Feb NPD! The 2nd best thing to crack.

[Titanio]

yep I just read that although he does go on to say that the software tie in ratio for 360 is breaking all records. I am sure PS3 is holding its own but 360 evidently, still outsells it by a reasonable margin relative to its install base.

It certainly has been LTD, I'm not sure if he said anything specifically about Feb in that regard.

I was just mostly picking up on the 'weak' characterisation These things are all relative. Looking at the overall numbers, software generally did really well this month.

Different note, but I also kind of wonder what the story is with PS2, why there was such a bump this month.

 

[Rangers]

http://kotaku.com/367231/microsoft-expecting-low-360-sales-in-feb-march

That is what MS said, but you can check stock online easily any number of ways. For example, you can check Gamestops brick and mortar stock on their website within a 200 mile radius of your zip code. That will result in about 400 results, I think only starbucks has more stores than Gamestop apparently :lol

So anyway, I've been keeping up with stock, both online and the old happened-to-be-walking-through-BestBuy/WalMart method and unequivocally I haven't seen any 360 shortages since the last week of February. Assuming that stock continues, I must disagree with MS assessment of March. They were probably just speaking broad terms anyway, they probably plan to have a ton of stock from April and GTA, but that doesn't mean March was actually out of stock. If MS loses March, it isn't because of out of stock (assuming no changes). February was a different story.

 

[AlphaWolf]

Close month between 360 and PS3. I still think anyone looking for a winner between the HD consoles will be disappointed. We haven't had competition this good in the console space for a long time. For a guy like me that's taking the "wait and see" approach, it makes it really hard to pick one over the other. Still leaning 360.

if you wait much longer you'll be picking ps4/x720.

Good month all around for consoles, good news for developers.

 

[Rangers]

It certainly has been LTD, I'm not sure if he said anything specifically about Feb in that regard.

I was just mostly picking up on the 'weak' characterisation These things are all relative. Looking at the overall numbers, software generally did really well this month.

Different note, but I also kind of wonder what the story is with PS2, why there was such a bump this month.

Wasn't there a $99 PS2 sale at Target in February? I remember it because people were wondering if it finally signaled an official drop to 99 for PS2. That could have had much to do with it, though you'd think NPD would know and mention such things in their analysis (since they did point out PS2's high sales specifically in Anita Fraziers wrap up).

 

[Tap In]

if you wait much longer you'll be picking ps4/x720.

Good month all around for consoles, good news for developers.

that's what I was thinking.


a fine example of a Shifty laggard


on the other hand, speaking of laggards... holy crap at PS2 sales. ... price IS King to some folks.

 

[Nesh]

ps2 still going strong

Is that worldwide or US?

 

[DJ12]

NPD do sales for other regions?

 

[Rangers]

Thought this was a good post by SonyCowboy on the overall state of the industry

Industry Software Sales

$667.8M an increase of 47% over last years then record $454M. That's over $200M in additional software sales. These are numbers that are higher than ANY NON-November/December in the history of the industry. AND THIS IS FEBRARY. Imagine what next month with Super Smash Bros and April with GTA 4!! Recession??? Not here

Industry Hardware Sales

$481M, an increase of 20% over last years then record of $402M. Again, this is beyond historic. These are the highest HW Sales in the history of the industry outside of November and December (with the exception of September 2007 - Halo 3 month).


It's unbelievable and worthy of great discussion. This industry is just firing in every possible way and all most folks see is Wii >>>>> PS3 > 360.

 

[Dominik D]

Thought this was a good post by SonyCowboy on the overall state of the industry

The reason all the talk is about Wii >>>>> PS3 > 360 is because people who care about NPD are either fanboys or are too "serious" to post on Internet forums.

Sales increasing is a great news. What is also worth mentioning is that despite all the crying about Wii killing the market by introducing casuals to the gaming world are worth less than dog's fart.

 

[iceberg187]

One thing that bothers me about Aaron said about April is that I'm quite sure he means there will be an overload of 360 consoles stateside. March is fine now. They have been fine since the latter part of February where I'm at. Check Gamestop.com, they have them to ship, so does Best Buy. Even then, they have shown signs of fixing their supply issues. In January, the PS3 outsold the 360 by 39k, this month it was 26k

Jan/2008 -- 230K -- 269K -- (-39K)
Feb/2008 -- 255K -- 281K -- (-26K)

Microsoft is going to be fine.

 

[PARANOiA]

360 software is again a monster... this is great because as a 360 only gamer (so far!) I know I'll be getting a lot of software from third parties since they know where they will make their money. Five of the top ten is something that shouldn't be forgotten. And COD4 continues to be #1... when will it end?

Lost Odyssey has made me smile since I thought the game would bomb since it's an RPG without the words "Final Fantasy" in its title. I'm happy to be proven wrong.

Rock Band needs to be released in PAL-land :/

With pretty decent PS3 sales, I wonder what games the new owners were buying exactly? Or is this a case of home theatre owners choosing their format now that particular war is over, pushing hardware sales but not touching games? Would like to see exactly what are the other sellers outside of the top ten - which must be <160k, which is still a pretty big number for a February. Remember, Uncharted didn't make 160 in its first month IIRC, so if there are other games around that number it's a good sign for PS3 software sales.

Edit: Oh and Nintendo has this gen tied up worldwide... a fact I'm slowly coming to terms with. A shame for those of us who like their games looking top notch, but eh what can you do? It's just a shame since Wii games look like ass on my 1080p Bravia

 

[betan]

I was wondering how DMC4 was going to do on 360 since the platform hasn't seen many releases in this genre, but I didn't expect that much of a difference between 360 and PS3 DMC4 tie ratios.

That's probably the first simultaneously released multiplatform title for which PS3 owners have showed that much more interest.

And for those of you who think 360 is a software monster, you may want to look at dollar amounts spent instead.

Wasn't there a $99 PS2 sale at Target in February?

Yeah, there seems to be an unofficial price drop which may explain strong PS2 numbers after getting beaten by PS3 last month.

 

[bbot]

PS3 > XB360 for second month. Bluray really did make a difference.

Stop making excuses, MS and do something about the situation. For example, adding in a built-in bluray reader.

 

[Zassk]

And for those of you who think 360 is a software monster, you may want to look at dollar amounts spent instead.

Without seeing actual numbers, I would think that a dollar amount comparison would heavily favor it, given the legs of Rockband and GH3.

Stop making excuses, MS and do something about the situation.

XB360 sales are up... not down... I don't think it's time for a panic yet.

 

[Scott_Arm]

if you wait much longer you'll be picking ps4/x720.

Good month all around for consoles, good news for developers.

Don't worry. I'm thinking about picking up one of those HD consoles soon, so I can hop onto the never ending Call of Duty 4 bandwagon. Got myself an HD display I'm almost totally incapable of using, so within' the next month or two I'll know what I'm doing.

 

[Feces]

Fairly expected numbers, next month is going to be hard on Sony though. The bluray effect will start to wear off and microsoft has no supply issues going forward. Sony got a nice boost from people that got a bluray player (ps3) after the format victory. By now most of the people on the fence should be accounted for so ps3 will drop back to nothing in usa. This will be compounded by a "normal" xb360 showing withouth supply problems.

 

[PARANOiA]

PS3 > XB360 for second month. Bluray really did make a difference.

Stop making excuses, MS and do something about the situation. For example, adding in a built-in bluray reader.

Make an extremely major hardware modification to close a one month sales gap of 25k? While they're selling bucketloads more software? Don't you think that's a little knee-jerk? The 360 outsold the 360 by a much larger margin every month of 2007... should they have taken out BluRay then, too?

In my mind, the first action they should be taking is lowering the damn price. The 360 is still extremely close to its launch price nearly 30 months after launch... that's pathetic! If they are being outsold by the PS3 it has very little to do with lacking a HD optical drive in my mind.

The second of course would be to lock in more high-quality exclusives.

 

[....]

these sales were from February when there were 360 shortages the first couple of weeks.

good for PS3 to pull a solid Feb number no doubt in part thanks to Blu ray.... still software (besides DMC4 is weak)

I still expect March or at least April to see 360 pull the margin back up above PS3 with GTA4 and solid inventory numbers (and maybe price drop?)

They better, if 360's still below ps3 during april, I'm sure 720 plans will be hastened.

 

[AlphaWolf]

And for those of you who think 360 is a software monster, you may want to look at dollar amounts spent instead.

doing some quick math based on this MS response 360 software is outselling ps3 software significantly.

They better, if 360's still below ps3 during april, I'm sure 720 plans will be hastened.

yes... because at the current pace (last 2 months) the ps3 will pass the 360 in NA around 2025...

 

[Tap In]

They better, if 360's still below ps3 during april, I'm sure 720 plans will be hastened.

14 months of outselling PS3 by nearly DOUBLE every month and crushing it in the holiday Nov/Dec 2007 (just two short months ago) and you are callling for throwing in the towel for 360 when they are outsold by merely 56,000 units in a supply constrained 2 mo. period?

please pass the pipe