Note: This week there will not be any Sales of the Day articles, so that the threads can start having a longer time before I post the follow up article, because I would really like to get more comments and more votes in the polls. So please vote and comment. If you hae any suggestions how I can increase participation in threads please let me know. More specifically for the Look at Those Legs series, I've updated it just a bit. Instead of the arbitrary 35% cut off for strong/weak legs (that I was just estimating), I've now gone through and found the first month/total sales ratio for a lot of games, and now am using a range of very strong legs to very weak legs, based on all of those other games.

Look at Those Legs Game of the Day

Article to be posted (11/8)

Viva Pinata

Description: Viva Pinata released in 2006, and despite a modest debut, the game went on to sell a very impressive 1.50 million copies worldwide. Viva Pinata is a bit of a departure from Microsoft's typical mature themed exclusives, featuring vibrant colors and seeking to appeal to people of all ages but also specifically trying to appeal to younger gamers. Releasing a game for an audience outside of the Xbox 360's main demographic may have been risky, but because of the game's continued strong sells it was a risk that paid off. So why do you think Viva Pinata was able to maintain strong weekly sales for an extended period of time. Did positive word of mouth spread, or do you think bundles with the system accounts for the majority of the sales? Vote in the poll then leave a comment letting us know what you think.

Update: Poll taken down now that follow up article is posted.

Previous Look at those Legs threads  

Gran Turismo 5 Prologue (Article Link)

Super Mario Galaxy (Article Link)

       Assassin's Creed (Article Link)              

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (Article Link)

Does anybody have any comments about this?

Sad it sold so poorly, great game, but its far too complex for kids.

Same with Banjo, the aesthetics wasnt going to appeal to adults, and the gameplay was too much for younger people.

I'd say discounted prices/releases.

People probably just walk past it in the shop and see the low price and buy it on an impulse

I think low price and lack of similar games has enabled it to be bought fairly steadily, whether for younger family members or whatever, leading to the very long legs it has shown. Really, there seems so little choice on 360 if you want a game like this, I think it had the market to itself until Banjo hit.

*Whistles* Nice legs!

RSEagle, it really is very impressive. I looked at over 100 games, to come up with the scale I'm using, and only 3 other games had less than 10% first month/total sales ratio.

As I understand, this game was very heavily promoted and cross-promoted with Burger King and some animated shows. I'm betting that this is the main reason for the long tail.

Given the sales of later Viva Pinata games, it doesn't seem to have sparked much of a dedicated fan base.

@ famousringo, that is a good point. Typically if legs are due to strong word of mouth the sequel to the game will at least perform at similar levels to the original. But the other games in there series are all under 500k, with the next best selling game being the one on the DS.

It deserves more sales, too bad.