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.

Comments

The eternal shipped vs. sold

[Phisbut]

Everytime there are sales numbers around, we need to remember that Sony always only report on shipped units, not on sold units. And no, even for the PS3, shipped != sold. I have seen PS3's on the shelves of some stores, and several other slashdotters have seen them too. Many PS3's are being returned by scalpers and are therefore unsold.

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.

Re:The eternal shipped vs. sold

[the_B0fh]

Actually, I'm interested in the PS2's sales numbers. If the PS2 still continues to outsell the 360/ps3, that should say something.

I think the PS3 won

[billdar]

Forget units sold, its hard to top a console people are willing to shoot people (and by extension, shot at) for.

Three things to consider (from WSJ)

[WillAffleckUW]

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.

Re:I'm sick of Japanese consoles...there I said it

[HappySqurriel]

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?

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.