There were two games noticeable by their absence from the October NPD top 10 list: EA's heavy metal adventure Brutal Legend, and Activision's peripheral-shackled DJ Hero.
Brutal Legend managed to move 215,000 copies when you combine the figures from PS3 and 360. For a game with a niche appeal, that's not too bad. But for a game that had Jack Black popping up every five seconds to promote it...yeah, maybe EA were hoping for a little more.
It's a veritable Modern Warfare 2 when you compare it to DJ Hero, however, which only sold 122,300 units. Across four platforms. Yes, it was only on sale for five days in October (still a long enough time to pick up decent numbers), but this was Activision's first crack at their own "Hero" game. It had an expensive marketing campaign, and was backed by heavyweights like Daft Punk, Jay-Z and DJ Shadow.
Then again, maybe that was the problem. My distaste for the game has always been down to its scattershot approach to its soundtrack: a little hip-hop here, a little electronica there, some dance, all meeting over some ill-advised pop remixes...it's a mess. Perhaps it would have been better served picking, say, hip-hop and just running with that, so it was a must-have for at least one market.
That or not being $120. Or making its song downloads $3. Those might have helped, too.
Wonder if it'll do any better in November...
Anyway, here's the platform breakdown for those interested, courtesy of GameSpot:
Brutal Legend (360) - 150,000 units
Brutal Legend (PS3) - 66,000 units
DJ Hero (360) - 62,000 units
DJ Hero (PS3) - 39,000 units
DJ Hero (Wii) - 19,000 units
DJ Hero (PS2) - 3,300 units
Brutal Legend sells 216K, DJ Hero 123K [GameSpot]