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XBox (Games) The Almighty Buck

360 And Halo 3 Push Past the Wii's Sales 309

Posted by Zonk from the back-on-top-for-about-a-week dept.
GameDaily has the NPD numbers for September, and they're impressive if only because for the first time in months Nintendo isn't dominating the top of every list. Total sales across the industry hit $1.36 billion (a 74% bump over last year), mostly fueled by Halo 3 sales. The game (across all skus) sold some 3.3 million units, while Xbox 360 platforms hit about 528,000 units sold last month. Ironically, the Wii had its second best month ever and the DS sold big numbers thanks to Phantom Hourglass. "Nintendo's Wii, despite not really having any significant new software releases, was close behind with 501K units sold. The DS handheld also did quite well, selling another 495.8K. Looking at Sony's platforms, the PS3 sold just 119.4K units, while the surging PSP sold 284.5K and the PS2 maintained healthy sales at 215K." The piece also offers up analysis from an NPD researcher, who feels Microsoft is likely to maintain some good momentum through the holidays.
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360 And Halo 3 Push Past the Wii's Sales More

360 And Halo 3 Push Past the Wii's Sales

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  • Great news for MS! (Score:5, Funny)

    by machinecraig ( 657304 ) on Friday October 19, 2007 @08:19AM (#21040211)
    Sounds like MS can keep their lead as long as they release a Halo-class game every month! If only they had thought of that sooner!

    • Re:Great news for MS! (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Gravatron ( 716477 ) on Friday October 19, 2007 @08:54AM (#21040695)
      Isn't it a bit odd that Sony or MS have to release a major game to increase sales, but nintendo can sell on it's hype alone? I mean, the wii's game drought is worse than Sony's, but they still beat them in sales. And Poor MS can bring out game after game and still not catch up most weeks.

      I owned a wii, and sold it a few months later. It just wasn't as good a console as the hype made it out to be. My ps3 and 360, on the other hand, more than paid for themselves since I got them in the summer. Not being able to play galaxy or smash brothers hurts, but thats made up by the titles on the other two.

      • Re:Great news for MS! (Score:5, Funny)

        by b96miata ( 620163 ) on Friday October 19, 2007 @09:31AM (#21041293)
        Paid for themselves? Are you making money off your consoles?

      • Re:Great news for MS! (Score:4, Insightful)

        by theantipop ( 803016 ) on Friday October 19, 2007 @12:51PM (#21045107)
        Have you ever thought maybe the Wii isn't selling on hype alone? That poeple might actually enjoy playing games on it? Sounds crazy, I know, but it's possible.

      • Re:Great news for MS! (Score:4, Interesting)

        by Frenchy_2001 ( 659163 ) on Friday October 19, 2007 @01:20PM (#21045639)
        Could it be that (shock and surprise!) you are not the target market for the wii?

        The usual gamers and most people that spend lots of time on video games and expect deep engaging contents are NOT what Nintendo is aiming the wii at. I know it is disappointing for that crowd to not be the focus of the biggest console maker, but this is the choice Nintendo has made this generation: instead of targeting gamers and competing with the other 2, they went for the casual market and brought back gaming as a family activity.

        I agree to everything you say on the Wii. It does have a lot of hype and it lacks new games. But this does not takes its qualities away. It is a perfect game for casual gamers. It is the only console where you can get anyone to play with you, from 6 to 80 years old. I've gotten my 6 year old niece to play wii sport (she loves the bowling game) or wii play (she likes fishing) and even my step mother (age 60+) played wii sport with us.

        The people buying are not "gamers". They just enjoyed so much wii sport at a friend's house, that they are looking for one for themselves. The wii so far is pretty much a wii sport machine, but most of those people have been brought up on Mario and they will probably take the jump when galaxy is released.

        I would not be surprised if the wii trailed the 2 other consoles on software/machine, as the people will really concentrate on a few games only, but this is not a real problem for nintendo, as they are making money on the console itself. 3rd party will need to understand their market to make money (look at ubisoft and rayman), but there will be potential for it.

        So, the difficulty of finding a wii is not so much due to the hype than to the viral effect (about 20% coming to play with us at home want to get one afterward). Supply is only now catching up with the demand (a YEAR later!).

        Oh, by the way, although MS is doing great sales with Halo3, This might be the only quarter they will get a positive cash flow again (on the xbox1, the quarters they released halo1 and halo2 were the only positive ones). This is the fact that worries me most about MS' future in the game market. So far, it is a money pit for them (about $2 billions per generation).

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by aichpvee ( 631243 )
      Shouldn't be too hard, they churn out mediocre games all the time.

    • Re:Great news for MS! (Score:5, Informative)

      by ArtDent ( 83554 ) on Friday October 19, 2007 @09:36AM (#21041405)
      Seriously. And that's just in America. They'll need to do it every two weeks to win worldwide.

      What you just heard was the sound of Microsoft rather unimpressively blowing its load.

      They just released what will probably be the biggest game ever on the console (or is there going to be a Halo 4?), and only managed to squeeze past Wii by 27,000 units (about 5%). And this in the 360's strongest territory.

      Worldwide, Wii outsold 360 in September, 1,075,000 to 735,000. The 360 managed to hold a lead over Wii for a mere two weeks and is now trailing again.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by morari ( 1080535 )

        They just released what will probably be the biggest game ever on the console
        True, but very sad. The Halo series is such an uninspired one. It's too bad the masses can't manage to latch onto something not so overrated.

        • Re:Great news for MS! (Score:5, Insightful)

          by Blakey Rat ( 99501 ) on Friday October 19, 2007 @11:54AM (#21044031)
          Ah, but if they did, your hipster-ism and built-in hatred of anything popular would then force you to hate that game! Then in a few years (once Halo became 'retro' enough to be cool again), you'd decry "too bad the masses latch on to MegaKill and not something so overrated, like Halo." Then you could adjust your tinted glasses and ironic t-shirt and move on to hating popular movies instead.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by morari ( 1080535 )
            I enjoy plenty of popular games. Halo doesn't deserve its popular status however, thus it is overrated. The gameplay is stale, the story even more contrived than usual, the graphics always sub-par, etc. It's a simple trend of console kiddies having never seen or played a truly polished FPS before.

            I do, however, hate most popular films. It's too bad your reasoning is so far off base.

            • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

              by Blakey Rat ( 99501 )
              Halo doesn't deserve its popular status however, thus it is overrated.

              On the contrary, I think Halo deserves its popular status if only so that Bungie can be appreciated for what they accomplished with Marathon, a woefully UNDER-rated game.

              I still think you're just a typical Slashdot hipster who must hate everything popular/mass media.

              The gameplay is stale, the story even more contrived than usual, the graphics always sub-par, etc.

              Gameplay: It's so stale, that must be why virtually every other FPS has rippe

            • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

              by jma05 ( 897351 )
              > The gameplay is stale

              How so? The covenant were some of the most enjoyable enemies to fight. I came to console games after I decided that I played too many FPS, RTS games and wanted to try different genres. Halo is the only shooter I enjoyed on the console since and I probably played it more than any other single shooter on the PC.

              I think Halo has fantastic replay value in Solo alone. It can get quite addictive if you give it a chance. I think the constant weapon switching and duck for shield recharging
  • At least here in the US, it is a challenge to find a Wii, most places are sold out of them I have only seen one when I was looking around in tech stores and the discount stores (Wal-Mart etc.) are sold out of them too, 360s are found in almost all of the stores same with Halo 3, lots of boxes, sure the Wii hasn't had a "Killer Hit" yet like the 360 has with Halo 3 but the games that are released are fun to play and with Brawl and Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn coming this winter, I would imagine that Wii sales wi

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by jlf278 ( 1022347 )
      If you really want a Wii for retail and live anywhere near New York City (or know someone who does), Nintendo World in Rockefeller Center rarely runs out of stock.
    • While it is definitely a little difficult to find them (you don't just walk into a store and expect to buy one), it's not really THAT difficult for somebody wanting to buy one. I stop in the local Wal-mart 2-3 times per week during my lunch break just to look around and kill time (small town - not much else to do). 90% of the time I go look around the electronics department for a while, and though the Wii is USUALLY out of stock, in the last few months on 4-5 occasions I've found one (or in one case, 3) u

  • Tit for tat... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Aphrika ( 756248 ) on Friday October 19, 2007 @08:37AM (#21040453)
    Figures like this are expendable - just wait until you get the sales figures for Wii vs. 360 after Mario Galaxies is released...
    • Not necessarily, if only because of supply shortages. It isn't as hard to find as it used to be, but I still routinely see Wiis sold out at local gameshops. When I ask the clerk out of curiousity (I have one already), they often give me the "we get shipments on x-days and y-days, try and be here when the store opens" reply. If Mario Galaxies sparks any interest at all, the supply ceiling will be hit again in no time.

      All that said, as a Wii owner I am starting to get a little apprehensive about the future

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by brkello ( 642429 )
      I predict Halo 3 will easily sell more than Mario Galaxies. And you can't see a sharp spike for the Wiis since they are sold out and Nintendo seems to be doing nothing to increase production.

  • Apples and Oranges (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Akaihiryuu ( 786040 ) on Friday October 19, 2007 @08:53AM (#21040675)
    So they compare a month in which the 360 had a "big" game released and the Wii didn't have any major releases, and saying that the 360 sold more than the Wii in that particular month is news somehow? Plus, the Wii is still having supply issues (at least in the US)...for the most part you still can't go into a store and pick one up off the shelf, whereas there are piles of 360's everywhere, this has to play a part too.
    • Not so sure it's apples and oranges. Maybe Fuji apples vs Golden Delicious. Games are going to continue to drive 360 sales all the way through the holidays into Christmas. Remember that Halo 3 is the biggest game for the 360 right now. Hotly anticipated. But in November we'll see the release of Assassin's Creed and Mass Effect. Sales will increase for those games, and just because it's the coming up on the holidays. Yeah, the Wii and PS3 will experience that as well, but you don't have a lot 'A' game
  • 360 surpassing Wii by only a couple dozen thousand units isn't nearly as interesting as the 360 outselling the PS3 5:1. Sony's gotta be hurtin'.

    Now, if Smash Bros. and Mario Kart weren't pushed back, and if Wii wasn't in such short supply, I wonder if the 360 would keep it's lead. Either way, can the 360 sustain the current lead for the next 3 months?
  • That's quite a few units. If I remember the numbers correctly, the latest version of Madden didn't sell that many units across all of the platforms its on the first month hit was out. It looks like about 1 out of 3 XBox 360 owners purchased Halo 3.

  • MS vs Wii (Score:4, Insightful)

    by ObiWanStevobi ( 1030352 ) on Friday October 19, 2007 @09:17AM (#21041065) Journal

    I still fail to see how MS or PS3 are competing against the Wii. Maybe the fact that they all play games, but MS and Sony are the two really competing for a similar market.

    Anyway, Halo was huge for the Xbox and will continue to push sales for a while. The downside of this seems to be that alot of other really good games are being drowned out. The Orange Box hit the 360 with very little fanfare and poor marketing, despite being one of the best collection of games I've ever seen. In November, Assassins Creed, Blacksite, and Mass Effect will be released. Although Blacksite initially looked really good, I can't see buying it now that I have Halo 3 and 3 updated Half Life titles.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Liquidrage ( 640463 )
      The 360's greatest selling point is Live.

      While it's often dissed here. Live is truely fantastic and next-gen in service and application.

      I can download movies, TV shows, new games, demos (free), trailers for upcoming games. If it weren't for the fact I'm a sports junkie it would be cheaper for me to ditch digital cable and only download my shows and movies off of XBL.
      I can keep track of my friends, invite them to games or get invited into their games. It keeps track of achievements and a lot more.

      I

    • I still fail to see how MS or PS3 are competing against the Wii.

      They are competing for the finite money that consumers have to spend, and they are competing for the finite money developers have to invest. (also, in homes where non-gamers parents are buying a system for gamer children, the differences you note between the systems are irrellevant; most of these homes will get only one system, meaning the products are competing directly)

      Perhaps most importantly the three systems are competing for consumers' time; for those gamer that only have 5 hours a week to game, a

  • Kinda see now Sony's decision to remove backwards compatability from the PS3. With the PS2 still selling as strong as it is, the PS3 would be a direct competitor to their own product. Let's drop backwards compatability and then sell both consoles
  • Since the Wii is still selling out, isn't its sales figures just a number on how many units they shipped? I know it is pretty close since I can't find them in Austin, and even my relative in Illinois can't either. Because of this, you can't really compare numbers since Wii sales are capped currently.

  • Nintendo's Wii, despite not really having any significant new software releases, was close behind with 501K units sold.
    That seems a little misleading to me. Maybe the Wii didn't have any huge releases in September, but Metroid Prime 3, perhaps the Wii's most anticipated non-launch game, was released less than a week before September started.
  • I'm curious to know in what part of the country people are having a hard time finding a Wii. Here in the Northeast Wii are everywhere. I can go into any retailer and find plenty. Target has had a good 10 boxes on the shelves since the middle of the summer. It's essentially the same at Walmart. The other retailers are also consistently stocked up. It doesn't seem to be any different in neighboring states.

    At this point I can pretty much go into any store around here and find one. If anything I'd say there are

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