They just got posted at NeoGAF. Quoting sonycowboy here: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=255176 He also had a quote from NPD's Anita Fraizer: Nice sales for Lost Odyssey, all things considered (JRPG selling in the West on a "western" console, not sure if it had much marketing either?). As with last month, the 360 had some supply issues. I think I read something about MS expecting this to continue in March, although they hope to get things straightened out by April. Probably April 29th to be specific.
nice to see ps3 outselling 360. ps2 and ps3 together selling about 600K is also nice. looks like all the doomsayers on ps3 may end up being wrong.
It would appear the rumored shortage of 360's are to blame for the slightly lower NPD sales for Feb...my idea is however that MS might have figured out what is causing the RROD and is with holding stocks until a slow release of the fixed systems. Good for PS3 though, they needed this month bc lord knows the 360 is going to fly off shelves come April 29 and the GTA4 release.
As mentioned a couple of times already, MS had issues supplying 360s to retailers until just recently I believe. Or at least that's what they've said (and they issue the statements right before these numbers get posted too ). I'm pretty sure it is legit though; I haven't bothered checking out stores, but I know they've been out of stock online sometimes, plus anecdotal evidence and all on the Internet. Now I don't know if that would have meant sales would have been that much better. The 360 is selling better now than it was in early 2007 IIRC. IOW, I'm not sure whether they would have had sales of 400K or anything like that had these issues not occurred. The way the PS2 continues to sell, you would probably find PS2+PS3 sales above 500K+ quite a bit, regardless of PS3 sales. That thing is a beast. That could be true, but it was probably just a screw-up (or several screw-ups). Could have been simply an error in calculating how to transition from holiday production to "normal" production. They probably went from producing as many units as they could and airlifting them, and then they tried to scale back the production while no longer airlifting the consoles to get them to retailers ASAP. I think that might have been the "official" reason given by Microsoft, although I might be remembering wrong. Kind of makes sense given that Microsoft is still probably somewhat inexperienced in this area...and actually, experience doesn't always help (see PS2 shortages in 2004 IIRC...although that was with the new PS2 slim model I think). Of course, there are also those that simply thing they're trying to stockpile systems for the release of GTAIV. There are probably plenty of different theories like this (EX: they planned on producing a HD DVD SKU, but scrapped it at the last minute for obvious reasons). This was brought up by sonycowboy at NeoGAF, but while the console war get a lot of attention, the industry as a whole is doing awesome. I already posted some of the numbers he mentioned, but he also pointed out how February sales were higher than any other previous month, not counting Novembers and Decembers (the big months for gaming sales). And again, this is just February, not usually a big month for games. With new releases in franchises like Super Smash Bros., GTA, MGS, Gran Turismo, etc., already being released or releasing soon, seems like things should only improve. And that's just looking at the software side of things.
So here is the official response from MS concerning the supply issues: http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9548&Itemid=2 A bit more at the link. I checked out the responses from the big three, which had a little bit of more info (mostly from MS and Sony since Nintendo didn't have much to day): From Sony: From Microsoft: From Nintendo: Some random analyst's opinion: http://www.gamedaily.com/articles/n...le-ground-on-xbox-360-price-cut-needed/?biz=1 And finally, some extra sales numbers from February: WII NO MORE HEROES - ~35K WII DRAGON QUEST SWORDS - ~15K NDS PROFESSOR LAYTON MYST VILLAGE - ~90K NDS ADVANCE WARS DAYS OF RUIN - ~50K 360 FRONTLINES FUEL OF WAR - ~100K PSP WIPEOUT PULSE - ~10K (PSP piracy sure does hurt ) LTDS: WII WII PLAY W/ REMOTE - ~4.7 million WII GUITAR HERO III: LEGENDS OF ROCK - ~1.72 million WII NO MORE HEROES - ~100K NDS MARIO AND SONIC: OLYMPIC GAMES - ~340K NDS ADVANCE WARS DAYS OF RUIN - ~130K 360 CALL OF DUTY 4: MODERN WARFARE - ~3.60 million 360 ROCK BAND - ~1.12 million
its still there screw up by microsoft though which resulted in good PS sales as a whole. and this is before metal gear and final fantasy which between them will sell a few million units. im just tired of my friends that deem there selves as "video game experts" saying ps3 has no chance and is a massive failure. so i cheer them on
I don't think the supply issues were anywhere near as bad in February as they were in January. But who knows. Guess we'll see what everyone has planned for Spring. And more than half a million units in freakin' February for the DS. That's insane.
It's a shame too because the PSP really is a real good system. I hope the PSP doesn't suffer the same fate as the Dreamcast which also had huge piracy issues. If you own a PSP, or have forgotten about it, this is the month to put some time in on it as God Of War, Patapon, WipeOut Pulse and Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core have released in this last few weeks or will release soon (all top quality games). Not to mention other good games like MLB07, Pursuit Force:Extreme Justice and Wild Arms XF. And if you are going to just pirate(steal) them, remember that if people don't buy the games, there is no incentive for anyone to make new games.
that supply issue from MS is a bunch of BS. EVERYWHERE I WENT had an abundance of 360's...all three sku's. I mean where are these guys basing this info on? A Walmart in BFE South Dakota?
a few stores from one market = rest of the world and online distribution? The shortage was in the first week and a half of Feb...I can remember early in Feb late Jan I went to 3 different Sams Clubs, 2 in Houston 1 in SA and all were out of Xbox's. Same with the TRU in my neighborhood. As a stock holding company I am sure it is against some sort of policy to lie about things in a press release.
If this really is the year for the PS3, there will be plenty of chances later in the year for the PS3 to outsell the 360 (in the US) w/o Microsoft having any supply issues. Even then, a ~25K lead isn't really that much to be proud of, especially given how far back the PS3 is in the US. With margin of error and all that good stuff, you could probably have them selling roughly the same. Of course, as pointed out by how well the industry is doing, it would be difficult for all the players involved not to be having some sort of success here. If the current trends kept up, all 3 would be profitable and would probably more or less accomplish what they were supposed to accomplish. They can probably stretch the truth though. I think Sony was saying they were having supply issues with the PS3 long into the 2007 year, even though it seemed pretty easy to find one. The lack of supply (true or not) certainly didn't seem to have any effect on sales in that situation, and I'm guessing it probably didn't affect things too much in this situation (the 360 may have been able to sell more than the PS3 though if that is the all-important goal here).
