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Businesses The Almighty Buck Entertainment Games

The November Videogame Market By the Numbers 57

Posted by Zonk from the plumbers-vs.-space-operas-in-a-fight-to-the-death dept.
Along with the news that more than half of the US is playing games, the November NPD numbers offer an interesting insight into the games industry. The ongoing console war was white hot, with record hardware sales. The Wii outsold the PS3 by half a million systems last month, and is quickly gaining on the Xbox 360's total sales figures. The big winners last month were software publishers, though, with a record $1.3 billion in sales. "Obviously Call of Duty 4 performed well on both the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3. It is now second only to Halo 3 for first-month sales numbers on the Xbox 360. On the PlayStation 3 no other game has launched as well as Call of Duty 4 in November. Super Mario Galaxy performed extremely well for its first month. Two new properties - Assassin's Creed and Mass Effect - sold well enough to make the top 10. Across both platforms, Assassin's Creed was actually the second best selling game of the month. It is amusing to note that despite the unprecedented Nintendo DS and PSP sales, no game for either system sold well enough to make the top 10 software list for November."
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The November Videogame Market By the Numbers More

The November Videogame Market By the Numbers

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  • If this is a manufactured shortage... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by seebs ( 15766 ) on Tuesday December 18, 2007 @12:35PM (#21740586) Homepage
    You can only wonder how many systems the people claiming Nintendo is manufacturing this shortage think are being produced.

    • Re: (Score:1, Offtopic)

      by ObsessiveMathsFreak ( 773371 )

      You can only wonder how many systems the people claiming Nintendo is manufacturing this shortage think are being produced.

      OK, I think I've got it.

      Let "certain group"="the people claiming Nintendo is manufacturing this shortage"

      Then the sentence was "You can only wonder how many systems certain group think are being produced."

      I think the better way to state the sentence would have been: "You can only wonder how many systems are thought to have been produced, by the people claiming Nintendo is manufacturing t

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by 246o1 ( 914193 )
        surely, moderators, you meant to mod this pedantic annoying crap as 'offtopic,' not 'insightful.' besides being annoying, the "better way to state the sentence" isn't.
        • It surely is a better way to understand the sentence. I've spoken English all my life and I did not understand what was being said on the first read-through. After that I went through slowly and ran the sentence back and forth, parsing at different points by trial & error. The "better way" surely seems better to me, although I have to admit that once I read it I already knew the intent from deciphering the original.

          The original sentence was not clear at all and it is only by sheer luck that you could

  • Call me when it's over. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by flitty ( 981864 ) on Tuesday December 18, 2007 @12:48PM (#21740756)
    The so called xbox/ps/nintendo "console war" has been going on hot and heavy for what, 7+ years now? Can we stop calling it "white hot" and finally conceed that the each console of this generation is filling a different need, as shown by last month's NPD data? Galaxy sold well, COD4 sold well, Assasin's creed sold well, Mass effect sold well, Halo 3 sold well, the DS and PSP hardware sold well, even if they didn't have any standout games. To me, that sounds like everybody's pretty damned happy about this holiday season, and even though the ps3 isn't doing as well as the rest, they will catch up eventually. Everyone has nailed what they were trying to accomplish this gen. Congrats to all the consoles and software developers.
    • I think that because there is still competition, that's what makes the story continually interesting. In other words, this type of back-and-forth with similar market shares amongst many systems is the type of competition that would exist in the computer software world, were it not for certain monopoly-like forces. If either nintendo or sony "won", then there wouldn't be any story anymore.

    • Re: (Score:1, Flamebait)

      by lpangelrob ( 714473 )
      It's not so much as a war anymore, as it is the PS3 Death March. I will, however, call you either when it ends, or General MacArthur returns.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by SparkleMotion88 ( 1013083 )
      Sorry, there will always be a "console war." The war is caused because a large number of people can only afford to buy one console. These people choose the one that they think will be the best console. Once their purchase is made, they will fight to convince everyone (including themselves) that their console is the best because, more than anything else, people like to believe that they made the best decision. So you can't end the "console war" without changing human nature.

      This sort of behavior happe

      • Re:Call me when it's over. (Score:5, Insightful)

        by king-manic ( 409855 ) on Tuesday December 18, 2007 @01:26PM (#21741370)

        Sorry, there will always be a "console war." The war is caused because a large number of people can only afford to buy one console. These people choose the one that they think will be the best console. Once their purchase is made, they will fight to convince everyone (including themselves) that their console is the best because, more than anything else, people like to believe that they made the best decision. So you can't end the "console war" without changing human nature.

        This sort of behavior happens any time a decision has been made and there is a conflict over that decision, and is caused by several well-known cognitive biases (mostly originating from confirmation bias).
        The market seems to be splitting as well. There seems to be a much more distinct break up of whats games ends up on which system. The wii is getting novel party games (doing well everywhere). The PS3 still has a lock on the traditional Japanese franchise (given the world wide sales distribution this will continue to be true, doing well in Japan, poor in the US), while the 360 is getting many more of the American titles (and also doing poorly outside the US, well in the US).

        Wii -> Alternative games
        PS3 -> Traditional Japanese style
        360 -> Traditional American

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by ClamIAm ( 926466 )
          The PS3 still has a lock on the traditional Japanese franchise (given the world wide sales distribution this will continue to be true, doing well in Japan, poor in the US)

          Since when was the PS3 doing well in Japan?

          360 -> Traditional American

          I think you mean "traditional Western PC-style".

          • Since when was the PS3 doing well in Japan?

            since [google.com] launch.

            *Google Translation of media create (Japanese console sales site, look at the bottom for weekly sales).

            They have already surpassed all 360's sold in japan. They are behind the wii in numbers but still have games show up in the top 20 fairly often.

            • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

              by magus_melchior ( 262681 )
              Compared to the PS2 and 360, yes, but Sony was still pounded by Nintendo in Japan last week. I think that the market in Japan is becoming more geared towards mobile platforms (DS and PSP are doing exceptionally well), although your point about the 360 stands.

              (The ranking page [m-create.com]. Note that they use the common abbreviations for all but one of the various consoles. This charts the software sales over the past week, sorted by the last column. At the bottom of the page is another chart with, presumably, the hardwa

              • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

                by king-manic ( 409855 )
                Their at about 1/3 of the wii. The Wii is a smashing beyond all hope success. I'd argue that the PS3 is doing well compared to the outrageous success of the wii. Sales plotted against the 360 world wide sees the PS3 at roughly the same spot the 360 was last year. So it's going to be a three horse race with competition for 2nd. Competition is always good. Because frankly, despite the success most Wii games aren't my cup of tea. I love fire emblem but almost the entire rest of the library is aimed at someone

            • Re: (Score:1)

              by ClamIAm ( 926466 )
              [Media Create link]

              LOL. I'd suggest you look back to before the PS3 price drop. Its sales were almost always way below the PS2.

              They have already surpassed all 360's sold in japan.

              How is this something to be proud of? It's not like the 360 has ever been hot (or even warm) in Japan.

              They are behind the wii in numbers but still have games show up in the top 20 fairly often.

              I guess your definition of "fairly often" is a bit looser than mine.

        • Wii -> Alternative games
          PS3 -> Traditional Japanese style
          360 -> Traditional American

          You forgot:
          Dreamcast -> dead system
          I know this comes as a shocker to you all...
        • "The market seems to be splitting as well. There seems to be a much more distinct break up of whats games ends up on which system. The wii is getting novel party games (doing well everywhere). The PS3 still has a lock on the traditional Japanese franchise (given the world wide sales distribution this will continue to be true, doing well in Japan, poor in the US), while the 360 is getting many more of the American titles (and also doing poorly outside the US, well in the US)."

          Not sure what you meant by "
          • You may want to recheck your wii figures. It is now the best selling total as well as fastest. Over all its

            5(wiis):4(360):2(PS3) in relative numbers
            • Where are you getting those numbers? Because vgcharts has it as I said and so does the actual article in this story.
              • VG chartz is a unreliable source. They project based on basically random criteria what the sales will be. Until the quarterly media create and NPD come out vg chartz is usually a wild guess. After the quarterlies come out vgchartz updates their numbers. They've been off more often then not. But according to vgchartz:

                wii: 16.29m
                360: 14.56
                PS#: 7.19

                which match my ratio exactly.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by ookaze ( 227977 )

          The market seems to be splitting as well. There seems to be a much more distinct break up of whats games ends up on which system. The wii is getting novel party games (doing well everywhere). The PS3 still has a lock on the traditional Japanese franchise (given the world wide sales distribution this will continue to be true, doing well in Japan, poor in the US), while the 360 is getting many more of the American titles (and also doing poorly outside the US, well in the US).

          That's just not true at all.
          I'm more interested in the japanese games, and for those, your analysis is plain wrong.
          First, the PS3 has no lock on the traditional japanese franchise, at all. The "locks" you see are for games which have started being developed 2 years before even the PS3 launch, and can't be wasted.
          Instead, what we see, is that the traditional Japanese franchises have started jumping ship to the Wii.
          How could anyone looking at the japanese market miss that? Dragonquest, Monster Hunter, Final

        • "War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Power."

          I think applies to the console wars too.

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by mr_mischief ( 456295 )
        In a product field like game consoles, confirmation bias can coincide with enlightened self-interest or can fill the same logical need. The more people think Console A is great and represents the future direction of all consoles, the more content gets targeted to Console A. If this is in addition to another console or in place of another console that would have been the exclusive target for that content, then it's a win for the owner of Console A. It's one of the few instances in which a format war or platf

    • The so called xbox/ps/nintendo "console war" has been going on hot and heavy for what, 7+ years now?

      No it hasn't. The last generation's war began when the PS2 launched in 2000, and was decided by 2003 already, when it became apparent that neither the XBOX or the GameCube would be able to dent the PS2's market.

      And simply put, whichever console wins gets the best games. There might be a few gems now and then, but the market leader simply has the upper hand in securing exclusive deals and developers interest.

  • pc gaming is dead... (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    long live pc gaming!
  • Does anyone care to discuss the difference in attach rates? The summary didn't specify the PS3 or PS2 attach rates, but it did come out and basically show the 360 has nearly twice the attach rate of the Wii. They also mention how Wii sports isn't included in the attach rate, but Wii Play is. I know we like to revel in the success the hardware is enjoying, but should there be concern as long as this attach rate gap exists? Should Mario have sold something more like 3million in the first month to bring it

    • Attach rates are bollocks (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Chuck Chunder ( 21021 ) on Tuesday December 18, 2007 @03:19PM (#21743180) Journal
      They are useless for comparing pretty much anything as they are "per console". When consoles have been out for different lengths of time it's meaningless to compare attach rates. If xbox owners have had an extra year (or whatever) to buy games then you'd expect it's attach rate to be higher (a more impressive back catalogue that extra time generates will also help). Perhaps there might be some value in comparing the Wii and 360 attach rates x months after launch.

      In short the "attach rate" has too much of an historic component to tell you clearly what is going on "now" which is the interesting thing.

      Attach rates are only a useful measurement for console manufacturers selling consoles at a loss. In that situation the manufacturer knows that it has to reach a certain attach rate to claw back that loss before it can even think about a profit (though that is changing now they have additional profit streams such as subscriptions, virtual consoles, blu ray etc).

      For everyone else you may as well just talk about total games sold. Dividing it by the number of consoles doesn't tell you anything useful.
      • It does matter because at some point when the console was released becomes irrelevant. Nintendo needs to sell more games per console to make it attractive for 3rd party devs. Look at the top 20 sales for the last few months and you'll see that despite having basically the same number of consoles out there the 360 continues to outsell the Wii software wise. The Wii sells well on big first party titles, but 3rd part is pretty well a no show. If I am a dev and I see that I can sell twice as many games on the 3

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by p0tat03 ( 985078 )

      The attach rates affect 3rd party developer interest in the system. Nintendo, despite their words, have proven time and time again that they intend to make a system that support primarily their own games, not anyone else's. This has negatively impacted 3rd party participation (whether Nintendo cares or not is unknown) on the Wii, and failing attach rates will drive support down further. Whether this even matters in the Wii's meteoric success is unknown :P

      The 360 and PS3 are a different story. These are co

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward
        Attach rates are not actually relevant to 3rd party developers in the abstract. Only the number of games sold compared to the cost of development is. The PS3 has a higher attach rate than the Wii, but it is much more expensive to develop for, and there is a much smaller market. The PS2 did not have a great attach rate, but it was much more popular to develop for. The reason you are not seeing as much 3rd party support is because the Wii's success was unexpected and design cycles take a while. Expect to
        • The PS2 has a great attach rate so I don't know what you are talking about. The last figures I saw was about 6 games per console.
    • Most of the casual gamers that I know that have a Wii have Wii Sports and a couple also have Wii Play because it was a cheap way to get an extra controller and more party games. They really have no desire to buy many more if any. They see it as a "party" box and that's it.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by arakis ( 315989 )
        I am wondering if this is a big trend on the system. The numbers sort of suggest this, but a previous poster did point out that history can bias attach rates. The system is profitable on a per-unit basis and demand is high, but what sort of success is there if the system never really sells titles or attracts good 3rd party investment? The odd thing is that a model of success where hardware units are the only important factor more resembles a plug-in model for revenue than the more traditional razor and b
  • I've had a Wii for just over a year (Got one 2 days after launch). I got a xbox 360 this past week mainly for my girlfriend to play katamari, and so that we'd have some more generes to play. The Wii has disappointed with engaging titles. I loved Zelda, played Super Paper Mario, and lots of virtual console titles. But there is no real engaging 20 hour+ story line games on it right now. As much as I hated to give money to M$, I hated more to give it to sony. The xbox has ads everywhere, but has a smooth expe
    • The 360 has been out for over two years. The Wii has been out for just over a year. Add the fact that most developers thought the Wii would bomb and the lack of titles isn't surprising. Give it time and you will see an abundance. Also, I strongly disagree out the Wiis graphics. Metroid Prime 3 is beautiful.
  • As many have realised, Nintendo changed the rules and have taken themselves out of the war.

    There is currently a two side race to the best HD next gen console between MS and Sony, MS are currently winning that hands down and I don't think Sony (outside of Japan) have a hope of catching up.

    Nintendo have left the race, and the war by creating a fun, cheap, party machine that is attracting a new type of buyer as well as a proportion of the traditional gamer market.

    I believe this expanded potential market goes s
    • The biggest problem with the Wii is that the market they captured doesn't buy many games. So, it's still not a super attractive development platform for 3rd party devs. You also have to dedicate more resources to making a Wii specific game because of the unique control scheme, where the other 2 have pretty standard controls. The Wii is a good console, but it's very first party heavy.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by gonzoxl5 ( 88685 )
        I'd agree entirely, many Wii owners will only buy 2 or 3 games during it's lifetime.

        Personally I look out for anything that scores over about an 8 on gamespot (in both critic and user areas) and I buy that, otherwise I make sure I try stuff first, consequently I reckon I'll buy maybe 8-10 games max (so far its only Wii sports, Wii play, Res. Evil, Mario Galaxy and GH 3).

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