Total console sales in Australia as of Dec 29, 2002

[Teasy]

Bahahaha. I can't believe how bad Gamecube is doing here.

Its not even half as funny as XBox's Japanese sales

The sales are only going to get worse now, with support dwindling by the day...

What do you mean by support? (that's a serious question BTW).

They must have spent a bucketload, but it sure as hell is paying off.

Sounds more like a waste of ad money. Australia is to small to care about, especially enough for a big marketing blitz, unless your desperate or course. I mean look at PS2, only 500,000 sold in total, it probably sold that many in my home town

 

[wazoo]

Considering the number of Aussie guys I've seen on forums boards, I could think that there are 300M people in australia.

 

[borntosoul]

hehe nah we just make lots of noise ,but nowhere nere as much as people from the u.s of a

 

[Glonk]

Its not even half as funny as XBox's Japanese sales

On the contrary, I find it much more funny.

I always expected the Xbox to do extraordinarily poorly in Japan. It's a huge console in a country that seems to like everything tiny, it's a American console in a country that strongly supports its domestic products when possible, and it was the last console to launch in the next-generation in a time when Japan's economy is pretty weak and not everybody can afford to buy lots of consoles. Then you look at the pathetic game selection for the Xbox in Japan, and I don't see why their sales are funny at all -- they're fitting.

The Gamecube in Australia, however, is just funny. There is quite simply no reason whatsoever it should be doing that horrible, other than Nintendo Australia's complete and utter incompetence. THAT is funny.

Sounds more like a waste of ad money. Australia is to small to care about, especially enough for a big marketing blitz, unless your desperate or course.

I don't see how this line of thinking works at all. If Australia doesn't have that many people, a huge marketing campaign doesn't cost a lot of money...

 

[Teasy]

Glonk

Put it this way, Japanese console sales are big enough to actually matter, Australian console sales aren't. Also as people have mentioned, Australia is the U.S as far as liking big pieces of hardware. So its not that suprising that Australia loves the XBox, especially when MS are desperate to advertise it to death there.

GameCube only selling on third as many consoles as XBox in Australia is insignificant when XBox has only sold 150,000 anyway. However XBox only selling one ninth, or less, as many consoles as GameCube in Japan is very significant. Especially when you consider that GameCube is close to 3 million in Japan.

BTW, I was only winding mech up anyway, XBox selling so few consoles in Japan isn't funny in the slighest. Why would anyone find a consoles faliure, in any territory, funny?

I don't see how this line of thinking works at all. If Australia doesn't have that many people, a huge marketing campaign doesn't cost a lot of money...

Hey it was someone else that said MS must have spent bucketloads of money on advertising in Australia (having seen the advertising himself). I just replied that spending loads of money to sell few consoles is not exactly a big success.

Although from how he described it, it cerainly sounds like they must have spent loads of cash on Australian advertising. Putting adds on almost every bus, on buildings, on street paving stones, TV, bascially everywhere all the time will costs allot of money.

 

[Glonk]

[
Put it this way, Japanese console sales are big enough to actually matter, Australian console sales aren't. Also as people have mentioned, Australia is the U.S as far as liking big pieces of hardware. So its not that suprising that Australia loves the XBox, especially when MS are desperate to advertise it to death there.

I wouldn't say MS is desperate for advertising there, I'd say they are..what's the word...intelligent?

You seem to have this warped concept that it costs a lot of money to advertise in Australia compared to other places, or something... Australia may be "small enough not to matter" in the big picture, but it is still ~19M people (which is quite a lot), and it never hurts to NOT sell it to them on the basis that they don't make or break a company.

It doesn't cost a fortune to advertise in Australia because it doesn't have lots of people. It's not MS being desperate advertising there, it's an example of why MS is a company that has what it takes to dethrone Nintendo. Nintendo, economically and business-wise, is one of the most inept companies I've ever had the chance to somewhat study. This is just one example of many of what they need to change...and why they need to get their act together.

As far as "big pieces of hardware" -- it's not that the US likes them, it's that they don't care. Many of the homes in Japan are quite small (it's so densely populated), so size becomes a factor. The average game consumer in Australia, the US, and most other places in the world don't really care.

GameCube only selling on third as many consoles as XBox in Australia is insignificant when XBox has only sold 150,000 anyway. However XBox only selling one ninth, or less, as many consoles as GameCube in Japan is very significant. Especially when you consider that GameCube is close to 3 million in Japan.

While the total sales show the Gamecube at roughly one fourth of the Xbox's, the weekly sales are far worse for the Gamecube: http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,5832779^15338^^nbv^15306-15321,00.html

These are the most recent sales figures. Over a 3 week period, the sales were as follows:
PS2: 84,477
Xbox: 45,939
Gamecube: 5846

Some quick mental math shows about an 8:1 Xbox to Gamecube ratio...

While the numbers may not be too big, you must agree with me that Nintendo is totally screwing up that market? You can't seriously argue that it doesn't matter that it's "such a small market", because it doesn't cost a lot to advertise in a small market. It's just another glaring sign of Nintendo neglecting many of its customers and playing out to the core customers...

I'm sure you'd probably find similar numbers for Canada, actually. Gamecube has been relegated to 1 (one) rack for games and they don't even have a demo unit at my Future Shop here, while Xbox and PS2 both have 8 (eight) racks(!) of games and demo units. The salesmen seem to always push Xbox and PS2s, too.

Nintendo needs to wake up and actually advertise worth a damn in the smaller countries. Our numbers may not be large, but they start to add up, and Nintendo's not exactly in a position where they don't care about their marketshare...

Hey it was someone else that said MS must have spent bucketloads of money on advertising in Australia (having seen the advertising himself). I just replied that spending loads of money to sell few consoles is not exactly a big success.

MS spent bucketloads of money advertising everywhere, including Australia. Nintendo doesn't need to spend bucketloads, but obviously they need to spend more than what they are right now...

They may as well pull out of Oceania and save the embarassment. Which is what I hope MS does for Japan too.

Although from how he described it, it cerainly sounds like they must have spent loads of cash on Australian advertising.

They spent loads everywhere...and it certainly worked everywhere but Japan.

Putting adds on almost every bus, on buildings, on street paving stones, TV, bascially everywhere all the time will costs allot of money.

Of course that would cost a lot of money, and I would think it would have been blatantly obvious that he was embellishing a TAD.

MS certainly did not put ads on almost every bus, for example.

 

[mech]

Its not even half as funny as XBox's Japanese sales

What the hell does this discussion have to do with Japan, Teasy?

What do you mean by support? (that's a serious question BTW).

As in stores stocking the console and its games.

Sounds more like a waste of ad money. Australia is to small to care about, especially enough for a big marketing blitz, unless your desperate or course. I mean look at PS2, only 500,000 sold in total, it probably sold that many in my home town

If Australia were an unworthy market, we wouldn't be getting any consoles down here. Every little bit counts.

 

[mech]

After reading the rest of this thread, I'll just add this:

- Gamecube had gobs of advertising from Nintendo, massive amounts, yet still failed.

- All stores were ready to stock Gamecube and not Xbox, but in a year have all done an about face. Now they're selling PS2 and Xbox, and Gamecube is getting harder to find in stores...

- Nintendo's arrogance has come to haunt them yet again - they REFUSED to drop the price, even after Microsoft's competitive pricing, and have paid the price for it - no one's buying their console. Tiny, yet expensive memory cards? Lack of title support? Overpriced games? Overpriced console? You lose Nintendo. Microsoft's cleaned up.

Nintendo cleaned up here with the N64 while screwing the consumer, I guess they figured they could do the same with the Gamecube. Guess what? People remember what happened in the past Nintendo...

 

[bukima]

But what happened to the "Xbox outselling PS2 in Australia" stuff we heard a lot about untill recently?

 

[mech]

For a couple of weeks they sold more Xboxes than PS2s. When their deals first came out and whatnot. It wasn't for long.

 

[zidane1strife]

I guess the US will be the second market where that happens, probably in the Fall of 2004.

Fall 2004 heheh... highlander quote comes to mind....:" ... there can only be one.".....

 

[JacksBleedingEyes]

AHH SHIT
does this mean ill have to import my GC games from the UK
i hate the poms

 

[Goldni]

Man I just figured with almost 20 million ppl in Aus that videogames sales in general would be more than this: PS2: 592,122
Xbox: 195,707
Gamecube: 51,120

Considering that the GCN sold more than all of those numbers combined in Japan alone this year I can see why Nintendo would put more imphasis on the Japan and US markets. So yeah I guess Aus is a "small" market. I would'nt say it's "unimportant" but yeah very very small. Hopefully Nintendo will drop the price there and promote the heck out of the low price and pick it up alot. I'm glad I'm a N fan in the US and not Aus. Enjoy those games mate!

 

[mech]

How many PS2s have been sold in the states?

Because 600,000 sold here is approximately equal to like 9 million in the states... per capita.

That would make Xbox around the 3 million mark.

Edit: And we're about a year behind. Xbox hasn't even been out a year here yet, PS2 came out 2 years ago.

 

[BenSkywalker]

How many PS2s have been sold in the states?

Closing in on 20Million according to Sony for North America(over 20Million shipped, they should be very close to 20Million sold).

That would make Xbox around the 3 million mark.

I believe it is actually over double that at this point in the US market.

 

[mech]

Well that would make sense then. Because sales pick up further along the console's lifespan (if it doesn't spectacularly fail, a la Gamecube in Australia), and Xbox here is half the US Xbox's age.

I think Xbox might actually be selling better here in its first year than PS2 did...

But I think we've got a slightly low per capita sell through of consoles, due to high prices, a less affluent society, and a less technologically oriented society...

Mind you, Xbox was cheaper here than in the States