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August NPD Numbers Look Good For Wii, 360
To add a little more context to yesterday's announcement that the Wii had outsold the 360 worldwide, we have August's NPD numbers courtesy of 1up. From the article: "The story hasn't changed much -- Wii remains on top, PlayStation 3 continues to have trouble gaining steam and Xbox 360 maintains a position behind Wii but gaining momentum as the fall season moves into gear-- but the numbers have shifted. Encouraging news for Microsoft, however, as Xbox 360 moves nearly 100,000 more units compared to last month's 170,000, while Madden NFL 08 pushes 896,600 boxes and BioShock moves 490,900 copies -- impressive numbers for the Xbox 360 platform, software-wise. Nintendo must be happy with the performance of Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, as the latest sci-fi Samus Aran shooter managed 218,100 copies in late August, with Wii Play (released in January) only beating it by nearly 50,000 units."
Latest /. discussion has been focused entirely on hardware numbers. Lately it has been Wii > 360 > PS3.
One thing is for sure, in terms of software, the 360 is top dog. This system flat out moves games. With Halo3 coming out in a little over a week, expect the 360 to have record quarterly numbers.
So you lump all sony products together to get
202 + 130.6 + 151.2 = 483.8
And you claim that makes it outsell nintendo and the xbox? Ok by that logic it's correct that it outsells xbox but if you're going to compare it to nintendo it's a little bit of a double standard if you take all three systems and compare it against only the wii OR it DS... by your line of reasoning shouldn't we combine all nintendo platforms and get 403.6 + 383.3 = 786.9k so you should be saying
"the nintendo family is outsellin the sony family and the xbox gg xbots and ps3tards"
If you want to troll at least try not to look so obvious (and just for the record the only console i currently own is a PS3)
Although I am sure that Sony will find some way to spin this in a good manner, I can't imagine they will be too happy that sales have actually decreased from July. With the expectation that the 60 GB version with true backwards compatibility would only be around for a short time, I am certainly surprised there wasn't a longer spike in sales. There might be some increase in sales due to high profile games like Lair and Heavenly Sword In September, but all signs point to these being disappointing and may do nothing to drive sales.
I am not shocked to see Xbox 360 sales increase. Bioshock is an amazing game, and as the de-facto console of hardcore gamers, the Xbox 360 version of Madden certainly helped sales. With Halo 3 only days away, I would expect the Xbox 360 will finish off the year with units flying off the shelf (and I would expect that sales will rival the Wii for the rest of the year).
The Wii continues to have strong sales, hampered by a continuing lack of supply. Nintendo will be happy with the sales of Metroid, and I imagine this game will continue to be a top seller for the next year or two. I'm betting Nintendo has started to hoard some units for the upcoming Christmas rush, so probably the rate of sales will be steady until November.
The simple reality is that the PS3 is priced well outside what most people are willing to pay for a game system. When the price comes down, sales will improve.
The thing is too expensive, period.
-- "So they told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated." - Bill Gates
Probably because it's twice as powerful and offers features that the 360 especially, touts as "add-ons" (If you add up the add-ons the price becomes comparable).
The potential to find new and creative ways to abuse customers.
You blame the hardware company instead of the software company that used a feature badly, bravo on your ability to shift blame.
The potential to lock buyers into Yet Another Stupid Sony Format.
How so? It only locks developers into this format for PS3 games, which happens to offer the same major features as HD-DVD, oh and it gives twice the storage space. Whose fault is it that some idiots don't take advantage of it? 360 doesn't even have the HD-DVD built in, it's an "add-on".
I agree that the PS3 is not being developed correctly on the software front, thats impossible to argue against at this point. But as a piece of hardware it's a solid machine that doesn't have a habit of dying on you, like some other console I know.
"Now you know, and knowing is half the battle!"
This Christmas is going to be interesting as far as sales numbers go. While we dealt with the two new systems last Christmas, things have radically changed in only a year. The Wii still sells out quickly, though stores are able to keep it in stock now, but will that last into the holiday season? Added to this is that two AAA titles, Super Mario Galaxy and Super Smash Brothers Brawl, are coming out before Christmas.
DDR: Hottest Party (Or was it Hottest Dance?) comes out in a few weeks on the Wii, too, and will likely be scooped up in droves by the "casual" gamers as it is yet another way to play games without sitting on the couch.
Then the 360 and PS3 have both had hardware changes and price drops, so the general public will be more receptive. And now that there is a larger selection of high-def movies available, both will be interesting to HD buffs (probably more the PS3 than 360 due to integration).
Oh yeah, and how could I forget Guitar Hero III? All three systems. It will be interesting to see which system gets the highest sales for this.
And the DS will still outsell everything. It prints money, after all. (And the DS is getting a Guitar Hero, too)
Except PS3 back-compat has gone straight to hell with the new 80GB PS3's that use emulation instead of embedded PS2 hardware...
IT went from 99% to 80%. hardly going to hell. 360's still at 30%-40%.
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
360 doesn't even have the HD-DVD built in, it's an "add-on".
This, to me, is even a bigger issue than the difference in processing power. The 360 has a slightly better GPU, which helps, but the PS3 has much more raw available power. (Emphasis on "raw.")
Really, the big deal *is* the BluRay, and not for movies. The fact that Sony included both a hard drive and a BluRay player means the game developer can assume certain things-- a fast hard-drive cache and 50GB of data storage topping the list.
I believe Microsoft was foolish to skip the HD storage medium for their HD-capable game machine. Games are getting *way* above 8GB these days.
The 360 fanbois are counting Sony out on this one. I don't think they realize Sony has the edge here as games grow to take advantage of the new system capabilities. What you see on the 360 today is about what you'll see on the 360 in four years. The PS3 is still in the Rayman stages.
But, to each his own. I'm very pleased with my PS3. Others will be pleased with their 360s. And we all win.
Microsoft is to software what Budweiser is to beer.
Everything I say is a lie. Except that... and that... and that, and that, and that, and that... and that.
I have to say that while Nintendo is selling lots of Wii's the game is not over yet, developers have to be successful in releasing games on the Wii and see if the demographic which purchased the Wii will bite.
I think the Wii will subsidize the hardcore segment of the market, but I have doubts that the people who bought the Wii for wii sports / Wii play will have much of an interest in hardcore games. I'm taking a wait and see approach. It looks to me like the Xbox and Wii will be king in North america and the PS3 and Wii will be king in Japan.
Nintendo though has been really having problems developing their first party games and the 3rd party software developers have REALLY caught up with Nintendo in terms of game quality.
I was playing Twilight princess and Wind Waker and found myself underwhelmed by it compared to a game like say God of War and God of War 2. They are both action games, but Zelda was not as combat heavy, nor as interesting as other more explorative games.
For every Xbox 360 sold at retail, Microsoft ships at least 5 to 10 replacement units.
Top twenty list for August broken down by platform:
XBox 360: 5
Wii: 5
DS: 4
PS/2: 3
PSP: 1
PS/3: 1
Xbox: 1
Obviously this doesn't reflect the entire catalog. It does, however, suggest that the Wii catalog is selling just fine. The linked article only listed number of units for the top 10 games. There, the 1.3M games units were sold for the 360 vs. the 0.7M game units for the Wii. But the top ten has only 2 360 titles vs. 4 titles for the Wii. Obviously, the market thinks that the Wii has a decent catalog of games.
I posted it yesterday, but as its almost the same story, I will post almost the same comment:
(insert submitter's name) writes in to tell us that (insert URL) is reporting that the Nintendo Wii has sold (x) number of units, barely itching out past the XBox 360, which has sold (y) units. Both are still well outselling the poor Sony PS3 which has only sold (z).
Automated comments:
Score 3, Funny - And is anyone surprised by this
This must generate a thread of at least 10 posts
Sore 4, Interesting - If Sony would stop (insert profanity) their developers, maybe PS3 sales would be stronger.
This must generate a thread of at least 15 posts.
Score 2 - I just bought a PS3 because it was a cheap BluRay player.
HD Format Wars Automated news generator:
(insert submitters name) writes in to tell us that (insert URL) is reporting that (Company X) has decided to go with the (insert format name). Recent sales figures shows that BluRay is currently outselling HD-DVD (y:z)
Article approver will comment: "I am just waiting on (insert movie) to be released, that will get me to decide which format to go with..
Mandnatory comments must include:
Score 5, Interesting / Funny- The Porn industry has decided to go with HD-DVD
this must generate a thread of atleast 20 replies
Score 3 - I just hope BluRay wins out, not because of the format, but because I want the storage capacity.
Score 4, Informative - Neither format will win, both will quietly die, because there is not a significant enough improvement over DVD to justify a format war. The reason DVD won over VHS is because there was a huge technology leap. We are still on discs here, the next big leap will be with downloadable content, not HD-DVD
This must generate a thread of atleast 20 replies, some agreeing, some disagreeing, at least one funny comment with will spur a whole other conversation not remotely related to the story
You know what is interesting? The real winner in the "console" wars, although many may not realize it, is the PC:
/. Pick up a cheap $200 video card (e.g. ATI Radeon X1950 XT) that can run pretty much any game out there with very good quality and good resolution, It will be very speedy and you have something that is cheaper than any of the consoles. And needing an expensive computer for games is a myth.
1. Vast library of titles available and also has titles available on multiple consoles (vs. PS3's dearth of a game library)
2. Option to have non-faulty hardware (vs. XBOX 360 "red ring of death"; btw, I'm not saying all have it--mine is in an extremely well ventilated area and I have no problems)
3. Superior graphics capabilities. Being able to play Oblivion at resolutions 1280x1024 and up--gorgeous (vs. the Wii)
4. No need to deal with figuring out the complexities of HDTV or even buying one (just choose the resolution your monitor, which you already have, supports)
5. The expense. You already have a computer if you are reading
6. No loading times (for the most part). Forza Motorsport 2 or Oblivion on an XBOX 360--painful, after a while
Something to think about.