Each week Game Freaks 365 compiles a list of the perceived winners and losers of the week based on news events. Since we don’t like useless (and highly controversial) gaming related Top 10 lists, we feel this fills that void for our readers. The winners and losers may be people, companies, systems, franchises – really anything. The lucky (and unlucky) ones this week are…
Winner: Sony
Not only is Sony the only company with a #1, 2, 3 and 4 seeded game in the Game of the Year Tournament, they also have won every match so far. #12 seeded Heavenly Sword upset #5 seeded Project Gotham Racing 4. That was nothing compared to the unanimous 100% victories God of War II and Ratchet and Clank Future. On news that the company sold nearly 500,000 PS3s in November 2007, a 128% increase over last year, there’s no wonder why Sony was the big winner last week.
Loser: Low seeded games
Believe in miracles? That’s what it would take to beat games like The Orange Box in Round 1 voting. The 13, 14, 15 and 16 seeded games from the Kyoto Bracket all lost, and none with more than 15% of the vote. Two games, NCAA Football 08 and Scarface: The World is Yours for Wii, both got zero votes. Zero.
Winner: Activision
A week after announcing a merger with Vivendi (the new company to be known as Activision Blizzard), NPD numbers came out showing Call of Duty 4 appearing twice in the top 10 software sold for November 2007. The Xbox 360 version was the top selling game of the month with over 1.5 million units sold, while the PS3 held its own at 440,000. Guitar Hero III for PS2 and Wii stayed on the charts, netting a combined 1.3 million. No wonder Activision became the #1 publisher for a second month in 2007.
Loser: Mass Effect
Hype and good reviews don’t always translate into stellar sales. Even though it debuted at sixth on the charts for November, Mass Effect only shifted 473,000 units. Call of Duty 4 managed nearly four times as many sales, and Assassin’s Creed nearly double. Even Wii Play, which came out in February of 2007 and received universally bad reviews sold better. One has to wonder if the market is over-saturated with good games. Not that that’s a bad thing.
