Conduit, Grand Slam Tennis feel June gloom, Red Faction hits 267,000

Sega's core sci-fi shooter sells under 72,000; EA's first tennis game fouls out with 54,000 sold as THQ's acclaimed sci-fi shooter only sells 67,600 units on PS3; Call of Juarez rounds up 44,000 in five days.

Yesterday, the NPD Group released its sales figures for its worse-than-expected June reporting period, which lasted from May 31 to July 4. Supplemental information provided today cemented Prototype's place atop the industry research firm's non-PC game charts. Combined sales of the Xbox 360 (first place with 419,800 units) and PlayStation 3 (13th, 179,200 units) versions of the game totaled 598,200 units, a respectable debut.

Red Faction: Guerrilla didn't exactly blow up, but it did OK during a dismal month.

Subsequent game-sales figures collated from analyst reports and other sources shed light on the sales results of several other games. Though the Xbox 360 version of Red Faction: Guerrilla came in ninth place on NPD's non-PC chart with 199,400, the PlayStation 3 version didn't even make the top 20. In fact, the critical hit only sold 67,600 units on Sony's platform, bringing the game's 31-day console sales total for the Volition-developed game to approximately 267,000 units.

A bigger disappointment was The Conduit from Sega and High Voltage software. Despite being hyped as a hardcore first-person shooter designed from the ground up for the Wii, the game sold less than 72,000 units on the back of so-so reviews. Besides boding ill for High Voltage's other upcoming core Wii games, Gladiator A.D. and The Grinder, the game's poor showing underlined the risks of launching non-mass-market IP on the Wii. Sega knows the pitfalls all too well, having seen the M-rated Wii-exclusive actioner Madworld sell just 66,000 units domestically when it debuted in March.

Ironically, while EA Sports games took four of NPD's top-10 slots, another heavily hyped title from the megapublisher's athletic arm didn't even make the top 20. That title was Grand Slam Tennis, the heavily hyped--and tepidly reviewed--first tennis game from the publisher in years. It sold just 54,000 units in the 26 days after its June 8 launch, a performance which cast a shadow over the 360 and PS3 versions planned for later this year.

Last and possibly not least is Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood from Ubisoft and Polish developer Techland. Released on June 30, the critically praised Wild West shooter sold 24,000 units on the 360 and 20,000 on the PlayStation 3 for the PS3. (PC numbers were not available.) While the 44,000-unit total seems low, keep in mind it covers only five days, two of which fell during the long July 4 weekend--when travel, barbecues, and outdoor activities typically take precedence over gaming.

239 Comments

  • GameShark9000

    Posted Oct 5, 2009 3:09 am PT

    No Gamespot, the Conduit doesn't have so-so reviews, it has biased reviews from you.

  • peetowser

    Posted Aug 1, 2009 6:39 pm PT

    Red Faction was great... How about some DLC with more Walkers hmm?

  • rohr2

    Posted Jul 22, 2009 12:27 pm PT

    Woah Woah Woah. Let's take a time out and ponder the facts. They gave an excuse for COJ's low score. No excuse for The Conduit. I'm smelling a little bias. But then again, it's gamespot. ANTI SEGA FTW!

  • nintendokid

    Posted Jul 22, 2009 9:54 am PT

    @mhatter106

    Don't equate GTA Chinatown Wars, a quality game, to some piece of trash like Conduit, on the basis of sales. That would be like you saying that if a Arena Football League running back had the same yards as NFL Minnesota Vikings' Adrian Peterson this month, they must be on the same level.

    First, it was Disaster Day of Crisis. All they saw was a trailer back in 2006 and Wii players were all like "Just wait and see! We will have an A+ hardcore game!" What happened? Yeah, it was "disaster" all right. And they all shut up, as if the Wii community never tried to hype it. You know who you are. Same with Conduit. Wii folks were all like "This is gonna make FPS and motion control shine! We are talking about an A+ shooter for the Wii!" Yeah, you got A+, for false hope.

  • Nautilus1515

    Posted Jul 21, 2009 7:16 pm PT

    i think the biggest travesty of this past month was red faction's sales. it really is a f***ing fun game and if more people tried the free demo i think they would run to the store and buy it like i did. it has some of the craziest destruction in a game and is everything that mercs 2 was supposed to be and more.

  • mhatter106

    Posted Jul 21, 2009 5:26 pm PT

    I dont think it was on the back of soso review that Conduit didnt do well. I think it was just that fps are played more by hardcore gamers who prefer ps3 or 360 for that type of gaming. just like gta chinatown wars got awesome reviews but didnt do well because for that type of game, gamers didnt want to play it on the DS. Not that they dont like the wii or DS but they use them for different niches than other systems

  • rgame1

    Posted Jul 21, 2009 3:52 am PT

    @x-2tha-z: what failure? Stop saying that. It has been on the US market for 7 days and already sold more than madworld, which was on the market for 20 days.

    please stop and think for once!!

  • x-2tha-z

    Posted Jul 21, 2009 2:30 am PT

    I don't know who's more to blame for The Conduit's failure, Nintendo for marketing the Wii toward young girls and senior citizens, or High Voltage for making an average game.

  • Razoroo

    Posted Jul 20, 2009 3:31 pm PT

    A shame about the Conduit, but apparently it's far from perfect anyway. I have to say though, it wasn't THAT hyped up. I would have expected more effort on advertisements at least.
    Nobody really expected Call of Juarez to do that well tbh.
    And who gives a crap about whatever that tennis game is.

  • popplayer22

    Posted Jul 20, 2009 2:41 pm PT

    Is anyone seriously suprised The Conduit sold 72,000 last month? Madworld sold horrible too, that was supposedly a hardcore game. NEWSFLASH: Most Wii owners are not hardcore gamers. They are casual gamers, which is also another reason the Wii is buried in Shovelware. Nintendo has abandoned you all the hardcore gamers in search of a new audience. That audience being $$$$$$$

  • lightning_kf

    Posted Jul 20, 2009 1:57 pm PT

    Brawl578

    I couldn't agree with you more. Whiners complain about no "hardcore" games on the Wii. And when they do come out, they chicken out.

    Regarding the sales for the Conduit, how is over 180 000 copies sold within a 2-week timespan a bad thing? Whereas another game for 2 more likable consoles sold a lot LESS than the Conduit gets an excuse? Wow, this is worse than IGN's reports I swear.

  • Lord_Regnier

    Posted Jul 20, 2009 12:56 pm PT

    Ouch!!

  • LindBergh2007

    Posted Jul 20, 2009 11:50 am PT

    Tri-Enforcer. Sites like Gamespot are pure anti-Sega.

    Selling nearly 100,000 in a week is pretty good.

  • SpainoMac8982

    Posted Jul 20, 2009 11:39 am PT

    @lathan94

    writers for all gaming sites like ign and gamespot claim to hate on the fanboy console wars, but will often say things that will start up console war arguments whenever they feel the need to draw traffic to the site, it seems. i'll bet you that this was the most read article on gamespot in the past week because of all the people coming to comment on the sales numbers and the way they were portrayed.

  • sparkypants

    Posted Jul 20, 2009 10:11 am PT

    Damn, the conduit dropped the ball. I don't think there is any hope for a unique and awesome 3rd party Wii game.

    also, GS not to rag on you guys but this IS your profession, please proof read. "and 20,000 on the PlayStation 3 for the PS3..."

  • Bobzfamily

    Posted Jul 20, 2009 10:02 am PT

    Wii core gamers like me need to face the fact that top quality, third-party titles on the system will never sell a fraction of what Wii Sports or Imagine or whatever will.
    Not saying that the Conduit is that good, though.

  • enrique_marrodz

    Posted Jul 20, 2009 9:50 am PT

    How biased report!! Did GS mentioned that The Conduit sold all this copies in just a week? and that they are comparing the game to others which got out since the begining of the month?

  • scarface_dm

    Posted Jul 20, 2009 9:46 am PT

    *blue-ray movies

  • scarface_dm posted Jul 20, 2009 9:28 am PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    scarface_dm

    Posted Jul 20, 2009 9:28 am PT (hide)

    How is gamespot catering to the 360 ?
    Its not there fault PS3 users are using there console for dvd movies and instead of buying games

  • taylormadederek

    Posted Jul 20, 2009 9:11 am PT

    @ Shadow-Koopa

    There are a few out there but not even close to the amount for the other consoles. I buy a lot of games and only 1 for the Wii a year in the last two years. The graphics are blah for anything other than Wii Sports type games. @ elusivesloth

    NOPE....gamers are tired of waiting for Wii games and bought an XBOX or PS. Sure Wii sells well but it is still a fad (2 years) unless you are mom or grandpa.

  • elusivesloth

    Posted Jul 20, 2009 8:42 am PT

    I think the conduit will be an excellent seller on the wii even though it should not because I played the game and it sucks. The problem is that wii owners are getting tired of waiting for good games to come out and they will buy whatever shooter releases on the wii because there are not too many of them.

  • Shadow-Koopa

    Posted Jul 20, 2009 8:32 am PT

    I'm more interested in The Conduit's sales NEXT MONTH, as then the game will also be out in Europe and we can see how sales are set to continue. I need more decent Wii games dammit (Yes I know there are a fair few out there, but, I own them all xD)

  • VenomRitual

    Posted Jul 20, 2009 8:30 am PT

    @taylormadederek

    agreed. i think the wii would do better though if most games weren't limited to the nunchuck/remote. i tried playing Bigs like that and almost smacked myself in the face.

  • taylormadederek

    Posted Jul 20, 2009 8:14 am PT

    @ hpgraphics117

    Any source will have bias but if anything Gamespot reports on crap and useless information more than they are biased. In general Wii games are crap. Mario sells well and a few other Nintendo games. So well they are in the top 20 every month for like 2 years. That is impressive. However Wii is a crap ground for games and I find myself buying about 1 a year. Where I will buy about 50 for XBOX and 10 for PS3. I think that is is more like Wiik (read Weak).

  • xbox4life76

    Posted Jul 20, 2009 7:53 am PT

    Gamespot reviews for Grand Slam Tennis were off...i bought the game on launch day and a 6.0 is way off...it's a solid enjoyable game with great features, of course not perfect, but not a 6.0.

  • wraith552

    Posted Jul 20, 2009 7:18 am PT

    hpgraphics117,

    Are you a friggin moron? Just because you don't like what they say does not make it a biased article. They are only reporting the NPD numbers and they can't help it that the PS3 is sucking wind. I have all three systems and they all have their strengths and one of the 360's strengths is that it has a higher install base and therefore sells more software on multi-platform releases. If the Wii versions of games were the same as the 360/PS3, it would be spanking everyone because it has the biggest install base of all. But most games kinda suck on the Wii, that is why I only turn it on about 3 times a year.

  • hpgraphics117

    Posted Jul 20, 2009 7:05 am PT

    Terrible article. Gamespot is obviously pandering to the 360. In respect of days Conduit and COJ are actually even. I am a little sick after reading this biased commentary. I find myself asking why Gamespot is a credible source of information after this article.

  • LosDaddie posted Jul 20, 2009 6:19 am PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    LosDaddie

    Posted Jul 20, 2009 6:19 am PT (hide)

    Conduit never had a chance.

  • taylormadederek posted Jul 20, 2009 6:01 am PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    taylormadederek

    Posted Jul 20, 2009 6:01 am PT (hide)

    Thank you High Voltage Games for waisting a good game like The Conduit on on the crap Wii.

  • cocomacoco

    Posted Jul 19, 2009 11:33 pm PT

    red faction is my favorite game for multiplayer this year

  • OverkillAzault

    Posted Jul 19, 2009 10:49 pm PT

    Halcalix,

    ok maybe wii is not just for kids and old people who wants to work out.
    Till then play on ,life's a game

  • COD2-The_Pope

    Posted Jul 19, 2009 10:29 pm PT

    @Lathan94: They're biased in because where they gave an excuse for COJ being down in sales, they didn't for the conduit, showing a biased against the Wii. The simple fact is that if you say anything about COJ being out for only 5 days, you have to say something about TC only being out for 9 days at the time of the article. That's just what being unbiased is.

  • Tri-Enforcer

    Posted Jul 19, 2009 8:35 pm PT

    The conduit was only out for nine days in June and 72,000 sold isn't bad for 9 days. The conduit will break well over 100,000 sold when it has been out for a full month (it already has). Shut up haters.

  • hattorihanzo32

    Posted Jul 19, 2009 8:02 pm PT

    I think if you go out of your way to defend the sales of the other game COJ, knowing that the same excuses can be applied to the Conduit since it did come out on june 23rd, is definitley being biased you don't have to be a fanboy of any system to see that in the article you just have to look at it objectively. What is even worse is that they try to make it sound like this is the reason developers should not make serious games for wii. This article is very disgusting as it seems to be trying to twist the facts to make the wii look bad purposefully ( i dont know why though). Just look at the sales figures for the conduit on any other site and you will see that it is doing well these past weeks.

  • Buffalodude

    Posted Jul 19, 2009 7:24 pm PT

    Red faction Guerrilla is a awesome game. I wish it had done better.

  • godzillavskong

    Posted Jul 19, 2009 7:20 pm PT

    Call of Juarez Bound in Blood is a really good Western game, heck it even made me go back and watch Unforgiven again.

  • Major-Impact

    Posted Jul 19, 2009 6:27 pm PT

    Red faction is a good but undermarketed game. The Conduit should have done much better. The Wii as a viable platform for hardcore gamers is dead.

    Its the age of mindless, mediocre, mainstream games!
    Pisses me off.

  • giddyupgroudon posted Jul 19, 2009 6:11 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    giddyupgroudon

    Posted Jul 19, 2009 6:11 pm PT (hide)

    red faction blows, how it sold 267000 copies i don't know

  • blankshore

    Posted Jul 19, 2009 6:06 pm PT

    I don't see why 71,000 copies for the Conduit is bad. Gamespot does this every time a big Wii game comes out, and people forget that Wii games have legs. They sell big over time, not in their first month or two.

  • TheKungFool

    Posted Jul 19, 2009 5:06 pm PT

    Considering those lackluster titles are what came out during this stretch, its not really shocking that sales were down.

  • Barighm

    Posted Jul 19, 2009 1:12 pm PT

    That's too bad. Red Faction may not be the greatest game ever made, but it was the first shooter I've played in a long time that felt different from other shooters, but at least it's selling fairly well. Guess the typical shooter fan is more interested in hyper-realistic, non-sci fi settings that constantly reuse assault rifles, shotguns, and sniper rifles. Not much room for originality in the shooter world I guess.

  • sirtruck posted Jul 19, 2009 12:44 pm PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    sirtruck

    Posted Jul 19, 2009 12:44 pm PT (hide)

    Guys come on. Anybody that is a true gamer can tell even without playing the games (just based on the game play footage) which ones are probably going to be good and which ones look mediocre and/or boring. I'm no genius but to me it was obvious that The Conduit, Mad World and NMH were all B-level entries. I for one like A-games and am willing to pay for all of them - just make sure they have at least two of the following characteristics: either some innovation, a good story (not necessarily a great story), and tight controls. Example, The House of the Dead: Overkill. The only game coming up for the Wii with potential to succeed (in the near future) is Wii Sports Resort...nuff said!

  • chansaet

    Posted Jul 19, 2009 12:31 pm PT

    Conduit could end up selling over a million. Wii games do not sell as much as X360 games when they first launch. However time and time again wii games have proven that they have very good legs unlike most X360/PS3 games. COD:WAW on wii during the 1st week only sold 44K and yet the game went on to sell over 1 million. I think gamespot and most fanboys only look at the 1st month or so of sales and never pay attention to overall sales. Tends shown that X360/PS3 games sell alot very quickly but have bad legs. Wii games start out slow but have very good legs.

  • edub272

    Posted Jul 19, 2009 12:12 pm PT

    Red Faction should have sold better. Its a really really fun game. I'm glad, call of jaurez is doing good.

    who would have thought the breakthrough shooter for wii wouldn't live up to expectations? I did
    ---- people who buy wii want wii fit, wii sports, mario kart, and super smash brothers.
    There have been so many FPS' on the PS3 and 360 that developers are gettin it down to a science on how to make them. This is the wii's first stab at it and its going to take a lot more tries to get a real shooting game.
    M rated games for wii almost is an oxy moron and doesnt make sense.

  • lathan94

    Posted Jul 19, 2009 11:59 am PT

    Wow i didnt think so many people would defend the Wii. Gamespot is not biased, they have no reason to be biased. They are reporting sales figures that is all.

  • Willy105

    Posted Jul 19, 2009 10:35 am PT

    Dang. All games from this month came up short in sales. Maybe they will increase....

  • D3A7HJ0K3R posted Jul 19, 2009 8:49 am PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    D3A7HJ0K3R

    Posted Jul 19, 2009 8:49 am PT (hide)

    The conduit is so boring. i would've rathar used the instructional manual for asswipe cuz the controls were tacked on. the story was some wannabe halo story. Just wait for Wii Sports Resort people, that's the only good game coming out for the wii this year.

  • SpainoMac8982

    Posted Jul 19, 2009 8:20 am PT

    @Grantsplace2004

    It's biased because the person writing the article goes out of their way to make excuses for CoJ: Bound in Blood and Red Faction having poor sales in June, then absolutely blasts The Conduit for having poor sales. The Conduit was released at the end of June as well as both of those games and had to deal with the 4th of July weekend, why give the other two such a pass on poor sales then mark the Conduit as a total failure?

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