No surprises to report in NPD's official March 2008 numbers, and as predicted, Super Smash Bros. Brawl kicked Nintendo into hyperdrive, catapulting Wii sales to 31 percent of total industry dollars. It looks like Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter's numbers were spot on for both the Wii and DS, which together accounted for more than half of all competitor sales combined.
"Super Smash Brothers Brawl along with a greater supply of inventory helped the Wii to capture the highest single month unit sales of any platform outside the holiday timeframe," said NPD analyst Anitz Frazier. "NDS sales were most likely spurred by a combination of increased retail promotional activity along with a greater supply at retail, which is now allowing some of that pent-up consumer demand to be satisfied."
In fact things are looking pretty darned rosy across the board for all the doom and gloom about the flagging U.S. dollar. "You'd never know that the U.S. economy was under distress by looking at the video games industry sales figures," said Frazier. "Year-to-date growth is a rock-solid 27% through March 2008." Everything's up over last month by enormous margins, from hardware (up 13 percent) to software (up 29 percent) to video game accessories (up 16 percent) to March 2008's total 57% surge over the same period last year.
Hardware
721K - Wii
698K - DS
297K - PSP
262K - Xbox 360
257K - PS3
216K - PS2
Pachter had Sony besting Microsoft by 55K units, when in fact it looks like Microsoft just inched past Sony by a numerically insignificant 5K. Of course Microsoft public relations is making hay of the turnaround after the PS3 bested the 360 in both January and February -- Microsoft's still blaming the prior downturn on console shortages and suggesting that March's numbers would have been better, but that "some key U.S. retailers were still experiencing the trickledown effect of Xbox 360 console shortages." Microsoft says it "expect[s] retailers to be fully stocked with Xbox 360 consoles in time for the Grand Theft Auto IV launch" right around the corner. Also, Microsoft says March's NPD data shows a U.S. Xbox 360 software attach rate of 7.5 -- a new record.
Sony's response? The PlayStation 3 "continued the strong momentum with 257,120 units sold in March...[representing] a year-over-year sales growth of over 98%" along with "more than 1.9 million software units...representing a year-over-year growth of 139.2%."
"All platforms, aside from the PS2, showed significant increases when compared with March 2007," said Frazier. "The industry realized great growth last year and so far this year, that momentum is carrying through."
And look at the DS go. It nearly outsold the Wii despite SSBB as well as the fact that not a single DS title made the top 10 (compared to #5 God of War: Chains of Olympus and #6 FFVII: Crisis Core for Sony's PSP, both of which broke 300K in sales to propel PSP hardware sales to a 22 percent increase over February).
Software
2.7M - Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii)
752K - Rainbow Six Vegas 2 (360)
606K - Army of Two (360)
410K - Wii Play (Wii)
341K - God of War: Chains of Olympus (PSP)
302K - Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII (PSP)
264K - Guitar Hero III (Wii)
237K - Major League Baseball 2008 (360)
237K - Call of Duty 4 (360)
225K - Army of Two (PS3)
Of course you don't want to forget that save for Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. Brawl with its chart-eclipsing 2.7M copies sold, Microsoft's kicking tail in comprehensive software sales -- 1.8M total -- with four of March's top 10 spots off three March releases plus one old faithful (the indefatigable Call of Duty 4). Compare that to three for Nintendo (two March releases plus Guitar Hero III from last October) and just one for Sony (Army of Two). Given that Blu-ray sales just passed the 9 million mark -- 3 million during the first 11 weeks of 2008 alone -- it looks like a lot of Sony's hardware momentum is still Blu-ray and not games driven.
"The amazing year-over-year increase in software sales isn't just explained by a few top games," adds Frazier. "As compared to last March, twice as many SKU's achieved sales in excess of 100K units this month."
It'll sure be interesting to see how front-loaded SSBB's sales were in the coming months, once the year's nuclear option, i.e. Grand Theft Auto IV, finally lands.
Be sure to check out suggestions by EEDAR that lower-than-expected sales of the Xbox 360 and PS3 could be indication both systems are plateauing. Once the GTA IV monster runs its course, says EEDAR, we could be looking at price cuts for both systems as early as June.
Re-Play
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