Tony Hawk: Shred sold only 3,000 units in the US in its first week, according to analysts Cowan and Company.

The extremely low sales figures topped off a poor October for publisher Activision with DJ Hero 2 only selling 59,000 units in the US in its first two weeks.

Rival publisher Electronic Arts also fared worse than expected in October. Medal of Honor sold just over one million units, half a million short of expectations. EA Sports MMA sold only 45,000 units.

October’s biggest success was Take-Two’s NBA 2K11, selling 1.15 million, double the sales of last year’s instalment.

The poor gross figures for October also reflect weak ongoing sales for games released in September, says Cowan and Company, citing in particular Halo: Reach and NHL 2011.

Both Activision and EA are restructuring their businesses. In a recent statement to website 1-UP, EA wrote, “We're making organisational changes to our development team at EA Sports that will be better for the franchises and better for our people.

“We continue to pro-actively evolve our team to better position ourselves with improved product quality and growth in revenue for our shareholders, to share technology and lower our development costs, and to pioneer new innovation in digital experiences for our consumers.

“As part of this transition, we have eliminated the site-based general manager roles at EAC and Tiburon.”

Yesterday, Activision let go of 88 Quality Assurance testers and shut down developer Budcat Creations. Staff at Bizarre Creations, the developer of arcade racer Blur, have been put on 90 days notice.

Tony Hawk: Shred developer Robomodo lost 60 staff last month and the Tony Hawk license is to be moved to another studio.

Tony Hawk: Shred was not released in New Zealand.