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Games Industry Sees 12 Billion in Sales For 2006
Gamespot is reporting that, with the NPD numbers in, we can finally put the debate about last year's winners and losers to rest. Overall, the industry was the winner, with a record-breaking $12.5 Billion in sales last year. December accounted for almost $4 Billion all by itself. In software, the usual suspects prevailed. Madden topped the chart with 2.8 Million in sales for the PS2 version of Madden 07. Right behind was New Super Mario Bros. on the DS, with some 2 Million in sales of its own. On the console side of things ... well, as Kotaku points out 'everyone is a winner' this year. Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo have all put out press releases declaring themselves the winner of the Holiday console wars. The sad reality, though, is there can be only one. According to the NPD numbers, between the launch of the new consoles and the end of the year, some 1.1 Million Nintendo Wiis were sold with 687,300 PS3s following closely behind. Microsoft trails with its numbers from 2005; it sold 607,000 consoles in its launch year. Don't feel too bad for Microsoft, though. They sold 1.1 Million 360s in December. The article points out this means Microsoft met its '10 Million in sales' goal for the end of 2006.
Riley also thought the PS3's high price--$499 for the 20GB model, $599 for the 60GB--wasn't as large a factor as many have made it out to be. "I think price plays a role there, but remember during the holiday season people have deep pockets," he said. "Kids know what they want, and if they tell mom to go buy a PS3 and she comes home with a Wii, they won't be happy."
Honestly, when it comes to console sales I don't think price has that much of an impact on early adopters because it is a planned purchase; something which is budgeted for and anticipated months in advance. Where price becomes a factor is that most console purchases are not planned and happen when one or two popular games are sold; when someone watches an advertisement on TV and goes out to buy a PS3 with Metal Gear Solid or Final Fantasy they will (mostly) be anticipating a price of $300 or $400 for the system and game combined.
I'm still scratching my head as to how 687,000 is "closely behind" 1.1 Million. (400,000 consoles is nothing to shake a stick at.)
If the 1.1 million figure was just December, then it would make more sense. But 1.1 million since launch? That seems incredibly low no matter which way you cut it.
(Of course, that probably means that the PS3 and Xbox360 numbers are low as well.)
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
Uh... ok I'll try not to.
The XBox 360 is a much, much better system already than the XBox ever was in terms of game library. Gears of War, 99 Nights, Quake 4, Enchanted Arms, Phantasy Star Online, Dead Rising and with games like Halo 3 and Lost Planet on the horizon for 2007, Sony faces a much tougher challenge. If Microsoft has already hit 10,000,000 units sold and is still climbing, as I suspect they are, it's probably only a matter of time before Square-Enix gets antsy and starts to think about Final Fantasy 13 and other games appearing on the XBox 360 and Wii.
I would expect 2007 to be the year that Sony finally gets its ass handed to it by Microsoft and Nintendo starts to return to its old status as a force unto itself in game production.
Sounds like world of warcraft got boring in 2006?
retailers. For instance, amazon.com it seems got screwed when it came to its wii allotment. I can't find one online retailer that is selling either the wii or ps3 at retail(the ones above retail are "used" for instance on amazon). It seems like both Sony and Nintendo passed them up to go with brick and mortar stores.
Well that's just the thing, Sony DIDN'T sell all their PS3s. It's quite trivial to get on in the US now.
The PlayStation 2 sold 1.4 million units in December. The PS2 has a great library of games (many of them discounted) and there are still plenty of new releases to look forward to (Rogue Galaxy comes to mind). The Interweb is full of all these geek debates about PS3 vs. Wii (and they are fun, don't get me wrong), but the PS2's success is do, in part, to its vast game selection. That, IMHO, will always be more important than tech specs. Hopefully, though, the new consoles will have a more robust game selection in the coming months.
Well, they did reach the 8 million subscriber mark http://www.blizzard.com/press/070111.shtml and have their first expansion coming out next week, which a good percent of those 8 mil will buy. I imagine Blizzard is fairly comfortable with their financial situation right now.
Its not really fair to make any comparison right now. Until all produces can ship to meet or exceed demand, its impossible to make any kind of accurate comparison. Also, initial success doesn't necessarily mean long term success. The WII may appeal to people now because its unique, but it has to show that its control scheme is more than just a gimmick to hold onto its appeal. I certainly hope that it does, as it would encourage more innovation in general, but its far to early to crown a champion, or even a leader, at this point. Wait until at least next Jan, if not the year after that.
http://bgcommonsense.blogspot.com
ummm
Disclaimer: I am a nintendo Fan, however I will try to stay unbiased.
1.1Mill Xboxen sold in Dec (just dec, remember, both the PS3 and Wii were launched in Nov) says that they trounced the PS3. However (yes, you can see the glee in this Nintendo fanboy's eyes) the Wii is giving the 360 a run for its money with 1.1mill units sold in Nov/Dec.
Also that says the Wii's launch sales trounce the 360's, however you do have to remember that the 360 had a HORRIBLE launch when it came to product avalability, where the Wii is having an abundance of production (though they still sell out).
My prediciton?
Unless Sony pulls their act together (gets some GREAT games out FAST), it is goign to be a running war between the 360 and the Wii. Also I am willing to bet we will see Wii on shelves faster then we did for the 360, but simply b/c their production is going much better then the 360 did at launch.
Do Or Do Not, There Is No Spoon, There Is Only Zuul. Everything in the above post is probably opinion.
Funny, while I was hunting down a Wii before Christmas I found DOZENS of PS3's in the city (Saint John, NB, Canada) and that trend still continues. I finally stumbled on a Wii a week after the new year, and have yet to see one since.
World of Warcraft has 8million players. If they all pay 15 dollars a month (and I don't know that they do, because I don't know the fees in other countries) then that's 1.44 Billion dollars.
I'm not sure I see any PC games in the lists in the article, actually.
Initial release is nothing but the adrenaline rush. It's now up to developers to make quality games that take proper advantage of the hardware and for the hardware people to keep up production quality.
To that effect, if the Wii doesn't get unique games (instead of the same games on other systems with enhanced controlling schemes), the Wii might end up being the loser. Waving a remote might sound awesome for the next few months, but then people will realize that other games treat the Wii as a gimmick instead of a real console.
Microsoft has to ensure proper Live maintenance, and try to bring the price down. If either the PS3 or Wii picks up online steam, people will question their $50 a year charge just to play online. MS might just try to float with just Halo 3 as it's flagship, but there might just be a point and time when FPS gets tiring. Then what's left?
Sony has their work cut out for them. Thankfully, I don't hear about consoles keeling over, so they got 1 thing right this launch with no consoles just dying. Now they just need to work on their online segemnt, especially if their deal with xfire leads to a centralized friends list like xbox live:http://www.psxextreme.com/ps3-news/316.html. All of the perks of Live witht he fee of free might just have people eat the $500-$600 price tag. Now it's just getting developers to make awesome games for the PS3.
i think we're seeing the death of mass 3rd party console exclusives. Some companies (Capcom) might stay exclusive for a few franchises, but I thnk alot of developers will be multiplatform publishers. The real winner in this generation? Us. Anytime there's heated competition there's been great games (SNESGenesis, PS2Xbox)
In Soviet Russia, dots slash you!
According to these NPD numbers Microsoft has sold a cumulative total of 4.5 million 360s in the US. So if they've hit 10 million they must have sold 5.5 million in the rest of the world. They've sold 200k in Japan so that would mean 5.3 million split between Europe, Australia and other smaller markets. I had the impression that the US was by far and away Microsoft's strongest market, is there some factor i'm not considering?
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
2 Million New Super Mario Bros. sales on DS speaks volumes. Games don't need to be over complicated and cost $ millions to produce. Keep it simple yet very playable!
Sheeze, can we put this to rest already? It seems that, for the last couple of console generations, all that people care about is who won and who lost. Number of shipped consoles vs. sold ones, launch date numbers, millons invested in advertising, etc. Nevermind the endless drooling over polygons per seconds, CPUs, memory controllers and the works. People live and die by these numbers, claiming that company X is the winner of this generation while company Y is in the brink of bankruptcy.
Come on guys. I can understand (barely) this kind of insaness from fanboy sites, but please, can we move forward? If you like consoles, why do you care beyond which one is more fun to play, or has more games that appeal to you? Do we really have to get into the pissing contest of which one sold an extra 10 units this month? I mean, is it relevant? Is it even interesting? If you like consoles, you have not one, nor two, but three excellent options to chose from, and that's it. I'd like to see more discussion about games rather than units shipped, Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD or whatever is trendy this week.
Okay, put down the Sony-brand crack pipe which only smokes Sony-brand proprietary crack.
If what you're after is marketshare, then selling out is irrelevent if the number of units you sold was not enough to get you the marketshare you needed. If I had one Burke-brand computer to sell, and someone bought it, could I claim Dell, who still has ample supplies, was losing to my hot seller?
Microsoft selling 1.1 million units without selling out is a good thing, as it means their production is ample and there is still strong demand for the console. At over 10mil units sold, they have a substantial lead in the console wars, giving them all-important momentum. There is no rational way to say that Microsoft isn't winning right now.
Wii had decent production, but the fact that they sold 1.1 million consoles and were sold out is a bad thing, as it means more people wanted to buy the Wii but couldn't, artificially limiting their market share. Each console they produce now is going to satisfy the backlog -- I have a couple family members whose Christmas present was "the promise of a Wii when we can get one". While this means in the longer term they have decent potential marketshare, they're still stuck way behind Microsoft and they are not going to be able to catch up any time soon as production continues to limit sales. Though at least they sold more than Sony.
Sony had terrible production, and sold fewer consoles than everyone else. Being sold out is a bad thing as they are now in 3rd place. Unless their production suddenly shifts into impossible-mega-drive to make up the extra 500,000 units they didn't have to sell this Christmas, their position in 3rd place is solidified through most of 2007. The worst news for Sony, though, is the reports that they aren't sold out any longer and PS3s are sitting on shelves, meaning there weren't enough "we'll buy one as soon as it becomes available" to take up the new production and help them make up lost ground. There could be a lot of reasons -- though only Sony-brand crack could make you believe that price wasn't a major one -- but if this trend continues and Sony doesn't do something, then you're looking at the loser of this generation. Certainly, as of right now, they are behind.
The enemies of Democracy are
Measured in each of the three consoles' respective launch windows, the Wii sold more than any of the others, as in they had the best launch. The game spot article titled "Wii tops new console launches" makes this clear.
Of course all of them were production limited initially, so all this by itself really means is that Nintendo had the best pre-launch manufacturing story. Now I guarantee you this wasn't an accident, and manufacturability was a major consideration in the Wii's design. Still it doesn't tell the story of right now, which is that the 360 is way ahead, thanks to the whole year they had to fix their production problems and sell consoles with no next-gen competition.
Speaking of, I am once again boggled at the Sony fanbois who use the PS1 and PS2 as proof that PS3 will dominate Nintendo and MS, but forget about that all-important year lead time PS1 had on N64 and PS2 had on Xbox and GC. Now the shoe is on the other foot and Sony is starting this generation as the marketshare underdog.
The enemies of Democracy are
Another system that sold just over 10 million units... Sega Dreamcast. So 10 million hardly makes you a winner. Sony's numbers are artificially inflated by the ebay factor. Yes they sold the systems, but they also were not all sold to end users. Sony is not doing as well as it would like you to believe, and people generally aren't going to warm up to spending $600 for a console once the "wow it's new" factor is gone. X360 has the best base, and Nintendo is doing quite well. It's safe to say businesswise, Sony has already put itself in a big hole this round. However if PS3 does make Blu-ray the medium of choice, it will have been worth it in the end.
Assuming $600 is trivial.
Thunderclone: ONE MAN ENTERS! TWO MEN LEAVE! ONE MAN ENTERS! TWO MEN LEAVE!
I think a lot of people laughed at Bill Gates when he claimed Microsoft was winning the console war. While what he said is rather hard to argue against, it seems rather premature to claim victory when the race has really just started.
However, it has been noted time and time again that while the Wii can coexist with the 360, the PS3, or both the same can not readily be said of the 360 and the PS3. While it is possible they both will survive and even do well this generation, it is just as if not more likely that one will effectively crush the other.
Taking that into consideration sheds some extra light on Gates' jubilation. A 10 million console head start, and the greatest threat to your success fails to live up to expectations. It is even possible, if unlikely, that Sony will be forced to drop out of consoles altogether (perhaps after a PS4), leaving Microsoft as one of two clear giants of the industry.
Quite simply, the position the Xbox 360 is in now is a very, very strong one. They've already sold a number of consoles equal to half what Nintendo's previous offering achieved. I'd be in a state of euphoria myself were I Gates. It would have been very difficult to imagine after the launch a little over a year ago that everything would go so well for Microsoft. The only thing the could go better would be a catastrophic explosion or meteoric impact at Sony HQ.
Thunderclone: ONE MAN ENTERS! TWO MEN LEAVE! ONE MAN ENTERS! TWO MEN LEAVE!
I love Sony, and I think the PS3 is awesome. I'll definitely buy one when I can muster up 600 washingtons. There's just one thing I've noticed from listening to my friends and people on forums.
A $600 system can never have a "system seller" game.
This is not to say the system won't sell, but $600, as mentioned many times before, just isn't an impulse buy. Even the Xbox 360 at $400 for the premium version is a difficult "walk in and buy for Gears of War" system. One game just isn't enough.
The Wii, at $250, is definitely in the impulse buy range. If I see one on the shelf, I wouldn't even hesitate to pick it up, along with Zelda, and purchase it.
The PS3, at $600, for even semi-hardcore gamers, is just not an item that one can justify purchasing because one REALLY good game came out. When Halo 3 comes out for the 360, it will sell systems. If Halo 3 came out exclusively for the PS3, the price would be prohibitively large enough that people might still say "I think I'm going to wait for the price drop," or "I'll wait until it has another good game that I want."
On the other hand, Sony has done a good job of selling through all their units until Christmas. Pricing is correct when there is a readily available of supply for purchase, yet enough to match production levels. If they gradually drop the price of the system, interest may rise again to the point of sell-out. But really, who wants that? In many ways, I kind of wish the Wii were $300. Then maybe I could actually buy one without paying $400 for it off eBay.