Enslaved sales disappoint

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

Enslaved is an amazing game, so just why it has only sold around 150,000 units Worldwide on all formats is beyond us.

Created by the team at Ninja Theory, Enslaved sees you take control of a character named Monkey who has been Enslaved by another character named Trip. The reason she has done this is because she wants Monkey to use his muscle and wisdom to get her home, in what is a dangerous, post apocalyptic world.

Enslaved is a beautifully crafted title, with fantastic acting and some of the best motion capture you will ever have seen, sure it doesn't have online play, however after you finish the campaign you can be happy in the knowledge that it will be supported by DLC.

So why are we telling you this? Well because we want you to buy it, we loved the game and we would love to see a sequel.

Currently its a bit of a bargain as well, with GAME selling it for , which in our opinion is a steal for a game of this quality.

Sometimes the classics go unseen, with people only picking them up when they realise what they have missed (look at ICO for example), we hope people realise the error of their ways soon, because Enslaved deserves to be played.

Source: http://www.made2game...les-disappoint/

Heard the SP is a bit short which is why I haven't paid much attention to it.

It's almost sub £20 already!

[.KICK]

Yeah, I've been waiting to buy this game until it is cheaper. The fact that it is so short is bit pants seeing as it is a SP game. I guess they didn't learn from Heavenly Sword which I hear was uber short as well.

[George P Global Moderator]

The short length of the SP is EXACTLY why no one buys it right away and everyone waited for the price to drop. It's exactly why I picked Castlevania over it since the other is 3x longer it seems.

This also means that review scores once again mean jack, it got high scores but if this type of game will only give you at best 8hrs of gameplay there's no way in hell anyone will pay full price for it. If you do then I really think it's your loss in the end. Devs need to put way more time into SP only games, this 6-8hr BS doesn't cut it.

[Corris Veteran]

I was talking about this article last night, it's sad to see but the sales are pretty low, and I expected them to be higher, not by a lot, but still higher.

Looking at the supposed numbers, even Castlevania has sold less than 300k.

I wouldnt say it has anything to do with review scores being good or bad, taken notice ofthem or not, It just isn't a good time for SP releases at the moment regardless of the game unless your an in your face console exclusive.

It will more interesting to see the sales of the SP titles are after the holidays, I for one have Enslaved and Castlevania on my Christmas list, and no doubt a lot of other gamers will too.

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

I was talking about this article last night, it's sad to see but the sales are pretty low, and I expected them to be higher, not by a lot, but still higher.

Looking at the supposed numbers, even Castlevania has sold less than 300k.

I wouldnt say it has anything to do with review scores being good or bad, taken notice ofthem or not, It just isn't a good time for SP releases at the moment regardless of the game unless your an in your face console exclusive.

It will more interesting to see the sales of the SP titles are after the holidays, I for one have Enslaved and Castlevania on my Christmas list, and no doubt a lot of other gamers will too.

Really? Ouch.

Guess it explains why it's gone low ?20's/sub ?20 recently as well.

Absolutely no point in buying SP games at launch if this continues :p

[Nick H. Supervisor]

I don't think I've even heard of this game before...

But as for short SP stories, I agree that it's ridiculous these days.

[-KJ]

I played the demo and I didn't care for it.

[+jamesyfx Subscriber²]

Never heard of it until it got released. I guess that was it's problem, there's usually hype around games these days. That's why so many people pre-order.

[spacer]

They're surprised at the game's sub-par sales? Mediocre to average reviews, and a short SP-only game with no replayability...really? They're surprised?

I was planning on getting the game because I thought the art direction and plot idea was great. However after every review noted some technical bugs and a short campaign, I decided not to get it. Releasing a short SP campaign with the promise of releasing DLC down the line, which in all likely hood will be paid DLC, is not much incentive to get the game. Games are so expensive now a days, I can't justify spending the money on anything less than a high quality title that will me at least a month or two.

I do feel bad for Ninja Theory though. They tried to release a new IP, and I'll always respect a dev team for doing so in today's sequel/copycat industry paradigm. It's just sad that sometimes it doesn't work out.

[Corris Veteran]

Really? Ouch.

Guess it explains why it's gone low ?20's/sub ?20 recently as well.

Absolutely no point in buying SP games at launch if this continues :p

Yea, I looked up te figures for Enslaved on Vgchartz, which have the listed numbers, if the Castlevania ones ad Enslaved ones are right, they've both done pretty poorly.

It feels a little like karma for Ninja Thoery, all they have done into last couple of months before release is bitch about one thing or another, though I wouldn't wish low sales on any dev this generation.

These games should have been release in the summer into august, would have had a lot more breathing room.

[furyshinobi]

I was talking about this article last night, it's sad to see but the sales are pretty low, and I expected them to be higher, not by a lot, but still higher.

Looking at the supposed numbers, even Castlevania has sold less than 300k.

I wouldnt say it has anything to do with review scores being good or bad, taken notice ofthem or not, It just isn't a good time for SP releases at the moment regardless of the game unless your an in your face console exclusive.

It will more interesting to see the sales of the SP titles are after the holidays, I for one have Enslaved and Castlevania on my Christmas list, and no doubt a lot of other gamers will too.

Same here, I will also be picking up once the Christmas sales starts ^_^ Though I'm having a hard time deciding which one is better Castlevania or Enslaved... though I was originally planning to get Castlevania last week but picked up Mass Effect 2 CE instead :laugh: Didn't this happen with Valkyria Chronicles as well? I remember the low sales it got until later on then lots of people started picking up the game once it's cheaper.

[Massiveterra]

Currently Enslaved is one of my favorite action/adventure games of the year. It offers Uncharted 2-like cinematic moments every step of the way. I'm about 4 hours into the game and it's already in my top 5 for the year. I'm completely enamored for this game, and can't wait to play more. The game is engrossing, has beautiful backdrops and environments, and characters that actually makes a connection with the player emotionally. And it has one of the best introduction of any game I've played all year.

Does the game has it's flaws? Sure. But this game was made by a much smaller team than a developer like Naughty Dog. And I'm willing to bet, a much smaller budget than Uncharted 2 since it was released by Namco/Bandai and not Sony. But what makes this game so great far outweighs any of the flaws that it has.

It's both the gorgeous art direction and the ability for the characters to emote in such a way that makes this game stand out more than many other games I have played this year.

As far as Castlevania I really didn't care for it that much. Although, yes it's a long game, I returned it after 3 hours. It didn't connect with me, and felt flat compared to my expectations.

That leads me to the topic of game length. To me, the value you receive from an exceptional experience of a game far outweighs the length of the game. If a developer is able to marry both experience and length into one big package, then that makes it an exceptional game. But for me, the 8-12 hours in an exceptional game is way more worth the value than 40 hours of a mediocre game.

If you go to the movies, you still pay the same ticket price regardless if a movie is 1 hour or 4 hours long. Books are not priced by the number of pages. But in the gaming industry, you get a standard price of $60 for a new game regardless of length.

I really hope people overlook the length of games like Enslaved and Vanquish. Because they offer such a unique experience that are rare in games these days.

[Xilo]

It's Ninja Theory. What do you expect?

You'd think they learned from Heavenly Sword.

[etempest]

Looks like a good game, but had no knowledgeably it existed until this post.

I loved Heavenly Sword btw

Also worried I about the length of the single player length, unless there a price drop.

For me a weak SP length is hard for me to swallow a $60 price tag.

My big problem with multi-player is you have a short windows to play MP until the next shinny thing comes along and everyone jumps to it.

We've had Fallout 3 NV and Fable III just come out close to each other, those are the two games splitting time on right now.

[Byron_Hinson]

I enjoyed Enslaved a lot, just found it over too quickly in less than a weekend. As for Castlevania views - I was one of those who thought it was a great fun game that got better the further you got.

[George P Global Moderator]

You know, waiting for games like this to drop in price is fine, if you'[re in the US, or maybe the UK. Game prices take forever to drop in price here for me and that just sucks even more. For $20 I'd buy it, but hell no not for full price. I've been playing castlevania for over a week now probably, taking my time and tyring to find everything so no rush (though I only play 2-3hrs a night before I go to sleep). I've often found myself having to replace levels to get things I missed or things I couldn't get before for some reason, I dunno if enslaved has anything like that going on but if not then really, no matter how good the gameplay is (which it is) or how good they do in the story, $60 for 6hr's or so? Just no.

[neoadorable]

it's a crap game i bought on release. thanks a lot Ninja. mediocre gameplay, ad nauseum bot fights that just go on and on and on...poor design. this game doesn't deserve to succeed. what a disappointment.

[WastedJoker]

I bought it and it's ok.

You don't really have a lot of moves though and your interaction with your captor is very muted. Seems they paid more attention to the cut-scenes than they did the gameplay :/

[DrunknMunky Veteran]

Seeing as everyone is hating on it, I'll probably love it :D

Just like Heavenly Sword. Still the best PS3 game to date

[bob_c_b]

I enjoyed the demo, on my 'find it cheap over the holidays' list, would have gladly paid more for it until I heard how short it was and SP only.

[Pupik]

It looked good and I wanted to buy it, but I only had one option; to skip it, because it was not available on the PC.

[George P Global Moderator]

I'm not saying it's a bad game, it's actually good. All I'm saying is that no one in their right mind will pay full price for something that's so short. Maybe now that the price has tanked they'll see sales pick up, doesn't do any good for them though since their profits take a hit on the lower price tag.

[Massiveterra]

I've been playing the game for over 7 hours now and there's 4 or 5 chapters left. So I definitely don't consider it a short game(compared to the average 8 hour single player campaign these days). Just last night it took me about an hour just to beat one boss, granted one huge reason was because I was trying not to get hit for an achievement, but still. I think the overall experience of this game is worth the value.

And I don't understand people who say you can't die when platforming, because I have definitely died plenty of times during the platforming sequences.

BTW the game is now $25 on Amazon

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/11/09/bad-sign-good-deal-enslaved-for-25-on-amazon/