Wednesday, July 14, 2010

PS3 vs. Wii vs. Xbox 360: Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands' Sales Ranks Per System: Chart Included

Quick Brew Info:
Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands was released on May 18, 2010, on the PS3, Wii, and Xbox 360.
The PS3 and Xbox 360 versions released with a MSRP of $59.99, while the Wii version released with a MSRP of $49.99.
Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands on the PS3 and Xbox 360 was developed by Ubisoft Montreal with help from Ubisoft Singapore.
Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands on the Wii was developed by Ubisoft Quebec.

Which version of the game has been ranking better?  Was it the version built from the ground up for the Wii, with unique motion controls?  Or, was it one of the HD versions on the PS3 and Xbox 360?  Let's take a look...

(click chart to enlarge)

Chart Info:
The chart shows the sales ranks for Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands on the PS3, Wii, and Xbox 360, with data captured between May 18, 2010 and June 30, 2010.  The higher the line on the chart, the better the sales rank is for the game.
27 days of data were recorded, with a total of thirty-seven sales ranks used in the chart.
Make sure to look at the Price Drops section to and the chart to see how the price drops may have influenced(or not) sales ranks.

Highs & Lows:
The highest recorded sale rank for Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands on the PS3 was #27, on June 10, around 12:15AM.
The lowest sale rank for Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands on the PS3 was #262, on June 30, around 12:10AM.

The highest record sale rank for Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands on the Wii was #219, and May 31, around 3:50PM.
The lowest recorded sale rank for game on the Wii was #2,148, on June 28, around 6:50PM.

The highest recorded sale rank for Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands on the Xbox 360 was #124, on May 18, around 11:45PM.
The lowest recorded sale rank for the game on the Xbox 360 was #596, on June 28, around 1:25AM.

Critical Reception:
The first reviews for all three console versions of Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands started being published on May 18, the day the game released.
When I see review scores not releasing until the day the game releases, I think that usually means the websites/magazines that were "reviewing" the game were under a review embargo until the game released.

Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands on the PS3 has a review score average of 75.47%, based on 30 reviews.
Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands on the Wii has a review score average of 76.53%, based on 17 reviews.
Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands on the Xbox 360 has a review score average of 75.82%, based on 44 reviews.
(Agree? Or, disagree?)

Price Drops:
The PS3 version I have being discounted to $40.99, as early as June 6.
The Wii version was even discounted to $39.99, on May 30, and remained at $39.99 at least through June 6.
I have the Xbox 360 first recorded on sale for $37.00, on June 13.

While these prices were temporary price-cuts/sales on the game, Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands has now apparently seen a permanent price drop on the consoles.

As I stated in the "Quick Brew Info", Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands released with a MSRP of $59.99 on the PS3 and Xbox 360, and a MSRP of $49.99 on the Wii.
On July 8, I reported that several online retailers dropped the "list" price of Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands on the home consoles, though this data doesn't reflect the multi-console price drop.
The game had been out for only 52 days, when it saw a price drop of between 33% and 40% of its original release date MSRP.
The PS3 and Xbox 360 versions' MSRP is now $39.99, and the Wii version's MSRP is $29.99.


Thoughts:
For me, I have been extremely surprised at how poorly the Wii version of Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands has been ranking.
The Wii version was built from the ground up for the Wii, and was developed by a completely separate team than the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions.  Even the review scores seem to show the Wii version is on par with the other versions.
The Wii version was $10 less than the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions, and it included the original 1992 Prince of Persia game as a bonus on the disc, but neither of those seemed to matter to Amazon.com buyers of the game.

With June 2010's NPD data releasing tomorrow, if Amazon.com is an indicator, I doubt there will be any version of Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands in the "Top 20".  If it does make the NPD "Top 20", I can see why NPD doesn't(or can't) use Amazon.com sales data for its monthly rankings.

Questions:
Do you find the sales ranks of the Wii version surprising, considering it was $10 less and included the original 1992 Prince of Persia game as a bonus?
If you played any version of the game, would you recommend the version you played to other console owners?

An off topic question, if you saw the movie, what did you think about it?  Good or bad?

If you are interested in any console version of Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands, you can see prices for them on Amazon.com below:
   

4 comments:

  1. For the movie, my girlfriend liked it and I thought it was just ok. Beautiful but not very original.

    For the game, I didn't buy it even though I've played every previous Prince of Persia games. I've learned that most Ubisoft games get price drops very fast (usually within 6 months). If you pay attention, you can usually get the game for $20 before the game's first birthday... Assassin's Creed dropped to $39.99 during the spring (release last november) and went on sale every now and then to $19,99 since that time... They're not gonna get me to buy it full price at conditions like that...

    ReplyDelete
  2. I hadn't actually played the game yet, but my initial notion is that while the game for the Wii did score well and was built from the ground up, I've noticed a trend with a lot of hardcore gamers - if they see a game for the ps3/360 as well as the Wii, the Wii generally loses out, despite the cheaper price tag, but in most instances the Wii format games don't score as high. One of my buddies pretty mucn encapsulated this for me when he said that he buys Wii games specific for the Wii, like Metroid, Mario, etc - but he buys everything else for his 360.

    As for the movie, I enjoyed it but my wife was only so-so on it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. @Anonymous from July 15, 2010 @ 9:07AM:
    "For the game, I didn't buy it even though I've played every previous Prince of Persia games. I've learned that most Ubisoft games get price drops very fast (usually within 6 months). If you pay attention, you can usually get the game for $20 before the game's first birthday... Assassin's Creed dropped to $39.99 during the spring (release last november) and went on sale every now and then to $19,99 since that time"

    Your last paragraph seems to be happening with nearly every company, except Nintendo.
    I still think it's crazy the Wii doesn't have a "Player's Choice" line of games in NA.

    @Chalgyr:
    "if they see a game for the ps3/360 as well as the Wii, the Wii generally loses out, despite the cheaper price tag, but in most instances the Wii format games don't score as high."
    Yea, this is the normal trend, I'm just surprised by how low the Wii version was compared to the others.

    As for the Prince of Persia movie, we'll probably rent it when it releases on DVD.

    Thank you both for the comments and feedback!

    ReplyDelete
  4. You know - it's interesting, but the not having a 'players choice' collection for Nintendo was something I brought up just today. When I was browsing different games, I eyeballed Mario Galaxy, Metroid, Mario Party 8, Paper Mario - and they're all still normal full price new. Just as shocking is how much these games and other popular ones like Punch Out! and Mario Kart sell for used - they're all still around 35-40 buck s at Gamestop. They're certainly in demand still.

    ReplyDelete

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