Resistance 2 Continues Climb, Insomniac Excited for Franchise

Resistance 2 Continues Climb, Insomniac Excited for Franchise

(Posted: //) by Darryl

Now 6 months on and with hindsight available, it's a good time see exactly how Resistance 2 has performed. Being the sequel to the Playstation 3 launch title, Resistance: Fall of Man, expectations were exceedingly high and after seeing Resistance: Fall of Man perform exceedingly well in sales and receive praise from critics and it was envisaged that Insomniac would push on with the series. The game came out in November 2008 worldwide, so let's dig in to the analysis.

The first point of contention is with reviews. Resistance 2 received very mixed reviews when it came out, but they were mostly favourable. Many felt that while the single player experience had a lot of scale, it was still lacking. However, its saving grace was the copious amount of multiplayer options. You could now enjoy a separate story with up to eight friends online in the co-operative mode. Each mission came with a briefing and objectives that had to be battled as a team and upon completion, intel would be unlocked which shed more light on to the overall Resistance story. In combination with the competitive modes (which allowed for up to 60 players), Resistance 2 was an online package that gave a lot back to the consumer.

In terms of sales, Resistance 2 probably hasn't done as well as people expected, but they had very high expectations, especially off the back of Gears of War 2's massive success around the same time. However, while Resistance 2 didn't post massive numbers near the start, it's been quietly moving units in the background, much like Resistance: Fall of Man did. While VGChartz are just an estimator of sales and not definitive, it's interesting when comparing the two titles side by side from their respective launch dates.



When compared side-by-side, Resistance 2's sales actually look quite impressive, especially when you appreciate that Resistance: Fall of Man was also included in a Playstation 3 bundle, which massively helped its sales. Sales have slowed down recently, but its not hard to see this title achieving sales close to the 3 million mark in its lifetime.

Bryan Intihar, Community Manager of Insomniac Games told us the developer's thoughts on Resistance 2's longevity:

"We're very happy with Resistance 2's performance at the six-month mark. The game has been a success across the globe-we've even seen some strong sales out of Japan where first-person shooters are typically not as popular. Since launch we've continually updated the game via patches to address some of the community's top requests, which included bringing back the popular Resistance: Fall of Man multiplayer mode Meltdown and adding the second player PSN login functionality. And most recently, we released downloadable content in the form of new competitive multiplayer maps and character skins-the response to both has been great.

We're also excited to see how much the Resistance franchise has grown over the last six months, thanks to the release of Resistance: Retribution for PSP (Sony Bend did a fantastic job on the game), Resistance comic books from WildStorm, Hot Topic's Resistance t-shirts, and the Resistance novel. You'll even see some action figures coming to a store near you this fall."

Looking back, it's easy to see that Resistance 2 has been a huge success for Insomniac so far and it looks like it's going to continue to grow considerably moving forwards. It wasn't all rosy for Resistance 2 though, and I'm sure the criticism about the story will be taken on board for the next instalment in the franchise which is probably going to hit our consoles at some point in 2010.