Posted Jun 13th 2008 12:30PM by Dustin Burg Filed under: News
As part of Microsoft's official response to the release of May's NPD numbers, not only does team MS gloat about the 360's impressive 7.7 attach rate, but they also feel the need to dangle a super-secret, super-special E3 announcement carrot in front of our crazy twitchy rabbit-like noses. Such teases ...
At the very end of Microsoft's NPD response, they strategically decide to pull an E3 tease saying that "we still have quite a few aces left up our sleeve; see you at E3 next month!" Hmm, quite a few aces eh? It's just as we expected! Bring on the new game, new hardware, new accessory, new price drop or new anything E3 reveals! We admit, these "aces" sure do make us giddy.
The news is out. The Playstation 3 managed to best the Xbox 360 in sales during the month of May. Grab your favorite pillow and get ready for a shock, because EEDAR analyst Jesse Divinich expects last month's results to be the beginning of a new trend. On the sales victory, Divinich notes that the trend "will likely continue in June as we expect Metal Gear Solid 4 [to] act as a bigger catalyst in terms of driving PS3 hardware sales than did Grand Theft Auto IV." He adds further that exclusives on the Playstation 3 platform tend to drive console sales more than exclusives on the Xbox 360 (or the Wii).
With his PS3 prediction in tow, Divinich believes that Microsoft will respond by announcing a price cut for the Xbox 360 during next month's E3. Furthermore, Divinich believes Microsoft may also announce a new Xbox 360 model with new features (Blu-Ray, perhaps?). Should the price cut take place, Divinich expects Sony to follow suit within two months of the announcement.
Going into this we'll be as upfront and honest as you can expect a fanboy to be. Overall, May's NPD numbers are not all that peachy for team Microsoft and the Xbox 360. No, they aren't horrible by any means, but they surely aren't anything to write home about.
So, let's get the icky news out of the way first. Just as the analysts predicted, console sales in general did not see any magical Grand Theft Auto IV effect. The Xbox 360 was only able to move about 186K units in May while Sony was able to do a bit better selling around 208K PS3s and the Wii just keeps on selling like crazy, moving an astonishing 675K units. And even though GTAIV didn't spur new hardware sales it did itself sell very, very well. Being one of the only pro-Xbox 360 highlights in this May NPD report is mention that the 360 version of GTAIV outsold the PS3 version nearly two to one, selling some 871K units compared to the PS3's 442K. And you are correct, we will take pride in that GTAIV sales fact.
Check the break for a complete breakdown of May's NPD report including the top ten video games and a list of all console sales. Also, we recommend putting on two layers of fanboy armor, because we have a hunch that you'll need double protection this month.
It's that time again when corporate execs are held accountable for their actions, sales figures are calculated and the North American "digits" are revealed. It's time for April NPD! W00t!
Last month's video game competition was a heated race between Microsoft and Sony as the Xbox 360 was able to move 188,000 units narrowly beating out the PS3's 187,100. That news on top of Microsoft announcing the 360's 10 million U.S. milestone make it a pretty good month for team Microsoft. Though, Nintendo's Wii continues to dominate even without Grand Theft Auto IV's help moving an amazing 714,200 consoles. Speaking of GTAIV, it rocked the final week of April selling a jaw-dropping 1.85 million units on the 360 alone which is nearly double that of the 1 million units it sold on the PS3. And that's always good to hear. Check the break for a complete rundown of the April NPD hardware and software data.
After falling to third place in hardware sales for the months of January and February, Microsoft's Xbox 360 inched out the PlayStation 3 to land in their familiar second place spot behind the Nintendo Wii. After dropping 9.3% in sales versus February 2008, the PlayStation 3 ended the month selling 257,000 units against Microsoft's 262,000 units for a small gain of 2.8%.
With the upcoming release of Grand Theft Auto IV console sales are expected to rise and the data from the next few months should indicate how the market will trend well into the Summer as the Rockstar title gains steam at retail.
Posted Mar 14th 2008 10:00AM by Dustin Burg Filed under: News
It's time once again for our monthly dose of NPD sales numbers and for the second month in a row the Xbox 360 falls behind the PS3 in terms of hardware sales. Though, February's 254.6K Xbox 360 sales were only slightly lower than the PS3's 280.8K, so it wasn't a huge walloping. And, for the second month, Microsoft's excuse for lackluster hardware sales is due to hardware constraints and not being able to keep up with demand. A problem that should be rectified for March. Oh, and that console called the Wii ... 432K units sold. Ouch!
Hopping over to the software side of life, February was stellar for Xbox 360 games seeing five of the ten top spots. Among the big winners was Call of Duty 4, Devil May Cry 4 and our friends at Harmonix were finally able to break into the top ten with Rock Band selling 161.8K units. Click towards the break to get your fill of February NPD hardware and software sales and let's just hope March brings a turnaround. Otherwise we have a feeling the big guys in Redmond may be forced to do some North American price cutting to stay competitive and strike fear in the eyes of their enemies.
Well, well, well. If it isn't the lowly PS3 finally making a move in January and actually beating the Xbox 360 in terms of number of units sold in North America. Yes sir, you can color us NPD shocked and impressed.
According to the just released January NPD sales numbers, the Xbox 360 has come in a disappointing third place in the console wars, only managing to sell 230,000 consoles while the PS3 moved 269,000 and the Wii sold 274,000. But before you storm the streets in a fit of rage, know that there is some sort of explanation for the third place outing ... there wasn't enough stock. You see, according to Microsoft, they haven't been able to replenish the retail channels quick enough post holidays, resulting in less Xbox 360s on shelves and less 360s available to consumers. So, if that theory makes you sleep better at night, then go with that and know Microsoft is producing 360s as fast as possible and should regain its sales lead over the PS3 come February NPD. Hopefully.
We also wanted to mention that not only has Call of Duty 4 claimed the number one sales spot selling another 330,900 copies in January, but Rock Band made its top ten NPD sales debut too. You can review the rather gloomy NPD ranks and numbers after the break, though we advise keeping one thing in mind. It was lack of stock at retail ... lack of stock at retail ...
The Wii may consistently take the console sales crown, but there is no denying that the Xbox 360 sells the most software. As if to drive this point home, Microsoft CFO Chris Liddell recently told CNBC that the Xbox 360's life-to-date attach rate now rests at seven games sold per Xbox 360 Console. As Eurogamer points out, the latest attach rate is significantly higher than the 5.3 attach rate reported last January. Further illustrating just how momentous this feat is, Liddell pointed out that 360 owners are now spending more money on games than an Xbox 360 itself. It's an important point to make, especially for third party publishers. After all, companies want their games where the money is.
We can finally put the guessing and speculation to rest, because the US's December NPD video game sales are here! Let's jump in head first without a helmet.
The Xbox 360 sold 1.26 million consoles (wowzaz!) in December, barely trailing the Wii's 1.35 million, but completely dominating the PS3's 797.6K. But that isn't all friends, because the December NPD brings the added benefit of recapping what 2007's total sales were as well. And in 2007, the Xbox 360 made us proud selling 4.62 million consoles, with the Wii selling 6.29 million and the PS3 only managing to move 2.56 million. It should also be noted that the 360 leads in lifetime sales with 9.15 million units. Just saying.
Onto the software side of things, last December Call of Duty 4 on the 360 took the number one spot with 1.47 million copies, while Assassin's fell into number five (893.7K), Halo 3 at number six (742.7K) and GHIII at number nine (624.6K). Sorry kids, no Rock Band. And we're very proud to say that Halo 3 is the number one selling game of all platforms in 2007, moving a respectable 4.82 million copies, just edging out Wii Play's 4.12 million.
Our heads hurt, so feel free to click towards the break and look over the complete listings of December and 2007's hardware and software sales in list form. Remember, numbers are fun!
Posted Dec 14th 2007 12:45PM by Dustin Burg Filed under: News
November's NPD numbers have just come through the news wire and the Xbox 360 did mighty fine. Hardware sales for November were at the second highest levels ever with the Xbox 360 moving 770,000 consoles. Though, the Wii was no slouch selling 981,000 consoles and the PS3 picked up a bunch of steam from October selling roughly 466,000. Moving on to the software side of things we see that four out of the top ten games are Xbox 360 titles including Call of Duty 4 at at number one with an amazing 1.57 million units, Assassin's Creed at #3, Mass Effect at #6 and Halo 3 at #9. We've posted a complete numbers breakdown of all the NPD data after the break, you know, just in case you're a fanboy who loves his numbers. The gaming universe is strong young ones, $2.63 billion spent in November is nothing to take lightly.
Joystiq got their greasy manhooks on some interesting market data from NPD. Savvy Xbox 360 fans know that the Xbox 360 sells quite a few games, but according to this data, the Xbox 360 sells nearly twice as many games per console as the PS3 and Wii. On average, there are nearly seven games sold per Xbox 360, compared to between three and four sold for every PS3 or Wii. Take a look at this delicious data.
Xbox 360: hardware to software ratio: 6.59 (hardware total sold = 6.8 million; software total sold = 44.8 million)
PlayStation 3: hardware to software ratio: 3.58 (hardware total sold = 1.9 million; software total sold = 6.8 million)
Wii: hardware to software ratio: 3.44 (hardware total sold = 4.5 million; software total sold = 15.5 million)
Those numbers are bound to make current publishers happy, and serve as an attractive incentive to prospective publishers. It makes sense to publish your game for an audience that's more likely to buy it, you see. With the Wii finally getting Mario Galaxy (arguably its next killer app) and the PS3 finally approaching a market-friendly price this holiday, we're eager to see where the 360 sits at the end of the year.
The September NPD numbers just rolled in and we must say, everything is ice cream and roses in Xbox 360 land. As expected, Halo 3 cleaned up in the sales department coming in at the number one spot managing to sell a whopping 3.3 million copies (insert astonished face here) during the six days it was on store shelves. In comparison, the second best selling game for the month, Wii Play, sold a respectable 282,000 copies. Taking the facts even further, you could say that Halo 3 sold twice as many copies as the other nine games featured in the top ten sales combined. Simply amazing.
As for hardware, the Xbox 360 had an equally great month due to a little thing we call the Halo effect. Xbox 360 hardware sales skyrocketed to 527,000 consoles topping all other gaming platforms even the Nintendo Wii which sold 501,000 units. As far as the PS3's performance goes one could use the words "lackluster" or "sad", but we'll say its sales of 119,000 units was ... "sub-par". You can check out all the September NPD sales chart numbers after the break and after giving them a quick analysis we think you'll agree that everything is in fact, ice cream and roses.
Here it is kiddies. Mark your calendars, write it down in your diaries: the Xbox 360 has finally managed to outsell the Playstation 2. The August NPD numbers are in, and things are really getting interesting. Spurred on no doubt by the recent price cut, the Xbox 360 sold 276,700 units during the month of August, handily beating the Playstation 2 with 202,000 units. The Xbox 360 saw just over a 100,000 unit increase over last month, which is sure to have the folks in Redmond smiling. Something else for Microsoft to smile about -- albeit more devilishly -- is that th Playstation 3 saw its sales dip to 130,000. Still, the Wii remains on top with a staggering 403,600 units sold. Meanwhile, the DS again garnered second place with 383,300 units sold. The entire breakdown looks a little something ... a-like-a this:
Nintendo Wii: 403.6K (4 million total)
Nintendo DS: 383.3K (12.7 million total)
Microsoft Xbox 360: 276.7K (6.3 million)
Sony PlayStation 2: 202K (39.1 million total)
Sony PSP: 151.2K (8.3 million total)
Sony PlayStation 3: 130.6K (1.75 million total)
The Xbox 360 also had the number one selling game, Madden NFL 08 with 896.600 units. BioShock landed in the number three spot with 490,900 units sold.
The NPD numbers for July are out, and despite many analyst's predictions, the PS3 didn't manage to outsell our beloved Xbox 360 (though the 360 did see a decrease of roughly 28K). The PS3 did manage to make some considerable headway, finally breaking 100K units in a single month, no doubt helped along by the "price reduction" Sony started last month. The Wii, surprisingly, managed to outsell the DS, which has reigned supreme for quite some time, and took the top spot in console sales. As usual though, Sony still has something to crow about, as the PSP and PS2 managed to outsell the 360 again.
Nintendo Wii: 425K
Nintendo DS: 405K
Sony PlayStation 2: 222K
Sony PSP: 214K
Microsoft Xbox 360: 170K
Sony PlayStation 3: 159K
Nintendo GBA: 87K
The Xbox 360 had the top selling game of July, NCAA Football 08, which managed to sell 397K copies. Aside from that, the 360 barely manages to scratch the charts, as the only other 360 title on the list is the Guitar Hero II bundle at number 10 with 108K copies. The big question now is what effect the 360 price cut will have on August sales, especially in the wake of the reinvigorated PS3.
Microsoft has posted its commentary on the latest NPD numbers and some post-E3 facts. For those that missed the latest NPD numbers on Joystiq, the Xbox 360 managed to sell 198,400 units in June, handily beating the PS3's 98,500. Of course, the 360 itself was trumped by the Wii (381.8K), DS (561.9)K, PS2 (270.7K), and the PSP (290.1K). Still, in the world of only two consoles -- the world in which both Sony and Microsoft purportedly live -- the 360 is tops. Much more legitimately impressive is the Xbox 360's incredible attach rate. Currently the average number of games sold per console is 6.1, with the number of accessories sitting at 3.2. Microsoft also notes that the Xbox 360 has sold 20.1 million games since the Wii and PS3 launch. Games are where the money is, so in this respect the 360 is doing well.
As part of Microsoft's official response to the release of May's NPD numbers, not only does team MS gloat about the 360's impressive 7.7 attach rate, but they also feel the need to dangle a super-secret, super-special E3 announcement carrot in front of our crazy twitchy rabbit-like noses. Such teases ...
After falling to third place in hardware sales for the months of January and February, Microsoft's Xbox 360 inched out the PlayStation 3 to land in their familiar second place spot behind the Nintendo Wii. After dropping 9.3% in sales versus February 2008, the PlayStation 3 ended the month selling 257,000 units against Microsoft's 262,000 units for a small gain of 2.8%.
289K (40%)
23.8K (9.3%)
November's NPD
