NPD January 2009

[archie4oz]

Haven't seen anybody post this yet, so...

Hardware Sales:
-------------------
Wii - 679,200
DS - 510,800
360 - 309,000
PS3 - 203,200
PSP - 172,300
PS2 - 101,200


Top 10 Game sales:
----------------------
Wii Fit - 777,000 (Wii)
Wii Play w/remote - 415,000 (Wii)
Mario Kart w/wheel - 292,000 (Wii)
Left 4 Dead - 243,000 (360)
Call of Duty: World at War - 235,000 (360)
Skate 2 - 199,000 (360)
Guitar Hero World Tour - 155,000 (Wii)
New Super Mario Bros. - 135,000 (DS)
Mario Kart DS - 132,000 (DS)
Lord of the Rings: Conquest - 113,000 (360)

Other bits, Jan 2009 up over 2008 13% to $1.33 billion from $1.18 billion... (Thx, to N'Gai's tweets)

Edit: Dunno if the non-obviously Nintendo titles are across all platforms, or platform specific (I'm assuming they're platform specific though).

Edit: Corrected LOTR...

 

[zed]

wii's reasonable the other two pretty bad
wii fit sales are excellant, I wouldnt be surprised if it becomes the biggest selling game of all time (excluding wiiplay or whatever it is)
Im surprised why MS/sony dont just admit yes it was a good idea + just do a blantent ripoff of wii-fit

 

[RobertR1]

YoY change:

WII --- 147.9%
NDS -- 103.5%
360 --- 34.3%
PS3 --- (24.5%)
PSP --- (25.1%)
PS2 --- (61.7%)

Go L4D. Nice legs for a 360 game

 

[dobwal]

Sony definitely needs a price cut this spring preferably within a couple of weeks of KZ2 shipping. This represent the 4th month in a row that the 360 has outsold the PS3 and PS2 combined.

 

[Cheezdoodles]

It will be interesting to see the month of march, and see if KZ2 moved anything

 

[AlphaWolf]

Im surprised why MS/sony dont just admit yes it was a good idea + just do a blantent ripoff of wii-fit

While I don't doubt they'll try to penetrate the wii's market more a blatant rip off probably would flop horribly and just cost them the sales they have now as many ps3/xbox owners have no intention or desire to play wii fit or wii boxing.

360 and Wii have just had their best January, PS3 their worst.

 

[Scott_Arm]

Left 4 Dead! Can't wait for the update.

 

[eastmen]

as i figured, i think febuary will also go to the 360 but not by much. I predict that killzone 2 will be a big seller but wont move much new hardware with its current price points.

I also think that sony will wait till fall for a price drop. Last time it generated higher sales for a short amount of time when they droped it with mgs4.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Dang, and not a single PS3 game in the top 10?

Regards,
SB

 

[Rangers]

Most boring NPD ever.

 

[slider]

It will be interesting to see the month of march, and see if KZ2 moved anything

Maybe, depends on what sort of marketing push it gets I'm guessing.

Still, as many have long said: price of entry is key (say what you want about the 360 Arcade but I get the impression it's doing a job).

 

[Cheezdoodles]

Maybe, depends on what sort of marketing push it gets I'm guessing.

Definately, personally i expect Sony to blow quite a bit on marketing for KZ2, after all it is arguably their biggest title to date on the PS3 would make sense to push a decent marketing campaign around it, considering how effective it can be. There is a reason for why EA games is the biggest publisher around, its not because they make good games, but because they are good at marketing.

 

[Carl B]

Sony definitely needs a price cut this spring preferably within a couple of weeks of KZ2 shipping.

That assumes that Sony's primary interests lay in shipping consoles. Like I mentioned in the other thread:

I don't think there's anything wrong with third though, and honestly I think profitability > install base in almost any and every industry. Did Xbox beat GameCube for instance? Well GameCube made money, so IMO Nintendo won out. Now, Xbox set the stage for the 360, but 360 hasn't made money in the aggregate yet either.

Anyway when we are talking about install base though, PS3 has already passed GameCube and it will pass the original XBox in a couple of months. So I expect third this generation as PS3 to be well separated from the connotations that third last generation may have implied, even if those connoted meanings are still the prism through which the media in this industry views things.

 

[Cheezdoodles]

Sony definitely needs a price cut this spring preferably within a couple of weeks of KZ2 shipping. This represent the 4th month in a row that the 360 has outsold the PS3 and PS2 combined.

Im not sure if its that important for Sony to beat the X360 in NA.


Aspecially not if the way to get there is by cutting the price of the console and endure even more losses. This ofcourse depends a lot on how much the price cut will be, but i doubt it really make sense from a business perspective right now.

You have to consider the competition, and the main competitior is priced very competitive and the main competitor is also in such a financial position, that they could instantly answer by further cutting the price.

Of course, seeing how much the PS3 is selling at $400, the potential demand for a $300 PS3 might be so large that the loss Sony would have to endure is outweighted by the gains.

I can also see Sony waiting to cut price until the cost of manufacturing gets lowered enough to warrant a price cut.

Selling 100-150k less consoles per month in NA than the main competition is far from as big of a deal as many portray it to be. Thats only 900k or so consoles in the next half year.

Also, they can cut price in the fall when console sales start picking up, minimizing the loss they would have to endure (maybe they even have new cheaper fabrication by then)

 

[DuckThor Evil]

Selling 100-150k less consoles per month in NA than the main competition is far from as big of a deal as many portray it to be. Thats only 900k or so consoles in the next half year. Thats not really a lot, aspecially not if we consider how sales are going in other regions. (This 100-150k per month difference is allmost covered completely by PS3 sales over X360 in jpn)

Sony is selling about 40k more in a month in Japan and that is probably going to slow down a bit, I wouldn't call that almost covering the NA difference... Don't really understand why you even brought Japan into this... as it's a quite small home console market these days, and in bigger Europe X360 is currently selling more than the PS3 also. In essence the difference is Japan is not enough to cover anything.

 

[Cheezdoodles]

Is europe X360 > PS3 in sales, didnt know that? I was under the impression that PS3 is selling more than the X360 in europe. (well, come to think of it, with the new price cut - maybe not so much)

I thought jpn sales difference between 360 and ps3 was about 20-30k per week?

 

[Tap In]

Is europe X360 > PS3 in sales, didnt know that? I was under the impression that PS3 is selling more than the X360 in europe. (well, come to think of it, with the new price cut - maybe not so much)

I thought jpn sales difference between 360 and ps3 was about 20-30k per week?

seems to be about 10k and all indicators are 360 is outselling it in Europe.

I agree Sony won't slit it's own profit throat to compete with 360 in NA, it's not due to overwhelming slaes making up for it elsewhere. As Carl siad, they have resigned themselves to taking 3rd and a slice of the pie.

They need to focus on building on their plan of strong BR sales, stronger online service and hopefully for them a better foundation for releasing consistent software looking ahead for PS4.

 

[DuckThor Evil]

Is europe X360 > PS3 in sales, didnt know that? I was under the impression that PS3 is selling more than the X360 in europe. (well, come to think of it, with the new price cut - maybe not so much)

I thought jpn sales difference between 360 and ps3 was about 20-30k per week?

Everything points out that, after the price cut the X360 has been selling better in Europe. In Japan PS3 sold about 12.6k more per week than X360 during 2008. After MGS 4 that number has been smaller on average. And soon I woulnd't be surprised if the weekly numbers are something like 9-12k for PS3 and 4-6k for X360, which has been imo a standard numbers for these consoles apart from big releases or holiday shopping seasons.

 

[dobwal]

That assumes that Sony's primary interests lay in shipping consoles. Like I mentioned in the other thread:

I think Sony's ultimate interest lies in the viability of the gaming division and the "playstation" brand. I don't think Sony should just price cut to try to outsell the 360 but I feel its need to cut price this spring to maintain its relative competitiveness against the MS and Nintendo.

The Gamecube and Xbox1 regular had <200K january but they always used spring price cuts to keep volumes pretty steady at january volumes throughout the summer and early fall. The PS3 with no cuts stands a great chance of falling to sub 100K during summer and fall months.

Right now, the "Playstation" brand will still have a powerful influence on the next generation. I feel that if the PS4 and Xbox3 come out at relatively the same time, the same performance and the same price, the PS4 would have a major advantage. But if Sony allows the PS3's volume to fall to point of being non competitive against the 360 for the next two to three years then Sony stands a great chance that "Playstation" brand will be overshadowed by the Xbox720 or whatever they name it.

The 360 success is built on the losses that MS was willing to endure with the xbox1.

 

[catisfit]

Don't really understand why you even brought Japan into this... as it's a quite small home console market these days

It may have just got demoted behind the UK, but it's still the 3rd biggest videogame market in the world.

The 360 should just about tick over to 900k LTD in Japan this week, and the PS3 will reach the 2.8m LTD mark next week (there's an outside chance that it may do it this week, but it would have to sell 16,889 units whereas last week it sold 16,082).