Nintendo Wii Tops PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 in January

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601204&sid=aeP6KYaQ4o_k&refer=technology

I might post some software numbers later if I can find (and confirm) them. Things are really screwed up this time around in regards to the (official) release of these numbers.

 

They got this in March:



and that's probably about it. Some decent games coming out like Persona 3, and the usual ports (Spiderman 3, Manhunt 2, sports games, GTA, etc.), but the PS2 software is starting to dry up (for US gamers anyway...some releases like Singstar might do well in other regions). I'm assuming Sony doesn't have anything else planned (Jak & Daxter, R&C, SOCOM, whatever), which probably isn't a safe assumption. Possibly 3rd party devs too, but I'm assuming they're more likely to move on to other platforms (DS, 360/PS3, Wii, whatever).

The upcoming games do seem really nice (less of a drought than what the Wii will experience IMO), but I don't know if that will really help. Despite not selling much less than the 360 and having no major releases in January, these sales are terrible. This is pretty much the first month the PS3 has been easily available, and only 2-3 months after launch. The 360 sold like ~250K last year with limited supply and during a 4-week period (these sales are for 5 weeks BTW). The games coming out this month and in the following months might help sales a little bit, but sales were probably helped by similar things in January anyway (most of the sales probably came in the 1st week or so).

Sony better hope that the 360 doesn't start to really pick up steam...don't know how much longer the PS2 can continue to outsell it. That, or hope Europe is crazy enough to buy these things like crazy in order to make up for the difference in sales in the US.

Yeah, Nintendo is very profitable right now. I'd post the "___ prints money" GIFs, but I'm a little busy at the moment.

BTW, if it wasn't obvious, the DS was limited by supply in January (AFAIK). That's why the PSP sales are so close to it (probably the closest they'll be).

Can't recall off the top of my head if Mario Tennis has been confirmed, but Metroid is definitely coming. Should be out by the end of the year IIRC.

 

Yeah, I think that is the latest official word (it was part of their scheduled releases for Q1 2007 IIRC). I heard some rumors that they might delay it to add some things, and I think Reggie said to expect it "sometime after March," so I suppose there is a possibility that might change. Or maybe not. I'm sticking with "2007" just to be safe.

 

Agreed. In fact, while I don't know if they're "important," Q1 sales are usually pretty good for video games. January and March especially. And the summer, on the other hand, is usually pretty bad.

Agree here too. Some nice games coming out soon, but none of them will really push systems by themselves (especially if the games released on the 360 last year are any indication...might even be debatable that Gears was able to push many systems). MotorStorm probably has the best chance, but that would probably depend on it having an excellent online component, and I'm a little skeptical of that being the case based on early reports.

I don't really know enough about the MLB fanbase, but I suppose MLB 07 might move some systems if MLB 2K7 sucks.

Don't really agree here. Xbox could have had the same lead, but if they continued to rely on just one title to push systems, the result would have been largely the same IMO.

If Sony follows a similar plan, then they'll probably not do much better (if at all) than MS did with the Xbox. They've been pretty good at creating a diverse library of quality games, which is definitely what they'll need to do with the PS3 in order to have success (the sooner the better in this case).

That would have been absolutely insane. It is even more impressive when you consider that it is doing equally well in Europe and Japan. On one hand, I'm disappointed that Nintendo is having this many supply issues when it comes to the hardware involved (especially when they're making a profit off of the hardware), but on the other hand, I've been really impressed with how they've been able to handle the global launch. Every region seems to be getting a decent number of systems.

Not sure about those that bought a Wii in January, but I think most of the people who bought a Wii in 06 weren't non-gamers. So they'll probably buy other games, and if the non-gamers don't, it would be difficult to tell (nor would it really matter).

The non-gamers, at the very least, would probably end up buying games like Wii Play (if nothing else, just for the extra controller that can be used with Wii Sports ). It would be interesting to see the software sales for the Wii in the following months for this very reason. It would be great for the industry if we can get some 55 year old moms playing Paper Mario, SSX Blur, Fire Emblem or something like that.


BTW, I think there might be some more numbers later today. Guessing just some software sales for the top 10 games or so.