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UK's top 10 retail publishers for 2012 revealed

N

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Ever wondered how retail publishers stack up against each other in the UK? Well, now we have the answer (though unfortunately a lack of unit volume).

I feel Sega actually charts quite well in the country relative to presumably most other nations. I'm going to guess this has to do with Football Manager and Sonic.

MCVUK said:
...

Electronic Arts was comfortably the UK’s top physical games publisher of 2012.

The firm enjoyed a successful year thanks to record-breaking sales of FIFA 13, which sold through 2m units two weeks faster than its predecessor.

Other games that helped propel the publisher to the top of the rankings included Mass Effect 3, Need for Speed: Most Wanted and continued sales of Battlefield 3 and FIFA 12.

Activision reclaimed second place from Ubisoft. The Call of Duty firm enjoyed a better share of sales thanks in part to Skylanders, which was a significant seller during the first half of 2012.

Ubisoft comfortably held third place, while the next highest charting third party publisher was Sega at No.6. The Japanese firm benefitted from its collaboration with the London 2012 Olympics.

The publisher rankings is based on data from GfK Chart-Track.

2012's TOP BOXED GAMES PUBLISHERS

1. EA
2. Activision
3. Ubisoft
4. Nintendo
5. Microsoft
6. Sega
7. Warner Bros
8. Take-Two
9. THQ
10. Square Enix
Click to expand...
Source: http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/ea-conquers-2012-as-uk-s-no-1-publisher/0108856
 
H

Horse Armour

Member
Wow at no Sony. Then again, considering their first party line up this year, is it really a surprise?

Edit: Didn't Starhawk sell something like 5K units in the UK?
 
G

grimshawish

Banned
EA/Acti/Ubi/Ninty no shock.

Sounds like Sega only really managed it with Sonic/Mario.
FM physical will be next to nothing.

Horse Armour said:
Wow at no Sony. Then again considering their first party line up this year, is it really a surprise?
Click to expand...

Yeah not a surprise. Have they sold anything this year?
MS meanwhile is pretty strong all things considered but then this year was very very much in skew to three publishers; so I suppose not too surprising in the end.
 
S

StreetsAhead

Member
Pfft, trust Western audiences to prefer Western publishers. Clearly racist.

Take that 'Japan is racist for not buying Xbox' people! :p
 
M

Mpl90

Two copies sold? That's not a bomb guys, stop trolling!!!
Quite surprised to see Nintendo that high, despite their current difficulties in the territory.
 
P

Pooya

Member
Did THQ release anything other than Darksiders 2 and wrestling games last year? and still managed to beat Square Enix...
 
Alcibiades

Alcibiades

Member
Considering Wii has been dead for the better part of 2 years and that the handheld market doesn't seem strong in the UK, Nintendo in the top 5 is a surprise.
 
P

Petrichor

Member
StreetsAhead said:
Pfft, trust Western audiences to prefer Western publishers. Clearly racist.

Take that 'Japan is racist for not buying Xbox' people! :p
Click to expand...

The difference is that japanese publishers used to do quite well in western territories, and still enjoy some success here. Western publishers have never done well in japan and probably never will.
 
1

1st Course

Member
pieatorium said:
I think Capcom not making it is a bigger suprise they had a bunch of fairly high profile releases this year
Click to expand...

I think Take-Two is very low also considering the number of games they have released this past year, for example:

Max Payne 3
Borderlands 2
NBA 2K13
Major League Baseball 2K12
Spec Ops: The Line
 
O

oconnomiyaki

Member
Horse Armour said:
Edit: Didn't Starhawk sell something like 5K units in the UK?
Click to expand...

As it should have. How I wanted to like that game. It was seriously my most anticipated game of the generation. But even after a lengthy beta, it launched an unbalanced mess that resorted in base camping and multiple rage quits. By the time they finally listened to the users and patched it to an acceptable level of balance, it was six months later and the game was already in the bargain bin. *sigh* :(

Anyone not expecting the publisher of FIFA to be number #1 in the UK is silly.
 
P

pieatorium

Member
1st Course said:
I think Take-Two is very low also considering the number of games they have released this past year, for example:

Max Payne 3
Borderlands 2
NBA 2K13
Major League Baseball 2K12
Spec Ops: The Line
Click to expand...

Well I wouldn't consider US bsed sports games to really do too much in the UK


Capcom had

Resident Evil 6
Resident Evil ORC
Resident Evil Revelations
Dragons Dogma
Street Fighter X Tekken
 
V

Visualante2

Member
Sony bundles a lot, maybe that's fucking with the results. Very concerning either way. Sega's the most shocking to me.
Nibel said:
Same here, they shouldn't be even in that list
Click to expand...
DS software has reached PS1/PS2 territory. Budget software is showing up in petrol stations and convenience stores, probably a product of a generation who simply don't know how to pirate, or don't care to. The Wii might have tailed off but those dancing and fitness games that put EA/Ubisoft at #1/#3 are selling enough.
 
H

Horse Armour

Member
Visualante2 said:
Sony bundles a lot, maybe that's fucking with the results. Sega's the most shocking to me.

DS software has reached PS1/PS2 territory. Budget software is showing up in petrol stations and convenience stores, probably a product of a generation who simply don't know how to pirate, or don't care to. The Wii might have tailed off but those dancing and fitness games that put Ubisoft at #1/#3 are selling enough.
Click to expand...
I'm pretty sure bundled games are counted in the UK as I know Nintendoland is and last week it never charted in the top 40 which suggested that Wii U hardware sales weren't very good.
 
Y

ymmv

Banned
Horse Armour said:
Wow at no Sony. Then again, considering their first party line up this year, is it really a surprise?

Edit: Didn't Starhawk sell something like 5K units in the UK?
Click to expand...

2012 was an "annus horribilis" for Sony. Everything they released bombed.

Twisted Metal
Starhawk
Wonderbook: Book of Spells
Ratchet & Clank - Qforce
Sport Champions 2
Playstation All Star Battle Royale
Sorcery
LittleBigPlanet Karting
Dance Star: Party Hits

And then there's the Vita sales debacle. That's an incredible waste of money and resources. Hopefully the people responsible get fired. If it wasn't for a few PSN games like Journey and Unfinished Swan, 2012 would have been nothing but failure.
 
W

Withnail

Member
Shows how dreadful Sony's lineup was last year. First year since the PS3 launched that I didn't buy a single Sony published game at retail.
 
B

bigtroyjon

Member
I know people around here love Sony's first party games but at the end of the day they are an insignificant part of the PS3 and almost all of the people buying the hardware are doing so to play 3rd party stuff.

When the games are good and made into an event, they sell to the established base. When it's a bunch of mediocre junk like this year, the base just sticks with FIFA and Call of Duty.
 
W

Wax Free Vanilla

Member
ymmv said:
2012 was an "annus horribilis" for Sony. Everything they released bombed.

Starhawk
Spellbook
Ratchet & Clank - Qforce
Sport Champions 2
Playstation All Star Battle Royale
Sorcery
LittleBigPlanet Karting


And then there's the Vita sales debacle. That's an incredible wast of money and resources. Hopefully the people responsible get fired. If it wasn't for a few PSN games like Journey and Unfinished Swan, 2012 would have been nothing but failure.
Click to expand...


Eight Days would have outsold all of that combined shite. Yoshida needs to go.
 
V

Visualante2

Member
Opus Angelorum said:
It's an interesting list, and underlines how unimportant (I believe) first party software has become outside of Nintendo platforms.
Click to expand...
It's perhaps unimportant at this stage in the console life cycle.. but I think it's still very relevant. At least I'd hope so, I'm not even sure the Nintendo qualifier is necessary.

I think Sony's digital strategy is the most progressive too, so they might be in it for a long haul. People wouldn't buy an iPhone if it didn't have the basic functionality.. perhaps first party will consolidate to be more of tools/apps based thing instead of the Uncharted and Killzone experiences. See how Sony Cambridge worked on Skype or whatever for PSP. Isn't SingStar a free service that you basically buy songs for now?
 
D

Dabanton

Member
Opus Angelorum said:
It's an interesting list, and underlines how unimportant (I believe) first party software has become outside of Nintendo platforms.
Click to expand...

Pretty much. For all the crowing about retail exclusives from Sony and their superfans they've mostly been a pile of rubbish in 2012 and their userbase have voted with their wallets and brought mostly third party games.

More interesting is the digital non retail downloadable only games, both MS and Sony have had better DL games in 2012 than retail imo.

And yet a lot of people on here say they "don't count" especially in MS case.
 
Y

ymmv

Banned
Dabanton said:
Pretty much. For all the crowing about retail exclusives from Sony and their superfans they've mostly been a pile of rubbish in 2012 and their userbase have voted with their wallets and brought mostly third party games.

More interesting is the digital non retail downloadable only games, both MS and Sony have had better DL games in 2012 than retail imo.

And yet a lot of people on here say they "don't count" especially in MS case.
Click to expand...

Both MS and Sony have been targeting the casual gamer/family demographics for a while with Kinect and Move. Unfortunately none of those games combine accessibility with quality, they're all mediocre. There a lack of good, innovative first party games for the people who actually buy games instead of an imaginary audience. Thank god Sony is rectifying this with a strong Q1-Q2 2013 lineup: God of War: Ascension, The Last of Us, Beyond: Two Souls and Puppeteer.
 
L

lefantome

Member
Take 2 is too much R* dependant even if they had some great IPs.

Also R* has a lot of teams and they only release a title a year since 2009, what a waste of potential!
 
D

Dabanton

Member
ymmv said:
Both MS and Sony have been targeting the casual gamer/family demographics for a while with Kinect and Move. Unfortunately none of those games combine accessibility with quality, they're all mediocre. There a lack of good, innovative first party games for the people who actually buy games instead of an imaginary audience. Thank god Sony is rectifying this with a strong Q1-Q2 2013 lineup: God of War: Ascension, The Last of Us, Beyond: Two Souls and Puppeteer.
Click to expand...

I was talking more about the XBLA and PSN games.
 
Bruno MB

Bruno MB

Member
pieatorium said:
Well I wouldn't consider US bsed sports games to really do too much in the UK


Capcom had

Resident Evil 6
Resident Evil ORC
Resident Evil Revelations
Dragons Dogma
Street Fighter X Tekken
Click to expand...

Resident Evil: Revelations, Dragon's Dogma and Street Fighter X Tekken bombed.

Resident Evil ORC did it great for what it was and Resident Evil 6 underperformed. Not a good year for Capcom.
 
P

pieatorium

Member
Bruno MB said:
Resident Evil: Revelations, Dragon's Dogma and Street Fighter X Tekken bombed.

Resident Evil ORC did it great for what it was and Resident Evil 6 underperformed. Not a good year for Capcom.
Click to expand...

Yeah thats what I'm saying they were hoping for better from DD and rev at least I would think
 
C

Carl

Member
No surprise with lack of Sony.

Vita userbase is too small to get them in the chart, and they basically released nothing good on PS3 this year. Book of Spells probably did better for them than any other game in the UK.
 
K

Kenshin001

Member
Withnail said:
Shows how dreadful Sony's lineup was last year. First year since the PS3 launched that I didn't buy a single Sony published game at retail.
Click to expand...

Me too. The only game that really interested me was Starhawk and they botched it completely.

Wax Free Vanilla said:
Eight Days would have outsold all of that combined shite. Yoshida needs to go.
Click to expand...

Amen brother. I have very little confidence in him at all. For all his twittering he does not seem to be on the ball when it comes to oversight and direction as the head of WWS. I'm pretty sure good games come out despite him, not because of him.
 
9

99%

Member
Nirolak said:
I feel Sega actually charts quite well in the country relative to presumably most other nations. I'm going to guess this has to do with Football Manager and Sonic.
Click to expand...

Even on iOS football manager is always in the top charts.
 
D

Delusibeta

Banned
grimshawish said:
FM physical will be next to nothing.
Click to expand...

Wrong, it's pretty much the most popular physical PC game that's not made by Blizzard or not a Sims game. Frankly, I'm unsurprised by their position, since I'd wager a good 50% of the UK retail sales by Sega any year is Football Manager. It's to PCs what Call of Duty is to consoles (and PCs).
 
T

TimmiT

Member
Carl said:
No surprise with lack of Sony.

Vita userbase is too small to get them in the chart, and they basically released nothing good on PS3 this year. Book of Spells probably did better for them than any other game in the UK.
Click to expand...

There was Tokyo Jungle, though that's a downloadable game. Starhawk was pretty good but bombed hard.
 
F

farnham

Banned
Visualante2 said:
It's perhaps unimportant at this stage in the console life cycle.. but I think it's still very relevant. At least I'd hope so, I'm not even sure the Nintendo qualifier is necessary.

I think Sony's digital strategy is the most progressive too, so they might be in it for a long haul. People wouldn't buy an iPhone if it didn't have the basic functionality.. perhaps first party will consolidate to be more of tools/apps based thing instead of the Uncharted and Killzone experiences. See how Sony Cambridge worked on Skype or whatever for PSP. Isn't SingStar a free service that you basically buy songs for now?
Click to expand...

nintendo platforms have to sirvive solely on first party software while other platforms incl. the vita can bank on actual support from third parties
 
F

farnham

Banned
grimshawish said:
...
They've probably had less releases than the other three.
They've jumped to smaller userbases before everyone else...

Really?
Click to expand...

pokemon, mario kart, mario bros, mario 3d land.. all games you would expect to sell a certain amount.. all either released this year or late last year.
 
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