Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Interesting NPD sales numbers...

This is a major shock, and I have been trying to understand how this worked out.
Basically one of the titles on the list is not known to carry a very high "Brick and Mortar" awareness...

Anyways, the latest charts have showed up, and Kotaku has posted the top 10...

Most are predictable...BUT...

1. World Of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King
2. Left 4 Dead
3. Call Of Duty: World At War
4. The Sims 2 Mansion & Garden Stuff
5. EverQuest II: The Shadow Odyssey
6. Spore
7. Fallout 3
8. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe
9. World Of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Collectors Ed
10. The Sims 2 Apartment Life

Yet, no LOTRO!

..........................how interesting.

6 comments:

Talyn said...

[Swears vile evil words at Blogger's slow-loading script that resets the comment field]

Just a thought, but it could be that an overwhelming majority went for the $29 digital upgrade. Nearly everyone I've spoken to in the kinships I have friends in did, as well as everyone I've asked in GLFF. I ended up canceling my CE pre-order and went with the digital too. People love their titles, and the digital was not only cheaper but it gave them the Moria Expeditionary title.

Elementalistly said...

NPD tracks online sales as well now.
But, I did notice that Turbine offered the deal through the launcher.
How did you pay?

Anyways, this is interesting as EQ2 has NOT been known to ever chart with previous expansions.
EQ2 is also mostly digital download...so this is quite different for these guys.

Either sales were dismal for ALL games, or people really were interested thanks to the all in one deal.

But, based on your deduction, it does seem that mostly original LOTRO players bought the expansion...and sales were not able to chart thanks to this method.
How do they expect to grow the player base this way?

Talyn said...

My CE pre-order was through Amazon but I didn't feel like having yet another box taking up space, paying the extra money nor waiting 5+ days after the launch date before I could enter the mines themselves.

The digital version is paid for on Turbine's "My Account" page, so I'm not sure NPD tracks that?

I can say I have seen a lot of legit new players on my server, which I think is still considered "low population" but it's the first month and I've learned to never bother with first month readings. Look what happened to TR, WAR, AoC, etc. after their first month after all...

I haven't bothered to have a personal conversation with each of the new players I've encountered but they seem to be a mix of first time MMO players, and vets from WoW or other titles who just want an MMO where they don't feel pressured to level and raid.

Crimson Starfire said...

It's because it has the word 'shadow' in it. That word makes sales alone ;)

Elementalistly said...

@Crimson
hahah...good one...
So maybe the next expansion for LOTRO should be called
"Shadows over Rohan"...lol

Crimson Starfire said...

Exactly. lol ;)