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Soulcalibur IV slays 2 million

Namco Bandai's latest fighter for the 360, PS3 hits multiplatinum milestone in global sales in less than two weeks.

For companies such as Namco Bandai that derive a significant portion of their business from the arcade scene, the cooling of the coin-op in Japan represents more than just a bittersweet farewell. After reporting nearly flat revenue growth during its first fiscal quarter yesterday, the company said that it would be selling off an additional 69 arcades in an attempt to clot its mounting losses.

Luckily for Namco Bandai, its home-gaming business continues to heat up. Today, the publisher said that Soulcalibur IV has shipped more than 2 million units for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 across the globe since it launched on July 29.

Along with the game's returning cast, which includes Siegfried, Ivy, Cassandra, and Cervantes, Soulcalibur features a few iconic stars on loan from LucasArts in the form of Darth Vader and Yoda on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 editions, respectively. Although the two Star Wars titans can't go head to head, LucasArts also lent The Apprentice character from the upcoming Force Unleashed for proper lightsaber duels.

For a more in-depth look at Soulcalibur IV, check out GameSpot's full review.

126 Comments

  • aura_enchanted

    Posted Sep 5, 2008 10:48 am GMT

    a character that u created*

  • aura_enchanted

    Posted Sep 5, 2008 10:47 am GMT

    ok soul calibur 4 is about as new and improved as airplane!2 was to airplane!, it did almost nothing. they took away many fighting styles, took away good character (olcadan pwned hardcore) they took away lots of armor for design a character. they took away their string of decent side games (tales of souls, soul arena, etc.) the ending cutscene is rehashed over and over for all but the new characters. and finally the game is a bit shineyer n pretty. i say i can make SC4 in my basement with a copy of SC3, a printer, 2 star wars dolls, and some glitter. and id probably get more out of it. by the way u apprentice playing noobs piss me off, hes stupid overpowered and you know it.

  • NDegree

    Posted Aug 19, 2008 3:05 pm GMT

    Bring ''Darth Maul'' on PS3.

  • DarkStreetDev

    Posted Aug 17, 2008 10:25 pm GMT

    Great news - they deserve it.

  • maccer101

    Posted Aug 11, 2008 9:05 pm GMT

    no surprise, cause its bloody great!

  • CVM_123

    Posted Aug 11, 2008 4:28 pm GMT

    cant wait to buy it!

  • gamerkiduri

    Posted Aug 11, 2008 9:42 am GMT

    im glad i hve a ps3.soulcalibur4 and tekken6. best fighting games evaaaa

  • xbox360progamer

    Posted Aug 10, 2008 2:17 pm GMT

    i love soul calibur

  • jamestillett

    Posted Aug 10, 2008 4:48 am GMT

    A message to Namco closest rivals Sega who are not doing very well either WATCH AND LEARN FROM THIS now Sega how about a port of House of the Dead 4 & Afterburner climax

  • gamer082009

    Posted Aug 9, 2008 10:08 pm GMT

    For some reason I just love to see some gaming companies do well. Why can't EA just go bankrupt all ready, goodjob Namco for still having your touch.

  • blindead05

    Posted Aug 9, 2008 10:58 am GMT

    soulcalibur IV!!! it rocks..

  • ps3thabest

    Posted Aug 9, 2008 9:53 am GMT

    condemned100- you are right, but the wii is getting more hardcore games and its graphics are going to match ps3 and 360 when cod war at war comes out.

  • jamestillett

    Posted Aug 9, 2008 6:25 am GMT

    I Hope this speeds up the release of Tekken6 funny how all the old games seem to be very popular on the next gen systems and the new stuff is barely turning any heads

  • jamestillett

    Posted Aug 9, 2008 1:36 am GMT

    Maybe e They do an arcade version.The name Soul-Calibur will always but this Entry is very very shallow

  • MichaeltheCM

    Posted Aug 8, 2008 11:13 pm GMT

    wow i didnt see this coming. good for them

  • King_Dodongo

    Posted Aug 8, 2008 4:19 pm GMT

    xIronMaydenx And link was great too, but I wonder who tought at namco to make him small, almost the size of talim

  • xIronMaydenx

    Posted Aug 8, 2008 3:25 pm GMT

    Soulcalibur 4 is great. I'm glad to see that it is selling well.....that will ensure soulcalibur 5. However, the star wars characters are a bit of a disappoint. I have the 360 version so I cannot attest to Darth Vadar's playabilty, but Yoda certainly is not fun to play with or fight against. The apprentice is ok, but the character design is very bland. Spawn and Necrid were much better guest characters.

  • NND1

    Posted Aug 8, 2008 12:51 pm GMT

    "Pertaining to the lightsaber vs sword thing...it's like KOTOR where you can get swords conditioned and charged with demon power to counter the mighty power of the lightsaber. Have you seen the size of Siegfried's sword? It's powered by magical spirit power. Lightsabers won't work against that sort of power."

    --Who Cares it's a fun game...?We are not fighting Unicorns or playing Dungeons and Dragons.. And that's not real either...

  • NND1

    Posted Aug 8, 2008 12:46 pm GMT

    Soul Calibur IV is hot and very addictive... Esp. the lightsaber play

  • dj_c4

    Posted Aug 8, 2008 10:28 am GMT

    hmmm...looks like i gotta give Soul Calibur a try on this gen. I wish they had a demo of it on the PSN.

  • pcmacro

    Posted Aug 8, 2008 10:07 am GMT

    Soul Calibur IV does kick major ass. If they had put another mode with unique features, and a bonus game mode, I am sure it would have gotten over 9.0. rating. An average of 8.7 is still pretty good. It is all about the fighting engine.

  • nemesi609

    Posted Aug 8, 2008 8:45 am GMT

    personally i havent liked fighters, except the dbz series, but i really love this game, ALOT. and i dont care that the lightsaber vs sword thing is realistic, its a magical realm, of course it isnt real but it is my favortie game at the moment so im not going to complain much

  • gamecubepad

    Posted Aug 8, 2008 8:25 am GMT

    That's a lot of copies. I was somewhat confused though is this game called "Soulcalibur" or "Soul Calibur"? I thought it was the latter. Aside from some occasional lag in online play, it's a really awesome game imo.

    Pertaining to the lightsaber vs sword thing...it's like KOTOR where you can get swords conditioned and charged with demon power to counter the mighty power of the lightsaber. Have you seen the size of Siegfried's sword? It's powered by magical spirit power. Lightsabers won't work against that sort of power.

  • Timstuff

    Posted Aug 8, 2008 7:51 am GMT

    SC4 is amazing. In some ways it's a step back from SC3 in terms of of features, but the gameplay is rock solid, the online play is near perfect, and the graphics are slick as corn oil on a kitchen floor. If I could only have one fighting game this gen, it would be SC4.

  • brantothehizzam

    Posted Aug 8, 2008 7:00 am GMT

    Its a game

    lightsaber vs. swords and what not
    who cares as long as you're having fun

  • -Raiden-

    Posted Aug 8, 2008 6:59 am GMT

    i love this game:-9

  • Crystall3d

    Posted Aug 8, 2008 6:08 am GMT

    namco's technological laziness will earn them a bed next to SNK

  • jameeler91

    Posted Aug 8, 2008 5:23 am GMT

    kith_kat that wouldn't make sense ryu is tecmo. Unless your reffering to street fighter ryu which i believe you werent hes capcom anyway.
    I don't see why namco bandai would want more than one foreign company to have characters in their game.
    Wouldv'e been cool though.

  • blueblur87 posted Aug 8, 2008 4:07 am GMT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    blueblur87

    Posted Aug 8, 2008 4:07 am GMT (hide)

    to be fair, a lightsaber can cut through any piece of metal, so how on earth can a character from soul calibur block a lightsaber using a wooden stick or nunchucks? Lightsabers can also slice off a limb or head or torso like butter, so how do they explain this not happening when you manage to cut with a lightsaber? lightsaber battles are all about blocking & countering, and if one mistake is made you lose a hand or worse.

  • bennae66

    Posted Aug 8, 2008 12:27 am GMT

    well there is a big empy box on the character selection screen right between yoda and apprentice on the star wars line of characters where a darth vader would fit in nicely on my 360. if it wasnt for live, it would fit yoda well on my ps3...

  • snarple_basic

    Posted Aug 7, 2008 11:59 pm GMT

    Im still hoping they let us download the other systems Star Wars character eventually. Im not the biggest fan of star wars, but even I can see how stupid it is to divide these characters.

  • s0njas0n

    Posted Aug 7, 2008 11:40 pm GMT

    nice. i still haven't picked this one up yet.

  • jsmoke03

    Posted Aug 7, 2008 11:13 pm GMT

    lucas arts need to hire namco to make a jedi fighting game....

  • combatsoldier

    Posted Aug 7, 2008 10:37 pm GMT

    It is a great game and im happy to see it do so well. It is my favorite fighting series.

  • jtthegame316

    Posted Aug 7, 2008 9:58 pm GMT

    HappyBB Resident evil 4 and obscure the aftermath are hardly for kids. not all wii games are aimed at children. i have wii and 360. if you wanted 360 or ps3 why did you not get one of them instead of a wii. but the wii is good if you like soul calibar look out for soul calibur legends on wii.

  • HappyBB

    Posted Aug 7, 2008 9:33 pm GMT

    Man, if only I have a PS3 or 360, then I will be able to enjoy the game!! I am stuck with a sucky and for-children-only Wii!

  • kith_kat

    Posted Aug 7, 2008 9:31 pm GMT

    ryu hayabusa should be in soul cal... he's in doa but i think he'll fit right into soul calibur, seeing that he doesnt use his swords in doa

  • the_greenzero

    Posted Aug 7, 2008 9:30 pm GMT

    Whoever said that fighting games were dead.

  • punkpunker

    Posted Aug 7, 2008 9:15 pm GMT

    because of the boobies...am i rite??
    I agree that Chuck Norris should be in the next game.
    somebody mentioned that PS3 need kratos, well X360 need Master Chief or Marcus Fenix?

  • TehUndeadHorror

    Posted Aug 7, 2008 9:05 pm GMT

    "I like the game. However, I can't stand the fact that it has Star Wars Characters in this game. Its a totally different universe and should never have happened. This game did not even need that."

    If you don't like them just don't play as them -_-

  • ChAoS_Maker

    Posted Aug 7, 2008 8:50 pm GMT

    False reporting,,

  • aoshi_shinumori

    Posted Aug 7, 2008 8:42 pm GMT

    it's all because of the boobies...

  • 09231991

    Posted Aug 7, 2008 8:37 pm GMT

    At first when I heard they were adding in Vader, Yoda and the Apprentice in SCIV, I thought "wow, thats weird". But then after seeing them in action, they are definitely cool additions. The only thing that boggles me is that why did they even make Darth Vader and Yoda exclusive to one console at first and then add them to the other later? Why didn't they just do that in the first place? Anyways, I think that once they add in the other character, they should start adding other characters from other game series. I, and everyone here, would definitely like to see Dante and Nero from DMC 4 in the game, that'd be beastly Then they could start adding in company 360?PS3 exclusive characters owned by the actual company like the 360 version gets the Master Chief with his Laser Sword and Ryu Hayabusa from NG 2 and the PS3 version could have Kratos and then another character (I can't think of anyone else) If they started doing that, then SCIV would be a superb fighting game.

  • Dryker

    Posted Aug 7, 2008 8:24 pm GMT

    Ok... it shipped 2 million. How many did it actually sell? Is it me or just bad reporting?

  • blackace

    Posted Aug 7, 2008 5:34 pm GMT

    I'll get a copy once the price comes down. I'm not paying $60 for that game. I'll get it for under $40. The game looks great though, just like the others. I don't know why they added the Star Wars characters to this game. They are not even in the same time period or universe. It makes the fighting interesting, but it doesn't relate to the story.

  • Henninger

    Posted Aug 7, 2008 5:33 pm GMT

    U people r lames 4 the chuck norris character in Soul Calibur. Thats just a stupid idea. The game is about fantasy characters & u wanna put old chuck norris in the game. Y'all gotta do better than that. They should've put every character in the game from past games: Edge Master, Inferno, Hwang, Li Long, Charade, Spawn, Necrid, Heihachi, Berserker, Assassin, & Link. Yes i know Link is a Nintendo character but they could license him 2 appear on Soul Calibur if they get the right price (but that'll never happen). Also that blank spot on SC4 could b Obi Wan u never know! Oh yea & put the secret character Han Myong from Soul Edge/Soul Blade in there 2! (4 those that don't know Soul Edge was the 1st game in the series but was the arcade version of the game; Soul Blade was the home version of the game).

  • EPaul

    Posted Aug 7, 2008 4:44 pm GMT

    That's pretty good for a fighter

  • WalkinRobot

    Posted Aug 7, 2008 4:33 pm GMT

    They should put ON KRATOS!!!

  • blueblur87

    Posted Aug 7, 2008 4:12 pm GMT

    they need to put sephiroth in the next game

  • Hokkie

    Posted Aug 7, 2008 4:10 pm GMT

    @Newsted_22

    Lucas Arts nowhere near fighting games?
    Ever play Star Wars :Masters of Teras kasi?
    back when console fighting games were just starting to get big, the game wasn't all that bad. Bit difficult to learn the moves, but over all, a good game.

    Soul Calibur had and will continue the have the "right" idea by incorporating characters from other fantasy games into their realm. those are some good sales too

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