Tag Archive for 'sales'

GTA 4 Breaks Entertainment Sales Records

Published
by
Andy
on May 7, 2008
in Video Games
. 0 Comments

grand theft auto 4 gta greed money sales

The Grand Theft Auto IV juggernaut has landed and its made over $500 million its first week in release on 6 million copies sold worldwide.  Even more astonishing were the first day numbers of 3.6 million copies, grossing $310 million.

According to the Take Two press release:

Grand Theft Auto IV’s first week performance represents the largest launch in the history of interactive entertainment, and we believe these retail sales levels surpass any movie or music launch to date.

I can’t think of a movie thats made more money in its opening week and this certainly trumps *NSYNC’s No Strings Attached release.  Safe to say we have a changing of the guard in the entertainment industry?

Read the press release [businesswire.com]

Last.fm Is Logical

Published
by
Andy
on April 13, 2008
in Music
. 0 Comments

last fm logo orly

In an overwhelming intellectual leap of faith, last.fm has concluded that allowing full-length track streaming has increased sales.

Since Last.fm’s label deals allowed them to stream over five million full tracks for free, the site has seen its CD and MP3 Amazon referrals increase 119 percent. Some of the effect is due to an increase in overall traffic since the full songs showed up, but existing users of the site purchased 66 percent more music during the same period.

Did anyone ever harbor the illusion that 30-second track previews were really enough to sell people on a track purchase?  Sure, one could argue that maybe the right 30 seconds would be enough, but there’s no way of finding a “one size fits all” snippet for everyone.

Full length track streaming is the only way to go for online music purchasing.  It isn’t a replacement for owning the cd or file because you can’t put the music on your device - the end goal of most users.

Would you buy a car after a mere 30 second test-drive?  There is no way I’m spending my money on any music without hearing it in its entirety to make sure I love it.

Read more about last.fm’s conclusion [blog.wired.com]

Nintendo? More Like N’SYNCNDO Amirite?

Published
by
Andy
on March 17, 2008
in Video Games
. 0 Comments

nintendo money hats
Looks like Nintendo of America is really printing that money now. Joystiq reports that last week’s mega-super-ultra-blockbuster release of Super Smash Bros. Brawl is the fastest selling US Nintendo title of all time with first week sales of over 1.4 million copies and first day sales of 875,000.

N’Sync still holds the first-day CD sales record with 1.1 million for No Strings Attached in 2001, but that was at the absolute pinnacle of the CD sales era for the music industry. Today, first day sales of even 200,000 would be considered a raging success. If Brawl’s sales numbers today are comparable to the glory days of the music industry, what’s going to be possible in upcoming years? Let’s not forget that gross revenue of Wii games are five times what music CD’s are.

Nintendo sells record number of Brawl copies [joystiq.com]

As If The Writing On The Wall Weren’t Any Clearer

Published
by
Andy
on January 18, 2008
in Music and Video Games
. 0 Comments

NPD just released their year-end figures for 2007 video game sales:

1. Halo 3 (Xbox 360) - 4,820,000
2. Wii Play with Remote (Wii) - 4,120,000
3. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Xbox 360) - 3,040,000
4. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (PS2) - 2,720,000
5. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii) - 2,520,000
6. Pokemon Diamond (DS) - 2,480,000
7. Madden NFL 08 (PS2) - 1,900,000
8. Guitar Hero II (PS2) - 1,890,000
9. Assassin’s Creed (Xbox 360) - 1,870,000
10. Mario Party 8 (Wii) - 1,820,000

Now, let’s compare these figures to Soundscan’s 2007 year-end figures for music cd sales:

1. “Noel”/Josh Groban: 3,699,000
2. “Soundtrack”/ High School Musical 2: 2,957,000
3. “Long Road Out of Eden”/Eagles: 2,608,000
4. “As I Am”/Alicia Keys: 2,543,000
5. “Daughtry”/Daughtry: 2,497,000
6. “Soundtrack”/Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley: 2,489,000
7. “Minutes To Midnight”/Linkin Park: 2,099,000
8. “Dutchess”/Fergie: 2,064,000
9. “Taylor Swift”/Taylor Swift: 1,951,000
10.”Graduation”/Kanye West: 1,892,000

I wonder which industry is doing better.

I’m going to point out a couple of obvious things. The average price of one of those video games is about $50. The average price of one of those CDs is about $10.

A scant few years ago this sort of thing would be UNHEARD of. Music is universal. You can play music CDs on pretty much any modern device anywhere (car, stereo, computer, alarm clock, etc.). To play any one of those video games you need to make an initial investment anywhere from $130-$400. AND you need to be at home or near a TV you can hook it up to.

The music CD is dead, people. We need a better way to buy our music and we need it now.

Oh, and video game industry? Don’t make the same mistake the record labels did. You’ll be facing the same problem very soon when it’s technically feasible for big budget games to be as easily consumed as music is currently.