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.

Troubling for Sony

[Itchyeyes (908311)]

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.

Re:Troubling for Sony

[Lane.exe (672783)]

Most games I've seen on Gamespot and IGN that I am interest in are listed as coming out for the PS3 have X360 versions as well (Armored Core 4, Bladestorm, etc.). In fact, if Square will move Final Fantasy XIII to the X360 (or even the Wii) then I would have absolutely zero reason to buy a PS3. A developer shift to other platforms would devastate Sony in the console market.

Re:Troubling for Sony

[dcam (615646)]

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.

Re:Troubling for Sony

[trdrstv (986999)]

Dude, you have to be insane if you think Square is going to move Final Fantasy XIII to the Wii.

Yeah, it would be as crazy/ impossible as them moving Dragon Quest to the DS.

oh, wait.

Re:

[keithburgun (1001684)]

Final Fantasy 6 is arguably the greatest RPG ever created, you idiot. The graphics are in fact beautiful, but most of that is because of one thing: Good art, not raised technology. FF6 is where the era of an epic, powerful, meaningful RPG began and the "dragon warrior1-ish" old-style RPG ended. Most lovers of RPGs will agree with me that FF6 and/or FF7 belong in the top 5 RPGS of all time. That was the height of Square's artistic accomplisments, especially 6. For 7 they got a new art director who was

Re:

[trdrstv (986999)]

The FF series from 7 onward have had a pretty huge focus on eye-candy. Its pretty hard for me to imagine the main line of FF games moving to any console that doesn't support HD resolutions from this point onward.

ROFLOL. Sorry, that's been one of my pet peeves for some time now. Check the box again. As pretty as they look none of the FF games (or Kingsdom Hearts) run in progressive scan (at least on the PS2). Some run in 16:9 widescreen, but they are all 480i.

FFXI is 480p on the X-box 360, and if you

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[Mr2001 (90979)]

Hardly anyone owns an HDTV, even today. The companies will go where the customers are.

HDTV is the future, but not the Present.

[trdrstv (986999)]

I wouldn't say hardly anyone. All the gamers I know either have one or are looking for one, and HDTVs were one of the hottest selling items this hoilday season. Prices are dropping a LOT, and 32" 720p LCD HDTVs can regularly be found for $500. 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.

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.

Re:Troubling for Sony

[Mr2001 (90979)]

I wouldn't say hardly anyone. All the gamers I know either have one or are looking for one, and HDTVs were one of the hottest selling items this hoilday season. Prices are dropping a LOT, and 32" 720p LCD HDTVs can regularly be found for $500.

Congratulations on finding a bargain - in the stores around here, 32" LCDs start around $600-$700. One of my gamer friends was thinking about buying an HDTV, but snapped back when he realized $500 would buy a screen not much bigger than his computer monitor.

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.

Re:Troubling for Sony

[trdrstv (986999)]

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.

Re:Troubling for Sony

[king-manic (409855)]

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.

They also had a high profile falling out with nintendo too. They have since reconciled.

Re:

[Rycross (836649)]

Excellent points, I don't really have a response. I guess I'll have to concede.

Re:Troubling for Sony

[nanoDaveF (693514)]

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.

Re:Troubling for Sony

[jackharrer (972403)]

Sony thought that PS2 will sell PS3. And that would happened if not that they put prices well over the limit.
Wii is a winner because people CAN afford it. Exactly the same happened with "inferior" Nintendo DS. Strange that Sony didn't learn the lesson.

Re:

[Sacrelicious2 (1064224)]

As far as the 'low' sales figure for the xbox 360, remember, unlike the wii/ps3, it has already been out for about 16 months, compared to 3-4 months. The fact that the Xbox 360 is STILL outselling the PS3 is quite amazing

Re:Troubling for Sony

[TheRaven64 (641858)]

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...

Not Troubling for Sony

[fistfullast33l (819270)]

This is not troubling for Sony - let's check Xbox 360 last year at this time. Gamasutra [gamasutra.com] 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.

Re:Not Troubling for Sony

[Itchyeyes (908311)]

People make this comparison a lot, and I don't think it applies. The 360 had pretty bad launch, but they didn't have to have a good launch. They launched in a vacuum with a whole year to get their crap together. They didn't have to worry about exclusives fleeing to other consoles or pressure to drop the price. They were the only game in town. That's why they did it so soon.

The PS3 is in an entirely different environment. It doesn't matter if it's selling better than the 360 did at launch. It's not competing against the 360 one year ago. It's competing against the 360 (and the Wii) now. It has to sell better than the 360 is selling now, not last year. If two people are racing, and one is given a head start, it doesn't make much sense for the second person to say, "well I'm running faster than he was when he started out". It might be a nice consolation, but he's still going to lose the race. The PS3 has a lot of ground to make up and they're not doing it. In fact they're losing ground.

Sony is in a bad position. They need to make some corrections to their plan. A price drop is the most obvious, but a good library would help too. It can't just be a good library though. It has to be a better library than the 360's, and they have to remember that that's a moving target. The Titanic is sinking and Sony's on deck playing classical music. All this spinning the numbers and looking at things through rose colored glasses isn't helping. It's just keeping people from seeing the problems.

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[dank zappingly (975064)]

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

Re:Troubling for Sony? Doubtful

[tuffy (10202)]

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.

Re:Troubling for Sony? Doubtful

[LiquidCoooled (634315)]

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.

Re:Troubling for Sony? Doubtful

[Itchyeyes (908311)]

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.

Publishers

[HappySqurriel (1010623)]

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.

Re:Troubling for Sony? Doubtful

[Beardo the Bearded (321478)]

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.

Re:Troubling for Sony

[Itchyeyes (908311)]

No, I considered it. These numbers are US and Canada only, so the comparison is perfectly apt. NPD does not monitor oversees sales figures. In Japan, the numbers are actually worse for Sony. I think this article [gamasutra.com] sums up the situation well. As for Europe, the fact that they haven't released yet there is a bad thing, not an excuse. It would be better for the PS3 to be selling poorly in Europe at this point rather than not selling at all.

A story in itself...

[KingSkippus (799657)]

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.

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...

Re:A story in itself...

[Leviance (1001065)]

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."

Re:A story in itself...

[AKAImBatman (238306)]

There are about 20-30 games out of the gigantic Playstation library of games, some 8000-9000, that don't function properly on the PS3.

Correction: There are 20-30 games (see sibling who disputes this figure) that don't function on the PS3. During the month of January, there was a far higher number of games (easily over 50%) that didn't function properly. To be specific, the PS2 emulation wasn't providing the full graphical quality of the PS2. As a result, the games were looking outright terrible when played on a PS3.

Sony recently fixed this problem with the release of the 1.5 patchset for the PS3.

Re:A story in itself...

[aborchers (471342)]

I resist my temptation to ignore AC...

"Oh give the fanboy bullshit a rest!"

What is it with this "fanboy" ad hominem nonsense? It must really sting to see wimpy Nintendo kicking your techno-powerhouse asses all over the schoolyard.

I have owned a PSX and PS2 and loved both. I considered myself a dedicated Sony customer until they tried to sell Blu-ray to me through an incremental-improvement (don't start citing the specs, I'm taking playability) game platform. If I was in the market for a Blu-ray player, I would consider PS3 a bargain. I'm not, though, so it looks to me like an overpriced boondoggle offering no real gains. I probably will buy a PS3 some day to get a bargain blu-ray player and keep my PSX/PS2 library playable. Plus there's bound to be some must-have game for the platform (probably the next Wipeout) that will drive me. Right now I simply have no reason.

I bought a Wii and I love it. I owned the original NES until around 1990, bought a GC to play Godzilla Destroy All Monsters Melee (before it was ported) but other than that have never been particularly partial to Nintendo. I bought a Wii because it looked like *fun* for me and my wife and kids to play together and it is!

So, if anyone needs to give the "fanboy bullshit" a rest, it's all you jackasses claiming the Wii is a fan phenomenon. It is winning because it is selling to fans and to new customers of all kinds, whether they are existing gamers or not. It is winning because it is a blast to play, just like Pac Man or Doom are still fun, in all their pixelated glory.

Re:

[niconorsk (787297)]

You've got a fair point there. I know the PS3 has potential for some fantastic games. That is, if a publisher fully takes advantage of its capacity. Thing is, I think you underestimate just how big of a market kids and people wanting good party games are.

Re:A story in itself...

[KingSkippus (799657)]

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.

Re:

[ElleyKitten (715519)]

You are right, but you are also arguing against a zealot. The Nintendo fans are diehards and they exult in any Nintendo success. Also, they seem weirdly convinced that great graphics and fantastic gameplay are mutually exclusive.

Actually, it's more that great graphics and an affordable system are mutually exclusive. I don't have $500 or $600 to spend on a game system. Even if I get a 360 (I like it, but it's still a little too expensive) it doesn't look all that impressive on a standard TV (I've heard so

Re:A story in itself...

[AKAImBatman (238306)]

It's not news because it means demand is high (that's an acceptable excuse the first month and a half). It's news because it means Nintendo has dropped the ball.

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.

Wii Games Need More Selection

[SlashdotOgre (739181)]

I was fortunate enough to get a Wii at launch (hour and a half in line at Costco), but I have become someone disappointed at the selection of games thus far. In my opinion there's too many mini-games (Wii Sports, Wii Play, Rayman, Wario, Mario Party, etc.), and not enough full fledged ones like Zelda. Now I'm not saying the mini-games are horrible (they're excellent for when you have multiple people over), however they are starting to make the Wii feel more like a gimmick.

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.

Re:Wii Games Need More Selection

[AbsoluteXyro (1048620)]

I agree completely, but buying any console at launch is going to leave you feeling the bite of scarce game variety. When a console has only been out a number of months you can count on one hand, there just hasn't been time for the breadth and depth of software we like to choose from to reach the market.

Right now is a ripe time to pick up a 360 however, I'd imagine that has something to do with the stronger-than-PS3 sales. For many, I'm betting the marginal utility of a PS3 is far smaller than the price. That makes the 360 look pretty tasty to those in the market for a more traditional graphics powerhouse gaming machine.

Things could be looking different give a year or so. As is always, only time will tell.

For now though, I wouldn't want to be Sony.

Re:Wii Games Need More Selection

[by Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:

[R3 (15929)]

....not that there's anything wrong with that. :P

The killer stat

[Hawthorne01 (575586)]

"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...

Hopefully...

[KenshoDude (1001993)]

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!

Re:

[evilbessie (873633)]

I think Nintendo have it right, not everybody has a HDTV just yet, but they do have a TV and the Wii is by all accounts FUN for all the family. So By using old tech comparitively they have developed a system people want. And by not spunking all that money on HD graphics this generation they can spend the time and money developing the console for a Wii 2 with HD graphics in 4 or 5 years time when more people will have the capability to use them to the full potential. Meanwhile the 360 and PS3 spent huge amo

The most telling number

[by Anonymous Coward]

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.

They're dominating even more in Japan

[FleaPlus (6935)]

From Kotaku:

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

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

PS3/360 vs WII

[king-manic (409855)]

It should be noted that while Wii is smacking around the PS3/360, it may not actually be competing for the same customers. Wii's target a "casual" gamer. Who enojoyed playing it at an earlier adopters hosue wante done for themselves. PS3/360 target the existing market. Generally gamers will get 2. I have a Ps2/GC, the last gen I had a PS1/N64. We might see the core gamer market go Ps3/Wii or 360/wii.

Casual gamers are likely to have a lower attach rate for games because it takes them longer to go through them. Mario Galaxy might only last a gamer a weekend but a casual three months. So we may see a 3:1:1 install base and still have PS3/360 get more exclusives because they can still sell more games. Hard to say. I myself spend between $100-$225 (a new games costs $69.99 CND for the ps2 on avg) CND a mo for games. I'm not sure what a casual gamer will spend.

'Dominates'?

[atomicstrawberry (955148)]

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.

Thank you Sony shill

[Itchyeyes (908311)]

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

Re:

[UnknownSoldier (67820)]

> 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.

Using your bad math, Sony still loses

[not-enough-info (526586)]

About 300k PS2s and 244k PS3s - just wow. That's almost 550k consoles Sony sold in January alone.

Man, last place never looked so good!

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

Re:

[king-manic (409855)]

I noticed 1 sony fanboy this thread, a half dozen of obvious 360 fanboys and a few dozen Wii fanboys. Although the Wii fanboys are hard to tell from people who know the situation well. The Wii has been a smashing success of marketting and good timing. I think the 360 fanboys are more numerous on slashdot but there has been a mass conversion recently.

Re:Numbers Not Really Surprising

[Rycross (836649)]

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.

Wii LAN Adapter

[zCyl (14362)]

Now if I could only find a Wii LAN adapter

You can get identical functionality with certain Non-Nintendo LAN adapters. [nintendo.com] As the thread describes, it appears that you simply need one with matching vid/pid numers, and there appear to be several matching brands.

(I have used one of these with my Wii, and it works flawlessly, but at less expense and with fewer supply shortages.)