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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.

5 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. 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).

      --
      Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
  3. 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.