Sega's Sonic Adventure 2 is not only the company's biggest selling game of the year with almost 500,000 sold, it is in fact GameCube's most bought title of 2002 (through August).
It's intriguing that the strongest selling GameCube title of the year, though, still lags behind the best selling Xbox one. Halo has sold through an additional 630,000 units in 2002, even after a rock solid debut last holiday. By comparison, Super Smash Bros. Melee is GCN's second best seller with 455,000 pieces. PS2's biggest overall seller is, of course, Grand Theft Audto 3, with more than two million units.
It's clear that Sega's sports offerings are best served on Sony's system. The publisher has enjoyed broader success with NBA 2K2/3 and NFL 2K2/3 on PS2, though Xbox sales have also proved surprisingly strong considering its smaller user base. GameCube sales have lagged considerably.
Groucho
10-04-02, 01:51 PM
Interesting. I had no idea that Super Smash Brothers sold less than Sonic Adventure 2 Battle. I'm sure Super Mario Sunshine will outsell them both (if it hasn't already).
Aghama
10-04-02, 01:55 PM
Imagine how many they would have sold if Sonic Adventure 2 had been a good game!
Adam Tyner
10-04-02, 02:01 PM
Originally posted by Groucho
Interesting. I had no idea that Super Smash Brothers sold less than Sonic Adventure 2 Battle.I could be mistaken, but I believe these are sales so far this year. A quick search on Google indicates that SSBM was released pretty late last year, but the sales it racked up in those last few weeks of 2001 were probably enough to put it over the top, especially considering its proximity to Christmas time.
Halo, despite being released only a few weeks earlier, managed to rack up hundreds of thousands of copies sold.
gcribbs
10-04-02, 02:03 PM
Originally posted by Aghama
Imagine how many they would have sold if Sonic Adventure 2 had been a good game!
or if it had been released on a system with a larger installed base ;)
Interesting game sales. I am a bit surprised how few units they have sold overall.
It also looks like Soccer is not a huge seller :)
31000 people bought a tennis game -eek-
Adam Tyner
10-04-02, 02:06 PM
Originally posted by gcribbs
Interesting game sales. I am a bit surprised how few units they have sold overall.I agree. I'm disappointed to see how low the sales for Soccer Slam on the XBox have been -- it's probably my favorite sports game of all time. I guess sports enthusiasts on the XBox prefer more realistic, sim-heavy games.
Get Me Coffee
10-04-02, 02:12 PM
Sonic was good. What else did Nintendo have going for them other than Sonic in Feb.?
Lastblade
10-04-02, 02:16 PM
1500 SOLD for Soccer Slam on the Xbox? You are kidding me right? If so that's almost as rare as Panzer Dragoon Saga LOL!
jiggyblau
10-04-02, 02:54 PM
I would have thought World Series Baseball would have made the list. :confused:
Mike_AA
10-04-02, 04:01 PM
Why are sports games selling absolutely terrible on the GC? I honestly think I'm the only one buying the 2K games. Good Lord.
I hope Sega and others don't just forget about the Cube altogether. Then again, if you see the NFL 2K3 port, you know they didn't give a rat's ass about the Cube. Ugh.
Jackskeleton
10-04-02, 04:27 PM
simple, the people who buy GC are waay to young to even think about sports :o
that said, looks cool. though I would be interested to see a chart on the sales record of dreamcast before it went under
darkside
10-04-02, 04:30 PM
Originally posted by Mike_AA
Why are sports games selling absolutely terrible on the GC? I honestly think I'm the only one buying the 2K games. Good Lord.
Ugh.
I'm buying my sports games of the Cube, but I think the memory card issue is what is driving gamers to the PS2 or Xbox. Every Sports game takes a whole memory card. I put up with it to use the Wavebird. :)
evenflow
10-04-02, 04:34 PM
Originally posted by Mike_AA
Why are sports games selling absolutely terrible on the GC? I honestly think I'm the only one buying the 2K games. Good Lord.
I hope Sega and others don't just forget about the Cube altogether. Then again, if you see the NFL 2K3 port, you know they didn't give a rat's ass about the Cube. Ugh.
Probably because the controller isn't made for sports games or that saved files take too much space on memory cards. OR The GCN is kiddy system and kids don't like sports yet.
Seriously, people just don't buy a Gamecube for its sports games.
Mike_AA
10-04-02, 04:43 PM
Yeah I bought a GC for the Nintendo titles and sports titles. If the Nintendo titles keeping sucking, I guess the XBOX is the way to go?
I have the memory 251, and have plenty of space left even with a 2K3 franchise and 2 playbooks in there. How much space does Madden or 2K3 take up on the PS2 or XBOX?
manny_jim
10-04-02, 05:01 PM
I bought an X-box for the sport games. I have NCAA 2003, World Series Baseball, and Project Gotham. I also have about 20 music tracks for racing games. You do not even come close to having memory space issues. I have rented many other sport games and forget to erase those games of the hard drive. Even then, I still had lots of memory left. I got tired of memory issues with the Dreamcast and PS2. The only complaint I have on the Box is that I wish developers (EA) would take advantage of the Box power.
Mattalos
10-04-02, 05:17 PM
Soccer Slam on Xbox only came out about a month ago ... While that's not a huge number, considering it's only been out a month it's not a horrible number either.
KissyFurNYC
10-04-02, 06:32 PM
So at 50 bucks a pop, Sonic Adventure 2, a port of a Dreamcast game, made them 23 million. Not bad.
Gallant Pig
10-04-02, 06:39 PM
Originally posted by Mattalos
Soccer Slam on Xbox only came out about a month ago ... While that's not a huge number, considering it's only been out a month it's not a horrible number either.
And considering the World Cup is long since gone and I believe it was going on when then GCN version came out, that has to be a contributing factor. I didn't even realize it was out until I saw this graph.
Josh H
10-04-02, 06:52 PM
Originally posted by darkside
I'm buying my sports games of the Cube, but I think the memory card issue is what is driving gamers to the PS2 or Xbox. Every Sports game takes a whole memory card. I put up with it to use the Wavebird. :)
Bingo. I bought NCAA 2003 for the PS2 instead of the GC simple because I didn't want to have to buy a Mem 251 to save the game. I would have prefered the GC version otherwise, as I greatly prefer the Wavebird to the Dual Shock.
Trigger
10-04-02, 07:22 PM
I'm really surprised at the Sonic Adventure 2 numbers - wasn't it available for the Dreamcast too? Are the Dreamcast numbers added in there? Another thing I find interesting is how well the Xbox sales look compared to other consoles. Sports games are doing really well... look at NFL2k3... considering there are up to 10 times as many PS2s out there, the PS2 version should've sold way more than the Xbox version instead of just a bit more. All Xbox needs is one really good game from Sega. Sega GT ain't it unfortunately IMO.
gcribbs
10-04-02, 08:32 PM
Originally posted by Trigger
I'm really surprised at the Sonic Adventure 2 numbers - wasn't it available for the Dreamcast too? Are the Dreamcast numbers added in there? Another thing I find interesting is how well the Xbox sales look compared to other consoles. Sports games are doing really well... look at NFL2k3... considering there are up to 10 times as many PS2s out there, the PS2 version should've sold way more than the Xbox version instead of just a bit more. All Xbox needs is one really good game from Sega. Sega GT ain't it unfortunately IMO.
I would bet Madden is the reason. i expect that it sells a ton more on the PS2
Trigger
10-04-02, 08:50 PM
excellent point...
darkside
10-05-02, 12:01 AM
Those are the real GameCube numbers for Sonic 2. Its a very popular franchise. Its going to do very well on the GameCube for reasons I don't even want to get a debate started about. It wasn't even very good, so I can only imagine how many copies a good Sonic game will sell. The Sonic Collection thats coming out will probably make them big money with little effort.
I think the Xbox owners probably went a little stronger to NFL2K3 due to it being Xbox Live compatible. Probably why it sold so close to the PS2 numbers.
s}{ammer
10-05-02, 11:07 AM
darkside and gcribbs are right. Since EA refused to sign onto Xbox live, any xbox owners looking for online football have to go with NFL 2k3. Anyone know if it sold better than Madden on xbox?
mr.snowmizer
10-05-02, 10:33 PM
On Xbox, Madden outsold NFL 2k3 on a 2.5:1 ratio.
And that chart did forget WSB on Xbox, which must be over 100,000 now. (Sega sold 14,719 copies in July to get to a total of 89,575, as of the end of that month.)
The cynical part of me notes that conveniently forgetting WSB (come on, how could they?) allows this Game Cube site to show Super Monkey Ball in the #4 spot. But the realist part (perhaps they're just really careless) knows there's no point to purposely leaving the game off the list.
By the way, when exactly did Sega Soccer Slam arrive on Xbox? It must have been VERY late in August. If so, it still has hope as PS2 Tennis 2k2 only sold 8000 on its only day for sale in July. Then again, SSS is no Virtua Tennis.
Breakfast with Girls
10-05-02, 11:53 PM
Originally posted by ctyner
I agree. I'm disappointed to see how low the sales for Soccer Slam on the XBox have been -- it's probably my favorite sports game of all time. I guess sports enthusiasts on the XBox prefer more realistic, sim-heavy games.
It's probably because it was released nearly half a year earlier on the GameCube. That's why it sold, like, 20 times more for that platform.
I liked it, but it was a little too easy and repetitive.
Chris_D
10-06-02, 12:01 AM
I really doubt Sonic 2 would have sold much greater numbers on the PS2 (it might have even sold less). A game like sonic 2 clearly targets the GC userbase almost perfectly. Good on Sega!
Pity about Gun Valkyrie, not that I've bought it yet but I will one day..
I think it has been previously agreed that in general the Sega Sports range has been selling quite well on XBOX, based on a ratio of games sold to installed base. Factoring in the ease of development on XBOX and I'd say they're probably making decent money off the releases.
Chris
matrixrok9
10-06-02, 01:37 AM
So how much did Resident Evil sell for the Gamecube? I thought that sold plenty of copies.
Get Me Coffee
10-06-02, 02:01 AM
Originally posted by Chris_D
I really doubt Sonic 2 would have sold much greater numbers on the PS2 (it might have even sold less). A game like sonic 2 clearly <u>targets the GC userbase almost perfectly</u>. Good on Sega!
Chris
What kind of userbase are we talking about?
darkside
10-06-02, 03:07 AM
Originally posted by White Knight
What kind of userbase are we talking about?
The mix of young gamers (kids love Sonic) and older gamers that grew up on Sega and Nintendo (very loyal fanbase). However, Sonic would probably do just as good on PS2. Its a very well known franchise. GameCube does seem like a good fit for Sonic though. Probably why Sega is releasing the Mega Collection for GameCube.
Buy: