UK Sales Charts: Death Stranding Slips Yet Further as the Top 10 Holds Steady

Kind of expected this. The pre-release hype, its pedigree and the limited details prior to its release was always going to help initial sales but as the realities of the game and its unorthodox nature spread, it was going to become apparent to many that this was a game without mass market appeal and sales were likely to plummet.

This is not a dig at the game (haven’t played it and those I know who have enjoyed it) but just acceptance that it was unlikely to be a big long legged seller because of its unique nature. At least in the UK, can’t comment yet on other regions.

It just goes to show that for as much as many complain about not getting new experiences, most just want to play the same old thing over and over again

@roe one of the problems these days is youtubers have too much influence over people's opinions, I've stumbled across a few such as Dunkview I think it was called, and it's just an incredibly lazy video full of him jumping off mountains and taking single lines of dialogue out of context to bash the game for the 5 million who watched it. Then judging by the comments most agree despite never having even played the game

I still need to buy this and play, but admittedly, I haven't yet done so because I am unsure if it would be worth my paying full price for it especially since PS4 games do seem to go down in price reasonably quick. It does seem to have difficulty getting people's attention though now that it has launched.

@carlos82 That was probably videogamedunkey you saw. Most of the time I find what he says quite useful, and the jabs he gives games are normally on point though I do occasionally disagree with a few things he says. I can't vouch for the death stranding video, as I purposely stay away from videos of new games that I may want to play.

I am surprised at how quickly DS dropped off. That probably means the price will come down sooner rather than later, which is good for me since I’m waiting to pick it up when my backlog clears a little. Although I do think there will be a little sales boost when it starts winning some awards in coming weeks.

I feel a decent gameplay demo for Death Stranding could help. Especially now the game is out. Those who were always going to get it already have it, and those on the fence could get a better idea of why the game is so good.

Yeah DS is a new experience, not everyone will like it, it's not a mass market titles like days gone or uncharted. I heard kjp new game will be a more traditional horror game.

@MS7000 can't say I've seen him before but certainly this video was designed purely either for views or to put people off the game. He starts by having clips of him jumping into cliffs to demonstrate how "bad" the controls are. Then he tries to claim Mario was the first strand game because he also walks around, as he clearly didn't understand the concept which also suggests he didn't even play it, to top it off he then literally takes one line from a very long cutscene to demonstrate how bad the writing is.

I have no issue with genuine criticism of this or any other game but that video and a few others I've seen are just bloody awful

How many copies did it sell so far?

Also, this to me means nothing. It's one of THE BEST games of this generation and it's by far the game of the year. I haven't finished it yet (I'm getting closer) but if I start playing the game I just can't stop until I go to sleep...even with a ton of other games to play. I'm afraid this game ruined open worlds for me, cause just pressing forward on the stick disregarding the terrain will be boring from now on.
What a game!

@get2sammyb 100% agree. I think people want to try this game but not at full price. Also parents would buy Call of Duty and Fallen Order as Xmas presents as safe bets. I think Kojima and Sony will still be happy with how it sold

@carlos82 It wouldn't surprise me if he hadn't played completely through it. There was a review of Yakuza 0 he did where he was talking about the story being very poorly paced and not as interesting as it could be, and part of me is convinced he did not make it through to the end of the game so I could see it being a similar case for Death Stranding.

Like I said, he can sometimes be insightful, but quite a lot of his content does seem to be based around inside jokes from previous videos he has done; for example, in his Spiderman review, he starts the video mocking IGN for saying that "It makes you feel like Spiderman" within the first minute of the review, which comes from him mocking reviewers for saying the Arkham games make you feel like Batman. Probably best to watch most of his videos with a pinch of salt.

You are probably also right about most of the audience having not played the game either, but to be fair, I don't think they would of played the game even if Dunkey hadn't done that video; probably just looking for an excuse not to play.

Waiting for Kojima to say how UK only likes Football games.

@m1349 I'm not blaming the gaming community, just pointing out the majority don't want change even if many are quite vocal about it. Some do put their money where their mouth is in this regard and embrace new things. Yet these sales figures and overall figures every year suggest most are happy to just have iterations of games they already know and absolutely there will be many other factors involved

Mario Kart 8 seems to be the new GTA 5 in town.

Looking at that chart makes me wonder about its relevance to me... I've not looked at many game charts in my years, however it is interesting reading. I think the only game on it i have interest in is starwars - fallen order. I bought DS three weeks ago, still in its cellophane...

@m1349 'I’m looking forward to picking this up one day but I don’t want to pay full price for something that is potentially very boring to me.'

It's not boring.

I'm actually glad DS has slipped in the charts just like most things that are popular - Strictly Come Dancing, Downton Abbey, Coronation Street and Maroon 5; they are shi+.

For us hardcore, underground, hobbyist and enthusiast gamers Death Stranding is sheer bliss. Amazing levelling, immersive, great mechanics, visually fantastic. For everyone else they scratch their heads snort like cave men and throw another £2.99 into Ultimate team to try and unpack Messi. Screw them and god bless Kojima.

On the one hand I do want to support games that try something different, on the other hand I think brand new games are too expensive. Wages have stagnated but prices keep going up. Games do go down in price pretty quick probably because a lot of ppl don't wanna pay 45 to 50 quid on a game they might not even like.

@carlos82 he is deliberately misconstruing gameplay and mechanics but that's his schtick. I find some of his content quite funny and decent but almost as someone you watch after you play a game rather than whether you should buy it. I've never seen him rave about anything! You should see his reviews of red dead 2 and splatoon 2!! I'm on chapter 5 and really enjoying ds but I'll probably watch it later and laugh at him breaking the balance mechanics

@m1349 Carpenter brut is worth a listen.

@R1spam like I say I've never seen him before so I'm not sure how he normally does things, the people in the comments seemed to take it pretty seriously. I know there are a few like that such as Zero Punctuation which I really like

@themcnoisy I couldn't have put it better myself

Sometimes AAA games just don't hit it big. Why they are always a risk. UK wasn't feeling Death Stranding, is what it is. Game probably has done well enough in other markets to keep Kojima going.

It hasn't been on sale that I'm aware in the US yet. I'll snag it at 45 50 no problem, CoD because of Activision I'll buy it used. That is my moral code sale for games I'm unsure preorder new ips I want. Crap companies used no revenue for them.

After a few weeks missing from the top ten is it finally safe to assume everyone in the uk has at least one copy of GTAV now? And those that don’t have no interest in it.

Fallen Order seems to be holding on with the big brands. Hopefully EA will see merit (profit) in more single player games without micro transactions.

@themcnoisy Is any of the action really fun in Death Stranding, and if so what is it? The walking, the driving, the climbing, the balancing of items, the shooting? Or is all the fun in the story, strategy, inventory management and that kind of stuff. I personally found MGS5 a great action game weighted down by a load of boring stuff that you have to wade through to get to the fun stuff. As far as I can tell, in Death Stranding it's all the boring stuff without the fun action.

@Wesker There is action. Last night I had to invade a mule outpost using a rubber bullet assault rifle and smoke grenades. Then find my way back to the writers child with an overbearing load and no power in my suit.

It's a great game. You really can't understand it until you play it. One thing I would say is try to get to the end of chapter 4 ASAP, then start mopping. Like MGS 5, you start slow and limited. Then your powers and abilities open up and you can carry triple the load at twice the pace, using motorbikes and other forms of transport.

@ShaiHulud
I was thinking the same thing 😆

Not surprising, Death Stranding isn’t as original as some like to claim. It’s a survival/trekking hybrid where the most original thing is it’s extremely long, unevenly paced plot with millions of cutscenes for the most general things.

The “strand system” was nothing, just delivering packages and connecting NPCs...something we’ve done in hundreds of other games. The funniest thing is all the product placement.

I would say it’s biggest strength is that the moment-to-moment gameplay can be therapeutic for folks who may have depression, but the rest of the package really gets in the way. Imagine if Hellblade was way too long and had Dorito bags that healed your character