I noticed that the current version of the main article makes the claim that Grim Fandango was not a commercial success.  Does anybody have a credible source to back that claim?  I know there's an interview with Tim Schafer floating around somewhere where he makes a statement to the effect that Grim Fandango met its financial target.  (Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find the interview at the time of this posting.)  I also found a quote from a LucasArts spokesman stating that "Grim Fandango met domestic expectations and exceeded them worldwide." (source)  One would think that meeting a financial target (and ostensibly making a profit) would at the very least protect a game from being perpetually labeled a commercial failure.  (I'm not saying that that's what's stated in the main article.  There's a difference between "not a commercial success" and "commercial failure.")

What are your thoughts on the matter?  Does a game need to make millions to be considered a commercial success?  Should a game that meets or exceeds its financial expectations be considered a commercial failure?  Is Grim Fandango's lack of commercial success real, or is it an oft perpetuated internet rumor?

I'm pretty sure it was not. Not on a grand scale at least.

In the Wikipedia article, they state only that "it was wildly considered a failure", but after looking through their sources, and stomping randomly through the interweb, I couldnt find much more then the  numbers spat out in the wiki page. The sources are generally blog-pages with people stating that it went bad.

So all I seem to be able to findis that it is infact wildly considered to be a comersial failure. The only thing we know is the numbers, which tell me nothing, and the fact that it did basically end the golden era of adventure gaming, in North America atleast.

A commercial success? It was effectively the death of an entire genre! One of the biggest tragedies fo the gaming industry. What a fantastic game, so unique and stylish, but no it didn't catch on and I'll be bitter about it forever

The OP does make a good point though. Was it literally a failure, i.e. didn't make back its cost or something, or did it simply not post the kind of spectacular numbers that other more popular stuff was?

LucasArts said that "Grim Fandango met domestic expectations and exceeded them worldwide", and saying that while losing more money then was put in would be a downright lie.

Probably the term "commercial failure" here suggests that it sold much less compared to other games that got similar praise from the press.

Sadly it didn't do very well commercially.