Phil Elliot of GamesIndustry.biz has published an interview with THQ’s Jon Rooke in which the head of marketing discusses how UFC 2010 failed to meet lofty sales expecations, but still shipped over 2.6 million just six weeks after hitting the market.
“We’ve had Red Dead Redemption released one week before us and that sucked, to-date, probably three quarters of a million units from the market,” Rooke explained. “The economy is still in decline – we haven’t come out of recession yet, with VAT set to go up and the government looking for 40 per cent budget cuts… people are nervous about spending.
“There was that macro-setting, plus we were around the World Cup, which takes out a lot of consumer spending as well. You could even put into there the iPad launch as being on the same weekend – so a lot of things are coming on to it.”
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“When Red Dead had shipped about 5 million we’d shipped about 2.6 million units of UFC globally – so it’s still a massively successful game… just that the expectations might have been that little bit more. You have to step back a bit and recognise that.”
Payout Perspective:
It’s important to distinguish between units shipped and units sold. THQ has shipped and received revenue from retailers for 2.6 million units, but that doesn’t mean all 2.6 million copies of the game have sold at retail. It’s been a tough go for many retailers in the last month; some even resorting to some rather cheeky sales tactics in order to push UFC 2010 out the door.
Nonetheless, 2.6 million units is a pretty strong number for any video game. And, if you consider that last year’s game shipped 3.5-4.0 million copies, this 2.6 million figure illustrates just how out-of-whack THQ’s expectations must have been.
I think THQ needs to be careful with how often it plays the timing card related to UFC 2010; excuses have a way of breeding complacency that no company can afford to tolerate. UFC 2010 was not the victim of poor timing or some force majeure. UFC 2010 was the victim of poor planning and gameplay issues.
THQ released a new game that had some flaws and wasn’t that much different from the previous edition (that had only been released one year prior) into a competitive market place where it couldn’t compete for limited consumer spending against superior purchase alternatives. Simple.
Perhaps THQ could have waited another month or two to release the game, but then it would have run into further competition like NCAA Football or Madden and the back-to-school crunch, etc.
My philosophy has always been that a superior product trumps most, if not all, market conditions. If not, then why did Red Dead, the iPad, and the World Cup prove to be such resounding successes? Each competed in the very same marketplace.
Each delivered a better value proposition.
Note: THQ announced this week that UFC Undisputed 2010 will be released for the PSP on September 7, 2010. This should add more units to the shipment total and help the company recover a bit of that lost revenue estimate on the year.
pppp says
tsk tsk ufc is in the decline stage already………they should find new talents for theyre broadcast side….dana,joe rogan and mike goldberg are all overexposed already…
mmaguru says
Video game sales chart trackers indicate the following July 24th
PS3 Sales – 547,037
XBox360 Sales – 603,206
I’m not sure about any other console version sales of the game.
I would consider that a moderate success. That leaves about 1.4 million units on store shelves. I suspect another promotional sale of the game the next time Brock fights or just before the EA MMA release. Perhaps they will reduce the price to 29.99 or 39.99.
JB says
I’m really surprised they expected this game to sell as well as the first. Gamers are accustomed to annually released sports games and will now identify UFC as such.
Not all gamers are dedicated enough to buy every year. Many will buy every 2 or three years so that the changes are more than just incremental. Eventually such buyers will average out and produce consistent sales numbers but if most jump on board for the first game, a big drop should be expected for the second.
shawn says
Well ufc games sales are declining but there ppv #s are sky high this year 2 events did 1plus million buys and averageing 500k buys plus to plus ufc117 should do good on ppv buys and then u got james tooney vs couture along with bj penn rematching frankie edgar this event should do well in ppv buys and in october lesnar fights again will probly get another million buys again and gsp in decmbre aslo damn what a year so far