Look at Those Legs Game of the Day

Gran Turismo 5 Prologue

Description: In the "Look at Those Legs" series we look at the sales of a game that has been released for at least 18 months, and compare first month sales to current total sales to determine if a game's sales were frontloaded or if it exhibeted strong "legs". Since its release about 18 months ago Gran Turismo 5 Prologue has sold an impressive 3.19 million copies worldwide an outstanding total for a game that is essentially a demo of the upcoming full Gran Turismo 5 title. It is surprising how much of the game's total sales came in its first month of release (43.26%). The game is still selling a few thousand each week (even more since the PS3 slim model and price cut released), but is unlikely to get the first month sales/ total sales percentage below 40.  So why has Gran Turismo 5 Prologue not seen strong sustained weekly sales, is it because of competition in the racing genre, a perceived lack of quality, or are most fans just waiting for the full Gran Turismo 5? Read on to find out what we decided.

Gran Turismo 5 Prologue is an interesting title to look at because it has a number of different factors that could have impacted its ability to sustain strong weekly sales. First and foremost is the fact that the game is the prologue, or essentially the demo of the upcoming full Gran Turismo 5. It is likely that many of the people who bought Gran Turismo 5 Prologue are devoted fans of the Gran Turismo series, which would know when the game was releasing and want to pick it up soon after release. More casual fans of the franchise that would typically pick the game up sometime after release were probably willing to wait until the full Gran Turismo 5 game releases.

Also potentially contributing to the frontloaded retail sales of Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, is the availability of the game on the Playstation Network for digital download.  Digitally distributed games display long tailed sales trajectories more often than retail copies (Gamesutra), so it is likely that if Playstation Network sales were factored in the first moth/total sales ratio would decrease.

On a region by region basis, surprisingly Gran Turismo 5 Prologue’s sales were the least frontloaded in Japan (first month/total sales percentage is ~32%), the region where sales are typically the most frontloaded.  It makes more sense however when you consider the game was bundled with the Playstation 3 console several months after its initial release.  The effect of the bundle on the game’s sales can be clearly seen in this graph of the game’s total sales by week in Japan.

Europe is by far Gran Turismo’s most popular region, a trend which continued on with Gran Turismo 5 Prologue selling 1.89 million of its 3.19 million worldwide total in the region.  Fans of the franchise were so eager to get the game that ~48% of the total sales in the region came in its first month. Europe also received a Gran Turismo 5 Prologue bundle with the PS3 console, but it was available at the game’s launch instead of several months later like in Japan. So the bundled sales would not have given the illusion of strong legs.

The Americas was the one region not to receive a Gran Turismo 5 Prologue system bundle, and while the sales in the region were significantly lower in than in the Europe/Others region, the sales were also a little less frontloaded (first month sales account for ~41% of current total.)

I was surprised, how concentrated Gran Turismo 5 Prologue’s sales were into its first month of release, because it seems like Gran Turismo games always stay in the charts for many months.  Then I looked at the sales for Gran Turismo 4 on the Playstation 2, and the game had a similar first month/total sales percentage of ~41%, which is likely where Gran Turismo 5 Prologue’s percentage will be when the game completely stops selling. Without the weekly sales for the previous games in the franchise it is difficult to determine, but perhaps Gran Turismo is a franchise that has huge launches, then drops off relatively quickly, but is able to maintain low weekly sales consistently which is why the game’s remains in the top selling charts for so long, but is not able to get the first month/total sales ratio lower. A

That is it for my take on the game, here is what the VGChartz community thought.

Rath – “A game like prologue will only ever sell to the more hardcore fans of the series. It kind of fits in between being a demo and being a full release. People who want Gran Turismo but aren't massive fans will just wait until the full game is released as that will contain all of the content of prologue and more anyway."

MissingNo –“ VGC doesn't track downloaded games and I bet it sold a lot on PSN. For all we know it could be 4 million including downloads. Also people know it’s just a demo and people knew the full game was coming eventually.”

If you missed the thread let us know what you think in the comments. Do you agree with the overwhelming majority from the poll, that most people are waiting for the full game or do you think another reason better explains why the game's sales were frontloaded?

This was the last entry in a week long reader’s choice, where the VGChartz community was picking the games we were looking at. Thanks to everyone who nominated and voted for the games. The next few days we will be looking at games in the survival horror genre in honor of Halloween. The first being Resident Evil featured on Change in Sales.