“Fallout: New Vegas” launches big – real big

Everyone suspected the follow-up to “Fallout 3” would be big – but numbers released by Bethesda Softworks this morning still managed to surprise onlookers.

“Fallout: New Vegas” has shipped more than 5 million units to retail so far, with sales of over $300 million – and retailers are demanding more. As an added bonus, digital sales have also been strong.

"Despite the large launch quantities for this title, we have already received substantial re-orders from our retail partners, underscoring the tremendous popularity of this highly entertaining game," says Bethesda president Vlatko Andonov.

The numbers are somewhat surprising, given the significant number of well-reported bugs the game has. Critics have given “New Vegas” high marks, but noted that virtually any other game that shipped with this many errors and glitches would have been shunned by gamers.

Bethesda has issued minor fixes already and late last week announced a comprehensive patch would be released “in the coming weeks”.

The “Fallout” love hasn’t stopped with game sales, either. Bethesda says the “Fallout: New Vegas” strategy guide was one of Amazon’s top selling book titles as well – though didn’t break out how many copies have moved so far.