Famitsu Reveals Best Selling Budget Titles of the Year - News

by VGChartz Staff , posted on 31 December 2009 / 7,286 Views

Budget re-releases in the "Playstation 3 the Best" and "Xbox 360 Platinum Collection" ranges have always been great chances for a hit game to sell more than it already did - if people missed out on it before because of it being expensive (and games can reach prices of around $100 in Japan!), the budget re-releases are there to get their purchases. They are known in the west as the Greatest Hits/Platinum Range for the PS3, and Platinum Hits for the 360, Normally retailing for $30.

Famitsu's publisher, Enterbrain, decided to measure exactly how much of a dent they made in total sales, and delivered us solid numbers, tracking from 12/29/2008 to 12/13/2009.

PS3:

1. Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare (Square Enix): 88,573
2. Hot Shots Golf 5 (SCEJ): 88,346 (96,967)
3. Valkyria Chronicles (Sega): 81,625
4. Metal Gear Solid 4 Guns of the Patriots (Konami): 59,092
5. Ryu ga Gotoku Kenzan! (Sega): 55,226 (65,236)
6. Uncharted (SCEJ): 39,679
7. Grand Theft Auto 4 (Capcom): 33,202
8. Devil May Cry 4 (Capcom): 23,770
9. Mahjong Fight Club Nationwide Competition Version (Konami): 20,656
10. Way of the Samurai 3 Plus (Spike): 20,593

Note: Hot Shots Golf 5 and Ryu Ga Gotoku Kenzan! Were part of bundles.

Good job, squad Budget!

Xbox 360:

1. Ace Combat 6 (Namco Bandai): 86,534 (128,414)
2. Beautiful Katamari Damacy (Namco Bandai): 74,166 (115,658)
3. Halo 3 (Microsoft): 25,508
4. Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare (Square Enix): 24,567
5. Left 4 Dead (Electronic Arts): 12,988
6. Armored Core 4 Answer (From Software): 10,974
7. Idol Master Twins (Namco Bandai): 6,621
8. Devil May Cry 4 (Capcom): 6,360
9. Grand Theft Auto 4 (Capcom): 6,210
10. Fable 2 (Microsoft): 6,151

Note: Ace Combat 6 and Beautiful Katamari were part of Microsoft's Value Pack bundles.

Looking at the data, some titles got a very extensive number of sales. I'm very happy to see Valkyria Chronicles and Ace Combat 6 sell so well in their budget renditions... even though Call of Duty 4 has overall best.

Source: Andriasang

21 Comments

Marco (on 03 January 2010)

Gratulation@4. Metal Gear Solid 4 Guns of the Patriots + (Yakuza) Ryu ga Gotoku Kenzan!

ps3_jrpg_gamer (on 02 January 2010)

VC sells pretty well

Baalzamon (on 02 January 2010)

Not to mention some NES games cost as much as $55...making it even much higher for what games should cost today.

Baalzamon (on 02 January 2010)

@Finman702: When Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was released, it cost $79.99, while most games were released at $49.99. If you take that the system was available since the end of 1996...lets just say we can use 12 years of inflation. Our amounts will be the actual inflation rates over 97, 98...07, 08 (09 amounts are not yet available) are 2.34, 1.55, 2.19, 3.38, 2.83, 1.59, 2.27, 2.68, 3.39, 3.24, 2.85, 3.85. With these values, those $49.99 games should not cost approximately $68.64 on release. Not to mention the better games like Zelda would cost as much as $109.83. Please do not use inflation to justify game prices. Gaming is an extremely cheap hobby now compared to what it was 20, even 10 years ago.

outlawauron (on 01 January 2010)

@ Ken

That's usually 25-40% of the original price.

Kenryoku_Maxis (on 31 December 2009)

@Finman702

Yeah, and games back on the NES and Genesis use to range between 60 and 100 dollars. And that's without accounting for inflation. Do you really want to justify the price of PS3/360 games based on the practices over past overpriced games? Or do you want to perhaps think that the last generation was a measure of progress with lower game prices due to more competition and a bigger console gaming market? Personally I'll go with the latter.

I don't think developers should use the excuse that just because the system is 'HD' that their games should cost more. Certain examples of games with exorbitant development costs may be necessary, such as a Metal Gear Solid 4 or Final Fantasy XIII. But other games...not so much. And I think its pretty crazy you guys are trying to find ways to defend the increased cost...do you like spending more money?

Finman702 (on 31 December 2009)

$60 adjusted for inflation is relatively the same price we paid for video games back on the N64, SNES, NES so on. I don't get all the hullabaloo.

Kenryoku_Maxis (on 31 December 2009)

@Avarice28

I don't own a PS3 or a 360. I was thinking of getting a PS3. But I was use to 'budget' games being $20 dollars or less. The whole statement of them raising some games to $60 dollars wasn't exactly a pleasant thing for me, but I accepted it since I don't always buy games day one. But if they're not even going to let games go down to $20, then geez. Investing into either of the HD consoles is a much bigger thing than even I previously thought.

Avarice28 (on 31 December 2009)

@Kenroyku_Maxis

Budget games on the 360 are 29.99 as well so what is your point? For other people who make more than 10$ a week it is a steal; 35$ dollar cheaper versions of very popular games is never a bad thing.

Xen (on 31 December 2009)

$30 is too much for you?

Kenryoku_Maxis (on 31 December 2009)

Geez, a 'budget' game on the PS3 is $30....suddenly getting PS3 doesn't sound too good anymore.

outlawauron (on 31 December 2009)

I don't remeber Hot Shots Golf 5 The Best or Kenzan! The Best being in a bundle. Ever.

The original editions were though.

Xen (on 31 December 2009)

Yes, SE is COD's publisher in Japan.

Draven26 (on 31 December 2009)

It seems really odd to see the name Square Enix next to Call of Duty and Capcom next to GTA IV

krimoz911 (on 31 December 2009)

Hot shots golf 5 , why isn't that game platinum yet?

deaner24060 (on 31 December 2009)

does square enix publish COD in japan?

FreeTalkLive (on 31 December 2009)

Even PSP wasn't included. I know the Monster Hunter budget game was the best selling budget game of the year. Maybe it outsold all of the other budget games combined?