Worldwide Console Hardware Sales Compared

Thanks to GameSpy for their import gaming column which also collates the total hardware sales for all the major consoles by territory, information that's often hard to find in one place. The article points out: "Generally speaking, worldwide, the PlayStation 2 is crushing the competition, having sold millions and millions more consoles than the Xbox or GameCube", and "Xbox seems to be more popular [than GameCube] in both North America and Europe", leading Nintendo's console by a million in the U.S. and a couple of hundred thousand in Europe. But in the East, the situation is different, since "hardly anybody is buying the Xbox in Japan", and the GameCube has a one-and-a-half million console advantage, further bolstered by a recent weekly chart that has the GC selling 16,841 consoles, and Xbox selling just 530 machines.

Comments

Gamespy Comes Through

[acxr is wasted]

Woohoo! Finally a relevant story from Gamespy!

Bleed, boy! Bleed!

[Mulletproof]

"hardly anybody is buying the Xbox in Japan", and the GameCube has a one-and-a-half million console advantage, further bolstered by a recent weekly chart that has the GC selling 16,841 consoles, and Xbox selling just 530 machines.

Well of course nobody is buying the XBox in Japan. There is hardly and 'console' flavored games for it on either side of the ocean. Most are either very PC flavored, 2 year old ports of previously marketed games or are simply too mediocre to be noticed. And don't go off on me with some fanboy rant. I own an Xbox and did Live Beta. I can count the number of truly attention getting games on one hand (maybe two) and the number that actually sell large quantities in Japan is even less.

In all honesty though, I don't think MS cares about that market, or at least only enough to keep disgruntled US/European gamers from burning their headquarters down. I'm more and more of the opinion that they are trying to grow a grass roots domestic gaming culture from the ground up, attempting to accomplish what Japan has had for two decades-- A thriving, rampant gaming industry and consumer lifestyle almost entirely independent of the Japanese market. Kinda goes along with that monopoly thing. I can see the reason for it somewhat. As long as they rely on a japanese market to make them games, they'll be beholden to them in one way or another. By establishing a foundation at home, they can at least battle for their monopoly on an even footing instead of on the enemies home turf.

But without relying on the Japanese market which sells games nearly everybody likes, it's going to be a painfully uphill battle... I don't see them being anything close to a challenge for at least another console, maybe even two more. You think they're bleeding bad now? Wait until MS is facing a brand spankin' new PS3 with a fanbase inherited from two generations of excellent consoles...

Say what you want about Gates and his Billions. Sony is a rock solid company itself with it's own billions, and console hardware experience AND a an established consumer base. If MS doesn't alter their strategy a tad, bleeding moutains of cash will be the only way to the promised land. I know they have it, but against an opponet with equal mountains of cash already making more moutains of cash, it isn't exactly the brightest move...

Get your own IMO. This one's mine.

Re:Bleed, boy! Bleed!

[einTier]

I don't think Sony is the one that needs to worry right now, and I don't think Microsoft is gunning for them -- yet. Remember, there's always been space for two consoles, but not three. Nintendo's market share for it's primary console has been slipping for years, as they constantly try to make the hardware they want to make and then try to convince people to buy it rather than figuring out what people want to buy and then making that.

Sounds a lot like another company Microsoft and Intel cratered about a decade ago.

Re:Bleed, boy! Bleed!

[nelsonal]

I just bought one too, and I've so far enjoyed MechAssault, SegaGT (although it's a poor imitation of GT, but still fun) Dynasty Warriors 4, that was actualy what I was waiting for, and SC2. The last two are cross platform but if it's the only console you have they're quite fun. Halo looks good, but I'll wait for it to hit the bargain racks first.

Re:Bleed, boy! Bleed!

[cloudwilliam]

Nintendo probably doesn't have much to worry about either. Xbox is outselling GameCube in the US and Europe, but worldwide, Nintendo is still selling more consoles, especially if you consider the Game Boy Advance in that equation. And while their sales have fallen off from their peak, Nintendo's core gamers are a lot like Apple Macintosh fans. They play Nintendo games because they feel that they're the best, most polished games available. Unless Nintendo does something colossally stupid (as opposed to just marginally stupid), they probably won't lose that fan base.

Hardware numbers...

[Anonymous Coward]

...always make me laugh. Sure, it is fairly important to get your units out there but, shouldn't the focus be on overall game sales per system? E.g. Are "system" owners actually buying games? Is "system" actually maintaining an expected level of game sales? What is the ratio of game sales per unit? Etc...

To me, that would be more indicative of what is happening in the market.

Re:Low numbers for europe

[weicco]

Nah, I don't think that's the reason. At least kids in my neighbourhood speaks, and especially writes, english better than finnish which is their native language :)

Re:Low numbers for europe

[CheeseEatingBulldog]

I doubt it has anything to do with local language, here in holland all films are in the original language with dutch subtitles, plus most advertising is still in English. The French and Germans still dub all films and tv though, but big games like Final Fanstasy are translated anyway. Europeans generally learn other languages to broaden their horizons...and to understand their fellow humans.

Re:Low numbers for europe

[Amanset]

Possibly due to have less games to choose from.

For a long time now many games were not released in Europe. Unless I am mistaken, Final Fantasy 7, for example, was the first FF game released in Europe. Neither Chrono Trigger or Chrono Cross were. Xenogears wasn't and there is no sign of Xenosaga.

OK, there is a slight RPG bias there, but it stretches to other styles. Animal Crossing, one of the standout games for the Gamecube which has sold the system to those who traditionally don't buy video games, has still not been definitely confirmed for Europe. There have been rumours and allegedly it comes out in Australia (where the games are compatible with European machines) next month.

Because of this there is also quite an import scene, with consumers getting consoles from Japan or the US.

All of this affects the sales in Europe.

GBA was a surprise for me

[chia_monkey]

I pretty much expected to see the PS2 numbers squashing XBox, especially in Japan and such. I wanted to see the numbers, ponder marketing, social differences, etc. But when I saw the GBA sales also crushing XBox, that's what surprised me. I remember when Game Boy was just a fun little portable thing to play Tetris on. To see it blowing away the XBox in sales is cool...interesting and cool. Now to ponder what this all means in the grand scheme of things and if there will ever be another competitor to GBA (well, Game Boy had some at least).

YKYHBPTMSWGW...

[jafuser]

You know you've been playing too much SWG when you mis-read the title of this article as "Wookiee Console Hardware Sales Compared". =)

GBA is a serious contender for casual gaming

[Jerf]

If I had the cash, I'd buy an XBox in addition to my GBA. Meanwhile, the GBA (SP, actually) is my primary console, and my DreamCast mostly sits in the cabinet.

Why? Consoles thrive on their ease of use. Since the Gameboy has a built in screen, there are no cables to hassle with. Gameboys really are just "stick the catridge in and turn it on"... anywhere. (Some juice is needed but I typically plug it in overnight maybe once a week, or more if it blinks the light at me. The SP is really nice that way.)

Consoles thrive on their games. Since the GBA has most/all the power of the Super Nintendo (and in some cases, I'm pretty sure it has more; Final Fantash Tactics Advance would have taxed the Super Nintendo pretty hard, I think... though I'm not sure), it's got enough power for an entire generation of successful games. But not enough power for the really complicated ones (except for the aforementioned things like FFT:A). So it really appeals to people like me who use it for filling in gaps in their time. (We don't all need FFXXIV.)

There are a lot of non-hardcore gamers who actually prefer the GBA-level of gaming, and when the PSP comes out and eventually eliminates this simplicity, there's going to be some problem reaching these people. (There's simple games on consoles too but these people don't know how to find them.) The PSP would be well-advised to license Tetris or something similar, and even strive to make it graphically simple against the temptation of using the Full Power of the PSP on Tetris. (Yikes!)

Now, I am apparently a hard-core gamer (playing them all your life will make you that way, I guess), but I still really like the GBA as a console. Because of its portability and simplicity, it's a serious contender even against the PS2. Given that right now I can really only own one console, I do not regret that that console is the GBA. (SP anyhow... I probably WOULD regret it if the only one I owned was the original GBA. See the SP with its light off in multiple conditions has really made me wonder how anybody ever played that thing!)

Re:Sorry, but this is a very poor article

[clu76]

(Yes, they only shipped 80,000 units worldwide between April 1 and June 30).

I know it's impossible to try to stop misinformation. But I'm going to give it the old college try, anyways.

The correct figure for Nintendo was 800,000 units shipped worldwide. Someone, somewhere made typo. And that false number is still floating all over the net.