Recent NPD sales figures for May indicate worryingly low sales for some AAA titles. According to Gamasutra, Activision’s hyped racer Blur sold just 31,000 units in the last five days of the month.
Blur was not the only racer to underperform, and Disney’s Split/Second hardly set the racing genre alight with its 86,000 units sold in 12 days for PS3 and Xbox 360.
Alan Wake was the biggest disappointment however, managing only 145,000 units in the month. Now that figure may sound like a fair amount considering its on one platform, but when we take into account the hype which surrounded its lengthy development period, the number is pretty underwhelming.
Also underselling in May was Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands, which sold less than 100,000 copies across 5 platforms in 12 days. Considering it is a highly established franchise, and it enjoyed releases on so many gaming machines, the figure will be seen as a disappointment for Ubisoft.
So where is all the cash going? Well, Rockstar and Nintendo cleaned up, with Red Dead Redemption selling 1.5 million units in May, and Super Mario Galaxy managing 567,000 units. UFC 2010: Undisputed also sold well, with over 410,000 units sold in the month.
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