Physical UK sales figures for the week ending October 26th, 2019 have been compiled and predictably place Call of Duty: Modern Warfare atop the charts. More surprising, however, is the fact that they also reveal The Outer Worlds sales to be very heavily weighted towards the PlayStation 4 platform. With Xbox manufacturer Microsoft now owning the game’s developer, Obsidian Entertainment, much of the pre-launch marketing was focused around the console which only ended up accounting for 22% of launch week sales.
Debuting at number four in the charts, just behind the much-maligned WWE 2K20—which features issues so bad that Sony is offering refunds—The Outer Worlds‘ overall performance could be considered somewhat of a disappointment. Keeping this in mind, the fact that Xbox One only claimed just over a fifth of those sales could point towards trouble for the potentiality of future installments.
That being said, in addition to growing digital sales not being accounted for, it must be considered that The Outer Worlds was made available via the Xbox Game Pass subscription service at launch. Additionally, the PC version is even available to those with the more premium Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. It’d certainly be interesting to see raw player figures across all platforms, taking every method of entry into account, to get a better perspective on the true userbase split.
Regardless, PlayStation 4 sales surpassing those seen on Xbox One is largely par for the course, due to the simple fact that a greater number of PS4 consoles have been sold. Even setting the above caveats aside, however, 78% of physical sales going to the non-lead platform is an impressive feat. Fans have already been speculating on whether or not a sequel to The Outer Worlds would reach PlayStation (most likely via the next-generation PS5), so this strong debut could only really serve to help its chances.
The Outer Worlds is available on PS4, PC, and Xbox One right now. We said the game’s “stunning visuals and immersive storytelling have positioned [it] to be an amazing start to a beloved franchise” in our review.
[Source: gamesindustry.biz]
