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August NPD Numbers Look Good For Wii, 360

Posted by Zonk on Fri Sep 14, 2007 01:29 PM
from the little-bioshock-and-awe-in-there-too dept.
Businesses Entertainment Games
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."
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[+] Wii Outsells 360, PS3 Worldwide 491 comments
Wowzer writes "Despite confusing consoles produced, shipped or sold reports, the Nintendo Wii is now the best-selling system worldwide. Its sales exceed that of the Xbox 360 despite Microsoft's console having a year-long head start. And it's way ahead of the PS3. From the article: 'Sales figures from each console's launch date through the end of July (and the end of August in Japan) were added up, with the Wii just barely edging out the 360: 9 million for the Wii, 8.9 million for the 360, and 3.7 million for the PlayStation 3.'"
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August NPD Numbers Look Good For Wii, 360 50 Comments More /

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  • Wii vs 360 vs PS3 (Score:5, Insightful)

    by the computer guy nex (916959) on Friday September 14 2007, @01:55PM (#20606673)
    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.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by king-manic (409855)
      Latest /. discussion has been focused entirely on hardware numbers. Lately it has been Wii > 360 > PS3.

      If you look internationally it's Wii > Ps3 > 360 by a slight margin for the last 4 months now. The 360 is doing really well in America but far worse in other markets.
      • No, if you look internationally is exactly what the GP post said. If you look specifically at market sectors you can come up with your order. But the fact is...a developer is going to look at these numbers and say, "Even though the Wii has sold more hardware, a blockbuster game sells better on the 360 then it does the Wii." That is dangerous for Nintendo.

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by pokerdad (1124121)

      One thing is for sure, in terms of software, the 360 is top dog. This system flat out moves games.

      I've seen this claim quite a bit and it stands to reason; xbox appeals to hardcore gamers and they buy lots of games. But I've been wanting to seen some actual hard numbers.

      Unfortunately, my searches done just now did not find me the numbers I wanted - all time software sales worldwide by console, but I did find one thing that was food for thought. (all numbers from www.vgchartz.com)

      For week ending September 8, 2007 the software sales of xbox360 vs wii in America were 993574 vs 615084, while the numbe

      • I am a Halo fan, and have not yet purchased a 360, mostly due to financial reasons. I will be purchasing a 360 in a few months (with Halo 3), assuming I can get the money together. So, we do exist.
        • Cool, thought I was the only one. Although now that the wife has figured out how cool the Wii is, I suspect I might not be getting a 360 until next year...
      • "I'm not sure if Halo 3 coming out will cause a huge spike in system buying though... Wouldn't Halo fans have already purchased the system, knowing the game would be coming? I'm also quite amazed at how well the Xbox 360 is doing in terms of software. Personally I only own a few games for the system, as I mostly play Live Arcade games. I hope that more and more publishers take a look at those numbers, so we can continue to see more game choices on the 360."

        Halo3 probably won't generate a huge spike, bu
      • I just bought a 360 a week ago in prep for Halo 3. (Hooray for anecdotal evidence!)

  • Sony can't be too happy (Score:4, Insightful)

    by badinsults (1152183) on Friday September 14 2007, @02:06PM (#20606817) Homepage

    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.

  • 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)
    • Guitar Hero III will be available on all 4 systems, and Rock band will be on all but the Wii. I actually think GH 3 and RB will boost PS2 sales (note necessarily hardware) more than the other systems combined.
    • You're right, this is going to be interesting. But I don't expect Nintendo to QUITE be able to keep up with demand, although I bet they've been planning ahead for it for some time, they may have put some new production lines on schedule to start up specifically for the holiday season.

      As for Guitar Hero 3, I'm going to expect that the winner will be the 360, since the system already has two GH games out for it, less Wii owners will have been privilaged to the hype that has been the Guitar Hero series. The PS

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by tlhIngan (30335)

        I don't know about anywhere else in the country (or world for that matter) but as someone that has been "casually" looking locally for a Wii since it launched, I have yet to see *ANY* sitting on the shelf of any store I have been to in South East Texas. This includes Walmart, Target and the like, as well as Hastings (a book and music and movie chain, same people that started and own NetFlix I believe), as well as EB Games and Gamestop.

        I don't know, but I've seen shipments at the big electronics retailer (li

  • Nintendo and the fragile game market... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by blahplusplus (757119) on Friday September 14 2007, @02:47PM (#20607543)
    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.

    • Re:Nintendo and the fragile game market... (Score:4, Informative)

      by hibiki_r (649814) on Friday September 14 2007, @02:57PM (#20607715)
      Twilight princess and God of War don't really have that much to do with each other. If you want more combat than Zelda, then it's not an issue of quality, but an issue of what you want out of a game. You might as well say that neither of the two games has enough zombies, so Resident Evil is better.

      There are very few games that try to do something similar to Zelda: I only remember two off the top of my head, the Dark Cloud series and Okami. I'd put dark cloud well under TP, and Okami rather even quality wise.
      • Meh, I don't think Dark Cloud and Zelda have much in common. I've only played DC2, and only part of it, but it seemed more like a combination of a dungeon crawler and SimCity. There are other games that are able to capture a more similar feel to Zelda. Try Skies of Arcadia, for instance, which is a straight-ahead RPG, but whose dungeon construction and navigation is quite reminicient of a Zelda game. It also has a similar flare for the epic while remaining very innocent. Another one to mention is ICO, which
      • "Twilight princess and God of War don't really have that much to do with each other."

        Nonsense they are both 3rd person combat games with exploration elements. God of war was combat heavy and NPC light. God of war had everything Zelda had, just more complicated combat system and a different theme.
          • "That's just plain wrong. Zelda is a classic adventure game to the core"

            Dude "Adventure", is not even a genre when we're dealing with a 3D action rpg! The only really Adventure games are things like Kings Quest and monkey island. The original Zelda was all about dungeon crawling and fighting (i.e. The original NEs) the 2nd Zelda was again, ALL about dungeon crawling and fighting, with a few NPC's here and there. Zelda 3 was the first time zelda became "an adventure". I lived through all these generatio

  • XBox 360 is easily #1 in systems shipped!!! (Score:4, Funny)

    by Ang31us (1132361) on Friday September 14 2007, @02:47PM (#20607549) Homepage
    For every Xbox 360 sold at retail, Microsoft ships at least 5 to 10 replacement units.

  • New slashdot automated news generator (Score:3, Funny)

    by gravis777 (123605) on Friday September 14 2007, @10:28PM (#20612669)
    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
  • Is which console sold the most games last months.

    It doesn't matter if everyone is buying console X if that market only buys one game a year for it...
  • You know what is interesting? The real winner in the "console" wars, although many may not realize it, is the PC:

    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--g

    • Re:sony is outsellin both of em (Score:5, Insightful)

      by kosanovich (678657) on Friday September 14 2007, @02:02PM (#20606751)
      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)
      • Or point out, that despite the much greater install base of the Wii both the PS3 and the 360 are selling way more units of software.
    • Sony has another shot at the PS3 bypassing all the others. I haven't looked at the latest numbers, but last I saw the PS2 was still outselling all 3 current-generation consoles. And with backwards compatibility (even the newer software PS3s) very good, the PS3 could still be a sleeper hit if Sony can get the price down and the advertising budget up. They could even create a "movie bundle" that includes a Blu-Ray remote and movie, as opposed to a "game bundle" that includes an extra controller and a game.
      • Except PS3 back-compat has gone straight to hell with the new 80GB PS3's that use emulation instead of embedded PS2 hardware...

        • Re:Missed the Boat (Score:4, Insightful)

          by king-manic (409855) on Friday September 14 2007, @02:39PM (#20607379)
          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%.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by jizziknight (976750)

        And with backwards compatibility (even the newer software PS3s) very good...

        Ok, I'll give you that, but consider for a moment the backwards compatibility of the Wii. It has the Virtual Console, which, for all intents and purposes, could be updated to emulate any older console (well, maybe not any, but you get the point). It's also directly backward compatible with the GCN. If you look at the last generation, a lot of people missed out on the GCN, and this would be their chance to play all those games that they missed out on. However, not nearly as many people missed out on the PS2

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Tridus (79566)
      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.
      • 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.

        Part of that is the rapid inflation of the US dollar. It's price is reasonable to most other markets thus you see the 360 slowing down in those markets as the Ps3 eats the 360's lunch but in the Us the 40% value loss of the US dollar hedged it so that the PS3 is beyond a "reasonable" price. If you compare the price o
        • Why doesn't this effect Nintendo then? While their hardware is quite a bit cheaper to manufacture one would think that if the value of the US dollar had such a dramatic effect on the PS3s price it would push the Wii's price up a fair bit more.
        • Not quite, the 360 isn't made or assembled in the US so that is not an issue. Even the parts such as CPU / GPU are made in Malaysia
    • Sony killed the PS3 with a series of stupid moves. The first of which was to make a console which can't be cheap (at least not in its first years)...

      The PS3 could be a fine choice for the next generation, but apparently it can't work on this one.
    • Poor Playstation 3. It Really is sad to see something with so much potential get burried.

      Yeah, I'm all choked up. I think what you actually meant is its delicious just desserts to see an arrogant corporation lose money hand over fist on an overhyped, overpowered, overpriced, Luxury Item they are trying to sell to teenagers. While they are being beat down by an underated(initially anyway), inexpensive, underpowered, happy little fun box from their third place competitor.

      I and others recognized this as

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Duffy13 (1135411)

        The potential to cost more than twice as much as the alternatives.

        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 a

        • 360 fanbois (Score:3, Insightful)

          by Tony (765)
          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 Microso

          • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

            by nutshell42 (557890)
            Neither harddrive nor vastly more power could save the original Xbox.

            It's meaningless how much better the PS3 is as long as MS manages to leave the PS3 in the dust in terms of installed base.

            Some analyst predicted that Sony sold of one of their divisions to be able to sell the PS3 at $399. If that's true it might save the console because unlike the original Xbox Sony does enjoy a strong brand and a PS3 at a competitive would probably be able to get enough games and sales to at least catch up with the 360.

          • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

            by Kjella (173770)
            Games are getting *way* above 8GB these days.

            Yeah, the kind of "lets blow it up to 50Gb and hype that we need it" kind of games. Simply go back to unompressed wav, bmp and avi and you'll fill it up in no time flat. You see the exact thing going on with Blu-Ray where they're trying to push LPCM over DTS, since they need something to eat the extra 20GB of space. Nevermind that 1.5Mbps/6ch = 512kbps/stereo, which is twice what iTunes' high quality songs are, and twice that again what most people seem happy lis
          • 1- When the Xbox 360 was launched, it was too early to have HD-DVD on it (not technically possible I hear?)
            2- If it had, it would probably be as expensive as the PS3, and would fail terribly (like the PS3 is failing, or probably worse due to having a weaker brand name)

            So yes, Microsoft was smart by sticking to DVD.
          • It's up to the developers to handle this sort of thing. If there is no HD, you load everything each time. If there is one, cache the important stuff on it. If the user chooses the cheap-ass version of the console, then they can put up with the inconvenience.

            Similarly, once the HD-drive takes off, I'm sure you will see games coming on either format. If you have an HD-drive, you can buy the single-disc version. If you don't, you buy the one on 3 DVDs. Don't some games on the 360 already come on multiple

          • From Amazon Wii = $324.34 or you camp out for 250$ Now add in [...]

            ...which ignores the fact that $250.00 gets you a playable system, and you can add the extras on as your time and budget allow. You don't have to drop $599 (the cheap $499 units are sold out) in one lump payment but get to spread it out.

    • Only reason there are few games is because all the game developers/publishers did not want to touch the Wii with a 10' pole before release of the system. They all thought it would flop. The two or three publishers that took the chance on it are making lots of money now as a result while everyone else is playing catch-up. There are something like 68 games due out in the next 3 months. Essentially every major and minor developer/publisher has at least one or two games arriving in this time-frame because it ta

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by brokeninside (34168)

      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

      • If you look at Metacritic it will show you every 360 game, & PS3 game including the Live arcade ones and an occasional Japanese import, but you will not see reviews for Wii Virtual console games. These games do get reviews from various outlets, do cost money, and do bring value to Wii owners, so why are they excluded? Castelvania: SoTN shows up, why not Mario64 ?
    • That's exactly my experience. I have a Wii and a 360. The only games for the Wii that I have are Wii Play, Twilight Princess, and Super Paper Mario. There seems to be a dearth of good Wii games, as most seem to just be a bunch of mini-games, movie adaptations, TV adaptations, or silly little games. The only game that has actually interested me these past few months has been Metroid. Sure, people will say that good games will come out in time, but jeez, it's already been 10 months. They should have some good
    • You dare deny the various fanboys their need to vent? Do you realize the catastrophe that would occur if the various camps were not allowed to spout their reasons for supporting their particular platform on a regular basis? The build up would be ... wait, if we could harness that energy ... nah, they need uncontrolled reactions. Let the fanboys have their fun. After all, we don't have to click on any link that is not of interest. ;)

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