Most Shocking sales disappointments of 2011

Lots of games rated highly by the critics not seeing sales as good as hoped for.

[Sanetoshi]

I dunno. Maybe it's just me, but it's really hard to consider a game that sells over a million copies a disappointment. Plenty of excellent games that are considered successes by the companies that make them never sell a million.

[buddymagoo]

Most shocking gaming article! It's not just you people like the games they like regardless of sales.

[Army_of_Darkness]

But they still got up 2 PS3 exclusives that they like and think deserve more sales?! lol! weird...

[XboxBoy]

@ buddy

Shut the fu** up and go back to your football site, your not a gamer.

[Iroquois_Pliskin]

Why is msxbox world ranking ps3 exclusives???? Of course they are gonna play it down! Any brain dead moron can see that.

BTW what is their source? Numbers they pulled out of their asses?

[NegativeCreep427]

I'm not trying to say that "redeems" R3 in anyway. R3 is a great game regardless, but I have to bring that up just because I don't think this source hadn't taken that into consideration. This source seems to have only considered September sales numbers for R3.

[RankFTW]

Well considering Alan Wake came out last year I call this article fail. Considering this is an xbox site you would have thought they'd have known that.

[da_2pacalypse]

lol im pretty sure that Eidos even said that they sold more copies of Deus Ex than they expected... They sold so many copies that Square Enix is expanding Eidos Montreal in order to make a sequel of Deus Ex and Theif 4.

[disturbing_flame]

"Wow, it looks like resistance 3 have reach in one month what Alan wake have done in a year, let call that a disaster."

Man that article was really annoying.

[EVILDEAD360]

LMAO @ pretending Alan Wake came out in 2011..

Classic case of FAILED Fan blogger journalism

Please ladies and gentleman..look at the history of MSXBOX and try to pretend they are 360 site..they arent

Evil

[Yi-Long]

... but considering the DLC-milking/scamming they'll be doing for quite some time, I'm not dropping a nickle on it until there's a complete edition being released.

[da_2pacalypse]

@disturbing_flame no those are Alan wake sales for this year. Alan wake actually sold a fair amount of copies after a while... It just didn't sell that many copies at launch because it was released on the same day as RDR.

[lelo2play]

Maybe a multiplatform game "only" selling a million is not so great... but a exclusive selling a million, i think it's pretty good (since it's only on one console).

[modesign]

dont forget, alan wake and forza were suppose to be gaming gold. so only selling a million is pretty bad when every one speculated on them selling a few million

[Laxman]

WERE* gaming gold.

[PirateThom]

Ah, see, you've made the mistake here of thinking this arguement applies to 360 games. It doesn't, when 360 games only sell a million copies, it's "disappointing" and "there must be a reason why".

On the other hand, a PS3 game selling a million copies is a failure and people don't care about exclusives.

[nefertis]

Alan Wake deserve to sell more copies, i wish it was on the ps3.

[Mickbelfast]

Was recently announced Alan wake broke 1.5 million & it was the 360s most pirated game, it's the game that made me get a 360.. It's that good

[NegativeCreep427]

But what you don't consider is the fact that Xbox 360 sycophants take high sales figures alot more seriously than the PS3 loyalists. Xbox 360 fanboys see that as the de facto measure of success, so when people talk of Alan Wake and Forza's "disappointing" sales numbers, they are simply applying the same ruling measure as the Xbox 360 fanboys. It seems MS fanboys want to have it both ways and are being hypocritical.

[WrAiTh Sp3cTr3]

Ah, so you base your gaming lively hood on 360 fanboys and what they think or tell you? Your life sounds miserable, lol...

[oohWii]

@NegativeCreep427 - Where is the other side of your argument? You rant about how 360 fanboy see things. Your omission of the PS3 fanboy's poing of view easily shows that you're just a whiny little PS3 fanboy trying to rationalize his need to hear some good news about his console of choice.

Grow up.

[KingZFlipper]

and Alan Wake came out in 2010, not 2011.

[Jerkstore81]

The problem is there are too many good games coming out at once fighting for our dollars, and the $60 price tag is too high. By the time they get a price drop we've all forgotten about them.

[ArmrdChaos]

You also need to consider that a lot of these story based single player games have less replay value once you complete them. I would like to see them add rental numbers with these sales numbers to see where the true interest levels are. With completion times of 6 to 10 hours I would believe that most are opting to rent instead of buy.

[voodoopickle]

i would also like to see the amount of copys traded in within the first 6 months, although im guessing that would be a real hard figure to obtain

[aquamala]

With games costing so much to make, one million is not enough for some games

[bumnut]

£40 x 1,000,000 is a good return in my book.

[TheIneffableBob]

Try less than half that.

You have console licensing costs (this means more profit on PC), distribution costs, and marketing costs.

[Dark_Overlord]

That £5+ extra added onto console games covers the licensing costs

[mcstorm]

I think any game that reaches 1 million has sold well more than hat is a bonus. Thrre are only a few games like halo cod gt and most of ninendo exclusives that sell more than 3 million on each console as these are the games that people buy that console for.

Some games also have legs like forza it sells small numbers but over 12 months. But this gen seem to be all about mw shooters for some reason.

[Thatguy-310]

Resistance 3 was the best in the series ...disappointing that a lot of gamers didn't pick it up

[dinkeldinkse]

I think RFOM is by far the best in the series. Being completely honest, I think R2 is better than R3 because of the coop.

Edit: Btw sales numbers along with GOTY awards are worthless to me. inFamous 2 is my favorite game of this year, regardless if I am the only one that bought it or one of many that bought it.

[hennessey86]

I agree, fall of man was a stunning game and the best in the series. 2 and 3 were good but not as good a s 1

[WrAiTh Sp3cTr3]

Although I'm a fan of the Resistance series and feel the first one is the best out of the ones I've played, neither had a quality I'd consider stunning...

[JBaby343]

I haven't played R3 yet but I consider R1 to be better than R2.

@dinkeldinkse: I bought inFamous 2 also and while good I liked the original much more. But I'm glad you liked it so much.

[kevnb]

ya 1 million sales is huge, thats a freaking million people buying a game. Not every game can be huge like call of duty.

[enfestid]

It's all relative. If Call of Duty only sold a million copies, would you classify it as a disappointment? I would. Just like some of these games selling over a million is a disappointment, given the marketing behind them, the developers, etc.

[Dee_91]

..

[Dee_91]

so im guessing every game with a buzz on the internet is suppose to sell a couple million in a few months ...to be considered a sucess ..

[MoreRPG]

you got to consider the development cost of each of these games
anyway at least for me these are good games it seems kinda disappointing to see these sales

[Vortex3D]

If the publisher spent too much money on the development making and marketing the game, then selling a million copies still wouldn't cover the cost.

[TheDareDevil]

I don't know how Alan Wake features in this list since it released in 2010 but I think a million units is good.
Most of the games featured on this list are over a million. I don't know how that is considered a disappointment.

[Gamer1982]

Indeed 1 million is good but 1 million for Forza is bad especially when we know 360 gamers are all about the sales and GT5 has sold nearly 7 million. They bang on about how much better Forza and sales = quality so if tru then why hasn't Forza outsold GT5? It's not going to ever either looking at sales and how much they have slowed down now. I honestly agree though 1 million is a success for most devs but turn 10 will not be happy with that.

Forza 3 has sold 5 million lifetime so the article writer is trying to figure out why people are not upgrading.. Kinect is the reason and most people bought GT5 now. Lets not kid ourselves GT5 gamers couldnt wait and bought a 360 and Forza. They moved on now and thats why Forza 4 sales are dead compared to Forza 3.

[sarshelyam]

First weeks sales are what they look at. Lifetime sales don't take into account the duration of measurement. I piece of software selling 1 million units its first month, does not equal a piece of software selling 1 mullion units over the course of 3 months.

Frankly, developers have goals, and publishers have projections. This time of the year the projections are incredibly short, usually first week, sometimes extending to a second or third. That said, as new competitive software releases cross and on platform, they have to drop the expectation on projections and cut off sales tracking as it relates to the overall budget recoup.

It's too bad, because if one looks at a game like Valkyria Chronicles [PS3], it was a commercial disaster upon release (selling only 30k units in its release window). Then timing hit where GameStop and like retailers dropped the price so the stock would sell through. If you looked at the overall sales for the title at this time, any developer/publisher would consider it a commercial success, especially considering the genre which tends to be a bit more on the niche side in an industry dominated by the shooter.

[xtremexx]

i wish enslaved sold more

[LettingGo]

Watch it, man. These people don't like Enslaved. They think because the reaction time on the combat isn't as fast as a normal action game...that it's a bad game. Forgive them. They're young....

[AAWELLS09]

Well said and agree.

[AAWELLS09]

I totally agree and had a blast playing the game. Very well made.

[Laxman]

Was one of my favorites of last year. Was such a well told story and actually had some of the best game characters Ive seen in a while in terms of having the player care for them and thier story. Andy Serkis is awesome. Take the scene *SPOILERS* Trip takes the Slave band off Monkey and he says to put it back on. That is just so well done its amazing.

[mt]

I wish I liked enslaved demo so I could buy it.

[MadMax]

You missed one hell of a game! The demo did it no justice at all.

[Spenok]

Hell, if your interested in it at all, you can buy it new for no more then $20 now. And as MadMax states the Demo did it absolutely NO justice.

[Spenok]

Completely agree. It was a very well put together game. The only thing i was kind of dissapointed by was the ending... it just didnt feel like enough was given. The graphics, story, and acting was fantastic though.

[xtremexx]

yea the ending wasnt the best part to be honest

[sarshelyam]

Agreed. I don't think I need to speak more to this comment, other than state that the sales didn't matter, to me. I enjoyed it.

[RaidensRising]

When games like Saints Row 3 get 1 million in a week. Assassin's Creed Revelations over 2 million in a week and games like MW 3 Battlefield 3, Gears 3, Uncharted 3 all doing incredibly well, the gap has widened between those just reaching a million, and those going way beyond the once benchmark figure.

[FCOLitsjustagame]

There could be some bad timing involved as well. The fall/winter had some big games coming out so I held off on games like Deus Ex and Forza 4 which I will go back for.

[Kran]

Why is Alan Wake in this list? It came out last year...

[Spenok]

Yeah, May of last year lol. Freakin year and a half ago.

[TopDudeMan]

I feel guilty for not buying resistance 3... But I didn't have teh monies, and now there's more games I want.

[Laxman]

The*

[Pikajew]

Do you feel smart now?

[TopDudeMan]

I did that on purpose... It's how some people type. I'm semi making fun of people who type like that.

[Spenok]

If money is an issues. I recommend keeping you eyes on Cheapassgamer.com. They ALWAYS have the best information on deals every week. Whenever i consider buying a game i go there first. And the trend i have noticed is Kmart pretty much always has the best deal(s), when a game launches, if its big enough to have decent hype, there will almost always be a coupon attached with it, ranging from $15-50 off your next purchase. I havent payed full price for a new release in almost a year because of their deals.

[TopDudeMan]

Well, honestly, I never really have a problem buying all the games I want, it's just this year was kinda tough with all the awesome games that came out.

[spacedelete]

Its because gamers are starting to vote with their wallets instead of buying 5-10 hour, mediocre to below average trash.

For example DE HR was absolutely terrible and dull with horrible tacked on gameplay that wouldn't look out of place in a ps1 game.

Resistance 3 just wasn't a good game especially when you can get much better shooters for the same price. People only bought the first one because there was barely jack all to play after PS3 launch.

But its a shame for games like Infamous 2 and Forza didn't sell well or enough.

Infamous 2 is better than the first game in every way and makes the first game look like a PS2 game.

And Forza 4 is imo the game I wanted GT5 to have been.

At the end of the day gamers decide if a game is worth their hard earned money so next time to the ones that are making crap games make a good game and advertise it. No one will buy your game if they don't know it exists.

[ajeben809]

Got to agree with you, I think R3 deserved what it got, there just wasn't enough content on the disc and Insomniac dumbed it down so much compared to the first game. Though RFoM was a great game and I still think it is the best in the series. Infamous 2 was also great, it suprised me to see less than 1m sales. I hope that is enough for Sucker Punch to create a sequel because I2 was a quality game.

[Army_of_Darkness]

Resistance 3 is awesome!! It looks and plays way better than the last two in my opinion! I find it very unfortunate that they didnt sell as much as they should...

[Trebius]

R3 is the best in the series in my opinion, but were all entitled to our own.

I feel like they got hte atmosphere right, the story was great, and the gameplay was top notch.

[FunAndGun]

R3 was more COD than Resistance.

Insomniac chased the CoD formula and built the Resistance 3 multiplayer around it.

The inclusion of killstreaks and those stupid loadouts totally turned me off from R3.

FoM is easily the best in the series as an original game that is different from every FPS out there, even today.

[JoeReno]

@spacedelete
If gamers are really "starting to vote with their wallets and not buy 5-10 hr mediocre, to below avg trash" games like Modern Warfare 3 would have never sold a fraction of what they have.

[Cosmit]

Well actually MW3 gives you countless hours in MP. Just saying buddy :).

[JoeReno]

Yep countless hours of PvP, laggy, cheating, multiplayer fun. Just saying buddy.

[Cosmit]

Multiplayer fun? Sounds good to me, buddy.

[Pacman321]

Deus ex and Resistance 3 are both brilliant games. They are my surprise hits of this year and i never expected to like them as much as i did. R3 campaign was great and it's the first FPS game that i started the campaign all over again right after i just completed it.
As for deus ex, i didn't really know much about the title other than it was a type of stealth/RPG/FPS game, which intrigued me. So i bought it, and loved it, yes the boss battles were out of place but that didn't take anything away from the whole experience, which was brilliant.
As for Infamous 2 and Forza 4, i agree that both games are quite under rated and should of gained more sales, although i still do feel as though GT5 is more of a sim and Forza is a fun racer.

[LightofDarkness]

"For example DE HR was absolutely terrible"

At this point I realised you had nothing to say that was worth reading.

[MysticStrummer]

Yup. DE:HR turned out to be one of my favorite games this year and would easily make my Top 20 list for this gen.

[Mickbelfast]

I think infamous 1 & 2, along with heavy rain, are the worst playstation exclusives I've ever played, I couldn't get into infamous & I had no idea what was going on with heavy rain.. Terrible games

[MysticStrummer]

I respect your opinion yet think it's completely ridiculous. Please PM me if you ever get a job reviewing games so I can avoid your website and/or magazine.

[Redempteur]

Where is the source that infamous sold so few ...

te game sold twice as much in USA than the first and doubled his first game in japan too ...
considering that the first sold more than 1.2 millions , it's impossible for me to imagine it sold so few ...

i ask for a source !!

[sarshelyam]

You guys are nuts, seriously. To say that Resistance 3 wasn't a good game, or didn't offer enough, is a serious oversight.

There is far more story and emotional ties to Joseph, a character we really hadn't care too much for in the second game, but one that develops into an incredibly deep and committed one in the third.

Graphically, R3 is worlds beyond most in the genre. Sure, it's slighlty stylized, but when everything else on the market barks "Me-too!", Insomniac delivers!

Weaponry once again dominates the market here. Insomniac proves they're a master of their craft by not only creating robust period-appropriate weaponry, but alien weaponry that not only feels powerful, but believable as well.

At the end, it's completely subjective, but to call any game in the Resistance series "not good" is a silly oversight.

[jessupj]

People say sales don't matter, but unfortunately they do. Sales affect us gamers, it's a fact. If a game sells bad there is unlikely going to be a sequel and other devs will think twice about making a similar game.

And it seems a lot of great games this gen have gotten subpar sales, and as a core gamer it's a big worry.

With the spiralling cost of games development I hate to think what's going to happen next gen. I really hope Sony keep on the road they have been and continue to pump out quality games.

[RememberThe357]

I've been saying that for a long time, but there are some who are so anti-fanboy that they themselves can't see the truth.

[spacedelete]

@lumley666 i think he means that for all the boasting and bragging ps3 fanboys on the internet do for the exclusives to just sell around 1-3 million at best is beyond a disappointment especially when the Call of duty games sell the most on ps3 in fact on the back of the ps3 cover of black ops and MW3 it says its the highest selling franchise in ps3 history.

[Eyeco]

So every ps3 owner which accounts to about 50 million gamers are rabid fanboys ? Just because a couple thousand fanboys hype a game doesn't mean 50 million users are gonna buy it and besides the couple thousand irrelevant fanboys who hyped the game probably ended up buying the game

[cyclonus007]

CoD is also the highest selling franchise on 360.

[coolbeans]

Alan Wake released last year and we have an article that shows sales are close to 1.5 million overall.

[LoaMcLoa]

Shadows of the Damned should be on that list :'C

[LettingGo]

HOW did inFamous 2 sell so poorly?!? It was SO GOOD! The marketing was everywhere, too. Then again, many people didn't like the first. I don't know why though. It's one of the best games this generation. The same goes for R3.

[JoeReno]

I was wondering the same thing. Its 1st week sales were double that of the 1st game, and I'm pretty sure it took top spot in June. It seemed like it was on a fast track to sell really well. I don't get it, but then again I don't understand how MW sells like it does either.

[Mickbelfast]

I thought infamous was terrible couldn't get into it can now see why it was gave away in the hacking compensation

[kevnb]

if you ask me those are good sales for a single platform release. Sure every now and then we get blockbusters like call of duty, but most games arent going to sell 1 million copies on a single platform.

[PirateThom]

Sales number.... [citation needed]

[ReLLiK]

@Spacedelete

I hope you're not comparing MW3 to Resistance 3. Because your description," Mediocre to below average trash. 5-10 hour singleplayer", sounds exactly like MW3 to me. Im just saying that because, you said there were better shooters out there. I mean R3 was by far not the best one in the series, but anything ANYTHING is better that terrible bologna, ass sandwich of a game MW3

[floetry101]

Resistance 3 arguably didn't get the recognition it deserved. A vast improvement over the 2nd game in every respect other than marketing.

That juggernaut first day patch and the online pass situation didn't help either. Ouch. Frustrating for a game that I found to be very well paced and a heap of fun.

Multi-plat games need to do well over a million to even consider breaking even nowadays. Look at the production time of Rage. There is no way iD will have made their costs back on that, and they probably won't unless they can break over 2 million copies sold.

I gotta say, I didn't expect Deus Ex: HR to sell as low as it did. It's probably the second best game I played this year.

Sometimes, people just don't buy good games.

[Venjense]

I can't believe Infamous 2 didn't sell more, it's a really good game.

People like my friends are going to ruin gaming, all they play is MP on there favourite sports and FPS games all year.

Seriously they buy the same games every year and just log hundres of hours into MP, ignoring so many other great games.

[contra157]

Resistance is a good game, it did however get overhyped. good game def didnt need all the hype its not that great. then another one on the list that took alot of hype Forza 4 knew already that it was not going to be MORE sim then Gt5 but i expected ore sales from this so called elite racing game, which it isnt.

[Ace_Man_6]

Add Rayman Origins to that list, it didn't even make it into the charts!

[kevnb]

1 million sales on a single platform isnt good? I think we spend too much time looking at call of duty sales.

[yog-sothot]

I don't think Deus Ex sold that bad at all. It's not the kind of game that would sell many millions anyway. And where do these numbers come from ?

Besides, I'm pretty sure it sold quite a lot on steam, which is obvously not counted here...

[RaptorMan]

Rage made the NPD top 5 for October, FYI

1. Battlefield 3 (360, PS3, PC)** Electronic Arts - almost 2 million
2. Batman: Arkham City (360, PS3)** Warner Bros. Interactive - 1.5 million
3. NBA 2K12 (360, PS3, PSP, Wii, PS2, PC) Take Two Interactive
4. Rage (360, PS3, PC) Bethesda Softworks - 550k
5. Just Dance 3 (Wii, 360) Ubisoft
6. Dark Souls (PS3, 360)** Namco Bandai Games
7. Madden NFL 12 (360, PS3, Wii, PS2, PSP)** Electronic Arts
8. Forza Motorsport 4 (360)** Microsoft
9. Gears of War 3 (360)** Microsoft
10. FIFA Soccer 12 (360, PS3, Wii, PSP, PS2, 3DS) Electronic Arts

[MizTv]

i could not stand kz3 or r3 and i dont wish them on anyone

[xVeZx]

i got both of them for 28 bucks totaL....was it worth it?

[SSultan]

Sure was.

[xVeZx]

IF THESE IDIOT GAME DEVELOPERS STOPPED RELEASING THEIR GAMES ALL AT THE SAME TIME MAYBE THEIR GAMES WOULD SELL...

[ForROME]

Resistance 3 and Killzone 3 = Disappointing Sales

These titles had as much hype and production values as UC2 and 3 yet didnt come close

Most Dissapointing Game sales Ever = HAZE and Super Man 64

[maniacmayhem]

I thought Deus Ex made a killing for Square? I swear there was an article on n4g that stated this.

anyways in the end sales do matter, to the developer. Game production costs well over a million to make nowadays. And devs need those sales within the first few weeks just to break even. selling a mill a year from now won't cover devs costs.

Also with good sales comes established IP's and it also allows devs to take more risks and make other new IP games.

not surprised at a lot of those games on that list though. Most of those games had repetitive gameplay and got boring real quick.

[zerocrossing]

Remember when gaming was about games? not the numbers and sales?.

Its not like sales of a game even counts anyone, look at CoD or any other milked multiplat, they sell big but we all know they are becoming outdated and obsolete, we need more new IP's with new gameplay and innovations, and to actually support them otherwise we'll just keep getting tired old repackaged shoveleware.

[XboxInnovation]

Any exclusive that reaches 1 million is a success. Any multiplat that just touches 1 mill is not a success.

[TheColbertinator]

Even if a game sells past a million,it might still get shut down.Look at Homefront,sales go around 1.2 million and THQ is happy with the investment,then they shut down the studio and lay off everyone.

[Gam3rSinceBiRTH]

This is top news? Must be a slow day.

[wedgie]

Wish infamous 2 sold a bit more. Its close to the million mark so that is fine. Its just for me, outside of Batman and Uncharted, inFAMOUS is my 3rd favorite new IP this gen. Love those games.

[HappyWithOneBubble]

1 million might seem like a success for some games but it depends on how long and how much $ it took to make the game. Like if it took 5 years and 30 million to make a game and it sold only 1 million, that's pretty much a disappointment.

[BrianC6234]

Only in the gaming world do they ignore the truth about the horrible economy. People need to wake up. Most of us don't have a lot of extra money to be throwing away on games. I hardly bought any games this fall. I bought Batman and Uncharted 3. I did buy inFAMOUS 2 earlier. The world economy is horrible. The idiots in Washington are sitting around doing nothing to fix it. You can plan on another crappy year in 2012. Nothing will get done until after the Presidential election. Even then nothing much will change. This could be the future. Weaker sales.

[HappyWithOneBubble]

You right the economy is bad but it's not just that. If it was just the economy then COD wouldn't sell 20+ million every year. I think some people just don't care to play certain games. They rather play games their friends play or what is popular in the media.

[BrianC6234]

When the economy is bad though people will buy the big games they want. But in the past it was easier to buy a lot of other games. I decided early on I wanted Batman and Uncharted 3. I might buy others on sale after Christmas but I won't be buying a bunch of $60 games. It just isn't a good time to waste that much money.

[ShaunCameron]

Rayman Origins. I was surprised by how low the Wii version's numbers were. And this was arguably the 2nd best game the Wii had all year considering the lack of worthwhile games for it this year.

[danielle007]

Amaaazing game. But, you also have to think it's multiplatform.

Wii isn't the console of choice for the majority of gamers - I had the choice of getting it for 360 or Wii and I chose 360. I would never buy a game for the Wii that wasn't a Wii exclusive.

[bobrea]

PLAY GAMES, NOT SALES

[danielle007]

The only shockers were Deus Ex: HR and Forza 4. Their metacritic score is greater than or equal to 90.

The others listed were low to mid 80s. If you are not AAA with at least a 90, your sales are going to suffer since there are so many huge releases with great scores.

I'm not saying these are bad games that don't deserve more sales. I'm just saying in a market flooded with AAA titles, you can't make a not perfectly stellar game and expect it to be a blockbuster. I already have Deus Ex: HR, but the others I'll have to wait and pick up when they drop in price and when I have more free time, since I already have other games prioritized.

[meowthemouse]

I'm surprised no one mentioned UMvC3

[Zephol]

Rage is the most dissapinting game this generation.

[rezzah]

not really, Genji 2 was one of the biggest.

The first was said to be better than the whole Oni Musha series!

[ezcex]

test

[IWentBrokeForGaming]

I think maybe where these games are failures...

are because the game sales aren't helping break all that even with dev costs... at least that is my take on it!

All of our game devs. are hurting in 1 way or another with us being spoiled by amazing games this gen... like my #1 fav. franchise is Uncharted!

Think how the production values of Uncharted are making other devs. freak out as it constantly raises the bar for console graphics, it's constantly as well raising expectations out of rival consoles and even other studios making games for even Sony...

as expectations shoot even higher as we continue this gen and even into next... we are going to need to meet a point of being contempt with what we have. Cause the money just isn't flowing back into all these studios to enable them to push further...

Dev. costs and lacking sales are what will hinder all of our games!

Sales don't make a game amazing or horrible, but the sales effect the longevity of those getting those expierences to us right?

[Adolph Fitler]

Resistance 3 sales are abysmal...but I'm assuming these are U.S. sales figures only, and I'm pretty sure R3 would garner better numbers from Europe....well, I hope so anyway, as all the Resistance games for me have had better campaigns than the COD's & most other console fps's, although R2 was a little dissapointing compared to 1.

I would have thought Motorstorm:PR & Apocalypse would have made this list as well, as they both apparently had quite poor sales, which also is dissapointing as the MS series is the best arcade racer this gen (along with Pure, NFS:HP & my recent discovery of Nail'd & how good that game actually is).

I don't want either of these 2 Sony franchises to die off cause sad saps didn't buy them....If you own a PS3 & like arcade racers and/or shooters, then get your asses out & add these stellar titles to your collection, as they are true greats & I want at least 1 sequel for each on PS3, & hopefully a launch from both alongside PS4 in late 2012/early 2013.

Oh, & Alan Wake was a game that was good for the 1st 30mins to hr, until you came to the startling realization that it was the most painfully, repetative game since the 16bit era. I mean, you literally walked down a set path, only to be attacked by 4-5 samely looking dudes that you eradicate after shining your torch on them, then rinse & repeat, but the only difference being that a big dude with a sledgy would come out in favour of 1 of the other 5 dudes, then defeat them at gun/flashlight point & walk up a bit more pathway & wallah, the 5 samely rednecks that originally attacked are back...it literally feels like the same 2 groups of weirdo's are attacking, taking it turn by turn. I mean, there are some good ideas (not anything original as even the light thing has been done), & they feel well done in regards to controls & such, but the level design, character design, story & such all just totally undermine anything good the game tries. I finished the game as quick as I could, & took it back to my EB's under there 7 day return policy. It's just not a game that exudes enough quality throughout to warrant a purchase over games like Dead Space, & even Siren on PS3.

[Jasman]

Those numbers mean very little without a base for comparison. In the context of the gaming year, how do I know what '1 million units sold' actually means?

[CultOfPersonality]

InFAMOUS 2 sold well more than that, sure I've seen it another article selling well more than this silly Xbox article

[P_Bomb]

Another Robert Cram article? Ok, here we go:

1) Alan Wake is a 2010 game, not 2011. I have no idea how that slipped past the editor, especially when they're primarily focusing on games that have been out 6 months or less.

2) No source quoted as the bearer of these estimates, which of course tends to mean vgchartz. Not sure how unofficial guesses by a 3rd party site qualifies as enough evidence, but at least name your source either way.

3) He got the estimates wrong. Undertracks inFamous2 @ 800,000 when his assumed source, vgchartz, actually has it at 960,000.

Significant because that's almost a million. Selling faster than part1. Took 2 years for inFamous1 to reach 2mil', inFamous2 is half way there in less than 6 months. Shouldn't be on the list, especially against multiplat estimates with 360/PS3 numbers combined. That skews things and doesn't really tell you what people are buying on a console by console basis. Gotta keep it in perspective. 360 owners don't have access to R3 & inFamous. At least break it down by console when calling R3's 650,000 in 3 months the biggest shock while Dark Souls, a followup to a GOTY, gets a pass despite only doing 250,000 in 2 months on the 360.

Single console example:
Bulletstorm PS3 = 300,000 in 10 months
inFamous 2 PS3 = 960,000 in 6 months
DeusEx PS3 = 680,000 in 4 months
Resistance 3 PS3 = 650,000 in 3 months
Rage PS3 = 510,000 in 2 months

Looks like R3 sales are actually pretty decent on the PS3, outpacing other games released in the same season and beyond (Bulletstorm). R3 is even outpacing other PS3 exclusives like Socom4 & Motorstorm Apocalypse according to vgchartz estimates, so I'm not sure why Cram chose to single it out and make dated points about it being bundled with the Sony 3D monitor when it's actually Motorstorm that has that distinction.

All told and in defense of some of the recent multiplats as well, 3 months of shelf life does not a career make. Nor can you expect exclusives to sell on consoles they're not available on.

[Hudahudahuda]

I think people are just plain losing interest in games.

[Neko_Mega]

Lame, not a shock a Xbox site to care about sales. As for me, I play the games I enjoy. Even if their sales aren't unreal.

[Knushwood Butt]

I'm not really surprised by the poor performance of Resistance 3. Reviews don't really count for much these days.

1) Lots of players didn't seem to like Resistance 2 so much.

2) The main character in Resistance 3 is not Nathan Hale. Furthermore, nobody is really interested in Capelli. He put Hale out of his misery, got kicked out of the army or whatever, then got married and had a kid, so everyone's supposed to suddenly be interested in his story?

3) Insomniac went multi-plat. Like it or not, it doesn't give off good signals as far as their PS3 exclusives are concerned now.

4) Way, way more competition in the FPS market now. It doesn't matter if your game is good or not - hype sells now. Look at stuff like Dead Island - it sold (a lot more than Resistance 3) because of the trailer...

[P_Bomb]

Dead Island sold more overall in part because it was multiplat. 360-only owners didn't have the option of picking up R3 on Sept 6th. Break it down to just PS3 though and the difference is negligible. According to Cram's vgchartz, Dead Island sold 800,000 where Resistance 3 sold 650,000. A 150,000 unit difference isn't a lot.

Hype definitely helped out of the gates though. By the time Dead Island's critical avg settled in at 71% (R3's was 83% in comparison), people had already bought their copies.

Your 2nd and 3rd points are more subjective. Many reviews cited R3 as the best entry in the series with a better story/campaign than its Hale-led predecessor. If anything I'd say Capelli's arc was one of the better points. If there was a negative in the story I'd throw it at the feet of arguably not resolving enough by story's end. Important plot points from the previous games such as gray tech, pure Chimera, Cloven etc went largely ignored. More questions from Malikov than answers. That's up to individual expectation though. Can't see it affecting sales as it didn't for Dead Island.

[Knushwood Butt]

Good points.

In regard to Dead Island, it also needs to be considered that it is a new IP: Resistance 3 is a sequel to a well-established, multi-million selling franchise.

[dcortz2027]

It's such a shame that Resistance 3 didn't sell as well as it should of. Superb game with an incredible single player campaign with a great story and fantastic visuals/effects. So much fun! If you own a PS3, then you need to buy Resistance 3.

[PandaJenkins]

1 million sales has never been a dissapointment.....

[BuLLDoG909]

deus ex HR should of sold way more, one of the best games this gen on console....

[saimcheeda]

As for Alan Wake, wasnt it released in 2010?

[Adolph Fitler]

Lots of Resistance haters out there....I even noticed one person comment that the only reason Resistance 1 was thought of so highly & bought basically, was because it was one of the only games available at launch???????What a crack head, & probably a fanboy of another console that hates PS3, as Resistance 1 is a true classic & a game I'd far rather have on my machines launch lineup than the absolutely terrible Perfect Dark Zero. Resistance 1 is an awesome game, & the only fps I've played through 3 times. I enjoyed R2 as well, but nowhere near as much as pt.1, as pt.2 was dissapointing because of too many heavily scripted set pieces & the removal of the 1st games awesome vehicular based gameplay.
Resistance 3 brings the series back on track to some degree, & the other clowns knocking the multiplayer for being a rip off of COD's have obviously never played a Resistance online, as there is a very important factor that Insomniac fail to include in there online games, & that thing that is not included in Resistance online multiplayer, that the COD's have always had, is LAG. I mean, Resistance 1 is very similar in style & structure to COD online gameplay, it is stupid for anyone to think these games were very different at all, so Insomniac including points, killstreaks & whatever is no big deal, & certainly no departure or detractor from the gameplay iteself.