The holiday season is over, the NPD sales data for January 2008 is in and we see a common theme: Nintendo rules the show. While Sony continues to try and persuade gamers that the PlayStation 3 is in a completely different gaming category, statistic gathering companies like NPD put ’em all in one big basket.
It makes sense for Sony to try to push themselves away from being classified with the Wii console because it makes them look bad. We’re all equal gamers here, there is no need to break into more sub-categories when only three consoles vying for top spot. Many folks (including us) criticize the slow adoption rate of Wii games, yet they steal top software sales spots as well.
- Wii — 679,200
- Nintendo DS — 510,800
- Xbox 360 — 309,000
- PlayStation 3 — 203,200
- PlayStation Portable — 172,300
- PlayStation 2 — 101,200
Thankfully Sony’s PlayStation 3 product took top spot on their hardware list, so that’s not so bad. Sadly, combining all Sony’s hardware still doesn’t meet the units of the Wii.
On the software sales front, Nintendo took six of the top ten positions including position’s one, two and three. Wii Fit takes number one position with an insane 777,000 units sold. The only closest product to Wii Fit was Wii Play (still!) with 415,000 units sold. Place four was held by a 360 title, Left 4 Dead sold 243,000 units.
Although many gamers haven’t turned on their Wii in ages, there is no doubt the market is red hot for Wii. At this point, we’re all wondering how long it will last — any predictions? It’s already been a long time.
Microsoft has announced they’ll be giving Xbox Live silver accounts access to play some multi-player cross-platform games for free until the fall update. Recently, Microsoft announced free online play with Games for Windows titles, effectively giving PC gamers “gold accounts” to play online.
Yoichi Wada of Square Enix has let the cat out of the bag. The cat is Final Fantasy XIII for the Xbox 360 and it will be simultaneously released with the PlayStation 3 version. This may be an end to an exclusive era for Sony as all their big brands jump to non-exclusion.
There.is.something.seriously.wrong.with.your.editor.delete.this.comment.
Jordan posted in the newsgroups:
Wow, continuing the trend that started in November… all the Sony platforms are down compared to the same time last year:
Gain from January ’08 to January ’09:
Wii +147.88%
Xbox 360 +34.35%
PS3 -24.46%
PS2 -61.67%
NDS +103.51%
PSP -25.09%
January ’08 numbers:
Wii – 274,000
Xbox 360 – 230,000
PS3 – 269,000
PS2 – 264,000
NDS – 251,000
PSP – 230,000
So much for the lie of Sony momentum.