NPD Reports November Console Sales

CBackSlash writes "Joystiq has a summary of the NPD console sales numbers for November 2006. The big headline is that the industry overall was up 34 percent to $1.7 billion. But the smaller headlines are probably more interesting for us: PS3 only shipped 197k, while the XBox 360 had 511k, and the Wii had a very respectable 476k. However, all of the new consoles were outsold by the lowly PS2 (664k) and DS Lite(641k)." These are a more detailed set of numbers than those we discussed on Wednesday.

Comments

Re:Only one glaring issue.

[twistedsymphony]

Lets assume for a minute that people choose their console based on personal preference and that maybe personal preferences are based mostly on someone's personality type. Assuming that the Typical Xbox 360 buyer is more of a hardcore gamer recluse, they'd rather stay at home and play alone or online, meanwhile the typical Wii buyer is more of a casual bubbly gamer who plays on occasion but more frequenetly likes to have friends over for more a personal and social gaming experience...

Which personality type do you think is more likely to make their purchase online? and which personality type do you think is more likely to go down to the store? Obviously launch window antics change things a bit where the more hardcore gamers come out of the woodwork and get their goods which ever way they can. But my point is where and how people make their purchases is largely determined by which experience best suits them. It would be foolish to think that those same personality traits that determine how a person likes to buy their games wouldn't also determine which games they buy.

Why don't you go to a knitting class and ask the members what they thought of the football game last night. Do you think you'd get a response that accurately represented the feelings of all football fans? What if you polled every knitting class in the country? Would that be any better? What if you asked the people in the class whether they preferred gardening or motor sports? While I'm sure you'll find at least some motor sport fans chances are the same personality types that bring people to knitting classes instead of watching football are the same personality types that would have more interest in gardening then in motor sports.

Don't you think it's foolish to assume that every group of people would be equally represented when the sampling is always only taken from a very specific area?