Riven Game Sales Top Broderbund Predictions

Broderbund Software Inc. sold one-fourth of its initial shipment of Riven, the sequel to its best-selling CD-ROM adventure game Myst, during its first week, beating the company’s expectations. The Novato-based maker of entertainment and educational software released Riven worldwide Oct. 31 and sold about 147,282 units, or 25% of its initial 600,000-unit shipment in the U.S. market, in its first two days, according to PC Data, a Reston, Va.-based market research firm. The game is the sequel to Myst, in which players explore deserted island worlds to solve a puzzle. Myst is the best-selling entertainment title of all time, according to the company. Broderbund is gambling that Riven will pay off big as part of the company’s shift to making more entertainment products instead of educational and productivity software. The company spent heavily to promote Riven, reporting a wider-than-expected fourth-quarter loss before charges in October.