NPD: Too Close For Comfort, Shortages Galore
The NPD was so kind to release their 4-week reporting period for both software and hardware across the consoles tonight. If you think you’ve seen crazy sales before, you certainly haven’t seen anything like January. True, all the systems sold with 34 thousand of one another, but when we are used to the Nintendo DS or Wii consistently outselling the bottom runners at least two times over, something is very, very wrong.
How wrong exactly? Well, take for example that the DS was the fourth selling platform for the month of January, below the PS3, which it managed to outsell the month before by 1.7 million or over four times the difference. Then you can consider that the PS3 is sitting in the second place spot for the month of January, just an uncomfortable 15 thousand below the Wii.
So what went wrong with January? Apparently shortages like crazy. The PS3, PSP and PS2 seem to be at relatively normal levels. We’ve been hearing word that the 360 are under shortages, which certainly is not surprising. We also know shortages are aplenty on both Nintendo consoles as well. Wii’s were being re-directed to Japan by the boatloads to meet supplies for Smash Bros. Brawl. What can we learn from these crazy sales? Not much. You can certainly be pro-active and save supplies, but don’t run to the bunker just yet until we see how things normalize post shortages in February.
- Wii: 274K
- PS3: 269K
- PS2: 264K
- DS Lite: 251K
- PSP: 230K
- Xbox 360: 230K
The software side of things is just as interesting, as the dust didn’t quite settle as predicted. The Wii, DS and 360 all floundered as per normal in the hardware end, but fortunately, while software didn’t fly off the shelf in tremendous numbers, their overall tie ratios received a nice bump, as the top ten shows each of those systems sold way more units of software than hardware.
This week was the official one-year anniversary of Wii Play, and January showcased how the part hardware part software package simply still nominated. It, one whole year later, still managed to actually sell more units total that Wii’s sold in the US. People would still buy controllers anyways, but when you can convince approaching 5 million consumers to pay an extra ten dollars for a small collection of minigames, Nintendo is pulling in the money hand over fist on that one.
January also brought the rock, as Rock Band and Guitar Hero 3 are selling nearly identically. It is very likely however, that Guitar Hero 3 will saturate and decrease shortly, while Rock Band start to track ahead as more supply becomes available. The biggest surprise on the software side of things was how much Super Mario Galaxy dropped. However, that truly is a title that’s purchased along with a system at this point, and when systems increase in February, expect Mario Galaxy to increase along with it.
1. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Xbox 360) – 330.9K
2. Wii Play w/ Remote (Wii) – 298.1K
3. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Wii) – 239.6K
4. Rock Band special edition bundle (Xbox 360) – 183.8K
5. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Xbox 360) – 182.7K
6. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii) – 172K
7. Burnout Paradise (Xbox 360) – 144.1K
8. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PS3) – 140K
9. Mario Party (DS) – 138.5K
10. Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games (DS) – 133K
February 16th, 2008 at 1:35 am
SSBB has sold 840,000 in it’s launch week in Japan, getting to a million after eleven days. And with expectation at a fever pitch it will definitely launch at number one in America and Europe. But will it be one of the biggest games of 2008?