Zelda sold well in June, Child of Eden and Shadows of the Damned did not

by JC Fletcher on Jul 15th 2011 10:45AM

Three major Japanese-developed games came out in North America in June: one of which performed really well, the other two ... not so much. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D showed up at #5 on the software top ten chart yesterday. Nintendo subsequently announced that it sold "more than 283,000 units," making it the second best-selling game on a single platform, right behind Infamous 2. It's the first 3DS exclusive to chart on the top ten.

Meanwhile, two games weirder than Zelda attracted far more exclusive audiences. Child of Eden, the NPD told Joystiq, sold approximately 34,000 units in its debut month, ranking at number 83. At the same time, Shadows of the Damned managed to sell 24,000 copies, combined, on PS3 and Xbox 360. Damn.

Source: Nintendo

Tags: 3ds, child-of-eden, ds, ea, grasshopper-manufacture, microsoft, nintendo, npd, playstation, ps3, q-entertainment, sales, shadows-of-the-damned, ubisoft, xbox

Reader Comments (138)

I'm all for supporting refreshing and creative IP, but SotD wasn't one of those titles. Stuff like this doesn't help their case:

http://www.joystiq.com/2011/07/14/shadows-of-the-damned-promoted-internationally-with-playbox-ma/

Lack of demos. Lack of marketing. Lack of sales.

I'll buy Child of Eden soon since I love trippy Starblade-type games.
SOTD seems like a great rental but no multiplayer means no buy for me.

@GuardianLegend Not every game needs multiplayer. You're what's wrong with this generation.

@Androu1
Never said every game needs MP.

@GuardianLegend
"no multiplayer means no buy for me"

Yeah, you kinda did...

@fohf
nope, i kinda didn't.

I said SOTD looks like a great rental. Rent the game, enjoy it, beat it.

Next month El Shadai will join these games in the "did not sell" category.

Wait, how do some of you people, fans of gaming, not know when stuff is coming out? Is it that hard to go to GameStop's site and look at the "Coming Soon" page? You have nobody to blame but yourself if you don't know when certain games are coming out.

You need marketing and a demo if you're going to try something new that requires a leap of faith.

Everyone is being tight with their money these days. Most games know about how many games they are going to buy in a year. Publishers need to shorten that leap of faith with marketing and demos or else those gamers will earmark their dollars to the AAA titles like Battlefield, COD, Batman AC, Mass Effect 3, etc.

I don't want to live on this planet anymore

Have any of you fools complaining about developer support actually played shadows of the Damned? Because I own it and it is horrendous. Textures take forever to POP in and it has awful gameplay mechanics and everything is completely uninspired. I can't even begin to tell you how sorry I am for buying this game and actually supporting their horrible half assed effort to make a game. None of the mechanics work. If oftentimes tasks you with shooting a very small rapidly moving Target with the worlds slowest guns. The light shot is the worst mechanic ever and its annoying how you have to constantly do light/darkness "puzzles". The whole team deserves to have horrible sales and even worse feedback. This game is the stinker of the year so far. So glad it didn't sell, except for me of course.

@yinzjagz Textures don't take forever to pop-in, I noticed no pop-in. The game is also excellent and it works fine. Maybe you suck at the game or maybe you just didn't like it, neither of which can be used to say the game is objectively bad.

The guns aren't slow at all, YOU are slow, for example.

@Androu1 Wow, you are a moron. I am playing on legion hunter. The light shot is much too slow to and the skullcesussuioner is much too slow to hit the targets on the bosses unless you are right next to them. The skullsecutioner takes like 5 seconds to fully load up, how is that not slow when you get about 6-10 seconds to hit the target that is available for a short time. Yes the textures do take FOREVER to pop in, are you playing on PS3? Google: shadows of the damned texture pop in and you will find countless review complaining about it. Are you playing on a high end HD tv? If not you probably won't notice. I suspect you are one of the Dev team for how butt hurt you are about my comment. They are true facts and the game isn't very fun to play. I had high hopes, but it's extremely boring. Nice personal attacks too, GFY kid.

The problem here is that 1 game was a 360 exclusive, and both were $60. I'll probably pick up both for 30 sometime in the near future. This more interesting aspect is that COE is supposed to be the big banner-waving game for kinect (the one that validates the tech) and it only sold 34,000 copies . That's ridiculous with the number of kinects sold.

@Brett from Atlanta

CoE was a $60 game, it had little to no advertising, was short and is a niche title. Should have stayed a download title. That said the game is beautiful to play and makes a case for the Kinect on a level that no other game has reached.

@mrmojoz

Err wasn't a $60 game.

Goddamnit, this sucks because Shadows of the Damned is an EXCELLENT game. It may not have replay value but it makes up for that in awesomeness.

Man I've never seen such whining from this comment section about game sales figures. The hilarious thing is that I know that most of the people despairing over the poor sales of these titles have not bought them either! I cannot comment on the quality of either game, although I do plan on picking up CoE when it's released for PS3 as it looks different and enjoyable.
I will say that this is the nature of any entertainment medium: Well marketed, easily recognisable titles get big sales and market share. They are also often well made games in their own right (Zelda, Uncharted 2, Mass Effect).
People are surprised and lamenting that niche games with almost no marketing sold poorly? Gimmie a break!

Wait, you mean to tell me, that a well known and respected remake of one of the greatest games of all time did better than two games most people have never heard of?

*gasp*

Add me to the list of ones waiting for a price drop. I actually have no problem dropping $60 bucks on quality titles, but I'm tired of getting burned with rapid price drops. I paid full price for Fallout New Vegas last year, and it is already down to 10 bucks brand new.

Considering one of these games had a respected IP, a 13-year reputation and, above all, a decent marketing campaign behind it, and the other two are new IPs given a bare minimum of marketing support and publicity (SotD, in particular, seems to have been sent out to die by EA), this should come as a surprise to approximately nobody.

People keep boasting about how incredible Children of Eden is. Yeah, sure. 90 minutes do not justify a purchase. I wish these companies would stop thrusting these snack sized games to us

@Destati

Had the game been a $15 downloadable title, almost everyone with a Kinect would have bought it. But charging full retail for such a small offering...just crazy.

Yes, the Publishers are responsible for the marketing not the Devs. That has no bearing on my point, what so ever. I simply mispoke.

But i do like what you had to say in the rest of your comment. Just curious, what are the other 8 good games that you got? I recently ordered RE: Mercinaries and SSFIV 3D and would be interested in knowing what other games might be worth getting.

Well, I didn't buy Shadows of the Damned because it looks like it controls just like a Resident Evil game. You know, like controlling a tank. I'm not down with that so its a pass for me. Perhaps if there was a demo and I could take a test drive I could be proven wrong but there isn't.

I don't own Kinect and I'm sure as hell not gonna go buy it for what looks to be a really neat 90 minute game.

The Wife and Kids got me a 3DS with (yup) Zelda for Fathers Day. I wouldn't have gotten a 3DS on my own (yet) as there isnt really anything I wanted on it but I'm glad to have one. Its a cool little machine and Zelda is freakin' awesome. That game truly stands the test of time.

@Khazidhea
you can move and shoot in Shadows of the Damned.

This should not surprise anybody

Child of Eden was launched at a crazy high price for a short, one trick pony game. I'd pay £5 and nothing more, because I've paid that much for fuller, brighter, flashier games in the past.

Every time I see Shadows of the Damned, I think of Alone in the Dark, and that's not a positive association to make.

It's going to be much more difficult for companies to take chances if they don't pay off. I feel bad for the devs, but I also feel bad for us gamers. I guess we do like the same ol' after all.

Dissappointing for Shadows of the Damned. I got a real Shadowman vibe from playing it and really enjoyed it.

Wow - Eden outsold Shadows? A short, unique experience which probably sold 1:1 with every Kinect owner (even though optional) outsold an M rated bloodbath? Here in the USA? We're evolving!! That's more reason to celebrate than the Zelda statistics.

I just bought Child of Eden today, love it. Maybe if Shadows of the Damned had the least bit of marketing I'd look into it.

Kinda makes you wonder how many units would sell if they were in the $20-$25 price range to begin with.

I fail to see anything great in Shadows of the Damned. It looks like another shooter with a comedic hook to it which I don't even like. OH LOOK WE MAKE DICK JOKES, WE'RE FUNNY 'CAUSE WE'RE NOT. Yeah, no.

I was actually really excited for Child of Eden, followed the news for it for a long time. Then was told it was only 90 minutes. Yeah, also no. I love the concept and idea, but that music in question is not something I want to listen to over and over to get my replay value out of. I have music I could do that with, but Genki rockets is not it.

Child of eden should of been downloadable I would of bought it then. Shadows of the damned has a terrible title but is worth the money imo.

Duke Nukem Forever - 376,000 units
Shadows of the Damned - 24,000 units

I feel vindicated somehow.

I never pay "full price" for a game, because at any time I have 10+ games lined up before I even get around to playing the new ones. I'm a patient man.

Previous 50 Comments

Shadows of the Damned

Zelda sold well in June, Child of Eden and Shadows of the Damned did not

Reader Comments (138)

Posted: Jul 15th 2011 12:33PM captplut9465 said

Posted: Jul 15th 2011 12:36PM GuardianLegend said

Posted: Jul 15th 2011 1:24PM Androu1 said

Posted: Jul 15th 2011 4:22PM GuardianLegend said

Posted: Jul 15th 2011 5:07PM fohf said

Posted: Jul 15th 2011 5:22PM GuardianLegend said

Posted: Jul 15th 2011 12:41PM Cuddlefish said

Posted: Jul 15th 2011 1:05PM PercyChuggs said

Posted: Jul 15th 2011 1:08PM Truant said

Posted: Jul 15th 2011 1:09PM Mupod said

Posted: Jul 15th 2011 1:12PM yinzjagz said

Posted: Jul 15th 2011 1:23PM Androu1 said

Posted: Jul 16th 2011 12:22PM yinzjagz said

Posted: Jul 15th 2011 1:15PM Brett from Atlanta said

Posted: Jul 15th 2011 3:33PM mrmojoz said

Posted: Jul 15th 2011 3:33PM mrmojoz said

Posted: Jul 15th 2011 1:20PM Androu1 said

Posted: Jul 15th 2011 1:24PM TheTARDIS said

Posted: Jul 15th 2011 1:29PM thelolotov said

Posted: Jul 15th 2011 1:42PM dvdjunkie32 said

Posted: Jul 15th 2011 2:17PM gatotsu911 said

Posted: Jul 15th 2011 2:21PM Destati said

Posted: Jul 15th 2011 2:36PM Juelz345 said

Posted: Jul 15th 2011 2:33PM Juelz345 said

Posted: Jul 15th 2011 3:06PM Khazidhea said

Posted: Jul 15th 2011 3:38PM The Aquacharger said

Posted: Jul 15th 2011 5:17PM whylekat said

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