God of War launched last Friday worldwide for the PS4, and, after a series redefining reboot, and some historically high scores, it looks like the game is primed to do exceptionally well commercially as well. How well? After all, Sony’s games have done increasingly strongly at retail this generation, with Uncharted 4 and Horizon: Zero Dawn being the standouts in this department. Could God of War overtake them and become the highest selling PS4 exclusive?
According to Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pacther, there’s a very high chance that it does. Speaking to GamingBolt, he said that the game’s critical reception plus strong widespread appeal should help propel its sales.
”It’s pretty well rated, and… I think 95 actually probably puts them in the 10 highest rated games of all time, I think the highest is Ocarina of Time? GTA got a 97. 95 is pretty universally a great, great game, so there’s minimal risk that anyone will buy it and be disappointed,” Pacther said. “I think that the gameplay is actually easy to pick up and play, and there’s a lot of little things in the game that can appeal to different niches of game players, there’s action, and adventure, puzzles, and a compelling story. It appeals to everyone, and I think making it a father-son story makes it similar to The Last of Us, which, again, brings in fans of that game too. So I think it will quite clearly be the number one bestselling PS4 exclusive.”
So how many units, exactly, are we thinking? Mr. Pachter feels like 10 million is all but guaranteed—that it might, in fact, be setting a low bar for the game.
”I think 10 million units sounds like a low bar for it, actually,” he said. “Last that Sony announced, there were 70 million PS4s out there, so 10 sounds really reasonable. I’d say realistically, it could do as many as 20 million. Now that’s hard, because not everyone who has a PS4 will like an action game like God of War. But I’d say between 10 and 20 million, and I’d say 10 million is a low estimate. I think they will absolutely do 10 million [over the game’s lifetime].”
This, of course, makes sense—as mentioned already, Sony’s games have continued to do well this generation, and God of War has more buzz and hype than any other one so far. Hopefully it achieves the success Pachter feels it will—it’s a game that has well and truly earned it.
