"Sleeping Dogs is not selling poorly", Square Enix president

**Blacksite** · 12-11-2012

Back in October, Square Enix revised their earnings forecast for the year, pointing to sluggish sales of a major unnamed HD console game as the cause. The general suspicion was that Square Enix were referring to Sleeping Dogs, United Front Games’ Hong Kong crime drama, which Square recently published.

However, Sleeping Dogs sales are not poor, clarifies Square Enix President, Yoichi Wada. On the contrary, Wada says that he sees Sleeping Dogs as a strong new I.P., and admits that, perhaps, Square Enix’s sales expectations for the game were a tad unreasonable.

“At the announcement of forecast revisions last week, we talked about Sleeping Dogs (SD) as an example of a Western title that started out slow, which seemed to provoke misunderstandings that it was suffering poor sales,” Wada said at a financial results briefing. “Let me clarify that SD is an exceptionally remarkable title that came with very high expectations and aggressive sales targets for the First Six-Month Period. Our goal might have been exceedingly high, which is what we see here in the difference in actual versus forecast sales.”

Wada says that games like Sleeping Dogs sell over long periods of time in the West, unlike games in Japan, where lifetime sales are more or less achieved within the first one or two months on the market. Wada points to 2010’s Just Cause 2 as another example of a game that sold over a long period, starting out with an initial shipment below 1 million, and eventually reaching nearly 2.5 million sold.

“I am confident that SD would grow to be one of our ten strong IPs, and I am very optimistic for great results in lifetime sales,” Wada said, driving the point home. “Just to reiterate, we expected greater revenues from SD in the First Six-Month Period, and what we are seeing now is simply the difference between actual and aggressive projections.”

So there you have it. Sleeping Dogs isn’t selling poorly—rather, Square’s internal forecasts were simply a little too high. Congratulations, United Front Games, for putting out a successful new Square Enix I.P.

via Siliconera.

**LfCpS3** · 12-12-2012

Personally this game was a bit of a letdown.

It did that thing, were even though it was open world, it did not feel like it.

**DarkVincent07** · 12-12-2012

It depresses me that for something to be considered "successful" sale wise is just climbing up and up and up. Last gen if something sold over 1 million it was doing REALLY well...

I'm yet to play SD, but my GF bought it for me for Xmas and I'm keen to try it out. I'm glad its been a success

**KillingSpree0** · 12-12-2012

They could of made the story longer, it was way to short and had a few hiccups. Also the cop storyline never really ended right and the fact they advertised that you could us anything as a weapon but not really was a let down to me. Also Emma Stones ONLY HAD LIKE 2-3 MISSIONS!!! WTH SQUARE!!!

**LfCpS3** · 12-12-2012

Originally Posted by DarkVincent07

It depresses me that for something to be considered "successful" sale wise is just climbing up and up and up. Last gen if something sold over 1 million it was doing REALLY well...

I'm yet to play SD, but my GF bought it for me for Xmas and I'm keen to try it out. I'm glad its been a success

The cost of making games, there being more gamers and with games on average selling a lot more than before changes it.

**Bhindi_Bhajji** · 12-12-2012

I wouldn't have picked it up if it wasn't in the "12 Deals of Christmas" sale, I've only played a small part, but it's ok so far. I don't like the feel of the driving and the camera leaves much to be desired, but the combat is fun.

**Bigdoggy** · 12-12-2012

I thought the game was awesome, but then again I'm not building my own game in my head and calling it sleeping dogs. it was a solid game, the story was good, the graphics were really good, the fighting mechanics were solid awesome.

**Xelis** · 12-12-2012

You could say it was a "sleeper hit".

**Cybertox** · 12-13-2012

Btw i tried the sleeping dogs demo recently and i must say that it didnt impress me at all, i found it kinda boring.

**LfCpS3** · 12-13-2012

Thing is it was an open world game that was not trying to be open world, which ruined it for me.

I have put more hours into just free roaming in far cry 3 than i have in my total time playing SD.

**Two4DaMoney** · 12-13-2012

sleeping dogs felt a bit rushed. I can't be bothered to play it a 2nd time. Maybe a year from now I will.

**Cybertox** · 12-13-2012

What I also noticed was that the graphics looked very grained and pixelated on PC, dunno how they were on console but probably even worst. The only thing i liked about the game is how realistic and cool the fights were, the rest was disappointing though.

**brebaz** · 12-13-2012

I still have yet to play it!! I have it, but it's just sitting there on the shelf!! I'll be playing it in a couple of days or so, i hope.

**Rekmon** · 12-13-2012

Eh...SD was a solid game, if not exactly AAA material.

Graphically it's really good looking (I'm playing it on PC however, I haven't seen the console version) but I do agree the open world never really gets that 'open' feeling.

**DarkVincent07** · 12-13-2012

Originally Posted by Rekmon

Eh...SD was a solid game, if not exactly AAA material.

Graphically it's really good looking (I'm playing it on PC however, I haven't seen the console version) but I do agree the open world never really gets that 'open' feeling.

Interesting. I want this game for the story and gameplay though. I don't have time to mess around in every open world game so this sounds good