Brütal Legend, DJ Hero Ring Up Disappointing Sales

[Andy Chalk]

Brütal Legend, DJ Hero Ring Up Disappointing Sales

Despite high hopes and lots of hype, DJ Hero [http://www.brutallegend.com/], two of October's most anticipated releases, failed to make much of a splash on the sales charts.

There haven't been many videogame advertising campaigns as pervasive or, one would think, as expensive as the one for Brütal Legend. Ads for the game seemed to pop up everywhere on television and online, while Jack Black himself made numerous promotional appearances on shows ranging from Jimmy Fallon to the MTV Video Awards, usually at least partially in character. In spite of all that, however, and the high hopes of Tim Schafer fans and middle-aged metalhead gamers everywhere, Brütal Legend didn't exactly come roaring out of the gates in October. It failed to break into the NPD Group's top ten sales chart, putting out a combined 215,000 units on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, a respectable but hardly Earth-shaking number.

It's still considerably better than what expectations [http://www.activision.com].

How did they fare in relation to the month's more successful releases? The NDP's top ten videogame sales list is as follows:

1. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (PlayStation 3) - 537,000 units sold
2. Wii Fit Plus (Wii) - 441,000
3. Borderlands (Xbox 360) - 418,000
4. Wii Sports Resort (Wii) - 314,000
5. NBA 2K10 (Xbox 360) - 311,000
6. Halo 3: ODST (Xbox 360) - 271,000
7. NBA 2K10 (PlayStation 3) - 213,000
8. Forza Motorsport 3 (Xbox 360) - 175,000
9. Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days (Nintendo DS) - 169,000
10. FIFA Soccer 10 (Xbox 360) - 156,000

Brütal Legend and DJ Hero, by comparison:

Brütal Legend (360) - 150,000 units
Brütal Legend (PS3) - 66,000 units
DJ Hero (360) - 62,000 units
DJ Hero (PS3) - 39,000 units
DJ Hero (Wii) - 19,000 units
DJ Hero (PS2) - 3,300 units

The slow start isn't a death knell for either title; with the holiday season upon us, sales for both could experience a significant jump over the next 60 days. Activision also made a point last month of predicting that DJ Hero would be a "slow starter [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/95695-Activision-Expects-DJ-Hero-to-be-a-Slow-Starter]" that would build an audience over time and eventually become an important part of Activision's lineup. Still, I can't help but be a little disappointed about Brütal Legend; as someone who appreciates both Tim Schafer's creativity and violently thrashing my head around in time with K.K. Downing's melodious strumming, I was really hoping for bigger and better things.

Sources: Gamasutra [http://au.gamespot.com/news/6239988.html]


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[The Great JT]

Show of hands, who here knew DJ Hero was going to fail?

/handup

 

[Legion]

Show of hands, who here knew DJ Hero was going to fail?

/handup

Indeed, it just doesn't have the same appeal as Guitar Hero and Rock Band does to most people. I mean, the concept doesn't even make any sense, DJing isn't about scratching, but blending music together for people to dance to (In the case of club DJ's, and doing that in your living room with fake decks, well...), or to give people the music they want to listen to in the car/at work etc.

 

[SnootyEnglishman]

I can honestly say i've played both games and have enjoyed them greatly. While DJ Hero may not the mass appeal i actually find it much enjoyable as i have more to do with my hands then i would with the Guitar Hero and/or Rock Band. Brutal Legend i had great fun with as well just didnt like the RTS stage battle with every boss element

 

[Casual Shinji]

I'm glad I didn't buy Brutal Legend.

This way I can save my impuse purchase for something else.

 

[Jharry5]

Got to say it, but I'm not that surprised about DJ Hero. The idea seemed pretty wierd (but I know I'm not the intended audience, so...)

Brutal Legend, on the other hand: I seriously considered getting it, until I heard it was basically an RTS. That put me off...

 

[GamingAwesome1]

Sad for a game as original as Brutal Legend (note: still need to buy it).

But all I'm saying to DJ Hero is "HA! Fuck you Activision, I told you this would happen!"

 

[PedroSteckecilo]

I think Tim Schafer made a serious miscalculation with Brutal Legend by making it a Pseudo RTS, that immediately made me not interested in buying it, even after the Demo had pretty much clinched me as a purchaser.

 

[Cherry Cola]

Show of hands, who here knew DJ Hero was going to fail?

/handup

/three hands up

 

[IrrelevantTangent]

Well, Brutal Legend IS a Tim Schafer title. I wasn't expecting it to sell as many copies as, say, Call of Duty 4, but I'm still saddened to see it didn't do that well. More games need to be as awesome as Brutal Legend was.

As for DJ Hero, all I've heard of it is snippets of various reviews, and from what I've heard, it's got a hell of a difficulty curve regarding the controls, and it just didn't manage to achieve the same kind of quality its 'parent' Guitar Hero did. So I guess I'm not that surprised regarding that game either.

 

[BaldursBananaSoap]

All I'm going to say is this:

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA for DJ Hero
That sucks for Brutal Legend
STOP BUYING WII FIT AND GO FOR A JOG!
Those sales for ODST just go to show anything with "Halo," on it will sell like hotcakes. If Halo Wars was called Army Men RTS it wouldn't have half the sales. Pretty sad how games today sell on labels and something original like Brutal Legend doesn't sell at all.

 

[Jaqen Hghar]

Sad seeing original games like Brütal Legend sell bad

Happy that DJ Hero tanks though. Everything that can put Activison in an early developer grave is good IMO.

 

[Cliff_m85]

I rented Brutal Legend. I don't care for RTS games so, even though it was amazing and epically awesome, I don't think I'll be buying it. I did love the single-person battle system though as well as the imagination that went into making it.


DJ Hero was bound to fail. We all knew it was a retarded plan. We play Rock Band/Guitar Hero to imagine ourselves as rock stars. We have multiple instrument so we can play with friends. DJ Hero was targetting a very very very small demographic.

 

[SMOKEMNHALO2001]

Show of hands, who here knew DJ Hero was going to fail?

/handup

Hand up Sadly
DJ hero is a great game, people are just way to jaded or closed minded to want to play it. I understand people are into different things but come on, people whine about music games being the same thing every year and once we get not one but to games that mix things up noone buys them, that's just sad.
I'm also to blame about Brutal Legends weak sells, don't worry Tim I bought Psychonauts and I will get Brutal Legends, count on it!

 

[More Fun To Compute]

This was posted on the Double fine blog. Can't help but think that it partly explains why the game wasn't a big hit with the typical HD console owner.

 

[DaxStrife]

I'll buy it when it's on PC.
Brutal Legend, that is. [BLEEP] that DJ Hero noise.

 

[DrSavage]

As much as I love Tim, Brutal Legend has noone but itself to blame. I bought it and I played it and I loved the music and the atmosphere and the writing, but the gameplay is just bad with unresponsive combat and an RTS component that only works on a "group everything we have and send it forward" mechanic and even fails at that by making you stand next to the units in order for them to get the command, and on top of that once the fight starts it's nigh-impossible to make out what's going on. It's a great concept for the game, but you will not succeed if the actual part where we get to press buttons and pull sticks is not fun at all.