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)
Don’t feel bad guys, I listen every week. Even though its a bit hit/miss when one of you starts on a rant it’s still a good listen and a good place to get in depth gaming news 🙂
I’ll try to keep this one more brief then my last post, hopefully bullet pointing will help.
* I’m sorry to hear about your foot, I don’t know what could do that but I guess the one silver lining is you can say you will be a Cyborg now or training up to be the Six Million Dollar man.
* The Bobba Fett game: All I can say is Ouch, that would have made many a SW fan happy. I am in the camp of “meh” about Bobba Fett, I agree with Jordan’s assessment on him.
* Dying Light: I certainly hope that it isn’t another DI, I found that game to be boring very quickly. Just the unending swarm of Zombies can get tedious.
* Watch Dogs: If it requires the install, might as well get it for PC.
* This episode pretty much confirmed my decision to stick with PC and get 3ds for the family to play together. If Atari and Sega can survive on software sales so can Nintendo. I feel that Nintendo has been behind the hardware race really since N64.
* It just seems like a lack of foresight to try to make their previous libraries available on PSN (and same with Microsoft) If they make more money on software then they are losing money from this potential customer that wants to buy games they refuse to have on digital stores. I end up having to buy PC versions or emulate them on PC.
Okay I think I managed to keep that shorter, great episode guys lots of laughs and I told Dan to write you.
Oh and the guy with “yo-yo” weapon was Rygar. he has one of the best themes ever.
I considered using only consonants to shorten the post but then I decided to simply write less 😉
* Shout out to Red Letter Media. I love those guys. Mr. Plinkett reviews are awesome and their other shows – Half in the Bag and Best of the Worst are very entertaining.
* Shout out to Dying Light – Polish guys know how to develop great games – remember Robbo?
* Anti-shout out to Ubisoft – at least I’m getting that 1TB drive for the PS4. Maybe it will be enough for Watch Dogs. I’m really looking forward to that game.
http://www.gametrailers.com/side-mission/63162/gabriel-knight-returns-interview-with-jane-jensen
Jane Jensen is getting the license to remake the GK1 game Sins of the Fathers. According to that article it’s because of all the adventure games being crowd funded on Kickstarter. The Adventure series of GK may be getting new life if this remake does well. I’m excited not just for this game but for the fact that Kickstarter games seem to be making a difference now in giving Adventure genre another chance.