(click chart to enlarge)
Quick Brew Info:
Alan Wake was developed for the Xbox 360 by Remedy Entertainment and published by Microsoft's Game Studios. The game was released in North America on Tuesday, May 18, 2010.
Chart Info:
The chart above shows the sales ranks for the standard version of Alan Wake, with data being captured from April 25 through May 31.
The lowest sales rank I recorded was #95 on April 25 around 3:00AM.
The highest sales rank I recorded for Alan Wake was #5 on both May 18, around 11:45PM; and May 20, around 4:05AM.
Critical Reception & Influence:
Alan Wake currently has an 84.42% review score average on GameRankings.com, based on 57 reviews.
(Too high? Too low? Just right?)
A lot of early reviews for Alan Wake started posting up on May 4 and May 5.
I marked on the chart the day that IGN.com posted their review for the game; it was on May 4, around 11:00PM that night.
The chart shows the game's largest increase in sales rank from May 3 to May 5. It increased 42 sales ranks, from #62 on May 3, to #16 on May 5.
Other than the reviews, I do not know of anything else that would have caused an increase in sales ranks at that time. I searched, but did not see any mention of an Alan Wake television commercial airing that day; if you know when a television commercial started airing for the game, I will add a spot on the chart if it is within the time-frame.
Thoughts:
I do not own a Xbox 360, but I have several friends that do. I started tracking Alan Wake's sales ranks, because I thought it was going to be interesting to see how the game performed on the 360.
When I think of the Xbox 360, I normally think of FPS/shooter type games, like the Halo series or Call of Duty games.
I am glad to see developers, such as Remedy, creating new games and not simply going the "sequel" route.
If you are thinking, "There were two versions of the game, a 'standard' version and a 'limited' version, how did the 'limited' version rank?"
Well, I did track that version as well, and you can see both the "standard" and "limited" versions of Alan Wake in the chart below:
(click chart to enlarge)
The "Limited" edition of Alan Wake included a special case, exclusive in-game audio commentary, a book titled, "The Alan Wake Files", and a few other things as well. The "Limited Collectors Edition" has a MSRP of $79.99, which is $20 more than the "Standard" version.
The lowest sales rank I recorded for the "Limited Edition" was #362 on May 31, around 11:50PM.
The highest sales rank I recorded for the Limited Edition of Alan Wake was #27 on May 18, around 1:50AM.
As you can tell, the Limited Edition's sales ranks started falling off pretty quickly after the release day.
It makes me wonder what the "official" numbers will be for both versions of the game, when the NPD reports its data later this month.
Questions:
Did you purchase Alan Wake? If so, which version did you get?
If you have played the game, what do you think of it? Bitter, or sweet?
Is it a game you recommend to others?
As I mentioned above, I do not own a Xbox 360(yet), so I have not played the game.
If you are interested in either version of the game, you can see both of them on Amazon.com below: