Exclusive: NPD Top 20 Reveals Far Cry 2 Placing, Guitar Hero Glut?

Author: by Eric Caoili, Matt Matthews

The NPD Group exclusively revealed to Gamasutra the Top 20 Software titles for the U.S. in October 2008, showing disappointing sales for Far Cry 2 and evidence of Activision Blizzard's Guitar Hero: World Tour further down the charts, with lower sales than the last installment. Released in mid-October, Ubisoft's Far Cry 2 for the Xbox 360 appeared at 18, running against several other high-profile games that debuted for the console this month. These include Fable II and Fallout 3 -- both of which placed in the NPD's top 5 despite being released at the same time, along with other major releases including Saints Row 2, and Dead Space. All four versions of Activision Blizzard's Guitar Hero: World Tour failed to crack the Top 10, with the PlayStation 2 edition missing the Top 20 chart completely (though some reports indicate that the hardware-bundled PS2 version was delayed past the end of the month onto shelves.) Rock Band 2 for the PlayStation 3, released a month after the Xbox 360 version, showed up at 16. To compare, all four console versions of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock occupied the Top 10 in October 2007's software sales list, with the Xbox 360, Wii, and PS3 releases placing second, third, and fourth, respectively. The full Top 20 NPD-tracked game chart for October 2008 is as follows: [NOTE: Chart includes Collector's, Limited, Legendary, Bundled Editions for each individual format.] Eight Xbox 360 titles, seven PlayStation 3 titles, and four Wii titles made up the list. On the handheld side, only one Nintendo DS game, Kirby Super Star Ultra, appeared in the Top 20, while PSP software completely failed to chart. Notably, four of the five PS3 titles in the 11-20 portion are multiplatform releases that sold significantly less than their Xbox 360 counterparts, with the PS3 edition of Fallout 3 placing 11 spots below the Xbox 360 release. [UPDATE: Consumer site GameSpot has more information on relative sales of Guitar Hero and Rock Band.]