Clearing Up Holiday Sales Rumours

Gamespot's regular 'Rumor Control' column tackles some confusion around who had the most holiday sales among the three new consoles. A CNBC broadcast prompted GamesIndustry.biz to proclaim the 360 the winner, with some 2 Million in sales. The Wii followed closely behind with 1.8 Million, and the PS3 followed that number with 750,000. The catch here is that, while it's possible a viewer could have assumed this was official NPD data, it wasn't. From the article: "The segment is an interview with Billy Pidgeon, an analyst with IT market intelligence firm IDC. In it, a graphic appears on screen showing estimated console sales in North America for November through December 25, 2006. The numbers match up with the figures being attributed to the NPD, but CNBC attributes IDC as its source on them. The confusion likely comes from a blurb of text that appears at the bottom of the screen shortly after the graphic is taken down. It notes that the 'NDP Group' (sic) pegged the Wii as selling more than twice the number of PS3s for the month of November, which is true, but also something that was announced last month." The numbers may prove to be true, but we're going to have to wait a bit longer to see who actually came out ahead last month.

The eternal shipped vs. sold

[Phisbut]

Everytime there are sales numbers around, we need to remember that Sony always only report on shipped units, not on sold units. And no, even for the PS3, shipped != sold. I have seen PS3's on the shelves of some stores, and several other slashdotters have seen them too. Many PS3's are being returned by scalpers and are therefore unsold.

Wii probably could have sold more, if only it had been able to produce more of them. As for the Xbox 360, the only console not suffering from shortages (anymore), then good for them. I wonder how many were bought by people wanting a PS3, but then not finding any, so they bought a 360 instead.

Re:Does NPD even provide real numbers?

[Anonymous Coward]

For those who are interested:

EBGAMES/Gamestop are doing pre-order sales for the Wii to be shipped 1/17/2007. The only hitch is that it is a bundle package only.

Nintendo Wii system (system, remote controller, nunchuck, stand, sensor and Wii Sports)
Wii 1 Gigabyte Memory Card
1 additional Wii Remote Controller
Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Trauma Center: Second Opinion
Red Steel
Marvel Ultimate Alliance
Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz
Madden NFL 2007
1 Year Product Replacement Plan

The bundle is ~679.90 USD with 9.99 additional for shipping and handling.

Here's the link: http://www.ebgames.com/product.asp?product_id=B020 070E [ebgames.com]

The store, fortunately, will not be offering this bundle as it is on-line only.

Re:The eternal shipped vs. sold

[elrous0]

Yeah, it says "You can get it for $130."

-Eric

The "Real Winner" ... the DS

[jchenx]

However, sales of the PS2 games were fairly strong, especially that rock guitar thing (forgot the name) and a number of other strong titles.

You mean Guitar Hero 2, which yes, was quite strong, along with other hit games such as Final Fantasy XII. The PS2 definately did very well this holiday season, but I'd have to say the big winner was the DS. Those darn things were often sold out just as much as the Wii was (I was looking for an extra copy myself). If you go looking around, you'll find sales numbers which reflect just how well that portable console did. Couple that with big news, such as Dragon Quest IX as a DS exclusive [joystiq.com], and you've got the makings of yet another unstoppable Nintendo force in the handheld business.

Undoubtedly the success of the DS can translate to benefits to the Wii. It would be even greater if Nintendo were able to announce some neat pairing between the DS and the Wii, similar to what Sony has tried to do with the PS3 and PSP (only failing miserably, due to the relative unpopularity of both systems).

Re:Three things to consider (from WSJ)

[ThePiMan2003]

Trauma Center is a simply great game, better than Zelda I would say.

Raving Rabbids is a great multiplayer game.

Super Monkey ball... sucks

Red Steel REALLY REALLY sucks.

Wii sports is quite fun.

Rampage is fun but you really need nunchucks for each player

Excite Truck is also quite enjoyable if you like smash em up racing.

So I would say if yo have a Wii pick up Trauma Center for yourself, Raving Rabbids for yourself and your firends, Rampage if you like that sort of thing, and Excite trck if you like that sort of thing. I actually thought Zelda was kinda blah.

Re:I'm sick of Japanese consoles...there I said it

[cgenman]

The NES, SNES, N64, Gamecube, Sega Master System, Sega Genesis, Sega Saturn, Sega Dreamcast, Sony Playstation, and PS2 all had a lot of western developed games (and Japaneese games) which didn't have senseless/cutesy story lines.

Not to mention A: PC games are largely western developed (with personal PC ownership traditionally lower in Asia), and B: Sega actually stands for SErvice and GAmes, originally started by an American.