NPD August 2009

No doubt, its halo

Just not sure who it appeals to outside of halo fans. I would say Forza 3 is going to be the big system seller for MS this year.

 

I really think it will push some hardware..I saw a Hastings chain flyer for a midnight ODST launch party recently. I hadn't really expected such things for ODST.

I do not expect it to push hardware nearly as much as Halo 3. I do expect it to sell extremely well, possibly even better than Halo 3 (larger install base).

OT but for me ODST really works out to be worth the price. Because I purchased Halo 3, then sold it back to Gamestop a few weeks later as I was pretty underwhelmed with the SP and I'm not a huge MP guy. Ever since then I've been pondering picking back up H3 at $40 just for the MP. Well ODST comes with H3 MP, all the DLC maps to date which is worth a lot of $, plus a SP campaign, + the Reach Beta, + a new firefight mode. For my unique situation it's a lot of value.

 

Forza 3 to me is maybe even more for Europe, where they are very big on driving games imo. A attempted GT5 counter especially in that region imo.

 

Yea im from uk so maybe thats why i put such importance on driving games. They are really the only games i play online also, never stick with any other types of games online for more than a week!

 

I wouldn't count on FMIII being a bigger system seller than ODST, CoD4 MW2, or necessarily Left4Dead.

 

Yeah, the driving games sell about twice in Europe what they sell in any other region. Forza 3 and ODST might still be close though, globally, but in the U.S., I'm expecting ODST to do at least 2x what Forza 3 will do.

 

Madden is still a monster franchise even after all this time. Almost 1 million for a half a months sales on X360? In August? Almost 1.75 mill when adding in PS3 and PS2.

Nice showing for PS3. Sept. should show some really nice numbers for PS3.

Anyone have the numbers for Aug. 08? I'm guessing X360 probably posted a YoY loss compared to last year for Aug. But I'm interested to see by how much.

Regards,
SB

 

I expect much higher PS3 numbers for September. Although the Slim was available late August, stores didn't have much stock until September. And obviously not everyone reads messageboards all day so it probably took a few days for the word to get out.

 

Nope, 360 is still showing growth YoY. Note that this was the last month before the 360's price cut last year, which is what started its current YoY trend.

Code:

        Aug08   Aug09   Change
NDS     518.3   552.9    +6.7%
Wii     453.0   277.4   -48.8%
PS3     185.4   210.0   +13.2%
X360    195.2   215.4   +10.3%
PSP     253.0   140.3   -44.5%
PS2     144.1   105.9   -26.5%

 

The question is how long will the spurt last--September? Through the holidays? Well into next year? Take off like a rocket?

 

Who knows, but I will say that I think Sony is in a good position. I really feel that 299 is the sweet spot and they chose the perfect time to reach that price point and release the Slim -- just before the holdiays and just before the release of their biggest titles (GT5, GoWIII and FFXIII). Even though FF is now MP in US/PAL, it's being released exclusively on PS3 in Japan and that's where FF games generally sell the most copies. Also, Sony finally has a good marketing push behind the PS3.

 

It was not only the slim introduction but also a price cut. Price cuts tend to have lasting effects.

 

Good to see that the combined sales of HD consoles (412.4K total) is finally clearly outselling the Wii (277.4K). Given that I believe PS3 sales will remain at a structurally higher level (Slim & lower price), I think this situation will remain for the rest of the year.

 

Almost everyone expected that the Wii sales will start to decrease at some point in time...
The next question is, will Nintendo drop the price and can that boost sales again?

And of course the underlying issue is there as well: just how much a driving force motion control actually is? Has N exhausted the possibilities with their current games or is there more to explore? And if motion control is important, what will happen when the HD consoles finaly start to sell their solutions?

All I can really say about the above is that I have absolutely no clue, so 2010 is going to be a very interesting year

 

Same here make some kind of prediction his tough, the Wii consistently goes down in every major region, the 360 sales are far from crumbling and it looks like Sony is at last properly positioned.
Tough, we will know more in October about the state of the US market. In Japan I believe that the ps3 will have a bright holiday season.

 

Agreed, ODST will sell tons more than Forza. Thing is i expect that most people that are excited about halo, and FPS fans in general, most probably already have a 360. Same goes for COD6, it will be the highest selling game this year but who is it going to apeal to that wasnt already brought in by COD2/3/4/5?
Forza 3 is shaping up to be a great alternative to GT5, having a great alternative to GT5 gives xbox something new that it didnt have before. Forza 2 was great but to many the perception was it just wasnt quite up to scratch, Forza 3 will hopefully change that perception.

 

And yet, Halo3 is outselling Killzone 2 in the US practically every month.
Now I doubt that anyone owning a 360 hasn't bought Halo3 yet, so it's probably tens of thousands of new people flowing in constantly...

 

Indeed Forza3 would be head and shoulder above GT5 as a game it would still sell a fraction of what GT5 can achieve. Basically it's same than trying to beat CoD or Halo... It's pretty tough to impossible right now.

 

I'm not sure I understand this post. Are you saying Forza 3 will be head and shoulders above GT5?

Or that it could be a better game than GT5 and potentially not sell as much?

 

I still hadn't but will in the next months bundled with odst if the price is attractive or on its own