NPD March 2012

[DuckThor Evil]

Since no one else did it

Hardware (YoY)

Xbox 360 - 371K (-14.3%)
PlayStation 3 - 337K (-7.7%) [PR Math]
Nintendo 3DS - 225K (-43.8%)
Nintendo Wii - 175K (-39.7%)

Software

01. Mass Effect 3 (360, PS3, PC)** Electronic Arts - 1.3 Million total, 4:1 XboxS3, over double ME2's opening
02. Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City (360, PS3)** Capcom USA - 582K
03. MLB 12: The Show (PS3, PSV) Sony (Corp)
04. NBA 2K12 (360, PS3, Wii, PSP, PC, PS2) Take 2 Interactive
05. SSX 2012 (360, PS3) Electronic Arts
06. Street Fighter X Tekken (PS3, 360)** Capcom USA
07. Mario Party 9 (Wii) Nintendo - 230K
08. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (360, PS3, Wii, PC)** Activision Blizzard
09. Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja (360, PS3) Namco Bandai Games
10. Major League Baseball 2K12 (360, PS3, Wii, NDS, PSP, PC, PS2) Take 2 Interactive

**(includes CE, GOTY editions, bundles, etc. but not those bundled with hardware)

All stolen from neogaf

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=470080

All down year on year, still solid numbers for the HD-consoles imo.

 

[Arwin]

No info about Vita apparently? I read over 200K as a number, but no idea if reliable.

EDIT: Gaf says something like 200-225k

 

[Platon]

Well, maybe not totally unexpected, everything is dipping, from no price reductions to market saturation, take your pick. Suprized though that there was such a huge dip for the Nin 3DS.

Are there any numbers on $ spent on games? Although consoles sales are dipping games could sell anyway as before...

 

[Laa-Yosh]

ME3 broke the previous games' sales in the UK as well. With such a start they might make it to 4 million; however, the loud uprising about the ending might have had a bad effect...

 

[Platon]

ME3 broke the previous games' sales in the UK as well. With such a start they might make it to 4 million; however, the loud uprising about the ending might have had a bad effect...

Yeah, I was not going to get ME3 after hearing all complaints about the ending but caved in when Amazon basically started selling it a half the price...

 

[babybumb]

The only reason PS3/360 can find 300k+ new owners a month at those prices six years later is because Wii owners migrating en masse to Sony/Microsoft consoles because Nintendo has no relevant hardware to sell.. and they might not be coming back.

This market share collapse is RIM/Nokia situation on a smaller scale. No market share means no software support for next platform BBX/Windows Phone/Wii U on the scale of competitors Android/IOS/PS3/360

 

[Miksu]

Here's Ars Technica's summary of why the sales are so low.

 

[itsmydamnation]

The only reason PS3/360 can find 300k+ new owners a month at those prices six years later is because Wii owners migrating en masse to Sony/Microsoft consoles because Nintendo has no relevant hardware to sell.. and they might not be coming back.

This market share collapse is RIM/Nokia situation on a smaller scale. No market share means no software support for next platform BBX/Windows Phone/Wii U on the scale of competitors Android/IOS/PS3/360

do people actually think before posting rubbish like this. By your own logic the number of sales for the Wii and the amount of 3rd party is impossible based on the game cubes performance. It never has anything to do with having a compelling product.....

 

[Prophecy2k]

This market share collapse is RIM/Nokia situation on a smaller scale. No market share means no software support for next platform BBX/Windows Phone/Wii U on the scale of competitors Android/IOS/PS3/360

Yes because that's what we saw with the Xbox 360 after everyone was making games for the PS2... oh wait... ;-)

As long as the WiiU offers developers a cost effective means to port their multiplatform content across from competing platforms, and Nintendo doesn't set any inordinately silly policies regarding WiiU software development, then WiiU will have most of the same games as PS4/Xbox720 as far as I can see. It's senseless to think otherwise.

Pubs just want to make money, and as long as WiiU is powerful enough such that it's core gamer owner won't feel the need to own more than one console, then pubs will see the cost of a WiiU port as a justifiable expense in order to access that cross-section of the core-gamer market.

PS3 and Xbox 360 are still selling because neither have yet reached mass market prices and thus the core gamer market has yet to have been completely exhausted. I would say that there will of course be some new gamer uptake, with things like Move & Kinect driving new growth, as well as platforms like iOS/Android/FB make gaming less of a "geeks" activity and bring gaming more into the mainstream. However, there will also be quite some measure of console replacement as initial boxes die out (barely any CE devices are expectedto last 6-7 years). The shrinkage in game sales for me is more an indication of the latter, along with the fact that all the high attach ratio consumers (i.e. the hardcore enthusiast gamers) will be buying less games this far into the cycle (or buying cheaper later on, pre-owned or using rental services) as ultimately the desire and excitement for new HW will be keeping their hype levels for existing gen games low.

 

[Arwin]

My biggest concerns for Wii U are:

- default controller is Wii U tablet which I doubt will be pleasant to do regular dual analog stuff with, so ports will have to really use the touch interface to make up for it. Or will we hold Wii U with left hand and then an old pointer in the right? Etc. It won't be that 'cheap' to do a port, I worry. And will the 6" old school touch screen hold up? Pressure sensitive could help but can it do multitouch?
- online: store limitations, online play (though it seems to get better)
- what will the performance be? Can Wii U get a competing price point including the tablet vs the HD consoles without messing up some bottleneck? Not forgetting that two displays need to be fed with data.
- Will the Wii U 'innovation' hold up against what people are used to elsewhere in the same way that the motion controller did for Wii? And how about next or even current gen motion controls from competitors?

I think they may do very well still, but there are good reasons for doubts to be sure.