I remember quite a while back talking about the very subject of digital distribution and how it could open the door for erroneous interpretation. The more popular digital distribution gets, the more likely it is that hard figures are not going to represent the overall picture. I think LBPVita is a prime example. I frequent a LBP site and nearly 60% of the people there (including myself) bought the digital version. So when you see retail sales, it in no way reflects the true sales figures.
Agreed, just look at starhawks numbers a little over 100k? even some of the worst ps3 exclusives have done better then hat and starhawk is an awesome game... I received the single player campaign for free because of playstation plus and I will probably be buying the multiplayer via Digital Download and chances are there are alot of people who fall under that..
You would think that digital sales would be easier to track. I mean im sure sony has a counter as to how much each game has sold.
But i guess those numbers stays under wraps which is strange. Hopefully they become more open about it in the future and not just say what is on top of the charts.
LBI didn't listen to the Warhawk fans; they listened to a bunch of random people in the Beta who never intended to buy the game. If they just ported Warhawk's gameplay into Starhawk and added the extra space stuff and build and battle instead of changing the fighter plane and put a bunch of boosts in it, nearly 100% of the Warhawk fans would have bought it. I wanted this game to do that, but it didn't, so I didn't buy it. I really wanted this game to succeed, and I may still buy it, but they turned it into some perk-reliant multiplayer clone instead of the perfectly-balanced skill-dependent game Warhawk was.
***************************** ***************
R3 didn't do well because of these key points (I own this one, btw);
5. No Hale. It just went funky when you take the main character out for good.
4. The hopeless in R3; You don't even know if there's an army left on earth; wait, you do: with 90% of the human population gone (if correct), it's an eventuality that humans will be eradicated in that scenario.
3. Using Capelli as the main hero; he was a jerk in R2.
2. No 8 player co-op; WTFudge, I still play that every once in a while.
1. Going from 40 (r1) to 60 (r2) to what, 8 players in R3? Really? No co-op was bad enough, but to greatly reduce the number of players to slightly improve the graphics in the multiplayer was bonkers-stupid.
Gow3 undertracked by 800k-1million, uncharted 3 by 1.5 million, uncharted 2 by 400-500k,gt5 by 800k at least(nintendo showed its undertracked in eu by 400k) etc. Mgs 4 was over 5.5mill. In konami report almost 2 years ago.
True, why would a publication use undertracked estimates from vgchartz instead of going straight to the corporate sources? Konami's financial reports have MGS4 higher, even Nintendo posted higher numbers for PS3 games in their analysis earlier this year.
@Dalek
You can tell when you crosscheck, they're the same right down to the decimal.
GOW3 for example is undertracked by a whopping 700,000, as it's already passed 5 million. Sony released official sales numbers for the entire GOW saga this past June http://www.siliconera.com/2... . Why vgchartz and PLAY UK see fit to ignore that and make up their own stats instead, eludes me.
The last one on the far right is Yakuza 4. The 3rd from the left looks like Ico and Shadow HD but not sure. Left of inFamous 2 doesn't look like inFamous 1.. .could be wrong though.
HAHAHA I was lolling at the thought of those people seeing this chart. Proved them wrong BIG time.
PS3 games do sell very well, and I knew that. But this chart is even more than I expected, and it is quite possibly under-tracking the amount when compared to publishers numbers. Amazing.
Gamasutra won't use them. Wired won't use them. Microsoft openly mocked the accuracy of their figures and no one in the industry relies on these figures, and why should they? Even VGChartz doesn't stand behind their data.
Right in their terms of use it states: "We do not guarantee the accuracy, the integrity, or the quality of the content on our sites, and you may not rely on any of this content."
And what do you expect? It's a fan run site from a guy who won't reveal his sources, his sample size, his methodology, etc. They've even freely admitted to Gamasutra that MGS4 numbers for Europe were completely fabricated. Occasionally they go back when official data is revealed, or when NPD numbers come out and they make adjustments which make them look semi-credible, but having followed them for years, they're always off. Sometimes it's as little as 10%, sometimes with software they'll be off by 100%, but at the end of the day you just can't rely on any figures from these guys.
The guy who wrote it is obviously an Xbox fanboy he didn't list the biggest ps3 exclusive Gran Turismo 5 sold 8millon and God of War 3 sold 5.2million. i wonder if Microsoft has anything to do with this.
Hmm, if they're gonna show sale numbers for some PS3 exclusives, shouldn't they've put Gran Turismo 5 on here, which (according to this article) sold 7 million (as of December 2011)?
Sony isn't generating enough excitement for its exclusives, at lot of worse games have sold much more. Honestly, Sony could learn a great deal from MS marketing department.
A clearer picture would be handy
Some pretty impressive numbers there, good to see.
These numbers look like they've been taken off vgchartz lol
Crazy how Infamous 2 sold so little, one of the best games this gen.
Resistance 3 sales are a tragedy. Deserves to sell far more. My favourite FPS