The news of THQ announcing it’s 1st quarter sales numbers for 2010, and that their net sales of all titles were down about $100M from the same time last year, comes as no surprise. Furthermore the publishers posted a loss of $30M this quarter against a $6M profit for the same time last year.
Firstly THQ did have the successful Red Faction: Guerilla last year which certainly helped. Then the company also had an expensive ’Warhammer’ launch to fund. Another major reason was UFC 2010 sold 200,000 copies fewer than last years title, despite being an evolved game in every way.
Why? Simple, last years disaster of an online code became a very heated on with UFC fans. It took them an unacceptable amount of time to release a patch to fix a hugely plagued game… and fans were furious. So I know of so many people in my little circle of life alone that bought last years title and didn’t even consider 2010. I was hopeful and bought 2010, it was broken from day 1. I have no idea how a broken game did so well with Metacritic scores from the ‘major’ gaming sites – the game was broken online! So I couldn’t care less if they patched it and sold it. You bet I won’t be buying another UFC again.
Games are expensive, if you are going to release yearly titles, make them work. I apologise for the negative tone, but I am no journo, I am a gamer who pays for his games and therefore I react like one.
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