In an advance note to NPD reports, Cowen and Company analyst Doug Creutz predicts that The Last Of Us sold 700,000 US retail units last month, and Animal Crossing: New Leaf sold 500,000 units. This would match the success both games have seen in UK and Japan. The Last Of Us particularly impressed with its solid debut in Japan, but Nintendo also didn't predict that New Leaf would be as succesful as it did, so much so that 3DS owners have already forgotten about Fire Emblem:Awakening, itself a surprise success. Sony has announced that they were able to ship 3.4 million The Last Of Us units worldwide. Nintendo have neither confirmed shipped nor sold units for New Leaf, but since they have started reflecting physical and digital sales figures on their site, they do show the game as the number one bestseller on 3DS.
Unfortunately, Creutz predicts no other games sold more than 100,00 units. Total software sales are expected to drop 23 %, and major developers like Take-Two, Electronic Arts and Activision Blizzard will reveal lowered game sales all around.
Creutz believes sales will pick up again by August, far in advance of the release of the Playstation 4 and Xbox One. Releases of Madden NFL 25, Grand Theft Auto V and Battlefield 4 are expected to bring monthly sales numbers back up.
It's a bit of a shame that we are looking at the success of these games with incredulity, but it's becoming harder to predict nowadays which games will or won't sell well. Maybe this skepticism will dissipate when those major upcoming releases finally do show up.
Source: Gamespot
