Start of a Trend? PlayStation 3 Beats Xbox 360 Again
Nintendo beat everyone by a pretty sizable margin, and that, in fact, may be the most important news to take away from the latest NPD sales data. Last month Sony came within striking distance of the Wii in hardware unit sales -- a mere 5,000 units -- but this month Nintendo's well ahead by 151k units, lending credibility to the theory that Nintendo's drop was availability-related.
Before I go any further, the February 2008 numbers, courtesy the folks at NPD:
Hardware - February 2008
588k - Nintendo DS
432k - Nintendo Wii
352k - PlayStation 2
281k - PlayStation 3
255k - Xbox 360
243k - PlayStation Portable
Software - February 2008
296k - Call of Duty 4 (360)
295k - Devil May Cry 4 (360)
290k - Wii Play (Wii)
234k - Devil May Cry 4 (PS3)
223k - Guitar Hero III (Wii)
206k - Mario and Sonic: Olympic Games (DS)
204k - Lost Odyssey (360)
198k - Turok (360)
184k - Guitar Hero III (PS2)
162k - Rock Band (360)
Analysis:
- As a hardware brand, Nintendo dominated February with 1020k total hardware unit sales versus Sony's aggregate 876k, but in top 10 software sales, the 360 once again cleaned up, taking the lion's share with a whopping 1,155k units versus only 513k for the Wii and 234k for Sony (and that from a single game). You can make a strong argument that software -- as long as sales are sustained -- is what primarily matters, and to that extent, Microsoft continues to be the clear winner of this two-and-an-anomalous-third-plus-a-surprise-fourth horse race.
- Followup to the last point, Sony's sales almost have to be Blu-ray loaded. Two months with only a single chart topper each month? With HD DVD effectively dead, fence-sitters are buying Blu-ray players. The PS3 rates a steal of a deal if all you want is a machine to watch high-def movies, and I suspect that's where a lot of those sales are coming from. The flip side of that coin is that Sony could be looking at a lot of game-specific headroom to grow into if it lands a few critically acclaimed exclusives in 2008. (No pressure, Metal Gear Solid 4 and Gran Turismo 5.)
- Go Nintendo? I keep expecting Nintendo's boat to hit shallow water, but once again I'm eating my words and predictions. What's more, expect those numbers to go ballistic in March and April, between Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Mario Kart Wii.
- Go Nintendo DS! Over half a million sales and twice those of Sony's PSP. Between you and me, if I were a game developer, this is where I'd hitch my horse, no ifs, ands, or buts.
- Microsoft anticipated NPD's sales data by claiming earlier today that "supply issues" were why it sold fewer systems than Sony. Without independent verification of that claim -- and there's been nothing newsworthy to suggest it's either true or false -- I don't know if Microsoft's word is enough to go on, especially given the statement's proximity to the sales data. When Nintendo's Wii has supply constrains, it was in the news well before the sales data hit. For all the software Microsoft's selling, I've yet to visit a Target, Best Buy, Walmart, Gamestop, etc. that isn't brimming with 360s, or to read about a hardware shortage at any of the major retailers. NPD's Anita Frazier adds that "while hardware inventory issues at retail may still be lingering post-holiday, the fact that all now-gen systems generated significant year-over-year hardware sales increases indicates the situation is coming into balance faster than it did last year."
- In related news, video games sales are up 12% over last year. Now take the extra sales week in 2007 into account and sales are actually up 26%. And according to NPD's Anita Frazier, "Software sales are up 47% for the month of February and 43% for the year on a comparable weeks sales basis...with several marquee titles still to come in the front half of the year, the industry is poised to achieve another year of record-breaking sales despite difficult economic conditons." Even more great news for the games industry! Put that in your pipe and smoke it so-called "U.S. recession."
- Look at the PS2 go. I suppose it's not a total surprise given the notion that the PS2 competes in the same space as the Wii, and you also have to consider how many incredible games -- new and used -- are available for the system. Says NPD's Frazier: "I was most surprised by the PS2 hardware sales numbers this month...while it certainly has earned its spot among the now-gen slate of console systems because of it staying power in the marketplace, the fact that it realized such significant growth this month is really a testament to its broad adoption and the response of consumers to promotional activity at retail."
Replay
Agree? Disagree? Have your say below in comments, visit Wake the Happy Words for expanded dialogue, or pelt me with emails here.
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No trend here. There was a hardware shortage of Xbox 360.
PS3 gets a small bounce after HD DVD fails.
Microsoft just announced more price cuts for Europe and they will surely go world wide before long.
The PS3 is millions of consoles behind. At 30k machines a month it will take years to pass Xbox 360.
LOL! Hardware "shortages" are you kidding me, free2speak?
Yeah. Okay.
Anyway, this is only US numbers. The PS3 has been constantly outselling the 360 in Japan and Europe 30k A WEEK EACH. Which equates to 240k right there. Plus another 25-30k/month for the US since January = ~270k/month more than the 360.
Take the months the PS3 has been outselling the 360 worldwide (before it outsold it in the US in Jan.) and it has been gaining market share for a while now.
This is all BEFORE any of the major games this year are out yet. MGS4. GT5. KZ2. LBP. FF13. GTA4 (multiplat). etc.
Expect sales to increase in ALL regions once some of these games come out. Especially MGS4 and especially the MGS4 PS3 bundle.
@free2speak
This is US numbers only free, keep that in mind. The PS3 is already steadily outpacing the 360 in all other worldwide territories, and now for 2 months in a row here in the 360s own backyard...Its only a matter of another price drop, some major exclusives (Metal Gear Solid 4, Gran Turismo 5 for example) and time before PS3 completely erases that 1 year lead. Its a superior console and consumers know it.
I'm no expert, but I'm thinking the strong numbers for the PS2 sales can be directly attributed to two titles; Rock Band and Guitar Hero. Without them I'm thinking it wouldn't even register in new sales... As far as the "supply issues" excuse for XBox goes, I have to wonder about that because if you are willing to go to more than one store (or more than one Wal-Mart for that matter) its not hard to find one... or the PS3 for that matter. I don't want to join the previous flame war but the only current gen console that can legitimately claim that excuse seems to still be the Wii, its the only one that is still a hard to find item almost anywhere you look.
by "hardware shortages", they mean there are not atleast 10 xbox 360's on store shelves just yet ;-) Just go buy a PS3, enjoy the bright future it has and we can all quite reading these ridiculous excuses. First Apple, and now Sony! Microsoft can not catch a break!!!
joeshmo
I live in the USA so I don't really care if the rest of the world moves to PS3, and of course they are not since the Wii is beating PS3 every month. The rest of the world doesn't change the fact that Xbox 360 is millions of units ahead of PS3, and 30,000 units a month is not going to change that for years. The 17 million Xbox 360 consoles in the market now guarantee strong game support for me so the rest of the world is irrelevent.
Too bad number of consoles sold tells you nothing about how good a console is. Ever heard of buyer's remorse? I think the best argument for that is the huge lead the 360 still has in software sales despite the fact that the games it topped the charts with were multi-platform. I think that speaks more for XboxLive than anything else---why play COD4 on playstations online service when XboxLive tends to be much better. The PS3 is selling strong lately mostly for it's BluRay2.0 capability in the future and it's low price tag(as a BD player), maybe that will change once it gets some exclusives or the Home service comes up. If that happens(well) I'll finally have an excuse to drop the 400 on it. But let's be honest here---hardware sales say nothing about a consoles "superiority" --- that can be determined more readily by which platform the multi-platform games are being played on.
The play station 3 is the home computer replacer! It plays lots of games and comes with linux so u can surf the internet, NO PC REQUIRED! with my xbox 360 I still cant surf the internet or stream internet radio while I play. If micro soft came out with a keyboard and mouse and had surfing threw x box live then they would double there sales , think, no expensive computer moniter required, lower cost ...the NEXT COMMODORE 64! EVERY ONE OWNES ONE . you buy one box ( not 3 with pc + monitor + periferial s) plug it into tv and bam your playing ,surfing, kids are happy , parents get there own at half the price of a pc and do there budget/ banking/ investing. every 4-5 years pull off the external hard drive put it on new xbox to transfer old docs throw old box away, most would be happy, spend more money on games not on hard ware. PS3 can already mostly do this as the linux is already there, it needs keyboord, mouse and better online service, what web TV should have been.