@Just_Ben, that can't be true. Walmart is incredibly secret about its data and doesn't participate in any of those market research studies. What I suspect from VGC is he gets anecdotal data from small time people who work at local retailers, not data from headquarters.
The local Wal Mart here got in a massive amount of copies (exceeded only by the number of Galaxy copies), so Sega/Nintendo is expecting big initial sales. However, I don't think they've moved as quickly as they hoped.
As I predicted here, people have been initially disappointed with first sales numbers coming in (via vgchartz mind you, I wonder if they get data from Walmart and other big box retailers were I expect this game to sell the most copies). Keep in mind that Sega anticipated 4 million copies sold, they will produce many copies of this game and overtime will probably be able to push to 2-3 million in sales. And also, America won't be the sole indicator of sales for this game, Mario and Sonic have a worldwide appeal.
@Gaara42, I was about to post about how this game targets an audience similar to Mario Party titles, but also goes beyond that as it appeals to Sega fans too and the Olympics. And I was about to post how Mario Party is an old series with dismal scores for most of the games, yet they still sell well, espeically MP8's score/sales. But I see Gaara has already mentioned most of this stuff. Thought I'd voice my agreement though.
For many who will start shorting this stock due to the low review scores coming in, remember that Mario Party 8 (Wii) got a Metacritic score of 62 yet has sold 2.9 million copies so far. Review score don't affect these type of game's (party/mini-game) sales as much as they would a 'hardcore' game.
People may be forgetting that this is a world wide launch and that US figures may end up being only 30-40% of total sales. Also they might have overlooked that the Wii is being launched in China (and South Korea) soon and with China going crazy over the Olympic games (they are naming children after it). If Nintendo and Sega play their cards right they could pick up a good deal of sales there (if they are not just pirated and sold that way).
People will be initially disappointed by first month sales but give this game a year or more and it will have sold 3 million copies or more world wide. Plus this game has the holiday's and the Olympic games as two areas to get sales boost, so it should do well over the long run (especially since many sites indicate that the game will actually be good).
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Sorry, there is a E missing. I wanted to say:
ONE Wal Mart