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January Game Sales Explode, Wii Dominates

Posted by Zonk on from the wii're-in-the-money dept.

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.

9 of 478 comments (clear)

  1. Re:A story in itself... by Leviance · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yeah, the biggest story is the differential between the 360 and the ps3. Sony can't be liking that the gulf between the ps3 their self-proclaimed "competitor" is getting even wider.

    On a positive note, the PS3 has passed up the 3DO in sales (*thumbs up!*)

    Another hidden story, from the article:
    "And the PS2 also continues to outperform the PS3; Sony's six-year-old system sold 299K units."

  2. Hopefully... by KenshoDude · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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!

  3. The most telling number by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting
    The most interesting number to me in this report is that the Wii beat out the real 800 pound gorilla, Sony's PS2. While I've been a proponent of not calling off the console race until after the next holiday season, I'm surprised that the Wii is already outselling the PS2. If they keep this up over the next couple of months, I'll be ready to declare the Wii the winner and champion of this round of console sales. Sony has yet to move more PS3s off the shelves than PS2s for a single month. Not even the XBOX 360 has managed to outsell the PS2 on a regular basis despite being out for over a year and having what now amounts to a good catalog of games.

    February's numbers should be interesting.

  4. They're dominating even more in Japan by FleaPlus · · Score: 5, Interesting

    From Kotaku:

    http://kotaku.com/gaming/nintendo/hardware-wars-ds -wii-continue-to-print-yen-237481.php

    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

  5. Re:Wii Games Need More Selection by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Tiger Woods is coming out in the next month. I'm very happy for him, but to be honest I never would have suspected he was that way inclined.
  6. Re:Troubling for Sony by TheRaven64 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Sony has a problem. They've sold fewer units than either of their competitors and they're selling them at a slower rate It's not that bad. They make a loss on each one they sell, so the fact that they are selling fewer of them means they aren't making as much of a loss as they could be...
    --
    I am TheRaven on Soylent News
  7. Re:A story in itself... by KingSkippus · · Score: 5, Funny

    You are right, but you are also arguing against a zealot.

    Wow! Did I just get called a Nintendo zealot?

    I don't even own a Nintendo! I own an Xbox 360 which is pretty neat, an old PS2 that I don't play any more, and a PSP which I haven't played after the first couple of months of getting it. (Talk about unfulfilled expectations!)

    The last piece of Nintendo equipment I owned was an old—THE ORIGINAL!—Nintendo Entertainment System console, which I sold used over 15 years ago.

    The reason I want a Wii so badly is because 1) I have an Xbox 360, and though it's fun to play with sometimes, it's really not that special, 2) I have seen absolutely nothing from the PS3 that merits any attention whatsoever (let alone $600 of my hard-earned cash!), and 3) the Wii looks like a lot of fun and a lot different from the ho-hum games that I'm so bored with now. Maybe I'm wrong, but according to what my friends who have managed to procure one say, I'm not.

    Heh. A guy who hasn't owned a Nintendo console in over a decade and a half gets called a zealot because he wants a Wii and points out how well they're selling. That's a good one.

  8. Re:Troubling for Sony by trdrstv · · Score: 5, Insightful
    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.

  9. Re:Troubling for Sony by nanoDaveF · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

    --
    -- Dave