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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.
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.
This in itself is good story. Keep in mind that Sony PS3's and Microsoft Xbox 360's are widely available and on stores shelves everywhere, while the Wii's are still in short supply. In spite of that, the Wii is still outselling both. If you're Microsoft, you can always claim that it's because the 360 has been out for a year, and it's total sales are (of course) much higher at this point.
But if you're Sony, that's just got to hurt.
/still wants a Wii...
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.
Sadly, PS/2 was yet another victim of USB, which doesn't care what you plug into it, the electrical slut.
"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!
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
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.
Ita erat quando hic adveni.
It might be to early to predict the exact outcome, but the positioning in this first year is crucial for all companies involved. If Sony can't reach a critical mass with the PS3 fast enough, then developers will stop making exclusive games since they can't make a profit without a large enough install base. As I've stated we've already seen this with VF and GTA. Without exclusive games, the incentive to buy a PS3 diminishes and their sales lag even further behind the competitors. As sales lag more, even more exclusives flee the console to recoup their investments on other systems. It's circular. It's exponentially more difficult to reclaim ground you've lost than it is to keep ground you've already made. At this point, I don't think Sony's fate is written in stone. The margins are still narrow enough that they could come out on top. However, it's going to require a significant price drop or a plethora of excellent exclusive games to regain the ground that they have already lost, neither of which is on the horizon any time soon.
Something that a lot of Sony fans miss is that publishers hold the purse strings (and determine what games get made) and the only performance they care about is sales performance. Certainly, the outcome can not be determined after 3 months but (unless something changes soon) things will snowball out of controll and the PS3 will be in serious trouble.
The fact is that (if the Wii continues to sell like it has been) the Wii will be the best selling platform in the World by Christmas 2007, and probably will be the best selling platform in every region by Christmas 2008; if this happens every publisher who has worldwide interests (think every major publisher) will focus on the Wii by Christmas 2007, and every publisher will be focusing on the Wii by Christmas 2008.
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
Are you basing the 4:1 ratio on some total number? Because based on the NDP numbers its a bit less than 2:1. Of course, doing an assessment based on total sales isn't exactly fair at this point, since PS3 has yet to launch in Europe.
It's a bit too early to call the game altogether. We're talking millions and tens of millions in an industry where the biggest player last round sold over 100 million consoles. We'll start seeing real indications when more exclusive games start comming around.
> There has to be a bunch of gloating Sony execs at their headquarters right now.
For now.
You don't know any PS3 game devs, do you. I don't know any that are praising the system. Gee, wouldn't want it _easier_ for the devs now, would we!
Sony has really alienated its PS2 game devs -- that the guys you want to IMPRESS, not dissuade from the hardware. As much as I love developing for the PS2, one really has to wonder what the crack the Sony Engineers were smoking.
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.
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.
liqbase
Nintendo
Wii - 436K
DS - 239K
GBA - 179K
GC - 34K
total: 888K consoles.
Oops, I forgot ridiculous rounding... OMGz! Nintendo sold about 1 Million consoles!
Sony
PS3 - 244K
PS2 - 299K
PSP - 211K
total: 754K consoles. Did I even need to mention the GameCube?
And, use some common sense and these numbers look insane:
Sony is losing money for every PS3 sold based on manufacturing costs alone, never mind all those units sitting on store shelves. Sony won't even see respite from the bleeding until the 65nm process-shink slated for late this year.
Nintendo makes a profit on every console they sell.
---k--
</stupid>
That's exactly it for me.
I want a game that's fun. I don't really care about how it looks. If there's a great storyline with a reasonable interface, that's fun.
It's got to be a "droppable" game, too. I don't want to have to run around for another 30-60 minutes trying to find a save point. That stops being fun pretty damned fast. It's one of the reasons I've cut down on playing video games and moved to mostly playing board games.
My wife and I are getting a Wii next December, once all the plebeians have found the bugs. Sure, it doesn't have the HD power of the PS3. Who cares? Nintendo decided to stop chasing the eye-candy tech and go back to the core of games.
Games should be fun.
If you want pretty, then watch a movie. Oh, wait. You are, since the ads and the box art are usually stills or pre-rendered video that looks nothing like the actual game.
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ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
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
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.
FTA: The launch of Sony's PlayStation 3 next month will be accompanied by a host of freebies that Sony hopes will take the sting out of the game console's $999 price tag. The James Bond film Casino Royale will be offered free to the first 20,000 buyers who register their PS3 online. Additionally the game Gran Turismo: HD will be available to all PS3 buyers as a free download from the PlayStation Network.
Article: http://www.smh.com.au/news/games/sony-unveils-play station-sweetners/2007/02/22/1171733923601.html