Chinatown Wars failing?

[A-J]

LCS did 158,000 copies.

http://www.gamepro.com/article/news/50120/gta-liberty-city-stories-sees-strong-sales/

and according to someone on GAF, VCS did 125,000

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=15499560&postcount=1177

edit : here are some other DS game sales.



Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney - 71k
Chrono Trigger - 210k
Contra 4 - 115k
Dragon Quest 4 - 76k
Final Fantasy 4 - 275k
Final Fantasy Tactics A2 - 233k
Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney - 117k
Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Justice for All - 110k
Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations - 92k
Professor Layton & the Curious Village - 340k
Trauma Center: Under the Knife - 225k
Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2 - 61k

http://platformers.net/2009/02/npd-january-2009-life-to-date-numbers/

[Dot50Cal]

Well we know it was under 200k, based on the NPD numbers. A firm number isn't available, but I suppose for the handheld (based on AJ's numbers) it seems like its successful for the platform.

[Helegad]

Have you tried it by any chance Dot? It is rather fun and I reckon it's definitely above the old school GTA in terms of functionality.

So you're comparing raw numbers from sales of a Playstation3 and XBox 360 game, where the main audience is the kind of people that play GTA, to a Nintendo DS, which has an install base much younger than the average PS3 or 360 player.

Riiiiight.

Yes I am. I'm sure there's as many DS users as there are PS3/360.

[Corrin]

Yes I am. I'm sure there's as many DS users as there are PS3/360.

There are more. The DS is typically the top-selling or second top-selling console month-by-month.

Xfactor brought up a great point though; Pokemon Platinum version was released in the same month. Pokemon is consistently one of the top selling game franchises of all time. Anything going up against that usually wouldn't fare well.

[Stu]

If Resident Evil 5 and Halo Wars can get along with eachother in terms of sales, and Resident Evil 5 and Killzone 2 can co-exist, i don't think it's too hard to expect GTA:CS to do better than it has. Not to mention when late last year there were games like Gears 2, Left 4 Dead, Call Of Duty 5, Fallout 3 etc all released around the same time and all achieving great sales.

I mean for one, it's GTA, arguably the biggest franchise on the shelves today. And it's on the DS, a format that so many people have cried out to receive a mature title on.

Put simply, 90,000 is a shocking figure.

It's not a reflection of the game's quality though, more a reflection of the rampant piracy on the machine.

[Carnivol]

a GTA game selling only 80k is a pretty bad bomba, even the two PSP one's did better for the system they were on and became million sellers.

Keep in mind that those two games were on a starving platform.

Not to mention that the first one quickly became a "must have" to be able to exploit/downgrade/hack your system ;D



Anyway, as far as the Chinatown Wars goes... I guess a lot of the target audience are "teh 1337 hardcore" gamers who've probably long since equipped their DS hardware with "backup equipment."

90 000-ish isn't bad for opening sales. And I refuse to believe the game has had such a huge budget that those initial 90 000 aren't sufficient.

It probably will catch on and sell a few tens of thousands more. After all, it did come out during a period where everyone were playing their cards. But if it'll be a million seller? Not too sure.

Another problem with it is that it uses the awesome old style of the original GTA, a look and design that to many doesn't exist, as there's some sort of misconception going on that has made people believe GTAIII = the first game ('cause that makes so much sense for a game... only if it's made by Phoenix Games) and if it doesn't contain "realistic" (by the time) graphics and an incredibly awkward overhyped narrative (aka. hours of voiced dialog); it's pure crap, by default.

[Stu]

At the time, the PSP wasn't starving, they both came in the console's peak period.

[A-J]

it's just the wrong game for the wrong crowd, even at the lowest, the analysts were expecting it to sell atleast 200,000 units. A China Town Babyz might have done way better.

[Itchy...Munch!]

I think i found out why

http://the-horror.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4383

[Stu]

Already noted.

[xfactor]

Carnivol raised a good point. Truth is, most if not all DS games run on stamina, due to the amount of games released on it. The DS got choked with stuffs like Blue Dragon Plus , Dragon Quest 5, Valkyrie Profile, Suikoden, Broken Sword, Fire Emblem etc in recent months. I imagine that the hardcore audience will have become broke by the time Chinatown hits the shelves. I myself flipped the finger trying to clear the DS backlogs when RE5 got released lol, but I be sure to get it few weeks later.

Resistance PSP is released on the same date as Chinatown wars. Despite the DS total userbase is double the PSP, Resistance PSP overall sales is less than 40% of Chinatown wars, despite the fact that Resistance PSP is available worldwide but Chinatown Wars isn't available in Japan yet, not to mention the fact that Resistance PSP has a higher budget than Chinatown wars. Are we to assume Resistance PSP flop harder then?

[A-J]

sure we can, both GTA china town and Retribution were flops. But the difference is that China town wars was expected to sell a lot more than it did from the get go. People really weren't expecting much out of Resistance as far as sales go.

A GTA game flopping is a lot more important of an issue than a Resistance game flopping. Especially when the GTA game was the first on a hot system. I really wouldn't be surprised if R* decides to return to the PSP as far as portable GTA's go, or hell announce one for the Iphone.

[Stars1356]

http://www.gamespot.com/ps3/adventur...ml?sid=6208084

Chinatown wars didn't even break the top ten. Re 5 did well which will please capcom.

[hellrizer]

I don't really care about the sales so much as I only care what the price is. I could never play a DS long though. My hands tend to cramp up from all button pushing and trying to use the second screen at the same time. Phew... What a challenge. ( which is what I like)

[Stu]

I imagine that the hardcore audience will have become broke by the time Chinatown hits the shelves.

Like i said though, if the hardcore could easily afford all the AAA games that came 2009 then why would it start being an issue for the DS-base, particularly when the games're cheaper?