Atari Sells a Million Matrix in North America

June 3, 2003, 2:08 pm EDT
Total comments: 13

Last we heard, it was a million in the US and Europe. Now it's just us Americans and Canadians this time around.

Atari's Enter the Matrix Sells Through More Than 1 Million Units in North America

Fastest-Selling Title in North America in Company's History

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 3, 2003--With just 18 days on store shelves, Atari's Enter The Matrix(TM) has sold through more than 1 million units in North America, making it the fastest-selling game in that territory in the Company's history.

Enter The Matrix is a third-person action game that parallels Warner Bros. Pictures' and Village Roadshow Pictures' action blockbuster, The Matrix Reloaded, the second chapter in the Wachowski Brothers' revolutionary film trilogy. The game was released in North America on May 15 for the PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system, the Xbox(TM) video game system from Microsoft, the Nintendo GameCube(TM) and the PC.

"Selling more than 1 million units of Enter The Matrix in the world's largest gaming market in just 18 days validates the confidence we have had in this title since the very beginning," said Bruno Bonnell, Chairman and CEO of Atari, Inc. "We knew that by integrating ourselves with the Hollywood community and accessing the content and resources of the Wachowski Brothers and Warner Bros. Studios from the outset, we could create an explosive property. These sell-through numbers indicate we've succeeded in doing just that."

Enter The Matrix is the #1 selling video game worldwide and the fastest selling movie-based video game in history. Game sales combined with box office tallies from The Matrix Reloaded accounted for the largest multi-genre entertainment premiere ever.

Developed by award-winning Shiny Entertainment (an Atari studio), Enter The Matrix is a revolution in interactive entertainment - a third-person action game that effectively blurs the line between Hollywood blockbuster films and next-generation video games. The game is directed by and features a script written by the Wachowski Brothers, writers/directors of The Matrix movie trilogy, creating the most intensive collaboration between a video game publisher and a movie studio to-date. The game features the same over-the-top gunplay, mind-bending martial arts, and insane driving and stunts that made The Matrix famous.

Enter The Matrix includes approximately one hour of never-before-seen footage - shot exclusively for the game - using the actors, sets and crew from the blockbuster film, The Matrix Reloaded. In addition, the game features an hour of cineractives, directed by the Wachowskis and rendered within the game engine to help tell the epic story of Enter The Matrix.

Talkback

Illini4June 03, 2003

These overwhelming numbers of bad games is starting to make me go crazy.

I am slowly going crazy, 1 2 3 4 5 6... switch. Crazy going slowly am I, 6 5 4 3 2 1... switch.

NinGurl69 *hugglesJune 03, 2003

If Keanu's butt was in the game, would it sell more or less?

GaimeGuyJune 03, 2003

God damnit. There's no reason a game like ETM should be able to sell a million.

RobageejamminJune 03, 2003

This is ludicrous. I mean Kudos to Atari and all, but it really isnt that great of a game in my opinion. Not to mention its a movie based game, which 95% of them really suck.

RABicleJune 03, 2003

My friend finished this game in 3 hours, what a piece of crap

thepogaJune 03, 2003

i dont really think that we should rule it out simply because it is a movie based game, but it really isnt that great. im glad i didnt buy it. i was very skeptical of the game and i got to play it. it isnt that good. my friend thought it was the greatest game ever and that the matrix moves u can do were totally revolutionary. oh well.

NinGurl69 *hugglesJune 03, 2003

Now let's encourage everyone who bought the game to return their copies or sell them used to make ETM have the largest used game inventory in history. Bargain bins will cry from the weight of it all.

dafunkk12June 03, 2003

Thanks to EB's current preowned discount dealie, I got the game for somewhere just over $30. After having played and watched so much of it because it always being in the demo machines, I wouldn't have bought it were it not for the deep discount. That and I also convinced the clerk to give me the freebie preorder DVD. Horrible graphics and tedious gameplay, but I'm willing to go through it to get the full Matrix experience.

oohhboyHong Hang Ho, Staff AlumnusJune 04, 2003

That is a million, over 4 platforms. not exactly something to brag about. Don't you just love how they wraped the numbers.

thecubedcanuckJune 04, 2003

To all the people who say the game is crap, get over yourselves and yoyr blatent fanboyism.

The game is quite good and fun to play.

PIACJune 04, 2003

fanboyism? how can fanboyism stop someone likeing a multiplatform game?

just because YOU personally might like it doesn't mean people cant go ITS HORRIBLE OH LORDY MY EYES BLEED etc, and this is a point YOU make almost constantly

MarioJune 15, 2003

If the game is so good cubedcanuck then why did it get terrible reviews?

mouse_clickerJune 20, 2003

Now the game's sold 2.5 million- the thing that pisses me off the most about all this is now Atari and other big name 3rd parties are going to think it's okay to make a mediocre game because they know it'll sell. Like someone said in a different thread, the industry won't be right until Eternal Darkness and Enter the Matrix switch sales.

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