People see facts and figures constantly and brush them off as, well, facts and figures. But, when people see charts and graphs they “oooh” and “aaaah” over them because the visualization is easy to understand. Now, thanks to the NPD Group and Deutsche Bank, people are seeing some pretty graphs about the console battle. These show just how well the race is going on all fronts of the war.
Although the data is fairly small the colors show it all, the Wii crossed over the Xbox 360 numbers in unit sales and hasn’t stopped since the launch. Here we are, on the third holiday season since the Wii launch, and people still cannot find them in stores. Shortage? Doubtful. Considering the massive sales numbers and the fact that they did take the 360 in numbers it seems the supply just can’t meet the over-the-top demands, but why is the demand so high for the little Nintendo bundle of joy? People just can’t get enough Wii.
The Xbox 360 has much to brag about as well, they’re not first in the race but their nearest next-generation graphic console, the PlayStation 3, isn’t even close. The chart shows them both rising in much the same way, with the same “pops” along the sales chart but in a completely different scale. Since Microsoft doesn’t want to consider Wii a competitor, they’re clearly winning the war in their eyes.
Oddly enough, one of the big pops in Xbox 360 sales where around the PS3 launch. Perhaps these consumers were waiting for both consoles to launch before making a decision? More than likely, it was holiday related and had little to do with the PS3 launch but it is fun to ponder anyway.
What about software sales? We’ve heard the Wii has little to offer in terms of games while the 360 wipes the floor with the competition.
To our surprise, the Wii is rocking the sales figures in terms of software but still doesn’t compare to the Xbox 360. Microsoft pulls out 93-million units while Nintendo takes home a modest 73-million units in software… yet again Sony doesn’t show up to the fight. Looking at November 2007, you can see the Wii jumps significantly in unit sales, no doubt related to the Super Mario Galaxy launch — once they hit that figure they never looked back and continued to climb.
Although a few of us expected Sony’s PlayStation 3 to make huge progress this year, each month they have marginal growth is causing their competitors to excel beyond anyones imagination. We’re starting to wonder how well Sony’s “10 year plan” is going to work out with their competitors taking advantage of the market now when, in 10-years, they will be sitting on their pile of cash to re-invest in the 8th generation of consoles.
(Thanks, GameDaily)
Mine favorite game was (and still is) Fallout 2
Welcome back Paul.
@Cryptic calls for new MMO review system
Hmm, how can you say “f*ck you” in a nice way … Let’s try “I’d like to have intercourse with you”.
Then same should go for Diablo III and all games that keep changing due to bug fixes and patches.
Come on, if you dropped the ball in the time interval you had the game reviewed, tough luck.
As an alternative, we should delay reviewing an MMO until at least 6 months have passed since released. Sure, you won’t have a potentially good review to increase the hype and sales figure, but it’ll be a fair review system, right?
So, you Cryptic idiots, make your mind: what do you want, a fair but delayed review that will do nothing to help with your sales or an early review that might be skewed? Think about it, being skewed is not really a bad thing, if you have enough money, he he he …
Jonah, I would love to have score-less reviews. When somebody asks me about a game, I tell them what I liked and what I didn’t like. I’m not telling them it’s a 8.34 grade game.
@Wii U gamepad won’t be sold separately at launch
Yay, pricing flexibility FTW! Wait, what?
So they can live without the extra cash? Or is it that the company has no idea on how to price it? Hmm …
@me playing SNES games: guys, you keep forgetting I’m a PC (ha!). We have emulators …
@QOTW: Not for the contest though, I have very little time to play. So, favorite game of the 90’s: Quake III, launched in December 1999. Screw Starcraft or Red Alert, at least Quake III’s engine ended up in a huge amount of other games. And even today, I still find the game (both multiplayer and the single player with bots) to be very entertaining.
Unless it’s some massive update like World of Warcraft does, it’s impractical to repeatedly update game reviews: lots of folks just don’t have the time to make it consistent or practical. For example, World of Tanks recently released a large update that drastically improved the graphics, added new tanks, a physics system, updated/new maps, and a ton of balance changes, but does it deserve a re-review? I don’t think so. It’s still the same game at it’s core.
You can’t have a long-time player make the reviews themselves either, because they’re either going to ruthlessly flame it (like most typical forum posts :/ ), or justify whatever faults it still has as being intentional, part of it’s charm, necessary for game balance, etc.
And lastly… do updated reviews really even matter? Think about it: the only way an update to an MMO is going to gain a large group of new is if it does something huge and newsworthy, otherwise it’s probably only going to re-attract longtime fans or those who were undecided.
And tell me, what exactly is it that Star Trek Online added? I haven’t even seen a single advertisement for it, let alone forum hype for it anywhere, so why exactly would I be enticed to jump aboard, even if it’s free?
My favorite is probably Donkey Kong Country 2. It’s some of the finest platforming you’ll find, period.
I can definitely understand about the want to do on 1 year later review…but I think it depends a lot on if there’s a lot of changes or not…
My favourite game? Warzone 2100…the design-it-yourself unit is a cool system that’s still underused in RTS today, and it’s also one of the first games to look good on full 3d….
My favorite game in the 90’s….would have to be Half-Life 1 for the PC. Still the best FPS these days and it has aged very well. And of course, the first game that put Valve on the map. Such a historical and important game in the industry
Easy favourite: Total Annihilation
Still think it is one of the greatest RTS’s of all time
My favorite game from the 90’s is Cruis’n USA
Fave 90s game: Dune 2!
Star Wars Rogue Squadron on the N64 from ’98. Looked great back then, and still looks great now. Tons of missions and unlockable content. FIGHT IMPERIAL SCUM IN A 1998 BUICK.
Not sure if this counts but Planescape Torment is one of my favorites ever and it came out in 99. But its mainly an all time favorite for all games ever made.
Gonna totally agree with Paul and go with Link to the Past.. That’s the golden age of SNES
PAUL ON DRUGS, YEY!
next step: drunken podcast!
@Cryptic calls for new MMO review system:
it would have good and bad backlashes, good being “real time” scores, wich mean better and more accurate reviews. the bad being that other games that get patches would require the same scoring system, here as an example, my beloved battlefield 3, wich got several paches trough time and got significantly better, UI and gameplay wise, would get a significantly better score multiplayer wise, and such requests from all sort of games that get patched and better would demand a huge amount of time and man/hours work to make the score system accurate and up-to-date.
in a utopic perfect gaming world, this would be awesome, but will not happen to all games, but MMOs are different and it would be possible, it is a very good idea.
@PS3 version of Black Ops 2 includes optional hi-res texture install:
why is CoD still a thing? oh… yeah, the money… nvm, moving on….
@Wii U gamepad won’t be sold separately at launch:
Nintendo, go home, you’re drunk. who in their right minds would not sell separate controllers as well??? i am sure nintendo have some good reasons, but if they do not reveal them, it will be the same as no reason at all!
@QOTW:
i’m caught between a rock and a hard place: Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped or Half-Life.
I’m more inclined towards HL because of the recent release of the free 2 play black mesa remake, wich is as equally awesome! so, yeah, Half-Life!
good recovery paul!
@QOTW: original Diablo, that was a game changer for me. Blizzard never really got the sequels right though.
XCOM ufo defense is my favorite game from the 90s, which is why I’m so psyched for the new one.
People want scores in their reviews. Whether they use it for Good or Evil or to make buying decisions or to validate an opinion they already have, why force them into something they don’t find as useful? MetaCritic isn’t doing anything immoral or even questionable – just aggregating data that’s out there. If someone were really interested, they could do it themselves.
Re-reviews aren’t a bad idea, but I don’t think they would be much more than a curiosity. The “retro” writing community will probably explore the big picture later.
MY FAVORITE 90s GAME: Master of Magic! Fantasy, strategy, Civ… It practically held me captive for a couple of years. I still whistle the overworld theme. So great. There have been some really great spiritual successors since then. Age of Wonders, and I even like Elemental. But Master of Magic got into my blood like nothing else.
Sorry ai coukdn’t make it, my dad passed away so I was off doing some un-fun stuff. 🙁 Should be back tonight though.
I think when it comes to re-reviewing MMOs (or any game, really) the perfect opportunity pops up when an expansion or DLC comes out. Borderlands became a much, much stronger game after all four DLC were avaialable and the Game of the Year edition merits a stronger review than the original release.
Favorite 90s game: System Shock 2. That was one scary game!