & Wii-U continue to drag their feet.  It's only going to get worse for both of them throughout February too.

Very nice opening for Fire Emblem in software.  Despite Tbone's thread predicting sales where the most voted option was 250k+ (sorry, couldn't resist rubbing it in :P), I think for the less extreme predictors among us it actually exceeded our expectations.  Certainly my own, in that thread, since I'd predicted 140-160k, so it's done very nicely.

Sly Pooper numbers are a bit disappointing, however, but not completely unexpected, given it was yet another game sent out to die with no marketing.  I can only hope it has legs from here due to the price point, and that Europe gives it a nice boost.  Dead Space numbers also seem a bit on the low side too.

Looking forward to the Japan chart in any case, that should add some spice to the software sales :P

EA said outright that they aren't going to invest anymore into the franchise if it doesn't hit those numbers.

Apparently, the 2-3 million that the last two games each got isn't good enough for them. I don't play Dead Space, but I find that disturbing.

EA said outright that they aren't going to invest anymore into the franchise if it doesn't hit those numbers.

Apparently, the 2-3 million that the last two games each got isn't good enough for them. I don't play Dead Space, but I find that disturbing.

That's stupid. Only few games manage to sell 5 million. If EA said that, they basically said: we want Dead Space to die.

This is correct. They want 5+ million for both platforms combined otherwise there may be no more Dead Space games. They also have made the games more action oriented to increase sales.

EA said outright that they aren't going to invest anymore into the franchise if it doesn't hit those numbers.

Apparently, the 2-3 million that the last two games each got isn't good enough for them. I don't play Dead Space, but I find that disturbing.