LinkedIn profiles for prominent members of staff at Sony can provide interesting nuggets of information. As noticed by @bogorad222 on Twitter, TJ Consunji has revealed God of War made $500 million in revenue; Horizon Zero Dawn made $400 million. His profile has now been altered to remove the revenue figures, but screenshots exist of the profile before it was adjusted.
Formerly PlayStation’s Group Marketing Manager, he oversaw God of War‘s brand strategy. As of 2019, the game had made $500 million in revenue, significantly exceeding Sony’s revenue targets. The title sold over 10 million units in its first year, 40% of which were digital sales. This set a record for both digital sales and the highest number of units shifted during a game’s first year of release. In fact, the game was the most successful PlayStation exclusive launch in history, selling 3.1 million copies in just three days and reaching $131 million in digital sales alone during its first month. The series as a whole has gone on to shift more than 51 million units.
Consunji also helped to launch Horizon Zero Dawn. By the time he left PlayStation in 2019, the title had made $400 million in revenue having sold over 8 million units. Of those, 35% were digital sales. The title was the biggest launch of a new PlayStation 4 IP in the UK and had previously reported selling 3.4 million copies in its first two months. By the time it reached its second anniversary, it had also passed 10 million units sold.
Meanwhile on PlayStation 3, Killzone 3 became Sony’s best selling first person shooter title, exceeding sales predictions by 20% in just five weeks. Killzone 2, Uncharted 2, and Uncharted 3 also flew past sales predictions by at least 20%.
Consunji wasn’t the only person to spill the beans though. Naughty Dog programmer Drew Thaler revealed several of their games have grossed $1 billion since their release. He went on to mention The Last of Us, The Last of Us Part II, and Uncharted 4, but whether they all hit that target is unclear.
