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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.
"Wii's total software sales reached almost a million units at 977,225, while total PS3 software sales came in at 662, 847."
Sony loses money on each PS/3, in the hopes that they'll make it up with licensing fees from the games they sell.
Nintendo doesn't. AFAIK, they've yet to sell any of their consoles at a loss in an effort to gain marketshare.
So Sony is losing money to Nintendo on the front end (hardware) and the back end (software).
That's gonna hurt...
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
With the Wii's success, one could only hope that developers will start paying more attention to gameplay innovation rather than graphical innovation. I think the success of Nintendo's new console underscores a revolution that has been waiting to take place in the gaming industry: an emphasis on playability and fun over impressive visuals. Now, if we could just combine next-gen visuals with next-gen gameplay -- a gamers' nirvana!
February's numbers should be interesting.
From Kotaku:
s -wii-continue-to-print-yen-237481.php
http://kotaku.com/gaming/nintendo/hardware-wars-d
Here are the current hardware sales in the land of the rising sun for the week of February 4th to the 11th.
* Nintendo DS Lite - 201,177
* Wii - 78,550
* PSP - 32,175
* PLAYSTATION 3 - 23,431
* PlayStation 2 - 16,033
* Xbox 360 - 4,811
* Game Boy Advance SP - 980
* Game Boy micro - 884
I rather like the comment which noted the following:
Wii Sales > PSP sales + PS3 sales + PS2 sales + 360 sales + GBA sales + Micro sales
DS Sales > Wii Sales + PSP sales + PS3 sales + PS2 sales + 360 sales + GBA sales + Micro sales
When was the last time Nintendo sold 500,000 consoles per month during a non-holiday season in just North America? Dude, that is a LOT of consoles. So many that the Wii has sold almost half as many units as the XBox 360 has sold in its entire lifetime. So many that Nintendo has already sold about 1/4 of the units that the Gamecube sold in its entire lifetime.
Think about that. 1/4 the number of Gamecubes in 1/4 of a year. Wow. I'd hate to be the guy who management is leaning on to improve Nintendo's production capacity.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
This is not troubling for Sony - let's check Xbox 360 last year at this time. Gamasutra reports that last January 2006 Xbox 360 sold approximately 250,000 units, about the same as PS3 this year. That's without a competitor with an excellent games library or a competitor which is the newest fad and phenomenon that outsold you 2:1. In fact, this January the Xbox only sold 40,000 more than last January. And that's without the supply issue that last year's sales displayed. So basically, the 360 isn't exactly red hot either. If the 360 was so amazing, it'd be killing the PS3. As it is, it's barely holding on.
I guess I don't see it the way you do. I would argue that for a $600 console with one exclusive title worth playing, it is selling pretty darn well. After they iron out the bugs and more titles start to come out, I think that they'll easily overtake Microsoft. Although the Blu Ray format is virtually worthless right now, as more people get HDTV's and more Blu Ray's are released the feature will be more valuable to consumers. The system is supposed to be able to last for a while. The 360 has been out for a year and they're already discussing releasing a new one in May with a bigger hard drive. Microsoft's Xbox came out after the PS2 and died out way before it. Although people keep saying that it is sitting on store shelfs, I still can't find one in my area (Manhattan), and every time Amazon gets a shipment they sell out immediately. I see posts all the time from people on the internet saying that their Walmart in the middle of nowhere has had them on the shelves for ages, and it really isn't surprising given the price point, but they are selling like hotcakes over here, and if Sony had twice as many of them, they would have sold them. Even if Nintendo does keep up these sales figures, it still won't have the graphics and gameplay that some people want. I don't think the 360/PS3 debate will become moot any time soon.
Why are so many people so shortsighted? HDTV is the future.
HD may be the future, but the issue is it isn't the present. Currently I own an HDTV, and an HD DVD player. I enjoy them immensely, but I am (by having them) in the minority. About 17% of households in the US have 1 or more HDTVs. That means 83% don't, and our adoption rates have been better than either Japan and Europe. Now HD is a niche (albeit growing) market. It will take several more years for it to hit mainstream adoption. DVD only surpassed VHS sales after the players hit the $50 and under price point.
In 5-10 years it may be mainstream, but Nintendo has banked that it won't hit 'critical mass' within the 4-6 year life expectancy of the Wii. I'll bet that the next Nintendo will push HD, but in the interest to cater to the largest possible market they have chosen SD.
I own a PS3, an xBox360 & a Wii. I also play them on a 720p TV. Here is my perspective...
I bought the PS3 first (11th Nov 2006) & was pretty impressed from day one. Of the few games I owned back then, I felt that gameplay & atmosphere was superior to that on the xBox360 (that I had played at friends houses)
When I talk about "gameplay & atmosphere" I mean this - the way that a game can draw you in, inspire you to play, leave you wanting more, a compelling story with rewarding/challenging gameplay.
I consider Resistance to have a moderate amount of this, CoD3 lots, Halo very little.
Some months later I bought an xBox360. I was disappointed at range of games available on the PS3 & their slow appearance. I expect this to pick up in the next few months, but at the moment only MGS has me drooling.
I was pleasantly surprised with the xBox360. I picked up a few decent games right away & at the moment I play the xBox360 much more that the other two consoles. Deadrising is fiendishly difficult, but very addictive & compelling. It even inspired me to watch "Dawn of the Dead" on a saturday morning before diving into some zombie chopping action.
xBox live is a great feature, despite my previous opinion that it wasnt something I would use - the demos etc are a real bonus.
My 2 small gripes about the xBox360 are the subscription fee for online play & the noise of the xbox fans. It is very noisy compared to the silent PS3.
Otherwise, I put the xBox360 above the PS3. More games & more fun. But I wouldnt rule out the PS3 yet, I think there will still be some nice things to come.
The Wii was a bit of a novelty buy. I didnt expect it to form a big part of my gaming life - & I was right. The innovative control system is indeed inspired & great fun, but the games are just time fillers. Wii sports is, erm, well not much more than a demo. I can see it being nice for children aged 3-8, but beyond that it's not really for serious games.
I have this great Marble game though, you are a marble & you roll around on various floating mazes to reach the goal. This game really does get addictive & I often play it for 10 mins or so to warm up before getting into some real hi-def arcade action on the xBox360 or PS3.
The Wii is selling well. It's cheap. I put this down to: people don't look beyond the price for their purchase / or / they are crap at games
* Game Over * High Score: 264,846,927 -- Your Score: 14
Even $500 is too much, though: I paid about $250 for my TV, and in my mind that's how much TVs cost. Judging from the installed base, I'm not the only one with that opinion. I've seen HDTVs in lobbies, casinos, bars, and electronics stores, and I've been bombarded with advertising for them, but I've only ever seen one HDTV in an actual house, and it was a rear projection unit that looked awful. The prices will only drop, and the install base will only rise in the future.
Why are so many people so shortsighted? HDTV is the future. I'm sure it will be... but it isn't the present. Until HDTV is affordable, not many people are going to care about HD quality graphics, Blu-Ray or HD-DVD, because they won't be able to use them anyway. By the time HDTV has been adopted widely, it'll be time for a new round of consoles anyway.
Visual IRC: Fast. Powerful. Free.
I don't think it's fair to say that Wii is 'dominating'. They are playing for a different core audience (while there is crossover between 'casual' and 'hardcore' gamers, they are not the same market). In terms of sales they've got a leg up for January of about 40% over MS and 45% over Sony, but it's worth keeping in mind that the Wii retails for close to 40% less than 360 and 60% less than PS3. Anyone can flog a product that's less than half the price of the competition. Additionally there's a massive amount of media hype surrounding it, which won't be sustained. There is continued demand because they were unable to manufacture enough over Christmas - people who missed out on one to put under the tree are likely still trying to grab one. Finally, Nintendo systems have always sold well out of the blocks. Wake me up in six months and we'll see if they've kept their momentum. They're going to need some substantial third-party support too, something which they've really shown no signs of having at all. The hardware sales aren't nearly as important as the software sales, and on that front Wii only had one of the top 5, and it wasn't close to the top-seller for the month (Lost Planet).
Personally, I'm skeptical as to whether Nintendo can keep the same momentum going given the lack of software in the pipeline. And additionally, as a gamer I hope that everyone is dead wrong about them dominating the market. I'm not a casual gamer, and while a few fun gimmicky toy games like Wii sports are great, I would die if everything was like that. For me, the games Nintendo seem to be pushing are like candy - they taste great, but they burn away pretty quickly and in the end you can't sustain yourself on them.
This is doubly troubling for Sony. The developers are likely to build cross platform games, which means they won't be taking full advantage of the cell processor. In other words most games will look similar on the PS3 and Xbox 360, which removes one of the major advantages of the PS3.
meh