Although retail sales can be cobbled together from various data tracking firms in the game industry, when it comes to digital game sales we all either have to wait for company specific announcements or for a platform holder to trickle out tiny tidbits of information. This needs to change, especially as the industry heads more and more towards a digital future.
doublesix, one of Kuju's studios in Guildford, U.K., just announced the success of its first PlayStation Network title Burn Zombie Burn, and the company is demanding more digital sales transparency from the console makers.
“We’re clearly delighted that Burn Zombie Burn is performing well. It’s our first experience of digital console publishing and we’ve found the entire process very exciting and rewarding. However, I do wish that all the platform owners would make their digital sales figures public," said doublesix studio boss James Brooksby. "We feel this lack of transparency is hindering the development of these channels. We’re happy to back this opinion up with the release of the figures for Burn Zombie Burn. The game has now reached our internal sales target of 70,000 copies sold worldwide and that's without the upcoming expansion packs, bundles, comic, player guide, Home space, competitions, Asian release etc.”
He continued, “As a developer trying to decide which platforms to develop for, as well as what type of games to make, we’re currently in the dark regarding real sales performance for digital platforms and that makes it increasingly difficult to make realistic plans. I’d like to see some kind of verified sales charts on all digital systems to encourage more developers to support these channels and to help make sensible investment decisions."
IndustryGamers couldn't agree more. Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo, what do you say? Can we start seeing some real hard data on digital game sales for XBLA, PSN and WiiWare?
1 Comments
July 30, 2009
James Brooksby here. I do understand some reasons why the numbers are not out there from the standpoint of platform. However this is causing a great deal of pain in the digital sector. (P.S.) We are now near 80k!