Analyst: Gears of War and God of War Underperformed in March

by William D'Angelo, posted on 16 April 2013 / 3,250 Views

Investment firm Cowen & Company released their sales estimate for the month of March in the US. The biggest news is that both Gears of War: Judgment and God of War: Ascension underperformed when compared to their predecessors.

Gears of War: Judgment is estimated to have sold 425,000 units in the US in March. This is significantly down from the over two million copies that Gears of War 3 sold in its first month. God of War: Ascension is estimated to have sold just 360,000 units, down from the 1.1 million copies God of War 3 sold.

"We had expected sales trends to improve in March due to a strong core lineup," wrote Cowen. "However, while some titles appear to have done well, including Square Enix’s Tomb Raider and Take-Two’s BioShock Infinite, two historically strong franchises appear to have significantly underperformed."

BioShock Infinite did manage to sell an estimated 665,000 units in March, despite only being available for 10 days. Tomb Raider is also estimated to have sold 696,000 units.

Despite all the major releases in March Cowen expects the video game industry in the US to be down in the double digits when compared to March 2012. The company also expects the industry to continue to decline until at least the release of Madden 25 in August.