Shadows of the Damned, Child of Eden come up short in June - Report

June proved to be a fairly depressed month at retail, thanks in no small part to continued weakness in US software sales. Total software sales at US retail according to the NPD Group were down 10 percent to $508.9 million for the month, with May's top release, L.A. Noire, continuing its hold on the top of NPD's chart.

The month proved to be especially bad for two of the more stylish games released during June. Joystiq reports that it has received word from NPD that the EA Partners-published Shadows of the Damned sold just 24,000 units across the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in June. Q Entertainment's latest rhythm game, Child of Eden, also reportedly fared quite poorly, selling just 34,000 units.

Receiving top marks from critics, Shadows of the Damned is an action thriller from Grasshopper Manufacture that boasted collaboration between No More Heroes creator Suda-51, Resident Evil architect Shinji Mikami, and Silent Hill composer Akira Yamaoka. The game tells the story of Garcia Hotspur, who goes on a trip to hell to save his true love, Paula.

The Kinect-enabled Child of Eden also featured big-name appeal, with Tetsuya Mizuguchi leading development on the project. The game takes its cues in large part from Mizuguchi's acclaimed rhythm shooter Rez and features the same style of music-enhanced shooter gameplay with psychedelic visuals. A PS3 version of the game is also planned.

EA, Ubisoft, and NPD had not responded to GameSpot's request for comment on the sales figures as of press time.