Oct. NPD: Brutal Legend sold 216k; DJ Hero sold 123k

by JC Fletcher on Nov 13th 2009 9:57AM

Both Brütal Legend and DJ Hero were conspicuously absent from October's NPD top ten. According to data given to GameSpot by NPD, DJ Hero, which was released at the end of the month, on October 27, managed 123,000 units in sales across four platforms, with the Xbox 360 version accounting for the highest number of sales (62,000 units) and, predictably, the PS2 version, the lowest (3,300 units).

Double Fine's rocking, semi-strategy game, Brütal Legend, which debuted on Rocktober 13, totaled 216,000 units in sales across two platforms during October: 150,000 on Xbox 360 (almost enough to launch it into the monthly top ten) and 66,000 on PS3. This total fails to hit analyst Jesse Divnich's prediction for the month. However, Divnich suggested that Brütal Legend would go on to be an attractive holiday item -- something that may also be true for the bulky box with the cool turntable thingy in it.

Update: Removed reference to Brütal Legend as an Activision-published title. We know better!

Source

Tags: activision, brutal-legend, dj-hero, ea, Electronic-Arts, Microsoft, Nintendo, npd, october-2009, sales, Wii, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (58)

Wait.... What? Activision published Brutal Legend?...

I thought activision tried to sue EA to stop them publishing it after Activision kicked it to the curb?

Oops!

It's ok, JC. Once upon a time, I mistakenly assumed that I was a woman, clueless in differentiation between genders.

I know better now, but that doesn't stop me from cross-dressing.

Somehow, with MW2's sales...I doubt Kotick really gives a damn about DJ Hero.

No he wont give a damn. He'll just destroy the studio who made the game! Or set them to work on iPhone ports of Call of duty games.

Kotick smash?

I think he'll start to care once he releases a SECOND expensive peripheral-based game this quarter, Tony Hawk Ride, and it also bombs massively.

Tony Hawk is being sent to die. Activision is making it difficult for journos to get advance review copies, which means even they think the game sucks.

Let's put it this way. Tony Hawk Ride comes out next week. Seriously, next week. What do we know about it other than it comes with a skateboard?

Brutal Legend is EA published... Activision lost it and tried to sue, remember?

You'd think they would remember it, having covered it so closely with many posts on the issue... in fact, you can click the little "brutal-legend" tag at the bottom and read all about it!

Wow. Either this was a really bad joke or Joystiq are really stupid. Brutal legend is an EA published game.

Or you know... they just made a simple mistake is all. Lighten up guy, it happens to the best of us. This wasn't the first time Joystiq has made a mistake and it won't be the last. They are human just like you and I.

Why do you immediately assume that all pirates are humans? Ever heard of a space pirate?

...Arrrrg matie *purrs seductively*

Publishing FAIL?

It seems that they are absent from the list because the list is only counting on a per-platform basis. i.e. like how NBA 2K10 is listed twice, once for 360 and once for PS3.

Technically, since Brutal Legend was the only game to come out in "Rocktober", I think it should be #1 in the NPD data for that month.

But since it came out in Tucktober...it doesn't count. ;)

HMMM

"Said Devourer"

...

This article is an epic fail, just like these two titles. Brutal Legend is on sale at EB in Canada for $45... My money is on DJ Hero being $100 before the end of the year, the price it should have been. The good news is Activision still has Tony Hawk Flop coming out.

I just finished Brutal Legend last night. Great characters, hilarious dialogue, completely awesome soundtrack... but the part where you are playing a game just sucks.

This will never happen, but Tim Schaffer needs to dump Double Fine and hook up with a more experienced development studio. This could have been GOTY if he had a development team that knew how to put together a fun playable game.

I didn't think that the gameplay was terrible, I just felt that they tried to do too much at once. Instead of being a really good hack 'n slash or a really good driving/exploring game, or a really good RTS, it was mediocre to above-average at all three.

$100 is still WAY too much. Rock Band 2 is $100 and supports 3 players out of the box. It needs to be $70-80.

JC Fletcher FAIL.

Techno tried to defile the metal, but techno was proven wrooooonnngg. Yeah!

Actually I'd say the problem with DJ Hero is not enough techno or respect for Electronica in general. I mean the frontmen for the project was D Jay-Z and Eminem. The fuck do either of those people know about turntablism. Grandmaster Flash was a running gag in the title and only really Daft Punk, Jazzy Jeff, and DJ Shadow truly brought it.

I'm hoping in the sequel we get to see much more party environ oriented DJs become the focus like BT, Oakenfold, The Prodigy, or Crystal Meth. Or hell, at least put a fucking DJ as the spokesperson.

Dont care about these games been playing modern warefare and nba 2k10. How can people be ranked above 20 rank in modern warefare already? I mean do people have no lifes and just play all day? Wow, guess we know who the virgins are lol

There are already people past first prestige and almost to the 2nd.

I'm a 23...and that's fairly low. But if you're averaging 10 or more kills a game, the points rack up quickly.

The only LOL here is you tough guy.

@Johnny

I'm a 38. Got the game Monday night. Played for a few hours. Went to work Tues. - Thurs. and played when I was off work.

I have a life. Maybe you suck at the game.

Some people have had the game since up to a week before release.

Also, will all the extra bonus experience added for random things (stop someone short of a killstreak, end a deathstreak, etc), you level up faster than in MW1.

Well my dwarf just reached level 7. I leveled up quickly at first, but then it slowed down. Don't forget to read some of the books in the chantry and in peoples houses...

Once again showing that VGChartz simply pulls numbers out of its ass.

I never understood the hype about Brutal Legend anyway. It looked stupid.

You gotta love Metal and like (or at least tolerate Jack Black) for this game to be interesting.

Too many other good games came out around same time. Sad really. Wanted Tim Schafer to get some credit.

Way over hyped. I don't think it looked stupid, it just looked like another God of War/DMC snorer, that turned out to be RTS-like or something.

There was almost like literally a story about this game everyday on the blogs, EA's PR unit must've been working overtime. Funny to see them fail to manufacture a hit.

Now they'll turn around and crow about no one buying new IP. Fuck 'em, I say. They marketed it like a game I've been sick of since DMC2, and pumped out bullshit stories all year long, that by the time the game finally came out, a lot of us were sick of hearing about it.

Is 216,000 really that bad? I mean, not every game is going to be blockbuster. I really feel like games shouldn't be judged like movies, where if it doesn't have a big opening wknd its considered a flop. A lot of games need to build an audience. I'll be picking it up once the price drops. Thats mostly because i'm cheap tho (I just picked up L4D1).

I tried DJ Hero in a store the other day and was blown away. Brutal Legend on the other hand...oh dear. Called that one miles away, got down voted like a fiend but I know a stinker when I see one. Vindication is sweet.

And you should still be downvoted. BL is far from a "stinker." Did you play it?

Brutal Legend was a wierd game, you can tell they went through a shit load of ideas for it and in the end just copy/pasted them into the game. It had its moments, good concept but a terrible delivery.

Gotta love those "leet" gamers. Brutal Legend wasn't perfect, but it holds an 83 average on Metacritic for both PS3 and 360. Like many gamers, I see some people on the ol' Joystiq like to blow things out of proportion. But hey, let's be a bit more intellectual with our approach to complaints and the like. You can get your point across without coming off as a flamboyant douchebag. Trust me. Let's try that.

Brutal Legend is a good, even a great game, on the majority websites. 80+ is good-great. Not perfect, but certainly not the "crap game" that some would like to paint it as.

Brutal Legend had more potential to sell more. I don't really know what happened though. Jack Black was practically everywhere promoting it. However, Brutal Legend and DJ Hero both got thrown into "under the radar" status compared to the big ticket games that were coming up/already out at the time. DJ Hero even had it worse with the controller and all.

I expect holiday sales of both games to be much better than October. Hell, DJ Hero didn't even have one whole week to sell 123k copies, how do you think it will do with a whole month?

We're just going into the holiday season... we haven't even hit Black Friday yet (our company JUST sent out it's circulars to be printed today). I'd expect sales for both of these games to significantly rise by the end of the month.

Dj Hero is just awesome.

If people would get past the "ewww another music title, blah blah blah blah, I don't want more fake instruments, blah blah blah" they'd actually find that DJ Hero kicks all the other music games' asses, no matter what your taste in music is. It shows that this wasn't actually made by Activision, because it actually works and is fun, has the best batch of entertaining music in a music game, and doesn't get old after a few play throughs.

I only bought it because of Daft Punk, but it says a lot about a game when I hardly play the songs that I bought the game specifically for. I can't say that about Guitar Hero.

The game is pretty damn great.

Also, this article is inaccurate. DJ Hero sold 123k units......... in FIVE DAYS. It only had five days on sale in October. It's not really accurate to call it a flop.

Music performance games will probably go the way of 2D martial arts fighting games in the 90s over the course of the next couple of years.

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Oct. NPD: Brutal Legend sold 216k; DJ Hero sold 123k

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