THQ responds to investor concern by announcing “robust” North American sales tally; online multiplayer server capacity increased.
Yesterday, the reviews came in for THQ’s newest first-person shooter Homefront, and while the game’s Metacritic average was technically positive, it wasn’t positive enough to appease investors. Fearing the lukewarm critical response presaged a commercial failure, investors were bearish on THQ, resulting in a 21 percent crash in the publisher’s stock price yesterday, slipping an additional 1.28 percent today to $4.63 a share.
After market close today, THQ moved to assuage investors’ panic, making a rare announcement of first-day sales for Homefront. According to the publisher, Homefront sold approximately 375,000 units in North America within 24 hours of release. European and Asia Pacific sales figures were not included in the tally, as the game has not yet seen full release worldwide.
Calling this sales figure “robust,” THQ also said that it would be increasing server capacity to accommodate demand for Homefront’s multiplayer. As with a handful of other THQ titles, those who purchase new copies of Homefront gain full access to the game’s online multiplayer component.
Secondhand users have access to every map and can spend as much time as they wish in Homefront’s multiplayer modes. However, they won’t be able to advance their characters any further than level five–out of a possible 75–unless they purchase an online pass for $10.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Ubisoft will unleash Rocksmith for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii this September.
The game will come with 45 songs from bands like the Rolling Stones, the Animals, David Bowie, and Nirvana. According to the report, Rocksmith will sport songs not available in Rock Band or Guitar Hero games.
Rocksmith was developed with realism in mind, according to The Reporter. In the game, players will strum along on actual strings. Ubisoft is betting that the game can avoid the fate of Guitar Hero because its players won’t soon grow tired of learning how to play an actual guitar.
The game will come with an input jack that is compatible with “most electric guitars” for play on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, but not the Wii.
Wedbush’s Michael Pachter says under one-fifth of PS3 sales included Sony’s motion-controller–while two-thirds of Xbox 360 sales included its camera-based system.
Yesterday, the NPD Group released its sales figures for the month of February. Though the research group no longer releases hardware sales numbers, Microsoft was all too happy to announce the Xbox 360 had sold 535,000 units during the month. Sony did not release sales figures, but, in a note to investors, Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter revealed the company’s console sold 403,000 units–51,000 units less than Nintendo’s Wii.
Kinect is outselling the Move 5-to-1 in bundle form, says Michael Pachter.
While enlightening, the console sales aren’t the whole story. According to Pachter, over two-thirds of all Xbox 360 sales–or at least 358,000 units–were bundled with its Kinect motion-sensing system.
By contrast, the analyst says under one-fifth–or less than 80,000 units–of PlayStation 3 sales were bundled with the Move controller, meaning Kinect outsold it by a ratio of nearly five-to-one. Pachter did not mention standalone accessory sales.
However, since the Move system incorporates the PlayStation Eye–which has been available since 2007–it is unclear how many complete Move systems have been purchased.
