While there were certainly plenty of happy faces when Dishonored 2 finally made its appearance on shelves in the United States, its arrival in the UK seems to have gone over like the lead balloon. In fact, it's actually far behind its predecessor, and the numbers suggest this isn't a situation likely to improve any time soon.

The current word from GfK Chart-Track says that the sequel is lagging its predecessor by about a third, proving just the fourth best-seller in both Great Britain and Ireland. In fact, Bethesda's newest title has the dubious distinction of being the only new title on this week's top 10 best sellers' list, coming in behind previous big sellers Battlefield 1, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, and FIFA 17.

That's particularly bad news given how Dishonored did back in 2012, coming in behind only FIFA 13. Some attribute the recent change on Bethesda's front to no longer allow early product reviews, so it could be that some cautious souls were waiting to see how the reviews came out. If that's the case, it suggests Bethesda may want to consider a sea change back to the old policy, lest it continue to suffer slower sales periods.

It's a bad sign overall, but only a bad sign. After all, it could be that sales will pick up once more positive reviews start coming out. We all know how much of an impact reviews can have on a game's sales performance, so Bethesda may want to realize that not all of its games are Fallout and Skyrim, and thus need all the help they can get.

Still, it's going to be a point worth watching as the game goes live all over. We may well get a look at a case study where reviews prove their worth in direct bottom-line impact.