CES 2007: Gaming Roundup

jasoncart writes "Traditionally, gaming's calendar year of expos, conventions, and trade shows doesn't generally kick off in earnest until March's fanfare arrival of the Game Developer's Conference (GDC) in San Francisco, which thus opens the floodgates for a host of industry platform events. However, before July's new-fangled E3 Media and Business Summit (the now scaled back, renamed, and invitation-only E3 of legend) shifts into view alongside August's Penny Arcade Expo (PAX), September's Tokyo Game Show (TGS), and the newly announced and ESA-endorsed Entertainment for All Expo in October (previously known as the Gamepro Expo), it falls to January's annual Consumer Electronics Show to whet our collective appetites-at least where related hardware is concerned."

so many

[mastershake_phd]

Man there are so many expos now. I wonder how hard it would be for me to start one. There is a Holiday Inn near here, they even have a 24/7 Denny's across the street.

Re:The Big Early 2007 Story - Nintendo

[MeanderingMind]

The article itself mentions the NPD only covers around 60% of retailers. Lets do some simple math, working under the assumption of evenly distributed Wiis.

1.1 million / 6 = .183 million (10% of retailers) .183 million * 10 = 1.83 million

Also, the NPD does not cover online stores. I find it easy to believe that, given the large number of exclusive online events at websites such as Amazon and Gamestop, 170k consoles could easily have been sold online.

In short, to claim this as evidence of Nintendo lying is dubious at best. The article itself only notes there is a discrepancy, but does not pass judgement on whether it is the NPD underestimating figures or Nintendo stretching them.

Re:The Big Early 2007 Story - Nintendo

[dave420]

Wiis are selling out, and are often sold out. PS3s are sitting on shelves [gwn.com], not Wiis. It's not just a case of them never being there - they do arrive, then they get sold very quickly indeed. But nice troll anyways.

Re:The Big Early 2007 Story - Nintendo

[Straif]

From a Canadian perspective, I have never, not once, seen a Wii on a shelf in any electronics/department store in town. They are usually sold straight out of the shipping boxes and they don't even require a sign, just simple word of mouth, to create a crowd.

The only place I know of that ever managed to get them to the shelves is small town about 50 minutes outside of Ottawa and even then they'd be gone by the end of the day. And now even their supplies are sold out before being unpacked.

I managed to get 2 before Christmas by waiting in line at the right places and the right times, but both times there were lines prior to the store opening. I know of 3 people right now who are still trying to get one and have been having no luck.

PS3's on the other hand are in stock in almost every store I've been too, and that trend started even before Christmas. I managed to get one about 1 week before heading to my parents for the Holidays and before I left I could have bought 5 more. When I went to return it just after Christmas (decided on a 360 instead) there were 4 in stock at the Wal-mart I was at and the Zellers (Canadian dept. store) below my office had 3.

Re:The Big Early 2007 Story - Nintendo

[MeanderingMind]

Actually, I believe Nintendo aimed to have 4 million Wiis worldwide. A quick search of "wii 4 million" shows this to have been the target, but with no official news as to whether it has been made.

The confusion is in where all the Wiis went. A lot of people assumed a 2, 1, 1 spread of those 4 million, with 2 being USA. It may be that Nintendo more evenly divided the systems, giving each region 1.3 million.

Unless someone can comeback here with sales figures from the EU and Japan, we'll be well in the dark.