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Just Dance Greatest Hits drops later this month
A week after announcing Just Dance 4 and Just Dance: Disney Party at E3, Ubisoft revealed Just Dance Greatest Hits today, which will launch June 25 for Kinect and Wii. The $40 product will include over 30 tracks from Just Dance and Just Dance 2, with three tracks from Just Dance 3.Just Dance 1 and 2 never launched on Xbox 360, so that makes sense, but for Wii owners it's just selections of two games from the multi-million selling franchise in a single package. We've listed the selected "greatest hits" tracks after the break.%Gallery-158070%
NPD 2011: Sales across industry between $16.3 and $16.6 billion, Ubi tops software sales list
Assassination and dancing has proven to be a lucrative mix, as Just Dance 2 and 3 and Assassin's Creed: Revelations helped Ubisoft to lead this year's best seller's list with three entries. That's according to the NPD Group, which also estimates the video game industry's profits, comprising "new physical video and PC games, used games, game rentals, subscriptions, digital full-game downloads, social network games, downloadable content, and mobile games," reached sales of somewhere between $16.3 and $16.6 billion in 2011. Activision's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 took top honors (it's kind of a big deal), while Just Dance 3 and Skyrim occupied the second and third spots, respectively. NPD also says that, despite sales growth in the digital sector yet again, physical copies offered at retail outlets still accounted for the majority of sales coming in at $9.3 billion, "an 8 percent decline over the $10.1 billion in 2010." That decline was "partially" offset by increases in digital, mobile, and used game sales, which NPD expects to be a focus moving into 2012. "Our overall estimate of the market continues to point toward the increased imperative for deeper visibility into digital distribution than is available today, not only in the U.S. but globally," said NPD prez David McQuillan. Our waning shelf space agrees.
NPD: Sales of dancing games up 326% over last year
In the US, dancing game sales are up 326% percent year over year, the NPD told the LA Times. That's for the 12-month period ending October 31. Compare that with overall game sales, which rose 3%. Of course, at the end of October last year, Just Dance 2 had only started selling. Since then, it's been doing very well for itself, and has been followed by several spinoffs, including Just Dance Kids (and its sequel!), Michael Jackson: The Experience, The Black Eyed Peas Experience, Just Dance 2 Summer Party, and, of course, Just Dance 3. Too damn many Just Dance games can't claim all the credit for the growth in dancing-machine sales. Dance Central is at somewhere over 2.5 million units, and it's been followed by a sequel; Zumba Fitness has been a phenomenon, and Sony's Everybody Dance is also available. Update: corrected Dance Central sales figures.
Just Dance 2 just broke 5 million copies sold in the US
Like some B celebrity reality show contestant, Just Dance 2 continues to tromp all over the competition. Nintendo has announced that Ubisoft's dance-along has sold more than five million copies on the Wii in the United States, making it one of only eight games to do so on the platform. It also marks the only third party title to break five million on Wii – every other five-million-seller was published by Nintendo, namely Wii Play, Wii Fit, Wii Fit Plus, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Mario Kart Wii, Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Wii Sports Resort. Also, when it comes to titles that have crossed the five million mark, Nintendo trumpets that the Wii is home to "twice as many as competing current-generation consoles combined." Nintendo claims the title sold 120,000 units in July, making it the third best-selling individual Wii SKU, though it remains the fifth best-selling title overall, according to NPD. Assuming Just Dance 2 keeps up with our celebrity dancing show analogy, we're sure it will eventually win us all over with its plucky charm.
Just Dance 2 is the #1 third-party seller on Wii
The Wii is typically not the best place for non-Nintendo games, but one has managed to come out ahead, with its publisher announcing that it's now the best-selling third-party game on Wii. It's not No More Heroes, or Boom Blox, or even Billy the Wizard. ...okay, we all know what it is: Just Dance 2. Ubisoft announced that it was not only the best-selling third-party Wii game of June, according to NPD records, but also the best-selling third party Wii game in the US since its October debut (not that there's been much competition since October 2010). And it's the best-selling third-party Wii game in the US, ever. The franchise (including both Just Dance games and Just Dance Kids) has shipped over 14 million copies worldwide. Ubisoft is celebrating the success by bundling all the Just Dance 2 DLC as a standalone game, Just Dance 2 Summer Party, coming out on July 19.
Just Dance 2 throwing a Summer Party on July 21
Ubisoft has officially shared details on Just Dance 2 - Summer Party, after a retail listing outed the game back in June. Rather than spoil the big new sequel coming this October, Summer Party instead offers 21 already released tracks (previously available as DLC), and teases fans with two new songs months before JD3's release. Summer Party crashes down on July 21 for the Nintendo Wii. In other words, Summer Party is perfect for your little cousin who doesn't understand the concept of downloading content through his/her Nintendo Wii, or for your friend who loves to warm up with dance in a disconnected part of Antarctica. Head past the break for the full track list from Ubisoft.
Analysts consider dance genre 'bubble,' Ubisoft says more 'The Experience' games possible
Ubisoft's Just Dance and its successful clones like Michael Jackson: The Experience, along with Harmonix's Dance Central, have established the dance genre as a viable market for milking. Now the industry must play the delicate game of sucking the marrow dry without creating a zombie. Gamasutra hit up go-to industry analysts Michael Pachter and Jesse Divnich for their takes on the sustainability of the genre. Both analysts essentially characterized dance games as part of a bubble that is largely unaffected by critical reception (UK hit Zumba Fitness has a 43 on Metacritic). "In short, yes, the dance category is a bubble," said Divnich, "much like most things in entertainment." That doesn't mean that the bubble is about to burst -- or that the bottle of suds is close to empty. At least, Ubisoft is planning to keep on dipping in. The publisher's Tony Key teased that Michael Jackson: The Experience is "just the first 'The Experience' brand." He added that there's no reason why "another artist can't make a great dance game under 'The Experience brand,'" but didn't pitch any bright ideas. The Smurfs, anyone?
Dragon Age 2 champions UK sales chart
Dragon Age 2, as it was foretold by the Chantry prophecies, took the top spot on Chart-Track's all formats UK sales chart for the week of March 6. Hawke's ascension meant that s/he pushed back the Pokémon of the White and Black breeds to second and fourth place, respectively. Fight Night Champion beat up most of the competition to retain third place, while Just Dance 2's seductive moves helped it slide up two spots to fifth. The big move last week was THQ's uDraw Studio (with Game Tablet), which shot up into tenth place from #83 in its second week at retail. Check out the complete UK top ten after the break.
Just Dance 2 passes a million sales in UK
Ubisoft tells GamesIndustry.biz that Just Dance 2 has sold a million copies in the UK. Not exactly the most surprising news to folks who have taken note of the Just Dance franchise's stalwart presence on Chart-Track's weekly top sellers list. Just Dance 2 may not have brought in the headline-grabbing launch figures when it debuted last October, but much like its predecessor, it has consistently performed in the UK and in the States. Ubisoft's dance titles, which include Just Dance, Just Dance 2, Just Dance Kids, Michael Jackson: The Experience and Dance on Broadway have been shaking player's booties, while the company has been shaking the money tree.
Killzone 3 holds off Bulletstorm for top UK sales spot
Killzone 3 beat out the other high-profile FPS premiere, Bulletstorm, on the UK charts last week, but it didn't out-debut its predecessor, Killzone 2. According to Chart-Track, Killzone 3 is the "14th fastest-selling" Sony title in first-week UK sales -- Killzone 2 is the fifth. More shooting, and some kicking, got it done for third and fourth place in last week's sales ranking, as Call of Duty: Black Ops and FIFA 11 took the spots below the two debut shooters. The previous week's almost top title, Marvel vs. Capcom 3, slipped from second down to seventh. Where's Just Dance 2, you ask? In fifth, of course. Unstoppable beast!
Just grab a partner for Just Dance 2 DLC
Judging from Ubisoft's earnings, we feel pretty confident in saying that you have a copy of Just Dance 2 in your house. Yes, you. The teeming millions of Just Dancers should be thrilled to know about the new Valentine-themed DLC available on the Wii Shop -- especially as a welcome break from Katy Perry's "Firework." The three new tracks all feature Duet choreography (and, coincidentally, duet vocals!). For 300 Wii Points each, you can download "Why Oh Why" by Love Letter, "Can't Hurry Love" by The Supremes, and "American Boy" by Estelle and Kanye West. We might be a day late alerting you about this holiday-themed DLC, but if we prevented just one person from giving Just Dance 2 DLC as a "romantic" gift, it was worth it.%Gallery-116751%
Dance games made it rain on Ubisoft's holiday quarter
Ubisoft today reported sales figures for its fiscal-year third quarter, which ended December 31, 2010. For the period, the French publisher recorded €600 million ($809 million) in total software sales, up just over 21 percent from the same quarter in 2009 (though factoring in constant exchange rates -- nearly 60 percent of sales were made in North America -- year-over-year growth was closer to 15 percent). In 2010's three-month holiday period alone, Ubisoft shipped a staggering 10.5 million copies of dance titles, which included Just Dance, Just Dance 2, Just Dance Kids, Michael Jackson: The Experience and Dance on Broadway. Additionally, the company claimed an 18 percent market share of the Kinect platform in the US (and 21 percent in Europe), following its push to become the "top third-party publisher" for Microsoft's successful motion-control add-on. Ubisoft put its Kinect game shipments at over 2 million -- "a very nice level of profitability," CEO Yves Guillemot said in an investor call today -- for the fiscal third quarter. Add in all those copies of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, and Ubisoft outsold its projected quarterly sales total by €80 million ($108 million), bringing its nine-month fiscal 2010-11 year sales up to €861 million ($1.16 billion) -- a marked increase over the €661 million in sales generated during the same period in 2009, and making it a near certainty that the company will return to profitability at the end of its current fiscal year (on March 31, 2011). With a relatively quiet fourth quarter of scheduled releases, however, the publisher anticipates its total fiscal-year sales to reach only €1.02 billion. Still, "cash flow generation is expected to be positive."
NPD: 2010's bestselling game releases by platform
Gamasutra has obtained NPD data that puts a new filter on last year's US box-copy software sales, ranking the top ten bestselling 2010 releases for each console and handheld platform (PC excluded). Like the monthly NPD breakdowns, these rankings don't include actual sales numbers, but they do reveal some interesting trends. By omitting Nintendo's so-called "evergreen" titles (i.e., games released before 2010), Gamasutra found that -- perhaps unsurprisingly -- Just Dance 2 was last year's top-selling 2010 release for Wii, and among six additional third-party games that made the top ten in sales for the platform. On DS, however, Nintendo games filled out half of the top ten, and Pokemon SoulSilver and HeartGold were the only titles to surpass sales of one million units each. At first glance, PSP software sales look even bleaker, with Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep on top and, according to Gamastura, the only PSP title to break 300K units sold; with the other top ten games each falling below 200K. Of course, these rankings don't include digital sales or box-copy games bundled with hardware, so it's unlikely that Birth by Sleep (which isn't available on the PlayStation Store) was the true #1 bestseller among 2010's PSP releases -- let alone the most pirated. What is certain is that Call of Duty: Black Ops dominated torrents, as well as the games legitimately sold for PS3 and Xbox 360 in 2010. Still, both Sony and Microsoft saw two first-party releases make their console's respective top ten sales charts for the year; though each publisher's most critically-acclaimed release of 2010 -- at least, from Joystiq's perspective -- was not present. Perhaps telling of the two console's core player bases, Madden 11 beat out God of War 3 for the #2 spot on the PS3 chart, but fell to #3 beneath Halo: Reach in the Xbox 360 ranking. Finally, we have to wonder just what were they thinking? They, of course, being all those Xbox 360 owners that purchased Fable 3 and Fallout: New Vegas instead of Mass Effect 2. Three and a half stars plus four still doesn't add up to the Game of the Year, people. Check out Gamastutra for the complete breakdown of 2010's bestselling releases by platform.
LittleBigPlanet 2 debuts atop UK sales chart, Mass Effect 2 PS3 in top ten
The very pretty, Britty build-a-palooza LittleBigPlanet 2 grabbed itself the top spot on Chart-Track's UK sales chart last week. According to the chart masters, the sequel's premiere numbers were "almost identical" to that of the original, being "only 95 sales short" of it. Call of Duty: Black Ops and the magical Just Dance 2 took silver and bronze, respectively. While we're on the subject of the resilient dance game genre, Harmonix's Dance Central slipped one spot from 12 to 13, while Ubisoft's original Just Dance moved up two spots from 13 to 11. LittleBigPlanet 2 wasn't the only game to have a big debut on PS3 last week, our top game of 2010, Mass Effect 2, premiered in the seventh spot overall and in second on the PS3-specific chart.
DC Universe Online logs into UK top ten, Black Ops reacquires top spot
DC Universe Online flew into Chart-Track's UK sales chart this week and nipped a spot in the top ten. The PS3 and PC superhero simulator debuted in tenth place and, according to Chart-Track, is only the fourth retail title on PS3 to be online-only. The other internet-required games are MAG, Warhawk and SOCOM: US Navy Seals Confrontation. The rest of the top ten is composed of the usual suspects playing musical chairs. Call of Duty: Black Ops is back on top, followed by FIFA 11 and the unstoppable Just Dance 2. Speaking of dance games, Harmonix's Dance Central is eyeing a spot in the top ten as it moves from 17 to 12 this week. Check out the top ten after the break.
Just in: Just Dance 2 goes 5X platinum
You know how we're always bemoaning the lackluster sales of third-party Wii titles such as MadWorld, Little King's Story or either No More Heroes game? Well, at least we have one success story to report on: Just Dance 2. Ubisoft announced today that it has struck platinum with a non-Nintendo game on the Big N's console, selling five million copies globally since October 12. (We saw this one coming about, oh, three weeks ago.) Nintendo of America boss Reggie Fils-Aime even used the milestone to urge on skeptical third parties, saying, "The strong performance of Just Dance 2 is a perfect example of the potential that can be achieved by an independent publisher like Ubisoft in delivering irresistible content for the Wii system." That's it, then -- other publishers can finally stop worrying about their games selling on Wii. So bring on those Epic Dancing Mickeys, Dance Space: Extractions and A Boy and His Dancing Blobs, already!
FIFA 11 kicks off 2011 atop UK charts
For the first full week of 2011, FIFA 11 held onto the top spot in the UK's multiplatform sales ranking, according to Chart-Track. The footie franchise has maintained that center forward position for four consecutive weeks. Oh ... oh, look who's in second place, why if it isn't our good friend Just Dance 2. Ubisoft's unstoppable booty-shaking series keeps on crunkin', with the series' sequel inexplicably moving up two spots into second. Thus, Call of Duty: Black Ops finds itself out of its comfort zone in third place, the first time it hasn't been in the top two since its November launch. It would seem Mass Effect 2's various end of year accolades spurred interest in the game again, as it returned to the top 40 in spot 18. With no new major game releases this past week, the chart is a shifting of the usual suspects. Check out the top ten after the break.
Just Dance series sales have combined for an estimated 5 million units in US & UK
Following up on the estimated 2 million combined unit sales of Just Dance 1 and 2 in the UK, as calculated by MCV, we contacted market research firm NPD to see how the series has performed at US retail. According to NPD data, the Wii-exclusive Just Dance and its sequel have already combined to sell approximately 3 million units in the US. These sales revelations may be a surprise to anyone who doesn't religiously follow our weekly UK charts post, but the Just Dance franchise has been a stalwart sales leader all year in the UK, and also, it would seem, in the less frequently tracked US market (we have seen it pop up on the charts over the months). It may not capture headlines, but Ubisoft's dance series has consistently performed at a high level on a platform that's not exactly accommodating toward third parties.
Black Ops tops UK charts this holiday, NFS: Hot Pursuit gets sales boost
For a second year in a row going into Christmas, the Call of Duty franchise is king of the Chart-Track UK All Formats chart, with CoD:Black Ops sales slightly up and occupying the space where CoD: Modern Warfare 2 was last year. FIFA 11 placed second, which is nothing unusual. However, coming out of nowhere, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit sales jumped 48 percent, which boosted the game from seventh to third. Occupying the fourth and fifth spots respectively are Ubisoft's Just Dance 2 and Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. Just Dance 2 sales were up fifteen percent this week, which means, unless something very strange happens next week, a member of the Just Dance franchise will have been in the top of the UK charts for all of 2010. The first Just Dance owned much of the early part of the year. Check out the UK's top ten -- keep hanging in there, Donkey Kong Country Returns! -- after the break.
Michael Jackson: The Experience moonwalks up UK sales chart, Black Ops king of the hill
Gran Turismo 5 ran out of gas after its debut week, dropping 61 percent in sales and into fourth place on Chart-Track's UK All Formats chart. The top three titles were Call of Duty: Black Ops, FIFA 11 and Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. The big premieres for the week were Donkey Kong Country Returns and Super Mario All-Stars 25th Anniversary at 13 and 22, respectively. So, last week we almost neglected to mention Disney Epic Mickey, because it didn't make the Top 40. We thought its performance might have been an anomaly ... until it missed out again on the Top 40 and maintained its place at #11 on the Wii Chart. Not a good sign. Comparatively, Ubisoft's Michael Jackson: The Experience, which debuted down at #38 last week, had a thriller of a second week, shooting up to sixth place. It's now holding hands with Ubisoft's stalwart Just Dance franchise, which had its numerical sequel in the fifth spot. Find the full UK top ten after the break.
