CES 2007: Gaming Roundup

jasoncart writes "Traditionally, gaming's calendar year of expos, conventions, and trade shows doesn't generally kick off in earnest until March's fanfare arrival of the Game Developer's Conference (GDC) in San Francisco, which thus opens the floodgates for a host of industry platform events. However, before July's new-fangled E3 Media and Business Summit (the now scaled back, renamed, and invitation-only E3 of legend) shifts into view alongside August's Penny Arcade Expo (PAX), September's Tokyo Game Show (TGS), and the newly announced and ESA-endorsed Entertainment for All Expo in October (previously known as the Gamepro Expo), it falls to January's annual Consumer Electronics Show to whet our collective appetites-at least where related hardware is concerned."

Comments

The Big Early 2007 Story - Nintendo

[Anonymous Coward]

The news everyone is talking about right now is Nintendo getting caught lying big time about Wii shipments and sales. Nintendo tried to claim almost a million more Wiis were sold in November/December than can be accounted for. Unless Nintendo can come up with an explanation of where all those missing Wiis are the Wii is actually selling a lower than the GameCube's first couple months on the market.

Ouch.

With people seeing Wiis already sitting unsold on store shelves one has to wonder of the Wii hype has already run its course.

Re:The Big Early 2007 Story - Nintendo

[chrismcdirty]

Link? Or are you just trolling?

Re:The Big Early 2007 Story - Nintendo

[Anonymous Coward]

Here ya go dipshit:

http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_conte nt&task=view&id=4530&Itemid=2

Re:The Big Early 2007 Story - Nintendo

[Anonymous Coward]

Wiis are showing up unsold on shelves now - couldn't find one before the 1st of January though. The Wii only sold about 600k in the US in December and if we are already seeing Wiis sitting on store shelves demand has to be massively softer than many people ever expected. The 2007 release list of games probably has a lot to do with the significantly lower Wii sales. It is the GameCube all over again - ie. a few big Nintendo first party titles and a bunch of third party shovelware.

Everyone with a Wii has played through Zelda and now that holidays are over no one cares about stuff like Wii Sports anymore. There are a lot of Wii owners sitting around saying "now what?".

Re:The Big Early 2007 Story - Nintendo

[crossmr]

Yeah because that is what that article said. I wasn't aware that Pachter was "everyone" and he's really only pointing out a discrepancy in the count, which is an estimate. It also been pointed out that Target may be holding back with a plan to release a bunch later this week (see digg I don't want to wait for the story to show up here). Probably not hundreds of thousands, but it seems that most stores are getting them in constantly. He also has no info on how many are in Canada (he guesses) and other places. A couple of half guesses combined with an estimate doesn't make a damning story that everyone is talking about.

Re:The Big Early 2007 Story - Nintendo

[Fozzyuw]

Fixed the link.

Re:The Big Early 2007 Story - Nintendo

[MeanderingMind]

The article itself mentions the NPD only covers around 60% of retailers. Lets do some simple math, working under the assumption of evenly distributed Wiis.

1.1 million / 6 = .183 million (10% of retailers) .183 million * 10 = 1.83 million

Also, the NPD does not cover online stores. I find it easy to believe that, given the large number of exclusive online events at websites such as Amazon and Gamestop, 170k consoles could easily have been sold online.

In short, to claim this as evidence of Nintendo lying is dubious at best. The article itself only notes there is a discrepancy, but does not pass judgement on whether it is the NPD underestimating figures or Nintendo stretching them.

Re:The Big Early 2007 Story - Nintendo

[Rycross]

Must be nice to have your own personal reality like that.

Re:The Big Early 2007 Story - Nintendo

[iainl]

In particular, the retailers that NPD don't measure include non-traditional games shops like Walmart - the standard ratio they use to estimate sales there may well be off, given that Nintendo's machine is after a different market.

Re:The Big Early 2007 Story - Nintendo

[MeanderingMind]

Please tell us where these unsold Wiis are. I can think of people I know who've been trying to get one since launch, but have come up empty so far.

Re:The Big Early 2007 Story - Nintendo

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh look! It's some Nintendo fanboy spewing bullshit about 'frantic but futile searches for their favorite console due to it being just so amazingly popular!!!"

Just like Xbox fanboys did a year ago...

"God help me! I can't find a Wii because it is SO DAMN POPULAR!!!"

Fucking hilarious!

Re:The Big Early 2007 Story - Nintendo

[seebs]

NPD's numbers include estimations of the non-participants, and are generally believed to do a pretty good job.

Re:The Big Early 2007 Story - Nintendo

[Thraxen]

WTF? This isn't news. All that article says is they apparently didn't reach their target shipment. I don't see how Nintendo lied about anything. Also, as someone else pointed out, the NPD numbers don't actually include all the sales. That guy is simply grasping at straws just to have something to write.

Re:The Big Early 2007 Story - Nintendo

[Rycross]

You didn't answer the man's question.

Yesterday I asked GameStop if they had any Wiis in. They just laughed. I can walk down the street and buy a PS3.

Look, I realize that you're emotionally invested in your console winning, but lets not lie about the other console in a desperate attempt to counter the bad news concerning your console.

Re:The Big Early 2007 Story - Nintendo

[Thraxen]

Moron. At the end of the day they still shipped more than Sony and there are no Wiis to be found on store shelves. There are fewer PS3s in the market, yet they can be had almost everywhere now. Seems pretty popular to me.

Re:The Big Early 2007 Story - Nintendo

[Soygen]

Nice dodge. So where are all these Wii?

Re:The Big Early 2007 Story - Nintendo

[Anonymous Coward]

Right now in LA as of yesterday, I was at a Target, Best Buy and a Frys. All three had Wiis, the only place that had PS3s was Frys and those were part of some crazy 900 dollar bundle. The Target even had a sign up in their console section stating they had no PS3s due to the very high demand for the product.

Not really surprising since Nintendo consoles usually plummet in sales going from December to January historically.

Re:The Big Early 2007 Story - Nintendo

[Soygen]

This was on Earth?

Re:The Big Early 2007 Story - Nintendo

[Rycross]

Apparently Michael Pachter is a bit confused. Based on that link, and the subsequent link that article links to which explains the NDP numbers, the 1.1 million figure is for the United States. The 2 million is worldwide. There's only a discrepency if Europe and Japan fell off the face of the earth in the last month. Lesse, friends in Japan, still there. Friends in Europe, stil there. Looks like Pachter is either a moron or being paid off.

Re:The Big Early 2007 Story - Nintendo

[dave420]

Wiis are selling out, and are often sold out. PS3s are sitting on shelves, not Wiis. It's not just a case of them never being there - they do arrive, then they get sold very quickly indeed. But nice troll anyways.

Re:The Big Early 2007 Story - Nintendo

[AKAImBatman]

Wiis are showing up unsold on shelves now

I wish. I keep asking at every store I visit, but nothing. Just yesterday I was at Gamestop and they tried to sell me a PS3 instead. They sounded almost desparate to unload the things. (Though I don't understand why???)

Re:The Big Early 2007 Story - Nintendo

[Straif]

From a Canadian perspective, I have never, not once, seen a Wii on a shelf in any electronics/department store in town. They are usually sold straight out of the shipping boxes and they don't even require a sign, just simple word of mouth, to create a crowd.

The only place I know of that ever managed to get them to the shelves is small town about 50 minutes outside of Ottawa and even then they'd be gone by the end of the day. And now even their supplies are sold out before being unpacked.

I managed to get 2 before Christmas by waiting in line at the right places and the right times, but both times there were lines prior to the store opening. I know of 3 people right now who are still trying to get one and have been having no luck.

PS3's on the other hand are in stock in almost every store I've been too, and that trend started even before Christmas. I managed to get one about 1 week before heading to my parents for the Holidays and before I left I could have bought 5 more. When I went to return it just after Christmas (decided on a 360 instead) there were 4 in stock at the Wal-mart I was at and the Zellers (Canadian dept. store) below my office had 3.

Re:The Big Early 2007 Story - Nintendo

[seebs]

I was at GameStop today putting down my $5's to get Burning Crusade and Wario Ware tomorrow.

I was there about an hour before they opened. There were two guys standing outside. I came back. Turns out that they get a line, 4-5 people, EVERY DAY. Waiting for Wiis. (The sign saying they have PS3s has been on the door for at least a week.) They get about two shipments a week, which sell out instantly.

So, that particular store, 8-10 a week. That's not all that many, but everyone else has the same thing.

Re:The Big Early 2007 Story - Nintendo

[MeanderingMind]

I hate to break it to you, but ALL console sales drop from December to January.

Re:The Big Early 2007 Story - Nintendo

[MeanderingMind]

1) Two sentences is hardly "spewing".
2) I want a PS3.
3) I have a Wii and a 360.
4) I never said anything about the system's popularity, only that I knew people who wanted it and could not find it. You assumed that these searches were frantic (they aren't), that the console is their favorite (hardly) and that I was attempting to illustrate the system was popular("fucking hilarious").

All I was illustrating was the anecdotal nature of your statement. A review of other Wii related anecdotes will tend to favor the Wii as being sold out, and the PS3 as sitting on shelves.

Ultimately, there are far better arguments for the PS3 than you are presenting. Use them and people may listen. Argue like this and you're only giving people another reason to dislike PS3s.

Re:The Big Early 2007 Story - Nintendo

[MeanderingMind]

Actually, I believe Nintendo aimed to have 4 million Wiis worldwide. A quick search of "wii 4 million" shows this to have been the target, but with no official news as to whether it has been made.

The confusion is in where all the Wiis went. A lot of people assumed a 2, 1, 1 spread of those 4 million, with 2 being USA. It may be that Nintendo more evenly divided the systems, giving each region 1.3 million.

Unless someone can comeback here with sales figures from the EU and Japan, we'll be well in the dark.

Re:The Big Early 2007 Story - Nintendo

[Anonymous Coward]

Based on that link, and the subsequent link that article links to which explains the NDP numbers, the 1.1 million figure is for the United States. The 2 million is worldwide. There's only a discrepency if Europe and Japan fell off the face of the earth in the last month.

No, the shipment was supposed to be 4 million worldwide...so Japan & Europe have nothing to do with the 1.1 million figure.

Here's a direct quote from that link:
"Nintendo's goal was to ship 4 million Wiis worldwide by the end of 2006."

The thing is, he estimates that for the PS3's production run of 1,000,000 for north america, there may be 250,000 floating on barges.

However, even though the Wii was supposed to have has double that production run for north america, he estimates 250,000 Wii's floating on barges.

With double the production run, shouldn't there be double the number of items being shipped?

Also, he's comparing an estimate that Nintendo gave back at the end of November to a statement recently made by Sony. It wouldn't be surprising at all if Nintendo missed their production numbers. Didn't Sony originally say 4,000,000 PS3's in 2006?

All in all, a stupid article by what seems to be a very stupid analyst (or he's attempting to discredit Nintendo for his own purposes).

Re:The Big Early 2007 Story - Nintendo

[Rycross]

Right you are, I misread. But from a quote in the article:

Shortly after Wii's launch in mid-November, Nintendo of America boss Reggie Fils-Aime told Reuters that the company would have 1 million units in the US by early December and 2 million shipped by the second week of January.

Makes me wonder if there is some confusion about financial year and calendar year. The analysist numbers comes from the month of December, right? The 2 million prediction is marked for the second week of January. Taking that, I see room for error in the analysists conclusion that Nintendo is fudging numbers.

Re:The Big Early 2007 Story - Nintendo

[Mark Maughan]

Even if Walmart doesn't give them all of their numbers, they will still track Walmart as well as all other over-the-counter sales through sampling.

Here is an example of NPD tracking Walmart purchases.
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FNP/is _16_43/ai_n6161035

Re:The Big Early 2007 Story - Nintendo

[miro f]

according to this article Europe got 700,000 Wiis. Japan was somewhere around 1 million as far as I could see. There are also Canada and other small markets (Australia had 50,000) and we're looking at a number around 3-3.5 million. Take into consideration Nintendo said they would ship 4 million worldwide, so there are some in transit, would suggest that Nintendo came close, but didn't quite reach, their target of 4 million by the end of the year.

Re:The Big Early 2007 Story - Nintendo

[miro f]

I found the exact opposite. I saw a bunch of Wiis in the first store I checked at (it was about 9 am). Not a single PS3 in any store I visited. It appears no store will be getting them until March

Oh yeah, did I mention I'm in Australia? ;)

Re:The Big Early 2007 Story - Nintendo

[dave420]

It's always backwards down there. 7-foot mice, everything's trying to kill you, an island larger than Europe with about 12 people on it :) Fantastic stuff :)

so many

[mastershake_phd]

Man there are so many expos now. I wonder how hard it would be for me to start one. There is a Holiday Inn near here, they even have a 24/7 Denny's across the street.

Hey kids...

[Mongoose]

Depending on the area you live in you can go pick up a Wii, PS3, or the new Elmo right now. This doesn't mean any of these products are a failure. It just means they're in stock. All this bullshit every console release cycle about having to stay sold out for "OMG ten years11" is just that -- bullshit. If you're constantly FedExing ( PS3 ) or shipping by truck ( Wii ) new product as soon as it rolls out the door you'll meet demand. In fact now that the holidays is over you don't need to overnight or dramatically ship any consumer electronics. The reason? Most people on put large entertainment purchases off for -- *gasp -- Christmas/birthday/special new title just released.

The only time you have a failure is if that product continues to sit on shelf to the point it loses it's shelf space to another product. As far as one who makes products cares shipped = sold. To reiterate the problem is when retailers stop taking new orders. All of the kids thinking the first 1 1/2 months is all that matters likely also watch the first few laps of an F1 or NASCAR race deciding they know the outcome of that as well.

All I'm asking is to stop the stupidity. If you want to stay a fanboy that's fine. Man got to feel sorry for those guys selling BMWs I always see a lot full of them every time I drive by there!

Re:Hey kids...

[HappySqurriel]

Obviously, the quantity of sales of a new game system in its first 6 months do not represent that large of a portion of its userbase but they're still important. Typically if a console sells well for the first several months after it has been released its sales will continue throughout its lifespan; on the other hand if a console sells well and then drops off of the radar it will typically sell poorly throughout its life.

Re:Hey kids...

[wiiboy]

An acquaintance fo mine, Curtis Somoza, told me that he was able to pick his new PlayStation 3 at the local Best Buy. He said that he found the best deal there and that they had a good selection of games. He also told me that he saw some people playing the Nintendo Wii and that he is considering getting one of those consoles next.

Jesus wept

[Anonymous Coward]

This whole thread has been one long console fanboy pissing contest. Words do not exist for how fucking gay you people are.

Re:Jesus wept

[Anonymous Coward]

Words do not exist for how fucking gay you people are.

Except for maybe "You people are fucking gay"?

Re:The Big Early 2007 Story - Sony

[Anonymous Coward]

The news everyone is talking about right now is Sony getting caught lying big time about PS3 shipments and sales (and about "their" Emmy for the PS3's controller). Sony tried to claim almost a million PS3 were "shipped" in November/December, as if they'd sold. Unless Sony can come up with actual sales figures, the PS3 is actually selling a lower than the GameCube's first couple months on the market. Ouch. With people seeing PS3 already sitting unsold on store shelves one has to wonder of the PS3 hype has already run its course.

Ugh... bad headline/article matchup

[Tz-Auber]

So anyway, fanboyism aside, here's a link directly off the CES website of the list of CES Innovation Honorees for gaming tech:

http://www.cesweb.org/attendees/awards/innovations /rd_2007honorees.asp?category=110

This should hopefully give people a better idea to folks that there were a whole bunch of interesting gaming technology being shown there and that although Sony won best of category (http://www.cesweb.org/attendees/awards/innovation s/rd_2007honorees.asp?boi=1), they were just one of 11 honorees.

Hardly a roundup, if you just pick the fattest bull out of the herd and let the rest of the valuable cattle get away (the article did pay attention to the Headplay viewer, something I'm not sure made any honoree list.. basic searches don't come up with anything so far).

Also, CNet (http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-12760_7-6676861-1.ht ml?tag=bubbl_1) has their own awards too. I only mention them because they are at least the most officially attached media outlet to the event it seems.