Killzone: Shadow Fall exceeds two million sales

One of PlayStation 4's launch games, Killzone: Shadow Fall, sold over two million copies.

PlayStation Europe tweeted out earlier today that "2.1 million units of the PS4 exclusive Killzone Shadow Fall" has sold globally. IGN explains the impact of those sales.

Shadow Fall’s numbers are impressive, and indicate a strong attach rate for the game that could be in the range of one game sold for every three or so consoles in the wild.

Two of the reasons why KZ: SF has sold so well on the new console: 1) First-person shooters always sell well, and perhaps bad press on both the new Call of Duty (campaign mode is short, multiplayer not as fleshed out) and Battlefield (multiple glitches) games gave way to the recommendations of picking up the new Killzone game instead. 2) There simply isn't many options out there for PlayStation 4.

With PS4 not being backward compatible and a limited library of games, there's really no draw to pick up Sony's new console except those people who are early adopters, and there's apparently millions of them. I'd like to see the comparison of people that have bought the system to how much time they actually invest on the system at the moment.

Still, even if KZ: SF is simply getting sales thanks to the random nerd at Walmart pondering, "ah, well, there's really no other games that appeal to me so I'll just pick this game up," reaching over two million sales is incredible especially in three months.

In comparison, Killzone 3 sold 2.57 million globally on PlayStation 3 (VGChartz).

KZ: SF is developed by Guerrilla Games and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. It's on sale right now through Amazon at $40, so sales could get even higher for the first-person shooter.

Image credit: Flickr

Sony expects to sell five million PlayStation 4 units in launch window

Sony anticipates that the PlayStation 4 will sell better than its previous console in its launch window.

Bloomberg reports that because of a much lower retail price and more variety immediately compared to PlayStation 3, Sony forecasts that the PS4 will sell over five million units in its first five months.

Sony Corp. (6758) expects the PlayStation 4’s lower price and wider variety of entertainment services to drive its forecast to sell 5 million units of the game console by the end of March.
The projection for its new generation machine, set to be introduced at $399 in November, compares with 3.55 million units sold in a similar period for the PS3 which was offered in some regions at $599, Andrew House, the head of Sony’s game operation, said in an interview today. The predecessor console was released in 2006.

Considering it's $200 less at launch than the PS3 along with being out in the wild a week earlier in North America, surprisingly the company isn't expecting even more units to be sold. Perhaps they understand that more people will be locked in on grabbing an Xbox One as Microsoft has surged to the top in NA video game sales with the success of their internet service and Call of Duty series on the Xbox 360.

[Photo credit: Flickr]

Killzone: Mercenary Release Date Pushed Forward

Sony's push for more PlayStation Vita content continues with announcing one of their major titles being released one week earlier.

Killzone: Mercenary is now set for a September 10th release date in North America on the Vita. Preorder content includes a double XP boost for 48 hours in multiplayer, similar to Killzone 3's release, and enough bonus money to buy another weapon before playing multiplayer.

After a disastrous start to the first-person shooter genre on the Vita, K:M has a lot to live up to. Both of last year's releases, Resistance: Burning Skies and Call of Duty: Black Ops - Declassified, were failures on the handheld.

Resistance failed with boring gameplay and a quick single-player campaign, basically "Resistance Lite" on the go with a playable multiplayer. COD was worse and failed at everything, most of it feeling like a rushed project.

With the handheld receiving more push by Sony, bigger franchises need to succeed and separate Vita from a typical Android mobile device. There's nothing wrong with the indie gaming push; it feels great to play those games with actual buttons. But casual consumers won't consider purchasing a separate $200-plus device to play games that can also be done on their smartphones.

[Source: PlayStation Blog]