Games Industry Sees 12 Billion in Sales For 2006

Gamespot is reporting that, with the NPD numbers in, we can finally put the debate about last year's winners and losers to rest. Overall, the industry was the winner, with a record-breaking $12.5 Billion in sales last year. December accounted for almost $4 Billion all by itself. In software, the usual suspects prevailed. Madden topped the chart with 2.8 Million in sales for the PS2 version of Madden 07. Right behind was New Super Mario Bros. on the DS, with some 2 Million in sales of its own. On the console side of things ... well, as Kotaku points out 'everyone is a winner' this year. Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo have all put out press releases declaring themselves the winner of the Holiday console wars. The sad reality, though, is there can be only one. According to the NPD numbers, between the launch of the new consoles and the end of the year, some 1.1 Million Nintendo Wiis were sold with 687,300 PS3s following closely behind. Microsoft trails with its numbers from 2005; it sold 607,000 consoles in its launch year. Don't feel too bad for Microsoft, though. They sold 1.1 Million 360s in December. The article points out this means Microsoft met its '10 Million in sales' goal for the end of 2006.

Re:What you mean ...

[Duds]

Well that's just the thing, Sony DIDN'T sell all their PS3s. It's quite trivial to get on in the US now.

Re:Gears of War sales?

[jonnythan]

Raw #s:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=13769 3 [neogaf.com]

Bottom line is that Gears of War was the best selling game of December, at 815,000 copies. It was #3 for the year with 1.8 million sales (following Madden 07 for the PS2 @ 2.8 million and New Super Mario Bros for the DS at 2 million).

It was #5 for all titles in December (the "All Titles" category lumps all versions of a single game together.. for instance, Madden 07 sales include sales on the PS2, PS3, 360, XBox, etc).

Re:It's all relative?

[Eponymous Crowbar]

The first several months of the 360's introduction were pretty rough for potential buyers. As bad as the PS3 shortages were, I can walk into a store right now and pick one up after just two months on the market. The 360 trickled out until it was already 4-6 months old (which was when I could finally find one to buy without putting any effort into the search). It was more or less sold out until then.

Re:What you mean ...

[MeanderingMind]

I think a lot of people laughed at Bill Gates when he claimed Microsoft was winning the console war. While what he said is rather hard to argue against, it seems rather premature to claim victory when the race has really just started.

However, it has been noted time and time again that while the Wii can coexist with the 360, the PS3, or both the same can not readily be said of the 360 and the PS3. While it is possible they both will survive and even do well this generation, it is just as if not more likely that one will effectively crush the other.

Taking that into consideration sheds some extra light on Gates' jubilation. A 10 million console head start, and the greatest threat to your success fails to live up to expectations. It is even possible, if unlikely, that Sony will be forced to drop out of consoles altogether (perhaps after a PS4), leaving Microsoft as one of two clear giants of the industry.

Quite simply, the position the Xbox 360 is in now is a very, very strong one. They've already sold a number of consoles equal to half what Nintendo's previous offering achieved. I'd be in a state of euphoria myself were I Gates. It would have been very difficult to imagine after the launch a little over a year ago that everything would go so well for Microsoft. The only thing the could go better would be a catastrophic explosion or meteoric impact at Sony HQ.