Avatar the game has sold almost 3 million units.

MAY 19, 2010 • Despite being uniformly panned by reviewers, Avatar The Game has generated respectable unit sales for publisher Ubisoft. Since its Dec. 1 release the title has generated 2.7 million in sales on all platforms, with sales picking up with the April 22 DVD release of the film.

Impact: DFC Intelligence has always maintained that a popular license can drive sales of a mediocre title. Avatar definitely fell into that category.  Not only was it the most popular movie of all time, but it was perfect material for a video game audience.  The bad news is if the game had been a little better it could have easily doubled sales.  However, trying to create a quality game is by itself a difficult task.  Trying to time it with a movie release may simply be too much.  So in this case settling for a mediocre title with solid sales is not necessarily bad.  What doesn’t work as well is reverse synergy where games are made into feature films.  Over Memorial Day weekend, Disney released the film Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time based on the Ubisoft franchise of the same name.  The movie was widely panned by critics and had disappointing box office sales.