Rank/ Title/ Publisher/ Units Sold
1. GCN MARIO KART: DOUBLE Nintendo 527,742
2. PS2 MEDAL HONOR RISING Electronic Arts 420,313
3. PS2 FINAL FANTASY X-2 Square Enix 402,973
4. XBX GRAND THEFT AUTO PACK Take Two Interactive 391,315
5. PS2 SOCOM II: NAVY SEALS Sony 380,182

Rank/ Title/ Publisher
6. PS2 NEED SPEED: UNDERGRND Electronic Arts
7. PS2 TONY HAWK UNDERGROUND Activision
8. PS2 TRUE CRIME:STREETS LA Activision
9. GBA MARIO BROS 3: MARIO 4 Nintendo
10. PS2 MADDEN NFL 2004 Electronic Arts
11. PS2 WWE: HERE COMES PAIN THQ
12. PS2 LORD RING:RETURN KING Electronic Arts
13. GCN MARIO PARTY 5 Nintendo
14. XBX TRUE CRIME:STREETS LA Activision
15. GBA YU-GI-OH! SACRED CARD Konami

16. GBA NAMCO MUSEUM Namco
17. PS2 NBA LIVE 2004 Electronic Arts
18. GBA FROGGER'S ADV: TEMPLE Konami
19. XBX HALO Microsoft
20. PS2 JAK II Sony
21. GBA PAC-MAN COLLECTION Namco
22. PS2 EYE TOY Sony
23. XBX T. CLANCY'S RAINBOW 3 Ubi Soft
24. GBA MARIO & LUIGI SAGA Nintendo
25. PS2 RATCHET & CLANK:GOING Sony

I take it this doesn't take into account PC games?

I was hoping to see how Call of Duty was doing.

Yes this only for console games.

It looks like they hype for Prince of Persia didn't translate into sales.

Prince of Persia isn't a well known franchise anymore. It's been ages since the PC game came out, the console ports never were that popular that I can recall.

Most gamers today have probably never played the original.

True, but for the amount of marketing dollars they're throwing in for Prince of Persia, not making the top 30 is downright awful.

Convesely, an Yu-Gi-Oh game that probably spend very little to no advertising money finished #15.

Prince of Persia was released on all systems, and the PC so its market was probably split up somewhat.

Calling it "Prince of Persia: Underground" would have at least guaranteed a top 10 placing.
I dunno; I see a lot of Pac Man/Namco Museum/Frogger stuff in that top 20...

Short-term effect: I get to buy Prince of Persia soon for $15.
Long-term effect: I don't get to play a sequel ever.

Suprising given the rave reviews of PoP.

I got a seasonal job at Target to make some extra cash and happened to work in electronics. Suffice it to say, these numbers are basically what sold in my experience. The over-30 guys are the ones buying SOCOM II and Medal of Honor: Rising Sun.

I pushed Prince of Persia quite a bit, but people just weren't familiar with it. Instead, they tended to opt for True Crime or Tony Hawk: Underground or something.

That's because of the $9.99 price tag, not because of the nostalgia.

On a positive note, Manhunt only shipped 75,000 units. Looks like I don't have to look over my shoulder for easily impressionable teenage kids with a crowbar.

No PGR2? No PoP? Geez! I must be out of touch...

Jeremy

19. Halo?

Not bad since it was released about 2 years ago. If not for this game, would there be an Xbox?

I think it has to do with the recent price drop.

15. GBA YU-GI-OH! SACRED CARD Konami
24. GBA MARIO & LUIGI SAGA Nintendo

That's a damn shame.

Ditto on the lost hope of a PoP sequel, Sands of Time was one of the best playing experiences I've had this year.

PoP was released in mid Nov so it may be lagging a bit (nov sales release). I never liked the concept regardless.

Nice to see Mario Kart doing well. Now if only it would stay up there for more than a month. . .

It's such a shame when games like PoP can't even make the top 30, while overhyped crap like True Crime and the disappointed Medal of Honor sell so good.

I was also suprised not to see XIII on the list, since it was hyped for so many months. Does anybody know how many copies of PoP and XIII were shipped? Someone mentioned that only 75,000 copies of Manhunt where shipped, which is probably why we don't see it on the top 30. Maybe it's the same with PoP and XIII.

And I wouldn't really count out a sequel. If enough word of mouth get's around, sales could pick up slowly, and they might do another one. After all, Maximo: Ghosts to Glory is getting a sequel next year and that game didn't sell very well at all.

It should. Those sales were for less then half a month of actual sales.

Doubt it. Mario Kart was released in mid-November as well.

Well, I avoided PoP like the plague. What killed it for me was playing the demo.

November game sales send mixed signals


Analysts agree to disagree about the greater significance of holiday software revenues. Some publishers' shares see moderate gains.

Was November a good month for the game industry? Depends who you talk to. Less than a week after word from upbeat analysts and CEOs lifted publishers' shares, several new reports have muddied the waters.

In a report yesterday, U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray analyst Tony Gikas gave a bleak assessment of the 2003 holiday season's kickoff. "Many retailers indicated that soft sales are the result of few 'hot' new titles, slow hardware sales, high software price points, and increased competition," said Gikas. Gikas also revised his estimates for total 2003 games sales from 18 percent growth to 12.5 percent growth. "We believe industry sales of video game software during 2003 will fall well short of original analyst, publisher, and retailer estimates," he said.

Also, according to Reuters, a survey of 20 Wal-Marts and 20 EBgames outlets by J.P. Morgan, which had upgraded Electronic Arts' stock only days before, found that 50 percent had excess inventory.

However, NPD numbers from November showed that the Christmas shopping season's start has been nice to some publishers, but naughty to others. Strong sales of True Crime: The Streets of L.A. (630,000 copies) and Tony Hawk's Underground (554,000) let Activision skate its way to a 46 increase in sales over November 2002. The news sent Activision's stock shooting up, despite a newly imposed "neutral" rating from Merrill Lynch. The company's share price ended the day at $16.48, up $1.44--nearly 10 percent.

EA saw a similar gain, rising $1.22 (2.82%) to $44.20. Franchise installments Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (435,000), Need for Speed: Underground (527,000), and Medal of Honor: Rising Sun (580,000) boosted EA's November sales 29 percent, earning it a "buy" rating from Merrill Lynch.

November's big loser was Take Two Interactive, whose sales plummeted 47 percent. Hopes that Manhunt would help fill in for the absence of a Grand Theft Auto game proved woefully unfounded, as the controversial game only shipped 75,000 units, a fraction of the 502,000 GTA Double Packs sold. But neither the revenue dip nor the still-raging protests by Haitian-American groups, who picketed Take Two's offices Sunday, could dent the company's share price. As the markets closed, the Take Two stock price rose $0.20 to $29.20, and received a new "buy" rating from Merrill Lynch.

However, virtually everyone agrees that, overall, holiday game sales didn't get off to a stellar start. According to the NPD numbers, November sales were up only seven percent over last year.

By Tor Thorsen, GameSpot [POSTED: 12/16/03 04:22 PM]

no wonder EA let us stack those coupons. They were trying to keep marketshare I bet

I wonder how December sales will stack up. November sales might have been hurt by the late Thanksgiving start to the Xmas selling season.

"Many retailers indicated that soft sales are the result of few 'hot' new titles, slow hardware sales, high software price points, and increased competition"

Few 'hot' new titles??? They flooded the market so bad these last 2 months. Every week like 5-6 'hot' titles came out.

Its funny because its true!