No, that's calendar year, for both Sony and Nintendo. Specifically, Nintendo has said 4 million worldwide by the end of 2006, 6 milliion worldwide by the end of March 2007 (which is the end of their fiscal year).
Sony has said 2 million by the end of 2006, and 6 million by the end of March 2007 (also the end of their fiscal year). As far as I've seen, they have not modified that second number, but right now I don't see how they can possibly make it. If they do, it'll be good for them, as they'll be tied with Nintendo and only 4 million behind Microsoft (assuming Microsoft's estimates of 10 million by the end of 2006 are correct).
Your information is old. NPD numbers do include Wal-Mart, Target and other multipurpose stores now. It's one reason it takes them even longer to put out their numbers than it used to.
Also, the Sony announcing shipped numbers is not a recent thing. That's all they've ever announced. The same for Microsoft. Nintendo is the only company that announcing numbers sold to consumers. In fact, there's even a discrepancy between what Microsoft & Sony announced. Sony announces numbers shipped from their distribution center, Microsoft only announces numbers received by retailers.
Of course, you're right about Sony selling every PS3 they ship for at least a few more months, so it's highly academic at this point.
No, that's not why DS games are outselling PSP games. Stop being silly, and remember this one fact: review scores are not a good indicator of sales.
To prove, the best rated title on PSP is Lumines at 89 on metacritic. The top selling game on DS is Brain Training 2, which doesn't appear to have a metacritic rating, but Brain Age (which is Brain Training 1) has a rating of 76. They are 2 completely different types of games, and understandably have very different ratings. It doesn't suprise me that Brain Age would be rated lower as it is more brain puzzles than what would normally be considered a game. Yet it easily outstrips Lumines in sales.
So to conclude, just because something is good, doesn't mean it's what people want.
Wrong definition. Prestige games are games that recieved stellar ratings (usually 8's & 9's across the board from respected reviewers), but whose sales don't reflect the reviews. Okami is actually a good example, it has a 93 rating on metacritic, and a similar rating on gamerankings (can't get to that link from work). Yet it's sales compared to NBA '07, which was universally panned, were less than half at best.
The fact of the matter is, the majority of game buyers do not buy games based on reviews at all. A mediocre sequel to a mediocre game is guaranteed to outsell a spectacular original game for this reason.
The best part about it is that, because Miis are built into the firmware, their features and abilities can be updated as Nintendo updates the firmware. Sure, Miis don't do much now, but who's to say what Nintendo will have them doing next year.
Also, I suggest Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz. It comes with 50 mini-games, about 1/3 of which are awful, 1/3 are decent and another 1/3 are superb (the main game is pretty awesome, too, a kind of marble blast, puzzle type game). It has a Squash mini-game which uses the nunchuk so you can control you character's movement, and it's a better representation of what a more robust Tennis game could be on the Wii. Avoid the Golf & Disc Golf games though, those are just torturous, especially when compared to the sublimeness that is Wii Sports Golf.
How do you know what Nintendo was originally planning to ship? They never once gave a number. Not one single time. I know, I checked, constantly.
I do know how many Sony originally planned to ship. 400k units. I also know that every single store in my area, and several not in my area (from reports from workers at various EB/GS stores) received less PS3s than they were told to expect, so either Sony undershipped, or they diverted a lot of systems somewhere unexpected.
Also, this has nothing to do with the GP's post. The GP was talking about the numbers at his local gamestore. Obviously, different stores in different areas got different shipments. My local stores generally got 2x or a little less Wiis than PS3s. I'm sure there were some stores that got fewer Wiis than PS3s to balance it out. I know the nearest EB to me only got 1 PS3 and 10 Wiis, but that's obviously a ridiculous disparity, I can only assume they don't pull in enough Sony business, so they were shorted for that reason. Then again, I don't know, I just report what I see/hear.
Well, unfortunately, they probably will still have that problem. Since the update is only adversely affecting a percentage of consoles (no idea how many yet), it is likely an issue with that specific hardware. Since they will probably still be shipping systems that were manufactured before launch. But that's the risk you take being an early adopter.
For the record, I have my Wii and it's is entirely filled with Awesome. No error messages so far.
The Wiimote is capable of amazing precision. The problem is, most human beings aren't capable of fine enough motor control to distinguish a movement of 1/10 of a degree, so developers are trying to find a balance between what people are actually able to do and what is fun in game terms.
Actually, the FPS mini-game in Super Monkey Ball is just about the best one in the entire game. SMB comes with 50 mini-games though, and while half of them are stellar, the other half leave a lot to be desired. I think I've played through all 50 now, and some are just flat out unplayable.
I think they focused too much on including as many mini-games as possible, rather than focusing on perfecting controls for each particular game, and it shows.
To be fair, Sony reported about two weeks before launch that their blue laser production was back up to what they originally planned. I don't know if the Cell yields have improved any, though.
Well, the GC CPU was barely fast enough to handle 50% of the content generated by it's GPU. While I/O is admittedly not resource intensive, I would presume that the Wiimote's data is both significantly different and more computationally intensive than what the GC is used to dealing with. A faster CPU was a requirement, whatever else they did, as well as a new I/O controller. The other expense results from the addition of memory, a wireless device and who knows what else they stuck in their for the extra Wii features.
I'm just saying, if they had tried to release the Wiimote for the GC, the Wiimote+Nunchuk would probably be more than a $60 upgrade, because it would need to add to the base infrastructure of the GC to handle the additional information input.
Unfortunately, it isn't reliable, at least not right now. I was watching ebay last night, and there were groups of people spamming all PS3 auctions up to $99 million, pretty much ruining the auction for people who actually wanted it. I can only assume it was sour grapes of people who couldn't get one to resell on ebay.
Why are you failing at logic? If they could have sold the Wii for $100, they would have. They are selling it at $250 because it isn't just a Gamecube, it's a Gamecube with extras, extras which couldn't have been added to the existing gamecube because it would require opening it up and making hardware modifications, which is not something they want to encourage. You can't add the Wiimote straight onto the GC without the internal infrastructure to use it.
Wow...uh, I don't know how to tell you this, but you're screwed. Here's the current outlook.
Get a DS. The DS plays GBA games, and FFI, II, IV, V & VI all have been, or are being released for the GBA. FFIII is (or at this point has been) released for the DS, and was never released in the US before, and has been completely reworked in 3d.
Then get a Wii. There are two versions of FFCC coming out, a DS version & a Wii version, and they seem to be decently far along. Also, if you care, it looks like future Dragon Quest (Warrior in the US) games will be heading to the Wii.
Then, in about a year and a half, pick up a PS3 after the price has dropped, cause that's about when FFXIII will be coming out, and it's gonna be a PS3 game (unless between now and then the PS3 flops hard). Square is not going to stick with one console any longer, so you're pretty much screwed. I wouldn't be surprised to see a FF game on the 360 at this point, although they'll have to compete with Sakaguchi's new company Mistwalker.
You know, I keep hearing people say that, but it was never actually announced for launch. It was talked about as a launch game, but no one at Nintendo ever said they planned to have it at launch. The first concrete date given was March 2007 at E3 this year. Since then it's been pushed back to later spring of 2007.
Now, Metroid Prime was supposed to be a launch game, but was pushed back to early 2007 for unspecified reasons.
Which is why more and more I'm thinking Nintendo's strategy is brilliant, releasing 2 days after the PS3. Remember last year when the 360 was in the news for over a month with shortages and games and all that? Now, the PS3 will get that press for two days and two days only, then all the news will be about the Wii. Even after the big rush, no single story about the PS3 will be in the news that doesn't also mention the Wii. Nintendo has basically assured themselves equal media attention to Sony by riding their coattails. And with systems more widely available, a lower price, and completely different gameplay, they can't help but look like a tempting option in the inevitable comparison.
Ummm, I wouldn't speak too soon. Upscaling picture with the Wii will likely be a bad idea. Upscaling has a delay in the picture, and that delay, couple with motion sensing tech, could be a game breaker.
You can do a lot of things on a computer that aren't possible in natural space.
Incidentally, are each of the three axes in these sets perpendicular to each other? And can you define one set of 3 axes perpindicular to each other, then define a set of three axes (also perpendicular to each other), where the origin of the second set is not a point in the coordinate system of the first set?
Yes, actually, they do have to use the same axes. In 3-dimensional space (the space we're all currently stuck in), there are only 3 axes. Or rather, we're only aware of 3. I won't go so far as to say it's impossible for the Sixaxis to use 6 completely unrelated axes, but if it does, we, as 3-dimensional beings, are not only incapable of moving a controller along/around these axes, but even if we could, we would no longer be able to see the controller (or incidentally our hands, since they would have moved out of 3-dimensional space).
Yes, I know it's pointlessly anal, but we have an entire mathematic discipline dealing with just this type of thing. You'd think they'd have consulted that before making a controller that defies our currently known laws of physics.
Sorry, no, that's not the way it works with consoles. Decreasing the resolution will not give you greater fps if the game was designed to a higher resolution as the standard. This may differ on the PS3, but for the 360, 720p is their minimum design specification, and whatever framerate you get there is the framerate you will get no matter what resolution you run it at.
That is something that will hopefully be fixed as developers get more used to designing games with multiple resolutions. A problem that doesn't exist on pcs because they've been doing that since, you know, there were pc games.
That's still only 3 axes. It does not matter whether you are moving along the x-axis or rotating around the x-axis, you're still only utilizing one axis of motion, you are simply used 2 different types of motion, angular and linear. This does not spontaneously create a new axis, no matter how complex your movements might be.
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Sony has said 2 million by the end of 2006, and 6 million by the end of March 2007 (also the end of their fiscal year). As far as I've seen, they have not modified that second number, but right now I don't see how they can possibly make it. If they do, it'll be good for them, as they'll be tied with Nintendo and only 4 million behind Microsoft (assuming Microsoft's estimates of 10 million by the end of 2006 are correct).
Also, the Sony announcing shipped numbers is not a recent thing. That's all they've ever announced. The same for Microsoft. Nintendo is the only company that announcing numbers sold to consumers. In fact, there's even a discrepancy between what Microsoft & Sony announced. Sony announces numbers shipped from their distribution center, Microsoft only announces numbers received by retailers.
Of course, you're right about Sony selling every PS3 they ship for at least a few more months, so it's highly academic at this point.
Any number greater than or equal to 1% is significant for most areas of study.
To prove, the best rated title on PSP is Lumines at 89 on metacritic. The top selling game on DS is Brain Training 2, which doesn't appear to have a metacritic rating, but Brain Age (which is Brain Training 1) has a rating of 76. They are 2 completely different types of games, and understandably have very different ratings. It doesn't suprise me that Brain Age would be rated lower as it is more brain puzzles than what would normally be considered a game. Yet it easily outstrips Lumines in sales.
So to conclude, just because something is good, doesn't mean it's what people want.
The fact of the matter is, the majority of game buyers do not buy games based on reviews at all. A mediocre sequel to a mediocre game is guaranteed to outsell a spectacular original game for this reason.
Also, I suggest Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz. It comes with 50 mini-games, about 1/3 of which are awful, 1/3 are decent and another 1/3 are superb (the main game is pretty awesome, too, a kind of marble blast, puzzle type game). It has a Squash mini-game which uses the nunchuk so you can control you character's movement, and it's a better representation of what a more robust Tennis game could be on the Wii. Avoid the Golf & Disc Golf games though, those are just torturous, especially when compared to the sublimeness that is Wii Sports Golf.
I do know how many Sony originally planned to ship. 400k units. I also know that every single store in my area, and several not in my area (from reports from workers at various EB/GS stores) received less PS3s than they were told to expect, so either Sony undershipped, or they diverted a lot of systems somewhere unexpected.
Also, this has nothing to do with the GP's post. The GP was talking about the numbers at his local gamestore. Obviously, different stores in different areas got different shipments. My local stores generally got 2x or a little less Wiis than PS3s. I'm sure there were some stores that got fewer Wiis than PS3s to balance it out. I know the nearest EB to me only got 1 PS3 and 10 Wiis, but that's obviously a ridiculous disparity, I can only assume they don't pull in enough Sony business, so they were shorted for that reason. Then again, I don't know, I just report what I see/hear.
For the record, I have my Wii and it's is entirely filled with Awesome. No error messages so far.
The Wiimote is capable of amazing precision. The problem is, most human beings aren't capable of fine enough motor control to distinguish a movement of 1/10 of a degree, so developers are trying to find a balance between what people are actually able to do and what is fun in game terms.
I think they focused too much on including as many mini-games as possible, rather than focusing on perfecting controls for each particular game, and it shows.
SMB is made by Sega, btw, not Nintendo.
To be fair, Sony reported about two weeks before launch that their blue laser production was back up to what they originally planned. I don't know if the Cell yields have improved any, though.
I'm just saying, if they had tried to release the Wiimote for the GC, the Wiimote+Nunchuk would probably be more than a $60 upgrade, because it would need to add to the base infrastructure of the GC to handle the additional information input.
Unfortunately, it isn't reliable, at least not right now. I was watching ebay last night, and there were groups of people spamming all PS3 auctions up to $99 million, pretty much ruining the auction for people who actually wanted it. I can only assume it was sour grapes of people who couldn't get one to resell on ebay.
Why are you failing at logic? If they could have sold the Wii for $100, they would have. They are selling it at $250 because it isn't just a Gamecube, it's a Gamecube with extras, extras which couldn't have been added to the existing gamecube because it would require opening it up and making hardware modifications, which is not something they want to encourage. You can't add the Wiimote straight onto the GC without the internal infrastructure to use it.
Get a DS. The DS plays GBA games, and FFI, II, IV, V & VI all have been, or are being released for the GBA. FFIII is (or at this point has been) released for the DS, and was never released in the US before, and has been completely reworked in 3d.
Then get a Wii. There are two versions of FFCC coming out, a DS version & a Wii version, and they seem to be decently far along. Also, if you care, it looks like future Dragon Quest (Warrior in the US) games will be heading to the Wii.
Then, in about a year and a half, pick up a PS3 after the price has dropped, cause that's about when FFXIII will be coming out, and it's gonna be a PS3 game (unless between now and then the PS3 flops hard). Square is not going to stick with one console any longer, so you're pretty much screwed. I wouldn't be surprised to see a FF game on the 360 at this point, although they'll have to compete with Sakaguchi's new company Mistwalker.
Now, Metroid Prime was supposed to be a launch game, but was pushed back to early 2007 for unspecified reasons.
Which is why more and more I'm thinking Nintendo's strategy is brilliant, releasing 2 days after the PS3. Remember last year when the 360 was in the news for over a month with shortages and games and all that? Now, the PS3 will get that press for two days and two days only, then all the news will be about the Wii. Even after the big rush, no single story about the PS3 will be in the news that doesn't also mention the Wii. Nintendo has basically assured themselves equal media attention to Sony by riding their coattails. And with systems more widely available, a lower price, and completely different gameplay, they can't help but look like a tempting option in the inevitable comparison.
And games are $50 USD, not $60. For now anyway.
Ummm, I wouldn't speak too soon. Upscaling picture with the Wii will likely be a bad idea. Upscaling has a delay in the picture, and that delay, couple with motion sensing tech, could be a game breaker.
Incidentally, are each of the three axes in these sets perpendicular to each other? And can you define one set of 3 axes perpindicular to each other, then define a set of three axes (also perpendicular to each other), where the origin of the second set is not a point in the coordinate system of the first set?
Yes, actually, they do have to use the same axes. In 3-dimensional space (the space we're all currently stuck in), there are only 3 axes. Or rather, we're only aware of 3. I won't go so far as to say it's impossible for the Sixaxis to use 6 completely unrelated axes, but if it does, we, as 3-dimensional beings, are not only incapable of moving a controller along/around these axes, but even if we could, we would no longer be able to see the controller (or incidentally our hands, since they would have moved out of 3-dimensional space).
Yes, I know it's pointlessly anal, but we have an entire mathematic discipline dealing with just this type of thing. You'd think they'd have consulted that before making a controller that defies our currently known laws of physics.
That is something that will hopefully be fixed as developers get more used to designing games with multiple resolutions. A problem that doesn't exist on pcs because they've been doing that since, you know, there were pc games.
Yes, I understand the point they are trying to make, I'm just explaining that it does not take into consideration the actual definition of axis.
I'm highly amused by the fact that you seem to think FFXIII will actually be out by November of next year.
That's still only 3 axes. It does not matter whether you are moving along the x-axis or rotating around the x-axis, you're still only utilizing one axis of motion, you are simply used 2 different types of motion, angular and linear. This does not spontaneously create a new axis, no matter how complex your movements might be.