THQ is taking a new approach to explain the reason sales of a title were slower than expected. Instead of just acknowledging that sales the first time around might not have been off the charts, the company is instead claiming that the release of a title by a rival publisher at the same time simply sucked up the entire market share.

If you are scratching your head, then we will break it down for you. THQ is claiming that the reason that UFC 2010 Undisputed had such slow sales is that the release of Red Dead Redemption simply captured of the money and time that gamers had to spend and play in the May time period. Red Dead Redemption did sell five million copies which, of course, are big numbers.

THQ had admitted that sales for UFC 2010 Undisputed were softer than the company would have liked; and as we have told you previously, our retail sources have confirmed that slow sales caught them by surprise, as most retailers had significant inventory for this title. This, of course, has led to sales and price slashing to get sales moving on the title.

Despite the admission that sales have been soft so far, THQ has been able to ship about 2.6 million copies of the game, according to their reports. THQ does believe that they will be able to achieve the sales goals for the title, but it is going to take a bit longer than they first estimated.

Whispers tell us that THQ does not believe that the decision to restrict online play to those players that purchase a new copy of the game and use the included code made any difference on sales.

While players that purchase the game used can buy access to enable online play with a $5 purchase on either Xbox Live or the PlayStation Store, our sources have told us that the numbers of trade-ins or used copies of UFC 2010 were few and far between. Our sources believe that this indicates that core fans of the franchise have purchased their copy and will not be trading it in.