@WRC: Not for a really long time, by the looks of things (not since the original game).
@Kenny: Well, Square-Enix had ridiculous expectations for Tomb Raider & Hitman too and they still made a profit on those, despite the "expectations" being almost double what they ended up with.
It's what is "profitable" vs "expectations". If you look at the Splinter Cell series, they always sold around 1m since the original (they've never been amazing sellers after the first game); so I have no idea how they made an expectation that it had to sell 5 million .
I mean, here's the figures for each entry, somebody posted in NeoGAF:
Splinter Cell Xbox - 2.9 million units
Splinter Cell PS2 - 2.4 million units
Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow Xbox - 1.5 million units
Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow Ps2 - 1 million units
Splinter Cell Chaos Theory Xbox - 1.1 million units
Splinter Cell Chaos Theory PS2 - 0.8 million units
Splinter Cell Double Agent Xbox 360 - 1.1 million units
Splinter Cell Double Agent PS3 - 0.2 million units
Splinter Cell Conviction Xbox 360 - 1.8 million units
Also, in other gaming news:
Video game cover artist Greg Martin – known for his work on such classic titles as Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Pac-Man, Landstalker and more – has passed away.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/9f/Sonic2_European_Box.jpg/250px-Sonic2_European_Box.jpg
Writing on the NintendoAge forum, a friend informed readers of Martin’s passing, and posted a eulogy for his fans.
An excerpt reads, “Greg was the rare person who both worked in and was a fan of the work of others in his industry. I don’t think he ever lost that sense of wonder he had as a teenager for really great artwork, and he was a collector himself of artwork, movies, art books, and other things. He was a huge fan of Frank Frazetta, Gil Elvgren, Hal Foster, and dozens if not hundreds of other artists.”
Perhaps his most memorable work was the front cover of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, released in 1992.
He began as an artist at Hanna Barbera, before moving on to the work for companies like Nintendo and Sega, creating gorgeous airbrushed paintings by hand.
Martin created iconic box art for numerous high-profile games throughout his career, such as Sonic 2, 3, CD, Spinball and Chaos, Pac-Man, Landstalker, The Flintstones, and Duck Tales 2.
http://www.vg247.com/2014/01/06/sonic-2-box-artist-greg-martin-dies/
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/208058/Iconic_video_game_box_art_illustrator_Greg_Martin_dies.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+GamasutraNews+(Gamasutra+News)
EDIT: Holy SHIT, this guy is/was a LEGEND, didn't even realise so many VHS and game covers were all drawn by him [Batman: The Animated Series, Freakazoid, Scooby Doo] this guy's art personifies 90s artwork for me, as a child, such a nostalgia bomb right about now seeing it all again:
http://images.nintendolife.com/news/2014/01/prolific_video_game_box_art_illusrator_greg_martin_passes_away/attachment/6/original.jpg
http://abload.de/img/ku-xlargemmfyl.jpg
http://www.gregmartinstudio.com/page2/files/page-3--landscapexxx-.jpg
Best Sonic artist too, I think.