NPD: ‘XCOM: Enemy Unknown’ Sales Disappoint

FleshEatingZipper writes: If you’re a hardcore game forumer, you realize the important part of any month is that second Thursday when NPD retail sales are released. Long the lifeblood of fanboy wars, the statistics – which are part of an expensive report sold to analysts, journalists, and platform holders – have been increasingly shrouded over the past few years. While the Xbox 360 continues to outsell the rest, video game sales continue to decline, and no one’s buying a PlayStation Vita, the biggest surprise came in XCOM: Enemy Unknown sales. In short: there weren’t many.

[wishingW3L]

Such a great game flopping... It's like all people want are Call of Duty rehashes and Mario. This is why developers doesn't dare to make unique games anymore.

[-Mika-]

Well this isn't the type of game that sell well on consoles. They should have just made this a lower budget steam release. i think the game would have done alot better than.

I do agree with you about the unique games. People would rather buy the same old ips that barely innovate like zelda, pokemon, etc and pass on stuff like Gravity rush, little big planet and more. Like I always say, Us core gamers is what ruining the industry.

[lastdual]

And yet Civilization Revolution moved almost 2 million copies. Granted, Civ probably has a wider appeal (my sister loved that game, but never showed much interest in XCOM).

A great demo likely helped Civ Rev as well, while the demo for XCOM was one of those where you had to assure people "don't worry, the full game is better!" XCOM needed a better demo, and also to have it released sooner, rather than so late on the consoles.

[StanLee]

@ lastdual

Civilization also is an easily recognizable IP. Fans know what the game is and what to expect. There were a lot of unknowns about the XCOM reboot. Great critical reception and the demo represented the game well. It's just such an unknown IP to today's gamers.

[b_one]

Not exactly true with "not that well on consoles"
Reason for me not too buy was no random maps as on original, if they want sell some to me, there must be a reason to come back to it every time i need strategy game, without random maps that isnt a challange to play

[animegamingnerd]

i wasn't surprise the console version flopped but it would one hell of a shocker if the pc version didn't sell well

[camel_toad]

It will be a total shame if it doesn't get a sequel. I know the poor sales definitely won't help it but at least the majority of gamers (myself included) and reviewers love it so that gives me some small hope.

Turn-based needs a good comeback.

[R6ex]

Time to move on to real-time.

[HellzRazor]

Need more games like this, hopefully things like simcity,starcraft and a sequal to this xcom game on next gen consoles, i'm burnt out on FPS/TPS shooters and rpg this gen, its all we ever get n they all feel the same.

[jujubee88]

'Tha f*ck, man?

[eferreira]

lol as I read that while I play unit 13

[jujubee88]

We the few. (apparently)

[R6ex]

Smartphones are already more powerful than the old Vita.

[madjedi]

Also nearly double the cost with piss poor controls and mindless 5 minute casual games only. Yeah truly a better buy./s

Will you mobile gaming retards leave n4g and go back to worshipping apple.

[Theo1130]

X-com makes so much sense to make on a portable like the vita. I'm pretty sure It sold really well on pc, It was one of the top games for a while.

[b_one]

there is a chance for XCOM on Vita but the original one

two games was made for Playstation 1 - maybe its time to bring them back as classics...

[majiebeast]

I think this game wouldve had a better shot if it released earlier i picked up Dishonored instead, and ill probably buy this when its on sale at steam money is tight at the moment so game sales declining isnt that weird.

[Hasanhastam]

i cant believe how people buy frustrating re6 and ignore sweet xcom

[kingdavid]

Brand name hasan.

[palaeomerus]

What a bummer. I wish more people had tried it. X-Com is one of my favorite games this year. Even at $60 it felt like a great value while I was playing it.

[digitalkid]

Sales info is BULLSHIT. Some agency looked at retail sales some shops in NAmerica?))

There was no any official info. Looks like they only reposted numbers from VGchartz, and noone knows where they came from.

[madjedi]

Who seriously expected this game to put up big numbers, it's a very niche title. I can't say for certain but i would put this games dev cost, at well below what the average third party big release typically costs.

Nothing is especially modern or high end minus the movies or cutscenes, i could be wrong though, it's a good game but the repeated abductions and ufo crashes. Gets tiring after a while that and the battles are 25-45+ minutes, if you want your people to actually live.

Especially since you never become overpowered vs the enemy, ie bad luck(mob placement) or bad positioning typically = dead soldier. And while i am on the subject how the hell does a 90 or 100% chance to hit miss?

This will probably be a light sleeper hit, it also came out in a fairly packed release schedule. Playing it on easy and it's not exactly that easy atm with almost all higher tier mobs.