Hello.
I'm new to this blog. People in the office call me Jorge. I've been around the
EA-Tiburon offices since 2000. Like a lot of folks who work in the gaming
industry I started in QA as a tester. A year and a half after starting with QA
I moved in with the Marketing department. I took the screenshots and video you
saw online, in magazines, and in TV commercials for all of EA-Tiburon's
products.
Recently I've moved into more of a support role within EA
SPORTS itself. I was asked if I wanted to contribute to the EA SPORTS blog with
gaming commentary. It was made clear, my topics aren't to focus on sports or
sports gaming, just gaming. This offer makes a lot of people in the office
nervous because I tend to say things that would make me a PR nightmare, so I
jumped at the chance.
For my first blog I'd thought I'd pull back the curtain and
show you some information I provide internally here at EA SPORTS. Every month
NPD provides sales figures for console hardware and software. It's kinda my
favorite part of the month. So I take the information NPD releases and put in
my two cents for folks to digest. Some people find it useful, some don't. Why
the discrepancy? Even though NPD and I both look at the numbers by individual
sku, folks in the industry really only care about combined sales. So X360
fanboys may want to chest bump over Borderlands selling more on their system,
but Gearbox only cares that it sold a combined 531,000 units on both consoles
(added to whatever it sold on PC).
Software
Sales are way down year-over-year. The strange thing is that
even though the market is hurting, new IPs are breaking out. I think
Borderlands is just another example of how shooter happy Xbox 360 owners are.
Borderlands was dropped in-between ODST and Modern Warfare 2 and still sold a
bunch.
1.
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (PS3)
How does Naughty Dog lose
their way with the Jax series and then make such an incredible game? Good for
them.
2.
Wii Fit Plus (Wii)
$20 gets you a bunch of
exercises only a soccer mom could love. Taking bets at my desk to how long this
stays in the top ten.
3.
Borderlands (X360)
The game 'sent to die'
knocks it out of the park. Now, somebody get Randy Pitchford his medication.
He's become 2009's Denis Dyack.
4.
Wii Sports Resort (Wii)
Nintendo's plan to seed
houses with MotionPlus devices is working. Now, what's the next game from
Nintendo that'll actually use it?
5.
NBA 2k10 (X360)
I'm guessing there's about
three hundred thousand fans who wish reviewers would have mentioned NBA 2k's
online issues.
6.
Halo 3: ODST (X360)
ODST has sold 1.8 million
units after two months. Less than half of what Halo 3 sold during the same time
period. Not that anybody's counting.
7.
NBA 2k10 (PS3)
Wait, forgot to include PS3
owners. Make that half a million basketball fans who are having online issues.
8.
Forza Motorsport 3 (X360)
Better, cleaner, deeper . . . Turn
10 knocks it out of the park. But it's another example of sales that are lower
than the previous version.
9.
Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days (DS)
This brings its total to
370,230 copies after two months. Yoichi Wada has to be excited about that
number.
10.
FIFA Soccer 10 (X360)
Whoa, there's soccer fans
in this country?
11.
Demon's Souls (PS3)
How does the most hardcore
game to come out this year sell so well? PlayStation 3 owners are an eclectic
bunch. Odds 3D Dot Game Heroes does this well next year?
12.
Brutal Legend (X360)
An eye opener and a half.
I'm halfway through this game and it's awesome. What's Tim Schafer got to do to
get a winner on his hands?
13.
FIFA Soccer 10 (PS3)
You know what this proves?
There are a higher percentage of soccer fans amongst PlayStation 3 owners than
Xbox 360 owners. That's all.
14.
Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story (DS)
Almost four hundred
thousand units in two months for a Mario RPG? Man, Nintendo must be glowing
right now.
15.
WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2010 (X360)
High review scores, strong
marketing push . . . disappointing sales. Not a good time for THQ during their
licensing contract negotiations either.
16.
Tekken 6 (PS3)
Yes, Tekken is historically
a PlayStation franchise, but it's still always surprising when the PS3 is the
lead sku. Sales being lower than WWE, though, is a real bad sign for them.
17.
Borderlands (PS3)
Proving once again that
PlayStation 3 owners aren't into shooters like Xbox 360 consumers.
18.
Madden NFL 10 (X360)
Three months in and hanging
tough. Can't wait to see fan reaction to playing Ultimate Team.
19.
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of the Sky
(DS)
This underwhelming first
month of sales is only a hiccup for the popular brand. My guess is that poor
reviews are likely keeping this Pokemon title down.
20.
Mario Kart Wii (Wii)
The lowest rated Mario Kart
in history continues to sell even when Wii Play has disappeared off the chart.