Resistance 3 may have been a resounding success with critics, but unfortunately the title didn't fare too well at retail, selling only 180,000 units in North America. At first glance this is disappointing news, but now that Insomniac Games has given its response to the Resistance 3 sales numbers, 180,000 copies sold doesn't seem so bad.

Despite the sales figure, Resistance 3 still made the number seven spot on the U.S. NPD chart. This is  in itself a formidable feat, and shows that Resistance 3 was a relative success when compared to other titles released at the same time.

There has been some speculation that the launch of Dead Island could have interfered with Resistance 3's success. Both titles released on September 6th in North America, and given that Dead Island manged to sell a million copies in its first week of release, the possibility that it stole sales from Resistance 3 certainly isn't out the question. However, Insomniac's James Stevenson begs to differ:

"Comparing Resistance 3′s sell-through number on one platform to Dead Island’s copies shipped number on 3 platforms isn’t really an Apples to Apples comparison."

Stevenson does have a point. All of the sales numbers given for Dead Island have been shipped numbers, meaning the quantity of games shipped to stores --  in other words, the number of copies that are on store shelves. With Resistance 3 the numbers are sell-through, meaning the number of copies purchased by consumers. As mentioned in the quote, Dead Island appears on three separate platforms (PS3,Xbox 360, PC), whereas Resistance 3 is only on PlayStation 3.

All the same, Insomniac doesn't seem too concerned with the "disappointing sales," claiming that they are happy Resistance 3 was able to make number 7 on the NPD.

"Oh, no, the numbers are accurate, but that was still good enough for #7 on the US charts"

While 180,000 copies sold (so far) in the U.S. could reasonably be considered a disappointment, other territories may well be able to help prop up the game's numbers. The franchise itself is still lucrative for Sony though, and the upcoming two-map pack, not to mention Resistance Burning Skies for PlayStation Vita, should help to keep Resistance afloat even if sales of this installment remain lackluster.

Resistance 3 is available now exclusively for the PS3.

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Source: Gamersmint