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The Almighty Buck Entertainment Games

NPD Reports November Console Sales 82

Posted by Zonk
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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NPD Reports November Console Sales More

NPD Reports November Console Sales

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    • "A lot"? What else, other than online? Online is a fraction of actual console sales, so you can happily discard those as still have meaningful numbers. So what else is being omitted?

      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        by __aaclcg7560 ( 824291 )
        IIRC, The NPD doesn't report Wal-Mart sales. Either way, take with a grain of salt.
        • You can still look at the percentages. I expect that their sample is large enough to be statistically significant even without Wal-Mart and online sales (do people who shop at Wal-Mart have that different purchasing stratergies to everyone else?)

          • Re:Only one glaring issue. (Score:4, Interesting)

            by HappySqurriel ( 1010623 ) on Friday December 08, 2006 @01:26PM (#17164022)
            Acutally, I could be wrong but I suspect that not including Walmart would skew the results ...

            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 ... I'm saying Nintendo sold a greater percentage of there consoles at Walmart, not that Nintendo outsold Sony at Walmart
        • IIRC, The NPD doesn't report Wal-Mart sales.

          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: (Score:2, Interesting)

        by Manmademan ( 952354 )
        "A lot"? What else, other than online? Online is a fraction of actual console sales, so you can happily discard those as still have meaningful numbers. So what else is being omitted?
        NPD figures do not include Walmart either, which does have meaningful numbers, but AFAIK no one console dramatically outsells the others there, so it's more or less a wash and the numbers are useful.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Azarael ( 896715 )
      With so many 're-sales' I'm sure that including online data wouldn't be much more useful. The shipment numbers in the summary seem pretty consistant with what has been reported on /. and elsewhere anyway. If that is the case, then where would online sales have room to fit in?
    • I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that ignoring online sales would have an effect fairly proportional to the number of units sold "on the ground." I'm open to the idea that it might have a skewing effect, but I'd need to see a decent rationale for why.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Sparr0 ( 451780 )
        The same reason excluding people who dont answer phone surveys from political polling skews those results. There is no way you can quantify all the possible correlations between online purchasing habits and console preference, but I guarantee they dont all balance out.
      • The newer systems may not have even been made available online in any meaningful quantity. I checked at a couple of randomly selected online stores when the hype began and noticed that to get a PS3 you'd pretty much better try braving winter's chill since you won't be able to find one online.

        D

    • but 90% of those online sales are just people buying the flipped consoles on ebay!
      • I would imagine that by "online sales" they're referring to stores like amazon.com, tigerdirect.com etc. For all intents an purposes eBay is a 2nd hand market and I doubt many people would question those figures not being included. Stores like Amazon however do have a significant impact. Add to that the fact that Walmart.com and most definitely the brick and mortar Walmart stores probably make up a larger percentage than any other entity.

        In my area I have about 5 stores that carry games and gaming produc

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by Thraxen ( 455388 )
          But would you expect the ratio of console sales overall to differ online compared to in stores? That's the important factor. I'd expect the ratios to remain fairly consistent and thus if you included online sales I would expect all the sales numbers to go up, but I wouldn't expect any one console to make statistically signifcant gains in units sold on any other console.

          • Re:Only one glaring issue. (Score:5, Insightful)

            by twistedsymphony ( 956982 ) on Friday December 08, 2006 @04:35PM (#17166502) Homepage
            Lets assume for a minute that people choose their console based on personal preference and that maybe personal preferences are based mostly on someone's personality type. Assuming that the Typical Xbox 360 buyer is more of a hardcore gamer recluse, they'd rather stay at home and play alone or online, meanwhile the typical Wii buyer is more of a casual bubbly gamer who plays on occasion but more frequenetly likes to have friends over for more a personal and social gaming experience...

            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?
    • Considering that virtually no retailers were selling the Wii or PS3 online due to the limited supply, those numbers should pretty much be accurate. If I had to take a guess, I would say that 360 sales might have some increase due to online sales (with that crazy $100 sale Amazon.com had) and DS, GBA and PSP sales are likely to increase more since they are cheaper and easier to ship.
      • Last year the big rumor was that Microsoft was purposely holding back 360s to create a pent-up demand that would theoretically explode. (The idea that they wouldn't release them prior to Xmas was lost on most of the morons who supported this theory)

        I wonder if Sony has the same genius plan...or if anyone is accusing them of it.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Thraxen ( 455388 )
      Useless? Hardly. Unless someone can provide a valid reason why one console might be selling a bunch more online than the other consoles, then I wouldn't expect the ratio of units sold when comparing the systems to one another to change much.

  • DS sales total 918k, not 661k (Score:5, Informative)

    by clu76 ( 620823 ) on Friday December 08, 2006 @12:53PM (#17163580) Homepage
    That 661k number is for the GBA, not DS. The DS sold 918k.

  • Before saying "Only" (Score:4, Interesting)

    by HappySqurriel ( 1010623 ) on Friday December 08, 2006 @01:19PM (#17163936)
    Before saying that "The PS3 only shipped 197k" or that "Nintendo only shipped 476k Wii" you have to realize that NPD has never been a perfectly accurate survey of the number of system sales; they produce statistics that are valid and useful as a comparison to other NPD numbers. For years NPD didn't include Walmart's numbers and currently doesn't include online sales and sales from smaller retailers; this likely doesn't change the ratios of the numbers but it means that Sony could have sold 250k and Nintendo could have sold 600k.

  • While the data is interesting, what is the point? Given that the supplies for both the PS3 and Wii were limited by manufacturing, hence their smaller sales, I would believe that those numbers would be much larger. The only possible inference that can be made from the data is that the 360 is getting out sold by the devices which ultimately cost significantly less than the XBox 360. I would have to think that if Microsfot reduced the price on the 360, their sales would be more comperable to the ps2 and DS lit

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Thansal ( 999464 )
      We get to see (aproximatly) how many units were shipped, something alot of people have been wondering.

      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

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by reanjr ( 588767 )
        FFXII. Wait until that cools down to get accurate PS2 numbers.
      • Does anyone else think kids mom's are going in to buy "that new playstation that the kids said they wanted for christmas" and leaving with the PS2 since the PS3 inventories are nonexistent? I'm sure this happens...I just wonder how much. I remember asking my mom for a specific computer game for christmas when I was a kid and ending up with some game that was just on sale. "You wanted a computer game! Here it is!"

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by king-manic ( 409855 )
        It's the games. There are stil quality games coming for that system and it's now dirt cheap with access to the back library available on the second hand market and greatest hits it's an easy buy. Even my die hard Xbox / GC fan boy friends picked done up cheap to play FFXII and the discounted gods of war/shadow fo the collosus/GT4. I'll problably be getting a WII as a present with money set aside for a PS3 in the new year (perhaps when MG4 comes out).

        It's all about games. If the 360 had a higher density of t

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by Thansal ( 999464 )
          Fully with you on this.

          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
  • As far as I know, the PS3 and the Wii are basically selling every single unit that comes into the stores.

    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.
    • I don't think we can i good conscience infer that because demand for the Wii and the PS3 is exceeding supply now that demand will continue unabated in the future. While it is unlikely that either system will sell poorly, it isn't clear how demand will hold up in the coming months. Indeed, what happends with demand in the coming months is more an indication of the health and potential of the systems, rather than something we can assume.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Omestes ( 471991 )
      That's good for Nintendo because you have to strike while the iron is hot - meaning that right now people want to buy PS3s.

      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
      • I think the idea is that many people may go to a store looking for a PS3, but because so few shipped and the stores are instantly out of PS3s, they decide, in the purchasing moment, to go with what's available.

        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
  • So, Sony says they'll have 200k units in North America for launch. NPD doesn't track all types of retailers or online sales. Their number is 197k.

    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)

      by HappySqurriel ( 1010623 ) on Friday December 08, 2006 @02:11PM (#17164636)
      So, Sony says they'll have 200k units in North America for launch. NPD doesn't track all types of retailers or online sales. Their number is 197k.

      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 ...

      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        by Anonymous Coward
        Don't forget to mention Nintendo there, buddy. They're quite a ways off of their target as well.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by Psiven ( 302490 )
          I noticed this as well, with around 1.5 million sold worldwide, how will Big N sell through 2.5 mil more? If it will happen, I'd presume the european launch will give those numbers a boost. Apparently a fairly large shipment of Wii's and accesories is hitting the 18th of this month as well. So maybe a million in Europe and America this month, with another 500k in Japan?

          This assumes they have 4 mil consoles to sell ofcourse.
          • Probably because die-hard nintendo fans like myself are too poor to buy the console at the minute or too busy to wait in lines or go searching for one. I plan to get one by next summer personally, and I expect there are plenty of others like me.

      • Re: (Score:1, Funny)

        by Anonymous Coward
        (2,000,000 - 200,000) * (-$100.00) ==> $180,000,000


        Assuming that Sony is losing $100 per console, it looks like they managed to not lose over 180 million dollars. Not a terrible screw-up, really. Those parts are getting cheaper to manufacture every day.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by Thraxen ( 455388 )
          Actually, there was an article a couple of weeks ago that estimated Sony may be losing as much as $300 USD per console.
      • According to Yahoo News and G4 TV, Nintendo sold 400k in Japan alone and more than 650k in the US/Canada.

      • 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 ...

        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)

    by MrCopilot ( 871878 ) on Friday December 08, 2006 @02:08PM (#17164594) Homepage Journal
    Console Sales (units)

    * 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.

    • I didn't get a copy yet. Been too busy with Gears of War to get really engrossed in another great game. One thing that's interesting about the numbers you posted. Nintendo sold 2 million + hardware units ... at a profit. I bet thier balance sheet is looking rather rosy right now.
    • Some Wii sales were probably Christmas presents and being that it came with a game (Wii sports) many of the people buying the system may not have picked up an extra game; even if they did grab a game they may not have picked up Zelda.
    • I am one of those people. I am waiting to beat Wind Waker (bought it when it came out but never touched it) and waiting for a component cable.

      Seriously though, don't buy any games until you have time to play them. I still have 8 other unopened new games.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Taeolas ( 523275 )
      Judging from posts here, those 64k Wii owners who didn't get Zelda, are the 64k Wii owners who couldn't FIND it in any stores in their area. Wouldn't FFXII and Guitar Hero II be part of the reason for the surge of PS2 sales too?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Maserati ( 8679 )
        Well, it's holiday season so consoles always sell. And the PS2 is in apparently abundant supply. And there are some very good games newly released. Any kid who gets a PS2 instead of a PS3 or a 360 can complain - but only a little. FFXII and GH2 are smash hits. God of War 2 is going to be just as big. The keys for the PS2's success this season is the huge library of budget editions of great games and the number of games still to be released. As of right now GameFly.com has in their catalog 33 PS2 games liste

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by radish ( 98371 )
      I'm one of those 64,000 - just not really interested in Zelda games. Alas, despite a lot of excitement for the system (and many hours of waiting outside in the cold) I'm yet to be blown away by the Wii due to a lack of really great games. We've switched back to the 360 for most of our gaming already...Viva Pinata and GoW FTW :)

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by kazad ( 619012 )
      Thanks for pulling this together. I whipped up a quick chart [tinyurl.com] to help visualize the difference. It's amazing how many DSs were sold! Nearly double the PSP and almost 5x the PS3.
    • By manufacturer:

      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.

  • So I see that according to the article, almost 500k wii's have sold. I thought Nintendo said that they planned on having 1m shipped by the end of the year. Even if a lot of those wii's have been sold online, there should still be a lot out there right? Does anyone have any tips for finding a wii at a store? The stores in my area are sold out and the two that I asked told me they don't know when they will be getting more. Any advice would be appreciated.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by 7Prime ( 871679 )

      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

      • I knew that they did but thought that maybe there was some reason they were refusing to tell customers. I called two places: a wal-mart and a GameStop. At wal-mart, I talked to a couple people who either said they themselves didn't know or that the store wasn't given that information before I gave up since I could tell they weren't real bright and it was wasting my time.

        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
    • I recently (Wednesday) tried to get a Wii myself at a Walmart. On Monday a co-worker of mine gave me a tip that Walmart was going to be selling on Wednesday. Later that day, I went to the electronics department at Walmart and directly asked one of the salesmen and her verified this. I unfortunately didn't buy one since I was 7 people too late for the quantaties that they had ,which was 19 total :(

      From my experience, Walmart didn't feed me the line 'we don't know when we are going to get more.' crap like

      • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

        by blackraven14250 ( 902843 )
        Have you ever considered that some of the EBGames/Gamestop might not know when they're getting their next shipment? Walmart is guaranteed a shipment on a given date because its coming from their own highly efficient distribution centers.
        • It's not like I didn't consider this before writing my comment, but the sales clerk has to know something about when they will be getting any sort of shipment. SOMETHING. Instead, they seemed to have a general disdain in my even asking them. Sure, it might get a bit repetitive telling the 100th customer that they are out, but that is still one customer that was about to drop $300+ in their store. Myself and others can easily take their money elsewhere when treated poorly by the sales team.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by dlZ ( 798734 )
            I used to work at an EBGames, and most of the time (this was when the PS2 was launched) we really didn't know when more were coming in. They'd show up a day before they arrived sometimes in our shipping logs, but that was about it. And many times they just showed up. I think the disdain is because you get asked that question every 5 minutes. I know it's not a valid excuse, but it can be a bit frustrating :) I don't know if the EB/Gamestops still do this now that they're the same company, but EB also use

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

              I used to work at an EBGames, and most of the time (this was when the PS2 was launched) we really didn't know when more were coming in. They'd show up a day before they arrived sometimes in our shipping logs, but that was about it. And many times they just showed up. I think the disdain is because you get asked that question every 5 minutes. I know it's not a valid excuse, but it can be a bit frustrating :)

              Ever consider, perhaps, the concept of putting a little 8.5"x11" piece of paper on the front window? I

              • Re: (Score:2)

                by dlZ ( 798734 )
                We actually weren't allowed to do this (it was brought up to the district manager.) They felt that if you came into the store to ask, and we didn't have any, maybe you'd buy something else. And it seemed to work. A lot of people came in looking for a PS2, and would leave with a few games for their older system instead. I didn't like the policy, but at the time I needed the job. I no longer work for the company because of their policies and instead have my own PC store now.

                While it's a simple question,

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by whoop ( 194 )
      The Wii was released on the Sunday before Thanksgiving. Everyone sold out. The stores around here received one more shipment, putting it out either Friday after Thanksgiving or waited for the following Sunday. So, that's either two or three days for sales in November. Pretty good to hit 500k. All the stores have been told they will have shipments each week as well. And there are five Sundays in December. So there's plenty of room to hit a million or more by the end of the year.

    • I thought Nintendo said that they planned on having 1m shipped by the end of the year. Even if a lot of those wii's have been sold online, there should still be a lot out there right? Does anyone have any tips for finding a wii at a store? The stores in my area are sold out and the two that I asked told me they don't know when they will be getting more. Any advice would be appreciated.

      If you live in a place where there's fewer stores around, then this might not work as well. But here's what I did that enabl

    • Does anyone have any tips for finding a wii at a store?

      Play independent games on your PC for twelve months, and stores should become much better stocked.

  • Nintendo pulled a strange about-face... relevant links to be found in the original post [joystiq.com]:

    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

    • It could be due to the fact that a (small) number of the consoles shipped with a bug that won't allow you to get online. Nintendo is replacing or reparing the affected systems free of charge (I am waiting for my replacement system right now). If this is a problem with the assembly lines it could take a little time for them to fix which could affect their projected numbers.
  • "while the XBox 360 had 511k, and the Wii had a very respectable 476k."

    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
    • Um, according to first TFA, the DS sold 918k. Maybe only 641k of those were Lites, but there's no sign of that 641k number in either link provided. Also unmentioned in the blurb is that the PSP did 412k. Since these are US numbers, it makes me wonder where all the "The PSP is neck-and-neck with the DS in North America!" comments are coming from. Unless Canadians bought a half-million PSPs while totally ignoring the DS during November, it looks like the DS has the PSP by over 2:1.

      The "PSP is neck-and-neck wi

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by ClamIAm ( 926466 )
      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?

      November also marks the beginning of the Holiday Season(tm), so I think it's pretty fair to assume that a lot of those Xboxen were sold after Thanksgiving. There's also the fact that demand for the Wii (and the PS3) outstrips supply. So the only reason the 360 "won" this month in the next-gen arena is because the other two systems can't be made fast
    • Yes, If more Wii consoles were available they would have outsold the 360 and in less time..... Even if the Wii coud have sold 100K more consoles than the Xbox 360, it shouldn't be that close. The big picture is that in November, the 360 managed to sell 500K+ consoles MONTHS after it's launch day and amonst the launch of two other systems. I will be surprised if the Wii sells 500K+ units a year from now like the 360.

  • Timescale? (Score:2)

    by Tom ( 822 )
    So the Wii shipped 10% units less than the 360 - in less than half the time. If you look at November, you have to take into account that the Wii launched on Nov. 19th. The PS3 launched 2 days earlier.

    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...

    • Good luck on getting those "honest statistics". There is no such thing when it comes to print and television media. The thing is it doesn't matter what the sales numbers are since two of the consoles are in short supply since launch day. It will matter what those sales figures are next year after they've both been in the field for a while and manufacturing increases. Even if the 360 sold only half the consoles of both the PS3 and Wii, it wins in Novemeber as far as I am concerned..... it's well past it'
  • Sony sold 197k in the stores, but made up for it by selling 800k on ebay.

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