NPD November 2004

[cthellis42]

And makes me wonder why on earth their US bundle sucks so much. Clone Wars and Tetris Worlds? I guess it's mainly because US sales are their strong point, but DAMN it be nice to get a worthwhile title included!

What's the normal price for the Xbox in France? 219E ends up being around $275 dollars, so they seem to be paying a reasonable premium, but those are ALL good games!

 

[wazoo]

And makes me wonder why on earth their US bundle sucks so much. Clone Wars and Tetris Worlds? I guess it's mainly because US sales are their strong point, but DAMN it be nice to get a worthwhile title included!

What's the normal price for the Xbox in France? 219E ends up being around $275 dollars, so they seem to be paying a reasonable premium, but those are ALL good games!

the normal price without games is 179E and the christmas bundle was Halo+MM3 for 200E

 

[cthellis42]

the normal price without games is 179E and the christmas bundle was Halo+MM3 for 200E

Wow... So the ratios are pretty much the same! Who here wouldn't buy an Xbox with Halo, MM3, Top Spin and PGR2 for $219? Or heck, I'll be nice and add the full value they did for the games... $229!

Would certainly make people sit up and take notice.

 

[Tagrineth]

Tetris Worlds isn't bad in and of itself... and adding Xbox Live functionality makes it a pretty neat package... but meh, they SHOULD add better games. Or bring back the SEGA bundle.

 

[Ty]

Tetris Worlds isn't bad in and of itself... and adding Xbox Live functionality makes it a pretty neat package... but meh, they SHOULD add better games. Or bring back the SEGA bundle.

You know you're right. I actually played TW just the other day and found it to be better than I imagined. With regard to the SEGA bundle, I was fortunate enough to buy an X-box with both bundles (Star Wars Clones & Tetris Worlds PLUS Sega GT & Jet Set Radio PLUS a $30 dollar voucher). One of the better deals in sometime imo.

 

[cthellis42]

I can also get about a billion different versions of Tetris as shareware--heck, even online ones. It's just not something that speaks "we're the bestest, coolest console and you know you want me!" ya know? Lead off with a good face or don't bother. <shrugs> Bundle a choice of a LOT of random games if nothing else. (Ones that can be pulled off the shelf and bought with. They'd sell more so stores would be sure to keep them in stock, and they wouldn't have to pay more to get them packaged along with either.) They could always keep them restricted to Live-enabled games, since that's the main attraction of those particular bundle choices that they want to draw people in with. Mechassault is Platinum now--bundle IT for chrissake.

 

[Gollum]

Well, Europe certainly isn't a homogeneous market, France has traditionally been weak for Xbox, while in the UK and Germany it has been performing quite a bit better. Judging from shelf and catalogue presence, Xbox still gets a lot more attention here in Germany than GC. But who knows, for all I know this chritsmas' sales might change that in favour of GC!

I got to say that with all the discout craze going on here in Germany, Nintendo certainly had the more appealing idea for its console this christmas IMO. Bundles just don't cut it with people's brains fixed on the words "gimme cheap", 99 Euros just sounds so tempting most people won't even realize that the money they saved will have to be spent on memory cards and actual games at some point - either that or you end up like my neighbour, who got a GC for christmas but had no games to play on it for days. Poor bastard, I imagine he wasn't the only one ...

 

[Tagrineth]

You know you're right. I actually played TW just the other day and found it to be better than I imagined. With regard to the SEGA bundle, I was fortunate enough to buy an X-box with both bundles (Star Wars Clones & Tetris Worlds PLUS Sega GT & Jet Set Radio PLUS a $30 dollar voucher). One of the better deals in sometime imo.

The only flaw in Tetris Worlds is that The New Tetris on N64 was just... better.

 

[Evil_Cloud]

Well, Europe certainly isn't a homogeneous market, France has traditionally been weak for Xbox, while in the UK and Germany it has been performing quite a bit better. Judging from shelf and catalogue presence, Xbox still gets a lot more attention here in Germany than GC. But who knows, for all I know this chritsmas' sales might change that in favour of GC!

I got to say that with all the discout craze going on here in Germany, Nintendo certainly had the more appealing idea for its console this christmas IMO. Bundles just don't cut it with people's brains fixed on the words "gimme cheap", 99 Euros just sounds so tempting most people won't even realize that the money they saved will have to be spent on memory cards and actual games at some point - either that or you end up like my neighbour, who got a GC for christmas but had no games to play on it for days. Poor bastard, I imagine he wasn't the only one ...

GameCube is doing fairly well in Europe, compared to Xbox. It's not that Xbox is doing bad, it's just that GameCube has the edge now.

 

[cthellis42]

Low price tends to do that. ^_^ We'll have to see just how long Microsoft resists tying their price to the PS2. As the GameCube has shown, reducing your price succeeds a lot better than bundling (and bundling itself succeeds a lot better when it's attractive), and if the PS2 doesn't lower itself soon (and while there have been rumors, there hasn't been too much substance, not to mention their sales are still overall very solid) the Xbox may have to at least split the difference.

 

[AzBat]

Figured, I would post this here, because I didn't want people to get upset if I created a whole new thread just for these little tidbits...

Microsoft Press Release[/url]]Home and Entertainment had a solid quarter driven by sales of Xbox® games and consoles. With over 400 games available, including 70 Live-enabled games, Xbox grew its U.S. cumulative game attach rate to 6.4, according to NPD Data. Since the launch of Xbox in 2001, Microsoft has sold over 13.7 million Xbox consoles worldwide and is on track to have sold 14.5 to 16.0 million consoles by the end of this fiscal year. In addition, Xbox Live(TM) momentum continued with subscribers growing to nearly 750,000, keeping the business on target to have one million subscribers by the end of the fiscal year.

Tommy McClain

 

[Fox5]

You know you're right. I actually played TW just the other day and found it to be better than I imagined. With regard to the SEGA bundle, I was fortunate enough to buy an X-box with both bundles (Star Wars Clones & Tetris Worlds PLUS Sega GT & Jet Set Radio PLUS a $30 dollar voucher). One of the better deals in sometime imo.

The only flaw in Tetris Worlds is that The New Tetris on N64 was just... better.

Personally I'm still hoping for a return of Tetrisphere.

 

[Teasy]

13.7 million XBox's sold? Not sure how that's possible. I suppose this 13.7 million number must be sold to stores rather then sold to comsumers.

 

[Johnny Awesome]

Why's that? NPD doesn't track Walmart and the Xbox NPD number for the US is 7.8 million. Thus, US sales are probably more like 9.75 million. Add in 700k in Asia-Pacific sales and 3.25 million in Europe and you get 13.7 million. Not at all unrealistic.

Nintendo is in 2nd for sure though, with close to 15 million I would guess, mainly because of their strength in Japan. We know they trail in the US, but they probably trail slightly (500k or less) in Europe as well.

Pretty strong numbers overall and both consoles shouldn't have much trouble reaching close to 20 million by this time next year.

 

[cthellis42]

Ah, good to at least have a Live update, as they were never having press releases, and their site always just said "over 500k" (and had been that way for a while) so it was rather impossible to tell growth. Still hard to tell if things have been picking up or slowing down... Filled out quickly and hit 500k a WHILE back, so I'm a'wondering. They may have had to make up some ground as their initial surge of yearlies would have had to renew about a month back. Would be interesting to see some tracking numbers, but it's not like THAT will ever happen. Heh...

 

[StefanS]

Why's that? NPD doesn't track Walmart and the Xbox NPD number for the US is 7.8 million. Thus, US sales are probably more like 9.75 million. Add in 700k in Asia-Pacific sales and 3.25 million in Europe and you get 13.7 million. Not at all unrealistic.

Nintendo is in 2nd for sure though, with close to 15 million I would guess, mainly because of their strength in Japan. We know they trail in the US, but they probably trail slightly (500k or less) in Europe as well.

Pretty strong numbers overall and both consoles shouldn't have much trouble reaching close to 20 million by this time next year.

All data is installed base by Dec 31 2003:

NPD numbers from my posting

NPD:

Xbox: 7.660.000
GCN: 6.802.000
gap: +858.000


Europe:

Xbox: 3.250.000 (where's that number from?)
GCN: 3.000.000 (according to this press release )
gap: +250.000


Japan (famitsu sales numbers):

Xbox: 418.800
GCN: 3.157.350
gap: -2.738.550


total:

Xbox: 11.328.800
GCN: 12.959.350

 

[Gollum]

Hey, you forgot Australia, that's "da Xbox territorry"!

 

[London Geezer]

Hey, you forgot Australia, that's "da Xbox territorry"!

That's on a separate chart, the "Chart that matters a whole lot"

 

[StefanS]

Hey, you forgot Australia, that's "da Xbox territorry"!

I've chosen to leave out the "esoteric" territories such as Australia or Korea etc. since there is no solid data available and they don't affect the sales numbers significantly.

 

[cthellis42]

Gamesindustry has a short article on it and MagicBox gives the breakdown (which I'm not sure was mentioned anywhere else for all regions): In the financial report, Microsoft announced the worldwide shipment of Xbox has reached 13.7 million units, 8.6 millions in North America, 3.7 millions in Europe and 1.4 million in Japan.

Where on earth is that Japan number coming from? Their sales numbers have always been a lot easier to track, and the number they list is WAY off. MagicBox shows 327,699 sales for 2002 and ~97,000 in 2003. Anyone know what might be going on?