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NPD Reports November Console Sales
Posted by
Zonk
on Fri Dec 08, 2006 11:46 AM
CBackSlash writes "Joystiq has a summary of the NPD console sales numbers for November 2006. The big headline is that the industry overall was up 34 percent to $1.7 billion. But the smaller headlines are probably more interesting for us: PS3 only shipped 197k, while the XBox 360 had 511k, and the Wii had a very respectable 476k. However, all of the new consoles were outsold by the lowly PS2 (664k) and DS Lite(641k)." These are a more detailed set of numbers than those we discussed on Wednesday.
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Game Consoles Sell Over 3.2 Million Units in November 95 comments
Ground Glass writes "While there wasn't any question that November was going to be a huge month for gaming (what with those two consoles coming out and all), it's still impressive to see the numbers. In short, Nintendo's DS was the big winner with over 600,000 units sold, though the Wii and Xbox 360 also each broke half a million. The PS3 probably came in at around 200K all told for the month. Convert those numbers into dollars and you're looking at one very fat and happy industry." From the Next Generation article: "In its monthly report analyst Arcadia Investment says console sales in November topped 3.2 million units. Arcadia says hardware sales increased by at least 50% year on year, with software up about 20%. Retail dollars increased by about 25-30% to about $1.6 billion, compared to $1.3 billion in November 2005. "
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Games: Fallout From the November Console Wars 182 comments
All three 'next generation' consoles are out, and we can finally stop using that term. The NPD numbers for last month have been released, and there's plenty of information there to discuss. Analysts have already made some observations, with brandintel specifically pointing out the Xbox 360's 'surprising' role in last month's fight. For some more well-reasoned thought, Dean Takahashi's take is the place to turn: "At this rate, Microsoft isn't going to hit its goal of 10 million units by year end ... Sony's number is consistent with its warnings, but 197,000 is worse than what many expected ... the fair fight is really going to be what happens in the year 2007, when all three console makers should be able to ship as many consoles as consumers want. To me, this looks like consumers are hit with a case of sticker shock. The mass market is paying for cheap PS2s, DS Lites, and GBAs." Despite the Wii's success last month, it should be noted that Nintendo is no longer bragging of 1 Million units in the U.S. by the end of the year. So, essentially, it looks like all three companies will fail to hit their console goals for the year.
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Games: The November Videogame Market By the Numbers 57 comments
Along with the news that more than half of the US is playing games, the November NPD numbers offer an interesting insight into the games industry. The ongoing console war was white hot, with record hardware sales. The Wii outsold the PS3 by half a million systems last month, and is quickly gaining on the Xbox 360's total sales figures. The big winners last month were software publishers, though, with a record $1.3 billion in sales. "Obviously Call of Duty 4 performed well on both the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3. It is now second only to Halo 3 for first-month sales numbers on the Xbox 360. On the PlayStation 3 no other game has launched as well as Call of Duty 4 in November. Super Mario Galaxy performed extremely well for its first month. Two new properties - Assassin's Creed and Mass Effect - sold well enough to make the top 10. Across both platforms, Assassin's Creed was actually the second best selling game of the month. It is amusing to note that despite the unprecedented Nintendo DS and PSP sales, no game for either system sold well enough to make the top 10 software list for November."
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Only one glaring issue. (Score:2)
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The NPD uses statistical sampling to include these sales.
Look, people. There's a weird and wacky theory out there that's now almost accepted as fact by many that says that NPD reports are inaccurate because only a few stores participate. The thinking further goes that this means the remaining stores, including Wal-Mart, are not counted at all. This is not true.
Last time I looked at an actual NPD report, around 70% of the industry was directly tracked. The res
Re:Only one glaring issue. (Score:4, Interesting)
Years ago I heard that Nintendo was far more successful at selling their product in Walmart than they were at Bestbuy/EBgames whereas Sony was far more successful in Bestbuy/EBGames as compared to Walmart; this was because the Gamecube was a less expensive system that targeted families (which fit Walmart like a glove) and the PS2 was more expensive and targeted single males (which suited Bestbuy/EBgames). If this is true, this would mean that Nintendo would lose more "sales" by not including Walmart in your study than Sony would.
By the way
Parent
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D
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In my area I have about 5 stores that carry games and gaming produc
Re:Only one glaring issue. (Score:5, Insightful)
Which personality type do you think is more likely to make their purchase online? and which personality type do you think is more likely to go down to the store? Obviously launch window antics change things a bit where the more hardcore gamers come out of the woodwork and get their goods which ever way they can. But my point is where and how people make their purchases is largely determined by which experience best suits them. It would be foolish to think that those same personality traits that determine how a person likes to buy their games wouldn't also determine which games they buy.
Why don't you go to a knitting class and ask the members what they thought of the football game last night. Do you think you'd get a response that accurately represented the feelings of all football fans? What if you polled every knitting class in the country? Would that be any better? What if you asked the people in the class whether they preferred gardening or motor sports? While I'm sure you'll find at least some motor sport fans chances are the same personality types that bring people to knitting classes instead of watching football are the same personality types that would have more interest in gardening then in motor sports.
Don't you think it's foolish to assume that every group of people would be equally represented when the sampling is always only taken from a very specific area?
Parent
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I wonder if Sony has the same genius plan...or if anyone is accusing them of it.
DS sales total 918k, not 661k (Score:5, Informative)
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Before saying "Only" (Score:4, Interesting)
They are selling everything they can (Score:2)
The XBox 360 numbers actually probably mean something because they aren't constrained by lack of supply.
So, Nintendo shipped more Wii units than Sony could ship PS3s. That's good for Nintendo because you have to strike while the iron is hot - meaning that right now people want to buy PS3s. It is less clear that the demand for PS3 will continue unabated in the future.
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I might be misreading this, but you make it look like there is some odd causal relationship here. People are buying Wiis, therefore they want PS3s. This doesn't make any sense the way I'm reading it, people are buying Wiis because they want Wiis, and people are buying PS3s because they want PS3s, granted some people might be buying Wiis because there are no PS3s (not that a Wii is eas
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What matters here is how sizeable that number is. If it's large, the 360 will pick up a lot of sales that it wouldn't otherwise have gotten since they're the console in most abundance - well, or maybe the PS2 or the DS because those are so much less expensive and thus easier to justify as an alternati
197k PS3's seems right on target (Score:2)
Somehow the poster decides to say Sony *only* sold 197k as if that had anything at all to do with demand. They essentially sold exactly the number of PS3's they had available.
What is most telling is that demand for next generation systems is high this holiday season. The Wii and PS3, more or less sold out based on the supply they could get.
Re:197k PS3's seems right on target (Score:5, Informative)
Somehow the poster decides to say Sony *only* sold 197k as if that had anything at all to do with demand. They essentially sold exactly the number of PS3's they had available.
What is most telling is that demand for next generation systems is high this holiday season. The Wii and PS3, more or less sold out based on the supply they could get.
May 9, 2006
Kutaragi also took the time to comment on Sony's shipping targets for the system. SCE plans to have two million units available at launch (the Japanese press reports this as the initial shipment figure for the system, and not a number that will be gradually released over a launch window), with another two million by the end of the year and two million more before the end of March 2007.
http://ps3.ign.com/articles/706/706133p1.html [ign.com]
After that Sony changed their estimates to 400,000 in North America at launch (100,000 in Japan) with 2 Million shipped worldwide by the end of the year
After that Sony changed their estimates to 400,000 in North America at launch (100,000 in Japan) with 1 Million shipped to North America by the end of the year
If they shipped 200,000 in North America (80,000 in Japan) they are so far off of their targets that it isn't even funny anymore
Parent
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You're right, its not funny. Its hilarious!
In seriousness, this was not a launch. The PS3 did not launch. Its a fucking open beta, or something. If the rocket fails to lift off but instead rolls off the pad, I don't think you can use that word. 200k units is nothing.
(But lets watch. As a long time Sony observer, I do have to admit that historically they do great when th
Nintendo Sales (Score:5, Interesting)
* DS: 918k
* PS2: 664k
* Game Boy Advance: 661k
* Xbox 360: 511k
* Wii: 476k
* PSP: 412k
* PS3: 197k
Software Sales (units and sales grossed)
* Gears of War: 1 million -- $61.5 million
* Final Fantasy XII: 896k -- $49 million
* The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess: 412k -- $20.2 million
* Guitar Hero II: 356k -- $20.2 million
All very interesting, but what I want to know is: Who are these 64 thousand new Wii owners who didn't pick up twilight princess? For Shame.
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Nintendo: 2055K consoles sold
Sony: 1253 consoles sold
MS: 511K consoles sold
Looks like we have a clear winner, in terms of units shipped. Next months numbers will be even more interesting.
how can i get a wii (Score:2)
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Well, these are for the month of November, of which the console only launched halfway through. If 5K is accurate, then they're more than exceed 1m by the end of the year. At that rate, I think we're looking at 1.5m units sold by that time. Still, 1.5m units for one of the most anticipated consoles ever, is pretty scarce, so you're going to have to put a little energy and thought into planning how you're going to get it.
Start talking with sales staff at your local box stores. I say screw Gamestop, they're
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At Gamestop, I walked into the store a week or so before the launch and asked the guy behind the counter if they were reserving Wii's fo
Try next Christmas (Score:2)
Play independent games on your PC for twelve months, and stores should become much better stocked.
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Ever consider, perhaps, the concept of putting a little 8.5"x11" piece of paper on the front window? I
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While it's a simple question,
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Joystiq had a followup to this... (Score:2)
It's not every day that a major video game company tells you not to listen to what it says, but that's just what Nintendo did today. Yesterday, the company issued a press release trumpeting NPD sales figures that showed healthy Wii and DS sales. The release also promised "well more than a million" Wii systems would be on U.S. store shelves by the end of the year, despite what the release called "spot shortages in some l
Ouch (Score:2)
Remember, these are November sales. In the eleven days for which the Wii was "available" in November, it almost caught up with what the Xbox 360 did in thirty?
And note the quotes I put around "available." I've still never seen a Wii in the wild. In the local Best Buy, they have goofy Wii "protection kits" (that come in boxes at around the right size, shape and markings to pass off as a Wii) stacked up under the Wii demo endcap in an e
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The "PSP is neck-and-neck wi
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If you want to go that route, why is the PS2 or the GBA still outselling it?
"Microsoft has already shipped 10 million 360's"
No, they've shipped 8 million, more or less. 10 million is their stated goal for next March.
"Yeah people want to buy PS3 and Wii, but if they're not available they buy a 360 instead."
Would you get a PS3 or a Wii if you had your heart set on Gears of Wa
Timescale? (Score:2)
So, if you would do some honest statistics, and compare only days where all systems were actually available, those numbers would look just slightly different, probably with the 360 coming in third instead of first...
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We are seeing the PS2 still doing staggering sales (this is segnificant, as normaly the last gen will drop off rather quickly, however the PS2 is still just pickign up steam). Infact, I tihnk the PS2 has been one of "The Hot" items for the past few holiday seasons, something that is rather impressive for a video game system that is relatively old.
So all in all, the point is that we that are interested in t
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It's all about games. If the 360 had a higher density of t
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However that is the interestign thing, there are ALOT of very good games that have just come out for the PS2 (Guitar Hero2, FFXII, Okami etc), and some more still to come(God of War 2).
The thing that is really strange to me is the lack of games for the PS3, yet a glut of great games for the PS2. IT is interesting. It could also be sound marketing. the PS3 boasts full backwards compatability, so these are games that PS3 owners can pick up and play on their shiney new system, thus cr