April Console Sales Numbers

[Eaglesfan27]

I don't think GTA IV is perfect, but it has been quite fun to play and definitely one of the better "next gen" games imho.

Absolutely agreed. I've played it more than any other non-sports game and I still have plenty of story and other elements to go through. To me, it is the most fun non-sports game I've played on the 360.

[KWhit]

I agree on GTA4. I was playing the hell out of it until I saw Orange Box on sale and scooped that up. Since then, I've been sinking every moment I can into that.

[MizzouRah]

Absolutely agreed. I've played it more than any other non-sports game and I still have plenty of story and other elements to go through. To me, it is the most fun non-sports game I've played on the 360.

It's close.. I still think Bioshock, COD 4, and GOW are right up there as well.

Since I never could really get into CIV on the PC, CIV REV could be really good too - loved the demo.

[Travis]

It's close.. I still think Bioshock, COD 4, and GOW are right up there as well.

Since I never could really get into CIV on the PC, CIV REV could be really good too - loved the demo.

I'd definitely second COD4, was a short single player campaign but one of the most enjoyable one's I've played through in a long time. That last mission was a tremendous way to wrap up the game.

[Calis]

I still put Dead Rising atop that list.

Where's the sequel to that? I haven't heard a word about anything.

GTA4 is atop my non-sports game PS3 list, and it's also the only game on that list so I don't know if that's a ringing endorsement. :) I liked GTA4, but I wouldn't place it as one of my favorites of all-time. The GTA games have a tendency for me to be a blast for one week, and then I don't touch it again..or maybe I fire it up again once a year later for a day. This one burnt out pretty quickly for me, but I got more than my money's worth out of it.

Has anyone played the new Hulk game? The last gen Hulk game was a surprisingly fun game, and I know this one was by a different developer but wondered what people thought. I was thinking about picking it up, because I could use a new game and my repeated attempts to like the Metal Gear series have failed miserably so I won't be going for that one.

[Cringer]

It's close.. I still think Bioshock, COD 4, and GOW are right up there as well.

Since I never could really get into CIV on the PC, CIV REV could be really good too - loved the demo.

COD had a great little story, but the fact it was so short seriously pissed me off. And I only rented it. I would have exploded had I bought the game.

GOW was a damn good game, #2 will be cool as well. My next 360 should be Saints Row 2. I really enjoyed the first one and so far this looks like an improvement over that one and not just the same game, new story.

[Big Fo]

Ok so there's some mixed opinions here it seems. Excluding the multiplayer, does GTA4's single-player experience (including the storyline and just screwing around) compare favorably with GTA3: Vice City and GTA3: San Andreas?

Basically I'm trying to decide what third game to get when I buy the MGS4 bundle and MLB 08: The Show this week.

[MikeVic]

Ok so there's some mixed opinions here it seems. Excluding the multiplayer, does GTA4's single-player experience (including the storyline and just screwing around) compare favorably with GTA3: Vice City and GTA3: San Andreas?

Basically I'm trying to decide what third game to get when I buy the MGS4 bundle and MLB 08: The Show this week.

I've only played GTA4 at a friend's house for an hour or so... but outside of the multiplayer, I didn't see anything really different that I liked in the single player.

[Eaglesfan27]

Ok so there's some mixed opinions here it seems. Excluding the multiplayer, does GTA4's single-player experience (including the storyline and just screwing around) compare favorably with GTA3: Vice City and GTA3: San Andreas?

Basically I'm trying to decide what third game to get when I buy the MGS4 bundle and MLB 08: The Show this week.

The storyline is the best of the series in my opinion. The gameplay is easier, but still challenging on some missions. I like the new cover system as well as the autotargeting. I've never finished a previous GTA because a mission was just too difficult or the storyline was losing me. I'm confident I will finish this one just to see how the story plays out, and because even the missions I've had to repeat 5-10 times (only 2 missions and I'm over halfway through the game) have still been enjoyable even though they were very challenging.

[Cringer]

Ok so there's some mixed opinions here it seems. Excluding the multiplayer, does GTA4's single-player experience (including the storyline and just screwing around) compare favorably with GTA3: Vice City and GTA3: San Andreas?

Basically I'm trying to decide what third game to get when I buy the MGS4 bundle and MLB 08: The Show this week.

I don't play console games online, not yet anyways. GTA IV to me is better solo play then the previous games, overall. I can pick at a couple things, but overall I feel it is an improvement.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Ok so there's some mixed opinions here it seems. Excluding the multiplayer, does GTA4's single-player experience (including the storyline and just screwing around) compare favorably with GTA3: Vice City and GTA3: San Andreas?


It's definitely as good of a game as GTA:SA. You'll get plenty of gameplay out of it. It can just get repetitive at times.

FYI.......Uncharted and Resistance are both good games as well and can be picked up used at a good discount.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Blu-ray adoption by producers now surpassing pace of DVD adoption.........

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/blu-ray-adoption-outpaces-dvd

Last Remnant gets early 360 release. This would appear to be an attempt by Microsoft to attack relatively weak PS3 sales figures in Japan.

http://kotaku.com/5014897/the-last-remnant-getting-xbox-360-release-first-true-simultaneous-release

[MizzouRah]

Ok so there's some mixed opinions here it seems. Excluding the multiplayer, does GTA4's single-player experience (including the storyline and just screwing around) compare favorably with GTA3: Vice City and GTA3: San Andreas?

Basically I'm trying to decide what third game to get when I buy the MGS4 bundle and MLB 08: The Show this week.

I think it's the best in the series. (GTA IV)

[Eaglesfan27]

Square Enix announces release dates for 3 RPG's on the 360. Infinite Undiscovery will be exclusive to the 360 and will be out September 2nd in NA to follow shortly throughout the rest of the world. The Last Remnant will be out for the 360 this winter throughout all regions. That is the only game of the trio that has been announced for the PS3, but that version will be out at some later point in time. The new announcement is Star Ocean: The Last Hope which is exclusive to the 360.

I'm a huge fan of previous Star Ocean games, so I'm happy to see this announcement.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6192331.html?action=convert&om_clk=latestnews&tag=latestnews;title;0

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

More words of wisdom from Peter Moore.............

http://itsinthegame.ea.com/archive/2008/06/10/a-few-new-updates.aspx

[cartman]

Blu-ray adoption by producers now surpassing pace of DVD adoption.........

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/blu-ray-adoption-outpaces-dvd


How is it impressive that a company sold 21 (not thousands, not millions, just 21) Blu-Ray units in their first year versus 17 DVD units 11 years ago during DVD's first year?

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Square Enix announces release dates for 3 RPG's on the 360. Infinite Undiscovery will be exclusive to the 360 and will be out September 2nd in NA to follow shortly throughout the rest of the world. The Last Remnant will be out for the 360 this winter throughout all regions. That is the only game of the trio that has been announced for the PS3, but that version will be out at some later point in time. The new announcement is Star Ocean: The Last Hope which is exclusive to the 360.

I'm a huge fan of previous Star Ocean games, so I'm happy to see this announcement.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6192331.html?action=convert&om_clk=latestnews&tag=latestnews;title;0

Just to clarify, there's no final word on the PS3 version of Star Ocean 4. It may still come to the PS3. From the SE website............

"We cannot announce anything on that. We can say that it will be released first [on the Xbox 360]. Whether we'll release it on the PS3 is undecided. We may release it, we may not."

Regardless, it will be a timed exclusive at a minimum.

Square Enix seems to be a rudderless boat at this point. They can't get their act together to get FFXIII and FFXIII Versus released, which will be huge sellers. Meanwhile, management states that they need to broaden their horizons as far as what games they release. Putting out JRPG's exclusively on a console with basically no installed base in Japan and a North American base which doesn't tend to buy RPG's would seem to be contrary to the management statements. There had to be some money involved that will allow Square Enix to keep the finances intact until the FFXIII games come out for the PS3 in 2009. They're on pace for a disasterous year if they don't get exclusive payouts of some sort on this deal.

[Dekanth]

I still think Vice City is the best of the series. Certainly the graphics are better now, and probably even the story is better in GTA4 (for as far as I have progressed), but Vice City just had that certain something. Maybe it was the soundtrack, maybe it was Ray Liotta and the other voices, maybe it was the simplicity that it held being that the system it was developed for was much more limited than a PS3 or Xbox 360. It is more than just nostalgia though, because I still pick up Vice City and play it and it hasn't lost any of its luster with me to this day. But GTA4 is a damn fun game to play.

[hukarez]

The new announcement is Star Ocean: The Last Hope which is exclusive to the 360.

I'm a huge fan of previous Star Ocean games, so I'm happy to see this announcement.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6192331.html?action=convert&om_clk=latestnews&tag=latestnews;title;0

Huzzah for Star Ocean!

[Big Fo]

Square Enix seems to be a rudderless boat at this point. They can't get their act together to get FFXIII and FFXIII Versus released, which will be huge sellers. Meanwhile, management states that they need to broaden their horizons as far as what games they release. Putting out JRPG's exclusively on a console with basically no installed base in Japan and a North American base which doesn't tend to buy RPG's would seem to be contrary to the management statements.

Hey, at least Lost Odyssey sold well. Maybe not like a Final Fantasy, but good sales all the same. So did Mass Effect but that might not count since it was made by a Western company.

There had to be some money involved that will allow Square Enix to keep the finances intact until the FFXIII games come out for the PS3 in 2009. They're on pace for a disasterous year if they don't get exclusive payouts of some sort on this deal.

Dragon Quest IX is coming out on the DS this year or next, Square-Enix will be fine. Hell the remakes of DQ5 and DQ6 should be good for around a million each in Japan. If things ever get too bad all they have to do is make Kingdom Hearts 3 for the Wii (the platform Disney supposedly wants the game to come out on), that would sell a ton of copies in all three regions.

[sterlingice]

I would kill to have KH on a Nintendo console. It should have happened last generation

SI

[Cringer]

How is it impressive that a company sold 21 (not thousands, not millions, just 21) Blu-Ray units in their first year versus 17 DVD units 11 years ago during DVD's first year?

21 people have blu-ray players? So lets guess who they are...

I say these people:

# Warren Buffett
# Carlos Slim Helu
# William Gates III
# Lakshmi Mittal
# Mukesh Ambani
# Anil Ambani
# Ingvar Kamprad
# KP Singh
# Oleg Deripaska
# Karl Albrecht
# Li Ka-shing
# Sheldon Adelson
# Bernard Arnault
# Lawrence Ellison
# Roman Abramovich
# Theo Albrecht
# Liliane Bettencourt
# Alexei Mordashov
# Prince Alwaleed
# Mikhail Fridman

Number 21 stumps me, but I am sure it is the guy just short of the top billionaires above.

[sterlingice]

For some reason, Mark Cuban comes to mind. Also, I just don't see Warren Buffett playing. But I bet Bill Gates secretly has one.

SI

[hukarez]

Dragon Quest IX is coming out on the DS this year or next, Square-Enix will be fine. Hell the remakes of DQ5 and DQ6 should be good for around a million each in Japan.

Huzzah for Dragon Quest!

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

I would kill to have KH on a Nintendo console. It should have happened last generation

SI

Two Kingdom Hearts spin-offs were announced yesterday. One will be for the PSP and the other will be for the DS. Kingdom Hearts 3 is widely expected to be a PS3 exclusive, but they have said that it won't be worked on until development on FFXIII is complete, so it will be at least a couple of years.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

How is it impressive that a company sold 21 (not thousands, not millions, just 21) Blu-Ray units in their first year versus 17 DVD units 11 years ago during DVD's first year?

They sell Blu-ray publishing devices, not players. In other words, 21 movie production companies have bought devices to mass produce Blu-ray movies compared to 17 companies at the same time during the DVD adoption cycle. Note that this does not include the major studios. This is more for independent publishers. Each machine is used to produce thousands of movie copies per month for retail distribution.

Here, I'll blush for you. :redface:

[cartman]

They sell Blu-ray publishing devices, not players. In other words, 21 movie production companies have bought devices to mass produce Blu-ray movies compared to 17 companies at the same time during the DVD adoption cycle. Note that this does not include the major studios. This is more for independent publishers. Each machine is used to produce thousands of movie copies per month for retail distribution.

Here, I'll blush for you. :redface:

Still, how is that a clear sign that Blu-Ray is way ahead when FOUR more production machines were sold? Nowhere in the article does it say four more companies bought them, only that four more were sold. It might be that Warner Brothers bought a couple more to replace their HD-DVD lines. By your reasoning, SUVs are due for a big sales surge, because GM has the ability to make more of them than they do hybrids. Selling FOUR more is hardly a reason to make the claims they did.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Still, how is that a clear sign that Blu-Ray is way ahead when FOUR more production machines were sold? Nowhere in the article does it say four more companies bought them, only that four more were sold. It might be that Warner Brothers bought a couple more to replace their HD-DVD lines. By your reasoning, SUVs are due for a big sales surge, because GM has the ability to make more of them than they do hybrids. Selling FOUR more is hardly a reason to make the claims they did.

They're generally not going to buy the machines unless they have a business need for them, as they are quite expensive. Certainly, you could imply that none of the production units are being used and it's therefore not good for BR, but assuming that they are being used to produce BR discs is a much more likely and plausible scenario. In order to sell BR discs, you have to produce them. The fact that more production units are in the hands of retailers than at a similar time during DVD adoption is a good sign for the BR media.

[KWhit]

Here, I'll blush for you. :redface:

Here, I'll roll my eyes at you. :rolleyes:

[BrianD]

I personally think the production unit sales are not all that telling. When DVDs came along, a number of studios didn't jump to a new format right away. This was a new business model as well as a new movie format. Selling movies directly to consumers at consumer prices the same day that movies became available to rental outlets was a big shift...a complete paradigm shift if you like buzzwords. The jump from DVD to Blu-Ray/HD-DVD was a small shift business-wise. Studios were already used to the idea so jumping to a upgraded format wasn't that big a deal to them. I would expect a faster adoption by the vendors, now we just have to wait and see what consumers are going to do.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

I personally think the production unit sales are not all that telling. When DVDs came along, a number of studios didn't jump to a new format right away. This was a new business model as well as a new movie format. Selling movies directly to consumers at consumer prices the same day that movies became available to rental outlets was a big shift...a complete paradigm shift if you like buzzwords. The jump from DVD to Blu-Ray/HD-DVD was a small shift business-wise. Studios were already used to the idea so jumping to a upgraded format wasn't that big a deal to them. I would expect a faster adoption by the vendors, now we just have to wait and see what consumers are going to do.

From a player standpoint, the numbers tell a similar story. Two years after launch, there were roughly 2,000,000 DVD players sold. Two years after launch, there are just over 6,000,000 Blu-ray players sold.

On the movie sales end, Blu-ray sold the same number of movies in the first 4 months of 2008 as they did in all of 2007. Granted, they didn't have a good 2007 from a movie sales standpoint, so take that number for what it's worth. Blu-ray movie sales now account for 10% of all home movie sales in the U.S. There's also expected to be a 30-40% increase in movies released this year on the format, with Paramount and Warner being the big contributors.

DVD player and movie sales really exploded in the holiday season of 1999, 2 1/2 years after release. This fall is going to be interesting to watch to see if the digital conversion along with the format war being over will create similar explosive growth. Another factor to consider is that the economic downturn is widely predicted to create a home entertainment boom in the coming months as people choose games and movies at home over movie theaters and other outside entertainment. The only way to fully quantify that trend is to watch the sales numbers come in.

[Cringer]

BR is not exploding this year unless those prices come down. Trust me, I am the common man, I know what the common man does.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

BR is not exploding this year unless those prices come down. Trust me, I am the common man, I know what the common man does.

^^^Official purchasing barometer of the U.S. population^^^

:)

[KWhit]

I really don't understand any of these tech debates, like:

BluRay vs HDDVD
PS3 vs 360 vs Wii
Windows vs Mac vs Linux
IE vs Firefox

What makes these happen? Is this just the nerd equivalent of following a favorite sports team, but for people who are aren't into sports?

[BrianD]

I really don't understand any of these tech debates, like:

BluRay vs HDDVD
PS3 vs 360 vs Wii
Windows vs Mac vs Linux
IE vs Firefox

What makes these happen? Is this just the nerd equivalent of following a favorite sports team, but for people who are aren't into sports?

It is part nerd equivalent of following sports team, and part business analysis in an industry people are interested in.

[KWhit]

I get the business analysis part, as I find some of that interesting as well. I just don't get the rooting interest and glee that some people seem to derive from seeing their 'team' win.

[BrianD]

I get the business analysis part, as I find some of that interesting as well. I just don't get the rooting interest and glee that some people seem to derive from seeing their 'team' win.

I think it is just human nature. When people are analyzing something they often tend to take sides based on factors they like or dislike in the companies they are analyzing. I think there is also some factor of people wanting to feel like they made the right decision with their money rather than wasting it so they tend to defend their purchases a bit more. People get passionate about topics they are interested in.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Good to see a Nintendo exec getting in on the 'I should say something stupid' bandwagon. You'd hate to see just Sony and MS execs having all the fun.........

http://kotaku.com/5015733/only-geeks-and-otaku-want-more-wii-memory-space

[Daimyo]

Good to see a Nintendo exec getting in on the 'I should say something stupid' bandwagon. You'd hate to see just Sony and MS execs having all the fun.........

http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=10865&Itemid=51

That's odd... the date on the article is June 11th, but it refers to the "upcoming Nintendo Channel" which was released months ago.

EDIT: What was the stupid comment made by a Nintendo exec in that article?

[Big Fo]

I didn't see one, but a few days ago some suit at Nintendo's European division said that only "geeks and otaku" were concerned about the lack of storage, easily joining "you know, things break", "we want consumers to think to themselves 'I will work more hours to buy one' ", and "if you can find a ps3 that's been on the shelves for more than five minutes I'll give you $1200 for it" as some of the dumbest executive quotes in this console generation.

[cartman]

That's odd... the date on the article is June 11th, but it refers to the "upcoming Nintendo Channel" which was released months ago.

EDIT: What was the stupid comment made by a Nintendo exec in that article?

As long as MBBF puts a ridiculous amount of ellipses and a link, you aren't allowed to question his statement.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

I didn't see one, but a few days ago some suit at Nintendo's European division said that only "geeks and otaku" were concerned about the lack of storage, easily joining "you know, things break", "we want consumers to think to themselves 'I will work more hours to buy one' ", and "if you can find a ps3 that's been on the shelves for more than five minutes I'll give you $1200 for it" as some of the dumbest executive quotes in this console generation.

Yes, that was what I was talking about. I've corrected the link. And you've provided an excellent summary of the other stupid quotes. :)

[Daimyo]

Is it really a stupid, or even false, statement? I wish my Wii had more system memory, but I'm pretty sure I count as a geek. Anyone blogging about the statement or participating in this thread pretty much counts by definition as well. :)

If you asked all Wii owners if they worried about running out of system memory what percentage would say "yes"? What percentage could even tell you what the system memory is used for?

[Big Fo]

Yeah but the people who run out of memory are the people that will make or break WiiWare, and are typically Nintendo's best customers in buying normal retail games. It's just a dumb statement. Nintendo's president, Satoru Iwata, handles the situation better with his statement (and his words mean a lot more, Nintendo is run from Japan and not Europe after all) :

“Statistically speaking, it is true that there are a small number of customers who feel that the flash memory is too small, while many others find that they have plenty of memory,” he continues “However, because this small number of people are none other than the most avid players, we know we have to review the best possible solution to eliminate their inconvenience.”