Heavy Rain Sells 500,000 Units in Week One

I really love this game

I consider acting as the protagonist of an interactive play as "playing". This is interactive fiction and you are an actor playing at stage. The only real game aspect is solving the case. And in case people didn't notice, Heavy Rain is a point'n'click graphical adventure like those old computer games by Lucasarts and Sierra. Except in new clothes: they replaced the mouse cursor with the protagonist and the verbs interface by contextual commands when near important items. New generation gamers are much too spoiled to think games can only be FPS, Mario or FarmVille. Thankfully, there's space for variety.

@ KeptoKnight... Yes. I consider controlling a three dimensional character in an 3d environment (as well as interacting with) other characters and the environment "playing". You don't?

Huge Rain :P

Going to buy today, Played the Heavy Rain demo and Wow can't wait

The very best game that I've played so far this year..GAME OF THE YEAR candidate seriously....I played the game and WOW!..I won't dish any spoilers you have to experience this game for yourself

@Atheist: Thanks for explaining. That makes a lot more sense now. Personally, I haven't even touched the chapter selector yet, so I still feel far away from experiencing everything this title has to offer. That, and I'm eagerly awaiting 'The Heavy Rain Chronicles.' To each their own, though.

It only does everything including selling niche title to great success!

Its crazy sales for a pure adventure game!! Way to go (And for those 360 gamers want to boast their Alan Wake, dont start, its more a glorified Alone in the Dark Shooter than it can ever be an adventure game)

I really love this game

I am sure the game will be front loaded... but damn this is amazing. Even if second week sales dropped to 10% would be able to pass 1million in no time.

hmmm CGI-Quality says: "If HEAVY RAIN was going to be affected by games, they'd have to be in the same genre as it. " Interesting, so if someone bought a PS3 lets say around middle of March, April, May, what are the chances of that individual picking Uncharted 1-2? killzone? God of war 3? Final Fantasy? Battlefield? Call Of duty? over Heavy Rain.... Does it really needs to be in the same genre? I wonder if thats what Kepto was trying to emphasize if im correct. StephenSharp says: "Hopefully, all the knock offs this inspires take some cues from this games missteps and push the genre forward.... I bought it, but I've already traded it in." Yeah I agree lol. This game you will see it used in stores in no time, once u pass it will get dusty afterward.

YES 1MILLION!!!!! we ALL CANT WAIT !!!!! let me finish it off for u, ""if I wanted to go see a movie i'd watch a movie" ______with my lady." Juniversal says: "but if I had the choice to play (essentially) an interactive movie" if u call that playing, ok by all means thats on u lol

@ KeptoKnight.. Bullsh1t. This game will sell 1 million by the end of the year (no doubt about it). But more then likely it'll do that much sooner. And the, "if I wanted to go see a movie i'd watch a movie" logic is about the dumbest logic ever lol. If I wanted to watch a movie i'd go to the movies but if I had the choice to play (essentially) an interactive movie that evokes emotion better then most movies do....then i'd choose the latter

Hopefully, all the knock offs this inspires take some cues from this games missteps and push the genre forward.... I bought it, but I've already traded it in. We need more actual choices, and better voice acting an plot for these games to succeed past the experiment stage!@!

Love the damage control in here.

@ Lyrik People knew it wasn't an action-oriented game. Every review has made that clear and everything leading up to it's release made that clear.

While I am Surprised and glade on how much it sold, I do wonder how many people were dissapointed it wasnt more of an action oriented game and than returned it

@ Kepto We don't know what legs it has yet. You're judging it prematurely. Naming all those games still means nothing. If HEAVY RAIN was going to be affected by games, they'd have to be in the same genre as it.

@ Juniversal: its an ok game dude, too many saliva's on it because its different. It does not have long legs. This year there wil be TOO much competition for this game i personally believe it will not sell more than 1.1 million "the game should see some strong sales throughout the year and could hit 1.5 million by Christmas." Its always like that FIRST day sales impressive then it just drops, like dropping a penny from the empire state building. How long did it take to create the game? how many developers it took? Its a Rail-Movie. Might as well go out to the movies with ur lady. God of war 3, Metroid, Mario, Splinter Cell, Final Fantasy X3, Alan Wake, Battlefield,

@ snicshuffle ROFL. This game is nothing like Shenmue. Paying attention helps in life!

Wow, a lot better than I expected. Hope they make some sort of sequel, but a lot longer.

I think the only reason this game got good reviews was because it's different. Shenmue did something similar 10 years ago and better.

Bravo QD and SONY! It seems that people are craving for stellar games that pack innovation and amazing eyecandy. 1 million will be an amazing feat to achive for HR. I think from memory QD's other titles struggled to get any where near that and those games were multi plat games, too! Here's hoping for 1.5 ~ 2 LTD, as the game clearly deserves it.

@ KeptoKnight...Some people are way too impatient lol. And it'll do much better then "ok" (500,000 week one is much more then "ok"). Personally I plan on playing through it at least once more if not twice (after my brother is done playing it). Some of you have traded it in without even getting the Taxidermist DLC lol...

Holy shit, maybe some people will try new things.

I really didn't expect that at all. Wasn't this suppose to be a niche title? Congrats HR.

@Cross-X I couldn't have said it better myself, kudos to Quantic Dream! Personally, I loved it!!!!

Whilst the interactive movie/adventure concept isn't new, its good to see an old seemingly dead genre pulling in some great sales.

Truly well deserved. So glad to see many people buy the game!

Nice.

@ Big: Only Japan in that period of time had received the game. If you align first weeks for all three regions (that are on VGC) then you get this number.

it will sell ok, nevertheless, plenty of people will sell it right back after it is finished in 2-3 days......it will be on our shelve for a very short period of time.

Im confused. On the Worldwide Weekly Chart it says it only sold 25k in its first week.

Wow. Plenty of people thought 1Mil max. Very impressive.

O_O' This was... unexpected...

Nice one. I think if this does crack 1 million lifetime then we can expect more from this style of game. I was thinking 750K would be a credible performance by this game so anything more than that is bonus as far as I'm concerned.

Like a lot of other people, I would have guessed 250k-300k first week. Congrats to Heavy Rain; extremely successful week.

Well deserved. Game is unique. May push some PS3 sales if the word of mouth spreads.

@Kai Master You are very right! I usually buy games online from amazon.co.uk because even with postage they are much cheaper than buying them here in Portugal. There are many other people who also do it.

Wow I was thinking about 250k-350k but man that blows that out of the water. I'm rather surprised people are picking this up in those kinds of numbers early on. Must have been a more effective marketing campaign than I thought.

HOLY SHITE!!!!! what and opening for this game!

o.O ??? O.o !!!! o.O :O!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is incredible. I have no words. The new IP that had had the best first week on PS3 (only considering the exclusives) was inFamous with 185k. And now, a niche game achieve 500k. It's absolutely fantastic. I already was surprised when I saw on game sites every single PS3 owner saying that he would buy Heavy Rain. Now, I am astonished. I think this game is already a master exclusive for PS3.

I doubt anyone expected this. Well done Heavy rain.

@kai master would this apply to xbox and wii then? if so, no point in brining that point up

Don't forget that UK sales are always boosted by exports due to heavy advantage of currency weakness, a big share of French for ex. buy their games in the UK, I'm wonderin how would the UK market be without the exports.

Very nice... a lot more then i expected... and anyone should expect considering how strange a premise it was. Hope nobody is playing the "i'm disappointed it didn't sell 1 million" card.

Wow, nice job.

Wow .... this had a massive opening.

@dirty. I unlocked most of the endings and I didn't have to do an entire play through. I redid a lot of the ending chapters and than did 1 playthrough from close to the beginning. I got a good amount of the endings, I believe I got around 4-5 epilogues for each character. I almost contemplated going back and changing a few other things, but all the in-between chapters that don't really affect the story or ending are hard to sit through sometimes. It's like watching a movie that you really enjoyed again right after you finished watching it....but this movie is around 8 hours. I felt bad because I want to support them and I do like the game, but I don't support $60 dollars for a short (even though length was appropriate) game.

@ dirty I'm on my 3rd playthrough as we speak and still have a lot to unlock as well. The replay value is there, but it does take some dedication.

@Atheist: Obviously, everyone perceives these things differently, but I totally disagree about the replayability. I just finished 'Heavy Rain' for the third time last nite, and I've still yet to unlock 3/4 of the Trophies. Now, I'm a completionist, and this is by far the smallest percentage of Trophies/Achievements I've ever unlocked after a third playthru. There's just so much to experience!

The pre-order in USA were about 100.000 ,the result it's not so unexpected,anyway such a game innovation deserves these sellings!

Bravo. This isn't my sort of game, but I'm of the opinion they deserve every one of those sales. Here's hoping that they can get past a million sooner rather than later (so that used copies can tank in price in case I ever want to try it out >_>).

Personally I was never one to believe the game would bomb (I actually thought it would sell reasonably well due to the hype and exposure it got as an big name exclusive) but 500,000 in the first week exceeded my expectations. Great news. Definately deserves it.

I knew this game was going to sell well. Though the 100,000 figure in UK is high...

I loved this game, but I felt the replayability of this game was lacking. The first play through was amazing, after that it was interesting to see the different things. All of that can be done in the period of renting it. I bought it on Tuesday, and I just decided to trade it in today, because I didn't think I would play it again.

41000 after vgchartz adjust it's numbers

Wait so pachter prediction was wrong for this game (he said it would not sell good). What is the world coming to. Next you will tell me the year will end with no wii hd. Nooooooooooooooo!

I am shocked by this, great news for Sony, but it does need to keep selling for a while

I'm so glad I spent $60 on it the other day and now that I have a day off of work today, I can't play it. Thanks Sony!!!!!!!!

That is surely a lot more than I expected! I imagined less than half first week and barely a million lifetime!

"Press X to sell 500k units"

Awesome first week. Hope itll reach 1million soon.

Infamous did 275k, ended up selling 1,37m and still selling... I think it will do 2m by end of next year. Amazing stuff.

Awesome game, I'm sad I can't play the game today due to the widespread error. Hope my trophies I got from my first run will be properly restored when Sony fixes the problem.

I love HR, shame I can't finish playing it because of the current PS3 error thing. If it turns out to be an unfixable hardware error that will be the end of Playstation 3, it'll be in a situation you can't recover from.

even if 500k is more than what was actually sold and it does end up getting adjusted down to say 300-350k thats still more than what most people were expecting, including myself. I had no idea that heavy rain would sell this many units in one week will likely hit the 1.4-1.6 mil mark by years end. Not only does this benefit quantic dream, but it also helps many other developers who were maybe on the fences about creating a unique title that may only appeal to a small audience as Sony will indeed continue to take risks if it pays off like this. This also completely benefits us as gamers, were the ones who reap the rewards in the end as there will continue to be a steady supply of unique gaming experiences, I love it.

sold out in my game,here in uk i was surprised and i'm a big fan who hasn't bought it yet,to someone earlier i'll get it this month,though

Awesome game, shame Sony messed up and my PS3 won't play it now. Looks like it could affect sales of some games as people simply won't buy games if they can't play them.

WOW I wasn´t expecting that... still there´s hope for original new games

@SegaWorld I'm not so sure what is so difficult to grasp, but it is obvious that sales figures alone aren't why it is news, it is sales figures for a game most people thought wouldn't succeed in the market. were their experts discussing the sales potential for AVP? it is sad that you need to reduce complex scenarios to simple elements to comprehend them and make comparisons as opposed to being able to see the considerable differences between the titles and why one is news and the other isn't. finding basic similarities is easy, children do it, but it takes intelligent people to find more subtle differences.

My faith in humanity is restored.

I saw a poster on the bus today for it. Said something like: "Where are you travelling now" "A game with so many different choices, only on PS3". So they are promoting it. 500k is much higher then I thought. I was thinking 300k would be good. @AgustusBot, you posted a spolier so im reporting it. Don't want you ruining peoples play through.

I'm not surprised at all. Heavy rain brings some innovation to the gaming industry and gamers are picking up on that. It's a totally new experience and its nice to see a game like this selling well because most developers are afraid to take a risk on a new type of game. hopefully this will mean more innovation and not just making 20 shooting games, racing games and action games that are all just slight updates of their predecessors.

@ segaworld: AVP is an established series, with even movies to back it up, and sold 600k over two platforms... Heavy Rain was a gamble for most, and is unique... therefore its 500k is a news post.

Why is anyone surprised that this game is selling...it really is that good.

The big question... Should it move hardware?

Great advertising campaign (in UK at least) and well deserved sales. Bravo.

@ Signal Well, believe it.

It deserves more, but it's still good for a new IP. This game is one of the best story driven games I have ever played.

Sorry I simply do not believe it.

Very good for Heavy Rain. Guys, buy a fantastic-PlayStation 3 with Uncharted 2, Metal Gear Solid 4 and Heavy Rain. It is sooo awesome

HR done 500k with shortages is Europe... nice. http://www.mcvuk.com/news/37771/Sony-working-on-Heavy-Rain-shortages

OMFG.... call me surprised :-O

I expected this and I hope it keeps doing this well, whoever didn't play it pick up a copy you will love it, it is really a fresh and amazing game for men and women alike. Fantastic!

Waiting for next week. That and to see if the bargain bin is filling up. Time will tell.

Grats to the game, as I expected something much less than this.

Wow, 500k? Higher than Resistance 2's first week, ha. Definitely higher than I expected.

@ dragon A margin of error is typical, but this is an indication that the game has done much better than anticipated.

Good if the sales are correct. But there are always "adjustments" to these preliminary sales data articles.

600,000 Units for AVP , where is the news?

@ Altitude Sony is working on shortages in the UK and it's sold out in many places in the US. If that's any indication, the game is still pretty sort after. It can't be "realistic" when the game has already shattered many doubts. Meaning, the game isn't on a set path, it's doing what it wasn't supposed to already.

That's a very good opening! I tried the demo today and it was good. My sister laughed at me all the time though, because I failed witht he walking controls >_<

Quantic deserves it for taking a chance. Long overdue since they first created Indigo Prophecy. However. . . realistically. . . the sales will drop off sharply now. For a game like this you have to imagine the demand has mostly been met.

Looking back through many sales threads, there won't be enough crow to cook today. Hell, even I need some! :-D For a game that was supposed to do sub 100,000-200,000 to many, and goes on to outshine MANY games in it's first week (including MAG), this is more of an indication that PlayStation fans like fresh, new ideas as some people said. Looks like Sony's risk paid off!

OMFG THATS A LOT WOWOWOWOW YES!

Holy SHIAAAAT!

I actually think this will suffer a massive drop off. Us who followed it heavily have bought it already. But hey, I've been surprised before. Plus, this game is good if people give it a chance.