Sony VP of product marketing Scott Steinberg says Guerrilla Games' shooter has "exceeded our expectations"; first map pack coming this month.

As one of Sony's highest-profile exclusives, Killzone 2's strong debut last month came as no real surprise. According to industry stat-trackers the NPD Group, Guerrilla Games' long-in-the-making sci-fi shooter sold 323,000 units in the US in just 48 hours following its February 27 release on the PlayStation 3. With NPD expected to release its sales estimates for March next week, Sony has independently confirmed that Killzone 2 has continued to sell well.


Speaking to Game Daily, Sony Computer Entertainment of America vice president of product marketing Scott Steinberg said this week that Killzone 2 sales have "exceeded our expectations," having surpassed the 500,000 unit mark. Sony had not clarified if that number was domestic or international as of press time. However, given the game's February sales, it appears the figure is for North America, as SCEA typically combines US and Canadian sales figures.

"Killzone 2 has been the fastest SCEA PS3 title to break the 500,000 unit mark and it's also the highest selling SCEA PS3 title for the first 30 days out of launch," Steinberg told Game Daily. "So far, we are extremely happy with the results."

To keep that 500,000-strong army interested in the title, Guerrilla Games has also detailed the first batch of downloadable content for the shooter. Speaking to Game Trailers last night, Guerrilla Games managing director Hermen Hulst revealed the first DLC pack, titled Steel and Titanium, will contain two multiplayer maps. Pricing information was not detailed, but Hulst did confirm that the pack will be available "toward the end of April."

The first is set aboard the ISA tech cruiser New Sun, and Hulst noted that gameplay will focus on vertically oriented firefights. "You've got multiple decks, so you'll be shot at from walkways upstairs as well as downstairs," he said. The second map takes place aboard two high-speed Helghast freight trains, with gamers tasked with navigating the precarious routes between the two speeding bullets.

"These are two fan favorite settings from single-player that we're bringing over," commented Hulst on the upcoming maps. "However, going forward, you're going to get some proper new features as well." As for those future releases, Hulst teased that the next DLC pack will revive a number of maps from the original Killzone, released for the PlayStation 2 in 2004.

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