NPD March 2008

[iceberg187]

NR Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2 (PS3) 99,900
NR Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates 67,300
NR Bully: Scholarship Edition (Wii) 37,400
NR Hot Shots Golf (PS3) 36,200

 

[RobertR1]

People are buying Wii's, because they are so hard to find. If they werent, they wouldnt be selling as well.

Yeah Wii's are fun, for the first few months. Then get old. At least thats the way it went for me. It has the most shovelware, and least good games, imo. No online gaming, and if you dont have people over, it gets boring fast.

700k people aren't buying Wii's because they're hard to find. That's ridiculous.

People are buying Wii's because they are the new in thing similar to how the Ipod was/is. The Wii is becoming a mainstream icon and everyone wants one. Is there a number of people who want a Wii simply because they are hard to find? yep but it's a small number and doesn't justify the huge numbers it puts out month after month.

That leaves us with the simple facts that the general public has embraced the Wii and will continue to purchase it. The "gamers" will be left with 360/PS3 battle and even they will at some point end up with a Wii. Nintendo has it all covered.

 

[AlNom]

Sorry, what does NR stand for

 

[AlphaWolf]

Not really still completely sold out in my area. I still have only seen 2 Wiis on the store shelves. I bought one of them. I wonder how many they could actually sell if they had the supply 1 million maybe 2 million in a month?

There's still a limit to how many people are going to pay $250+ for a console. I'd not seen a wii on shelves since launch, but I've seen several this last month. They have massively increased supply. This was already the best non launch or xmas (nov-dec) month ever for any console. If they can hold this through summer I'd be amazed.

MS really needs a price cut in the worst way but there is good news. Dispite there only being a 50 dollar price difference the 360 is selling on par with the PS3. I am in shock over that I see any reason a sane person would choose the 360 with only a 50 dollar price difference.

Why would a sane person pay $50 more to play the same games on a different console from the ones their friends have?

 

[betan]

March 07: 360 199k PS3=130k

360 continues the trend of selling better in 08 than 07, and PS3 is selling like twice as well..

great for both.

NR Hot Shots Golf (PS3) 36,200

Sorry, what does NR stand for

New Release?

 

[AlphaWolf]

Is Wii Play bundled with Wii ? Can people buy the Wiimote separately ?

Yes you can buy the wiimote seperately, but why would you when you can get the one with wiiplay for $5 more?

NR Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2 (PS3) 99,900

That's a huge disparity with the 360 version (more than 7:1), anyone know the cause of that? Is the ps3 version broken or anything?

 

[Nesh]

Are these numbers for the US or worldwide?

 

[RobertR1]

NPD is always US.

 

[betan]

That's a huge disparity with the 360 version (more than 7:1), anyone know the cause of that? Is the ps3 version broken or anything?

That the original came to PS3 very late and likely with little to no marketing, didn't sell at all as any other late port, leading to relatively fewer fans of the series, I guess.

 

[RobertR1]

[360 Guitar Hero III] = 121.2K
[360 Lost Odyssey] = 65K
[NDS FFCC: Rings of Fate] = 67.3K
[PS3 Hot Shots Golf 5] = 36.2K
[PS3 Rainbow Six Vegas 2] = 154.7K

 

[iceberg187]

Maybe, maybe not. GTA4 is an unknown factor, as is MS' GTA4 marketing.

Simexchanged posted those numbers I put up then sonycowboy put up the right numbers.

About GTA4 and Microsoft marketing.

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/04/17/microsoft-uk-rolling-out-halo-3-sized-campaign-for-gta4/

Microsoft UK rolling out Halo 3-sized campaign for GTA IV

"Rockstar will naturally be doing their own campaign to launch what obviously will be a massive title for them," Xbox UK Gaming and Entertainment Chief Stephen McGill told MCV, "but Microsoft sees GTA IV as a fantastic title to showcase how great Xbox 360 is." As such, McGill says Microsoft will be launching a campaign with "the same sort of scale as our Halo 3 campaign last year" to promote the Xbox 360 version's Live integration, Achievements and, of course, exclusive downloadable content. Judging by our recent poll on the subject, it doesn't look like it will take much convincing to get people thinking that the Xbox 360 is the system of choice for the optimal GTA IV experience.

 

[mrcorbo]

That Wii number is jaw-dropping when put into context. Those 721k units sold represent the highest non-holiday sales month ever, beating the previous mark set by the PS2 in June 2002. In case you don't remember, that was the month they dropped the price of the PS2 from $299 to $199. If the Wii ever gets a significant price cut AND has enough supply to meet the resulting demand...

SSBB was even bigger than I expected. Add on the DS numbers and Nintendo are looking pretty close to infallible this gen. Everything they touch turns to gold.

Results for 360 and PS3 are unsurprising for me. In context, the 360 is selling better this year than last and the PS3 is selling much better. Both have reason to be optimistic for the rest of the year, though the latest month's sales showed lower weekly sales for both of those platforms over the previous month. If you really thought that the PS3 outselling 360 in the US for the last 2 months indicated a trend you probably were either looking at the situation with fanboy-tinted glasses or aren't from around here. While the PS3 has become much more appealing of late that doesn't directly translate into the 360 becoming less appealing. It looks like a pitched battle from here on out. This month is going to be an important one, though.

I'm hoping the intense competition between the PS3 and 360 brings out the best in both.

 

[D3B]

Are these numbers for the US or worldwide?

Here is a nice chart from a user at Neogaf.

 

[patsu]

Yes you can buy the wiimote seperately, but why would you when you can get the one with wiiplay for $5 more?

Ah ! Very smart of Nintendo then. It's a great strategy to bundle a "shallow" game with a second controller. Sell the peripheral and occupy a Top 10 slot in a single move.

 

[22psi]

Amazing #s!

S/W numbers are astounding... what recession???

 

[Silenti]

Anyone else think that it is beginning to look like everyone is going to be a winner this time around? Maybe there will be room for 3 consoles long term?

The Wii: Attach rate was like 3.5 or 3.8. I don't know where that stands historically, but given they make a profit on the hardware it doesn't matter as much.

The PS3: It won't repeat the dominance of the PS2 obviously, but they retain some core of fanatics for Final Fantasy and MGS and the big win for them would be BluRay. How much does that matter? (Assuming that the new format does become the de facto standard and downloading content does not take over entirely)

The 360: Despite the hardware train wreck, they listed an attach rate of 7.5. If I remember from the article correctly, that is almost the PS3 and the Wii combined.

Maybe no company really loses this round. Sony is disappointed a bit, but has BR and a scaleable processor for the next round. Nintendo has grabbed a whole new market by the throat and MS, while still working out the kinks, has Live and the highest software attach rate (I believe ever.)

 

[betan]

This "everybody wins" talk we keep hearing is for losers.

Seriously though, I'm sure you can find a lot of "win points" for last gen consoles too.
Gamecube made money, and Xbox setup the market for 360.

Personally I like following this console war as I'd follow NFL or FIFA cup, that is there can only be one winner.
We can always make up sub leagues like HD console wars, online console wars, living room console wars, dollar based console wars, etc.. But who cares besides the stock holders?

Nintendo is winning crushingly with last gen tech, they don't even seem to need third party support almost like an ironic response to most commonly voiced reason behind "Gamecube's failure".
Even Brawl will almost surely sell more than CoD4 or Halo 3 worldwide.

So yes, there is totally uninteresting Nintendo factor, but the battle for silver medal is still worth watching.
Please stop declaring everyone victors. :|
And who knows, even gold winner is not set in stone. .

 

[liolio]

One word comes in mind...
Obliteration...

I think that we will soon assist at a shift in editors in regard to the Wii, the piece of cake is just too big.

Hopefully for MS they still have strong software sales.

For Sony if hardware has really taken off, software is still lagging ,no PSP or PS3 games in the top 10.
this will sooner or later have consequences.

 

[-tkf-]

Yeah, i am thinking about getting a Wii as well, because i really want to play... Nintendo Games, there is nothing from any 3rd party developer that has me even the slightest interested. I save those for the PS3, and downloading pretty much every demo from the store.. i am underwhelmed by a lot of FPS games that just feels so old and worn out.

The PS3 vs 360 numbers is mildly surprising, i think the PS3 has finally gotten it´s momentum and hopefully GT5+GTA4+LBP and alot of other PS3 exclusives will raise the momentum even more so it snowballs faster than the 360 ending with a XMAS blow.

 

[Laa-Yosh]

Here is a nice chart from a user at Neogaf.

http://i25.tinypic.com/adivk4.png

Seems to me like he's seriously underestimating X360 sales. It's well above 10 million units in the US only, there's about 2 million in the UK as well, I think we can safely add at least 1 million to the total number that he's listing there...