The game is doing pretty well.
I’m saying they are / were expecting to gross $100 million from the game. They were looking at things like GTA and others that were making millions upon millions of dollars and said.. we want a piece of that with Ghostbusters.
NPD Top 20 has been released and the news is a mixed bag…
Prototype (360) - Activision
UFC 2009: Undisputed (360) - THQ
EA Sports Active Bundle (Wii) - EA
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 (Wii) - EA
Wii Fit (Wii) - Nintendo
Fight Night Round 4 (360) - EA
Fight Night Round 4 (PS3) - EA
Mario Kart (Wii) - Nintendo
Red Faction: Guerrilla (360) - THQ
Infamous (PS3) - Sony
11. Ghostbusters: The Video Game (360) - Atari
UFC 2009 Undisputed (PS3) - THQ
Prototype (PS3) - Activision
Pokemon Platinum (DS) - Nintendo
Punch-Out!! (Wii) - Nintendo
Wii Play (Wii) - Nintendo
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 (360) - EA
Mario Kart DS (DS) - Nintendo
The Legendary Starfy (DS) - Nintendo
New Super Mario Bros. (DS) - Nintendo
First, this confirms suspicions that Ghostbusters (360) just barely missed the top 10.
Second, this confirms that no other version of the game appears in the top 20! :sigh:
Based on the last few months of NPD data, we can get a rough idea of how many copies the lower titles sold:
**Wii Play **
??? (June)
109,800
170,000
281,000
386,000
415,000 (January)
Mario Kart Wii
202,100 (June)
158,300
210,000
278,000
263,000
292,000 (January)
Punch-Out!! (Wii)
156,900 (May)
I would have to guess that 20. New Super Mario Bros. (DS) sold roughly in the ballpark of 145,000 copies. This means the the 360 version sold significantly better than any other version. We are looking at something along the lines of:
360: 192,000
PS3: 112,000
Wii: 95,000
PS2: 33,000
DS: 8,000
VGchartz was surprisingly close with their predictions…
How do these sales compare? Are they good? Bad? Decent? I would say acceptable…
Madden NFL 2005 (4.35 million)- PS2
Metroid Prime (2 million)- Cube
Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction (1 million)- PS3
Assassin’s Creed (1.87 million)- 360
Terminator Salvation (360, PS3) - 43,000 Released May 19
The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena (PC, 360, PS3) – 100,000 Released April 7
The Godfather II (360, PS3) - 246,000 Released April 7
X-Men Origins: Wolverine (360, PS3) - 215,700 Released May 1
Transformers: The Video Game (PS3, 360, PS2, Wii) - ≥ 1 million Released June 26, 2007
To compare this to a box office movie, I would make this analogy:
Transformers = Mega Blockbuster
Star Trek = Blockbuster
The Hangover = Unexpected Summer Hit
X-Men Origins: Wolverine = Modest Success
Year One = Break Even after Home Video Release
Land of the Lost = Bomb
Terminator Salvation = Epic Failure
This game is somewhere between Year One and Wolverine. Not bad, but not great. I think between the video game and the blu-ray release, a sequel to the game is a shoe in; however, Sony Picture will take a hard second look at the prospect of investing in a 3rd movie. Its much cheaper to invest in a game than a big budget box office film and get a good return on your money.
Ok, well with that cleared up, it’s making money, but clearly it’s not going to make that much, which is too bad.
Half those games on the top ten are a load of Bull, very ignorant games that ignorant people paid for … like, come on! UFC 2009: Undisputed is some stupid wrestling game that takes no skill what so ever to play with no storyline s well as Fight Night Round 4, I don’t get why this game is even on the list twice, who cares if it was on two different platforms-same game, different controls. Mario Kart has been on the market for ten years or more which disqaulify it from this list, i can understand Prototype and Infamous but the the excercise crap for the retarded Wii? why? if people wanted to excercise then should go to a gym. One thing i’m glad for is that it’s still making money and is still popular as crazy cuz i’ve been to a lot of game stores and ghostbusters has been selling hard while they are still tons of those other games on the top ten piled all over the shelves 
Recession.
Less people buying.
Twenty year old property.
Give it time… word of mouth is still spreading. I still overhear, “Have you played the Ghostbusters game?” “No, but I was going to pick it up” quite often around the office. Price point will drop in a few months. Let’s talk and let all the morose pantlegging begin if it’s necessary after Q4 and holiday sales are in. Another short incomplete lazy sentence for good measure.
I know NPD is only for North America but I think the worldwide sales would have been a lot stronger if they didn’t dick with the european release. Thanks Sony once again…
Well, that isn’t exactly the case…
This game was not going to sell well outside of North America and Europe, with Australia being to only exception. Western developed games typically don’t sell well in Asia and Japan is the 2nd largest market for video games. Yes, there are exceptions to this, but the vast majority of Western software is lost to poor sales. The United Kingdom is 3rd largest market with Germany, France, Nordic, Italy, and others following suit. In 2007, the United States alone generated $17.9 Billion in sales, where as ALL OF EUROPE sold the same amount. The United Kingdom make up $3.35 Billion of that total figure. Major emerging markets likely won’t even see this game (China and India).
Now, it would be very easy to blame Sony for ruining the European release; however, it isn’t that simple. Europe has a TON of obstacles to overcome that NA and Japan simply don’t have to deal with. Europe is a very divided region of the world with national boundaries, languages, cultures, currencies, technology standards, and more. Did you know that Europeans spend between 40% and 50% more on video games than Americans?
Ghostbusters MSRP =
$59.99 USD
$49.99 GBP
49.99 GBP = 81.64 USD
Hell, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is going to be sold for $54.99 GBP this winter in Europe with equals $89.81 USD!! That’s $30 more than their American counterpart! With inflated prices like this, it should come as no surprise that the game is not performing as well there as it is in NA.
Cultural tastes also have an impact. In most other countries outside of the United States, it is common to see FIFA, Rugby, and Cricket games from EA Sports on the sales charts. I didn’t even realize EA developed yearly Cricket games until a researched it today! Just like most counties outside the US don’t realize that NFL, MLB, and NASCAR are big sellers here.
There is a good reason why Atari allowed Sony the “honor” of publishing the title in Europe. Its cheaper, easier, and quicker to have them do it.
When I was in Europe I went to a Gamestop to check out what they had.
EVERY new game was around $100.
I’d say your statement is more ignorant than the games you mentioned or their sales. Not everyone is a Ghostbusters fan. Not only that, but different people are entertained by different types of games…
Really, I fault GBTVG’s lack of sales (at least in the PC department) on the neutered release.
Where the hell where you?
In the UK games are 39.99 which is about 60 dollars.
Not404Error, you have to read my WHOLE comment, not the first sentence, the rest of my comment explains why and i know not everyone is a ghostbusters fan, which makes you a fan of those other games, that’s cool for you but in my opinion the Wii fit crap is not a game it’s basically an excercise video and also i like plot driven games, which was also in my comment that may have missed cuz it wasn’t in the first sentence, so boxing and wrestling games are mind-numbing and boring at best cuz you don’t get anywhere, i’m just saying that’s my opinion, you don’t have to follow it or believe it
Just listened to RebelFM - great videogame podcast btw - they spoke of Ghostbusters and said that the game has apparently sold out in quite a few areas and is doing a lot better than anyone thought it would.
They’re all Ghostheads so they had quite a bit to say about it, mostly good but some of the typical complaints about glitches and lip synching were touched on. It was humorous in that the guy who reviewed it actually ended up talking another guy into playing it!
If sony hadn’t pulled that timed release crap in europe, the numbers
would probably been a bit higher. Bad move, sony.
:sigh:
What Sony did with Ghostbusters is typical of their stupidity as of late. The fact that the game looked better on their competitions hardware is just plain stupid.
I actually actively seek out an excuse to buy a PS3 game simply because all it is right now is an expensive dvd/blu-ray player. And with the PSP Go! coming out later this year for a whopping $250 bucks (and it does everything the PSP on shelves now does only its screen is smaller!) some have been wondering what the heck is going on with them.
Sony’s just crazy man!
OMG for the last time
Sony released the PS3 version themselves because ATARI didn’t have the money to push it over seas till Winter. The Xbox360 version had no region code anyway!
So because of Sony Europe got a release
Sony took advantage of the situation. They could have easily produced it on at least the 360 as well as the PS3. But no, only the versions on Sony consoles were released.
Yes Atari couldn’t afford to do any of the non NA releases, but don’t pretend that Sony didn’t see an opportunity and go for it.
I stand corrected, however I cant help but think about most of my friends who are 360 owners… they told me “yeah I’ll pick it up, I loved Ghostbusters as a child”… but then when the timed release news came through, they all said “nah, cant be arsed… by the time it comes out over here, games like COD:MW 2 will be out and noone will actually care”.
U might see sustained sales over the next few months when it is actually released in Europe through casual gamers but then again it might just bomb. Who knows, we’ll find out later in the year. Lets remember that just because it came out in the US region free and you ordered it in the UK, doesn’t mean that your order counts towards the European sales because it doesn’t. It’ll be put down as a US sale.
I agree, the moment has been lost in Europe now. Bigger better games will be coming out towards the end of the year and Ghostbusters amonst the general population who aren’t hardcore fans will just be a casual pick up second hand, a rent or a punt from people with spare cash. But the sales will be no where near what they would have been had it been released June.
So why didn’t they just…oh idk…ORDER IT?
Also asking Sony to take over a release (and who says they could have done it easily? Are you a Sony executive with the income reports?) and releasing the game for other COMPETITION is like asking Nintendo to release a Mario game for all consoles just because you don’t have a Wii.
Because games are expensive enough as it is? Spend $60 bucks on it and then import it for an additional $20? That’s quite a bit of money just for a game.
Atari never asked Sony to release Ghostbusters in Europe, they just simply don’t have the money and Sony took advantage of it. I can understand Sony wanting an exclusive, but at the cost of additional money from what they could have made from the Wii and 360 versions is simply foolish on their part.