Brutal Legend managed to move 215,000 copies when you combine the figures from PS3 and 360. For a game with a niche appeal, that’s not too bad. But for a game that had Jack Black popping up every five seconds to promote it… yeah, maybe EA were hoping for a little more.

It’s a veritable Modern Warfare 2 when you compare it to DJ Hero, however, which only sold 122,300 units. Across four platforms. Yes, it was only on sale for five days in October (still a long enough time to pick up decent numbers), but this was Activision’s first crack at their own “Hero” game. It had an expensive marketing campaign, and was backed by heavyweights like Daft Punk, Jay-Z and DJ Shadow.

Then again, maybe that was the problem. My distaste for the game has always been down to its scattershot approach to its soundtrack: a little hip-hop here, a little electronica there, some dance, all meeting over some ill-advised pop remixes… it’s a mess. Perhaps it would have been better served picking, say, hip-hop and just running with that, so it was a must-have for at least one market.

That or not being $US120. Or making its song downloads $US3. Those might have helped, too.

Wonder if it’ll do any better in November…

Anyway, here’s the platform breakdown for those interested, courtesy of GameSpot:

Brutal Legend (360) – 150,000 units
Brutal Legend (PS3) – 66,000 units
DJ Hero (360) – 62,000 units
DJ Hero (PS3) – 39,000 units
DJ Hero (Wii) – 19,000 units
DJ Hero (PS2) – 3300 units

Brutal Legend sells 216K, DJ Hero 123K [GameSpot]

The month was packed with new software, including Forza Motorsport 3, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days and NBA 2K10 which put big numbers on the board. And while the PS3 and Wii secured software spots one and two, respectively, the Xbox 360’s showing as a platform resulted in six of the top 10 games sold in the US this October. That’s a lot of royalty payments going Microsoft’s way.

The top 10 games for the month of October according to NPD are…

01. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (PS3) – 537,000
02. Wii Fit Plus (Wii) – 441,000
03. Borderlands (Xbox 360) – 418,000
04. Wii Sports Resort (Wii) – 314,000
05. NBA 2K10 (Xbox 360) – 311,000
06. Halo 3 ODST (Xbox 360) – 271,000
07. NBA 2K10 (PS3) – 213,000
08. Forza Motorsport 3 (Xbox 360) – 175,000
09. Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days (DS) – 169,000
10. FIFA Soccer 10 (Xbox 360) – 156,000

That’s just a portion of the $US572.73 million that US consumers spent on video game software last month, down 18 per cent from the same period last year.

NPD’s Anita Frazier notes that about half of Wii Fit Plus’ sales for the month were of the bundled variety, meaning that plenty of Wii owners are investing in Wii Balance Boards for the first time.

“The top game for the month across all platforms was NBA 2K10, at 575K units,” Frazier says of 2K Sports’ latest. “It was a great launch for the game, outselling last year’s NBA 2K9 by 60 per cent in its launch month. Sales on both the Xbox 360 and PS3 platforms improved substantially over last year.”

Now for the bad news.

“The music/dance genre saw big declines this month compared to last year,” Frazier notes. “The genre generated $US53 million in sales as compared to $US137 million last year. Both Rock Band: Beatles, and Guitar Hero 5 have the potential to be good gifting items for the holidays, so we should expect to see an uptick in sales over the next two months.”

The Wii moved more than a half a million million units to consumers in the United States last month, according to the NPD Group. That’s up from the 462,800 it moved in September and more than enough to best its closest competitor, the Nintendo DS.

Sony’s September to October performance was less fortunate, dropping from 491,800 to 320,600. On the Microsoft side, things were less worse, with Xbox 360 sales dipping from 352,600 in September to 249,700 in October. Without the sales boosting power of Halo 3: ODST, that puts Microsoft in fourth place in last month’s ranking.

Here’s how October treated console makers Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft, according to NPD, whose reporting period ran from 10/4 to 10/31, a four week span compared to September’s five week span.

• Wii – 506,900
• Nintendo DS – 457,600
• PlayStation 3 – 320,600
• Xbox 360 – 249,700
• PSP – 174,600
• PlayStation 2 – 117,800

US consumers spent $US380.74 million on video game hardware last month, down 23 per cent from October 2008. While that’s not good — not good at all — there is a faint silver lining, according to NPD Group analyst Anita Frazier.

“The video games industry suffered another decline this month as compared to last October,” Frazier points out, adding “This is the third best October on record, behind October 2007 and October 2008.”

Frazier points to the Wii and Xbox 360 as “decreasing the most compared to October 2008″.

And, putting reporting period windows into perspective, Frazier outlines the positives from October.

“Compared to last month, which was a five-week month as compared to four weeks this month, Wii, PSP and NDS sales increased on an average sales per week basis, while the PS3 and Xbox 360 declined,” she says.

“On a year-to-date basis, only the Xbox 360 and the NDS have realised unit sales increases over the same time frame last year,” Frazier said, find a bit more silver. “While overall portable hardware unit sales are down, dollar sales are up thanks to an increase in the average selling price of portable hardware generated by the higher price points of the new portable systems and bundles.”

Thanks to the NPD Group for this month’s info.

But in the eye of the contentious hurricane that swirls around the upcoming launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, developer Infinity Ward appears unfazed.

“It’s very exciting,” said Infinity Ward’s Robert Bowling, who’s title changed from community manager to “creative strategist” as the buzz began to swell for Modern Warfare 2. “I’m fully expecting it to do very well. I’m expecting good things.”

And he should be. Set in modern times, the first-person shooter has already broken the record for most pre-orders, according to national retailer GameStop.

And industry analyst Anita Frazier says there’s a very good chance it will break Halo 3’s record for 3.3 million copies sold at launch.

“The previous best-selling Call of Duty games (across all platforms) in its launch month is a tie between (Modern Warfare) and COD World at War with 2.3 million units including those generated by PC sales at retail,” said Frazier, who tracks sales numbers for the NPD Group. “For the title to exceed Halo 3 first month sales, COD: MW2 would have to best its previous best launches by 43 per cent.”

“That’s a big number to increase, but is it possible? Yes, with what is being reported about pre-sells and the general level of buzz that this game is generating, it’s possible. There are also a number of high-interest special edition SKU’s launching for this game as well.”

But all of that buzz, and those millions of pre-orders, means a lot of people are paying very close attention to what developer Infinity Ward is doing this time around with the game.

Fans have been carefully tracking every bit of information dropped about the game, from the night-vision goggles that will be included with some special editions of the title, to plot twists and the way the game will be handled on different platforms.

“We have come to a realisation with this game that anything that can leak will leak,” Bowling said. “When our night vision glasses went into production, the guys making them figured out what they were for and put them on and took pictures of them.”

The leaks have reached such a fevered pitch that Bowling recently advised gamers to avoid the internet altogether if they wanted to have a pristine experience playing through the game.

Soon after, word and video hit of a level in the game that seems to involve player-controlled terrorism. Despite the game being weeks from release, Australian politicians were up in arms about the notion and eventually publisher Activision released a statement defending the game and saying players will have the option to skip it.

But that short lived controversy was nothing compared to the ire raised by the developer’s approach to the PC version of the game. When news hit that PC gamers would have less control over the way they play online it ignited a firestorm of seething disappointment, online petitions and, in at least one case, a cash donation to a competing video game.

Bowling and the company defend the decisions made to make the PC game more accessible.

“We have protected what our veteran gamers love about the game, but are also catering to different play styles and rewarding those different play styles,” Bowling said. “Accessibility was a major focus for Modern Warfare 2.”

And Bowling denies that Infinity Ward and Activision are more focused on making the console versions of the game than a solid PC version.

“We make a fantastic PC game,” he said. “Modern Warfare 2 is our most feature-rich PC game yet.”

When asked if the next Modern Warfare would be on the PC, Bowling said he doesn’t even know yet what Infinity Ward’s next game will be.

Bowling believes that the outcry against Infinity Ward’s design decisions by some PC gamers is a case of a loud minority, and not the sentiments of the majority.

“We have 14 million players on Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare,” he said. “The hardcore gamers make up a smaller core of that, and PC gamers are the smallest group of that core.

“It is a very vocal community and they are all online.”

The outcry is perhaps also the offshoot of a game developer being so engaged with their community.

“Our community gets so invested in our games,” Bowling said. “Therefore they feel, and rightfully so, that we should justify every design decision to them. I think that it’s very important to understand that you should be very involved in your community and work with them, but not to be held prisoner to their demands.

“We know our game very well. Some of the stuff you have to put in there and have faith in your design. Some things don’t sound good out of context. You don’t see the beauty of them until you experience them for yourselves.”

“It’s a very fine line.”

Well Played is a weekly news and opinion column about the big stories of the week in the gaming industry and its bigger impact on things to come. Feel free to join in the discussion.

According to NPD data released today, the Warner Bros. Interactive-published DS game sold nearly 194,000 copies in its first month on the market. That puts it behind Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story and Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days as the third bestselling DS game for the month.

Scribblenauts was one of only two third-party games to make it into the top ten bestselling games for Nintendo’s portable platform, a list dominated by Nintendo-published fare. While 5th Cell may already be hard at work on a new Xbox Live Arcade game, surely they won’t leaving money on the table by not producing a sequel, right? Right!

Well, Batman: Arkham Asylum slips into the top 20 at least, taking a respectable number 16 position. The two MMO titles more or less storm the charts, with Cryptic’s Champions Online snagging number 3, and Aion pulling a double as the normal version rocks number 1 and the limited edition takes the 5-spot. This means near domination of the top 5 for MMOs this month, with World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King at number 4 while The Sims 3 slips down to 2.

Not a bad start for two of the most eagerly anticipated MMO titles of the season. Check out the full chart below to see if your favourite made the cut this month.

Nearly half a million people purchased Playstation 3s in September, according to NPD figures.

“We are in the midst of one of the most exciting times for PlayStation as we continue to redefine entertainment experiences for consumers, both at home and on the go,” Sony’s Jack Tretton said, pointing to the price drop for the Playstation 3 and the release of the PSPgo. “We’ve made unprecedented strides in digital and mobile entertainment with the availability of PSPgo.”

“The best part is that we’ve only just begun an onslaught of relentless, rich content hitting throughout the fiscal year, including Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack in Time, God of War III, MAG, and ModNation Racers,” he said.

Tretton said that Sony is “continuing to stack the chips this holiday with great game content” mentioning the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars for the PSP and Assassin’s Creed 2.

He also pointed out the rave reviews that Uncharted 2: Among Thieves has been getting from review publications, including this one.

“There simply has never been a better time to be part of the PlayStation family and we look forward to providing you with the best entertainment content and experience for many, many years to come,” he said.

Batman PS3 Has More Legs: In August, the Xbox 360 version of Batman: Arkham Asylum outsold the PS3 version by 13,000 copies. 303k to 290k. So much for the PS3-exclusive Joker downloadable content, right? Well, upon further review, the PS3 version at least shows up in the top 10 this month, out-selling the 360 version, which didn’t make the chart, by at least 3,900 copies. If nothing else, it appears that Sony was able to blunt the 360’s installed-based advantage on that one.

Wii Fit Streak Ends At 15: Nintendo’s Wii Fit was in the software top 10, often atop it, for the first 15 months of its release in the U.S. That ended in September. And like magic, Wii Fit would be replaced with Wii Fit Plus in October.

Music Game Platform Choices Juggle: A lot of people are rightly focusing on the victory of The Beatles: Rock Band over Guitar Hero 5. But here’s another twist. Last year, Guitar Hero: World Tour launched with the Wii version as the top-seller (with the next best-selling music game on the system that month being Wii Music). That could have been a sign for the Wii being the party console of choice. This past September, however, the 360 took the lead, charting Beatles 360 at #5 and Guitar Hero 5 at #9. The top Wii music game was Beatles at #10. Does the 360 have more casual-gaming potential than some thought?

Halo Crushes, Briefly: There something to be said for the relatively light amount of campaign content in Halo 3 ODST not affecting the game’s first month of sales. The game tripled its nearest competitor, Wii Sports Resort. Did consumers care that it is a seven-hour game with lots of multiplayer maps and co-op support? Some saw ODST as a short game. In the early going, it looks like consumers may have seen depth.

No PSPgo-Mania Yet: In the September NPDs, the PSP averaged 5,011 units sold per day. In the September NPDs, that number is up to 5,440. That’s a small lift, but not the big boost yet of a big product launch.

Notable new releases that failed to make the overall software top 10 (With no console or handheld version selling more than 208,600 units in the U.S. by October 3) : Dirt 2 (September 8), LittleBigPlanet: Game of the Year Edition (September 8), Mini Ninjas (September 8), Muramasa: The Demon Blade (September 8), Need for Speed: Shift (September 15), NHL 10 (September 15), NHL 2K10 (September 15), Scribblenauts (September 15), Wet (September 15), Spyborgs (September 25), Beaterator (September 29), Dead Space Extraction (September 29), Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days (September 29), Gran Turismo (October 1) [NOTE: Last month's 10th-place game sold 92,000 copies, making games that didn't chart seem weak. The cut-off here is higher, suggesting failure to make the top 10 was not failure overall.]

Finally, impress your friends by telling them that you know that this NPD reporting period was seven days longer than the last one. So that’s why the numbers are so much bigger. Well, at least that’s part of the reason.

That makes Halo 3: ODST the bestselling game in the United States by a wide margin, outselling its nearest competitor, Wii Sports Resort, by more than a million copies. It’s not quite as impressive as the launch of Halo 3, which turned in 3.3 million copies when it launched, but clearly enough for the win.

ODST had some stiff competition in September, with new top ten software appearances from games like Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story, the only portable game to chart, Madden NFL 10 and The Beatles: Rock Band. Superhero games also scored big, with Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 and Batman: Arkham Asylum moving more than 200,000 copies each on the Xbox 360 and PS3 respectively.

Here’s how September’s game sales worked out, by the numbers.

01. Halo 3: ODST (Xbox 360) – 1,520,000
02. Wii Sports Resort (Wii) – 442,900
03. Madden NFL 10 (Xbox 360) – 298,600
04. Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story (DS) – 258,100
05. The Beatles: Rock Band (Xbox 360) – 254,000
06. Madden NFL 10 (PS3) – 246,500
07. Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 (Xbox 360) – 236,000
08. Batman: Arkham Asylum (PS3) – 212,500
09. Guitar Hero 5 (Xbox 360) – 210,800
10. The Beatles: Rock Band (Wii) – 208,600

Game purchases for the month amounted to $US649.32 million, a five percent increase over the previous September. We’re sure the video game industry has already sent a thank you card to Bungie for the uncommon boost.

Here’s NPD analyst Anita Frazier’s take on the whole thing.

“Halo 3 certainly impacted the industry two years ago (Sep’07) when it was launched, and this year, Halo 3: ODST realised impressive sales making it the 6th best-selling SKU launch of all time. Five of the top 10 software items for the month were on the Xbox 360 platform.”

“We know all eyes are going to be on the Rock Band and Guitar Hero sales since the music/dance genre has been so closely followed by many this year. Both titles captured a spot in the top 10 for the month and at the item level, across all platforms, The Beatles: Rock Band came in third behind Halo 3: ODST and Madden NFL 10 while Guitar Hero 5 came in fourth. The Beatles: Rock Band achieved this level of success with an average retail price premium of 130% to the average retail price for software overall. The sales of Rock Band and Guitar Hero led the music/dance genre to a 72% dollar sales increase over September 2008.”

“Madden NFL 10 made up some ground this month. Although when launched in August the game sold 19% fewer units than its predecessor a year prior, with a second month of sales in, that deficit has been reduced to 13%, which bodes very well for the title through the holiday season.”

Sony’s recent price drop was in effect for the full month of September, more than doubling month-to-month PS3 sales to the tune of 491,800. That’s easily better than its nearest competitor, the Wii, which managed 462,800 units sold in the United States last month and well past Xbox 360 sales.

None of those consoles, however, managed to outsell Nintendo’s DS platform, which continues its six month streak atop the NPD Group’s hardware chart with another half-million plus sold.

• Nintendo DS – 524,200
• PlayStation 3 – 491,800
• Wii – 462,800
• Xbox 360 – 352,600
• PSP – 190,400
• PlayStation 2 – 146,000

Total hardware sales in the U.S. amounted to $US472.28 million during the month of September, which runs from 8/30 to 10/03, according to the NPD Group’s window. Speaking of NPD, here’s what analyst Anita Frazier had to say.

“All three console manufacturers enjoyed the impact of lower prices on unit sales as the PS3, Wii, and Xbox 360 realised an increase over August of 87%, 33%, and 31% respectively, on an average sales per week basis (keeping in mind September was a 5-week month compared to 4-weeks in August).”

“Compared to last September, the PS3 was the big winner, more than doubling last year’s sales,” Frazier notes. “This portrays a very strong consumer reaction to the price decrease as August and September both realised a lift of more than 70% over the prior month.”