Mass Effect Andromeda in third place for NPD March 2017 Report

As pessimistic as I am with Andromeda's current state, I'm pretty sure EA made their money. I'm also pretty confident that EA will only use this kind of leverage to justify cutting budgets even further and laying off more people to keep maximizing returns. Honestly, EA doesn't care if Bioware succeeds or fails. The value of the IP is what draws in investors. When the IPs begin to fade, you know what will happen next. I hope Bioware succeeds despite the F***ING HORRIBLE LEADERSHIP DECISIONS, REPUTATION-KILLING HIRES, NON-EXISTANT HR (Read Glassdoor and other sites that former Bioware employees wrote about, especially 2004-7), PR IDIOCY FOR NOT RECOGNIZING THAT THE FORUMS HELPED BIOWARE and TOTALLY EXPECTING RAINBOWS when the release was F***ing insulting garbage.

So yeah... good luck Bioware. I love you and fear for ya. Hang in there and pour some soul and passion into the franchises or you're never going to get hired anywhere except on the cheap.

Maybe I am wrong, those sales are for just march 2017? If that is so, of course mass effect andromeda would have sold less than breath of the wild, it was not available until 21 march.

Of course zelda is going to sell more because its been available from march 3, while andromeda only had one weeks of sales for march 2017.

How the hell is GTA 5 still selling like crazy 3 1/2 years after it came out?

I dunno about that. 

I would imagine those numbers don't include Origin sales and really did anyone expect it to outsell Zelda?  Zelda is one of the most iconic game series of all time, no shame coming in behind them.  Ghost Recon I assume is one of those boring shooter games?  That's like McD's hamburgers, they sell a billion of them no matter how bad they are.

EA definitely made its money back as it never takes huge financial risks on anything. The problem is how this could affect future BioWare products. Any missteps on the part of BioWare will lead to cuts and less creative freedom. The livelihood of the studio is on the line.

Doesn't matter. Games make most of their money in the first month, specifically the first week. Mass Effect is a much stronger brand than Ghost Recon, and Wildlands had worse reviews than Andromeda did. Had MEA not had bad publicity, it would have been at the top of the list easily.

I don't think you understand. The Switch has been sold out since it released. Nintendo sold around 900,000 Switch units and there have been supply shortages ever since. Ironically enough, more Switch copies of BOTW have actually sold than available Switch consoles to play them on. MEA's first week should have brought in huge numbers being available on three platforms. That obviously did not happen due to bad publicity.

It is surprising when Wildlands got terrible reviews, BOTW is really available on only one console (the Wii U never had a large player base), and Mass Effect easily had the biggest fan base and hype going into its release. It doesn't matter that it released a few weeks later. Most games make most of their money in the first week of launch.

Yes. Another thread giving information about where Mass Effect Andromeda stacks up with other competitors. We have so many of these threads on here compared to troll ones...
Micro-transactions and the fact that R* is still supporting Grand Theft Auto Online. That service is a moneymaker for them.

Thank you.

Here ya go.  No Origin sales.

www.shacknews.com/article/95772/npd-group-will-include-digital-sales-data-from-select-publishers

"However, there are some important caveats to keep in mind. Most of these publishers will be providing sales data from Steam, the Xbox Live Marketplace, and PlayStation Network. Despite Activision Blizzard and Ubisoft's participation, though, data from Battlenet and Uplay are not included, respectively. Also, EA eschews Steam altogether, and it doesn't appear to be providing PC sales data from Origin."

Ghost Recon also released 2 weeks ahead of Mass Effect (March 7) and so had much longer to get those sales.  And comparing MEA to Zelda is just...wrong.  Zelda is a juggernaut.  It's a religion.  It's one of the most beloved and critically acclaimed game series of all time.  Sure, it's a new console, but it's a new console that has been getting some pretty good reviews, it's Nintendo so people are going to buy it in droves anyway, and getting it and BOTW, which is like the second coming of Christ, means duh people are going to buy that instead of MEA.  

Look, we (most of us) love the Mass Effect series.  It's a great and amazing series, but it has never had the selling power as something like Zelda.  I think holding it's own against HZD is fantastic, though HZD is a console exclusive.  HZD has a real chance of being GOTY (though I'm pretty sure that will be taken by BOTW).  I think you will fine that MEA is selling well enough and that EA and Bioware will be happy with the profits.  It's not a blockbuster, for sure, but I think they might see where a little extra funding might increase their profits for MEA2.  

Remember, too that IIRC NPD still does not include Origin sales, and I'm thinking a very good percentage of MEA sales will be digital on Origin.  

First things first... This article is almost a year old. Secondly, the title of the article seems to imply the opposite of what you are stating:

"Activision, EA, Ubisoft, and other big names to provide digital sales data to NPD."

I think I'm going to take the NPD's up to date website more seriously than a year old article, no offense.

/shrug Fine, I don't really care.  Was just trying to give you proper perspective.

As much as I doubt it counts Origin even if it does that doesn't tell us anything except it is the third best selling game of the month despite coming out almost at the end of the month.

Again, software sales are front-loaded. Most of the sales will come in the first month, specifically the first week. MEA's placement is an indication of its weak opening performance.

Zelda is a juggernaut... on Nintendo platforms. It's an exclusive. Zelda never sells better than most multiplatform games that are hits. It simply cannot due to being limited to Nintendo hardware. Especially with the release of a new console that has been sold out since it released, it's even more shocking that BOTW still surpassed MEA. But really it shouldn't be given all the negative press MEA has had, while BOTW has been universally praised and is the fourth highest rated game of all time.

You are vastly underestimating the pull of the Mass Effect franchise. It never particularly sold well on the PS3, but that's because it started out as an Xbox 360 exclusive. Since most Xbox 360 owners jumped ship and bought PS4s, it's rather difficult to believe that MEA would not have sold well on the most successful console in video game history (PS4). No, bad press definitely hurt MEA as it is a major property. Losing to any console exclusive is telling and losing to a mediocre Ubisoft property is also telling.

Based on the NPD website, their statistics include all online sales. The article that was linked above even suggests that Ubisoft, EA, Blizzard, etc. provide the NPD with their sales numbers.

Skyrim, The Witcher 3, and Fallout 4 being the exceptions? All three of those games were monster hits and broke several records when they released. The only shooter that clearly will always sell better than everything else is Call of Duty. Ghost Recon, as I said before, has not been a powerful property for Ubisoft in over a decade. You vastly undervalue the power of the Mass Effect brand. It's not a niche JRPG that most have never heard of. It's one of the elite RPG Ips in the industry, along with The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, The Witcher, Final Fantasy, etc.

Casuals. Anyone who just bought a PS4 or Xbox one or any kid who is finally old enough to pick the game up or get their parents to. It's GTA. I remember GTA 3 still being the highest demanded game until vice city came out. Then GTA 3 was still selling like crazy years later behind vice city. What's crazy is we got 3 GTA games for PlayStation 2, but we have yet to have a current gen only GTA game. Hopefully Red Dead comes out this year