The Spore hype train rolls on
Electronic Arts has already expressed the high hopes it has for Maxis and Will Wright's creature creation simulation, Spore. The question is whether or not Spore's heaping helping of hype can possibly translate into stellar sales, and Lazard Capital Markets analyst Colin Sebastian today expresses a distinct possibility this could be a reality.
In fact, Sebastian estimates North American sales for Spore could reach as high as 2 million units from the time it officially launches this September 7th to the end of this month. It's not entirely clear if this prediction factors the PC version alone; such sales would be quite the achievement for the PC platform in recent memory should this prove to be the case! That said, Sebastian is certainly not discounting Warhammer Online as a strong performer for the PC this month, pegging sales at 650,000 units.
It won't be until around mid-October before we see the official NPD Group retail sales breakdown for September, but analysts like Sebastian believe that when the time comes we can expect to see Spore leading the pack, at least for PC. Meanwhile, Spore reviews have already started appearing in European print magazines, and scores have reflected what reviewers have described as a fairly average, if not content-rich game.
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The big thing: Sims was such a big hit because it resonated with non-Gamers. Non-gamers are also more likely to buy games than steal them (sadly.) The concept of the Sims generated more mainstream exposure than will the concept of Spore. Non-games, casual gamers and female gamers can relate more to the concept of the Sims than Spore.
I'm guessing that Spore will sell about 65% to 72% of EA's estimates.
Just my guess of course.