October NPD software data – Fable II sells 790,000 for top spot

LBP isn’t really the surprise for me… SOCOM coming out of no-where and beating LBP is.

Congrats to the Lionhead team!

LBP – I hate to say it, but I did pick it. I reckon it’ll be out of the UK top ten next week.

Didn’t it only come out on the 28th? Or is 215k in 3 days still a bit pants?

It was late, yeah. But look at Gears’ opening weekend sales. If that’s their biggest game…

Hey, Sony. Is this your ball? I think you dropped it.

A recognised franchise and one with a thwarted release date.

I think it’s an unfair comaprison.

As is Socom… WTF!?

No. Sony should have marketed that thing into the ground. I know gamers who didn’t realise it had come out, nevermind the mass market.

Yeah, but what’s SOCOM even doing there? Unless most of those sales are for the free headset.

It was beaten by Saint’s Row 2, which came out on the 14th. Granted it was earlier, but seriously, there’s no way it should be down there. It’s Sony’s biggest triple A product for 2008 and it was beaten in the NPD by Saints Row 2 on 360. That’s insane.

Doesn’t seem to have pre-emptively sold any hardware either.

It’s not insane at all.

I still havent got the damn thing becuase I haven’t had a chnace to fetch it on the 24th like I thought I would, and I hadn’t wanted to go to a shop specifically for it, to find it’s not there. Obviosuly I am fine now (for the weekend), but still.

The game was virtually not available until this month.

Where are you No_PUD? If you’re in the UK Argos had LBP stock on launch day, and tons of it (they put out a special bundle with the PS3). Given launch day in the UK was 05th November it wouldn’t have been surprising you couldn’t get a copy until this month.

LBP Launch in the US was 27th October onwards… so it would obviously be a different story if you’re “one of them”.

What’s strange is that only today did I notice that in my local town there’re LBP ads at almost every bus stop.

Something that hasn’t been mentioned… Motorstorm Pacific Rift. Missing, presumed bombed.

I haven’t seen LBP ads, apart from 3 pages in FHM.

And even in America it wasn’t a certain date, it was a rough estimate.

It was a massive screw up.

Yeah, I don’t think it’s a fair comparison at all for such a short time with much confusion over the release date(s). Don’t think this is gonna shift much hardware either as it didn’t help in an argument I had with some people when one of our friends was having to decide 360 or PS3, but then again, LBP isn’t gonna appeal to everyone as much as other games obviously

Gears of War sold more than LBP?!? Next you’ll be trying to tell me FIFA 09 sold more than Persona 3 FEZ.

oh wait…..

Lol.

Half the userbase, 3 days maximum on store shelves. LBP did not do badly at all.

But I also do not expect it to have legs, just becuase a gam,e is infinite, does not mean it has legs.

“but then again, LBP isn’t gonna appeal to everyone as much as other games obviously”

Why not though? Isn’t the whole point, the whole concept behind the idea is that it is for everyone? Hasn’t Sony been saying that this is the game in its arsenal that will have mass appeal?

So basically, it should be selling by the bucket load and it should be moving PS3s with it. Well, that’s what Sony wanted/expected anyhow.

So, in those terms, it really isn’t performing very well.

I agree No_PUDding. I’m sure Sony would have loved to have shifted a million units day 1, but given the nature of the game, the muddled release date, the busy Christmas rush and the fact that it was only on sale for something like 3 days, it’s really not fair to try and spin it’s sales numbers into a failure.

I still think it’s a title which has legs, and though it may not shift a ton of units off it’s own back, I think it’s a valuable addition to the PS3 line up, and it’s very nature suggests that this time next year, it’s going to be an even better and bigger game than it is today.

Well, we’ll see for definite in November’s figures. They said they expected LBP sales to be a big part of next month’s numbers, along with Resistance.

Let’s see:

1. Sequel
2. Non-game
3. Sequel
4. Franchise
5. Peripheral
6. Sequel
7. Franchise
8. HOLY SHIT AN ORIGINAL TITLE!
9. Sequel
10. HOLY SHIT ANOTHER ORIGINAL TITLE!

“Oh man, it’s so bad. We only get sequels and franchises these days. Why can’t we get some ORIGINAL games that do something different. Those greedy corporations, they’re always playing it safe, never taking a risk”

I wonder why?!

Maybe Sony should make games people actually care about instead pointing the finger at the public for not caring.

Shatner – The sad truth. Original title or not, though, I do hope LBP shows better in November, but I just get the impression it’s the wrong product for the machine in terms of mass sales.

Erm, morriss, leave the misdirected aggression out of this. You and your fanboy bias just launched into my comment from your relentless anti-Sony stance. Seems a little quick off the mark when my comments weren’t about Sony and the no.10 game isn’t even for the Sony platform!

You’re blind allegiance is a bit transparent these days morriss. What a shame, are all your articles proof read by Major Nelson before they get published?

Pat,
An original title (in terms of IP and content) is unlikely to ever be a system seller. That’s why systems usually launch with a high-profile franchise installment (Zelda) or a shinier version of traditional gameplay such as a racing game.

My personal analysis of the LBP thing is that it’ll be a slow but quite long burner due to its community aspect.

I’m not really interested in what you’re talking about though, Shatner. The comments up until that point were about LBP, so my comment was, you guessed it, about LBP. Regardless of what you wrote or how you wrote it.

I know people with your disabilities have the need for everything to revolve around themselves, but there’s a time and place for everything, old bean. You’ll learn that over time.

Shatner – I think it’ll keep selling, but I never understood the emphasis. Sure, it’s “good,” but PS3′s a core console and appetites in that market are traditional. Sony should be applauded for publishing it, in my opinion, but I thought it was obvious it was never going to be what they said it was going to be in terms of popularity.

Good analogy that springs to mind is when I went off to be a mag editor for a bit. I launched Xbox World, and we put stuff like Sonic on the cover, tennis games, The Simpsons, Buffy and whatnot as they were exciting, new, cute, different, and so on. The competing Paragon mag put guns and cars on the cover of every single issue. We sneered we did.

Until we got completely fucked in the ABCs.

It’s the same for just about everything, isn’t it? I’ve seen films advertised where car chases and sex-scenes were showed although they actually play a minor role in the film itself.

Everyone has base instincts, base desires that advertising companies and the like get paid millions of whatever for their ability to tap into it.

It doesn’t need to be about sex or violence either. Look at Nintendo: it’s all about health and family: penetrates right to the core values of today, and wins, regardless of the quality of the system and its games.

“I’m not really interested in what you’re talking about though, Shatner. The comments up until that point were about LBP, so my comment was, you guessed it, about LBP. Regardless of what you wrote or how you wrote it.”

So you just replied without reading or making an effort to comprehend what it was you were replying to? You replied even though you weren’t interested in what the person you were replying to was talking about?

And now to defend yourself your insulting a reader who made a simple observation of the information (nothing to do with the site or the article author) and suggesting they’re disabled? You’re continuing to talk to them, insult them and then suggest that your comments are actually THAT person’s need to be the center of attention? So I’m responsible for the post’s you write? Really?

Or are you saying that you just felt like doing another one of your anti-Sony troll posts irrespective of what was being said?

It’s difficult to tell who you’re more anti – me or Sony. So some clarity on this might be useful.

Fight! Fight! Fight!

You’re not a reader, though. You don’t read.

And again, it’s not about you all the time, so let’s just drop it now. I’ve tried to help through what is obviously a terrible time for you, and I’m just being met with aggression and naive, immature comments, which is an understandable symptom of your condition, I suppose. So I’ll forgive you.

Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!

“You’re not a reader, though. You don’t read.”

Yes. Clearly. That’s why my first post isn’t, in any way, a simple analysis of what was written in the article. Because I don’t read!

:^s

LittleBigFail

I think LBP will have a more legs than most titles by word of mouth. We have a bit of a skewed perspective on how well known LBP is to people who don’t sit around on games sites all day. I’ve seen bugger all LBP advertising. For a lot of my friends with PS3′s the biggest source of knowledge about LBP has been me!

I’ve also always contended that whether LBP sells a truck load or a reasonable amount then it’s been very good for Sony. Purely on the good write-ups it’s given them in the general gaming press and the massively positive reaction it’s had there.

One final point on SOCOM. It’s partly the pack-in official Sony headset making the game effectively very cheap. (You can get the pack here for £30). It’s also the fact that the SOCOM series has a decent size hardcore following – particularly in the US. Just take a look at the interest generated when EG was giving away beta keys.

“I’ve seen bugger all LBP advertising.”

I don’t know where you live, but I live in London and LBP ads are all over the place.

DrDamn, you’re most likely right. I think it will chart until beyond Christmas. It’s just with the amount of internet advertising that Sony did for it, it seems strange they haven’t followed it up in the mainstream. It’s a title that the company wanted to spearhead the brand, not have slow steady sales and people on hear about it through their mates.

@Giga
Bristol – nothing I’ve seen. Not seen anything on TV either, but then I rarely watch “live” TV and will always fast forward adverts.

“Good analogy that springs to mind is when I went off to be a mag editor for a bit. I launched Xbox World, and we put stuff like Sonic on the cover, tennis games, The Simpsons, Buffy and whatnot as they were exciting, new, cute, different, and so on. The competing Paragon mag put guns and cars on the cover of every single issue. We sneered we did.

Until we got completely fucked in the ABCs.”

But Pat, we were so much.. so much.. BETTER. Plus that Simpsons cover went on to be one of the biggest selling games ever.

As I just said, all this ‘hardly any mainstream advertising’ is a load of rubbish.

I could hardly commute to work over the past week without seeing a picture of Sackboy somewhere.

They advertised the game, but xmas has always been dominated by a handful of games including NFS, FIFA/Pro-evo, and other sequels.

If people don’t want to buy the game it’s not because of bad marketing, because Sony have done quite a lot.

scratchy – We ruled. I’m still proud of it. I’ve got all the issues. And all the discs. You can’t beat the power of the man with a gun, though

“Bristol – nothing I’ve seen. Not seen anything on TV either, but then I rarely watch “live” TV and will always fast forward adverts.”

lol. Well you’re not going to see many LBP ads if you always skip them.

I don’t think the “sequel” thing has that much to do with it, to be honest. Gears of War wasn’t a sequel when it launched. It sold 5 million copies.

Why? Because it’s a shooter, it was a significant step up technically and it’s about saying, “sweet,” “shit” and murdering aliens with chainsaws.

LittleBigPlanet is about a small cloth toy. Go figure.

Yeah, but what’s Pokémon about?

But what machine was it successful on?

LBP straddles the hardcore and casual spaces on a hardcore machine. It’s good, but it’s a square peg in a round hole. See also Viva Pinata.

Oooh, good point pat.

I was saying something similar to that before. I reckon if LBP was on the Wii it would probably end up as one of the best selling games of all time.

EDIT
If the Wii had a decent online system, that is…

Fing is, LBP’s actually quite an odd game. It’s got a casual aesthetic but the concept itself is actually quite difficult to grasp. You mum wouldn’t play it, simply because it’d completely confuse her.

The big casual successes on PlayStation are things like SingStar, Buzz!, and so on, which anyone can immediately grasp and play.

Three levels of depth, hitting R1 to hold onto things, “the community,” all that stage-creation stuff… You have to be pretty knowledgable to “get” all of that. It’s actually very complex.

You’re probably right about the Wii thing, though. I reckon it’d need to be much simpler to hit the Wii sweet spot, however.

@Giga
“As I just said, all this ‘hardly any mainstream advertising’ is a load of rubbish.”

Maybe indicative of Sony thinking the UK revolves around London then. Have you seen any of the TV ads actually aired?

No, but I hardly watch TV tbh.

And similar to you skipping ads, I detest advertising in general, so I make a point of channel surfing every time there’s an ad break until my program comes back on.

But I do remember thinking to myself that Sony were trying quite hard with LBP, cos I kept seeing Sackboy everywhere outside.

The other day I even saw two kids purring over an LBP ad in a free mag that they both had one each of, and I even started to relate to how much I used to love Mario when I was their age.