Well, LBP sales are here this week!  Here we are, 1 week after the release of the game, and we have first week sales of 480k or 680k depending on who you ask, and now the haterade is flowing... Mostly from people who are negative toward the game saying "LBP isn't huge", "LBP sales aren't huge", "LBP sales were supposed to be huge", "LBP is below expectations, 500k isn't 'huge'", etc.  Somehow this statement has seeminly gotten out of hand and gone from what started as a way to combat the litany of negative articles and comments on the game pre-release to a way to bash the game's sales post-release. So I thought I would remind everyone what the saying means and what it doesn't mean in terms of sales and 'hype'.

First I will explain where 'LBP Will be HUGE' started from.  It was one of the numerous weeks where LBP was receiving a massive amount of hate from various news articles, comments by posters, etc.  I cannot take credit for making the actual phrase "lbp will be huge" but once I saw that in one of the negative articles, I decided that I was going to post that in every single thread that had even the slightest to do with LBP, but I would make it more visible by putting 'huge' in caps and adding a few exclimation points and such.  So I began to put "LBP Will be HUGE!!!" in as many negative posts and comments as I could, to try to get some positive momentum moving on this forum for a game I was really hoping would do well.  Little did I know how much it would take off...  Suddenly it was everywhere, LBPWBH fever was spreading like wildfire on these forums!  I had caught lightning in a bottle. 

When it was started, as stated, it was only to generate some positive momentum for the game, it was never a denotion for sales.  Never was it to mean that LBP sales will be huge, or that LBP would have great commercial success, or that LBP would sell millions upon millions of copies.  It was only used to help me feel better about the game when momentum for it was at an all-time low.  Little did I know that LBP would be the commercial success that it was.  I didn't have a clue that the game would hold a 95 on metacritic or be the 13th best game of all time on Gamerankings. But somehow that happened.  And when it happened, LBPWBH began to stick more and more and was actually self-prophecy.   Then this is where things get a little blurry...............

Somehow people negative about the game tried to use this in an attempt to bring down the game somehow.  Saying that LBPWBH was referring to the sales of the game, saying that it would never sell what "we (I suppose LBPWBHers)" would not have our expectations met on the game in terms of sales, when at this point, there hadn't been too much speculation about sales.  Even in a thread made, many people stated that they thought the game wouldn't have the best opening week ever, many respected members on the site pegged it at a smaller opening that normal, and that the game would sell around 3 million lifetime.  I myself pegged a 500k opening week and 3-5 mil lifetime, and have stated that since we first predicted sales. 

Well now the first week sales are in, and the LBP trolls are out in full force saying that the game didn't meet it's huge expectations, when the game was never expected to open huge, and the sales of the game had nothing to do with the whole LBPWBH campaing.  So I say all of that to say, once again, LBPWBH was never, ever a denotion of how many units the game would sell, how many PS3 units the game would move, or how big the game would be commercially or critically, it was only used for some positivity about the game during all the negativity it was enduring earlier this year. 

I do hope that the people negative on this thread read and understand that the game had met and exceeded many peoples opening week sales numbers by a few units or a lot depending on who you ask, and begin to move past this whole idea that every person that said "LBP Will be HUGE" didn not predict the same thing, as huge can mean different things to different people easily. 

Just wanted to clear that up

Cheers!

(I put this in sales so it didn't get overlooked in off-topic, and since it does directly tie into the point of the whole thread, sorry if in wrong forum).

You either make one word posts or an essay post! Nice DMJ....now back to reading your essay.

It is ranked 15th now. Like I stated before in other threads, games tend to go down after the first set of reviews.

I has to say LBP opened better than expected, but even more so it got a lot better reviews than I culd imagine. So in that perspective - for a 95% rated game on Gamerankings - it's launch sales are disoppointing.

However, it will have long legs (as do many high quality family/kiddie style games) plus it will get +0,5 mill xtra sales thanks to future bundles.

Lifetime I fink 3.5 mill.

(my early prediction ½ year ago was a 86% score on Gamerankings and rufly 2 mill lifetime sales )

L4D will be huge-er :P

Someone who got the joke

LBP is doing as well as I was expecting it would. The core issue is a few people hyped up the game and people jumped on the train, hence the unrealistic predictions.

now its sold about 600k, I think it'll actually perform well over the xmas period, I don't see this game selling under 3 million lifetime (which is pretty damn good in itself), but I think a-lot (possibly 60% of it if sales go batty) of that 'up to' 3 million could come this xmas, so the real question is will it have legs, because it'll need good legs to entertain 4 million +, and legs on Ps3 is mostly untested currently.

all n all, the game doesn't totally fit any modern genre. It has platformer elements but its heavily focused towards community interaction and community content. Frankly the last game I played that was released with a heavy expectation of the community providing 'extra fun'/content was Quake 3 Arena on PC, and I'm supprised someone risked trying something kind of along those lines on console.

DMJ two of the hate threads that were started before the "LBP will be HUGE" started is linked in my sig

Why are you trying to defend your opinion? It's no big deal it's not Huge. It sold well.

This is pretty HUGE thing you started :D
I asked sometime where did this HUGE thing started and some1 said it was from tv..
But yeas I think it will have "Wii legs".

So....it was YOUR fault!

lol