Wolfenstein suffers from poor first month sales

Posted Sep 11th 2009 12:00PM by John Callaham
Filed under: FPS

Last month a developer from Raven Software pledged to pay for every copy of Wolfenstein sold if the first person shooter outsold Madden NFL 10. We figured that wasn't going to happen but we had no idea how badly the first person shooter would sell out of the gate.

Gamespot reports that according to the August 2009 sales figures from the NPD Group Wolfenstein managed to sell just over 17,000 copies of the PC version that month (it was released to stores on August 18). Combining the PC sales with the console versions and the game sold just 106,000 copies for the month. This was despite a solid marketing campaign by publisher Activision which included a tie-in to the release of the movie Inglourious Basterds. Activision laid off a number of Raven's team members shortly after Wolfenstein was released. The game is also the last in a long line of games that Activision published with id Software's input. id's next game Rage will be published by EA and their next Doom game will be published under its new owners at Zenimax Media.

Gallery: Wolfenstein

Tags: activision, id-software, raven-software, wolfenstein

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

I feel a little bad because Raven does quality work but I can't say I'm surprised. This game just looked generic as all hell up and down. It sure looked competent but nothing I saw of the game made me actually want to play it. I felt like I had my fill after just watching a trailer or two. I know that isn't really a fair opinion considering I haven't actually played the game but that's how I feel. I'll probably snag it on sale a few months from now for $10.

...bysmittyPosted at 1:50PM on Sep 11th 2009 by bysmitty

This does not surprise me at all. The reason RTCW was so popular was the multiplayer component on the PC. The multiplayer for the new Wolfenstein on the PC is absolutely disgraceful and has been acknowledged as such by gamers who used to play RTCW multiplayer.Posted at 2:06PM on Sep 11th 2009 by Norfen

I considered buying this but couldn't find it retail (poor selection where I live)... had there been copies on sale through Steam or Impulse, I'd have bought it ages ago.Posted at 1:45PM on Sep 12th 2009 by JB

I bought the console version, and its a solid game, the veil adds a unique gameplay aspect (although, it plays like a crysis powersuit, so not THAT unique) I haven't even tried playing multiplayer yet, but the intention of this game was to realize wolfenstein in today's technology, and that's exactly what it did.Posted at 3:22AM on Sep 13th 2009 by Sam

"today's technology"? Isn't the game engine 5 years old? By comparison, the Quake 3 engine was only 2 years old when RTCW was released.Posted at 7:53PM on Sep 13th 2009 by Mike

"and their next Doom game will be published under its new owners at Zenimax Media."

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
Posted at 6:21PM on Sep 23rd 2009 by stewox

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