Bionic Commando, Monster Hunter Freedom Unite 'underperform' in the west

by Richard Mitchell on Jul 31st 2009 12:15PM

While Capcom may have reported strong numbers for its first quarter ending June 30, that doesn't mean that everything is rosy. The report mentioned that Bionic Commando and Monster Hunter Freedom Unite failed to perform in the west and, digging a little deeper into Capcom's documents, we've uncovered some more specific details. Bionic Commando, which Capcom released with western audiences in mind, only managed to sell 550,000 copies since its debut in May. Capcom, unsurprisingly, believes the title "underperformed."

Meanwhile, PSP title Monster Hunter Freedom Unite, which has been very successful in Japan, has "performed weakly" in western markets, though it sold 600,000 copies worldwide (not bad for a game that released over a year ago in Japan). The documents don't specify how many copies were sold in western markets, though it's clear the company is disappointed. It's also important to note that Freedom Unite's US release was on June 23, only a week prior to the end of Capcom's first quarter.

Tags: bionic-commando, business, capcom, monster-hunter-freedom-unite

Reader Comments (64)

Crap games sell poorly.

Who knew?!?

So do good games. The question is why do we care so much? We're consumers, not stockholders.

Because we're just a bunch of armchair critics. Or because we adhere to some console as if it was a religion.

Why do people care if a particular sports team wins? Why are tabloids able to profit from blurrycam photos of celebrities you don't really care about jousting with another celebrity you don't really care about?

I care if certain games perform well. That means there is more chance on a sequel. It's not rocket science, y'know.
Mirror's Edge didn't do all THAT well, yet I would like to see a sequel, since it was a good enough game to warrant one.

It isn't that, many eastern games are just unfriendly toward the different cultures in the west.

And vice versa.

Seeing as my employment rests on the continuing popularity of video games, I am always hopeful that the industry stays profitable. And as hobbyists of this activity, you should be to.

The sequel thing... just seems selfish. I mean, here is this great game staring you in the face, and you aren't satisfied by that because you're worried there won't be more. Great games will always be around. The market isn't that screwed up.

I don't get tabloids either, but understand sports. There is immediate drama being played out in front of you. It's easy to get wrapped up in. I think it's all just to fuel the playground "system warz" bickering because numbers carry more weight than "sucks" and "rules"

And I feel bad for the director of Bionic Commando, I believe he was an American living in Japan and was a huge fan of Bionic Commando and had always wanted to make a game for that series.

Welcome to the end result of a crappy demo. I played one round of it and then it got deleted. It felt like a community game or something.

Bionic Commando underperformed because it was a crappy rush job that is beat out in its genre (3rd person swingers) by the Spiderman movie tie-ins. That's pretty bad.

Genre popularized by the Spider-Man movie tie-ins?

Clearly you've not played Bionic Commando as the levels are linear and the swinging "gimmick" is much different and is more skill based than any Spider-Man game.

Where did he say "popularized"? He just said it was beat out by the Spider-Man games.

That would entail that the genre is popularized by SM games. By saying one title was 'beat out' in this sense, the 'victor' had been popularized in it's genre. I wasn't quoting him, just rewording it.

But anyway, it probably shouldn't even be in the same genre to begin with. Although they are both 3rd person action games that involve swinging, BC is not free roaming and the swinging requires quicker more precise reactions. It's almost like saying that Forza and GTA are the same genre because you drive cars.

I think "popularize" and "beat-out" are different. For one, "beat-out" is somewhat ambiguous as it could mean sales or quality (which don't always go hand-in-hand). I'll give you an example of the difference... Doom arguably popularized the FPS genre, but has been beat-out by dozens of games since.

If they'd bothered to do a campain demo, I would of tried it...

I tried Monster Hunter.. each to there own, There really was nothing there for me..

Monster Hunter would do a lot better in the west if it had proper online pay and none of this ad-hoc bull crap. The game is impossible playing alone. Capcom are just to stupid to realize this though.

That's why i'm curious to see how Monster Hunter 3 will perform over here. First time the game has a really big name in the west, and it should be free to play online (unlike the pay-to-play scheme they've got over there)

The game is definitely not impossible to play alone, it just requires skill, practice, and patience.

If you aren't up to the challenge, go play Wii sports.

Would have been better on a non-handheld platform (Not talking about MH3).

Actually Monster Hunter would've done better if PEOPLE DIDN'T PIRATE IT!

Have you played Bionic Commando? Its embarrassing...

I was listening to Friday's JPC yesterday and they spoiled the "story" for BC. I won't do so on here but, OMFG, it's ridiculous.

I did, and I'm not afraid to say I enjoyed it for what it was. Great music, fantastic atmosphere, unique swinging combat gameplay and an unfortunately terrible storyline. Reviews and the multiplayer demo is what really killed this game's sales IMO. It's a shame, because we'll never see a sequel that expands on what was so great about it while upping the ante and polishing out the kinks.

it´s a shame, but to be honest i don´t think bionic command was one of those really big titles that should be remade, it was an ok game back in the times, but im sure nobody was really dying for a remake.

I'd buy it again if they loose the dreadlocks, the crappy over the top voice acting, and made it truely open world so you don't just die by radiation and say "oh, guess that wasn't they way I was supposed to do the level"

I disagree on the open world for BC. If they did that, then it'd lose it's linear, challenge based heritage. If it were open world, it'd be more like Mercenaries than Bionic Commando.

I also actually like the radiation, it keeps the focus on the action rather than exploration, and forces you to become better at swinging by penalizing you. It's a very good design that adds danger and also beauty to the game's atmosphere.

Huh. Freedom Unite got some solid advertising. Figured it would do well.

is 100,000 not decent for a psp game in the U.S. (source: vgchartz)

Sigh...vgchartz is just made up numbers dude. The NPD isn't ever 100% correct, but it is generally right on the money since the companies(like sony and capcom) actually source the NPD in press releases.

Monster Hunter Freedom Unite sold about 68,000 copies in its debut month in the US.

Hate to say it, but neither of the games are any good. Japanese gamers are about the only people I expect who can suffer through and enjoy Monster Hunters game play, it's just so ungodly slow with unintuitive controls and a terrible camera. And Bionic Commando, face it, that game just blew coming out of the gate.

well why did they put Monster Hunter on PSP if they wanted it to sell in the US. They were asking for it to fail.

if they bring ad hoc party for ps3 to north america i'd be more inclined to pick it up. as far as bionic commando, i'll grab it at a bargain bin price, if only it had a demo

The problem with Unite is that it really isn't much different than 2. It was a slight upgrade that should have been sold as DLC on the PSN for $5-10. If it had infrastructure it would be a different story, I mean god forbid we call it unite yet we don't give you the option to unite. Note to Capcom, the US is not Japan, there is not 500 people per square foot so ad hoc does not work for us.

your right, freedom 2 sold half a million, so they should be happy if freedom unite barely sell that much

The issue is that they don't have the software that lets you hook the psp to the ps3 and play online here yet, despite releasing it here (bad move on their part). People are stuck using Xlink Kai or hoping that their friends play the game too.

The commercial and name are ahead of where the game is here, and sadly we are stuck waiting til Capcom decides if its worth releasing "Ad-hoc Party" here or not.

Have any of you even played Bionic Commando (not the demo)? That game was great, I beat it 3 times. You can tell the developer was a big fan of the original Bionic Commando because it really feels like a 3D version of the original. Playing it on Commando difficulty was extremely hard but fun.

It's probably the game that surprised me the most this gen thus far. I thought for sure it was going to be terrible, but I enjoyed the hell out of it. Beat it on Commando as well.

I really enjoyed it but reading these comments, most people here never got passed the multiplayer demo.

I enjoyed Bionic Commando a fair bit, but between the clumsy voice acting, cringe-inducing storyline, tragic under-usage of the few interesting characters, horrible multiplayer demo... well, I'm not surprised the game didn't get a lot of good word of mouth. That aside, it was a lot of fun once I got a handle on swinging, and the weapons were pretty satisfying. I'd definitely recommend it as a rental to anyone.

One gripe, having the combat challenges impossible to achieve if you wasted opportunities early in the game was a bit of a piss-off. I was really close to getting 100% by the end of the game, but then I'm basically screwed because I didn't swing back and forth shooting guys with the rocket launcher when it was conveniently available earlier as the ammo/terrain/enemy population made it feasible? And I can't go back and replay old levels to complete the challenges? Kinda obnoxious design.

well monster hunter sold 100,000 copies which isn't terrible for a psp game selling in the us.

Actually, according to NPD --which uses real numbers instead of made up vgchartz crap-- Monster Hunter FU sold 68k in the us.

Capcom should have told Sony to release adhoc party along side the release of monster hunter. I should not have to get a japan psn account to get it, this is not like in japan were there is a more dense population were ad hoc can work.

i WANT to buy MHF:U and i own bionic commando. but until Capcom/Sony take initiative by releasing MHF:U on the PSN i will not buy.the EU store has it, why cant the US?

America is Pokemon territory.

Look what happened to Monster Rancher. We don't have the bandwidth to catch so many fucking monsters.

Totally irrelevant. Monster Hunter isn't a capture-and-collect game like Pokémon. In monster hunter you actually run around and hunt monsters. It's more of an action-RPG.

It's not irrelevant if that it how it is perceived.

Um, those look like pretty damn high numbers to me.

MHFU sells 600,000 in one week, outside of Japan where it was never popular in the first place?

What did they expect, Japan-level sales for the game?

They were probably spoiled by the fact that in Japan, for every 3 psps sold, there's 2 copies of Monster Hunter sold as well. So yea, most likely they were.

@JayDiggler

I am playing Bionic Commando right now and I will definitely say that its not a bad game at all. The problem with Commando is that it can be very frustrating until you get the swing mechanic down. The radiation areas are a pain in the butt as well.

I was one of those people that was put off by the multiplayer demo on XBL but I must say the singleplayer game is much better. Capcom really messed up by putting that multiplayer demo on XBL because that pretty much killed a lot of people interest in the game.

Seriously. Why do you let people like Yoon sit there and write all kinds of entries on Bionic Commando? The game is terrible and never should have sold more than 50,000 copies.

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Bionic Commando, Monster Hunter Freedom Unite 'underperform' in the west

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