Sony had the best-selling console platform of May, and the latest PlayStation 4 exclusive may have helped with that. Detroit: Become Human debuted May 25, and it was the No. 3 best-selling game of the month in the United States, according to industry-tracking firm The NPD Group. That’s impressive for a PS4 exclusive. What’s even more impressive for developer Quantic Dream is that Detroit is its fastest-selling game through the end of the first calendar month following release.
“Launch month sales of Detroit: Become Human represent a record high for developer Quantic Dream,” NPD analyst Mat Piscatella said. “[Detroit had] sales growth of over 20 percent when compared to [Quantic Dream’s] previous launch month best-seller, Heavy Rain.”
On the NPD chart for May, only State of Decay 2 and God of War outsold Detroit. All three of these games have some sort of exclusivity deal or agreement, and their success shows the importance of high-profile exclusive content on a system like PS4, Xbox One, or Switch.
Detroit and State of Decay 2 are selling because they are crucial releases on platforms that have huge, built-in fanbases. Building tentpole releases for those audiences has worked out well for Sony’s strategy this generation, and Microsoft is redoubling its efforts moving forward with the announcement that it has acquired or started five new studios at E3.
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If Microsoft can dedicate long-term resources to these teams, it could end up with something like Quantic Dream and Detroit. Of course, Microsoft is probably happy to have State of Decay 2, which outsold Detroit despite selling for $40 and having a Game Pass version that wouldn’t count toward these numbers .
