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Deer Hunter Takes Its Shot

It hasn't received nearly the attention that Quake II or Ultima Online has, but this title is the sleeper of the month.

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It hasn't received nearly the attention that Quake II or Ultima Online has, but a value-priced title by the name of Deer Hunter has proven itself a quiet success story.

Computer Retail Week reports that the first-person hunting sim Deer Hunter, from GT Interactive's value-priced WizardWorks division, was developed on the suggestion of Robert Westmoreland, Wal-Mart software buyer. He asked GT to develop a deer-hunting title for Wal-Mart that the retailer would sell on a 90-day exclusive basis.

Which is just what GT did. The US$19.95 Deer Hunter could only be found in Wal-Mart during October, November and December last year.

And in December, Deer Hunter was Wal-Mart's ninth highest-selling title, with 117,400 copies walking out of the stores in the hands, one presumes, of hunting aficionados or those who thought a deer-hunting computer game would make a swell Christmas gift. In October and November, the game sold nearly 64,700 units, according to PC Data.

That success has prompted GT to release Deer Hunter in all of its retail outlets. And the company isn't stopping there. Two weeks ago, through its ValueSoft affiliate, GT launched the hunting game Wild Turkey. And a whole line of titles aimed at the sports hunting crowd is now in the works, with a fishing game set for spring release.

"We're going to go after all the animals," Paige Carlson-Winch, published product and affiliate sales manager for WizardWorks, told Computer Retail Week.

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