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Reader Comments (144)

Posted: Mar 11th 2010 8:11PM Mal F4cti0n said

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Oh yeah, well Mr. Obvious Industry Insider, what were Heavy Rain's sales expectations? I don't think selling a little over 200k units is "hitting it out of the park" any way you slice it.

so.....enlighten us, oh wise one.
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Posted: Mar 11th 2010 8:22PM Ezio Auditore da Firenze said

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You do realize it only had 5 days to hit 200k?

That qualifies for 'out of the park', considering the type of game, and that it's PS3 exclusive.

Derp, derp, derp.

Use your head.
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Posted: Mar 11th 2010 8:23PM Kilau said

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For a very niche title to sell almost 220k units in 6 days (7 if you are a PS3 fat) and as an exclusive on the system with the lowest install base, there you have it, out of the park.

Sorry, I don't think you have any chance of being enlightened anytime soon.
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Posted: Mar 11th 2010 8:40PM R Planteer said

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Problem is Heavy Rain is probably a Mass Effect type game in that, most of the sales will occur early on. I havent seen any ads for it (then again I dont really watch TV), but it did get a pretty significant amount of press amoung the gaming community. Mass Effect 2 sold 1/2 what it did in Feb. compared to the 3 days it was out in January. (http://www.joystiq.com/2010/02/11/january-npd-mass-effect-2-debuts-at-2-hardware-is-down/).

Heavy Rain is def. on my to buy list when I get around to getting a PS3 (yay boobies!), but games like that have a hard market to find. Sport-crazies dont care, hardcore FPS people dont care, MMO addicts dont care, JRPG people dont care (yes, I am being very general).

Hopefully I am wrong and its devs can pull a profit off of it.

Reminds me of Myst. Hardly anyone would buy a new Myst game nowadays.
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Posted: Mar 11th 2010 8:51PM Mal F4cti0n said

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Ezio,

Regardless....what were the sales expectations? That is what I want to know since Tigre said it exceeded all of them.

Derp, derp, derp.

DuH!

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Posted: Mar 11th 2010 9:08PM Mal F4cti0n said

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From R's link:
http://www.joystiq.com/2010/02/11/january-npd-mass-effect-2-debuts-at-2-hardware-is-down/

"A good reason for the Xbox's "victory": the not-available-on-PS3 Mass Effect 2, which pushed an impressive 572,000 units in the six short days following its January 26 release. That still wasn't enough to dethrone New Super Mario Bros. Wii, though, which moved 657,000 units with a full month of sales propelling it. "


Mass Effect 2 moved nearly three times as many IN THE SAME TIME. Mass Effect 2's sales then were cut in half for the entire next month. If Heavy Rain follows the trend and is cut down to 110K units next MONTH, then it will be lucky if Heavy Rain hits half a million units. Not hitting it out of the park, Ezio. Derp, derp, derp.

I bet the developer and publisher had sales expectations over ONE MILLION UNITS (said like Dr. Evil) otherwise they wouldn't have put down the cash to develop and publish the game.

Either way, I would love to see these "sale expectation" numbers that Tigre references.
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Posted: Mar 11th 2010 9:14PM R Planteer said

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Yeah, it was out for 6 days in January, not 3.

My mistake.
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Posted: Mar 11th 2010 9:29PM Johnnynumber5 is powered by cell said

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@Mal Fiction

It hit it out of the park because everyone (myself included) thought it would be a critical darling but a commercial flop. This data shows that wasn't the case and gamers in North America resoundingly supported the title. It sold more than MAG, an online FPS in North America and sold about as many copies as Dantes Inferno, a multiplatform action game. It sold better than Forza 3 did in it's release window and this is an extremely niche title with non-conventional game mechanics.

Thats a home run in my book.
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Posted: Mar 11th 2010 9:31PM Johnnynumber5 is powered by cell said

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@R

Your comment is exactly why the game is a resounding success. It had little to no marketing in North America, is a non traditional / niche experience and is on the system with the lowest install base in a region that buys mostly shooters. Thats a winner right there.

Would anyone have guessed Heavy Rain would outsell Bioshock 2 on the PS3?
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Posted: Mar 11th 2010 9:35PM Johnnynumber5 is powered by cell said

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@M4L

Maybe 1 Million lifetime sales globally. You are comparing Apples to Oranges. Mass Effect 2 was a highly anticipated sequel that released in a month where it was really only competing with itself sales wise. At this rate the game will sell 1 MIL in North America alone by the end of 2010. It's common sense, actually.

Mass Effect 2 and Uncharted 2 sold almost the exact same amount of copies and both were on top of their respective months NPDs. NO ONE expected Heavy Rain to chart and especially not to sell over 500K in North America. Surely you aren't that out of touch with the industry.
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Posted: Mar 11th 2010 10:17PM Vcize said

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He makes a decent point about Heavy Rain's ongoing sales though. It's going to be a very front loaded game in terms of sales, because it's such a niche game the people that are interested in it are the really hardcore guys, and all those guys knew when it was released.

No one is going to walk into Target 3 months from now and say "oh hey, Heavy Rain, I didn't know that was out yet" because anyone that's heard of Heavy Rain follows gaming enough that they would know exactly when it came out.
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Posted: Mar 12th 2010 2:02AM Puertoricarious said

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Tigre, i think you're approaching "acceptable sales" from the vantage point of a consumer or critic. unfortunately, for the developer what ultimately matters is the profit that they made, and whether or not it justifies the effort.

heavy rain was far from a failure, but i'm sure it also cost a pretty penny to make, and with that in mind it could (should) do better.
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Posted: Mar 12th 2010 5:30AM NewChromatic said

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I think under normal circumstances Heavy Rain might have had a longer sales life. Personally I was really unsure about the game until I started hearing more about it from friends and on forums after the release. It was only then I decided to buy it. I imagine other people will react the same.

However it will likely get buried but the other releases coming out. Still I wouldn't be surprised if it continued to see decent sales for a while. It could be one of those games PS3 owners turn to when the release schedule quiets down.
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Posted: Mar 12th 2010 10:20AM Mal F4cti0n said

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Hopefully it will keep momentum or even gain it. Seems like an innovative game and a potential new genre that could have a huge impact.

I think you guys are right that it will see a big slowdown though, what with God of War III coming.

I don't think the developers and publisher are going to make money off of Heavy Rain, let's just hope they don't lose too much and lay off more people in the industry. We have seen too much of that lately.
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Posted: Mar 12th 2010 12:13PM Johnnynumber5 is powered by cell said

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@VCize

Virtually sales of all games on the PS3 & 360 are front loaded within that initial release window. Whats your point? My point was never to pronounce how much it will sell but that the sales of it have to be considered a success. Again, look how hard Forza 3 flopped and yet it still recently hit a milestone mark (over a million I believe it was) so don't try and act like it won't have legs. Even if it didn't chart next month but still sold 150K, then 100K, then 80K etc etc that would still be a huge success. I'll bet any amount of money that by FEB of 2011 it will have sold over 1 MIL units in North America. The sales may not increase from month to month but that NEVER happens with any PS3 or 360 games anyway. Thats a Nintendo trend.
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Posted: Mar 12th 2010 12:17PM Johnnynumber5 is powered by cell said

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You guys are also forgetting these sales don't take the EU regions into account. I've read preliminary estimates of 500K sold across the UK / EU. The game did fantastic and I feel once we see comment from Sony or Quantic Dream they will say it exceeded expectations. You don't make an adventure games based around QTEs and expect it to sell 500K copies in less than a week.
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Posted: Mar 13th 2010 11:30AM (Unverified) said

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@guttertalk

Nice one :-)

Posted: Mar 11th 2010 7:37PM BlackedOut said

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Wow no RROD comments.
I think people have realised that it isn't really (that big of) an issue anymore.

Posted: Mar 11th 2010 7:41PM Chris DPSN AggieCEO XBLThe Aggi said

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uhhh why would someone say something about RRoD?
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Posted: Mar 11th 2010 7:52PM BrianH said

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weird, i was going to post how my brother got back his RROD xbox after only 2 days out, either they have fixed the problem and less people are sending them in, or they hired a lot of technicians.
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Posted: Mar 11th 2010 7:43PM (Unverified) said

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I dont understand.. some people say because someone couldnt find a PS3, they bought a xbox ? why the hell would buy a system you dont want, when you can wait a week to get the one you want!!

Posted: Mar 11th 2010 7:54PM MLC said

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To the average customer, the 360 and PS3 does the same basic things. Only people who do their research or the others actually asked employees and I questions know the real difference. I'm not speaking for the everybody but it does happen where I work. This is tax season and people will buy whatever sometimes.
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Posted: Mar 11th 2010 8:26PM Chris DPSN AggieCEO XBLThe Aggi said

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I didnt say people chose 360 over PS3 cause it wasnt there....I was simply saying that the PS3 didn't sell as many as it could have because it was hard to find....people had to wait for it...
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Posted: Mar 11th 2010 7:44PM (Unverified) said

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I am very impressed to see that Heavy Rain I did this well. I was not expecting that.

Posted: Mar 11th 2010 7:53PM (Unverified) said

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Free Bioshock 2 with purchase of a 360 at Kmart helped. PLus the 360 has a ton of discounts during the months. $50 giftcard from Amazon deal with Elite purchase. $25 card with Arcade purchase. And Target had the same deal as Amazon as well. I believe Best Buy also had a big promotion.

Hence sky high 360 sales.

This month Wii has a sweet deal at Walmart. IF that keeps up you'll see Wii sales jump although NPD doesn't get official Walmart numbers - it guestimates them.


Posted: Mar 11th 2010 7:55PM Mr Bungo said

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What's with the PS2 sales going up 143%? Who's buying those things and why? Granted, it's 143% of a much smaller number than what the current gen consoles are pulling, but that kind of upswing still puzzles me. The PS2 almost caught up with the poor li'l PSP!

Posted: Mar 11th 2010 8:38PM Dr Blight said

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PS2 has been hard to find since January...
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Posted: Mar 11th 2010 8:01PM Dr Blight said

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General unavailability of competing hardware is the ONLY reason the 360 took the top spot.

Posted: Mar 12th 2010 1:56PM Fermie Prime said

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You clearly haven't been reading the thread posts. The PS3 and 360 are not one in the same and they are not interchangeable. Only someone who doesn't do their homework won't know the differences between the two. Someone in the market for a PS3 won't be looking at a 360 if they experience a short delay in getting their PS3, OK? The 360's success in February wasn't because of a PS3/Wii shortage. It was because Microsoft has been giving retailers very good discounts on the systems, and retailers like Amazon, Best Buy, and Target have passed those discounts along to consumers in the form of store credits. And Microsoft is offering good bundle deals too. Go to Amazon right now and check out the $299 Elite that comes with ODST and Forza 3. The store credit deals and the bundles are moving 360's.
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Posted: Mar 11th 2010 8:16PM Ezio Auditore da Firenze said

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Wow, from reading these comments.. is it really that difficult for some people to understand that Heavy Rain sold that much, despite only having been on sale for five days in February?

That's a damn fine showing, considering the type of game it is, and being a PS3 exclusive.

Posted: Mar 11th 2010 8:34PM (Unverified) said

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the reason xbox 360 sells so well is because they keep exploding so people need to go buy new ones :)

Posted: Mar 12th 2010 2:01PM Fermie Prime said

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Hey, you keep repeating a lie enough it has to come true, right? Look up the current failure rates on the PS3 and the 360 and get back to me.
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Posted: Mar 11th 2010 8:49PM Mr Khan said

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Huh, i thought Wii had been ahead, though i guess that was just worldwide sales for the month.

Hopefully it inspires Nintendo to get some better long-term planning together, so this sort of thing doesn't happen again.

Posted: Mar 11th 2010 9:08PM iiNsaNe said

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Congratz Microsoft!! I bought a Wii last month they had around 8 in stock at Target, they had around 4 PS3 and 3 Xbox 360's i don't think the PS3 or Wii are out of stock in my area... And who the hellwould buy spmething they don't want because it's outta stick ever hear of the Internet... Jump In

Posted: Mar 11th 2010 9:17PM Kinjiro said

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I guess the general public still see Bioshock as an exclusive.

Posted: Mar 11th 2010 10:11PM FeaturePreacher said

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Even all the haters couldn't stop the hot fire that's Dante's Inferno. I think it's time for sequel talk.

Posted: Mar 12th 2010 12:30AM kmcroc said

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when you folk go shopping for a PS3 , did anyone bother to see if the product store has any. cause i keep hear Amazon ,Best Buy ,Walmart ,Sears .Jcpenney,Game stop ,Toys r us.but not one mentions of going to check on the Sony store website.they have had a stores way before Apple or MS did ,just a heads up ,its just like ordering from Amazon .

Posted: Mar 12th 2010 12:49AM Blay said

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No idea why everyone is down ranking people who say the Ps3 is a lot lower because the shortages.

Amazon is out of them, they are still on the site but being sold through a different distributor and at extra cost. Bestbuy and Gamestop are both out online, meanwhile the 360 is available on all these sites in every flavor arcade/elite ect.

Not saying they can't be found obviously they still can be found in some certain places online and in store, but most consumers will just simply wait for restock then to search and buy from vendors they wouldn't normally use.

Posted: Mar 12th 2010 3:00AM mahouneko said

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I like to think of NPD as National Penis Day. It's funnier that way.

Posted: Mar 12th 2010 5:25AM NewChromatic said

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I was surprised about Dante's Inferno as well. Seems like they did a great job marketing it. Even more surprising that it sold better on PS3. Wouldn't PS3 owners just wait for God of War III, what is surely to be a vastly superior game of the same style? I know that's what I did.

Posted: Mar 12th 2010 11:14AM Mofetti said

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The shortage is a smart move by Sony, they loose money for every PS3 they sell. They have to hope that people will buy games and blu-rays to make that money back.

Posted: Mar 12th 2010 11:15AM (Unverified) said

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There must be some sort of mistake on that list. Either it doesn't include portable consoles, or there's some variable I'm missing, but There are a few DS games (Nintendogs, New Super Mario Bros, Brain Training, Mario Kart DS) that have sold over or near 20 million units, and there are a few Wii games that have reached that plateau too. While MW2 has sold very well, the numbers are more closer to 10 - 15 million (and that's being generous) when you add the PS3 and Xbox360 sales, and even more so when the list actually claims that it doesn't include PC sales.. But not only that, but MW2 is not the best selling game on either the Xbox 360 or the PS3, by far! It's not even in the top 3! how can this be the third highest selling game in history?

Posted: Mar 12th 2010 2:17PM (Unverified) said

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failure rate for PS3 is less than 1%, xbox 360 failure rate is 54.2% these are facts.

Posted: Mar 13th 2010 7:56PM TonyGeezy said

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...but of all the systems that went up in sales, 360 went up the least, percentage-wise...

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