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Game Consoles, Software Have Happy Thanksgiving

Posted by simoniker on from the turkey-overdose dept.

Thanks to Reuters for their report rounding up the sales figures reported for Thanksgiving by the major console makers. Nintendo announced "...it sold more than 500,000 units of its GameCube console during Thanksgiving week, roughly twice what it sold in the entire month of October", and Sony indicated "...the PS2 sold more than 1 million units in November, with sales of its $199 online-enabled Combo Pack doubling from October." Finally, Microsoft "...said year-over-year hardware sales for its second-place Xbox were up 7 percent during Thanksgiving week", with Halo sales peaking 435 percent after its price cut. Reuters also has a piece talking to software publishers, in which they're cautiously optimistic over "relatively strong" game sales.

17 of 50 comments (clear)

  1. Halo sales by MMaestro · · Score: 3, Funny
    "with Halo sales peaking 435 percent after its price cut."

    You mean there are Xbox owners who don't already own a copy of Halo?!

    1. Re:Halo sales by imitier · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Well, since they didn't tell you how many units of the game were actually sold, a 435% increase isn't necessarily all that impressive. If (to make up a number) 100 people a month were buying Halo over the last few months at it $49.99 price (because, as you suggest, almost everyone with an XBox owns it), then the 435% increase only means sales went up to 435 for the time period they're looking at (note: numbers and time periods totally made up.) In fact, given that they didn't give an actual sales number, but just gave a percent, I have a feeling that the actual number of Halo sales wasn't that large. The price cut to $30 wasn't that impressive anyway, since it was pretty easy to get the game for $40 or less before the price cut.

    2. Re:Halo sales by hibiki_r · · Score: 2, Insightful

      IIRC Halo was the 10th game in the list of XBox videogame sales in October in the US, so either it is still selling pretty well, or everything else for the console is selling terribly.

  2. Gamecube? by neostorm · · Score: 4, Informative

    This http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/031202/25455_1.html
    is an interesting take on this news.

    It claims Nintendo is in 1st place after Thanksgiving weekend, but appears to be combining sales of the GBA and GC. Either way, interesting news, if tricky...

    1. Re:Gamecube? by MBCook · · Score: 3, Interesting
      Well, combined that's really not saying much. While we're always hearing about how the PS2 has X times as many units as the 'Cube (or so forth) the fact is that all three together are soundly TROUNCED by the sales number of the GBA, so that's nothing new. This has been true for a very long time.

      It goes to prove,a cheap console with good games will sell very well, even if they aren't 3D or FPSes. The fact that it's portable adds a lot, but I would own a GBA even if it wasn't, because the games are just that good.

      If we're talking total units sold, then tinking about it, that MUST be combined. While Nintendo is ahead of Microsoft (I think), the PS2 has WAY more units than either of those two, so it would have to be a combination of the 'Cube and GBA, otherwise it wouldn't make any sense.

      But if we are talking units sold during that time frame, it's entirely possible that the 'Cube outsold the other two systems (not including the GBA). It's cheaper, and many people already have PS2s (which would otherwise outsell).

      So in conclusion, go Nintendo! (I suppose).

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    2. Re:Gamecube? by Acidic_Diarrhea · · Score: 2
      You mention great games for the GBA. I bought a GBA and immediatly got Metroid Fusion and Zelda but have run into a lack of games which I find interesting. What do you suggest?

      Advances Wars and the Mario Bros. remakes don't interest me.

      I heard Harvest Moon was good. Any other suggestions?

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    3. Re:Gamecube? by Yorrike · · Score: 2, Informative
      My favourites:
      Mario Kart Super Circuit
      Golden Sun 1 & 2
      Advance Wars 1 & 2

      And not forgetting, quite possibly the most fun handheld game ever: Wario Ware Inc. Minigame Mania.

      And there's some goodies coming out soon too, like Sword of Mana. Also, give Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga a look, it's a fantastic game but not for everyone.

      --

      Looks can be deceiving. Or CAN they?

  3. A note on the numbers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Microsoft said year-over-year hardware sales for its second-place Xbox were up 7 percent during Thanksgiving week.
    Which means how many?
    "We think we're still pretty much on plan to make our numbers for the year," Aaron Greenberg, a business manager for Xbox at Microsoft, told Reuters.
    So is that a 200 or a 300 million dollar loss? I guess it means an "improvement" of 7% year-on-year?
    Greenberg also said Microsoft had seen a 435 percent rise in week-over-week sales of "Halo," the best-selling Xbox game ever, after Microsoft cut the title's price to $29.99 from $49.99.
    Again, which means how many? Halo had basically reached the end of its $50 run and sales were probably very low, so in absolute terms a 435% increase is probably meaningless.
    1. Re:A note on the numbers by nelsonal · · Score: 2, Informative

      I think the numbers they are hoping for is about 9 million unit sales by year end. I can't remember if that was US only or world. Loss will be closer to $1 billion for the full year. The economics of video games are to sell em cheap at the beginning to get the installed base, so you get the best games, which allows you to rake in sales after you have a 30+ million installed base Then when TakeTwo wants to sell GTA 4 on the console with the best installed base, they will give you a cut of $15 per copy sold.

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  4. 7%? by Seraphim_72 · · Score: 2, Funny


    I mean seriously - whoopie!!! Wow with sales like that MS and SCO are in a pitched fight to see who can out preform the other in units shipped!! Woo!

    Sera

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  5. XBox Figures... by OneFix · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It's obvious from the odd M$ figures, the XBox had the lowest sales...why else would they mix figures...someone had to tell em "But Sony and Nintendo gave us numbers, not percentages"...you can bet that if they outsold even Nintendo they'ld want everyone to know...from these figures, the XBox was probably outsold by the NGage :)

    Of course, this is how things were last year as well...noone has released any new hardware in the set-top arena and the PS2 has got a few more tricks up its sleeves since last year...what would be interesting to see is how much of Nintendo and Sony's sales were XBox owners...

    Wanna see how the real figures probably work out...just look at GameFAQs' Top Games...this is a telling list, it tells you exactly what ppl are playing right now...

    In the top 10, it looks like we have 7 PS2 games, 1 PC game (highest of the "one hit wonders"), 1 Nintendo game, and 1 XBox game (almost didn't make it on the top 10)...

    Which sounds about right for what I've seen as well...

    1. Re:XBox Figures... by OneFix · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I meant that the PeeCee is a "one-hit wonder" in respects to the top 10 list...

      It's not an exact science...but the truth is, your argument supports my theory...there ARE more consoles out there, which means that this list reflects reality to an extent. If the list were dominated by 1 console, then it may be biased...but the list looks to be a pretty good sampling of what ppl are playing and as such, it should also give us a good sampling of just what systems they are playing them on...

    2. Re:XBox Figures... by Babbster · · Score: 2
      Wanna see how the real figures probably work out...just look at GameFAQs' Top Games [gamefaqs.com]...this is a telling list, it tells you exactly what ppl are playing right now...

      No, it tells you exactly what people who visit particular GameFAQs FAQ pages are playing right now, which has little to do with the rest of the console market. It's like judging the entire clothing market based entirely on people who shop at The Gap.

      It's a hit counter, not a scientific survey.

    3. Re:XBox Figures... by edwdig · · Score: 2, Informative

      The GameFaqs top ten list isn't that good of a choice. GameFaqs is a huge hangout for RPG fans, and in particular Square fanboys. But overall, RPGs don't make up that big a percentage of games sales. Sure, in Japan RPGs are the biggest thing, but not elsewhere. I really doubt GameFaqs has very many readers from Japan.

      Whenever there's a lull in high quality games, half the top ten will be Final Fantasy games.

  6. Playstation Sales by 77Punker · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Why do PS2's still sell so big? I just don't get it. Both X-Box and Gamecube boast more powerful hardware than the PS2. The Gamecube costs less, has 4 control ports, and gets lots of good exclusive games from Nintendo. The X-Box has those controller ports, a hard drive, Halo, and just about every PS2 game has an X-Box version. There's just no reason to the madness!

  7. Why the PS2 still sells well... by ottergigas · · Score: 3, Informative

    While the PS2 can't quite match in the hardware department, there are still a few reasons that it does so well:

    * Games exclusive to the system, especially RPGs. If you want to play certain games, like Final Fantasy X-2, you have to get the PS2.

    * A very large game library. Yeah, a lot of it is crap, but there are so many more games for this system than the X-Box or GameCube. While all three systems have "Greatest Hits" series of cheaper classic games, the PS2 library of inexpensive games is also very solid.

    * That library is even larger when you also consider the backwards compatibility of the system: add all the PS1 titles floating out there and you've suddenly got a much larger body of games. It may not mean much to an avid gamer who only wants the newest games, but I know a few parents who like the fact that it runs the games from the original PlayStation.

    There are other reasons as well, but these are the ones that come to mind.

  8. Gamecube sales by M.C.+Hampster · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I'm sure the huge number of sales for the GC on Black Friday weekend had to do with the Walmart deal of $79 for a Gamecube, which came with the Zelda collection. I already own a Gamecube and was feeling like I needed to get another one. Why? I don't even know.

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