Sega West president Mike Hayes wouldn't disclose specific Vanquish sales numbers to IGN, but he did offer some hesitant praise for the shooter's sales. "It's been in the marketplace for two days," Hayes said. "We've seen the day one numbers and we're reasonably encouraged, but I think we need to see the rest of week one and probably week two just to see how it's going to play out." He also noted that the new IP faces tough competition from established franchises (like Fallout: New Vegas, which launched the same day).

"Reasonably encouraged" from a game company executive is reasonably troubling for our estimation of Vanquish's fortunes. We tend to expect publishers to overhype their games' success. If "reasonably encouraged" is Sega's spin, that's not great news for fans of Shinji Mikami's unique brand of smoking, shooting action. Though, of course, that's better than "disappointed," "humiliated," or "driven out of business."