Maddening: NPD data shows weak Dead Space, Mirror's Edge sales

by Ludwig Kietzmann on Dec 16th 2008 3:50PM

It's a tough road that EA has chosen, one illustrated by the above graph from Gamasutra's recent analysis of November's North American sales results. Reliable and storied football franchise? Selling millions. New IPs and ambitious sequels? Not so much. Though Spore is a notable exception with upward of 2 million copies sold and the Valve-developed Left 4 Dead saw respectable sales on console (both are new IPs), EA's fresh ventures in Mirror's Edge and Dead Space were not rewarded by consumers nearly as much they were by reviewers.

Still, does it smack of having "failed miserably," as Gamasutra so bluntly notes? Or did these unknown quantities simply get lost in holiday shelves packed with highly anticipated, highly praised and highly recognizable properties? Highly likely. If EA's smart, it'll follow the Burnout Paradise (which, excluding PSN sales, racked up a surprisingly low 600,000 copies across two platforms) route and re-release those titles in a less deadly period.

Source

Tags: Burnout-Paradise, Dead-Space, EA, Electronic-Arts, Madden, Mirrors-Edge, NPD, PC, PS3, Sales, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (115)

People need to go out and buy Dead Space! It's fricken AWESOME, damnit!

Yeah, Seriously....DO IT. You dont know what you are missing.

Agreed! I loved the game, highly recommended to anyone that enjoys survival horror.

Agreed. Dead Space was my GOTY and I have played and bought about 50 games this holidays alone (think every good game this past 6 months) and Dead Space was the best of em all, no offense to all other but I was super impressed.

Is it really THAT good? I was not impressed at all by the demo they recently put out.

Agreed Nightmare. Top 3 Fav games this year were MGS4, GOW2, and Dead Space. It's just beautifully executed. The game should win awards for sound design alone.

Tmac

The demo is does NOT do the game justice, at all. Don't know WTF EA was thinking there. It's a must play game. That is all.

Yes it is *that* good, and I'm shocked that the sales figures are this low.

Yeah that asteroid busting level is complete shit and I wish to god they'd release a patch fixing or totally eliminating it, but the rest of the game is just as deep and involving as Bioshock.

On a side note, these numbers don't track sales of used games do they? EB lists this game as one of their hottest items whenever I go in there, so it's gotta be selling in some manner.

To all you Madden fucks out there, do yourself a favor. Buy Dead Space instead and beat it. When you are finished, you can go trade it for Madden which will be $5 used by then.

Cash makes an excellent point. Mirror's Edge and Dead Space are both games that suffer from poor replayability among the core demographic. I think I do support developers in figuring out some way to reasonable get revenue from resales. This would be unprecedented, but there is a big difference between game sales and movie sales.

Movies are already much cheaper and benefit from wide audiences in theaters. Games have a major handicap. I think the alternative is that devs keep opting for this Madden type shit, rereleasing the same game over and over with marginal updates. I'd seriously like to see the development costs for Madden vs Dead Space. I have no doubt that Madden is more profitable, but it is not a greater achievement.

I'm playing through Dead Space on the PS3 for the second time with...

MINOR SPOILER WARNING!!!!
.
.
.
my level 6 Military Suit.

Dead Space is pretty awesome. It's my second favorite game this year, after Gears of War 2.

This is all pretty shocking. Dead Space was just a great game all around. I had a lot of fun with it and plan on playing though it again a few times. People really should be grabbing it.

Hey, I plan on getting Dead Space as soon as I'm done with the other bajillion games first.

I'd have to disagree...Dead Space is boring as hell, only kept me on the edge of my seat for about the first 5 hours, then it felt like more of a chore. Luckily, I sold it for a little less then what I paid for it. Doom 3 was far better for it's time, as Dead Space took much from that book, and Event Horizon...and then came up with an uninspiring story.

Even still. I DON'T think games should be graded on how well they sell, that's ridiculous. Some of the best games have been the most obscure, like the Fallout series or Planescape Torment, which sold millions over time, and not immediately right away. Of course, Dead Space is no where near these games in epicness, but it's not awful either.

I think people were itching for a new IP this fall is a sea of sequels, and the hype train kept a comin'. I'm all about new IP's then rehashed sequels, but there are so many better games then Dead Space, it's hard to recommend for 60 with very little replay value at all, especially in a terrible economy where people are losing their jobs and can only afford half the games this year then last.

dooms us to a never ending cycle of yearly minor football updates.

Whats bad about a constant stream of minor updates to a football game? Sure, it should be about $40 tops, but aside from that, theres no real issue with it, and a good reason to do it since, as the sales figures have shown, it is a good game.

If you don't like it, fine, don't buy it. Just don't complain. Last football game I got was NFL Blitz 2003.

"as the sales figures have shown, it is a good game."

Or... People like football and thanks to EA they have very little choice now

Actually, this year was the first in a while that the changes to Madden were pretty major, and worth the price of admission.

Sales doesn't really indicate "good".

"Or... People like football and thanks to EA they have very little choice now"

Actually, you can blaim the NFL for that, not EA. The NFL put their exclusive license up for bid, EA was just the highest bidder. If EA didn't have the exclusive license, someone else would. Either way, there'd still only be one game with the NFL license every year.

"Or... People like football and thanks to EA they have very little choice now"

Alot of people like the show "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader" don't see that selling like hotcakes. There are more than one choice for Football games, Madden is just the licensed choice. (Blitz The League, and All Star Football)

The3rdNuisance has just recieved "Shagi's stupedest Postur of the day" award.

Yes, there is more than one choice out there for football games, but the NFL is the highest level you can get, so why would you settle for anything else?

The 2k series lagged behind Madden in sales, but did respectable, and did better every year if I remember correctly. Now THAT was an alternative. Blitz and the others really aren't anymore, and if they vanished, I bet there would be very few people who would notice.

"but the NFL is the highest level you can get, so why would you settle for anything else?"

*sigh* that was a really terrible way of putting it, and I meant to change it.... Too late now though.

What I mean is, they are actual teams and players at the pinnacle of professional football. Why would you want to play as anything else. You either have completely fictional teams/players in Blitz (who would care?), or, if I remember correctly, classic players and teams in the other one (whose name escapes me at the moment), which would be good for nostalgia's sake, but that's hardly the reason why people would want to keep playing

I wish they would stop that too, and instead do 2 or 3 year cycles. A better way would be release a $10 to $15 DLC with the new rosters in those 2 years, then release the next iteration. I think then EA could actually sell the games that are truly good. (ie: Dead Space and Mirror's Edge)

Well, I would consider a happy medium where Madden continues to be a profitable IP so long as EA continues to invest that revenue in new and exciting, though less profitable, IPs.

Madden is the equivalent of a summer blockbuster, which funds the smaller indy flicks that win the academy awards.

Then you sh*t head complain that EA doesn't make good game and complain that they recycle. The reason so is because you a**holes are the one buying the recycled crap.

/rage

No, we who complain about EA's (usual) lack of originality or interesting titles are the ones who buy them when they come out.

Sadly, people like us probably only number a few thousand, even across the world.

As eloquent as your point is, I don't think it's spot on.

That green bar looks very long, but keep in mind that this is a nearly 20-year-old franchise, and annual sales have been DECLINING for the past few years. Simply putting all of its eggs into the EA Sports basket is not a strategy for long-term sales growth.

So why is it that new titles Mirror's Edge and Dead Space faltered, while new title Left 4 Dead (which had a fraction of the Mirror's Edge marketing budget) knocked it out of the park? One explanation is that we are all "sh*t head a**holes". The other explanation is that Left 4 Dead was a much better game.

The good news is that there is enough promise and potential in both Mirror's Edge and Dead Space, that a carefully crafted sequel to either of these titles could in fact be a sales blockbuster.

I'm not sure how much advertising was spent on Mirror's Edge, but I do know that Valve plunked down a good $10 million for the L4D advertising campaign.

"That green bar looks very long, but keep in mind that this is a nearly 20-year-old franchise"

Not to mention that it is one of the only truly multiplatform games, spanning to even the Wii, DS, PC, and modern toaster over.

Sadly EA milks decent games and insists on pumping out trash to the point that people fear taking a chance on them and thus Dead Space and Mirror's Edge got burned by money worried consumers this go round. I know I'm tired of EA's corporate practices and uninspired rehashing tactics and almost missed out on playing Dead Space but I played it off of a pal and I now recommend it to anyone because it is a solid game. Sooo much better in fact than the over hyped BioShock in my opinion. I killed the game through and through and have no need to spend the $30 to get it now. Sad because it should have been in my library over the weak Ubisoft Far Cry 2 which was a chance I took and lost on.

Dead Space is very good, and I hope Dante's Inferno is as good as Dead Space.

I think that the low sales of Dead Space and Mirror's Edge is because the lack of a multiplayer competitive mode, which seems to be very a very important feature with the 360 hardcore crowd. I did buy Dead Space, but again, I prefer the single player portion of the games and I rarely play online.

I agree, I tend to buy games that provide a great single-player experience or a great multiplayer experience. If a game tries to do both, it usually fails at multiplayer, and I'll spend all my time playing stuff by Valve instead.

Eh, thats probably not really the reason it didn't do so hot.

As much as I absolutely hate to say it, they should of waited a while to release Dead Space for the PC, or release it completely unannounced a while from now. I know 10 kids (High schoolers) that have played it, and only 2 that have bought it or even rented it. If piracy for the game remained near that level for folks my age or in college was consistent, the "loss" of sales for that game would be obscenely high.

Mirror's Edge, I'm not so sure about. Only personal reason I can see it not doing too good is because of people like me, who rented it, and told everyone they knew not to get it because the game is frustrating for no good reason.

Someone should make a game in which you explore a dystopian future in which piracy killed originality in gaming, and everyone is forced to play Madden and other 'safe bets' for publishers.

As you explore and learn what happened, there is a small box inset of Peter Molyneaux and Cliff Blezinski giving blowjobs for pennies, with intermittent flashing captions proclaiming "YOU DID THIS"

I'm with Fernando here, I rarely play online (though I do have a Gold account) and prefer solid single player games. However, a lack of multiplayer does kill a games sales figures.

Games without a strong multiplayer mode often get traded or sold after they've been beaten as the replay value is fairly minimal (WRPG's being one of the exceptions).

So, if a studio wants to have strong sales of new IP's, they should curb reselling by offering a game that has strong replay value and/or multiplayer modes.

Both Dead Space and Mirror's Edge lacked in this department, while the latter simply wasn't even that great of a game.

hmm... I hate sports games and hate losing to my roommate at racing games. But I have both dead space and Mirrors edge. I'm actually running time trials right now :P Looks like I'm in the minority

I guess they should have called it Dead Space Madden 09 to increase sales.

:(

Well maybe this means that Mirror's Edge 2 will give the protagonist the ability to throw an opponent while they're dazed from a hit, use an opponent as a human shield, use handguns and sub-machine guns while retaining the agility that existed without guns, and have an online multiplayer.

IT'S THE COLE TRAIN BABY!

I don't think Mirror's Edge 2 will focus on guns any more than Mirror's Edge 1 (that kind of misses the point of the game, tbh) but I'm sure it'll improve the combat and other stuff.

See, this is why I bought Mirror's Edge (or, rather, had someone buy it for me for Christmas since I haven't been able to find it anywhere around here xP). I want there to be a Mirror's Edge 2, because I think Mirror's Edge 2 would probably be amazing. New ideas don't always come out perfectly right away. A lot of the time, they need some tweaking before they're ready to be awesome. Portal probably wouldn't have turned out so great if Narbacular Drop hadn't come first.

Shh, don't tell EA but (time trials aside) Mirror's Edge was kind of bad.

Hey, EA... I really, really, really, really, really, really loved Mirror's Edge, and I hope those whispers of it being a mostly bad game haven't dampened your spirit too much. My personal GOTY don'cha know (I know right? You'll probably be even more disappointed when I say my runner up was Prince of Persia!).

Your former hater,
El - XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

I would have bought Dead Space if a friend hadn't given it to me. Mirrors Edge is a rent for me, at least.

But I do wish developers would start realizing that I play games all year round, not just around November. I still don't understand why more games aren't coming out in late spring/early summer?

Capcom made a smart move, in my opinion, planning to release RE5 in March. Do you know of any other games coming out in March? Didn't think so.

The new Riddick is. I am excited for it.
http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/939612.asp?q=riddick

You could space your gaming out a little...

You don't have to play every game when it is released you know...

You could buy a game 6 months after it is released and play it then...

Yeah, but then there's the stuff that comes out 6 months from now and so on and the next thing you know, it's 2009 and you're still playing your Gamcube.

MadWorld for March, too.

| 1 | 2 | 3 | Most Recent | Next 50 Comments

Sorry, you must be logged in to leave a comment.

Breaking News

The most popular posts
in the last 7 days

Vita 'UMD Passport' won't be offered in US 205 comments
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning review: A tempting fate 147 comments
EA's Origin has signed up 9.3 million players since launch 103 comments
David Jaffe leaves Eat Sleep Play, layoffs hit developer [Update] 103 comments
Don't call it a remake: Final Fantasy X is a 'remaster,' to be clear 93 comments

Maddening: NPD data shows weak Dead Space, Mirror's Edge sales

Reader Comments (115)

Posted: Dec 16th 2008 3:54PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Dec 16th 2008 4:18PM bmill3 said

Posted: Dec 16th 2008 4:22PM Obienator said

Posted: Dec 16th 2008 4:25PM nightmare452 said

Posted: Dec 16th 2008 4:30PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Dec 16th 2008 4:34PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Dec 16th 2008 4:47PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Dec 16th 2008 4:49PM Cash9007 said

Posted: Dec 16th 2008 4:53PM kaneda26 said

Posted: Dec 16th 2008 4:58PM kaneda26 said

Posted: Dec 16th 2008 4:59PM mattrob24 said

Posted: Dec 16th 2008 5:02PM Duke said

Posted: Dec 16th 2008 5:22PM Cash9007 said

Posted: Dec 16th 2008 5:30PM 343 Guilty Fart said

Posted: Dec 16th 2008 6:57PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Dec 16th 2008 3:56PM Hunter2223 said

Posted: Dec 16th 2008 4:02PM Nuisance said

Posted: Dec 16th 2008 4:08PM silverwolf761 said

Posted: Dec 16th 2008 4:09PM Vcize said

Posted: Dec 16th 2008 4:10PM Shagittarius said

Posted: Dec 16th 2008 4:11PM Vcize said

Posted: Dec 16th 2008 4:16PM Nuisance said

Posted: Dec 16th 2008 4:20PM Shagittarius said

Posted: Dec 16th 2008 4:28PM silverwolf761 said

Posted: Dec 16th 2008 4:33PM silverwolf761 said

Posted: Dec 16th 2008 4:55PM kamanashi said

Posted: Dec 16th 2008 5:02PM kaneda26 said

Posted: Dec 16th 2008 3:56PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Dec 16th 2008 4:04PM Haggard said

Posted: Dec 16th 2008 4:11PM copa said

Posted: Dec 16th 2008 4:45PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Dec 16th 2008 5:06PM kaneda26 said

Posted: Dec 17th 2008 9:22AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Dec 16th 2008 3:57PM FernandoRocker said

Posted: Dec 16th 2008 4:11PM Haggard said

Posted: Dec 16th 2008 4:11PM Nuisance said

Posted: Dec 16th 2008 4:16PM Haggard said

Posted: Dec 16th 2008 6:07PM SpartacusMagnus said

Posted: Dec 16th 2008 4:00PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Dec 16th 2008 4:00PM The Last Metroid said

Posted: Dec 16th 2008 4:00PM FeaturePreacher said

Posted: Dec 16th 2008 4:05PM Haggard said

Posted: Dec 16th 2008 5:19PM Roto13 said

Posted: Dec 16th 2008 4:03PM baby sea tuna said

Posted: Dec 16th 2008 4:13PM cuteSAVAGE said

Posted: Dec 16th 2008 4:03PM mrmobado said

Posted: Dec 16th 2008 4:10PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Dec 16th 2008 4:10PM mrmobius said

Posted: Dec 16th 2008 4:18PM baby sea tuna said

Posted: Dec 16th 2008 4:19PM Mr Khan said

Info

Description

MSRP

Release Date

Genre

Developer

Publisher

Rating

Breaking News

Battleship movie adapted into an FPS by Double Helix

Featured Stories

Portabliss: Time Ducks (iOS)

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning review: A tempting fate

Portabliss: Sticky Bees (iOS)

The most popular postsin the last 7 days

Engadget

TUAW

Massively

WoW

The most popular posts
in the last 7 days