NPD September 2008

[RobertR1]

HW Sales
PlayStation 2 173.5K
PlayStation 3 232.4K
PSP 238.1K
Xbox 360 347.2K
Wii 687.0K
Nintendo DS 536.8K

Top 10 SW Sales
Publisher Release Date Rank # Units
360 STAR WARS: THE FORCE UNLEASHED LUCASARTS Sep-08 1 610K
WII WII FIT W/ BALANCE BOARD NINTENDO OF AMERICA May-08 2 518K
360 ROCK BAND 2 MTV GAMES/ELECTRONIC ARTS Sep-08 3 363K
WII MARIO KART W/ WHEEL NINTENDO OF AMERICA Apr-08 4 353K
PS3 STAR WARS: THE FORCE UNLEASHED LUCASARTS Sep-08 5 325K
360 MERCENARIES 2: WORLD IN FLAMES ELECTRONIC ARTS Aug-08 6 297K
WII WII PLAY W/ REMOTE NINTENDO OF AMERICA Feb-07 7 243K
360 MADDEN NFL 09 ELECTRONIC ARTS Aug-08 8 224K
WII STAR WARS: THE FORCE UNLEASHED LUCASARTS Sep-08 9 223K
PS2 MADDEN NFL 09 ELECTRONIC ARTS Aug-08 10 158K

 

[RobertR1]

Good PS3 and 360 numbers.

WTF!!! at Wii numbers. Ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous. F U! soccer moms.

360 and Wii pretty much split the software. Poor SW:FU software numbers for Wii. Hopefully RB2 does better this month with the bundle

 

[Nesh]

Not very good PS3 numbers to me. It needs a price drop

 

[tirminyl]

Not very good PS3 numbers to me. It needs a price drop

Yep, the 360 shows good numbers from the price drop and it will be interesting to see how it sustains those sales.

I know Sony has been stomping their feet and screaming "No price drop" but I think they definitely need one this holiday, BUT it certainly did better than what I was expecting.

 

[DeadlyNinja]

While both PS3 and 360 did well enough, I'm actually surprised the 360 was only able to outsell the PS3 by a little over over 100K with price drop and all. I was expecting 360 to get around 400K AT LEAST.

Poor SW:FU software numbers for Wii.

Actually, those numbers look pretty good. Wasn't the Wii version of SWFU complete crap or something? I know the HD versions were decent at best.

 

[djskribbles]

i thought the difference between PS3 and 360 would be more, too. still, Sony really needs a price cut this year, other wise it will be another 3rd place for the holiday season, unless LBP moves more systems than expected.

wow @ TFU numbers. and aren't the madden numbers really low?

 

[DrJay24]

Sub-400k at the "magic" $199 price? Not great.

PS3 does need a price cut if Sony wants to compete on units sold. MS might have traded profit for sales in hardware. Maybe Elite and Pro people are subsidizing those Arcades.

 

[zed]

great numbers from the wii
bad numbers from the xbox360, looks like the 'magical' pricepoint was like I expected, overrated
ps3 had a so so month

here are the current trends

 

[ninzel]

I also expected more from 360 at $199.99.
Will this finally shake up some devs to see that the Wii suscess is not just about price.

 

[RobertR1]

I also expected more from 360 at $199.99.
Will this finally shake up some devs to see that the Wii suscess is not just about price.

Except when you actually look at software sales and it's all Nintendo. The 3rd party game SW:FU sold piss poor compared to the 360 and the PS3. I expect party games like GH:WT and RB2 to do well on the Wii. Traditional games, not so much.

 

[djskribbles]

I also expected more from 360 at $199.99.
Will this finally shake up some devs to see that the Wii suscess is not just about price.

I agree with RobertR1. Wii owners are different than PS360 owners, the majority of Wii owners are casual gamers, so you won't see many of them buying games like TFU. I'm pretty sure developers/publishers are aware of what kind of games will sell well on the Wii.

 

[eastmen]

Don't see what you guys are talking about. Sept is a slow month racked with financial problems. its also basicly cut the ps3 ytd lead in half. Going into october we should see bigger numbers as many of the 360 exclusives launch at the end of the month and we also have the additions of bundles introduced.

 

[fearsomepirate]

]The 3rd party game SW:FU sold piss poor compared to the 360 and the PS3.

I have yet to see a PSP port do phenomenally well on the Wii. OTOH, I doubt it needs to sell a million units to be profitable. Furthermore, it did much better relative to the HD Twins' release than a lot of other cross-platform games have done. For example, 1st month sales for Madden on Wii were about 12% of the 360 version and 18% of the PS3 version. SW:FU did about 36% of the 360 version and 69% of the PS3 version. That's not really "piss poor." I'll bet that all in all, the low-res versions (don't forget the PS2 and PSP!) end up combining for at least a million units.

Looks like devaluing the product didn't help 360 much.

 

[ninzel]

Except when you actually look at software sales and it's all Nintendo. The 3rd party game SW:FU sold piss poor compared to the 360 and the PS3. I expect party games like GH:WT and RB2 to do well on the Wii. Traditional games, not so much.

Which came first the chicken or the egg. :smile:
Do traditional 3rd party games sell like crap because they've generally been of poor quality so hardcore have abandoned the Wii,leading to publishers pulling back support?
Personally I think with the right software any platform can sell any types of games, it just need to be consistent. I think devs have simply taken the easy way out with Wii.

 

[Vic]

great numbers from the wii
bad numbers from the xbox360, looks like the 'magical' pricepoint was like I expected, overrated
ps3 had a so so month

Yeah I agree, I dont think there is any truth in the whole 'magical' pricepoint. Those numbers are poor for the 360, especially when you consider MS's margins have just been cut, and that Wii will continue to outsell it comfortably at $250.

I think Sony should have cut the price of the PS3 in time for LBP in the US and Europe, but thats obviously not going to happen.

 

[obonicus]

Actually, those numbers look pretty good. Wasn't the Wii version of SWFU complete crap or something? I know the HD versions were decent at best.

They were all bad, the Wii one was maybe the worst, but it's not like any of them got good reviews. And the fact that it did worse than the PS3 version is telling.

This just makes me think more and more on those NPD numbers that say that 70% of the Wii userbase owned a PS2. I always was suspicious, but more and more it just looks like bad statistics.

 

[PARANOiA]

Kind of points out the obvious that the 360 pricedrop was well overdue. It also shows it is pretty minor in "beating" the Wii.

Great software numbers too actually. Interestingly, the 360 version of SW:TFU alone actually sold very close the MGS4's launch month. Kind of makes the 360 rumour make a lot of financial sense.

 

[expletive]

I think we need to keep in mind the coefficient that the economy is putting on these numbers. Right around the middle of the month the nose dive really kicked in and economic terror had spread globally. I wouldn't be surprised if these numbers were whittled down by as much as 20-25%.

 

[Vic]

I think we need to keep in mind the coefficient that the economy is putting on these numbers. Right around the middle of the month the nose dive really kicked in and economic terror had spread globally. I wouldn't be surprised if these numbers were whittled down by as much as 20-25%.

I agree that it must have had some impact, but $200-$250 (perhaps even with a game) is loose change surely?

Over here its mainly been 30-year-old+ bankers that have been affected job wise.

 

[AzBat]

I think we need to keep in mind the coefficient that the economy is putting on these numbers. Right around the middle of the month the nose dive really kicked in and economic terror had spread globally. I wouldn't be surprised if these numbers were whittled down by as much as 20-25%.

At last some perceptive reasoning. Until everybody factors in the global economy crisis that happened this past month any analysis of the NPD results is worthless.

Tommy McClain