Official NPD Sales Numbers for July Released (Wii WHOAs, PS3 woes)

[Dire]

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Top 10 SKU's for July
360 NCAA FOOTBALL 08 ELECTRONIC ARTS 1 397k
PS2 GUITAR HERO ENCORE: ROCKS THE 80S ACTIVISION (CORP) 2 339k
WII PLAY W/ REMOTE NINTENDO OF AMERICA 3 278k
PS2 NCAA FOOTBALL 08 ELECTRONIC ARTS 4 236k
WII MARIO PARTY 8 NINTENDO OF AMERICA 5 177k
PS3 NCAA FOOTBALL 08 ELECTRONIC ARTS 6 156k
NDS POKEMON DIAMOND VERSION NINTENDO OF AMERICA 7 144k
PS2 TRANSFORMERS: THE GAME ACTIVISION (CORP) 8 143k
PS2 GUITAR HERO 2 W/GUITAR ACTIVISION (CORP) 9 138k
360 GUITAR HERO 2 W/ GUITAR ACTIVISION (CORP) 10 108k



July Hardware Figures
Wii 425 k
Nintendo DS 405 k
PlayStation 2 222k
PlayStation Portable 214k
Xbox 360 170k
PlayStation 3 159k
Game Boy Advance 87k


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425k Wii's sold is... wow. The PS3's price cut did not pull off the trick: resulting in only a 62% increase in sales (98k for June), failing to surpass the pre Bioshock / pre price cut / etc 360 sales. Really shocking month all around.

[samwallistea]

Wow really terrible figures for PS3, failing to beat the 360 which has been out for a year and a half already. Wii kicking ass!

[Genz]

The Wii and Nintendo DS figures make sense to me. When I waited in a big hardware store for a member of the service crew because I wanted to wise up on the xbox elite, two women cut my line (I let them, because I didn't want someone waiting behind me) holding one of these "brain trainer" games for the DS in their hands, asking: "What do we need to buy to play this game?" They were then sold a Nintendo DS light. It was incredible. The perfect customer. They didn't even ask the guy from the store why he told them that it had an integrated battery (he sneaked it in in a sidenote. It was pretty obvious that he wanted to be able to avoid refund problems because of accu trouble). So there is a whole different target group at work there:

1) Here I am. Trying to find each and every piece of information on a system before I buy it to ensure maximum utility for me. And of course I play shooters, racing games etc.

2) The people who don't give a crap that buy a system for one single game because they saw it on TV or whatever. They don't care if they can hook up their system to their flat screen monitor, if they can use their stereo to play the audio or whatever. These people have no knowledge about electronics at all. And they don't care and they don't need to. Nintendo realized this and got them first. Awesome work.

PS: There are now actually people who complain about this and say that these mini- and party-games esp. on the Wii hurt the gaming industry because they go back to the stoneage of storytelling, character development etc. They say it's like if there were black&white fast forward slapstick movies in cinema again. I think they have a point.

[evil twin]

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PS: There are now actually people who complain about this and say that these mini- and party-games esp. on the Wii hurt the gaming industry because they go back to the stoneage of storytelling, character development etc. They say it's like if there were black&white fast forward slapstick movies in cinema again. I think they have a point.

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Nice post all in, but I would offer that the people who complain in this way have a narrow view of what a game should be.

These proto-games with little story are an entire genre on their own, and many people really want to play this sort of thing. It's not ignorance on my part when I choose these types of game. Obviously I can and do enjoy the more elaborate types of game as well, but there is a strong place for these simpler "games".

I use the quotes because they really are just games, rather than some all encompassing interactive experience.

Also, I really doubt that the money and time spent on creating these types of simple game would be available to channel into more interactive games if the simpler games were to not exist. In fact I would guess that the simpler games are more likely to act as a gateway to other more complex genres over time.

[Soul Daddy]

Genz,

Are you of the mindset that these people you describe in your second example are the only types that would conclude that the Wii and DS are the system that best suits them?

[Genz]

Yeah, I certainly simpliefied the "problem" and I am not 100% sure if I really agree with the author of this opinion. He complained more about the fact that studios like Crytek (Far Cry, Crysis) and probably other studios will now start developping these games with the effect that more elaborate "real" games will end up on the bitter end as a niche product. But since the computer games industry was able to overtake the film industry with "real" games before the wii etc. came out, I hope that it will be a win-win-situation since there will be more cash available in the whole industry. I just wanted to put the idea out there. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[Genz]

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Genz,

Are you of the mindset that these people you describe in your second example are the only types that would conclude that the Wii and DS are the system that best suits them?

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No. Certainly not. I can imagine that there are a ton of gamers that belong in the "first group" that still buy a wii because they say that it's exactly what they want after they did a ton of research. These examples weren't meant as monolith groups. I just wanted to point out that there is a big group of people that would have bought neither system in the past that now just walks up to the counter and says "give me that. I don't care what it costs and what alternatives there are. I want to play bowling with my prosecco intoxicated girlfriends." I'm not hating on the wii. I think it's funny and I might buy one one day for party games etc.

[4 High]

If PS3 could not win this month, i think Sony has to be seriously worried about it right now. We might be seeing Dreamcast 2.0 right now.

[HOWMANY]

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If PS3 could not win this month, i think Sony has to be seriously worried about it right now. We might be seeing Dreamcast 2.0 right now.

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Dreamcast had good games.

[Cry Me A River]

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PS: There are now actually people who complain about this and say that these mini- and party-games esp. on the Wii hurt the gaming industry because they go back to the stoneage of storytelling, character development etc. They say it's like if there were black&white fast forward slapstick movies in cinema again. I think they have a point.


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Yes. Just look how Tetris and Windows Solitaire have completely destroyed development and innovation in video games.