Wild Japanese numbers here..

B

Blade

Veteran
MediaCrate.. latest weekly numbers for Japan: (week ending November 24th)

Game Boy Advance: 150,000 (Annual: 2,313,400)
PlayStation 2: 38,400 (Annual: 3,101,500)
GameCube: 37,400 (Annual: 939,400)
Xbox: 1,900 (Annual: 273,600)
PSOne: 1,800 (Annual: 205,900)
Wonder Swan Crystal: 1,300 (Annual: 102,500)
Wonder Swan Color: 390 (Annual: 115,000)
Game Boy Color: 160 (Annual: 79,600)
Wonder Swan: 64 (Annual: 8,000)
Nintendo 64: 32 (Annual: 6,000)
PocketStation: 22 (Annual: 1,300)

Holy Nintendo.. look at that Game Boy Advance fly. GCN almost outselling PS2.. I never thought I'd see the day!

Poor Xbox, though.. 1,900. Barely outselling PSX! It's becoming more and more apparent that Xbox.. despite its game variety.. is still geared more toward the American and European markets. I don't see things getting much better for it in Japan.

One thing: I'm not sure if these numbers are true. Nintendojo is where they've been posted first, but they're a little flaky.

Edit: Oops, this was posted already. Ugh. Anyways, they are real numbers.. tough to believe though.
 
Yeah, those are old. We should see a jump in PS2 sales, though, with the release of Tales of Destiny 2 and the DQVIII announcement.
 
Well, they're actually the latest numbers you can get. I'd tend to agree about the other stuff though..

Albeit, I think that most Dragon Quest fans probably already own a PS2.
 
Nintendo is definatly going better; could this be indicative of a larger trend? It definatly appears to pulling away from the Xbox.

Toys R Us National Sales for the week of Black Friday, Nov. 24 - Nov. 30:

Hardware

1. Playstation 2 - 72,475
2. Gamecube - 28,110
3. Xbox - 13,456

- NAMC on GA
 
Vince: Best Buy is supposedly selling more "Xboxen", though.

They've got that awesome deal going, of course.. (JSRF+SegaGT+Xbox for $199)
 
Vince said:
Nintendo is definatly going better; could this be indicative of a larger trend? It definatly appears to pulling away from the Xbox.
Click to expand...

Well if you ask me, this season Nintendo has the games, and MS has the hardware deals (not to mention Live!, but its not really a selling point for potential buys yet). Its very hard _not_ to jump on the Xbox bandwagon and enjoy the hits of yesteryear (ie: Halo) at that price.
 
Toys R Us have always sold way more GCNs than Xboxes.

By the same token, EB stores sell way more Xboxes than GCN.

Supposedly Best Buy sells slightly more Xboxes than GCNs.

Toys R Us is simply more aimed at GCN's target market, or "perceived" target market (don't flame me -- it's simple observational fact :D)
 
I think if Toys R Us has consistently sold considerably more Gamecubes than Xboxes since both consoles have launched, and the Xbox has sold more overall to the tune of >500,000 consoles, then it should be a simple observation that retail chains like Toys R Us are selling more Gamecubes (whose customers tend to be younger) and EB is selling more Xboxes (whose customers tend to be older).

I'm sure I will be flamed by a bunch of people, but that's the facts. I'm not saying Nintendo doesn't produce games that can be enjoyed by all ages (I own a Gamecube), but to most of the general public and the soccer moms buying consoles for their youngun's -- they'll probably go for the Gamecube before the Xbox.
 
I'm pretty sure there are more younger GCN owners than there are for the Xbox. My guess is that about 50% of GCN owners are younger than 16 and the other 50% are 17 and up. For Xbox it's probably like 80% who are 17 and up and 20% below 17. I still think it's pretty meaningless though because adult oriented games like RE which are rated M still sell well on GC.
 
I think there are more young Xbox owners that some people think, from what I could gather from different forums and what my neighbour's boy tells me (he's turning 14) there's a good deal of people younger than 17 owning Xboxes.

Half a year ago he barely knew what Xbox was (back then he asked me "is it a PC or a Playstation?" ;) ), but more recently its been gaining brand recognition. After spending a few nights playing games at a friend of his recently (who owns all three current consoles) he told me this yesterday (bit paraphrased in translation): "Xbox and PS2 are the coolest! Xbox has the best graphics plus it can burn CDs [I tried to tell him it doesn't but for him bruning and ripping seem to be the same]... Gamecube sucks, its so kiddy and the controler is cheap"... so I figure GC is not "cool" to have at that age, while PS2 and Xbox are, dunno.

In one of the other forums I sometimes visit there was an "how old are you?" thread only recently for Xbox owners, and the vast majority of those who replied was either in their mid-teens or mid-twenties, there was a gap in between. Of course if there were even younger owners then they probably wouldn't show up in an internet forum, but I doubt there are many as little to no games are really made for that auience on the system.

Overall these two experiences are of course not representative, but they seem to fit in with the overall impression I get by reading various news sources and articles. I'd figure GC is probably catering best to the youngest of all audiences (or their mums), like 12 and down, and picks up when people dare making up their own minds again, which probably starts in late teens/early twenties for most (earlier for some, later for others, hehe). PS2 and Xbox OTOH appeal a lot to "cool" teens and the older audience (mid-late twenties) is probably also attracted to them due to the more "mature" nature of many games. Actually amongst grown ups I think all 3 consoles are well accepted, it mosty depends on personal taste and politics at that point.
 
I don't get a kick out of it. :) I own and enjoy my Xbox..

For fanboys though, it's what's keeping Nintendo way ahead of Xbox in worldwide sales. There's your reason.
 
As a general sales comment, I wouldn't put too much faith in any of the Black Friday sales numbers from any particular retail chain(unless you are looking for the obvious- all the consoles are seeing staggering sales boosts). As an example Wal-Mart is likely to screw up things pretty good this month with their $49.99 GBA and their souped up XBox bundle(JSRF, SGT2K2 and Amped w/your Box for $199) not to mention their hosing of PS2 soft sales with their big $19.99 PS2 game bins(and several titles in them that don't have a $19.99 MSRP). Different retailers were offering different specials on different consoles. If I was buying an XBox I'd pick it up at WM, a PS2 at BB and GC at TRU based on the specials they were running Black Friday(and some of them for the rest of the weekend).

NPD numbers are sketchy enough, trying to make sense out of numbers that are conflicting for Black Friday from individual retailers won't get you anywhere unless you break down the different specials that each store had going and their relative proximity to other stores offering better specials on other consoles. From my point of view anyone who bought a XB at say TRU is an idiot ;) (Even if you don't like Amped, hey it's free, you can ebay it).
 
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