Report - Alan Wake sales figures close to 1.5 million units

IndustryGamers is reporting that Alan Wake may have sold much better than previously thought, especially once digital sales of the title are taken into consideration.

According to sources close to the site, 900,000 sales of the title were never counted for Alan Wake's digital release. Compiled with NPD figures, which currently set at 330,000 physical units lifetime, the game actually sold around 1.23 million units. Add in an extra 170,000 units of global sales and the figure reaches 1.4 million.

IG derived part of the figures from the Xbox 360 bundle released for Holiday 2010 that included a digital copy of Alan Wake and a physical copy of Forza 3. According to the site's source, the digital sales of the bundled Alan Wake weren't counted towards its numbers, but Halo Reach which was included as a digital download in a bundle released this year, were counted. Interesting.

When contacted, Microsoft refused comment, however, Remedy's head of franchise development, Oskari Häkkinen had this to say on the matter: "Unfortunately we can't share numbers with you... The Wake bundles are substantial, in fact about half of the story - the untold story if you like. At the end of the day, we all love to follow charts, but the most important thing for Remedy really is about knowing how many people we reach and entertain – not necessarily what a measure or sales chart says."

"Alan Wake's digital bundle was the first of it's kind," he continued. "As a developer, we like testing new ground and when the digital opportunity was presented to us, we accepted. It's good to see more of it being done now as it reflects the success of the Wake bundle.

"To take a guess, I'd presume the reason the numbers haven't been registered is due to the untrodden ground we stepped on last year with the Wake digital bundle– Digital packages now seem to be part of business as usual, as are the sales. We certainly wouldn't mind seeing those sales added to the pot also though."

Whether counted internally by Microsoft or not, it did well enough to warrant a digital follow-up to the game, and is slated for next year.

It will be revealed on December 10 at the Spike VGAs.