Great week again. Another near-1m software selling week in the US.

Notes/Opinions from myself:

Overall, another phenominal week. Even though 2 mid-tier games debuted, total SW sales stayed similar.

#1 Stranglehold was very suprising. With a decent (supposed) multiplayer component, the game could have some pretty good legs. If it wasn't for that, I'd expect to see thousands of copies used real quick. 500k is guarenteed if true, and could hit alot more if it got good WOM with the multiplayer.

#2. MOH:A had a decent debut week. It had a similar launch compared to RSV and COD3. However, with Halo3 coming soon, I'd assume that MOHA won't be a top-tier game for people to own.

#3 Bioshock and #4 Madden have phenominal holds. Sub-30% drops for both games, despite huge debuts speaks well of the games, and the hardware thats been moving lately. Expect continued strong sales for both games throughout the year. Both should chart for a long time (Madden 07 is still charting, fyi).

#5 Tiger Woods has a pretty large drop. Expect it to continue to drop ala NCAA 08.

RPGs at #6 and #7 both have good drops. Blue Dragon has a pretty decent drop considering it's a JRPG, and could of been frontloaded. Two Worlds continues to impress with low drops, despite the abysmal reviews. If WOM continues to be good for both games, they should both chart the rest of the year.

The rest of the chart is basic - RSV, GOW and GH2 continue their great runs. Stuntman, Gundam, and such have good drops, despite them being pidgeonholed to pretty weak multipliers.

 Also, for those that care, POTC:3 hit 200k, and Overlord will hit 200k next week. Good numbers for both games considering everything. Hopefully, Overlord can wind up near 225k or even 240k before it dies.

Finally, a Japanese Chart!

Japanese Notes/Discussions:

#1. Oblivion continues to do just insane (comparatively) numbers. At week 7, selling 2,500+ units is very, very good. At the same week, for comparison, DOA4 was selling around 800 units, and Blue Dragon was at 3,800 units. Because of this, I would expect Oblivion to hit 100,000 easily, and could hit 110, or even 120k due to a strong hardware-moving rest of the year. No one would of guessed that Oblivion would be the #1 game of 2007 in Japan (thus far), but it has been, and it's holds have been very impressive despite lowering X360 hardware sales.

#2. Hitman Blood money has a typical Western-style dropoff. Expect it to plummet via Saints Row type numbers. 13.5k is probably around where it'll die, despite more hardware to be moved soon.

Rest of the Chart: Nothing major, outside of the fact that Blue Dragon continues to flirt with 200k. Trusty Bell is nearly dead. Viva Pinata continues to chart. It's amazing a game that sold only 1,599 copies it's first week on the X360 has managed to do pretty decent numbers (for what it is). Outside of that, typical drops inline with hardware drops. With Mousou Orochi, Fatal Inertia, Halo3 and others on the way soon, expect hardware and software to start increasing. Hopefully MO can move 15k software first week or more, and move a few systems too.

How do you know if most of those sales are true and knowing that consumers could of traded those games in or taken them back?

Stranglehold has a horrible multiplayer from my experience last night. Played a for a few hours with my friend. He was hoping for a good multiplayer but will soon return it once his done with the single player. Lucky for me I got it through gamefly so it will just be sent back once I am done with the single player. Overral it seems most 360 games especially if only available for the 360 will sell 100K+ in first week. I am sure is very nice for MS to see 3rd party games leading the way on the 360 .

Im surprised that Blue Dragon held on so well. Word of mouth could give it decent sales, it'd be nice if it could make 300k or even 350k in the USA.

W29 - 2 reasons about the non-used sales argument.

#1. VGC numbers are always updated and reflect near-NPD numbers. NPD has only, and will only, count new games.

#2. The stores that ioi gathers data from don't (atleast to my knowledge) sell used games.

At point #2 in OP -- With Halo 3 coming soon I expect MOST games, pretty much across the board, to take a pretty big hit that week (Halo 3 week) with some maybe even coming back up again in the aftermath.

kn, I really don't see that happening.

Merely because as much as an uber-game coming out would depress the market, the inverse will happen.

Lets look at it this way:

At Halo 3's launch, your going to get around 2 million Xbox 360 gamers come into stores across America. I would think that at that time, some of those 2m gamers (probably in the 500k area), will probably pick up another title alongside Halo3 if they were unable to get the CEs or such. Likewise, if inventories of non-Preorder Halo's are as bad as I've heard (ie, I've seen clerks tell them there won't be any copies of H3 outside preorders), consumers might buy comparible games (Bioshock, Gears, RSV) to stem off their want of Halo until they get more units like.

Also, if Halo3 moves alot of hardware (as I expect), it's doubtful that 100% of those new X360 console owners will fail to buy other software titles too. In the case of the pricedrop + superior Madden, as much as M08 sold so well, my charts showed there was no real drop in other games, despite Madden 2008 selling 900k units that week.

I agree. Some titles will grow on the back of Halo 3, especially older ones that are discounted i think. That said, it will be interesting to see which genres grow and which ones depress. Do you think Halo 3 purchasers will pick up another shooter, or get something completely different like Blue Dragon.

Both, most likely.

I never saw that the Halo generation of people on Xbox would be the ones buying Fable, Morrowind, and KOTOR, but they were.

Really though, I think the fact is that Halo 3 will have "mass appeal", and not just cater to the crazies (ie, the hardcore). You don't get to 6.5m unit sales on the backs of hardcore gamers alone. Because of this, I think that games like Blue Dragon might get a boost from Halo3. Not as much as FPS games, but a boost nontheless.

However, you have alot of cross-polination between genres, and games. Blue Dragon was helped out by family titles like Viva Pinata, and Lego Star Wars to a degree, and then you have Madden cross-polinating most genres, in the fact that Madden isn't a hardcore game, and mid-road game.

So I think H3 week, we'll see software see a general boost of 10%, and then have smaller drops, to atleast boost software sales for each game by a bit.

I'm surprised that Blue Dragon isn't doing better.  It's the first decent jRPG on the system (in the US).