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News 
THQ and Activision Own 2002 Sales
- Posted By Michael
Loewer, 07.23.2002
This just goes to show how easy it is to confuse sales numbers and percentages by using company press releases. THQ and Activision both released news today that on first glance say each company is second place in sales for 2002 and/or the month of June.
THQ Ranked #2 Videogame Software Publisher in June and #1 Independent Handheld Software Publisher for First Half of 2002.
THQ's June performance was bolstered by key videogame releases such as "WWE WrestleMania X8" for Nintendo GameCube, "Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones" for Game Boy Advance, "Scooby Doo! Night of 100 Frights" for the PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system, "MX Superfly" for PlayStation 2 and GameCube, and "Tetris Worlds" for GameCube and Xbox.
"WWE WrestleMania X8" was the #1 GameCube title on the market in June. Three THQ titles, "WWE WrestleMania X8," "Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones" and "Sonic Advance," ranked in the top 20 games sold during the month of June on all platforms.
"We are extremely pleased with the performance of our recent releases and our market position in June as the #2 software publisher as we enter the back half of the year," stated Alison Locke, executive vice president, North American publishing, THQ. "With recent hardware price cuts and the rapid adoption of next generation consoles by the mass market gamer, we're seeing some great momentum for our mass market brands as we prepare to enter the sweet spot of the console cycle."
However...
Activision ranked #2 U.S. console and hand-held publisher for April - June period with dollar sales increasing 95% over comparable period last year.
Activision, Inc. ranked as the #2 console and hand-held software publisher for the April - June 2002 quarter, according to NPD Funworld. The company's dollar sales increased 95% over last year's comparable period. During the month of June, Activision was the only publisher to have a top-five title on each of the next-generation console platforms.
Additionally, Spider-Man was the #1 single largest video game franchise for the April - June period. Since its U.S. launch on April 16, 2002, the game has shipped more than 1.5 million units in North America. For the month of June, Spider-Man remained a top-five selling title on the PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system, Xbox video game console and Nintendo GameCube.
"During the April through June quarter, Activision continued to significantly outperform the overall software market," stated Ron Doornink, President of Activision, Inc. "As reported by NPD, our U.S. dollar sales for the period increased 95% while the overall market grew 23%. Our results were very impressive considering that we did not launch any new titles in June, as compared to last year when we released Tony Hawk's Pro Skater for the Game Boy Advance simultaneously with the hand-held platform's debut. We fully expect our momentum to continue with the upcoming releases of Matt Hoffman's Pro BMX 2, Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer, Street Hoops, XXX and Medieval: Total War."
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So, the timeline works out like this:
THQ is the #2 software publisher for JUST June 2002 for consoles and handhelds COMBINED, but is the #1 THIRD-PARTY publisher of HANDHELD software only (like the GBA) for the year 2002 so far.
Activision is the #2 software publisher for BOTH console and handheld platforms COMBINED but ONLY for the period from April to June, NOT the entire year, and this includes ALL developers, NOT just third-parties.
Confused? I'm not saying either THQ or Activision did it on purpose, but this shows just how easy it is for a company to sway sales statistics to their favor.
Editor-in-Chief Michael Loewer, out.
Source: Press Release
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