Mass Effect First Week American Sales Performed Better Than Reported? Yes, says Bioware

On the official Bioware forums, forum posters were discussing as to whether or not Mass Effect first week sales of 200,000 were impressive for the critically acclaimed title, using Vgchartz' American sales chart for the week ending November 24th, 2007. Jarrett Lee, a marketing manager at Bioware, posted this message:

"Through official channels the current sales quantity (which I can't share, so don't ask) is considerably better. Not sure about Vgchartz's methodology."

[chester]

so i guess n4g's not the only group that questions where the f*ck vg gets their numbers from.

[360sucks]

yea right
mass eflop
hahahahahaha
just like black friday

[razer]

of insecure fanboys. LOL! btw genious this is BIOWARE talking not Microsoft.

Who am I going to believe?? A site like VGAChartz that guesses at the numbers or the actual Marketing rep for BioWare who gets the hard numbers?? Hrm, that is a tough one..

[gamesblow]

Xbox 360 13 million units sold world wide
Mass Effect 200,000 units sold world wide

That's a disappointment... no matter how you cut it. Sorry.

[Lex Luthor]

By your logic:

Heavenly Sword a failure
Lair a failure(lol)
R&C a failure
Eye of judgement a failure

Soon... Uncharted

Sorry.

[gamesblow]

Actually, Uncharted released on the 19th of November and has sold 190,000 units already. They're working on an install base of over less than half of what the xbox 360 is doing... With that said, Uncharted preformed better than mass effect.

Chew on that for awhile.

[razer]

that is what this article is about.. It is saying that VGAChartz 200k is dead wrong.

[jcgamer]

According to vgchartz, Mass Effect sold over 300,000 copies worldwide the first week...you can feel however you want about the numbers... that's cool, no problem...but make sure you post the right numbers...

EDIT: and whoever disagreed, do the math with me...and this is ONLY according to vgchartz...
America - 192,993
Europe/Others - 112,576
For a first week total of *drum roll* -305,569

[Bladestar]

@gamesblow - say no more... Lex Luthor and the others just owned your @$$... I guess you already watched the 11 blu-ray movies Sony gave you when you purchased the PS3.

[Lex Luthor]

Great sales for mass effect, if sales remain constant it will of sold a million in over a month.

[InMyOpinion]

I really feel the developers at BioWare deserve good sales on this one. They pulled of something truly special in Mass Effect. Not many games can match the scope of details matched with story quality it boasts.

Instead people buy millions of copies of FIFA 08 from the cheapest publishers/developers in the industry. Kinda sad.

[Covenant]

It's VG Chartz...best taken with a BIG grain of salt.

[Vojkan]

Yeah whenever i dont like VGchartz numbers i am going to say something retarded like "taken with a BIG grain of salt.".

HOMO!

[Covenant]

I say that for ANY numbers from VG...be they pro- or anti- PS3, 360, Wii, whatever...their numbers are best used for ESTIMATES.

At no point did I say I was angry/upset with those numbers...you just implied it based on the fact that I expressed caution at reading too much into numbers that are, at best, guesstimations.

I DO NOT own shares in MS, BioWare, or anyone who is associated with the game, and could CARE LESS if it sells well or not.

And your "Homo" comment has been reported. Grow up.

[MK_Red]

Good news but still, I was hoping for a 500k debut. Sad to see such a great new IP sell any less than that while likes of Madden, Fifa, NFS and such sell millions.

[Chubear]

the 360 fanbase wouldn't really support a game like this. They love to talk but talk is cheap. There's really no excuse why a game like this with the install base the 360 has shouldn't have done way better.

Had Mass Effect been on the PS3 it would have sold much better had the PS3 had the same install base. Don't worry, you'll see what I mean when ME comes to the PS3 later on.

[Probotector]

Based on ALL the hype that this game received, I believe that Mass Effect was a flop both in sales and critical acclaim.

[razer]

If you look at it's sales numbers the title is going to break a million. How can you say that it's a flop in sales?? This game got no more hype than Uncharted or Heavenly sword but is going to beat them both in sales numbers so what does that make them??

[Danja]

HMMM one xbot attacking , another xbot....becuase one actually speaks the truth about there system for a change...

[OatLoops]

But like MK_Red, I was expecting much higher numbers. This is like the first AAA RPG this gen. Of course this is higher than any PS3 game so far, but who cares, 360 games should and do sell higher anyways. I wonder what EA thinks of these numbers? I honestly think that Microsoft needs to keep this exclusive to their platform but if it isn't selling like omg-good, I wouldn't be suprised if the rest of the series is multiplat.

[PS360WII]

Wow okay so first off hurray to larger sales number for this title ^^

secondly how is it okay to have a user name 360sucks?

[HarryEtTubMan]

Last time I checked the defection rate on the Xbox 360 is so severe.... that Microsft hides it and won't even talk about it. HAHA. The Xbox 180 does suck.

[razer]

needs some new material..toolbag.

[gamesblow]

so lemme get this straight... Sony says the 2:1 sales ratio is off, you all call B.S. on it and go on about yoru day. Bioware says the VG cales are off and you all believe it? Please...

Just stop it... Even if 300,000 were sold in a week... What's that make to 13 million users? It's still not a good number. Sorry...

[PS360WII]

while I hear you I just don't understand what you want. Are you saying that because of the 13 million owners out there that if a game doesn't sell over a million in it's first week or two it's a failure? You know how absured that sounds?

Although just to point out I don't think it was a 2:1 ratio either :)

[Bladestar]

Here is funny thing... You are talking about an RPG game... and a new IP... which is being on the top 10 since it's release. Something that you don't see on the PS3. Obviously no one was expecting this title due to it's genre to sell like Halo, COD4 and other mainstream games... but it's surely beating any PS3 game which to me give no right to any Sony fanboy to talk against it.

ohh yeah.. and don't bother talking about PS3 game attach rate since everyone knows most PS3 are being use to watch blu-ray movies or sitting in a server room hosting web pages...

[Kaneda]

Don't forget PS3 owners are trying to cure your mama breast cancer too....

[SL1M DADDY]

But it is a Bioware game and typically speaking, they do not sell more than a million or so durring the entire life of the game. Great games but they apeal to a smaller market than games like Gears of COD.

[Lex Luthor]

Kinda true.
Bioware games hasn't really been mega blockbuster sellers.
I wonder how many copies KOTOR has sold.

[Chubear]

I don't think it broke the 1 million mark and if it did it couldn't have been by much.

[gamesblow]

The thing is... you all are lambasting Uncharted in sales... Which in america alone it sold over 130,000 its 1st week. It didn't hit U.K. and Japan until this month and it's still not out as we speak. Mas Effect had the benifit of a U.S.and europe release and it only sold 300, 000 units. Uncharted sold 130,000 on american shores alone its 1st week and they did it with an install base of like 4 million "maybe" Xbox 360 has an install base of litterally 13 million in total... in the regions the game was released.

Tell me it preformed to expectations.

[Lex Luthor]

America - 192,993
Europe/Others - 112,576

Total for FIRST week: 305,569

Don't forget this is a new IP, over 300,000 in it's first week is very great. I don't know why sony fanboys are getting so work worked up over this. Can't really blame them, HS hasn't even sold over 200,000 yet, the game is already forgotten.

Apart from 2 games, Ps3 games have sold FAR FAR FAR FAR below expectations. What happened to AAA R&C(Established franchise)? I could of sworn sony fanboys said people will buy ps3s for this game.... silly me.

[SlippyMadFrog]

Also remember that the Xbox360 has a MUCH LARGER games library than the PS3 to choose games from. If the Xbox360 had the same number of games as the PS3 at a 13 million install base, mass effect sales would be through the roof.

[ThaGeNeCySt]

well we'll see when NPD is out

[jcgamer]

Thank you bro! Bubbles up...that's the whole point of the article...Bioware is simply questioning the vgchartz numbers...and I'm sure Naughty Dog did the same thing when vgchartz posted first week sales for Uncharted...

[bootsielon]

Ask yourself this. Does EA want the game to remain as an exclusive?

[slugg]

Microsoft helped fund and published Mass Effect; EA would have to buy the rights from them to publish on other systems (PS3), and I doubt that MS will be okay with that. For the two sequels, however, Microsoft would have to pony up some cash to EA, now, to keep them 360 exclusive. Some people speculate that this is one of the factors that led to EA buying Bioware-- they heard about the $50 million MS ponyed up to Rockstar for the exclusive downloadable content for GTA 4, and figured MS would hand them some cash to keep the two Mass Effect sequels on 360 only. But I wonder how putting just the sequels on PS3 would work-- you are supposed to be able to continue on with the Character you created for the original game right? And wouldn't MS own some of the rights to things like the games name, character names, etc.?

[bootsielon]

200,000 is too little (considering it's "AAA" as the Mart would say). Bioshock performed a lot better, selling on par with Metroid Prime (around 450,000 the week).

[slugg]

Mass Effect's sales numbers are affected by a couple of things that may or may not help: the time it released and competition. Lots of people that go shopping on "black friday" and after are parents, grandparents, etc., and they tend to buy games as presents that kids (or grandkids) have been begging for for awhile. For instance at the Gamestop I work at, we saw a spike in Halo 3 sales, Call of Duty 4, etc., but Mass Effect is "too new" to be on people's christmas lists if they don't even have Bioshock yet, for example. I think that Mass Effect will see a sales boost in the week AFTER christmas, when people are exchanging that extra copy of Halo 3 that grandma didn't know they already had, or cashing in the gift gards they got from Santa. Also, look at metacritic.com if you think that Mass Effect hasn't recieved any "critical acclaim." It is doing just fine. (Some of the reviews for Mass Effect seem to suffer from "Assassin's Creed Syndrome," in other words, a bad review for an amazing game because the reviewer doesn't "get it" or expected the game to be something it is not) While we are on the subject, seems like a lot of people are getting PS3's for christmas (and we have even had people try to return the cheap model when they took it home and found out it wouldn't play PS2 games), and of course Wii's are nowhere to be found. (We had to kick one unemployed loser out of the store, because he was hanging around everday when we got shipments and buying a Wii to resell for profit in the newspaper and online. Although company policy pretty much states one console per person per day, so what he was doing wasn't "officially" wrong, we figured enough was enough)

[jcgamer]

bubbles up, nice post...

[rayc0013]

Was there any promotion's for this game i never saw any on regular TV, g4 did a special thats all i remeber

[power of Green]

PS3 fanboys need to worry about PS3 games. Go out and buy PS3 games so you don't sound like moronic hypicrites when you ignor every big game on the PS3 that ends up seemingly unappealing to the masses yet you waste your time in here baffled with 360 news.

The game had poor marketing many people don't know what it is about most wouldn't even know the type of action it has just by watching what footage was available up untill it was released and still it doesn't shed much light on the game.

#19 is correct MSFT and Bioware did not do enough to sell the game to the masses a few tech video's that shed very little insight every three or four months was a bad idea.

Things will change more and more people on my friends list have it; word of mouth will make "some ground".

You have to read this before you claim to be suprized and it "should have sold better" as if you really mean that, read it and what this post is saying is 200k is wrong.

[CrazzyMan]

blame game, which sales wasn`t that impressive, that would show more sales, then it`s now on VG.

i mean, if game would sell 1 mln. there woul be defientely over 500-700k in first week.

so that means, just not evertyone are buying M$ hype or just x360 like only FPS and action games, and less rpg and other games.
i wouldn`t wonder, if on PS3 game will sell better(ofcourse if EA decide to release it). =))

[jcgamer]

I've been waiting for you to show up...you are so BIASED to a point that it's not even funny sometimes...I saw you on vgchartz saying that Mass Effect flopped and Uncharted was a success...then every Nintendo fanboy on that site (which is the majority) began saying BOTH FLOPPED...of course, I disagree...BOTH did respectable numbers for new IP...but you PLAYED yourself going on vgchartz and trying to praise Uncharted and diss Mass Effect when you should have given props to both...all those guys did was rip into both titles after your post...you have to represent for the hardcore titles on vgchartz, because some of those guys can't spot a flop from a flip-flop...lol...and actually think that Carnival Games is AAA...LOL! Take those blinders off CrazzyMan...and let those vgchartz guys know what's up next time...

[CrazzyMan]

While Uncharted is doing just fine, you can compare CoD3 and R6 numbers of x360 games 1 year ago. They were on same level, as Uncharted or Cod4 for ps3.
And ps3 still only 2,5 mln. sold.

YOU ARE BLIND, if you don`t see the difference in 6 mln. of sold consoles and only 65k difference, this is a Joke.

[jcgamer]

oh, come on...lol...remember that little title called Gears of War last year? What was the 360's install base then? MUCH LOWER? But what were the sales of the game? MILLIONS...the reality is that the 360 has much more competition this year, plain and simple...Assassin's Creed came out of the gates with guns blazing on the 360 and Call of Duty 4 exceeded sales expectations...and the expensive Rock Band released the same week as Mass Effect...the reality is Mass Effect didn't start as fast as those games (Assassin's and CoD4), but that doesn't mean it won't sell or that it isn't selling...now, why do you insist on bringing up the 360's install base when 360 owners are buying up the game stores as we SPEAK? Where is the PS3's "Gears of War" like success? Uncharted is CERTAINLY AAA and awesome...Take those blinders off ONCE AGAIN...and another thing, why does some of the PS3-only guys use the 360's install base for and against us...if we say Mass Effect sold over 300,000 the first week, you guys say, "But look at the install base"...then, when we're talking about 13 million plus 360 owners, you guys say, "That ain't NOTHIN, they should have sold more hardware by now...which one is it? And when will you criticize your precious PS3? The PS3 is moving a considerable amount of hardware right now...the reality is that at least one must have exclusive PS3 game should be "Gears of Warring" out the stores on the PS3...remember the ratio of 360 owners to Gears sales? Gears was basically selling to almost all of the existing 360 owners and new owners...and sold 603,000 copies in its first week in NA, according to Vgchartz...you can't hide behind the PS3's install base any longer, it's big enough now...so what is your take on the software sales of the PS3 at the moment? And please answer back...and remember, be nice, I will be a PS3 owner soon...

[CrazzyMan]

it was 1 mln. more in usa.
Oh come on, do you remeber how many mln. $ M$ spend on advertising this game(geow)? How much paid for Hype of this game?
Uncharted is AAA, but this game wasn`t Hyped that much as geow, and almost no ads. While geow got it`s deserved 7 from 1up on pc.
ME did only 200k in usa on first week, the game, which xbots call GOTY, did only 200k - don`t you laugh at yourself?
sony just don`t spend their money on hype and advertsing, they just know, that good game will sell.

I mean, bots called ME goty, and this game don`t get AAA sales, so that should mean something.
With 8,5 mln. ps3, Uncharted would easy make 500k in first week. Anyway, it still has some chances to reach that number by the end of year.

[SlippyMadFrog]

Is this a Joke??!!

"Oh come on, do you remeber how many mln. $ M$ spend on advertising this game"
If you want people to buy your product, you advertise it. Google it sometime. If sony don't want to spend money on advertising games, thats their problem.

"sony just don`t spend their money on hype and advertsing, they just know, that good game will sell."
HAHA!! Their games don't sell that good so I guess they better go to plan B.

"ME did only 200k in usa on first week, the game, which xbots call GOTY"
GOTY isn't related to sales. If it was so then Halo 3 will be GOTY. ME got 92% average on GameRankings.

You are a lost cause. Your above posts are absolutely laughable

[ukilnme]

Good post. I feel like it is a waste of time though as some people will never admit when another console has a great game. Could be jealousy or ignorance.

Gamers game and haters hate. CrazzyMan, which one are you?

PSWii60 FTW!!!

[CrazzyMan]

1) scores for most M$ games are bought by M$.
2) gamerankings and metacritic sponsored by cnet, cnet sponsored by M$. So stop being BLIND.
3) ps3 games selling GOOD with amount of sold ps3 in usa.

ukilnme, I AM AGAINST BETA GAMES, like ME. Which has texures issures, framerate issues, long downloadings and stupid team AI. EAT THAT and stop being BLIND.

[SlippyMadFrog]

LOL!

"gamerankings and metacritic sponsored by cnet, cnet sponsored by M$. So stop being BLIND."
You are an IDIOT!! Gamerankings and Metacritic are a summary of all the reviews for a game, they don't review a game. This clinches it, you can't be older than 12!!

"ps3 games selling GOOD with amount of sold ps3 in usa."
What's the attach rate of the PS3 again?

[Dmack79]

Sorry, but somehow I don't buy that for a second. I havn't even seen any television ads for it yet. Most gamers w/ a 360 are saying that they might get mass effect just from the title, but they don't even know anything about it. poor marketing.

[JokesOnYou]

lmfao, wtf? I guess 360 is a victim of its own success, now a new IP in the rpg category no less has to hit 500k out the gates or its a failure, ha ha the 360 is competing with itself, there are so many great games to choose from that NO game is going to sale by default, you would think with such a lack of great titles to choose from on the ps3 that Uncharted would at least sell alot better, but hey this is a first sonykids attacking a 360 game even when its outselling everything on the ps3, and don't mention size of install base 'cause many of ps2 *great games have dismal sales considering its over a 100mil install base, God of War2 should have sold at least 50mil, riiight?

JOY

[AAACE5]

Someone sees ehat I see!

People(sony fanboys) and Sony actually tricked themselves into believing that there are actually 120 million "individual" ps2 owners! When in reality, if the ps2 was that popular, the ps3 would be even harder to find than the Wii! And would have had no problem selling 20 million consoles in it's first year.

It's funny, Sony fanboys/girls nag MS for the same thing sony did last generation to reach that number. The 360 has the "RRod" (a fanboys kryptonite on post like these), The ps2 had the infamous "Disc Read Error" problem.

Back then, when you called Sony to tell them about the problem, they would say, "OK, send your ps2 to some address in Farmington Hills, Michigan!", When I asked how much it would cost to fix, he said, "Anywhere from $140 and up!", I hung up with him and figured it would be better to just trade in the broken one for a new one and pay the difference. I know of alot of other people who travelled down this same road. I got used to buying a new ps2 every year(5 total). I know people who have bought as many as 8 ps2's. My brother has two broken ones in his garage.

I bought a 360 in Dec. 2005. It went out in me in June 2007. So I don't feel so bad because I got used to doing this because of Sony!

Anyway, Mass Effect came out at a bad time. There was too much competition from well known franchises like Halo 3 and CoD 4. In all honesty, i'm shocked it sold as much as it did! It will gain more sales later on during the wait for the late january games.

Message to Sony fanboys: You come here because you have nothing to do, cause your soul mate(ps3) has nothing to keep you occupied for a long time. I got an idea... Everyone should buy a ps3(so sony loses money) and only buy your games used(so sony looses more money), and then sony may see their losses and stop making consoles.(That would be the end of the Playstation fanboy!)

[theoneandonly]

And considering MS publishes and finances Mass Effect, I would count on no chance of it going to other platforms meaning even the sequels...

Unless MS lets it go and finds something better, but its about as likely as Final Fantasy crossing over to the Xbox360 at this point.

In other words, Mass Effect is 360 exclusive. Possibly for the generation. And they did an exclusive deal.

So around 300,000 sales of the game right out the gate is nothing to scoff at, as I expect the sales to be more like 400,000 once the official numbers come in. Then that is going to reach a million in less than 2 weeks.

Tell me again how many copies they are expecting for MGS4, they want to sell a million on day one? That's not going to happen.

These numbers are more than impressive compared to every game released for the Playstation thus far.

[devilhunterx]

its funny to see the xbots on the defensive. what? now vgc doesnt matters?

[SlippyMadFrog]

It's funny seeing all the PS3 fanboys commenting on an Xbox360 thread. Worried about something?

When PS3 outsell Xbox360, VGchartz is law for PS3 fanboys, otherwise it's BS, right ;)

[Big Jim]

Whats the deal with the black circle around the edge of my screen all the time when I'm playing Mass Effect? Is it just me? And, yes, the motion blur and gain effects are turned off. What the....?

[JasonPC360PS3Wii]

Looks like MS has another one.

To the PS3 fans, where is yours? Oh thats right your still "waiting".

[Jones Miller]

that Mass Effect will go multiplatform so we don´t have to listen to whining 12 year old PS3 fanboys who never played the actual game.

Second I really hope that Bioware sell a lot of copies because the industry needs to know that a game like this is worth the effort. What we don´t need is another mindless shooter (not talking about COD4).

[ceedubya9]

VG charts is just an estimate, and that's something that people tend to forget about these things. We've seen how in some cases it could be more and it could be less. Since Bioware says more, I'll believe them until something else shows otherwise. At 300,000 (maybe more) I think that is a pretty good start. It is a new IP, and also an RPG, which as far as genres go aren't typically mass market sellers like shooters are (unless you count the Final Fantasy series). Bioware has a pretty strong fan base, and it will reach 1 million eventually. Regardless, its a fantastic game. Oh, and Sony-only fans, the last thing you should be doing is coming into an xbox thread yapping about GAME SALES of all things...

[ukilnme]

You are a hater. Plain and simple. I hope you open your eyes someday and become a true gamer.

[SabreMan]

I just don't get posters like you, none of your posts make any sense you are just a blinkered buffoon
i am a very happy ps3 owner, i don't own a 360 or a Wii because i just can't justify owning more than one console.
however i am a real unblinkered,unbiased gamer so it's easy to give credit or get a bit green with envy sometimes when a game such as Mass Effect gets released or any other great game on a console i don't own.

a good game is a good game irrespective of platform
(i keep saying this i just hope some take notice)

EDIT 31.1

stupid no it seems you are clearly showing these characteristics as well as ignorance, i still have no clue what points you are trying to make, sadly for you the only point you are getting across is your a clueless buffoon

[CrazzyMan]

1) wouldn`t you like to play mass effect and lost odyssey without LONG downloadings?
2) with stable framerate?
3) wouldn`t you like that main gameplay story would be around 40-50h, not just 15?

4) are you FAN of 4-5 DVDs set? I would with MUCH more pleasure play on 1 BD/HD-DVD DISC.
if you support pastgen, fine with you, but i don`t see nothing great about limiting games with x360 hardware. That really sux.

ukilnme, you are just BLIND BOT, which is just FINE with all ME issues. Because people like you WE gamers get BETA games. Thank YOU.

Now, i`m DONE.