Tag: Console Wars

NPD Console Hardware Sales Figures for August 2010

NPD Group has released its console sales figures for August 2010. August is a traditionally weak month for the business and the numbers reflect that. Check it out:

NPD Group has released its console sales figures for August 2010. August is a traditionally weak month for the business and the numbers reflect that. Check it out:

  • Xbox 360: 356,700
  • Nintendo DS: 342,700
  • Nintendo Wii: 244,300
  • PlayStation 3: 226,000
  • PlayStation Portable: 79,400

For the second month in a row, Microsoft has topped the charts. Although the Wii continues to be the market leader, it’s clear that it won’t be putting up numbers like it did in the past. The question is, will this pattern hold for the rest of the year? Since all of you are capable of being industry analysts, I’d love to hear your opinion. How do you think the console wars will play out for the rest of 2010?

NPD Console Sales Figures Top 10 Games of July 2010

July’s best-selling games were also a bit on the Bizzaro side — at least to me. A lot of games that have made the list for the last year were knocked off by newcomers. Check it out:

  1. NCAA Football 11 (Xbox 360): 368,000
  2. NCAA Football 11 (PS3): 298,000
  3. Crackdown 2 (Xbox 360): 208,800
  4. Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii): 193,000
  5. LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 (Nintendo DS): 141,700
  6. Red Dead Redemption (Xbox 360)
  7. LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 (Wii)
  8. Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies (Nintendo DS)
  9. New Super Mario Bros Wii (Wii)
  10. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Xbox 360)

I’m so not interested in NCAA Football. That’s what I get for going to a Division III college with a crappy sports program. As a Harry Potter nerd, I’m pleased that the game is doing so well. As a fan of Japanese RPGs, I’m disappointed that Dragon Quest isn’t selling more — what’s wrong with you America?!? Despite the general disappointment in the game, Crackdown 2 made the top three.

Anything on July’s list surprise you? Out of curiosity, did any of you go to schools with legendary sports programs?

NPD Console Hardware Sales Figures for July 2010

July’s NPD numbers are the most interesting console sales figures in a long, long time. For the first time in three years (I think), a Nintendo console is not on top of the list! The quote Brian Fellow from Brian Fellow’s Safari Planet, “That’s crazy!!!” Let’s check out the numbers:

  • Xbox 360: 443,500
  • Nintendo DS: 398,400
  • Nintendo Wii: 253,900
  • PlayStation 3: 214,500
  • PlayStation Portable 84,000

Even though Nintendo sold a lot of hardware in July, it just feels weird that the company didn’t top the charts. It’s like when Hulk Hogan turned heel or seeing Joe Torre in a Dodgers’ uniform — it’s just doesn’t feel right.

Is this the start of Nintendo’s decline (until the 3DS takes over the world)? Can Microsoft sustain the momentum it generated with the Xbox 360 Slim SeXbox 360? Look at those lowly PSP numbers? Is there anything Sony can do to kickstart its handheld system? Or should Sony focus its portable efforts on the PSP2? Answer and discuss (please)!

Coffee Talk #195: What’s the Worst Console You Ever Bought?

RPadholic smartguy brought up a fantastic idea for Coffee Talk, so let’s use it today! What’s the worst console you’ve purchased? Surely some of you have been burned by the likes of Nintendo’s Virtual Boy, Nokia’s N-Gage, or Tiger Telematics’ Gizmondo. Now’s the time to let your frustrations out and totally trash the one gaming system you wish you never spent money on! It’ll be cathartic. Give it a go.

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, Intelligentsia’s Itzamna Guatemala Finca La Maravilla, Tiger Woods’ game going to hell, or Chael Sonnen taking it to Anderson Silva, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

RPadholic smartguy brought up a fantastic idea for Coffee Talk, so let’s use it today! What’s the worst console you’ve purchased? Surely some of you have been burned by the likes of Nintendo’s Virtual Boy, Nokia’s N-Gage, or Tiger Telematics’ Gizmondo. Now’s the time to let your frustrations out and totally trash the one gaming system you wish you never spent money on! It’ll be cathartic. Give it a go.

As for me, I can’t really think of any console that I hated. I didn’t have every system growing up, so I dodged a lot of bullets. I also try to find something good about everything, so it’s hard for me to get angry at inanimate objects. If I try real hard, I think I’d be disappointed in Sega CD. It was expensive and most of the games weren’t that good. Then again it also had Hideo Kojima’s Snatcher, which is pretty damn cool.

Okay, I suck at this. Why don’t you guys and gals give it a shot? Go off on the worst console you ever bought (please)!

Analyst Believes Wii 1.5 on the Way

With Nintendo sales cooling off (but still slaughtering the competition), could the company be prepping a modestly upgraded version of the Wii to boost sales? At least one analyst believes that’s the case. According to Industry Gamers, Screen Digest analyst Piers Harding-Rolls said:

Our forecast actually incorporates the idea that there will be an upgraded version of the Wii available. There is potentially significant movement to come from Wii pricing in the future. If you look at the handheld strategy they’ve got the DSi and the 3DS, so I think they’ve got room to have to this iterative version before a 2012 or 2013 release.

On one hand, his argument makes a lot of sense and it seems like sound strategy to give the Wii a boost with PlayStation Move and Xbox Kinect coming. On the other hand, dude’s an analyst. They’re right about 33 percent of the time. That’s great for baseball, but for industry analysis…not so much.

Seriously though, I’ve never heard of this particular analyst and I’m probably thinking less of his comments due to the inaccuracies of other analysts. He could be spot on. What do you think? Is Wii 1.5 on the way? What would you like to see in such a console?

Source

Sony to Overtake Microsoft in the Near Future?

A good number of my gaming industry colleagues believe that it’s only a matter of time before the global installed based of the Sony PlayStation 3 overtakes that of the Microsoft Xbox 360. I lean that way myself, but don’t want to make any predictions (I’ll leave that to Pachter). With that in mind, I was surprised by the number crunching and gathering done by Industry Gamers. The race is way closer than I thought it was. Check it out:

The respective global installed bases for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 are showing 41.7 million units sold for Microsoft and 38.1 million for Sony. That’s a difference of just 3.6 million units on a worldwide basis, and considering that Microsoft got a full 1-year head start with the Xbox 360, it shows how strong Sony has come on of late.

It shows that Sony is doing something very right, or that Microsoft is doing something wrong and failed to really capitalize on its early jump on the next-gen market. Numerous analysts have said that PS3 could pass Xbox 360 in the years ahead, and if this PS3 sales pace keeps up, and if Microsoft doesn’t jump start its business with Kinect this holiday, then we could easily see it happening. Over the last fiscal year, 10.3 million Xbox 360 consoles were sold, but Sony shifted 14.3 million PS3 units.

Q4 2010 will be extremely interesting. Will Microsoft be able to snag new customers with Kinect? Will Sony be able to do the same with Move? Will Sony be able to maintain its momentum? Under optimum conditions, there’s a chance that Sony will be able to close the gap by the end of the year — something I didn’t think was possible until 2011.

Most importantly, I want to know what you think of these numbers. How do you think things will play out in 2010? Leave your predictions in the comments section (please)! You can even give yourself a two-million unit margin of error like Michael Pachter.

Source

Microsoft Partners with ARM, Portable Xbox on the Way?

Microsoft recently entered into a partnership with ARM Holdings, the dominant name in mobile processing. While there are all sorts of products that would benefit from ARM chips (Zune media players, Windows Phone 7 handsets), one (remote?) possibility is a portable gaming device. GigaOm’s Kevin Tofel wrote:

Another possibility arose a few hours ago in our weekly live mobile technology podcast. Folks in the chat room suggested a viable option for portable gaming — Microsoft has a large Xbox Live community but hasn’t leveraged it in the mobile space. While the upcoming Microsoft Windows Phone 7 phones will have some type of Xbox Live integration, they won’t be poised as true handheld gaming machines. Even with the Xbox Live effort generating $1 billion a year, Microsoft currently has no portable gaming initiative to compete with Apple, Nintendo and Sony.

What do you guys and dolls think? Will Microsoft compete with Nintendo and Sony on the portable front? Will it be able to nab a bigger slice of the mobile gaming pie than Sony? Would you be interested in a portable Xbox system with Xbox Live functionality?

Source

NPD Console Sales Figures Top 10 Games of June 2010

Here are NPD Group’s console software sales figures for June 2010. There are a lot of repeats on June’s list, with Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption leading the way. There’s also one omission that annoyed me. And the the top ten are….

  1. Red Dead Redemption (Xbox 360): 582,900
  2. Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii): 548,400
  3. Red Dead Redemption (PS3): 380,300
  4. New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Wii): 200,900
  5. Just Dance (Wii): 174,800
  6. Wii Fit Plus (Wii)
  7. Toy Story 3 (Nintendo DS)
  8. UFC 2010: Undisputed (Xbox 360)
  9. LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 (Wii)
  10. UFC 2010: Undisputed (PS3)

Ugh. Just Dance is back on the list and Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver didn’t make it?!? Come on people!!! Oh well, as a Harry Potter nerd at least I can be happy about the number nine spot. Expelliarmus bitches!

What did you think of June’s top ten? You surprised that Red Dead is still dominating? Wasn’t it interesting that the only version of Toy Story 3 that made it on the list was the handheld one?

NPD Hardware Sales Figures for June 2010

NPD Group released its console sales data for June 2010. It was an unusual and exciting month for console hardware. Microsoft did very well thanks to the Xbox 360 “slim”. I know it’s crazy, but it’s true. When you get caught between the moon and New York City. Let’s look at the numbers:

  • Nintendo DS: 510, 700
  • Xbox 360: 451,700
  • Nintendo Wii: 422,500
  • PlayStation 3: 304,800
  • PlayStation Portable: 121,000

Nobody should be surprised that the Xbox 360 beat the Wii in June. Hardcore gamers bought the new version of the console while bargain hunters snatched up the older model at marked down prices. Sony recently claimed that its inventory problem will no longer be an issue, so it will be interesting to see how the PS3 does for the rest of the year. As for Nintendo…it keeps putting up excellent numbers.

Nintendo reminds me a bit of the Boston Celtics’ Robert Parish; every year sports writers predicted a decline in his stats, but dude put up the same numbers for like 20 years. Some analysts and a lot of enthusiast gamers keep saying, “This is the month Nintendo will decline,” and the company keeps posting excellent sales figures.

Anyway, let me know what you think of NPD Group’s June 2010 console sales figures. Were you surprised that Microsoft did so well? Or was that what you expected from its console refresh?