Enslaved sales fail to break 500,000
The end?
Sales for Ninja Theory's cinematic action game Enslaved: Odyssey to the West are much lower than expected.
November reports of 800,000 units were greatly exaggerated; today's Namco Bandai money report shows only 460,000 copies of the game have been sold - worldwide.
Such numbers are unlikely to vindicate Namco Bandai's decision to green-light Hollywood hires Alex Garland and Andy Serkis. Ninja Theory's Tameem Antoniades called these "above-the-line-costs" that have to be pitched to the publisher.
Those numbers are also unlikely to bring about an Enslaved sequel, even though Antoniades said there was "lots of material to draw on" and "an opportunity to serialise it".
Not that Ninja Theory will mind, having been put to work by Capcom on reinventing Devil May Cry.
Nevertheless, it's a pity; Enslaved was a beautiful, tight and well-acted action adventure. Eurogamer scored it 8/10, Ellie Gibson calling it "a bit special".
The best seller for Namco Bandai from September to the end of December 2010 was Tekken 6, which managed over 1 million sales in the US.
This year, Namco Bandai pins its hopes on Demon's Souls successor Dark Souls, which was announced over night.