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)
When you hear the word Wolfenstein what game do you think of? Constantly, I recall Wolfenstein 3D and all the memorable times I had building my first person shooter fingers. From a new-generation FPS perspective,
Seeing as I posted my comment late on the previous podcast, and the topic was E3, I’ll just copy and paste it.
Plenty of games have been added to my list of games I want to play, among them are:
-Need for Speed Most Wanted
-Epic Mickey 2
-New Super Mario Bros. U
-Pikmin 3
-Rayman Legends
-Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist
-Tomb Raider
-Watch Dogs
Worst E3 conference was Microsoft, best was Ubisoft. What I don’t get is how many people are “disappointed” by Nintendo’s conference, expecting huge releases such as Zelda, Metroid, F-Zero or even Smash Bros. I think that many people do not understand how long it takes to make the great games Nintendo makes, and expect them to churn them out like Call of Duty. I also think that it’s a smart move by Nintendo, releasing quite a few good titles at launch, and then pace the awesome games one by one for the future. Maybe this way the WiiU won’t run out of first-party games as soon as the Wii did.
2 questions, both for Paul:
So, did you shit your pants when Nintendo announced the WiiU will come out Holiday 2012?
Have you finished Skyward Sword yet?
Jonah, good call on the next level of consoles by the games displayed.
@THQ closes their San Diego Studio, sells the UFC license
It’s cold, hard, business. Sorry for the devs though. 2 mil. sales at a medium price of 20 USD that would give us aprox. 40 mil. USD.
@annual Assassin’s Creed releases funded AC3:
This means that the games are quite good, if they manage to provide a good revenue stream. Kudos to the developers then.
@Vivendi may sell Activision-Blizzard:
Talking about short term thinking … they’re going to sell the powerhouse that got them a truckload of money, without taking into account the possibility that they might build another great game.
Mission Impossible for NES is based on the TV series.
Jordan, you don’t play PC games :O ?!
Had to be the most boring E3 I’ve seen. I only managed to stomach 3 conferences: Microsoft, EA and Nintendo. And I want my 3 hours 43 minutes 57 seconds back.
@Microsoft: I was very surprised when the conference ended after Black Ops. Iwas expecting at least another 30 minutes when Microsoft usually brings out some exciting stuff. But it never happened. A very anti-climatic finish when compared to previous Microsoft conferences.
@EA
OMFG!!! They made sport more realistic than it is in real life. The only way to top that is to stick a joypad up David Beckham’s arse. Why go outside and play ball with friends when you can wall yourself from society and game yourself into a blind comatose stupour.
@Nintendo
No launch date. No launch price. No launch line up. No information on the Wii U. Will it have proper on-line capabilities? What will be Wii U policy on DLC, DRM, Region Lock, Backwards Compatability, Friend Codes etc… But Oh My Gard it will have Pikmin. And what happened to the 3DS? Why did I even buy this brick? To play Mario game remakes? There is only so many times I can stomp a goomba. I recently purchased Mario Kart 7 and it feels like an expansion pack to the 2006 DS version. In 3D. Was it made by George Lucas? For one, I am looking forward to the arrval of Assasin’s Creed and Mass Effect on the Wii U. I am sick and tired of saving princesses.
@DynamicJul
Recently we have seen critics bashing Nintendo’s golden IP. If I was to tell you 2 years ago that a Zelda game will recieve on average 7 out of 10 from most critics, you would call me insane. But such is the truth. It appears to be that Nintendo’s golden formulas have been over-abused. Pokemon. Zelda. Mario. Each iteration closely builds on the previous one. I stopped playing Pokemon because I am bored of following the same story doing the same things but with 150 new ugly Pokemon. Same can be applied to Zelda. On this E3 people wanted to see something new. They wanted to see how the Wii U will transform classic IPs into modern HD versions. Remember, Nintendo’s own developing studio has next to none experience with HD high performace games. People wanted to see at least a glimpse of what is to come.
Overall, dull E3. I was expecting something more. I just hope more info will be available about the Wii U. It’s my last attempt to go Nintendo. If Wii U fails, I will turncoat to Microsoft for the following eternity. Sick and tired of bricks…
PS: I hope in the next episode you will cover Warren Specter’s comment on ultraviolent games. So that I will get an opportunity to tear that prick apart and re-assemble him the way he shoul be.
@Arthur V
Woah, woah, woah… what are you talking about?
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword – Metacritic score of 93. Where the hell did you get an average of 7 out of 10?
Pokemon Black and White has a metacritic rating of 87.
Mario Kart 7: metacritic score of 85.
Super Mario 3D Land: metacritic score of 90.
As far as critics go, they still all agree that Nintendo makes stellar games with their IPs
By the way, it’s my birthday today.
Happy Birthday DynamicJul. And I got those scores from Gamespot. I have been using Gamespot since 2006 or so. They are sometimes unnecessarily harsh on games but I can see the point they are making regarding Nintendo games. Regardless, I still firmly stand by my point that Nintendo’s press conference was a drag. It could have been way better.
Hate to break this to you, Dynamic, but that game only sold because it had the Zelda title, and Nintendo’s Iwata just made a statement that everyone hated the Wiimote, citing the fact that only 40% of people who owned Zelda actually finished the game thanks to the bad controls.
And that’s coming from Nintendo.
Sorry to post another comment, this will be the last one, but I had to get this out.
First of all, isn’t it kind of the point that it’s a Zelda game? Nintendo has always been about their famous IPs, and that’s why they are constantly being made.
About Iwata saying everyone hated the Wiimote, I’m sure that it is taken way out of context, please provide me a link because I want to read its source. I haven’t heard a lot about people hating the Wiimote, I’m pretty sure there are plenty of people like me who enjoyed playing the game with the MotionPlus.
And lastly, if 40% of people who owned it actually finished it, that is quite good, because nowadays single-player games are rarely finished. It has been found that only 10% of Red Dead Redemption owners played the last mission (http://bit.ly/qXeB45). In a recent survey, taken by IGN users (majority obviously active gamers), only 51% of them always finish single-player games (http://go.ign.com/MdYUey). So yeah, 40% is not a bad number, at all.
No. Quit playing it. Because of the controller. Big difference.
hi guize!!!
no time so…
@QOTW
Watch Dogs
Need MW
and the sad news that next gen consoles will make my PC “useless”… again…
must acquire currency and purchase new PC T-T