Are you noticing a trend yet? Watch Dogs 2 is the latest high-profile sequel this holiday to fall significantly short of expectations, with its predecessor selling several times more units than the new arrival. Chart-Track does not publish sales figures, but Ubisoft's latest charted below Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, pegging its numbers around 80k or so. The first game in the series sold closer to 400k at launch.
Of course, this doesn't account for digital sales, so there could still be good news for the French publisher. Moreover, sales numbers have been generally weak in Britain for a while now, so there's no guarantee that this trend will transcend overseas. With so many blockbusters falling short of expectations these past few months, though, the industry may need to start asking that all important question: why?
It was a familiar top ten elsewhere, with FIFA 17, Battlefield 1, and WWE 2K17 filling the remaining top five slots. Assassin's Creed: The Ezio Collection entered in tenth after a fairly muted launch, while the original Watch Dogs actually re-entered the charts in 40th position following the introduction of a new PS4 bundle featuring the game. It'll be interesting to see how the top ten settles once Final Fantasy XV is out.
UK Sales Charts: Week Ending 12th November, 2016
- Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare
- Watch Dogs 2
- FIFA 17
- Battlefield 1
- WWE 2K17
- Forza Horizon 3
- Dishonored 2
- The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Special Edition
- Grand Theft Auto V
- Assassin's Creed: The Ezio Collection
[source chart-track.co.uk]
Comments 41
Wasn't the first game like the best selling new IP ever for a while, or something similar? That's one hell of a decline.
@Quintumply I think it still is actually. Although I'm not sure whether Destiny beat it.
It might just come down to the fact there are more games being released than 2 years ago. I doubt total sales of all games have gone down.
Games are expensive, and they are getting more expensive with each passing year, that's before DLC, season passes are factored in. Theres a new COD digital bundle that around the £100 quid mark, tgat is frankly insane. Also, 1st day patches, poor system performance while playing, its just not good enough to justify the launch price and people are a bit more wary .
A lot of high profile games also just haven't been that good either, time of year as well, people have other expenses to pay for this time of year and people may well decide to wait till after Xmas to purchase.
@get2sammyb Destiny did beat it. But it's sales need some context, the first Watch Dogs was the poster child for the new gen and was always going to be massive. Plus it released at a quieter time too, and more importantly it was on 5 different platforms instead of 2's three.
Is anyone surprised? When wd1 came out the ps4 was new in the market so because of lack of games people inc myself bought wd but things have changed im getting watch dogs when its on budget but dont think its that important since busy with world of final fantasy and with ff xv about to launch had to put of getting watch dogs til next year
Given the reception the original game got, I'm not surprised Watch Dogs 2 has seen a huge decline in launch sales. I imagine more people will pick it up now on word of mouth/reviews/YouTube vids. There's also the vast amount of new games being released and the fact that you never know what might be discounted, even slightly, for black Friday.
I think the first put many people off the second. Shame really as the sequel is very good...
I think people are somewhat fatigued with the "sandbox game" template, and this fails to stand out much from the ads despite trying to at least evolve it by removing towers.
Hopefully our favourite upcoming robot dinosaur sandbox game doesn't fall prey to the same fatigue
Released during busy period? CHECK
Predecessor less impressive than expected? CHECK
Developed and published by a company known for releasing games in a substandard state? CHECK
Massive Day 1 patch? CHECK
Early reports of launch issues including a major segment not working (multiplayer)? CHECK
Really, it's in no way surprising.
I am interested about FFXV and whether it will also suffer from FFXIII less than stellar universal reception. Or will time passed and enough differences between the two be enough?
It's GTA V for hipsters. Given that GTA is still a massive, massive, massive game compared to most others, it's hard to see a dent being put in their side.
If it weren't for FF15 I'd probably be playing it now.
@gmxs That, for my money, is spot on.
It's also right before Black Friday. I'm sure people are looking to see what deals they can get.
That's one depressing list of disposable games.
@gmxs In fairness to CoD, that bundle does include 2 whole games and the Season Pass as well. They could have charged more - £55 for IW, £40 for Season Pass and £40 for MW:r Yes its expensive, bit no more so than games last year, or the year before. Last year was also 'busy' - SW:BF, CoD, Fallout 4, Rise of the Tomb Raider etc but we also didn't see any 'new' hardware (well apart from MS's Elite controller).
This year we have the XB1s, PSVR, PS4 Slim and PS4 Pro. Some of these also benefit/require additional hardware too like a PS Camera, Move or 4k HDR TV to get the 'most' out of. Ok so the Pro will give some benefits to the 1080p TV owners but to get the most out of XB1s and/or PS4, you ideally need a 4k HDR TV - something that can cost as much as a decent 2nd hand Car. I wonder how many gamers have spent a LOT of money on Hardware?
Then you have to look at the games themselves. CoD:IW has had a lot of 'hate' all year for the direction it took, Watchdogs 2 broken on release and its not like the first launched without issue and became a 'must' have. Videos showcasing its 'poor' performance on Pro and 'poor' aliasing on other consoles. I am sure a lot that bought it were wary of buying the sequel. TF2 launching between the two biggest in the genre as well as all the other games and remasters around.
People have also been disappointed by buying a 'broken' game at full price on release and a week or 2 later, that game is patched and sold with a sizeable discount for Black Friday.
@fishwilson What do you think should be on there instead?
GTA still at number 9....wow, what a game.
From a UK perspective, I think retailers need to realise that launching big name titles so close to each other affects peoples wallets and budgets.
In that kind of environment, you need to be a release that people really want and stand out. In the case of WD2, as people on here have already noted, this is a sequel that no one was really asking for, from a company that pushes out very similar open world games (often buggy) released next to some very big and solid IP's. The sales numbers for the first game was not based on popularity but lack of choice.
If this had been released at a quieter time of year, it may have stood out more. People have had a stack of major releases land, not to mention a heck of a load of new hardware.
Gamers are smartening up. No more preorders wait for a review because so many games launch broken. Not really surprising, how is WD2 'seamless multiplayer'?
first one wasnt as good as expected. But just look at this month xbox black friday sales. PS double discount sales. & the fact they are now in serious competition with indy games.
Plus minor fact when will I ever find time complete games I have. & I have to read pushsquare daily.
next week figures will be rubbish as well Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare Legacy Edition (PS4) is now down to £50 in uk
What people are not taking into account is all them games where also on the PS3, so its obvious sales numbers are not going to be the same.
@Quintumply Yeah, and I'm guessing a bunch of the people that helped make Watch Dogs the biggest selling new IP remember how much that game sucked.
Whilst a lot of the above points are valid I think a lot of people are overlooking how off putting the tone and theme of this new game actually is to a lot of gamers. The original had a darker more mature tone to it, this sequel just looks like a teen SJW game. The videos I have seen of the characters, dialogue and story have just put me right off buying this game.
I would of thought Titanfall 2 and Dishonored 2 sold better is it something to do with age rating or are people waiting for a price drop.
Battlefield 1 has had a lot of advertising and have sold well.
I have discovered I was playing 1920 x 1080 games on a 720p = 1280 x 720 tv so im in need of full HD 1080p = 1920 x 1080 tv because most Playstation 4 games are full HD 1080p = 1920 x 1080..
I feel so stwpid.
@JoeBlogs It's not necessarily that the game was terrible or broken. It's that it was hyped to death, forever, and then when it came out it didn't come close to living up to the hype. I mean, imagine if in a few years time Hello Games bring out No Man's Sky 2. How do you think the game will sell?
Personally, I thought the first Watch Dogs sucked. Some people liked it, but I think a lot were probably disappointed, and anecdotally that's certainly the case from people I know. But regardless of personal feelings, it's hard to argue that it didn't exactly shine upon release, and that has to be a factor in the lukewarm sales of the sequel.
@joe Blogs I think majority of people were disappointed on what Ubisoft showed at E3 compared what was actually released for the original watch Dogs.
So many games are releasing in an unfinished state and it is time for the industry to understand gamers are not made of money and we will no longer buy bug ridden games.
It's all a case of once bitten twice shy.
I can see why a company would want to make a big game around something with brand recognition like 'Watchdogs'...but I never met anyone who had anything good to say about that game. So in this case, the brand recognition is negative recognition. Watchdogs is frequently listed in most YouTube Top 10 Most Disappointing Game videos.
@GBMatthew While I agree with a lot of other points here, the major reason (even bigger than my irk towards Ubisoft) that I'm skipping this game is the theme, it's so hipster and starbucks' revolutionary!
@Frank90 Agreed it's totally off putting.
@FX102A dude there wasn't a massive day one patch what are your talking about and no ubisoft aren't known for releasing glitchy,broken games besides unity which was a tad too ambitious tech wise and was a launch title for new systems that developers were still getting to grips with. The fact is watchdogs 2 is a big improvement over 1 and other than the seamless mp not working runs very well so I think it deserves better than this.
never mind ubisoft being hacked off, sony can't be too pleased either. both of their main marketing partners this month (CoD and WD) have failed to set the tills alight, despite the big marketing push. the original watch dogs sold more than 200K on PS4 alone on launch in the UK.. sony were probably hoping to build substantially on that given the UK install base is almost 3x what it was back in may 2014. sold around 425K total on all platforms, so if it's around 80K for WD2, that's a pretty spectacular snub for the sequel.
Lots of people don't like the wall-running, boost-jumping CoDs. It would have been interesting if they'd released Modern Warfare separately, I know some people that just want that and are waiting for a price drop.
Also my impression was that lots of people bought Watch Dogs 1 but were disappointed. Why would they buy the sequel?
Lol... I don't want to be a dumb smart alec anarchist fitting for his ego! I want a bigger cause to play a hero... kill bad aliens, take down evil empire, save damsels in distress! Anarchy. ... reminds me of Chavs at school and hanging out on dark streets. Gimme HERO not YOB! Wish I could play Sonic around streets of watchdog lol.
@BowTiesAreCool GTA is the defenition of a hipster game...
@Flaming_Kaiser nah. The embodiment of mainstream.
@GamerDad66 Watchdogs was great! Drinking games, logging into peoples IDs, the huge set piece with deadmau5 in the packed nightclub (which no one ever mentions), but as @GBMatthew rightly points out the tone of WD2 doesn't have such a broad appeal due to the trailer clips.
Here's a thought maybe the 'microtransaction and keep it in your disc drive' mentality of publishers has a knock on effect of cannibalizing itself. Bloated games which last forever = no need to buy hardly any games.
@leucocyte
And to that I would say good. Maybe Sony will stop treating the holiday period like a joke and try to get some games from its top exclusive franchises out during October and November again in future years.
@Gamer83 maybe, though i suspect it's probably more to do with pragmatism than anything else. if everybody and his dog were to buy only one game during the holiday period, it would probably be one of the massive go-to franchises. gran turismo was supposed to be out this year, but i bet nobody's surprised PD couldn't hit a release date. does sony even have that many other top exclusive franchises any more?. besides uncharted, which is now finished, and maybe god of war (which santa monica is currently working on), most of its studios are working on new IPs. releasing those at a time when the schedule isn't jam packed with other new stuff can be more beneficial.
it's not just sony either, i can barely go an advertising break on tv without seeing the XB1/Battlefield 1 promo. gears of war 4 is well below the franchise peak, and it's like microsoft have also decided that battlefield is much better brand recognition than their own games.
@leucocyte ehm, say what you want but Call of Duty is still selling really well and will outpace Battlefield 1 in the upcoming month. So the partnership was a good investment on Sony's behalf. WD2 perhaps not so much.
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