Max Payne 3 sold 440,000 units in US launch month

May 15 on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, and May 29 on PC

Releasing on one of the three platforms at the end of the month, 2 weeks after consoles, is a sure-fire way to skew "multi-format" sales figures. Add that together with the fact that the Max Payne IP is more well-known by PC gamers, and obviously the sales data is going to be disappointing. A better gauge would be its sales in June, surely?

Posted:11 months ago

Does that mean that Ghost Recon FS is also a sales failure? I read that GRFS had to sell some crazy number - I think maybe 3 million units? - just to break even, and I would imagine with its protracted development time MP3 would have to shift similar numbers to get into the black for Rockstar.

Posted:11 months ago

Releasing it the same date as D3 was probably not a good idea. I actually prefer Max Payne because I'm an old gamer, but most people don't and had only the money to buy one game this month and they went with the hype.

Posted:11 months ago

I take it Steam sales are omitted from the tally?

Posted:11 months ago

That was my thought too Andrew, I'd like to see these figures again at the end of June with digital download figures included. I would hope the figures would be a lot better then.

Posted:11 months ago

Yeah, Steam sales will be omitted, since the only time Steam sales figures are released is when the publisher/developer chooses to release them.

Edited 2 times. Last edit by Morville O'Driscoll on 15th June 2012 1:56pm

Posted:11 months ago

Without digital figures these numbers are meaningless, other than to track the decline of box product retail surely?

Posted:11 months ago

Max Payne 3 is a movie, you play in the (short) pauses between key scenes...

Posted:11 months ago

Thanks GamesIndustry for these discussions - two comments from this one helped clarify my questions before I even typed them. The whole Steam issue and also why these figures were run now and not when you would expect in July?

I wonder if those affiliated with the retail-biz are playing down the Steam component in the ongoing defense of retail over DLC? I note that all the Next Gen download strategies have been placed on the top secret list!

Posted:11 months ago

@ Kevin

Steam is very rarely mentioned in connection with sales figures, but whether that's because people just tend to ignore the PC market, or because people are trying to pretend that Steam isn't a force to be reckoned with is hard to tell. Most likely, a little from Column A, a little from Column B.

Posted:11 months ago

@Morville - would tend to agree. I can not work out what the PC sector did to the games industry to be so marginalized.

This attitude goes back to the pre-console days, I remember the C64, Sinclair, Tandy, BBC-B and Atari boys all ignoring the IBM PC games (with games such as the fantastic 'Apple Panic' or 'ChopLifter'... oh those were the days).

Now-er-days the reason is much more political, the PC crowd using machines that put most consoles to shame, already fully established DLC route to market (thanks DOOM) and also a dedicated online competition structure that is not monetized up the wazzo! Big danger to game publishers superiority complex.

I can see also a Column C issue - a lot of trash talk about the STEAM BOX (online PC console) proposal, seems to have scared a lot of publishers / manufacturers.

Posted:11 months ago

@Kevin

I can not work out what the PC sector did to the games industry to be so marginalized.

Probably something to do with the fact that they can't be sold second-hand, so retailers like Game shoved them to the back of the shop in a corner and try their best to pretend they don't exist.

Posted:11 months ago

There usually aren't PC digital numbers to go on, but typically with these sales are a fraction of the retail sales. If it was somehow reversed, than publishers would certainly crow about it more.

Posted:11 months ago

I read the title of this article and said : "Ouch!"

Edited 1 times. Last edit by Rick Lopez on 18th June 2012 4:58pm

Posted:11 months ago