Casually Hardcore devlog

PSN stats

According to PS3fanboy:

The top 10 PSN purchases since the system’s launch.

* flOw
* Mortal Kombat II
* Tekken 5 Dark Resurrection
* PAIN
* Warhawk
* High Velocity Bowling
* Super Stardust HD
* Calling All Cars
* Aquatopia
* Everyday Shooter

The top downloaded demos also include:

* Gran Turismo HD Concept
* Uncharted
* Ninja Gaiden Sigma
* Heavenly Sword
* The Simpsons Game
* Need for Speed ProStreet
* Ratchet and Clank
* Burnout Paradise
* Motorstorm
* Turok

Finally, the top PSN downloads from Europe include:

* Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection
* Warhawk
* flOw
* LocoRoco Cocoreccho!
* Mortal Kombat II
* Super Rub a Dub
* Calling All Cars
* Gripshift
* Lemmings
* Super Stardust HD

A couple of things I know and are generally somewhat public.

• flOw’s sales exceeed 150,000 units.
• PixelJunk Racers has at least broken even and PixelJunk Monsters has well surpassed even and nearly outselling Racers… yet neither are listed above.
• PAIN was a very expensive title to develop. It had to sell in large numbers and so far has seem to.

Add comment February 28th, 2008

Portal: Game of the year and secretly…. girl-designed.

I doubt many people know that Portal was designed/created by a woman. It’s a fantastic game that has a “girl’s touch” – how many men would put a companion cube in a first person shooter? Zero.

And after reading the Post-Mortem in the January edition of Game Developer Magazine, I realized that Valve was taking a huge risk in funding Portal but mitigated it by bundling Portal with Half-Life / Team Fortress. Portal was a “bonus” game of sorts, but has surpassed it’s bigger brethren. Much like Geometry Wars has become it’s own franchise after starting life as a mini-game inside Project Gotham Racing.

I suspect more smaller games will be bundled in major console releases to “test out” the market.

Add comment February 28th, 2008