LA Noire sales "below our estimate"
899k US tally not enough for Wedbush.
Rockstar's epic detective caper L.A. Noire sold 899,000 copies in the US during its debut month on sale.
While that doesn't sound too shabby to us, industry analyst Wedbush Securities isn't impressed.
Its monthly investor report noted that the game's performance was "below our estimate of one million units".
The game, which scored a sturdy 8/10 from Eurogamer last month, topped the monthly NPD sales chart, as reported last night.
Michael Pachter's employers had kinder words for Valve's Portal 2, revealing that the game sold in excess of the 200,000 units it had anticipated for its second month on shelves.
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Comments (76) Latest comment 11 months ago
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I played it, I completed it and when I left it I was just left with this massive feeling of 'what if'. The atmosphere was very good, most of the voice acting was brilliant and some of the faces were plain old amazing but the 'game' part of it was simply a series of let down after let down. Far too linear, far too scripted and just not engaging enough as a detective/investigation game.
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Potential, but awful priorities.
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In other words, it doesn't surprise me that the game sold less well than the far more traditional Red Dead Redemption, but I hope that Rockstar will still support Team Bondi in spite of that.
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That article sort of sounds interesting, but I'm on my phone and it doesn't seem to be displaying the full link. That said it's a far weaker interactive story than Alpha Protocol or even Heavy Rain imo and just feels so artificial.
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I understand why some people wouldn't agree though.
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Still a good game, but it definitely was no Red Dead Redemption which truly deserves a sequel in my opinion.
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Dead Space took almost a full year to reach 1 million sales globally and I don't believe Mirrors Edge has reached that milestone at all, yet these are considered to among the best games in their respective genres this generation and I'm sure LA Noire will achieve the same level of acclaim before too long. For me the disappointment is that studios/publishers are no longer proud of their achievements unless the sales figures match that achievement, a stark contrast to last gen when the focus was on making a better game rather than simply selling more units than your competition.
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I have had my fill now though and it would require a little bit extra from future DLC to tempt me back. There was huge potential for more branching and elaborate cases and plots, especially in that beautiful, beautiful city but we will never get to see that kind of thing while everything needs prescripting and 'acting'. The 'vactors' were generally brilliant, this and portal 2 have been the only games I havent read the speech and skipped the voicover.
Would love to see someone attempt something really ambitious, utilising a whole city of that size and quality using text for speech.
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I do think it will have done quite well in Europe though, so we should see some figures from there soon hopefully.
And @ Murton, I think its because at times the USA is considered the only market in the world. Things that do poorly in the US, but alright or well in the EU are normally deemed failures- look at the PS3, ICO and the Singstar series. All have done well (or better than in the US market), but are regularly claimed to have sold nothing / be pointless/ niche things. Its the way journalism works, what with it all being centred in the US.
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Have you ever met an analyst? They are not people to report on!!
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If this is your 'biggest gaming dissapointment' you must play some really brilliant games. I hope Team Bondi and R*Star continue to have major success as one of the few studios to do innovative, blockbusters. I'm sure a follow-up to LA Noire will be brilliant
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It is a gem amongst a load of shit people get bombarded with but it's like heavy rain or beyond good and evil you just can't have spectacular sales to a game that isn't a mindles shooter or some casual rpg stuf.
Well sometiems you can score a hit but it's rare to move the lobotomized people to buy something unique.
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The negging system here is so abused...
Also, I knew LA Noire would be like this, all style, no substance. Sad really.
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Seeing as Red Dead got Undead Nightmare, I think Noire should get something set in the Cthulhu-verse. The game engine and era is perfect for an occult investigation game.
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Guess his mum's online
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Rough-up that spit and polish a bit and you're left with a convoluted DS classic which masquerades itself as A LOT more than a great big beautiful empty shell.
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Surely that means your forecasting methodology isn't very good, rather than any reflection on the game. the same applies to underestimating portal 2 sales.
Seems odd to report this as "sales were disappointing" rather than "we got our sums wrong".
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Your welcome. It was my pleasure
Let me know when you learn to spell review correctly
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What's so unbelievable about that?
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In anycase I've yet to play this game, and I'm in no hurry to pick it up. In fact I'm wondering if I should get alan Wake beforehand, I haven't played a good investigation drama since Heavy Rain, not that I expect either to compete though.
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XBOX only right?
Nuff said.
Bring out a game that would have major appeal to us PC snobs & our stuck up, smugly superior, sophisticated ways but don't release it on our platform.
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It's easy to slag off the game's design and say "they should have done this", but designing a game isn't as is as "that sounds good lets do that". You have to think about all the avenues and pathways that can form from a one interview, and the potential outcomes when pursuing each line of questioning. I'm not saying that it's an excuse, just that it's easier to say and design what you want to do than when it comes to implementing it.
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So there.
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Both really, not so much the over arching story, but little things like people always running even if they're innocent. And suspects always challenging you to prove it when you accuse them of things. They're just not believable and break any sense of immersion I have. I read the article now, it manages to explain away a few faults eg Cole losing it when you doubt someone, but there is so much that even he claims is terrible and most of what he latches on to is reaching I think, rather than things the designers intended to be the case.
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Kinda glad they didn't from the sounds of it on these comments. If they had I would have bought it at launch now I know it's a bit disappointing they can keep it.
Rockstars PC snub works out for the better this time it seems
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R* enjoys major success from the XBOX 360 audience as far as sales are concerned, it's been a pattern since GTA IV and also with Red Dead Redemption but with LA Noire it was Brendan McNamara an ex-employee of Sony's Soho Studios who insisted on this being a PS3 led development and we seen some serious issues with the game because of it across not only the Playstation 3 console but also the XBOX 360 as well.
It's time developers outside of Activision and EA to comprehend that the XBOX 360 regardless of its flaws is a major mover in consoles and software, Team Bondi need to take heed and in effect the sales are slow.
The game was a great addition to the small lineup over the years that break away from the multiple FPS games out there.
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"Oooh there is talking in it, send it back!"
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I have to agree though, regardless of its pros and cons, one of the main reasons it didn't sell well is because its not a shooter with explosions etc. One of its main selling points for many of us was that it asks you to think, like REALLY think, and that isn't a big-sales-figures kind of request for a game to make.
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From your post anyone would think it was a PS3 exclusive, but of course it wasn't and indeed the majority of sales were on the 360.
The truth is that nobody outside of sites like this gives a rats bum about technical comparisons and lead platforms and so on. Such things will have barely influenced sales in any way imo.
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If you really loved LA Noire to the point of thinking it is one of the greatest games ever made then I would strongly urge you to play some of the better point and click adventures on the PC. They are essentially the same thing (albeit not as pretty) but they have a depth to investigations that LA Noire never even came close to achieving. The guy who made the comparison to Phoenix was spot on.
Just as much as people want to say that those who disliked it are just trying to be cool or are only interested in shooting things, it is extremely tempting to counter with the people who DO heap such praise on it simply try to put themselves on some higher plane of gaming existence by claiming it's genius and that others just don't 'get it'. That would be make me a hypocrite though wouldn't it. Even a passive aggressive one!
To say the investigation, interrogation and narrative aspects of the game did not contain serious limits and huge flaws is simply delusional and just makes it look like gamers are so desperate for something different that they will heap massive praise on it regardless. If you liked it in spite of those flaws then power to you, I'm glad you got your moneys worth.
What LAN did do very succesfully was show that this type of game CAN work on a console though and I would very much welcome a detective game that paid more attention to the gameplay. Preferably involving an Alpha Protocol like approach to NPC interactions.
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@Stranded87 Agreed on both your examples of the game ruining the suspension of disbelief. As for "reaching for an interpretation the developers never intended", that's the most enriching way to approach a work of art (and I apologise for using the A word): to not let yourself be restricted by the artist's intentions and let the work speak for itself, and see what reactions you have to it. Now, that of course all depends on whether or not you find the connections Tom makes to be interesting or compelling. Still, ideally, a work is enriched by gamers responding to it without being shackled by what they think the developers meant by it. (Still, in this case, I really feel McNamara doesn't get enough credit for all the layers he DID put into his story)
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Hmm, can anyone see why we might think YOUR a moron?
First post on this article, person has at least one glaring spelling mistake. People who don't like LA Noire are clearly sub-intellectual peasants who can't understand anything beyond the level of Saint's Row. I enjoy Saint's Row, but on a much more superior level than most people do.
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I'm not judging anyone, and I am old enough to have lived through the hayday of quality point and click adventures, and I'm not saying LAN didn't sell because people didn't "get it", or that it isn't without its flaws (though I think the major flaws are in the writing, not the mechanics).
I'm simply saying the premise is not as saleable as the hype suggested (regardless of the final quality of the gameplay). MW sells for the same reasons Independance Day sold. LAN sold less copies for the same reason Miss Marple sells less copies. Its not a personal judgement of anyone.
Throwing around accusations of people fooling themselves and heaping "massive praise regardless" is just taking whatever personal injury you seem to feel is being levelled at you, and pointing it back in the other direction. I'm not sure why you are so angry about the matter.
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I know, I know: I'm advocating a removal of all challenge from a videogame, and that's a tricky debate. Let's just say that I think it worked extremely well in L.A. Noire, and should be a viable option for games that focus on narrative so heavily.
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The game just isn't very good! The investigation sequences are tedious, the interrogations spoiled by the one-shot accusation attempts, the driving boring and the characters/plot uninteresting and badly written (as per spoilers in other comments). Having impressive art, facial animation and decent atmosphere (though it's not very noir) is about all that's impressive about it. If they could marry the impressive tech to a more involving story and more fun (nb: not necessarily action, just something engaging) then it would indeed be one of the best games this gen.
EDIT: See? -4. I might as well type complete raving gibberish.
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You could use a couple of commas in there
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Your science is limited
Try putting a few other popular recent games into ebay. "Hundreds" is pretty much the going rate.
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And as you said, the market is a little more niche than generic fps.
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Its true. I was just being a bit pedantic for a moment there.
I did look at the thread and think "the last few posts are just me, being a high and mighty tit". Don't think I didn't notice
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