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Wii, DS Dominate February Hardware Sales

Posted by Zonk on Fri Mar 16, 2007 10:41 AM
from the nintendo-built-this-city-on-mario-and-link dept.
Businesses Entertainment Games
Gamasutra has the NPD numbers for last month, which shows a continuation of Nintendo's sales dominance. Overall the new consoles have again meant that industry sales were up, some 28% over last year's same-month figures. Hardware sales were up some 98%, with much of that performance attributable to the DS and Wii. Here's the breakdown: "Turning to hardware, the DS headed overall hardware sell-through with an impressive 485,000 units, followed by Nintendo's Wii, which sold 335,000 units despite continued issues with shortages. The Xbox 360 sold through a reasonable, if not spectacular 228,000 copies, and the PlayStation 3 slumped to a disappointing 127,000 units, despite no apparent shortages. Elsewhere, the PlayStation 2 moved a still impressive 295,000 at its relatively cheap current price, and the PlayStation Portable sold 176,000, markedly behind the DS. Finally, the various varieties of the Game Boy Advance sold a not unreasonable 136,000 units."
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[+] Fallout From the November Console Wars 182 comments
All three 'next generation' consoles are out, and we can finally stop using that term. The NPD numbers for last month have been released, and there's plenty of information there to discuss. Analysts have already made some observations, with brandintel specifically pointing out the Xbox 360's 'surprising' role in last month's fight. For some more well-reasoned thought, Dean Takahashi's take is the place to turn: "At this rate, Microsoft isn't going to hit its goal of 10 million units by year end ... Sony's number is consistent with its warnings, but 197,000 is worse than what many expected ... the fair fight is really going to be what happens in the year 2007, when all three console makers should be able to ship as many consoles as consumers want. To me, this looks like consumers are hit with a case of sticker shock. The mass market is paying for cheap PS2s, DS Lites, and GBAs." Despite the Wii's success last month, it should be noted that Nintendo is no longer bragging of 1 Million units in the U.S. by the end of the year. So, essentially, it looks like all three companies will fail to hit their console goals for the year.
[+] January Game Sales Explode, Wii Dominates 478 comments
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.
[+] Nintendo's Sale Dominance Gets Noticed 152 comments
Via Kotaku, a Wall Street Journal report on Nintendo's continued dominance of the game charts. The piece rehashes the February NPD numbers and discusses the role the Wii and DS have had in revitalizing a company the WSJ refers to as an 'also-ran'. "To take better advantage of the Wii's growth, EA moved quickly to ramp up game production for the system, acquiring Headgate Studios, a developer in Utah focused entirely on making titles for Nintendo hardware, and shifting resources in other EA development groups to Nintendo projects. The company released four titles for the Wii in March, including a version of its Tiger Woods golf game in which players swing the Wii controller like a club. EA is also working on a line of consumer guides for the Nintendo DS that will be aimed at older players in Japan."
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  • That was a heroic effort (Score:5, Funny)

    by voice_of_all_reason (926702) on Friday March 16 2007, @10:44AM (#18375769)
    PlayStation 3 slumped to a disappointing 127,000 units
    the various varieties of the Game Boy Advance sold a not unreasonable 136,000 units.

     I've not seen such bravery.

    • Re:That was a heroic effort (Score:5, Insightful)

      by pipatron (966506) <pipatron@gmail.com> on Friday March 16 2007, @10:55AM (#18375939) Homepage
      Well, the Game Boy Advance is 6 years old.
    • The price is right, the new screen is excellent, good selection of games, and the form factor is perfect.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by KDR_11k (778916)
      Well, the GBA is obsolete for years now (since the DS plays GBA games and more). The PS3 is a new console. While it's reasonable that the PS2 would outsell the PS3 at this point (mostly due to price) the GBA should have died a year ago because the DS is juat a better choice (unless you want to play GBC and GB games but is that really something that people will buy a GBA for NOW?).
      • We have a DS that we've really enjoyed (lately we've been playing Hotel Dusk while driving on road trips) - but I bought a GBA Micro as a Christmas present for my wife. It was $30, it's ridiculously tiny, and cute as a button. Great buy. We already had her favorite games on the GBA (Bust-A-Move, Klax) - but our "original" GBA seems like a dark, bulky monstrosity now. Even a DS Lite seems like a tank next to a GBA Micro.

        Anyways, with the prices (and form factor) they can produce these at I'm not surprise

    • Re:That was a heroic effort (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Chris Burke (6130) on Friday March 16 2007, @01:34PM (#18378347) Homepage
      127,000 units sold of your brand new console is dissapointing.

      136,000 units sold of your extremely old, obsolete console is not unreasonable.

      295,000 units sold of your old, obsolete console is impressive.

      Where is the bravery? Recognizing context? Understanding that different numbers mean different things for different situations?

      Here's another example of how similar numbers could be either impressive or dissapointing, depending on context.

      "Florence Joyner ran a dissapointing 11.4s 100m dash in a 1997 time trial..."

      "Stephen Hawking ran a truly incredible 12s 100m dash yesterday..."

  • Nintendo must be kicking themselves (Score:3, Insightful)

    by squiggleslash (241428) on Friday March 16 2007, @10:46AM (#18375805) Homepage Journal

    It seems for the most part most retailers are dealing with demand by creating relatively over-priced "bundles", of the "$600 buys you a console and two games!" variety.

    Perhaps it's Nintendo that should have charged $5-600 for their console, and Sony who should have tried to sell their's for $250...

    • Nintendo should have charged nothing extra and threw in 5-10 of the hard drive emulation games (nes and SNES). It wouldn't "cost" them much in lost sales, cost almost nothing in implementation, but come off to the market as "10 free games omg hax!!111"

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by KDR_11k (778916)
        They can still do that later when needed, right now Wii Sports seems to work well enough for selling these.
      • I recently got pissed off by the Wii NES games... I have been reluctant to buy Wii points as I think the games are terribly overpriced. Finally I bought 1000 (the least you can buy) and I got the Super Maril Bros (NES) game.

        The game has a lot of glitches, darn, it just does not compare to what you can achieve with nesticle + romhustler . The control is a bit awkward and worst of all the 99 lives trick at world 3-1 can not be done (yeah I know how to do it, I do it every time I play SMB in the NES).

        Everythin
        • I can't testify as to Europe as I don't live there, and I can't testify as to the rest of the United States as I am only one person, but my experience with the Virtual Console has been flawless including Super Mario Bros.

        • Re:Nintendo must be kicking themselves (Score:5, Funny)

          by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 16 2007, @02:40PM (#18379297)
          The control is a bit awkward and worst of all the 99 lives trick at world 3-1 can not be done (yeah I know how to do it, I do it every time I play SMB in the NES).

          You don't know how to do it very well then. It works - I've done it.

          I figured they'd have fixed the Minus World in the SMB download. Even *that* is still there. I couldn't do that myself, but I got a friend of mine to come over and he was there in five minutes.

          Sorry that you suck.

        • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

          by Svenheim (723925)
          The Virtual Console in Europe is a disaster. All the games except the Turbografx games run in 50 Hz mode, and almost all of them are UNOPTIMIZED pal, which means 17% slower gameplay, and a picture that is squeezed, so the proportions are wrong, and there are black borders above and below the picture.

          All new Wii games run perfectly in 60 Hz on the PAL console, but for some reason Nintendo are fucking retards when it comes to their Virtual Console, so the PAL games have exactly the same flaws they had _20 YEA

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by saboola (655522)
        They would be kicking themselves if they DID do that. They are not having a hard time selling this console. Giving away 10 free games makes no sense from a business standpoint.

    • Perhaps it's Nintendo that should have charged $5-600 for their console, and Sony who should have tried to sell their's for $250...

      Except then instead of trying for more than three months to buy one (finally succeeded last week), I would have felt insulted and ignored the system entirely. I might buy a PS3 at $250, though... :-P

  • not completely surprised ... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Frag-A-Muffin (5490) on Friday March 16 2007, @10:52AM (#18375903) Homepage
    ... although all i have is anecdotal evidence.

    Every time I take my Wii to a friend's house, not only do they love it, but their (female!) spouse love it! It goes beyond that too. Often times, the parents will join in, and they love it too!

    The only people I know that don't really like it are the uber-hardcore gamers. I know plenty of "hardcore" gamers that love it fine, but complement it with a dose of the 360/PS3.

    So let's think about their target market now. The uber-hardcore don't like it. Fine. But the hardcore like it and ... <drumroll> ... the rest of the world loves it :) That's a big market. Much bigger than the old target market. When sales data like this comes out, it just reinforces the notion that Nintendo got something right this round.

    Congrats Nintendo!

    • Every time I take my Wii to a friend's house, not only do they love it, but their (female!) spouse love it! It goes beyond that too. Often times, the parents will join in, and they love it too!

      Same story here. I queued on launch night to get my Wii. I was there for Zelda, so was damn near everyone in the queue. That's what sold Wii to the fanboys.

      Since then, it's been Wii Sports all the way. Those fanboys went home and played Tennis and Bowling with family and friends. That's what sold it to them. Wii S

      • It's definitely Tennis and Bowling.

        Those are what had my family enjoying themselves. The other three, they were okay. I think the Baseball, Golf and Boxing could have used some more polish.

    • Re:not completely surprised ... (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Konowl (223655) on Friday March 16 2007, @11:53AM (#18376965)
      I took it to my parents house, where my 78 year old GRANDMOTHER was playing Wii Tennis.

      My grandmother walked into the living room, saw us playing tennis and started laughing - I told her to grab the controller. She said "I can never play videogames". "Grandma, it's easy" I said.

      She proceeded to play... to even jump to make smash shots. Most comical.

      Also, my mom phones me once every couple of weeks to bring over the Wii.

      It may not be the most powerful system, but it's definately opening Nintendo up to new demographics.

    • Every time I take my Wii to a friend's house, not only do they love it, but their (female!) spouse love it! It goes beyond that too. Often times, the parents will join in, and they love it too!

      Yeah, I have that experience too. One note: make sure to draw the blinds before whipping out your Wii, or you may get busted for indecent exposure. Especially if you're sharing it with an entire family.

  • Ratios (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Applekid (993327) on Friday March 16 2007, @10:57AM (#18375973)
    "The Xbox 360 sold through a reasonable, if not spectacular 228,000 copies, and the PlayStation 3 slumped to a disappointing 127,000 units, "

    They're really not talking up this point. That's 360 outselling PS3 by almost 2:1. Even with it including a BluRay player and SIXAXIS. 228,000 isn't "spectacular", but considering Christmas was only two months earlier, I certainly agree it's reasonable.

    Anyone still have the old Dreamcast sales figures? I'd like to see how current events mirror those.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by AvitarX (172628)
      DC vs 360 [vgcharts.org]
      DC cs PS3 [vgcharts.org]

      Looks bad for Sony.

      • Err... actually, it seems to me that those charts just rub in that with only four months of data, it's impossible to say how these consoles will do in the long run. If you chopped off the 360 chart at 4 months, it wouldn't look nearly as favorable compared to the Dreamcast, and only marginally above the PS3, yet it appears to be doing fine now. The PS3 may mature and stabilize and do quite well given another 6-8 months.

        Damn. Now look, your unsupported extrapolation made me actually defend Sony... I need t

    • And the Wii by almost 3:1.
      As far as shortages go I can get a PS3 at any local WalMart. I still can not buy a Will :( My wife really wants one.
      • Dreamcast sold 0 units, which while a low number, shows consistency with the last 50 months of activity. Sega was unavailable for comment.

        I think, by these figures, that things will be quite different this time. I can't see Sony getting out of the business, nor can I see Microsoft leaving (they are doing well enough), and with Nintendos figures, even though they are the underdog, they will stay the course. While there has always been room for 2 big players (percentage sales wise), maybe there is now room fo
    • The Dreamcast's demise and sales figures can not be directly compared to the PS3 sales figures. The Dreamcast died because it was utterly and completely hacked. No mods needed. No opening up, no voiding warrenty, no soddering, nothing. Just simply copy the contents of the CD to a folder, and run a utility against it which created the ISO image. Burn the image, done. Perfect working pirated game. Due to this, game sales plummeted since people were simply renting the game and burning their own copy.

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by lucabrasi999 (585141)
        Perfect working pirated game. Due to this, game sales plummeted since people were simply renting the game and burning their own copy

        Nice theory, not necessarily a complete picture. The Dreamcast died because: 1) Sega never really got over the way they clumsily 'killed' the Saturn. 2) EA announced that they were not creating games for the Dreamcast and instead through all of their development effort behind PS2. As such, the PS2 had a larger variety of games available. 3) Sony announced that PS2 would

  • I think it is incredible the PS2 is selling so well. I think this is due to the shortage of Wii, over price of PS3, and the 360 already being out a year and not considered 'new'. I love seeing the 360 still selling so well. I really do think the Wii and 360/Ps3 are for a different sets of people that can overlap, but do not contend. The 360 will also continue to outsell the Ps3 until it gets more unique titles that makes the price worthwhile. GTA4, Stranglehold, etc, are all coming out for the 360 also

  • Japan's Hardware sales (Score:5, Insightful)

    by MeanderingMind (884641) on Friday March 16 2007, @11:38AM (#18376649) Homepage Journal
    I've totaled up the Japan numbers for as close to the same time period as I could (Feb 5th through March 4th). Here are the results:

    NDS: 581,483
    PSP: 233,046
    GBA: 7,305
     
    Wii: 278,646
    PS3: 107,422
    360: 17,583
    PS2: 62,553
    Sources:
    http://www.gamesarefun.com/news.php?newsid=7480 [gamesarefun.com]
    http://www.gamesarefun.com/news.php?newsid=7499 [gamesarefun.com]
    http://www.gamesarefun.com/news.php?newsid=7518 [gamesarefun.com]
    http://www.gamesarefun.com/news.php?newsid=7553 [gamesarefun.com]

  • Its all about Blu-Ray (Score:4, Interesting)

    by runenfool (503) on Friday March 16 2007, @11:39AM (#18376673)
    If you think of Sony as just a console maker, then the PS3 isn't doing all that well, but if you think of it as a device to push Blu-Ray its doing great. I don't think Sony is as dumb as everyone else thinks they are. They just sold another 100k plus Blu-Ray players. In the end they will drop the PS3 price to something sort of reasonable and sell plenty of them. They can make it through the first year or so by reputation alone pushing game developers to create for the platform.

    Of course if they do too poorly in sales then eventually the games will dry up and they will have won the next gen format war at the cost of their gaming platform. I wonder how much they care?

    • If you think of Sony as just a console maker, then the PS3 isn't doing all that well, but if you think of it as a device to push Blu-Ray its doing great. I don't think Sony is as dumb as everyone else thinks they are. They just sold another 100k plus Blu-Ray players.

      Do we have any stats yet on how many PS3 owners have a HDTV? I would assume it's a larger percentage than any other console, but we will still need to know how many in order to determine whether Sony's Blu-Ray strategy has any hope at all.

      And

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by HappySqurriel (1010623)

      In the end they will drop the PS3 price to something sort of reasonable and sell plenty of them. They can make it through the first year or so by reputation alone pushing game developers to create for the platform.

      It doesn't work that way though ...

      Consider Sega, they have released Virtual Fighter 5 for the PS3 which has recieved respectable reviews (88% on Gamerankings.com) and its sales are awful on the PS3; from the looks of the American and Japaneese sales, it will sell (approximately) 15% as many copie

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by SethraLavode (910814)

        You might want to re-check your facts, as the document you linked to shows the opposite of what you are claiming. Sony's gaming divisions were the least profitable (of the sectors where they were profitable). The general electronics divisions obviously took a huge hit, but even if you take their banking and insurance products out of the equation, Sony Pictures and Sony Music have a higher income and higher margin. The gaming divisions had higher sales, true, but revenue is not the same as profit.

        • I realized I was looking at the 2004 values, just after posting. :(

          (I'm not used to seeing year over year comparisons in an IR release in that order... probably different in Japan... but that's another matter)

          2006 is a bit of an aberration for the gaming group. They're spending a LOT on PS3 development by that time. But in 2004 and 2005, PS profits are very large relative to movies and electronics.

  • Nintendo is winning (Score:3, Insightful)

    by paladinwannabe2 (889776) on Friday March 16 2007, @11:48AM (#18376869)
    Even if they never get at much marketshare as Sony/Microsoft, they are certainly making the most profits. Who cares if your revenue is (relatively) low when your profits are so much higher?
    • I was discussing this last night. I have no idea how many VC titles have been sold so far, but they must be swimming in the profits.

  • Can Nintendo satisfy the core gamer? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by spirit of reason (989882) on Friday March 16 2007, @11:50AM (#18376907)
    And will it have to do so... by itself?

    So I was feeling really happy that Nintendo was doing well, given their maxim (all about gameplay and fun, not graphics). But has anyone else been a little disappointed with the lineup of games? I'm excluding a few Nintendo titles here, but it feels like the vast majority of the games have been less-than-stellar ports or mini-game compilations. While mini-games can be really fun, I also want a rich experience from more complex games.

    In Perrin Kaplan's recent GameDaily interview [gamedaily.com], she was asked about Nintendo's anemic Q1 lineup, a question which she simply responded that the 27 products they have going from January to June are awesome. She insists that Nintendo is competing for a different market, and I'm starting to believe her.

    Something else that bugs me... the Wiimote isn't quite what is was hyped up to be. There is a little lag (at least in Wii Sports and Wii Play) between my movements and the response on screen; it's very small, but it felt a little annoying when the tennis racket only began swinging a little after I began. Also, it would be nice if the Wiimote actually pointed on screen where you pointed -- this would require some level of calibration, I suppose, since television sizes vary. I imagine this is even more difficult to deal with since the Wiimote only has two reference points for its calculations -- not the three that are necessary to yield the three coordinates in space. But this is why they market they Wiimote as detecting motion in 3D space, rather than position. It then probably gets the relative position by integration. I wonder if the lag would be reduced further by having a third point and eliminating the integration calculation (though I guess games would still be interested in your projected position anyway, so perhaps it wouldn't actually eliminate it).

    Anyway, kudos to Nintendo for the sales, but I hope there is more in store for the core gamer soon.

    • Blame developers and hardcore gamers (Score:5, Insightful)

      by MMaestro (585010) on Friday March 16 2007, @03:23PM (#18379907)
      If theres anyone to blame for the glut of mini-games being passed off as full games, blame third-party developers and anti-Nintendo zealots. Don't forget, during/after the Gamecube's lifetime you had developers whining about rising costs and greater risks, then choosing to jump onto the PS3 bandwagon because the 360 looked weak and the Wii looked risky. Then you had gamers trashing on the Wii all over the internet mocking everything from the graphics, to the name, to the motion sensor, to the hardware weaknesses, to the radical features announced, etc.

      When it finally looked like the Wii was going to smash through the video game market, developers were caught with their pants down being raped by PS3 development costs, blind-sided by Xbox Live Arcade's runaway success and the Wii's "we're Nintendo, we will ALWAYS have a profit" guarantee. What you see is simply the net result of such behavior.

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Edward Kmett (123105)
        If you want to calibrate to a large TV just build a simple rig with a couple of IR LEDs and a battery. You can then set the LEDs as far apart as you want to scale up the 'virtual' screen size.
  • But Sony told me that being outsold at a ratio of 2:1 for a month meant the losing platform was dead and buried!

    Or does that only apply to the Blu-Ray/HD-DVD fight?

  • I have still never seen a Wii (Score:3)

    by Jerf (17166) on Friday March 16 2007, @02:47PM (#18379397) Journal
    I will admit I'm not in the market per se, but I like to browse through the electronics section of stores Just In Case, and since the Wii's release, I've added checking to see if they have a Wii to the sweep for bargain games.

    I have still never seen a Wii. From Best Buy to Wal-Mart, its local competition, K-Mart, and several other places I've been to in passing, I have never yet seen a Wii.

    Everybody has PS3s now.

    Anecdotal evidence? Sure, but wow, and this is across many stores in many samples.

    I could probably get one if I were trying, but you still have to be trying.

    Nexgenwars and VGCharts have the Wii's penetration at around 50% of the XBox 360's, in four months. At any time supply could finally catch up to demand, but until then, the limiting factor on the Wii's sales has been manufacturing rate for four months now.

  • No PS3 shortages - anecdotal proof (Score:3, Interesting)

    by freeweed (309734) on Friday March 16 2007, @10:33PM (#18383013)
    Every story in the past few months has people saying "why is everyone claiming there are PS3s sitting around? I didn't see any at the one store I checked!".

    I've posted this before, and I'll post it again [imageshack.us].

    Middle of the week, towards closing time. Busy local Costco. Those babies sat for weeks...

    • Re:here to stay (Score:5, Funny)

      by Rude Turnip (49495) <valuationNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Friday March 16 2007, @10:57AM (#18375967)
      I can already envision Mario banging his shoe on the podium at the next E3.
      • Finally Mario will show those capitalist pigs the error of their ways. Eh, comrades?
      • I can already envision Mario banging his shoe on the podium at the next E3.

        "Wii will bury you!"

        Sorry.

      • It gets worse. If the Wii continues to be this successful then every game development company on the planet will make the Wii their primary development target. Third party titles will likely cut back on graphics development to fit the Wii's hardware, and they will likely marry certain parts of their interface to Nintendo's Wiimote.

          • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

            by Jason Earl (1894)

            No, that is not going to happen. Game studios and publishers make money on game sales not console sales. Console companies get most of their money on game sales too. Slashdot continues to be fascinated by hardware sales numbers, but these are misleading. If you look at game sales, then for February the PS2 was the leader, followed by 360 in second and Wii in third. The 360 is still the clear winner for next-gen consoles in game sales and console sales.

            If you look at the bigger picture the Wii is just not

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      I think you're confused. Touch ME was an Atari Game way back in the '70s. Touch Wii [wiicade.com] is the update for the Nintendo Wii. Though I could see how that could be confusing.
    • Keep checking http://www.xpbargains.com/wii_locator.php [xpbargains.com]

      Eventually I managed to order one during a 6 minute period when it was in stock at Toys"R"Us. It was a bundle, but bundled with 2 games I was planning to get anyway.

      Other than the console, Wii hardware seems to be available now. I picked up a spare remote and nunchuck at Target the other day.

      Oh, and while you're waiting, skim Craiglist every day and flag the fucking scalpers.

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