While the West has been enjoying Yakuza 3 for a few weeks now, Japan is enjoying the forth title in the series. Sega has announced that during it’s first week of sales more than 500,000 copies of Yakuza 4 (Ryu ga Gotoku 4) were sold. In just seven days the game outsold Yakuza 3, which according to Weekly Famitsu sold a grand total of 499,436 copies up to the end of December 2009.
God of War III hits the headlines again this week with more sales related news. The title has not only outsold the previous two titles in week one sales, but has now broken the 1 million units mark. Sales for the title up to March 20th 2010 indicate that just over 1.1 million units were sold worldwide. In terms of regional breakdown around 700,000 units were sold in the Americas and 400,000 in Europe and Other Regions (excluding Japan).
According to the latest NPD figures, the PlayStation 3 has now sold approximately 11,761,000 units in the US till the end of February. The Xbox 360, on the otherhand, has broken the 19 million mark with approximately 19,383,900 units sold. At the end of last April, the Xbox 360 had double the install base of the PS3, with 14.9 million 360s and only 7.5 million PS3s in the NPD.
Square Enix Europe have revealed that Final Fantasy XIII has become the fastest selling title in the franchise’s history in the UK and also the fastest selling UK game of 2010 so far and topping Battefield: Bad Company in the charts. Last week, Square Enix revealed that the game had sold over 5 million units worldwide.
DICE and EA announced in a press release that Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is on pace to be the top selling title for March 2010. The game has already some over 2.3M units in North America and Europe, according to internal data from EA. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is winning accolades from fans and critics for outstanding visuals and action-packed gameplay with no less than 46 outlets having awarded the game a score of 90 or above.
With its unique gameplay and critical acclaim, Heavy Rain has sold over 500,000 units in its first week on shelves. Although the game received great reviews, many feared that the game would not do well in terms of sales. Preliminary sales data from VGChartz show that Heavy Rain is doing well so far. In key markets – around 200,000 were sold in the Americas, nearly 100,000 in the UK, over 50,000 in France and 25,000 in Japan.
Just like Uncharted 2, Borderlands has also broken another sales milestone. The title has reached 3 million copies sold on both the PS3 and Xbox 360 combined, CEO and president Randy Pitchford has said. Take-Two’s financial results showed that the role-playing shooter had reached the 2 million mark by the end of October, meaning the extra million units was generated in about three and a half months.
In January, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves broke the 2.5 million sales mark since it was released in November 2009. In just over a month since, the game has sold another million units becoming the fastest selling first-party title in PlayStation history. In addition, Uncharted 2 has also garnered more than 150 other industry awards, and has over 1.5 million online users worldwide.
Sony has had a great 2009, with gamers buying 15% more PS3 games than 2008. The PS3 was also the only console in the U.S. to see double-digit growth in sales this past quarter. December also marked the best sales month in the platform’s history, breaking one million hardware units and 7.3 million software units. January has seen a 36% sales increase on compared to last January.
BioWare’s dark fantasy epic Dragon Age: Origins has sold 3.2 million copies worldwide across all the platforms, according to publisher Electronic Arts. The game was released on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC back in November 2009. “This is a tremendous start for the Dragon Age franchise and we are extremely pleased with the great reception the game has already received from critics and fans worldwide,” says BioWare co-founder Ray Muzyka.
