Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant documents that answer the question.
Query: How well did Descent: FreeSpace – The Great War sale?
PC Data, which tracked computer game sales in the United States, reported that "Descent: FreeSpace" earned nearly $4 million and sold around 100,000 copies by October 1999.
"Empire: Total War" was released on 3 March 2009 to the North American market, on 4 March in Europe, on 5 March in Australia, and on Christmas Day in Japan. The game has become the fastest selling "Total War" title to date; "Empire" topped British video game sales charts for all platforms in the week of release, the first PC exclusive title to do so in a year and a half. The game was reported to have sold nearly double the number of "" and "". In the United States, "Empire: Total War" and its "Special Forces" edition were ranked as first and second respectively in the PC sales charts for the week of release. The game's Australian version debuted as the top PC game; across all platforms "Empire: Total War" was ranked fourth, behind "Halo Wars", "Wii Fit" and "Killzone 2". Sega reported the game sold 810,000 units worldwide during their last fiscal year period of 2008. However, consumer response was hampered by technical problems arising from incompatibility with certain Nvidia drivers released after the game's development was completed and reports of installation problems with the Steam content delivery system. In an interview with IGN, Studio Communications Manager Kieran Brigden discussed the problems inherent in developing such a huge and ambitious game, saying: "Are there some issues with "Empire"? Yes there are." As part of its post-release support, he said that Creative Assembly is planning on addressing issues with stability and performance, as well as adding improvements for gameplay and artificial intelligence.
The "Halo" franchise has been highly successful commercially and critically. During the two months following "Halo: Combat Evolved"s release, it sold alongside more than fifty percent of Xbox consoles and sold a million units by April 2002. "Halo 2"s sales generated US$125 million on its premiere day, making it the fastest selling United States media product in history up to that time. Combined with "Halo"s sales, the two games sold 14.8 million units before "Halo 3"s release.
GameSpot reported 4.2 million units of "Halo 3" were in retail outlets on September 24, 2007, a day before official release – a world record volume. "Halo 3" broke the previous record for the highest grossing opening day in entertainment history, making US$170 million in its first twenty-four hours. Worldwide, sales exceeded US$300 million the first week, helping to more than double the sales of the Xbox 360 when compared with the weekly average before the "Halo 3" launch. At the end of 2007, "Halo 2" and "Halo: Combat Evolved" were the number one and two best-selling Xbox titles, respectively, and "Halo 3" was the best-selling Xbox 360 title. "Halo Wars" was the best-selling RTS console game, selling more than one million units. The "Halo" series went on to sell more than 27 million copies by August 2009, and more than 34 million copies by May 2010. Tor Books reported that sales of all franchise materials are greater than $1.7 billion, and Bungie's games before "Reach" accounted for $1.5 billion in sales. The soundtracks to "Halo 2", "Halo 3", "ODST" and "Reach" all appeared on the Billboard 200 charts for at least one week. By May 2011, total gross of "Halo" merchandise was $2 billion, with 40 million copies of the games sold. The total amount climbed to $2.3 billion in July 2011, and $2.8 billion in January 2012. Total franchise grosses exceeded $4.6 billion by October 2015, with 25% of the figure from non-game-related merchandise.
"Destiny 2" received "generally favorable" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic. Some reviewers labeled the game as "Destiny 1.5" due to its many similarities to the original "Destiny", but praise was given to improvements made over its predecessor. "Destiny 2" sold 50,263 copies on PlayStation 4 within its first week on sale in Japan, which placed it at number one on the weekly sales charts. The weekend consisting of September 23, "Destiny 2" took the number 1 spot on the UK sales chart. "Destiny 2" was also the second highest-grossing console game of 2017 in North America (behind ""), and was also Activision's biggest PC release based on units sold. Digital downloads for "Destiny 2" account for more than half of the total sales of the game.
"Freedom Planet" was first released as a demo for Microsoft Windows in August 2012. After a full version of the game was funded through Kickstarter, it was taken to Steam Greenlight and approved for Steam. Its release was first projected for early 2014, then delayed to June 30. Shortly before that date, it was delayed again to July 19: the developers wanted to promote the game at a convention in Miami, Florida, and to avoid competition from the heavily discounted products in Steam's Summer Sale. The game was released, after a third delay, on July 21. To advertise the game, GalaxyTrail created branded T-shirts, and Lilac was included as an easter egg in the 2013 game "". DiDuro considered and rejected the idea of developing an Android version of "Freedom Planet", but he is saving money to port the game to the PlayStation Vita. The game was released on the website GOG.com in late 2014. GalaxyTrail also developed versions for Mac OS X and Linux, which were released on Steam on April 17, 2015.
"Gears of War" was an immediate hit upon its release. On November 7, 2006—the day that it was released—it became the most popular game on the Xbox Live service, until the release of "Halo 3", overtaking "Halo 2" which had held the spot since its launch in November 2004. "Gears" was the second most-played game on the Xbox Live service throughout 2007. "Gears of War" sold one million copies in its first two weeks on sale making it the fastest-selling Xbox 360 game to date. By January 19, 2007, just ten weeks after its debut, over three million units of the game had been sold. It received a "Double Platinum" sales award from the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA), indicating sales of at least 600,000 copies in the United Kingdom. As of November 7, 2008, the game has sold 5.88 million copies worldwide. "Gears of War" was also the first Xbox or Xbox 360 game to sell out and reach the top ten charts in Japan.
In the U.S., "Star Wars Battlefront II" was the second best-selling title in November behind, "". Within its first week on sale in Japan, the PlayStation 4 version sold 38,769 copies, placing it at number four on the all format sales chart. By December 2017, the game had sold 9 million copies worldwide. In January 2018, EA announced that the game missed their sales target as they had hoped to sell 10 million copies in that time, and blamed the loot crate controversy.
While only released in digital form, "Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice" was a commercial success. It was the best selling game on the PlayStation Store in Europe for the month of its release. According to director Tameem Antoniades the game sold "better than expected" and broke even in approximately three months, ahead of the six to nine months the developers expected. "PC Gamer" stated about "Hellblade"s success that "the news can only be positive. Perhaps if other developers see an experimental game like "Hellblade" finding commercial success then they'll be more likely to take risks on their own titles—and that, ultimately, will lead to more interesting games". To celebrate World Mental Health Day on October 10, 2017, Ninja Theory donated all profit made from the sales of "Hellblade" on that day to Rethink Mental Illness. By June 2018, the game had sold over a million copies across all three platforms.
"Destiny" sold 91,277 physical retail copies for PlayStation 4 and 49,503 retail copies for PlayStation 3 within the first week of release in Japan, placing second and third place respectively within the Japanese software sales charts for that particular week. "Destiny" was the third best-selling retail game in the United States in 2014. On May 6, 2015, Activision Blizzard announced that "Destiny", along with another title from its subsidiary Blizzard Entertainment, "" have generated nearly US$1 billion for the company.
In a review by Marcus Estrada of "Hardcore Gamer", he praised "Planetarian" for having a "beautiful story," gorgeous CGs and a soundtrack that "sets a melancholic, but hopeful mood fitting with the story." He also noted that "even as an aging property "Planetarian" still looks and sounds good." "Planetarian" is one of several kinetic novels featured in the "Lycèe Trading Card Game"; Yumemi and the planetarium are playable cards in the second VisualArt's card set. In the February 2007 issue of SoftBank Creative's "Gemaga" magazine, the PS2 version ranked first for console games in terms of satisfaction; the game had ranked fourth in the previous issue. In the Japanese video game magazine "Famitsu" released on September 8, 2006, it was reported that the PS2 version of "Planetarian" sold 8,170 units the week of August 21 to August 27, 2006 (the PS2 version was originally sold on August 24, 2006). When the PSP version was re-released as a fundraising event for the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, 16,663 units were pre-ordered by the day of its release on May 12, 2011. From these sales, Prototype and VisualArt's donated 22,415,069 yen.
Total War is a series of strategy games developed by The Creative Assembly for personal computers. They combine turn-based strategy and resource management with real-time tactical control of battles. The first of the series, "" was released in June 2000. The most recent major game released was "" on 3 May 2018. The series has sold over 20 million copies.
Within a week of its release, "Wolfenstein: The New Order" became the second best-selling game of 2014 in the United Kingdom, behind "Titanfall". The game also topped the weekly UK charts in its first week, totaling a quarter of all games sold in the region and accounting for 36% of revenue. According to "MCV", it was the 22nd best-selling game of 2014 in the UK. In the United States, the game was the fourth and seventh best-selling game of May and June 2014, respectively. The game was also ranked the fifth and fourteenth best-selling digital PlayStation 4 game of May and June 2014, respectively. In its first week in Japan, the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 versions of the game were placed on the charts at 15th and 8th, respectively, collectively selling over 11,000 units. By June 2014, the game had sold almost 400,000 physical units in Europe, equating to over €21 million.
According to The NPD Group, "Rome: Total War" was the 20th-best-selling computer game of 2004. It maintained this position on NPD's annual computer game sales chart for the following year. In the United States alone, the game sold 390,000 copies and earned $16.8 million by August 2006. At the time, this led "Edge" to declare it the country's 40th-best-selling computer game, and best-selling "Total War" title, released since January 2000. The series as a whole, including "Rome", sold 1.3 million units in the United States by August 2006. By 2013, "Rome: Total War" alone had totaled 876,000 sales in the region. It also received a "Platinum" sales award from the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA), indicating sales of at least 300,000 copies in the United Kingdom.
On its release weekend, "Gears of War 2" sold over two million copies, and within two months of release, had sold four million copies. It was the seventh best selling video game of 2009 and received several accolades. The game received similar praise as its predecessor, with the new gameplay and multiplayer modes seen as outstanding additions. It was followed by "Gears of War 3" in 2011.
This is a list of the best-selling video games of all time. The best-selling video game to date is "Tetris", a tile-matching puzzle video game originally released for the Electronika 60 in 1984 and then popularised upon its Game Boy release in 1989. The game has been ported to a wide range of platforms and sold in excess of 170 million copies, including 100 million paid mobile game downloads and 35 million Game Boy version sales. "Minecraft" and "Grand Theft Auto V" are the only other games to have sold over 100 million copies. The best-selling game on a single platform is "Wii Sports", with nearly 83 million sales for the Wii console.
The Mega-CD sold only 100,000 units during its first year in Japan, falling well below expectations. Although many consumers blamed the add-on's high launch price, it also suffered from a tiny software library; only two games were available at launch. This was due in part to the long delay before Sega made its software development kit available to third-party developers. Sales were more successful in North America and Europe, although the novelty of FMV and CD-enhanced games quickly wore off as many of the system's later games were met with lukewarm or negative reviews. In 1995, Sega announced a shift in focus to its new console, the Saturn, and discontinued all advertising for Genesis hardware, including the Sega CD. The add-on sold 2.24 million units worldwide.
The "Age of Empires" series has been a commercial success. As of 2008, five of its games have each sold more than one million copies. According to Gamasutra, "Age of Empires" had sold more than three million copies, and "The Rise of Rome" sold one million copies as of 2000. Around the same time, Microsoft announced that they shipped over two million copies of "The Age of Kings". In 2003, Microsoft announced the sales of one million copies for "Age of Mythology". By 2004—prior to the release of "Age of Empires III"—the "Age of Empires" franchise had sold over 15 million copies. On May 18, 2007, Ensemble Studios announced that two million copies of "Age of Empires III" had been sold.
Games in the series have consistently scored highly on video game review aggregator websites GameRankings and Metacritic, which collect data from numerous review websites. As noted in the adjacent table, the highest rating game is "Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings", receiving a 92% score from both sites.
"Grandia", which ESP released in 1997, was the first third-party Saturn title to breach 500,000 units in sales. Afterwards, ESP released titles including "Giren's Ambition" and "Baroque", later extending footholds into the Dreamcast and PlayStation 2 platforms with titles like "" and "Abarenbo Princess".
1998's "Half-Life"—along with its 2004 sequel "Half-Life 2"—enhanced the narrative and puzzle elements. In 1999, the "Half-Life" mod "Counter-Strike" was released and, together with "Doom", is perhaps one of the most influential first-person shooters. "GoldenEye 007", released in 1997, was a landmark first-person shooter for home consoles, while the "Halo" series heightened the console's commercial and critical appeal as a platform for first-person shooter titles. In the 21st century, the first-person shooter is the most commercially viable video game genre, and in 2016, shooters accounted for over 27% of all video game sales. Several first-person shooters have been popular games for eSports and competitive gaming competitions as well.
According to Cowen and Company the first-month sales of "Gears of War: Judgment" were very poor compared to "Gears of War 3" selling about 425,000 units, around a fifth of the two million "Gears of War 3" managed in September 2011. In the United States, the game was the third best-selling title behind "Bioshock Infinite" and "Tomb Raider". In August 2013 it was revealed that "Gears of War: Judgment" sold just over one million copies.
In December 2012, during THQ bankruptcy filings, it was revealed that Relic Entertainment "is currently developing "Company of Heroes 2" for a calendar year 2013 release and a new game with the working title "Atlas" for a release in calendar year 2014." On January 23, 2013, it was revealed that THQ had sold Relic Entertainment to Sega for as part of an auction of the company's properties. The "Homeworld" franchise was sold to Gearbox Software at a separate auction in April 2013.
"FreeSpace" was Volition's first project after the split from Parallax Software, which also spawned Outrage Entertainment. It is not part of the canon of the "Descent" computer game series, and contained none of its ideas and only small portions of its code. It was only prefixed with "Descent" to avoid trademark issues with Mijenix Corporation's "FreeSpace", a disk compression utility. Volition also used the term "FreeSpace" in the game to initially describe what became later known as subspace. The game was conceived by Adam Pletcher, with all the features of space simulator games his team had found to be fun. The games "" and "Wing Commander" were their primary inspirations, and those influences made their way into the game's flight model, along with the influence of historical WWII dogfights. Themes from the fiction of "Star Wars", "", and "Ender's Game" form a part in shaping the background and story of the "FreeSpace" world. The chaotic battles between masses of ships commonly found in science-fiction anime became one of the features of "FreeSpace".
"Descent: FreeSpace" received generally good reviews following its launch, with "PC Gamer UK" placing it 20th in its 1999 Top 100 Awards. However reviewers were split on several aspects of the game. While many praised the graphics of the game, some approving of how well rendered an in-game asteroid stood out before the background of softly glowing nebulae, galaxies and stars, others felt the 3D effects were not "spectacular" to those of the software rendered version, commenting that rendered nebulae were unconvincing and that the models of in-game ships lacked detail and had blurry textures. Despite the differences between them, all reviewers unanimously agreed that the explosions effects in the game, including the many small details of the capital ships upon breaking up, were the most impressive they had seen (at the time).
On December 14, 1999, Hyperion Entertainment announced their acquisition of the license to port "FreeSpace" to the Amiga system. The publisher was changed to Haage & Partner Computer on October 18, 2001. Despite the game's official release being announced for December 2001, the approval to do so could only be gotten on January 7, 2002. The game was shipped without a printed manual, but had additional German and French language support. Hyperion had stated they would port over "Silent Threat" if the "FreeSpace" port sold well. To date, "Silent Threat" has yet to be ported over to the Amiga platform.
"" was released by Volition in 1998. It shared the "Descent" name, but otherwise had no connection to the series; it was given the "Descent" prefix to avoid trademark issues with "FreeSpace", a disk compression utility (in Europe, it was released as "Conflict: FreeSpace – The Great War"). "FreeSpace" was a space simulator, and while it was still technically a 3D shooter, it did not retain "Descent"s characteristic "six degrees of freedom" control scheme, save for a cheat code that would force the player's ship to loosely mimic "Descent"s physics. Some early drafts of the "FreeSpace" story had the pilot searching for "Descent"s "Material Defender", but the story of the finished game was unrelated.