Xbox Live Arcade Sales Figures Compiled (January 5, 2009)

[ChrisReid]

There's an interesting chart over at vgchartz.com that claims sales statistics on Live Arcade titles to date, which includes Wing Commander Arena. The total units sold is listed at 22,970 with $228,152 in revenue. Although such numbers would be low for a modern retail release, if accurate, these figures would apparently put Arena well in the middle of the pack on Live Arcade. It also shows Arena doing twice the sales of Gaia Industries' other XBLA title, Street Trace NYC. Electronic Arts' other Arcade game, Boom Boom Rocket, seems to have been a stunning success with some 341,219 copies sold and nearly $3.5 million in revenue. That would put it roughly in the top twelve alongside hit games such as Uno, Worms HD & Geometry Wars.

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Original update published on January 5, 2009

 

[Mekt-Hakkikt]

That's interesting if it's accurate. Of course, still far too low a number for what Arena deserves but at least it'd show that Arena wasn't a total failure.
A guy I recently met got a XBox for christmas, maybe I can convince him to give Arena a try...

 

[Quarto]

That's interesting if it's accurate. Of course, still far too low a number for what Arena deserves but at least it'd show that Arena wasn't a total failure.

Unfortunately, it actually means that it was. Arena looks like it was a very polished and expensive (by XBLA standards) game. If it didn't cost the $230,000 that it earned, it probably comes close. Also, presumably Microsoft takes a percentage of that $230,000, which makes things even worse.

 

[Bandit LOAF]

I do not believe these numbers are legitimate. I'm betting they're measuring how many people in a particular group (probably MyGamerCard registrations) have achievements in each title, proving that they purchased that game. That would make for interesting statistics alone, but deriving profits from them doesn't work.

Just look at the 'winners' -- Undertow, Texas Hold 'Em, Uno, etc. What do those games have in common? It's not that they're incredibly popular, it's that they were at one point offered as *free downloads*. Undertow, for instance, sold terribly... but Microsoft gave everyone on the service a free copy over the course of a week or two. Texas Hold 'Em is one of many, many card games... it just happens to be the one that was given away for free when it was first released. I think you'd be hard pressed to find *anyone* who bought Uno, too. It's a lot of fun, but the reason everyone has it on their gamecard is that it came free first with the camera and then again with the new Arcade consoles.)

That's not to say Arena secretly sold well -- anything but -- but that these numbers don't wash. (I do not have sales numbers for WCA save in relation to Boom Boom Rocket... and that isn't reflected in this chart at all.) (I don't think it was especially expensive to develop, though - remember that they contracted out to a brand new and small development group rather than doing it in-house.)

 

[Mekt-Hakkikt]

Huh, ok, you both make good points. But I have absolutely no idea what it costs to make a game...I mean some people make good games in their spare time.

Anyway, I have no hopes that Arena did amazingly well, I'd be happy with the knowledge that it didn't absolutely terrible. I do not even know why it'd be important to me but it just is on some level.

 

[ELTEE]

I do not even know why it'd be important to me but it just is on some level.

I think this makes complete sense - it should be important to anyone interested in Wing Commander. It has the potential to influence the future of the franchise. That can't be taken lightly.

I would be worried if we didn't care how it performed.

 

[Mekt-Hakkikt]

You're right of course, but even if we learned now that Arena didn't too bad, it wouldn't change anything probably, because, as it seems, it didn't give EA an incentive to immediately announce a new WC game.

If Arena had been amazingly successful that would have maybe/probably changed something. But now knowing that it perhaps did at least acceptable does not change a thing. But it still is on some level important to me even now.

I don't know if I made myself very clear...

 

[ChrisReid]

You're right of course, but even if we learned now that Arena didn't too bad, it wouldn't change anything probably, because, as it seems, it didn't give EA an incentive to immediately announce a new WC game.

I wouldn't worry about the absence of such an announcement too much. It would have had to be some runaway monster success for EA to immediately announce a followup. You can see with some other titles lately (like both RA3 & Uprising) that they've waited until games were mostly completely before confirming they exist, even in more active franchises. And this is fairly typical, game companies start a lot of games that don't make it more than six months or a year in development (including many WC games if you've been following our Making the Games updates), and you don't want to work people up and start marketing something until it becomes a sure thing.

If Arena had been amazingly successful that would have maybe/probably changed something. But now knowing that it perhaps did at least acceptable does not change a thing. But it still is on some level important to me even now.

Yup, I think Eltee's comments still apply.

 

[Bandit LOAF]

There were plans to go right into development on a major title had Arena done especially well. That didn't happen, which is a shame because it was really planned as exactly the game we wanted, with people in charge who cared about our input.

... but in as much as I can admit that, I can also tell you it wasn't the end of Wing Commander at Electronic Arts.

 

[Mekt-Hakkikt]

There's life in the old dog yet, huh? Anyway, since I have no understanding how business in the games industry works, I'll just sit here and wait patiently for a new WC.