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Clearing Up Holiday Sales Rumours
Gamespot's regular 'Rumor Control' column tackles some confusion around who had the most holiday sales among the three new consoles. A CNBC broadcast prompted GamesIndustry.biz to proclaim the 360 the winner, with some 2 Million in sales. The Wii followed closely behind with 1.8 Million, and the PS3 followed that number with 750,000. The catch here is that, while it's possible a viewer could have assumed this was official NPD data, it wasn't. From the article: "The segment is an interview with Billy Pidgeon, an analyst with IT market intelligence firm IDC. In it, a graphic appears on screen showing estimated console sales in North America for November through December 25, 2006. The numbers match up with the figures being attributed to the NPD, but CNBC attributes IDC as its source on them. The confusion likely comes from a blurb of text that appears at the bottom of the screen shortly after the graphic is taken down. It notes that the 'NDP Group' (sic) pegged the Wii as selling more than twice the number of PS3s for the month of November, which is true, but also something that was announced last month." The numbers may prove to be true, but we're going to have to wait a bit longer to see who actually came out ahead last month.
Have they started including online sales yet or is it still just brick and mortar?
Wii probably could have sold more, if only it had been able to produce more of them. As for the Xbox 360, the only console not suffering from shortages (anymore), then good for them. I wonder how many were bought by people wanting a PS3, but then not finding any, so they bought a 360 instead.
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If NPD is the North American numbers guru for video game system sales, is there a European, Asian, or South American counterpart? I'm really intrested to see if Nintendo reached its goal of 4 million sold.
Can't all 3 consoles be successful? I know we are in a competitive culture, but you do not need a monopoly to survive. Media is going nuts searching for a victor.
The gaming market is absolutely huge, with over 10 billion+ in sales per year. There is plenty of money to go around, and for the first time 3 legitimate consoles who will all take a good portion.
The compeition of this generation of 360/Wii/PS3 will spark a ton of innovation for the next set of consoles.
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According to a number of detailed articles I read in the print edition of the Wall Street Journal (expensive subscription required, ain't paying), it's not just the actual console sales of Wii consoles, but the actual purchase of Wii controllers, games, and memory cards, that made the Wii the blockbuster seller this Christmas season.
Unlike the PS3, where most people bought the one really good game (Resistance Fall of Man), or the existing game purchases by xBox360 owners of Gears of War, the Wii console buyers ended up buying a lot of games and extra controllers, leading to situations where controllers were usually only found in back rooms and behind counters, as they were snapped up the second they appeared. Games were in reasonable supply, but most console owners bought quite a few games - probably affected by the MSRP of $50 for Wii games, compared to $60 for 360 and PS3 games.
However, sales of the PS2 games were fairly strong, especially that rock guitar thing (forgot the name) and a number of other strong titles.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
To rationalize the results, here are some advantages I can think of that the XBox 360 touted...
Anybody know when the Wii becomes truly "generally available"?
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... that is assuming it is not going to break all kinds of sales records ...
I think the only answer anyone can give you is "sometime in 2007" because no one really knows
In the small circle of people I know I'm the only person who actually owns a Wii and I know several people who are actively searching for one. When Nintendo ships another 500,000 to 1,000,000 units I would expect that most people who were looking for a Wii to own one but I'm not postivie about that; with (essentially) 2 Million systems sold in 6 weeks, and there still being a pretty massive shortage I think it is selling at a rate that no one expected. Traditionally, January and February are very slow months for game system sales (with around 1 Million sales of all hardware combined per month) so I would anticipate that within the next 6 to 8 weeks the Wii should be seen on store shelves
It's better then anything else out there, and "Acheivements" are their own brand of crack... This gives them an advantage over multiplatform releases.
Just like many people successfully predicted the death of Nintendo after the N64 and the gamecube had disappointing sales? Oh wait, that didn't happen. Instead, Nintendo realized that the arrogance that they had developed during their heyday did not guarantee them future success, so they were forced to do some extra thinking, and have come up with the DS and the Wii as a response.
Even if the PS3 comes in last, don't expect Sony to throw in the towel in regards to gaming. Just as a drop in marketshare hasn't ruined Nintendo's brand, the playstation brand is still important, and Sony is likey to take another stab at it when the next next-gen rolls around. We can only hope that if the PS3 falls below Sony's expectations that they learn some lessons from it, and make a more desirable system the next time around.
One time I threw a brick at a duck.
I'm rooting for the 360 because I'm sick of anime and senseless/cutesy Japanese story lines. Come on, hasn't this Japanese fad in the West lasted long enough?
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The NES, SNES, N64, Gamecube, Sega Master System, Sega Genesis, Sega Saturn, Sega Dreamcast, Sony Playstation, and PS2 all had a lot of western developed games (and Japaneese games) which didn't have senseless/cutesy story lines.
Before the Xbox, where could us Western console gamers go for realistic eyes and hair? Where could we go for a game originally written in English (without some strange translation)? Where could we go for an RPG that wasn't on rails? Where could we go for a game whose main character was a clear heterosexual?
For realistic hair and eyes, I'll tell you when we actually get them; considering realistic Skin, Hair and Eyes are still difficult on pre-rendered movies (because humans are very good at telling the difference between computer generated and real people) I expect that it will be a couple of generations. If you're talking about where you could get them from an Artistic perspective I think you should look into a couple of games Link, and Link,Link. Many Japaneese companies have been on the forefront of 'realistic' graphics.
RPGs that "aren't on rails" are mostly an American (typically PC) genre and have never been (particularly) popular
I, for one, am glad that an American company is finally back in the game.
There is nothing wrong with an American (or Japaneese) company being very successful in the industry
Blindly following that company simply because they are American (or Japaneese) is foolish because they will (likely) take your support for granted and you will (probably) become angry with the company.
I honestly think that Wii sales could really snowball in the future. We took the Wii with us when we travelled to visit the family over christmas, and a lot of the people who tried it were asking questions about where they could get one. My mom played Wii Tennis for about 15 minutes the night we got in town, and the next morning while we were still sleeping, she went to the mall to try to buy herself one.
It's really been almost "infectious" for people we've let try it. The more people who buy it, the more that other people will be exposed to it. This obviously will hit a limit somewhere down the line, but the immediate accessibility of the controls and that new coolness factor really could push that limit a lot further than many people expect.
One time I threw a brick at a duck.
I agree with you and have seen this type of behavior myself (people with no interest in games wanting a Wii) but I think this is the reason why I find it so difficult to predict when the Wii will become available.
With the PS2, PS3 and XBox 360 I have a pretty well established understanding on how the people who are buying these systems will react to certain events; surrounding the release of big games the sales will spike, as the price drops the spikes will become larger and the "average" number of systems sold will increase, at "Christmas" nearly 50% of hardware sales will occur within a 6 week period and will crash (to the yearly low point) for 6 to 8 weeks following. "New" gamers will likely react quite differently than "Traditional" gamers and will likely have their own set of "big games" which does not match a "Traditional" gamers "big games" (say Wario Ware: Smooth Moves or Wii Play may be huge for the non-gamer crowd). Even how non-gamers buy games does not match how traditional gamers buy games because game sales are not front loaded.
Undoubtedly the success of the DS can translate to benefits to the Wii. It would be even greater if Nintendo were able to announce some neat pairing between the DS and the Wii, similar to what Sony has tried to do with the PS3 and PSP (only failing miserably, due to the relative unpopularity of both systems).
-- jchenx
The NES, SNES, N64, Gamecube, Sega Master System, Sega Genesis, Sega Saturn, Sega Dreamcast, Sony Playstation, and PS2 all had a lot of western developed games (and Japaneese games) which didn't have senseless/cutesy story lines.
Not to mention A: PC games are largely western developed (with personal PC ownership traditionally lower in Asia), and B: Sega actually stands for SErvice and GAmes, originally started by an American.
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