Even before the game released, Gears of War was expected to be the system seller for the Xbox 360 this holiday season, a 'killer app' as it were. With no new Halo or GTA game, the sky was clear for a new hit title to shine. However, no one really predicted, not even Microsoft, quite how well it would do.
It's hard to say exactly what the appeal of Gears of War is to so many people. Perhaps it's the want for a hot shooter title with Halo currently MIA. Maybe it's because of the extensive multiplayer options, both cooperative and competitive. Or there's the chance that the game is just really good.
GameDaily BIZ caught up with Raja Subramoni, Group Product Manager for Microsoft Game Studios, and talked about how selling Gears of War is going off like clockwork.
Gears Go Double Platinum
According to the NPD, Gears of War was far and away the best seller in the gaming industry for November, with over a million units sold during the month. This meant over $61.5 million gross sales during that period. Microsoft also announced this past week that Gears of War has gone on to sell over 2 million copies worldwide.
"We are ecstatic over the results of Gears of War to date. And yes, in some ways its global success has exceeded our expectations. It was evident to us from the outset that our partnership with Epic Games would result in some truly breakthrough experiences on the Xbox 360. So, suffice it to say that we were very confident that the team at Epic in conjunction with our Microsoft Game Studios publishing team would create a truly revolutionary gaming experience with Gears of War on Xbox 360. And, we were confident that our Global Marketing team would create the necessary buzz and demand to make our game a true blockbuster. But even then, the results we have seen are still phenomenal!" said a pumped Subramoni, adding, "Gears of War has become the fastest selling title on Xbox 360 and the fastest selling initial release of an IP on either Xbox or Xbox 360."
"The purpose of the Collector's Edition was to provide the most core of the Gears of War fan base (which we have been building over the past two years) a deeper insight into the Gears of War world," he continued. "In fact, our intent was to produce a limited number of Collector's editions, to provide a more 'exclusive' set of content for the franchise's most ardent supporters."
The game, in addition to being a best seller, Gears of War has been a critical darling, sporting a 94% on GameRankings.com. When asked about this, Subramoni responded, "This is a tremendous achievement, no doubt about it. As said before, our expectations for the game were always high but to have achieved a review score of this magnitude is just, well, outstanding! Again, our high expectations have been validated."
Gears Roll Through the Internet's Tubes
Gears of War was built from the ground up to take advantage of all of the Xbox 360's capabilities, and that includes Xbox Live. This attention to detail showed immediately, with an 80 percent spike in the number of Xbox Live users across the nations. With a variety of well done multiplayer competitive modes and the option to play through the game co-operatively online, the game is a great demonstration of Xbox Live.
"This achievement is a tribute once again to Epic Games. They have always had a strong history in creating compelling multiplayer content, so in some ways it comes as no surprise that one of the strengths of Gears comes in the form of multiplayer. It's hard to pick one feature per se, but an overall comment on Multiplayer. In Gears, what sets Multiplayer apart is that that it really asks gamers to think before they act.