Capcom, Grin's Bionic Commando Sells A Meager 27K in U.S.

Capcom and Grin's Bionic Commando title sold just 27,000 units in its opening month in the U.S., despite the title's roots in Capcom's classic swing-and-shoot platforming game from the 1980s, research firm NPD Group told Gamasutra on Monday. Bionic Commando sold that amount at U.S. retail from its May 19 release to the end of NPD's retail calendar on May 30, across both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of the game. NPD Group said it could not disclose the exact split between Xbox 360 and PS3 sales. The Capcom-published Bionic Commando is currently earning around a 70 percent review average on Metacritic. Stockholm, Sweden-based Grin is also responsible for August 2008's well-received downloadable title Bionic Command: Rearmed, a side-scrolling, polygon-based remake of the NES version of Bionic Commando from 1988. Another Grin-developed game that launched on May 19, the movie-licensed title Terminator Salvation, sold 43,000 units during the same period across Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The game launched in close proximity with the McG-directed movie, which garnered largely poor reviews but still generated $67.2 million during the extended Memorial Day weekend. Evolved Games published the Terminator Salvation video game, which is garnering a relatively low 45 percent review average on Metacritic. Gamasutra contacted Grin for further comment on the performance of the two games. The studio is rumored to have laid off a significant amount of employees in recent weeks, although the studio has yet to officially confirm. NPD also said Electronic Arts' Wii game Boom Blox Bash Party, released May 19, sold 23,000 units during the period. The game is the sequel to May 2008's original box-toppling puzzle action game Boom Blox. As reported last week, total U.S. video game retail sales across hardware, software and accessories fell 23 percent to $863.3 million in May. The top game was THQ's UFC 2009: Undisputed, which sold 679,600 units on Xbox 360 alone.