January Game Sales Explode, Wii Dominates

njkid1, as he does from time to time, passed us a link to a story on the GameDaily site. Today they're discussing the January NPD numbers for the games industry. In short, they're terrific. Software sales totaled $549 million for the month, up a staggering 53 percent over last year. Hardware sales were brisk as well, with the Wii selling around 436,000 units. Trailing behind were Microsoft and Sony, with 360 hitting 294,000 units sold and the PS3 selling 244,000 units. January had an extra week, which resulted in 'inflated' sales, but even after normalizing the data things were tremendous for the games industry in a month where there's normally a post-holiday slump.

Comments

Troubling for Sony

[Itchyeyes]

Sales wise, Sony has a problem. They've sold fewer units than either of their competitors and they're selling them at a slower rate, which means that gulf will only increase. If this continues, more and more franchises that were exclusive to Sony will move to become multi platform. Assassin's Creed, GTA, and VF have already done so. The PS3 may be a great system with great games, but from a sales perspective their situation is dire.

If Nintendo keeps numbers like this up though, the PS3/360 debate becomes moot. They would be the undisputed sales leader by the middle of next year. Even the PS2 rarely broke 400,000 units during a non-holiday-season month. And who knows what they Wii sales figures would be if they could keep up with demand.

Re:Troubling for Sony

[Lane.exe]

Most games I've seen on Gamespot and IGN that I am interest in are listed as coming out for the PS3 have X360 versions as well (Armored Core 4, Bladestorm, etc.). In fact, if Square will move Final Fantasy XIII to the X360 (or even the Wii) then I would have absolutely zero reason to buy a PS3. A developer shift to other platforms would devastate Sony in the console market.

Re:Troubling for Sony

[jackharrer]

Sony thought that PS2 will sell PS3. And that would happened if not that they put prices well over the limit.
Wii is a winner because people CAN afford it. Exactly the same happened with "inferior" Nintendo DS. Strange that Sony didn't learn the lesson.

Re:Troubling for Sony

[trdrstv]

Well yeah, because all the consoles in the past have been designed to put out images on an SD television set. Now that there are 2 consoles out there with HD as their focus, the state-of-the-art in terms of graphics is HD resolutions. For a series that has sold out to the eye candy, its pretty hard to imagine them passing up two systems with superior graphical power for the Wii.

The PS2 had a handfull of 720p games and 1 1080i game (GT4) so if they were about pushing the boundries... why didn't they? Others proved higher resolutions were possible. Hell 480p from 480i should have been dirt simple to do by comparison.

its pretty hard to imagine them passing up two systems with superior graphical power for the Wii.

Actually it's pretty easy to imagine. If they wanted superior graphics, FF would never have been on a Sony Platform. There were more powerful systems competing with both the PS1, and the PS2.

Square went where the market was. The same logic that got them on the Sony boat to begin with; was the same logic used to move the Dragon Quest Series off the PS2 and onto the DS. It is the same logic that can be used to move FF to the Wii. They aren't about pushing graphical boundries, they are about pushing units of software.

Re:Troubling for Sony

[nanoDaveF]

I agree completely. The only reason I bought my wii is that I thought it would be much more fun to play than the other consoles. Even my wife loves it and she hates video games. Nintendo has hit a home run and they know it. The data is proving it. Soon, all of the companies that weren't 'bothering' with porting their games to Nintendo consoles will be concentrating on them. The innovation that Nintendo is introducing will expand the bounderies of games as more and more game companies put their ingenuity to work. If you have to pick between games that are more fun or more pretty, more fun wins most of the time. Pretty is cool, but it gets old. Fun never does.

Wii Games Need More Selection

[SlashdotOgre]

I was fortunate enough to get a Wii at launch (hour and a half in line at Costco), but I have become someone disappointed at the selection of games thus far. In my opinion there's too many mini-games (Wii Sports, Wii Play, Rayman, Wario, Mario Party, etc.), and not enough full fledged ones like Zelda. Now I'm not saying the mini-games are horrible (they're excellent for when you have multiple people over), however they are starting to make the Wii feel more like a gimmick.

I picked up Madden over Christmas, and I was quite impressed; in fact it's the first Madden that's impressed me since the 16 bit era (I always liked the NFL 2K/ESPN sports more). I wish more sports titles come out and are able to execute as well. I'm definitely interested in a dedicated tennis/golf game, and I'm a bit concerned that I haven't heard of any coming out. I hope it's not due to the lack of accuracy of the wiimote. The Wii has a ton of potential, I just hope the Wii lives up to it.

Re:Wii Games Need More Selection

[AbsoluteXyro]

I agree completely, but buying any console at launch is going to leave you feeling the bite of scarce game variety. When a console has only been out a number of months you can count on one hand, there just hasn't been time for the breadth and depth of software we like to choose from to reach the market.

Right now is a ripe time to pick up a 360 however, I'd imagine that has something to do with the stronger-than-PS3 sales. For many, I'm betting the marginal utility of a PS3 is far smaller than the price. That makes the 360 look pretty tasty to those in the market for a more traditional graphics powerhouse gaming machine.

Things could be looking different give a year or so. As is always, only time will tell.

For now though, I wouldn't want to be Sony.

Thank you Sony shill

[Itchyeyes]

Are you seriously trying to spin the fact that Sony has fewer units on the market than both the Wii and the 360 and is selling them at a slower pace as a good thing? Are you really lumping in PS2 units with PS3 units to inflate the numbers? Are you actually stating that Naughty Dog's game, the one that has only one screenshot available and no name, is "insane" and "people are going nuts over right now"? I call shill

Re:Troubling for Sony? Doubtful

[tuffy]

If Nintendo's ahead by the middle of next year, they're going to stay there. Console sales are a matter of momentum. Selling a lot of consoles attracts developers, which make the console more attractive to customers, which sells more consoles. While it's certainly possible for one to come from far behind and take the lead with some killer app that appears long after launch, I can't remember any instances of that happening.

Re:A story in itself...

[aborchers]

I resist my temptation to ignore AC...

"Oh give the fanboy bullshit a rest!"

What is it with this "fanboy" ad hominem nonsense? It must really sting to see wimpy Nintendo kicking your techno-powerhouse asses all over the schoolyard.

I have owned a PSX and PS2 and loved both. I considered myself a dedicated Sony customer until they tried to sell Blu-ray to me through an incremental-improvement (don't start citing the specs, I'm taking playability) game platform. If I was in the market for a Blu-ray player, I would consider PS3 a bargain. I'm not, though, so it looks to me like an overpriced boondoggle offering no real gains. I probably will buy a PS3 some day to get a bargain blu-ray player and keep my PSX/PS2 library playable. Plus there's bound to be some must-have game for the platform (probably the next Wipeout) that will drive me. Right now I simply have no reason.

I bought a Wii and I love it. I owned the original NES until around 1990, bought a GC to play Godzilla Destroy All Monsters Melee (before it was ported) but other than that have never been particularly partial to Nintendo. I bought a Wii because it looked like *fun* for me and my wife and kids to play together and it is!

So, if anyone needs to give the "fanboy bullshit" a rest, it's all you jackasses claiming the Wii is a fan phenomenon. It is winning because it is selling to fans and to new customers of all kinds, whether they are existing gamers or not. It is winning because it is a blast to play, just like Pac Man or Doom are still fun, in all their pixelated glory.

Re:Troubling for Sony? Doubtful

[LiquidCoooled]

Who says there can only be one winner?

I think the Wii is something entirely different and if done correctly Sony could still retain their core gamer generation market who like fast action zillions of polygons and l337 skills whilst Nintendo will exist happily with their more family oriented gaming set.

Its capturing an entire class of gamers which just wouldn't even have purchased a console before, its a similar story with the DS - you have people playing on these things that wouldn't even consider another game system.

I cannot ever imagine my parents owning any playstation or xbox, but I think Nintendo might just have themselves another sale based upon their reaction to our Wii when they played last night.