December 2008 Console Sales Numbers (lol what recession)
 

December numbers and top ten are out. NPD figures are USA only as always.

Hardware: ....... December ..... November.... Lifetime

Nintendo DS .......3.04M........1.57M.. ... .... ... 27.4m
Wii .................2.15M...........2.04M...... ..... 17.6m
Xbox 360 ..........1.44M..........836k... .... ... 13.8m
PSP ..................1.02M......... 421k........... 14.2m
PlayStation 3 .......726k.........378k........ ... 6.8m
PlayStation 2 .......410k........206k..... ...... 43.4m


Software:

WII PLAY W/ REMOTE ................. ............ 1.46M
360 CALL OF DUTY: WORLD AT WAR ..... ...... 1.33M
WII FIT W/ BALANCE BOARD ............ .......... 999K
WII MARIO KART W/ WHEEL ............ ........... 878K
WII GUITAR HERO WORLD TOUR .... .............. 859K
360 GEARS OF WAR 2 ................ ............... 745K
360 LEFT 4 DEAD .................... ................. 629K
NDS MARIO KART .................... ................. 540K
PS3 CALL OF DUTY: WORLD AT WAR ..... ....... 533K
WII ANIMAL CROSSING: CITY FOLK .... .... ..... 497K

Top 10 Games of Calendar Year 2008

1. Wii Play w/ remote - Wii – Nintendo ............... 5.28 million
2. Mario Kart Wii w/ wheel – Wii – Nintendo .......... 5.00 million
3. Wii Fit w/ balance board – Wii – Nintendo ........ 4.53 million
4. Super Smash Bros. Brawl - Wii – Nintendo ........ 4.17 million
5. Grand Theft Auto IV - Xbox 360 – Take-Two ......... 3.29 million*
6. Call of Duty: World at War - Xbox 360 – Activision .... 2.75 million*
7. Gears of War 2 - Xbox 360 – Microsoft .............. 2.31 million*
8. Grand Theft Auto IV - PS3 – Take-Two ............ 1.89 million*
9. Madden NFL '09 - Xbox 360 – Electronic Arts ...... 1.87 million*
10. Mario Kart - DS – Nintendo ...................... 1.65 million

2008 Hardware sales:


DS ............ 9.951 mil
PSP ,......... 3.829 mil
360 ............ 4.735 mil
PS3 ............ 3.544 mil
Wii ............. 10.171 mil

Overall industry performance:


NPD Statement:


- Nintendo DS is the new record holder for most sales in one month, taking that mantle from the PS2

- I think the Wii numbers could have been closer to the DS if supply issues weren't still present two years after launch. Considering that December was a five week month compared to November's four, weekly sales actually declined this month.

- It's pretty amazing that years after release Mario Kart DS still made the top ten for 2008.

- I give an over-under of seven posts before someone bitches about Wii Play's presence in the charts

- Not too many people seem bothered about CoD's return to World War II. Still though, next fall's Modern Warfare 2 (made by COD4's Infinity Ward instead of Treyarch) could sell over ten million.

- Mario Kart Wii was so close to beating GTA4, PS360 versions combined. It will win the battle for limetime sales going by the massive legs of the DS game and assuredly sold more worldwide.

- Music games continue to sell best on the Wii

- Does Nintendo really want to bring the DSi over so soon? Even at $180?

- Left 4 Dead is a smash hit. Shame we don't get numbers for how well it sold over Steam.

- Hopefully in the next day or two a top 20 or top 10 by platform comes out. I want to see how Wii Music, LittleBigPlanet, Rock Band 2, and a few others did.

Square's CEO announced that Final Fantasy XIII wouldn't hit the US until April of '10 at the earliest.

Final Fantasy: You Won't Play Final Fantasy XIII Until 2010

FF fanboys and fangirls across the country are either weeping or looking to sign up for Japanese lessons.

The DS has massive supply issues around the holidays usually as well. Assuming sales for the DSi count towards the DS totals, the thing could easily do 60 million.

So let me get this straight.

The Wii out sells the 360 2-1
The 360 out sells the PS3 2-1.

Yet the PS3 is making a triumphant comeback and turns the corner in 2009.

Zat right?

Even better, the Xbox 360 sold as many units in December as the PS3 sold in December and November combined.

Where's that screencap of Arthur and the Black Knight?

I might do both.... :(


Actually, I still have FF12 to play, plus the Xenosaga series, plus the Kingdom Hearts series... I also never finished Assassin's Creed or Mass Effect. Lots of unfinished games I don't really have the time to play.

How many kids woke up Christmas morning and whined "Mooooom, I said PS THREE, not TWOOOOOO". Apparently about 600k or so.

Actually, just, damn.

Xbox 360 sold 1.44 million units in December. Nothing compared to the Wii, but still respectable.

Here's how far back you have to go with the PS3 to get that:

December: 726k
November: 378k
October: 190k
September: 232k
Total: 1,526,000

if you take 75% of those September sales, add 'em to the rest, you get 1,468,000 which is about as close as I care to try and get. So basically, Microsoft shifted as many units in one month as Sony did in 3.75 months.

2009 is going to be ugly if something doesn't change in a hurry, either economically or price-wise.

The thing that pisses me off is how Nintendo will take a game like Mario Kart and suck it dry for 5 years and never need to upgrade it. I enjoyed the hell out of the DS version and would love to have a new one. But it doesn't make sense for them when the old one does so well. Just very frustrating as a consumer to me.

And the new Pokemon comes out in March. It should do some huge numbers. Especially since its only one game instead of the normal 2 versions.

Why act like this is some kind of break news story though? You could buy a 360 for half the price during that whole time. Full year numbers aren't that far apart from each other (they are I guess, but I thought the gap was wider since the 360 fanboys toot their own horns so much) to me.

:eek: :eek: :eek:


I'm not sure I really want Nintendo working on yearly (or even every other year) sequels to Mario Kart, as much as I love the series.

Then there's the people who complain that Nintendo is already too reliant on Mario, Zelda, Pokemon, etc.

I do wish they had enough internal storage to support patching some of their games (like Brawl's laggy online) or downloadable tracks for Mario Kart or things like that.

A little different, top tens by revenue instead of unit sales:

December:

1. Wii Fit – Wii
2. Guitar Hero World Tour – Wii
3. Wii Play w/Remote – Wii
4. Call of Duty: World at War – Xbox 360
5. Mario Kart – Wii
6. Gears of War 2 – Xbox 360
7. Rock Band 2 – Xbox 360
8. Left 4 Dead – Xbox 360
9. Call of Duty: World at War – PlayStation 3
10. Rock Band 2 – Wii

2008:

1. Rock Band – Multiple Platforms
2. Wii Fit – Wii
3. Guitar Hero World Tour – Multiple Platforms
4. Grand Theft Auto IV – Multiple Platforms
5. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock – Multiple Platforms
6. Mario Kart – Wii
7. Madden NFL 09 – Multiple Platforms
8. Wii Play w/ Remote – Wii
9. Call of Duty: World at War – Multiple Platforms
10. Super Smash Brothers: Brawl – Wii


One of these consoles was preceded by the XBox and the other was preceded by the PS2. This is a big part of why people are still blown away by the 360's success relative to the PS3. Even after their disastrous launch and 2007 I don't think many folks anticipated the 360 not only padding it's lead over the PS3 but doubling them up in the crucial holiday season.

Heck, as of June the PS3 was ahead for the year. The price drop to $199 was huge for Microsoft.

Xbox 360: 4,735,400 (1,341,000 in the first half and 3,394,400 in second half)
PlayStation 3: 3,544,900 (1,608,100 in first half and 1,936,800 in second half)

Compare the numbers to last year's holiday season

Wii (Nov 2007, Dec 2007) 981k + 2.47mil = 3.451mil
Wii (Nov 2008, Dec 2008) 2.04mil + 2.15mil = 4.19mil
A gain of 739k

360 (2007) 770k + 1.26mil = 2.03mil
360 (2008) 836k + 1.44mil = 2.276mil
A gain of 246k

PS3 (2007) 466k + 798k = 1.264mil
PS3 (2008) 378k + 726k = 1.104mil
A loss of 160k

The PS3 is the only one down for both holiday shopping months, and the one month the Wii is down was more than made up for by the other.

(A look at the DS vs. PSP shows the same. DS sold more than last year, PSP sold less than last year)

I'm with Big Fo. I'd rather Big N not turn into EA- I'm ok with 1 release of each major franchise per generation. The Mario Kart numbers really did stand out on that list as it came out before Christmas of '05 (14.2M LTD, up to 22nd all time) and it's still on the top 10 for 2008. But it really is that good- snaking aside, it might have the best play control of any in the Mario Kart series and some great tracks.

As long as generations are 5-7 years long, the most I want to see a game per generation is 2- one early-ish and another as the last games of the gen, like what the N64 did with Zelda or the original XBox did with Halo. That way each is a quality game- quality not quantity is what matters.

Also, Pokemon is not a "new game", per se. It's an enhanced version of the last set of 2 so it won't do insane numbers, just big ones. If you want comparisons:

Red/Blue(/Green) 31.3M
Yellow 14.6M

Gold/Silver 23.1M
Crystal 6.39M

Ruby/Sapphire 15.4M
Emerald 6.3M

Diamond/Pearl 17.4M
Platinum ?? (2.3M in Japan, so far)

SI

We're just throwing it back in the face of you-know-who and all the analysts he quoted saying how Sony would catch Microsoft in worldwide sales this year, and how they continued to do so as Sony stayed behind the curve of how much more they had to sell to meet those goals, and then just got really quiet when Microsoft cut the price and jumped right back on top and buried Sony. Even AFTER Blu-Ray won the war. That's all. Just a bit of "we told you so" and "cut the spin, k, 'cause you're full of it?" I think.

He'll still spin it as just a price issue. Nevermind that he didn't qualify his remarks about the Tsunami that the PS3 was going to become in any way. Also, most people are not buying the arcade version and therefore most are paying much more than "half" of a PS3 when they buy their 360.

Did he ever check that final polling data?

In last month's thread someone brought up a PS3/Gamecube comparison.

26 months after launch:

Wii: 17.54m
X360: 9.12m
PS3: 6.79m

PS2: 12.99m
Xbox: 7.68m
GCN: 6.73m

GBA: 14.71m
NDS: 9.13m
PSP: 7.41m



:lol:

Although that thread is dead, it still lives on in our memories. Only 22 more months until midterm elections!

That is a startling compirson considering what an epic failure the GCN was considered to be by many (altough I think that was a bit overblown).

Yes, I actually knew this well when I asked the question.

anti-MBBF guys = MBBF

So that's like saying:

If MBBF = x

Then

-x = x

Which I think if we solve for x means:

x = 0

MBBF is a zero.

Gotcha.

it was my understanding there would be no math

we're text sim grognards. OF COURSE THERE WILL BE MATH!

I don't know if I'd call it a breaking news story.

What it is, on the other hand, is a little bit startling to me. I knew that the PS3 was lagging the 360, even on a month-to-month basis. I have not expected that the PS3 was going to imminently close that gap, and for a while I've sort of treated the situation as one where Sony was making up the global gap over in Japan, although more slowly than they needed to.

What IS news to me is the idea that Microsoft sold as many units in one month as Sony did in almost four. That's not "Xbox 360 outsells PS3, old news," that's "holy crap, in the busiest period of the year, that was the best Sony could do?"

And yes, price and economy and all of that, but still. Sony needed four months to match Microsoft's December, and MSFT got to throw the rest of that holiday season in the bank, essentially. Is that news? No, maybe not.

But is it startling? I sure as hell think so. That's a gap growing at a much faster rate than I would have ever guessed.

Still made Nintendo a profit which is more than Microsoft could say last generation...

SI

Let's not forget that PS3 complete domination of Xbox 360 in Japan is no longer a given. The XBox 360 outsold the PS3 for six straight weeks in Japan through the end of October

Agreed. Like I said, I think the ide that the GCN bombed was overblown.

Top 20 and top 10 by platform (even GameBoy Advance):


Platform breakdown:

Wii - 9
360 - 5
NDS - 4
PS3 - 1
PS2 - 1

Going by Nintendo's PR, seven of the 21-30 ranked games are on DS or Wii.

I cringe when I see Madden 09 on any of the charts.

Well, when the January numbers come out, I've added one to the PS3 totals tonight. (picked one up from Dell) So, that completes the trifecta...

I don't get why Link's Crossbow Training made the list, but I am glad to see some decent 3P numbers on the Wii at 8-10 (and, of course, GH:World Tour)

SI

The 'easy' answer is that LCT is bundled in with the Wii Zapper, and that we had a run on those at Best Buy in December.

WHY we had a run on them in December, I'm not sure. Cheap, easy accessory to add for families who already had a Wii might be part of it. Enough teens/young adults came in looking for them as well that I'm curious whether there might not be some kind of system exploit related to the game, although I can't find anything along those lines using almighty Google.

Amazon is selling 12 month Xbox Live Gold memberships for only $30. That is a pretty good deal for those looking to upgrade.

Amazon.com: Used and New: Xbox 360 Live 12 Month Gold Card plus 1 Month Bonus

Thanks cartman. Been looking for a good deal on a Live membership and that's very good.

My PS3 came yesterday (purchased Stargate at Wal-mart on Blu-ray for $10 and The Show 08' and Metal Gear 4).

My initial reaction was I felt like one of the apes from Space Odyssey with the 1x2x3 black monoliths. I was picking it up and looking around thinking "Where the F is the damn eject button!"

My initial thoughts on Blu-Ray. While I don't think it is a huge step forward from VHS to DVD, I think it does result in a nice cleaner image. Maybe if images were side by side I'd see a huge difference, but I was playing Stargate on a regular DVD and on Blu-Ray and hopping back and did see the difference. Although, I don't have it hooked to HDMI right now. Also, Stargate didn't have any bells and whistles to it and was just a pretty basic disk.

You can see the difference, I did that as well. Also, once I hooked up an HDMI (via my TVs DVI connection) I flipped from the RCA connection to the HDMI/DVI connection and saw a nice difference. Even without doing that I saw a huge difference on my one game when I hooked up the HDMI.

Are you at least hooked up via component video to an HDTV?

If you aren't, you're going to be viewing it at 480i, which is going to make it tough to see any difference.

The ps3 comes with composite cables I believe.. so if you haven't went out and purchased an HDMI cable yet.. run! Then you'll see a difference!

Buy an hdmi at wal mart and then order one at monoprice. When it arrives, return the HDMI back to wal mart. They take back anything.

This just in: Kaz Hirai is smoking the good stuff and won't share with anyone.

"This is not meant in terms of numbers, or who's got the biggest install base, or who's selling most in any particular week or month, but I'd like to think that we continue official leadership in this industry," Hirai told Official PlayStation Magazine.

"It's difficult to talk about Nintendo, because we don't look at their console as being a competitor. They're a different world, and we operate in our world - that's the kind of way I look at things.

"And with the Xbox - again, I can't come up with one word to fit. You need a word that describes something that lacks longevity," he added with a laugh.

"We don't provide the 'easy to program for' console that [developers] want, because 'easy to program for' means that anybody will be able to take advantage of pretty much what the hardware can do, so then the question is what do you do for the rest of the nine-and-a-half years?" explained Hirai.

Well, I guess if you exclude Nintendo and Xbox360 from the discussion, then the PS3 is leading the industry by default (as long as you also exclude portables and last generation consoles too).

At least we finally get an admission about how hard it is to program...

That is one the the dumbest quotes I've ever read.

I can't be the only one who had the line from Billy Madison running through his head when he read that:

Also one of my favorite quotes from a movie- has so many uses :)

SI

I realize that this post is relatively useless as gstelmack isn't interested in full discussion of the topic, but this post shows just how long he has not been paying attention to the conversations in these threads. Much of what was said in regards to sales predictions earlier this year was based on the common sense ideal that Sony would capitalize on the momentum that it had in the first 7-8 months of this year and move to cut the price of the system by $100, bottom line be damned. Most of those predictions were relatively spot on. Their faulty assumption was that Sony would make a good decision to further the PS3 sales and influence. They did the exact opposite.

Sony is talking a lousy game right now. The recent comments by Hirai only further emphasize the executive disconnect with the consumers. Those comments were all kinds of stupid.

But that's part of the problem. Factored in with the skepticism of the predictions was Sony's unwillingness to make the hard decisions when it came to price cuts. The only thing that Sony has shown this generation is an ability to screw up. We all thought it was pretty silly to make predictions that were centered around that completely changing.

It certainly seems like Sony is entirely tone deaf in their pricing of the PS3, but is there any solid business reason for Sony's apparent obstinance?

Well, the 2 billion $ loss last quarter would be sound reasoning, but at some point, you have to spend money to make money. It doesn't matter whether you overengineered your console resulting in a high price point. The console DESPARATELY needs a $100 price cut.