Only one PS3 first-party exclusive has topped 1 million US sales

According to NPD Group figures (below), only one PlayStation 3 first-party exclusive has topped one million in sales in the US. That game is Resistance: Fall of Man. It must be pointed out that these numbers do not include bundled titles.

GameSetWatch's numbers man Matt Matthews has cast a beady eye of the figures and surmised that although Sony's stance on new IP is commendable, it is simply not profitable. Matthews reckons Sony should concentrate more on sequels.

He says it might have been better for Insomniac to continue building on the Ratchet and Clank franchise, instead of investing on the brand new Resistance. Same too for Naughty Dog, who might have profited more from a sequel to the popular PS2 title, Jak & Daxter, rather than creating the rather excellent Uncharted: Drakes Fortune.

The article points out that Sony concentrated a large portion of its E3 conference on Uncharted 2, even though the game hasn't even come close to the 750k mark in the US. Tretton said back then that Uncharted had sold 2.6 million copies worldwide. However, as Matthews points out, he's including bundled software figures, not stand-alone sales.

One could also look at Resistance 2 which has sold less than 750,000 units in six months on the market, to a userbase of 6 to 7 million owners. For a game promoted as the latest and best on the platform, opening month sales of 385,000 units seems exceptionally weak.

If we compare these figures to the competition, Gears of War 2 had sales upward of sales of 1.56 million units in its first month to an userbase of 12.4 million users. By the end of its second month it had hit the 2.3 million mark.

One could say that comparing Microsoft's [and Nintendo's] biggest hits to Sony's games is unfair. However, the issue is quite simple: Of Sony's biggest software ventures of the past three years, which have been as successful as Microsoft's on the Xbox 360 or Nintendo's on the Wii? Even adjusting for the installed bases, Sony's hits on the PlayStation 3 simply aren't of the same magnitude as those of its competition on their respective platforms.

Matthews rounds off by saying that that company's biggest first-party franchises - Gran Turismo and God of War - both of which are sequels, and thus in the conditions of his argument bound to do well, still aren't out yet, and aren't likely to see the light of day until next year.

There's loads more though the link.