According to several recent sales chart reports, it seems that two of Sony’s first party PlayStation exclusive titles have sold poorly.
Yesterday, the PlayStation blog revealed the top selling games for January, with ARK Survival Evolved topping the digital charts. But beyond the news of Wildcard Studio’s impressive feat – achieving the number 1 spot for the second consecutive month – the chart also concedes that both The Last Guardian and Gravity Rush 2 have not moved the needle.
It should also be noted that The Last Guardian didn’t feature in last month’s PlayStation blog post either, which reported December’s list of best-selling games. The long awaited and extensively covered adventure title from Team Ico was beaten in its debut month by efforts such as the three-year-old Sleeping Dogs, 2014’s The Last Of Us Remastered and Dying Light (digital sales). The game’s physical units sold figure was also substandard, failing to breach the UK’s top 5 in its opening week. It also didn’t make an impression on NDP’s December report.
This latest blog post comes only a week after Polygon reported that The Last Guardian would receive a permanent $20 price drop on PSN, just eight weeks after launch. Titanfall 2, another one of 2016’s most anticipated titles that didn’t measure up to sales expectations, received a similar price drop after a comparable amount of time as well.
In the same fashion, Gravity Rush 2 has not recorded sales of any consequence following its January 18th release. UK chart performance, reported by Chart-Track, was disappointing, with the game unable to make it into the top 10. PlayStation’s recent blog post confirms that Gravity Rush 2 was also absent from the top 20 best selling digital games on the PlayStation Store for January. Sales in Japan faired slightly better, with the game entering the charts at number 1, but they ultimately dropped off in its second week.
Despite both The Last Guardian and Gravity Rush 2‘s critical acclaim, neither PlayStation exclusive seemed to resonate with the mainstream and the underwhelming commercial performance now puts into question the future of the Gravity Rush IP and the likelihood of a future Ico-like game from Ueda.
Tell us, did you pick up either of these PlayStation titles when they released? If so, what did you think of them? Comment in the usual place with your thoughts!