It "seems" that Microsoft is trying to market to the casual audence moreso than the hardcore audience this Christmas. I keep seeing X360 ads with the whole Star Wars LCS/GH3 ads as opposed to ads for shooters.

Juding by the casual and Core game sales (Simpsons game, NFS, Viva Pinata, Scene it?, ect), it seems to be working, as Scene It has it's 3rd week of increased sales.

Having said this, you can aruge "oh, the X360 doesnt have a RPG basis" from games that did bad like Blue Dragon and Eternal Sonata, but the WRPG base is really, really strong. Two Worlds did pretty well on the Xbox 360 despite recieving sub-60% scores. Oblivion had mammoth legs. Why not Mass Effect?

ME will still hit 2m worldwide. I guarentee it.

@ Dodece

Thanks, but man, I was way off - I was actually thinking closer to 200K.

Honestly, the game rocks, but it's going against some very, very stiff comp these days. I think being released 2 weeks later would have helped it tremendously. Oh, no doubt the game will have legs, but now is a bad time for it. It's like PGR4 - great game, but awful release timing.

Seriously, ME is going against AC, COD4, GHIII ... sheez - I wouldn't expect it to do numbers like those ... it's new, and a lot of folks don't know that it's from the same folks who made KOTR.

As far as Rock Band, I was thinking 100K, but 80K is realistic. While the game is awesome and I'll sing its praises, spending $170 for a game - during the holidays when you have tons of shopping to do - that's a chunk of change to spend on just one game. I wish you could use the drums without the game - but ... hindsight is 20-20.

I definitely see Rock Band having steady numbers ...

As far as the ME hate, I am seriously doubting the haters have actually played it. It's not your typical RPG - and offers a very deep, engaging experience. But ... maybe I am just old. I am still trying to convince folks Test Drive Unlimited is a much, much better driving game than Need for Speed ...

Silly question: how accurate are these figures? The number I'm hearing through other channels is a fair bit higher.

Again, if you need wonder why the game didn't do as well look no further than the commercial or PR leading up to its release. Most people didn't even know this game was comming out until a month or two before it was released, anticipation leading up to the game was overshadowed by the numerous other big releases, this wasn't exactly a game that had a dry spell to build up its hype over.

 Really,i dont know....its just boring....in Assassins creed,we have more excitement...