Oh man. Asura's Wrath and Syndicate both BOMBED.

I don't know how well Syndicate was marketed, but it's still kind of shocking how poorly it sold. I would've never expected it to do THIS poorly. Asura's Wrath on the other hand is not very surprising.

Asura's Wrath tanking is hardly a surprise. Too short and not much game to it. Syndicate's developers have to just be beside themselves though. 34,000? Ugh... That's gotta hurt!

Asura's Wrath was expected. But Syndicate? Ouch. Guess this is the last time we'll see that kind of marketing again (aka announce the game and release it 4 months later)...

Asura's Wrath was expected. But Syndicate? Ouch. Guess this is the last time we'll see that kind of marketing again (aka announce the game and release it 4 months later)...

@fisk0 said:

@Enigma777 said:

Asura's Wrath was expected. But Syndicate? Ouch. Guess this is the last time we'll see that kind of marketing again (aka announce the game and release it 4 months later)...

It being one of the worst kept secrets in the industry for about 4 years probably didn't help either. Already in 2009 everybody knew Starbreeze was making it, that it was an FPS instead of an strategy RPG and were expecting it to be announced at every upcoming expo. Still, Joystiq's numbers don't match those at http://www.vgchartz.com(where the combined sales of Syndicate on PS3 and 360 worldwide adds up to around 90k, or 43k in the US), and while I don't know how reliable that site is, they at least do display sources and methodology, something the Joystiq article didn't cover at all.

JESUS FUCKING CHRIST PEOPLE, STOP POSTING VGCHARTZ AS IF THEY ARE ANYTHING BUT THE LAUGHINGSTOCK OF THE INTERNET.

@crusader8463 said:

Would be interested to see how well it would have done if they released it on Steam instead of pouting in the corner like they have been.

agree

Great! Now they'll be cheaper sooner!

@fisk0 said:

@Enigma777 said:

Asura's Wrath was expected. But Syndicate? Ouch. Guess this is the last time we'll see that kind of marketing again (aka announce the game and release it 4 months later)...

It being one of the worst kept secrets in the industry for about 4 years probably didn't help either. Already in 2009 everybody knew Starbreeze was making it, that it was an FPS instead of an strategy RPG and were expecting it to be announced at every upcoming expo. Still, Joystiq's numbers don't match those at http://www.vgchartz.com(where the combined sales of Syndicate on PS3 and 360 worldwide adds up to around 90k, or 43k in the US), and while I don't know how reliable that site is, they at least do display sources and methodology, something the Joystiq article didn't cover at all.

JESUS FUCKING CHRIST PEOPLE, STOP POSTING VGCHARTZ AS IF THEY ARE ANYTHING BUT THE LAUGHINGSTOCK OF THE INTERNET.

haha, I didn't help much. I rented/played through both of these games. I liked em both.

I was surprised by those numbers ... even with A.W. not being sold in retail BestBuy stores. :(

@fisk0 said:

@iAmJohn said:

@fisk0 said:

@Enigma777 said:

Asura's Wrath was expected. But Syndicate? Ouch. Guess this is the last time we'll see that kind of marketing again (aka announce the game and release it 4 months later)...

It being one of the worst kept secrets in the industry for about 4 years probably didn't help either. Already in 2009 everybody knew Starbreeze was making it, that it was an FPS instead of an strategy RPG and were expecting it to be announced at every upcoming expo. Still, Joystiq's numbers don't match those at http://www.vgchartz.com(where the combined sales of Syndicate on PS3 and 360 worldwide adds up to around 90k, or 43k in the US), and while I don't know how reliable that site is, they at least do display sources and methodology, something the Joystiq article didn't cover at all.

JESUS FUCKING CHRIST PEOPLE, STOP POSTING VGCHARTZ AS IF THEY ARE ANYTHING BUT THE LAUGHINGSTOCK OF THE INTERNET.

Would you care to expand on that? As I said, I can't vouch for their reliability, and their methodology for estimating non-US sales does seem kinda odd, but I couldn't find any criticism regarding their US numbers. A source for the apparent consensus regarding their status as the Laughingstock of the Internet would be appreciated.

Game Journalists Are Incompetent Fuckwits did an excellent week of coverage on why they are terrible a couple months ago, albeit it's mostly centered around their lack of journalistic standards. I don't have any links about their sales numbers off the top of my head, but they've been known to be completely speculative and not provide actual data for their number reporting and simply making things up and pulling them out of nowhere. Needless to say, though, as you'll see if you read the stories, they're really not liked or respected by anyone in the industry; they're one of the few banned sites on NeoGAF specifically because of their fake data (funnily enough, ioi, the founder of VGChartz, was a well-known NeoGAF poster who got permanently banned for posting the fake information that VGChartz prides itself on).

I'm not surprised these both bombed when Mass Effect 3 offers both a series of linear cutscenes and a generic sci-fi shooter all in one package.

@iAmJohn : Thanks for the heads up.

@jakob187: I think its some kind of rebellious hatred (least on here) since Jeff praised the game people feel the need to shit on it. Maybe noone bought Syndicate because they were holding out for Mass Effect and just had no interest in Asura's Wrath? I guess back catalogs might have played a part since so much quality stuff came out over the holiday. I'm just grasping at straws here.

At least it's not Tony Hawk Shred which supposedly did 3k in its first week.

Being a shoddy port + Origin only probably didn't do any favors to the PC sales.

Both are games I'd buy when they're cheaper.

Everybody just remember this when people start bitching about there not being any new IPs out there.

Syndicate is a reboot, but for all intents and purposes it's a new IP. Because trust me, those numbers say that few people remember the original.

I kinda expected that, Asura's Wrath never had a chance I think, but I think with the right amount and proper marketing Syndicate could have sold gangbusters.

Ask a random person to see if they've heard of either. That would be the problem.

Man Syndicate deserves better than that.

I'm interested in both games, but unfortunately due to time and money limits, I can't buy into either.

I bet Syndicate would have actually been profitable if they'd released a smaller game with a lower budget that was actually worthy of being named Syndicate. Seriously, everything is being turned into an FPS of some sort, and this can only work for so long. It was bound to backfire eventually, and it seems like it just did.

Syndicate is a reboot, but for all intents and purposes it's a new IP. Because trust me, those numbers say that few people remember the original.

Oh the irony.
 
Making Syndicate into an FPS because that's whats hot and what sells.

@ESREVER said:

I still want Syndicate and Asura's Wrath. Who thinks Syndicate would have done significantly better if it was also available on Steam? Being banned in AUS might have something to do with that bombing as well.

I'm waiting for AW to go down in price. $60 for an 18 ep anime doesn't seem like a great value to me. Only thing keeping me from Syndicate is not wanting to deal with Origin. That and paying $60 for it.

Those are US NPD sales, they only track retail sales, so no Origin sales.

Asura's Wrath isn't a shocker, but I would've assumed Syndicate would have sold more.

Sad news none the less.

@fenixREVOLUTION: How is this sad, exactly? This failing is 100% a good thing in the long run from what I can see. Everything about it seemed to be a perfectly good representation of the problem with gaming at the moment.

I'm pretty sad that Syndicate did less than Azuras Wrath which is an abomination as a game - I bet it's super fun and all with those crazy cutscenes but as a game it's non-existent. Thats what so tragic about it for me - more people rather sit and watch some DBZ stuff unfold on their screen with little to no input rather than actually play a game. I played the Syndicate online-demo and had a ton of fun with it. Would have bought Syndicate , but I kinda bought into the whole SSX hype and while I don't regret that decision I feel as if Syndicate would at least given me single player and online fun while with SSX I'm familiar with most tracks now and it's just chasing the leaderboards.

I also think that Syndicate being a FPS has little to do with it's sales. A great bulk of the buying audience is of an age that doesn't even know the original. People who have played the original Syndicate must be all at least 25+ as I played it when I was PRETTY young and I'm 27 now. Which also leads me to believe that if you're a 25+ year old person then you'll have enough common sense to not be frothing at the mouse that a decade old franchise isn't being redone in a now dead genre.

Syndicate sold badly because on PC its on Origin (the worst service I've ever used), on console it's up against Battlefield and CoD, and it won't appeal to a more niche crowd because it's a cynical reboot with nothing the least bit distinctive or unique. Shit game too, deserved to fail.

Good, maybe if this happens more often they'll stop CODfying great classic IPs.
 
As for Azura's Wrath, yeah who would have thought that a ever so slightly interactive anime wouldn't sell well.

Glad Syndicate bombed. Sounds like a shitty thing to say, but I'm sick of hearing completely generic shooters with 5 hour campaigns sell millions, while anyone who actually tries to do anything that's not a generic shooter is out of a job after their game ships and bombs.

On that note, bummer about Asura's Wrath. Expected though, not really a thing with mass appeal.

Well what this says to me is that consumers have decided neither game is worth full price. Games need tiered pricing! Not every game needs to come out at $60.

Personally, I would have bought Syndicate on the PC for $40 with no DRM or $25 with Steam.

I would have bought Azura's Wrath as a $15 DVD.

@Sporkbane said:

Those are some really low numbers lol. Sucks. Syndicate looked fun, just no point in picking it up when I planned on putting 8 million hours into the mass effect games a week later

This reason makes the most sense to me for Syndicate's number. It was released too close to the more popular Mass Effect 3. To the wider gaming population, shooting dudes in the future is shooting dudes in the future. ME3 had a bigger ad campaign and has some name recognition, so it's going to get the lion's share of the sales. For gamers who want to shoot dudes in a future setting, they're more inclined to opt for ME3 than Syndicate. Games aren't like the movies where people will see something lesser known even when a celebrated franchise sequel is popping up two weeks later. Because games cost $60, many consumers will hold onto their money until the preferred title hits store shelves.

It think a large portion of people just rented AW, which is unfortunate.

Well once these both hit 20 bucks, I'll buy them both.

Sad to hear about the low Syndicate sales. I really enjoyed it, especially the co-op mp.

Two things suck the most: First, I worry about Starbreeze. I know some people left them but the Starbreeze touch and flavor is still there, ala Riddick etc. Second, this probably ensures no DLC, and maybe even no patch for the mp crashing in party chat et al. Fucking shame.

Poor timing w/ME3 coming so soon was a huge factor agreed.

@Ventilaator said:

Glad Syndicate bombed. Sounds like a shitty thing to say, but I'm sick of hearing completely generic shooters with 5 hour campaigns sell millions, while anyone who actually tries to do anything that's not a generic shooter is out of a job after their game ships and bombs.

generic? i don't think you can categorize syndicate as "generic" just because it's a single player FPS. it had a lot of great ideas with a well thought out universe and tried to handle multiplayer differently with its co-op missions.

a lot of people here forget that both games were released on feb. 21. both of the games weren't heavily advertised as the november games (because even the publishers looked at them as kinda "niche" games). we're talking about US retail sales and US retail sales only. syndicate has moves over 100k units for every platform in one week world wide, which isn't crazy bad. (http://www.vgchartz.com/gamedb/?name=syndicate again: no digital sales included) asura's wrath moves almost 200k units to this point (http://www.vgchartz.com/gamedb/?name=asura%27s+wrath). sales could've been better.. sure. but asura's wrath was a TON of fun for me and i loved it to pieces. cut 20$ and the game will move some copies.

and please.. stop using metacritic.

Wow, Syndicate didn't sell well? I thought it was a pretty good FPS. Responsive, violent, and looked amazing. That's a shame.

@TheUnsavedHero said:

Wow, Syndicate didn't sell well? I thought it was a pretty good FPS. Responsive, violent, and looked amazing. That's a shame.

And also nothing like the IP it spawned from, which is the bigger shame.

@mortal_sb said:

@Ventilaator said:

Glad Syndicate bombed. Sounds like a shitty thing to say, but I'm sick of hearing completely generic shooters with 5 hour campaigns sell millions, while anyone who actually tries to do anything that's not a generic shooter is out of a job after their game ships and bombs.

generic? i don't think you can categorize syndicate as "generic" just because it's a single player FPS. it had a lot of great ideas with a well thought out universe and tried to handle multiplayer differently with its co-op missions.

a lot of people here forget that both games were released on feb. 21. both of the games weren't heavily advertised as the november games (because even the publishers looked at them as kinda "niche" games). we're talking about US retail sales and US retail sales only. syndicate has moves over 100k units for every platform in one week world wide, which isn't crazy bad. (http://www.vgchartz.com/gamedb/?name=syndicate again: no digital sales included) asura's wrath moves almost 200k units to this point (http://www.vgchartz.com/gamedb/?name=asura%27s+wrath). sales could've been better.. sure. but asura's wrath was a TON of fun for me and i loved it to pieces. cut 20$ and the game will move some copies.

and please.. stop using metacritic.

Please, stop using vgchartz. That site is well known to be complete bullshit.

Honestly don't give a shit about a games legacy. A good game is a good game. The single player was short but great. The Co-Op is addictive and kind of awesome. I know it's cool to hate first person shooters, but every first person shooter ISN'T a Call of Duty clone. Starbreeze put together a neat little game and they deserved to be rewarded. Saying the game deserved to bomb (and potentially Starbreeze as a studio to close) because they changed the genre is just cruel.

Fact: nobody gives a shit about the original Syndicate. If this most recent game were a direct remake, it probably would have sold even more poorly. Please stop pretending that the couple hundred of you would have pulled this game off the ledge.

Lots of good ass games come out and bomb due to a lot of reasons. Syndicate (and Asura's Wrath) flew in under the radar at a time when everyone was whining about gay romances in Mass Effect 3. That may not be the precise reason, but I guarantee you it's more probable than failure due to not being an archaic tactical game that wouldn't appeal to anyone except for the 200 guys game publishers don't give a shit about anyway.

@Barrock said:

Honestly don't give a shit about a games legacy. A good game is a good game. The single player was short but great. The Co-Op is addictive and kind of awesome. I know it's cool to hate first person shooters, but every first person shooter ISN'T a Call of Duty clone. Starbreeze put together a neat little game and they deserved to be rewarded. Saying the game deserved to bomb (and potentially Starbreeze as a studio to close) because they changed the genre is just cruel.

It's what they get for swinging at a giant and missing.

Not surprising, none of them had Call of Duty or Crap Wii Mini Game Collection in the tittle.

If Asura's Wrath outsold Syndicate, does Jeff have any pull with his fans anymore?

This is either a big case of marketing failure or indicative that we really really need to stop posting just retail numbers. Granted it still demonstrates that for one reason or another Syndicate didn't have console audience penetration but the more we go digital, the more misleading sales numbers are for games that also have digital alternatives. I can't speak to how much more or effectively Syndicate was advertised in digital spaces versus retail.

The analogy to Syndicate would be Fallout 3 but it demonstrates the importance of three things: brand awareness, the number at the end, and marketing pushes. Fallout 3 worked because Oblivion worked which itself is a weird case of right place right time being a launch game for the 360. In addition to that, Bethesda pushed that game hard and the number 3 probably didn't hurt. Here the Syndicate audience was not as large as Fallout was probably, I don't think the marketing was as good as it could have been, and the timing was probably bad. I know that I buy games during sales season but most people saw Syndicate as "well that's nice, it's a pretty good game overall but I don't really care that much" almost as if they were never going to get it anyway.

@Tuffgong said:

This is either a big case of marketing failure or indicative that we really really need to stop posting just retail numbers. Granted it still demonstrates that for one reason or another Syndicate didn't have console audience penetration but the more we go digital, the more misleading sales numbers are for games that also have digital alternatives. I can't speak to how much more or effectively Syndicate was advertised in digital spaces versus retail.

The analogy to Syndicate would be Fallout 3 but it demonstrates the importance of three things: brand awareness, the number at the end, and marketing pushes. Fallout 3 worked because Oblivion worked which itself is a weird case of right place right time being a launch game for the 360. In addition to that, Bethesda pushed that game hard and the number 3 probably didn't hurt. Here the Syndicate audience was not as large as Fallout was probably, I don't think the marketing was as good as it could have been, and the timing was probably bad. I know that I buy games during sales season but most people saw Syndicate as "well that's nice, it's a pretty good game overall but I don't really care that much" almost as if they were never going to get it anyway.

I doubt anyone knew what Fallout was when Fallout 3 was released except a handful of cranky fans (myself included). Oblivion, on the other hand, was very big. Starbreeze doesn't really have that type of brand awareness. Maybe if they did something different, they would. But oh well.

Good, it won't take long for Syndicate to hit the bargain bin so I can buy it.