Activision: Blur & DJ Hero was not a failure


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Activision has insisted Bizzare Creations' recently released racer Blur was not a commercial flop, despite disappointing US sales.

The publishing behemoth also revealed that Freestyle's peripheral music title DJ Hero, which many consider to be a commercial failure, has sold an impressive 1.2 million copies to date.

Blur sold 31,000 copies in the US in May, although it had only been on sale for five days at the end of the month.

"The audience was split three ways," Activision's Dan Amrich said in a blog post.

"Blur came out a week after Split/Second and the same day as ModNation Racers. I'm not sure what your budget looks like, but I can rarely afford to buy three games in eight days - nor do I have the time to play all of them at once anyway."

Amrich described NPD's sales data for May, which only represents one week in the month, as "very outdated".

"Blur shipped 25th May in the US, 28th May in the UK. Since the June data is not yet available (and won't be for a few more weeks), we are looking at one week of sales and no international data."

Amrich likened Blur's sales performance to DJ Hero's, a game he said benefited from a "long tail".

"While big sales out of the gate are always preferred, a slow first week no longer means a death sentence. A perfect example: DJ Hero was dubbed a flop on its release too, but what it needed was time for its audience to find it, a price break, and positive word from both friends and reviews to circulate. October and November were soft, but after the holiday, DJ Hero had hit about 800,000 units; today it's 1.2 million units and counting, all of which come with a turntable controller. That's not a flop; that's the long tail at work.

"So to suggest a game is a failure because it didn't sell hundreds of thousands of units in its first 168 hours is pretty ridiculous. June's data will be very interesting to see, and I don't expect to hear much about any victories it might represent, since it's a less sexy story than 'Blur failed in week one'. Bad news travels fast."

He added: "For what it's worth, I played Blur a fair amount this weekend, both PS3 and 360, and it was smooth sailing for me. I have never logged on and found less than several hundred players in the lobby, eager to race. Hundreds to thousands of people playing online every day, stable servers, positive reviews?folks, this game is not a failure, and it's an irresponsible disservice to use that word to describe Blur. All it's really guilty of is coming in third in a three-way race. And that was just the first lap."

While some doubt the commercial success of Blur and DJ Hero, both games were critically acclaimed. Blur managed an 8/10 on Eurogamer, as did DJ Hero.

eurogamer

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my friends and I bought blur, and I've got to say its probably the best racing game I've played.

Its like mario cart, but with way better graphics and a lot of different game types.

GO BUY IT.

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I thought Blur sucked,Split Second was better but even then i didn't like that game.Blur is like Mario Cart with better cars. (i'm not a fan of Mario Cart :p).Didn't try DJ Hero but when i heard about it, I knew i wasn't going to go any where.

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I love when developers and / or publishers need to make an announcement saying their games weren't failures.

Too true. Pretty apparent they were a flop for one reason or another!

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Too true. Pretty apparent they were a flop for one reason or another!

It's becoming apparently Activision doesn't give a **** about you unless you're able to sell millions. Both Singularity & Blur has been put out with either no fanfare or in a very crowded release window.

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It's becoming apparently Activision doesn't give a **** about you unless you're able to sell millions. Both Singularity & Blur has been put out with either no fanfare or in a very crowded release window.

I never heard of blur until it was released.

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I never heard of blur until it was released.

If it wasn't for a thread here regarding the beta I wouldnt have either...and Project Gotham is probably one of if not my fav racing series. The game deserved more hype prior to release thats for sure.

Anyway bought it today and I enjoyed the 1hr I managed to have with it.

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It's becoming apparently Activision doesn't give a **** about you unless you're able to sell millions. Both Singularity & Blur has been put out with either no fanfare or in a very crowded release window.

Well neither Blur nor Singularity have had a crowded release.

Singularity has proved to be popular, so it's not lack of fanfare either.

More likely it's because people are enjoying good weather outside or are on holidays etc.

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Dj hero is a flop. I see tons of copies in the stores but nobody buys it. I have 1 friend who bought it, he played it 2 or 3 times. I only played it for about 2 hours at his place and got bored of it. Some of the music was great, but the game is not fun

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Well neither Blur nor Singularity have had a crowded release.

Singularity has proved to be popular, so it's not lack of fanfare either.

I hadn't even heard of Singularity till release. GAF didn't have a megaton thread till release either. I don't think it was on anyones radar. Blur was released next to two other racers and that little ol' game RDR.

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I finally bought DJ Hero a few weeks ago online and loved it. I'm not really into the music game genre so it surprised the hell out of me.

Blur is a 'maybe'. I have to rent it before I decide whether or not I want it.

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Got both games and enjoyed them both immensely.

Did wait for DJHero to go on offer (?45 :)). Blurs a great online racer. The beta was a bit "luck" when it came to races, but the final version the A.I.s deff been fixed and things a bit more balanced.

Neither are failures, just maybe not what the marketing boffins expected. Little bit of bad press to squeeze a few more sales me thinks this maybe.

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