4.7 Million Copies of Fallout 3 Shipped to Stores

— -- Bethesda's crowing this morning about record sales of its post-apocalyptic role-playing games Fallout 3 (PCW Score: 90%). Probably justified. UK sales checker Chart-Track says Fallout 3 has already outsold every prior game in the franchise combined. That sounds slightly more illustrious than it is, because of course all those older Fallout games (except for what-was-Interplay-smoking spinoff Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel) were strictly computer-based. Console sales routinely trump PC sales nowadays, and of course there's that thing about the market exploding since Fallout and Fallout 2 arrived in the late 1990s.

But at least 90 percent illustrious, with Chart-Track stating the game has already outsold Bethesda's Oblivion by 57%, pulling in sales of 55% on Xbox 360, 28% on PS3, and 17% on PC.

Bethesda dropped a note this morning stating it's shipped approximately 4.7 million units of Fallout 3 for the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC, "representing retail sales in excess of $300 million." The game went on sale at midnight on October 28 in North America, as some 2,000 retailers held special late night launch parties. I'm not sure if that's a record midnight opening for a video game, but if it's not, it's got to be close. Also: That's 4.7 million units shipped to stores, not necessarily sold-through. We'll see best-guesses at the sell-through numbers shortly from NPD.