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Dead Rising 2: Case Zero Shatters XBLA First-Week Sales Record

Some people are apparently still way into zombies.

Initial sales of Capcom and Blue Castle Games' Dead Rising 2 pre-LC Dead Rising 2: Case Zero might have made a pretty compelling case for this style of unique prerelease demo content. Capcom has announced that the XBLA version of the game--it is a "game," by the way, and not a demo--has "broken all records on Xbox Live" with the highest week-one unit sales ever in the history of the digital distribution service. 

Unfortunately, it's impossible to nail down Case Zero's exact unit-sold numbers. Like most other XBLA game creators, Capcom has decided to keep those under wraps. A mini-analysis of Case Zero written earlier this week by Gamerbytes, though, did peg the game as an above300,000-unit seller--a strong number for a downloadable game, obviously. 
 

No Caption Provided
 
Good games get rewarded with sales, as our own Brad Shoemarker deemed the game worth your time for it's ridiculously low five-dollar barrier of entry. I agree with his assessment, but I do wish Chuck Greene's watch was just a tad bit more visually stimulating. I've spent far too long staring at that mundane thing.

254 Comments

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BeautifulSpaceCowboy

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This was a steal for $5; I am not saying I wanted them to charge more, but Capcom could have easily made this a $10 item. I had planned to buy Dead Rising 2 sometime after its release, but Case Zero has me needing it now!

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yankeeh8er

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Edited By yankeeh8er

Wow, that is really impressive. 

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MetalBaofu

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Edited By MetalBaofu
@WEGGLES said:
" @Rockdalf said:
" Nice, maybe we will see an end to the 1200 ms point games now? "
Nah. More likely we'll see an end to the free demo now :{ 
No.....it is not likely that we will see the end of demos now....I just don't get how people keep saying this.  If anything I would imagine that it might help in ending some of the stupid pre-order bonus mess that has been going on(I doubt it, though).  Besides, Case Zero itself has the trial version that you can play forever pretty much.
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MarkWahlberg

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Edited By MarkWahlberg

This is entirely due to Brad's review. His voice sways the hearts of millions. With a word, he can make game companies rise or fall. No amount of PR in the world can beat Brad saying: "It's pretty cool."

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MichaelBach

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Edited By MichaelBach

Good to see a new concept for XBL games that works. I am not so much into Dead Rising but I hope others will apply the same for games I love.

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TheGreatGuero

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Edited By TheGreatGuero

Wow. I wonder what held it previously...

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Zinc

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Edited By Zinc

Take note game developers: If you make your downloadable game cheap, people will buy it.

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Ronald

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Edited By Ronald

I bought it, partly because of the price, partly because I still need that Ultimate S Rank quest and now I am one game away after it and finally beating Limbo in three deaths.
 
And then I played this for about two days straight it was so much fun.

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Dezinus

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Edited By Dezinus

If only it was on PC, I could give you my dollars Capcom...

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Ravenousrattler

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Edited By Ravenousrattler

A game that is 5 bucks that is better than most the 15 buck games is going to sell well. I know everytime i see a xbla game i like at 5 dollars i'm going to pick it up.

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bhhawks78

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Edited By bhhawks78

This should be a lesson to publishers who refuse to be price flexible.
 
300k at 5$ is much better than 70-80 k at 10$

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eezo

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Edited By eezo
@Zinc said:
" Take note game developers: If you make your downloadable game cheap, people will buy it. "
this
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CParks11

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Edited By CParks11

Interesting, a well made affordable game sells like crazy. Hmm.

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dasampla

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Edited By dasampla

I wish that I had pre-ordered Dead Rising 2 for 360 now instead of PC.  I don't see much point in getting Case Zero otherwise, unless someone can persuade me of course.

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Moondog38839

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Edited By Moondog38839

I'm buying this in a few days

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JJOR64

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Edited By JJOR64

Glad to see it's selling well.  Hopefully this will convert those people into buying Dead Rising 2.

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Alphazero

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Edited By Alphazero

Case Zero was awesome, and a fairly easy S-Rank to boot. Highly recommended.

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sagesebas

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Edited By sagesebas
@528seven: That really needs to be fixed, ya got the name wrong for one of the guys WHO RUNS THE SITE. This further solidifies my stance that no proofreading goes on after  he finishes writing this stuff. 
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dantheman1515

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Edited By dantheman1515

I don't have interest in the full game, but for 5 bucks I had a great time killing some zombies for a few hours.

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Jimbo

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Edited By Jimbo

This is comparing subsidized content to non-subsidized content though, so it's hardly a fair comparison to make.  Shadow Complex, for example, had to stand on its own two feet and needed to be priced accordingly. 
 
They could have sold Case Zero for a dollar if they'd wanted and 'sold' even more copies, or they could have just forfeited the ~$1.5m they've made from this entirely and given away (presumably) more copies still.  They can only do any of those things because it's subsidized promotion for DR2.  Its primary function is still to act as a demo and drive sales of DR2.
 
Would giving Case Zero away have sold them >50k (~$1.5m) extra copies of DR2?  Impossible to say I guess.  My hunch is 'probably'.

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isbecome

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Edited By isbecome

I can definitely agree with the price sentiment. It would be fantastic if this encourages more interesting five dollar games to show up on XBLA.

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Bobinator

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Edited By Bobinator

Hopefully this will mean lots of new DLC for main game

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the_hiro_abides

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Edited By the_hiro_abides

$5 is easy to justify.

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WEGGLES

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Edited By WEGGLES
@metalhead87 said:
" @WEGGLES said:
" @Rockdalf said:
" Nice, maybe we will see an end to the 1200 ms point games now? "
Nah. More likely we'll see an end to the free demo now :{ 
No.....it is not likely that we will see the end of demos now....I just don't get how people keep saying this.  If anything I would imagine that it might help in ending some of the stupid pre-order bonus mess that has been going on(I doubt it, though).  Besides, Case Zero itself has the trial version that you can play forever pretty much. "
Ugghghghhg. That pre-order bullshit can quit any time. 
Pre-ordering and getting a dumb keychain, or hat. That's fine. 
But game content? Come on..... 
Or pre-ordering, and STILL missing out because you didn't pre-order from 7 different places at once. COME ON........ 
 
I think pre-order bonuses should be $10 off... not 8 armor sets from 8 different stores. :\
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Stealthcake92

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Edited By Stealthcake92

So it should, it's a brilliant title

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EpicSteve

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Edited By EpicSteve

That's what happens when you price something well.

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HydraHam

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Edited By HydraHam
@Davin said:
" This game is fully worth your $5. "
This game which is $5 has more re-playability then alot of 60$ games on the market.. Which tells me games need more zombies.. or need to be better.
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Edited By jpe

I really hope that the full game shows the clock within the HUD during normal play. Whatever atmosphere looking at a virtual watch is supposed to give, it is too annoying to be worthwhile.

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BleepGGE

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Edited By BleepGGE

I suppose it's safe to say we'll be seeing more of this type of pre-release prologue game content in the future.
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PLWolf

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Edited By PLWolf
@l3illyl3ob: $5 X 300,000 sold = $1,500,000  PROFIT!
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PLWolf

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Edited By PLWolf
@l3illyl3ob: $5 X 300,000 sold = $1,500,000  PROFIT!
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Undeadpool

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Edited By Undeadpool

I think these will continue to do well as long as they stick to that price point. Quality doesn't hurt, but neither does such a low barrier for entry.

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kagato

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Edited By kagato

You can always rely on Capcom to make better demos than most people make games!  Cant wait until the actual game, im going to have to play through the first game before it launches to get back into the story.

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landon

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Edited By landon
@TheWolf619 said:
" @l3illyl3ob: $5 X 300,000 sold = $1,500,000  PROFIT! "
Thats over million dollars.
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wsowen02

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Edited By wsowen02

I guess that means we'll be seeing a lot more of these

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deactivated-57cdba0c39965

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Haven't gotten a chance to play Case Zero ;-; Still kinda on the fence with Dead Rising 2. I have no idea what's wrong with me.

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Ratfoot

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Edited By Ratfoot
@Darknight630: You're skeptical about spending money on a barely upgraded game, there is nothing to be ashamed of.
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tomance

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Edited By tomance

There's really no reason to not buy it for 5 bucks.  Unless you don't like fun.

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ThePickle

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Edited By ThePickle

Ice T definitely helped sales 

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borgmaster

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Edited By borgmaster
@dantheman1515 said:
" I don't have interest in the full game, but for 5 bucks I had a great time killing some zombies for a few hours. "
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OmegaChosen

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Edited By OmegaChosen

Sigh...I wish I could play this but I just don't have the HD space.

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FritzDude

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Edited By FritzDude

The price point is crazy. 400 points for 2-6 hours of gameplay.

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MrCandleguy

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Edited By MrCandleguy
@Landon said:
Pretty sure that isnt profit, gotta think of the costs too. But thats still a huge amount of money for a download title.
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darkfury

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Edited By darkfury

I was unable to get this due to it not being available in Spain. Lame.

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DarkbeatDK

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Edited By DarkbeatDK

Speaking of pre-orders I've preordered this sweet Outbreak Version of DR2. I couldn't care less about in-game visual items (like the Gold Weapons in Uncharted 2. Those things are ugly as hell unless you are an Oil Sheik or a Rap artist), but I physical love stuff like figures etc.
 

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CptBedlam

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Edited By CptBedlam

The desert town scenario actually appeals to me way more than Fortune City. I think I'm fine with this and I'll skip DR2.

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CptBedlam

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Edited By CptBedlam
@DarkFury said:
" I was unable to get this due to it not being available in Spain. Lame. "
Just google how to set up a proxy connection for your 360 and you can buy it.
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Mr_JPeps

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Edited By Mr_JPeps

Cheap sells! Ask Apple & their multi-million selling $.99 games on the app store. $5 is a steal, and totally sold me on preordering the full game. Mission accomplished Capcom!

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wolf_blitzer85

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Edited By wolf_blitzer85

So wait, you mean people like high quality products at a cheap price? Never would have guessed it!
 
Man I hope developers follow suit and instead of just offereing shitty preorder bonus demos or whatever they put out something like this. I would gladly pay 5 dollars again for something along those lines.