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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.
IIRC, The NPD doesn't report Wal-Mart sales. Either way, take with a grain of salt.
Before saying that "The PS3 only shipped 197k" or that "Nintendo only shipped 476k Wii" you have to realize that NPD has never been a perfectly accurate survey of the number of system sales; they produce statistics that are valid and useful as a comparison to other NPD numbers. For years NPD didn't include Walmart's numbers and currently doesn't include online sales and sales from smaller retailers; this likely doesn't change the ratios of the numbers but it means that Sony could have sold 250k and Nintendo could have sold 600k.
Acutally, I could be wrong but I suspect that not including Walmart would skew the results ...
... I'm saying Nintendo sold a greater percentage of there consoles at Walmart, not that Nintendo outsold Sony at Walmart
Years ago I heard that Nintendo was far more successful at selling their product in Walmart than they were at Bestbuy/EBgames whereas Sony was far more successful in Bestbuy/EBGames as compared to Walmart; this was because the Gamecube was a less expensive system that targeted families (which fit Walmart like a glove) and the PS2 was more expensive and targeted single males (which suited Bestbuy/EBgames). If this is true, this would mean that Nintendo would lose more "sales" by not including Walmart in your study than Sony would.
By the way
* DS: 918k
* PS2: 664k
* Game Boy Advance: 661k
* Xbox 360: 511k
* Wii: 476k
* PSP: 412k
* PS3: 197k
Software Sales (units and sales grossed)
* Gears of War: 1 million -- $61.5 million
* Final Fantasy XII: 896k -- $49 million
* The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess: 412k -- $20.2 million
* Guitar Hero II: 356k -- $20.2 million
All very interesting, but what I want to know is: Who are these 64 thousand new Wii owners who didn't pick up twilight princess? For Shame.
OSGGFG - Open Source Gamers Guide to Free Games
Don't forget to mention Nintendo there, buddy. They're quite a ways off of their target as well.