Max Payne 3 Proves A Headache For Rockstar, Manages Only 440,000 Sales In First Month
In what must be disheartening for Rockstar, Max Payne 3 has failed to live up to expectations selling only 440,000 units according to the NPD Group. When compared to LA Noire which was Rockstar’s big release for 2011 having sold 900,000 units, Max Payne 3 is off to a bad start. Even Michael Pachter, a Wedbush Securities analyst, had something to say, calling Max Payne 3 “a flop”. The game’s long development time of nearly eight years, causing Rockstar to bring in many of its global studios to finish the project, surely didn’t help either as time is certainly money. With all this doom and gloom surrounding Max Payne 3 sales, the only question I have is how many digital sales did the game amass on Steam. Since the NPD group doesn’t take into account digital downloads one has to ask is the game really selling that poorly? Without sales figures from Valve and their Steam service or a direct answer from Rockstar we can’t say for sure. Though if these sales figures are on the mark gamers may see retail markdowns in the near future.
It’s clear that Take-Two Interactive, parent company of Rockstar, was betting big on Max Payne 3’s success. In its last financial report, Take-Two claims retail sell-in of about 3 million units. With only 440K units sold in the US, that means there are a few million units of unsold inventory sitting on store shelves. If you haven’t bought Max Payne 3 yet (and by the looks of these numbers, you likely haven’t), retail markdowns are likely to happen in the coming weeks.
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