July video game sales leapt an appreciable 28 percent over last year, the 360 and PS3 finished in a dead heat, and Nintendo creamed everyone, as usual. Overall video game sales were up an astonishing 35 percent year-to-date, prophesying trumpets and torrents of angels singing digital hosannas when 2008 finally thunders to its unprecedented close.
The numbers...
July Hardware
608k - Nintendo DS
555k - Wii
225k - PlayStation 3
222k - PlayStation Portable
205k - Xbox 360
156k - PlayStation 2
- Context: The Wii = 13.5 million units in North America (~31 million worldwide), the 360 = 12 million (~20 million worldwide), and the PS3 = 5.5 million (~15 million worldwide). Not much is changing here, save for the Wii, which recently passed the 360 in total unit sales, continuing to pull well ahead of the competition.
- Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter says Wii sales were 100k units below estimates, suggesting Wii availability was again constrained, but that monthly production should now begin to increase incrementally. (I wonder if the slightly rebounding dollar will also incentivize Nintendo to ramp up stateside for the holidays.)
- Gamasutra reports this morning that in Japan, the PSP and PS3 have fallen behind the DS and 360 respectively. The DS apparently outsold the PSP for the first time all year (this, despite the release of Phantasy Star Portable for the PSP), and 360 sales rose nearly 20,000 units to outsell the PS3 for the first time ever for only the second time since launch on sales of Namco Bandai's Tales of Vesperia, now the "fastest selling Xbox 360 title ever in Japan."
July Software
398k - NCAA Football 09 (360)
370k - Wii Fit (Wii)
310k - Guitar Hero: On Tour (DS)
284k - Wii Play (Wii)
243k - NCAA Football 09 (PS3)
219k - Soul Calibur IV (360)
175k - Mario Kart (Wii)
166k - Rock Band (Wii)
156k - Soul Calibur IV (PS3)
148k - Civilization Revolution (360)
- Software sales rose 41% in July over the same month last year, while year-to-date sales clinched nearly $5 billion, up 48 percent.
- Multi-platform monthly sales continues to favor the 360. NCAA Football 09 for the 360 outsold the PS3 by nearly 2-to-1, while Soul Calibur IV for the 360 beat its PS3 contender by 25 points.
- Microsoft PR claims the 360 accounted for four of the top ten games in July. That's an error, because according to NPD data, they in fact only accounted for three.
Microsoft Responds
Microsoft's spin on NPD's numbers includes claims it "dominated the E3 landscape" and "closed out a profitable year with $2.1 billion in growth in the Entertainment and Devices Division." Also, interestingly, the company claims it "has a record-setting attach rate of 7.9 games per console, the highest attach rate in history for a console at this point in its life cycle."
This jibes with NPD third-party sales data, which suggests that 360 third party game sales to date (~68 million) are double Nintendo's (~33 million), with Sony bringing up rears (~20 million).
While the Wii's a year younger than the 360, it's also surpassed the 360 in unit sales. If it were selling at an attach rate equal to the 360's, it would need correspondingly high third-party sales to claim parity. Of course it doesn't, which suggests something elusively disappointing about the Wii's player demographic. I'm thinking once more about Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time, where a bazillion people bought the book, but only a handful of those actually picked it back up off their shelves and coffee tables to read.
Sony Responds
Sony's response highlighted the role Metal Gear Solid 4 played in driving PS3 sales and pointed out that the company experienced year-to-date growth of virtually 100%. "PS3 software sales showed growth of 206% year-to-date," said Sony, adding that it plans to introduce "more than 140 first and third-party titles" this holiday season and through its fiscal year. Sony also claims the PlayStation Network numbers more than 10 million registered users as of June.
Yeah somehow you forgot to mention that PS3 outsold the 360. So tell me, how much is Microsoft paying you to put a spin on things? get this PS3 OUTSOLD MICROSOFT DESPITE THE BLATANT PRICE CUT ON MICROSOFTS PART and PS3 SHORTAGES. If youre so unbiased then act like it. Get off MS payroll dorks
OUtsells PS3 and PSP for the first time ever? are you high? outselling for one week only because a mediocre RPG was released doesnt count. AND BY THE WAY, you have failed in your report. you call 20000 units that the 360 outsold the ps3 ever since it was released in Japan with pride but the ps3 outsells the the 360 by a similar margin in the US and you call it dead head. When you stop being bribed by MS then you will get some credibility. Until then, you suck. I knew i shouldnt have come to pcworld.com. Cheap website full of typos and biased news.
OUtsells PS3 and PSP for the first time ever? are you high? outselling for one week only because a mediocre RPG was released doesnt count. AND BY THE WAY, you have failed in your report. you call 20000 units that the 360 outsold the ps3 ever since it was released in Japan with pride but the ps3 outsells the the 360 by a similar margin in the US and you call it dead head. When you stop being bribed by MS then you will get some credibility. Until then, you suck. I knew i shouldnt have come to pcworld.com. Cheap website full of typos and biased news.
He's not making up the numbers, he's just showing us the data collected. And outselling is outselling regardless of when it was. Although apparently this is the SECOND time the 360 outsold the PS3. Follow the Gamasutra link for more info.
KrisisCore --
Where is your blog or Web site? I would like to compare the quality of your publication agains this one.
Just to verify your credibility you understand, not to say that you would commiit typos or demonstrate any overt bias.
Thanks SPhil64, that's correct. As you can see if you scroll down to the comments section of that Gamasutra link, they were originally reporting it was the first time. They've corrected the error, and since I'm sourcing my info on that specific point from them, so have I.
KrisisCore stop being such a fanboy. Before you tell someone they had a failed report maybe you should have some sort of an idea of what your talking about. 20k in a month were both consoles sold over 200k isn't much of a difference. It would take the ps3 over 20 years selling at that same differential to catch the 360 in America. Hence its a dead heaT. As for Japan, 20k in a WEEK(not month) is a significant number. With the ps3 only selling around 9k in that same span the 360 sold more than two and a half times as much, thats a bit bigger ratio. It won't stay that way in Japan but for a system that is barely treading water in that side of the world its big news. Speaking of bias, If anybody is having credibility issues I would think its you, not the web site.
So I see everyone here is an MS fanboy or is on MSs payroll. Saddening....