NPD February 2009

[Rangers]

There is still a discrepancy. Compare sales of MotorstormR with PGR4 (a retail failure)... Compare GT5P with Forza 2... Compare MGS4 with Gears of War 1... Most PS3 exclusives are still underperforming when compared with much earlier exclusives on the other console. Perhaps the honeymoon will be over soon.

PGR4 actually sold like 400k+ in the UK btw. I saw on GAF with leaked Chart Track numbers. Sure a lot were probably packed in or sold at a heavy discount, but I was surprised to see it.

I'd add Killzone 2 now..600k shipped in the USA to date is pretty underwhelming as hyped as the game was on neogaf (the neogaf official KZ2 thread is already bigger than the 1.5 year old Halo 3 one). The PS3 install base is 7 million+. Gears of War 1 sold 1m+ it's first month (and 800k more second month IIRC) on a install base of 4.5 million at best.

PS3 seems to have a dual trend, a third party game like SF4, probably RE5, overperformed versus the userbase. But the first party games seem to struggle. MGS4 being an exception. I'd say that game sold pretty well.

 

[obonicus]

There is still a discrepancy. Compare sales of MotorstormR with PGR4 (a retail failure)... Compare GT5P with Forza 2... Compare MGS4 with Gears of War 1... Most PS3 exclusives are still underperforming when compared with much earlier exclusives on the other console. Perhaps the honeymoon will be over soon.

I realize this is NPD, but MGS4 is over 4 million WW -- maybe GeoW1 outsold it, but it hard to say it underperformed. GT5P also did ridiculously, considering what the game is, without even considering the unreleased DLC numbers. These aren't underperforming games. Motorstorm 2 is.

 

[obonicus]

PS3 seems to have a dual trend, a third party game like SF4, probably RE5, overperformed versus the userbase. But the first party games seem to struggle. MGS4 being an exception. I'd say that game sold pretty well.

It's hard to figure out. Third party FPS seem to perform on parity with 360, attach-rate-wise, but PS3 owners aren't that interested in first-party shooters. I don't think SF4 performed out of proportion like it did just because of controller preference. Maybe if SF4 had sold less, but not at 400k+ each. Could there be further market segmentation? (The 'Playstation loyalty' you hear from SCE talking heads and that I think is BS -- aka, gaming tastes on PS3 are similar to what they were on PS2? It'd be a harsh lesson to Sony, considering how FPS-crazy they went.) It just seems like there's something there we don't understand -- or is it just that MS is remarkably good at drumming up interest in their big titles compared to Sony's own efforts?

 

[betan]

PS3 seems to have a dual trend, a third party game like SF4, probably RE5, overperformed versus the userbase.

What makes you think PS3 is the console with dissociative identity disorder?

Seriously, the whole discussion is nothing but artificial, it keeps coming back with different skin every month. That said, cannot wait for the next months issue.

 

[mrcorbo]

It's hard to figure out. Third party FPS seem to perform on parity with 360, attach-rate-wise, but PS3 owners aren't that interested in first-party shooters. I don't think SF4 performed out of proportion like it did just because of controller preference. Maybe if SF4 had sold less, but not at 400k+ each. Could there be further market segmentation? (The 'Playstation loyalty' you hear from SCE talking heads and that I think is BS -- aka, gaming tastes on PS3 are similar to what they were on PS2? It'd be a harsh lesson to Sony, considering how FPS-crazy they went.) It just seems like there's something there we don't understand -- or is it just that MS is remarkably good at drumming up interest in their big titles compared to Sony's own efforts?

I'm curious to know how much of this discrepancy can be attributed to the relative effectiveness of XBOX Live and PSN as social networks. The evolution of "word of mouth" promotion from it's literal beginnings to the present means that a relative few taste makers can drive widespread adoption of individual titles because of their ability to attract other gamers on their friends list to those titles and for those friends to attract their friends and.....

This is especially true for online mutliplayer games, of course, but I think it is a factor for single player games as well as you can be hanging out in a lobby waiting for a game to start and someone could be talking about how cool Fable 2 or Fallout is, for example.

 

[dobwal]

That honeymoon is over, those buy-anything next-gen hardcore gamers (of which I was one) are now more evenly distributed among the three consoles. The bar is also raised for quality, those games are mostly average at best, but anything with excessive bloom and bump-mapping sold well back in 2006-2007.

The problem is the PS3 and its userbase, never had a honeymoon and the marriage between the 360 and its userbase seems to be a much happier relationship.

courtesy of PVC console forum

November 2006
1. 360 Gears of War - 1,000,000
2. PS2 Final Fantasy XII - 896,000
3. PS2 Guitar Hero II - 498,000
4. Wii Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - 412,000
5. 360 Call of Duty 3 - 330,000
6. PS2 WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2007
7. 360 Need for Speed: Carbon
8. PS2 Madden NFL 07
9. PS2 Need for Speed: Carbon
10. 360 Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas

December 2006
1. 360 Gears of War - 815,700
2. PS2 Guitar Hero II - 805,200
3. PS2 Madden NFL 07 - 737,100
4. GCN Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - 532,900
5. Wii Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - 512,900
6. PS2 WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2007 - 484,500
7. NDS New Super Mario Bros. - 427,500
8. 360 Call of Duty 3 - 410,800
9. NDS Yoshi's Island 2 - 407,200
10. PS2 Call of Duty 3 - 365,300

Total sales of Gears is ~1.8 million
Total sales of COD3 is ~740k
Total # of 360 console in US is ~4.5 million

November 2008
1. 360 Gears of War 2 - 1.56 million
2. 360 Call of Duty: World at War - 1.41 million
3. Wii Play - 796,000
4. Wii Fit - 697,000
5. Wii Mario Kart - 637,000
6. PS3 Call of Duty: World at War - 597,000
7. Wii Guitar Hero: World Tour - 475,000
8. 360 Left 4 Dead - 410,000
9. PS3 Resistance 2 - 385,000
10. Wii Music - 297,000

December 2008
1. Wii Play - 1.46 million
2. 360 Call of Duty: World at War - 1.33 million
3. Wii Fit - 999,000
4. Wii Mario Kart - 979,000
5. Wii Guitar Hero World Tour - 850,000
6. 360 Gears of War 2 - 745,000
7. 360 Left 4 Dead - 629,000
8. NDS Mario Kart - 540,000
9. PS3 Call of Duty: World at War - 533,000
10. Wii Animal Crossing: City Folk - 497,000
11. Wii Music
12. NDS New Super Mario Bros.
13. NDS Personal Trainer: Cooking
14. 360 Fallout 3
15. NDS Club Penguin: Elite Penguin Force
16. Wii Link's Crossbow Training
17. PS2 Guitar Hero World Tour
18. 360 Madden NFL 09
19. Wii Call of Duty: World at War
20. Wii Shaun White Snowboarding: Road Trip

The PS3 has a total userbase of ~7 million at 24 months and it can't place a second title in the NPD's top 20 for Dec 2008.