NCAA Football 07, NSMB, Chromehounds, and 360 Software Tops Sales in July

http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3616&Itemid=2

 

It is based on the movie. I think it is a decent-to-good game IIRC, based on reviews anyway.

I think it was actually released in early June, so it is kind of impressive to still have strong sales in July (although with a name like Cars, that's all you need, especially in the summer).

 

Some extra notes...

The 360 has sold about 2.2M systems so far in the US. The tie-ratio is at 4.61.

By selling 200+K more systems, the DS is extending its lead on the PSP in the US (DS is at ~5.6M, while PSP is at ~4.9M).

NSMB has surpassed 1M in sales in the US, and I believe has sold 4+M WW.

Tekken PSP sold about 33K in 3 days (it came out at the very end of the month). That's probably the only decent-selling PSP game lately (maybe NCAA 07 too, although bug(s) may have killed sales), assuming it keeps that up.

 

You haven't been reading my review threads have you?

Tekken is arguably the best game on the PSP judging from impressions and reviews.

As for NCAA 07, I know that EA is releasing a patch, but that didn't really help sales I imagine. Someone who might have considered buying the PSP version might have decided to get the PS2/XBX/360 version instead (probably PS2/XBX more so than 360 of course).

 

I haven't played it yet (waiting for it to go <$30). It seems like a nice Advance Wars clone, so I'd like to give it a try some time.

 

Here's a big list of sales numbers for various games, all >30K (thanks to bunkum at Neo-GAF):

PS2 NCAA FOOTBALL 07 492k
360 NCAA FOOTBALL 07 332k
NDS NEW SUPER MARIO BROS 300k
PS2 GRAND THEFT AUTO: LIBERTY C 183k
XBX NCAA FOOTBALL 07 145k
PS2 CARS 121k
NDS BRAIN AGE: TRAIN YOUR BRAIN 120k
NDS BIG BRAIN ACADEMY 118k
GBA CARS 115k
360 CHROMEHOUNDS 111k
360 LORD OF THE RINGS: BATTLE F 108k
PS2 FIFA WORLD CUP 2006 105k
PS2 NARUTO: ULTIMATE NINJA 104k
360 PREY 103k
PS2 STAR WARS: BATTLEFRONT II 82k
PS2 GUITAR HERO BUNDLE 80k
PS2 GOD OF WAR 74k
GCN CARS 65k
PS2 GRAND THEFT AUTO: SAN ANDRE 63k
PS2 MIDNIGHT CLUB 3: DUB ED REM 61k
PS2 NFL HEAD COACH 60k
GBA SUPER MARIO ADVANCE 59k
PS2 PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: T 56k
NDS MARIO KART 53k
NDS ANIMAL CROSSING: WILD WORLD 51k
PS2 FIFA SOCCER 06 49k
PS2 MLB '06: THE SHOW 49k
PSP NCAA FOOTBALL 07 49k
NDS CARS 48k
GBA POKEMON EMERALD 48k
PS2 KINGDOM HEARTS II 46k
360 ELDER SCROLLS IV: OBLIVION 45k
PS2 GRAN TURISMO 4 44k
PS2 HITMAN: BLOOD MONEY 44k
PS2 LEGO STAR WARS 43k
PSP VALKYRIE PROFILE: LENNETH 42k
360 FIFA WORLD CUP 2006 42k
360 TOM CLANCY'S GHOST RECON: A 42k
GBA PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: D 40k
PSP PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: D 40k
NDS NINTENDOGS: DACHSHUND & FRI 40k
XBX FIFA WORLD CUP 2006 39k
PS2 KINGDOM HEARTS 39k
360 FIGHT NIGHT ROUND 3 39k
XBX HALO 2 38k
360 OVER G FIGHTERS 38k
360 CALL OF DUTY 2 38k
XBX STAR WARS: BATTLEFRONT II 37k
GCN PAPER MARIO: THOUSAND 36k
NDS METROID PRIME: HUNTERS 36k
PS2 MIDNIGHT CLUB 3: DUB 36k
GCN NARUTO: CLASH OF NINJA 35k
XBX GRAND THEFT AUTO: SAN ANDRE 35k
XBX CARS 35k
GCN SUPER SMASH BRO MELEE 35k
PS2 SUPER DRAGON BALL Z 34k
PS2 MLB SLUGFEST 2006 34k
NDS PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: D 33k
PSP GRAND THEFT AUTO: LIBERTY C 33k
360 HITMAN: BLOOD MONEY 33k
PSP TEKKEN: DARK RESURRECTION 33k
PS2 JAWS UNLEASHED 33k
GCN MARIO KART: DOUBLE 33k
NDS NINTENDOGS: LABRADOR & FRIE 32k
GCN LEGO STAR WARS 32k
PS2 MVP 06 NCAA BASEBALL 32k
NDS SUPER MARIO 64 DS 32k
PSP CARS 30k
GBA YOSHI'S ISLAND:MARIO3 30k
GBA MARIO & LUIGI SAGA 30k
GBA DOGZ 30k
GBA MARIO BROS 3: MARIO 4 30k
NDS NINTENDOGS: CHIHUAHUA & FRI 30k

 

Yeah, this is just US (unless I added worldwide or WW to them like with NSMB). Like 99% of the numbers I use are US.

And the DS puts up those numbers in Japan on a weekly basis (these are for a month).

 

Personally, I don't think there will be a price drop until around next year some time (reasoning at the end of my post if you want to read it). On the other hand, I do think that there will be some Xbox 360 bundles, which wouldn't be too bad (360+game+XBL Gold Membership for X months @ $400 isn't bad). Some retailers will also decide to sell it cheaper than $400 ($300-$350), but you have to make sure to jump on those since the stores are doing those deals and not Microsoft.

You can quit reading now if you just wanted a simple answer....

From what I understand, MS has already lost a LOT of money on the 360, which should be expected I guess. The only reason to price cut anytime soon would be to hurt demand for the Wii and/or PS3 (but both are going to be in short supply so that won't matter much), or to increase demand for the 360 during the holidays (but the lineup is solid enough to do that anyway, especially with bundles). Thanks to improving technology, Microsoft (plus Sony and Nintendo for that matter) will be able to cut down on the costs to produce some of the parts for the system, allowing them to lose a lot less money or even make a small profit on the hardware in early 2007. If they need to, they can THEN put in a price cut for the 360, which would help sales during the slow part of the year, not to mention the fact that it won't cost them as much then as it would now (or sometime in the next few months).

 

I'm not an expert on XBL (especially on the 360), so someone else might be better at answering these questions.

AFAIK, there is a fee for XBL as long as you want to play games online (along with something else I think...forget what.). That's what you get for the Gold Membership, which is like $50 a year I think. You can use XBL for other things without paying anything though. I'm not sure exactly what that would include, but I think you could download demos, trailers, and a couple of other things.

Someone else could give you more specifics about it than I can (how it works and stuff). Pricing might have changed for the Gold Membership, or there might be a deal going on right now too. I'm not sure about that stuff.

 

Overstock.com had some special discounts and online coupons that reduced the price of the 360 to like $306. They took those away, but there are two going on right now that can get you a 360 for about $350-$360.

I haven't really tried either of these myself, but if you click this link, you get $50 off any $400 purchase. The 360 is like $399, so you have to get something else for about a dollar to get both for ~$350 (or you can get something else for the 360 like a controller or game for ~$400 I guess).

If you click this link, you can get 10% off if you're a new customer, which means you can get a 360 for about $360.

I believe those are good until the end of the month (8/31), so you don't have to hurry up and try either one right away.