I was kicking around this idea.

On the year, we've had quite a few suprises, and bombs over the year. This is mostly opinion, but I was wondering what everyone's top 10 list of sales suprises and bombs were.

 Pick your top-10 games that released in 2007 in either the US, or Japan, and why they impressed you - either by it's suckage, or dominance.

 

My top 10:

#1. Mario Party 8 (Wii)

No one, or maybe it was just me thought that the 8th outing of the fat Italian-American plumber + friends would just magically show up, and dominate like it did. Even for a casual game, it wound up selling more than 500,000 copies in 1 week in the US and Japanese launch weeks - if not more. Thus far, just between US and Japanese sales, it's nearing the 2m mark, and continues to chart well in Japan, US and Europe.

 

#2. Resident Evil 4 (Wii)

Again, another huge suprise. Although sales have been...Tepid in Japan, the sales have been superb in the US. RE4 was one of those fatasticly-awesome games that never really sold like it should of worldwide - maybe 3m copies on the PS2 and GC, despite the game being made of awesome, and being in the top-10 games of all time on GameRankings.com. Thus far, RE4Wii is trending to where it'll wind up doubling Capcom's fiscal projections. Way to go ports of fantastic games!

#3. Bioshock (X360)

Another game that was vastly anticipated by a small niche, hardcore group of gamers. Despite the fact that everyone, including the developer Take 2, thought the game would be phenominal, but sell poorly (T2's financial estimates were at 500k-1m units worldwide). That didn't happen. The X360 version is most likely well above 1m now, as it took #1 in almost every PAL territory in the overall charts, and has over 750k units in the US. And there's a PC version too! It sold 100k in the US, in August, and probably is around 350-400k now worldwide, since Germany loves the PC.

#4 God of War 2 (PS2)

Quite the opposite, atleast for me. God of War 1 was a sleeper hit on the PS2. It wound up slowly tracking a solid 2m in it's long-lived run. GOW2 was better in nearly every way. However, despite this, and strong charting in March, it's pretty much fallen on it's face by now. It had some of the worst legs of any game this year (2x), and God of War 1 is actually selling better than it - and has since June. Chalk me up as dissapointed.

#5. Monster Hunter Portable 2 (PSP) -JP/US

Yes, MHP was a PSP million-seller, I'll give it that. However, considering how poorly PSP software has done, the fact that MHP wound up being the #1 game in Japan up until Wii Sports finished it up in August. Think about this: in 2007, the attach rate for the PSP has been around 3.0..  Litterally 40% of that attach rate is MHP2. Just insane. Also, US sales have been decent - despite PSP RPGs doing dismal sales in the US this year.

#6. Lair (PS3) - US

The supposed US Savior of the PS3. Lair was supposed to bring the PS3 to #1 in the US, and recapture momentum that was lost since the PS3 started selling worse than any other next-gen system. With a price drop just happening, everything was going for lair, but the reviews. The poor reviews killed what Lair could of done. Warhawk managed to out-sell Lair, despite much lower fanfare. Pretty bad for a $20m game, eh?

#7. Guitar Hero 2 (X360)

  We all know that Guitar Hero is a great newer IP, that US casuals seem to eat up. Nevertheless, the X360 version seemed to be a huge question from the beginning - with over 2 million copies sold in the US, could a near-direct port with some extra DLC content capture great sales on the X360, which seemed not to be casual to some? Yes, actually. Guitar Hero 2 has been charting in the X360's top 10 for about 5 months now. Pretty good for a game that costs $90, eh?

#8. Crackdown (X360) - US

Maybe it was just me, but Crackdown had everything going for it. It was an over-the-top superman style shooter, with some of the most phenominal platformer elements in the game. Not only this, it had that much-coveted Halo 3 demo. Everything was going for it. It even had a 300k first week. Despite such a phenominal start, it's sales were less than stellar. Even though it's shipped 1.3m units worldwide, the game should of sold more. Not only this, Microsoft and RTW have declared the Crackdown IP dead, and won't make another one. Color me upset.

#9. Dragon Quest: Swords (Wii) - JP

Wii's first uber-title for the year in Japan. The Wii has been marred by tepid 3rd party sales in Japan, managing an attach rate of barely 0.5 software titles per Wii sold. That was, until DQS launched in Japan. DQS was a blockbuster from day 1, selling over 200,000 copies in just a day. DQS revitalized "meh" software figures in Japan. However, just as fast as it debuted at a solid #1, it imploded on itself due to a very short gameplay span, and dropped to under 10,000 units sold per week, in just under a month - just as equally as suprising as it's ascent. However, sales are now doing better, and is now trending to sales that it should of in it's midrange.

#10 to come soon.

 

How about you guys?

you got lair two times, must be helluva bomb for you :P

imo, HS needs to be in there, as a bomb, and so does boogie, for the rest i agree with you.

Isn't this a bit preemptive? Will no games between now and New Year "bomb"?

I think PS3/PSP games should be judged relative to their entire markets not just other titles on the same platform: in that case, all but the best PS3 games "bombed" because the console didn't sell well.

Dewy's Adventure = 1-10 for shock value.

Why did this game bomb in Japan???

fagarcia75 said: Dewy's Adventure = 1-10 for shock value. Why did this game bomb in Japan???

It's a good game but nothing amazing. It fits somewhere in the 7.5-8.5 range, probably closer to the lower end. I meant to finish it up this weekend and get a review out but left the copy at a buddies house while trying out the multiplayer last Friday so got some Eternal Sonata time instead.

# 10 HALO 3 

/me runs from the angry mob

 

 

Seriously though.

#10 Heavenly Swords - sales have been disappointment so far, considering the hype and the amount of development time put into this game. 

Both Lair and Heavenly Swords have been Xbox/Xbox 360 titles that have been shifted over to the PS3 and both have disappointed at the sales register. Meanwhile Sony first party games such as Warhawk and Motorstorm have had better luck.

Hmm... can't think of any that haven't been said already.

The poor performance of Lair, Heavenly Sword, and Warhawk surprised me, although the length of HS's legs is still to be determined, and Warhawk's online sales will remain a mystery.

Mario Party was quite a surprise, as I keep hearing how it's one of the worst yet, but it currently on track to becoming the best-seller of the franchise. Still not touching it with a 20 foot stick, though.

Just so this doesn't get too pro-Nintendo, I'm also very surprised by how quick Dragon Quest: Swords dropped on the Japanese charts. Why must they endevour to confuse us every chance they get?!?! =P

@Parokki, how do you get the poor performance of warhawk and HS, both games scored over 80% on gamerankings, and warhawk was sold out all over the place for the first week , and sales of the online version are very high. HS was only counted for 2 days last week, this game will sell very well during the holidays.

Two Worlds has to be on any list for surprise sellers.

Gran, he's talking about the fact that HS sold under 100k copies in it's first week, PAL territory cumes have been pretty bad (PAL Irish charts have HS dropping to #19 at just week #2).

From a developer/software standpoint, it doesn't matter too greatly much if a game scores over 80% if no one ever buys it.


Also, Parroki, there's a very simple explanation about DQS's quick drop:

DQS was VERY supply constrained on week 1. It obviously sold out. The issue is that DQS is a very, very short, and easy-to-beat game. The Japanese have a very strong habit of playing a game, beating it, then re-selling it to the store, kinda like a rental.

The huge problem with DQS was that once the second week of shipments hit, so did the piles of used copies of DQS. Japanese are rather thrifty (imo), so they are far more inclined to buy a 4000yen used copy vs. a 5000yen new copy. The demand for the game was there to sell more, but like many games, the core gameplay was far too simplistic for the owners to hold onto, and continue to play long enough to force purchasers to buy new, and not used.


This is why many RPGs die so quickly in Japan - many can beat the games in 1-2 weeks, then resell pretty easy. Whereas brain training games, and such, have enough gameplay mechanics to give users a precieved value that the game should be kept, and not resold.


Now, you can see DQS for what it really should sell - after bottoming out in the sub-10k sales charts, it's begun to hold real well, and should sell another 50,000+ new copies. Why? Because eventually, your going to reach a good parity of used copies sold to the stores and rebought vs. new copies being bought. I am sure that if DQS wasn't so crappy (in terms of length and difficulty), it would of sold 750k or even 1m by now. But that's a major fault on SE's end of making the game just "too casual". Because even if it's casual, that doesn't mean it has to be so freaking short, and little replay value.


This is exactly why games like Oblivion for X360 (in Japan), or Western FPS games have rather good multipliers - core mechanics are good. Likewise for Wii Sports in Japan - it's a fun title that people paid very little for, and has enough of a precieved value (ie, its real cheap) that they wouldn't be able to sell it back and justify doing such. It's all about economics.