8/09/08

By Benjamin Schlichter (BenSchlichter@Gmail.com)

Week 2 of the tour-de-force "Summer of Arcade" is in full swing, with Braid and Geometry Wars 2 dominating the charts.

It was no surprise that Braid would do incredibly well, as it's becoming one of Xbox Live Arcades most positively talked about game, as it currently has a GameRankings score of 92.4%. It's sellthrough has been incredibly good considering the short length of the game (5-8hrs), and pricetag of 1200 Microsoft Points. Over the next few weeks, I expect Braid to have strong N+ like legs, as it's having awesome word of mouth like N+ - I expect Braid to see a solid boost next week of 20-40%. With 28,500 units already sold, it becomes the 2nd fastest selling game in terms of it's debut week, beating out 'Rez HD' by 3,000 units.

Geometry Wars 2 had a great 2nd week as well. Climbing up 16% from such a massive debut is no small feat. Geometry Wars 2 now stands alone in terms of best first months since we started tracking in November. It's already 5,000 units above Rez HD, and with 3 weeks left, has a shot at doubling that amount before everything is said and done. Expect a large drop next week as typical with XBLA games on their third week.

Golf: Tee it Up! and Schizoid have finished up their first months on market. Golf did very well, earning the #12 spot on best first month, and Schizoid finished a bit lower at #32. Both games had decent multipliers, with Golf garnering a 5.0x, and Schizoid lower at 4.3x

1942: Joint Strike had a very small drop this week (for being it's 3rd week), shedding 50% of last week's total. This is rather good for the game, and it has a good shot at reaching 50,000 units in it's first month on market.

Next Week's Releases:

Bionic Commando: Rearmed, and Fable 2 Pub Games are set to launch next week. With Braid and Geometry War 2's incredible debuts, I think that it sets a high mark for BC. However, at 800 MSP for BC, I think it could reach 30,000 in 3 days, setting more high marks for sales.

As for Fable 2 Pub Games - I am unsure. It could be seen as a great idea to drive Fable 2 sales, and has a huge userbase (Fable sold 3m copies according to VGC)...Will that translate to sales? I think it could debut with 10,000 units or more, depending on how many users activate their free codes for the download (or are they available yet?)