Read Dead helped Take-Two score $115m in May sales
Game "sucked oxygen" out of market, says Feder
Rockstar's Red Dead Redemption helped publisher Take-Two generate $115 million in US sales during May, according to analysis from Wedbush Morgan.
The game is expected to have been the biggest seller for the month with 1.8 million copies in the hands of consumers, putting the title way ahead other new releases pushed out in May.
Speaking to VentureBeat, CEO Ben Feder said the game "sucked oxygen" out of the market during a busy month for new releases.
"One thing we saw with Red Dead Redemption was that there wasn’t much room in the market for anything but Red Dead," said Feder. "It works in a good way and a bad way. We sucked the oxygen out of the room with Red Dead."
The closest sellers are expected to be THQ's UFC Undisputed 2010 with 700,000 units sold and Nintendo's Super Mario Galaxy 2, shifting 650,000 units in the US.
By comparison, new releases from Ubisoft, Electronic Arts and Activision Blizzard performed poorly during May, with Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands estimated to have sold only 100,000 after average reviews and a mediocre movie, and 100,000 sales each for Activision's new racing IP Blur and Shrek Forever After. Skate 3 is expected to have faired better, with 150,000 units sold.
Wedbush said it expected Wii hardware sales in May of 330,000 (up 14 per cent year-on-year), 190,000 Xbox 360 units (up 9 per cent) and 175,000 PlayStation 3 hardware sales (up 34 per cent). For the entire year the company expect PS3 sales to be up, Xbox 360 to remain flat compared to last year, and Wii sales to fall.
Despite a new Wii bundle in the US, Wedbush said there is "overall fatigue" for the system, "leading us to believe that the software attach rate for the Wii may decline further from its already low level."
The NPD Group will reveal official US sales for May this Thursday evening.