UK charts: DJ Hero bombs as FM2010 hits No. 1

good maybe activision will stop bringing out music games all the fucking time.

Actilollapalooza

Wow, look at Football Manager go! I really thought it’d be Wii Fit Plus this week.

Told you Uncharted 2 had peaked, didn’t I???

It’s got a Metacritic of 96, but it’s number 4 in the PS3 charts already…

To be fair, there aren’t many games which can sit happily at the top of the charts for weeks on end – especially single-format ones.

For a game so expensive, number 20 in the charts is not really negative. The reviews are good, so maybe this game gets a chance in my console.

I disagree.

It’s only been out 3 weeks, having only managed 1 week at number 1.

I’m pretty sure that MW2 will manage more than 1 week at number 1 in the PS3 charts…

Also bear in mind that CoD4 (still full price nearly 2 years on) is number 14, having been number 13 last week.

I am the target demographic for this game. Pretty decent deck skills, liking of hip hop, PS3 owner and decent disposable income. So why haven’t I bought it? Because it looks shit. I have no interest in using a pretend deck and pushing buttons.. I can use, you know, my real decks for far superior enjoyment.

COD is a multi-platform FPS, though. It’s ingrained in the public consciousness as a ‘no-brainer’ purchase. Uncharted is single-platform, third-person and relatively new. It’s also fantasy-based rather than military and therefore a much harder sell. I really don’t see how it’s done ‘badly’.

Apparently it’s already sold better than the first game. Though what that means I don’t know. That said, if there was any sort of justice, a game with those sorts of review scores should be spending considerably longer in the top ten than it did.

At this time of year there won’t be many games sitting at the top of the charts for a long stretch (with the exception of Wii Fit). The seasonal software blitz is upon us with dozens of games being released each week. Week 1 sales are typically the strongest (again, with Nintendo evergreen titles being the exception) with a top-10 fall off accelerated by the influx of seasonal new releases.

That’s not even factoring the whole single-platform / multi-platform differences that’ll boost already high-profile releases like FIFA and MW2 in these sort of charts.

But it’s just numbers. And numbers can be presented in such a way as to tell whatever story a person sees fit.

As for DJ Hero – not my bag. But I suspect it’ll be a slow-burner with a reasonably extended period of sales which’ll then be propped up by plenty of DLC. A title positioned like that isn’t dependent on its week 1 sales.

I didn’t say anything about it doing “‘badly’”. I just think that it’s peaked. It’s on it’s long tail and fading fast, just like LBP.

As for it being a single platform, relatively new (even though it’s a sequel to one of the PS3′s best selling games), fantasy based TPS, then I don’t see why that should make any difference, tbh.

In fact, if anything, it should have a bigger chance of doing well, because of its exclusivity and the focus that Sony are putting on it.

i dont know what acti were thinking releasing it in October, DJ Hero has ‘christmas present’ written all over it, mid november release at the earliest

Uncharted 2 is fith in the French charts. DJ Hero isnt in the top 5 (dosnt seem to show abything other then the first 5).

The game isn’t going to set the charts alight not because it’s any good (reviews have been decent-ish) it’s because;-

a) It’s pretty expensive
b) Nobody has even seen anyone “Air DJ”

Guitar Hero became popular because a huge number of people can relate to playing a guitar. The band set up made that experience much more social. There will undoubtedly be a viable market of people interested in a game like DJ Hero, it’s just a question of how much smaller it is.

I’m wagering a lot smaller than Activision reckons. They’re intentions are to turn this into another annualised money spinning franchise on par with the Band games but I really don’t see how they’re comparable.

@G1GA
You aren’t half talking a load of crap about Uncharted 2. Peaked? Of course it peaked, just about every big game peaks on their first week.

CoD4 peaked on it’s first week. So will MW2. What is your point?

“b) Nobody has even seen anyone “Air DJ””

Actually, I do that all the time!

My point is that it’s on its way down after 1 single week of being the top selling game.

That means that from now on, it’s going to have a lower position in the charts each week than it had the week before until it fades into obscurity.

A game that didn’t get a single score less than 9 out of 95 reviews is being passed over by potential consumers.

As I said before, see how many weeks MW2 will be number 1 in each of the all formats, PS3 and 360 charts and you’ll see exactly what I mean.

The same applies to the vast majority of games though. What is the point in predicting that and being smug when it happens?

“That means that from now on, it’s going to have a lower position in the charts each week than it had the week before.”

No – no it doesn’t mean that at all.

@G1GA
“A game that didn’t get a single score less than 9 out of 95 reviews is being passed over by potential consumers.”

It really doesn’t matter as long as it sells enough. I don’t want to only play games which get great reviews and go on to sell 10m+. It is a very good thing that people can and do make fantastic games which don’t sell gazillions.

Not many games get nothing less than a score of 9 from 95 different reviews either though, do they?

This is an award winning, game and one of the biggest releases of the year we’re talking about here…

“No – no it doesn’t mean that at all.”

That’s just what I intended it to mean.

The music game genre is over-saturated and even though DJ Hero is fresh, it doesn’t have the instant appeal of the air-guitar crowd (which happens to be wider than just rockers or metalheads).

More over, I feel that customers are a bit tired of big proprietary plastic controllers. I’d hazard a guess that the Tony Hawk will not do well in retail as well…

EDIT: Either that or what deftangel said

“It is a very good thing that people can and do make fantastic games which don’t sell gazillions.”

Why?

Surely an excellently developed game should be rewarded by excellent sales? Shouldn’t the people who put the hard work into this game be appreciated by gamers?

@G1GA
“That’s just what I intended it to mean.”

Is that what you think happened to LBP too?

“Why?”

Because if you just have games which are mega-sellers you are limiting the scope massively. For example Demons Souls – fantastic game, game of the generation for me – will it ever sell very well? No. Is it a great thing it got made? Hell yes.

Would you like the only TV to be made to be that which is guaranteed to pull in 15m+ viewers? It would be wall-to-wall Strictly X-Factor Come Dancing on Ice. Whilst I appreciate the programmes have their merits I want variety.

Bottom line – sales are not a measure of quality. I want quality gaming not just what everyone else wants to play.

I would rather watch “Moon” than “Transformers 2″.

Sales are a indeed a measure of quality. How ever so is a high Meta score. The difference, really, is in whos eyes is the quality beheld? I can list a long list of movies that I wouldn’t walk across the street to watch, yet critics loved them. The same can be said for more then a few video games. Because reviewers liked the game and gamers didn’t eat it up off of the shelf can tell us that perhaps gamers(en mass) and said critics are simply looking for different “qualities” in the same game.

Plus quality doesn’t always mean “Fun”.

I play and enjoy a lot of games that never get higher then 5 or 6 on the meta scale(or in general reviews b4 there was a meta). The reason is that said games are simply fun to play.

As far as UC2, I told you folks it was overrated to begin with. The hype, I feel was driven by over promotion on Sony’s part. And I do think that that “get the game out there” push from Sony influenced reviews. Its the same type of thing with Gears and Halo. The difference is that games like Gears and Halo are going to cause people to pick the box up off of the shelf far more then something like UC2. Its that fun factor. Thats not to say UC2 fans aren’t having fun. But it is to say that most gamers aren’t going to have fun with UC2. Or, worse, don’t THINK they would have fun with it, and pass it over to begin with.
UC2 is a good game. I have no interest in playing it after trying the demo/beta. Maybe other folks felt the same. Maybe it just shows the limited sale potential of a PS3 exclusive at this point in its consoles lifespan. If I recall LBP met a similar fate. That game has had a long tial it would seem. Longer then I suspect UC2 will have, but maybe not.

Rejoice! activision bombs at last.

@Pracer
“Sales are a indeed a measure of quality.”

Sales are a measure of popularity – not quality. Popularity =/= quality.

You are basing a hell of a lot of your opinion of U2 off the demo – which was limited to MP. I didn’t really rate the first game, it was driven more by the graphics than the gameplay. Having very nearly completed U2 and played a fair bit of the MP I think you are talking out of your arse ;P.

It improves on the original in a massive number of ways. Important ways like control, variety, fun and core gameplay. It is a much better and more rounded game and absolutely not overrated. It might not be for everyone – no game is – but it is fully deserving of the review scores from people who have actually played the game.

“Sales are a indeed a measure of quality.”

If there was an award for the most retarded comment this would win.

“Is that what you think happened to LBP too?”

That’s exactly what happened. It ended up with retailers resorting to dropping the price of the game down to £10-15, and it still didn’t seem to give it much of a chart boost, if any at all.

“That’s exactly what happened. It ended up with retailers resorting to dropping the price of the game down to £10-15, and it still didn’t seem to give it much of a chart boost, if any at all.”

It’s still pops up in the Charts every now and then though.

Uncharted 2 so far has sold 1.2m copies how is that bad sales may i ask. Christmas is coming up soon so its bound to see a resurgence as well. If a game does a million i see that as good.

@G1GA
It hung around the top 40 for a significant amount of time and went up as well as down. So by your own definition – no that isn’t exactly what happened.

Total sales for Littlebigplanet according to Vg charts are 2 and a half million. If thats true thats fair impressive.

@The Hindle
There you go bringing irrelevant things like actual sales figures into the mix. It’s all about chart position – nothing to do with sales. A game which launched in April and stays at number one for 3 weeks selling 100k each week is much better than one which launches at this time of year and only spends a week at number one selling a piffling 800k.

Just in case there was any doubt … /sarcasm

Haha best news I heard all day.

Case in point this weeks chart …

http://www.mcvuk.com/retail-biz/charts

LittleBigPlant number 38 Re-Entry

“It’s all about chart position – nothing to do with sales.”

You mean UK charts, because its totally irrelevant how the games selling around the world.

Dr Dam

Lol which game are you on about. I just find it amazing that people can turn sales figures and chart positions into a dig on a console. Thats the point im trying to get across.

@Gekidami
Oh no. By looking at UK charts we can determine everything we need to back up our predetermined point of view. We can also usefully overlook how much better U2 is doing than U1 did in the US at launch as that helps our argument too.

/sarcasm is still on

@The Hindle
Having a discussion with G1GA mainly about Uncharted 2 and what it disappearing from the UK top ten actually means. He predicted it would drop out of the top ten last week – I think he may have special psychic powers … what are the Lottery numbers this week G1GA?

Ahh i see DrDamn. Uc 2 has sold way better the first game has, isnt that a good thing people.

A great game deserves to sell like this game did. Two weeks in the Top 10 is absolutely great.

But Let’s not pretend that MW2 will sell becuase it’s a great game. It will sell regardless of it being a great game, which is the difference between the two.

One is a massive entertainment event, the other is not. The event, requires the stars to align (they were, with a PS3 price drop), for there to be a big ad campaign (there wasn’t, thoguh it was better) and for the brand to have an established name (which only comes from quality sequel iteration).

Yep. Uncharted 2 first week sales were about 6x the first week sales of U1 (worldwide). In the US it was more than 12x.

@No_PUDding
MW2 will sell because MW1 was a great game – lets not mess about. All the indicators are pointing to them pulling it off again too.

On the flipside, in my opinion U2 has sold what it has in spite of U1 being not as good as review scores suggested. The difference being not just that U2 has had universally better scores, but that it is worthy of them too.

I completely agree, but as I said MW2 won’t sell becuase it’s a great game. It will sell regardless of it.

As for Uncharted, your opinion on the series is pretty much irrelevant. Mainly becuase there aren’t many opinions on it, it didn’t sell enough! Unintentionally so, the game acted as part of an iterative process, not a strong foundation for the series.

wow G1GA you have a PS3 and UC2 is surely to get GOTY, but you still haven’t picked it up. What’s the matter afraid you might help the odds that it will beat your precious MW2 for the award?

@ DD:

Hehe… No idea what the lottery numbers will be… It’s a complete waste of money anyway!

OK, so LBP is a re-entry into the charts, so it doesn’t fit my definition at all, but my overall point is that neither of the games (U2 and LBP) are as consistantly high sellers as I would have expected based on their review scores and general gamer opinions of them.

I’ve just been noticing that this seems to be a consistant theme with almost every PS3 exclusive yet released. I was wondering if U2 would be the first to break the mould, because of the new Slim and the price drop, but it doesn’t look like it so far.

Lets face it, I’m not expecting MW2 to get a Metacritic score higher than 96, but I am expecting it to stay in the top two in the charts all the way through to mid January at the very least. That’s with all of the other big games coming out in the run up to xmas, and that’s with the higher price and the boycotting from PC gamers too.

There’s your next prediction right there…

I’m expecting it to snow in winter also G1GA

@ tea:

lol. Nah, the real reason that I haven’t bought it just that it simply doesn’t look like my kind of game, tbh.

I see the reviews, and I hear the praise, but I’m just not convinced. The mp beta didn;t do much for me either. I can totally see that people are loving this game and it’s like, their best gaming experience so far, but it’s one that I probably wouldn’t buy until I played it to see how much I like it first…