Sales took off for EyePet

As Sony's flagship title for Move, Sports Champions has been at the forefront of the company's efforts to put motion control in the hands of gamers and non-gamers alike. That's why it's so surprising to see it beaten in the software sales charts by EyePet: Move Edition, with the cuddly critter taking the top spot in standalone software sales across America.

Gamasutra reports that around 20,000 copies of Sports Champions were sold in North America in September, but bear in mind this doesn't include copies sold with the Starter Pack or the 320GB hardware deal, as these are classed as accessory and hardware respectively. No sales figures were available for EyePet, regrettably.

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The low standalone sales for Sports Champions suggests that most gamers getting into Move were picking up the Starter Pack or 320GB console, both of which contain the game. With Jack Tretton claiming that Sony has shipped 1 million Moves in America, it's highly likely Sports Champions sold a lot more than just 20,000 units.

The top sellers for September

The second point to draw from these charts is the poor performance of Sony's other first-party Move releases. If Sports Champions – a game practically given away free in most Move configurations – is the second best-selling standalone Move release of the month, that means other launch titles Start the Party! and Kung Fu Rider both sold less than 20,000 units across the country in a two-week period.

Reliable Move sales figures for September are hard to come by, so it's difficult to draw a correlation between software and accessory attach figures. If analyst Michael Pachter's claim that Move sold 300,000 units is accurate, this puts fewer than 10% of purchasers picking up another Sony launch title to accompany their accessory.

With Sony claiming Move could be hard to come by until February, it remains to be seen if software attach rates will improve.

[source gamasutra.com]