There's an old saying, "there's no such thing as bad publicity." Though it was critically panned, "Duke Nukem Forever" appears to have pulled off some decent U.S. sales figures last month. According to the NPD Group, the game managed to take the second-highest sales spot for the month of June. Leading all software titles for the month was Rockstar's "L.A. Noire," the second month it has dominated the sales charts. Third place went to Sony's "inFamous 2."
There's obviously some truth to that old adage I mentioned, given the hubbub surrounding the content of "Duke Nukem Forever" and its less-than-stellar review scores. The game was also involved in controversy when a public relations representative threatened game critics with blacklisting for what he deemed to be reviews that "went too far." The same could be said for "L.A. Noire," which despite generally positive review scores, has found itself embroiled in controversy regarding the production methods of its developer, Team Bondi.
Nintendo didn't miss an opportunity to rightfully brag about the sales figures of "The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D." Even though the game had only been on store shelves for two weeks, it still managed to sell 283,000 units last month, grabbing the fifth-highest spot on the NPD report. That's a big deal for Nintendo, who have so far struggled to find a big hit in software titles for its new 3DS hardware.
On a less jovial note, Joystiq reports that Grasshopper Manufacture's "Shadows of the Damned" and Q-Games' "Child of Eden" didn't fare so well in June. While "Shadows" didn't launch until June 21, and "Eden" released mid-month on June 14, the sales numbers were rather poor. "Eden" -- only available on Xbox 360 at this point -- only sold 34,000 units. "Shadows" only managed to move 24,000 copies across Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 combined. Both games received generally favorable reviews, with our own review of "Shadows" calling the game "genuine and clever, rather than simply crude for the sake of being crude."
To put those sales in context, "Duke Nukem Forever," which our review described as "an absolute rip-off," sold 376,300 units. That's over six-times the sales of "Eden" and "Shadows" combined. Ouch.
I'm not exactly sure I like the message we're sending the industry as game consumers here.