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Forums - Sales Discussion - Littlebigplanet, Valkyria Chronicles Sales Disappoint

sega4life on 15 December 2008


LittleBigPlanet, Valkyria Chronicles Sales Disappoint

By Luke Plunkett, 9:00 PM on Mon Dec 15 2008

Couple of sad stories for you today, PS3 owners. One involving a cute little title that should never have been thrust into the limelight as a system seller. The other, a gorgeous tactical RPG.

Let's start with LittleBigPlanet, then. Media Molecule's quirky, original platformer was always going to be a struggle to sell to the holiday masses, what with it being an original IP that involved neither rock music nor guns. But even Sony's most pessimistic sales teams wouldn't have been prepared for this.

The game sold an OK-ish 205,000 units in October, but wasn't out for that long. It'd do a lot better in November, when it was on sale for all four weeks, right? No. It sold a disappointing 141,000 units for the month, which saw it slip out of NPD top 20 charts altogether.

Lord only knows how few copies it would have sold had it not been marketed to hell and high water. Then again, maybe that was the game's problem. The game itself is fine, as its "failure" is a relative one. Selling 346,000 of a niche, debut IP with novel concepts would otherwise have been a huge success!

But selling 346,000 copies of your most high-profile holiday release? That is not a success.

The second game we're looking at today is an even sadder tale. Valkyria Chronciles is one of the best-looking games of this hardware generation, and although tactical RPGs of the Japanese variety aren't big sellers, it still would have been nice to see it move more than 33,000 copies in North America for the month of November.

33,000 means the game wasn't even in the top 100-selling titles for the month. Meaning it probably got beaten by some Imagine: and Nancy Drew games. So sad.

Quality PS3-exclusive titles are few and far between these days, so why were two of the best for the holiday season such poor performers? PS3 owners? Suggestions?

NPD: Behind the Numbers, November 2008 [Gamasutra]



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Grahamhsu on 15 December 2008

I'm not gonna lie and will be flamed to hell for this but I have mixed feelings about Valkyria Chronicles not selling too hot. Why? Because I'm crossing my fingers and wishing for a port, this game is amazing, and all PS3 RPG fans are missing out by not buying it.

It's an exclusive and if you guys want to keep it exclusive you better start pushing this title. I remember in the beginning of development they were planning on releasing it for 360. To those who own Valkyria you get a big thumbs up for good taste. As for LBP I could care less, it's a game I'm not interested in.




-=Dew the disco dancing fo da Unco Graham=-

misterd on 15 December 2008

Disappoints who? I said all along LBP would hit 1m, and be lucky to hit 2m. Given the style of the game it is, and the console it is on, it was never going to be the smash some people wanted.



MDMAniac on 15 December 2008
sega4life said:

why were two of the best for the holiday season such poor performers?

 

It's just that both these titles were published on BR player wrong console?



snakeftw on 15 December 2008

actually, lbp is selling pretty good, I dunno what are you talking about



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wfz on 15 December 2008

Maybe all PS3 owners are casual gamers who don't buy many games.



coolestguyever on 15 December 2008

okay

#1 Valkyria I would never even have heard of if i didn't go on this site. How would other people know about it? Its not advertised

#2 1 million in 6 weeks for a new IP is just fine. I know VG Numbers aren't exact but they're usually close



akuma587 on 15 December 2008

But they are still two of the best games made this year. I'm happy.



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MDMAniac on 15 December 2008
coolestguyever said:
1 million in 6 weeks for a new IP is just fine

 

1 million for a IP with Halo-esque hype marketing budget and very positive acclaim by critics is pathetic



docholliday on 15 December 2008

VC hasnt sold too well, but hey its not excatly in a genre that flies off the shelves either. As far as all these freakin articles saying LBP has bombed.

1. its way to early to tell how well/bad its gonna end up doing. Games of this type have to show/not show legs before you can trully say.

2. and this is my main gripe, why does every article about LBP sales act as if NPD represents the entire world? Over half of LBP's sales have came from overseas but yet these idiots try to judge its success in what is now sony's weakest market.

Be patient ppl, if LBP holds well and finds itself selling at a nice pace weekly the opening weeks wont mean squat. If this game is trully gonna be the casual shot in the arm sony was looking for its gonna take time for it to show it can not only move units right now, but still be moving units 6,7,8 months down the road.