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Report: Shaun White to shred again

Reuters quotes gold medalist as saying sequel to his eponymous snowboarding game is in the works; 40 percent of sales on Wii; Ubisoft declines comment.

Last month, Ubisoft launched its first alpine sports game, Shaun White Snowboarding. Despite an avalanche of hype, the game wiped out with critics on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, earning less-than-gnarly respective scores of 63 and 62 out of 100 on Metacritic. GameSpot's own reviewer was even less kind, giving the two games just 5.0 out of a possible 10.

Despite the critical drubbing, Shaun White Snowboarding--which was also released on the Wii, DS, PSP, and PlayStation 2--has apparently enjoyed some degree of success. This afternoon the Reuters news service reported that the game sold 259,000 copies in the US in the two weeks after its November 16 launch. The figure, which was supplied by Arcadia Research analyst John Taylor, says sales of the game racked up $13.6 million during the month. France-based Ubisoft declined to confirm the sales numbers.

Taylor's research went even further than just overall numbers, with the analyst asserting that 40 percent of Shaun White's unit sales--or 103,000 units--were sold on Nintendo's console. Indeed, Shaun White Snowboarding: Road Trip for the Wii fared better with critics than its siblings, receiving a 79/100 meta-score from Metacritic and a 7.5/10 from GameSpot.

The aforementioned iteration was given particular praise for its compatibility with the Wii Balance Board, allowing players to experience a certain level of the physicality of snowboarding.

"Obviously, it's easier to replicate the sensation of boarding on the Wii because we have the balance board," said the title athlete, an X-Games champion and Olympic gold medalist. "However, with the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 there's a whole culture behind our sport and you can see that in the amount of clothes and boards and customization options in the game."

Although Shaun White's sales haven't made it a runaway hit, plans for a follow-up are already under way. "Now that I have the knowledge and I can speak to programmers better and I understand a lot more about what's possible and what's not possible, this will all help with the next game," White explained to the service.

For the time being, though, the official comment from Ubisoft is "no comment." "We have not announced any plans for future projects with Shaun," was all a rep would say on the matter.

40 Comments

  • so_hai

    Posted Jan 12, 2009 6:52 pm PT

    Ubisoft always sequalize everything. What a newsflash....

  • mikeysmall

    Posted Jan 11, 2009 5:05 am PT

    on the wii with the balance board the game is great and I would buy a sequel. I couldn't see the point of playing this on my PS3 with a hand held controller, so I am not surprised it received poor reviews overall.

  • SSSJDanny

    Posted Jan 2, 2009 1:36 am PT

    who cares...

  • f4t4lfury

    Posted Dec 30, 2008 10:22 pm PT

    I bought Shaun White Snowboarding. I would not buy a sequel. I'll wait for EA to put out a proper next-gen SSX.

  • Rookie395

    Posted Dec 30, 2008 5:35 am PT

    Games were decent, but why annoucne another one so soon? He's not that bright ...

  • acsam12304

    Posted Dec 28, 2008 5:27 pm PT

    Shaun White is stupid. he looks stupid

  • Eastcoast93

    Posted Dec 26, 2008 9:50 am PT

    man awesome..´shaun white 1 was amazing and i only played it for one day ( 20 hours straight) amazingly fun and addicting online. whoever sais it sucks should stick to lego because its the level of intelligence you have

  • willripyouanew1

    Posted Dec 23, 2008 4:37 pm PT

    That dude HAS TO be Carrot Top's son!

  • High-Res

    Posted Dec 23, 2008 11:16 am PT

    The game lacked a sense of speed, If they could just address that it would be completely awesome.

  • trw534

    Posted Dec 22, 2008 1:42 pm PT

    his game looks cool but i ve never played it

  • Media_Mind

    Posted Dec 20, 2008 11:59 am PT

    Wii version is the best, finally!

  • zgreenwell

    Posted Dec 19, 2008 12:57 pm PT

    I wanted to get it on Wii, but it is $55 for the target edition. Now when they drop it down to $35, I might buy it.

  • r_gam3

    Posted Dec 19, 2008 11:42 am PT

    can't wait for ssx blu2 on wii, that will sell gold/platinum and above....

  • Rodneythepom

    Posted Dec 19, 2008 11:09 am PT

    what did you expect from a guy who can be mistaken for Carrot Top.

  • Gamingcucumber

    Posted Dec 19, 2008 10:45 am PT

    It was a nice surprise on the Wii. The fact that it actually worked quite well with the balance board and was third party is nice. Though I must say that I miss SSX and the whole "Extreme Sports" when the games actually were super fun back in the days.

    On a side note, Shaun White looks like Carrot Top.

  • necronaux

    Posted Dec 19, 2008 9:37 am PT

    Eh, why not. It's a paycheck. If the game bombs, it won't be his fault and he still get's paid.

  • finaleve

    Posted Dec 19, 2008 9:26 am PT

    I lost interest in Snowboarding games since maybe SSX3. SSX2 was amazing, but when I got into 3, it started to feel like it was going downhill. It was still good, but...I just didn't have it in me to get the next one...

  • volcomstoner180

    Posted Dec 19, 2008 9:25 am PT

    shaun white looked okay...but then went down the tube
    im looking forward to the stoked game...should be wayyy better

  • Amir29

    Posted Dec 19, 2008 9:08 am PT

    Unfortunately, I allowed myself to get hyped up about this game. It was mostly due to the fact that I really miss the SSX series of yesterday. Here's to hoping they built a foundation for a better sequel. "Skate" has seemingly done that. We can only hope "Shaun White Snowboarding" does the same.

  • Generic_Dude

    Posted Dec 19, 2008 6:45 am PT

    Hopefully the sequel will be better... I love games like this and my hopes of a Tony Hawk renaissance have, basically, been extinguished by the past few releases and the announcement of a lame peripheral tied to the next one.

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