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Nicholas Lovell
Home   >   Self-Publishing   >   Sales   >   DoubleSix releases PSN sales figures and urges the platform holders to do the same

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DoubleSix releases PSN sales figures and urges the platform holders to do the same

By on July 30, 2009

Why are the platform holders (Sony, Microsoft, Apple, Nintendo) so coy about releasing hard numbers about units sold for their platforms?

ames Brooksby, CEO, DoubleSix

We are working in the great unknown here. Developers and publishers are trying to make investment decisions about which platform to develop for and where to put their money. The absence of meaningful statistics is a real problem.

The issue has bedevilled the PC download chart for a while, and while GfK ChartTrack is making noises about offering a download chart, certain “US digital distributors” are reluctant to take part, either because they don’t want to be seen as dominant or, more likely, because their market share is much lower than everyone assumes.

So it’s great to see DoubleSix stepping up by announcing that Burn Zombie Burn, their PSN title has reached 70,000 units, their own “internal benchmark for success”. James Brooksby, CEO of DoubleSix (which is part of the Kuju stable) said in the press release:

“We feel this lack of transparency is hindering the development of these channels. We’re happy to back this opinion up with the release of the figures for Burn Zombie Burn”

I fully endorse James’ view. So come on, platform holders – it’s time for a verified chart. And if we can’t get one of those, I hope that more developers will start putting more numbers out into the public domain.

About Nicholas Lovell

Nicholas is the founder of Gamesbrief, a blog dedicated to the business of games. It aims to be informative, authoritative and above all helpful to developers grappling with business strategy. He is the author of a growing list of books about making money in the games industry and other digital media, including How to Publish a Game and Design Rules for Free-to-Play Games, and Penguin-published title The Curve: thecurveonline.com